Football fields laid over baseball fields doesn't work very well for anyone. The fans, the teams or viewers on TV. Not to mention why when there is only 1 bowl game today did it start at 2:30?
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Monday Night Football would be my guess. Gotta protect the brands, even thought MNF has been absolute crap this season. SNF has been and always will be way better thanks to flex scheduling.
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According the official VT twitter (I'm on mobile, can't embed) it looks like Kevin Asante and Deon Clarke were sent home after last night (for reasons other than curfew) and Demetri Knowles never made the trip because he missed practices in Blacksburg.
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Edit: According the official VT twitter (I'm on mobile, can't embed) it looks like Kevin Asante and Deon Clarke were sent home after last night (for reasons other than curfew) and Demetri Knowles never made the trip because he missed practices in Blacksburg.
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We have a wild start to the Military Bowl. Pitt takes the opening kickoff to the house and then Navy drives down the field for a TD. Narduzzi still has much to learn about defending against that type of offense, though a bad GT this year didn't teach him the hard way.
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A good friend of mine went to Pitt, and according to him everyone has been dreading this game because of their inability to effectively stop a triple option.
And ACC record can suck it, I need a Navy win for my bracket. haha
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I was wondering about that. I saw them score the first TD, to go 31-14. Then I went downstairs to help my toddler put his Duplo train set away, and like five minutes later, I'm upstairs, and it's 31-21.
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It was kind of entertaining to watch. D-lineman (I think) got a helmet on the ball, which caromed off a couple of players and landed in the hands of a sprinting LB who took it to the house.
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It's just a question of what the bowls should represent. Historically, they have been an accolade for a good season. That threshold has been lowered as more and more bowls have been added, to the point that not only are teams with losing records making bowls, the level of competition is low enough that those losing teams are being competitive in the bowls.
If we're okay with bowls just being another non-conference game, that's fine. We're almost at that point now. But let's stop all the talk of bowl streaks, how many "bowl teams" are on the schedule, or any other mention of a bowl being some measure of the quality of a program.
Either way is fine. But bowls are essentially becoming participation trophies.
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What's the word on Baylor's QB health situation? If they are running the single-wing with that receiver at QB I'm not sure they stand much of a chance against a healthy UNC.
edit: this is the stupidest thing I have ever said and I want Briles to come run that single wing variant in Blacksburg.
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I'm not sure their D could stop UNC either way.. then again i've always viewed Baylor as one of those teams that wins solely because their offense scores on most drives. It seems (to me) like once the defense can figure out how to stop their offense, Baylor is sort of SOL.
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The Arizona Bowl is going to be on MASN for all of you junkies out there. The all-Mountain West Battle between Nevada and Colorado State....The first bowl game since 1994 to not be on national TV. For me, it's also on "My Network TV" which is a channel I've never watched before.
I know you're excited.
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Happily, it was done about as perfectly as it could have been. The field judge had a close call on a hit that was high and hard - when in doubt, it is a foul. So we've got a flag down and we're gonna talk about it. Ok, now we're going up to the replay booth. Booth says it was a clean hit, no foul, carry on.
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That unsportsmanlike penalty for playing without a helmet is strange to me. I understand it for player safety, but if a player loses a helmet it is usually because of hands to the face. So where is the flag for that?
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Yeah they would. Which makes more sense to me than an unsportsmanlike 15 yarder. It's going to be incredibly difficult to get a kid to stop playing after his helmet comes off. Like I said, I completely understand its for player safety and all and it makes sense in principle but incredibly difficult to ask a kid to stop mid-play when its their natural instinct to keep going.
edit: Art Briles just made my point for me.
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In a perfect world, it would have been flagged, but that's really tricky for the umpire to see. Even if that had been called, Oakman would have offset that foul with his own foul. No matter what, if your helmet comes off and you're not already in the act of tackling someone, you have to stop playing.
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Leave it to UNC to get dominated by a team that doesn't even have a QB or their top RB or one of the top WR in the country. So much for Chizik being a defensive genius. Did you not expect them to try to run the ball?
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This season isn't going to down as a black eye for Fedora. UNC's success this year is far beyond what they were even hoping for. USCe is the only bad loss out of the three. Baylor is a bit of a head-scratcher, but their athletes are phenomenal and their game plan was basically drawn up in the dirt.
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I don't. Trubisky (sp?) is going to be good once he becomes "the guy" and gets all of the starter reps. Imagine how good their offense could be without William's frustrating inconsistency. Of course, all of that will be moot if they cannot figure out how to tackle a RB.
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is Trubisky as mobile as Williams? From what I saw last night and out game against them, it seems that a lot of the good plays they had led from Williams scrambling to find an open receiver, or just taking it up the field himself. Could be wrong, but if hes not as mobile and limited more to the pocket it could be much different.
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Now that UNC-Baylor is over I'm watching LSU-TexasTech and I think I missed a news story. Are all this year's bowl games being played with 11 on offense vs 10 on defense, or just the Independence Bowl and today's games?
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LSU for some reason is trying to pass against a terrible run defense, while also having the third best running back in the nation. Not really understanding the strategy here.
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Justin Fuente made a really classy move by tweeting his support of Memphis today. I love that we have a coach with that amount of character. I'll be watching the bowl at 12, as well. We should get more of a view into how Fuente left his impact, and see more on Brad Cornelson. Go Memphis!
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I hate to break it to you....but the ACC is weak as shit. I would not be at all surprised if Clemson loses in spectacular fashion to OU.
I do think that, at least in the Coastal, the ACC did vastly improve the coaching pedigree this off-season. Let's see if it pans out. I think right now, and over the last 5 years, the ACC is and has been the weakest or second weakest of the P5 conferences. What really hurts the ACC is not having a national power. FSU 2 years ago and Clemson this year have been blips but the league lacks a consistent national contender (think OSU, Bama). I think the coaching up-grades could lead to better teams and more OOC wins for the league in a few years but only time will tell. As of right now, the ACC is garagegarbage. It's tough to argue otherwise.
edit: oops
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How can a team not have enough numbers to all the starters their own number? There should be no reason two guys in the field at the same time would have the same number.
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F em. I could care less about Conferenece "perception" because itnis meaningless anyway. Last years wet fart didn't hurt the SEC in the slightest, and winning 100% of their games wouldn't help the ACC in terms of what the talking heads were pushing.
So screw FSU
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I normally root for ACC schools in bowl games, except for UVA HAHAHA has that even happened?, but this year, after seeing how badly they're performing, I'm basically rooting for a narrative of, "out of all the bad ACC bowl performances, at least VT's steady reputation pulled through and they came out with a win."
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Couldn't agree more. I never have bought the "conference perception" thing either. I enjoyed watching UNC get whooped the other day and I'm enjoying watching FSU get whooped as well.
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Pregame: War chant.
Kickoff: War chant.
First down: War chant.
Red zone: War chant.
Touchdown: War chant.
Someone slaps a player on the butt: War chant.
Just caught Jimbo Fisher picking his nose on the jumbotron: War chant.
Hey! I just saw someone on the team inhale air: War chant.
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I'm happy to see Houston doing well. I'm a big fan of Tom Herman. I think he's going to be a top notch coach. Probably the first legend of his generation
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The ACC is 2 for 2 in terms of "Going undefeated gets you a playoff spot"
Not sure how much more help a conference needs/ should reasonably expect beyond that promise. Especially given that going undefeated is a lot easier for a team like our Hokies right now than most SEC/PAC 12 or big 10 teams
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I've given up on hoping the ACC does well. The ACC just isn't very good. There really is no arguing otherwise. I have found much more joy in rooting against teams I hate regardless of conference affiliation. I'm in a much better mood right now, for instance, than I would be if I was rooting for #goACC teams
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Well, @davidpollack47 said he'd get a grill if Houston held FSU to under 100 rushing yards. The Seminoles have minus-6 at the half #UHvsFSU— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) December 31, 2015
Yes I will hold myself accountable to what I said this morning on @CollegeGameDay
Dalvin Cook please break the 100 yard mark!!!!!!!— David Pollack (@davidpollack47) December 31, 2015
FSU currently at a net of 16 yd rushing with 12:50 left in the 4th quarter.
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That was a really outstanding blitz pickup by that Houston RB. Just shoved the blitzing defender aside to create a running lane about a mile wide for the QB. Hell of a play.
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Mariota is in a few of them. There's the haunted house one that was already mentioned, one where he asks a bunch of questions and then they all get ice cream, one where he changes jerseys while playing ping pong, and one with Jim Plunkett serving him food. Youtube has all of them
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What in the world are these refs doing? Calling Clemson for sideline interference when there wasn't a player or coach within 5-10 yards of the action? Pretty ridiculous.
