college football thread

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-washingtonst-leach

“I have always admired the tradition of Washington State,” Leach said in a statement. “It’s a university on the move that is experiencing growth. I’m excited about what they are doing with the facilities and it’s a team that has battled through some hard times and shows great promise in the future.

always? really? tradition of uh...

I wonder if the other pac12 teams didn't want to touch him or what

wash st actually has a pretty strong history of offensive innovation. dennis erickson sorta pioneered the one back offense there before going to miami and the wash passing offense circa ryan leaf was pretty influential in offensive circles. so i think that's what he means.

I guess that makes sense, I was more thinking in the noble history notre dame sense

in any case it's prob gonna be a very hard team to take places at this point, tho I guess texas tech was a pretty tough spot too

wash st actually had a top 50 passing offense this year, they're gonna beat some teams next year. and idk who knows in the pac-12, an insanely good offense can do really well in that league. but yeah it will be a bit tough for them to recruit, but they've been to the rose bowl more recently than a ton of other pac-12 teams.

and yeah what he did at texas tech will prob be tougher than this -- at least now he's only the second most prestigious school in his state, whereas at texas tech he was third

but there was also a huge pool of players that even if he picked off the bottom it was still pretty good. we'll see. offensive guys will go play for him tho.

yeah but what they did in the past - even if it was within a decade - doesn't help when you're not the same type of $ football institution as usc or oregon.

I think he coulda been really dangerous at ucla tho, more competitive for the california recruits.

oh definitely. he probably was always going to have to repair his reputation a bit at a smaller school tho.

think ucla is gonna go after a coach with pro connections

iatee: http://www.presnapread.com/mike-leach-helps-keep-pullman-weird/

http://s1-04.twitpicproxy.com/photos/large/461190042.jpg

hahaha

Hahaha

Georgia is playing well now for a team that started 0-2, and I would love to see them stumble into a win against LSU, but

http://oi55.tinypic.com/9gvuki.jpg

I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna watch the bcs championship game, I have zero invested in who wins

As an Oregonian and a moderate fan, I think it's too damn bad that the Ducks fell asleep against USC and booted away their chance. A rematch between them and LSU in the BCS championship would have been pretty sweet. Next best would be the LSU vs. Cowboys, but I say fuck a Bama rematch with extreme prejudice.

I don't, naturally. Also, I'd be into a Bama vs. Cowboys or Bama vs. Hokies or Bama vs. Cardinal title game. But the BCS points difference between 1-2 and the rest of the pack is pretty handsome at this point. Only thing that takes the SEC West rematch down is if LSU loses to Georgia this weekend. imo

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/906230/1zdtb8m_jpg_medium.gif

that is quite a play!

who dat?

ah ok aaron dobson nm

http://i.imgur.com/1Uwfg.gif

It's like the yang to hockey waffle guy.

The PAC-12 Championship Game is today!!! Thrills! Chills! Spills!

lol @ all these gifs

the look on that poor punter's face AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

it's gonna be a ritual sacrifice, but i'm totally into oregon porn, so i'll be watching

So glad that UCLA let Rick Neuheisel coach this final game, so he can have another good kick in the pants on his way out the door.

imagine if this is a close game

f/ gus johnson

oregon should never pass vertically t/f

imagine if oregon could just not hand the ball right to UCLA

can anyone explain why UCLA runs the pistol? even anyone on UCLA? i kinda doubt it

the referees name is Land Clark

THE PISTOL IS HITTING ITS MARK

this is gonna get v ugly

It's fun that UCLA is playing hard and go-for-broke, but the constant sloppiness and lapses do not make me feel particularly bad for Neuheisel.

their team is pretty terrible -- their offense makes no sense

they need to stop the bleeding and go for a guy that can revitalize the program

That's what Neuheisel was supposed to be! All "The Football Monopoly in Los Angeles is Officially OVER" and whatnot.

