I sure am glad the SEC ALWAYS has such top-notch non-conference games.
Alabama: Western Carolina and Louisiana-Monroe
Arkansas: Troy, North Texas, Chattanooga, and Florida International
Auburn: New Mexico State and Tennessee Tech
Florida: Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic.
Georgia: Western Carolina
Kentucky: Eastern Kentucky and Kent State
LSU: Middle Tennessee, Tulane, and Louisiana Tech
Mississippi: Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State
Mississippi State: Tulane and Gardner-Webb
South Carolina: Louisiana-Lafayette and South Carolina State
Tennessee: Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette
Vanderbilt: Richmond, Eastern Michigan, and Miami (OH)
Now now Bob, this is the SEC we’re talking about. They need to schedule patsy OOC games, because the SEC is so tough. How do we know the SEC is so tough, when they don’t schedule OOC games. Well, because they say so, that’s why.
Very doubtful. OU is 0-8 all time against the SEC. That ain’t good. The big ten can crow all they won’t, but LSU is going to eat OU alive. It reminds of of last year, actually. “Florida doesn’t deserve to be there, OU is so much better, the Gator’s are going to get killed, Zook will say he’ll hate to play OU again”, etc. etc.
psstt! o - s - u
And RE: OK State v Indiana. Our defense is suspect, but our offense looks stronger than yours. I think OSU wins in a shootout. I think it will be a good game to watch, pity its only on the NFL network. And that I probably can’t go.
But, if Indiana was plaing anyone but my team, I’d be rooting for them this year.
Georgia fans should be worried. Nothing to win if you win that game against Hawaii, but so much to lose if you don’t.
OSU-LSU should be a good game. Can’t wait to see if LSU has the great speed advantage against Ohio State like all the SEC fans seem to claim. Tough to win this one for the Buckeyes playing in Louisiana, but I expect a tough one.
Illinois will keep it close for a bit against USC, but I just don’t think they have the defense to stop USC’s running game.
Hawaii reminds me a bit of Troy. High-powered offense, but on defense, eh, not so much. Troy gave Georgia a good game, and I fully expect a good game from Hawaii. I know some Georgia fans are disappointed, but I think it’s kind of fun to have a new face in the Sugar Bowl.
And yeah, I do worry about an emotional letdown. On the other hand, last year’s Boise State / Oklahoma game should be a good object lesson for the Georgia coaches as they try to get their team focused.
What a horrible matchup for Michigan.
They have proven time and time again that an overall good defense has a massivly exploitable hole vs a running QB. The D just isn’t gonna stop him. The only prayer is that Carr decides to open the playbook up past the first page and lets the Offense run wild in his last game.
Any other matchup, and I’d feel pretty good since they will probably be fully healthy for the only time this season.
Screw you guys and your whining about BCS bowls. I need to spend the next 4 weeks trying to get excited about the Armed Forces Bowl. The bummer is that I’d actually love to go…I’ve been to 4 straight bowls with Cal, and they’ve all been a blast. But airfare from here to DFW is outrageous.
Our defense, especially against the run, is very good. I think we’ll hold our own there. I’m more concerned with the passing game, we tend to play a lot of man-to-man on the edges and stack the box and I think the USC WRs are going to be a lot better than anything we’ve seen so far. Michigan had the best corps we saw and they made enough big plays to beat us late. On the flipside, we simply don’t throw the ball downfield enough. I think we are capable, and when we’ve needed plays we’ve generally gotten them, but I don’t like the prospect of having to mount a comeback should we fall behind early. Really this entire game will be decided on the backs of Mendenhall and Juice Williams. If they move the chains, eat the clock and abuse the USC defense I think we’ll be in good shape. If we have too many 3-and-outs and are forced to get away from the run we’ll be in trouble.
I hope the Zooker has a couple tricks up his sleeve.
For the record, in this one matchup I want the SEC to pound the piss out of the Big Ten. Fuck Michigan. And I tend to think that’s whats going to happen, Michigan just isn’t that athletic outside of Hart and Manningham.
I’m not arguing that your run defense is good, but USC’s running attack is killer. Trust me, I would love for Illinois to be in this game–but after having watched USC play a few times this year–I think they could run over anyone in the country if they put their mind to it.
If USC chooses to turn this into a ground game I’ll be thrilled. We were 5th in the nation rushing and averaged 80 more yards a game on the ground against stiffer run defenses than USC. That’s a matchup I think we’ll win, especially since our offense is similar to Oregon’s, a team that gave the USC defense fits. Memo to Pete Carroll…you can run the ball on us, keep pounding it please.
You know, I did find it odd that Michigan, after losing to App State & Oregon, was able to cruise through most of its conference :eek:
GO 'BOWS! Err… I mean “Go Warriors”*
*From the UH media guide:
“When referring to the UH football team, please use the nickname “Warriors.” Other UH teams go by the nickname “Rainbow Warriors” or “Rainbow Wahine” however, the football team prefers the nickname Warriors.”
Speaking of which…it’s MHO that the bowl games are the best way to measure the hotly debated topic of relative conference strength. I’ve come up with an algorithm for a bowl game conference scorecard (involves assigning a point value to each game based on conference standings of the participants), that I’d be happy to share & post the results here, if anybody says “cool idea”. If I get nothing but crickets…I’ll do it anyway and keep it to myself.
How do you figure? Was the National Championship played in Dayton last year, and I just managed to forget that fact? Because that’d be the equivalent of LSU playing in New Orleans.
