The College Football Thread

[Patriot]

College football returns at the end of the month!

I haven't been keeping up with it in the post season like I usually do, but man what the hell happened? Where's all the good week 1 games?

Florida/Utah
LSU/FSU

And maybe North Carolina/South Carolina

The rest is straight garbage.

Also, seems like PAC 12 is on the verge of a complete collapse.

I miss the pre-expansion days of the BCS.

[Sandman]

ACC may not be far behind, and I hope so. I know a number of VT fans want to go to the Big Ten, but I'm SEC or bust. Not sure what the obsession with the Big Ten is other than the current TV contracts get each school a little more money per school, but the SEC is still winning championships and recruiting better top to bottom.

As far as games...not necessarily good games, but potentially interesting.
UVA @ Tennessee - I just want a blood bath
Colorado @ TCU - Morbid curiosity of Deion coaching D1
West Virginia @ Penn State

[Patriot]

LOL it's gonna be a long season.

This is just not a great Alabama team. Unless something changes, this is an eight-win team at best.

Milroe is not a good QB. How the others can seemingly be worse is beyond me.

OL being terrible also didn't help any. Of course, 3rd year in a row the defense has also been crap. Just embarrassing to watch. Saban doesn't even seem to care, the standard just continues to slip. Just keep getting a little worse each year.

Highlight of the game was the close up of that one chick's rack in the 4th.

[Sandman]

Long season you say? OL is terrible?

Feast your eyes on this shit: www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore/_/gameId/401520215

Would've been -2 yards russhing on 21 carries if not for a 13 scramble by the backup QB(Drones) in the last two minutes.

And before you think maybe mighty Purdue could just have stout run defenese, here's week 1 against Old Dominion: www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore/_/gameId/401525467

Forget joining the SEC...maybe VT could be mediocre in CUSA???

I think I hate college football.

[Patriot]

This Bama team is like one from the Shula days. Straight garbage.

This OL is trash. Can't even push back USF. Pitiful.

And we start Buchner this week and he can't even throw screen passes. WTF is happening during practices?

[Patriot]

It's downright comical at this point.

Block a punt and take over at the 1. Easy QB sneak but no, line up in shotgun. Snap goes over QB head 20 yards. Then get sacked because terrible QB had no ability to throw the ball away. End up with a FG.

Then kickoff goes out of bounds.

Gonna need a whole new offense at this point because they all suck.

EDIT: Ok, much improved in the second half. OL actually did their job and Milroe was good enough. If the offense can manage to play like that going forward, and not continuously shoot themselves in the foot, they should be ok. Defense, while giving up some ridiculous first downs when it's 4th and 18 or 4th and 23, played lights out for most of the game. Held a really good Ole Miss offense to just 10 points.

[Sandman]

VT lost to fucking Marshall. We fired Justin Fuente to turn around a hire a first time head coach that was in his 50s. But hey, he was looking for "the right opportunity" and was a "cultural fit". Dude wear's a visor. VT is not a visor job. 1-3 in year two against the murderers row of ODU, Purdue, Rutgers and Marshall. Got Pitt next weekend in prime time at home. Heard Pitt's QB got knocked out of their game tonight with UNC. Won't matter if he can't go next week. Pat Narduzzi could line a cheerleader up at QB and they'll still trot a back out there that will gash this shitty LB corp for 250+. Fuck Pry. Fuck his shitty coordinators. Fuck Whit Babcock. Fuck John Ballein Fire all of them and hire people that know how to oversee and run a football program. But that won't happen, because we need gee golly shucks "cultural fits."

I hate college football.

[Sandman]

It seems I was either a bit too harsh in my assessment of this season, or I should go on angry cussing fits more often. Since last time, VT dominated Pitt(who isn't very good, but somehow beat previously undefeated Louisville last night...the same Louisville that beat Notre Dame the previous week), lost to FSU, but had made it a game in the third quarter after falling behind 22-0 in the first(FSU is pretty good this year and I never expected to win that one) and soundly beat a mediocre Wake Forest team yesterday.