Except, you know, the football monopoly actually just rolled us 50-0, but otherwise...

Yep, he just broke his arm

i luv u UCLA

That's what Neuheisel was supposed to be! All "The Football Monopoly in Los Angeles is Officially OVER" and whatnot.

i feel bad for neuheisel on that one. someone in marketing screwed that up.

ucla now waiting to hear back from miami's al golden about the bruins job?

hm. golden just signed a 4-year contract extension with UM, announced -- by the way -- during the middle of an embarrassing loss that ended our 6 -- 6 season.

al golden isn't going to UCLA unless they drive a dump truck holding $20m cash up to his driveway. if he turned down an opportunity at penn st, he's gonna turn down an opportunity at UCLA.

they aren't really comparable, tho. PSU is facing massive uncertainty about the future of its football program. i imagine it's a toxic position now.

is UCLA even facing NCAA sanctions?

and i think the article said they're offering somewhere in the neighborhood of 3M a year. i'm guessing that equals or beats golden's salary at miami, even after the contract-extension.

i think they would have to more than equal or barely beat his salary at UM to get him to move all the way across the country to undertake a massive rebuilding project at a school where football plays second fiddle

in some ways that's a benefit tho

UCLA isn't facing any sanctions, but they have little to no talent and one of the least tended to programs in the entire pac-12

it's a terrible job, which is why the last time around they forced to hire a guy who had been fired by his old school for gambling on the ncaa tournament

al golden is gonna leave someday, but it's not gonna be to UCLA in 2011

i think it's a fallacy to think that a big time college football coach would go to a school because there's little pressure due to the sport being second fiddle. the sport being second fiddle goes hand in hand with the job being difficult because there is less money devoted, less fan support, less prestige etc etc

what you say makes sense, especially if UCLA is considered to be a "terrible job." bear in mind, tho, that when (like now) miami isn't a nat'l power, the stadium is half-empty and very quiet.

it can be discouraging to a coach, i imagine. and UM is facing sanctions soon (even if they took the sting out of the forthcoming penalties by voluntarily removing themselves from bowl-consideration this year). there's a reason UM hastily cobbled-together that contract extension for golden.

there's also a reason why he signed that cobbled together contract extension

the sport being second fiddle goes hand in hand with the job being difficult because there is less money devoted, less fan support, less prestige etc etc

I think that's true on some level (and I don't think he'll go to UCLA) but otoh 'football schools' are never easy jobs and generally don't give you much time for building

ha! fair-point. (xp)

I think that's true on some level (and I don't think he'll go to UCLA) but otoh 'football schools' are never easy jobs and generally don't give you much time for building

― iatee, Friday, December 2, 2011 11:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah -- my point is that miami and ucla are roughly analogous situations (insofar as being schools in fertile recruiting areas that can't put up the money or fan support to hang with the alabamas and ohio states every year) and unless they're just lining up a boatload of cash for golden, i don't see why he would, or why it would make sense for him, to drop a rebuilding project that he's already a year deep into.

and if UCLA has enough money to pull that off, they may be better off hiring someone w/ a stronger track record than al golden

But sitting here in this ice box at Podunk U., fans going crazy when they shoot off a few fireworks as if it were the highlight of their lives, how does Oregon become better than UCLA?

t.j. simers is a huge asshole AND a fucking idiot

how did they become better than UCLA? how about the CEO of nike poured tens of millions of dollars into the program, for starters.

I think the difficulty when they hired Neuheisel was that they were unable/unwilling to drop the money it took to land one of the big fancy names (I want to say the going rate then was like $3 mil), whereas Neuheisel I think was willing to come in at like $1.25 million. I doubt they are willing to do that now, but it's possible that they're willing to take a huge gamble. I think Neuheisel was able to get guys who had talent, but he didn't do a whole ton with any of them, so there would be flashes of talent or isolated good games followed by regression and inconsistency.

