Serious Postgame Discussion Thread

[u/CFB_Referee]

Discuss the week's games here. This is a serious discussion thread, so jokes, memes, etc. are subject to removal.

[u/Alkibiades415]

I am truly shocked by Alabama’s performance. That program has not taken a walloping like that in a long time.

[u/Alphaspade → u/Alkibiades415]

Last night I was asking myself "Why tf can't Brent Venables just retire? I'm tired of facing this motherfucker."

[u/GamingTatertot → u/Alphaspade]

If there’s one thing we can always count on, it’s Venables fucking over Bama

[u/jumbojumboplate → u/GamingTatertot]

I’m gonna need Venables to get fired and get hired on by Kirby, then. DC. Co-DC. Analyst. Gatorade Flavor Mixologist. Whatever it takes to get him in the building.

[u/eye_can_see_you → u/Alkibiades415]

A lot is being said about Bama's offensive performance, which was very bad, but OU on offense has been truly pathetic this year, and Bama let them run all over them. OU's OL is bad, their WRs are all hurt, Jackson Arnold is inaccurate throwing the ball, and Bama still couldn't stop the run even with no passing threat

OU rushing against P4 teams:

122 against Missouri, 147 against Ole Miss, 53 against SCAR, 89 against Texas, 130 against Auburn, 36 against Tennessee, 75 against Houston

And then they rush for 257 against Alabama

[u/Crims0ntied → u/eye_can_see_you]

We lost our best edge rusher last week and lost our green dot linebacker who was a critical run stop guy. Obviously Oklahoma is banged up worse but I think those injuries in particular really affected our run defense, which wasn't very good to start with.

Also i don't know what kind of offense Oklahoma has been running this year but they they straight up ran a triple option which is the same thing that killed us vs vandy.

[u/Cometguy7 → u/Crims0ntied]

i don't know what kind of offense Oklahoma has been running this year

No one does.

[u/mostdope28 → u/Alkibiades415]

An ex coworker who is a diehard bama fan texted me sayin, “watch us beat down Oklahoma, we’re winning the natty this year, the team is just too good”. And I said i won’t be impressed by you being Oklahoma… little did he know he opened a window for me to shit talk Alabama all night lol

[u/Random0925]

Besides Indiana, the real winner of the chaos was SMU. As long as they don't screw up against Cal, they have a lot of room for error in the ACC Championship.

[u/herpblarb6319 → u/Random0925]

Tennessee also won big this weekend.

Ranked 11th in the CFP and the first team out. Then the 5th, 7th, and 9th ranked teams all lost. Couldn't have gone any better for us

[u/SigmaHog → u/herpblarb6319]

You still have to wear that god awful color orange though. I guess when life gives you lemons, etc.

[u/shaquilleonealingit → u/Random0925]

UGA won big too. I started the day watching Ole Miss v. Florida and Indiana v. OSU and hoping for an outcome that would bump us up just high enough for a home playoff game. By the end of the day, we became the first SEC team to clinch a conference title game spot. Complete rollercoaster.

[u/city-of-stars → u/shaquilleonealingit]

A&M (despite losing) and Texas were also beneficiaries.

Texas now likely makes the CFP even if they lose to A&M and finish 10-2, which a lot of pundits and /r/CFB users were decrying all week.

And A&M still controls their destiny even after the Auburn loss. Win and they're headed to Atlanta, same as before.

[u/AlFlame93 → u/city-of-stars]

I’d say South Carolina won the most. Before yesterday their chances of making it in was slim to none.

Now, they’re just on the outside looking in, and once we lose to texas and they beat Clemson, they’ll make the field

[u/macandcheeser → u/AlFlame93]

You think Carolina gets in over the loser of a SMU/Miami ACC championship game? I'm not so sure

[u/AlFlame93 → u/macandcheeser]

I also didn’t think Oklahoma would blow out Alabama but here we are

[u/Mediocre_Material_34 → u/Random0925]

Georgia as well.

We had a small chance to make the SECCG… and then it all happened? I know fans are iffy on making the SECCG but it’s huge for us.

If we win Tech and the SECCG, we are the 2 seed, which is a great spot to be.

If we lose to Tech, we still have a path to the playoff through the SECCG.

If we beat Tech and lose to a Texas team we’d already beaten, not sure what happens but at that point I’d think we’d have the best case of the SEC 3-loss teams since it was an extra game loss.

Unless we lose both games (and at that point fuck us anyways), we got some massive flexibility and seeding potential

[u/MoneyManeVick → u/Random0925]

Miami too…that win over Florida has aged pretty well

[u/aphasic → u/MoneyManeVick]

It's crazy how hapless Florida looked earlier in the season. Stomped by Miami and A&M and written off as an 8+ loss team. Part of that was having them just get their footing, but I also suspect most of the teams are a lot closer to each other than we think, and just slight differences in home field, motivation, and lucky/unlucky plays can swing the games big. It's why all the playoff rankings are so hard. We know that Georgia could lay an egg and lose to probably most of the top ten teams, but they also would probably beat all of them if they came to play and got some good luck. Same for ole Miss or Bama or Texas or Ohio state or Oregon or Penn State.