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Yay, Clemson! Wish they would've tried to at least go for 2 there though. I'm listening to this game in the car on the way to Charleston/Folly Beach and I'm being too loud.
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Have been heavy user of Roku/Slingbox for bowls and wondering if anyone else has their feed lock up with a commercial showing an overhead view of an SUV in snow. Third time for me in two days, same commercial each time, requires restart. Very annoying.
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I was coming to this thread to post exactly this. They got bro'ed.
I'm curious how Clemson is going to handle Alabama. Today, it looked like Alabama was the only team on the field. Oklahoma made it interesting in the first half, but Michigan State looked like they couldn't do anything.
I'd like for Clemson to win, but it's hard to root against a team like Alabama that looks so incredibly dominant. I am delighted that the Big Ten got their tails handed to them, too. I got everything I wanted from the semifinals.
Now it's all about Notre Dame in my book
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The only time MSU really drove the ball was when they played tempo. Clemson can do that pretty well. I think we'll see quite the matchup for the lipstick trophy.
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Should be a great title game. I still think Bama is vulnerable to a team with vertical passing threats. Thing is they haven't played a single one all year (except Ole Miss...)
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For all the god-awful pale orange I have to see everyday. For all the people who still think it's 1998. For all the times I've been reminded that we don't have a national championship and that we are "chokies". For all the times I've had to hear Rocky Top. For all the times I have to hear the ACC sucks and for the worst line when they said Beamer retired because he was scared to play them. For how their fans sound like they're hurling after something good happens. For them saying Lane sucks. For living in a place where 75% of people wear the wrong color orange just because they know someone else who likes Tennessee. For all of this? GO NORTHWESTERN.
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I feel your pain. I wear it like an albatross around my neck. I can control it but I can never escape it. For all things I hold dear to my heart, I hope that our boys can pull out a win in Bristol. Not so I can gloat, but so the pain doesn't consume me like a puke orange jogging suit worn by an overweight invalid at walmart.
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My only reference is over on 11W, but most agree with the call. What many don't like is the fact that it's an ejection. I think many of us are of the same opinion; to be ejected there should be a clear intent to harm the other player. The call was 100% right, the rule itself isn't.
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My Facebook exploded with whiney OSU fans saying Bosa got screwed. I have to agree that he didn't get pulled from the game because of Kizer's safety, but I won't bother arguing with the entitled front on the rule itself.
Sloppy, sad play for Joey.
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If the object is safety, then you can say that if the player leads with the crown of the helmet he will be ejected. You can tackle a guy without hitting him in the chest with your helmet. You can't judge intent, but you can say that he didn't avoid the contact with the crown of his helmet.
In that play, I might add, he hit the QB after he had let go of the ball.
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I hate that there are 50 bowl games and 40 of them get slammed into the same day. Spread out the bowls please and they would all feel like a bigger deal.
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Iowa is fine, but their schedule set up about as perfectly as it possibly could to make any kind of run. They avoided the only teams worth a damn during the regular season in the Big 10.
Stanford is just really really good
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I don't know what I missed, but they panned waaaay the hell out on the Stanford band and I laughed my ass off anyway. It started off with the face of a cowboy and a galloping cow going across the field.
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It's a shame that McCaffery didn't play for an SEC team, because then maybe he would get the respect that his absolutely ridiculous amazing season deserved
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Not sure if this deserves its own thread. The overnight rating for the CFP semifinals are out, and they are TERRIBLE.
As in, down more than 1/3 compared to last year.
The difference? Last year, both semis were on New Years Day. But strangely enough, people decided they had other things to do on New Years Eve this year.
I didn't watch a down of either semi. I followed the score on my phone while ringing in the new year. And apparently so did everyone else.
Expect immediate changes to the rotation of the semis, so they're always played on New Year's Day.
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This doesn't surprise me. The wife and I went out with friends and lived it up Wednesday night, stayed home last night with the kids and my mom was in town and barely watched any of the Orange or Cotton.
Today while making dinner my wife asked "Is it just me or do we not care about the bowl games this year?"
Having the playoff games on NYE is a huge mistake. Next year when the Hokies are in the Peach Bowl for the playoff I will watch obviously...but until then my eyeballs will be elsewhere NYE moving forward.
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But enough people didn't for the to CFP brass to hit the panic button. Down 36% could be catastrophic if the networks promised advertisers a certain numbers rating. Even if they didn't, advertisers won't be excited at the drop and will think twice about if the investment is a smart one.
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I don't trust the ratings issued the next day. With New Years Eve going on I think many people watched the games as groups, game watch parties that turned into New Years Parties. Also not having anOSU and FSU in the playoff is going to hurt the ratings.
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36% is a pretty significant figure. I am sure more people than can be accounted for did watch in groups/ at parties.
With that said, watching commercials is the last thing I am doing even if I am watching a football game at a NYE party. This isn't the Super Bowl we are talking about here.
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Nobody watches commercials. But it's still ad revenue that supports the whole endeavor of the CFP. ABC sells the ad space with a pitch of "look how many people will see your commercial." That's the way ads have been sold since the dawn of television. And a 36% dip in ratings hurts the network's pitch.
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You're absolutely right. My point was that the drop this year was probably even worse from the marketing perspective because the viewers they did get were somewhat preoccupied with new year festivities. The companies buying the commercial slots are expecting a percentage of the viewers to actually be paying attention to the ads. And, in today's world of Dvr, live sporting events are probably the best chance to market on television.
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I can't believe that there was playoff game at 4pm EST on a work day (1pm out west - good luck getting many viewers there). I would not take a vacation day to watch a game that isn't the Hokies. Did not watch a down of the second game. Would have watched every down if the game was played today (Saturday). Most of my friends and coworkers agreed.
EDIT: wanted to add this poll from Stewart Mandel. Anyone who follows Mandel on twitter is a pretty serious CFB fan. If about a third of CFB fans are unable to watch the game (not just casual viewers) - that's a problem.
Let's find out ... Will New Year's Eve conflicts prevent you from watching one or both semifinals this year?— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 11, 2015
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The CFP is too gutless to do that, just like everything else involving the sport right now.
Unfortunately I could see the narrative easily being steered in the direction of "see!! People don't like the playoff. It devalues the season and makes NYE/New Years day not as important"
Which is of course false, but I could see it happening.
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I dunno. Remember, the Rose Bowl got left out of the Bowl Alliance because they refused to break from the Big 10/Pac-10 matchup. They came to their senses real quick when they say how successful the BA was, came back to the table and the BCS was born. The CFP has even more leverage than the BA did, and I guarantee you if the Rose Bowl's refussal to negotiate on date harms the bottom line of the CFP, they will leverage the hell out of the Rose Bowl.
I think you're confusing the CFP with the the NCAA.
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You may be right. But the CFP has already acquiesced to the Rose somewhat this year. They were unwilling to give up their status and time slot for the playoff.
The CFP may not be like the NCAA in all ways, but they seem to have the arrogance part down by really pushing this "new tradition" idea of NYE playoff games when it is clear they had other options (like playing the games today, for example, which probably would have netted them even bigger ratings than last year.
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You may be right. But the CFP has already acquiesced to the Rose somewhat this year. They were unwilling to give up their status and time slot for the playoff.
The Rose Bowl has it's own TV contract that was signed in 2012 and lasts through 2026. They couldn't 'give up' their time slot if they wanted to (unless ESPN was OK with it). Source
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My understanding from various articles is that ESPN did want to adjust the schedule for the big bowls and CFP, specifically to get the playoff games on today, but ran into issues from the CFP and the Rose Bowl in particular.
The bigger picture issue is that, yes, why should a game like the Rose Bowl give a rats ass about growing the game. It's about money in their pocket. I get it. But long term, ESPN survives off cable subscribers paying fees, which they are losing in droves. Eventually, these bowls, not just the Rose, might have to realize decisions might need to be made to make sure there are still people out there that even care to watch.
ESPN overpaid for a lot of broadcast rights, and I have sympathy for them.
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I'm a little confused... How does the Rose Bowl being played on Friday 1/1 prevent ESPN from broadcasting the playoff games on Saturday 1/2? CFP made the poor decision of playing the playoff games on 12/31. I don't see how the Rose Bowl can be faulted (this year at least)?
But long term, ESPN survives off cable subscribers paying fees, which they are losing in droves. Eventually, these bowls, not just the Rose, might have to realize decisions might need to be made to make sure there are still people out there that even care to watch.