The Pistol was a weird idea to begin with (hey let's make Norm Chow run an offense nobody knows much about other than Chris Ault, and do it without Colin Kaepernick!), and seemed to indicate a lack of faith that they would ever be able to establish a credible enough passing game to attempt a pro-style or spread. (Similarly, Karl Dorrell went to his doom trying to run the West Coast without sufficiently dumbing the timing routes and down to suit the limited practice time and skill level of college players). I would not expect it to stay unless somehow they actually hire Chris Ault (who is the father-in-law of the UCLA baseball coach, but isn't leaving). The 3-4 games a year where the Pistol worked really well (usually against crappy teams) were always balanced by the 3-4 games a year where the running game never got going and UCLA looked like the most horrible team imaginable.

But I think UCLA will always have the potential to improve in a pretty short period of time, given they're sitting in one of the three best states for recruiting; they probably won't ever be able to get past USC until they win consistently, but one of the weirder aspects of Neuheisel's regime was how he would pursue national prospects and let SoCal guys go elsewhere in the Pac-12. Some of them are gonna be off limits because of grades, but Harbaugh's time at Stanford pretty much destroyed the idea that you can't contend unless you lower your entrance requirements.

I think if UCLA is willing to drop market rates for the right guy, they could do fine, and if they wanna gamble with someone cheap, then it's entirely possible I'll be reflecting on that guy's crappy tenure four years from now, shaking my head sadly.

Harbaugh's time at Stanford pretty much destroyed the idea that you can't contend unless you lower your entrance requirements.

this isn't entirely true -- stanfrod's resurgence under harbaugh had as much to do with a once in a lifetime quarterback prospect being interested in architectural design or w/e and wanting to go study that at the highest level while still playing college football, instead of just shuffling off to the best football school and bolting for the nfl draft whenever possible

yeah if anything I was thinking outloud about how if I were a coach I might prefer a ucla head coaching job to a michigan head coaching job - like at a football #2 school that still had saome institutional and geographic advantages that you could potentially build but w/o the pressure

xp

I would say stanford's resurgence had to do w/ two players not one player, but yeah

UCLA definitely has potential, any school in LA does. but college football more than ever is about finding the right coach and continually investing in him. hiring guys on the cheap because they have a strong tie to a school really just doesn't work. you either need to pay big money upfront to get a proven coach (and then keep paying him) or hire an up and comer and pay him to stay there. chris petersen is a very, very rare bird.

wait who is the other player? gerhart?

yeah

yeah idk. gerhart was good but prob a bit overrated. the stanford running game is just about as good now, but it's spread across a few guys.

stanford would've been good under harbaugh without luck. he definitely would've taken them from under .500 to a very solid pac-12 team, but i don't think they go 24-2 over the past two seasons w/o one of the two or three best quarterabcks in the entire country.

it's hard to look at the stanford running game isolating the 'best passer in the country' threat - like it's good, but idk

yeah that's true, also their offensive line is gonna have like three guys go in the top 2 rounds

Clicked on this thread just for kicks and I gotta say it's really weird to read about the big news in my town and the construction near my office in the article linked in the first post.

Washington State is in the smallest market in the Pac-12. It has the smallest football stadium, the lowest average attendance, smallest athletic budget, and hasn’t had a winning football record since 2003.

All this is true, but I'd like to see it broken down on a per-capita basis. On game days if the tiny stadium is full there are more people there than live in the town. It's just insane even with such a shitty record.

Luck and Gerhart (who was apparently a three-star recruit looking back at old Rivals rankings--take that for what it's worth, given one of Andrew Luck's fellow 5 star prospects his year included UCLA JC transfer Kevin Craft) helped, but Stanford's defense has been pretty good (better than UCLA's, even though we put four dudes in the NFL over the past couple years) over the past few years as well, for comparison. The pre-Harbaughian Stanford teams were awful in all facets (although I guess Trent Edwards did technically go on to be an NFL Starting QB somehow), and it turned around really, really quick.

