College Football 2015

Mags FTW · Post #101 » by **Mags FTW** » Sun Nov 1, 2015 2:53 am

Duke loses on a crazy lateral kickoff return.

Post #102 » by **ReasonablySober** » Sun Nov 1, 2015 2:54 am

I can't believe that just happened.

trwi7 · Post #103 » by **trwi7** » Sun Nov 1, 2015 2:54 am

Mags FTW wrote:Duke loses on a crazy lateral kickoff return.

They seemed to have overturned a penalty in the review, which I don't think is allowed because they had officially called the penalty and then looked at all the laterals to see if they were all backwards and to see if that one player's knee was down. Then they came out of the review and said the block in the back call was from the side and overturned.

Post #104 » by **ReasonablySober** » Sun Nov 1, 2015 3:04 am

Sports are so stupid.

PkrsBcksGphsMqt · Post #105 » by **PkrsBcksGphsMqt** » Sun Nov 1, 2015 3:15 am

That was almost as bad as the NFC Championship game for me. SMDH. So stupid.

Kerb Hohl · Post #106 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Mon Nov 2, 2015 3:18 pm

Mags FTW wrote:That's probably the most amount of mistakes you can make in less than 20 seconds.

Still think they finally take the ax this year though.

It'll be tough on the road, but Sagarin right now says it should be just a little less than a 2 touchdown spread.

EDIT: Of course, a similarly ranked Michigan team just basically played an even game there, so there's also that.

Post #107 » by **MickeyDavis** » Sun Nov 8, 2015 12:19 am

Holy **** Arkansas

Converts 4th and 25 in OT on a crazy lateral

trwi7 · Post #108 » by **trwi7** » Sun Nov 8, 2015 4:10 am

Michigan State lost on an awful call but they kind of deserve it after giving up 39 points to a Tommy Armstrong led team including a 3 play, 91 yard drive in a minute with no timeouts.

Sky Bucks · Post #109 » by **Sky Bucks** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:52 am

Is Iowa the worst 5th ranked team in the country ever? Was at the game at Camp Randall, and for them to be this high is a complete joke.

trwi7 · Post #110 » by **trwi7** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 1:04 am

Yeah, the Badgers basically threw that game away. 9 of 11 possessions were in Iowa territory and they only got 6 points all game.

I also think it's funny that our two losses are to the #2 and #5 teams in their rankings but we're several places behind 5 two loss teams. Now I haven't looked at those teams' wins and I'm sure theirs are better than ours just because our schedule has been bad other than those two games but we don't have a bad loss like Florida State does to Georgia Tech or a couple of 30+ point losses like Northwestern or a 15 point home loss to Arizona State like UCLA has.

BUCKnation · Post #111 » by **BUCKnation** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 1:23 am

That was weird to me as well. We were only in that Alabama game for maybe a half and I don't think I've seen a better example of a team handing a game over on a silver platter than the Iowa game, but yet they are barely ranked at 25. Not saying this team deserves a higher ranking, but there isn't a 2 loss team with "better losses" out there, technically.

trwi7 · Post #112 » by **trwi7** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 2:32 am

Just looked at the two loss teams.

14. Michigan - losses @ #10 Utah, vs #13 Michigan State - best wins vs BYU 31-0, vs Northwestern 38-0

I don't have any problem with Michigan being ranked higher than Wisconsin.

16. Florida State - losses @ Georgia Tech, @ #1 Clemson - best wins vs Miami, vs Louisville

Those aren't special wins and that's a bad loss to Georgia Tech. Why should they be ranked over Wisconsin?

17. Mississippi State - losses vs #9 LSU, @ Texas A&M - best wins vs Southern Miss, @ Auburn

Sure they almost beat LSU but they lost to an unranked Texas A&M and their wins aren't very good.

18. Northwestern - losses @ #14 Michigan, vs #5 Iowa - best wins vs #7 Stanford, @ Duke

Stanford looks like a really good win but it's also really hard to overlook 30 and 38 point losses to Iowa and Michigan. For example, if we opened the season at home against Stanford at pretty much full strength like Northwestern did, I'm pretty sure Wisconsin would be able to beat them or at least have it be a really close game.

19. UCLA - losses vs Arizona State, @ 7 Stanford - best wins vs BYU vs Cal

Their wins against Cal and Arizona looked a lot better at the time but Arizona has lost 5 of 7 and Cal has lost 4 in a row. We don't have a loss to an under .500 team by 15 at home either. That's a pretty big mark against UCLA.

We hung tough with Alabama for a half before injuries started piling up and we should've beaten Iowa. Outgained them by 100 yards, only thing that stopped us was turnovers. That fumble at the 1 yard line when we were just about to take the lead, which we very likely hold since Iowa couldn't do anything on offense. Both of their scoring drives started at our 31 and our 15. The only time they scored is when we gave the ball to them where they wouldn't even need to move the ball to score.

midranger · Post #113 » by **midranger** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 3:40 am

Think about this...

IF Stave doesn't fumble on the 1 yard line by tripping like the newborn-baby-giraffe of an athlete that he is.... we'd currently be playing each week for a berth in the College Football Playoff with this craptastic team that we're sporting.

That boggles my mind. Instead it's Iowa, which also boggles my mind.

