The Ladder 2013 Season Thread (Transition to NCAA 2013)

[Kodos]

We're back to the regular season! Thank god!

Welcome to Week 1! Just a couple of games to kick off the 2013-14 campaign!

=============== #3 USC Trojans (0-0) ===============
This week, the Trojans are idle.

=============== #16 Kansas Jayhawks (0-0) ===============
This week, the Jayhawks are idle.

=============== #20 South Florida Bulls (0-0) ===============
This week, the Bulls will host Georgia (0-0).

=============== Indiana Hoosiers (0-0) ===============
This week, the Hoosiers travel to Cincinnati to face the Cincinnati Bearcats (0-0).

=============== Duke Blue Devils (0-0) ===============
This week, the Blue Devils are idle.

=============== Rice Owls (0-0) ===============
This week, the Owls are idle.

=============== Buffalo Bulls (0-0) ===============
This week, the Bulls are idle.

[gstelmack]

Woohoo!

[Kodos]

Indiana scores 21 in the 4th quarter for a 28-24 comeback victory over the Bearcats. We really should have lost, as we allowed a lot of sacks, a scoop-and-score, and generally played poorly. But we'll take the win anyhow! Still apparently no answer at QB...

[gstelmack]

All the online stuff went down so no Dynasty Wire or anything, but it looks like the result got stored: 34-24 win over Georgia, although my extra TD came on one of those "stop them on 4th down deep in their own territory with a minute left, then watch them clear the middle of the field while you just jam it up the gut so your FB rumbles 11 yards for a TD" plays. The clock should have run out with a 27-24 win. Some key offseason graduations on defense really showed, their RB ran wild (but fairly, no head-scratching massive-tackle-breaking runs) on both offense and special teams.

Our O-Line is young and it showed, and we have a very average RB, but we had some nice long pass plays, one where the safety went for the pick and missed, and another where my TE was left one-on-one up the seam and he beat the DB. We did just barely enough to win, and if their QB had been able to throw better we might have lost.

Happy to escape with this win over a more-talented Georgia team.

[Kodos]

Nice win. We have a few guys with recruiting left to do, and then we'll be ready to advance.

[MacroGuru]

I arrived back home last night / this morning. I have a softball game after work. When I get home tonight I will get to my recruiting.

[chesapeake]

Two early commits for me. Woot.

[Kodos]

No early commits for me.

[MacroGuru]

Nothing early for me and I noticed all my ratings dropped big time..

[Kodos]

For your pitches?

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Kodos

For your pitches?

Yeah...I have a lot of D's now. I attribute to the last 2 suck ass seasons I have had but I didn't expect them to drop that bad.

[Kodos]

Just waiting for one owner to get their recruiting in.

[Kodos]

On to week 2.

Cal (0-0) at #2 USC (0-0)
#16 Kansas (0-0) at Michigan (0-0)
#20 USF (1-0) at NC State (0-0)
Duke (0-0) at North Carolina (0-0)
UTEP (0-0) at Rice (0-0)

[gstelmack]

3 point loss to NC State with several WTF moments and some screwups by me.

I got ahead 3 with a nice drive late, then their backup QB botched an option play by throwing behind the runner. I had a player right there who made one of those beautiful WTF one-handed catches behind himself, who took it in for a TD. We hold them, but can't grind out the clock. They pull the old "score a TD, recover the onside kick when it bounces off one of my hands guys and back to their team, then score another quick TD" to pull ahead by 3 with a minute left. I get the ball, drive to their 14, throw two incompletions, then pull a bonehead move by running left when I'm on the left hashmark. No first down, bad angle for the FG, and miss the FG.

Sigh, alas.

[Kodos]

Ugh. Brutal way to lose.

[MacroGuru]

No commits yet, but I am hoping to be able to get a few higher caliber players in.

We will see, I can't wait to start playing with this team...I have better talent than I had the last 2 seasons on it...

[chesapeake]

I had to leave a 14 point lead on the table when my kids came home an hour early on Saturday. Has the XBox always had an auto-turn off feature? I could have sworn I've left a game sittling idle for an hour or two and been able to come back and finish it.

[Eaglesfan27]

TypingH from iPad... USC beat cal 38-21 behind excellent play from my new starting QB. The catch is there are thunderstorms in the area which knocked out my Internet... Hoping Internet comes back before power goes out...