The BruinsNation people (who are INSANE) want Petersen badly, and so it is always super-creepy when you talk about what you need to bring him in. Like people were pointing out that we have an advantage because his son's doctor ended up coming out to Los Angeles recently.

i really don't see why petersen would go to ucla

the guy has had any pick of jobs over the past three or four years including ucla once before, idk.

i think ucla is wasting their time and with them directly competing with a few other schools right now for jobs, they should zero in on good candidates that aren't one in a thousand shots.

I dunno if it's possible to be USC/Ohio State/LSU/Alabama and expect to compete for the National Championship every year with the higher admissions standards (does Texas have them? You think of UT-Austin in the same academic plane as Cal/UCLA/Stanford/Northwestern/Vanderbilt/Duke/etc., but then their football program makes more money than God has, so I dunno. Does Michigan?), but I think you can win 8-9 games a year consistently with those players if you find the right guys to coach and the right guys to play, and make runs at the championship when Luck-quality guys stumble in. There's a limited number of really smart, really good football players, but it's not like only one place gets to have them all.

Apparently we are now targeting Sumlin from Houston to be our dude. Which seems like at least we'd be more fun to watch on offense.

they'll def have to fend off texas a&m for him

i think

re admission standards, there are some schools i think like miami and michigan and i think texas that have higher admission standards than a school like LSU or alabama but are still a notch below the admission standards of stanford and notre dame and schools of that ilk.

We apparently offered Petersen $4 million before he officially pulled his name out, though, so at least we're gonna spend the money this time. I think he always gets called because he is probably the best bet for an aspiring big-money school to turn their program around, so even though he's going to stay in Boise for as long as he wants, it at least gives you the chance to say "We tried to get the best guy."

Most hilarious name I've heard thrown around: Herm Edwards.

i'm scared for UCLA that they're

gonna end up hiring an NFL guy (i.e. del rio)

If they hire Mike Sherman I am probably gonna start weeping.

yeah i don't think you have to worry about that

hiring guys on the cheap because they have a strong tie to a school really just doesn't work.

See Mike Shula.

Good points brought up though that UCLA really doesn't value their football program as much as their basketball program, and while they're in an incredibly fertile recruiting area they're content to just take what comes their way. What probably ends up happening is that they take a gamble on some buzzed about assistant coach (who? no idea) and ride him for a couple seasons. I don't see any current head coach who's worth a damn leaving the program he's got and taking on the burden of UCLA.

This Houston loss is rough...

i didn't really wanna see them in a bcs game, but i don't wanna see tcu in a bcs game either

^otm

i wonder if there were undecided heisman voters who watched & now are def off keenum, not that he deserved v srs consideration imo

Southern Miss is just a logo/uniform/lettering disaster

Furious Bradley & Larry Fedora are A++ names

why does larry fedora wear a visor

feel like sumlin had the over

twitter is saying that sumlin will be announced as a&m's coach w/in 24 hours, to we'll see

barkley's going above griffin III huh

I don't see how the draft isn't Luck 1, RG3 2 then everybody else.

no idea either -- things change tho -- remember this year people were still talking about cam newton being a second round pick

that's the greatest onside kick I can remember.

i think kickers in general are getting better at onsides kicks

ouch

that onside kick was so, so beautiful -- shit was like a rainbow

Murray looks awesome!

haha did you guys see those georgia fans getting all verklempt

murray is really good

this is a complicated BCS situation brewing here, right?

Depends on what happens tonight in Oklahoma. If the Sooners win, things go crazy.

(in the event LSU loses, that is)

no things will go crazy if okie st wins

assuming lsu loses

Oh yeah, I had it backwards.

no first downs!

THE HONEY BADGER

fuckin honey badger!!

why are the lsu cheerleaders dressed up like the princess from aladdin

Oh damn, Honey Badger with a phantom touchdown.

uhhhh so yeah he def didn't score

That was some Desean Jackson rookie year shit.

