The Ladder 2025 - Conference Championships - Deadline is 3/11 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

Welcome to season 15 of the Ladder! Let me know who you'd like to see on your OOC schedule.

Ole Miss is set with red shirts and the recruiting board.

For games:

Mississippi State
Memphis
Navy
Vanderbilt
Rochester
Wyoming

Stanford
Cal
Oklahoma
Louisville
Florida State
Fresno State

(will do redshirts and stuff soon - hopefully by tonight.)

USC is all set :)

Hardest schedule I can play, I'll get redshirts and recruiting done today more than likely.

Thanks, Julio. I will hopefully get a chance to do everyone's OOC schedules tonight and get us rolling.

Wk 8 vs. Vanderbilt
Wk 11 vs. Mississippi St
Wk 12 at #8 Navy

Wk 2 at Stanford
Wk 3 vs #7 FSU
Wk 7 vs Cal

Wk 2 at #6 WVU
Wk 4 vs #4 South Florida
Wk 6 vs #8 Navy

Human vs Human games:
Wk 1 #18 Ole Miss at #5 UTSA
Wk 6 #1 Indiana at #2 USC

Gramm gets thrown into the fire in Week 1 at UTSA in SEC action.

Can't tell if you're done, so we'll hold on advancing to Week 1 for now.

Getting on to get this done in a few minutes. Sorry for the hold up. Got started on it a few days ago, but gotta finish still.

All set.

Okay. Will advance when I get home. Can't advance using website or we'll lose the OOC changes.

Week 1 - Deadline is Sunday (12/10) at 11 p.m.
 

It's go time!

#18 Ole Miss at #5 UTSA

All right Gramm, looks like one of us is starting with a loss. When do you want to determine that? I'm available all day today, but then I'll be out til next Friday.

USC is done recruiting. We had a very nice 1st week! :)

I'm good today, what time works for you?

How about 8 pm EST?

Gramm and I got our game in, and it came down to the final play.. I got lucky and his guy mishandled a TD pass that could have tied the game.

Not a pretty start, but we hit some big plays and managed to make 2 defensive plays to give us enough cushion to win.

Week 2 - Deadline is Thursday (12/14) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 1 Results

UTSA 42, Ole Miss 35
FAU 24, Alabama 13


Week 2 Games

#1 Indiana (0-0) at Nevada (0-0)
#2 USC (0-0) at Stanford (0-0)
#3 Florida Atlantic (1-0) at #21 Ole Miss (0-1)
#5 UTSA (1-0) at #12 West Virginia (0-1)

Ole Miss is ready to advance.

I was torn on which QB to start. We had a veteran RS SR in James Johnson who has a lot of skill and talent and we have a young RS FR in Jimmy Thomas who has the fastest speed I've ever had at QB with a strong arm. I decided to start the veteran...

He fumbled on his first drive.

Thomas came in on the 2nd drive and we never looked back. Thomas was nearly perfect for 3 1/2 quarters. He threw for over 500 yards and 5 TD's. He did throw 1 stupid pick. He also added tremendous speed and had over 100 yards rushing and 6 rushing TD's.

We crushed Stanford.

Other notable performers:

WR T.J. Adams bounced back from last year's devastating injury with 14 catches for 301 yards and 3 TD's as his deep speed is better than ever.

True Freshman HB Paul Fine did more than expected as he is very good at catching out of the backfield. He had 6 catches for 71 yards and also had 3 rushes for 30 yards and a TD.

SR DE Michael Nolan had 9 tackles, 8 for a loss, 7 sacks!

SR CB Eric Allen had 2 picks including a pick 6. He also returned a kickoff for a TD and almost broke a punt for a TD.

In total, our defense forced 10 sacks and 3 interceptions as it played nasty most of the game but also gave up several long plays where we gambled incorrectly.

We also had a good day on the recruiting trail as we got another commit this week.

USC is all set to advance! :)

We are ready ass well.