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I had to leave a 14 point lead on the table when my kids came home an hour early on Saturday. Has the XBox always had an auto-turn off feature? I could have sworn I've left a game sittling idle for an hour or two and been able to come back and finish it.

I don't think it has an auto-turn off. Did you get a power hit during the time? It will dim to save burn-in, but I can poke around and see if I can find a setting on mine for auto-turn off.

[Kodos]

I think there is a setting for auto turn off, but I think it defaults to not turning off automatically.

[chesapeake]

This is the new box that I got when the drive on my old one went kaput. It is refurbished; perhaps some of the settings were changed before I got it. It is equally possible that my 2-year-old pressed the big button that makes the green lights flash.

[Eaglesfan27]

There is definitely an auto-off setting. I recently turned mine on because our maid keeps accidently turning on the X-Box when dusting around it.

Also, the internet is finally back so I uploaded my results

The new QB, Courtney Paris, played much better than I expected and has me more excited about this season than I was before this game.

[chesapeake]

I can't believe I just lost to Carolina. My weak recruiting bit me in the butt. Given all the opportunities, one DB that could catch a football would have been enough to get the win.

[MacroGuru]

Are we moving forward tonight?

[Kodos]

Yes. Advancing now.

[Kodos]

#1 USC (1-0) at #24 Boston College (1-0)
#19 Illinois (1-0) at Indiana (1-0)
Kansas State (0-0) at #23 Kansas (0-1)
USF (1-1) at Troy (1-0)
Buffalo (0-0) at BYU (0-1)

[Kodos]

FYI, I had to do a quick restart because I changed my battery when the game was starting. It came out with the CPU controlling my team, and I couldn't switch control to me.

[Kodos]

Crazy game against the Illini. Fell behind 28-7 due to turnovers by our freshman QB. Inserted senior QB, who rallied us to tie them up a couple times. Our defense simply could not get a stop. Ended up winning 51-48. Freshman DE sealed the game with a sack to prevent a Hail Mary.

[MacroGuru]

OMG 37-32 loss to BYU that was heartbreaking. We found ourselves down 31 - 18 to BYU. We rocked back with a TD to make it 25 - 31, kick the onside kick and recover it.

We promptly march down the field and score to make it 32-31. We stop them on the next possession of 4 and out. We pound the ball, eating the clock forcing them to call timeouts. We are in FG range and I miss the 38 yd FG.

They get the ball back, we stop them on 1st and 2nd and then they go over the top and their WR beats my CB by a few steps, my safety that is coming over to make the hit dives the other way away from the WR and they run the score in with 2 seconds left. We stop the 2 point conversion.

We call the fair catch on the kickoff. We go into a deep passing situation, hail mary basically and send it down the field. It bounces off a few hands and my WR snags it and starts to take off but is tackled at the BYU 20. Game over.

What a heartbreaker.

We did receive a 3* CB commitment.

My RS Sophomore Holloway was a beast and had 3 tackles, 2 sacks and a Forced Fumble which resulted in a Safety.

[gstelmack]

52 - 42 over Troy. Luckily their defense is as thin as mine ;-) I scored to go up 28-7 with 3:22 left in first half. With 7:00 left to go in the 3rd quarter, so over a 4:22 span, they were up 35-28, thanks to a pair of long TD runs and a pick-6. Our D tightened back up enough, and we kept scoring to get the win.

[MacroGuru]

Is it wrong that the last second loss has me obsessing over the next week so I can avenge myself.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Is it wrong that the last second loss has me obsessing over the next week so I can avenge myself.

I'll be kicking myself all season for screwing up the end of the NC State game, so no

[Eaglesfan27]

I was planning on playing Saturday, but no power for 2 1/2 days thanks to "derecho" delayed that plan. Now, I have future in-laws staying with me for possibly a few days until their power comes back. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to play this week with them staying with us. So, I can't ask for you to delay advancing. Hopefully, autopilot does well for us this week.

[Kodos]

I don't want you to miss out on a title shot by losing a simmed game. We can hold for a while.

[Kodos]

It looks like TRO dropped out, so we're down to six, by the way.

[Eaglesfan27]

I will try to get it in tomorrow if possible. Thanks for waiting.

[Kodos]

No problem.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC and Boston College with a very close back and forth game...

