Official College Football thread - Week 9

[MrBug708]

Good for Stanford, the PAC-12 still has a chance at the NCG.

Great seeing Lane's expression. I'm surprised he wasn't halfway on the field calling for a replay

[Lathum]

I think Oregon beats Stanford easily, they don't seem to have the depth at defense to play against the tempo Oregon brings.

[Karlifornia]

ahahahahaahah WTF I DONT EVEN


Stanford will cross the Oregon bridge when it gets to it. Gonna be a tough game. For now, though, just happy to be alive the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

[MrBug708]

USC boards are livid with the refs...haha...irony is thick over there

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Maybe the best pick 6 I've seen ever in the Washington-Arizona game.

Pretty sick return. I was not happy.

[Eaglesfan27]

Just finished watching the game, disappointing loss.

[Lathum]

Chris Polk is a beast

[dawgfan]

Please tell me the calls in the UW/Arizona game didn't look as bad on TV, because the replays we saw on the Jumbotron made them look like the refs were clearly on the take for Arizona:

- the no pass interference call against Kearse early in the game
- the call of no catch on the long pass to Hartvigson, and then inexplicably not overturning it on the replay when it was fucking blatantly obvious that it was a catch
- the "helmet to helmet" call against Fellner, which was actually helmet to shoulder pad

Plus any number of non-calls when Arizona OL were holding.

Doesn't excuse the what-the-fuck pick six by Golden where our offense totally gave up on the play after he broke several tackles. He was literally jogging at half speed the last 20 yards and yet we had almost nobody making an effort at that point to catch him.

Amazed we still won by 11 - Arizona's defense = really bad, and Chris Polk is a beast. Hard to think he won't be one of the top 2-3 RB in this upcoming draft, if not the best.

[Crapshoot]

Holy shit, what a game (Stanford-USC). Wow.

[mckerney]

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by tarcone

My case of beer bet is getting scarier by the week. I may lose it now. No one in the B1G is very good.

Badgers losing on the road to tough defenses makes them not very good? THey're still the class of the B1G, which as a whole is not very good this year.

If the Badgers can somehow sneak into the B1G Championship game and win that then that will help make up for some of this lost season.

[Butter]

Fuck you, Bret Bielema.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Badgers losing on the road to tough defenses makes them not very good? THey're still the class of the B1G, which as a whole is not very good this year.

If the Badgers can somehow sneak into the B1G Championship game and win that then that will help make up for some of this lost season.

Being 2 games behind PsU will be tough to overcome.
Yes the Badgers lost to 2 tough defenses, and I still think they are the class of the B1G. But they lost twice. To B1G opponents. Nebraska just manhandled MSU and OSU is average this season.
I really like this Wisconsin team, but you have to win on the road or you are not very good.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Being 2 games behind PsU will be tough to overcome.
Yes the Badgers lost to 2 tough defenses, and I still think they are the class of the B1G. But they lost twice. To B1G opponents. Nebraska just manhandled MSU and OSU is average this season.
I really like this Wisconsin team, but you have to win on the road or you are not very good.

Penn State's last 3 games are vs. Nebraska, @OSU, @Wisconsin. They will be lucky to win 1 of those games.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Please tell me the calls in the UW/Arizona game didn't look as bad on TV, because the replays we saw on the Jumbotron made them look like the refs were clearly on the take for Arizona:

- the no pass interference call against Kearse early in the game
- the call of no catch on the long pass to Hartvigson, and then inexplicably not overturning it on the replay when it was fucking blatantly obvious that it was a catch
- the "helmet to helmet" call against Fellner, which was actually helmet to shoulder pad

Plus any number of non-calls when Arizona OL were holding.

Doesn't excuse the what-the-fuck pick six by Golden where our offense totally gave up on the play after he broke several tackles. He was literally jogging at half speed the last 20 yards and yet we had almost nobody making an effort at that point to catch him.

Amazed we still won by 11 - Arizona's defense = really bad, and Chris Polk is a beast. Hard to think he won't be one of the top 2-3 RB in this upcoming draft, if not the best.

I'm not one to bitch about officials but that was the worst I have ever seen. Especially on the catch they reviewed and still called it no catch. Even my wife who was looking online at recipes for a Halloween party we are hosting tomorrow comment on how bad the refs were. IT was like a circus.

That being said I really like where we are headed. We are loaded on offense and winning the games we should be. If you told me before the season we would be at 6-2 with our only losses to Stanford and Nebraska I would have signed up for sure.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Being 2 games behind PsU will be tough to overcome.
Yes the Badgers lost to 2 tough defenses, and I still think they are the class of the B1G. But they lost twice. To B1G opponents. Nebraska just manhandled MSU and OSU is average this season.
I really like this Wisconsin team, but you have to win on the road or you are not very good.

