Oregon and Auburn earned the right to play for the national championship, but the two best teams right now sure look like Stanford and Alabama IMHO... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/gameflash/2011/01/03/46720_boxscore.html?xid=si_topstories
In Alabama's shot at Auburn, they trounced the Tigers and then came unglued defensively. It isn't the great plays Newton made with his feet that bothered me or killed them. It was his terrible, hang in the air for 10 seconds, passes that should have been picked off... if not batted down outright, that Alabama DBs fell down on and the play went for 6... Just goofy stuff like that.. In a 7 game series, I'm not sure Alabama doesn't beat them 4-1.. but that's not how football works. In Stanford's shot at Oregon, they got mauled...Stanford jumped out to a nice lead but you could tell they were sitting on the lid of a powder keg. I'm not sure Stanford doesn't get beat in 4 straight by Oregon this year in a 7 game series.. still, they are a very, very good team. Also, this is one of those times in which I'd like to point back toward the blatant bias and outright lies told by CBS. First, the media as a whole seems to think that if Harbaugh and Luck leave.. the program is doomed. Now, it may be doomed if Harbaugh leaves... but Luck? Did you happen to look at the NFL Hall of Fame that lined the Stanford's sideline? Holy sheet. Stanford will always have a great QB...always. Anyway, back on point...Tim Brando (the mouthpiece of CBS football) announced during coverage Saturday that "they don't play defense in the Pac10".. This is on top of his on air proclamations that the Pac10 is just a 1 team conference... and while I think we suck compared to what we usually have, this year isn't void of good teams or competition. -Stanford just throttled the sh*t out of Virginia Tech..yet another Southern team that 'turned the corner and got good' once they got back into conference play. -Washington throttled and physically tub thumped Nebraska's backside avenging a season opening loss. Only Texas A&M (6 pt) held Nebraska to fewer points this year. Even I think this was a bit of a down year in the Pac10 but taking a look at the rest of the teams, I don't get where this southern confidence is coming from.. this ain't the Big10 y'all are playing. -USC lost 1 OOC game to ND who appears to be red hot.. in a game in which USC dropped the game winning pass 3 or 4 times in the past 2 minutes. They did get smoked by Oregon but Stanford beat them 37-35. -Oregon State finished out of the bowl picture at 5-7. We have teams getting fat on the likes of Chattanooga, the Citadel and long time Auburn foe Ball State...Oregon State lost to TCU 30-21 and Boise 37-24. They clocked Louisville.. I think the answer OSU will find is the same that Oregon found.. stop playing Boise and TCU if you wanna play in the post season. -Arizona State.. they stayed home at 6-6. This is a team that lost at Wisconsin (who I think we all agree does not suck) 20-19. They lost to Stanford 17-13, to USC 34-33, and Oregon State 31-28. -Arizona... ok this team lost 5 straight.. they got drilled and quit on the field against Okie State of all people.. but this is a team that did beat Iowa (a Big10 team that actually won their bowl game). -CAL..what a weird team.. They beat Colorado 52-7 (Georgia can't say they beat Colorado at all)...but got their ass kicked by Nevada (who wound up WAC Champs over Boise.. Cal couldn't beat anyone in the Pac10 except UCLA, and everyone in the Pac10 beat them. -UCLA, we're shitty but we'd finish at least 2nd in the state of Texas..ok well maybe 3rd behind TCU and A&M. -Washington State: God damn it guys... get with it or join the Big Sky. Colorado's coming.. if you can't beat a Big12 doormat, you're gonna get relegated.
I would say Stanford's achilles heel is a lack of speed in some positions. Harbaugh has done a good job of hiding it, but you could see it start to come out a few times against VT. I can see how it got the best of them against Oregon - possibly the fastest team around. I'd put Stanford at a solid #3, and likely #2 depending on what we see in the champ game. The PAC wasn't deep this year, but the top two could be the top two in the country.
Corey - Next year will be the key to us being relevant again. The end of this year showed some promise and I'm hoping the light has turned on for our young team.
Scott: You are correct.. but where they lacked speed, they made up for by using 3 and 4 TEs. Jesus, they were physical. That team just didn't stop beating on you and defensively, they just kept hitting you till you didn't want to get up. You make a good point about matching Oregon's speed. That's my concern for Auburn. Auburn has great speed but are all 11 fast? The better be. If not, Oregon will find that kid with average speed and run right at his ass all day. Kes: I hope so. You guys should be better and there's just no excuse for it.
The only excuse I have is "Doba". That guy could neither coach NOR recruit. Needless to say, when you're playing basically everyone that Wulff has recruited, things aren't going to be great to start.
Scott, I think you are correct in the fact that Auburn is fast, and Corey all 11 may be fast, the problem is they are just not very good at least on the defensive side. Did I see that the over/under was 71 or something?