jones Top Ten - Week Seven - 2011

The Nitts beat Purdue, 23-18, which is an absolute scoring fest by Penn State standards.

After the game, Paterno lit into his assistants for the scoring extravagance.

“If 19-18 is good enough for Gil Thorp,” the coach muttered, “why isn’t it good enough for us? One good drop kick is all you need to win a close one.”

It still takes Paterno a quarter to realize that forward passes are legal and wedges are not.

Robinson was injured on a really dirty, late tackle. Much like the one A&M like to employ. That shit has got to stop.

“Robinson was injured on a really dirty, late tackle. Much like the one A&M like to employ.”

Waah mean Aggies.

Nice summary and analysis, Jones. It is pretty wild just how much better LSU, OU, Bama, Wiscy are than say, Clemson and West Virginia.

Great write up.

Sammy Watkins is some kind of player. Will they lay an again against UNC this week?

Wisconsin on the road at night against Mich State and tOSU the next two weeks. I think the second of those meetings could be interesting. Lots of talent around Columbus.

S. Carolina is done without Lattimore. I was discussing him with a friend two weeks ago and we both agreed that he should never play another down at SC. Take a seat and enter the draft. Feel bad for that young man as he carried that horrendous team. If Georgia doesn’t win the east with the current state of affairs and that schedule not only should they fire Richt, but he should never be allowed near a football field again.

I’ll be curious to see if Washington can give Stanford a game this weekend.

Arizona State is the most undisciplined and dumb football team I’ve ever seen. Their penalties extended series that would have ended but led to scores. They dominated the first half, but were still down a FG. They threw away a great opportunity.

The purple wizard is unreal. He truly is. Texas Tech continues it’s slide to mediocrity and general afterthought. Congrats to Craig James, Kent Hance, Gerald Myers, and Jim Sowell and other influential boosters for conducting a modern day Salem Witch Hunt trial. Another egregious example of allowing boosters to make athletic decisions. If I’m Greg Byrne at Arizona I get Leach on the horn and ask him to swing his sword in Tucson.

There was nothing cruel about the dismantling of Ole Miss. They struck first, and that little hobbit Nutt has a knack for making saving throws.

(okay, that Richardson run was cruel, but it’s not like it was diagrammed to go that way. According to the play chart, he was supposed to juke first with his right foot, not his left…)

Vulcan:
BTW, I’m the Sooner fan that, a few weeks ago, said that Bama needed to go on the road and win a big game. Going to Gainesville certainly did that.

Survive until November 5.
q

Toad, not sure I’m exactly seeing how we tackle late & dirty. Are you referring to D. Moore’s tackle of Eric Stephens from TT last week? That one was unforunate but neither late or dirty.

SCar will never be out of any ballgame with that stud DT of theirs.

Didn’t know Suh had a little brother.

I am continually amazed by those who believe Mike Leach produced at some kind of high level that had never been seen at Tech.

No. He was pretty much the same as Spike Dykes in wins and losses in the Big 12 . Was he more entertaining? Absolutely. Diid he rack up wins against the worst non-conference schedule in the Big 12 year-in-year out? Yep.

There is a reason for his not getting an elite job. He has never really been interested in working as hard at recruiting as you need to and while his off the field antics are a wonder to behold, they really don’t provide much comfort for the administration, and he as seen as being on the short end of the risk/reward spectrum for those hiring coaches.

As a fan I would love for Arizona or another BCS school to hire him. As an administrator not so much.

“Toad, not sure I’m exactly seeing how we tackle late & dirty. Are you referring to D. Moore’s tackle of Eric Stephens from TT last week? That one was unforunate but neither late or dirty.”

I beleive referring to the late hits that injured Colt in his Freshman and Sophomore years.

“Wisconsin on the road at night against Mich State and tOSU the next two weeks. I think the second of those meetings could be interesting. Lots of talent around Columbus.”

Wisconsin will beat MSU by >40 to 40 to <20. Two easy games imo, I don't see how either of those teams are going to play on Wisconsin's level. Nebraska is better than both MSU and OSU in my opinion and you saw what happened to them.

I remember you, Quigley. All told, Penn State is clicking on five cylinders, and sputtering into a meatier conference schedule. But rest assured that Saban is self-conscious enough that he intentionally avoided running up a score on JoPa. (in either year.) The Florida win will seem diminished later in the year, but I don’t think LSU cruises as easily with Brantley on the field, and I don’t think Auburn wins that one without the benefit of Bama’s crushery.

The two scary pieces are just how good the Bama D is, and how methodical the offense has been in bringing McCarron along. All going up against LSU’s two keys: the completely under-appreciated brilliance of John Chavis, and the assemblage of the most powerful band of mutant freaks that’s not in A) a circus, or B) a Marvel comic.

November 5th will be fun to watch.

Vulcan:
The reason I love college football is that McCarron or Jarrett Lee will flunk a test or break up with a girlfriend and the domination is over justlikethat. It usually happens on the road, and it happens every year. Okla St is going into a classic trap game this weekend @ Missouri. OU’s trip to Baylor is the one that I think could get them. LSU and Bama have such dominent D’s this year that they are relatively immune from the disease.

quigley, I’m pretty sure even the complete disappearance of McCarron or Lee wouldn’t sink either LSU or Alabama. Neither is doing much more than protecting and handing off the ball. I don’t think Alabama would have much more of a problem winning games with Phillip Sims, or LSU with Mettenberger or even Jefferson. Sure Jefferson cost them last year, but that was a very different offense overall.

