College football 2011

[marnold***]

Ahem. Hail to the victors! That is all.

[R_of_G]

Ahem. Hail to the victors! That is all.

Wolverines win their bowl game. Lions go to the playoffs. Everything's coming up Marnold. I guess the smart money is on the Red Wings this year.

Did anybody watch the Orange Bowl last night? Seventy points? I watched the whole first half and some of the third quarter. At that point the combination of scoring and Jon Gruden commentary reached critical mass and I had to some find some basketball to watch to see a little bit of defense. It wasn't even as if they were trying to run up the score. Clemson just could not make a play on defense and repeatedly turned the ball over on offense. That's a good recipe to lose by 40.

[Beerman***]

I gave up on the Orange Bowl by halftime. Everyone likes to see high scoring but this one was a bust. The stands were almost half empty when the game started as it was. There won't be any empty seats for the BCS Monday night. I managed to get 4 tickets for a friend out of town (all legal and face value). Not making a penny on ithem.....$1400 worth of tickets. I could have sold these and paid for the next year of my son's college. But, I do have to sleep at night.
Gonna be a good game but I think LSU has only improved since they last met Alabama. But, 4 weeks off can't be good for any team on a roll.

[sunvalleylaw]

Way to go Wolverines! I consider them good, historical opponents and enjoy hearing about their success, except when they play the Huskies. Didn't watch the Orange Bowl. Sounds like a blowout.

[R_of_G]

I gave up on the Orange Bowl by halftime. Everyone likes to see high scoring but this one was a bust. The stands were almost half empty when the game started as it was. There won't be any empty seats for the BCS Monday night. I managed to get 4 tickets for a friend out of town (all legal and face value). Not making a penny on ithem.....$1400 worth of tickets. I could have sold these and paid for the next year of my son's college. But, I do have to sleep at night.
Gonna be a good game but I think LSU has only improved since they last met Alabama. But, 4 weeks off can't be good for any team on a roll.

Though I wish it were a different opponent for LSU, at least both teams will likely rely on strong defense to win this one. I'm not expecting another 6-3 game, but I also don't expect the combined final score will exceed 45. There are plenty of pro prospects to watch in this game on both rosters.

[marnold***]

Wolverines win their bowl game. Lions go to the playoffs. Everything's coming up Marnold.

And Michigan State won their bowl game and the Tigers made the playoffs too. The Pistons are still bad, though.

U of M now needs to get ready to play Alabama in Dallas next season. Then we'll really know if Michigan is "back" or not. The Sugar Bowl wasn't pretty, but I'll take an ugly win over an ugly loss any day.

I guess the smart money is on the Red Wings this year.

That's been the one constant. For the past 20 years the smart money has always been on the Wings. To add insult to injury (for the rest of the league), the Wings are projected to have almost $24 million in cap space for next season. The Wings have been the only team I've ever rooted for where it could legitimately be said that they don't rebuild, they reload.

[R_of_G]

For the past 20 years the smart money has always been on the Wings. To add insult to injury (for the rest of the league), the Wings are projected to have almost $24 million in cap space for next season. The Wings have been the only team I've ever rooted for where it could legitimately be said that they don't rebuild, they reload.

In that respect, they remind me of the Pittsburgh Steelers. There's never really a rebuilding or retooling process, just next man up steps right into the lineup. There's a down year here or there when the chemistry needs to solidify, but there's never a time when you can just say "ok the Red Wings are going to be bad for the next few years while they rebuild" because it never happens.

[marnold***]

I'm glad I don't have ESPN so I didn't have to watch the joke that was the national championship. What a farce.

[R_of_G]

I'm glad I don't have ESPN so I didn't have to watch the joke that was the national championship. What a farce.

FWIW, I don't recognize Alabama as "National Champions" this morning. They're just one of several one-loss teams at the end of the season. Without making these teams play one another, any anointment of one over another is foolish.

Alabama may be "BCS Champions" but I cannot accept them as true national champions when they were handed the berth into that game over several other teams with the same record because they play in a specific conference that is perceived to be special.

[Beerman***]

Wow, talk about being unprepared, out-coached and totally surprised! A shutout! Almost a blow-out!
I doubt Lee would have been able to do much and it wasn't all Jefferson's fault but come on, try something different. Up the middle and option over and over and over again. The Tide came to play and LSU must have spent their time reading their season accolades. The defense has to be totally exhausted.

Now they've beaten each other once this season. Will anyone ever be happy with the decision to name Alabama #1? But, how can you name LSU #1? Will the BCS ever put in a playoff system? Doubt it.

I'm sure Bobby Hebert is upset since his son is on the LSU team but hear how he questions Miles on his decision not to put in Lee....
http://videos.nola.com/times-picayun...s_lsu_coa.html

[R_of_G]

Wow, talk about being unprepared, out-coached and totally surprised! A shutout! Almost a blow-out!
I doubt Lee would have been able to do much and it wasn't all Jefferson's fault but come on, try something different. Up the middle and option over and over and over again. The Tide came to play and LSU must have spent their time reading their season accolades. The defense has to be totally exhausted.

It's odd how Miles has the reputation of being this wild experimental coach who will change things up at a moment's notice, sometimes even if the original gameplan was working just fine, yet last night he repeatedly attempted the same thing despite the evidence that Alabama was clearly prepared for Jefferson's skill-set. If Lee didn't fare any better he could always have gone back to Jefferson. It's not like yanking a starting pitcher that you can't put back in the game. The Tigers were out-executed but that game was lost because Saban out-coached Miles. I also think the preposterous month-long break didn't help but it's the coach's job to get his team through that.

I'm not ranking either of those teams #1 until I see some evidence they could beat Stanford or Oklahoma State.