The Rest of College Football

[iam416]

Absolutely none. M should be absolutley fucking ashamed. Only in M-land could the failure to score from the half-yard line with FOUR tries be the fault of the officials.

TCU is even worse than what I said they were. And I very much still believe they are the worse CFP team ever. By far.

And M gave up 51 to them. FIFTY. ONE.

[iam416]

And, hell, even if M had scored that TD. I feel pretty damn confident TCU could have scored MORE if they wanted to. They were trying to run the clock out at the end of the game instead of trying to score. If they needed a FG there I'm fairly sure they would have pillaged M's defense --as they did most of the game -- and got the FG.

Georgia would have railed M, too. Well, maybe by about 14-21. But it would have been semi-competitive. And M is still, IMO, 21 points better than TCU.

[iam416]

Finally, I don't want to hear anything more about the B12. Anyone who follows recruiting knows how much talent they have in that league -- waaaaay less than the SEC. Maybe the Portal will change that. But right now, the B12 has B10 West level talent. And this is what happens if a 12-0 or 12-1 B10 West team fell assbackwards into the playoff -- or an undertalented Sparty team.

And when it goes to 12, it's gonna be an SEC party with the B10 East and maybe USC being able to win games.

[Tom W]

Can't really argue with Talent on those points.

[Mike]

Nope.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I can't either ...... the one noteworthy difference between UGA's approach to TCU and M's was that Smart accounted for how TCU characteristically played it's LBs and the overall deployment of it's defense. I'd like to look at a UGA play count but as TCU blitzed it's LBs into the gaps between the tackles, UGA took the ball outside. In fact, I think that UGA's OL purposely encouraged this inside blitzing with their blocking schemes. I also think UGA's OL mauled TCU's 3-3-5 on top of some of the strategy they used to keep the LBs from protecting outside runs.

M's failure to score from the four yard line on their first drive is emblematic of the poor scouting and film study done by Moore and Weis. M's play calling played right into what TCU does best. Was this an attempt by Harbaugh to stubbornly demonstrate we can beat you straight up by running to your strength on an opening drive? It seems to me that sort of thinking persisted well into the 3rd quarter when M closed the gap with a bunch of well executed PA passes alternating with successful QB read options, optimizing the threat of JJ's legs. Minter, after already giving up too many big plays getting burned using the Don Brown approach to defense, was unable to rally his players to play positional defense, constantly losing contain on Duggan, busted deep coverage and letting TCU's run game abuse the edges.

You ask how did M lose to TCU? Mostly because this was the worst scouted, prepared and ingame coached game of football I think I saw this season from ANY team. It was an outlier particularly in M's season of games. Dykes schooled Harbaugh, Weis/Moore and minter who all got pantsed.

[Mike]

In 60 minutes of football between the 2nd half of the Michigan game and the first half against Georgia, TCU gave up 77 points. To their credit they slowed the pace down to 27 in the 2nd half last night. Must have made some adjustments.

[iam416]

It's worth reiterating that Georgia could have shown up without an ounce of prep and won by 21 because the talent gap between them and TCU was the fucking Grand Canyon. M is nowhere near as talented as Georgia, but they are still way more talented than TCU. BUT, that gap is surmountable if you have an absolute clownshow of a game. With Georgia, though, I don't think it's possible for Georgia to lose to TCU. I really don't.

The gap between Georgia and M is pretty big, too. BUT, it's not enough that something weird happens and Georiga loses. On the average day, it's not good for M.

So -- and I've said this before and I'll say it again -- M is built to beat OSU and OSU is built to win in the CFP (at least M achieves their objective; OSU is a disaster). Ohio State is much more able to deal with Georgia's talent than any other team except Alabama. They are, IMO, as good as Georgia. And, shit man, if they had JSN or any of their top 3 RBs--they're better. BUT, M's particular scheme and talent usage gives CRD problems -- and that's a big issue. It also doesn't help that coaches have a bad day and the entire team has a bad day. But, therein you see a talent gap not only closed by then significantly exceeded in the last minutes of the game.

It's a massively frustrating season for Ohio State fans. So, M fans have that. And a win over OSU. And a B10 title game. Ohio State has nothing except some bullshit moral victory and wondering what the fuck "if" -- if their offense was actually healthy, how fucking good could it have been? So, the loss to TCU is goddamn embarrassment to the Nth degree, but at least have shit to fall back on.

Final point -- M basically lived the entire season with exceedingly good "turnover luck". Generally turnover margin and turnovers level out. Unfortunately for M, they sort of leveled out against TCU, although TCU also had devastating turnovers. And, of course, M was awful in the red zone. They won the Ohio State game in the red zone -- pure and simple. At bottom, they lost the TCU game in the red zone.

Whatever. I'd be happier that this dogshit season was over if 2023 wasn't going to be even worse dogshit for Ohio State. So, meh.

[THE_WIZARD_]

All that being said...STFU.

[iam416]

Fourthed

[THE_WIZARD_]

My final Top 10...this reflects who I think is better not necessarily records.

1. UGA
2. OSU
3. Alabama
4. M
5. PSU
6. Clemson
7. LSU
8. Utah
9. USC
10. Tennessee

[THE_WIZARD_]

TCU and KSU maybe 11 and 12. Good Lord there is a gap in CFB.

[iam416]

I would go UGA, UAT, M, OSU. And no one is really close after that. I can't put OSU ahead of M even though t think they're better able to beat Georgia and UAT. M would be least talented team in that group by a noticeable margin.

[Jeff Buchanan]

From a medical perspective, it's always good to talk it out, visualize failures and correct thought distortions ..... but in the end, its been 1137 days since osu beat M

[Mike]

I almost wonder if Michigan could hold on to #2 in the final poll. lol. They won't but goddamn, how can you vote TCU #2 after last night? Hell, put OSU in there but everyone knows TCU is not the second best team in the country.