# I'm ready for College Football. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938 "2009-07-14T03:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/341 "2009-09-30T03:02:06Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > “Taking their time” would have meant burning an additional 15-20 seconds, then another 6 or 7 to run the play, leaving a maximum of 8 to 10 seconds left to call a play in, get your players on the line, and snap the ball. It would not have been easy in any sense of the word. > > Getting set twice, calling in the play twice, then running a play twice in a period of a half a minute is extraordinarily difficult to do with any kind of efficacy. That was what Purdue had on its side. ND almost certainly would have called a pass play on 3rd down. Since they were on the 2 yard line that would have most likely resulted in either an incomplete pass or a touchdown. The worst thing you can say about Purdue’s time out is that it elminated the possibility of a sack ending the game and it prevented ND from doing something monumentally stupid. Since you typically don’t expect your opponent to be a complete moron you can’t really hold that against the Purdue coach. What should have happened is that ND would huddle up, call a play, and snap the ball with 12-17 seconds left on the clock. At that point its almost certainly either a TD or an incomplete pass. If its incomplete then they have at least 5 seconds left on a stopped clock barring a sack. They would then huddle and get off their 4th down play with ease. So yeah, the time out gave some advantages to ND. It opened up the possibility of the run, gave them time to get organized, and apparently prevented them from doing something retarded. That has to be weighed against the advantages of giving your defense a rest, swapping personell, and getting organized. Maybe it ended up helping ND more, but as I said before, there’s nothing to suggest that it was a monumental bonehead move. It didn’t allow ND to get another play off because they had plenty of time left on the clock. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/342 "2009-09-30T03:14:50Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I would like to see is some accountability in the polls. Everyone’s preseason ballot is rated against to the final composite post season poll. The ones that are in the bottom 25% lose their voting privileges for the next season. That isn’t necessarily what pollsters are trying to do. It’s not a prediction contest. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/343 "2009-09-30T04:35:42Z")
> [@furt](#): > > That isn’t necessarily what pollsters are trying to do. It’s not a prediction contest. Seems like it is to a degree, how do you interpret what they represent? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/344 "2009-09-30T12:29:14Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Since they were on the 2 yard line that would have most likely resulted in either an incomplete pass or a touchdown. Well, you left out “interception”, but that just doesn’t happen very often with Clausen these days. I’m pretty terrible at reading defenses on the TV (or in person). Any chance that Purdue was completely unprepared for any sort of play and needed the TO to prevent an easy score? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/345 "2009-09-30T12:45:28Z")
> [@treis](#): > > ND almost certainly would have called a pass play on 3rd down. Since they were on the 2 yard line that would have most likely resulted in either an incomplete pass or a touchdown. The worst thing you can say about Purdue’s time out is that it elminated the possibility of a sack ending the game and it prevented ND from doing something monumentally stupid. Since you typically don’t expect your opponent to be a complete moron you can’t really hold that against the Purdue coach. That is not the worst thing you can say, not by far. It totally eliminated any sense of urgency the Irish may have felt, and that is a huge deal. > [@](#): > > So yeah, the time out gave some advantages to ND. It opened up the possibility of the run, gave them time to get organized, and apparently prevented them from doing something retarded. That has to be weighed against the advantages of giving your defense a rest, swapping personell, and getting organized. Maybe it ended up helping ND more, but as I said before, there’s nothing to suggest that it was a monumental bonehead move. It didn’t allow ND to get another play off because they had plenty of time left on the clock. The advantages of giving your D time to regroup are far outweighed by the other team’s ability to regroup and think of a better play. That’s why defenses don’t call timeouts at the end of games. It didn’t “maybe” help ND more, it definitely helped them more, as evidenced by the fact that they actually scored and won the game. Besides that, the Purdue coach is on record as saying that he didn’t even call the TO to regroup. He called it to save his offense some time in case the Irish scored a TD. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/346 "2009-09-30T12:46:37Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Well, you left out “interception”, but that just doesn’t happen very often with Clausen these days. > > I’m pretty terrible at reading defenses on the TV (or in person). Any chance that Purdue was completely unprepared for any sort of play and needed the TO to prevent an easy score? They didn’t call the TO b/c they were unprepared. They called it to give themselves time to try and score in case they got the ball back. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/347 "2009-09-30T15:16:00Z")
Shall we close this thread and start an CFB - October? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938.md?page=17)