Mags wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I think I could coach Cam Newton. Successfully. Unfortunately, he's probably the second coming of Vince Young as far as the NFL types are concerned.

Maybe you could but I've seen two games this season in which Malzone's game plan was the difference for Auburn, if you count watching most of the second half of the Arkansas game as watching a game.  Newton is a great athlete and a smart one too but with most coaches in the country every game would be a toss-up.  He'd be running all over the field displaying his spectacular athleticism and surprising everyone in the stadium with his moves, including his own players.  Instead, against both Arkansas and Alabama, Auburn played the game like the clock wouldn't run out until they got the lead and they wore the defense down to the point where it bore no resemblance to the one that took the field in the first quarter.

It's going to be interesting to see how the South Carolina game plays out. You could argue SC would have beaten Auburn in September if the Gamecocks hadn't turned the ball over four times in the fourth quarter, but Spurrier is probably too wise a coach to think he can try to out-score Auburn and live to tell about it.

You get a five star rec from me, ALZ.

tkihshbt wrote:

I think Oregon will win the championship, Alz. Everyone yaps about the SEC's athletes, but I swear Oregon has the fastest skill players on the planet. Assuming both teams get there, it's going to be a crazy game.

BTW, my recs for ALZ were for the comments about the lack of integrity of the NCAA.  I haven't the foggiest idea how Oregon and LSU match up.

As far as predicting outcomes of games, I'll borrow from a quote attributed to Jess Neely in after his Rice team, in one of the last games he coached, upset a very good Texas team in 1965 for what I believe was Rice's only win of the season:

“Thar aar no ex-purts when young boys get together and play."

Neely was renowned for his Southern Gentleman's drawl.

Last edited by Mags (12/02/2010 1:35 pm)

alz wrote:

So I feel as if I'm left for one redeeming shot at grace here. The NCAA will not live up to the integrity or guidelines that it laid down so mercilessly on Reggie Bush (and make no mistake, I am an Oregon fan, nothing makes me happier than watching USC suffer), I must hopefully be able to rely on the Heisman voters to understand there was a rule violation with this guy, and to make him accountable for it.

I'm not going to spout off about LaMichael James status, it can go to Luck or Kellen Moore. I don't care who claims the Heisman, but I would certainly hope someone holds Newton to some level of accountability and ensures they won't be having to take it back later....

Alz, I am no USC fan either, but I am a big fan of Mitch Mustain.  I wish he'd transferred to Oregon, or to Vandy.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I would certainly hope someone holds Newton to some level of accountability"

I thought this was a college football thread, but it can't be because the word 'accountability' is in play.
I'll come in again.

5 stars.

forsberg_us wrote:

Time will tell whether Oregon has the best football team, but they're pretty lousy when it comes to uniform design.

I'd love to hear the explanation of the person who decided that white letters on a white basketball uniform was a good idea.

Isn't Nike's Phil Knight a big Oregon booster? I'm surprised he didn't commission a better design.

Not crazy about the white Uniforms, well not the ones with the white nameplates (That makes sense.... seriously), but the rest look awesome to me. I love the highlighter yellow ones to be honest, no idea why, but it's just awesome. Love the Dark green, and their helmets look awesome to me (even the white ones).

I hated the UO logo, the donald duck railing through the O just looked too "Disney" to me. I love the "O", and the color scheme for it. Not crazy about the winglingz or whatever they are, but the rest of the colored (racist!) uniforms are shit hot!

It is time. The Oregon Ducks have indeed ran the gauntlet that is the PAC-10 and will be playing for everything in the BCS National Championship Game. Contrary to my earlier thoughts, tickets (which were about 470.00 a seat) are now up around 800.00 and that's really more than I want to spend to watch a football game.

Facing up against Auburn, there are a lot of things about this matchup that scream this will be a game for the ages. For me personally, Oregon has made it where I had hoped they would get. No letdown games. People don't focus much on Oregon's defense, or the fact that they have one, but a monumental piece of beating Oregon State was that towards the end of the game, the Ducks had deflected 9 passes. Jaquizz Rodgers is a handful, and if the Ducks can keep him marginally in check, I think they can deal with Cam Newton as well. I think Newton passes a little better than Oregon, but Oregon runs with multiple people (Barner, James, Thomas) and they do it with a pace that is humbling for defenses. Honestly this looks like the ultimate game of "Anything you can do, I can do better".

The only way I see Auburn beating Oregon is to kill them early, and then match them score for score going down the stretch. Oregon will make mistakes, but you need to convert those to touchdowns, not field goals. This will be nothing Auburn has ever seen before in the SEC where it's a lot more paced smashmouth football. Oregon runs on 15 second clocks and many times is snapping with a the play clock still sitting on 25-30 seconds. Given the simplicity of Oregon's offense and check-down read system, I don't know that you can really do much to take Oregon off their game. Oregon will score 30 points regardless. Since this game is in the PAC 10 domain, I don't expect to consider Glensdale an "away" game, certainly not when compared to Auburn's travel. It's also a place and region that the Ducks play every year.

If Auburn comes out like they did against Alabama, they are dead meat. Similarly, if Oregon comes out the same way they did against Stanford, they are toast. If a team gets up by 17+ early, neither of these teams die at the finish. Head to head with Oregon's tempo I have to give the 4th quarter/second half to Oregon.

In my mind it really is that close. Can Auburn stretch out enough in the first half to hold out for the second half.

Given my fanship, I say no. Oregon wins 53-40. I believe in the tempo of the pistol, and I believe that there's only one team in the nation that can play against it (The team that's had to practice against it all year).

Alz, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I almost spit out my soda when I read "the gauntlet that is the Pac-10."  Is that the same Pac-10 that is sending a 6-6 Washington to the Holiday Bowl as the #3 school in the conference?

Stanford was a nice win, but Auburn has wins over Alabama, Arkansas and South Carolina (twice).  If either of these teams ran a gauntlet, it wasn't the Ducks.

"Is that the same Pac-10 that is sending a 6-6 Washington to the Holiday Bowl as the #3 school in the conference?"

Without looking up the standings, I know Arizona is 7-5.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Is that the same Pac-10 that is sending a 6-6 Washington to the Holiday Bowl as the #3 school in the conference?"

Without looking up the standings, I know Arizona is 7-5.

True, but they were 4-5 in conference play and thus considered behind Washington who was 5-4 in conference.

Here are the standings

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/standings

I'm just sayin' ...
The SEC is 42-8 in n/c games, and the Pac 10 is 22-10. I'm not going to take the time to analyze the opponents to postulate about SOS, but even if the SEC teams were playing Bambi Junior College every week that's pretty convincing.

"I'll be here talking smack all month in a typical Rex Ryan fashion"

When do we get to eat a goddamn snack?