Big Weekend in DFW

Taking a look at Rivals.com, 4 of the top 26 teams in America will play each other in the Dallas area on Saturday afternoon.

Desoto is the #1 team in America per Rivals.  Watch 4-star RB Dontre Wilson who is committed to Oregon.      They play #15 Southlake at SMU at 2pm.

Across town in Mesquite at 3pm, #14 Allen plays #26 Skyline.  I am obviously concerned.  Skyline has 8 Div I prospects per Rivals, 4 of which are 3-star, and 2 of which are 4-star (see below).  There will be a talent and speed discrepancy, obviously (Allen has one 3-star).  We'll see if Allen can control the line of scrimmage.  Otherwise, curtains.

DT	Kerrick Huggins	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'4"	283	N/A	4 stars	5.9	15	Texas A&M
QB	Devante Kincade	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'1"	185	4.5	3 stars	5.7	26	Mississippi
WR	Ra'Shaad Samples	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'0"	170	4.5	4 stars	5.8	37	Oklahoma State
DB	Will Barrow	Dallas, TexasSkyline	5'10"	160	4.6	3 stars	5.6	65	Texas Tech
RB	Ellis Onic	Dallas, TexasSkyline	5'9"	170	N/A		N/A	N/A
OL	Dominique Woods	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'1"	290	N/A	2 stars	5.2	N/A	list
DE	Devion Anderson	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'3"	225	4.6	3 stars	5.5	N/A	list
LB	Isaiah Williams	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'1"	223	N/A	3 stars	5.5	N/A	Kansas State
LB	Roderick Moore	Dallas, TexasSkyline	6'0"	225	N/A	2 stars	5.4	N/A	Southern Methodist

Kudos to John Curtis, currently #2 on Rivals!

S

Kelly & Meyer are Threats

I can go back almost a decade now since a team I hate has won the national championship (as you know I've never hated USC).  But, now I have some worries about the coming years.  If not for the tattoo scandal we could be facing a Notre Dame - Ohio St. championship game.  These 2 schools have the tradition and the resources to recruit nationally, and they may have the coaches in place to strike fear into the SEC.

Brian Kelly is an unknown to us as far as big games, but his history suggests we should be nervous.  He took over Division II Grand Valley State at the ripe age of 30, went 118-35, and played in the Div II national championship game his last 3 years, winning the last 2.  Later he took Cincinnati to 3 straight 10+ win seasons including an undefeated Sugar Bowl champion team.  Now it's taken him all of 3 years to go undefeated at Notre Dame.  I don't know much about his X's and O's, but history says he will win.  At 51 he figures to have a decade of success ahead.  Yuck.

And of course Urban Meyer is back, and how.  Meyer is only 48!  In 11 years as a head coach he has rolled out 116 wins with 5 conference championships, 2 national championships, a 7-1 bowl record, 2 undefeated seasons, and 3 13-1 seasons.  A focused and healthy Meyer is a nightmare waiting to happen for the Big 10 (and me).  He knows how to recruit, he knows great athletes, and he just doesn't lose.  He just went 12-0 with a team that went 6-7 a year ago.  Crap.

So, how long before Saban gets bored?  Spurrier is old, Richt average, Miles overrated.  I get the impression that Brian Kelly and Urban Meyer are not afraid.  But we maybe should be.

S

Mack

Watching Texas is getting really difficult for me and I can only imagine what the Orange Bloods feel.

The season started with hope in Oxford and it gave me hope for a big year and a bad prediction.
After W. VA showed up, everything changed and  the entire psyche of the team was lost. 

How bad is it? I even heard Bill King discussing it on the radio.  Since the best game I have ever seen one player have in the NC Game, Mack is 21-16 and he always has the most talent.

Texas is 1-11 in the last 12 against top 25 teams.  It is so bad that I refuse to even look up who the top 25 team is that they beat last actually was. I am afraid it was someone like
J.

Big 12 Football is Exciting

Nine of the ten teams qualified for a bowl game out to the newly formatted Big 12.
I am not sure if parody means that a conference is really good or just really an average talent league.
The leagues is getting a lot of press for the deepest conference and on a percentage basis, I agree.

This league may not be very deep with contenders for the national title, but no conference is as fun to watch with these high octane offensive minds. 

Parody runs rampant from and I "do not like it."

Schools like Texas and Oklahoma should never be run over like they have been the last two years. 
Baylor, K State and even TCU do not get the level of athletes to beat these teams.  The good part is that it shows that these new offenses do level the playing fields when the other coaches do not adjust quickly.

