I don't know if I agree wholeheartedly with the hype, but we shall preview them anyway.
First up Oklahoma State.
Excuse to youtube Barry Sanders.
Offense: The Boone Pickens return 7 starters on a super high octane offense led by point man Zac Robinson. Rounding out the trinity is RB Kendall Hunter who ran for over 1500 yards 16 TD's and WR Dez Bryant who may be the first WR taken off the board in the 2010 draft. OSU also has 3 starters returning on the O-line, all of which are Seniors.
Defense: OSU's defense has never been anything to go crazy about. (26.9 ppg) However, new DC Bill Young will get to work with one of the Best LB trios in the Big 12 with Lavine, Lemon and Sexton, all seniors. Overall they return 6 starters but they are all upperclassmen, minus So. FS Johnny Thomas.
Special Teams:Hate.
OSU reminds me of Texas Tech last year. Insane offense in the conference of insane offense, coupled with a defense that simply needs to get the job done. But why the puberty edition? Well OSU has been stuck in Big 12 mediocrity with a giant "who the hell wants to go to Stillwater" mole right on the side of their face. However, OSU got that mole removed in the form of T.Boone Pickens building an insane expansion to their west endzone. Which gives T. Boone and OSU to take their giant straw and suck up the giant Texas milkshake. But that's still several years away. I really don't know what to think of OSU this year. One thing that I think will help them is the fact that their offense is very balanced. Shit Robinson ran for 700 yards last year and Bryant is the best all around receiver in the country. And shit, the defense is not that bad.
Looking at the schedule, they have three huge games. They start the season off with UGA coming to town. The rest of the non-conference schedule sets up in their favor. However, The two huge games come in the form of UT traveling to Stillwater on All Hallows' Eve and the Bedlam game in Norman on Nov. 28th. And I think this is the thing that gets me about OSU. Under the Gundy regime, the Boone Pickens have done extremely well in winning the games they need to win, but they stumble any time they need to pull the big upset. I don't know on paper I guess they COULD beat UT, and the OU game is historically nuts, which is why I guess they call it Bedlam. I just...for lack of a better term, it's just that OSU lacks the flavor to pull these games off. And you know what it sucks. I like watching them, and they have a great team this year, in fact if they were in the Big 12 North we'd be talking about Conference championships. Either way the media seems to love them, so we'll hear a lot about them this season.
Ole Miss
Little do you know that the majority of this video was taken during the actual game.
Offense: UT transfer Jevan Sneed is the focal point of the Ole Miss offense which return 8 starters. Houston Nutt used a RB by commitee last year and will probably continue this year with Sr's Cordera Esson and RB/WR Dexter McClusterfuck. The O-Line lost the E-mancrush Michael Oher, but return three starters including big John Jerry at RT.
Defense: Defensively the rebels return 8 starters including soon to be NFL DE Marcus Tillman. The rest of the defenders are all upperclassmen including returning tackle leader FS Kendrick Lewis.
Special Teams: Most Likely a 5th year senior thinking of lines to throw at unsuspecting, naive freshman.
Hey Hobbers do you want a top ten CFB team? You do? Well just follow the Ole Miss steps to success.
1. Have a University in a recruiting hotbed with little to zero in state competition.
2. Suck.
3. Hire a crazy recruton' Cajun.
4. Fire him.
5. Hire program manager.
But seriously if Ole Miss does anything this year they need to send a fat royalty check to Eddy O. I can't figure it out. For ALL THESE YEARS Ole Miss was sitting on a recruiting goldmine and they needed Eli to contend for a SEC title? Talk about an awkward stage. Anyway here's the thing. Ole Miss has a decent offense, one of the better QB's in the nation. (I always thought he was better than Colt) and a nasty defense. So basically Alabama, minus the QB. Which is funny, because that will probably be the game that makes or breaks their season.
To be honest I have no idea what to think of Ole Miss. On one hand they have good players thanks to big O, and they did beat the warrior monk. But shit, they are Ole Miss and they lost to the likes of Wake Forest and South Carolina. I don't know, it is a nice schedule. Non-conference is full of cupcakes and they have most of the tough teams at home including Tennessee, Alabama and LSU. They play at Auburn on All Hallows Eve, but Auburn is currently in an identity crisis.
But really what is there to say?Houston Nutt is going to do his thing, he's going to run the ball, play some D, and throw in some
Finally a side note. I don't think either of these teams deserve number 10. Ole Miss is probably in the 6-8 range, and the Boone Pickens somewhere in the 12-15 range. They just happened to fit my puberty thing.