Are you suggesting that if the Rose Bowl doesn't act united with other bowl games, that the sport could become irrelevant? Media/broadcasting is evolving at lightening speed. College football will be around longer than cable network business model. If college football is relevant, then the rose bowl will be too.
ESPN overpaid for a lot of broadcast rights, and I have sympathy for them.
Not sure if you read 'Those Guys Have All The Fun', but that was the business model John Skipper came up with - He felt that it was better for ESPN to overpay to own >50% of all live broadcasts than it is for ESPN to own 40% at the ideal cost. ESPN has to adapt their business model to match current consumer preferences, but that is business... I don't see how the Rose Bowl being difficult relates to ESPN's business model?
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I don't see it changing because the Rose Bowl isn't going to budge from its spot.
Rose bowl and Sugar Bowl have contracts in place to play on NYD, so there's not much the CFP could do. As I understood it, ESPN wanted to put the playoff games on Saturday (today), but CFP wanted to build a cultural phenomenon and try to 'own' NYE.
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And the verdict is in on that. It failed. They will now go back to the drawing board to figure out how to get out of the NYE timeslots, because they are ratings poison.
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While it's nave to think the games will be ignored and won't attract viewers, especially in traditional college football hotbeds, the current set-up does little to lure in casual fans in large and customarily pro-sports markets.
Comments from Jarred Grant, the director of nightlife at The Miami Beach Edition:
Grant estimates that there will be 70,000 tourists in South Beach this weekend who won't see a single play from either of the two semis. He says that Basement likely won't put the game on its televisions because it would take away from the party atmosphere.
The biggest thing that they are losing out on is the biggest demographic there is: ages 17 to 35," says Jarred Grant, the director of nightlife at The Miami Beach Edition. "No one ages 17 to 35 is home on New Year's Eve. It's going to be erased from the attention of a large sector of the population.
Comments from a restaurant/bar owner in Boston and Bethesda:
Kathy Sidell owns and operates four restaurants in and around Boston and another in Bethesda, Md. She says that she has gotten no calls about whether her establishments will be showing the games. "They're not a factor at all in any planning," she says. "I'd imagine they'll be background noise."
Is this what we want? For the first round of the playoffs to be 'background noise'? To disregard casual fans (or even fans who don't have a rooting interest in the game)? I hope the numbers are so terrible that change is forced.
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I've never seen this many blow outs in the major bowls before. There were eight big bowls between NYE and NYD and the closest one was a 14 point game. The average margin of victory was 28 points.
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That "non-P5 opponents" qualifier is a bit disingenuous. Notre Dame may not be P5, but they were ranked #8 going into that game. The B1G can easily point to anOSU dominating them. That, combined with Michigan's complete annihilation of the third best SEC team (going by rank) gives them a pretty decent counter-argument.
On the other hand, the Big12 has no real defense, against your point, or on the field.
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I didn't leave out ND to skew the numbers, I left them out because it doesn't help them at all with head-to-head reputation. If we are looking at the OSU-ND matchup, though, it's quite favorable for OSU. Notre Dame was the underdog, and their two best wins this year were actually losses to Clemson and Stanford.
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If I gathered anything from watching the NY6 games, it's that we need to go to an eight-team playoff. Ohio State and Stanford deserved to be in the field. I know MSU absolutely earned their B1G title and playoff spot on the field, but I can't help but think that OSU is far away the better team. If those teams played ten times, MSU may only win one or two, but one win was all it took for them to get into their conference title game and beat out OSU for the playoff.
We need to go to eight and give the champs of the P5 all automatic bids. Then we need three wildcards to preserve the drama of the selection process and prevent a situation that sometimes occurs when the better team doesn't win out. I would love to see Houston get a shot in an eight-team playoff this year as well. I don't think going to eight devalues the regular season at all, but it's a way to maintain an exciting and meaningful regular season while also setting up a very exciting postseason tournament.
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When was the last time a P5 champion wasn't ranked in the top 25? I don't think that requirement is necessary in a proactive manner. Maybe if a P5 conference has a champion out of the polls two years in a row or something. I honestly don't see that happening though
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Outside of our own bowl game (because I had a personal interest in it), the Alamo Bowl was by far the best bowl game I've watched. What a historic collapse by Oregon and/or comeback by TCU. The fact that Oregon had basically zero offense without Vernon Adams is astounding.
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I'm going to have to watch this replay today after a few good hours of wood choppin'. I went to a bar around halftime and the score was 31-0. I got home at 11:15 and turned on the AzSt bowl and saw the final score on the bottomline. I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you!
I'm glad TCU won and I am not glad that I already know the outcome.
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What an Alamo bowl game! It's amazing to see a backup quarterback come in, and play his guts out in the final game of his college career. He literally left his right elbow and maybe a couple of ribs on the field.
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Not sure if mentioned elsewhere on this thread but I think the overall bowl season was rather disappointing. Our game was a good one if you're not partial. I'm glad we got the win but did it in true VT fashion in not putting Tulsa away and letting them make a game of it. Who would have guess it would have been Dadi to get the 4th down sack, and a punishing one, should be a gif.
Anyhow, TCU's game was rather exciting although you had to stick around till the 2d half to have seen it. There was maybe one other good game. Overall though the games were mostly uninteresting matchups with unimpressive results. Even the playoff games weren't that exciting.
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This was a bad bowl season. The more bowls they add, the worse it seems to get. Which is not a coincidence I think.
Even if there were fewer bowls though, even the higher end ones were stinkers. The NYE 6 were not good, the New Year's Day bowls were meh to say the least.
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To me, the upper tier bowls were almost all crap, Alamo Bowl aside, it was the Duke/Indiana , WV/ASU or VT/Tulsa type games that made bowl season worth watching... and those would be the games lost if we were to lose some of the bowl games
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Yup. Most of the lower tier bowls, I thought, were enjoyable. And to say that more bowl games means bad games is kind of ignorant. If we did a better job with match-ups it wouldn't be a problem but they get to deep into tickets and money instead of on field product. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
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This was a bad bowl season. The more bowls they add, the worse it seems to get. Which is not a coincidence I think.
I think last year's NY6 bowls were some of the best of all time, and I think we only added 1 bowl new bowl game? I think that there were a lot of teams that weren't as good as their records indicate (UNC, Texas Tech, Northwestern, Iowa, Florida). These teams all had weak OOC schedules; it was tough to tell how good they really were.
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i was going to post a separate topic on this, but here is a pretty good summary and review of all of the 40 bowl games played so far from worst, to best.
You may remember that Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech was ranked #38 before the bowl game. It seems that CBS enjoyed our prolific offense in Coach Beamer's final game and upped us to #5.
I don't know where to post this, but I guess this is the best place. Tennessee fans are back to thinking they're on the road to the national championship again (like they've been thinking for the last 8 years) because they won their bowl game. I responded to one tweet Isaiah retweeted and now I can barely wade through twitter because of all of the hate I'm getting. I'm just laughing. UVA fans cannot be this bad...
@Merdok1993 Meredith, the men are talking. Please,report back to the kitchen.— Popcorn Sutton (@PopcornSutton__) January 5, 2016
LOL I means because Your Hokes are going to get destroyed in front of the largest crowd in CFB History Hahaha. https://t.co/MCKCtU04gw— Shawn (@ShawnFinchum) January 5, 2016
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lol what total douches. Same dude who had this to say about Chubb's injury against UT
I crack TF up every time I'm reminded of Chubb passing out like a drunk on the sideline after he got hurt.— Popcorn Sutton (@PopcornSutton__) January 5, 2016
edit: Reading this dudes tweets is an absolute cancer. I don't think anyone has gotten under my skin this bad without actually speaking to me. Telling people to go kill themselves and berating opposing fans. He is 4chan if it could tweet. If we beat them next year, I will light this asshole troll up no holds barred on Twitter.
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Funny enough, he actually retweeted that same tweet. This guy is proud of it. Not sure if he is smart enough to realize that it's that attitude which is hurting UT's national perception. The HokieNation twitter account is the perfect example of how to remain mostly classy and still poke fun at other teams and their fans. He should take notes.
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Tennessee fans are back to thinking they're on the road to the national championship again (like they've been thinking for the last 8 years) because they won their bowl game.
Meh, they've looked good closing out the season. They do kind remind me a lot of FSU 2011 - just the way they're building talent and progressing year to year. I think they win the SEC East next year, and get a bid to an NY6 bowl.
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winning the SEC East is about as hard as winning the ACC Atlantic. For perspective
You say that like it's something to be ashamed of? Right now the SEC East is still one of the five or six toughest divisions in football. I just saying that they're trending in the right direction.
