College Football Week 8 discussion

[cartman]

Five matchups between Top 25 teams this weekend:

Notre Dame at Florida State
Texas A&M at Alabama
Kansas State at Oklahoma
Oklahoma State at TCU
Stanford at Arizona State

[Matthean]

A&M/'Bama has lost a lot of early luster, but should be a hell of a game and interesting to see who wins. This could easily be a 4 loss season for 'Bama and I'm not sure where blame lays although in multiple directions might be the answer.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Matthean

I'm not sure where blame lays although in multiple directions might be the answer.

Go with the safe choice and choose Kiffin.

[dawgfan]

Washington travels to Eugene to try to break a 10-game losing streak to the hated Ducks (UW still leads the all-time series 58-43-5 though).

On the positive side, Oregon's defense looks rather vulnerable this year and the Washington defense is showing signs they could be very, very good with two All-American candidates along the line in DE Hau'oli Kikaha and NT Danny Shelton (and another in LB Shaq Thompson) and have been extremely opportunistic in generating and securing turnovers (and converting them to touchdowns).

On the negative side, Oregon looks like a different team with LT Jake Fisher back from injury, and Marcus Mariota is extremely hard to beat when healthy.

[Butter]

Clemson at Boston College should be an interesting ACC matchup.

Clemson just lost freshman phenom QB Deshaun Watson for a few weeks with a broken finger on his throwing hand. With their backup QB, they were able to squeak past Louisville with a special teams TD and a defensive TD to win 23-17.

This matchup really comes down to can BC run on Clemson? If they can, I think BC has a good shot at winning. If not, it will be a long day for the Eagles.

Clemson's offense is ok with their backup QB... he made a couple of drives, but also threw more than 1 near pick. I expect this game to be in the 20's scoring-wise unless Clemson figures out how to run their offense with a pure pocket passer running it.

[murrayyyyy]

3 point dog to Georgia? Will the streak end finally?

[miked]

Going to Columbus to watch RU get destroyed by tOSU.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Clemson at Boston College should be an interesting ACC matchup.

Clemson just lost freshman phenom QB Deshaun Watson for a few weeks with a broken finger on his throwing hand. With their backup QB, they were able to squeak past Louisville with a special teams TD and a defensive TD to win 23-17.

This matchup really comes down to can BC run on Clemson? If they can, I think BC has a good shot at winning. If not, it will be a long day for the Eagles.

Clemson's offense is ok with their backup QB... he made a couple of drives, but also threw more than 1 near pick. I expect this game to be in the 20's scoring-wise unless Clemson figures out how to run their offense with a pure pocket passer running it.

To be fair.
Back up QB took zero snaps last week in practice as he sprained his non-throwing shoulder in the game the week before against NCSU.

That said this game scares me a tad. Clemson's D plays on emotion. The second half against UNC they were totally flat and let UNC almost climb back into the game. BC is a hard place to get up for a game..its crazy quiet there.

My HOPE is the offense features a few Wildcat plays utilizing freshman RB and HS option QB Adam Choice (younger brother of Tashard Choice for the GT crowd)

[Eaglesfan27]

The same company that had a lot of Gurley autographed items has been found to have a large number of Winston autographed items.

[bronconick]

They had a ton of Clowney stuff last year.

[Butter]

So, what's everyone think of Jimbo Fisher's reaction to all of this? Can he really continue to have plausible deniability?

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

So, what's everyone think of Jimbo Fisher's reaction to all of this? Can he really continue to have plausible deniability?

Why was Winston stealing crab legs if he was making money from autographs?

[tarcone]

Iowa travels to Maryland. This is the last tough test on the road. A big game for sure.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by cartman

Go with the safe choice and choose Kiffin.

Well, I've never been overly sold on Simms.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

So, what's everyone think of Jimbo Fisher's reaction to all of this? Can he really continue to have plausible deniability?

I've stated it many times over the last couple of years, I really cannot stand Jimbo. He just seems scummy to me and always has. Before this fiasco, it was just an opinion with little to go off of. Now at least I have something to feel better about my impression of him.

He's going to continue the plausible deniability until he gets backed into a corner and has nowhere else to go. We've all seen how good the backup QB is right now. If Winston gets suspended, Florida State won't even make the playoff. Nothing will happen to Winston unless he does something else stupid. With this kid,it seems like that is only a matter of time.

[CU Tiger]

Come on Bob...you can do better

Hugh Freeze Addresses Photo of Robert Nkemdiche Holding Bong | Bleacher Report

[Butter]

So, pretty much his parents got paid for him to go there... because wasn't it going around that they were the ones that steered him to Ole Miss after he was all but committed to Clemson?

And then after that, he's had all these problems? So it wasn't for him to go to Ole Miss so that the university would take care of him... unless by "take care" you mean $$$$.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

So, pretty much his parents got paid for him to go there... because wasn't it going around that they were the ones that steered him to Ole Miss after he was all but committed to Clemson?

