2 takeaways from Cotton Bowl

[MIATL]

Anyone just catch that when Fowler and Herbstreit chuckled about how many "non" coaches Alabama has in the coaching press box? Literally more than NFL team. Cmon.

As mentioned in another thread, there is no limit on "coaching" staff. Just a limit on actual "coaching" titles.

 

[Novacane32000]

Bama is good but not as good as MSU made them look.

MSU has nothing at the skill positions. Their receivers could get no separation and their DBs were below average.

 

[Crazy4thecanes]

They actually tout that committee, the ones who pick the four teams. Network analysts are allowed to visit briefly. They invariably report on how sophisticated it is, how impressive. Meanwhile, I'd like to bet the phrase "pass defense" doesn't show up all season in those meetings. Not once. Strength of schedule is an invention of idiots and applied by morons. It requires literally zero insight or ability. That's why it is a perfect vehicle for this young brainwashed generation. People who grew up in the horse racing generations experienced the dilemmas every day, the horse emerging from a Grade 1 race competing against horses who had raced in upper tier allowance races. Company kept or company vanquished is merely one criteria, and hardly the dominant one, as often as not. This young football generation doesn't look for hidden but devastating variables like pass defense because they have been taught that strength of schedule is all that really matters. So sad.

When you allow entry to a team that gives up 7.2 yards per pass attempt like Michigan State, you are asking for a result like this. As I posted last night on a Dolphins forum, it was like a mini bye for Alabama. I know I mentioned that 7.2 here several weeks ago. It made for an easy wager but otherwise it's a disgusting development for college football. That Ohio State/Michigan State outcome a month ago ruined the postseason, especially once the pathetic pass defense team drew Alabama for opponent. Michigan State 2015 plays well off the line of scrimmage to allow easy underneath completions, but they combine that with horrid deep coverage. Quite a menu. And this is with a very good front line. Imagine how inept that pass defense would be with a mediocre front wall. Scary.

Last season Florida State was allowing more than 7 yards per attempt. They were assassinated by Oregon. And the trend will continue as long as that committee is dense enough to look away. Anyone who votes for a terrible pass defense team as member of the final four should be charged with multiple felonies. Once again the national champ will be among the best in pass defense. Clemson and Alabama each allow less than 6 yards per attempt.

Oklahoma did also. I didn't bet that game but I rooted for Clemson, not only to support the ACC but mostly to deny the Big 12. That conference is such a shell game it doesn't deserve any praise or a spot in the final four, let alone the final two. The Sooners made a dramatic rise in pass defense and overall defense this year, which was plenty in a conference that otherwise doesn't pretend to play defense at all but they were worn down and exposed today. I had my doubts about Oklahoma given the degree that Tennessee toyed with them for three quarters. That margin should have been far beyond 17-0 before the Vols initiated the choke.

I'm sure lots of Canes fans rooted for Michigan State in that game at Columbus, still fretting our Fiesta Bowl outcome. Meanwhile, this Saban era has every potential to dwarf anything the Canes accomplished in the '80s and beyond. This can be 4 titles in 7 years. He hasn't lost in the final game, like Miami so often. There are no tendencies to not score many points in bowl games, like the Canes beginning in 1985. In short, that's why I root against Alabama every year. This is another season in which they are going to be excused a home defeat en route to the title game. The Canes never benefited from that but for Alabama and particularly under Saban it has become one of the great traditions in college football, right up there with Traveler at the Coliseum. As I posted at the time, that Mississippi victory was a monumental fluke, accomplished via weird deflections and turnovers and unlikely big plays that succeeded by an eyelash. If you lined up those teams the very next day I would have been confident in Alabama by double digits.

I'll root for Clemson. They have enough permutations to give the Tide some trouble. But Alabama very seldom loses when its defense is of this caliber. The key numbers all year have been dramatically improved from the subpar units of 2013 and 2014. I suspect we'll see a considerably more Derrick Henry game plan this time, running smack at Clemson to break their will and assert the physical pecking order.

This matchup is the opposite of SEC vs. ACC title game two seasons ago, when the ACC team owned the superior defense.

ok. According to this logic - here's how it will play out:
OSU* beats ND
Michigan beats UF
Iowa beats Stanford
Bama beats Clemson

Do I have that right?

