Showdown Saturday!!! College Football!!!!

[Kam]

Alrighty college football fans... here's the great lineup this saturday, after OSU handled Texas and laid claim to the #1 spot... the rest of the field, i think, is still open to debate... with 7 different games matching up two top 25 teams... wow, what a great saturday of football!!!

#6 LSU v. #3 Auburn - in the sec, with a struggle like this, i say the advantage goes to the hometeam... which is auburn.

#11 Meeeeeechigan v. #2 Irish - my upset special, only because i just can't pick the irish. it's why i never bet on sports, too involved. Go Blue!

#19 Nebraska v. #4 USC - huskers already have given bulletin board fodder to the trojans with the "WHEN we beat usc..." line. i think the trojans handle them.

#7 Gators v. #13 Tenn - hmmmm another touch matchup in the SEC... advantage should go to the 'vols... but i think florida has enough talent to overcome them. Tenn did light up Cal, but they barely made it past Air Force... i say UF wins.

#17 MIAMI v. #12 Louisville - i almost dont know if i can watch it... and actually, i dont know if i can watch it at home, i think the northeast is gonna get the Mich/ND feed on abc... damn irish!!!!

#15 Sooners v. #18 Oregon - great non-conference matchup here. should be a fun game and i'll pick peterson and the sooners to squeeze one out of autzen.

#24 TTech v. #20 TCU - The aerial attack continues. TT wins and starts to gain momentum for the big one with UT.

peace
k2
GO 'CANES!

[topspeed]

Pretty good prognosticating there, Kam. You only missed on two and that's only because the ref's screwed OU in their game. I absolutely loved watching ND get taken behind the woodshed (man...Saturdays just aren't the same without Keith Jackson :( )

What is up with your team, tho? Coker will need to win out to save his job and even then, who knows? Wierder things have happened (ask Frank Solich).

[Kam]

Pretty good prognosticating there, Kam. You only missed on two and that's only because the ref's screwed OU in their game. I absolutely loved watching ND get taken behind the woodshed (man...Saturdays just aren't the same without Keith Jackson :( )

What is up with your team, tho? Coker will need to win out to save his job and even then, who knows? Wierder things have happened (ask Frank Solich).

i was pretty depressed saturday, although watching nd get shellacked helped ease the pain.... as much as i've seen of coker in interviews and all, he does seem like a great guy, but it just doesn't seem like he can handle coaching. he's just been flat out-coached in every game that miami has lost. there have been no halftime adjustments made and that was painfully obvious in this louisville loss. no points scored in the second half of each loss. Miami's D dominated louisville for about the first two series. Then the cards coaching staff made changes, and miami didn't. Sure, they still held louisville to about half their offensive output, but they still popped a 30 on the 'canes. meanwhile, the canes offense worked for exactly ONE series. that was it, louisville made their blitzing adjustments and the canes never recovered. there was no ability to morph with the changes.

the biggest critique on coker ive read everywhere is he just won with butch davis' players, and now that HIS OWN recruiting has shown up... well, the evidence speaks for itself 12-0, 11-1, 11-2, 9-3, 9-3, 1-2... the miami teams were unbelievably stocked with talent that butch davis recruited AND coached. remember the clinton portis cane's lost to ECU before the butch davis dominance began. so i think the talent level is still there,. its not just talent, but how they are coached up. you can get a "3 star recruit" and coach them into a bluechipper. which is what butch did. they have the kids there, hell south florida fills the roster of god knows how many div1 programs. butch never had a single #1 or even top 5 recruiting class as picked by the prognosticators, but they ended up being the top in terms of nfl picks versus tx/florida/mich always being tops in terms of recruiting classes and tx for the longest time always just flopping along with mich's late season nosedives, both also having to do with coaching.

but miami is a different beast, its a modern dynasty, as compared to every other football program that has a 'dynasty.' even usc's current dynasty is just an addition to all their past glory. um's "past glory" is barely 20 years old. ND's is close to a hundred. miami also has an incredible alumni base that if they arent using to recruit the best they can get, doesnt make any sense at all. how the top running backs are not coming to um is nuts.
last sundays nfl starting lineup:
Frank Gore - San fran
Edge - Arizona
Willis McGahee - Buf
Clinton Portis - Wash
that's FOUR starting running backs (one of the toughest positions among many) in the nfl from ONE school. why in the world has the moniker of "quarterback U" still stuck around when it should be "linebacker U" "tightend U" and "running back U" and "Defensive back U" with just ken dorsey as a backup in cleveland and brock berlin lighting it up in nfl europe, the U hasnt produced an nfl quarterback in quite some time... hell USC is the current "Quarterback U"
alright, that was a long rant... i shall stop now. :)
still... go 'CANES!

[dean_martin]

I have to agree with Speedy, you did a pretty good job with your predictions. That LSU/Auburn game was the most intense 7 to 3 game I've seen. Man, there was some hittin' goin' on.

Dang, I luv the fact that we got so many ND haters here! They were so overrated.

Don't worry, your 'Canes will be back, but they do need to tighten up on the recruiting trail. You'd think they'd have the advantage in FL with Bowden gettin' up in age and the 'Noles focusing on defense and Urban Meyer still getting to know the area.

[topspeed]

Yeah, Coker was shelled for his dismal recruiting class this past year. There's so much talent in Florida that it should be his own private playground. It's like California is for 'SC, the difference being Carroll is such a dynamic recruiter that he can go and poach bluechippers from every other state as well. I still think The U has enough talent to be better than they are, so like you said it must be the coaching.

As for ND, there is no team I dislike more...and that includes UCLA. This year, they come to our house where we haven't lost since '01 (knock on wood) and the grass isn't 4 inches tall! Let's see how they deal with our speed this year.