Obviously I didn't couldn't watch all the games: But I do have a few observations. 1. Tommy Bowden wastes more talent than just about anybody. You have supposedly the 2 of the best backs in college football, but who do you start a true freshman who you made a stoopid promise to during recruiting. His teams are soft and always cave in when the game gets tough. 2. Alabama and Nick Sabin, looked very impressive. They were physical and mentally tough. Sabin is doing a very fast restore job down there. 3. Tim Tebow will have a great year, but not the incredible stats he had last year and that's a good thing for both the Gators and for his health. 4. If Colt McCoy stays healthy the Longhorns won't lose many games. If not we don't have another kid on the roster who can throw a pass. 5. USC looked like clearly the best team in college football last weekend. 6. Does anybody doubt that Norm Chow is the best OCoord in college football? To take a QB who'd thrown all those picks in the first half and get him calmed down enough and make the necessary changes to to the offense to give him a chance....well not many would be able to do that. 7. Texas A&M may not win 3 games this year. If you can't shut down a 1AA running game, things look bad. And for all the veteran talent they had comming back on offense it was suprising who ineffective they looked. Local columnists are blaming Frans recruiting. 8. Missouri looks like the real deal, I thought maybe they would be 1 year wonders. But that was a very convincing win over a good (not great) Illinois squad. 9. Michigan defense is better than they looked against Utah, they just can't keep up with a good spread offense. Against more traditional offenses they will do better. The Irish have a more traditional offense and UM will match up well against us. 10. Could Skip Holtz be headed for a great season at ECU? He certainly has the schedule, if he does well, West Virgina is up next for him. With Virginia and NCState also on the schedule he won't have any easy 1AA teams on his resume. Now he just has to beat them. 11. Can Louisville Cardinal fans be very happy with Steve Kragthorpe? I doubt it, Kentucky isn't a very good team. That was a bad loss for him. 12. Maybe Jim Harbaugh is a good coach, that was a good win for Stanford this weekend and he's recruiting very well for Stanford. They could be a program on the rise in the PAC10. 13. Is there a deader coach walking than Ty Willingham? Even the support of John Saunders, Mike Tirico , etc can't help him with the egg he is likely to lay this season at UW. Too bad, because that Locker kid is a great QB. 14. Irish better look very good vs San Diego State this weekend. They lost to a 1AA team, a pretty good 1AA team but never the less they didn't show much and we should thump them pretty good. If we don't the Irish fans will start getting pretty restless. Terry
Michigan managed to hold Florida's spread to a measly 35 points. According to some that was an a@@ whuppin.
Just confirms what I'm saying, UM defense is designed for traditional B10 offenses. That new fangled spread thingy gives them fits. But as far as claims that it was an asswhipping I think that was just the response to your inablity to aknowledge that an average B10 team beat the Gators, and given the location of the game it was essentially a home game for the Gators.
I have acknowledged only that Michigan in Orlando was healthy, motivated and in playing up to it's capability was a better than average team....worthy of a Cap One Bowl berth and they beat an average ( for Florida ) SEC team. How's that?
I can speak a little to A&M's situation. Many of my maroon-blooded friends were sure we'd vault right back into the bigtime without really looking at the situation objectively. We have a brand new offensive line. There is some talent, but it's almost all new. Our D line has talent as well, but after the first 4 we have two freshman already playing. Not good. LB... ugh. This is Fran's worst crime against us. We started a walk-on here because we just don't have anybody ready to go. The younger guys have some promise, but learning on the fly is going to be painful. The secondary is not bad, but with the guys in front of them not getting it done it's hard to see. The WR's... another of Fran's gifts. We started a true freshman and a back-up QB who has exactly 2 weeks of experience at WR. That's always a good sign! :roll: We are playing a hybrid TE who only weighs in at 225lbs. We really could have used Martellus Bennett back for this... The QBs... sadly it looks like Fran has permanently ruined McGee. He has been totally ingrained with the mantra to protect the ball. So much so he will not throw a ball into single coverage to allow his WR's to make a play. That really limits when a ball will be thrown... Ugh. Not sure about the other guys, we haven't seen then yet. The one shining piece of the puzzle is RB. Mike Goodson is a stud. He's backed up by two guys who are also lightning in a bottle. Unfortunately it doesn't take long for the opposition to see that, and stack against us. My hope was that the new passing game would make us too dangerous to stack the line, but our lack of WR's who will get open and can hold on to the ball is trashing that theory. We turned the ball over 4 times Saturday, and we certainly aren't good enough to overcome that... against anyone. My hope is that we improve enough to win 6, but that seems a tall order right now...
Scott, The family Ags are pretty discouraged to say the least. I read some posts over on AgTimes as well and there were some guys who've already given up on Sherman and Joe Kines. Fran had a good class, at least by the numbers, already when he was fired and Sherman was able to hold it together. I'd be suprised if he isn't able to have another good class this year as well. You guys are going through what we're almost through with regards to poor recruiting and poor distribution of recruits. Willingham recruited only a few OL's during his time at ND, as a result our OL is very young and our depth is also thin and young. I don't think he recruited more than 3 in any class and had one class with only 1 OL. It'll take you a few years to overcome what you've described. But it'll also allow Sherman to sell playing time. Terry
Yep, the firestorm is in full swing. I think most of them are fed up with the Fran years, and just don't want to wait anymore. Unfortunately by keeping Fraud around past 05, we extended the time it will take to rebuild. The last class was decent, but I suspect about half of them are NOT Sherman's type guys. Fran was all about big "strong" boys. Sherman and Kines want speed. I think we all know who wins most of the speed vs size battles in college ball... So we'll have to work through what we have, and hope for the best. I suspect the next two seasons are going to be tough. We'll probably be better next year, but the sched flips over to be brutal in 09...