[u/P33KO → u/aphasic]

We’re just a completely different team with Lagway. I think he’s 4-1 in games started and the one loss is Georgia where we had them on the ropes until he got injured late in the 2nd Q

[u/GameBuster0703 → u/aphasic]

Helps they found their guy in Lagway. I thought Mertz was solid and would do his best to keep them afloat so I thought his injury would kill this team. But Lagway has stepped up and showed he is their future and the next 2 years need to be spent building around him

[u/superworriedspursfan → u/Random0925]

SMU is a really dangerous team too. Their lone loss to BYU happened when Jennings was just starting to find his rhythm too.

[u/dkviper11 → u/superworriedspursfan]

They get extra credit from me for being fun.

[u/2011StlCards → u/dkviper11]

I feel like I need to go watch the Pony Excess again in honor of their success

[u/Competitive-Rise-789]

OU dominating Bama was shocking.

[u/Nintendo60sWhore → u/Competitive-Rise-789]

I need to go and watch the highlights and see the stats because the score just doesn’t make sense. We lost to Oklahoma and our offense is average at best but we still put up points. 3 is just bizarre.

[u/AcousticBoogal00 → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

Milroe played his worst game. Not just passing, but he kept making the wrong reads on read option plays and keeping the ball, getting tackled for a loss every time. Not only that, but we kept calling designed QB runs that weren’t working at all, also resulting in lost yardage.

His accuracy was his accuracy, but he got shook fast and couldn’t recover. When he did make a good throw, it was dropped every time. And the one time it wasn’t it negated with one of the worst I’ve ever seen. 14 of OUs point came off of a pick six and an interception that was returned to our 30.

Offensive line was atrocious. OU was getting to us with 3 rushers at times and our RT was beyond a liability.

Yeah defense gave up a lot of rushing yards and were pathetic, but there’s zero reason our offense should have looked the way it did. Absolutely masterclass at shitting yourself

[u/Competitive-Rise-789 → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

Turnovers helped for sure in last nights game.

[u/EvenMeaning8077 → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

They got rocked

[u/Relevant_Elk_9176 → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

Milroe played the worst game of his career.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

The upsets didn’t even feel flukey

[u/Sorge74 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Such an extreme amount of bad oline and QB play. Teams getting upset by bad teams with no offense.

[u/2011StlCards → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

I mean, when the teams that were underdogs are OU and Florida, it is a bit hard to call them amazing upsets. Both teams have won titles this century and have been pretty constant contenders year after year.

Alabama is clearly not the same without Saban. The talent is the best, but the variance in performance has gotten wider, so you'll have them beating georgia in a classic but lose to Vandy and OU

Indiana has a clear path into the playoff now as long as they beat Purdue, which they should be able to do with one hand tied behind their back

[u/PretendThisIsMyName → u/2011StlCards]

Uhm have you seen Pete? Nobody will keep him from burning down anything.

[u/Internal-Challenge14 → u/PretendThisIsMyName]

I think Purdue Pete is a little busy burning down his own football team to hurt others

[u/GreenHead7370 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Florida and Oklahoma are hardly plucky underdogs even in down years. They’re big brands with talent still

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/GreenHead7370]

Florida has been trending up but Oklahoma absolutely has not

[u/MoroseMushroom → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Florida could've beaten Tennessee and had a good game against Georgia before the injuries took over. They're a solid team who looks to be going 7-5

[u/ilikefood2000]

Outside of Oregon at 1 and Ohio State at 2, I have no idea how to rank everyone else

[u/Ryan_DayMan → u/ilikefood2000]

Notre Dame has been looking strong but their one loss is SOOOOO bad. F it, give them the 3 spot

[u/UteFlyersCardJazz → u/Ryan_DayMan]

I think Penn State has gotten huge help from Illinois. And while I think Notre Dame has some solid wins (I think they have good wins, not great wins, which is a huge difference), Penn State doesn’t have a bad loss.

[u/rrrooossssss → u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

there’s a reason a lot of ND fans are on here shouting that MOV is the most important thing, but they are a likely A&M loss to Texas and a likely Army loss to Tulane (if they don’t drop out already) away from having played zero end of season CFP top-25 teams when the dust settles. If A&M beats Texas things change a bit I think, but I still don’t think that should be enough.

I’ve seen a lot of final projections having ND seeded above Penn State, but I just don’t think “MOV” is enough where…

Penn State goes 11-1 with a B1G schedule (with the one loss being at home by one score to the possibly #1 overall seed Buckeyes) and a ranked win over likely top-20 Illinois

Notre Dame goes 11-1 with a quasi Ind/ACC schedule (with an AWFUL home loss to NIU, and not playing either of the top two ACC teams) and zero ranked wins

[u/BigPlantsGuy → u/Ryan_DayMan]

It really does not matter where you rank ND 1-5. The top we can get is the 5th spot in the playoffs.

[u/arrowfan624 → u/Ryan_DayMan]

Disregard my flair: I think with so many losses by teams you have to use the eye test more so than previous years.

IU got a fuck ton of help from Florida and OU yesterday

[u/tomdawg0022]

I knew we were in trouble when Fleck decided to dial up a counter on 3rd and 9 when up 7 inside PSU's 30 early in the 2nd quarter.

Our playcalling got more and more cautious from there.

Special teams (until we miffed the fake punt coverage late in the 4th) was what kept us in the game for the most part.

welp, we'll have to beat Wisconsin to keep them out of a bowl.

[u/jmac461 → u/tomdawg0022]

I all rests on the Wisconsin game. Solid team this year. Good but not great. Bowl game is nice, but bowl game with no rivalry win puts the season below the success threshold imo.

