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The Notorious ZSB
Apr 19, 2004

I SAID WE'RE NOT GONNA BE FUCKING SUCK THIS YEAR!!!

IT IS AUGUST FALL CAMPS ARE STARTING AND FOOTBALL BEGINS THIS MONTH. TIME TO FANTASIZE ABOUT PERFECTION.

Welcome to the thread where eternal optimism will land you in exactly no trouble, because no one has played a game yet. Let's all take a peek at the schedules for our teams, and share some expectations and info about the team if you're so inclined!

For my setup (y'all don't have to do it the same way), I'm going to include the preseason rank, schedule, my made up BS chances of my team winning that game, and then a range of final records to reflect; best outcome, expected outcome, worst outcome.

Schedule Example:
Date - Opponent | Expected Outcome | (% chance to win/% chance to lose)


Virginia Tech Hokies

Pre-Season Rank - UNR

Schedule
Aug 30 - William & Mary W (100/0)
Sept 6 - @ Ohio State L (30/70)
Sept 13- East Carolina W (75/25)
Sept 20 - Georgia Tech W (80/20)
Sept 27 - Western Michigan W (100/0)
Oct 4 - @ North Carolina W (50/50)
Oct 16 - @ Pittsburgh L (50/50)
Oct 23 - Miami W (60/40)
Nov 1 - Boston College W (70/30)
Nov 15 - @ Duke W (60/40)
Nov 22 - @ Wake Forest W (90/10)
Nov 28 - Virginia W (100/0)
Dec 6 - ACC Title Game

Best Possible Results | 12-0, 8-0 ACC: As always I believe powered by a top 10 defense the Hokies only need a competent offense to have a shot to run through their ACC schedule undefeated. Ohio State is the only scary out of conference game, and they have a suspect defense and a ton of new faces on offense. It's not inconceivable that early in the season we could pull an upset behind a quality defensive performance like we showed we are capable of against Alabama last season. We dodge FSU, Clemson, and Louisville from the Atlantic. I think this may be a question of addition by subtraction on offense, new QB, lots of fresh talent on the Oline and at TE. We've had a tough 2 years, but bigger turn arounds have happened.

Expected Results | 10-2, 7-1 ACC: More likely however is that with competent QB play and growth from the offense we are still in a good spot to regain our usual position in the top 15 with a loss at Ohio State and another loss in conference from one of UNC, Pitt, or Duke (ugh how awful would back to back losses to Duke be, really bad). This should put us in a position to play for the ACC Title, and I think we will be much better at running and catching the ball this season than we were last year. Logan Thomas was asked to do too much and it cost us in most of our losses, if the rest of the team can step up and help shoulder the load, whoever the QB is will be in a better spot to succeed than he was the past 2 years. I wouldn't discount 9-3, 6-2 ACC as a close 2nd option here that I had to debate about.

Worst Possible Results | 7-5, 5-3 ACC: Let's say the offense isn't any better (entirely possible), and the defense takes time to find it's groove with lots of new starters in the front 7, we could easily lost to OSU, ECU, UNC, Pitt, Duke or Miami. There is the potential for a downward spiral fast if things go wrong early in conference play. We could be better in some spots (WR, TE), but still not have the QB or Oline to make much use of it. A third year without being in contention for the ACC Title, and stuck in some poo poo mid tier bowl unranked is absolutely on the table. I'm just hoping we can start to get consistent on offense and see more of the Miami game last season and less of the Duke or Maryland games.

General Schedule Musings
- GT I feel very confident against because Bud Foster has continued to limit them to fewer and fewer yards each season we play them. Plus we get them at home.
- UNC could finally live up to their billing, or they could again be plagued by inexperience. I consider it a toss up, but I doubt it's a shootout like 2 years ago. Foster will have tricks up his sleeve, and their defense isn't that scary.
- I predicted an L @ Pitt in a toss up game because our track record there is just awful. Especially if we are magically ranked after an upset over OSU or being a solid 5-1 ranked squad going to Pitt. History tells me bad things will happen.
- Miami prb won't have a healthy or quality QB, and after 2 years of playing in South Beach they come to visit us. gently caress em we should win.
- Duke is always a scary game for us, I don't know why. It finally caught up to us last year.
- UVA won't beat us, especially in Lane Stadium. London will be fired after an awful 0-12 campaign. Commonwealth Cup isn't leaving it's home anytime soon.

Other Thoughts
- Transfer Michael Brewer I expect to be named the starter maybe as soon as 2 or 3 days into fall camp.
- We will have one of the best secondaries in the country again this year.
- NO STUPID JERSEYS THIS YEAR, ALL MAROON EVERYTHING WILL RETURN.
- Glad to see 2 Thursday night games on the schedule again.


Tennessee Volunteers

Pre-Season Rank: UNR

Schedule
Aug 31 - Utah State W (60/40)
Sept 6 - Arkansas State W (70/30)
Sept 13 - @ Oklahoma L (5/95)
Sept 27 - @ Georgia L (40/60)
Oct 4 - Florida L (40/60)
Oct 11 - Chattanooga TN W (100/0)
Oct 18 - @ Ole Miss L (45/55)
Oct 25 - Alabama L (5/95)
Nov 1 - @ South Carolina L (35/65)
Nov 15 - Kentucky W (60/40)
Nov 22 - Missouri W (50/50)
Nov 29 - @ Vanderbilt W (70/30)

Best Possible Results | 8-4, 5-3 SEC: If things come together and the 2nd stellar recruiting class Jones managed to put together can contribute at a high level fast, there is opportunity to score an upset or 2 along the way to a better than expected winning record. There are certainly games they won't have a shot to win (Oklahoma, Alabama), but if they are competitive through out the whole year as they proved they could be in the middle of last season it's not unfathomable to see them surprise a few folks in the SEC and ruin a few other teams seasons. A winning record would be a huge accomplishment for Jones in his 2nd year on campus, especially given the tough schedule.

Expected Results | 6-6, 3-5 SEC: I think that the Vols will be capable of at least 1 upset along their schedule which means they should have a chance to finish at .500 and make a bowl game. Where that comes is up for debate but I think it would likely come among Florida, South Carolina, Ole Miss or Mizzou. Assuming they win their OOC games within reach it will only take 3 wins in conference and Kentucky and Vandy should be automatic given the history between them. I think a bowl eligible record would be a huge accomplishment for Jones with the schedule and the continued talent gap that the Vols have against the top SEC programs. He's a drat good coach and I expect him to build on what they did last year staying largely competitive and not quitting like they had under Dooley.

Worst Possible Results | 4-8, 2-6 SEC: Well despite what should be a more talented roster, a lot of that talent is young especially on the offensive and defensive lines. The opportunity for this team to not score enough points consistently and be just porous enough on defense to be more competitive, but not good enough to get over that hump, is a very realistic situation. Utah State is no push over with Chuckie Keaton. The only for sure W on the schedule is Chattanooga TN as an FCS team. They could be a better football program, but it may not show in their record.

General Schedule Musings
- Chattanooga TN is the only sure W on this schedule
- Could be the year the streak against UF finally ends, but after losing for 7 straight years it's hard to have too much confidence about it. Couldn't beat them at their worst last year.
- Refused to give the team no chance at all against Oklahoma and Bama, but only because I think Butch Jones proved in the USCe & Georgia games that he's a quality enough game day coach to keep his team in it against steep odds.
- Ole Miss could be really good, or really inconsistent feels like a toss up.
- Mizzou loses a lot, if both teams improve over the year, it feels like a toss up game.
- Best chance for the upset is over USCe and I only say that because they're our only Ws over ranked opponents in the past 5 years.

Those are my thoughts on my 2 alma maters, time for everyone else to chime in so we can get psyched for the start of the season in less than a month.

Also our school has a better fan hype video than yours.

The Notorious ZSB fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Aug 2, 2014

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No Butt Stuff
Jun 10, 2004

Jumping in to say "gently caress haters, mizzou rules."

Also preeminent "shut up about the God damned badgers"

Spiritus Nox
Sep 2, 2011

I'm gonna do a big effortpost at some point, but for now just know that Baylor Football is absolutely bitchin' and I really like our team this year and gently caress the haters 'cause we're going to beat OU in Norman.

