[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Florida was highly overated because the SEC was overated. Florida’s record accurately displays how good they are but everybody decided to disregard that.[/quote]
How can you say the SEC was overrated??? I disagree. The SEC is currently 6-2 in the bowl games and will most likely go 7-2 after LSU topples OSU. It should have been 8-1 except for that fluke loss by Florida.
The SEC is a good, tough conference where all teams (even unranked) are tough. As we saw this year, anyone can beat anyone else at any time. This may continue to happen as each school continues to bring in highly talented recruits and better coaches and game plans.
And don’t forget, the pool of talent from Florida has also made it’s way to the Big 10 and Big 12 schools, as they see the speed and talent from many of Florida’s athletes. In order to be competitive, these other schools are also fishing for players from the South to take their program to a higher level.
As for Florida, they played against Michigan the same way they played against Auburn and Georgia. They had every opportunity to win, but they regressed in several key areas (defense most notably). Does this mean they are a bad team or overrated? Not at all. It means they made a few mistakes and have too many young players.
They have a very young team that is comprised of mainly freshmen and sophomores. They will continue to get better, and they should have been better this year as well. But some key coaching mistakes in a few games (Auburn, LSU) and some poor defensive playing in all the losses were the main reasons they lost (especially in the last two minutes of the LSU, Auburn and Michigan games).
Did you watch the game last night? I think WV was a better choice. As would have been Missouri. We’ll see what Kansas can muster against VT tonight!
Highly agree! Hopefully, this will happen in the near future especially after this past season.
If you are a Sooner fan, you should be ashamed of your team.
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I defended OU last year when they lost to BSU. It was a close game, BSU had a balance on offense, and a solid defense.
This time though, I can’t defend them. I am ashamed of them, probably even more than I was when they lost to USC in the Orange Bowl.
OU played excellent defensively against OK State and Missouri twice and both are ranked high in the nation in offense. For whatever reason though, last night, they couldn’t tackle, were not the right place, and just didn’t show any emotion.
I’m not sure what the solution is. Kevin Wilson, OU offensive coordinator, was a coach at Northwestern and was quite successful there with his offensive schemes. Kind of an offensive guru. This year and last year though, especially in road games, OU is just too predictable.
Brent Venables, OU’s defensive coordinator, has done a great job since Stoops and him arrived in Norman. I know OU was short some key starters on defense last night but its no excuse and in big games, going back to USC, the defense has just not shown up.
I hate to say it, but I wonder if some couching changes need to occur.
Over rated underrated, who really cares? go settle your business out on the field. There’s a lot of great football played all around the country, and every part of the country thinks that they’re the man.
One problem with this stuff, is that people that like sports talk about sports. A lot. Talking isn’t playing. I’m a PSU grad, class of 85 and have consistently seen PSU underrated over the years to a 23-12-1 bowl record under Paterno.
And yes, people thought years ago that somehow athletes were faster in the south while Joe Paterno still managed to beat them.
When you play a bowl game it’s one team against another team, not a conference against a conference. Maybe I look at things different because the Lions were an independent for years, but I only care about them winning. I don’t give a crap how the big ten does.
[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
And don’t forget, the pool of talent from Florida has also made it’s way to the Big 10 and Big 12 schools, as they see the speed and talent from many of Florida’s athletes. In order to be competitive, these other schools are also fishing for players from the South to take their program to a higher level.
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Please. Florida is a good football state, but thinking it outshines Texas as far as raw talent is a fool’s dream. Hell - Texas athletes have single-handedly staffed more D-1 football teams in the last 40 years than Florida plus any 5 states combined.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
And don’t forget, the pool of talent from Florida has also made it’s way to the Big 10 and Big 12 schools, as they see the speed and talent from many of Florida’s athletes. In order to be competitive, these other schools are also fishing for players from the South to take their program to a higher level.
Please. Florida is a good football state, but thinking it outshines Texas as far as raw talent is a fool’s dream. Hell - Texas athletes have single-handedly staffed more D-1 football teams in the last 40 years than Florida plus any 5 states combined.
