What we learned over the weekend …

[Oldgoldandwhite]

ACC is fourth strongest conference by JHowell (uses standard metrics). If the ACC is ranked as the top or second highest conference by season end, I could see reason for two from the ACC. But the ACC has a lot of ground to make up since the ACC hasn't done well the past few years in winning OOC games. Bottom of http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cf2016.htm

"If" UCLA / USC wins PAC , OU wins Big12, would you put them over a one loss non champ ACC team that lost to the number 2 team in the polls? Assuming all this occurs.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

Much joy for me seeing so many media darlings take it in the shorts. The Phil Steele favorite "Oklahoma" crashes and burns on opening day, Notre Dame goes down, LSU craps the bed, UNC can't cheat their way out of a loss to the Dawgs, perennial overrated USC gets their pants lowered and their butt whipped (no way to wash that one off), Ole Miss can't cheat their way out of a loss to the Criminoles, Miami is back after a historic thrashing of a HBCU opponent (I think I have heard that for the last 15 years), UCLA and their wonder boy QB crash and burn and a few more that escape me. In general the PAC 12 was embarrassed, the Big 12 was embarrassed, the SEC was embarrassed and ESPN was discredited. Loving it.

Go Jackets!

 

[kg01]

Much joy for me seeing so many media darlings take it in the shorts. The Phil Steele favorite "Oklahoma" crashes and burns on opening day, Notre Dame goes down, LSU craps the bed, UNC can't cheat their way out of a loss to the Dawgs, perennial overrated USC gets their pants lowered and their butt whipped (no way to wash that one off), Ole Miss can't cheat their way out of a loss to the Criminoles, Miami is back after a historic thrashing of a HBCU opponent (I think I have heard that for the last 15 years), UCLA and their wonder boy QB crash and burn and a few more that escape me. In general the PAC 12 was embarrassed, the Big 12 was embarrassed, the SEC was embarrassed and ESPN was discredited. Loving it.

Go Jackets!

I can't 'like' this post enough times.

ETA: I also learned that I'm shocked at Bama's QB. That kid is gonna be really good. The shock is at them having recruited him considering he's not the typical statue/don't make mistake guy Saban seems to like. Man, if we could ever get a guy like that or FSU's QB. Why are these schools delving into the types of QB's we need anyways?

 

[mj claz]

I learned that CFB is a lot of fun and somewhat unpredictable.

Concerning teams we play, these teams looked better than I thought they would be:
Vandy - I only watched a quarter when they were clicking.
UNC did better but I didn't watch the end where they lost it. UNC was playing an "away" game in ATL.

This team was worse:
UVa. Sad.

Given that all teams get better after the first week, and assuming all teams get as much better as we do, I have these as wins this season after the first week (total 6):
BC, Mercer, Vandy, Ga Southern, Duke, UVa.

Two teams that are tossups (win one):
VT & Miami.

Most likely to lose (best first), I'm glad we don't have FSU again this year:
Clemson, UGAg, UNC, Pitt.

Not sure why you have Pitt in the most likely to lose category. I feel a whole lot worse about Miami than I do Pitt

 

[FredJacket]

They end the season 11-1, with only loss to 12-0 CU who meets 11-1 GT in ACC-CG. GT wins. That's 3 ACC teams at 11-1 with 2 wins each over SEC opponents. Now, if somehow Auburn or Ole Miss beat georgie or UF in the SEC championship game, then there'll be a case for all 3 ACC teams in the playoffs.

This is one of my favorite posts of all time. Keep 'em coming @AE 87 ....I love to noodle through scenarios. However, even with my illustrious undergraduate degree from the highly acclaimed Georgia Institute of Technology, I must admit this multi-team / 12-week scenario carries complexity I can only wish to understand. You have my highest respect ...and to quote a really bad good movie "SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S A CHANCE!!!" Stay tuned. I predict this scenario is still 'on track' come Sunday morning.

 

[GTJake]

Houston is a pretty good football team with a great freshman QB. Their last two wins coming against FSU and OU !

 

[Dustman]

Nothing is more amusing than watching the SEC hype machine suddenly offering PARITY as a reason for their embarrassing start. Appalachian St is not just a good team, they are a "program" per Feinbaum show analyst.

 

[RamblinCharger]

Houston is a pretty good football team with a great freshman QB. Their last two wins coming against FSU and OU !

Greg Ward Jr. isn't a freshman. He's a senior, fwiw.

 

[GTJake]

Greg Ward Jr. isn't a freshman. He's a senior, fwiw.

Was wondering if he was any relation to Charley Ward ??

 

[takethepoints]

Not sure why you have Pitt in the most likely to lose category. I feel a whole lot worse about Miami than I do Pitt

Yeah, me too. The big takeaway for me from Pitt's first game is that Conner carried the ball 17 times and only got 53 yards. I don't know why that happened - didn't see the game - but I don't think you just waltz through heavy-duty chemotherapy and go back out on the field at peak performance. I applaud the young man for his courage and stamina, but I doubt he's the same James Conner that terrorized the league two years ago. That alone - plus the little factoid that we came as close as possible to beating them last year - makes me think that this is going to be another close game and that we have a real good chance to win it.

 

[Techster]

Louisville's QB Lamar Jackson is going to be a good one as well.

Dual threat QBs are going to rule the football world soon...the NFL needs to start hiring college coaches as OCs or head coaches because they're going to run out of "traditional" drop back passers to coach pretty soon. Chip Kelly, for some odd reason, is de-emphasizing these kind of QBs for his offense in the NFL. He was my one hope of not having to watch the same offense every Sunday. Booo...

 

[SidewalkJacket]

Louisville's QB Lamar Jackson is going to be a good one as well.

