2010-11 College Football Bowl Season thread

[k0ruptr]

Originally Posted by bronconick

This bowl season is full of duds so far..worse than usual.

+10 glad its not just me... Is there just way too many bowls that we have less interest in them since the games are so weak? I can't figure it out but I've had less interest so far this year up to this point in time then any other years in the last 10 at least.


What I just said might not make sense to anybody. sorry. I just think its a weak sauce year compared to others, mainly imo due to too many crappy bowls.

[k0ruptr]

I was just listening to some stats on ESPNews and they mentioned Friedgen ended up 75-50 , and 5-2 in bowl games. I dunno but I think thats a pretty solid football coach. Not great by any means, but above average to pretty good, and going to bowl games pretty consistently I would think.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

+10 glad its not just me... Is there just way too many bowls that we have less interest in them since the games are so weak? I can't figure it out but I've had less interest so far this year up to this point in time then any other years in the last 10 at least.


What I just said might not make sense to anybody. sorry. I just think its a weak sauce year compared to others, mainly imo due to too many crappy bowls.

It makes sense. It seems like they add bowls each year and spread the field even thinner and have the games so far apart that we are getting all of the "weak" bowls early on.

What I hate most about the current system is how they destroyed how great New Years Day use to be. It used to be great game after great game which made for the best day of football watching of the year IMO. Now its pretty much an average football watching day.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

+10 glad its not just me... Is there just way too many bowls that we have less interest in them since the games are so weak? I can't figure it out but I've had less interest so far this year up to this point in time then any other years in the last 10 at least.


What I just said might not make sense to anybody. sorry. I just think its a weak sauce year compared to others, mainly imo due to too many crappy bowls.

Too many crappy bowls, and all but 3 or 4 have been non-competitive in the 4th quarter. Just blah.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

The moment a real stat, not mere total yards, is used to calculate the best offense then you have an argument.

Was Hawaii really the #1 offense this year despite offenses 2-7, and a few more outside the top 10, scoring more points? Was Michigan really the #10 offense this year?

Of course not. It's asinine to say they were.

And, more importantly, the statement was that he develops offensive talent better than anyone else in the ACC. Go back and look at recruiting classes relative to other ACC programs, then offensive production beyond mere yardage, and you may finally have something other than a completely impotent argument.

Total offense, REALLY?

Yards can be dependent on style of play, and defensive quality (which is why Hawaii is usually a little inflated - although I'm not sure what your problem is with Michigan since they probably had a top 10 offense to go along with their 120th rated defense), but I tend to shy away from points scored because it can be influenced by field position, D/ST TD's, the kicker and tempo. However, if you're more comfortable using it though, here you go.

2003: 37
2004: 109 (t)
2005: 69
2006: 74
2007: 88
2008: 92
2009: 98
2010: 42

Quite frankly unless you have access to tarcone's computer rankings I doubt you'll find any comprehensive offensive stat that shows Maryland has had an above-average offense over the last 7 years, let alone an elite one. If you're in the camp saying that he did the best anyone could have done given the talent that was recruited (and I sincerely doubt that Leach, Malzahn or Jones couldn't do better), who's fault was that, and what hope was there that it would improve?

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I'll field the question since I made the comment.
1- I place no value on Scout/Rivals/ESPNU recruiting ratings. If you want your team ranked higher all you have to do is drum up more subscriptions. It is a fairly accepted fact that Rivals bias heavily towards Southern schools, meanwhile teams like BC routinely have classes rated in the lower (numerically higher) half of the top 100 yet they compete well and place a large number of players in the NFL. Perhaps the last 4 coaches they have had have all developed talent better than anyone in the world, or perhaps the ratings weren't right to start with.
2- My opinion doesn't from a single stat or an article some talentless hack wrote in some obscure newspaper. My last year as a graduate assistant coach at Clemson was Fridge's first in Maryland. I watched our staff STRESS the FAWK out trying to break down his tendencies. That sentiment remains to this day as I still have very good friends on the staff. One year in recent memory the comment was made to me, in his last 4 games they had 74 alignments and haven't ran the same play out of the same alignment yet. That's the type of mastery I respect.
3- Name the elite QB fridge had? Still waiting.... ok so go ahead an tell me the stud RB...gee none there either...I know how about WR...right we got DHB...he must be the reason those offenses were so proficient for 10 years.

BTW I find it hilarious that someone discounted points scored as a viable offensive stat since special teams and defense score points, and then pointed towards recruiting rankings, which you know include defensive and special team players, to support their argument.

1 - As a Notre Dame fan, I can agree with the healthy skepticism you put on recruiting rankings, however I will point out that they show the same downward trend that his offensive rankings (here I'm assuming 01 and 02 were both top 30-ish), Maryland's win totals, and I believe fan interest have shown when you compare 2001-2005 and 2006-2010.