Nur_Neerg
Sep 1, 2004

The Lumbering but Unstoppable Sasquatch of the Appalachians
VT 2014:

Bill & Mary: W
@OSU: Toss-Up. I think our D will make their O look silly in many ways, and it's likely their D will do the same to our O, though I'm not sure they'll be able to run with our TEs in the secondary. Feel like people are over-rating OSU really hard, but we'll probably still lose.
ECU: W
GT: W
WMU: W
@UNC: W
@Pitt: W
Miami: W
BC: W
@Duke: W
@Wake Forest: W
UVA: W

Realistically, I think we finish something like 10-2, losing to OSU and a toss-up of one more between UNC/Miami/Pitt, but if we show improvement at OL and mild competence at QB, I have no problem at all guessing 12-0 regular season with a loss to FSU in the ACCCG and a possible Peach-level bowl.

RumbleFish
Dec 20, 2007



South Carolina Gamecocks

2013 final ranking: 4
2014 preseason ranking: 9

Schedule and projected results
Aug. 28 - Texas A&M W. I see it being a high-scoring affair, and we're certainly capable of losing given our typical performance in openers, but A&M's defense is just so atrocious.
Sept. 6 - East Carolina W. gently caress ECU.
Sept. 13 - Georgia Toss-up. I'm leaning toward a win because it's at home, and Georgia will be missing some guys from injury/suspension.
Sept. 20 - at Vanderbilt W. No doubt it will be uncomfortably and infuriatingly close.
Sept. 27 - Missouri W. Could see it being a wild one similar to last year, and think we'll have the edge again.
Oct. 4 - at Kentucky W. See Vanderbilt. Weird stuff happens to us in Lexington.
Oct. 16 - Furman W. Obligatory in-state cupcake.
Oct. 23 - at Auburn L. Slam dunk prediction. Until we beat them, I won't believe it can be done. Plus they're actually, y'know, good.
Nov. 1 - Tennessee W. Gotta be Spurrier's most anticipated game behind Georgia. UT is getting better, but they're still a year away.
Nov. 15 - at Florida L. Just have a bad, bad feeling about this game. It might be residual PTSD from the 2012 disaster, but either way, their defense will be a huge challenge on the road.
Nov. 22 - South Alabama W. Bizarre choice for a cupcake for us; I think we had another team back out or something.
Nov. 28 - at Clemson Toss-up. I feel good about our chances for No. 6, but rivalry games are always weird.

Best case scenario: 11-1, SEC East championship. Dylan Thompson delivers on the promise he showed in relief of Connor Shaw and our offense is the best in school history. The defensive line absorbs the losses of Jadeveon Clowney and Kelcy Quarles, and the secondary comes together behind a strong linebacking corps. Special teams are still rough around the edges, but we manage to steer them into a generally respectable direction.

Worst case scenario: 8-4. Thompson can't quite put it all together, sparking another quarterback roulette with talented newcomer Connor Mitch getting thrown to the wolves. The defense is a mess -- the line can't generate a semblance of a pass rush and the secondary is completely clueless. Special teams are terrible, and we lose a close game or two because of a muffed punt or a kickoff out of bounds.

Realistic scenario: Hard to pin down, honestly. We've got a pretty favorable schedule, but we're going to be breaking in a fair amount of inexperienced players, notably on defense, so I feel like this is a high variance season. I don't think our floor is as low as 7-5, but our realistic ceiling is probably another 10-2 effort, with 9-3 being most likely. Still not a bad year by any means, but I could see us taking a step back.

The good news is that the East is in a lot of turmoil, so a record like 9-3 might be good enough to win the division anyway.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Texas 2014

7-5

North Texas: W
BYU: Toss-up :ohdear: Taysom Hill again
UCLA: L No loving way we win this one
@Kansas: W Charlie Weis gets one of his 3 moral victories of the year by keeping it within 7 at halftime
Baylor: L Absolutely no chance
Oklahoma: L Unless the previously unknown third McCoy brother, Scamp McCoy, is named the surprise starter
Iowa State: W
@Kansas State: L They lost a lot of close games last year because of turnovers and return a bunch of awesome players on offense. Plus Kansas State just has our number lately
@Texas Tech: W
West Virginia: W
@Oklahoma St: Toss-up
TCU: W

Best Case: 14-0 National Champions with a crushing victory over A&M in the Championship. Nick Saban, awed by our win over Alabama in the semi-finals, agrees to take over as DC just so he can be close to such greatness.

Worst Case: 1-12 We open with a loss to UNT. Iowa State gets revenge for last year's bullshit. Rice somehow tricks us into an unscheduled game and breaks their 20-year drought against us. Charlie Strong left at airport in Manhattan, Kan., after 8-TD loss.

pillsburysoldier
Feb 11, 2008

Yo, peep that shit

Florida State Seminoles, now with new music video




Headlining the premiere college football conference is the reigning champion, #1 Florida State!


Sat, Aug 30 Oklahoma State || (95%)
Sat, Sept 6 Citadel || (100%)
Sat, Sept 20 Clemson || (92%)
Sat, Sept 27 NC State || (94%)
Sat, Oct 4 Wake Forest || (100%)
Sat, Oct 11 Syracuse || (100%)
Sat, Oct 18 Notre Dame || ( 90% )
Thu, Oct 30 Louisville || (92%)
Sat, Nov 8 Virginia || (100%)
Sat, Nov 15 Miami (FL) || (94%)
Sat, Nov 22 Boston College || (99%)
Sat, Nov 29 Florida || (89%)

ACC Championship (>90%)


Units:

QB: Owns. won Heisman. Backup Sean Maguire is good.
RB: Owns, might need some polish in pass protection. Starter is huge fast guy Karlos Williams
OL: Owns except center. Center could be bad.
FB: Owns.
WR: Owns but needs a couple freshmen to step up for depth reasons. Dependable and talented, but a bit thin.
TE: Owns but keeps getting into motorcycle accidents. "Doesn't wear gloves/is old school/grandpa plays golf"

Big Losses: WRs Benjamin, Shaw , RB Freeman/Wilder, FB Abram

DL: Owns. DE Mario Edwards tossed around 2nd overall pick Greg Robinson in the championship game. Depth is thin at end. DT is absurd.
LB: Very good but a bit inexperienced. Only one starter returned (terrance smith) but the other new starters, Thomas and Eligwe played exceptionally when in.
Secondary: Best in nation. Everyone's great and everything owns here. Starter Tyler Hunter got injured early on last season and is healthy now, will lead unit.

Big Losses: DC Pruitt (went to UGA), DT Jernigan/McDaniel/McAllister, LB Jones/Smith, DB Joyner/Brooks

Punter: Sucks.
KR: Owns
PR: Named Bobo. Is good.
K: Owns. Only missed one kick all year. Won Groza as freshman.

Hype Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PFcDSv18qA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LH2iwcaOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJe0-QFpC8
Spring Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRYo-doqtSQ


About the Team:

First year DC, former S coach at Alabama Jeremy Pruitt got off to a bit of a slow start at Florida State before everything clicked in the middle of last year's boston college game. FSU would end up totally 25+ interceptions, and something absurd like 7 different players on defense scoring TDs. Some stuff kinda happened and he dipped to UGA, where he calls their players fat and lazy. This lead to the ascension of LB coach Charles Kelly, who promises minimal changes in the scheme. That said, FSU's defense had vocal, passionate, smart leadership at every unit - how the defense fills that void is a bit in question, but the alleged consistency should keep a strong trajectory, especially with such a strong, deep secondary.

Jimbo Fisher finally stopped micromanaging last year and let the coaches coach. He's lost weight, gotten focused, hit the trail, and transformed much of the culture with the team. Players are active on instagram and whatever, almost posting every day pictures and video, where whole units get together and go over the play book, route trees, etc. under the tutelage of the seniors. Also they make videos of them racing each other. Everyone's absurdly fast and it makes me happy. Team has almost 0 issue with motivation for repeating. Facilities and dorms have seen big upgrades as well.

