Thursday, August 20, 2009
CFB Preview
#6 Penn State
Offense: 5 returners, however SR QB Daryll Clark and JR RB Evan Royster are key cogs in the offense. JR C Stefan Wisniewski will anchor the O-Line.
Defense: 4 returners LB's Sean Lee and Navaro Bowman will be the key guys. LB Mike Mauti will miss this season due to a popped ACL.
Special Teams: Getting as many jersey chasers as they can.
Initial Thoughts: Almost homerism.
Ok I talked about Old State earlier this summer. I think I did a good job breaking down this season, so read it. If you want the cliff notes. Nice schedule, Clark/Royster, Defense.
but before I begin a couple other points. For as long as I can remember Old State has been balling. Other than Tech, they were the team I watched as a I grew up and I'm not ashamed to say that, yes, I am a PSU fan. If you remember there was a 5 year period where State was down. (by State standards) and I think this is directly correlated to Joepa. It's not his fault. My opinion is that for those years many recruits were up in the air about whether Joe would retire or not. Now it's clear that. 1. Joe will never give up football. 2. IF he does there is a staff in place that will go along with the SOP at State. I also want to address the issue that Joe is too old to know football. If you believe that you are FALSE.
/Coach porn
Joe played against (he was a CB, Brown was a SW team) the single wing offense at Brown University. And to make a long story short, the single wing is the foundation for what we consider modern football. But more to the point, it was JOE who wanted to move towards a more athletic QB to run the offense, in accordance with the single wing. So for all the Joe haters....eat it.
/end
Now what we can really talk about is the Big 10 (11). I don't really get the hate towards the Big 10 (11). The only thing I can understand is that they get into big bowl games and suck. If that's the case don't get pissed off at the Big 10 (11) get pissed at the BCS because that's the system that put them there. If we want to talk about SEC vs. Big 10 (11) that's fine, but let's look at some bowl games. Sure in the past several years the Big 10 (11) isn't all Denise Milani, but let's look at some bowl games.
Capitol One Bowl since 2003: Big 10 (11) 4 wins SEC 2
Outback Bowl since 2003: Big 10 (11) 3 wins SEC 3
So spare me the "SEC is soooooooo much harder than the Big 10. I don't believe it. And if we really want to get technical, the Big 12 South is currently the toughest division in football. Now I'll admit, crazy shit happens in the SEC, but it also happens in other conferences. It's not that I'm ripping on the SEC because I still believe it's the best conference. However that's the inherent problem, we should be looking at the best TEAMS instead of listening to ESPN jack off the entire south every week. Again I question the SEC dominance simply because in a playoff system I question 1. Whether they could go into Ohio Pennsylvania and Michigan in December. 2. A certain team located in Southern California.
But alas, that is the world we live in, and until we leave that world the pissing match between conferences will continue.
Oh. Penn State. Yeah I'm expecting one loss, which shouldn't put them in the MNC in my opinion. But if they can go undefeated, and they can, most of you will be hating the world.
Edit: I think the Rose bowl game last year shows that USC has been deserving of a BCS championship the past several years and...PSU WILL NEVER GET OUT OF COVER 3, WHAT THE HELL. The other thing is that yes, the Big 10 (11) has declined and I have my own theories on why that happened and will continue if we want to go that route in the comment section.
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How many Orange, Fiesta, Rose, Sugar bowls have the Big 10(11) won since 2003?
ReplyDeleteMy unofficial count is 3 but let's keep in mind the way the BCS works, in that the Big 10 (11) #2 team have been sacrificial lambs (USC) for 2 out of the past 3 years.
ReplyDeleteIt also took a non-football player to beat Michigan in 04(?)
I'd also like to add that Big 10 (11) teams tend to have strong non-conference schedules (with the exception of State this year)
Just wondering. The only bowl stats you had were the Aussie Steakhouse and Viking's Choice of Credit Card bowls, which sounded like picking favorable bowls.