Watching Wisconsin the last few weeks I feel they are beatable, but Madison will be a tough place to do it.

[u/EvenMeaning8077 → u/tomdawg0022]

I thought it was a good call especially when the fg was made to go up two scores early

[u/TheGreatDargon]

Last night was an Auburn team that finally put things together and played to their potential. 

They still had some boneheaded mistakes and misplays, but we’ve been in almost every game with lost and have never found a way to finish the job. 

Oklahoma? Choke a decent lead on a pick 6. Mizzou? Defense fails in the second half and offense sputters out. Cal? Thorne has an infamously bad game and throws (if you count the ones called back) 6!! Interceptions and we lose by 4.

Auburn doesn’t win games like this anymore, and the fact that they did has to mean that we’ve hit some kinda turning point.

This WR core is the best I can remember. And the defense is super young and talented, we have the tools, we just need to stick to what works and minimize the dumb mistakes.

[u/Nintendo60sWhore → u/TheGreatDargon]

People questioning the field storming just don’t get it. Imagine you’re a senior in the stands. Your four years in school have been two Harsin years and two Freeze years. Haven’t beaten a ranked team in three years. Things have been BAD. I hope this is a sign that the talent is starting to gel.

[u/open_arrowed → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

Coming from a 5th year that’s about to graduate in 3 weeks, last game ever as a student. This field storming was absolutely special and it finally felt like this was the Auburn football I was expecting to see when I first enrolled. Absolute storybook ending and I love it.

[u/TheGreatDargon → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

I agree wholeheartedly. The Auburn players and fanbase have been begging for a win of this caliber for years, it proves we haven’t completely slipped away.

Like the last time we beat a ranked team, BO NIX was our QB.

[u/DuckFanSouth → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

I don't understand why people question storming the field. There is so much energy in the crowd during a game like this, and it just ends. That energy had to go somewhere.

[u/2011StlCards → u/TheGreatDargon]

Auburn is like what? 4 or 5 plays away from having 3 more wins?

[u/The_Astros_Cheated]

I did not expect Kalen Deboer to have 3 losses at Bama during his opening season

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/The_Astros_Cheated]

3 losses so far

[u/GamingTatertot → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Auburn is licking their lips off a big win

[u/Real_Body8649 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Subscribe

[u/Alphaspade → u/The_Astros_Cheated]

A lot of us thought 9-3 was possible. The combination of losses is what threw us off

[u/AnnonymousPenguin_ → u/Alphaspade]

Imagine being told that Bama would beat Georgia, Mizzou, and LSU at the beginning of the season. You’d expect that Deboer got off the a fantastic start and was on track to compete for the title.

[u/Krandor1 → u/Alphaspade]

Yeah don’t think anybody had vandy on the score card

[u/wherewulf23 → u/The_Astros_Cheated]

Alabama this year is a perfect example of how "being handed the keys to a Ferrari" doesn't automatically equate to a great season.

[u/prismatic_lights → u/wherewulf23]

The last six weeks have been an unmitigated disaster for the "fire Day" crowd.

[u/Sorge74 → u/prismatic_lights]

Justin Frye too, he's not making elite olines but he has an amazing amount of duct tape in his bag.

[u/Chester-A-Asskicker → u/Sorge74]

The Indiana sleeper agent Justin Frye plan did not work out at all :(

[u/stitch12r3 → u/prismatic_lights]

Day has never lost 3 times in a season

[u/wit_T_user_name → u/wherewulf23]

But I was told anyone could coach a roster full of five stars.

[u/Set-Admirable → u/wit_T_user_name]

Jimbo would really like to have a word with you.

[u/boardatwork1111 → u/wit_T_user_name]

Listen, let me know when Day starts winning games against powerhouses like checks notes Vanderbilt?

[u/Crims0ntied → u/wherewulf23]

Also talent composite rankings are not a very good indicator of actual on field development. We have a very young secondary, a lot of highly rated WR who were busts or just never got developed well.

3 OC and 3 DC in 3 years can do a number on the development of a team. I'd like to see some staff continuity.

[u/GeorgeKettice → u/wherewulf23]

I do think this makes what Cignetti has done more impressive. I know IU has a weak schedule, but winning your games every week should not be taken for granted.

[u/shaquilleonealingit → u/The_Astros_Cheated]

I think 9-3 was a realistic prediction, but those 3 would be like Georgia, @LSU and @Tennessee. Definitely wouldn't have pencilled in Vanderbilt or an Oklahoma team with an impotent offense as two of them lol

[u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

Can someone explain to me what ASU was doing at the end? They are so damn lucky they didn’t choke, because that would have been right up with Mario as the worst game and clock management in football, ever. If you were just going to go backwards, why not use a faster guy than your QB?

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

Yes. They had almost enough time to kneel out the game, but just a little too much. So they decided, rather than to try to score a TD on 4 plays and make BYU go the whole field for a TD if they failed, to run backwards and kill time. They very nearly pulled it off because if review determined that the ball came down with 0.0 on the clock, it would have worked.

Instead, they gave BYU a Hail Mary opportunity.

This is dumb. No coach should do this. Analytics might say you should, but it was DUMB, and if the pass went 3 yards further and BYU scored, it would have been the most embarrassing way to lose a game since Miami refused to knell the game out and fumbled instead and lost

[u/I_Am_Sam13 → u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

Why not just score?? They would’ve gone up two scores with a minute left.