Week 3 - Deadline is Sunday (12/17) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 2 Results

Indiana 63, Nevada 3
USC 105, Stanford 28
UTSA 59, West Virginia 14
Ole Miss 77, FAU 13


Week 3 Games

#1 Indiana (1-0) at #10 Florida Atlantic (1-1)
#6 Florida State (1-0) at #3 USC (1-0)
#14 Ole Miss (1-1) at Clemson (0-1)

Wow. I kick butt and drop from 2 to 3. Maybe there is something to the thought that too many points confuses the rankings.

recruiting done.

I played slightly tipsy (mmmmmm Egg Nog) and I tried to slow down the pace to really focus on my defense and keeping our defensive statistics good. We still crushed #6 FSU, 77-3.

RS FR QB Jimmy Thomas was nearly perfect with the exception of 1 very bad throw. He was 35 of 41 for 478 yards with 7 TD's, 1 INT. He also rushed for 89 yards and a TD.

RS SO WR T.J. Adams is so good with his combo of size, speed, and hands. He had 15 catches for 275 yards and 2 TD's.

FR Paul Fine added 50 yards receiving and 41 on the ground.

TE Mike Harris had 5 catches for 55 yards but was very efficient in the redzone with 4 TD's.

JR LB Sterling Brown had 16 tackles, 3 for a loss and a sack.

SR DE Michael Nolan with 5 sacks to continue his incredible start to the season.

Eric Allen continues his great play with another pick and a punt return for a TD. He is our most dangerous punt returner in several years.

USC is set to advance.

We're on to Week 4. Details to come later.

I'll be playing my game shortly.

Our offense had a fumble and an interception but we had 2 special teams return TD's, 1 punt, 1 kickoff by Eric Allen to help us cruise past Iowa 80-20.

Jimmy Thomas got knocked out of the game for part of a quarter but still completed 29 of 35 passes for 420 yards, 6 TD's, 1 INT. He also ran it 14 times for 149 yards and a TD.

T.J. Adams had 14 catches for 234 yards and 4 TD's.

Michael Nolan had another 3 sacks this game for a team leading 15 already.

Eric Allen had an interception, kickoff return TD, punt return TD, and generally shut his man down all day.

Ole Miss is ready to advance.

Week 5 - Deadline is 1/3 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 4 Results

USC 80, Iowa 20
Indiana 91, Purdue 20
UTSA 66, USF 20
Ole Miss 55, Georgia Tech 36


In a bit of a scheduling quirk, only Julio has a game this week.

Week 5 Games

#3 UTSA (3-0) at #20 Alabama (3-1)

I'll get that in shortly I think. Keep this thing moving, heh.

Looks like Julio got his game in last night.

Yeah, I played, got my recruiting done too. I'm ready to roll.

Week 6 - Deadline is 1/6 (Sat) at 11 p.m.
 

We're on to Week 6. EF - When would be a good time for you? I'm off until 1/2.


Week 5 Results

UTSA 63, Alabama 28


Week 6 Games

#3 Indiana (3-0) at #1 USC (3-0)
#13 Navy (2-1) at #2 UTSA (4-0)
Wake Forest (3-1) at #6 Ole Miss (3-1)

I started up the Xbox 360 all set to play my game and just realized it was against Indiana!

I don't suppose you are available in the next hour?

This weekend is tough because we are having company come in from out of town for the New Year Holiday. I might be able to play one evening next week. Alternatively, I can play one of the mornings of next weekend, probably Sunday.

Why don't we aim for Sunday the 7th?

Sounds good!

9 a.m. tomorrow?

Sounds good! :)

We had a chance to go up 2 TDs in the second half, but played it safe on 4th and 2 and punted it. Things went down hill with the help of a couple of interceptions, and USC kept the streak alive of the home team winning every game in this series. Good game, EF. We'll see you in the conference championship game.

Week 7 - Deadline is 1/14 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 6 Results

USC 23, Indiana 17
UTSA 108, Navy 14
Ole Miss 65, Wake Forest 7
FAU 56, Missouri 21


Week 7 Games

Cal (2-3) at #1 USC (4-0)
#6 Ole Miss (4-1) at Virginia Tech (2-2)
#25 Notre Dame (3-2) at #7 Indiana (3-1)
#8 FAU (3-2) at Florida (0-6)

Good game Kodos. Glad we got those picks.

