2024 Miscellaneous College Football thread

[Samurai Bucky]

7 hours ago, owbc said:

How do we fire Fickell and hire Day when he gets dumped? 

Why would we want Day -- who can't win with the best players in college football?

[AKCheesehead]

Kind of disappointed in the internet, or my surfing ability thereof.  I wanted to find a video or gif of Wisconsin dancing on the O at the Horseshoe in '99 when they came back from 17-0 to win it 42-17. 

[LouisEly]

11 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Why would we want Day -- who can't win with the best players in college football?

He's 62-6 during regular season play with four losses against Michigan and two losses against Oregon.

That's not winning?

[owbc]

3 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

He's 62-6 during regular season play with four losses against Michigan and two losses against Oregon.

That's not winning?

We’ve never hired a coach with a track record of winning at a major program. I know there aren’t many of them and they have choices, but still…
 

It’s always either a Wisconsin Guy with minimal HC experience or a mid-major guy with a system that won’t translate to the Big Ten. 

[Underachiever]

3 hours ago, owbc said:

It’s always either a Wisconsin Guy with minimal HC experience or a mid-major guy with a system that won’t translate to the Big Ten. 

Which of those is Alvarez? And are you counting Bielema as a Wis Guy?

[owbc]

21 hours ago, Underachiever said:

Which of those is Alvarez? And are you counting Bielema as a Wis Guy?

Alvarez is ancient history. 

Bielema was an internal hire. 

I'm sick of our head coaching hires being flops. Fickell is a disaster. At a time when the stakes have never been higher in college football we've dissolved into irrelevancy. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

23 minutes ago, owbc said:

Alvarez is ancient history. 

Bielema was an internal hire. 

I'm sick of our head coaching hires being flops. Fickell is a disaster. At a time when the stakes have never been higher in college football we've dissolved into irrelevancy. 

To be fair, college football in general is dissolving into irrelevancy 

[owbc]

45 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

To be fair, college football in general is dissolving into irrelevancy 

It only feels like it because we follow Wisconsin. Or at least we did, I didn't even watch a full game worth this year, it was too painful on the eyes. 

[Samurai Bucky]

2 hours ago, owbc said:

Alvarez is ancient history. 

Bielema was an internal hire. 

I'm sick of our head coaching hires being flops. Fickell is a disaster. At a time when the stakes have never been higher in college football we've dissolved into irrelevancy. 

On 12/1/2024 at 10:01 AM, LouisEly said:

He's 62-6 during regular season play with four losses against Michigan and two losses against Oregon.

That's not winning?

A narrative I have heard is that Wisconsin needs to get back to the "Ground and Pound."  Would Ryan Day come in and institute that?  I wouldn't think so.  I feel Fickell is trying to get Wisconsin to the same type of style as an Ohio State -- able to run AND pass.  The Badgers simply don't have the talent (yet).  Perhaps Ryan Day would be able to bring in the recruits on day one (no pun intended).

How far of a leash would we give a Ryan Day if we aren't in the College Football Playoff in year one?  I'm not saying that Fickell is as good as Day by any means.  That said, Fickell's seems like a deer in headlights right now.  At least Day only looked that way when the flag was being planted on the 50 at his team's stadium.  😉

[owbc]

18 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

A narrative I have heard is that Wisconsin needs to get back to the "Ground and Pound."  Would Ryan Day come in and institute that?  I wouldn't think so.  I feel Fickell is trying to get Wisconsin to the same type of style as an Ohio State -- able to run AND pass.  The Badgers simply don't have the talent (yet).  Perhaps Ryan Day would be able to bring in the recruits on day one (no pun intended).

How far of a leash would we give a Ryan Day if we aren't in the College Football Playoff in year one?  I'm not saying that Fickell is as good as Day by any means.  That said, Fickell's seems like a deer in headlights right now.  At least Day only looked that way when the flag was being planted on the 50 at his team's stadium.  😉

Despite my frustrations with the program I generally agree with this and Wisconsin doesn't really have any choice right now except to give Fickell at least another year. A run-centric offense gives us the ceiling of Iowa and that doesn't appeal to me either. 

 

[tmwiese55]

Michigan just won the national title last year with a modern version of physical tough running focused offense.    It doesn't have to only be pure spread passing, there is plenty of mixing and physical play that can even if its not run from the I formation with two TEs. 

