2014-15 College Football

Was up in Central Oregon for the Holidays and Duck fever is in full effect. I think the committee got it right with the caveat that TCU belonged also, it just sucked FSU kept squeaking by because the Horned Frogs would have wiped the floor with the Noles also.

Urban Meyer is simply amazing, other than one play call late in the 4th, that was as good a coaching job as can be done.

As for the title game, Oregon will have to change the way they played defense against FSU. They played a bend but don't break, give up yards on the ground style, which the Buckeyes would love to see all night long. The Ducks have to commit to stopping the run and force the 3rd stringer to pass it. Will go with Oregon and the best player in college Marcus Mariota to bring the unimaginable 20 years ago to the state.

 

Hard to pick against Oregon, but Ohio St continues to surprise. Meyer deserves Coach of the Year for getting them there despite all of the qb injuries. If the Ducks don't break through this year, I question if they ever will.

 

Kinda cool 'Football Daddy' story from Pat Forde.. and it's not about Cardale Jones

How Ezekiel Elliott’s father became the ultimate Buckeye backer

 

Well You're wrong.. and you could start by reading this:
Ohio State and Oregon earn college football title shot thanks to BCS era’s extinction

Then read down the comments. Everyone agrees FSU did not belong in the top four as far as rankings go, but there's no way they could be left out. In a larger tourny field they actually might have progressed but never would have made the final game. I dont think there's anyone disputes Ohio State belonging there but they are there, rather than TCU, for one reason only.. which goes unmentioned and ignored by those commenting geniuses.
59-0 over Wisconsin in the B1G title game.
The same WI that was good enough to beat Auburn.

If THAT game had been close, TCU would have probably been in. And Baylor fans would be bitching.
But I think everyone agrees TCU would never beat Oregon, and they might not have beaten Alabama.
And TCU is not in there because of the above WI game AND their own Conference rules

So... in a perfect world, how many teams should be in a gridiron tournament? MAYBE 8 but usually at least 2 of those would be long shots, at least this year.

 

HD, in no other sport in the US is the regular season a REAL tourney. The playoffs start in August in college football, that's why it's so GREAT. There will always be teams that feel they were hosed. The hoops tourney is up to 68, but every year a couple worthy schools are left out. It will be switched to 8 soon enough, but there are multiple reasons why the powers that be should slow down and not do it right away. However, that's another post for another day.

The game tonight is for the National Title and the closer it gets the more I like Ohio State. Why? I trust Urban Mayer more than Mark H. (No idea how to spell his last name). Add in Oregon's 2 best WRs are out, one to injury, and the kid Carrington who tore up FSU was an idiot and smoked weed. My brother will be in Dallas tonight, and my heart will pulling for the Ducks (you're right Matt, Oregon has to get it done this year), but going Buckeyes 35-31

 

Quack.

 

First off, it's more than 3-4 men. Second, how do you think the fields are set in the other college tournaments? There are some automatic qualifiers from winning an end of season conference tourney, but most of the field is picked by a selection committee. There are too many participating schools to do anything else.

 

Well, well.... let me once again point out that without whipping Wisconsin 59-0, OSU would not have been there. Computers didnt make that decision, people did
Odd Factoid: First NCAA Basketball tourney was 1939.
Oregon beat Ohio State in the Final

The Ohio State AD suggested the tourney of 8
look it up

 

16 teams would never work, would be the equivalent of having 128 in hoops. Having 8 teams worthy of competing for the title is a stretch. 5 major conferences + 3 at large is only reasonable 'tourney'. HD, what sport in your lifetime has eliminated regular season games? Flies against your political leanings to hurt 95% of the schools that need football $ to fund other sports and university projects so the elite schools can play a reasonable amount of games. The regular season determines European footy champions and the regular season determined the 4 teams left standing here. Ohio State played multiple 'playoff' games in the regular season (Michigan State WAS an elimination game for the loser).

