BlogPoll - #6 - 2010

Scip – you guys at BC might want to rethink the tote bag and go straight to the paper bag. Heck, I might even buy one.

Oregon pasted Stanford in a wild 52-31 win specifically designed to taunt me with efficient OL play by 3 star recruits and offenses with bizarre notions of continuity and core philosophy.

But you found the neon green & yellow aesthetic strangely soothing, no?

This is a weak year after the top few teams. I think you could probably swap out the Cornhuskers for anyone ranked #5-21 and not be too wrong. We’ll find out Thursday night. Rumor has it that Bill Snyder is in a good mood: he just found a newspaper in the snow filled with the Savings and Loan’s deposits.

Oregon pasted Stanford in a wild 52-31 win specifically designed to taunt me with efficient OL play by 3 star recruits and offenses with bizarre notions of continuity and core philosophy.

Another message board has already been ruined by the likes of you-know-who. Already there are multiple threads calling out our Defense by him and his ilk and defending our offense and it’s coordinator citing, what else? Stats my friend. After all, just look at 2005-2009. The numbers say we were dominant! FUCK!

OK, that was eerie parlin.

Even worse, that game was at LSU.

Do you deny that Miles might attempt to board a plane to fly home after a home game?

Tide will win it again.

I’m finally a believer in Oregon. They had their first real test of the year and they passed with flying colors.

Oh…. and I’m not a big believer in Florida. Believe it or not they are actually doing worse on offense than Texas.

Oh, I’m not so confident about Alabama.

Don’t get me wrong… I think we’ve shored up the deficiencies and are the most complete team right now, but there are still several hard weeks ahead.

We’ve got six SEC opponents coming up, and EVERY ONE of them is taking their Bye week before playing us.

That’s includes three ranked opponents, with a current record of 13-1 (and the 1 loss was to one of the others.)

Tennessee, Mississippi State and Ole Miss won’t be cakewalks, with the extra week of prep, either.

I could see Bama dropping one of those, after several weeks of being pounded by fresh bodies and exposing a couple of extra seams. It’s bound to happen when you give that many talented coaches that many extra minutes to break down film and scheme.

Bama loses one of those games, then drops down just enough in the polls that the Andrea Adelson’s of the world get their way, and we see some combination of Buckeyes/Ducks/Broncos, depending upon which two of those three go undefeated.

There are enough voters out there who are ready to deal an arrogant Tide fanbase a serving of humility, and would rather enjoy sticking it to Saban.

With Texas out of it, the game I want to see is Alabama-Oregon. I’m not sure I see another team in the country I can picture beating the Tide.

I agree about OU. This is one of the weaker teams Stoops has put on the field. They are reasonably well coached and use their assets well. But, they are very beatable by a decent team that matches up with their weaknesses and plays well. That would obviously not include Texas.

@CS….have you watched Oregon play defense? OK, that’s a trick question.

That game would end up in a 34-17 semi-rout w/Oregon scoring no points after Bama’s halftime defensive adjustments. NOT the team to challenge Bama.

tOSU is the only team w/ a shot and I don’t see Terrelle Pryor as up to the task.

Back seat recruiting has tricked down to the field for ou. The year they had last year is our year this year. we may be in for a long haul…..

And we had so called great recruiting. Further testament to the coaching inadequacies.

TCU over Boise? Really?

Didn’t these two teams play each other in the bowl game?

Weren’t we in the national title game last year?
 
So what?
 
And they played in another bowl the year before that year.

Both are virtually the same team this year.

And Florida was virtually the same team last year as the year previous.
 
Except that they weren’t.

HelmetBoy: You aren’t going to find another team in college football who, on paper, can challenge Alabama. Oregon is interesting because they can make the game a fast break contest, and they would have a shot there, IMO. Not a great shot, but a shot.

Not to change the subject, but….. Yahoo Sports is in line for a big lump of coal from Black Santa. Such an honorable man…

Alabama is number one by default. They are a good team made to look great by the crap that is the rest of college football. The SEC is a laughing stock. LSU is the worst 5-0 team I have ever seen . We would beat them by 2 touchdowns. Probably 14-0. Georgia lost to a Dan Hawkins coached team. Apart from Florida the SEC east is below average. South Carolina is still South Carolina. The West apart from the Tide has Arkansas and Auburn and that is it.

I don’t care what Gary Danielson or ‘Bama fan says. Greg McElory is an average to below average quarterback. If he has to win a game for you, you are in trouble. The problem is their o-line and running backs are so good. Calling him a game manager is an insult to game managers ever where. ’Bama’s passing game consists of screens and crossing routes with an occasional out or corner route of play action. We showed the rest of the country in the Rose Bowl what a bad quarterback he is. We would have won that game if our offensive coaching staff didn’t shit their pants once McCoy went out. Even without McCoy we should have beaten them. Our defense got tired and wore out. Take away his first read and he panics and leaves the pocket and takes off. He has no idea of how to look of a safety or go threw any real progressions.

Its the same with the hype about Julio Jones. People actually think this guy is the best receiver in the country (Gary Danielson). He has the looks of a great wide out (Malcolm Williams), but doesn’t have the focus, hands, and discipline of a great one. Maze and Hanks are actually more reliable and better options.

Where I give ‘Bama coaches so much credit is they play to their players strengths and hide their weaknesses. They know Greg McElroy can’t throw the ball down field or make any real reads so they don’t ask him to. They just run screens, and simple crossing routes. They know the strength of their offense is pounding the ball and so they recruit to it and coach to it. They know Julio Jones has hands of stone and can’t focus for more than 5 seconds or decipher a coloring book so they don’t ask him to. The only patterns he runs are the wide receiver screen, go route, and occasional out. Its something I wish our coaches had a concept of.

Scip- I think you are right that ‘Bama will win it again. I think just by default. I don’t really see a team that could beat them. Maybe Oregon, but that defense will get run over and ‘Bama will have too much time to prepare for Oregon’s offense. Oregon is absolutely devastating when you don’t have much time to prepare. But give an opponent a month or a whole off season and you can slow them down. See Boise St./Ohio State last year. Saban’s defenses destroy one dimensional running offenses. See what they did to Florida last year or Auburn. See what they did to Penn St. Where they struggle defensively is with aggressive high octane passing attacks.

Ohio State has the caliber of athletes to beat ‘Bama, but Tressel shows offensive imagination as often as Paris Hilton keeps her legs closed. Eventually ’Bama would wear them out. The key to beating ’Bama is to jump on them with a high octane passing attack that stretches them from side line to side line and vertically (Arkansas/ UT at times) and force McElroy to win the game. Arkansas should have won that game, but they took their foot off the gas and tried to run out the clock. Ohio State can stop ’Bama’s running attack, but their offense won’t do anything. They have no play makers on O apart from Pryor and he is mostly handing off. ’Bama’s front seven is great and they will maul your running game, but their secondary is poor. Just chuck it down field all game.

CS, that’s a fair point. The recipe for beating Bama is probably to jump on top early and force them to play from behind. Then you better hope Greg McElroy plays loose with the ball while the Bama defensive vice tightens on your offense. Hard to imagine tOSU jumping up on any elite team without turnovers or defensive/special teams scores.