 

[miamilos]

Alabama dominates in the trenches to a degree that suggests they cheat. Maybe its great recruiting and player development or just maybe they are juicing. The relative lack of dominance int the NFL of Alabama players suggests that with aggressive PED testing they just dont seem that good. There is always that question

This. Both teams were even in the first and second quarters. Then fatigue starts kicking in. Are these big time programs being tested for EPO, growth hormones, insulin, testosterone, DHEA, IGF-1, cortisone and blood doping? Remember Lance Armstrong? Well, I have been following cycling for a long time, back in the mid 90s, Armstrong use to lose anywhere from 20 to 30 min on the last climb of the day. Then all of the sudden, he started winning the Tour de France. I always told my friends that Armstrong was the biggest lie in sports and 10 years later it was proven that he was. Some of the people in this forum started taking about Tommy Moffitt, strengthen and conditioning coach at LSU. Makes me a little uncomfortable, that he follows, Michael Rassmussen, a disgrace Dutch cyclist, who was kicked out of the tour the France in 2007 and consequently suspended two years for using the drugs I mentioned. He was never heard from again. It is no secret in cycling, that the biggest drug dealers are the cyclist themselves, they know how and where to get these drugs. Maybe it is just a coincidence, but in today's world of sports, where millions of dollars are on stake, I guess you need to get an edge.

 

[TC7D]

We have nothing to gain by Bama winning it all. If they do, we'll have to hear about how amazing the SEC is all year.

If Clemson wins, the ACC will have won the NC 2 out of the last 3 years with the Big 10 being the other. This is an awesome result if you hate ESPN's biased coverage and want the ACC to continue to be more relevant.

 

[stormsurge]

Rooting for Clemson

But I believe Alabama wins by 14+

 

[Canesfan1899]

MSU was perfect opponent for bama, they played right into their hands by trying to play smash mouth football. Nothing that happened last night surprised me.

I'm also not sold on Connor cook being a first round qb.

 

[FSisco7]

I owe Dabo one for what he did for us.

 

[TreOFive]

Hope clemson beats the breaks off of them

Would seal up the season well .......I am hoping Bama gets smoked!!!

 

[supacane]

Clemson is going to get smoked. Bamas D is going to crush them.

Saban doesn't do too well with spread teams. Clemson mauled OU in the trenches. Saban D is perfect against Pro Offenses.

 

[supacane]

Clemson is going to get smoked. Bamas D is going to crush them.

Obviously u don't pay attention to college football. Bama's kryptonite is athletic QBs b/c of how they play so much man. There were plenty of running lanes for Cook, but he's a true pocket passer. D Wats is going to have a field day running on this team.

Considering this is a new year and Saban knows what drives the Clemson offense you can bet they won't allow it to happen. Clemson hasn't faced anything like this D all year. Clemson better have their backup QB ready to go. He won't be able to sustain the punishment Bama is going to deliver. This might be their best front 7 in the Saban era. They aren't getting beat by a team that will run their QB between the tackles.

Clemson is going to get kicked around.

Lmfao. Clemson has shut down every run team they've played. OU high powered RBs and mayfield didn't finish the game without Lawson on the line.

Bama is going to wear down Clemson on both sides of the ball. OU is super finesse in their style of offense. They typically fail when they play a somewhat physical defense. They were the perfect matchup for Clemson.

OU has trounced Bama recently. Its a myth. Bama is good against Pro Offenses like I said. They have to take off a lot of their best players off the field because they are so big and gets gassed and can't cover WR and chase the QB

 

[Rellyrell]

Obviously u don't pay attention to college football. Bama's kryptonite is athletic QBs b/c of how they play so much man. There were plenty of running lanes for Cook, but he's a true pocket passer. D Wats is going to have a field day running on this team.

Considering this is a new year and Saban knows what drives the Clemson offense you can bet they won't allow it to happen. Clemson hasn't faced anything like this D all year. Clemson better have their backup QB ready to go. He won't be able to sustain the punishment Bama is going to deliver. This might be their best front 7 in the Saban era. They aren't getting beat by a team that will run their QB between the tackles.

Clemson is going to get kicked around.

Lmfao. Clemson has shut down every run team they've played. OU high powered RBs and mayfield didn't finish the game without Lawson on the line.

Bama is going to wear down Clemson on both sides of the ball. OU is super finesse in their style of offense. They typically fail when they play a somewhat physical defense. They were the perfect matchup for Clemson.

OU has trounced Bama recently. Its a myth. Bama is good against Pro Offenses like I said. They have to take off a lot of their best players off the field because they are so big and gets gassed and can't cover WR and chase the QB

This!

 

[bobbydigius]

Michigan State has no business being in this game. I knew their [URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] ranking was a joke and just an easy way for the committee to get Bama in the finals.

have said this from Day 1. ESPN is terrified of what happened last year with the SEC being beaten in semis. Tack on OU destroying Bama two years ago and they wanted the clearest path for the SEC in the finals. Vegas validates the point.

