College Football Week 7 Thread

[Butter]

My fault, I saw the game advertised on a billboard around here for Cincinnati football and assumed UC was the home team for that.

[gstelmack]

What I really like about USF right now is they've got:

• An OT road win against a top-10 team (Auburn)
• A nationally televised night win against a top-10 team (West Virginia)
• Held off a spunky upset attempt by an unranked team (FAU)
• A dominating victory over a pesky underdog who had taken a top-10 team to the wire (UCF)

This is a young-but-now-tested team.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

What I really like about USF right now is they've got:

• An OT road win against a top-10 team (Auburn)
• A nationally televised night win against a top-10 team (West Virginia)
• Held off a spunky upset attempt by an unranked team (FAU)
• A dominating victory over a pesky underdog who had taken a top-10 team to the wire (UCF)

This is a young-but-now-tested team.

On the flip side, though....

• Auburn was a top 10 team?
• WVU outgained USF 437 to 274. Many would say that WVU beat themselves.
• "held off a spunky upset attempt by" is code for "looked like crap against" (FAU gained 400+ yards on the vaunted USF defense)
• Did what they were suppose to do against a UCF team who was coming off of a beatdown by national power East Carolina.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by VPI97

On the flip side, though....

• Auburn was a top 10 team?
• WVU outgained USF 437 to 274. Many would say that WVU beat themselves.
• "held off a spunky upset attempt by" is code for "looked like crap against" (FAU gained 400+ yards on the vaunted USF defense)
• Did what they were suppose to do against a UCF team who was coming off of a beatdown by national power East Carolina.

• Auburn also beat at-the-time #4 Florida. They were top-10 when USF played them, and still top-20.
• My key point on WVU was the national TV exposure. That seemed to affect WVU, who has played far more of them than USF, more than USF.
• Agreed on your analogy, but my point was they still managed to pull out the victory (something WVU didn't manage to do when they played USF and "looked like crap against").
• And agreed on UCF, but the point was they got the blowout, something many thought was missing off their resume. Texas couldn't pull this off.

My main point in all this is that most other contenders have failed at least one of those tests, while USF has passed them all. Rutgers won't be the first "big game" for USF this season, which will help. Being ranked #2, on the other hand, won't help calm the team down.

This is a huge game Thursday night.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Auburn also beat at-the-time #4 Florida. They were top-10 when USF played them, and still top-20.

Actually, Auburn was #17 in the AP at the time of that game and followed it up with a loss to Mississippi State.

Either way, I was just funnin' with you. Point being is that almost every college game can be spun positively or negatively...for instance, what I've kept hearing this year is that VT has played like crap in every game (that opinion was illustrated when I saw that Craig James didn't even rank us on his AP ballot after the Clemson win) and I'm of the opinion that we're doing good. I mean, I keep seeing other ranked teams fall to unranked teams and we manage to keep winning and getting no credit for it. Like I said, though, I was just putting the counter spin to your comments to pull your chain.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by VPI97

Actually, Auburn was #17 in the AP at the time of that game and followed it up with a loss to Mississippi State.

Either way, I was just funnin' with you. Point being is that almost every college game can be spun positively or negatively...for instance, what I've kept hearing this year is that VT has played like crap in every game (that opinion was illustrated when I saw that Craig James didn't even rank us on his AP ballot after the Clemson win) and I'm of the opinion that we're doing good. I mean, I keep seeing other ranked teams fall to unranked teams and we manage to keep winning and getting no credit for it. Like I said, though, I was just putting the counter spin to your comments to pull your chain.

Gah, can't believe I screwed up Auburn. I thought they were up there when we played them.

And I understand the pulling my chain. I'm just trying to clarify that I'm not using these as examples of why they should be rated #2, but rather that I feel better about the upcoming big games because they've already come through situations that are similar. Ordinarily I'd be going "uh oh, big night game on national TV against Rutgers", but when I realise they've already done the "big night game on national TV" and won, I remove that from the equation and just go "uh oh, they have to beat Rutgers".

[st.cronin]

South Florida has already played the two best teams on their schedule. They may lose a game, but if they do, I think it'll be as big an upset as LSU losing to Kentucky was.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

South Florida has already played the two best teams on their schedule. They may lose a game, but if they do, I think it'll be as big an upset as LSU losing to Kentucky was.

Once again, you're crazy, and I mean that in the nicest way possible (re: comment #2, not #1).

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Logan

Once again, you're crazy, and I mean that in the nicest way possible (re: comment #2, not #1).

I never get offended when people call me crazy. Usually, they have a pretty good case.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I'll be curious to hear how your experience at Autzen goes - among Husky fans, Autzen has a reputation for overly belligerent, abusive fans if you go there wearing the opposing team's colors and logos.

Ummm...

:o

More seriously, we were clearly overmatched, but the game could have turned out somewhat differently if Brink hadn't melted down in the first quarter. Two INTs deep in Oregon territory, plus a fumble, really killed us. I have no illusions that we would have won, but the slaughter factor would have been reduced.

As for Autzen, it is a remarkable setting. I was dressed in Cougar garb, as was my one friend; my other friend - a Husky - was wearing an unmarked purple Nike windbreaker and caught more verbal shit for that than we did. the worst I heard was a few college-age guys scrinching up there face at me and saying "Cougars" like an old woman (whatever). There were ample Cougs in the stands, but the place just rocked with green and gold. They represent their team very well. The stadium itself was like walking into the Roman Collosseum as a Christian. I've never experienced anything quite like it.