Football Predictions

[richyb83]

Eventhough he is only a sophomore I would say Darren McFadden is the #2 NFL Prospect...behind only Adrian Peterson who is out for the year. I wish McFadden had been 100% vs.USC. WR- Marcus Monk is also a premier talent! The O-Line is also solid as any in the SEC!

The SEC Officials have been neutered. They were at it again in Knoxville; Not willing to make the right call. Forget the instant replay, it's a joke in the SEC. LSU 9 penalties, Tennessee-1???..yeah right. The LSU-Tennessee game was not as close as the 28-24 score. On a punt in 2nd qtr. a Tennessee player clearly touched the ball on the 2-yard line(new angle today confirms it) LSU recovers it in the end-zone. LSU would have been up 14-0 on the verge of a blow-out. Not enough evidence the ball was touched?? A TD was TAKEN-AWAY! Total yards LSU 478 Tennessee 248...yes LSU made some mistakes and the QB made a couple of ill advised throws including a pass that slipped for a Tenn. TD Int return. Props to Tennessee they are a good team, but LSU would not be denied after what happened the controversial Auburn game and brain-fart Florida game. Football is not a perfect game, so I do not want to complain; I just can't get over the sub-par officating in a such a great football conference.

Sorry I had to vent eventhough LSU won. The Arkansas/Tennessee should be another entertaining SEC battle!

[richyb83]

I was very suprised to see Ball State take Michigan down to the wire like that and only losing 34-26. Were the Wolverines looking ahead?? A few weeks til the Ohio State game.

[richyb83]

How about #3 Louisville vs. #15 Rutgers(Uof.NJ) this Thursday night??

[egrguy]

richyb83 -- Its my thought that instant replay has made officials sloppy. I honestly don't think every play needs to be reviewed. Give the officials some power to officiate. I don't remember this many big games having so many blown calls pre-instant replay. This is one area, where I think the NFL has it right. Plus last year's ND VS USC game contained no instant replay and overall the game was very well called, overall.

Anyway, im betting Rutgers wins as L'Ville will too emotionally drained from the big win last week and will have a letdown.

Lastly, Arkansas beats Tennessee at home, and here's hoping USC wins, so they can remain their lofty ranking for their finale against ND.

Plus, OSU & Michigan scrape together wins this week for the Big Matchup November 18th.

[torgo]

I think instant replay has been ok, but the officiating has been sloppy this year. I think Louisville beats Rutgers. And I would love to see USC win out to take on the loser of Mich-Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Part of the reason that Michigan has been so boring is that their last few games have been against relatively weak opponents, so they can beat them with conservative play-calling and running the ball. I'll bet they air it out against Ohio State with a healthy Manningham. It also makes it difficult for the Buckeyes prepare for something that isn't on much game film yet.

[fooman03]

So I finally figured out what im going to put on my sign for gameday. If any one plans to watch for it, it will say...

Hogs Checklist for BCS Bowl

[x] War Eagle

[x] Spurrier

[ ] Fat Phil

[ ] Atlanta

Should look something similar to this hopefully except the end of mine will say Atlanta.

[richyb83]

Hey fooman03 that's very creative. ESPN ought to really like that. I wish I could watch the game on TV, but I'll be at the LSU/Bama game.

Nov.24th(Friday after Thanksgiving)Arkansas/LSU game will be fun to watch with so much future NFL talent on the field.

[torgo]

Cool fooman! I only get ESPN2, not espn, but I'll check in anyways to see if I can spot the sign!

This week:

Louisville over Rutgers

USC over Oregon

Arkansas over Tennessee

LSU over 'Bama

Michigan over Indiana

Cal over Arizona

[nowensone]

A big thumbs up to NJ and Rutgers on the victory, that is hands down one of the greatest football games, particularly 2nd halves, I have ever seen. I'll admit to thinking they were overrated, but not anymore. Awesome awesome game, if UT(exas) cannot replay for their title, then I'm pulling for Rutgers.

[egrguy]

Nice to see Rutgers win, now its who is the best 1 loss team?

[fooman03]

After tonight I no longer view Rutgers as overrated. They played a hell of a second half tonight. This is just going to shake up the BCS even more this week.

[torgo]

Rutgers may still have a long way to go. They way things have gone this year, Rutgers will lose to WVU in their final game, so Ohio St/Mich and some SEC team for the national title.

But if they (Rutgers) win out, will they get a shot? I hope so.

[nowensone]

I think Ohio State beats Michigan quite badly (I don't think they warrant their rating, Lousiville could beat them this year), and I'm not sold on Florida, too many close and behind games. I think Arkansas is losing to Tennessee, so that leaves UT and USC. The BCS has USC with a higher rating, but the main polls don't, so USC have much to overcome there. UT will probably need to lose for USC to jump ahead of them, though I do feel USC is the slightly better team this year. It is a shame we have to wait until Sunday to see where Rutgers lands in all this, they may actually have sealed the title game spot last night, since the Quality of Win over Louisville will help them mightily, and so would a win over WV. If they win that is. I'm pulling for them now, they've earned my respect.

[torgo]

I think Ohio State beats Michigan quite badly (I don't think they warrant their rating, Lousiville could beat them this year)

[nowensone]

Well, I agree with you about the ND game, but I also think they are overrated, so no surprises there [for me]. Actually, Florida and Auburn are on the scene too, but I think they slip because their remaining opponents are't strong enough BCS wise to give them credit for good wins, and FSU can always beat Florida (and vice versa) no matter the kind of year either of them is having. For that matter the same is true with Alabama, who Auburn must play next weekend. USC actually has one more chance for a Quality win I was forgetting, Cal, so they may end up being the contender to play OSU/M if Rutgers doesn't get enough BCS respect.

