Official College Football Thread

[Heads22]

You do realize this team is one of the youngest in the B10 and has half their offense and their defensive leader hurt for extended periods of time?

 

Oh and that Kirk Ferentz guy is pretty good

 

 

Not that good.

[Buehrle>Wood]

You do realize this team is one of the youngest in the B10 and has half their offense and their defensive leader hurt for extended periods of time?

 

Oh and that Kirk Ferentz guy is pretty good

The Illini are ridiculously deep with young talent at just about every position. No way will Iowa be better than them over the next few years.

[T R U]

I'm guessing today proved my point quite well thank you very much. Illinois, while improved is not that good. Michigan is nowhere near pathetic.

 

That said, the game next week at Illinois scares me a bit, especially with Mike Hart hurting.

 

Yeah you sure proved a point.. Iowa got a win, but I don't think they deserved it.. Zook made some real dumb decisions with those penalties on 3rd, Iowa got extremely lucky that an 81 yard TD got called back and after Illinois made it look easy with McGee to go straight down the field he pulled a Missouri and pretty much sealed the game for them..

 

I still think what you said was really pointless, but hey you're entitled to your opinion.. all I know is, Illinois is good. Being good doesn't mean you have to be a National Title Contender, but its looking likely that Illinois is going to end up with prolly 8 victories this year.. They have the best rushing attack in the Big 10 and the defense for the most part has done their job..

 

You have to give Mendenhall more than 18 touches though, and there were plenty of times they could have just pounded it with him instead of watching Juice try to make all the plays by himself, which usually resulted in a 2 yard run where he was gang tackled as the option man had a much better look..

 

Im not gonna get down about a 10-6 loss, on the road, that we lost because we played a sloppy game.. not because Iowa was the better team, and that, in time, will be fixed. Especially with the youth and depth this team has.. We played four very good games in a row including wins over two ranked teams there was bound to be a let up somewhere.. but college football this season has been like this pretty much every week, and I don't think I was out of line questioning you about why you thought Illinois was gonna lose, all things considered..

[Jenksismyhero]

Not sure what to say about that Illini game. My observations:

 

-Except for Leman and Vontae we really don't have much closing speed on defense. I hope Zook is concentrating his recruiting efforts on getting some more athletic playmakers on D. Martez Wilson is sick. He must blow coverages on occasion because he's so athletic he should be in the game just about every down. He reminds me so much of Simeon Rice with his gigantor wingspan and speed.

 

-McGee needs to be playing every other drive. He has an arm and it's accurate. The long bomb was called back on the luckiest of penalties. The ref just happened to look at the TE for a split second. It also annoys me because that's one of those penalties that just should not be called. The resulting play had nothing to do with that penalty. But those are the rules - it was a killer. Even so, the fact that we drove down the field 70 some yards to set up a potential game winning TD was great, especially since we couldn't move the ball all day. It's all set up because McGee can pass which forces the defense back a little. If only Juice could show some touch and hit a man deep once or twice in the beginning of a game - the option play will open up even more.

 

-Zook keeps sticking with Juice even though its pretty evident that he can't pass and that he hasn't made much strides in the passing game. How much does that have to do with promises of playing time?

 

-I'm on Zooks side with the penalty situation. You expect your team to hold on a 3rd and 7. You try to play the percentages and give the ball to their QB, supposedly the weakest link on their offense.

 

-Play calling was pretty bad - they established that they could contain the option for 3 quarters. Yet when Mendenhall was given the ball on a dive or power play it was successful for 4-5 yards a carry. It was like Ron Turner was making the play calls. Winning teams adapt to whats happening on the field. They scrap the gameplan for what is working. To me this has been a problem all year.

 

-I'm most upset because next week could have been special. Gameday would have been there probably. A win at Iowa and a win against Michigan would have pretty much guaranteed a top bowl and a huge game against Ohio St, with the winner going to the Rose Bowl. I still think we have a shot, but we'll have to win out and play OSU real close to have a chance. Either way the game sets an opportunity to beat 3 (or more) ranked teams in one season. It's been a long time since Illinois has done that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thedoctor]

i can understand wanting mcgee to play more and reading zook's comments yesterday i think he's going to. i don't think alternating series is a good idea, however. i've never seen a circumstance where you switch QBs every series and it works out well for the offense.

 

in terms of the qb position, i can sympathize with those who want to see mcgee, but i'm not in that camp yet. there's no doubt our lack of a passing game has hurt and juice is not yet an accurate or consistent passer (although i do think he's improved at about the rate you can expect). however, what our offense does best is run, particularly run the option. from what i've seen of both, juice is much better at running the option than mcgee is. yes mcgee had the nice run against psu, but he is not the option runner juice is.