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Are you seriously arguing that a school should be “better” just because it is in state that has a lot of football talent?
[quote]tom63 wrote:
When you play a bowl game it’s one team against another team, not a conference against a conference.[/quote]
That’s the most sense-filled statement about college football in this thread, or any other. Though, I admit, it can be hard not to get wrapped in these strength of conference debates.
What’s funny is that when teams in the SEC spend all season beating each other and any team can beat the other at any time, SEC fans call it a strong conference. When the same thing happens in the NFL, it’s called parity.
[quote]VanderLaan wrote:
rainjack wrote:
Nate Dogg wrote:
And don’t forget, the pool of talent from Florida has also made it’s way to the Big 10 and Big 12 schools, as they see the speed and talent from many of Florida’s athletes. In order to be competitive, these other schools are also fishing for players from the South to take their program to a higher level.
Please. Florida is a good football state, but thinking it outshines Texas as far as raw talent is a fool’s dream. Hell - Texas athletes have single-handedly staffed more D-1 football teams in the last 40 years than Florida plus any 5 states combined.
Are you seriously arguing that a school should be “better” just because it is in state that has a lot of football talent?
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Show me where that was even hinted at. I have no idea what you are even asking. Read what I wrote - it is not that confusing.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
tom63 wrote:
When you play a bowl game it’s one team against another team, not a conference against a conference.
That’s the most sense-filled statement about college football in this thread, or any other. Though, I admit, it can be hard not to get wrapped in these strength of conference debates.
What’s funny is that when teams in the SEC spend all season beating each other and any team can beat the other at any time, SEC fans call it a strong conference. When the same thing happens in the NFL, it’s called parity.[/quote]
Where is the fun in being sensible? We get no playoff in CFB, so this is my March Madness.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
malonetd wrote:
tom63 wrote:
When you play a bowl game it’s one team against another team, not a conference against a conference.
That’s the most sense-filled statement about college football in this thread, or any other. Though, I admit, it can be hard not to get wrapped in these strength of conference debates.
What’s funny is that when teams in the SEC spend all season beating each other and any team can beat the other at any time, SEC fans call it a strong conference. When the same thing happens in the NFL, it’s called parity.
Where is the fun in being sensible? We get no playoff in CFB, so this is my March Madness.
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I would LOVE a playoff. PSU has had four teams (68,69,73,and 94)not win a MNC.
And as for the speed and talent of Florida, I’ll give you talent, but speed don’t come from the south. Speed comes from numbers. Right now no one approachs Texas forthe numbers, but Ohio, Pa., La., Georgia, all do okay.
And let me explain this, being from the south doesn’t make you faster. There are fast guys everywhere.
No need to get pissy. I asked the question based on Nate Dogg’s argument/statement that the SEC is a better conference overall due to the quality of the talent that it draws from the talent pool in Florida and your repsonse arguing that Texas has a better talent pool (ie- the specific paragraph that you quoted).
[quote]VanderLaan wrote:
No need to get pissy. I asked the question based on Nate Dogg’s argument/statement that the SEC is a better conference overall due to the quality of the talent that it draws from the talent pool in Florida and your repsonse arguing that Texas has a better talent pool (ie- the specific paragraph that you quoted).
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Nate said that Florida talent was moving into the Big 12 and the Big 10.
My point was simply that Texas supplies much of the talent in all the major conferences, and have for years. You can hardly find a team in the CFA that doesn’t have 4-5 Texans on the roster.
This is exactly why conferences are having trouble competing with the SEC. There is a giant misconception that you have to go south to get speed and athleticism, so what happens is we have a bunch of schools going after the same kids. Well, schools in the midwest are not going to be able to recruit a kid from Florida that is also being recruited by a school like Florida. Who would go to school in say Manhattan, KS when they could go to school in Gainesville, FL?
So what happens is the big football schools in good locations get the first-tier athletes from the south, and the rest still think they have to go south and are left with third-tier athletes that frequently don’t make very good students either.
In the past, coaches like Tom Osborne would make up for the differences by finding hard-working kids through heavy local recruiting and a wide open walk-on program. It seemed to work pretty well for him, but for some reason this practice has been lost throughout the midwest.