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the SEC West is THE top division in football. The SEC East is absolutely not one of the top 6 divisions in football. UT and Florida are the best teams in that division and they would struggle in just about any other conference including some of the P5 conferences. Florida was just breaths away from losing to lowly ECU and they won that division anyway. Without a QB. That division is not good.
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The SEC East is a top 6 division by default because there are only 8 P5 divisions, and even then it's close. In no particular order
SEC West
Pac12 North & South
Big10 East (is that leaders or legends?) whichever one is OSU, MSU, Michigan
ACC Atlantic (Clemson alone is so light years ahead of any SEC East team)
The ACC Coastal is better too IMO, even with all its chaos
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you left out big12. I know that conference doesn't really have divisions but UF and UT wouldn't stand a chance in that league and they are the creme de la creme of the SEC least
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To be fair Florida won 10 games, but yea, they are awful. The coaches had a hand in that too. Arkansas just beat us, not much to say about that. We lost 4 games to 3 top 10 teams, and 2 playoff teams by a total of 17 points. We lead all of them late in the 4th.
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If only the games were 45 minutes long! You trailed all of them when the game was over though, which is what really matters. So basically, you had a hard time closing. Good, but not good enough.
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No doubt we screwed around big time in the first half of the year. We should have had at least 2 more wins than we did, but couldn't finish to save our lives.
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UT will overlook us next year and have their hands full with us in Bristol. I think UT will be favored by 2 scores but it'll be much closer than that. We may even win. UT could very well go on to win the SEC East (because they should undoubtedly be the best team in that division) but get smoked in the SEC CG
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Giving up 17 point leads are not the sign of a really good team, regardless of whether or not a coach "stops trying", which I am not sure is necessarily true.
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Much like Frank, I find it less than sportsmanlike to blow a team out, and it makes a more exciting game when it's close at the end. The Oklahoma game was a tribute to my team's mental toughness which is critical to the ongoing process of building this program.
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Commenting because I want to save those tweets so I can tweet them back at Asshole Sutton there if we happen to beat UT next year. I'm thinking something along the lines of, "The Hokies are winning football games here. Please, report back to mediocrity."
Really hope we come out to play next year just because I want to Stone Cold Stunner this douche canoe.
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We really need to have a UT hate week like we do for UVA the week before the game. I know and grew up with one of the guys who were spamming me and I don't think they realized it was me at first. Going to be entertaining from here on out.
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You guys might want to rethink that. From what I hear, those Hatin' On threads don't always work out so well. You wouldn't want Bristol to turn out the same way as Cincy @ FedEx Field did. Maybe Antone Exum can show up in Bristol and interfere with some more passes.
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I agree. I also have the misfortune of knowing one of the people who was hopping on the hate Hokiegirl train. Granted he is younger than me by about 4 years. He's flunked out of two universities now neither of which were UT. So you know, there isn't much validity to anything he has to say.
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Comments
Really impressed with the job UVA's new staff is doing for BYU today.
They're transitioning nicely.
App State up early on Ohio.
Appalachian solidarity.
He who shall not be named pulled a win from somewhere against New Mexico.
They led the whole game. It's really more a case of just managing to not lose.
I watched a few minutes and came away even more unimpressed with him. They should have easily had that game in the bag.
Oh, what could have been..........
(/s)
So far, the Celebration Bowl was the highlight of the day. Just wish we'd gotten to see the bands at halftime.
I would have thought that would be a huge draw the bands.
Oh they performed, ESPN just thought 4 dudes around a table talking about obvious things was more important.
Not a bowl game per se, but I've been watching the DII championship game between Shepherd and NW MO St (I have a cousin in Shepherd's team).
Shepherd's backup QB is Connor Jessup, a transfer from Tech. What's the story on why he left, if there is one?
Never heard of him
Welp, that answers my question.
I'm just surprised that Raycom Media can afford to sponsor a bowl...
Can App state pull this off and keep me perfect!
Didn't see this one...
There are only so many pixels in the universe to get every bowl logo in a single picture
But in the Hokie Universe, it is the only one that matters. Just sayin'.
Looks like Tech has sold or will be "using" 3,000 tickets so they are off the hook for paying for "unused" tickets.
https://twitter.com/rtd_mikebarber/status/678960055962705920
Football fields laid over baseball fields doesn't work very well for anyone. The fans, the teams or viewers on TV. Not to mention why when there is only 1 bowl game today did it start at 2:30?
Monday Night Football would be my guess. Gotta protect the brands, even thought MNF has been absolute crap this season. SNF has been and always will be way better thanks to flex scheduling.
Good call didn't even think about that.
Anyone else see that misdirection play by WKU? That was pretty.
Not the defense, amirite?
WKU representing now.
Coach Brohm gonna get paid at 11-2.
I picked the Hilltoppers to win this one. I hope they can hold on.
Thank goodness it's cloudy there.
You wouldn't be able to watch from the helmet glare.
That's amazing, if you look really closely, you can see that no one actually took the picture... creepy....
I see you Harry Potter.
...I mean, I don't see you.
This game has me thirsty for a Rogers to Brewer connection. Or a Rogers to Pylon connection.
Glad UVA didn't hire Jeff Brohm.
LOLUVA
It seems like almost every bowl game so far this year it has rained.
According the official VT twitter (I'm on mobile, can't embed) it looks like Kevin Asante and Deon Clarke were sent home after last night (for reasons other than curfew) and Demetri Knowles never made the trip because he missed practices in Blacksburg.
It looks like someone went muddin on the field of the St. Petersburg Bowl.
Am I the only one impressed with Marshalls true freshman QB? Yes, he has a lot to work on, but it seems as if he has great potential.
Jimbo Fisher and FSU just announced Everett Golson will NOT play in the bowl game. He has officially "left the team for personal reasons"
Rooting for Mike Leach's boys to torch Miami. ACC bowl record be damned.
Snowing hard in El Paso, can someone please get the ACC to get better bowl games!
That Miami trick play was bad
That Miami coach is a fucking idiot.
Whoa, did Indiana get robbed on that OT FG attempt?
No. If the uprights were extended any higher it would have hit them and bounced off. The underneath angle that ESPN showed was very misleading.
A kick that goes directly above an upright is still good.
Nope, that's the NFL. Has to pass between the inside of the uprights in college.
We have a wild start to the Military Bowl. Pitt takes the opening kickoff to the house and then Navy drives down the field for a TD. Narduzzi still has much to learn about defending against that type of offense, though a bad GT this year didn't teach him the hard way.
A good friend of mine went to Pitt, and according to him everyone has been dreading this game because of their inability to effectively stop a triple option.
And ACC record can suck it, I need a Navy win for my bracket. haha
This is embarrassing and satisfying at the same time. I hate having to play them every year.
Pitt has made it a game, again, off offensive and defensive TDs within 12 seconds of each other
I was wondering about that. I saw them score the first TD, to go 31-14. Then I went downstairs to help my toddler put his Duplo train set away, and like five minutes later, I'm upstairs, and it's 31-21.
It was kind of entertaining to watch. D-lineman (I think) got a helmet on the ball, which caromed off a couple of players and landed in the hands of a sprinting LB who took it to the house.
looks like the ACC is breaking even thus far in the bowl season
The B1G is making the most out of their "charity bowl" bids, with Minnesota and Nebraska winning in the last few days
The 5-7 Bowl Teams are 3-0.
A definite argument that there's too damn many bowls.
When teams with losing records are competitive, what does it say about the quality of teams getting bowl invites?
I think it says that the kids appreciate the extra opportunity to prove themselves and it lends to better football.
Too many for what? Who is harmed by the excess bowls?
It's just a question of what the bowls should represent. Historically, they have been an accolade for a good season. That threshold has been lowered as more and more bowls have been added, to the point that not only are teams with losing records making bowls, the level of competition is low enough that those losing teams are being competitive in the bowls.
If we're okay with bowls just being another non-conference game, that's fine. We're almost at that point now. But let's stop all the talk of bowl streaks, how many "bowl teams" are on the schedule, or any other mention of a bowl being some measure of the quality of a program.
Either way is fine. But bowls are essentially becoming participation trophies.
The UNC and Baylor game should be interesting today. I'm definitely looking forward to watching it.
What's the word on Baylor's QB health situation? If they are running the single-wing with that receiver at QB I'm not sure they stand much of a chance against a healthy UNC.
edit: this is the stupidest thing I have ever said and I want Briles to come run that single wing variant in Blacksburg.
I'm not sure their D could stop UNC either way.. then again i've always viewed Baylor as one of those teams that wins solely because their offense scores on most drives. It seems (to me) like once the defense can figure out how to stop their offense, Baylor is sort of SOL.