The 1 seed was a 4 point underdog to the 4 seed. The 2 seed was a 9.5 favorite over the 3 seed. If Clemson played Michigan State, would Michigan State really of been a 4 point favorite? Then would Alabama been a 9.5 favorite over Oklahoma? Don't think so.......

Agree with everything you said. It was clear to anyone that follows college football that Oklahoma is better than Michigan State, yet MSU is #3 ? I thought the committee was supposed to prevent this nonsense. More of the same.

I agree that OU was/is better than MSU but the way the rankings worked out for the playoff were accurate IMHO. MSU beat a mega talented Buckeyes team then Michigan and finally Iowa. Their resume placed them as a 2 or 3 seed.

Also regarding Bama. Bama is built to play teams like MSU. They are MSU but with better talent. Their weakness though is playing against athletic QBs and spread offenses like Clemson's. On top of that Clemson has a pretty good defense that will make Bama work. Think it will be a good match up. If Bama was playing a conservative team, it would be a wrap. Their front 7 is nasty.

 

[gfer1988]

Ohio state would have been a much better matchup

or the original matchup they already had planned for them to play oklahoma. the spread makes those big juice puppies have to work for a win.

 

[gfer1988]

Obviously u don't pay attention to college football. Bama's kryptonite is athletic QBs b/c of how they play so much man. There were plenty of running lanes for Cook, but he's a true pocket passer. D Wats is going to have a field day running on this team.

Considering this is a new year and Saban knows what drives the Clemson offense you can bet they won't allow it to happen. Clemson hasn't faced anything like this D all year. Clemson better have their backup QB ready to go. He won't be able to sustain the punishment Bama is going to deliver. This might be their best front 7 in the Saban era. They aren't getting beat by a team that will run their QB between the tackles.

Clemson is going to get kicked around.

Lmfao. Clemson has shut down every run team they've played. OU high powered RBs and mayfield didn't finish the game without Lawson on the line.

Bama is going to wear down Clemson on both sides of the ball. OU is super finesse in their style of offense. They typically fail when they play a somewhat physical defense. They were the perfect matchup for Clemson.

OU has trounced Bama recently. Its a myth. Bama is good against Pro Offenses like I said. They have to take off a lot of their best players off the field because they are so big and gets gassed and can't cover WR and chase the QB

not this year. it seriously seems like no one on that team ever gets tired. taking PEDs use to the next level. people credit cochran but it's not like he knows some secret nobody else does. bama looks like they use PEDs as part of their S&C program.

 

[gfer1988]

Alabama dominates in the trenches to a degree that suggests they cheat. Maybe its great recruiting and player development or just maybe they are juicing. The relative lack of dominance int the NFL of Alabama players suggests that with aggressive PED testing they just dont seem that good. There is always that question

This. Both teams were even in the first and second quarters. Then fatigue starts kicking in. Are these big time programs being tested for EPO, growth hormones, insulin, testosterone, DHEA, IGF-1, cortisone and blood doping? Remember Lance Armstrong? Well, I have been following cycling for a long time, back in the mid 90s, Armstrong use to lose anywhere from 20 to 30 min on the last climb of the day. Then all of the sudden, he started winning the Tour de France. I always told my friends that Armstrong was the biggest lie in sports and 10 years later it was proven that he was. Some of the people in this forum started taking about Tommy Moffitt, strengthen and conditioning coach at LSU. Makes me a little uncomfortable, that he follows, Michael Rassmussen, a disgrace Dutch cyclist, who was kicked out of the tour the France in 2007 and consequently suspended two years for using the drugs I mentioned. He was never heard from again. It is no secret in cycling, that the biggest drug dealers are the cyclist themselves, they know how and where to get these drugs. Maybe it is just a coincidence, but in today's world of sports, where millions of dollars are on stake, I guess you need to get an edge.

this. not only are their PEDs that are harder to detect but it's not difficult for these guys to use banned substances and make gains during the off season

 

[Gatorhater]

I hate Alabama and especially Nick Saban.
But there is nothing in this world that will allow me to root for Clemson. If you lived here you would understand. I doubt most of you Clemson slurpers (I learned that phrase here BTW) have any idea the rivalry between SC and Clemson. You pick one and hate the other. Thats how it works in SC. I picked SC when I moved here. Dolphins-Canes-Gamecocks.
Clemson and Dabo Weenie hopefully get destroyed by the silly tide.

Yeap. My wife went to HS in Columbia and hates Clemson almost as much as I hate gator, well maybe the noles. It is impossible to hate more than I have the gator.