Oregon Moves Up?

[Dinsdale]

Hopefully that train-wreck of a defense gets cleaned up a bit this week.

Either way, I think we'll see a repeat of last year with Sparty -- tight first half, then way too much firepower and depth for MSU to handle in the 2nd.


I need to figure out how I'm going to watch this game. Saturday is scheduled as a travel day, but I'm obviously going to have to modify this... bastards.

[Dinsdale]

BTW -- even Unbiased Dins would move Oregon ahead of TCU and Baylor. Watched both those games, and neither of them is going to be there at the end of the season. Both defenses made Oregon's look like a juggernaut.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Hopefully that train-wreck of a defense gets cleaned up a bit this week.

Either way, I think we'll see a repeat of last year with Sparty -- tight first half, then way too much firepower and depth for MSU to handle in the 2nd.

Oregon has a ton of talent at the skill positions and they will get their points. But Mariota was the difference maker last year. So many times the MSU front 7 had him dead to rights, and he found a way to escape and make a Heisman-esque play. I don't see Vernon Adams putting forth that type of performance in what will be by far the toughest test in his college career to this point.

Main thing that concerns me is MSU's defensive subs. The starters are very good but when the 2s and 3s came in, Western Michigan did some work on them particularly in the passing game. Those guys will be depended on to rotate in and hold their own due to the amount of snaps Oregon will get off. That's why I hope MSU can churn out long, slow drives with the ground and pound game. They have the OL and stable of RBs to do that this year. If this turns into a shootout, I like Oregon's chances because they have multiple home run threats at WR and RB, although Connor Cook should have success against that Duck secondary.

I feel MSU wore down late in the game last year in large part due to the field conditions. It was around 100 degrees at kickoff underneath a cloudless sky. This time it'll be under the lights with temps in the mid-50s. Should be fun.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Sam, what dumb ass poll are you linking to?

Here is the latest AP:

http://collegefootball.ap.org/poll

10 SEC teams.

Tennessee and Miss St beat a couple of dickslaps...go ahead and put 'em in the top 25. Northwestern beats #21 Stanford...nowhere to be found. Same shit, different year.

[War Wagon]

Sam, what dumb ass poll are you linking to?

The one that left Mizzou out.

That's what happens when you schedule an in-state directional DII school for your opener so I don't really have a problem with that.

Who's next, Pinkel? Creighton?

Wait... it's UCONN. That should really get the juices flowing.

[Left Seater]

USC's O line looked a little shaky in pass blocking, they were not picking up stunts and blitzes that well. They were fine in the run blocking.

They should be forced to push the blocking sled to and from class, meals, study hall, everywhere until they work as a unit and understand stunts and blitz pickups. Clearly this unit needs to come to my strength program in the off season where I would teach them to grow another 6 inches and increase their max bench by 3 tons.

USC's WRs were not quite on the same page as Kessler, there were quite a few times where he threw to a location and they just didnt run the route right.... things like flattening out the route.

The WR's should be made to run the routes correctly 1000 times in a row each day before the next game. If they are a fraction of an inch off by laser measuring devices they should have to start over. I teach route running at a private camp and all of my kids run a perfect pattern every time or I throw a football at their nuts when they aren't looking.

The defense looked real good when the starters were in, especially the pass defense, but I dont know anything about the team they played and USC had back ups and freshman in right away. 23 freshman played in the game

This is the NCAA's fault. We are being punished for no reason because the NCAA didn't want us to win. Reggie Bush's family is the problem, not the program. We deserve extra scholarships because of this.

But it was good to get all the young players in to the game, all three true freshman RBs looked good, 2 of them scored TD's and the Jones kid from Texas looked awesomely fast and when he was hit he didnt go down easily. He had a long run on a sweep where he was never touched.

We shouldn't have been allowed to recruit this player. He should have been forced to stay in the state where he was from because they spent recourses and time on him. It sucks but when that rule passes he will have to go back to the state where he came from and we will just get a few new RBs that had to come back here to CA.

[Carson]

The Seater is gifted at translating the schmickspeak.

[Killian]

The Buckeyes are a really good SEC team masquerading as a B1G team.

There it is. SEC! SEC! SEC!

[Killian]

Amazing that he did it with the majority of his players being kids he didn't actually recruit.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

SEC fan going to the moral high ground card will never not be funny.

[Goober McTuber]

Northwestern definitely should be ranked.

But these early rankings don't mean anything. Just win your games and you'll get the ranking by the end of the season.