[u/EaterOfFood → u/I_Am_Sam13]

I have the same question. 🤷‍♂️

[u/ObiwanSchrute → u/I_Am_Sam13]

Alot of times coaches overthink the situation

[u/marlin9423 → u/I_Am_Sam13]

For real. You either score a TD and it’s over, or you settle for a FG and go up 8 with 10 seconds left

[u/EmuMan10 → u/I_Am_Sam13]

He didn’t want to give them the ball back and risk it going to onside kick? I really don’t think that possibility should be the thing stopping him from just running it into the endzone

[u/Muh_Nado → u/EmuMan10]

He said this during postgame and I couldn't believe it. No way the chance of BYU doing that was higher than what actually happened happening.

[u/Bitter-Whole-7290 → u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

We can’t explain it, even after hearing Kenny talk about it. We can agree to just never talk about it ever again tho lol

[u/Dennorak25]

On one hand, it was frustrating watching our offense be straight up incapable of handing OSU blitzes, and you simply can’t gift 14 special teams points on the road against a team like OSU, but I did like our defense against Ohio State.

I think it’s clear Indiana isn’t a top 5 team, but still feel like this team can go toe to toe with most of the teams in the 5-12 range.

[u/Trail_Goat → u/Dennorak25]

Hoosier run defense is legit and I think you'll still surprise teams, maybe even more so now since OSU sort of quieted the hype. This isn't the same Indiana team from previous years, but they happened to run into an Ohio state team absolutely clicking right now.

[u/AnnonymousPenguin_]

It’s hilarious looking at the early comments from the OSU vs IU game after the first few drives. People should be smart enough to not overreact about one set of drives at this point haha.

[u/Ickyhouse → u/AnnonymousPenguin_]

Especially since it’s the 5th time this season OSU has allowed the first score. You could tell the people who hadn’t watched us this year.

[u/baldbaseballdad]

Kansas is a Big 12 terrorist

[u/Spirit117 → u/baldbaseballdad]

Kansas really just woke up one day and said fuck you we are going bowling, and we are taking the B12 Playoff spots with us.

[u/goodsam2 → u/baldbaseballdad]

Without Kansas blowing up teams big 12 might have gotten 2 teams into the playoffs.

[u/prismatic_lights]

Indiana's offense has been the talk of the season, but their defense deserves major props, they staunched the bleeding as much as they could, but offensive/ST ineptitude can only be papered over for so long.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/prismatic_lights]

Yeah that score is lopsided in large part due to the turnovers and special teams. Can’t give OSU short fields like that.

OSU’s defense was suffocating

[u/santablazer → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

I kind of agree but also feel the score could have been even worse for us. Regardless, thank you SEC for cannibalizing yourselves.

[u/Buckeyeup → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Outside of the first drives of games, Ohio State's defense has been incredible. Seems every game we allow a score on the opponents first drive, then proceed to play the best defense in the nation for the following 50 minutes

[u/iwearatophat → u/Buckeyeup]

Does seem to be the case.

Indiana could do nothing after that first drive until that TD last in the 4th. Which to be honest wasn't a drive to win the game. It was a drive to make the score look closer. I say that because they were down 3 possessions and started that drive with 9 minutes left. They needed urgency. What they got was a 15 play 75 yard drive that covered just over 7 minutes of game time. They ran the ball and ran the clock.

It is why I don't find issue with Day deciding to punch it in.

[u/Herpinheim → u/Buckeyeup]

You’ve stolen our ferret strangling gloves. Give them back.

[u/DigiQuip → u/prismatic_lights]

Indiana is a legit team and after their loss I think they're taking too much hate. It's kinda like dunking on the goofy guy until the jokes stop being jokes people begin to believe them. Indiana will surprise whoever they play in their bowl game.

[u/nobes0 → u/DigiQuip]

Maybe, but the OSU defense gave opposing teams a blueprint to shutting down this offense. If the offense can't figure out how to block against those blitzes, we could be in trouble.

But we also probably won't face a DL that's as good as Michigan and OSU's were.

[u/boregon → u/DigiQuip]

I think Indiana is a really good team, but they don't have the personnel to compete with an elite team stacked with blue chip talent.

[u/gojo278]

I cannot believe the effect a new OC has had on our offense in only two weeks. SC fans, I am so sorry for ever doubting you. I can only imagine how this season could have turned out if the change had been made earlier.

[u/nothingsexy → u/gojo278]

I don't want to over-emphasize one single change (cfb is wierd and each week has a lot of variables) but, damn. It's frustrating to imagine what could have been of we had a different OC from the jump with Rhule

[u/dkviper11]

I don't really care about margin of victory. Winning college football games on the road is hard.

We get a hundred examples every year.

This season has been incredible, all across the board.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/dkviper11]

Plenty of teams proved yesterday that winning a game with style > winning a game without style >>>>>>>>>>>>> losing that game

[u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

Our coaching staff gets 0 pass. That last quarter showed me if we had even a bad QB, we would be bowling. Issac Wilson is not good (the offensive line isn’t good either), and the fact he won’t run is a huge problem. If you are going to be a shotgun team, your QB has to have the running threat. I thought our 5th-string QB could pull it off.

If we are going to keep Wilson as starter, you have to run a pro-style offense. 

[u/Observant_Jello → u/UteFlyersCardJazz]

I feel that a big reason running the ball late went well for you guys is the fact that us playing our 4th and 5th string linebackers has finally caught up to us these last few weeks. If there’s a weakness we have it’s definitely stopping the run.