I don't recall the dad being so much a part of that, was mostly about his mom as I recall.

[Butter]

Right, it was his mom.

[CU Tiger]

Mom got PAAAAAAID, and PAID well.

The Schuessler family (whom Bob lived with in HS) said their biggest fear was him spending too much time back around his brother. Seems to be coming to fruition.

[CU Tiger]

I know ESPN is totally covered up this week with the throw Winston under the bus campaign, and for that I commend them.

But its about time they looked at this story as well as the Nkemdiche one.
Court record: Search of Alabama football player's room turns up 112 grams of marijuana and $4,600 | AL.com

[albionmoonlight]

Rarely have I seen a fan's argument that a coach should be fired be written so articulately.

Les Miles', LSU players' reaction to injury touches a Florida fan | NOLA.com

and Florida over the years have engaged in some heated and physical college football games that sometimes stretched the borders of sportsmanship. Saturday night's 30-27 victory by LSU was one of those.

But at least one Gators' fan was touched by the reaction of LSU players and Tigers' coach Les Miles when wide receiver Latroy Pittman went down with what was believed to be a serious injury. He was motionless on the field for several minutes while medical personnel prepped him, put him on a stretcher and wheeled him off the field as a precaution.

Nearby, a handful of LSU players knelt on one knee, took of their helmets and watched, hoping Pittman was OK. It turned out he was hospitalized overnight and released Sunday when he was given clearance.

Florida fan Kyle Morgan felt compelled to share his feelings about the gesture and the way LSU treated the occurrence. He posted the following on Facebook:

"So tonight one of our players was gravely injured in the last minute of the game. I hope Latroy Pittman turns out to be fine or recovers speedily.

"But now I have to stop and thank Les Miles and the LSU Tigers. As some are aware, LSU tends to be seen as rougher around the edges than is normal in the SEC. However, their class in the last minute of the game proved exactly why they deserved to win. Upon Latroy's injury, they removed their helmets and knelt in respect for a fallen player. They clapped when their own injured player got up but remained on their knees with helmets off since ours was still being strapped onto the board to be carted off.

"On our sideline, exactly six of our more than 70 players knelt. Undoubtedly these learned their decency not from Will Muschamp but from their old high school head coaches, since Muschamp took the opportunity to huddle his defense and in typical fashion, yell at them.

"Almost 7 minutes passed before it occurred to him that he may need to go check on the boy the Pittman family entrusted to his care. Of course, Will couldn't be bothered to talk to Latroy. No, he simply walked up, poked a trainer on the shoulder, asked her a question and jogged away.

"LSU continued exhibiting the kind of well-led honor that any decent coach would instill in his players by approaching Latroy once he was on the cart and expressing their sympathies. Indeed after two dozen LSU players had done so a few Gators broke ranks and showed they could learn from a good example by doing the same.

"So I would like to thank Les Miles for improving the lives of roughly a dozen Gators more in five minutes than Will Muschamp had done in YEARS.

"We lost again. We turned the ball over a lot and stuck with a QB who lacks improvement again. We got tired made bad mistakes on defense late again, and relied on desperation plays to keep it close again.

"But more importantly we responded to our fellow man going down by ignoring him and using his injury as a long timeout to yell at defenders who just watched a friend, roommate, teammate get hurt.

"Fire Will Muschamp, Jeremy Foley. If not for being a bad head coach who can't win enough games, then do it for the better reason. Fire him for failing to be a leader of men. Fire him because he lacks the respect for an injured player that over 80,000 other people possessed in that stadium. Fire him because he's a bad human being.

"Thank you again Les Miles and the LSU Tigers. I hope one day we might again contribute to the class of the SEC. You helped our young men learn about class tonight. Your fans should be proud of you. I'm proud to have seen you and your 70+ men. Good game and goodnight."

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Mom got PAAAAAAID, and PAID well.

The Schuessler family (whom Bob lived with in HS) said their biggest fear was him spending too much time back around his brother. Seems to be coming to fruition.

And the Newton precedent makes that perfectly fine. As long as the athlete can pretend they knew nothing about payments to parents, everything's fine.

[Kodos]

IU is down to their third QB for MSU. This should be good. True freshman Zander Diamont gets the start.

[bhlloy]

Sounds like a bond villain

[Matthean]

University of Michigan board, president will not rush to judgment on athletic director - ESPN

Always a fun time when a "long and hard look at the state of the program" gets tossed around.

[NobodyHere]

Is a member of the Ford family on the Michigan board?

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Matthean

University of Michigan board, president will not rush to judgment on athletic director - ESPN

Always a fun time when a "long and hard look at the state of the program" gets tossed around.

Opening the door for Jim Harbaugh.