Best Case Scenario: Repeat as champions. Pretty straight forward.
Expected Scenario: Make it to inaugural championship game. Dunno who we play because all the other top teams seemed to have a good bit of turnover in important positions or had coaching issues that were not quite addressed.
Worst Case Scenario: Somehow drop 3 games in the season, players get injured, and don't win the ACC. ESPN had our odds on a graphic on a game by game basis and had our most likely loss being Miami at ~11% so we feel pretty confident about our schedule.

pillsburysoldier fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Aug 3, 2014

TheGreyGhost
Feb 14, 2012

“Go win the Heimlich Trophy!”
The Ohio State Buckeyes



2013 Final ranking: 12
2014 Preseason ranking: 6

Key losses: RB Carlos "El Guapo" Hyde. 4/5 of the best O-line in football. CB Bradley Roby (mediocre last year). LB Ryan Shazier, WR Philly Brown

Offense:
QB: Braxton Miller returns for his senior season in the best condition he's been in since his freshman year. He's coming off of shoulder surgery that really could have been done halfway through last season. He's arguably the most electric runner in college football this year, and he's likely going to leave as one of the top 3 Buckeye QBs in history. Cardale Jones has been named the backup. He's a power runner with a cannon arm who is famous for not being into book learning. JT Barrett and Stephen Collier sit behind him. Depth is concerning--since Jones has had minimal snaps.

RB: Ezekiel Elliot is the likely starter. He's a home run threat every carry inside or out and a great receiver--not the best blocker though. Brionte Dunn or Rod Smith will be the likely power back, with Dunn having the edge since Rod Smith is a factory of disappointment. Curtis Samuel had Urban gushing, and he's a hybrid scatback, similar to Dontre Wilson last year. Warren Ball is likely the odd man out. Really good depth, but not as absurd as last year.

WR: The best unit since the Holmes/Ginn/Gonzo/Robiskie/Hartline crew. Devin Smith is an incumbent starter, and he's a scary deep threat who can burn teams over the top consistently--needs work on shorter routes. Dontre Wilson will start as well, after spending last year at RB. He's according to the coaches, the best receiver on the roster at present, and having other threats on the team should let him breakout this season. The third receiver is likely either Corey Smith or Evan Spencer, with Smith taking the lead in spring. Past the top 4, Jalin Marshall has looked great but is injury prone, and Mike Thomas keeps running for the "Taurian Washington" award for guy who looks great every spring then never does anything. Top to bottom, the depth here is the best on the offense.

TE: Jeff Heurman looked like and Urban Meyer TE last year and should be a consistent, if undersized, threat across the middle. Nick Vannett apparently looked like the 1b to his 1a in the spring. Marcus Baugh is perpetually in the doghouse for dumb poo poo, and JT Moore converted for depth. Noah Brown and Jeff Greene are flex receivers who will line up between here and WR, with Greene likely playing and Brown a potential redshirt.

O-Line: Last year's best unit in OSU history is gone. Taylor Decker returns, likely at LT this year. Chad Lindsey transferred in from Alabama and looks like he can start at C right away but Jacoby Boren is challenging. Guards are likely Antonio Underwood and Pat Elfein who got a decent amount of time last year. One of Kyle Dodson or Daryll Baldwin will be at RT. If they gel, this will be a good group. They just need reps early.

D-Line: Noah Spence is a potential first rounder at Rush End/Viper. Joey Bosa looked like a future top-10 pick as a freshman and will hold down the SSDE spot, likely mauling a lot of the Big 10 this year. Adolphus Washington moves full time to DT and is overqualified athletically for it. He's going to be a huge pain for any guard or C 1 on 1. Michael Bennett will likely be picked in the first two rounds after this year, and he's one of the best pass-rushing DTs in the nation as well. The main backups are Tyquan Lewis at DE and Tommy Schutt at DT. Lewis is a freak pass rusher, Schutt is more of a clogger in the middle. Steve Miller and Rashad Frazier also will rotate at DE, and Michael Hill will see snaps at DT as well. As a whole, there will be way more rotation, so 8-10 guys will play per game here with how Larry Johnson runs it.

LBs: The best group Urban has had depth wise. Josh Perry is the only guaranteed started. Darron Lee and Chris Worley are fighting for the new SLB spot which is actually the smaller LB meant to cover TEs rather than the past concept of sticking a big LB or MLB on one. We will see how this plays out. MLB has incumbent Curtis Grant, but he's already being pushed by 5* freshman Raekwon McMillan who drawing Katzenmoyer comparisons based on how skilled he already is. Trey Johnson will back up Perry with noted bad football player Cam Williams hopefully not playing anywhere this year so that I don't have to watch him casually lumber towards RBs anymore.

DBs: Isolating corners and safeties is difficult this year because there's going to be overlap with guys playing both. Vonn Bell, Tyvis Powell, and Cam Burrows are the candidates for starting at S with the first two having an edge. Loser gets the Nickel Corner spot likely. Starting corners are Doran Grant for sure and one of Gareon Conley or Armani Reeves. Hopefully Conley, since Reeves is famous for getting burned by Iowa's slow white TE on a vertical route last year. Eli Apple looks like a potential dime back for the year who could work up to a boundary corner by the end of the year. Erick Smith at safety looks like a potential candidate for early playing time. The cover 4 system Chris Ash is installing involves actual concepts like pressing and not giving 15 yard cushions to receivers like Sammy Watkins who will burn you with that kind of space. Looks drastically improved schematically already.

K/P Sean Nuerenberger comes in very highly rated with a cannon leg. We always have good punters. Like there's 2 guys who could punt anywhere in the nation. OSU never worries about that poo poo.

Schedule:

at Navy: W, we won't lose to a triple option team with this kind of time to prepare

VT W, this will be ugly and will make me drink. On the other hand, we're deep enough to break this open late. Unless their offense is way better than expected, we don't lose this

Cincinnati W, this is a trap game of the highest order, but I don't think their defense can hold us for long enough. Also, they have a QB controversy, which always bodes well at the start of the season.

at Maryland W, bahahahaha, welcome to the Big 10, it won't be this bad every week we promise

Rutgers W See, Maryland, University of

Illinois W, Tim Beckman can't even beat his fake rivals

at Sparty Toss up, Depends how well Sparty reloads. This is a nailbiter, but I feel like our defensive changes give us a slight edge here.

at Minnesota W, can't remember the last time we played them. Don't care. We won't lose to Jerry loving Kill.

Indiana W, trap game. We don't play teams that focus on offense and don't play defense well. This will be high scoring and nerve wracking the whole way, unless the new coverage system is as advertised.

Michigan W, We won't be losing to Hoke in the Shoe again. They don't have enough out wide to keep us honest this year.

Big 10 Championship game: No one from the west is winning this. Wisconsin is good, but I will never be afraid of Joel Stave or their slow rear end defense. Nebraska would be awesome just because I enjoy watching Bo Pelini lose his mind when his QBs throw 2-3 picks a game

Best case: We put it together in Urban year 3. Braxton is heisman-caliber and healthy. The new coverage system gives us the top 20 pass defense we're capable of. The D-line is as advertised. We make the playoff and beat the two best teams we will play all year to win Urban's first national title. 14-0

Worst case: Braxton goes down. Cardale Jones has growing pains. The O-line never gels. Coverage system stays bad. LBs look slow and confused. Still better than like 3/4 of the Big 10. Gator Bowl/Capital One bowl. 8-5/9-4

Likely Scenario; Best team Urban has had against a mediocre schedule. Pass defense improves to top 50. Pass rush remains deadly. We have Braxton for the big games but he misses 1 or 2 to an ankle or something because it's what he does. We get revenge on sparty and win the regular season, barely make it into the playoff. Lose in either round of the playoff, which still indicates significant improvement. 12-1/13-1

TheGreyGhost fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Aug 2, 2014

General Dog
Apr 26, 2008

Everybody's working for the weekend
Aggies
Best case 9-3 worst case 5-7 realistic 7-5. They offense is a bit worse they defense is a bit better

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Frackie Robinson posted:

Aggies
Best case 9-3 worst case 5-7 realistic 7-5. They offense is a bit worse they defense is a bit better

Ditto for Michigan.

I'm not expecting to be impressed.

Ghost of Reagan Past
Oct 7, 2003

rock and roll fun
Oh boy.

Arizona Wildcats

Well, it's the third year of RichRod. It's really awesome, every team should have one (YOU CANNOT HAVE OURS).

Losses
Uhh...we lost all-American RB Ka'Deem Carey. That's basically the biggest loss you can imagine. There simply isn't a replacement on the roster, and since he's the best running back in Arizona history I'm not sure we should expect one.

We also lost QB BJ Denker, so addition by subtraction! How Carey was so loving good when Denker was so loving bad is a miracle.