USC had a completely dominant game against Cal resulting in an 84-0 win.

A few highlights:

RS FR QB Jimmy Thomas had a perfect 1st half except 1 drop by his WR. In total throughout the game, he completed 33 of 39 passes for 533 yards, 6 TD's, 1 INT (stupid decision by me early in the 3rd.) He also ran for 192 yards and 4 TD's.

T.J Adams had 15 catches for 338 yards and 3 TD's.

SR DE Michael Nolan had 12 sacks!

SR S Ben Simpson had an interception (he also had 1 in the Indiana game and has been really playing great football.)

We held Cal to under 75 total yards of offense on the day.

USC is all set to advance.

I'll get my recruiting done shortly.

EDIT: Done.

Week 8
 

We're on to Week 8.

Week 7 Results

USC 84, Cal 0
Indiana 63, Notre Dame 7
Ole Miss 63, Virginia Tech 27



Week 8 Games

#1 USC at Nevada
Nebraska at #2 UTSA
#9 Minnesota at #6 Indiana
Vanderbilt at #5 Ole Miss

In crushing Nevada, USC RS FR QB Jimmy Thomas set records for me despite a slow start that included a fumble and interception in the first quarter. But, he bounced back with a historic day: 32 of 44 for 625 yards, 9 TD's, 1 INT. He also rushed 15 times for 274 yards and 2 TD's.

All teams set to advance!

Week 9 - Deadline is 1/30 (Tues) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 8 Results

USC 98, Nevada 3
Indiana 63, Minnesota 7
UTSA 83, Nebraska 7
Ole Miss 63, Vanderbilt 10


Week 9 Games

BYU (4-2) at #1 USC (6-0)
#2 UTSA (6-0) at Texas A&M (3-3)
#6 Indiana (5-1) at #16 Buffalo (4-2)

Texas A&M gave us hell, but we beat em.

USC's defense shut down BYU for almost all of the game and held them to under 150 yards of total offense. We cruised to an easy victory.

All teams are set to advance.

Week 10 - Deadline is 2/5 (Mon) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 9 Results

USC 79, BYU 3
UTSA 49, Texas A&M 40
Indiana 63, Buffalo 10


Week 10 Games

#1 USC (7-0) at UCLA (1-8)
#17 Oklahoma (4-2) at #2 UTSA (7-0)
Wisconsion (5-2) at #5 Indiana (6-1)
Duke (3-4) at #6 Ole Miss (6-1)

Impressive that a DE is on the Heisman list. That guy is a beast, EF.

Thanks. His swim move is incredible!

Speaking of his swim move, he had an astonishing game against UCLA - 15 tackles, 13 for a loss, 10 sacks. We enjoyed completely demolishing them. USC is set to advance.

We're on to Week 11.

Oh, nice. Got an extra night off work tonight, I will probably play later.

I figure SR QB James Johnson has to wonder "what if... I didn't blow my chance to start and I got to run this offense all year? Would I be able to duplicate the numbers of Jimmy Thomas?"

Tonight, Johnson got his chance as Thomas left the game early in the 2nd with an injury that would sideline him the rest of the night (and probably hurt his Heisman chances.)

Johnson acquitted himself very well though as he led the team to over 800 yards of offense in a 98-7 drubbing of Arizona. This game featured much more balanced offense than what I usually have including over 300 yards of rushing (339 to be precise.) Johnson did add 321 yards of passing and 6 TD's in just under 3 quarters of work (Thomas had 148 yards and a TD in his 1 quarter of work.)

Except for 2 drives, the defense was stellar. One drive by Arizona featured a ridiculous 52 yard bomb that was complete despite me having 2 defenders in perfect position to pick it off. Their other long drive featured a missed dive tackle by me that led to a huge gain on YAC. Other than those 2 drives, we held them to under 50 yards of offense.

