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I figured that since we've got nothing to look forward to for the next week and a half or so, other than the Army/Navy game and the anti-climactic Heisman presentation, some team writeups for bowl teams might be a fun thing to do. San Diego State Aztecs Conference: Mountain West Record: 10-3 (9-0), Mountain West Champions Bowl: Hawaii Bowl vs. Cincinnati, December 24th Season Overview: This has been a weird season for the Aztecs. We started out 1-3 out of the gate, with our only win against FCS San Diego. Two convincing road losses to Power Five teams in Penn State and Cal, and an inexplicable home overtime loss to South Alabama. After that, someone flipped a switch and we haven't lost since. We swept through the regular season conference slate unbeaten, not winning a game by less than 14 points during the regular season, riding a strong running game and strong defense all the way to the MWC Title game against Air Force, who put up much more of a fight, but eventually too were beaten by a score of 27-24, and vaulted the Aztecs into the Hawaii Bowl. A ten win season, chance to tie the all time SDSU record with an 11th win, couldn't really ask for more. Offense: Key Players: Christian Chapman, QB. Donnell Pumphrey, RB. Eric Judge, WR. This offense is a throwback to 1960s football. We run the biggest offensive line in the conference and reigning MWC Offensive player of the year in Donnell Pumphrey with a lot of success. Starting QB Max Smith went out in the season finale against Nevada with a torn ACL, and redshirt freshman Christian Chapman stepped into the MWC Title game for his first start, and made some key throws to Judge and Pumphrey. The offense goes through the running game with Pumphrey, Chase Price, and fullback Dakota Gordon. The Aztecs don't turn the ball over, only committing one turnover in the last 8 games. If Cincinnati can stop the run, this game will be very interesting. Defense: Key Players: Demonte Kazee, CB. Jake Feely, LB. Calvin Munson, LB. SDSU runs Rocky Long's odd 3-3-5 defense, and this season, has run it to perfection. We rank top 10 nationally in total defense, and #1 in turnover margin. Teams don't run on us. Demontae Kazee is the MWC defensive player of the year, and both Fely and Munson are hard hitting linebackers who don't miss tackles. We get great pressure on the QB, and our DBs generally don't blow assignments. That's why I said that if Cincinnati can stop the run, the game will be interesting because I have every confidence in the world in our defense keeping us in the game. Prediction: I don't really know much about Cincinnati. Like I said, SDSU can run the ball and our defense can lock down on both the run and the pass. If the Bearcats can shut down our running game, this game might be a low scoring slog. I'll go 20-17 Aztecs.
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Dec 10, 2015 21:25
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 05:16 |
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 Your 2015 Georgia Bulldogs! Conference: SEC Division: The bad one Record: 9-3 (5-3), probably the worst 3-loss team in college football since, oh, 2014 Missouri Bowl: The GATOR BOWL (dammit) against Penn State, 1/2, high noon Season Overview: Look, this team sucks. QB play was the worst it ever was in the Richt Era (years that included starts by Hutson Mason, Joe Cox, and Joe Tereshinski III), the offensive coaching was clueless, the offensive line underperformed, Nick Chubb was lost for the year with a Neyland Stadium Injury(TM), I don't recall a single catch for a receiver other than 9-year senior Malcolm Mitchell and freshman Terry Godwin, the special teams would either look like Devin Hester or me on returns...2015 UGA was a mess, and anyone who thinks Miami somehow suckered Georgia by ending up with Mark Richt is a Richt truther or is clueless. Every problem for '15 UGA can be laid at Richt's feet, and whether or not it was rather rude to sack him after a 4-0 finish, it wasn't entirely undeserved. And yet, in this transition (read: "bad") year, Georgia won 9 games and could've won 10. That's because Jeremy Pruitt, when he wasn't busy punching other coaches or whatever the rumors would have you believe, ate his Wheaties and coached his rear end off down the stretch, making such final scores in wins as 13-7, 23-17 (only gave up 10), 20-13, and 9-6!!! possible. Georgia's defense wasn't quite elite, but it was very very good and it kept this team from the shame of 5-7. Coaching the Dawgs in this one will be Bryan McClendon, UGA's WR coach and a WR himself on UGA's last SEC-winning team. Offense key players: Sony Michel, RB; Greyson Lambert, "QB" Michel isn't an every-down back but was basically forced into the role after Nick Chubb went down with, and again I will say it, a Neyland Stadium Injury(TM). He works his tail off trying to find holes that the offensive line gives him about once every six snaps, and occasionally he can break off a home run. Greyson Lambert wears a Georgia uniform and receives the ball from the center, because by rule you must have 11 players on the field. Defense key players: Leonard Floyd, LB; Dominick Sanders, DB Floyd will be heading to League after this; he's elite when he's in the mood, which is more than half of the time. The UT game is Floyd in a nutshell—he had a 99-yard fumble return for a TD but also played like poo poo besides. Also single-handedly stopped Georgia Southern's option attack and saved Richt's bacon from having a Southern loss on his ledger. Dominick Sanders is the Man in a surprisingly stingy group of UGA DBs. Georgia not having a crappy pass defense for once was a welcome, albeit quiet, change this season. Prediction: Neither of these teams is any good on offense. Both have solid defenses. I'm guessing the game will be unwatchable trash, the sort I as a Georgia fan have become quite used to the back half of '15. I can't stand James Franklin as a coach or as a human being, so I'd love to see us dumptruck Penn State all over Jacksonville, but UGA football at current is the dude with his feet up at his desk who's already turned in his two weeks' notice. Penn State 20, Georgia 10.