We lose the entire D-line, including wizard DT Sione Tuihalamaka. Also, leading tacklers Jake Fischer and Marquis Flowers.

Units
QB: :laffo: who knows? Betting Anu Solomon, but Connor Brewer stands a chance.
RB: Committee. Jared Baker is probably the #1, in virtue of the fact that he is the only running back in the offense that's carried the ball in a game before.
WR: :swoon: Depth! Riches! The top three are probably going to be Austin Hill, Nate Phillips, and one of Samajie Grant/Trey Griffey/DaVonte Neal. But holy poo poo I hope whoever is at QB can throw a football well.
OL: This should be really good. Both tackles return, and both have made upwards of 35 starts or something nuts like that. This will make life so much easier for the new QB and RB.

DL: Everyone's new! Yay. Jeff Casteel loves speed, and we've got it in abundance up front. Problem? It's all really young.
LB: Uhh...everyone's new! Otherwise it's probably going to be a disaster.
Secondary: The only loss was the excellent Shaq Richardson. Last year Arizona's secondary was loving quality, and it should be just as good this year. Whether the front six can actually do anything useful, who knows?

Special Teams: :suicide:

Schedule
Aug 29 - UNLV - W: This should be a gimme. It's UNLV, come the gently caress on.
Sept 4 - @UTSA - W: There's nothing about this that makes sense. Whatever, UTSA's new to the FBS. Enjoy your stay?
Sept 13 - Nevada - ?: I don't know anything about the post-Ault Nevada teams. Good? Bad? But Arizona will be more talented. Kaepernick ain't walking through that door, guys.
Sept 20 - Cal - W: Cal was horrible last year. Like, garbage. Shouldn't improve that much, and the secondary should be able to slow down that :siren: bear raid :siren: enough.
Oct 2 - @Oregon - L: No loving way, not after last year's 42-16 massacre. They're gonna be out for loving blood.
Oct 11 - USC - L: No idea how they'll do. We've done well against Sark's teams, but USC has a lot of talent, so they'll probably win.
Oct 25 - @Wazzu - ?: Last year was weird. Let us hope it is a win, but whatever, Wazzu's cool.
Nov 1 - @UCLA - L: gently caress UCLA.
Nov 8 - Colorado - W: If you need a sure-fire win or some weed, Colorado's exactly what the doctor ordered.
Nov 15 - Washington - ?: I'm terrified of Chris Petersen. But not this season.
Nov 22 - @Utah - W: Sorry Whittingham.
Nov 28 - ASU - ?: I'd be a bad fan if I said we'd lose this game, and a dumb fan if I said we'd win it.

So going by this we'd go 5-7 if we lose all the tossup games, 9-3 if we win all the tossup games. So I'm gonna go with 7-5 for the season. Steady as she goes, captain. I'm hoping things work out (obviously) but it's football and not everything works, so I'll be happy with another winning season with a bowl!

Reason YOU Should Watch
Really fun offense. Probably shaky (and kinda goofy) defense--but it shouldn't be a sieve. Prone to get in ridiculous shootouts or goofy-as-gently caress beatdowns.

korrandark
Jan 5, 2009

TheGreyGhost posted:

The Ohio State Buckeyes


Agreed on pretty much everything. The Michigan St. game scares me. Cincinnati better have Munchie Legaux starting when they play Ohio State. Munchie is a heisman caliber name for a QB.

Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮


Texas State Bobcats schedule
August 30 - Arkansas-Pine Bluff W
September 13 - Navy L
September 20 - at Illinois L
September 27 - at Tulsa W
October 4 - Idaho W
October 14 - Louisiana L
October 25 - Louisiana-Monroe L
November 1 - at New Mexico State W
November 8 - Georgia Southern W
November 15 - at South Alabama W
November 20 - Arkansas State L
November 29 - at Georgia State W

Best Possible result: 9-3, and a trip to the New Orleans Bowl
Worst Possible result: 0-12, and a pink slip for Dennis "Fran Marcos" Franchione
Most Probable result: 7-5, and a trip to the Camellia Bowl by default

Frinkahedron
Jul 26, 2006

Gobble Gobble

TheGreyGhost posted:


VT W, this will be ugly and will make me drink. On the other hand, we're deep enough to break this open late. Unless their offense is way better than expected, we don't lose this


I think this is dead on. Experienced Bud Foster defense complete with the best secondary in the country vs a pretty brand new Ohio State offensive line? That'd make me drink too.

It's a fantastic game for a neutral observer.

e: Shane Beamer more or less said Virginia Tech is already prepping for this game too. They aren't going to have open scrimmages this fall either :(

Probably Magic
Oct 9, 2012

Looking cute, feeling cute.
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS JAYHAWKS



ANALYSIS: They suck.
PREDICTION: Like, one win. Maybe.

Nur_Neerg
Sep 1, 2004

The Lumbering but Unstoppable Sasquatch of the Appalachians

Frinkahedron posted:

I think this is dead on. Experienced Bud Foster defense complete with the best secondary in the country vs a pretty brand new Ohio State offensive line? That'd make me drink too.

It's a fantastic game for a neutral observer.

e: Shane Beamer more or less said Virginia Tech is already prepping for this game too. They aren't going to have open scrimmages this fall either :(

Yeah, my understanding is that the offense will look absolutely nothing like it did last year, what with rather heavily upgrading the TEs/WRs/RBs/OL, so they're not showing anything. Here's hoping Brewer's a good QB1.

Numlock
May 19, 2007

The simplest seppo on the forums
TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

*image of Kliff Kingsbury here*

Central Arkansas - Win, Cupcake #1
UTEP - Win, Cupcake #2
Arkansas - Win, So many flops you would think you were watching Soccer.

@Oklahoma State - Win, They lost so many starters, and we get them early before any depth issues crop up for us, and before they have time to get their feet under them.

@Kansas State - Loss, Urgh Bill Snyder does it again.
West Virginia - Win, I expect that WV will be a beaten team at this point.
Kansas - Win, I feel bad for them but they an't upsetting us in Lubbock.
@TCU - Win, One off season of spread tutelage does not an offense make. Also they stink and eat poo.
Texas -Toss Up, Texas has had 3 things on their side the last 4 years, 1) Tommy Tuberville's mess 2) MACK BROWN's DEAL WITH SATAN (luck) 3)way more talent. Now they have none of those things. Also in Lubbock.

@Oklahoma - IDK Toss up I guess, One team is going to melt down and give up, Allah willing, it won't be Tech this year. Yes I know that OU is favored to win the conference, IT WON'T MATTER.

@Iowa State - Win, they almost get the upset but we claw our way out of this one.
Baylor (Arlington, Texas) - Loss, they just out score the hell out of us.
Some Bowl game against a team that is higher ranked than us and expected to win - Win, We murder them and ESPN is surprised for a few seconds before they somehow get back to sucking the SEC's cock.

Worst Case 9-4, which is what I'm thinking. 10-3 would be great too. 11-2 would be OH poo poo N**** WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Numlock fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Aug 2, 2014

Will Styles
Jan 19, 2005

Arizona State Sun Devils

Enter year 3 of Todd Graham's reign, most didn't think he'd stick around this long. Interesting note: he bought Bret Michaels' old home in Scottsdale which is now paid off.

Key Losses

The entire defense. We have 2 returning starters and only 5 in the 2-deep that have played division 1 ball. 2 juco transfers that were expected to play immediately fell through for failing to qualify academically. Graham is trying to sell that the talent is good and the scheme will make up for lack of experience. Expect a lot of shoot outs.

Key Returners

Almost the entire offense. Second team all conference quaterback Taylor Kelly returns to lead an offense with a lot of experience and depth headlined by WR Jaelen Strong and RB DJ Foster. Strong is a big physical receiver with great hands and Foster is one of the most versatile players in the conference playing RB and slot receiver. The OL returns 3 starters from last year and with the 2 replacements (C,LG) they look like they'll be the best line ASU has had in a long time. Expect a lot of shoot outs.