We started off with the first score led by a few highlight catches by our star WR followed by a TD catch by our TE to give us a 7-0 lead.

Boston's running game was tough all game and they marched into FG range to make it 7-3.

We responded with a quick drive that stalled in the redzone as our QB was getting terrible protection. We settled for a FG to make it 10-3.

Boston College responded on the 1st play of their next drive with a 71 yard TD pass to their best WR.

They stopped us and drove down the field again for a FG.

We went into halftime down 13-10 and it would have been worse if their QB hadn't thrown a redzone pick.

The third quarter was scoreless as our defense kept us in it. Our defense then gave us a 17-13 lead with a sack/fumble/TD return.

However, Boston's dominant running game took over. They mostly ran it down the field and got down inside our 5. I stopped them from 3 yards out on 2nd and 3rd, but on 4th and goal from the 2, their HB broke a tackle and dove into the endzone for a TD to give them a 20-17 lead.

Their pass defense was ferocious mainly due to their pass rush and we failed to convert 4th and 3. They ran out the clock and our National Championship run ended before it truly got started.

BC upsets us 20-17.

[Kodos]

Yikes! Will advance us shortly.

[Kodos]

This week's games:

#8 USC vs. Northwestern
#25 USF vs. North Carolina
Duke vs. NC State
Buffalo vs. Towson
Rice vs. Houston

[gstelmack]

Yay. A FB signed. We'll throw a parade soon.

[gstelmack]

Good win over UNC. Got out to an early lead, then held on to it, thanks in part to a late goalline stand.

Unfortunately forgot to set the activities for the couple of guys that were visiting this week. Ugh.

[MacroGuru]

picked up a 3* HB recruit.

34-17 win over Towson...a few dumb mistakes from the kicking game, a fumble and pick by my QB but we played an all around decent game.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC bounced back big this week as we jumped to a 35-3 lead on Northwestern by halftime. However, we pulled off too early and they came back but not far enough. We won 49-31.

[Kodos]

I'll move us forward tonight. Tried to do my recruiting online, but it crapped out on the first guy I tried using it on.

[Kodos]

Some big games in Week 5!

#5 USC (2-1) at Navy (0-1)
#7 Texas Tech (1-0) at Duke (1-1)
#25 USF (3-1) at #10 Ohio State (2-0)

[chesapeake]

I got a commitment from a 4-star CB last week, which was the upside. I'm pretty worried about the current team, however. I squeaked out a lucky win against NC State despite playing about as well as I possibly can. I'm not feeling terribly optimistic about my first home game this week against Texas Tech. If I can't tackle NC State's second-rate players, I don't know that I stand much of a chance against this team.

[gstelmack]

HUGE win over Ohio State. The first half was all big plays from both sides, but we kept them to a couple of FGs while we kept scoring TDs. The only thing slowing my offense was some ill-timed picks. We held a 28-27 lead at the half.

Both defense tightened up in the second half. I threw a couple more bad picks, although most were really good plays by defenders (and maybe one or two cheating plays where the guy had them beat and they jumped the gap, but whatever). I threw one pick right after we recovered a fumble in scoring position, and then we fumbled on a run into the line while also in scoring position. We did catch one break and hurt their QB on a scramble early in the 3rd quarter.

But once they started breaking tackles, I thought for sure the game had decide I was not going to win. Sure enough, they finall broke a drive late, but we held them to a FG, so they were up 30-28 with less than 2 minutes left. But, my offense came to life, and pulled a pair of 4th-down conversions out to drive down and get the go ahead TD with 30 seconds left. We went for and missed the 2-point conversion (I thought for sure my TE was going across, but they somehow stood him up). Even then I thought we were screwed, as their backup QB kept ducking out of sure sacks, including one where we for certain had him for a safety and he escaped, but he couldn't complete anything, and time expired after a desperation heave.

I thought for sure his A+ offense against my C defense meant there would be fireworks, and there were for the first half. My B+ offense against his B defense kept me in it. But that second half was an entirely different game, and I still can't believe we pulled it out. Man am I going to regret messing up the end of the NC State game...

[Kodos]

Reminder: Deadline is tonight.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm playing Navy now... they run the option better than I've seen any team run it in this game. Losing 17-10 late in the 3rd. Can't get my passing game going at all..