College Football

[Deleted]

The Buckeyes got their comeuppance last year in the title game. I hope there's a readjustment in the rankings before we get that far this year because, as a former Columbus resident, the game/ass-whupping with Florida was downright embarrassing. I don't think the Big 10 has a championship caliber team this year but I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Meanwhile in Bufftown, our next opponent is perennial football powerhouse...Kansas?!?!

[aibohphobia]

dukeofurl said:

The Buckeyes got their comeuppance last year in the title game. I hope there's a readjustment in the rankings before we get that far this year because, as a former Columbus resident, the game/ass-whupping with Florida was downright embarrassing. I don't think the Big 10 has a championship caliber team this year but I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Meanwhile in Bufftown, our next opponent is perennial football powerhouse...Kansas?!?!

I didn't know this part of the forum was here until today. There don't seem to be a lot of Buckeye fans here yet, but I have to admit that I'm from Columbus, OH, and they're my team.

Now I have to defend them. I don't know if they deserve to be number one now, but I guess by default they do. I don't blame them for pre-season rankings being the way they are, and everyone else losing allowing them to move up ten spots. I figure if they can get through their next four games okay, which I'm not really sure of because the offense almost lost last week's game for them, then they do deserve to be at least number two if they go undefeated because going undefeated isn't an easy feat even if the level of competition does seem easy on paper(IE., Stanford over USC, Appalachian State of UofM). I don't care if an undefeated team like Boston College, Arizona State, or Kansas jumps them for the title spot as long as the Buckeyes are also in the BCS title game. (If Hawaii does go undefeated and no one else or only one other team does, although I don't know if they're as strong as Boise State was last year, I'd probably have to put them in the BCS title game too. If there were more than two undefeated teams though, I'd leave them out.)

Also, more defending here, I think most teams pad their schedules with easy OOC teams, and it's just unfortunate that the Big 10 is having another down year like last year, and the meat of the Buckeyes schedule is all at the end. Plus, while OSU's OOC schedule was quite easy, in the past and in the future, they have been trying to schedule at least one tough OOC game a year like the series with Texas, the last two years, or the series with USC coming up the next two years. So they got lucky this year so far in that everyone else lost ahead of them, and so far they've been able to go undefeated. Sure a lot of other teams probably would too, but I figure that at the end of the year, things will eventually work out. If the Buckeyes aren't that good, but have been just incredibly lucky in who they've played, they're going to lose at least one of their next four games which means that they won't have any chance of remaining in the title picture. If they are that good, then they'll come out unscathed, and deserve to be back in the title game. I prefer the latter scenario of course, but I don't know if we can go undefeated this year with the way the offense specifically the quarterback and the offensive line have been playing. If our third string quarterback had not got in trouble and was forced to sit out, I would feel a lot more confident because he's a lot better at scrambling and being able to pick up a few yards than the first two quarterbacks, and I'd feel safer about the turnover margin if he was in there than Todd Boeckman who has to rely a lot more on passing, which scares me. It seems Boeckman can only do two things. He can either make the big play or throw an interception, there doesn't seem to be any in between there, and that's not going to work as the level of competition we play gets a lot stiffer in the last four weeks.

Finally, I don't even know if they deserved to be number also last year. I think they did even if they did get blown out by Florida, which was I'm still trying to forget. Until there's finally a playoff system though, I consider every regular season game to be the playoffs now. Although eventually I think parity will finally force there to be a playoff system because eventually there will be so many teams from the big conferences that have season records that are identical that there will be a scenario where more than one team, maybe even more than that, that is left out of the title game, and we'll finally get a playoff system.

[Deleted]

aibohphobia, do you think OSU's defense is better than last year's? I agree, if they can get through the rest of their Big 10 games undefeated they should get the title shot, because it's only gonna get tougher to win. But will the outcome be any different in a title game if they can't stop the other guys from scoring points? Last year the defense was really good and Florida had their way.

[aibohphobia]

dukeofurl said:

aibohphobia, do you think OSU's defense is better than last year's? I agree, if they can get through the rest of their Big 10 games undefeated they should get the title shot, because it's only gonna get tougher to win. But will the outcome be any different in a title game if they can't stop the other guys from scoring points? Last year the defense was really good and Florida had their way.

I don't know. I think they have more heart though because of the BCS game, and know they definitely don't want a repeat of that. Plus, they would love a chance now that they're actually in position they keep winning to prove that last year was just a fluke. I think so far they seem faster than last year's defense. I really didn't think that the SEC was that much faster than OSU when there was lot of trash talking going on at the ESPN boards before the title game about how much faster Florida was going to be, but unfortunately, I was wrong.