Urban Meyer is simply amazing, and that is a very young football team. Ironically, the 3rd string QB Cardale Jones probably would have transferred had the original starter Braxton Miller hadn't gotten hurt the first week of fall practice. His unique size and strength was the difference on getting a first down a half dozen times last night. Throw in the Buckeyes establishing that trap play to Elliot and the Ducks only chance was to win a shootout. However, Oregon was left with a converted running back and inexperienced freshman wide receivers who committed critical drops. The stat the doomed the Ducks; 3 trips inside the OSU 5 yard line in the 2nd & 3rd quarters and only coming away with 6 points.

Back to Meyer, there are quite a few really good college coaches, but he and Saban are at the top. Honestly don't think any coach could of done what he did in Columbus this year. The Big 10 just got a whole lot more interesting because the coach just hired in Ann Arbor will have Michigan back sooner rather than later. Harbaugh took over a 1 win "impossible to win at" Stanford and built a powerhouse. He and Meyer are 2 peas in a pod in terms of intensity which should make the rivalry must see viewing for all the neutrals.

 

Conference champs only is an odd stance coming from a MD alum. The rest of it shows a lack of understanding of the current game & setup. But thanks for sharing your opinion on what you would do if you ran the sport you admittedly have little interest in and routinely mock on these threads.

As for the game, I'd thought Oregon was better on both lines than on previous years, but once again showed they couldn't control the LOS on either side of the ball against an elite team. While most of the talk will center around Meyer, Jones & Elliott, the fact that the Nuts were able to go on this run speaks to their quality at the rest of the positions. They manhandled the Ducks & despite those 4 turnovers, the score flattered Oregon.

 

A true national champion is a no-win situation. Unless the entire structure of conferences and scheduling is rethought, there's going to be some human (or computer) input as to who should be considered. I would start however, with getting rid of split conferences and conference championship games. Handle things with old-fashioned tie-breakers (like the Premier League). I'd also get rid of any FBS team scheduling FCS opponents. Those games don't tell us anything.

I've often thought that it'd be fun to create a 12 team mega-conference and make all of the teams play each other (then we could really see how well FSU would have compared to the elite teams). But we all know how unrealistic that would be.

 

I'm surprised a little at the storylines here. Tourney aside.
First, why were the experts wrong?
Oregons fast tempo should have worn the Buckeyes out. Well, that works two ways, doesnt it? If you figure out how to rotate your D on the field, the Ducks' pace will wear themselves out. And that's what happened. One quick score and pretty much DONE.
buckeyes lost the ball on turnovers FOUR times and the Ducks were too gassed (as seen on sidelines TV) to take advantage.

The backstory of the 'Life Lessons' training' that Meyer installed. Things change and they change in college sports, too. That gives you a glimmer ... Tressel is a good guy, almost everyone agrees but like Woody of lore he expected his guys to act like Grown Ass Men without much of a support mechanism.
- Think of Notre Dame and Knut Rockne .. look it up young'uns. Meyer is the new Rockne.
Meyer sees the need for real group support on a formal, scheduled basis.
THAT is the secret to Cardale.. and why neither he or Zeke will be another Maurice Clarett.*
Remember Cardale was previously notorious for saying in 2012; 'What classes? I came here to play football'

I have the feeling that Meyer's School of Life' agenda will be looked at closely by many other schools. Notice Cardale isn't taking on the mantle all by himself? He grew the hell up in those two years.
Unfortunately Tim Tebow is also a Meyer product. And couldn't do well, all by himself, so the jury is truly out.

* Remember who also played the role of mentor to Clarett: Jim Brown. Speaks volumes.


OTOH, LeBron will help Cardale out if needed.

 

Sorry Fog, Ducks O not too gassed. Achilles Heel for years with that offense is red zone efficiency. Buckeyes shut down Oregon's up yhe middle run game (same plays OSU gashed Ducks with). Oregon weren't too tired to get to Ohio State 5 yard line (3 times with only 6 points to show) just a combination of bad play calls, poor execution by Oregon, and good defensive calls and toughness of Ohio State D.

 

No, Joe, but the Duck D was. The downside of tempo is if you fail to sustain drives, you're putting your D back on the field that much quicker. A&M ran into this problem alot this year.

Fair enough Don. I get the nostalgia take. That point got lost in your posts.