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Dec 10, 2015 21:58
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 Texas Tech Red Raiders Conference: Big XII Record: 7-5 (4-5) Bowl: Texas Bowl vs LSU Season Overview Tech just barely made it out of a brutal start to the season. Tech faced Arkansas in the 3rd game and put together a, frankly, dominant performance over Bert's Razorbacks. Collins went for his yards, but at a certain point, Tech was just calling plays and eating clock, effectively saying, "you can't stop us". The TCU game was the next week and Doctson was still healthy at that point. Still, it came down to a freak tip-catch play on 4th down in the waning seconds of the game and a lateral play coming up 10 yards short for them to beat us. The bigger news was Pat Mahomes getting injured in the 1st quarter. He finished the game, but spent the next 5 weeks gimpy. Baylor wrecked our poo poo. That was when they still had Seth Russell and Pat was gimp. We responded by going off on poor ISU, but Kansas was surprisingly game. OU wrecked our poo poo in Norman, to be expected. A 0 point 3rd quarter doomed us against OSU. WVU held us to our lowest output of the season, we never really got going against the Mountaineers. Then we closed out by beating KSU for the first time since 2009 for bowl eligibility and UT for the first time since 2008 to keep them from a bowl. Offense Key Players: Pat Mahomes, QB; DeAndre Washington, RB; Jakeem Grant, WR; LaRaven Clark, OL; #2 offense in the nation, only P5 to score > 25 in every game. Nigh unstoppable at home, nigh unstoppable when Pat's playing well. Still makes a few too many mistakes, which lets other teams back in the game instead of burying them under an avalanche of points. Defense Key Players: uhhhh, I guess Breiden Fehoko, DT? Tech's defense is poo poo. I mean, pure, unadulterated poo poo. There are 6 guys that play on the DL, and only the starting 4 would get playing time on another D1 team. So, generally, we'll start out the game with a stout defense and then sometime in the middle of the 2nd quarter, they'll snap and it'll be about like not having a defense at all. Prediction: Tech will put up points against LSU. They play A&M, so they've seen an air raid, but A&M's air raid doesn't work like Tech's. Fournette could go for a bazillion yards against Tech's defense. But Tech will jump out to an early lead, influencing Cam Cameron to think he has to call passes. LSU will go back to the run and pick up huge chunks of yardage in the 2nd half, but it won't be enough. Tech 48, LSU 36.