 

so i guess you make a choice: do you downgrade the run game to upgrade the passing game? and is the upgrade of the passing game enough to offset what you lose in the run game? at this point, i haven't seen enough out of mcgee to know that's the case. keep in mind he's now twice thwarted comeback attempts by throwing interceptions on or near the goal line.

[CanOfCorn]

Very good points, doc. I would also add this...in everything that I've read about Juice coming out of high school, he didn't click til his junior season. Even Juice will say that himself. I think he's improving and maybe he can relax a little with McGee as a more than capable back up. I'm not willing to go one-for-one on the series either. Juice is and should be our qb. He hasn't blown a game, McGee has saved a couple.

 

And the Illini are so much improved, at this time, with the crap they've been throwing on the field the last couple of years, I'd take 6-6. Shoot, I'd take 5-7.

[Soxbadger]

Id like to add Wisconsin sucks.

 

 

[Capn12]

What a ridiculously crazy college football season so far. We(South Carolina fans) have been cautiously optimistic towards 2008, when the schedule really sets up nicely for us......then 2007 turns out like this so far. Not sure what to think. We are doing the epitome of "winning ugly", depending on a fantastic Defense to carry us through, whilst a RS Freshman QB learns the Spurrier ways...I'm enjoying the ride so far, premature or not.

[Jenksismyhero]

i can understand wanting mcgee to play more and reading zook's comments yesterday i think he's going to. i don't think alternating series is a good idea, however. i've never seen a circumstance where you switch QBs every series and it works out well for the offense.

 

in terms of the qb position, i can sympathize with those who want to see mcgee, but i'm not in that camp yet. there's no doubt our lack of a passing game has hurt and juice is not yet an accurate or consistent passer (although i do think he's improved at about the rate you can expect). however, what our offense does best is run, particularly run the option. from what i've seen of both, juice is much better at running the option than mcgee is. yes mcgee had the nice run against psu, but he is not the option runner juice is.

 

so i guess you make a choice: do you downgrade the run game to upgrade the passing game? and is the upgrade of the passing game enough to offset what you lose in the run game? at this point, i haven't seen enough out of mcgee to know that's the case. keep in mind he's now twice thwarted comeback attempts by throwing interceptions on or near the goal line.

 

With respect to the run, here's how I see it: Penn State wasn't ready for the option. At the half, they made adjustments, crowded the line and effectively contained it. Illinois didn't move the ball at all in that 2nd half. Couple of lucky (or good, depending on how you look at it) turnovers changed the game and they won. Wisconsin is just terrible on D. They had a poor gameplan and even if they did stack the line they don't have enough good tacklers to stop anyone.

 

So what does Iowa do? They have a really good D-line and some good LB's. They stack the box and contain just about everything Illinois tried to do. That's exactly what Michigan will do this next week and any team thereafter. I said earlier I'd be amazed if the option could be stopped, but I guess I didn't assume teams would literally throw eight or nine guys up on the line because they know the passing game is terrible. The only way for the team to get back to a good running game is to open up and keep the defense honest. Juice hasn't shown at all this year that he can do it. He can throw the out, he can throw a little slant, and he can run. That's it.

 

Mcgee on the other hand gives them that option. Everytime he's played he's thrown a big pass. Yes he's made some stupid mistakes but this is his first season. Juice turned the ball over a ton last year too. He didn't thwart comebacks in the Missouri game and he didn't thwart the comeback in the Iowa game. In my mind he was the one that initiated the comeback (especially in the missouri game). I don't think its fair to peg a failed comeback on him when he did so much.

 

I guess at the end of the day I don't want to see Juice benched. I think he does run the option well. But it really wont matter how well he runs the option if it doesn't gain positive yards. Locksley and Zook need to call plays that all him to complete some 10-15 yard passes in the beginning of the game. Maybe a play-action bomb; anything to get the defense to play on its heals a little.

[Gene Honda Civic]

Yeah you sure proved a point.. Iowa got a win, but I don't think they deserved it..

Truer words were never spoken.

 

With 2:18 remaining, Iowa had run 70 plays to Illinois 50, outgained them by almost 100 yards, and held the ball for nearly 10 more minutes.

 

Iowa was lucky they were even in the game.

Edited October 15, 2007 by Gene Honda Civic

[RockRaines]

Great post by jenks. Penn St did make adjustments, but they should have forseen it before the game. They havent exactly been the best coached bunch the last several years.

 

OSU will be ready for those type of wrinkles I hope, with the best coach in the big ten at the helm I hope that preparation wouldnt be an issue.

[whitesoxfan101]

Truer words were never spoken.

 

With 2:18 remaining, Iowa had run 70 plays to Illinois 50, outgained them by almost 100 yards, and held the ball for nearly 10 more minutes.

 

Iowa was lucky they were even in the game.

 

Yeah Illinois was definitely outplayed, not sure how anybody would claim otherwise. The Illini were fortunate it was that close realistically.