"Pssh. Quarterback, Schmuarterback."
-Art Briles
What's the over/under on that one?
Actually, no, I don't care. I'll take the over.
North Carolina's offense is looking like... North Carolina's offense. I think time of possession is going to be a big factor in this game.
Go Bears
The ACC has looked like trash this bowl season so far.
if it walks like a duck.....
Baylor is taking full advantage of unc's mistakes.
The Arizona Bowl is going to be on MASN for all of you junkies out there. The all-Mountain West Battle between Nevada and Colorado State....The first bowl game since 1994 to not be on national TV. For me, it's also on "My Network TV" which is a channel I've never watched before.
I know you're excited.
Carolina looks about as interested in this game as they are in going to class...
"That's alright, we'll get them in March!" - UNC
Well look at that, the replay booth got a targeting call right.
Yeah. If that had been upheld I would have been upset.
Happily, it was done about as perfectly as it could have been. The field judge had a close call on a hit that was high and hard - when in doubt, it is a foul. So we've got a flag down and we're gonna talk about it. Ok, now we're going up to the replay booth. Booth says it was a clean hit, no foul, carry on.
My thoughts exactly. Meanwhile, ESPN found a guy in the crowd wearing a VT shirt, and made sure to get him in the shot. Bravo.
VT = ratings
That unsportsmanlike penalty for playing without a helmet is strange to me. I understand it for player safety, but if a player loses a helmet it is usually because of hands to the face. So where is the flag for that?
Then they would offset right?
Yeah they would. Which makes more sense to me than an unsportsmanlike 15 yarder. It's going to be incredibly difficult to get a kid to stop playing after his helmet comes off. Like I said, I completely understand its for player safety and all and it makes sense in principle but incredibly difficult to ask a kid to stop mid-play when its their natural instinct to keep going.
edit: Art Briles just made my point for me.
In a perfect world, it would have been flagged, but that's really tricky for the umpire to see. Even if that had been called, Oakman would have offset that foul with his own foul. No matter what, if your helmet comes off and you're not already in the act of tackling someone, you have to stop playing.
There is the UNC we all know.
Leave it to UNC to get dominated by a team that doesn't even have a QB or their top RB or one of the top WR in the country. So much for Chizik being a defensive genius. Did you not expect them to try to run the ball?
UNcheat lost to every team they faced on a neutral field. Fedora should have jumped to a better job when he had a chance to.
This season isn't going to down as a black eye for Fedora. UNC's success this year is far beyond what they were even hoping for. USCe is the only bad loss out of the three. Baylor is a bit of a head-scratcher, but their athletes are phenomenal and their game plan was basically drawn up in the dirt.
I think UNC takes a serious step back next year without Williams at QB. He turned out to be a much better QB than I was expecting.
I don't. Trubisky (sp?) is going to be good once he becomes "the guy" and gets all of the starter reps. Imagine how good their offense could be without William's frustrating inconsistency. Of course, all of that will be moot if they cannot figure out how to tackle a RB.
is Trubisky as mobile as Williams? From what I saw last night and out game against them, it seems that a lot of the good plays they had led from Williams scrambling to find an open receiver, or just taking it up the field himself. Could be wrong, but if hes not as mobile and limited more to the pocket it could be much different.
Serves them right for beating us at Lane. Didn't they get the memo? #LayDown4Beamer
I'm glad Brewer got to win bowl games with Tech instead of Texas Tech
Now that UNC-Baylor is over I'm watching LSU-TexasTech and I think I missed a news story. Are all this year's bowl games being played with 11 on offense vs 10 on defense, or just the Independence Bowl and today's games?
LSU for some reason is trying to pass against a terrible run defense, while also having the third best running back in the nation. Not really understanding the strategy here.
I think Fournette will be drafted higher than those other two guys. He is a physical specimen unlike any other.
Yup, I think fournette will have the best career at the next level, of those three.
Fournette is easily the best back in college football. It will show in the NFL. Not a knock on others.
Justin Fuente made a really classy move by tweeting his support of Memphis today. I love that we have a coach with that amount of character. I'll be watching the bowl at 12, as well. We should get more of a view into how Fuente left his impact, and see more on Brad Cornelson. Go Memphis!
I wish I could watch their game to day. Unfortunately I must sit at my desk staring at my email (like many others here I'm sure).
Thanks UNC for making the ACC look weak as shit..
....
I hate to break it to you....but the ACC is weak as shit. I would not be at all surprised if Clemson loses in spectacular fashion to OU.
I do think that, at least in the Coastal, the ACC did vastly improve the coaching pedigree this off-season. Let's see if it pans out. I think right now, and over the last 5 years, the ACC is and has been the weakest or second weakest of the P5 conferences. What really hurts the ACC is not having a national power. FSU 2 years ago and Clemson this year have been blips but the league lacks a consistent national contender (think OSU, Bama). I think the coaching up-grades could lead to better teams and more OOC wins for the league in a few years but only time will tell. As of right now, the ACC is
garagegarbage. It's tough to argue otherwise.edit: oops
I wouldn't say the ACC is garage, I think maybe it's carport.
touche. fixed
I never want to play Miss St in a neutral site game. Those cowbells are so annoying.
I had impaired hearing after the LSU-Mississippi State game.
I never want to hear another cowbell.
NC State just got absolutely jobbed.
Amazingly, NC State is showing some signs of life.
Louisville is looking really good.
Too bad they couldn't do this to start the season.
The ACC finally won another bowl game
Trevone Boykin arrested, will not play.
Star-Telegraph
Pulling for FSU, Clemson, and MSU today!
ACC needs to show up in a big way today and anytime the $EC loses is a good day.
How can a team not have enough numbers to all the starters their own number? There should be no reason two guys in the field at the same time would have the same number.
Not gonna lie, hurt my heart seeing Maguire go down like that. Hope it is nothing serious and he can get back out there.
Did his lineman just walk away from him as he was trying to walk?
Yeah it looked like he looked at him and saw him clearly in pain but just walked away.
So how about that Florida State 2nd string QB going down? Let's see how 3rd stringer does.
Look at Josh Sweat...thought he was the one who picked it off, but I guess he was the one who batted it.
Thanks FSU, doing a great job representing the ACC so far.
Houston is the best football team in Texas this year, and it's not even close.
It's not that hard to do. The state of Texas is a bit like the ACC right now
FSU might get run off the field at this rate.
F em. I could care less about Conferenece "perception" because itnis meaningless anyway. Last years wet fart didn't hurt the SEC in the slightest, and winning 100% of their games wouldn't help the ACC in terms of what the talking heads were pushing.
So screw FSU
I normally root for ACC schools in bowl games,
except for UVAHAHAHA has that even happened?, but this year, after seeing how badly they're performing, I'm basically rooting for a narrative of, "out of all the bad ACC bowl performances, at least VT's steady reputation pulled through and they came out with a win."Couldn't agree more. I never have bought the "conference perception" thing either. I enjoyed watching UNC get whooped the other day and I'm enjoying watching FSU get whooped as well.
It looks like FSU has checked out , unmotivated and ready for the bus. Positive is we do not have to listen to that stupid war chant.
Pregame: War chant.
Kickoff: War chant.
First down: War chant.
Red zone: War chant.
Touchdown: War chant.
Someone slaps a player on the butt: War chant.
Just caught Jimbo Fisher picking his nose on the jumbotron: War chant.
Hey! I just saw someone on the team inhale air: War chant.
Kind of like watching the Belk Bowl yesterday.
[ something happens on the field ] *Insane clattering of cowbells*
CLANGA CLANGA CLANGA
I'm happy to see Houston doing well. I'm a big fan of Tom Herman. I think he's going to be a top notch coach. Probably the first legend of his generation
Personally I like to see the ACC doing well. It helps with revenue, game times, bowl game invites and yes playoff berths.
The ACC is 2 for 2 in terms of "Going undefeated gets you a playoff spot"
Not sure how much more help a conference needs/ should reasonably expect beyond that promise. Especially given that going undefeated is a lot easier for a team like our Hokies right now than most SEC/PAC 12 or big 10 teams
I've given up on hoping the ACC does well. The ACC just isn't very good. There really is no arguing otherwise. I have found much more joy in rooting against teams I hate regardless of conference affiliation. I'm in a much better mood right now, for instance, than I would be if I was rooting for #goACC teams
Go Sooners!
FSU currently at a net of 16 yd rushing with 12:50 left in the 4th quarter.
WHAT WAS THAT!!
Ruh roh, fsu
This one looks like it'll have an exciting end to it
All that talent at FSU, and they're getting way outplayed.
