Perseverance : Tommy Jacobs' Career

[el_rousso]

Quote: Originally Posted by SonnyFranchise

The graphics are....amazing. So crisp and clean. Makes me want to give up my own write up

Thanks for the appreciation ! I am in no way a professional graphic artist, but I do know my way a bit around Photoshop

And don't give up on your write-up just because of the graphics in other people's work ! Just go through this thread and see for yourself, the graphics that I made in the first pages are way different than what they are now, I simply experimented and changed things up a bit, and I expect changes will be made as long as I'll keep this alive, so always see your work as "in progress" and not something that's finished, and you'll always find room for improvement !

[SonnyFranchise]

Quote: Originally Posted by el_rousso

Thanks for the appreciation ! I am in no way a professional graphic artist, but I do know my way a bit around Photoshop And don't give up on your write-up just because of the graphics in other people's work ! Just go through this thread and see for yourself, the graphics that I made in the first pages are way different than what they are now, I simply experimented and changed things up a bit, and I expect changes will be made as long as I'll keep this alive, so always see your work as "in progress" and not something that's finished, and you'll always find room for improvement !

Oh Trust me I know. I'm a Graphic Design student. But one thing I could never get right was the graphics for my dynasties. I've been cooking a few up though so we'll see

[thesportsguru11]

Not sure how I've yet to comment here but alas.. yeah the graphics look great, but you already know that!

Great job on the undefeated regular season, with a freshman at quarterback no less. Torn as I want to root for you and my SC Trojans, but best of luck in the Pac-12 Title and locking up a slot in the Playoff!

As for the rest of the playoff picture --- yikes that's a loaded field and I'll (wisely, perhaps) wait until after Champ Week to say anything.

[el_rousso]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesportsguru11

Not sure how I've yet to comment here but alas.. yeah the graphics look great, but you already know that! Great job on the undefeated regular season, with a freshman at quarterback no less. Torn as I want to root for you and my SC Trojans, but best of luck in the Pac-12 Title and locking up a slot in the Playoff! As for the rest of the playoff picture --- yikes that's a loaded field and I'll (wisely, perhaps) wait until after Champ Week to say anything.

Thanks for the kind words my friend, always nice to hear good words about what I'm doing, especially from other great 'chisers such as yourself !

Of course it's a freshman at QB, but I've got such a good offensive line that it's not that big of a deal (the good performances of course, the playbook itself actually accounts for a good part of the stats). I'm eager to see what will happen next year when all of the O-line will be gone, and I don't expect a repeat of undefeatedness, that's for sure ! Of course, we still have to go through USC, and whatever happens to us in the Bowl season, but we'll see it when we see it.

And yes, it just might be a good thing to wait until after Champ Week to make comments on the playoff picture, and we are potentially three years ahead of real life in getting two teams from the same conference in the playoffs, and funnily enough, they're not from the SEC

[el_rousso]

[el_rousso]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- It was a battle to the top of the Pac-12 Conference, and it duly delivered. A turnover on the opening drive helped the Huskies gain an early 7-0 lead, before seeing the Trojans get back with a score later in the first to even up the game. Washington's defense were simply too much however, and by the time the second quarter ended, the Huskies had taken a 20-10 lead, en route to a 27-10 victory for the Pac-12 Championship.

Redshirt freshman cornerback Jermaine Kelly chose the right time to have one of his better games so far, recording 3 interceptions on Trojans' quarterback Max Browne, and Huskies' quarterback Tommy Jacobs once again was solid when it counted, going 24/34 for 344 yards and three touchdowns to only one interception.

"I honestly could not have predicted it, going undefeated all the way to the conference championship," coach Sarkisian told the press after the game. "Don't get me wrong, I have faith in the kids, I knew they could do it, but there are always things that happen during a season, be they under your control or not, that can turn some results around. We fought on, we took each game one at a time, each drive on its own, and look where we are now. I'm proud of the guys, they deserve every bit of what's happening to them."

The Huskies now have to wait for all the other championship games to end to know what's coming next, but they can be sure that they'll be part of the top four teams that will be going to the playoffs. All that's left to know now is where they'll be seeded, and who they're going to face.

[el_rousso]

[el_rousso]

No one safe in Conference Championship Week

Not many people could've predicted what happened this week in college football. Even our own Kirk Herbstreit could only muster a lowly three out of seven right. Let's start with the ones that went the predictable way.

