TV Schedule

General6

For the second week in a row, VPI highlights the TV schedule. This time though, it’s Miami who’s heading into Blacksburg, and they’re doing it as an underdog. The athletes the Hurricanes are bringing are nothing like VPI has seen this season on offense or defense, and the unusual position as underdogs should benefit the Canes.

The other big ones this week are Wisconsin versus Penn St., where the winner likely at least ties for the conference championship. Tennessee at ND also looks to be an interesting game. ND has only faced one decent defense, Michigan, who held them to 244 yards. Tennessee actually matches up pretty well with ND bringing their 12th ranked defense versus ND’s 9th ranked offense and their 99th ranked offense versus ND’s 96th ranked defense. The thing to keep in mind is that even without Riggs, Tennessee has more talent than Notre Dame on both sides of the ball. The Irish do have a huge advantage at QB, which could be the key to the game. The firing of Randy Sanders should also help the Vols.

The Love Fest Continues.

Never has one game had such a great influence on perceptions in college football as the USC/OU Orange Bowl. Despite pumping up USC throughout 2004 in no small part to make up for the Trojans being “left out� in 2003, few people may remember that most media types actually reverted and picked OU to win the Orange Bowl over USC last January. Of course, they were very wrong, and now, the USC hype machine is out of control.

CFN for one has taken this Trojan Love Fest to the extreme and now thinks USC should have won the national title in 2002 as well. Does anyone remember how good Miami (34 game winning streak) and Ohio St. were than year? They also just assume that the Trojans would have beat LSU and their #1 defense in 2003 with “too much offense� as well as Auburn in 2004. CFN was guilty of the revert as well. Their 2005 Orange Bowl prediction: OU 26 – USC 13. Surprisingly, even CFN stopped short of going back to 2001 to award a 6-6 Trojan team the national title.

A note about LSU in 2003. While the Trojan’s top two receivers from 2003 are having pedestrian careers in the NFL, virtually every player, including key backups, from LSU’s national title defense is either contributing to an NFL team or still playing for the Tigers. Two of the three NFL corners from that LSU team are starting in the NFL and the third may be the best of the three. I guess Nick Saban is not a good enough defensive coach to stop USC and their “too much offense� even with all the NFL talent Saban had in 2003.

Weis versus Willingham

This has been covered in many places, but is a 5 – 2 record with one win over a ranked team and a defense ranked amongst the worst in the country worthy of a 10 year 30 or 40 million dollar contract? Apparently. But don’t forget, Ty started out 8-0.

General

6 Responses to TV Schedule

  1. BJD95 11/02/2005 at 6:53 PM #

    As TigerFan would no doubt agree, these silly “what ifs” and hypothetical matchups would all go away if we had a 16-team playoff. And the quality of sportswriting and sports radio would increase by default.

    Miami and Ohio State were very, very good in 2002. It was a real testament to Ohio State that they beat – much less even stayed close to – that Hurricanes squad. In a sense, I think that this year’s UCLA might be the bizarro world version of that Buckeye squad. Always pulling out close wins at the end, sometimes against second-tier competition (the 10-6 win over Purdue comes to mind), and dismissed by many as just lucky. Of course, UCLA is doing it 90% with offense, and rare bursts of timely defense (three 3-and-outs against Stanford in the dramatic 4th quarter comeback, the late stops and big turnover vs. Cal) – the exact opposite of the winning Tressel formula.

    I think the criticism of ND is right on the merits (Weis has shown nothing that Ty didn’t in his first year), but in the marketplace, there is a real risk that the NFL would make a run at him in the offseason. Ty was not so positioned. So, ND did overpay and overreact to Weis’ early success, but I think there is a plausible, non-race related reason they did so.

  2. Jeff 11/02/2005 at 7:37 PM #

    Dude…these television schedules are AMAZING!!! Thanks so much for the good work.

  3. Slader4881 11/03/2005 at 9:52 PM #

    I partly agree with BJD95 Weis has kicked started the ND program much like Willingham did, but think about this: Did Willingham almost beat a team that has been #1 for basically 2 seasons and that most of the media and country believe is the best team we have seen in a long time? No. On top of that look at Brady Quinn this year he has been one of the top 3 QBs in the country behind Young and Leinart. I really believe Weis has a lot to do with that. With Willingham ND had to make some crazy big play (like a blocked punt or some amazing fumble return) to win games. You never really felt like they could be you with just their O and D. This year Weis has the O rolling and the D makes some big plays here and there. In addition to all of the above and the NFL threat, think about the Recruiting effect Weis will have. This is the guy who turned Tom Brady into Tom Brady and helped Brady Quinn become a possible 1st round pick in the draft. Young talented QBs and other players will flock to ND now that he is locked up for years to come. For all of those who play the race card please, give me a break. Everyone is giving Willingham way too much credit, he was never that successfull any where he has been. At least Weis was a large part of 3 super bowl wins.

  4. Slader4881 11/03/2005 at 10:09 PM #

    The hating on USC has got to stop. I will say that the media is full of it and that I do feel the 2003 LSU team was probably better. But at the same time this USC team is one of the top teams we have seen over the past 10 years easy, maybe longer. (Ken Dorsey Miami teams are tied for the #1 spot also) If USC wins another championship this year they will surpass Miami in my book. If you were to watch this team in a bubble with no media involved I feel like you would still have to say this team is that dominate. I would also like to say, I am not a USC fan and I have no money riding on the Trojans this year at all.

  5. Jeff 11/04/2005 at 8:39 AM #

    ^ Note the name of the Author…”Tiger”Fan…as in LSU Tigers. 🙂

    Problem is that he’s damn intelligent and he’s usually pretty right (except for his opinion of a playoff)

  6. TigerFan 11/07/2005 at 11:55 AM #

    First I just want to clarify that I did not mention race in the post, and I agree with the comments above and do not think race was involved whatsoever. I think the Weis contract is a combination of irrational exuberance and desperation from a Notre Dame program that has been a major disappointment for most of the last fifteen years. And yes, Weis is doing a good job.

    I realize that it may come off as USC bashing, but my problem is with media coverage and lack of a playoff and not the Trojan’s program, players, or coaches. Two years ago, I found it equally infuriating that Oklahoma was the “greatest team of all time� while playing a pretty soft conference schedule. Now USC is a dynasty and the “greatest offense of all time� playing in a conference that may have the worst defenses of all time. I like Carroll, I like the players, and enjoy watching what is an excellent team, but I’d like to see them play some better competition and/or win more impressively if they want to earn the praise they receive.

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