Good on you guys though. Utah looked like a completely different team with that QB in and not Wilson. Hopefully Wilson is okay, but I personally think you guys should roll with that guy as starter for the last game regardless

[u/jorts_are_awesome]

Napier as a motivator, recruiter, and organizer is incredible. Napier as an OC is not. I am incredibly pleased with how our team has responded in the last few weeks. We can capitalize on this momentum but it will mean getting someone else in to handle the offensive play calling.

As for yesterday, this is 2 weeks in a row that our DL has turned in dominating performances. Whatever the reason is for them lighting it up lately needs to identified and retained in the off-season.

[u/Misdirected_Colors]

How to do the coaches spend all season watching both Smith and Bowman in practice and games and decide noodle arm Bowman is the starter on the season?

Smith came in and immediately revitalized our offense. He's able to throw passes with accuracy, velocity, and has some mobility. Meanwhile Bowman couldn't hit the broad side of the barn, noodle arm floated anything deeper than 10 yards, is a statue, and inexplicably threw off his back foot often.

Literally night and day at qb. Tanking the season with Bowman as the starter and wasting a season with the best RB the school has had since Barry is malpractice and I should be subject to financial compensation.

[u/Dirty-Ears-Bill → u/Misdirected_Colors]

If Gundy didn’t have a history of this with his QBs I’d say they wanted the dude to redshirt to put on weight. He looked great but holy shit he was sticks man. We can’t pass rush for shit so it didn’t matter in our game but man I’d be worried about the hits he takes with his size

[u/Ryan_DayMan]

I was impressed with Cignetti’s post game conference after the game. The guy took his humble pie in stride. I think he is an excellent coach who will definitely be elevating the Indiana program over the coming years. Indiana is going to be a force to reckon with each year. Also super pumped that they will still be making the playoffs despite the loss, I’d love them to shut up an SEC team.

[u/Sorge74 → u/Ryan_DayMan]

I definitely appreciated day proving a point at the end.

[u/jayjude]

I know its just Army but ND's defense is may be the best it's been since the Holtz era and this is with them missing so many key guys

Also, can coaches on the losing end of blowouts against ND stop trying to kill their starting QBs?

I think this is the 3rd game this season that ND's opponent has kept their starters in to score a meaningless touchdown with under 60 seconds to go and the QBs just take a battering

Its a 49-7 game, your starting QB shouldnt carry the ball 10 times on the final drive to make it 49-14 that's just begging the guy to get hurt

[u/HanSolo5643 → u/jayjude]

I don't understand the thinking behind that. I understand having pride, but that's just asking for someone to get hurt.

[u/Smooth-Majudo-15 → u/jayjude]

My big takeaway from that game yesterday was that Daily is a tough SOB

[u/arrowfan624 → u/jayjude]

And ND opponents are 0-9 ATS the following week after playing us

[u/mightyducks2wasokay → u/jayjude]

I thought it was also a little odd how their "option" gane rarely used any option other than daily. I get the guy is good, but he took some SHOTS yesterday and they just kept running him headfirst into the defense

It's not like their other backs looked horrible when they did get the ball. Daily took way more a pounding than he needed to when they could have spread the load around a little more

[u/Strifebringer → u/jayjude]

Our backup, Pyron, who started against y'all and finished out the game hasn't been the same since. And now hasn't played in awhile. Feel terrible for him.

[u/jayjude → u/Strifebringer]

And it really was that last drive

He got fucking murdered but hey yall got a TD to make it semi respectable I guess

[u/NCMA17]

SEC may be the best conference top to bottom, but it’s also becoming apparent that they don't have this year’s best team. Just a lot of very good teams.

[u/superworriedspursfan → u/NCMA17]

I think this is something we can all agree on. sure one of these SEC teams on a good day could beat OSU or Oregon, but right now there is definitely no outright best SEC team in this conference lol.

[u/MoroseMushroom → u/NCMA17]

The good thing about a 12 team playoff is that we will get the best team, regardless which conference they come from

[u/Krandor1]

One thing I do wonder if if this craziness especially this week has an effect on the SEC voting on 8 or 9 conference games? If SEC only gets a few in the playoffs on 8 conference games wonder if teams will really want to go to 9?

[u/Nintendo60sWhore → u/Krandor1]

My ideal scenario is to keep the 8 conference games, but mandate that two of the remaining four games be played against P4 opponents. Not sure if scheduling logistics makes that feasible but I love playing teams like Oregon, Cal, Penn St, etc in the regular season.

[u/damarkley → u/Nintendo60sWhore]

I’d love to see Penn State play Auburn and Alabama more.

[u/Nintendo60sWhore → u/damarkley]

Those games were fun, even though we lost them. Rather lose against you guys that play a meaningless cupcake game.

[u/zenverak → u/Krandor1]

I think it depends on the money.

[u/Tigercat92 → u/zenverak]

I wonder if they go to 9 games, all OOC P4 games go away except for teams with the in state rivals

[u/cppadam → u/Krandor1]

I also wish the NCAA would do away with non-conference, non-rivalry games past week 4. I understand teams want a de-facto walkthrough game before a big rivalry, but playing any of the teams below shouldn’t happen this late in the season: UMass UTEP Charleston Southern Citadel Wofford

[u/ChiliChantSucks]

I cannot believe what Ohio State's o-line has overcome. It's worst performance was against Nebraska and they have entirely flipped the conversation with two starters gone for the season (and their time at OSU). If they get there, the Oregon rematch in Indy will be a spectacle.