I do know this, I spent the entire year flipping channels to see what kind of crazy game that Fox was carrying on Saturday night.

I did compare the top 10 SEC teams to the Big 12 in a bowl scenario based on where they finished in the conference.  (This is how I expect the season to end.)

Bama- Kstate
Florida-Okla
LSU-Texas
GA-Okla Stat
Texas Ag-TCU
S Car-TTech
Ms State- W VA
Vandy-Baylor
Ole Miss- Iowa State
Ark-  Kansas

I would be hard pressed to find 3 Big 12 teams favored.
But as last years Bowl Record Shows for the Big 12, the Big 12 definitely have good teams from top to bottom.

j.

Miles to Arkansas

Really? Again!

Miles agent leaks this type of thing yearly and I hope he leaves this time.  It's just ridiculous to offer that kind of money to Miles and worse for his agent to let these things out.  It hurts LSU and Arkansas when the rumors fly and only Miles and his contract are helped with this crap.

(Hell, Miles is Houston Nutt with a Louisiana recruiting base!)

After failing to win the NC the last two years because of his ineffective Oline and meddling in the offense.

Let the Hatter Go!
J

Sean Taylor

I was sitting in my hotel room and ESPN ran a story on the 2007 death of Taylor at 24 years old.

It reminded me of how special Sean Taylor was and that we actually considered him to be better than Ed Reed.

Let's Compare some great safeties:
 Reed (4.5 -40)and Polamula (4.4-40) are both under 6feet and weigh a little over 200lbs.
Taylor (4.5-40) was 6'2" and weighed in at 230 as a 21 year old that was voted the hardest hitter in the NFL.

Production:
Reed in 4 years 25 turnovers.
 Polamula 11 turnovers.
 Taylor 20

Tackles. Reed. 227.   Polamula 217  
Taylor 299 Tackles and much more intimidating in the secondary than anyone in recent history.

  He was the best college safety that I have ever seen.

Greatness needs to be remembered!
Try YouTube if you have forgotten.
J

Compare a Hall of Fame Candidate and a Scapegoat

I will never understand why people blame QB's for the success of teams.
It starts with the Coach and managements preparation of the talent resources and in my opinion, it usually ends there with any chances of success with equal talent.

The Saber matrix stats for football are available and are an even bigger supporter of the DFW Scapegoat. Eventually, I will read through them and decide which one's I find to be most detailed with situation type information.

J.

Rankings.

Recently, someone sent me an article downplaying the SEC and the out of conference games that they play.  It is the same old stories we read each year and lacks any fundamental information. I recently did some research and found that the LSU/FLA had won more games against top 25 non-conference teams than any conference's total number team wins during the past 6 years. .

But the question was based on this year and seems just as ridiculous.
All other AQ teams combined have beaten one win against top 20 non-conference.  UCLA won a game against Nebraska early in the year.   The SEC has 3 wins. (This weekend Fla and SC beat two 10-1 teams and SC did it with back up QB and RB.)

It made me consider how I would you rank the teams. My list is not very different than the 3 major polls nor the BCS rankings. This is not who I think is the best overall, which of course, I think at least 3-6 SEC teams would likely beat Notre Dame in a bowl game. (Definitely 6 if South Carolina was healthy.)

Some other points of confusion, I also do not understand why Oregon is still ranked ahead of Stanford.
Is Ohio State better than I think?  They definitely have NFL talent, but I still don't buy that they are a top team.  Do I have Texas too high?

My expectations are simple, when the Bowl Season is over the SEC will have another BCS title and have won around 8 games while playing teams that have finished much higher in their conference than the SEC teams finish.   The Final SEC Rankings will have 1. Bama, 2. GA 3. FL 4. LSU T-5.Aggies and SC.
  
How to judge a Conference: I use the top half- Can anyone consider their 4th team to be on the level of LSU I doubt many people really think their conference champion would be a favorite against LSU:

4th Seeded Teams:
*ACC-NCarl, *Big 12-Ok St. *Big 10-Penn ST, *Big East -UConn,  *Pac 12-UCLA.
When I drop to 5th or 6th is gets even worse. (The only negatives I found was that the 5th place Big 10 team beat the 8th place SEC and 3rd seated Texas beat 10th seed Ole Miss. )

S, I know you sometimes get frustrated with me because I do base my rankings on overall talent in the conferences and down play the other teams at times because of recent history when the SEC gets to bowl games and healthy.  I don't understand why Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State and USC aren't fighting for NC each year, but they don't.