That was a really outstanding blitz pickup by that Houston RB. Just shoved the blitzing defender aside to create a running lane about a mile wide for the QB. Hell of a play.
"Yeah, but we just didn't feel like being there. We're still much better than Houston"
-Florida State Fans, I'm guessing.
Was that Herman's wife next to him at the end there? Good work bro.
As I said, screw FSU. They look like they showed up expecting to roll.
It's up to Florida's non-existent offense to try to avoid the state of Florida going winless in bowls this year.
Miami: lost.
FSU: lost.
USF: lost.
UF: ?
And there goes that.
Is the Heisman house commericals just full of retired old guys and young ones who are not living up to potential in the NFL?
Are there any other types of Heisman winners lately?
I haven't seen: Winston, Marioto, Ingram or Newton in them yet.
Mariota was in one or two this year, one was about how the house was haunted by the first Heisman winner.
Mariota is in a few of them. There's the haunted house one that was already mentioned, one where he asks a bunch of questions and then they all get ice cream, one where he changes jerseys while playing ping pong, and one with Jim Plunkett serving him food. Youtube has all of them
Dolphins and Hurricanes fans take note, this is what a stadium full of fans playing for something looks like.
Officials already making bad calls in the Orange Bowl. Ball is 3 yards out of bounds
Sweet of them not to call the gut-wrenching face mask right after.
Anyone else ever wonder what it'd be like, if Bud Foster & Brent Venables had a battle of sideline gestures?
And then the world would explode.
I guess Dabo isn't mad at his punter any longer.
Sideline interference flag on Clemson, and I can't for the life of me figure out what for.
And just a warning to OU for the same thing?!?
What in the world are these refs doing? Calling Clemson for sideline interference when there wasn't a player or coach within 5-10 yards of the action? Pretty ridiculous.
Does Oklahoma's band always do that god awful droning/blaring thing before every defensive play?
I am hating that. It's an unsportsmanlike thing the MVs don't do. It's worse than the stupid FSU chop chant.
It's honestly just not a fair way to get sound into the stadium. If you have to rely on your band instead of your fans thats kind of sad. imo.
Yay, Clemson! Wish they would've tried to at least go for 2 there though. I'm listening to this game in the car on the way to Charleston/Folly Beach and I'm being too loud.
Have been heavy user of Roku/Slingbox for bowls and wondering if anyone else has their feed lock up with a commercial showing an overhead view of an SUV in snow. Third time for me in two days, same commercial each time, requires restart. Very annoying.
Roku/Slingbox here, no issues.
Say what you will regarding the ACC this bowl season...but Clemson is now officially whupping OU
I switched my bowl pick em three minutes before kickoff.
Congrats Clemson
Bama is currently "38-0 bro"-ing MSU. The title game is going to be a heck of a matchup.
I was coming to this thread to post exactly this. They got bro'ed.
I'm curious how Clemson is going to handle Alabama. Today, it looked like Alabama was the only team on the field. Oklahoma made it interesting in the first half, but Michigan State looked like they couldn't do anything.
I'd like for Clemson to win, but it's hard to root against a team like Alabama that looks so incredibly dominant. I am delighted that the Big Ten got their tails handed to them, too. I got everything I wanted from the semifinals.
Now it's all about Notre Dame in my book
The only time MSU really drove the ball was when they played tempo. Clemson can do that pretty well. I think we'll see quite the matchup for the lipstick trophy.
I'd like for Clemson to win, but it's hard to root against a team like Alabama that looks so incredibly dominant.
No it's not. I'll be pulling for Clemson all the way this year.
Not sure if I over valued MSU or undervalued Bama. Or I just don't like Bama.
I'm looking forward to work on Monday when all of the Alabama fans talk about all of the horrendous flaws they have.
Yea, Alabama really wasn't prepared -- and it showed.
/s
No....they will actually sit around in a circle and talk about how they looked terrible.
Should be a great title game. I still think Bama is vulnerable to a team with vertical passing threats. Thing is they haven't played a single one all year (except Ole Miss...)
Wow, Bama is about to 38-0 (bro) Sparty.
I hope Watson has some magic bottled up for the title game.
Alabama has now won more games in Dallas this season than the Cowboys.
For all the god-awful pale orange I have to see everyday. For all the people who still think it's 1998. For all the times I've been reminded that we don't have a national championship and that we are "chokies". For all the times I've had to hear Rocky Top. For all the times I have to hear the ACC sucks and for the worst line when they said Beamer retired because he was scared to play them. For how their fans sound like they're hurling after something good happens. For them saying Lane sucks. For living in a place where 75% of people wear the wrong color orange just because they know someone else who likes Tennessee. For all of this? GO NORTHWESTERN.
I feel your pain. I wear it like an albatross around my neck. I can control it but I can never escape it. For all things I hold dear to my heart, I hope that our boys can pull out a win in Bristol. Not so I can gloat, but so the pain doesn't consume me like a puke orange jogging suit worn by an overweight invalid at walmart.
A leg just for your description of a Vol fan at the end there
I know it's Tennessee but...
#TeamBloominOnion
Why do the bad teams always get the onion!!
Dirty Tenn with three late hits in the 1st qt.
What is with these teams that make it to a bowl and look like they have no idea how to pull off a forward pass
Bosa just ejected from the Fiesta Bowl for leading with the crown
Was just about to say that. Big loss for the OSU defense.
It was pretty clear. Not sure why so many anOSU and other fans are so livid about that call.
Are they? Unlike some targeting calls which are questionable, that was clearly targeting per the definition.
My only reference is over on 11W, but most agree with the call. What many don't like is the fact that it's an ejection. I think many of us are of the same opinion; to be ejected there should be a clear intent to harm the other player. The call was 100% right, the rule itself isn't.
My Facebook exploded with whiney OSU fans saying Bosa got screwed. I have to agree that he didn't get pulled from the game because of Kizer's safety, but I won't bother arguing with the entitled front on the rule itself.
Sloppy, sad play for Joey.
If the object is safety, then you can say that if the player leads with the crown of the helmet he will be ejected. You can tackle a guy without hitting him in the chest with your helmet. You can't judge intent, but you can say that he didn't avoid the contact with the crown of his helmet.
In that play, I might add, he hit the QB after he had let go of the ball.
UF just ran the confused QB play!
I hate that there are 50 bowl games and 40 of them get slammed into the same day. Spread out the bowls please and they would all feel like a bigger deal.
They would feel like a bigger deal if they were a bigger deal. In other words, if there weren't 42 of them.
They're slammed into New Years Day because people have the day off and what else is there to do on New Year's Day?
I am not loving this Fiesta Bowl. Come on Notre Dame when are you going to start Notre Dame-ing!
Over on the 4 letter, there is already an article about how the NCG is kind of a "glorified SEC game"...because Clemson is so similar to SEC schools.
Barf. Already laying the groundwork to hedge in case Clemson and their actual offense pose a threat and beat Bama.
And when Texas A&M loses their bowl game it doesn't count against the SEC because they're "basically still a big XII team"
Whelp that was fast for Stanford.
Stanford is going to kill Iowa. Too bad for them they lost to a slightly above average NW
I really thought Iowa looked good this year.
Iowa is fine, but their schedule set up about as perfectly as it possibly could to make any kind of run. They avoided the only teams worth a damn during the regular season in the Big 10.
Stanford is just really really good
McCaffrey though.... So good.
Christian McCaffery is playing like a man who knows he got screwed over in the Heisman voting.
https://twitter.com/sbnrecruiting/status/683060002584526848
I don't know what I missed, but they panned waaaay the hell out on the Stanford band and I laughed my ass off anyway. It started off with the face of a cowboy and a galloping cow going across the field.
I HATE the Stanford "band"
FarmersOnly.com tribute
Major depression at the 'ol homestead this evening. My Hawkeye bride & I were hoping for a better showing by the boys from Iowa City.
It's a shame that McCaffery didn't play for an SEC team, because then maybe he would get the respect that his absolutely ridiculous amazing season deserved
Not sure if this deserves its own thread. The overnight rating for the CFP semifinals are out, and they are TERRIBLE.
As in, down more than 1/3 compared to last year.
The difference? Last year, both semis were on New Years Day. But strangely enough, people decided they had other things to do on New Years Eve this year.
I didn't watch a down of either semi. I followed the score on my phone while ringing in the new year. And apparently so did everyone else.
Expect immediate changes to the rotation of the semis, so they're always played on New Year's Day.
This doesn't surprise me. The wife and I went out with friends and lived it up Wednesday night, stayed home last night with the kids and my mom was in town and barely watched any of the Orange or Cotton.
