Coach...Congrats to your Gators. It looks like it could be the beginnings of a dynasty at Florida under Meyer. I'll be keeping in touch. And hopefully we'll have a little better luck in picking these games next season..Keep Cracking those Nutts :toast:GoSooners, it was great to talk to you last night! Best of luck to BOTH of us next year. Keep on keeping on.:toast:
arty: LT
GS, did you have any thoughts on last night's game? I was hoping to hear an objective Sooner's point of view. I'm coming from an honest point too, no ragging or anything. What are your thoughts? Someone on another thread posted the stats from the Nat'l Champ game, and the Oct 11th game, and the stats were eerily similar (Time of poss, turnovers, total yardage). I just wondered if you had any last thoughts? BOL in your endeavours if not. At least OU got there.
JB....In all honesty, I thought the OU/Florida game was the easiest to cap of all of the bowl games. Florida had every advantage in just about every aspect of the game. If I hadn't already had a bet on OU to win the national championship, it would have been a huge bet for me on Florida. OU actually ended up playing much better than I thought they would. But not having gone through the recent wars that Florida has gone through in a better overall conference, it showed in the second half of the game. You can say what you will about the game. Like OU should have run this play or that play in their two scoring opportunities inside the Florida 5 yard line. But it's not going to change the outcome of the game. Florida did what they had to do on defense and stopped OU. And the Gators converted their trips inside the redzone. Simple as that. To tell you the truth, individual football games don't mean as much to me as you might think. It isn't the end of the world to me if my team doesn't get into the BCS title game or win one. You'll learn when you get older that there is much more to life than a college football game. Capping games is something I enjoy doing. But I'm not ready to cut my throat when my team loses.
So you don't think that had OU decided to go for the FG to take the lead when it was 10-10, it wouldn't have had any different bearing on the game? I don't know if it would or wouldn't have, I just thought as a Sooner fan you would've been 2nd guessing that? I'm also wondering if you as a Sooner fan are okay w/ the offensive play calling overall, and you as a Sooner fan don't have any concerns about Stoops' current slide and record in recent big games and the overall state of Sooner football? I know historically both of our schools start getting restless at these times of uncertainty within the program. Not just this loss, or the other 4 losses in BCS games prior to this one, but also the recent losses in the Cotton Bowl. For UT Football head coaches, if they're not beating OU and A&M, they're in trouble (eventually). I'm pretty sure that's the case for OU's coaches with Texas and Okie Lite. And your stance being that "there's much more to life than football and winning championships", certainly is not the way most of your alumni feel, or my school (Texas). Although there is more to life (God, family) than football, that's about it. Maybe golf too, but I know down here in Texas, and a lot of Sooner fans, live, breathe and eat football (my cousin is an ex-OU student athlete). As they used to say down here in Austin, the 2nd most important sport after football was Spring Football practice. So I know you're not about to slit your throat, but if you don't care about your team not making it to the mythical nat'l championship, and you don't care that your team lost it, I don't consider that a true fan and follower. If you did attend OU and have a diploma from there, this last game has to hurt pretty darn bad. BOL to you and yours. Hook 'em.
And the ONLY thing that irked me before the MNC game was how much love the OU offense was getting. I just want to know if you honestly thought they (OU) deserved all the love, or if you can admit, JUST A LITTLE, that those offensive #'s were sqewed (sp)? due to the numbers that were put up towards the end of those last few games that OU played in where the score was already decided? That's what took the Heisman away from Colt, and Texas playing in that MNC game. Texas would've schemed up much better than OU due to Colt's elusiveness, but that's water under the bridge. People can dog me for not getting over it all, and I haven't, as quite a few others haven't. It'll sure make it fun next October though. Do you think Bradford goes pro?
It was great talking to you through the season Pags. I learn more and more every season from talking to great cappers such as yourself and SoonerBS and also Pezgordo, who has been my partner in crime for the last few years. I know you close shop during bowl season and just do a lot of scouting of these teams. I'm curious to see who impressed you the most going into next season. Besides the obvious pick of Florida, the six programs that struck me as teams on the way up, and will be tough next season are Ole Miss, North Carolina, NC State, Boise State, Okie Lite and Iowa. Let me know if there is anybody else that might have caught your eye.