The Schedule

Aug. 28 Weber State (W) - Cupcake.
Sep. 6 at New Mexico (W) - The Lobos were a bad team last year and they have a lot of holes to fill. Should be an easy win.
Sep. 13 at Colorado (W) - Colorado looks to be getting better, but they'll still be bottom of the division.
Sep. 25 UCLA (L) - Brett Hundley and the rest are going to be scary this season.
Oct. 4 at Southern California (L) - USC has the talent like always, Sark should be able to do something with these guys.
Oct. 18 Stanford (L) - They're losing a lot on Defense but their scheme is our Kryptonite.
Oct. 25 at Washington (?) - ASU demolished Washington last year, but being away and with Peterson at the helm I don't know what to expect here.
Nov. 1 Utah (W) - One step ahead of CU, they need a couple more years of recruits to start competing.
Nov. 8 Notre Dame (?) - I'd like to say we'll win this since it's at home, but this also feels like the kinda game ASU trips all over themselves on.
Nov. 15 at Oregon State (W) - Losing Cooks makes me feel like Mannion's production will drop this year.
Nov. 22 Washington State (W) - ASU handeled the air-raid pretty well last year, being at home I think we take it.
Nov. 28 at Arizona (W) - Have to say we win this. The Wildcats are replacing too much I think.

Best case
12-0 - Graham's right about the defense and it turns out to be not horrible. The offense puts up enough points that the defense can manage to hold on for the win. Playing Stanford, UCLA, and Notre Dame at home helps with those wins.

Expected
8-4 - Playing out as indicated in the schedule while splitting Washington and Notre Dame. The defense is just too inexperienced to not drop the big games.

Worst case
4-8 - Graham likes to hype the players on winning the Rose Bowl. Last season the Pac-12 network had a film crew follow the team around through the year and you could see that winning the Rose Bowl was all Graham talked about. When ASU lost to Stanford in the conference championship game the players were so let down they came out flat against Texas Tech. If we lose back to back games against UCLA and USC winning the division won't happen and the players could stop caring, leading to losses in games that we should win.


Bear-down :lol:

Pook Good Mook
Aug 6, 2013


ENFORCE THE UNITED STATES DRESS CODE AT ALL COSTS!

This message paid for by the Men's Wearhouse& Jos A Bank Lobbying Group
University of Iowa Hawkeyes



August
30 Northern Iowa W
September
6 Ball State W
13 Iowa State W Hopefully, but this could be iffy.
20 at Pittsburgh W Another probable
27 at Purdue W
October
11 Indiana (Homecoming) W Indiana sucks
18 at Maryland Tossup Honestly I think they're going to lose a trash game in the first half of the season and I think this one will be it.
November
1 Northwestern W Should be a win but they've lost to Northwestern recently
8 at Minnesota W
15 at Illinois W
22 Wisconsin See below
28 Nebraska Tossup They're going to win one of these games and lose the other. My guess would be that they lose to Wisconsin and beat Nebraska but who knows.

Best Case
11-1 With only a loss to Wisconsin or Nebraska that still gets Iowa to the Big 10 championship where they promptly lose to Michigan State.

Worst Case
5-7 This is Iowa so they always should be better than their results based on their talent and size. Don't be surprised to see them lose to Ball State, Pitt, ISU, Maryland, Wisconsin, Nebraska, poo poo probably Northwestern.

Realistically
9-3? Like I said I expect them to lose to a garbage team in the first half of the season and split the last two games with another flukey loss thrown in for good measure. Their schedule is laughably easy this year, especially since all their tough games aside from Maryland and Pitt are at home. Depending on how the rest of the dumpster fire that is the B1G West fares there is still a decent shot they play for the conference title with this record, before losing gloriously to the team from the B1G East.

Mukaikubo
Mar 14, 2006

"You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Fighting Johnsons




The Lowdown
This is Paul Johnson's team now, for better or for worse. Its strengths are his strengths, its weaknesses are his weaknesses. On the positive side, if you have a defensive coordinator who isn't very good at in-game adjustments, Paul Johnson is probably going to break your defense down. It's What He Does. If you do have a defensive coordinator who is good at the chess match, his offense is going to range from mediocre to disaster. The big problem is recruiting. Not on the offensive side of the ball, because he's pretty good at finding the correct pieces for his system, but on defense. There's a reason our defense is poo poo, and it's because Johnson can't recruit good talent and doesn't have a correspondingly good scheme on the other side of the ball to compensate. Over the last few Gaileyesque years, the offense has actually been on the border between good and pretty good. It's the defense that's been the reason for 7 wins instead of 9. It might improve. It might collapse again. The offense will do what it do, but the defense is going to determine whether we're in the best, worst, or median case.


The Schedule (with worst case / expected / best case scenario results)

08/30/14 vs. Wofford W/W/W. If we lose this, it's time to drink bleach.
09/06/14 at Tulane W/W/W. Ditto.
09/13/14 vs. Georgia Southern W/W/W. Ditto.
09/20/14 at Virginia Tech L/L/W. Probably we'll lose, but GT-VT is one of those games both fanbases are at least a little nervous about no matter the talent differential.
10/04/14 vs. Miami L/W/W. At home, and with Miami I think a bit overrated, this is a winnable game and it needs to be.
10/11/14 vs. Duke L/W/W. With all respect to the incredible job Duke's pulled, I think at home GT can pull this off again.
10/18/14 at North Carolina L/L/L. UNC has our number and it's away. Not confident.
10/25/14 at Pittsburgh L/L/W. I also think Pitt's on the upswing, and... ugh. I don't like calling this game either way.
11/01/14 vs. Virginia - Homecoming W/W/W. At home, for homecoming, I'll be stunned with a loss here.
11/08/14 at North Carolina State L/W/W. NC State isn't and isn't gonna be very good.
11/15/14 vs. Clemson L/L/L. WE GONN' GET IT
11/29/14 at Georgia L/L/W. For the record, the only thing that keeps me putting a W in here in the best case is "Weird poo poo Happens In A Rivalry Game".

Worst Case Scenario
The defense undergoes another meltdown like a few years ago, the new QB doesn't work out, and everything falls apart for a 4-8 worst season since the 90s. Paul Johnson is fired, but with the talent cupboard utterly bare, the program goes into a death spiral and I don't get to see the Jackets *play* in another bowl much less win one until I'm in my forties.

Best Case Scenario
Everything clicks. The defense finally comes together; all the returning talent on the secondary finally prevents teams from airing it out, and Attaochu's loss ends up not hurting the defensive line as much as feared. Johnson finally finds his spirit animal at QB and the offense looks like 2009 all over again. GT goes 10-2 with only one loss in the ACC, wins the division ahead of VT on the tiebreaker, and scares the life out of FSU before losing a tough game, going on to win the Peach Bowl (it's still the Peach Bowl dammit) for the best season in years.

Most Likely Scenario
You cannot defeat the Chan Gailey Equilibrium. We have returned to it. In our minds, we never left it. We are 7-5. We will remain 7-5. That is the law, and the whole of the law.

smokyprogg
Apr 9, 2008

BROKEN DOWN!
MISSION FAILED
The University of Virginia Cavaliers

vs UCLA - L
vs Richmond - W
vs Louisville - L
at BYU - L
vs Kent State - L
vs Pittsburgh - L
at Duke - L
vs UNC - L
at Georgia Tech - L
at Florida State - L
vs Miami - L
at Virginia Tech - L

what a dog poo poo team. Best case scenario is probably 3-9. Excited for a new coach in 2015 so hopes can get crushed in hilarious fashion yet again

smokyprogg fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Aug 2, 2014

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


Penn State will definitely lose to Ohio State and Michigan State. Probably lose to Michigan. Might lose to Northwestern and Illinois. So 10-2 best case, 9-3 most likely, 7-5 possible.

Basically same as it always is.

Judgy Fucker
Mar 24, 2006

Numlock posted:

@Oklahoma - IDK Toss up I guess, One team is going to melt down and give up, Allah willing, it won't be Tech this year. Yes I know that OU is favored to win the conference, IT WON'T MATTER.

This game is in Lubbock, and is OU's best chance to drop a game this year. God I loving hate playing in Lubbock.

Spiritus Nox posted:

I'm gonna do a big effortpost at some point, but for now just know that Baylor Football is absolutely bitchin' and I really like our team this year and gently caress the haters 'cause we're going to beat OU in Norman.

Sorry, I really like scrappy underdog Baylor (for now), but your dreams of an undefeated season/conference championship will die on Owen Field this year.