Today while making dinner my wife asked "Is it just me or do we not care about the bowl games this year?"
Having the playoff games on NYE is a huge mistake. Next year when the Hokies are in the Peach Bowl for the playoff I will watch obviously...but until then my eyeballs will be elsewhere NYE moving forward.
See I disagree, my wife and I and three kids were all home and I watched both games whistle to whistle.
But enough people didn't for the to CFP brass to hit the panic button. Down 36% could be catastrophic if the networks promised advertisers a certain numbers rating. Even if they didn't, advertisers won't be excited at the drop and will think twice about if the investment is a smart one.
I don't trust the ratings issued the next day. With New Years Eve going on I think many people watched the games as groups, game watch parties that turned into New Years Parties. Also not having anOSU and FSU in the playoff is going to hurt the ratings.
Dude...
36%. That's not getting explained away. Especially not to the advertisers who keep this whole thing afloat.
36% is a pretty significant figure. I am sure more people than can be accounted for did watch in groups/ at parties.
With that said, watching commercials is the last thing I am doing even if I am watching a football game at a NYE party. This isn't the Super Bowl we are talking about here.
Yep. There are a lot of viewers that are casually keeping up with the game. They definitely aren't watching commercials.
Nobody watches commercials. But it's still ad revenue that supports the whole endeavor of the CFP. ABC sells the ad space with a pitch of "look how many people will see your commercial." That's the way ads have been sold since the dawn of television. And a 36% dip in ratings hurts the network's pitch.
You're absolutely right. My point was that the drop this year was probably even worse from the marketing perspective because the viewers they did get were somewhat preoccupied with new year festivities. The companies buying the commercial slots are expecting a percentage of the viewers to actually be paying attention to the ads. And, in today's world of Dvr, live sporting events are probably the best chance to market on television.
I can't believe that there was playoff game at 4pm EST on a work day (1pm out west - good luck getting many viewers there). I would not take a vacation day to watch a game that isn't the Hokies. Did not watch a down of the second game. Would have watched every down if the game was played today (Saturday). Most of my friends and coworkers agreed.
EDIT: wanted to add this poll from Stewart Mandel. Anyone who follows Mandel on twitter is a pretty serious CFB fan. If about a third of CFB fans are unable to watch the game (not just casual viewers) - that's a problem.
We had friends over and I got the new Guitar Hero for Christmas so that's what we did.
Yeah, the games that matter should be on Jan 1. Most people have other things to do on the 31st... Maybe watch the peach bowl but that's it.
I think it does deserve its own thread. I don't see it changing because the Rose Bowl isn't going to budge from its spot.
They will if the alternative is getting kicked out of the CFP.
The CFP is too gutless to do that, just like everything else involving the sport right now.
Unfortunately I could see the narrative easily being steered in the direction of "see!! People don't like the playoff. It devalues the season and makes NYE/New Years day not as important"
Which is of course false, but I could see it happening.
I dunno. Remember, the Rose Bowl got left out of the Bowl Alliance because they refused to break from the Big 10/Pac-10 matchup. They came to their senses real quick when they say how successful the BA was, came back to the table and the BCS was born. The CFP has even more leverage than the BA did, and I guarantee you if the Rose Bowl's refussal to negotiate on date harms the bottom line of the CFP, they will leverage the hell out of the Rose Bowl.
I think you're confusing the CFP with the the NCAA.
You may be right. But the CFP has already acquiesced to the Rose somewhat this year. They were unwilling to give up their status and time slot for the playoff.
The CFP may not be like the NCAA in all ways, but they seem to have the arrogance part down by really pushing this "new tradition" idea of NYE playoff games when it is clear they had other options (like playing the games today, for example, which probably would have netted them even bigger ratings than last year.
The Rose Bowl has it's own TV contract that was signed in 2012 and lasts through 2026. They couldn't 'give up' their time slot if they wanted to (unless ESPN was OK with it). Source
The rumor going around was that ESPN wanted to change the day for the CFP but the Rose Bowl refused, #sauces
My understanding from various articles is that ESPN did want to adjust the schedule for the big bowls and CFP, specifically to get the playoff games on today, but ran into issues from the CFP and the Rose Bowl in particular.
The bigger picture issue is that, yes, why should a game like the Rose Bowl give a rats ass about growing the game. It's about money in their pocket. I get it. But long term, ESPN survives off cable subscribers paying fees, which they are losing in droves. Eventually, these bowls, not just the Rose, might have to realize decisions might need to be made to make sure there are still people out there that even care to watch.
ESPN overpaid for a lot of broadcast rights, and I have sympathy for them.
I'm a little confused... How does the Rose Bowl being played on Friday 1/1 prevent ESPN from broadcasting the playoff games on Saturday 1/2? CFP made the poor decision of playing the playoff games on 12/31. I don't see how the Rose Bowl can be faulted (this year at least)?
Are you suggesting that if the Rose Bowl doesn't act united with other bowl games, that the sport could become irrelevant? Media/broadcasting is evolving at lightening speed. College football will be around longer than cable network business model. If college football is relevant, then the rose bowl will be too.
Not sure if you read 'Those Guys Have All The Fun', but that was the business model John Skipper came up with - He felt that it was better for ESPN to overpay to own >50% of all live broadcasts than it is for ESPN to own 40% at the ideal cost. ESPN has to adapt their business model to match current consumer preferences, but that is business... I don't see how the Rose Bowl being difficult relates to ESPN's business model?
Rose bowl and Sugar Bowl have contracts in place to play on NYD, so there's not much the CFP could do. As I understood it, ESPN wanted to put the playoff games on Saturday (today), but CFP wanted to build a cultural phenomenon and try to 'own' NYE.
And the verdict is in on that. It failed. They will now go back to the drawing board to figure out how to get out of the NYE timeslots, because they are ratings poison.
But...but...we CAN'T disrupt the ROSE BOWL, can we!?!? What will we ever do if we can't watch a PAC12 team whup a BigTen team mid-afternoon?! /s
Interesting article on this:
http://www.campusrush.com/college-football-playoff-new-years-eve-1532356...
Some telling quotes from this article:
Comments from Jarred Grant, the director of nightlife at The Miami Beach Edition:
Comments from a restaurant/bar owner in Boston and Bethesda:
Is this what we want? For the first round of the playoffs to be 'background noise'? To disregard casual fans (or even fans who don't have a rooting interest in the game)? I hope the numbers are so terrible that change is forced.
I know Chad Kelly has baggage, but he's got a freakin arm.
Mason Rudolph can throw it too. Too bad his receivers aren't catching tonight.
I've never seen this many blow outs in the major bowls before. There were eight big bowls between NYE and NYD and the closest one was a 14 point game. The average margin of victory was 28 points.
The Big 10 and Big 12 both got smashed.
B1G top three teams that played P5 opponents:
#3 Michigan State lost 38-0
#5 Iowa lost 45-16
#13 Northwestern lost 45-6
Big 12:
#4 Oklahoma lost 37-17
#11 TCU is going to get pounded with their QB suspended
#16 OK State lost 48-20
That "non-P5 opponents" qualifier is a bit disingenuous. Notre Dame may not be P5, but they were ranked #8 going into that game. The B1G can easily point to anOSU dominating them. That, combined with Michigan's complete annihilation of the third best SEC team (going by rank) gives them a pretty decent counter-argument.
On the other hand, the Big12 has no real defense, against your point, or on the field.
Notre Dame is almost always overrated.
I didn't leave out ND to skew the numbers, I left them out because it doesn't help them at all with head-to-head reputation. If we are looking at the OSU-ND matchup, though, it's quite favorable for OSU. Notre Dame was the underdog, and their two best wins this year were actually losses to Clemson and Stanford.
It is odd. I didn't think the match ups were all that lopsided on paper (although I was not surprise in the Stanford result).
If I gathered anything from watching the NY6 games, it's that we need to go to an eight-team playoff. Ohio State and Stanford deserved to be in the field. I know MSU absolutely earned their B1G title and playoff spot on the field, but I can't help but think that OSU is far away the better team. If those teams played ten times, MSU may only win one or two, but one win was all it took for them to get into their conference title game and beat out OSU for the playoff.
We need to go to eight and give the champs of the P5 all automatic bids. Then we need three wildcards to preserve the drama of the selection process and prevent a situation that sometimes occurs when the better team doesn't win out. I would love to see Houston get a shot in an eight-team playoff this year as well. I don't think going to eight devalues the regular season at all, but it's a way to maintain an exciting and meaningful regular season while also setting up a very exciting postseason tournament.