In hindsight, keeping Leonhard in order to keep the elite D and getting an O coordinator in that style or mindset would've been the best move.  But we are where we are, so need to get the right O coordinator this time, actually start coaching/developing football with focus on line play.    And I have no idea why they didn't do all they could to keep the D system we had in place the previous 6-7 years, but tweaks have to be made to actually get some attack and pressure again.   Or else they're gone in under two years and UW is going to look like the teams we've been making jokes about the last 20 years. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, tmwiese55 said:

Michigan just won the national title last year with a modern version of physical tough running focused offense.    It doesn't have to only pure spread passing, there is plenty of mixing and physical play that can even if its not run from the I formation with two TEs. 

In hindsight, keeping Leonhard in order to keep the elite D and getting an O coordinator in that style or mindset would've been the best move.  But we are where we are, so need to get the right O coordinator this time, actually start coaching/developing football with focus on line play.    And I have no idea why they didn't do all they could to keep the D system we had in place the previous 6-7 years, but tweaks have to be made to actually get some attack and pressure again.   Or else they're gone in under two years and UW is going to look the teams we've been making jokes about the last 20 years. 

Yep. When people talk about wanting to 'get back' to being able to run the football, some over-react & think folks are advocating that we look like something where Ron Dayne carries the ball 36 times, the backup carries it 5 times, the FB maybe 2 or 3 times & then Mike Samuel drops back ten times & winds up scrambling for yardage on half of those. They don't need to go back to that. They DO need to force people to honor the run game, and not have the OL crumble like a century-old newspaper because there's an extra man in the box. It might be a good idea to re-introduce Wisconsin football to the concept of the large TE that can block, and at least in some formations, the fullback.

It's hard to say what would've happened to the defense had JL stayed. The way it unfolded he & Fickell on the same staff wasn't happening, and had JL gotten the HC job he might've done quite a bit of overseeing of the defense, but still most likely would've hired a DC. Then how much input do you have? And would the new DC view the input as interference? I was kind of on the fence re Tressel, but now that the season is over.........You had a lot of people out of position over the course of the season, and much of that was due to over-aggression. So when you're over-aggressive you'll get gashed, you'll give up way too many big plays, but on the flip side that SHOULD lead to at least some correct guesses, some TOs, some TFLs, some sacks.

They sacked the QB 17 times, in twelve games.

They forced four fumbles.

They intercepted four passes. 

That's some pretty paltry stuff. Can't overemphasize how important this off-season is regarding hiring decisions.

[tmwiese55]

Yup.  And yes as HC he'd be less involved but his hire would've kept the same system that started with Aranda and carried on through him with the elite LB play getting such great pass rush and has led to the NFL being covered in LBs from UW dominating.   Sure he could've botched the hire but the plan/idea would've been to keep running the same system that had produced the best non-SEC defense in the country the previous 7ish years. 

[JosephC]

Do I have this college football playoff thing figured out correctly?  If I do, this system will not last very long because ESPN will sure be howling about this.

Top 4 ranked conference winners get the top 4 seeds?  So let's just assume that all the favorites win this weekend.

Using current AP rankings as CFP rankings have not been released.....

Big 10 - #1 ranked Oregon -3.5 against  #3 Penn State

SEC - #3 Texas -2.5 against  #7 Georgia

ACC - #8 SMU -2.5 against #18 Clemson

Mountain West - #10 Boise State -4 against #19 UNLV

Big 12 - #12 Arizona State -2 against #16 Iowa State

So if all of the favorites win, we are looking at SMU and Boise State being the #3 and #4 seeds in this playoff?  Even if Clemson wins, unless the committee takes orders from ESPN and throws all "fairness" out the window, we are looking at Boise State and Arizona State being the #3 and #4 seeds (assuming they both win)?  This is really the system they came up with?  Please tell me I got this wrong.

So, as best as I can guess, the playoff would look something like this?

#1 - Oregon

#2 -Texas

#3 - SMU

#4 - Boise State

---------------------------------------------------

#5 - Notre Dame

#6 - Tennessee

#7 - Ohio State

#8 - Penn State

#9 - Georgia

#10 - Arizona State

#11 - Indiana

#12 - Alabama

So I am assuming the brackets are locked and they do not re-seed.  Is that correct?  So in this scenario, does Oregon's first game come against either Penn State or Georgia?  Meanwhile, Tennessee in the #6 seed gets Indiana in game #1 and then SMU in game #2?

If this is all correct, I congratulate the morons who came up with this.  Giving conference champions an automatic bye would have been reasonable if there were four conference that were similar from a competition standpoint, but clearly that is not the case.

PS - I see now that ESPN will give the order to flip Alabama and Indiana so Notre Dame's game #1 chance of winning increases by about 5-fold.