2 - Again as a Notre Dame fan I saw an absurdly fat, yet schematically brilliant offensive mind who made the BCS in year one. Our version even recruited 5* players, put 1st day picks in the NFL, and made a 2nd BCS bowl (all 3 undoubtedly made easier by ND's higher profile). Yet he was still fired as a head coach after 6 years, and deservedly so, because the he was showing no sign of improving the weaknesses that had been apparent since day 1. Weis is also already back on his feet as an OC, which I think is the perfect position for Friedgen - most coaches are better when they concentrate on their area of expertise rather than stretching themselves too thin, and I think that's what happened to Friedgen.

3 - I can buy that Maryland doesn't have the ability to compete on the recruiting front with a Miami, ND, Clemson, FSU, etc, but you bring up BC - and I really don't see the reason Maryland can't outrecruit them or beat them on the football field. Even Virginia Tech's level of success should be attainable. We're not talking about a Wake Forest that should give Grobe a lifetime contract for even making a BCS bowl or a Duke that should give Cutcliffe one for making a bowl, it's a legitimate flagship university located in an underrated recruiting area with some other decent selling points (UA connection, proximity to DC). Although I don't accept the reasoning, I can understand the counter-argument that Fridge should have been retained because he's consistently average. Hi-Fi acting like it's an affront that he was fired and nobody at Maryland should want to aspire to VT-level success is what baffles me.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

I was just listening to some stats on ESPNews and they mentioned Friedgen ended up 75-50 , and 5-2 in bowl games. I dunno but I think thats a pretty solid football coach. Not great by any means, but above average to pretty good, and going to bowl games pretty consistently I would think.

Sometimes schools need to learn being one of the bigger fish in a medium sized pool is still ok.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Too many crappy bowls, and all but 3 or 4 have been non-competitive in the 4th quarter. Just blah.

Plus most of the matchups are just not important even in the bigger games. Is anyone really that interested in Oklahoma/UConn?

If I had a vote Id vote this way Old System>Playoff>Current BCS. Every year I am more disappointed in the BCS. Only the NCAA could take a bowl system as great as it once was and turn it into a bunch a meaningless games except for the fans of the teams OR real diehard fans. I am just pissed looking at the New Years Day slate of games.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

proximity to DC

You say that as though it's supposed to be some sort of plus. Can't say I've ever heard anyone other than a politician ever wax poetic about a desire to live there.

[Young Drachma]

Too many bowls, but...hey, it's better than a playoff.

Laugh.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You say that as though it's supposed to be some sort of plus. Can't say I've ever heard anyone other than a politician ever wax poetic about a desire to live there.

For the average D1 recruit with all other things being equal, do you think they'd rather be near DC or Blacksburg, Lubbock, Oxford, Corvallis, Storrs, Boise, Columbus, Auburn, State College, Tallahassee, etc.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Too many bowls, but...hey, it's better than a playoff.

Laugh.

We get it at this point, but honestly, what teams so far would have been within shouting distance of a playoff? Boise and Oklahoma State? (Which would have been by far the most interesting matchup of any bowl so far - only Missouri/Iowa coming close.) If they had a playoff they'd do something equally annoying like put one game on each night for 4 nights instead of having all 4 on New Years day back to back to back to back. Even the NFL has the decency to consolidate its shit more than NCAA football - they're not giving Cleveland @ Buffalo and Arizona @ Carolina their own nights in primetime so we're forced to judge just how epically bad they are if we want to watch football.

[Matthean]

Alabama, Ohio State top football spenders among bowl teams - ESPN

Top 10 universities in terms of spending for their football program. Why yes, 6 of the 10 are SEC schools. Kind of odd to see TCU being there. Note Texas would have made the list if they had gone to a bowl game.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Then there's the part where it's a below average football area. Considering PSU, WVU and VT all have their hooks into the area for the little bit of talent there is, it just makes it even more significant of a success for Friedgen.

Actually according to the one large scale study I've seen - BCS Recruits by State, 2004-08 - NCAA Football - SI.com - Maryland/DC combine to rank 13th in BCS recruits over a 5 year span with 172, and 11th in recruits per capita ahead of states such as California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia, which is why I say it's an underrated place. (It's also worth noting that state schools in Iowa (61) Wisconsin (55) Nebraska (43) West Virginia (15) Oregon (44) Utah (20) - 2 schools in both the latter states cases - have had consistent success with a much smaller local talent pool.) Seeing schools like PSU, Illinois, UNC and VT come in to Maryland's backyard and partially build their programs on the backs of players like Vontae Davis, Arrelious Benn, Josh Morgan, Marvin Austin, Derrick Williams, Aaron Maybin, Navarro Bowman, and Brandon Albert has always been a thorn in the UMD athletic department's side (WV pretty much uses the Florida pipeline). Add in SEC-bound Ben Tate, Joe Haden and Derrick Harvey, and that's 11 NFL-bound studs from within 100 miles of UMD's campus that they missed on in recruiting in a 5-year sample.

[timmynausea]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Weis is also already back on his feet as an OC, which I think is the perfect position for Friedgen - most coaches are better when they concentrate on their area of expertise rather than stretching themselves too thin, and I think that's what happened to Friedgen.

Just wanted to point out that this was probably the only sentence in the history of man that says that both Ralph Friedgen and Charlie Weis "stretched themselves too thin" without irony.

[panerd]

What piece of shit officiating handing the game to Syracuse. Just terrible.