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Dec 10, 2015 22:09
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Ooooh this is a fun idea. Your 2015 Bowling Green Falcons! Conference: MACtion Record: 10-3, MAC Champions Bowl: GoDaddy Bowl vs. Georgia Southern Season Overview No shame in losing to Tennessee, then promptly mollywhopped Maryland, lost a track meet to Memphis, and beat Purdue. Proceeded to rip through a weak MAC East, lose to Toledo again, then beat WMU, destroyed Ball State, and beat NIU comfortably in the MAC Championship. This was almost completely due to... Offense:  No exaggeration, this was some video game poo poo this year. QB Matt Johnson threw 535 passes for 368 catches, 4,700 yards, 43 touchdowns, and only 8 picks. Roger Lewis, only a sophomore, had 82 catches for 1,476 yards and 15 TDs. The next 3 leading receivers (Dieter, Moore, and Burbrink) had 957, 871 and 627 yards, respectively. We throw the ball a whole loving lot. Combine this with a near compulsive desire to snap the ball as quickly as possible and this is what you get. We will run the ball when necessary though, and did pretty well at that too. Travis Greene had 212 carries for 1,219 yards and 14 TDs. Fred Coppet had 797 yards of his own. We will run the ball mostly just enough to keep opposing defenses honest, or if weather/field conditions absolutely demand it. Defense: We ranged from sieve to adequate on defense as we went though the year. Still, they stepped up when needed and with the offense we have, it keeps demands amazingly low on the D, and they can mostly throw whatever they want at the QB since they only have to make a few stops per game to keep the offense ahead. Special Teams Tyler Tate had an off year with FGs, but we didn't really have to rely on him much. Joseph Davidson can bail out the offense when it sputters. Dude is a 6'7" 225 lb punter and can hit it a mile. Coaching Defensive coordinator Brian Ward will coach for the bowl game, with Dino Babers having departed for the Syracuse job. It sucks to lose Dino but that's the way of things in the MAC and Matt Johnson knows the offense inside and out, so he'll likely get to call things as he sees it from the line. Prediction I don't know much about Georgia Southern but kudos to them on their year, and apparently they only run the ball, and they're pretty drat good at it. We're.... not spectacular against the run. Odds are it could be a track meet bowl game, which should be fun as hell. With losing Dino to Syracuse, this could be a bit disorganized but it's hard to argue against our offense in a track meet game. I'll say BG wins 45-38.
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Dec 10, 2015 23:07
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 Pitt Panthers Conference: ACC... Coastal, I think? Yeah, Coastal. Record: 8-4 (6-2) Bowl: Military Bowl (Annapolis, MD) vs Navy, 12/28 3:30pm Season Overview A 2-1 start consisting of a way-too-close win over FCS Youngstown St, a by-the-book win at Akron, and a last-second loss at Iowa on a 57-yard field goal. Pitt then rebounded by winning four in a row (at VaTech, vs UVA, at GaTech, at Syracuse) to start conference play and briefly appear as a top 25 team before dropping two home games to UNC and Notre Dame. They closed the season with wins at Duke and vs Louisville before inexplicably dropping their finale to Miami at home. A completely unremarkable 8-4 season. Offense QB Nate "Don't Call Me J" Peterman: 180/293, 2150 yards, 19 TD, 5 INT; 82 rush, 207 yards, 1 TD WR Tyler Boyd: 85 Rec, 873 yards, 6 Rec TD; 35 Rush, 294 yards RB Qadree Ollison: 204 Rush, 1048 yards, 10 TD: 12 Rec, 63 yards The starring role was supposed to be filled by RB James Conner before an early-season knee injury sidelined him for the year. Conner has since been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Qadree Ollison stepped up by handling the bulk of the carries afterward, with Peterman chipping in. Tyler Boyd was the only true big-play threat on the team, and they tried to get him the ball anyway they could as the year progressed. Here is Pitt's game-winning drive against Syracuse. Just look at this masterpiece:  Defense DL Ejuan Price: 11.5 sacks DB Avonte Maddox: 3 INT LB Matt Galambos: 10 TFL, 2 INT Very solid unit overall, as you would expect from a team coached by Narduzzi. Special Teams Despite his hilarious name, K Chris Blewitt had an acceptable year. 15/22 on FGs with a long of 56, 38/39 on PATs. Prediction Pitt's reward for this season is an actual road game against a good Navy team. Pitt's rushing defense ranked 21st in FBS with 126.1 yds/game allowed, but Navy is going to be determined to send QB Keenan Reynolds off as a hero. I predict Pitt will lose a hard-fought game, and 8-5 frankly seems about right for them this year.
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Dec 11, 2015 01:36
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Northwestern Wildcats Lost a lot of a games in the 1970s and 1980s, lol.