That was a hell of a runback.

ppl calling for honey badger and the heisman are out of control -- dude has had a few nice punt returns, but let's relax

WTF is with all the broken clocks this year?

joe_sheehan Joe Sheehan
The 11 teams Alabama beat combined to win 20 games against bowl-eligible schools, MOST of those against 6-6 (5-6 FBS) teams

RG3 said he thought he won the heisman w/ his performance today

holly rowes lipstick, hat, scarf combo is freakin me out

It's between RG3 and Trent Richardson for me.

Montee Ball is closing in, though.

lol @ landry jones

that will be a fantastic gif

pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease put okie st in the title game

Fuckin' a, Clemson. NOW you're playing like you want in the big show. Why didn't you do that the last few weeks?

cuz they are clemson

i love seeing ou get murdered but i actually changed 2 the big 10 game now

I did too, but Fox is the worst.

i can't watch big 10 football unless denard robinson or braxton miller are involved

i can't watch big 10 football unless denard robinson or braxton miller are involved

it's like watching football if I were someone who didn't like football

Jerel Worthy is a large, dangerous individual

I don't know why you all hatin' on the big 10, these teams are cool

i do hate these teams, and the big 10, but this game seems crazy enough to be really watchable

That td was like woah

lol gus "russell wilson...making chicken salad outta that play"

I would support human cloning if it meant Gus Johnson could call EVERY game.

gus johnson is best when the game is meaningless and terrible.

great hit

obama needed to intervene in the negotiations b/w cbs & fox -- gus not having any tourney games is a fucking american tragedy

ham meter = elevated

haha nick saban must be sad.

gus's voice just cracked my tv set

that was appropriate gus johnson

oh baby, what a game!

today needed some ham

KEYSHAWN

yeah you were out of bounds

holy shit

gus johnson isn't very smart

is mich state serious

def punt it to the best rushing school of the past decade

jesus mich st u idiots

even the fired coach of minnesota can tell us thats a bad play

that was such a horseshit call

LSU and Bama are #1 and #2 in both AP and Coaches polls. Harris is stalling on releasing the results until after the BCS announcments tonight, but Jerry Palm is saying the rematch is a go: http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2011/12/4/2610898/sources-tell-me-its-official-lsu-alabama-the-sequel#comments

okie st was reeeeally close in the coaches poll, i'm betting they're further off in the harris poll

harris poll should be fucking abolished

AP did the right thing by disassociating themselves from the BCS.

They should incorporate the ILXOR poll.

LSU vs. "When the Levee Breaks"

Irritated that Boise got snubbed.

Boise St. is too uppity.

daniel: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ucla-coach-golden-20111206,0,7420496.story?track=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=104530

is rg3 really gonna get it?

http://www.stiffarmtrophy.com/

from those early voting trends it doesn't even look like it'll be close

god i hope so

rg3's stats are kinda undeniable but I was under the impression that the media was still <3 luck enough for it to be a pretty close race

first place votes for Mathieu smh

The Big East is set to add Boise State, San Diego State, SMU, UCF and Houston as it begins to rebuild its league, with an announcement expected as early as Wednesday, sources confirmed to ESPN.com.

Boise State and San Diego State of the Mountain West will enter the league as football-only members, while Houston, SMU and UCF, all of Conference USA, will join the Big East for all sports, sources told ESPN.com.

hopefully they rename the conference

The Big Shrug

SDSU is a real headscratcher.

haha I saw that sdsu thing on fb and I thought someone was joking

they've good recently... but yeah. i think it's just something about getting to 16 teams. everyone is on the edge of their seats for that uconn-sdsu game

SDSU has pursued big time colege football with about as much zeal as Boise State, or as Gonzaga in b-ball, but they haven't been able to make the jump up the way BSU has.

lol @ RG3's Superman socks (with the cape)