[EagleFan]

Are you kidding me? Come on ref, you don't make that call there.

[Scarecrow]

K-State v Syracuse

That was the weakest excessive celebration call on a potential game tying touchdown that I've ever seen. (yes the penalty was on the salute)

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5971823

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by panerd

What piece of shit officiating handing the game to Syracuse. Just terrible.

Of course the coach didn't do his team any favors either with that fake field goal call.

[panerd]

The refs were just cowards on that one. You have to wonder about the motivation for that one.

[Chubby]

'cuse!!!!!!!!!!

[panerd]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Of course the coach didn't do his team any favors either with that fake field goal call.

Agree. I dislike K-State and think Bill Snyder's "genius" was just scheduling cupcakes and getting lucky against Texas but I still can't believe that call. A great game for 59 minutes and the refs shit all over it at the end.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Alabama, Ohio State top football spenders among bowl teams - ESPN

Top 10 universities in terms of spending for their football program. Why yes, 6 of the 10 are SEC schools. Kind of odd to see TCU being there. Note Texas would have made the list if they had gone to a bowl game.

What's crazy is how much most of these schools lose on their bowl game. Leave it to college football to build a system where schools actually lose money on the postseason.

[Marmel]

CUSE!

The call was BS though and even as a Syracuse fan I wish they didn't throw that flag.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Marmel

CUSE!

The call was BS though and even as a Syracuse fan I wish they didn't throw that flag.

Yep. I don't think K-State converts on that and even if they do I think Syracuse wins in OT. I would not want to win on a gift from a shitty official if I am a Syracuse player. Let it get decided on the field.

[Suicane75]

Anyone else not getting audio for the games on ESPN today? I nodded off at some point early in the Syracuse game and when I woke up there was no audio.

[B & B]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Anyone else not getting audio for the games on ESPN today? I nodded off at some point early in the Syracuse game and when I woke up there was no audio.

Your ass was on top of the mute button on the remote there daddy-O.

[Matthean]

I actually didn't know Tennessee was in a bowl game, but that's what a nondescript 6-6 and 3-5 in conference beating nobody of note does for you.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

I was just listening to some stats on ESPNews and they mentioned Friedgen ended up 75-50 , and 5-2 in bowl games. I dunno but I think thats a pretty solid football coach. Not great by any means, but above average to pretty good, and going to bowl games pretty consistently I would think.

Over ten years, that is an average record of 7.5-5, which feels about right for him and above average sounds .

Like someone else said, if that is good enough for the program/donors/paying fans/AD and they feel that is the ceiling, fine. But when you factor in subdivision games and the annual MAC/Sun Belt/CUSA game, it is certainly justifiable to want and/or expect more.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Matthean

I actually didn't know Tennessee was in a bowl game, but that's what a nondescript 6-6 and 3-5 in conference beating nobody of note does for you.

This ain't been what you'd call a clinic, that's for sure.

It's two evenly matched so-so teams that pretty much are what they are.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Over ten years, that is an average record of 7.5-5, which feels about right for him and above average sounds .

Like someone else said, if that is good enough for the program/donors/paying fans/AD and they feel that is the ceiling, fine. But when you factor in subdivision games and the annual MAC/Sun Belt/CUSA game, it is certainly justifiable to want and/or expect more.

I understand what you guys are saying, I do.
I uess my counter arguemnt is "know your role"..UMd aint putting 80k+ butts in the seat, dont care how much money UA has, to expect to be elite OVERNIGHT is laughable.

[panerd]

Complete incompetence by North Carolina. Horrible, horrible coaching.

[EagleFan]

Does college use the 10 second runoff?

[mauchow]

wowwwww..... a run.... really?

[EagleFan]

WTF?

[mauchow]

reversed and its tied~!!

[panerd]

Well I have money on UNC for some reason so I will take that. It sounds like someone is being murdered on my tv right now. A bunch of shreaking.

[JonInMiddleGA]

If Jantzen Jackson doesn't show his customary shitty judgment then we most likely don't get to this point. Plenty of athletic ability topped by a two cent head.

[bronconick]

Tennessee probably should have gone for offense that time. Rather start on O at the 40 than D on the 12.

[CU Tiger]

well 1 bowl game has lived up to its billing

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Tennessee probably should have gone for offense that time. Rather start on O at the 40 than D on the 12.

I would rather take it on defense. Hope for a defensive stand and not put my offense out of field goal range to start their drive.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Tennessee probably should have gone for offense that time. Rather start on O at the 40 than D on the 12.

Yeah and if the rules are like they are during regulation it would have been 1st and 10.

[CU Tiger]

Have to say the refs have done a good job getting the calls right down the stretch here.

[mauchow]

What's with Bray and his antics? He should have at least two penalties from the one quarter of football that I've watched.

[panerd]

Nice sportmanship by Tenn's QB. The K-State game officials would have kicked him out of the game for that.

EDIT: I was pissed earlier about the "salute" but think the rule was written purely for pricks like this kid.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Tennessee probably should have gone for offense that time. Rather start on O at the 40 than D on the 12.

Not with this offense.