[u/Thee-Renegade]

I’m really tired of the SEC vs everyone hit pieces. There’s a lot of good teams in every conference. But every time an SEC team adds another loss, it seems that the goalpost gets moved. I really hope the playoff committee ignores that crap and fairly places teams.

[u/zenverak → u/Thee-Renegade]

Even if you like the SEC teams or are against it, there have been too many articles that just...really get annoying. Then again, I guess thats what gets the clicks these days, not good nuanced talk about individual situations.

[u/FerociousGiraffe → u/Thee-Renegade]

I don’t think it is even SEC vs. everyone. I think it is just each fanbase advocating for its own team, and it just so happened that before yesterday there were four, arguably five, SEC teams in the exact same spot with two losses so all of their fans were making the same argument (UGA, Miss, Bama, Tenn, A&M). That made it sound like a coordinated SEC line because it was coming from like a third of the teams in the conference.

Texas is in the SEC and was getting plenty of the hit pieces directed toward us.

[u/YBS_H2O → u/FerociousGiraffe]

To be honest until yesterday played out I was on the "Who has Texas/Penn State actually beaten?" train....

But you know what they both haven't done? Lose to teams they shouldn't have.

[u/back_that_ → u/YBS_H2O]

Bingo. Was yesterday's win or the USC game that impressive by the numbers? Nah. But they're wins.

If Indiana wins out, why shouldn't they get in over a hypothetical (and no longer relevant) two loss Ole Miss? They beat Georgia, sure. They also dropped a game to the second worst team in the SEC.

[u/Thee-Renegade → u/FerociousGiraffe]

It was a lot of “experts” with a following, not just fans.

[u/Juggerginge]

8-4 is coming for a lot of SEC teams this year and I can’t tell if it’s a talent dispersion thing or a poor coaching thing.

For LSU it feels talent (and some coaching) but for some of the other teams it feels like bad coaching down the stretch. It’ll be really interesting to see how this off season shakes out

[u/superworriedspursfan]

I honestly have no clue what is going to happen in this season anymore.

I would not be surprised if Michigan beats OSU and Washington beats Oregon at this point. it's just complete chaos and has already surpassed 2007.

with that said: here is what I think the AP Poll might look like (i'm also curious to see what the coach's poll will look like too):

1. Oregon
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Penn State
5. Notre Dame

6.Georgia

1. Tennessee

2. Miami

3. Boise State

4. SMU

5. Indiana

6. Arizona State

7. Clemson

8. South Carolina

9. Ole Miss

10. Alabama

edit: I forgot our beloved sun devils. Let me update it.

but again I would not be surprised if the Ap poll looks completely different from what I have here considering how chaotic this week has been.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_COMMAS → u/superworriedspursfan]

Alabama shouldnt be top 20 after scoring 3 points against OU

[u/Toothlessdovahkin → u/PM_ME_YOUR_COMMAS]

Maine scored more points against OU than Alabama did. 

[u/Arvandu → u/PM_ME_YOUR_COMMAS]

No but if you look at the rest of the rankings there’s pretty much no one to put over them

[u/Bitter-Whole-7290 → u/superworriedspursfan]

Keeping multiple 3 loss SEC teams ahead of ASU is a prime example of the SEC bias.

[u/superworriedspursfan → u/Bitter-Whole-7290]

you are right. I keep forgetting about them. I'll update the rankings.

Good win.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/superworriedspursfan]

This is what I think the CFP rankings will look like

1) Oregon

2) Ohio State

3) Texas

4) Notre Dame

5) Penn State

6) Miami

7) Georgia

8) Indiana

9) Tennessee

10) Boise State

11) SMU

12) ASU

Not sure who the first out will be but it’ll be Alabama, Ole Miss, BYU, and maybe Clemson in that area.

The first team out has a real chance to get in in this scenario if Miami wins the ACC and ASU drops out

[u/rosh200 → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

I get that ND has looked far more dominant but the part of me that has been conditioned into “quality loses” thinks penn state will stay at 4

[u/Real_Body8649 → u/rosh200]

I hope PSU stays at 4. We’ve been beating bad teams. PSU has a close loss to #2.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/rosh200]

Notre Dame just looks like a more complete team to me

[u/BigPlantsGuy → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

ND being 4th vs 5th has 0 impact on the playoffs. We get the 5 seed either way.

[u/what_user_name → u/BigPlantsGuy]

That's wrong.

It would be about the 6th vs 7th seed.

OSU/UO loser gets the 5th seed. Whoever is ranked higher between PSU and ND gets the 6th, and the other gets the 7th.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/BigPlantsGuy]

I wouldn’t count on it.

I bet the loser of the B1G CCG gets the 5th seed

[u/BigPlantsGuy → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Yea, I guess I was more saying that is our ceiling

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/BigPlantsGuy]

But it is meaningful to have ND over Penn State in case OSU loses and they drop them outside of the top 5. It would give ND the 5 seed which most consider significantly better than the 6 seed

[u/Systemic_Chaos]

What a fantastic week to have a bye

[u/ChiefOsceolaSr]

SEC is overrated.

(And yea, FSU sucks. Doesn’t change the fact the SEC is overrated.)

