2014 College Football Season Official Discussion Thread

That's funny seeing how OSU and OU are the two teams who have beaten Bama in the Sugar Bowl the past two years.

 

Yeah... that picture doesn't make sense. If anyone is choking it's Bama.

Was hoping the Oklahoma beat down would have put a chip on their shoulder to show up this year, but apparently they bought into the hype again.

Just once I would like for them to be the underdogs and get that boost from it... just f'ing once...

 

That falls on Saban. He's got to get his team to play with a chip on their shoulder regardless who is favored. Of course, it is always easier to achieve that if you're the underdog.

 

... but that's not true.

It was pure ESPN fodder. Draft results and active starters in the NFL by conference proved that every year.

Now it's being exposed as we all knew it would the second a playoff was implemented.



Guess it's easier for people to pretend a switch was flipped and the SEC just suddenly isn't as "dominant" as it was before.

 

kind like how USC/Texas etc didn't do the same thing.. right..

 

You're talking about single teams not entire conferences. What's more likely, all of the SEC teams simultaneously have a decline in talent or that maybe, just maybe they weren't quite as good as advertised all along?

Again if this was a BCS year, Bama would have played FSU and likely won impressively. What would the perception have been? It would have been that Bama is the best team in the nation and the SEC is the dominant force that ESPN tells us it is.

If this year played out differently as a playoff instead of how it would have as the BCS, why is it not possible that some of the previous BCS years would have played out differently? It's a fair question to ask and if you're being honest you'd have to admit it is a good possibility.

 

I thought the SEC had been in decline since last year. Prior to that they pretty much beat everyone up in the bowl games didn't they (I'm too lazy to check and I don't really care about the SEC in general to know this information)?

Granted, this year you had Alabama and LSU in a rebuild mode. When Ole Miss and Mississippi State are making noise in the west, you know the west is down.

 

Yeah, that's my main concern. Big injury history for a guy that's barely played. We'll have a nice OL next year but may not hold up once we get to November. We have Blake Barnett coming in for Spring practice, he's a 5* QB who lit up the all star game a few days ago. Wouldn't be surprised if he played sometime next season.

 

The trolls says the SEC dynasty is over every year. This year, they can actually thump their chest a little harder. Oregon will be back down next year when Mariota is gone. FSU is losing Jameis and I think they'll slump back to their 10-2 seasons despite out recruiting everyone. The Big 12 should keep going strong, Texas on the way up when they find a QB. Big 10 is improving, Ohio St could run that conference but Michigan just made a big splash at HC so looks like they'll battle it out every year.

SEC wise, not totally sure. Bama (reloading) and Auburn (Muschamp) will be back next year, LSU's underclassmen leaving early every year is killing them, really like Arkansas next year, A&M a little improved, MSU and Ole Miss decline. Out East it'll be like this past year. UGA probably the favorites.

As for Bama, the Safety spots are my only real concern. You can pretty much plug in any QB and he should be halfway decent for us. The OL will be almost all 5* guys next year. Robert Foster at WR will finally get his chance, Chris Black is very good but buried in the depth chart, ArDarius Stewart showed us some flash this season, and Cam Sims is a big physical guy who will get some time. Then you have Kenyan Drake at RB who I wish was healthy the whole year, Bama would be undefeated and playing for the championship imo if he was healthy. Brought something totally different to the table when he was playing in this offense. Derrick Henry will be back, Tyren Jones is next man up, Altee Tennpenny is a bruiser, and look out for Bo Scarbough. Hell of an athlete who is just as big as Jalston Fowler but is faster, stronger, more athletic, and even more of a pass catcher. Bama has all the weapons on offense again. Defensively, the DL is going to be nasty. The LBs will be even better. CBs will finally have some talent with 2 5* players taking a year to learn and develop.

Bama should be back next year, really really liked this team so I'm a little upset they couldn't bring the title home. I do think it's time to get some extra coaching for the defensive backs, something just isn't right there anymore. Congrats to Ohio St but I'll be pulling for Oregon. Was never an Urban guy and him taking that deep shot late pissed me off. Mariota is a good guy so would like to see him win it.

 

Alabama had two timeouts and their was 1:58 left. The game was not in hand. I think it was a gutsy call but I don't see it as anything other than trying to put the game out of reach. If you think your best bet to get a first down is to throw the deep ball because you believe that Bama was selling out on the run then go for it.

It's not like he pulled a Mike Shula and got his star receiver's career ended by throwing a bomb in the 4th quarter while up 31-3.