NCAA Football Season Discussion

spiralism

Definite Horsecollar there. Jesus, this isn't done yet.

manafana

awful feelign auburn left too much time on the clock

spiralism

Of all people to do that, Chris Davis...

adrian522

Great Drive Winston

Dublin Red Devil

FSU Win

Syferus

Incredible game. Auburn were astounding this year. Worst way to lose, so close and so far. Can't take any enjoyment out of that.

Well done to the 'Noles.

LuckyLloyd

Well, to be fair, in the last year of the BCS we get a superb title match up and worthy winners. Good to see the streak broken too.

Bateman

I bailed at HT, was loving the Auburn playcards.

My FSU bets got smashed (-10 and HT -6.5) but I made a bit back in-running on -2.5 and then +2.5. An FSU win with an Auburn cover seems to have been a great result for the Vegas books.

Would anyone now contend that Auburn deserved to be playing in the game and are in fact a better team than the Tide? We can only go by the sample size we have.

LuckyLloyd

Bateman wrote: »

I bailed at HT, was loving the Auburn playcards.

My FSU bets got smashed (-10 and HT -6.5) but I made a bit back in-running on -2.5 and then +2.5. An FSU win with an Auburn cover seems to have been a great result for the Vegas books.

Would anyone now contend that Auburn deserved to be playing in the game and are in fact a better team than the Tide? We can only go by the sample size we have.

They always deserved to be in over Bama as they beat them straight up and had the same overall record? Was that ever questioned?

Turned out Michigan St. were pretty damn good too, so if Ohio had beat them to be undefeated they would have deservedly gone. The BCS system got lucky sometimes - this is one of the years where the best two teams ended up in the big game.

eagle eye

It was some fourth quarter. FSU have been the best team in the country all season long but the one thing they never had to do was battle back into a game after trailing and looking not up to it at half time. The fact they did that shows that this is a very special team imo.

Bateman

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

They always deserved to be in over Bama as they beat them straight up and had the same overall record? Was that ever questioned?

Might just have been a reflection of the previews I was reading but the word lucky was mentioned too many times.

adrian522

Seriously? They beat Alabama, they won the SEC. They deserved to be there, end of story.

What basis did Alabama have for deserving to be there?

Bateman

Just going on what I watched and read, the ESPN preview video asked the coach about it in a preview that only had around 5 questions asked of each coach

Maybe Saban is something of a sacred cow in the US in a way that we don't really respect when looking on more neutrally

LuckyLloyd

Bateman wrote: »

Just going on what I watched and read, the ESPN preview video asked the coach about it in a preview that only had around 5 questions asked of each coach

Maybe Saban is something of a sacred cow in the US in a way that we don't really respect when looking on more neutrally

I don't pay attention to ESPN (in the same way I don't read the football sections of UK Newspapers). Bama weren't eligible for the SEC Title game following the defeat to Auburn - nothing to do with BCS selection, etc. After that, so long as Auburn won the SEC there was no valid argument whatsoever for Bama to get into the big game and any question to that end was silly in the extreme.

slimpickens

Bateman wrote: »

Might just have been a reflection of the previews I was reading but the word lucky was mentioned too many times.

In the lead up to the game one analyst had a good take on all the lucky talk: "luck is the residue of success"

davyjose

Bateman wrote: »

Maybe Saban is something of a sacred cow in the US in a way that we don't really respect when looking on more neutrally

Most American sports fans realise ESPN are full of sh!t. They're the tabloid sports journalism of the US.

Bateman

I am not an ESPN disciple or anything, I just took out a 4 week College Pass subscription for the bowl season and happened to be watching some preview videos before the games themelves.

Syferus

The final AP rankings for the 2013 season:

1 Florida State
2 Auburn
3 Michigan State
4 South Carolina
5 Missouri
6 Oklahoma
7 Alabama
8 Clemson
9 Oregon
10 UCF
11 Stanford
12 Ohio State
13 Baylor
14 LSU
15 Louisville
16 UCLA
17 Oklahoma State
18 Texas A&M
19 USC
20 Notre Dame
21 Arizona State
22 Wisconsin
23 Duke
24 Vanderbilt
25 Washington

The Tide finish as only the fourth ranked SEC team.

Bateman

Wrong as I may be, I don't "think of" UCF as a top-10 school.
If Penn State get off to any sort of start, the game here later in the year could actually be interesting for its own sake.

johnmcdnl

Bateman wrote: »

Wrong as I may be, I don't "think of" UCF as a top-10 school.
If Penn State get off to any sort of start, the game here later in the year could actually be interesting for its own sake.

Blake Bortles has declared for UCF as well so who they replace him with at QB is going to be key for them.

Syferus

Tre Mason apologizes to Auburn fans for letting them down

Graham Watson By Graham Watson

PASADENA, Calif. -- As Florida State celebrated its BCS National Championship, Auburn running back Tre Mason faced the media holding back his emotions.

“Right now I just feel like I let the whole Auburn family down by not finishing,” said Mason, who added that his emotions were too high to make a decision about declaring for the NFL draft.

Mason had 34 carries for 195 yards and a touchdown. He scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:19 remaining in the game. He did everything he could do to help the Tigers secure a national championship against the nation’s No. 1 team.