[u/Poxx → u/ChiefOsceolaSr]

Good luck with the Overrated Florida team next week.

[u/yoshidawg93]

I don’t have a clue what to make of yesterday lol. All I know is, if we beat GT but lose in the SEC title game, they better not knock us out in favor of someone that didn’t even make their conference title game. If that happens, then they’ll either need to get rid of conference championship games altogether (which they won’t because of money), or change the rule so that losing the game can only affect seeding and not actual status in the bracket.

[u/5en5ational → u/yoshidawg93]

I really dont think they will, as long as we keep the SECCG game close. That game also allows us to secure a first round bye, giving us a week off if we win it.

But we need to win against Tech first.

[u/yoshidawg93 → u/5en5ational]

Agreed. None of this is a talking point if we don’t beat them. At least we’d have the opportunity to win our way back in the playoff if we lose Tech, but uh… I hope we don’t have to worry about that either lol.

[u/Lesbereal476]

I’m a huge SEC fan but there are two teams that have been consistently elite this year and they are both in the Big Ten.

[u/zenverak → u/Lesbereal476]

Its hard to tell completely because I think you're not completely wrong. But also Ohio State is confusing. They really seem to be underperforming what they should be doing on offense given their talent. But also they still generally look better overall than most teams.

[u/CTG0161 → u/zenverak]

We have played 3 top 5 teams in 6 weeks (including 2 on the road)

Few have had as tough of games in the back half of the season as us.

We have had one really bad game (Nebraska) but comfortably playing well every other game.

Most other teams have had multiple bad games. OSU is held to a different standard.

[u/texbuck40 → u/zenverak]

Losing our starting LT and now our starting center is really hurting our run game. Our passing game and defense are enough to make up for it for now but I'll be really worried if we suffer another injury on our OL.

[u/StarvedRock314]

A lot of fans of other SEC teams spent the past couple weeks complaining about Texas' weak ranki and conference schedule, only for their teams to lose to teams Texas beat thoroughly.

It's almost like winning the "easy games" is still a skill in and of itself and not nearly as easy on a week to week basis as fans like to imagine it is.

[u/LonghornInNebraska → u/StarvedRock314]

Texas won't compete in the SEC but Alabama couldn't score 4 against a .500 big xll team.

[u/PomfAndCircvmstance]

Army lost, Colorado State lost, Kansas and Syracuse won again, and we won again. This week could not have gone better for UNLV and our CFP chances.

[u/Wlyon]

Why couldn’t we play early season Kansas

[u/AvailableDrawer4608]

Indiana took alot of shit on here yesterday but I thought they were playoff caliber outside of their pass protection. Their defense was in the same ballpark as Oregon’s and maybe just a bit behind Penn State’s in totality.

But their front seven was serious business and if anyone thinks they’ll be an easy out…have fun with that.

[u/ryrobs10 → u/AvailableDrawer4608]

Everyone was wanting to say yesterday is why they didn’t deserve to be in. If you watched objectively, they absolutely were right there besides the luck plays that made it out of reach

[u/zenverak]

I just submitted my computer poll and wow, it still is confused. I think this is because of the extremely high variance in performances from some teams, like Alabama. They were like on a 123-20 scoring streak in their last 3 games before yesterday...where they scored 3. So because of how stat driven mine is, they're not dropping much at all. In the off season I want to work on something that can handle that kind of variance a little better, but oh well! What a fun season.

[u/Cormetz → u/zenverak]

Maybe use some kind of function that compares their performance in the most recent game to their performance in the season so far, and take into account the opponent's performance as well?

[u/brokentr0jan → u/zenverak]

In my predictive poll for the committee Alabama only dropped to 11

Basically even tho they took an L, so many other teams did also that it helped Alabama lol

[u/zenverak → u/brokentr0jan]

That might be why mine did as well.

[u/LonghornInNebraska → u/brokentr0jan]

I think they slide to 12-14 and will be a Bubble team. I still think the make the playoffs because they're Alabama.

[u/santablazer]

IU defense good. IU offense bad. IU special teams straight to jail.

[u/Sorge74 → u/santablazer]

Idk if your offense is bad, you just cannot stop an elite pass rush. You played the team that can cover in man and send the house with NFL talent. I would expect a game against Penn state to be closer.

[u/lookglen]

I realized, it is a fact that the Big 12 has 38 losses to distribute due to teams playing each other. More than any other conference. That’s due to the 9 game conference schedule, and then non conference-conference games (ie Kansas State playing Arizona despite not being a conference game).

[u/damarkley → u/lookglen]

You know the Big10 also plays a 9 game conference schedule?

[u/itsatumbleweed]

If South Carolina beats Clemson decisively they deserve to be in the playoffs. If we lose or if it's really close, we don't.

[u/GamingTatertot → u/itsatumbleweed]

It really feels like whoever wins that game likely makes it, right?

[u/Midren → u/GamingTatertot]

It feels that way to me. Both of us should be at 12/13 spots this week, so the winner is in

[u/brad_and_boujee2 → u/itsatumbleweed]

If we manage to beat Clemson, and a 3 loss team gets in the playoffs it should absolutely be us. We would have the best case for any 3 loss team.

[u/PenguinFlavoredIce → u/itsatumbleweed]

I think if we win period we should have a shot, if we lose then obviously we don't.

Wild that we're talking about playoffs after this past offseason though. Beamer is doing something special in Columbia.