Marshall (9-3) defeated Western Kentucky (6-6) 33-24 in Huntingdon to earn their first conference championship since 2002, succeding Tulsa as Conference-USA champions. In the MAC, Ball State (8-4) has successfully defended their title with a 24-17 win against Ohio (7-5), becoming the first Ball State team to defend a championship since their days in the Heartland Conference in the late 60's. Then in the Mountain West, Boise State (8-4) also are crowned champions for the third time in a row as they took care of San Diego State (8-4) 33-14 in the conference championship game, in a rematch from the 2013 championship matchup. Finally, the undefeated Washington Huskies (12-0) had pretty much everything going their way against USC (10-2), winning 27-10 in San Francisco. USC has now lost two championship games in a row, losing last year against the Oregon Ducks.

In the Big Ten, the 10-2 Michigan State Spartans were facing off against the 10-2 Iowa Hawkeyes, a team they had barely beaten earlier in the seaon to a score of 28-21 in overtime. This time it was the Hawkeyes that would claim the win, 37-20 over the Spartans, along with their first conference title since 2004.

The 11-1 Florida Gators were facing the 10-2 Texas A&M Aggies for the SEC Championship, and while Florida were going for their 9th conference championship and first since 2008, the Aggies were looking to win their first title in their new conference, and their first conference title since winning the Big XII back in 1998. In a game that ended in a shootout, Texas A&M overcame Florida 63-42, and most likely knocked the Gators out of the playoffs.

And finally, in the ACC Championship game, the Heisman candidates duo of Teddy Bridgewater and Michael Dyer tried as much as they could, but they could not prevent the 10-2 Miami Hurricanes from pulling off the upset win over undefeated 12-0 Louisville, as they claimed the ACC Championship title with a 35-25 win over the Cardinals. It is their first ACC title, and their first conference title since the days of the Big East, when they won four straight titles from 2000 to 2003.

How will that shake up the College Football Playoff rankings ? We'll have to wait until the final committee rankings are issued to know who will play who and when.

---

I have the top teams' schedule following, so readers can voice their thoughts about the next rankings. The game has already re-ranked the teams automatically, but depending on potential discussions I may tweak the ratings to reflect other thoughts. I've included the entire top 10 plus the teams outside the top 10 that were involved in their conference championships. The schedules are in order of the last rankings issued :

To start off the conversation, I'll go with my own top 6, and why I ranked teams where they are :

1. Washington (13-0)
The lone undefeated team in the nation, ranked #2 for the latest weeks, and not because it's my own team. We had some tough games on our schedule even though there were only two ranked teams, but we've got one of the best defenses in the country, and it showed in the important moments.

2. Texas (11-1)
Basically, simply because I don't think a team should lose its own spot by not playing, and also because of the other losing teams high up (Louisville, Florida). They've been ranked high pretty much all season, and only lost against the Big XII champions, while having a better all-around schedule than Oklahoma, in my opinion.

3. Louisville (12-1)
Losing to #12 ranked Miami in the championship game could've cost them a playoff spot, but for that to happen we should've seen wins from Florida and likely Michigan State. Hence they don't fall lower than third in my view, but like I said, only because other teams around the 4-6 spots didn't win either.

4. Oklahoma (11-1)
And here we are, two teams from the same conference, and it being the Big XII, without a championship game, seemed pretty unlikely given the circumstances. The fact that most other high-ranked teams also lost (Florida, Michigan State), however, gave them a spot in the top 4. Now we'll have to see how many, if any, Big XII teams can get to the National Championship.

5. Texas A&M (11-2)
The first of the left-outs, the Aggies would've ranked higher in my view if they had convincingly won against Florida, instead of the game going to a shootout, showing their not-so-good defense. They would've also prevented the first-ever occurence of a pair of teams from the same conference in the top four.

6. Michigan (9-3)
There again, a team that could hardly be dropped because of not playing, and that was helped by those higher teams losing out.

And the rest of the top 12 would go like this :

7. Florida (11-2)
8. Miami (11-2)
9. Iowa (11-2)
10. Ohio State (9-3)
11. Michigan State (10-3)
12. USC (10-3)

But that's only my opinion, I'd like to know what other readers see as well.