Finally, I hate to play the race card but it is another big issue. It is a fact that blacks tend to physically mature faster than whites. When you cut off walk-on programs and look for pure athleticism without regard for work ethic, you miss out on a lot of white athletes that simply need a few years to mature. I’d take a worker with decent athleticism over a kid that just wants to get by on his speed any day.
Maybe someday I’ll make sense of where all this Tebow Cocksucking Fest is coming from. He can run the ball, okay, so fucking what? How good of a passer is he? Oh, that’s right: Mediocre. By college ball standards, he is mediocre, why can’t people realize this? It’s almost painful to keep hearing these people that think the boy will do great in the NFL. Where will that ability to run the ball go when the opposing team’s D-line shuts him down? And when you take that away, how appealing for any coach is a QB with an average arm? Not at all.
I think whoever called the fluke loss by Florida didn’t really pay attention to the game…if it wasn’t for the Michigan turnovers and Harvin, that game would have been 60+ to 7. That doesn’t seem like a fluke win to me. It was a fluke that they weren’t annihilated
That big, fast, and strong Florida defense sure did contain Manningham, Arrington, Hart, Henne, and company. Oh wait, that didn’t happen…did Michigna’s punter get any action in that game???
Similarly, that big, fast, and strong Florida offense ran circles around the slow Michigan defense. Oh wait, it didn’t… Teballs got manhadled for about 3/4’s of the game.
To me and my opinion, this was a game of a CLASS guy and a CLASS program handing one lacking in both categories a sound defeat (no matter what the score says). Look at what happened at the pregame warmups.
History is going to look back on Coach Carr with much more reverance than he has received in the past couple of years.
Cheers to coach Carr and the 2nd (I think, maybe tied for second with Boise) best record since '97.
Welcome coach Rod…letter of intent day is less than 5 wks away. Lets see if TP makes Ann Arbor his home for the next 3-4 years.
Am I the only one that thinks Michigan ran Rich Rodriguez’ playbook? A spread offense for Lloyd Carr? And I like how Rodriguez was on hand but wasn’t officially the coach until the day after the game. No doubt in my mind that Michigan ran a lot of Rodriguez’ plays and the Gators were not prepared for it.
I think its fair to say that Texas and Florida supply an enormous amount of talent…equally in my opinion…as usual every year…no need to argue about it. Be proud…shit.
Oh and speaking of Texas talent…is Ryan Mallete still going to transfer from Michigan now? I really don’t see him fitting in with Rich Rodriguez style offense…BUT this Texan definitely will:
Lucky bastards! Along with that Terrelle Pryor kid,I think people should be afraid of Michigan the next couple of years.
Using the 2004 recruiting class as data, Florida produced the most D-1 recruits per capita. I’m going off memory from numbers I saw nearly two years ago, so I think they’re pretty accurate, but not carved in stone.
I think FL was at 1.9 per 1,000 residents. Texas wasn’t 2nd, but they were high. Maybe ~1.7? Ohio (who I think was 2nd) and PA were in the top 5 as well.
The biggest loser when using per capita numbers was CA, who I think ranked in the 30’s at ~1.3. Per capita, they produced efewer D-1 prospects than Oklahoma. But then, per capita doesn’t matter so much when you have 32 million residents.
The take-home lesson from these numbers was that every state produces pretty similar amounts of recruits per capita. 1.2 versus 1.9 per 1,000 people just isn’t a big enough difference to get all hot and bothered.
It’s like saying that the BCS conferences differ only very slightly in overall quality, and that’s just not very interesting even though it’s true.
LSU ran all over OSU (the score doesn’t reflect how easily LSU won since OSU scored a late TD) for a nice win and another BCS National Championship for LSU (2nd one in five years) as well as the SEC.
I was impressed with how OSU came out playing the game and with Chris Wells’ TD run, but they just couldn’t match LSU’s offense or defense.
By the way, look for Florida to make it back to the national championship next year and/or the year after.
I’m going for a Florida vs. USC matchup in the next two years.