Nolan continues his incredible numbers with a 12 tackle, 10 for a loss, 7 sack performance and he almost picked off a screen too.

Week 12 - Deadline is 2/18 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

Booyah! Our top target (athlete Ronnie Silva) committed this week after watching us thrash the Wolverines. We'd been slightly behind USC all season, so it's great to get him one week before his scheduled visit with the Trojans.

We're on to Week 12.

Week 11 Results

USC 98, Arizona 7
UTSA 63, UL Lafayette 13
Indiana 84, Michigan 17
Ole Miss 70, Mississippi St 0


Week 12 Games

Washington (5-4) at #1 USC (9-0)
#2 UTSA (9-0) at Missouri (5-4)
Iowa (4-5) at #4 Indiana (8-1)
#5 Ole Miss (8-1) at #21 Navy (5-3)

:(

QB Simmons has been really good the last couple weeks and our recruiting class is almost finished already. We've got one scholarship left and probably wont need to recruit after the season. Really loaded up on RB's, heh.

Our offense has been allowing more points than our defense lately. Greer threw 3 picks yesterday, including a 96-yard pick six on the opening drive of the game, but we still won 50-14. Or something like that.

Hate when I throw a pick inside their 20. All those yards and all that time wasted.

Our offense was very sloppy with 2 interceptions, 3 fumbles. But, our defense was LIGHTS OUT. 5 interceptions, a plethora of sacks. We cruised past Washington 84-0.

All teams are set to advance :)

Week 13 - Deadline is 2/25 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

We're on to Week 13.


Week 12 Results

USC 84, Washington 0
UTSA 70, Missouri 7
Indiana 50, Iowa 14
Ole Miss 70, Navy 7


Week 13 Games

#1 USC (10-0) at Oregon State (2-8)
Kansas State (2-7) at #2 UTSA (10-0)
#4 Indiana (9-1) at #23 Ohio State (6-4)
#16 Alabama (8-3) at #5 Ole Miss (9-1)

Good to go in San Antonio. Hopefully we can finish our recruiting class this week.

Oregon State played much better than their record and held us to only 14 points in the 2nd half. We still won 56-10 in our lowest scoring game against the CPU of the year. We are set to advance.

So you don't need to use the rest of your points this week?

Nope, we're good to go. Only one scholarship left and 4 guys are fighting for it.

Week 14 - Deadline is 3/4 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 13 Results

USC 56, Oregon State 10
UTSA 87, Kansas State 12
Indiana 28, Ohio State 9
Ole Miss 63, Alabama 7


Week 14 Games

#1 USC (11-0) at San Diego State (5-6)
#2 UTSA (11-0) at #13 Texas (8-3)
#3 Indiana (10-1) at #19 Penn State (7-3)
#4 Ole Miss (10-1) at Nebraska (4-7)

We finished our recruiting class so I won't be doing much with recruiting for the remainder of this season. Won our game against Texas fairly easily thanks to our defense mostly. They were in passing lanes all day and took advantage of several bad decisions by the CPU QB. Love playing teams with "scrambling" QB's because they give up on plays so easily and either throw it away, chuck it up out of desperation, or run (usually into a sack).

Playing against SDSU and I just saw a play I've never seen in all of my time playing this game:

SDSU's center snaps it to himself and rumbles past my shocked defense for 7 yards!

Interestingly, he does not show up in the stats as running it. So odd.

Their C was not the only guy to gash us. Our defense was atrocious. Worst game against the CPU all year on D, but our offense was humming and we cruised to an easy win. We are all set to advance as we are not using our last bit of recruiting points.

Week 15 - Deadline is 3/7 (Wed) at 11 p.m.
 

Week 14 Results

UTSA 70, Texas 17
USC 86, San Diego State 42
Indiana 62, Penn State 3
Ole Miss 60, Nebraska 53


No games in Week 15. Just recruiting.

Week 15 Games


None

USC is not using all of our points this week. We are set to advance.