[igor67]

The playoff is a joke, all the same yappers that promised it would settle everything can't figure out who's in or out and it's really pretty clear it should be just be a single game between the winner of the Big Ten championship game and the SEC championship game, and we just acknowledge like it always was that the entire season is a not quite single game elimination tournament already.

[LouisEly]

5 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

In hindsight, keeping Leonhard in order to keep the elite D and getting an O coordinator in that style or mindset would've been the best move. 

Looking back, I don't know that their D was all that elite at the end.  In 2022 they played one ranked team - Ohio State, who hung 31 on them in the first half, 45 through 3 quarters.  Yes, they were 17th in ppg/game.  But that includes:

• Illinois State (FCS, shutout),
• New Mexico State (82nd in ppg, gave up 7),
• Northwestern (128th in ppg, gave up 7),
• Iowa (123rd in ppg, gave up 17 with 7 coming from a pick-6),
• Nebraska (102nd in ppg, gave up 14),
• Illinois (95th in ppg, gave up 34 and lost),
• Michigan State (92nd in ppg, gave up 34 and lost)
• Washington State (80th in ppg, gave up 17)
• Purdue (75th in ppg, gave up 24),
• Maryland (67th in ppg, gave up 10),
• Minnesota (66th in ppg, gave up 23)

Hell, not only was Ohio State the only ranked school they faced, it was the only school in the top half of ppg that they faced.

Leonhard is also partially responsible for the lack of talent and depth on the current team.  He's partially responsible for anybody recruited before 2023, which should be most of the 2--deep.

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Looking back, I don't know that their D was all that elite at the end.  In 2022 they played one ranked team - Ohio State, who hung 31 on them in the first half, 45 through 3 quarters.  Yes, they were 17th in ppg/game.  But that includes:

• Illinois State (FCS, shutout),
• New Mexico State (82nd in ppg, gave up 7),
• Northwestern (128th in ppg, gave up 7),
• Iowa (123rd in ppg, gave up 17 with 7 coming from a pick-6),
• Nebraska (102nd in ppg, gave up 14),
• Illinois (95th in ppg, gave up 34 and lost),
• Michigan State (92nd in ppg, gave up 34 and lost)
• Washington State (80th in ppg, gave up 17)
• Purdue (75th in ppg, gave up 24),
• Maryland (67th in ppg, gave up 10),
• Minnesota (66th in ppg, gave up 23)

Hell, not only was Ohio State the only ranked school they faced, it was the only school in the top half of ppg that they faced.

Leonhard is also partially responsible for the lack of talent and depth on the current team.  He's partially responsible for anybody recruited before 2023, which should be most of the 2--deep.

I don't disagree that JL could be scrutinized for any dip defensively in his last year or two, But I think the main reason for the current lack of depth is portal defections & insufficient replacements. IMO Rodas Johnson, Gio Paez & Gabe Kirschke all could've helped immensely with the depth on the DL, as well as Jordan Turner & Kaden Johnson at LB.

And as so-so as the OL was, we were fortunate that they stayed as healthy as they did because we lost a few there that would've definitely been in the 2-deep. A couple injuries to that group in '24 & it could've gotten quite ugly.

[CheezWizHed]

 

 I knew the BIG100 had a lot of teams in the top rankings, but I missed how low the SEC was this year.  Frankly, I figured the NIL would only boost the SEC's strangle-hold on the playoffs.  And yes, Texas is now in the SEC, but that feels a bit different than the constant Alabama, LSU, Georgia presence there. 

19 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

A narrative I have heard is that Wisconsin needs to get back to the "Ground and Pound."  Would Ryan Day come in and institute that?  I wouldn't think so.  I feel Fickell is trying to get Wisconsin to the same type of style as an Ohio State -- able to run AND pass.  The Badgers simply don't have the talent (yet).  Perhaps Ryan Day would be able to bring in the recruits on day one (no pun intended).

Shame on you!  Always intend your puns! 😂

[owbc]

On 12/2/2024 at 5:21 PM, igor67 said:

The playoff is a joke, all the same yappers that promised it would settle everything can't figure out who's in or out and it's really pretty clear it should be just be a single game between the winner of the Big Ten championship game and the SEC championship game, and we just acknowledge like it always was that the entire season is a not quite single game elimination tournament already.

Just wait until other sports start emulating this — Manfred, some MLB owners, and Fox Sports execs will be setting the playoff bracket for MLB soon! 
 

I find it hilarious that they allow a closed door group with vested interests to set the playoff bracket. 
 