So how many years do you think it takes Butch Davis to get UNC up and rolling? Or is it not possible at a basketball school like UNC?

[richyb83]

You just never know in the whacky world of college football, that's what makes it so much fun. The Michigan/Ohio St. game is a toss-up IMO.

Major props to the great comeback by Rutgers(down 25-7) who is becoming the Story of the Year!!! RB-Ray Rice was on another level!!! You are right the way the football season has been going West Virginia should have the upper-hand on Rutgers.

Personally I have a hard-time seeing USC getting by BOTH Cal and Notre Dame. They should beat Oregon and UCLA.

I would like to see a bowl game with Texas/LSU or USC and LSU...All these bowl tie-ins are getting old.

[egrguy]

Mac Brown had UNC in the top 10 when he was there with Julius Peppers manning the D-Line, so I certainly think he has that team as ACC contenders in less then 5 years. Its a very fertile recruiting area and I think you can use the hoops tradition to your advantage.

I don't think Michigan is as overrated as many people think. Going 10-0 is a testament in itself to not being overrated. Texas with 1 loss and a very lucky road win against Nebraska is overrated at #3 versus, Arkansas, Florida, etc.

With their top reciever back in the fold (Manningham) the team truly sports a very dynamic offense. Great running, great passing and even better defense. The winner of this game wins the title.

[mcheiss]

Arkansas wins 31-14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NcSc74]

WOW...Wake is not messing around. There is no way you can overlook these guys. The ACC is down to Wake, Maryland, and G-tech with Clemson waiting for those guys to falter. Oh yeah can't count out VT. I think Wake plays them soon so that game will be huge.

[nowensone]

Wow, don't think I made a single correct pick today, normally pretty good at this... Not really, it is college football afterall, and I was quite shocked by Maryland's complete domination of that game, guess it was good the rain stopped, I had thought that would get FSU back into the game, but just the opposite. Well, Rutgers should be happy, several more one loss teams were beaten, and I'll concede Michigan looked solid today, though I still think they'll have problems with OSU, should be a good game anyway. Can't wait to see what the BCS has in store for everyone.

[egrguy]

Wow, Texas, Auburn & California all lost. That really puts Florida in the driver's seat if they can win out to play in the title game. Otherwise, you're looking at Arkansas, USC/ND if they win out as other possibles. Very exciting!

[torgo]

What a strange Saturday! Texas, Cal and Auburn are finished. Louisville will fall several slots, and Rutgers jumps way up, as does USC and Florida.

Was Auburn overrated this year? In their 2 losses, they didn't just lose, they got clobbered.

If USC can survive the rest of their schedule (and that's a BIG "if"), could they make it to #2 in the BCS?

[nowensone]

And thats the problem with the system - suppose the Michigan/OSU game is very close and a true battle of titans (and the true #1 and #2), it won't matter - because they play at the end of the season, one will fall from the defeat too much to be considered for the title game. And it is all simple timing, is this fair? One announcer even mentioned this briefly yesterday, though I can't see there being any remedy, unless the pollers don't penalize the loser with more than a spot drop or two, but that won't happen.

EDIT - Just flipped on ESPN sports center, they are talking about just this subject, wonder if really means anything is going to be different, the AP and Coaches voters might be thinking the same thing...

[BHCav]

That's a tough one. With the field named after him and a huge bronze statue of him outside the stadium it will be hard to get rid of him. Then again, if he went 3-9 like JoPa did that one year he would have to up his personal security. That's not really an over statement either. The clear concenus in Tallahassee is that he needs to go and some are so passionate on their stance that it's scary. At the current rate JoPa will pass him and I'm not sure a whole lot of fans really care at this point.

I don't think the national media is accurately portraying the current situation. It's not the losing that has people fired up, its how and why we are losing. It all started when he forced the AD to ignore nepotism laws and hire his son as OC. Now this wouldn't be a problem if 1) he was qualified and 2) was successful or at least improved. None is the case however. Tallahasseeans see how JoPa demoted his son when their offense was inept and feel that this should happen after not only 6 years of bad offenses, but offenses that are continuing to get worse. Another big problem is that Bobby and staff constantly throw the players under the bus and take no responsiblity for their own poor performance. These players actually regress in their time at FSU, i.e. Chris Rix, Drew Weatherford, every HB since Warrick Dunn, etc. He has completely lost control of the team and players are incredably aggravated. This reared it's ugly head as Weatherford and QB coach Dickey had a confrontation in the BC game. His blatant arrogance, pride, and refusal to listen to reason is going to be is down fall. As I watch ESPN or listen to sports radio, everyone is quick to point out that FSU fan are just spoiled, which we are. However it is way more than that and this is just a very short summary of the problems. For those who hate FSU tis will be a nice year or two for them. Write it down: Things are about to get very ugly here.

All that being said, He will retire after the '07 season. By that time JoPa will be the winningest coach and the team's moral will be rock bottom. If we do not make a bowl game this year, which is very possible considering we lost 5 out of the last 12 games, he (or at least his son) may gone after this year. The athletic dept. is already feeling the pinch from boosters withholding their money, and as we all know this is a business.

[swh1972]

I've been wondering about Michigan, but I have a theory. I think they have been intentionally playing boring, conservative football against weaker opponents simply because they can. Playing this way means that there is virtually no film of the "other" Michigan offense, which means its going to be difficult for Ohio State to prepare for it. I fully expect Michigan to pull out all the stops on offense against Ohio State and go for big plays. As we saw against ND, the Michigan offense is darn good and can score a boatload of points when they really air it out.

What do you all think?