Dual threat QBs are going to rule the football world soon...the NFL needs to start hiring college coaches as OCs or head coaches because they're going to run out of "traditional" drop back passers to coach pretty soon. Chip Kelly, for some odd reason, is de-emphasizing these kind of QBs for his offense in the NFL. He was my one hope of not having to watch the same offense every Sunday. Booo...

I hope this is the case, as well. The fear for the longest time has been getting your QB hurt if he's running around all the time. I can see a change in personnel philosophy on the horizon with teams who commit to running QB offenses, similar to the RB by committee approach teams have begun to take. Maybe keep more QBs on the roster.

 

[kg01]

Louisville's QB Lamar Jackson is going to be a good one as well.

Dual threat QBs are going to rule the football world soon...the NFL needs to start hiring college coaches as OCs or head coaches because they're going to run out of "traditional" drop back passers to coach pretty soon. Chip Kelly, for some odd reason, is de-emphasizing these kind of QBs for his offense in the NFL. He was my one hope of not having to watch the same offense every Sunday. Booo...

It's one of the reasons I gave up on watching NFL football years ago. It's sooooo homogenous. 30 teams basically all trying to do a slightly different version of the same thing.

Find your statue, sling it around, try to set up playaction, wash, rinse, repeat, blah, blah, blah. Teams who have their statue are kinda good, those who don't have one simply cycle through other teams' failed statues. Gah.

There hasn't really been anything truly innovative offensively in that league in decades. The only "innovation" manifests itself as an increase in # of passes per game. Any attempt at doing anything different is met with skepticism and a leash so short that no true organizational committment is made to allow any success. Crazy. Man I hate the NFL.

 

[UgaBlows]

I had hopes a few years ago when Kaepernick and Russell Wilson were successfully running a lot of read-option plays that it would catch on more in the nfl. Pro style off. bores the hell out of me, i think Chan Gailey ruined it for me lol

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

In general the PAC 12 was embarrassed, the Big 12 was embarrassed, the SEC was embarrassed and ESPN was discredited. Loving it.
!

If this continues, I see the ACC getting two in. GT with a 11-1 record in the playoffs with either FSU or Clemson or both. That would make my year, just don't wake me up.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

The reason the NFL does not run the QB unless absolutely necessary is that they know the life expectancy would be very short. The human body was not made to endure 3 or 4 head on car wreck type collisions a week. This is why the career expectancy of the average running back in the NFL is less than 3 years. Besides the fans like to see those pretty passes and explosive plays. Kapernick (sp) is already afraid to run the ball.

Go Jackets!

 

[Techster]

I hope this is the case, as well. The fear for the longest time has been getting your QB hurt if he's running around all the time. I can see a change in personnel philosophy on the horizon with teams who commit to running QB offenses, similar to the RB by committee approach teams have begun to take. Maybe keep more QBs on the roster.

Pretty much what CPJ said one time when they asked him about whether his offense would work in the NFL. LOTS of QBs that would star in the NFL if they were in the right offense that maximizes their skillset. Heck, if you ran an option heavy scheme, you'd have your pick of the top ones because the other 31 NFL teams don't want them, and you could stockpile the ones that work for your system (within the limit of NFL rosters of course) to rotate. You wouldn't have to pay them 20+ million a year because the demand for them is different than the demand for guys like Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers. Instead, you get a guy like Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Pat White...among MANY others who put up phenomenal passing numbers and running numbers in college trying fit into a round hole when they're a square peg.

Just because you run an option centric offense doesn't mean the QB needs to get hit every play. Seattle still runs the option a hand full of times every game because they know Russell Wilson is smart about it and will slide if any defender is within a two yards of him. He knows he needs to be healthy to collect those big paychecks. They also know that if they run a certain amount of option plays, they force the offense to dedicate a defender to spy him...that's one less guy clogging up the passing lanes and takes the defense's advantage away of having an extra defender because they have to account for the QB. As long as coach and QB are smart about it, it can work.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

I've always said the only way a true option team would work in the NfL is if it's a new expansion where you build it from the ground up

 

[g0lftime]

What I learned is that we still have problems in the offensive line and our smallish A backs have trouble sustaining blocks on linebackers and sometimes totally miss their blocks. If that doesn't get corrected then we will not have a very good season. PJ said that we were playing like last year but did not elaborate on whether offense or defense so I suspect some of both. I sometimes think he is too hard on the defense when HIS offense doesn't look too hot either. We played a good defense in BC but there sure were a lot of blown assignments by the OL. They sometimes had 3 or 4 guys in the backfield on the pitch and we had very little success on the dive. I think we had trouble with some of their defensive alignments, 3-3-1, 4-3, and 5-2 were run at different times. They may have thrown in a 3-4 but I don't remember seeing that one. They didn't bite on the misdirection very often either. Looked like they may have cued off the A back in motion rather than the QB.

 

[GTonTop88]

I learned that CFB is a lot of fun and somewhat unpredictable.

Concerning teams we play, these teams looked better than I thought they would be:
Vandy - I only watched a quarter when they were clicking.
UNC did better but I didn't watch the end where they lost it. UNC was playing an "away" game in ATL.

This team was worse:
UVa. Sad.

Given that all teams get better after the first week, and assuming all teams get as much better as we do, I have these as wins this season after the first week (total 6):
BC, Mercer, Vandy, Ga Southern, Duke, UVa.

Two teams that are tossups (win one):
VT & Miami.

Most likely to lose (best first), I'm glad we don't have FSU again this year:
Clemson, UGAg, UNC, Pitt.

I would put Pitt and UNC in the same category as VT and Miami. Pitt only beat Villinova 28-7