Posts
What stars had to collide for the Big 12 to become this mecca of bizarre offenses? I mean how did this develop? Is it because the top-heavy beatings from OU and UT Austin drove the middle of the pack to adapt? Wasn't this once the land of the Wishbone/Flexbone/Wing T/Maryland I where the only trickery was forcing the middle linebacker to figure out which blockheaded non-lineman had the ball? Because I miss all that. I once played a season of NCAA '05 without throwing a single pass. It was bliss.
ReplyDeleteActually that's a good question that I don't have an answer to. One day I woke up and Mizzou was in an empty 7 yard gun with 5ft splits. Yes I miss all the older offenses to, but we'll always have the Big 10.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Big Ten. So if you don't mind, could we turn this over to a debate as to whether or not Ann Arbor will fall back into Lake Michigan? They're abandoning the pocket passer for the retrofitted 200yd dash specialist, and the fans are evidently not buying it (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/28300/coming_to_an_acc_stadium_near_you_the_excitement_of_the_acc_title_game).
ReplyDeleteCould we see a world where neither Notre Dame or Michigan playing relevant football? Better yet, one where Texas Tech and Oklahoma State bank more national TV exposure? Am I 2 years late to the party? It just all seems too perfect.
By all means, I'm always open for a Big 10 ND bashing.
ReplyDeleteMichigan and ND are too big to fail in terms of exposure. I think the best case scenario for the both of us would be ND and UM continually hiring the latest vogue coach and bailing on them after 3-5 years. Throwing the programs into a continuous state of mediocrity.ND has definitely followed this pattern, and you would think UM would stick with guys like Carr, but then again Carr was an old Bo guy so who knows.
I'll give Rich a couple more years before I pass judgment, and it's 10 wins or bust for Charlie.
Now here's the scary thing. UM and ND are national recruiting powers, yet over the years, at least in ND's case, they haven't really hired that Saban/Meyer/KIffin Krew type of recruiting fireball. So the question that haunts me is if a guy like that ended up at UM or ND could they blow the likes of PSU and TOSU out of the water?
Oh and I'll say this about UM and Rich Rod. He's a good coach, but he was really vying for NC's when he had the likes of White/Slaton in the backfield. So really it seems that's the key. I'll also add that Mike Barwis is probably the most valuable on that staff, it must be a change of pace for players to get off the nautilus machines.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you a rise...
ReplyDeletealmost spot on though, I'm super nervous and hate talking about the upcoming season. Hardy just had a car crash (foot injurt...fuck, again). Our D-Line is nasty, everyone knows this. But we'll see if we can recover from losing Jamarca Sanford. Everyone is talking about, "well they have Marshay Green." He played well in the cotton bowl, played like dogshit the rest of the season (see: Arkansas game, Zack will know the specifics). Jevan won't have to carry if we run to the right side, unless Bobby Massie is eligible and can replace Bradley Sowell. Pat Patterson will be a fresh (tall) option. And Shene is a good kicker who will be in the running for the Groza, unless he pulls a groin again from effing his smoooooking hot girlfriend.
The Alabama won't be the make or break game of the season. The South Carolina game is. If we are undefeated going into the Bama game we'll win by 3 or 7. If we lose to SC we will lose, probably in a disgusting beat down.
This team isn't going to be content with a 10-3 season, which if we lose one early on is going to be a bad, bad thing.
Next time you need an article on Ole Miss, let me know.
p.s. We lost to Wake on a shit pass interference call.
I may do that Deafmute.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember that Wake game ya'll got some pretty good calls on your last offensive drive.
I know Massie well. VT recruited him, went to prep school, and was still ineligible for Tech.
The reason I see Bama as the make or break game is because they may very well have similar conference records towards the end of the season and a head to head my decide who goes into the Championship. I don't think previous losses will matter. I still think we need to see both teams play (especially Bama) to get a better idea on how things will shake out.
any game that Bama puts up 17-21 points they'll win. They're defense is that good, and hopefully they can help them score some.
ReplyDeleteWe did get some good calls, agreed. But we also had to convert on fourth and goal. They were in range of a 35 yard field goal with some time to burn. That call gave them the game, while our calls only made it interesting.
Deafmute = Demi Moore from Ghost.
ReplyDeleteI remember exactly how the Big XII turned into the "I can't believe it's not" whipped spread.
ReplyDeleteIt was Mike Leach.
correct.
ReplyDeleteI just think the Big 12 and the old SWC has always been a place for crazy offenses.
ReplyDeleteI meant to also say that the fan bases play into this. For example, Notre Dame doesn't want a "spread" coach and fans at Auburn still think Malzhan's offense will fail.
ReplyDeleteI like this blog. i kept it as a bookmark. thanks
ReplyDelete