Guess I better contribute:

-----------------------------

Oklahoma Sooners

Louisiana Tech--W
@Tulsa--W
Tennessee--W
@West Virginia--W
BYE
@TCU--W
Texas--W/toss-up
Kansas State--W/toss-up
BYE
@Iowa State--W
Baylor--W
@Texas Tech--toss-up
Kansas--W
BYE
Oklahoma State--W

Best case & expected: 12-0 with a playoff berth
Worst case: 9-3, 3rd/4th in Big 12

Judgy Fucker fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Aug 2, 2014

pillsburysoldier
Feb 11, 2008

Yo, peep that shit

Would a watch list for players who you'd expect to leave for the NFL after this year be within the scope of this thread?

The Notorious ZSB
Apr 19, 2004

I SAID WE'RE NOT GONNA BE FUCKING SUCK THIS YEAR!!!

pillsburysoldier posted:

Would a watch list for players who you'd expect to leave for the NFL after this year be within the scope of this thread?

Sure I suppose if it were about your team. Probably not like a running list of all of them.

TheGreyGhost
Feb 14, 2012

“Go win the Heimlich Trophy!”

Frinkahedron posted:

I think this is dead on. Experienced Bud Foster defense complete with the best secondary in the country vs a pretty brand new Ohio State offensive line? That'd make me drink too.

It's a fantastic game for a neutral observer.

e: Shane Beamer more or less said Virginia Tech is already prepping for this game too. They aren't going to have open scrimmages this fall either :(

Eh, brand new is a bit of a stretch. They've all had plenty of snaps in game-time. The problem is they rarely had to play together. From a talent standpoint, it's fine. They just need to be cohesive, and if they're not then this becomes a long night. That said, y'all won't be doing poo poo passing with a new quarterback in a hostile shoe against a press secondary and the best group pass rush in the nation. Your running game against ours for the game, so it'll go fast.

The homer in me says it's going to come down to depth for the most part. We have 4-5 Running backs and Braxton to run at a front 7, and we're 5-6 deep at receiver. I see it close for 3 quarters and then a quick 10-14 points in the 4th when fatigue starts to set in. But it's still going to be so ugly for the first 3 quarters that I'll be hate-watching it.

Nur_Neerg
Sep 1, 2004

The Lumbering but Unstoppable Sasquatch of the Appalachians

TheGreyGhost posted:

Eh, brand new is a bit of a stretch. They've all had plenty of snaps in game-time. The problem is they rarely had to play together. From a talent standpoint, it's fine. They just need to be cohesive, and if they're not then this becomes a long night. That said, y'all won't be doing poo poo passing with a new quarterback in a hostile shoe against a press secondary and the best group pass rush in the nation. Your running game against ours for the game, so it'll go fast.

The homer in me says it's going to come down to depth for the most part. We have 4-5 Running backs and Braxton to run at a front 7, and we're 5-6 deep at receiver. I see it close for 3 quarters and then a quick 10-14 points in the 4th when fatigue starts to set in. But it's still going to be so ugly for the first 3 quarters that I'll be hate-watching it.

Should be interesting for sure, but our QB isn't exactly a freshman, he's a redshirt junior with game experience. Your secondary's also almost as good as Ohio's, Noah Spence is out, and we go from having 1 TE with 10 games of total career experience to 4 guys that'll actually play and be legitimate receiving threats.

Against a VT front seven that specializes in running an exotic defense with lots of stunting around gap control concepts, I can't see how 4/5 OL being new starters in their first major game isn't a near-automatic hindrance against a ridiculously fast d with a top-two in the country secondary. I still think we lose, but don't think it'll be by multiple scores.

Frinkahedron
Jul 26, 2006

Gobble Gobble

TheGreyGhost posted:

Eh, brand new is a bit of a stretch. They've all had plenty of snaps in game-time. The problem is they rarely had to play together. From a talent standpoint, it's fine. They just need to be cohesive, and if they're not then this becomes a long night. That said, y'all won't be doing poo poo passing with a new quarterback in a hostile shoe against a press secondary and the best group pass rush in the nation. Your running game against ours for the game, so it'll go fast.

The homer in me says it's going to come down to depth for the most part. We have 4-5 Running backs and Braxton to run at a front 7, and we're 5-6 deep at receiver. I see it close for 3 quarters and then a quick 10-14 points in the 4th when fatigue starts to set in. But it's still going to be so ugly for the first 3 quarters that I'll be hate-watching it.

I think we lose in a heartbreaker in the 4th, 3 or 5 points or something like that. We tend to play up for big opponents and fall just short.

wa27
Jan 15, 2007

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Florida Atl - W
Mcneese St. - W
Fresno St. - W
Miami - L
Illinois - W
Michigan State - L
Northwestern - L
Rutgers - W
Purdue - W
Wisconsin - L
Minnesota - W
Iowa - W
Capital One Bowl - L

That's right, I'm predicting a 5-loss Nebraska season. :psyduck:

edit: best case is 10-3, or 10-4 if we make it to the championship game. Worst case is 7-6.

wa27 fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Aug 2, 2014

Zifnab
Aug 21, 2005

Hope Springs Eternal
Washington Huskies

2013 final ranking: 25
2014 preseason ranking: 25

Key Loses
QB Keith Price - 2,966 yards, 21 TD, 6 INT
RB Bishop Sankey - 1,870 yards, 20 TD
TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins - 36 receptions, 450 yards, 8 TD
The coaching staff :v:

Key Gains
Chris Petersen - I really think we upgraded at coach, I wasn't as down on Sark as some other UW fans, but I don't think we'll have the random 30+ point blowout road loses that were annual traditions for Sark (@ASU last year, @Oregon and @Arizona in 2012, @Stanford and @USC in 2011....). Hopefully won't have a three game losing streak like we did every year under Sark either!

Positions
QB - Cyler Miles is probably the guy here, he played well in spot duty last year. Quick, has kinda a funky delivery but if it works then whatever. Couple of highly rated guys behind him if he doesn't turn out.
RB - Sankey's gone :cry:. Dwyane Washington is a battering ram who would be good if he could hold onto the ball and freshman Coleman is huge (6'1, 220) and has gotten rave reviews during the offseason
OL - We return everyone, and might actually have a decent line for the first time in a decade
WR - Kasen Williams is our best WR, and if he's healthy after breaking everything in his foot last year we should be OK. If not we might need some young guys to step up.

DL - Should be sick nasty, everyone significant is back and they were pretty good last year. DT Danny Shelton and DE Hau'oli Kikaha are the two to watch
LB - Also returns everyone, and should be pretty good
DB - Lost 3/4 starters, but the one CB we returned is really good! Going to be young in the secondary next year. Talented, but young.

Schedule and projected results
Aug 30 @Hawaii - W, Hawaii is trash. QB Cyler Miles is suspended for this game for being an idiot during the offseason, but we shouldn't need him to beat a terrible Hawaii team

Sept 6 EWash W, if we lose to a FCS team (even a good one like Eastern) the rest of the season is going to suuuuuucccccck

Sept 13 Illinois W, beat them pretty easily on the road last year and they've won what, 3 conference games in the last three seasons?

Sept 20 Georgia St W, this is probably the easiest non-conference schedule I've ever seen UW play

Sept 27 Stanford ?, tough game but calling a win. UW outgained Stanford by over 200 yards and should have beaten them last year, and would have if UW didn't have multiple hilarious implosions on special teams. UW has matched up really well against Stanford the last few years.

Oct 11 @Cal W, Cal has been trash for a couple years

Oct 18 @Oregon L, tired of losing to Oregon but Eugene is a tough place to play

Oct 25 ASU ?, ASU destroyed us last year but they lost a lot and we were better then we played that day. This is going to be one of those games that separates a decent season from a great one.

Nov 1 @Colorado W, Colorado is bad but slowly improving. Still one of the easier places to play in the Pac-12, though

Nov 8 UCLA ?, UCLA is the sexy pick to win the south, but I'm not quite as high on them. Half of that might be residual dislike of Mora from when he was a disaster of a coach with the Seahawks though :v:. I think I'd give UW the edge with it being at home.

Nov 15 @Arizona W, Ka'deem Carey is gone, praise the lord

Nov 22 OSU W, OSU has been very meh the last couple years and losing Cooks is going to hurt

Nov 29 @WSU W, not scared of the Cougs this next season. Halliday is going to set all kinds of records for pass attempts though.

Best case scenario: 11-2 Pull off one of the UCLA/ASU games, and win the ones you're supposed to.