Week 1 <r>I have to admit, I sat and watched with great joy as Cal beat Mich ST, and especially Utah beating Michigan.(although I thought they were going to give it back during the 4th qtr). I'm not quite sure why but I also enjoyed seeing UCLA get the win, nothing against Tenn but maybe Rick will give Pete a little recruiting competition out there and in some way help the Irish out. Most of those kids want to stay out in CA but they don't all have to go to usc do they? <E>8)</E></r>
I thought that the Spartans showed that they were a pretty good team even though they lost. They made some good plays and also had some bad turnovers. From what I saw on sat. the game in E. Lansing may be the second most difficult game on the Irish schedule.
It appears that a lot of the mid-majors whose coaches were courted by everyone (including Alabama) seem to be sliding back into oblivion (Rutgers, Fresno, Louisville) 8)
Good observations Terry. On Michigan though, since their new head coach runs and understands the spread option I would wager they do better defensing them as he is there longer. Tommy Bowden, you are right on in my opinion. However I also have to admit that the Gators thought they would get two of those three running backs, Spiller and Harper, and they decided to go to Clemson instead. I don't know what Bowden is selling but he sure beat us out for those two.
For the record Terry... Ark St is Div I. You oughtta know... if not for a botched onsides kick call in the opener last year, they might have beaten your horns...
I actually had forgotten about how close that game was Scott. I looked it up and they out 1st downed us, out passed us, out ran us, we beat them 21-13. Funny how stuff like that slips away with the time!!
Oh Terry, I forgot to say how much I agree with you with your Tebow comment. It's a good thing if we run him less.
Corey, Maybe not. They play Wisconson in next week, so I guess we'll see. It just seems that every couple of years we get a new set of "great" coaches and their teams. They last for a couple of years and then fade back into the pack.
KP, Fresno State regularly beats BCS teams. They just aren't given any respect. The Pac10 teams now regularly seek out SEC/ACC foes rather than line up against the Bulldogs. BTW, you guys are running Fresno State's offense now. You do realize that, right? Pound it out, ball control offense that features the TE in the flat or the check down over the middle. When coverage is drawn up, you stretch the defense. Your new OC had been doing that at Fresno for years. Back to Fresno... their biggest problem hasn't been beating BCS conference foes.. their problem takes place in conference play when they lose to Boise State or Hawaii. Somehow, all that respect they earned while beating BCS teams goes away when they lose to Boise or Hawaii. The ACC hasn't won a BCS bowl game in 9 years I believe. The WAC and Mountain West conference have each won one.. two of the last 3 Fiesta Bowls in fact. (Boise State 07 and Utah 05). Maybe we are giving out the automatic births to the wrong conferences? Maybe some folks don't deserve the respect they are freely given? Fresno whipped Georgia Tech's behind in the bowl game last year. Their biggest problems are depth and reloading year to year. They're no Alabama... but I'd bet they are better than Miss St, Ole Miss, Vandy, and Kentucky annually. Plus, its hard to slam Rutgers for sliding when it was Fresno that went across country and beat them in NJ Did you get your copy of SI btw?? Things are crazy around here right now.
Corey, I understand that we have Fresno States O Coordinator, and miracle of miracles he is running the offense that most of us here have wanted for years. He ran the ball down the throat of Clemson and only threw enough to be respectable. Now if teams start to get too tight against the run we will have to throw more but I would like to make them stop the run first. Fresno/Hawaii/Rutgers. Fresno St lost to A&M and Oregon and Hawaii and Boise St. , so they don't even run the table in-conference. Look, I think they have their 15 minutes of fame but they seem to shine brightly for 2 or 3 years then fade back into the mid-major pack. We'll see, maybe you're right and maybe they'll establish a consistant presence in the polls. And so far so good on our new OC, but just like the rest of our team one game does not a season make. I have not gotten the SI. If we beat Tulane and WKU convincingly then I will be cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season. We played a hell of a game against Clemson, but we have had too many one game winning streaks in the last few years to get excited yet.
KP, I don't think you will ever see a day in which Fresno will be a top 20 team every year. They will always be one of the most physical teams on your schedule, regardless of conference, but the nature of the beast being a WAC team in the central Valley will keep them in that cycle of a mandatory down year mixed in with 3 good. The run Boise State is on is unreal right now. That Fresno team last year lost to A&M in College Station by 2 points. They were also incredibly young last year. They were drilled by Oregon who was coming off their blow out win in the Big House vs Michigan. My position that a Dennis Dixon Oregon team drills most anyone last year is well documented. They lost to Boise (more on them in a minute) and conference champ Hawaii. Hawaii gave you guys fits in the past. What Jones was building on the islands was special. Its a shame they wouldn't put money into that program and lost him. Fresno State beat Kansas State last year. In fact, they whipped them so bad they dumped KState for Rutgers this year. Since 2000, Fresno has beaten Cal, Colorado, Oregon State twice, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech (twice in bowl games), UCLA, Kansas State (twice), and Virginia. Personally, I think the WAC-MAC-CUSA and MWC should be figured into the BCS equation. The fact that they aren't exposes this BCS system for the sham that it is...
For the record... FSU would have beaten the Aggies if not for a foolish receiver getting silly with the ball as he was about to cross the goal line. God I hate Franchione...