College Football Rant

I tried to root for Ohio State the other night against Michigan State.  I wanted to see a Big Ten team win the national championship.  Then the game started and I remembered that I hate OSU and to hell with the Big Ten getting a chance at the title.  You see, I (like just about everyone else) am sick of hearing that the SEC is sooooo dominant.

I heard a guy on the radio make a good point about the SEC:  if it is so good, how come a team that was 0-8 in their conference able to become the number one team in the country in one season?  Or what about  Mizzou?  They were 2-6 in their first year in the SEC and one year later they are playing for a conference championship.  You remember all those Big 12 titles that Mizzou won, right?  Oh wait, they haven’t won one since the 1960s.  Weird.  So the best SEC schools were terrible last year and one of them was not able to win an inferior conference like the Big 12.  That is pretty crazy.

Do I think the SEC is a very good conference?  Absolutely.  Do I think it is a bit overrated?  Sure.  I also think the Big Ten gets crap for being weak, when it really is not.  The best conference is probably the Pac12.  Remember back in the first week when Washington State almost beat Auburn?

It also amuses me that you hear so many of the analysts saying how Auburn got better all season long.  They lost that game to LSU and then they improved.  Which is true, you cannot really argue that one.  What about Michigan State?  They improved after losing to Notre Dame.

If you look at the bowl game schedule, there are a few opportune games that I look forward to watching.

I want to see Florida State destroy Auburn.  Absolutely embarrass them.  Like 45-17.  That would make me so happy.  I was hoping they would match Ohio State with Alabama, but instead the Buckeyes go up against Clemson.  Might be a good game, but it does not really do anything for the debate of conferences.  Obviously I will be rooting for Clemson.

I think the Rose Bowl should be pretty good.  Both MSU and Stanford have very good defenses.  I am hoping to see UCF destroy Baylor.  That would make me happy.  I like seeing UCF do well, not sure why.  Oddly enough, I will not root against Alabama.  I know everyone hates them, but I just think they are such a good team.

The Big Ten needs some wins from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.  They all play SEC teams and I feel like all three of those schools like to lose in bowl games.  They cannot do it this year.  They have to win at least two of them.

I was hoping that Mizzou would get a better game than Oklahoma State.  I guess it will sell big since they used to be in the Big 12, but I think Mizzou/Oregon would be a much better game (or the bowl folks could have tried for Oregon/Alabama, since everyone thought that would be the national title game most of the year).

Speaking of Mizzou, I was really upset about the hit on Henry Josey during the Auburn game.  If you did not see it, Josey is a receiver and he is pushed out of bounds by a defender.  The Auburn player then shoves him again, which causes Josey to fall into a cart.  When it first happened I thought the corner of the cart may have punctured a kidney.  It looked very serious.

Josey ended up missing a large chunk of the game (if he returned late in the game, he was not the same).  That guy was a beast and it seemed like Auburn could not stop him.  There was a penalty, but no ejection.  I really think he should have been ejected.  Or maybe he should be suspended for championship game.  I don’t know, I feel like this was a very cheap shot and the intent was to hurt someone. 

Switching gears again, Christian Hackenberg was named the Big Ten freshman of the year.  It was a well deserved award.  It was hard at times to remember that he was only a freshman.  During that Indiana game, I thought maybe he was a bit overrated.  He made mistakes and everyone said stuff like “those are freshman mistakes.”

Then I started to see the growth.  He matured very quickly this season and I believe he has the tools to become one of the best quarterbacks in the country.  If he continues to mature, I could definitely see him as a starter in the NFL.  I know, bold prediction.  

I wonder what some of the former Penn State quarterbacks would have done if they had a coach like Bill O’Brien?  The one I am thinking about was Anthony Morelli.  If I remember correctly, he was one of the top QB recruits in the country (he was 3rd, directly ahead of Chad Henne).  I feel like Jay Paterno (he was the QB coach, right?) was not very good at developing QBs and Morelli was just a byproduct of terrible coaching.

Going back to the bowl games, I will set up a pick ’em and link to it sometime soon.  I want to get a bunch of people.  Would love to get some money involved…

Author: Ngewo