Worst case scenario: 7-6 I can't see us losing any of the non-conference games. This would be 3-6 in conference, which would be pretty rough. Lose to all of the top dogs (Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, ASU) as well as drop another couple of games (@WSU, @Arizona, or OSU)

Realistic scenario: I'd probably say 9-4. Being 5-4 in conference for like the 5th straight year would be super aggravating though. I think that once Petersen gets a couple years we'll be fighting for the top spot in the North, but this year I wouldn't be surprised to see another 3rd place finish behind Stanford and Oregon. Maybe sneaking ahead of Stanford if they take a step back and everything goes according to plan.

Ghost of Reagan Past
Oct 7, 2003

rock and roll fun

Will Styles posted:


Arizona State Sun Devils
You don't play NAU? That's weird! Did they change the biennial matchups? I thought it was a state law or something that NAU had to be one team's cupcake every year...

Also I hope Todd Graham gets 'homesick' again.

Will Styles
Jan 19, 2005

Ghost of Reagan Past posted:

You don't play NAU? That's weird! Did they change the biennial matchups? I thought it was a state law or something that NAU had to be one team's cupcake every year...

Also I hope Todd Graham gets 'homesick' again.

It is weird, NAU has been playing ASU or UofA for as long as I've watched college football. I can't seem to find anything on why we aren't playing NAU this year either.

pillsburysoldier
Feb 11, 2008

Yo, peep that shit

Florida State NFL Watch List

Offense

R-So QB - Jameis Winston

Yeah he's polarizing and NFL teams absolutely won't care unless something comes up this year. His first outing as a Fr starter led to 40 Passing TDs, 4 Rushing TDs, 10 INTs. He accumulated 4000+ passing yards while often not playing past halfway through the 3rd quarter. If there's a knock on his play, it's how long he holds on to the ball, getting sacked 27 times. He gets a bit greedy and doesn't take the check-down as much as he should, opting to wait for one of our WRs to get open, which is pretty understandable when your WRs are Kelvin Benjamin, Rashad Greene, and Kenny Shaw, and your OL has played together their whole careers.

In the pocket, he moves incredibly well, feels the rush incredibly well, is light on his feet, stands tall, and seemingly never gets rattled. An example is a play during the pitt game. Off a play action, he turned the wrong way on the fake hand-off while everyone went the other way. He calmly turns around and delivers a great ball to a shallow cross without any sort of happy feet or anxiety. He's strong, sloughing off even direct hits and is very comfortable with his size and moving his mass, if that makes sense. He can run considerably fast as well. He also runs like he's pregnant.

He's a bit inconsistent from game-to-game, depending on the weight of the game. He'll be a bit lackadaisical on the offset for games like Nevada. That usually doesn't last long, but it's a bit of a criticism nonetheless. He's deadly accurate and absorbs a ton of material very quickly. He also throws well in context - balls are delivered where they need to be with appropriate velocity, rarely in such a way where the WR is surprised or at a disadvantage. His throwing motion has a bit of wind-up from his baseball participation. He also said in interviews that he's usually throwing off his back foot as well, or otherwise off balance, and correcting that is a big aspect of this offseason. Much has been made about his promise to return a season after this one, because getting his degree is incredibly important to him and his family.

I post highlights all the time, so here's a cut of his all his completions in context of downs and distances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL-z7evdkQ

You can see a ton of route concepts (a lot of smash combos. we love smash combos/hi-lo concepts) that demand different timings and manipulations of the safety, be it with attacking him with an inside receiver or eye movement from the QB. Tricky dude, very savvy.


Sr RB - Karlos Williams

He was the top safety in the high school class and younger brother of current Steelers LB Vince Williams. He's an absolute freak athlete, ridiculously fast for his size. He also called Saban short to rivals or something so that's cool. Anyway, a theme in Jimbo-era FSU has been repurposing talent. Safety/RB Lonnie Pryor becomes a standout fullback, Xavier Rhodes plays WR in high school, becomes a first round corner at FSU, pretty good DT Cam Erving finds himself as a top LT prospect after year 2 at FSU. Karlos played some safety early on, but just couldn't put things together all that well mentally, even though he had some sexy pick 6's if memory serves.

So a little about him as a RB. He's 225 lbs, 6'1, has a penchant for long runs. On 91 attempts, he has 730 yards and 11 TDs, playing behind two would-be NFL RBs in Devonta Freeman and James Wilder. He cuts well and he has very rapid feet - he can make short strides to decelerate and cut very well. He negotiates traffic really well but doesn't quite do much juking, so to speak. He'll put on a move with his feet to get a defender to take an angle gives Williams the advantage, but Shady McCoy he is not (who is?). He sees color very well for someone who has one year of RB experience so there's amazingly little wear-and-tear on him. One knock on him is his catching out of the backfield. You'll notice he has to really look the ball in in the couple plays where he's asked to catch, and isn't asked to catch the ball with a defender on him very often. We do ask him to do kick returns though - a task that typically asks for really fast guys to follow blocking and read lanes and such as they develop (instead of PR which asks you to do it immediately and accelerate very, very quickly)

There really aren't a lot of Karlos Williams Highlights so I'll just repost the one from my first post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxlNttAut2E


Sr WR - Rashad Greene

There was talk last year of Kelvin Benjamin being Jameis's security blanket. In reality, that security blanket was Rashad Greene. What Jameis does naturally at QB, Greene does as naturally at WR. He has incredible hands and body control, but he also has very good body awareness. He knows where he is, he knows where his defender (well, seemingly any defender around him) is, and he very naturally contorts and adjusts himself to avoid direct hits while simultaneously boxing out his defender. When you combine this with the fluidity he plays with, his cleverness is getting his man to bite very hard on subtle moves, and has really deceptive acceleration, he's virtually uncoverable. There's really no knock on him besides that he's kinda thin at 180lbs, 6'0 even. His measureables won't wow NFL scouts but his tape absolutely should. He is positioned to shatter the FSU WR records this year.


Career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtohW3xWIN0
2013:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyFQ99jHSlU


Sr TE - Nick O'Leary

He had entertained the idea of leaving his Jr. year because EJ sucked, but found new life with competent QBing by Jameis. Jameis went to him early and often last year, but kinda backed off on him a bit as the rest of the offense gelled. He's 6'3 and 238 lbs. He came back this year to try to get himself into the top 2 rounds for the draft. A lot of FSU fans scoff when he's mentioned because it's always followed up by just how old school he is, but gently caress, he's a very serious, very tactile player. He's not particularly vocal, but he plays angry. He doesn't use gloves and he likes to run people over. He's an accomplished route runner in his own right and very dependable/natural in catching the ball with great body control.

We don't really keep him on to pass block, but he's always been a good run blocker. He'll probably put on a little more weight. Absolutely not a freak like Ebron, but has more than enough athleticism and a very work-hard attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BypZBiH6-N4




R-Sr LT - Cam Erving
Sr LG - Josue Matias
Sr RG - Tre Jackson
Sr RT - Bobby Hart

I can't quite say much about them individually because I have very little idea what to look for in terms of OL evaluation. Erving is a repurposed DT with incredible feet and is tentatively slated as the top LT in the nation. Two of the four (likely Erving and Jackson) are All-America candidates. They're all road graders and violent blockers. They're also deceptively fast, not just quick - on more than on long screen plays, they were able to keep pace with Devonta Freeman for 30 or so yards. Bobby Hart is very young - he entered college just turning 17 years old.

For pass blocking, check out the Jameis reel.
For Run Blocking, check out williams highlight, and here are Freeman and Wilder as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxiKpKVb-80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhctoSPJsf0

Match-ups with projected star DL:
Clemson (DE Vic Beasley, apparently some DT returns and is good too. Jarrett something?)
Florida (iunno but they tend to be pretty good along the line. Last year they played well too)
Miami (DE Chickillo isn't bad and I kinda liked their rush end Muhammad. Their front seven is pretty experienced too)
Pitt* (DT Aaron Donald :allears: )
Wake Forest* (DT Nikita Whitlock is a dick and kept hitting the QBs late but that little guy was quick as hell)
Auburn* (DE Dee Ford and LB Kris Frost were good if I'm remembering correctly. DT Gabe Wright wasn't bad either)

* last year


Defense

Jr DE - Mario Edwards.
He's the best DE in the country at setting the edge. He's absolutely huge and tosses OL around, and is pretttttty much our best player on defense. He collapses the pocket well, flows towards the ball in run plays exceptionally well, is a total freak athletically, and has pretty great football instincts. He's not a sack artist unfortunately, so he's not quite sexy in that sense to most people watching, but every other aspect is superb. This is a money year, so he might just turn that around. He's 6'3, 290 lbs

Against Auburn's Greg Robinson, mostly:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHYDxEICaP8
Against Miami's Seantrel Henderson and such: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW-8oPU80yE

Jr DT - Eddie Goldman

Unless he has a monster year like Timmy Jernigan, I think Goldman may return for his senior year. He came on really strongly at latter half of last year, and plays more of the space-eating, pocket-collapsing game. He's really good, but it's hard to write about him because the sample size is a little small and he wasn't quite...well, eye catching, watching everyone else. He's 6'4, something like 310. Ankles like tree trunks, oh my god.