Conference Championships - Deadline is 3/11 (Sun) at 11 p.m.
 

#4 Ole Miss (11-1) at #1 UTSA (12-0)
#3 Indiana (11-1) at #2 USC (12-0)

It's time for a couple of rematches. When is good for you, EF? I could conceivably do tonight, due to my wife watching the Oscars.

Just got home from my niece's 16th birthday party, so tonight is a no go. Also, I only had about 3 hours of sleep due to Jack teething. I can play Sunday morning. I could conceivably do one of the evenings this week too.

Tonight's not gonna work for me either. Maybe Sunday morning could work, although we have a busy weekend.

We'll need to discuss a meeting time as well Gramm.. When is good for you?

I can do Wednesday night at 9pm or Sat / Sunday morning, early. Maybe Thursday night if that works for you.

Hmm.. Sunday morning would be ideal. What time? I get off work at 7 and I am home and settled in by 8 at the latest, but I could probably swing a 7:30 AM or later start.

9am would be great?

9 works for me, I'll be there.

Hey Kodos,

Sunday works for me either morning or early afternoon as my wife has a baby shower to go to in the afternoon. Let me know if either work for you

9 a.m?

Sounds good! See you then!

Looks like everyone is accounted for, it's time to decide this!

Our second half defense was the key in a pretty good game overall I thought. Managed to pitch a shutout in the final two quarters and on the back of that and some good running in the first half by a bulldozing Tyler Burke, we managed to pull it out and stay unbeaten, 31-21.

I don't anticipate our road getting any easier going forward, seeing how we had a pretty clear advantage talent wise and I expect Gramm will narrow that gap in short order. I look forward to renewing our battle for the conference crown next season Gramm.

Now who will be match up with in the title game..

What does your availability look like Kodos?

A goal line stand on the first drive of the game allowed us to put USC in the position of playing from behind all game. We were able to keep Jimmy Thomas out of the stratosphere, as we held him to 11/21 for 129 yards and 1 TD through the air while allowing 8 runs for 43 yards on the ground. We also limited their stud DE Nolan to 2 tackles. On offense, we were able to keep moving down the field with our running attack. Greer answered the call when we needed him to pass. It was an intense game throughout, but we got our first road win at USC, 24-10.

GG EF. Sorry the game was laggy.

Bring on IU-UTSA Part V!

Bowl Season
 

Conference Championship Results

UTSA 31, Ole Miss 21
Indiana 24, USC 10





Bowl Games

UTSA leads the head-to-head BCS Championship series 3-1, with victories over Indiana in 2019 (31-28), 2021 (42-35), and 2023 (35-28). Indiana won 35-21 in 2022.

BCS Championsip Game #2 Indiana (12-1) vs #1 UTSA (13-0)
Sugar Bowl #3 Army (12-1) vs #4 USC (12-1)
Capital One Bowl #7 Ole Miss (11-2) vs. #16 Wisconsin (8-4)


Championship Game History

USC (5-1): Wins (2012, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020), Losses (2017)
UTSA (3-2): Wins (2019, 2021, 2023), Losses (2020, 2022)
IU (2-3): Wins (2022, 2024), Losses (2019, 2021, 2023)

Does one of the weekend mornings work for you?

2025 Heisman Results
 

Congratulations to Michael Nolan, who is the first DE to win the Heisman in the Ladder.

GG Kodos! Good luck in the National Championship Game.

Saturdays and Sundays usually work just fine. Might not be able to swing that this weekend though because I'll be home with the baby and my oldest kid while the lady works.. I'll update when things are more clear as to what will be happening this weekend.

The following weekend works for sure, so if we can't find something between now and then, we can probably get it done at that point.

Other than that I am available most of Monday and Tuesday every week as well as the mornings of wednesday thursday or friday.

Any update, Julio? I can do either weekend morning if you're available. If we have to push to next weekend, that's okay too.

This weekend is looking pretty busy with the baby and a full hotel, probably best to push it to the following weekend when I will be kid free and able to play without interruption. I can definitely do any time next weekend.

Works for me.