closetojumping

That’s great and all except for the part where Barron needs to actually get snaps at CB in practice. Those guys are grasping at the same straws as we are and trying to apply whatever handy logic is nearby.

They’re probably claiming the Jimbo fallout money, buying out him and his staff, buying out Elko from Duke, as revenue from boosters but they can’t actually park that overtly in football. They have an “other” bucket for dark money spend that they never explain that is always substantially larger than any other program’s “other” bucket when it comes to AD revenue claims. Go look at the actual statements and it’s always sitting there in plain sight.

You guys can mix the notion of a 9-4 Iowa State making the playoff or of Iowa being anything besides excellent compared to all but about 10-15 teams in CFB this year. 1) Utah is loaded with experience and has a charmin soft schedule. They’ll be 11-1/12-0 heading into the conference title game. 2) Oklahoma State returns like 20 starters off of a team that actually played for the title. 3) Iowa State isn’t on par with either of those teams. 4) Iowa went 10-2 in the regular season last year with one of the worst offenses in our lifetimes. They’ve dumped part of the problem and they also return like 19 starters. They’re going to beat the dogshit out of Iowa State this year. And by that, I mean they’re going to win 21-10 with the game never feeling close.

I guess it all depends upon one’s perspective. The guy used 4 wrs at Bama two years in a row. He also threw regularly to two different TEs during the same period, or at least 2020. He used 5 wide receivers in his rotation for at least one year at UW. So if the notion is that he’s never used more than 3 in the rotation, that’s just flatly wrong. If it’s that he’s never used 6, okay. The idea that the rotation will wind up being limited to 3 this season, unless due to injury, is incorrect. Is it fully 6? That shouldn’t surprise anyone.

That’s not actually correct and has become something akin to folklore. In addition, he’s clearly stated repeatedly this offseason that he’s going with a larger rotation because he can. Also, Texas has committed mid-6 figures to a minimum of 6 WRs at Sarkisian’s pleading. If boosters spend $400k on Golden to just see him returning kicks, that’s going to be a problem in the future. Y’all may not like that, but it’s part of the game now.

At this point, Williams should only be regarded as entertainment. If Texas lands him, it will drive some other fans nuts and the hype will help in the class. Beyond that, expectations for value of any sort should be through the floor. And if he goes elsewhere, we’ll get to watch some idiots not understand why he likely busts out.

I know I've posted on ND 2024 on the boards, but you asked, so here are one guy's thoughts about ND, their ranking, and ATM. Notre Dame has NFL guys all over their defense. It's the strength of the team, they return 8 starters plus a 3 year starter transfer. They have an All American NG in Howard Cross, an AA candidate at LB in Jack Kiser, and a 1st AA in Xavier Watts at S. They have a high returning CB who will play in the NFL. They're going to be really good on defense and Freeman knows how to handle that side of the ball. On offense, they bring Riley Leonard, who is quite good if he's healthy. This will be the opening game, so you have to like the odds of Leonard opening the game at full speed, same as Weigatron. They actually have sure-handed talent that won't scare anyone at WR and the typical ND TE in Mitchell Evans. They lost both tackles to the NFL and this will be a source of focus heading into the season, although ND knows what they're doing with OL development. ND's ranking, outside of halo effect, is also a by-product of one of the weakest P4 schedules in the entire country. The ATM game, along with USC and FSU games, is a must-win game. For ND to get into the playoffs this year, they're not going to be able to lean on the depth of their schedule. They're going to have to be able to lean on being 11-1/12-0 and they could do that. So the ATM game is pretty fucking important for them and they're going to know that. As far as the match-up, the biggest part of it is probably coaching. Freeman is a proven buffoon when it comes to in-game coaching. The Elk's HC prowess is buoyed by one of the more laughable schedules ever in 2022 in which Duke went 9-4 while never playing a ranked team. Last year, tubby went 1-4 against ranked opponents with the season opener against Clemson being the big win. Can this guy actually win big as a HC? There is no evidence for that yet. ATM's front 7 against the ND OL and TE will be in ATM's advantage. Leonard and the WRs against the ATM secondary could be an actual strength for ND. ND's front seven against the ATM OL is the most brutal match-up in the game. ND's secondary also being really fucking good doesn't help. Finishing up making a short story really long, you guys that are starting to/itching to predict an ATM victory over ND aren't looking at the actual rosters and match-up and falling prey to media sloth regarding ATM's talent levels and the myth of some major home field advantage for the aggies. ATM stands a terrific chance of opening the season 1-2 after losing to ND and @ Florida.

