NCAA Football 2009

[Aggie87]

A&M not looking good against Oklahoma tonight. They had a very solid first quarter, except for a fumble that led to a TD for OU. Had a crappy 2nd quarter though, giving up 28 pts.

I had thought they might be turning the quarter this season, but not so sure. The offense is decent, but the defense still is bad, very bad.

Maybe the '10's will be a better decade for us. Sigh.

[alocispepraluger102]

i've been either watching or listening to 25 college football games today.

i saw or learned of several amazing deeds and feats, but 2 coaching moves astounded me.

first was the storied harvard-yale game while you folks were watching osu. yale, on a long losing streak to archrival harvard, much like the current osu-michigan series, this season hired a new football coach. coach decided, with a 10-7 lead and less than three minutes to play, on his 20 yard line, decided to try a fake punt reverse on fourth-and-22, but fell 6 yards short. yale moved in for a touchdown to take the lead and win the game. only once in my life have i seen such an inept move, and that was in the pros 30+ years ago.

next came the SEC game between 2 football schools who are having great years, mississippi and lsu. lsu, with a young quarterback, in the last minutes of the game, was moving down the field for at least a tying field goal attempt, from about the other team's 45 yard line. lsu, for no good reason, let 30 seconds run off the clock before calling a time out with only 9 seconds remaining on the game clock, before completing a long miraculous 4th down and 25 pass to about the 10 yard line with only 1 second left on the clock.

a well coached team would have had the field goal team sprint onto the field for a tying attempt, or at least have the regular qb throw a desperate pass to the end zone. what did lsu do? THEY DOWNED THE BALL, THROUGH THE BALL INTO THE GROUND, WITH ONE SECOND LEFT ON THE CLOCK. do i blame the quarterback? no. i blame the entire coaching staff, led by les miles, who makes several million dollars a year for this inept training of these young men.

rarely, if ever, have i seen such inept coaching, which these young men will remember the rest of their lives. what respect can they retain...............?

Edited November 22, 2009 by alocispepraluger102

[Free For All]

first was the storied harvard-yale game while you folks were watching osu. yale, on a long losing streak to archrival harvard, much like the current osu-michigan series, this season hired a new football coach. coach decided, with a 10-7 lead and less than three minutes to play, on his 20 yard line, decided to try a fake punt reverse on fourth-and-22, but fell 6 yards short. yale moved in for a touchdown to take the lead and win the game. only once in my life have i seen such an inept move, and that was in the pros 30+ years ago.

Then you must have missed the recent Colts/Patriots game! Same thing happened.

The ending of the LSU game was a shocker. Seems like I've seen more than the usual amount of clock mismanagement this year, both in college and pros. You've GOT to be ready for those moments. They should have at least run a play.

[papsrus]

Les Miles apparently said he thought the timeout had been called, and was not aware that it hadn't been until the clock ticked down to 9 seconds. ... Doh!

From what I saw (admittedly, not much) they didn't really deserve to win that game anyways. And what's up with No. 80 for the Tigers? Anytime a defender brushed past him he was throwing his arms up in the air crying for a flag. It's football, dude.

What was the teary UConn coach saying after their win over the Irish? (I had the volume off). "We beat a pretty crappy Notre Dame team today in one of the greatest wins in UConn history."

[Noj]

UConn had that defensive back get murdered earlier this year.

Oregon/Arizona was an epic game. Brutal loss for the Wildcats, they had a two possession lead in the 4th quarter.

[Free For All]

The Aggies gave the Longhorns all they could handle tonight. If A&M had made that field goal and then attempted an onside kick things could have gotten tense.

[papsrus]

The Aggies gave the Longhorns all they could handle tonight. If A&M had made that field goal and then attempted an onside kick things could have gotten tense.

Really entertaining game. The Longhorns look pretty unstoppable. Assuming things play out, it'll be interesting to see that high-octane offense go up against one of those stout SEC defenses (Florida or Bama). Florida doesn't appear to have the offense to hang with the Longhorns in a shootout. Don't know about Bama. So it's probably going to come down to whether either of those two defenses can stop 'em. Won't be easy.

Aggies gave them a great fight tonight though.

edit for typo

Edited November 27, 2009 by papsrus

[papsrus]

Up 21-7 with 46 seconds to go, and after taking a knee on the previous play, USC throws deep against UCLA for a touchdown -- then celebrates jumping around like clowns on the sidelines, with Carroll leading the way, as if they actually just did something cool. Harbaugh's got nothing on Pete Carroll. Man's got about as much class as a gnat, in my book.

[Noj]

Thanks paps, but I think that's being unfair to gnats. Pete Carroll=zero class.

[GA Russell]

Notre Dame has fired Charlie Weis.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,578088...test=latestnews

[papsrus]

Didn't realize Neuheisel was calling timeouts at the end of the game, presumably to try and get the ball back. Still think Carroll is a dick. ... It's college! Aren't they supposed to be teaching these young men something about sportsmanship? -- (I know, naive of me, but still.)