ReplyDeleteAlso, agree on USC. They normally don't lose much when they lose QBs (not saying Sanchez is no good, just saying they replace well).
The reason I chose Outback and Capitol one is the fact that it yearly places SEC Vs. Big 10 (11).
ReplyDelete(Typically) the capitol one bowl is Big 10 (11) #2/3 vs. SEC #2/3 IF no other teams make it into the BCS.
Essentially most of the hate comes from the SEC and I wanted to highlight the fact that the supposed weak Big 10 has a favorable bowl record against what most would consider upper tier opponents in the SEC.
you can bring in other traditional bowls like the Alamo which is 2-4 in favor of the Big 12 since 03, but my main point is that the Big 10 (11) is not shit and the SEC isn't this almighty conference that everyone should bow down to.
Thoughts:
ReplyDelete* I'm a homer. This is biased. While I do agree that the outcome of the Civil War was just and important for all of humanity, I still hate the Northeast and a lot of the rest of the country.
With that qualifier:
1) The SEC has been top-heavy since the 30's b/w Bama and Knoxville. Power shifted around after Johnny Majors cleansed himself of sobriety, and then again once Gene Stallings retired. Hard to argue with the premise that Florida and LSU run the two divisions now, and the middle to the bottom is iffy most years.
2) Prior to this year, the SEC had only 1 or 2 games televised nationally on the weekends, by CBS.
3) The ESPN money & exposure makes the status quo from the last decade obsolete. Every program gets - I believe - $17MM/yr from the contract; that's more than BCS bowl revenue bumps. Money isn't everything, but it's a lot of the difference between an Oklahoma State's rise from obscurity and a Mississippi State's heretofore struggle to recruit.
4) ESPN will shamelessly promote their own lines of revenue, purported as 'actual news'. It's a conflict of interest they've had from the get go. It's unethical, but virtually impossible to boycott.
5.) Lattimer, I agree that the SEC is strongest at the moment. And I agree that in the past (and even still in the present) that status is exaggerated by the media. BUT, I'd go on to posit that this train is a self fulfilling prophecy that hasn't even left the station yet; the gap is about to widen in a pretty serious way.
Before the end of the 15 year ABC/ESPN contract, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw efforts by the other big 3 conferences (Big Ten, ACC, Big 12) to consolidate, somehow incorporating USC (out of shame) and Oregon (b/c of Nike).
What say you?
I should say that when I started this it was supposed to be more of "big 10 (11) isn't THAT bad, but it kind of came out with SEC hate, which is fine.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with everything you said, you sir are a tribute to your conference.
1. Thank god someone got the top heavy reference, it was the best google search I've done for GRH. but if we really think about it, every conference is that way. I'm just saying that playing the likes of SC, MSU, and Arkansas is not that different than playing Iowa, MSU, and Illinois. And like I said, that's in every conference. (although, yes, the SEC still has the best teams)
Now on to the money.I was actually thinking about this issue this glorious morning. The SEC deserved this contract. Like I always say, crazy shit happens in that conference and it makes for great TV. especially for someone like me who could care less who wins. So I'm actually glad this happened. The money will be there, and it will help the conference (especially the lower tier teams as you mentioned) immensely. That being said, money can't buy love. A good case is ND who signs insane contracts with NBC only to be, dare I say, irrelevant every year. You could also look at an extreme examples of OSU and Oregon. T. Boone and Knight have thrown INSANE amounts of money. into those programs and....Top 15 at best? Maybe they slide into a BCS bowl year to year? I agree that the SEC will continue to widen the gap, exposure will help, but I don't think it's because of the money. However, I also think the Big 12 (south)teams will improve for the same reasons.
You're dead on with the conference realignments. I see the ACC/Big east being especially hurt by all of this, and at some point the pac-10/big 10 (11) will have to suck up their egotistical pride and move to a 2 division/championship game conference.
A playoff would fix all of this, but that would make too much sense. Basically, the Universities and conferences are still about the money, and in my opinion as long as the current system exists you're still going to have a pissing match between conferences, rather than teams.