People talk about the Florida schedule this season, and rightfully so. Accordingly, at least in part due to that, Florida is unranked and barely receiving any votes. All of that and Florida is actually returning its QB and 8 total starters on offense. Now consider USC. These guys are ranked #23. They lost their star QB. They return just 5 starters on offense. On defense, they bring back 9, but it's not clear that that is a positive. Beyond all of that, their schedule rivals that of Florida's and no one seems to notice. USC opens against LSU in Vegas, then they play 2023 bowl team Utah State. Their other non-con is Notre Dame. 2 P4 programs that open the year in the top 15. They get a bye week following Utah State then go @ Michigan, Wisconsin, @ Minnesota, Penn State, @ Maryland, Rutgers, @ Washington in consecutive weeks. That could be 9 bowl teams to open the season. They then get an off week and go Nebraska, @ UCLA (LA though), Notre Dame. There is not a true gimme on the schedule and only 2-4 teams where you can figure they'll be favored while looking at it now (UState, Rutgers, Minne, UCLA). USC should not be ranked. It's lazy voting. They're more likely to go 6-6 than 9-3.

That whole LB is dogshit. The secondary is spared from that classification simply due to Anderson being damned good. Watching Liucci spin the OT position as anything but an oncoming and obvious disaster is the good stuff. Fatheree has lingering injury issues and has the feet of a dead tree. Crownover is a low-ranked coverted TE. Ogunbiyi is allegedly far more gifted at date raping than playing OL. Zuhn is fine. They are razor thin there and any injury will be a big fucking problem. Barber may not play all year. They have a bunch of decent to shitty possession WRs and a TE recovering from major surgery. Weigman is made of glass, will be playing behind a terrible OL and the playcaller will be running into the teeth of the defense if he's at all allowed to lean into his personal preferences. Good shit.

It's an interesting year ahead of the season, to say the least. Yeah Georgia, Ohio State and Bama in the top 5 is more of a "usual suspects" thing than a reflection of parity, but all 3 of those teams have major flaws that can lead to failing to do much this season. Here are some of my thoughts, initially on the top 2 and spoilered for the tl;dr crowd:

Rank Team Record PTS 1st Prev Chg Hi/Lo 1 Georgia 0-0 1364 46 NR - 1/1 2 Ohio State 0-0 1302 7 NR - 2/2 3 Oregon 0-0 1228 0 NR - 3/3 4 Texas 0-0 1223 1 NR - 4/4 5 Alabama 0-0 1077 0 NR - 5/5 6 Ole Miss 0-0 1019 0 NR - 6/6 7 Notre Dame 0-0 969 0 NR - 7/7 8 Michigan 0-0 944 1 NR - 8/8 9 Penn State 0-0 889 0 NR - 9/9 10 Florida State 0-0 867 0 NR - 10/10 11 Missouri 0-0 808 0 NR - 11/11 12 LSU 0-0 742 0 NR - 12/12 13 Utah 0-0 665 0 NR - 13/13 14 Clemson 0-0 657 0 NR - 14/14 15 Tennessee 0-0 621 0 NR - 15/15 16 Oklahoma 0-0 609 0 NR - 16/16 17 Kansas State 0-0 416 0 NR - 17/17 18 Oklahoma State 0-0 359 0 NR - 18/18 19 Miami (FL) 0-0 292 0 NR - 19/19 20 Texas A&M 0-0 273 0 NR - 20/20 21 Arizona 0-0 230 0 NR - 21/21 22 North Carolina State 0-0 216 0 NR - 22/22 23 USC 0-0 199 0 NR - 23/23 24 Kansas 0-0 186 0 NR - 24/24 25 Iowa 0-0 148 0 NR - 25/25 Others Receiving Votes Washington 123; Louisville 95; Virginia Tech 64; SMU 47; Memphis 44; Boise State 30; Auburn 25; West Virginia 22; Wisconsin 17; Liberty 15; Iowa State 15; Kentucky 12; Florida 11; South Carolina 10; North Carolina 6; UNLV 5; Maryland 5; UCF 4; Texas Tech 4; UTSA 3; Tulane 2; Texas State 2; Nebraska 2; Colorado 2; Appalachian State 2; Troy 1; Syracuse 1; Miami (OH) 1; James Madison 1; Air Force 1; Pasting as regular text makes it a mess, so I posted what I copied so folks don't have to click the link.

It's the 3rd and 5 graphic or whatever. Someone around has it.

I don't see how I am ever going to get used to seeing this kind of thing. It would also be weird if the Big 12 did it. Kind of a No Man's Land thing, but Texas should just be able to do it on their own and everyone just shut the fuck up. But, that can't happen with the biggest loudmouth conference in the history of conferences. It's going to just keep being weird, and batshit crazy if Texas keeps winning in many things.

If I ever get in trouble, I just go 5 Wide, All Go/Verticals and throw it deep to Bond, and then Wingo, and then a 5 star that I recruited with 99 speed. It feels like cheating.

I thought the same thing. At a minimum, that dude should have been getting jet sweeps, kick returns, punt returns, and third and long draws and screens. That said, it led to one of my all-time favorite CFB graphics/memes ever.

Outside of injuries, I don't get the logic here. If you have 6 starting caliber receivers, why would you not continue to rotate them and keep everyone fresh and productive?

He’s more likely to wind up as a sack of goo, watching Spongebob reruns from his mom’s couch in New Jersey by the time the season is finished than with 5 sacks on a football field. How high did you get before visiting the practice on Saturday night? immamac is prone to fits of absurd hyperbole. The post you’re responding to appears to be another example.