RG3 I <3 u

"This is unbelievably believable," he said. "It's unbelievable because in the moment we're all amazed when great things happen. But it's believable because great things don't happen without hard work."

wtfh? Craig James is running for a Senate seat?!!

there is at least one absurdist commercial online iirc

also i havent watched this tcu-la tech game the entire way but what ive seen has been p dope - la tech is good

― j crunchwrap supreme, Thursday, December 22, 2011 4:10 AM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

also, someone find out if tomorrow boise is the earliest as highly a ranked team has ever played in bowl season pls...it kinda has to be right?

just assume you're right and let go of it. Boise State should humiliate Arizona State just to vent their grievance.

oh i dont actually care that much tbh beyond preferring to watch boise play a competative opponent rather than asu

A playoff system would eliminate 98% of the injustices of the bowl system - leaving only bad officiating in the mix. What we have today is just a steaming heap of collusion and greed.

there was a nice thing mentioned during last nights bowl that some of the la tech players gave away all their bowl game swag -- like $300 gift cards & watches & w/e else -- to some kids associated w/ the bowl's charity cause

I missed the first 13 seconds of the Boise State v. Arizona State game. Therefore I also missed the first BSU touchdown.

western mich/purdue is a hilarious game

jordan white is a baller

It seems very strange to me to have most of the New Year's Day Big Name Bowl Games played on Monday, Jan. 2 this year, so as to avoid being devoured by the NFL monster. wtf.

feel like the 4th q of the BELK BOWL is shapin up 2 b hot

louisville just got a lucky as hell tho v skillful also td & now an onsides kick

teddy bridgewater is a p scrappy dude -- true freshman too
l'ville oline is utter crap

lol @ air force -- attempted fake extra pt option play down 42-41 & the holder fumbled out of bounds, he p clearly could have pitched to an open dude

I dropped in on the Cal v. Texas game and to my delight Texas looks awful. Take that, you orange arseholes!

otm

cal's offense also awful tho

As an Oregonian, I wouldn't want Cal to be too excellent. Just good enough to stomp the Longhorns so their eyebrows end up at turf level.

nobody needs an excuse for hating the longhorns

ugh

id rather watch 1000 toledo vs air force or fl itn'l vs marshalls b4 i watched this cal team vs this texas team

Maynard makes me nostalgic for the Kevin Riley era.

ha

I dunno at least he fails in more interesting and less tragic ways

true. maynard has looked pretty weak

but at least we're used to shitty qb play - we had an amazing run of rbs until isi

ugh as I was saying,

Carnival of errors this game.

it's absurd that we have any chance at all to win this game

more of a chance if we stop them here

anyway loved that spin move

okay 11 pts gonna be hard at this rate

loss is all on maynard's back

I think we totally deserve to lose, I just wish there were a way that could involve texas losing too :(

the game is just a hair faster than he can keep up with

almost disappointed that wasn't a pick 6 so I could go to sleep

fuck it I'm done w/ this one

last night was an overnight bus ride w/ one hour of sleep = too tired to pretend to care

I got caught up in Baylor vs. U. of Washington game because I hadn't seen RG3, yet. That was one fucking crazy offensive game. Final score: 67 - 56. New bowl game records for combined total offensive yardage (1300+) and for total number of TDs scored (17). The 123 combined points were just 3 short of setting a new bowl record, too.

It seemed like every other play went for big yards all night.

yeah looking at the stats I'm pretty sad I missed that

price threw for 4 tds and ran for 3

how many times in your life can you personally score 7 tds and still be bummed cause you lost a game? outside of a video game.

i went to bed during the third quarter of that Baylor game convinced I'd seen enough, Baylor was through. woke up amazed

Washington has a 6'6 260lb freshman TE. :-0

also got a dose of my nephew's Wisconsin t-shirt parade on Christmas Day (I'm a Michigan State guy). worst christmas morning in a long time. thank god I drink on every holiday.