He was a dick to Sanchez after the guy declared for the draft, he's a dick for claiming a national championship that belongs to LSU, he's a dick for whining about not getting in the championship game last year and mouthing off about how USC would have beaten both Oklahoma and Florida, and he's a dick for going deep on UCLA when they obviously weren't playing defense anymore (despite the curious timeouts).

I hope UCLA remembers this one next year and -- as Tomlin says -- unleashes hell on them.

(I feel better now. Now where's that asshole Lane Kiffin?)

[Free For All]

Bowden to announce retirement on Tuesday

It was time to leave, but it was handled a little awkwardly by the administration IMO.

[GA Russell]

...he's a dick for claiming a national championship that belongs to LSU...

Thank you for saying that, paps. I lost all respect for Brent Musberger when I kept hearing him say the following two years that USC was the national champion that year.

[Aggie87]

Wild finish to the Texas-Nebraska game tonight!

When Nebraska kicked the FG to go ahead 12-10, I thought their defense might actually hold Texas. But a kick out of bounds, and a horse collar tackle put Texas into FG range pretty quickly.

Colt McCoy made one final pass attempt that appeared to run out the clock, but the refs ruled one second on the clock, and Texas was able to kick a FG to win it, 13-12.

Man, if Nebraska had pulled the upset, we might be looking at an Alabama/TCU national championship game. Who woulda expected that??

Edited December 6, 2009 by Aggie87

[papsrus]

No slight against Nebraska, which from what I saw played g-r-e-a-t, flying around like a bunch of crazy people on defense, but I'm going to guess that if Texas has similar offensive difficulties against Alabama, it's not going to be pretty. McCoy looked dazed at the end of that game.

Florida was due for the pounding it took in the SEC title game. They are not the team they were last year. Too many loose ends on that squad. Tebow wins with 'will' more than 'skill,' and that's bound to catch up to you when you run into a powerful team firing on all cylinders, like Alabama was.

The Gator defense was not playing with the kind of aggression you need in a game like that. They got pasted.

And the Florida offense can obviously be shut down by a good defense. I wouldn't characterize it as 'one-dimensional,' but it's certainly not dynamic. They just run the same plays they've been running for two years now. That's not going work forever. And when you force them to abandon the running game, they're cooked. Tebow just doesn't have the arm to carry that load.

Nice to see USC drop another one.

Edited December 6, 2009 by papsrus

[papsrus]

I guess Charlie Weis took a shot at Pete Carroll on the way out the door:

According to the interview transcript from IrishIllustrated.com senior editor Tim Prister, Weis responded: "Let me ask you this question: You guys know about things that go on in different places. Was I living with a grad student in Malibu, or was I living with my wife in my house? You could bet that if I were living with a grad student here in South Bend, it would be national news.

"He's doing it in Malibu and it's not national news. What's the difference? I don't understand. Why is it OK for one guy to do things like that, but for me, I'm scrutinized when I swear. I'm sorry for swearing; absolve my sins."

Weis was referring to a 2006 "60 Minutes" profile which showed him swearing and caused a minor stir, but the root of his reference to Carroll's alleged living arrangement was unclear. Carroll is married with three children and a grandchild.

Carroll, contacted by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday night, said: "It's untrue, it's irresponsible and it's incredible he'd be talking about me like that," Carroll said of Weis.

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.

I'm no fan of Carroll's, obviously, but this was a cheap shot.

[Soulstation1]

Anyone gonna watch The U doc on ESPN tonight?

Looks like it will be a good one

[Aggie87]

The Texas Tech Red Raiders fired their head Pirate Mike Leach today, after the brou-haha with Craig James' son over the past few days. Apparently after sustaining a concussion, Leach locked him in a room for hours on end a few times.

Has to be more to this for them to fire him without any substantiation, but Leach has always marched to his own drummer, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had done something like that.

[papsrus]

I don't know if I can remember a game more micro-managed by the refs than this Auburn-Northwestern game.

[papsrus]

... and I've never seen a field in worse shape than that mess in Orlando.

[Free For All]

Glad the 'Noles were able to win the last one for Bowden. They actually looked pretty good today, maybe a new era on the horizon?

[Noj]

... and I've never seen a field in worse shape than that mess in Orlando.

...and I've rarely seen a worse call at a pivotal moment than that 15-yard personal foul to all but end LSU's hopes. Gee zebra, thanks for totally deciding the outcome.

[GA Russell]

... and I've never seen a field in worse shape than that mess in Orlando.

LOL That was why I watched! I love a football game played in the mud.

[Free For All]

Very entertaining game so far between Texas Tech & Michigan State, two teams with lots of recent problems

EDIT: Nice win for Texas Tech. I'm not sure what to make of the situation w/the coach. So far I've heard conflicting versions of the story.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Free For All

[papsrus]

Very entertaining game so far between Texas Tech & Michigan State, two teams with lots of recent problems.

Nice win for Texas Tech.

Conference bowl records. Looks like the Mountain West is the powerhouse! Big East did well, with my USF Bulls winning up in Toronto today. The ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 are all going to end up basically around .500, give or take a game. Big disappointment was Pac 10, which went 5-0 last year (I think) -- 2-5 this year.