NCAA Football 2017-18 thread

[Pendulous]

Holy hell, how did Miami go 10-2 without a defensive line? Wisconsin's FULLBACK is running all over them right now.

[Crissi]

PAC 12 officially has the worst bowl record for a conference in history

Also, someone should have told Stanford that being ahead of TCU significantly in the Alamo bowl is a guaranteed loss.

[muto]

Canes should wreck the Badgers by 3ish TDs. 38-17 range.

And Miami got dumpstered.

[xskarma]

Michigan gets points off the turnover. This game looks like it will be a defensive battle though. Offense optional.

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South Carolina is probably talented, but they are totally screwing themselves with miscues right now.

[Crissi]

Michigan has the hopes and dreams of the Big 10 perfect bowl season riding on it. No pressure!

[xskarma]

Michigan has the hopes and dreams of the Big 10 perfect bowl season riding on it. No pressure!

Eh. Don't think Harbaugh or Michigan care much about that. They have more personal reasons to win this game.

[Crissi]

Eh. Don't think Harbaugh or Michigan care much about that. They have more personal reasons to win this game.

well yeah, but its just a fun side thing. Obviously bowl games have a lot more impact for individual teams, like recruitment.

Big 12 is 5-2, and arguably should be 6-1 if Will Grier wasnt hurt.

[xskarma]

Both teams are having issues galore on special teams. Delay of game, balls out of bounds, muffed balls. It's been like this all game. Just sloppy.

Come to think of it that's probably the best way to describe this whole Michigan season: Sloppy.

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Well, that was one of the better drives Michigan had all season. Well done. Michigan up 16-3 on South Carolina.

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Michigan starting to screw things up. Sloppy.

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19-16 Michigan, hanging on for dear life after 2 turnovers lead to 13 points for S. Carolina in about 5 min.

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Every. Freaking. Game.

Seems like this just happened in every big game Michigan played this season. They'll struggle on offense, but the defense keeps them in it, and then the opposition adjusts and the defense starts giving up huge gains and points late in games and the offense still does nothing to help.

This looks like just another Michigan collapse in progress.

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South Carolina won. Second half started well for Michigan, but they failed down the stretch yet again.

I hate it when people overreact to losses by saying the coach should be fired, but, there's honestly something to be said for putting Harbaugh on a short leash going forward. He's supposed to be an offensive guru, QB whisperer and one of the key problems for Michigan during his tenure has been QB and the offense.

Combine that with the just downright sloppy play fo the team and the many blown plays late in games and I kind of feel that he needs to start showing something. Many coaches would be able to get results like he is with the talent Michigan is getting in. What you expect is for someone of Harbaugh's reputation to do more with what he has.

So, I'm not saying Harbaugh should be fired, but if next year isn't markedly better on offense, then maybe we should have that conversation.

[Crissi]

Which is odd when he had a lot f success with the 49ers, but I suppose that's because he also didn't really need to also be a GM.

QB stability is soooo important

[xskarma]

Time for the Rosebowl. OU Sooners vs Georgia Bulldogs. Still think Georgia will have the better team top to bottom and win.

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Georgia may be in trouble...

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Or maybe not. Good game so far.

[Crissi]

Or maybe they are! Can't stop the OU

[Serpha]

Damn, OU is spanking Georgia right now...

[xskarma]

Vaunted Georgia defense getting waxed. Shame though, cause Baker Mayfield looks like an evil imp. Very easy to hate face and attitude. With how this game is going though, he's likely going to win the National Championship.

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Well then. Georgia not dead yet.

[Serpha]

Holly fook this game...

[Crissi]

That was a fun trick play. Clearly copied Patterson use for Hill

[xskarma]

That was a fun trick play. Clearly copied Patterson use for Hill

Yeah AND the Sooners get the ball to start the second half. If they score to open the second half, it's pretty much over. Georgia's QB may turn into a game winner in the future, but he looks to not quite be ready to go toe to toe with the likes of Baker Mayfield.

[Crissi]

Yeah m torn cause Big 12 doing well is always good but if OU wins an NC that makes recruitment for Texas a little harder

[xskarma]

Miami had a good defensive line. And the Wisconsin RB who beat them finished the year with 1977 yards. Wisconsin just beat Miami in a strength on strength matchup.

I'm a Notre Dame fan and Brian Kelly saved his job this year. Here's an optimistic perspective on Kelly's career at ND:

Consistently competitive. They've been in the playoff conversation 4 out of the past 6 years. Last year was a disaster but appear to have righted the ship this year with a top 15 ranking to end the season.

5-3 against USC during his 8 seasons.

Pessimistic perspective:

Cannot win big games. Close losses against FSU, Clemson, and Georgia early in 3 of the past 4 seasons that set them back in the playoff chase.

Has never won one of the big Bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar). Notre Dame's last win in a big bowl game came in 1994 when they beat Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl (which was one of the "big 5" back then).

CANNOT beat Stanford - has lost 6 out of 8 matchups to the Cardinal including 3 in a row. The two wins were extremely close. ND fans don't like losing to a team with stricter academic requirements than ND and a weaker football tradition. This is a real problem.

So the question for ND fans is whether we're happy being more competitive with Kelly than we were under any of the previous 4 coaches, or if we think we can get a superstar to get us back to the glory days. This year, with a competitive fun season, Kelly bought himself more time, but I think eventually we're going to need to either see a playoff finish or a win in one of the big new years bowls, or he's going to get the Mark Richt at Georgia treatment.

This is what Harbaugh is turning into as well. Competent, delivers against teams he should be beating pretty much all the time, but struggles to get it done against the teams that actually matter. He's 1-5 against Michigan State and Ohio State. He's 1-2 in Bowl games. He needs to produce a solid year next year in this regard, or he could be in trouble.

Fun fact btw, Michigan and Notre Dame open next season against each other.

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Huh, well then.

"Amazing: 51 players on this year’s UCF team were on the team that went winless in 2015 (0-12). Two years later, they finish a perfect 13-0." - twitter

Scott Frost on my list of coaches to watch for in the NFL at some point.

Michigan play Nebraska on the 22nd of September at home. Will be interesting to see match up between Harbaugh and Frost on the sidelines.

[draynay]

Was looking forward to this game, so far its delivered.

[Serpha]

Yeah AND the Sooners get the ball to start the second half. If they score to open the second half, it's pretty much over. Georgia's QB may turn into a game winner in the future, but he looks to not quite be ready to go toe to toe with the likes of Baker Mayfield.

Right now it's the other way round, as of now