Team is now 3-4 and has to win 3 of the final 5 to return to bowl eligibility:

Syracuse 4-3 - At home on a Thursday night, gotta have it and make Thursday nights at Lane great again.
@ Louisville 6-1 - Had this chalked this up as an L, but...they lost to Pitt???
@ BC 3--3 - BC is not good, but the fact it's up there makes me skeptical.
NC State 4-3 - Another mediocre team, another gotta have it.
@ UVA 1-5 - It is never acceptable to lose to these soft, tofu eating sissies. Even if they were good...which they are not.

[Patriot]

I have zero faith in the Committee, so it is what it is.

Thankfully we won't have this BS next year.

Let's be honest FSU isn't one of the 4 best teams. "But undefeated conference champion has to count for something!" Would they be favored against Michigan? Washington? Texas? Alabama? Georgia? Ohio State? Oregon? Their best win was against LSU in the first game of the season.

We all saw what happened last year when they put TCU in for the same reason. 65-7. That probably wouldn't happen to FSU, but still.

I'm biased, I admit it. But scroll up a few posts and you can see I was a naysayer on this Alabama team. They were terrible for two of the first three games of the season and I thought they'd be an 8-4 team. They are much improved. Milroe is better, the OL is vastly improved. The defense is even better. They cut way down on the penalties and turn overs. Alabama now isn't even close to the team they were in early September.

I fully expect both FSU and Texas to be in, and they'll claim "every game matters." But obviously not if beating the #1 team, who has lost just two times in 47 games (both to Alabama) and back-to-back champions, doesn't count for anything because this other team beat you in week 2. Nevermind they that team lost to the only other good team they played in week 6, they beat an overranked team in their crap conference's championship game. OSU routed by South Alabama and UCF by a combined 68 points.

But sure, leave out the champions from the conference that has won 13 of the last 17 national championships or to be more relevant 6 of the 9 CFP championships.

[Sandman]

Committee made the right call. FSU looked awful offensively against Louisville. Yes, I know it was with their 3rd string QB, but even with their #2 in the prior two weeks, they didn't look great. People like to point at Ohio State back in 2014 and how Cardale Jones was, technically, the third string QB. That's true, but they lost their top QB in the preseason, so Jones got #2 reps all year and proceeded to drop 60 in the Big 10 title game as the starter. Thus they actually looked impressive and made a case to get in(and then backed it up).

[Patriot]

Jesus, that was the Alabama of the first few weeks. Complete regression and some of the worst play calling I have ever seen.

Maybe in the off-season the other QBs can step up because Milroe ain't it. He can run, he can throw a good deep ball, but his vision sucks and he has zero ability to throw screens or slants.

A half decent Center would be nice to have too. So would a competent offensive coordinator.

[Patriot]

Well, Saban retired. Too bad he didn't get another national championship, but anytime you finish undefeated in conference play as the SEC Champion is a great year and a fitting send off for him.

I'd be ok with Dan Lanning, but put me in the camp that really hopes for Lane Kiffin. I've just always liked the guy going back to his Tennessee days.

[Q]

Helluva career for Saban. Retirement well earned.

[Patriot]

I like DeBoer a lot, dude has done nothing but win. So very happy with the pick.

That said, that Kiffin was never considered is so stupid. I don't care if he banged the wife and daughter of every booster at the same time, he still should've been considered.

More than qualified, turned down Auburn, and then gets disrespected by not even being considered. He's gonna have an axe to grind and rightfully so.

[Patriot]

So now Caleb Downs is in the portal, that's just about the whole secondary.

Such a stupid rule. Portal and NIL, and the degradation of bowl games, is going to kill college football.

These kids have it better than NFL pros.

Went from suspending players and issuing violations for free tattoos to allowing folks to hand out Lamborghinis.

There was nothing wrong with the old transfer system. Either sit out a year or play a year at some junior college.

Still excited for the new Alabama team. The more I see and hear from DeBoer the more I like him. I like the staff he has brought with him and that he has assembled. Saban had slipped, though not necessarily his own doings. Can't blame him for retiring, I'm sure having to try and recruit your own players back in addition to the next group was frustrating.