I was referring to the hits on Colt that came after the whistle. I didn’t see last week’s game so I don’t know what happened there. Whether done by Aggies or not, I’m very opposed to late hits on relatively defenseless QBs.

The hit on Robinson was very late. Ball was away, defender was touching him, Robinson relaxed his body because the ball was away, and he got rag dolled to the ground. Sure, 15 yard penalty against Mich St, but Robinson was done. I would like to see players kicked out and suspended for that. It’s really something that shouldn’t be tolerated.

And Colorado – not mean, dirty. If you remember the late, late hits on Colt then you know what I mean. Y’all are going to beat the tar out of us this year, btw.

Like the hit on Joel Klatt in the Big 12 Championship.

It happens.

Whether it’s a late hit on Stephens this year, or late on Colt 5 years ago, none of them (NONE!) will ever just admit, “Yeah, that was kinda bad.” When cornered, they will still arch their backs and justify hits like these with “Well, the whistle hadn’t blown”, or “Hey, that’s football, man!”

Problem with this, as always, is that aggie defends this $hit to the end. And yet, I know of no examples in the past decade where any player from Texas, or Tech, or Baylor, or TCU hit an opponent’s key player away from the play in a cheap (if not intentional) manner.

And I guess, despite the fact that aggie has great traditions, they will never be considered classy by anyone’s standards. Well, except maybe the SEC.

Toadvine –
Don’t talk shit and then crawfish. Talk shit and then talk more shit: There is no way we lose to aggie this year. Their defense is slightly above “found floating in a pool of their own piss” level, and their offense isn’t on the same level as either OU’s or OSU’s. KY field isn’t any harder to play at than the Cotton Bowl versus OU, and our guys won’t have that deer in the headlights look in late November.

Plus which, aggie will have lost to OU and probably KSU by then and will be nervous about dropping their last conference tilt to their hated big brother. Take it to the bank.

If you’re talking about Kellen Heard’s hits on Colt. One year he hit him when he still had the ball in his hands so I wouldn’t call that one late. Colt was kinda of falling backward and I think he hit him higher than he was aiming. The one the next year, Kellen hit him on an interception. Because the replay didn’t really show the play it was hard to say whether the whistle had blown yet, but I’ll be the first to admit it was cheap.

adt2, I can see a lot of different ways you can lose to A&M this year. Huck’s stats on another thread only rate your chances at aroudn 20%. That doesn’t ensure a victory for us, but it definitely doesn’t mean a mudhole for you. While our defense isn’t going to win any awards this year, our offense is pretty decent and balanced. Also, the strenght of your O is the run game and the strenght of our D is run stopping (or people are so successful passing they don’t even bother to try anymore, who knows). I don’t think Ash can pick us apart as well as some of the guys we’ve faced recently.

Srr 50,

There is no comparison between Leach and Dykes. He made Tech relevant in the national picture. Heck, he had his 2008 team in the NC hunt going into the final week of the season after upsetting a very good Texas squad. Did Dykes ever do that? Not even close. He had those fans in West Texas revved up about Tech football. It was cultlike out there. His antics also brought notoriety to a place that was an afterthought and he had some pretty good recruiters on his staff. He wasn’t exactly selling ND, Tex, or Bama out there.

Now do I think he deserves or would succeed in an elite job? No, he’s not cut out for that, but if I’m Arizona or another midlevel program I take a strong look at him. And in response to your comments about how he was a headache for administrators, I’ll cite that he had the highest graduation rate in Division 1 football for public universities and his way of disciplining players had a positive effect both in the classroom and off the field. Boy, these administrators should be so lucky to have someone actually making sure that his “student athletes” receive degrees.

KilgoreTrout -

I like you; you seem like a pretty level-headed fellow, particularly for an aggie. I’m glad you didn’t knee-jerk with a “we’re the best two-loss team ever!” comeback.

Anyhow, aggie is #102 in total defense, versus Texas at #30 – and that’s playing an easier schedule to-date (not significantly easier, but still). Yes, your rush D is highly ranked at #5 nationally, but that came against the #96, #117, #54, #83, #22, and #59 rushing offenses. That’s one in the top 20% and two more that just barely crack the top 50%. UT has a better rushing game than all but one of the teams you’ve played so far (Baylor, inexplicably, at #22), and our rushing game appears to be on the upswing.

All of that having been said, my point was really more about talking trash and then backpedaling at the last minute (“Y’all are going to beat the tar out of us this year, btw.”) than it was about making bold predictions. And it was a weak point, anyway. Re-reading Toadvine’s original post, he really wasn’t talking smack. So I’m not sure what I’m arguing about. Take that, self.

Just finished Double T Double Cross. I am continually amazed at those who think Leach and Dykes were the same. Leach never had a losing record in the Big 12. Tuberville is 3-5 and 2-6 in conference play since taking over for Leach. This is the same guy who had an undefeated season at Auburn. Shows how tough it is to win out there in West Texas. Take a bow, techsters, your boosters did a fine job. You guys deserve everything you get.