Jr CB - Ronald Darby

Incredible and is finally healthy. Just, like, no one passes on him. He's incredible. He had to get technically better because he was too injured last year to rely on his speed to recover from mistakes and now he's also just a drat technician at the position as well. He's 5'11 and ~190 lbs, former track star, densely muscular, extremely affable and good-humored, spurned Notre Dame. What's not to like? He specifically excels at 1-on-1 man coverage but does everything very well, and has incredible burst.


Jr CB - PJ Williams

A little taller, a little rangier, a hair slower than Ronald Darby. He excels a little more at zone and deep coverage, fights with his hands wonderfully to knock away/out would-be catches. He's also an incredible run defender.




:toot:

Match-ups with star passers or WRs:
Okie State (They tend to have a good passing game so why not?)
Clemson* (Boyd throwing to Watkins and Bryant got totally reamed so this isn't a bad thing.
Miami* (Their WRs aren't bad last year and Morris made some NFL throws. This year who knows, with their QB situation as it is)
Pitt* (WR Tyler Boyd is a loving beast)

...man FSU will likely not face a good passing offense next year until the playoffs, if they make it.

R-Jr S - Tyler Hunter

Has a bit of a neck injury history and will likely return his Sr. year. He's a vocal leader and spent a lot of time putting on his coaching hat while out. Vicious hitter and pretty savvy. 5'10, 210 lbs.



Mixed Bag

These players aren't likely to start, but are graduating and have shown a good amount of talent in their own right and are (probably) leaving after this year. They are the victims of being usurped by really superior talent or, in some cases, talent that's just more geared towards the new systems we've come to run. Because they were good in a previous system or they have some still-unfulfilled-potential this late in the game, they may catch on in life after FSU.

Sr CB - Nick Waisome

Waisome was a beast when we were playing in stoops system, a zone heavy dare-you-to-pass kinda thing. He however has not shown to be as good as Darby or Williams at man and that's doomed him since stoops dipped. A bit on the short side. 5'10, 170 lbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHLUG3Gd4mQ


Sr WR - Jarred Haggins

Very dependable WR, good over the middle, a bit of an injury history, hands mostly. Very willing to take a hit and dive to make tough catches.

Sr WR - Christian Green

Incredible athletic specimen and has played all 4 years but still hasn't registered a TD. Not a particularly good WR and some meh hands. If he puts it together though, which is starting to look unlikely but you never know, he could pretty easily make a roster with his tools. Very fast, very quick.

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice
Your 2014 Iowa State Cyclones: At least we're not Kansas.


North Dakota State: Loss
Kansas State: Loss
Iowa: Loss
Baylor: Loss, game will be delayed at the start of the 4th quarter while someone tapes up a hand written "1" in front of the Baylor score after it resets to zero
Oklahoma State: Loss
Toledo: Loss
Texas: Loss
Oklahoma: Loss
Kansas: Thrilling triple overtime victory
Texas Tech: Loss
West Virginia: Win
TCU: Loss

Grittybeard
Mar 29, 2010

Bad, very bad!
Something I've wondered for a while, does Iowa State take these terrible pictures every year or do you have your own private stash of ridiculous offensive lineman poses?

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

Grittybeard posted:

Something I've wondered for a while, does Iowa State take these terrible pictures every year or do you have your own private stash of ridiculous offensive lineman poses?

I didn't even know they existed until someone started making them my avatars. So I'm not sure. I think they take a few gag ones every year though.

DJExile
Jun 28, 2007




Bowling Green Falcons
Last Year: First MAC championship in 21 years gently caress yeah :toot:. Lost kickass coach Dave Clawson to Wake Forest :smith:. Hired video game offense minded coach Dino Babers :toot:
This year: A ton of the offense is back, specifically QB Matt Johnson, who came out of nowhere to tear poo poo up last season. Most of the MAC's best defense returns as well. Debut of a loving six foot seven punter.


2014 Schedule
@ Western Kentucky - W - Hey, it's in the other Bowling Green, neat.
vs. VMI - W - Home opener cupcake.
vs. Indiana - ? - Oh man, this could easily break 80 total points. BG laid a bad egg against them last year although they did pull off the punt block of the year in it. This will depend heavily on which IU team shows up, but odds are very good it'll turn into a shootout.
@ Wisconsin - L - Annual recruiting budget boost game. We'll probably hang around until about midway through the 3rd. If the offense is clicking, we could put a scare into them.
@ UMass - W - UMass is on the farewell tour from the MAC and nobody's beating down the door to get them to join their conference. What a mess it's been for what used to be a very solid FCS program. I hear they're finally playing games back on campus though so that has to help a bit.
vs. Buffalo - W - Buffalo has really improved from being a MAC doormat but they've got a ways to go. Great defense, even with the departure of Khalil Mack, but offense still needs development.
@ Ohio - W - This is on October 11th, right around the time Ohio starts its traditional crash.
vs. Western Mich - W - WMU is a total mess, but I am intrigued to see some of PJ Fleck's recruits in action.
HUGE rear end BYE WEEK - Seriously, BG doesn't play a game from October 18th until November 4th. I have no idea how that happened. :psyduck:
@ Akron - W - This is going to be closer than I'd like. Akron has really improved and they'll want to get in a track meet. They still don't have much defense to speak of but they're much more potent on offense.
vs. Kent State - W - Kent has a miserable opening schedule (season opener vs. Ohio, @ tOSU, @ NIU)and they'll be coming off a game against Toledo. Paul Haynes doesn't have a bare cupboard to work with, but there's a lot to be done.
@ Toledo - ? - Track meet. Toledo is brutal in this game when they're in the Glass Bowl, but they're replacing a lot of weapons.
vs. Ball State - ? - Another hard one to call. BG hasn't played Ball State in 5 years, and while it's a short week for Ball State, they'll be coming off of playing doormats UMass and EMU. I know very little about what Ball State is bringing back but Pete Lembo has done a great job there.

Best Case - Show off terrifying offense in first 3 games and get a win back over Indiana. Hang in against Wisconsin until late, then run the table the rest of the way. Matt Johnson thrives under Dino's new offense and puts up absurd numbers. Extended bye period gives plenty of time to heal up injuries and prepare for last two games. Play NIU in the MAC Championship again and smoke them again. 11-1

Worst Case - Offense looks great at times but sloppy at others as confusion reigns for both BG and opposing defenses. Drop another one to IU and get obliterated at Wisconsin. Johnson goes down somewhere along the line. Extended bye leads to rust. 7-5 with no bowl bid

Likely Case - Offense looks a little iffy at first but wakes up. Johnson looks fantastic but gets a little turnover-prone looking for deep balls all the time. Go 1-1 in last two games but take the relatively weak MAC East. Have a shootout MAC Championship with NIU, Ball State, or Toledo. 10-2

MourningView
Sep 2, 2006


Is this Heaven?

Thoguh posted:

I didn't even know they existed until someone started making them my avatars.

That was like the first thing I did as mod lol

ZenVulgarity
Oct 9, 2012

I made the hat by transforming my zen

pillsburysoldier posted:

Good post about FSU

Pills I'm amazed you don't have an av right now

Also you forgot our most important player



RED LIGHTNING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gWtHpSKPU

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Scarf
Jun 24, 2005

On sight

ZenVulgarity posted:

Pills I'm amazed you don't have an av right now

Also you forgot our most important player



RED LIGHTNING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gWtHpSKPU

I dunno what yall are going to do when he graduates...

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