[Butter]

Hey man, they just beat Penn State! I think Hoke's gettin' this thing turned around! Way too early to give up on him.

[MrBug708]

Just saw a stat (so unverified) for the PAC-12 that the home team is 4-15 in conference this year. Not to mention that every PAC-12 team has lost at home..

[TroyF]

Look, I don't care at this point if FSU wants to allow Winston to play if he murders someone. They don't seem to care and Fisher continues making idiotic statements just about every single time he opens his trap.

I would ask FSU to just stop lying to us about "investigating" things though. This morning, sources from the autograph vendor are saying FSU have not called them to talk about it or even ask the question about him getting paid for autographs. If you aren't going to even ask the question, you are not running an investigation. It's ok. I think the rule is asinine too. Just be honest about it and stop lying to the world, k thnks

[JPhillips]

The investigation will start shortly after the season ends or FSU loses, whichever comes first.

[TroyF]

Watching the Baylor/West Virginia game. This has to go on the top 20 worst starts you can have to a football game list.

Baylor kicks off
West Virginia catches it at the goal line and returns it
To the 9 yard line before getting tackled by 6 Baylor players
First snap is a bomb thrown into double coverage which the Wes Virgina player acrually catchs
5 feet out of bounds
Next play is a one yard run with another 5 Bears in on the tackle.
3rd and long, drop back, sack, fumble. Baylor recovers
Baylor runs one play, TD, but flag on the play, offside on WVU


14:00 left in Q 1, 7-0 Baylor

[tarcone]

CJ Brown has over 100 yards of total offense already. But Iowa leads 14-10.
Maryland driving though.

[Atocep]

Kevin White draws more PI calls than any receiver I've ever seen.

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by tarcone

CJ Brown has over 100 yards of total offense already. But Iowa leads 14-10.
Maryland driving though.

That sure looked like a fumble at the 1, but I'm not complaining. 17 unanswered!

[BishopMVP]

Can you review whether a pass is caught behind the line of scrimmage?

Baylor/West Virginia, call is ineligible man down field, overturned after review. Mike Pereira was adamant at first it wasn't reviewable, then admits he has no idea what the college rulebook says.

[Atocep]

Josh Lambert from 54 with plenty of room to spare.

[tarcone]

Iowa just knocked CJ Brown out.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Can you review whether a pass is caught behind the line of scrimmage?

Baylor/West Virginia, call is ineligible man down field, overturned after review. Mike Pereira was adamant at first it wasn't reviewable, then admits he has no idea what the college rulebook says.

I don't see a specific mention of that in the college rulebook (may have missed it though). What specifically isn't reviewable would be whether or not the lineman was downfield on that play.

Big 12 rules allow any play that isn't specifically listed as not rewiewable in the NCAA rulebook to be reviewed if the replay official deems it an "egregious error".

[tarcone]

5 minutes into the 3rd quarter. Iowa's WRs dont have a catch and just a couple balls thrown their way.
Time to change QBs. maybe?

[TroyF]

The flags against Baylor in the WVU game is starting to border on the absurd. If I were WVU, I would simply drop back and launch bombs on every play. If the call is 25/75, they'll get the PI call on Baylor. Just had a play where the Baylor player plays the thing perfectly, bats the ball away at the highest point. Flag.

I don't care who wins the game, this is beyond bad.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I don't see a specific mention of that in the college rulebook (may have missed it though). What specifically isn't reviewable would be whether or not the lineman was downfield on that play.

Big 12 rules allow any play that isn't specifically listed as not rewiewable in the NCAA rulebook to be reviewed if the replay official deems it an "egregious error".

Cool.

PS in the continuing ESPN self-promotion department, #14 leads #11 by a TD and an unranked team leads #4 by a TD, both in the 3rd quarter... Guess which one is the lead story on ESPN.com under the title Upset Alert?

[BishopMVP]

Poor call by Briles. Should've gone for that 4th & 8 IMO.

[Atocep]

Never thought I'd type these words, but great job by Tony Gibson with the defensive game plan this week.

[The Jackal]

Maryland with a surprising win, outside of getting drubbed by OSU they've had a pretty solid season

[cuervo72]

Yeah, I didn't think they'd be all that strong in the B1G - but they're doing ok so far. Maybe Edsall isn't so bad after all.

A&M/Bama - so is the narrative after this game "WOW ALABAMA IS BACK!", or "hmm, guess A&M really isn't very good, are they?"

[cartman]

A&M's season is imploding.

And I don't think I've ever seen a case of the yips for a kicker as bad as they were for the OU guy today. Missed two chip shots and had a point after blocked.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

"hmm, guess A&M really isn't very good, are they?"

I'd go with this one.

[MrBug708]

UCLA is scheming themselves out of the PAC-12 race.

Need to also hold onto the ball