Also, this is something else I read over there at that board, and more of me trying to defend the Buckeyes even through excuses that might not even be true. I read that the players were upset that Troy Smith really didn't practice much and came back from all those award dinners out of shape, and they felt that Justin Zwick should have been the starter. I don't know if I believe all of that though especially about the team wanting Zwick to play, but I do think that the Heisman did affect Troy to some degree in that he was probably too overconfident, and I admit that he did look out of shape in one of the big NFL practices before the draft at least. In the game, it was hard to tell because everyone looked bad.

The long layover probably didn't help either, or the big win over Michigan which felt like the champion game to me because there seemed to be a lot more hype here in Columbus for that game probably because Michigan is our big rival, and the game was played here. Plus, at least with the people I knew here, we were worried more about losing to Michigan, and figured that Florida would be a lot easier since they had already lost one game. I don't know if the team felt that way, but a lot of fans I know felt that way.

It still doesn't excuse our playing though because I figured that the coaches especially Tressel would have been better at getting them ready, and that even if they lost, it wouldn't have been a blow-out. Plus, it scares me those things are going to probably going to be a factor this year if we go undefeated because we'll still have another long layover, and if OSU wins their next three games, it looks likely that the last game of the season will be game of the century type of atmosphere with the winning team winning the Big 10 title outright again. Michigan seems to have a lot of things in their favor too (like keeping OSU from the title game will make up for them not getting to go, and Lloyd Carr will likely announce his retirement to give his players even more motivation), so if will if the Buckeyes do manage to beat them, it's going to be a really big win even without those factors, and it might be tough for them to get as pumped up for the title game. Although I figure that 41-14 should be plenty of motivation for them.

[Sunnyhorse]

Duke, we Mizzou fans like to revile Colorado because of the infamous "fifth down" game a few years back, but I'll certainly root for the Buffs over those @#$%&* Jayhawks. ;D

[Deleted]

I still watch the Buckeyes when I can but they don't show a lot of Big 10 games out here. The Michigan game is about the only one I can count on. Tressel has their number. Cooper sure didn't but he seemed to spend more time shooting TV commercials than actually coaching. I can remember being in Columbus for a few Michigan games and it does seem like that's the whole point of the season. Bowl game, schmowl game.

I really have no idea how all those officials could fail to see Colorado already had 4 shots to get in tthe end zone. But they did. Seems like the Buffs should've forfeited or something.

I like the blue-collar type coaches who bring a lunch-pail ethic to their teams. That's Tressel, isn't it? He doesn't impress me as a finesse, don't get your uniforms dirty kind of guy. That's why I have high hopes for the Buffs in a few years. Lotsa freshmen starting this season and Dan Hawkins is a lunch-pail kinda guy. Look what he did at Boise State.

[Malle Babbe]

Am I the only person who watches this and starts to have "Yakkety Sax" playing in their head?

[aibohphobia]

dukeofurl said:

I still watch the Buckeyes when I can but they don't show a lot of Big 10 games out here. The Michigan game is about the only one I can count on. Tressel has their number.

Sorry it took me awhile to respond again. Part of it was out of supertition since I don't want to talk up the Buckeyes too much especially after I did that last January because I thought they'd beat Florida. The other part was that my keyboard would work sometimes, but then quit unexpectedly.

Anyway, I really hope that he has their number again this year because I would hate to see the beating the Big 10 would get if Michigan was the Champion this year after all the criticism that it gets now for being the weakest conference. Of course, I'd like to see OSU win it, but I don't care really as long as it's anyone but Michigan this year. I think it's pretty much between only OSU and Michigan now though unless Wisconsin gets a lot of help, and I can't see that happening.

Cooper sure didn't but he seemed to spend more time shooting TV commercials than actually coaching. I can remember being in Columbus for a few Michigan games and it does seem like that's the whole point of the season. Bowl game, schmowl game.

I know Cooper had a good record here, but I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did because he could never beat Michigan which is the most important game of the year not only because of the rivalry, but losing our last game always knocked us out of any National Title hopes even though we had a lot of excellent teams that should have won at least one title.

I like the blue-collar type coaches who bring a lunch-pail ethic to their teams. That's Tressel, isn't it? He doesn't impress me as a finesse, don't get your uniforms dirty kind of guy. That's why I have high hopes for the Buffs in a few years. Lotsa freshmen starting this season and Dan Hawkins is a lunch-pail kinda guy. Look what he did at Boise State.

Yes, at first I had my doubts about Tressel since I had heard that OSU was going to go after Bob Stoops after Oklahoma won the BCS Championship that year, and then I hear about OSU picking this coach that I had never heard of from a Division IAA school, and I was disappointed. He's definitely proven me wrong though.

[Sunnyhorse]

Malle Babbe, I watched your link right after you posted it but forgot to comment -- I'm not even a football fan, but that was incredible.

[e c0li]

I am almost scared to type this...

I'm e c0li and I went to Notre Dame. I did NOT play football, however, nor am I the coach, so any "ha ha your team sucks" and the like would be better directed elsewhere.

That being said--Navy? In 3 OTs? You've got to be kidding.