Eight spots. Five P5 champs, highest rated champion from a G5 conference, two at-large. Only way to do it.
Has to be a stipulation that P5 champ has to ranked in top 25 at least.
When was the last time a P5 champion wasn't ranked in the top 25? I don't think that requirement is necessary in a proactive manner. Maybe if a P5 conference has a champion out of the polls two years in a row or something. I honestly don't see that happening though
Personally I'd like to see a top 15 rule but the conferences will never agree to it.
For all the drama that the NY6 lacked, this Alamo Bowl is making up for it.
About the most entertaining Bowl Game ever
Yep.
Great game.
Really regretting turning it off at halftime. Didn't anticipate the comeback
Outside of our own bowl game (because I had a personal interest in it), the Alamo Bowl was by far the best bowl game I've watched. What a historic collapse by Oregon and/or comeback by TCU. The fact that Oregon had basically zero offense without Vernon Adams is astounding.
I'm going to have to watch this replay today after a few good hours of wood choppin'. I went to a bar around halftime and the score was 31-0. I got home at 11:15 and turned on the AzSt bowl and saw the final score on the bottomline. I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you!
I'm glad TCU won and I am not glad that I already know the outcome.
What an Alamo bowl game! It's amazing to see a backup quarterback come in, and play his guts out in the final game of his college career. He literally left his right elbow and maybe a couple of ribs on the field.
Darn, wvu won.
TCU with an awesome win to defend the belt http://collegefootballbelt.com/index.htm
Not sure if mentioned elsewhere on this thread but I think the overall bowl season was rather disappointing. Our game was a good one if you're not partial. I'm glad we got the win but did it in true VT fashion in not putting Tulsa away and letting them make a game of it. Who would have guess it would have been Dadi to get the 4th down sack, and a punishing one, should be a gif.
Anyhow, TCU's game was rather exciting although you had to stick around till the 2d half to have seen it. There was maybe one other good game. Overall though the games were mostly uninteresting matchups with unimpressive results. Even the playoff games weren't that exciting.
This was a bad bowl season. The more bowls they add, the worse it seems to get. Which is not a coincidence I think.
Even if there were fewer bowls though, even the higher end ones were stinkers. The NYE 6 were not good, the New Year's Day bowls were meh to say the least.
To me, the upper tier bowls were almost all crap, Alamo Bowl aside, it was the Duke/Indiana , WV/ASU or VT/Tulsa type games that made bowl season worth watching... and those would be the games lost if we were to lose some of the bowl games
Yup. Most of the lower tier bowls, I thought, were enjoyable. And to say that more bowl games means bad games is kind of ignorant. If we did a better job with match-ups it wouldn't be a problem but they get to deep into tickets and money instead of on field product. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
I think last year's NY6 bowls were some of the best of all time, and I think we only added 1 bowl new bowl game? I think that there were a lot of teams that weren't as good as their records indicate (UNC, Texas Tech, Northwestern, Iowa, Florida). These teams all had weak OOC schedules; it was tough to tell how good they really were.
I think that anyone paying attention realized that Florida was not that good.
South Carolina can see the future of their offense.
And yet, they still beat Tennessee.
Yet they managed to beat ECU...
i was going to post a separate topic on this, but here is a pretty good summary and review of all of the 40 bowl games played so far from worst, to best.
You may remember that Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech was ranked #38 before the bowl game. It seems that CBS enjoyed our prolific offense in Coach Beamer's final game and upped us to #5.
CBSSports.com Ranking All 40 Bowl Games
I don't know where to post this, but I guess this is the best place. Tennessee fans are back to thinking they're on the road to the national championship again (like they've been thinking for the last 8 years) because they won their bowl game. I responded to one tweet Isaiah retweeted and now I can barely wade through twitter because of all of the hate I'm getting. I'm just laughing. UVA fans cannot be this bad...
lol what total douches. Same dude who had this to say about Chubb's injury against UT
edit: Reading this dudes tweets is an absolute cancer. I don't think anyone has gotten under my skin this bad without actually speaking to me. Telling people to go kill themselves and berating opposing fans. He is 4chan if it could tweet. If we beat them next year, I will light this asshole troll up no holds barred on Twitter.
Relevant:
Funny enough, he actually retweeted that same tweet. This guy is proud of it. Not sure if he is smart enough to realize that it's that attitude which is hurting UT's national perception. The HokieNation twitter account is the perfect example of how to remain mostly classy and still poke fun at other teams and their fans. He should take notes.
Eh we have our bad nuts too. We also have these nuts that used to be our nuts but now they're not but everyone thinks they're our nuts:
Meh, they've looked good closing out the season. They do kind remind me a lot of FSU 2011 - just the way they're building talent and progressing year to year. I think they win the SEC East next year, and get a bid to an NY6 bowl.
winning the SEC East is about as hard as winning the ACC Atlantic. For perspective
Yeah I told a UT friend of mine this and he was absolutely pissed off at me for a day.
yeah, well, truth hurts
ECU, who beat us and finished 5-7, were one play away from winning the SEC East...
There's no room for truth in Knoxville.
FTFY
You say that like it's something to be ashamed of? Right now the SEC East is still one of the five or six toughest divisions in football. I just saying that they're trending in the right direction.
the SEC West is THE top division in football. The SEC East is absolutely not one of the top 6 divisions in football. UT and Florida are the best teams in that division and they would struggle in just about any other conference including some of the P5 conferences. Florida was just breaths away from losing to lowly ECU and they won that division anyway. Without a QB. That division is not good.
The SEC East is a top 6 division by default because there are only 8 P5 divisions, and even then it's close. In no particular order
SEC West
Pac12 North & South
Big10 East (is that leaders or legends?) whichever one is OSU, MSU, Michigan
ACC Atlantic (Clemson alone is so light years ahead of any SEC East team)
The ACC Coastal is better too IMO, even with all its chaos
you left out big12. I know that conference doesn't really have divisions but UF and UT wouldn't stand a chance in that league and they are the creme de la creme of the SEC least
This would be accurate if Tennessee didn't lead Oklahoma 17-0, and if not for a coach that takes his foot off the gas early, blows them out.
Tenn lost to a bad Ark and a bad UF. Tenn has improved but
To be fair Florida won 10 games, but yea, they are awful. The coaches had a hand in that too. Arkansas just beat us, not much to say about that. We lost 4 games to 3 top 10 teams, and 2 playoff teams by a total of 17 points. We lead all of them late in the 4th.
UF is not a top 10 team under any reasonable measure.
If only the games were 45 minutes long! You trailed all of them when the game was over though, which is what really matters. So basically, you had a hard time closing. Good, but not good enough.
No doubt we screwed around big time in the first half of the year. We should have had at least 2 more wins than we did, but couldn't finish to save our lives.
It's a work in progress, but finishing out on the recruiting trail will be invaluable to securing those wins in the future.
Butch gets it guys. Brick by Brick. The foundation has been laid, the walls are up, and the house goes on the market in Septemer.
What's the old saying about real estate? Location, location, location.
UT will overlook us next year and have their hands full with us in Bristol. I think UT will be favored by 2 scores but it'll be much closer than that. We may even win. UT could very well go on to win the SEC East (because they should undoubtedly be the best team in that division) but get smoked in the SEC CG
Giving up 17 point leads are not the sign of a really good team, regardless of whether or not a coach "stops trying", which I am not sure is necessarily true.
Much like Frank, I find it less than sportsmanlike to blow a team out, and it makes a more exciting game when it's close at the end. The Oklahoma game was a tribute to my team's mental toughness which is critical to the ongoing process of building this program.
Commenting because I want to save those tweets so I can tweet them back at Asshole Sutton there if we happen to beat UT next year. I'm thinking something along the lines of, "The Hokies are winning football games here. Please, report back to mediocrity."
Really hope we come out to play next year just because I want to Stone Cold Stunner this douche canoe.
We really need to have a UT hate week like we do for UVA the week before the game. I know and grew up with one of the guys who were spamming me and I don't think they realized it was me at first. Going to be entertaining from here on out.
I suppose the biggest college game ever should be preceded by the biggest Hatin' On thread ever...
You guys might want to rethink that. From what I hear, those Hatin' On threads don't always work out so well. You wouldn't want Bristol to turn out the same way as Cincy @ FedEx Field did. Maybe Antone Exum can show up in Bristol and interfere with some more passes.
I agree. I also have the misfortune of knowing one of the people who was hopping on the hate Hokiegirl train. Granted he is younger than me by about 4 years. He's flunked out of two universities now neither of which were UT. So you know, there isn't much validity to anything he has to say.