2000 OU beats Florida St. 13-2
Big 12 4-3
ACC 1-4
2001 Miami beat Nebraska 37-14
Big East 4-0
Big 12 3-5
2002 Ohio State beat Miami 31-24
Big 10 5-2
Big East 2-2
2003 LSU beat OU 21-14
SEC: 5-2
Big 12: 2-6
2004 USC beat OU 55-19
Pac-10 3-2
Big 12 4-3
2005 Texas beat USC 41-38
Big 12 5-3
Pac-10 3-2
2006 Florida beat Ohio State 41-14
SEC 6-3
Big 10 2-5
2007 LSU beat Ohio State 38-24
SEC 7-2
Big 10 3-5
As you can see that aside from the 2004 season where the Pac-10 and Big 12 finshed with about even records, in the modern era of football the best conference in these bowls takes care of business in the BCS title game. So whoever has the best record between the SEC and Big 12, that is the way I'll probably be leaning.
Good luck![/quote]This is for JBlonghorn:Once again, the team from the conference with at least as good or better bowl records than it's opponent's conference wins the title game.
2008 BCS title game final conference records in the bowls
SEC: 6-2
Big 12: 4-3
Something to think about for next season.
Big 12 4-3
ACC 1-4
2001 Miami beat Nebraska 37-14
Big East 4-0
Big 12 3-5
2002 Ohio State beat Miami 31-24
Big 10 5-2
Big East 2-2
2003 LSU beat OU 21-14
SEC: 5-2
Big 12: 2-6
2004 USC beat OU 55-19
Pac-10 3-2
Big 12 4-3
2005 Texas beat USC 41-38
Big 12 5-3
Pac-10 3-2
2006 Florida beat Ohio State 41-14
SEC 6-3
Big 10 2-5
2007 LSU beat Ohio State 38-24
SEC 7-2
Big 10 3-5
As you can see that aside from the 2004 season where the Pac-10 and Big 12 finshed with about even records, in the modern era of football the best conference in these bowls takes care of business in the BCS title game. So whoever has the best record between the SEC and Big 12, that is the way I'll probably be leaning.
Good luck![/quote]This is for JBlonghorn:Once again, the team from the conference with at least as good or better bowl records than it's opponent's conference wins the title game.
2008 BCS title game final conference records in the bowls
SEC: 6-2
Big 12: 4-3
Something to think about for next season.
Not to be a homer, but I think Notre Dame is definitely on the way up next year. Notre Dame has some very good, and maybe more importantly, experienced skill players returning all over the place. The problem with ND ast year was the offensive line. Against teams they could push around, the offense was very effective this past season (vs. Navy, hawaii, stanford, purdue for example). Against teams they could not push around, the offense was stagnant. The offensive line returns intact next year and will have another year of experience and weight training in the books. I think the line will be a lot more dominant next season, and this offense will explode.
On defense, ND finished very high in Phil Steele's pass efficiency defensive ratings this past season. With most of the back seven on D returning and the return of stud DB Darrin Walls (redshirted this past year), i look for ND's pass defense to be stellar.
Given ND's weak schedule, i could see them blowing out a number of opponents and being a nice moneymaker ATS. We'll see.
By all rights ND should be better next season. They only lose a couple players on offense. Given the time, Clausen can be pretty good in the pocket. But I did notice the same things you did. As with a lot of new O-Lines, they don't have quite the strength they need against the stronger BCS opponets until they've been through a couple seasons in the weight room. And Clausen paid for it with sacks and hurries.. If the Irish have a good conditioning coach, a position I consider as important as a coordinator, then they could or should be much improved. I noticed the same things you did this year with their offense. When they win the line of scrimmage battles they have no problems handling and covering against their non BCS or weak BCS conference opponents. I also like the fact that they have room for improvement in the tunrover margin department. With a (-5) this season they probably have nowhere to go but up. When I look for improvement I would much rather see a -5 than say a +10. ND also had 3 close losses of less than a TD. So any kind of improvement in the close games and they can easily go from 6-6 to 9-3. I still don't trust Weis very much. But I'll be keeping a close eye on them and looking for my betting spots. Good luck next season.