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Dec 11, 2015 01:52
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 The Western Michigan University Broncos! Conference: MAC West Record: 7-5 (6-2) Bowl: THE MOTHERFUCKIN BAHAMA-MAMA BOWL! Season Overview WMU started the season by playing an incredibly rare home game against Sparty at Waldo Stadium as part of Sparty's Celebrate the State program (a super cool thing MSU did, imo). After playing them relatively tough, I had high hopes for the season. Then we lost to Georgia Southern and their infernal triple option attack. Air Force killed us with that in the Potato Bowl last year, so while I wasn't terribly surprised, the game was quite grim. Then a cupcake, and another loss afterwards to tOSU. Entered conference play 1-3, at which point the Broncos rattled off five wins in a row, putting them firmly in the driver's seat for the MAC West title. Unfortunately, WMU was something of a paper tiger, as the only one of those teams who actually did much this season were those douchebags from Mt. Pleasant. After a thrashing by eventual MAC champ Bowling Green, WMU dropped another to NIU, eliminating them from the MAC championship game. Regular season ended on a high note, as WMU beat #24 (at that time) Toledo, denying them a trip to the MAC Championship game as well. Offense Quarterback: Zach Terrell, JR (244/365 , 27 TDs, 8 INTs) - The second full year Terrell has been the Broncos QB. After looking pretty bad in 2013, the kid has really matured into a solid quarterback, but he has a rather aggravating tendency to not get rid of the ball in the face of heavy defensive pressure. Wide Receivers: Daniel Braverman, JR (103 Rec, 1266 yds, 12 TDs), Corey Davis, JR (82 Rec, 1253 yds, 11 TDs) - These two are like opposite sides of a coin. Davis is targeted less because he is covered more and is the deep threat of the two. Braverman I love to death and hate at the same time. He'll shuck and jive and wiggle and squirm and run backwards or whatever he has to do to try to squeeze any extra yardage out of a play. Sometimes this is amazing and he winds up reversing the field and running in for a touchdown. Other times he'll just have given up 5 yards from running backwards. It's maddening to watch him JUST HAVE TO RUN FORWARD 2 YARDS FOR THE FIRST YOU HAVE ROOM DUDE GOGOGOGOGO, only for him to decide he might get an extra yard if he stutter-steps, and then is tackled shy of the marker. I've yelled a lot about Braverman this season, for both reasons. Running Backs: Jarvion Franklin, SO (146 Rush, 699 yds, 5 TDs), Jamauri Bogan, FR (143 Rush, 836 yds, 12 TDs) - Jarvion was supposed to be the new hotness, after having a stellar freshman campaign. Then Bogan comes along, and I don't know what to think (actually, they're numbers 31 and 32, so wasn't paying a ton of attention and thought they were Franklin most of the season). In reality, Franklin tends to be a little bit like WMU's Marshawn Lynch, a powerback who will truck the poo poo out of DBs if he gets to the open field. Also can catch the ball, which can lead to said trucking when he's got a swing/safety valve route. Defense Cornerbacks: Ronald Zamort, SR, Darius Phillips, SO - This is basically the best unit on the defense. The corner play has been pretty good, although there have been a fair share of blown assignments and penalties. Zamort is the only high-profile senior I can think of on the team, which bodes well for next year (maybe, more on that later). Special Teams Nothing special here, average punter, average kicker. WMU does like to do a lot of rugby style punts, which I find aesthetically pleasing for some reason, but YMMV. Also, Braverman makes a bold return here as our go-to punt-returner. All the weal and woe I mentioned above gets doubled-down on here. Coach PJ Fleck (3rd year) - The undisputed star of WMU football, loves to say ELITE a lot, evidently a fan of Joe Buck's hobo scruff because I don't know what the gently caress is going on there. SO FAR, nothing has come through the pipes of another school wooing him away, but oh god, I am going to bawl like a baby when it happens. The guy is a great recruiter, players love him, and he is somewhat justifiably a rising star in the coaching world. Really, I could go on and on about Coach Fleck, but if you've read any coaching speculation threads, this guy's name is almost always in there. As an aside, there was a brief period where scuttlebutt had him possibly going to Illinois to take over from Cubit, which would have been the second time that happened. Also, he did this last year against our top DB, which is great. Also this compilation. Ok, enough about Fleck. Prediction WMU should win this game. Vegas has the Broncos by a field goal, the ESPN matchup predictor gives em a 57% chance to win, and I'm frankly not overly impressed by MTSU's record. They've recorded wins against 4 teams that were regularly featured in ESPN's Bottom 10 (the only worthwhile ranking ESPN does), whereas WMU had 2. MTSU beat one FBS team with a winning record (Marshall, in triple overtime), whereas WMU has taken down 3 (Mt. Pleasant Scrotum Stank, Ohio Bobcats, and the then #24 Toledo Rockets). That said, the one thing that makes me nervous is their up-tempo football style. WMU got burned with that against Falcon Fast BG. Our D-line was getting virtually no pressure on the QB. I was screaming at the TV, but for some reason the D-line didn't play any better. Hopefully we use an improved defensive scheme against MTSU than we did against BG. Final prediction: Everyone will have fun because it is the Bahamas
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Dec 11, 2015 04:01
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