Kerb Hohl · Post #114 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 3:34 pm

I was down on Chryst due to recruiting fears before the season - and a bunch of wins over 30th-60th ranked teams are not a harbinger of extreme excitement...but it's still impressive if they finish this thing off 10-2. It would be frustrating, though, that the Iowa game ended that way, but I think we'd lose by 20 to most of the playoff teams if we somehow pulled off the miracle against OSU to get there.

Tough season next year schedule-wise, but excited about things going forward.

PkrsBcksGphsMqt · Post #115 » by **PkrsBcksGphsMqt** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 4:59 pm

Haven't watched Iowa much this year (maybe not at all?), but I feel like there's gotta be at least a small chance my Gophers can knock them off this weekend. I mean we did beat them 51-14 last year. I can't believe they are ranked as high as they are.

Kerb Hohl · Post #116 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 5:57 pm

Iowa is probably the #15ish team and the schedule has helped them. To be honest, their season is a "dream" Wisconsin season if they pull it off. Save for another Russell Wilson, I can't imagine a

I'll give you some credit - you have the most unified fanbase ever. "Player X is fast and exciting this year. Watch out!" "We have the best D in the B10 West coming into 2015." "Hey, remember, we beat Iowa by a lot last year." I seem to hear these same messages from multiple fans every year/week. It's like there is a public service announcement going around the fanbase.

Anyways, sure, there's a shot for it. Spread is only ~12 and Iowa is vulnerable. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

I would submit to you that Wisconsin beat Maryland 52-7 at home and 59-24 at home against Nebraska last year but won nailbiters on the road against both this year. Things change year-to-year, teams give up in certain games to make the score look lopsided, and home field advantage can be huge.

PkrsBcksGphsMqt · Post #117 » by **PkrsBcksGphsMqt** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:09 pm

All good points and I admitted I haven't watched them this season. All I knew about them coming in to the season was that they lost their QB to Michigan, continued to recruit poorly, and that they looked like absolute **** last season. As a result it's incredibly stunning how quickly they've climbed the polls and it's hard to believe they are actually that good.

Gophers do have a good D though, not sure why you took a cheap shot at me for saying their D is good. They've even lost quite a few players for the season and still have continued to play at a high level. Easily the best D I've seen at Minnesota since I became a fan in the early 2000's. I never said they had the best in the division though. I don't pretend to be an expert on other B1G teams. I live in Madison and don't even really follow the Badgers any more (haven't watched more than a handful of plays this year).

I have no idea who you are talking about in regard to the "Player X is fast and exciting" comment.

The way you talk about Minnesota fans, I'm surprised you still live there (assuming you do). Your life must be miserable. Haha

Post #118 » by **humanrefutation** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:22 pm

Honestly, I really don't think Iowa is that good. If Stave didn't have a horrific game against them at home - if they didn't fumble on the goal line, or struggle to even complete a five-yard out - they're 8-1 and no one is talking about Iowa.

Hell, at that point, people here would be wondering if Wisconsin should be knocking on the door of the playoffs with our only loss being to Alabama without our starting RB and our defensive captain. And that would be ridiculous, as our offense has been absolutely inept throughout the season.

Kerb Hohl · Post #119 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:29 pm

Eh, there is just general over-excitement. Local media/casual fans didn't say "this defense is going to be solid" - there were grand proclamations of how exciting it was. I think you've chimed in on excitement for random young players before, but I digress. My life is not miserable due to it, it's just dumbfounding on how many times people or whomever is feeding the information to the fans can set themselves up for disappointment. When the Bucks were terrible for 10-15 years, I was not talking up how exciting Marcus Haislip is to Bulls fans or something like that only to be depressed by the end of the season.

Of course, I read message boards where this information is further exaggerated.

Iowa did surprise me this year, no doubt. They are not the #5 team, but Sagarin and the computers have them 10th-15th...so they're pretty good. Probably as good as MSU, Michigan, Utah, Ole Miss type teams.

Kerb Hohl · Post #120 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:34 pm

humanrefutation wrote:Honestly, I really don't think Iowa is that good. If Stave didn't have a horrific game against them at home - if they didn't fumble on the goal line, or struggle to even complete a five-yard out - they're 8-1 and no one is talking about Iowa.

Hell, at that point, people here would be wondering if Wisconsin should be knocking on the door of the playoffs with our only loss being to Alabama without our starting RB and our defensive captain. And that would be ridiculous, as our offense has been absolutely inept throughout the season.

You're right that Iowa isn't that good. The issue is that college football has become a very flat landscape with a ton of comparable teams after the top 5 or so. Is Wisconsin that good of a team? Not really. Same with Iowa.

Who is a ton better? Of course the top 5 or so teams are really good. The ACC is watered-down in the middle, though Clemson looks really good. Utah and Stanford are decent in the PAC12 - one beat a middling B10 team and one lost to a middling B10 team. There's a lot more talent in the SEC than Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. but many of those teams have not really performed to that billing.

In the Big 12, the top 4 all look pretty good but there is absolutely zero defense being played.

Point is: Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State all seem about even to me. OSU is the "best" but they haven't given a **** all year. It's hard to find more than 10-12 teams that look better than all of them (with OSU being a top 5 team), so in Iowa's case, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt for winning all of their games and slide them up from 15th to 5th or 7th or wherever you want to slide them up on the cusp of a playoff berth.

Go look at teams ranked below #5 and tell me who would be more than a touchdown (or anything at all) favorite over UW, Iowa, etc.