That poster is a proven buffoon. If you put him on ignore, you won’t miss a thing.

Who in the fuck lets delicious cheese fries sit around? Much less for 15 minutes?

I worked there during college. I’ve always thought their wings were about as straightforward and terrific as you can find. Outside of their steaks, most of their food is still damned good in my opinion. Hell, their prime rib is still just fine too.

Listen, what in the fuck did Outback Steakhouse ever do to you people to deserve this kind of derision?

The strength of their team, on paper, is their front on defense. They have talent at DT and talent and depth at DE. I wouldn’t expect that group to get pushed around a ton. Oddly, they weren’t great against the run last year, but they have another year of maturation and some of the bitchy play from Nolan won’t be missed. At LB, they’re in the process of lionizing York as some sort of mythical creature. He played a lot as an undersized freshman and called the defense. He’s the best LB they have. The Scooby guy from Florida gets mentioned because SEC but UF packed his bags for him. He’s yet to live up to expectations. Outside of Anderson, their secondary projects to be dogshit. We’ll see, of course.

I like NC State to beat Tennessee. I think Iamaleava is severely overrated heading into this season, as are the Tenn WRs. Va Tech absolutely has the schedule to win the conference or play for it in the championship. They also have a QB to boot. Should be interesting watching them. They don't face an FCS opponent, but they face a really weak non-con with: @ Vandy, Marshall, @ Old Dominion, Rutgers. They miss FSU, SMU, NC State, UNC, and Louisville with their only real underdog games looking like @ Miami and Clemson.

I don't think that's fully accurate regarding Tilmon. They're not pushing him away. He seems to regard Utah as the better fit. Utah is a funny school in terms of the way they recruit. A lot of guys they land have bigger brand options and still choose to go there and often stick. Not always, of course, but it seems like that's the case more often than not. I do like that Texas and Utah are on some of the same guys. Utah evaluates really well, in my opinion. As to Jonah Williams, I have made my arguments for why I think he's a candidate to be a bust or non-entity in college. He's going to ultimately be a LB if he'll let himself grow out. Many people think he could be an excellent LB. That's what drove his early rankings. He comes back later and tells the services and the coaches that he's a safety and that won't be changing. He's also not in love with football. And he's an MLB risk. So there are a lot of red flags there. If he doesn't cost a program a ton of money (but he probably will), he's a quality lottery ticket. He will boost hype and rankings of the class, which helps the overall class, and he could well wind up spinning to the right position and discovering that he can make millions there. There are worse takes with that in mind.

I think Florida would have to go 9-3 to get in, and the losses would need to be of the quality variety. They're not putting an 8-4 team into the playoffs in year 1, particularly from the SEC. The optics on that would be horrendous. Good point about Memphis. FSU's schedule is getting little notice, but it's something of a beast in its own right if you look at it. FSU goes: -8/24 (Week Zero) - vs. Ga Tech in Dublin - this is a bear of a trip for both teams and Norvell publicly complained about it at ACC Media Days. -9/2 (Monday of Week One) - vs Boston College in Tallahassee. This is the second week to open the season in which FSU plays a talented QB against their new defense. -9/14 - Memphis - one of the better G5 programs this season according to projections. -9/21 - Cal - Cal projects as a bowl team, has a stud TB and will have an excellent defense. -9/28 - @SMU - SMU is a dark horse beloved in the media to win the ACC. They should be tough and solid at home. -10/5 - Clemson - I don't see Clemson competing for the national title, but they're going to be very good and gunning for FSU. -10/19 - @ Duke - Should be the first layup of the FSU season, although I am biased about Manny Diaz and Murphy and think Duke will be shit this year because of them. -10/26 - @ Miami - Rivalry game and the second straight roadie. If Cristobal is as big of a dumbass as I think he is, FSU should win here. If somehow that brickhead has Miami rolling with all of their talent, this could be a crazy game. -11/2 - North Carolina - UNC has talent, but FSU has more. The transfers should have gelled by now and FSU should be favored to win. The wildcard here is if Mack Brown goes into labor on the field during the game. That kind of distraction could really fire up the tarheels. -11/9 - @ Notre Dame - At this point, FSU has faced a legitimately brutal schedule with no true patsies. It's another opportunity to face off against a real dumbass at the head coaching position. Notre Dame is playing the cupcake schedule already alluded to, and this should be a key game they need to bolster their resume. I expect ND to win convincingly but, let's face it, it's August and who the fuck knows what will happen this season? -11/23 - Charleston Southern - This season's only true gimme for FSU. -11/30 - Florida - Another team that will beaten up by a brutal schedule, the rival gators come to town for what might be their battle for bowl eligibility. FSU faces that schedule with a true mediocrity at QB in DJ Ungaleieleieleilalluelei. That initial 6 game stretch includes just one bye week. Grim. FSU and USC are two teams with schedules in the range of difficulty of Florida and no one is giving either any credit for it. It's interesting in terms overall media bias and talking points at this stage. They're not going to give Riley any quarter and no one is giving the whiners at FSU much credit or thought right now.