But it wasn’t enough.

Somehow Mason felt responsible for the Tigers' loss even though no one in their right mind would have blamed him. Mason’s stellar performance against Missouri helped get the Tigers in the national championship game. His near-200 yards against the Seminoles kept them in it.

“We told them we’d have the biggest turnaround in college football, and the biggest turnaround would be winning that crystal ball,” Mason said. “We owed them that because of the season last year. I just want them to know that I gave it all I got, but I still feel like I let them down.”

Mason finished the season with 1,816 yards, which broke Auburn’s single-season rushing record held by Bo Jackson. He also set a BCS championship game record in carries and finished second in yardage.

Defensive end Dee Ford, who was the only other player in Auburn’s postgame press conference, said he understood where Mason was coming from, but that the loss didn’t fall on one person.

“He is being too hard on himself, but he’s a competitor,” Ford said. “I don’t expect him to be any other way. But that’s why we’re a team. That’s why we’re brothers. I’m able to really talk to him. And the Auburn family is going to be able to do the same thing. But yeah, he’s down on himself. That’s expected. We’re competitors. I’m down on myself. But we just can’t really show the emotion. We wanted this thing so bad and it was so close.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/tre-mason-apologizes-auburn-fans-letting-them-down-065334551--ncaaf.html

Tre has nothing to be sorry for. To rush for 195 yards in the national title game, to surpass even Bo Jackon's record, to score a 36-yard TD with the game on the line, he was more than great.

The NFL will be calling and as much as I'd love to see him back for his senior year the smart thing for Tre to do is to declare.

LuckyLloyd

Bateman wrote: »

Wrong as I may be, I don't "think of" UCF as a top-10 school.
If Penn State get off to any sort of start, the game here later in the year could actually be interesting for its own sake.

UCF had a great season and I think their dismissal of Baylor proves that they would be a tough once off match up for most teams in the country. It's an appropriate final ranking position imo. Their one loss was a squeaker to a very good SEC South Carolina team.

polaris68

Notre Dame Tight End, Troy Niklas, is also declaring for the draft.

He seems to be surprised as anyone that he is NFL ready! Could be an option for the Pats who are a little short on TE talent at the moment.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20140109/troy-niklas-declares-nfl-draft-notre-dame/

davyjose

Lane Kiffin new OC at Alabama.

The guy must have some stash of rabbit's feet and four leaf clovers somewhere.

Syferus

davyjose wrote: »

Lane Kiffin new OC at Alabama.

The guy must have some stash of rabbit's feet and four leaf clovers somewhere.

Doesn't have a whole lot to do with the offense besides working on the new QB - Yeldon, Drake and the Sugar Bowl bolter Henry are all returning at RB. Can see Kiffin working well under Saban. As a OC he's a hot commodity and it shows what Bama's ambitions are, Kiffin doesn't come cheap.

On the QB situation - Blake Sims is the back-up to McCarron and will be a redshirt senior next year. The interesting thing about Sims is he spent his first two years in Tuscaloosa at RB before being converted to QB. He runs something like a 4.56 40. If he starts you can expect a lot more exotic (whisper it if you're close to a Bama fan) Auburn-style football from the Tide next season.

Hammar

Just to bump this up to the top,

Yesterday was of course National Signing day, and The SEC absolutely dominated with 7 out of the top 10 according to 247 sports/Rivals/ESPN and 6/10 according to Scout.

Alabama lead the way again with yet another fantastic class followed by LSU at number 2 .

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2014/02/alabama_takes_247sports_recrui.html

http://247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/CompositeTeamRankings

I was delighted with the Notre Dame class which was ranked in the top 10 by 3 of the 4. It was highlighted by a terrific OL grouping which is probably the best in the country outside Alabama's.

nerd69

there d line signings look pretty good as well pity about juju smith and mike quick though

Hammar

You've got to love LSU's class also especially from an offensive skill player POV.
5 Star WR Malachi Dupre,
4 star receiver Trey Quinn (whom now holds the National high school receiveing yards record),
4 star top 100 dual threat QB Brandon Harris,
A top 5 position wise 4 star tight-end, and last but not least the crown jewel
Running back Leonard Fournette whom has been compared to AP coming out of high school by some and is rated as the number 1 player by ESPN ,Scout and 24/7 sports.

TO.

See Eastern Michigan signed a kid by the name of Lion King Conaway. Dude had his named changed legally to Lion King.

Western Kentucky signed Wonderful Terry

http://247sports.com/Player/Wonderful-Terry-9548

Purdue Signed Barooz Yacoobi

http://247sports.com/Player/Bearooz-Yacoobi-35504

And WV signed DaeJuan Funderburk.

Awesome names.

Madworld

TO. wrote: »

See Eastern Michigan signed a kid by the name of Lion King Conaway. Dude had his named changed legally to Lion King.

Western Kentucky signed Wonderful Terry

http://247sports.com/Player/Wonderful-Terry-9548

Purdue Signed Barooz Yacoobi

http://247sports.com/Player/Bearooz-Yacoobi-35504

And WV signed DaeJuan Funderburk.

Awesome names.

Bama, signed a player a couple of years ago, Dee Liner, who played in the D Line.