Wisconsin only needs to make one game up before they play each other. Considering both their schedules, that should be easy to do. I didn't look at the conference as a whole, but the best road win by a Big Ten team so far is either MSU beating an undermanned OSU team that played so godawful bad even the announcers admitted it was more than State playing well, or OSU beating Illinois, who hasn't won since playing the Big Ten teams with a pulse.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Being 2 games behind PsU will be tough to overcome.

Nope. PSU is about to get exposed, hard. I've never seen a worse team with such a good record. As much as I love PSU, I have zero faith in this team to rise to the occasion.

Then again, I had no faith in them to achieve what they have so far.

[Easy Mac]

So my question is this:

Lets assume LSU remains undefeated and the other undefeateds fall off. Stanford loses to Oregon, Bama loses to LSU, OK State loses to OU, Boise loses to someone, and K State loses in the B12 game (we're ignoring Houston, as they stand no chance).

So who plays LSU? Oregon and Bama would likely be fighting it out for #2. If Bama LSU is close, should Oregon still get a rematch? If it's a blow-out, how do you tell the teams apart.

Something similar is true if Bama is the only undefeated left standing. Would a 1 loss Oregon get in over a 1 loss LSU?

[mckerney]

It wouldn't surprise me if the loser of Alabama/LSU is ranked below some of the other one loss teams by the human poll in the event that there are no other undefeated teams by voters who want to avoid a rematch. Boise will probably be undefeated so I don't think we will see that issue.

[MrBug708]

The UW/Arizona game was bad for both teams. I think UW got more calls, but they also got screwed out of some really bad calls

[Swaggs]

It makes me laugh that Virginia Tech is ranked above Clemson in the Coaches' Poll this week.

[Easy Mac]

VT has the better loss?

[bronconick]

Can we at least wait long enough to see whether the first LSU/Alabama is close enough to warrant a rematch before we start talking about it? If one curbstomps the other as unlikely as that must seem right now, that should be the end of it.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Can we at least wait long enough to see whether the first LSU/Alabama is close enough to warrant a rematch before we start talking about it? If one curbstomps the other as unlikely as that must seem right now, that should be the end of it.

Even if Oregon is the other main 1 loss team? We've seen how they match up.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

VT has the better loss?

In a weird way, yeah

Honestly though, I think it probably gets back into how a voter ranks teams. Is it season-to-date, is it how good you think they are right now, is it how you believe the teams actually rank compared to each other, do you start playing "who would beat who" to separate similar records, etc, etc.

For most voters I imagine it's probably a mix of most of those things, where it really differs is how you weight the various factors.

I just looked at my own poll from last week, to see what I'm likely to do in the new one. No doubt that VT will be ahead of Clemson in my next one. It's the aspect of "how do the teams stack up against each other at this moment" that'll swing it for me & I don't feel particularly apologetic about that. It's the same thing that prevents me from moving South Carolina up in spite of another win, they simply don't appear to be nearly as good as their record anymore. I won't downgrade them much until they lose, I don't totally ignore their work-to-date but I'm not inclined to think they're any better than they were before Lattimore went down either.

[bronconick]

I'd pick a 3rd team. Rematches in a two team playoff for a sport where over 90% of teams don't play each other are stupid.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by bronconick

I'd pick a 3rd team. Rematches in a two team playoff for a sport where over 90% of teams don't play each other are stupid.

This.

I think voters will realize this too and manipulate the polls to make sure one of them gets left out of the discussion, especially if there are still other undefeated teams out there. The loser of the game is going to have a huge boost in the computer polls for just being in the SEC so it will be up to the voters to make sure it doesn't happen. Computers will have the loser still ahead of teams like BSU and Stanford just from where they're at now. There is zero chance of Oregon and other 1 loss teams to get ahead of the LSU/Bama loser.

At least that's my opinion.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Why pick a 3rd team if the top 2 are clearly the best 2 teams in FBS? I don't want to see Stanford if Alabama is clearly better.

How do you objectively prove that?

Stanford plays Oregon
LSU played (and beat) Oregon
Alabama plays LSU

The next closest comparable is something like 4-5 degrees of separation, thus the problem. Frankly, I expect the midwestern voters and the voters from whoever is the other available option(s) to make sure Alabama isn't in a rematch after Florida passed Michigan in 2006 on the backs of SEC voters putting them around 10th after a 3 point loss at #1.

[Swaggs]

I can buy "the look" test as a method of ranking teams, but then you have to consider that Virginia Tech struggled yesterday to beat Duke (and last week against BC, although they did eventually blow that one open) by 4 points.

I'd just suggest that Clemson's out of conference resume is far superior to Tech's and they soundly beat them head to head (+20 @ Blacksburg, to boot). Clemson beat a ranked and currently 6-2 Auburn (giving Auburn their first loss in over a year), while VPI's best OOC win is a 7-point road win over a 4-4 ECU.