J

Rivals 100 - Revisited

I was looking at this year's top 100 on Rivals and started goofing around looking back on previous years.  Interesting how things work out.  Check out a few of these that will make you smile or cringe:

2011
#5 - DeAnthony Thomas - Oregon (slow by J's standards)
#10 - Malcolm Brown - Texas (oh yeah)
#17 - Anthony Johnson - LSU
#18 - Jarvis Landry - LSU
#32 - Jeff Driskel - FL
#34 - Braxton Miller - Ohio St.
#36 - Marquise Lee - USC
#43 - Odell Beckham - LSU
#63 - Kenny Hilliard - LSU
#86 - JW Walsh - OK St.

2010
#10 - Marcus Lattimore - SC
#12 - Jackson Jeffcoat - TX
#19 - Spencer Ware - LSU (5-star baby!)
#34 - Mike Davis - TX (Skyline)
#82 - Cedric Ogbuehi - A&M (Allen, TX!)
#90 - Eric Reid - LSU

2009
#2 - Rueben Randle - LSU
#5 - Matt Barkley - USC
#6 - Trent Richardson - AL
#7 - Russell Shepherd - LSU
#11 - Dre Kirkpatrick - AL
#12 - Manti Te'o - Notre Dame
#18 - Garrett Gilbert - TX
#20 - Craig Loston - LSU
#46 - Aaron Murray - GA
#59 - Michael Ford - LSU

2008
#1 - Terrelle Pryor - Ohio St.
#4 - Julio Jones - AL
#5 - Patrick Peterson - LSU
#9 - A.J. Green - GA
#14 - Blaine Gabbert - Missouri
#15 - Tyron Smith - USC
#55 - Mark Barron - AL
#68 - Andrew Luck - Stanford (that one kind of jumps out)

2007
#2 - Joe McKnight (traitor)
#3 - Eric Berry - TN
#4 - Ryan Mallett - Michigan
#13 - Terrence Tolliver - LSU
#14 - Chad Jones - LSU
#28 - Cameron Newton - FL (or Cam for short!)
#54 - Dez Bryant - OK St.

2006
#1 - Percy Harvin - FL (Meyer says best player he ever coached)
#5 - Sergio Kindle - TX
#6 - Mathew Stafford - GA
#8 - C.J. Spiller - Clemson
#10 - Mitch Mustain - Arkansas
#22 - Tim Tebow - FL
#35 - Demarco Murray - OK
#43 - LeSean McCoy - Pitt
#50 - Charles Scott - LSU
#61 - Jevan Snead - TX-

2005
#7 - Mark Sanchez - USC
#8 - Martellus Bennett - A&M
#16 - Ryan Perriloux - LSU (cringe)
#18 - DeSean Jackson - Cal
#23 - Darren McFadden - Arkansas
#48 - Michael Oher - Ole Miss (Blindside fame)
#51 - Ndamukong Suh - Nebraska
#57 - Jamaal Charles - TX
#90 - Rashard Mendenhall - Illinois

2004
#1 - Adrian Peterson - OK
#2 - Tedd Ginn Jr. - Ohio St.
#3 - Early Doucet - LSU
#4 - Rhett Bomar - OK
#13 - Chad Henne - Michigan
#28 - Marshawn Lynch - Cal
#37 - Calvin Johnson - GA Tech
#47 - Glenn Dorsey - LSU

2003
#2 - Reggie Bush - USC
#26 - Chris Leak - FL
#42 - Alley Broussard - LSU
#79 - Jamarcus Russell - LSU
#87 - LeRon Landry - LSU

2002
#1 - Vince Young - TX
#28 - Devin Hester - Miami
#37 - Maurice Clarett - Ohio St.
#50 - Justin Vincent - LSU
#81 - Chase Pittman - TX (Evangel)
#83 - Jonathan Wade - TN (Evangel)

Pretty fun to look back.

S

Where the Skill players study.

While playing Jerry Jones “Junior”, I thought it would be interesting to see where the NFL speed players go to college. I did a small survey in the office and asked them to pick the top 5 schools. Of course they all said LSU, Fla, Alabama and USC. One of these did not make the top 11. Not one of the 5 people I asked named the top producer of skill players (I know that S would guess this top team in his top 5.)

 

I admit I was surprised that USC, Oklahoma and Georgia were missing.

 

1. • Miami 22
2. • LSU 18 
3. • Ohio State 18 
4. • Florida 14 
5. • Texas 13 
6. • Alabama 12 
7. • Cal 12 
8. • Illini 11 
9. • Va Tech 11 
10. • South Carolina 10 
11. • Notre Dame 10

J.