The problem is that the teams that are perennially over-rated to start the season ('sup Georgia) never fall as quickly as they should. If Tennessee had been in Wisky's spot and lost 35-17 to Alabama, they would have fallen from 20th to 21st.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I don't have much issue with the Auburns, Georgias, and LSUs so much as the Tennessees and Arkansas who go 6-6 then crack the top 25 to start the following season based on nothing other than hype. Then they beat a few Northwestern Maine A&M type schools, and move in the top 15. It's the self-fulfilling prophecy that constantly keeps shitty programs in the spotlight which helps their brand, recruiting, etc. And I love the argument of, "LOOK AT HOW MANY RANKED TEAMS WE HAVE ON OUR SCHEDULE. IT'S SUCH A MEATGRINDER!" Newsflash: Just because you play a team with that little arbitrary number next to their name, doesn't mean they're worth a shit.

Ultimately, I agree with Chip...just win...but it's still pretty ghey.

[Left Seater]

Agree with Mgo, and this is all the more reason that we shouldn't have a poll prior to week 6.

Not saying the below applies to anyone here but I am sure it does. People rightfully complain about early season rankings. Those who vote in these things have an interest in their pre-season predictions being as accurate as possible. That leads to them keeping teams that lost in their rankings longer than they should or from voting a team that looks better than expected higher. At the same time those who are complaining are also talking about the preseason polls and even putting out their own preseason rankings etc, so they are just as much a part of the problem.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I get it, Sam. You are gifted in the art of passive-aggressive message boarding.

[Killian]

That being that Ohio State is now recruiting SEC type players...lower grades, thugs, etc.

Link?

You're putting me in an unenviable position; defending both OSU and Meyer. Their last recruiting class:

Jerome Baker
Benedictine (Cleveland, OH)
ATH 6-2/203

Liam McCullough
Worthington Kilbourne (Columbus, OH)
LS 6-2/213

Grant Schmidt
Roosevelt - 03 (Sioux Falls, SD)
OT 6-6/275

Torrance Gibson
American Heritage (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
ATH 6-4/204

Nick Conner
Dublin Scioto (Dublin, OH)
ILB 6-3/225

Isaiah Prince
Eleanor Roosevelt (Greenbelt, MD)
OT 6-6/272

Justin Hilliard
St. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH)
OLB 6-0/225

Kevin Feder
Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, NJ)
OT 6-9/305

A.J. Alexander
Lake Braddock (Burke, VA)
TE 6-4/220

Jashon Cornell
Cretin Derham Hall (Saint Paul, MN)
SDE 6-4/260

Dre'Mont Jones
St. Ignatius (Cleveland, OH)
SDE 6-3/266

Damon Arnette
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
CB 6-2/185

Joshua Alabi
Cass Technical (Detroit, MI)
SDE 6-5/295

Joe Burrow
Athens (The Plains, OH)
DUAL 6-4/200

Branden Bowen
Corner Canyon (Draper, UT)
OT 6-7/330

Matthew Burrell
C. D. Hylton (Woodbridge, VA)
OG 6-4/321

Alex Stump
St. Edward (Lakewood, OH)
WR 6-3.5/195

Joshua Norwood
Valdosta (Valdosta, GA)
CB 5-10/175

Eric Glover-Williams
McKinley (Canton, OH)
CB 5-11/165

Jamel Dean
Cocoa (Cocoa, FL)
CB 6-2/195

Denzel Ward
Nordonia (Macedonia, OH)
CB 5-11/165

DaVon Hamilton
Pickerington Central (Pickerington, OH)
DT 6-3/285

Michael Weber
Cass Technical (Detroit, MI)
RB 5-9.5/219

Rashod Berry
Lorain Digital (Lorain, OH)
WDE 6-5/240

K.J. Hill
North Little Rock (North Little Rock, AR)
WR 6-0/188

Robert Landers
Wayne (Dayton, OH)
DT 6-2/295

5 players from SEC states, 12 from Ohio. I'm guessing you don't have the first clue about the academic makeup of these kids, nor their police blotter summary. Meyer is a scumbag, but he's a phenomenal coach. Look at their top offensive players; Miller - OH, Jones - OH, Elliot - MO, Barrett - TX. Which of these kids is a thug, or cut from a lower academic cloth than anyone else?

While at OSU, has Meyer taken in a kid that was expelled from another school for domestic assault?

[buckeye_in_sc]

Well I know that was tough for Killian...

and hey I hated Meyer at UF...but now he's on our sideline (and like all other human nature) I like him roaming in C BUS...

So yeah since he came aboard he has gotten rid of a decent amount of kids that were trouble makers, etc.

To Killian's point...look at some of the schools those kids came from big CATHOLIC schools in Ohio, FLA (STA, Don Bosco, Benedictine, ST. X, etc.)...to my knowledge not much thuggery is going to keep you in those schools (save your priest blasts schmick)...and perhaps maybe, just maybe he's learned a little from his time at UF??

But then again, when you got your ass beat in the Sugar Bowl by a 3rd string QB, starting his 2nd game, basically in your back yard I get why you might be a tad bit jealous...

[Goober McTuber]

I just don't like Urban Meyer.

Try to take some comfort in the fact that everybody loves Nick Saban.