 

As for general topics, the entire college football world will hold it's breath Thursday, because if USF can survive their trip to Tony Soprano's backyard, they are a clubhouse favorite to go undefeated and finish in the top 2 in the BCS (and the computers LOVE USF) with this schedule:

 

at UCONN

Cincinnati in Tampa

at Syracuse

Louisville in Tampa

at Pittsburgh

 

If America wakes up Friday and USF is an undefeated team, I think we will wake up on an early January morning getting ready to watch them play for the National Title.

Edited October 15, 2007 by whitesoxfan101

[Chisoxfn]

The Louisville and Cinncy games are no walk in the park.

[Soxbadger]

Especially since they will basically be "save our season" games, versus USF trying not to ruin their chance at undefeated.

 

Its always much easier to be the team with nothing to lose.

[Rex Hudler]

It wasn't pointless at all. The tone of posts from Illini fans did not show the expectation of a let up coming.

 

I stated Illinois would not win its next two games and they didn't. I also stated, as a Michigan fan, I was worried about this weekend's game with Illinois. So basically, I am saying the exact same thing you are. They are good, but not great. I just did it in a lot fewer words.

 

;-)

 

Yeah you sure proved a point.. Iowa got a win, but I don't think they deserved it.. Zook made some real dumb decisions with those penalties on 3rd, Iowa got extremely lucky that an 81 yard TD got called back and after Illinois made it look easy with McGee to go straight down the field he pulled a Missouri and pretty much sealed the game for them..

 

I still think what you said was really pointless, but hey you're entitled to your opinion.. all I know is, Illinois is good. Being good doesn't mean you have to be a National Title Contender, but its looking likely that Illinois is going to end up with prolly 8 victories this year..

 

We played four very good games in a row including wins over two ranked teams there was bound to be a let up somewhere.. but college football this season has been like this pretty much every week, and I don't think I was out of line questioning you about why you thought Illinois was gonna lose, all things considered..

 

 

Edited October 15, 2007 by Rex Hudler

[whitesoxfan101]

The Louisville and Cinncy games are no walk in the park.

 

Neither of those teams are good enough to win in Tampa, especially since if USF wins at Rutgers and remains undefeated, the games will likely be in front of crowds similar to the one at the USF/West Virginia game earlier this year.

Edited October 16, 2007 by whitesoxfan101

[Felix]

Id like to add Wisconsin sucks.

Old news, but its nice to see you come around.

[Buehrle>Wood]

I stated Illinois would not win its next two games and they didn't.

What?

[Rex Hudler]

What?

 

What is confusing about that statement?

[Rowand44]

What is confusing about that statement?

My guess is that he thought you meant that Illinois would lose both of their next two games, not at least one like you really meant.

[Rex Hudler]

Well geez, don't people understand to take my posts for what I mean, not what I type???

 

I can see how it would be interpreted that way. I did indeed from the beginning mean that Illinois will not with both of their next two games. However, it is very possible at this point, my original statement may be correct regardless of how you interpret it.

 

I just hope Michigan plays with purpose and doesn't get cocky after thrashing Purdue and seeing Illinois lose to Iowa. Not sure what we will get out of Hart either. As soon as I doubt him, he'll run for 187 yards on 32 carries. I'm okay opening things up less and giving Hart less carries, while also allowing Carlos Brown to pick up 10-12 carries to lighten the load.

 

Playing at night on the road is not Michigan's thing. They play zero home night games, so the game time itself is a change in routine.

 

My prediction: Michigan 34 Illinois 23

[Chisoxfn]

What is confusing about that statement?

They will lose the 2nd in a row on Saturday.

[AssHatSoxFan]

did I hear correctly on the radio that Gameday is still planning on being in Champaign this weekend?

[AssHatSoxFan]

I think I misheard the radio because I read they are going to be in Lexington

[CanOfCorn]

Well geez, don't people understand to take my posts for what I mean, not what I type???

 

I can see how it would be interpreted that way. I did indeed from the beginning mean that Illinois will not with both of their next two games. However, it is very possible at this point, my original statement may be correct regardless of how you interpret it.

 

I just hope Michigan plays with purpose and doesn't get cocky after thrashing Purdue and seeing Illinois lose to Iowa. Not sure what we will get out of Hart either. As soon as I doubt him, he'll run for 187 yards on 32 carries. I'm okay opening things up less and giving Hart less carries, while also allowing Carlos Brown to pick up 10-12 carries to lighten the load.

 

Playing at night on the road is not Michigan's thing. They play zero home night games, so the game time itself is a change in routine.

 

My prediction: Michigan 34 Illinois 23

 

If Hart can't play...and Minor is still dinged up...its going to be closer than that. In fact, I think Zook is going to get his time nice and fired up for this game. I'd expect a similar score to Wisconsin's...

 

Illinois 31, Michigan 26