Anyway, Miami to the SEC. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

I remember as a kid, I was so naive that I thought the NFL set their schedule

2 hours ago, owbc said:

Just wait until other sports start emulating this — Manfred, some MLB owners, and Fox Sports execs will be setting the playoff bracket for MLB soon! 
 

I find it hilarious that they allow a closed door group with vested interests to set the playoff bracket. 
 

Anyway, Miami to the SEC. 

I remember as a kid, I was so naive that I thought the NFL set their schedule randomly, that they simply decided for whatever reason to put such-and-such a game on Monday night, and so that was the game that was on ABC that evening, and the network had no say in it. Sometimes I wish that were the case today, in college FB (I couldn't care less what the NFL does).

I'm going to patiently wait for that day, while I search the skies for the UFO that'll bring Elvis back.

[LouisEly]

Who had Boise State and Arizona State getting first round byes in the CFP playoffs?

Indiana - Notre Dame will be interesting given their proximity.  Wonder which round Texas is going to choke away.

[Samurai Bucky]

I do find it amusing Alabama didn't make it.  Apologists such as Paul Finebaum believe that the cache of the Crimson Tide and SEC name should be enough to pull this blue blood into the CFP.  Don't get owned by Oklahoma and there is no controversy.  IIRC, Wisconsin was the first team out years ago because Alabama had the better historical cache.

I hope SMU represents somewhat.  I am not a fan of the "everybody gets a trophy" type of vibe that has come from this year's selections.  I want it to be competitive.  If teams like SMU and Boise get destroyed, then there will certainly be a lot of discussion.

Oh, put Notre Dame in that discussion, too.

[nate82]

The way that college football is trending you may have a super conference of about 30-40 teams in it.  There are already discussions to do this at the NCAA level along with discussions with the NFL.  Basically all of the premiere talent will be allocated to this super conference with all of the NIL money going to this but the NIL will go away in this conference. 

The early discussions on this would be that it would be a semi-pro league where the players will be paid by the conference (schools).  Where does the NFL come in this?  Simple really the players would still be draft eligible in this new league.  That is where the NFL comes in on this.  This will also allow for players to stay for 4-years as they will be getting paid closer to the NFL minimums compared to what they are getting paid now.  Right now the NIL is a top heavy payout where the majority of the money goes to the top few while the bottom get paid just not all that much.  This also gives the players some insurance for their health while playing.  The schools are not required to pay for medical expenses for injuries sustained on the field right now.  The players are not considered employees of the school so they don't have any obligations right now to pay though some schools do pay for injuries that occur on and off the field. 

The getting paid part here is the reason why the NFL needs to get involved as they would need to amend their rules otherwise these players would become free agents instead of being draft eligible as they would no longer be non professionals entering the league.  The NFL wants to keep the gravy train of money from the TV deal for the draft to keep coming in and if this new super conference that will be paying players means all of the superstars are no longer participating in the draft well that is a problem for the NFL.  It is also a problem for the NFL as it loses the cost control of the players at a younger age.  If they are considered free agents they can sign for a higher amount.  So this is why the NFL is involved in creating this super conference. 

What benefit does this do for the NCAA?  It fixes the NIL issue and the paying of players.  It is now a simple and easier transaction that the league can follow and control.  Another benefit for the schools is they no longer need to give out scholarships as they would now be paid employees instead of some weird employee student athlete situation that the players are in now.  It also reduces the cost for the schools as they will no longer have to house or feed the players.  This would all be on the players to find and do themselves.  No more special treatment for the athletes at the schools.  The transfer portal will also be closed and will only be open on special circumstances.  Meaning the player will have to opt out of their contract and pay back any money they have received for the next season that they have been paid for.

The schools that don't want to or who won't participate in the new conference can still have a football team but I think they will be limited to only local TV rights and only NIL money that the players can find.  Basically it just expands the D3 school list for the teams that won't be in the new super conference.

The super conference itself will be 30-40 schools from the B10, SEC and other conferences.  I wouldn't be surprised if there is a fee to join also.  Recruiting will also change but I think this is for the good as it should even out the talent around this new conference.  The biggest benefit would be the removal of the transfer portal.  If you want to leave get ready to pay for any money received for the next season and possibly finding yourself in the D3 with only NIL money to count on and your draft prospects being a late 6th or 7th round pick at best.

The more I think of the super conference the more I like it.  It should fix a lot of the issues that people have with college football.

[nate82]

Belichick to coach at UNC?  
 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42873079/sources-talks-north-carolina-bill-belichick-ongoing

If he does accept I am assuming there is very little to no interest from NFL teams to hire him as a HC.

[nate82]

Belichick has indeed taken the UNC coaching position.  I don’t see him returning to the NFL.