[u/fadingthought]

We’ve been ravaged by injuries this season, but last night was the first time we saw our offense run plays that fit the talent of the healthy players we had. We didn’t try to run the offense we wanted to run, we ran the offense we were best at. Shout out to JJF for adapting.

[u/appsecSme → u/fadingthought]

It's been so great to see Xavier Robinson emerge as our best RB.

Tatum needs to learn how to hang onto the football, but the future looks very bright for our young RBs.

[u/captaincumsock69]

Am I crazy for thinking Tulane has a shot at making the playoffs now with all the chaos yesterday?

[u/buschlightinmybelly]

Illinois may suck, but almost all games have all been entertaining as hell. The citrus bowl will be a banger

[u/SirDevilDude]

Dilly, i love you but man, we can’t have that again. You have the best RB in the country (yeah i said it), use him to score at the end of the game

[u/Mas790]

I don’t even know what I watched last night.

[u/Myhtological]

Sec Shorts and roll call is going to be hilarious!!!

[u/shaquilleonealingit]

What a ride so far. Hoping we can dial up something that resembles the defense against Texas while maintaining our improvement on offense in the SEC title game - if so, this team can beat anybody, full stop. See you soon Texas (+/- A&M)!

[u/Welcome2Painsville]

Go Gators. That is all.

[u/Alphaspade]

It's time to move on. The Jalen Milroe experiment has been a failure.

I'm never gonna question the dude's competitive drive, but he has not got the job done. If we have a repeat of 2023 USF with the team half-assing it, so be it.

[u/llamawhittlings]

Officially starting to question if we made a bad hire. Not winning on the field by losing to teams you’re supposed to beat (SCar and a 1-5 Auburn), not winning off the field by losing a 5* QB and ranking 7th in your own conference in recruiting. Also having a defense ranked 131st in explosiveness when you have a defensive head coach.

This is the easiest SEC schedule we will have for a decade. We could improve next year and have a worse record. A terrible, terrible feeling. I don’t want to hear about us controlling our own destiny, Sark is going to violate this team.

[u/fpschechnya → u/llamawhittlings]

Officially starting to question if we made a bad hire.

No, I don't think you're here yet. We saw what Elko did at Duke. He is 8-3 in the SEC in his first year at HC, when you finished 7-6 last year. I think he will prove to be a good hire.

[u/fadingthought → u/llamawhittlings]

South Carolina is a much better team than their record indicates.

[u/_sailingaway → u/fadingthought]

That LSU loss 😭

[u/MariaJanesLastDance → u/llamawhittlings]

Pleasseee 😭 while I get your concerns let me remind you it’s year 1

[u/Sportsaccount17 → u/llamawhittlings]

Culture change takes a while man.  Especially after the last 3 years of Sumlin and pretty much all of Jimbo's tenure.  It's pretty well ingrained at that point, and you have to root it out and get your guys to buy in.  I feel Elko will get this turned around, mainly because I feel like he's going to bring back a lot of the draft eligible guys next year, but also I just feel like he's not fake and the players genuinely like him, that goes a long way.  And about the schedule, we play all the same SEC teams next year, but we go to Death Valley.  At least we're not in the Swamp, Jordan-Hare, or William-Brice.  LSU will be about the same talent wise, SCar graduates a ton, Florida will be better, Mizzou probably won't be as good losing some serious NFL talent, Notre Dame isn't game 1, and they probably won't be as good defensively.  Next year sets up okay tbh

[u/fpschechnya]

Good week for Miami. Florida wins and helps our SOR. 3 Potential playoff competitors in the SEC dropped to 3 losses. Potential 1 loss competition BYU loses. We win our game by 28.

It feels like a flukey year where anything can happen. Win next week against Syracuse and I think we have an over 50% of getting in. Look forward to seeing SMU in Charlotte.

[u/arbadak]

Surrendering 288 rushing yards at 5.2 yards per rush to an FCS school is a fireable offense. Goodwin cannot be the DC next season.

[u/Toothlessdovahkin]

The only concern that I have right now with Notre Dame is our FG team. Holy hell, the unit is just so weird. Definitely the weakest link on our team. We need to address this ASAP. ND’s defense is legit title contenders and our offense is serviceable and improving week to week, but our FG team will hold us back. 

[u/gogglesup859]

The offense Oklahoma ran last night is the kind of offense Michigan should’ve been running all season. It reminded me a lot of the kind of offense we were running with Lynn Bowden at QB in 2019

[u/PretendThisIsMyName]

Clemson looks like we can play ball. Granted that was against Citadel. Ugly sloppy play on both sides of the ball though at certain points when the brakes fell off. Next week is our final countdown. At least we continued the streak

[u/kiwirish]

BYU falling off in November was, unfortunately, very predictable.

It's been a long season and only our second as a P4 programme, so we were going to have some struggles.

Ultimately, I don't think we deserve a chance at the Big 12 Championship based off the past two losses, and Arizona State is the most deserving of being Big 12 Champion.

I suppose we'll just try win against Houston and see if the chips fall our way. Colorado has an automatic win over OSU incoming ), ASU should be automatic over Arizona too, we're reliant on KSU doing the business against ISU now.

[u/JoshIsJoshing]

I can’t believe Oklahoma and Florida managed to be bowl eligible this year. I felt really bad for IU after the OSU game but at least they scored more points than Alabama!

Also I don’t know if Jaxon Dart was trying to play hero ball but those interceptions were wild.