Not trying to slam VPI (in this particular case) and I am think they deserve to be ranked in the top 15, but it is just humorous to see those two particular teams ranked right next to each other with Virginia Tech being on top at this point of the season.

[MJ4H]

I can think of 3 losses for Auburn this season (Clemson, Arkansas, LSU), so I don't think they are 6-2.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Clemson beat a ranked and currently 6-2 Auburn (giving Auburn their first loss in over a year), while VPI's best OOC win is a 7-point road win over a 4-4 ECU.

That kind of requires the observer to be impressed by Auburn ... I ain't. That's almost as big a smoke-and-mirrors 6-3 as any in the country I think.

As you seemed to say though, "it's all good". Things will likely shake themselves out over the next few weeks anyway.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I can think of 3 losses for Auburn this season (Clemson, Arkansas, LSU), so I don't think they are 6-2.

My bad. Although I don't think it changes the argument a whole lot.

I think most folks would agree that Auburn is a considerably better win that ECU at this point.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

That kind of requires the observer to be impressed by Auburn ... I ain't. That's almost as big a smoke-and-mirrors 6-3 as any in the country I think.

As you seemed to say though, "it's all good". Things will likely shake themselves out over the next few weeks anyway.

Much like I explained to my son earlier.....this will work itself out by the final polls one way or the other. Lots of similar stories, but Clemson specifically has vt and sc ahead of them....all 3 are 1 loss teams. Vt's loss is to Clemson at home, and sc's only loss is to a team that Clemson beat.

In both cases Clemson will get to atone. Playing sc at home and either gt beats vt dropping them down the polls or vt wins and Clemson will likely get a rematch in Charlotte, unless of course Clemson loses to wake, in which case they don't deserve to be ranked.

[Ksyrup]

Kiffen is a douchenozzle. There was a game earlier this year that perfectly explained why he doesn't get the TO there at the end - almost the same situation, and the clock ran out. Unlike an out of bounds play, the clock doesn't stop when the player hits the ground, it's when the ref signals the play dead. So there's a natural lapse of time, plus the lapse of time to call the TO.

I believe in the game I'm thinking of earlier this year, it was a first down catch/run and the guy went down with 1 second and they still let the clock run out because by the time the ref signalled the play down, the clock had expired. In USC's case, he was in bounds and short of the 1st down, so there was no shot at stopping the clock. By the time the play was blown dead and a TO taken, that .6 seconds or whatever it was had run off. I don't really care what a mistaken official told you - you weren't lied to, someone else ruled it the way it's supposed to be called.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Gg jacket fans.....

My "reverse jinx" here worked. The fumble on Clemson's second possession really turned the tide. GT's first two offensive possessions were what we had seen for 2.5 games out of the GT offense. Getting that fumble and the short field changed everything. Then, the next series #34 for Clemson misplays the option, Tevin runs for a bunch and it was like a light bulb came back on. Fun to watch.

Watkins is really something special. Our true freshman DB #14 Jemea Thomas played the game of his life on Saturday night, largely matched up against Watkins. Watkins still had 150+. Hope we get to see him again this year and then very infrequently after that.

[Ksyrup]

That game wasn't even as close as the final score, either. GT got absolutely HOSED on a non-offsides call at the goal line that directly caused a fumble. Instead of going down by 4 scores, Clemson took it down and scored to make it a 2-possession game. The dude was even with the OLman when the ball was snapped, he basically took the center snap from the QB, and no one threw a flag.

Inexcusable.

[booradley]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

... unless of course Clemson loses to wake, in which case they don't deserve to be ranked.

Splutter ... gasp ... rage ... froth ... AAAARRGH!!!

[bob]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That game wasn't even as close as the final score, either. GT got absolutely HOSED on a non-offsides call at the goal line that directly caused a fumble. Instead of going down by 4 scores, Clemson took it down and scored to make it a 2-possession game. The dude was even with the OLman when the ball was snapped, he basically took the center snap from the QB, and no one threw a flag.

Inexcusable.

Yeah, when the snap gets intercepted from directly under center, something is wrong.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That game wasn't even as close as the final score, either. GT got absolutely HOSED on a non-offsides call at the goal line that directly caused a fumble. Instead of going down by 4 scores, Clemson took it down and scored to make it a 2-possession game. The dude was even with the OLman when the ball was snapped, he basically took the center snap from the QB, and no one threw a flag.Inexcusable.

The conference officially acknowledged the fucked up no-call today btw.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, and they acknowledge horrible calls and terrible officiating every week. Doesn't seem to HELP any, but they go ahead and acknowledge a bunch of errors every week. See: FSU's complaints about the official moving the ball forward on a 1st down measurement we discussed a few weeks ago, and Greg Reid's punt return TD from last week that was nullified because pointing to the ground is somehow the same as calling for a fair catch.

[MrBug708]

Oh Lane *sigh*