Week 14 College Football Game Thread

mabrowndog

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Friday, December 5                
07:00 PM - MAC Championship - Northern Illinois vs Bowling Green (at Detroit MI) - ESPN2 / WatchESPN
09:00 PM - Pac-12 Championship – Oregon vs Arizona (at Santa Clara CA) - FOX / FOX Sports GO

                
Saturday, December 6                
12:00 PM - Louisiana Tech at Marshall - ESPN2 / WatchESPN
12:00 PM - Houston at Cincinnati - ESPN / WatchESPN
12:00 PM - SMU at Connecticut - CBSSN
12:00 PM - Iowa State at TCU - ABC / WatchESPN
12:00 PM - Div II Quarterfinals – East #2 Bloomsburg (PA) (11-1) at East #1 Concord (WV) (12-0)        
12:00 PM - Div II Quarterfinals – South #6 West Georgia (11-2) at South #5 Valdosta (GA) State (10-2)        
12:00 PM - Div III Quarterfinals – East #2 Hobart (NY) (12-0) at East #1 Wesley (DE) (11-1)        
12:00 PM - Div III Quarterfinals – South #3 Linfield (OR) (11-1) at South #1 Widener (PA) (12-0)        
12:00 PM - Div III Quarterfinals – Midwest #4 John Carroll (OH) (11-1) at Midwest #2 Mount Union (OH) (12-0)
12:00 PM - NAIA Semifinal #1 – Marian (IN) (10-2) at Morningside (IA) (11-1)    
01:00 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #16 Fordham at #1 New Hampshire - espn3
01:00 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #24 Indiana State at #8 Chattanooga - espn3
01:00 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #10 Richmond at #7 Coastal Carolina - espn3
01:00 PM - Div II Quarterfinals – Midwest #4 Minnesota-Duluth (13-0) at Midwest #2 Minnesota State-Mankato (12-0)
01:00 PM - Div III Quarterfinals – West #2 Wartburg (IA) (12-0) at West #1 Wisconsin-Whitewater (12-0)        
01:00 PM - Mineral Water Bowl (Div II) – Sioux Falls (SD) (11-1) vs Central Oklahoma (8-3) at Excelsior Springs, MO
01:00 PM - NAIA Semifinal #2 – Southern Oregon (11-2) at Saint Xavier (IL) (10-2)
02:00 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #14 Sam Houston State at #3 Jacksonville (AL) State - espn3
02:00 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #12 Northern Iowa at #5 Illinois State - espn3
02:00 PM - Div II Quarterfinals – West #5 Ohio Dominican (11-1) at West #2 Colorado State-Pueblo (11-1)        
03:30 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #18 South Dakota State at #2 North Dakota State - espn3
03:30 PM - Oklahoma State at Oklahoma - FS1 / FOX Sports GO
04:00 PM - SWAC Championship – Southern vs Alcorn State (at Houston TX) - ESPNU / WatchESPN
04:00 PM - SEC Championship - Alabama vs Missouri (at Atlanta GA) - CBS / CBS Video
04:30 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #13 Montana at #4 Eastern Washington - espn3
04:30 PM - FCS 2nd Round - #22 Liberty at #6 Villanova - espn3
07:30 PM - Temple at Tulane - ESPN2 / WatchESPN
07:45 PM - Kansas State at Baylor - ESPN / WatchESPN
08:00 PM - ACC Championship – Florida State vs Georgia Tech (at Charlotte NC) - ABC / WatchESPN
08:17 PM - Big Ten Championship – Ohio State vs Wisconsin (at Indianapolis IN) - FOX / FOX Sports GO
10:00 PM - MWC Championship – Fresno State at Boise State - CBS / CBS Video
 

mabrowndog

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Northern Illinois takes a 20-10 halftime lead to the locker room in the MAC title game. The Huskies can't be happy about allowing Bowling Green to advance 31 yards in 3 plays before kicking a 46-yard FG -- all in the final 25 seconds.
 

mabrowndog

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I never cease to be amazed by how many big-time football programs -- college and pro -- exhibit piss-poor clock management.
 
It's the most basic, elementary and fundamental principle in the sport aside from holding onto the football.
 

mabrowndog

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Northern Illinois wound up wiping the field with BGU in the 2nd half, outscoring the Falcons 31-7 for a 51-17 win. They rack 552 total offensive yards including 334 on the ground, and force 4 Bowling Green turnovers. Five different Husky rushers had a run of at least 14 yards.
 

steveluck7

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
Well that's gonna be embarrassing for the runner-up for the next few years.
He was clearly the 2nd best "chest pass into a bucket" participant tonight. Anyone notice the check to the winner was for 20k, the runner up amount? She better look before she signs it!
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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I'm not impressed with what I'm seeing out of Mariota tonight.  A bunch of throws that are commonplace in the NFL have been placed behind, above or well in front of his receivers.  His defense looks like national championship material, and his O line basically looks like they're playing against high schoolers, but he has not been as impressive as I was expecting in the first full game of his that I've watched.
 
For example, on that 2nd and goal play just now, his two right-side receivers came out, the wide guy cut inside but was covered, the slot guy cut outside and was open by a mile - but he locked onto the inside guy and didn't just make a poor decision, he made a bad throw way too far in front of the guy.
 
If the Jets draft this guy in the top 3 picks, they're going to get Geno Smith 2.0.  I don't see him as an NFL difference-maker based on what I've seen tonight, even if he gets the Heisman.  Unless you guys tell me this is the worst night he's had all year (other than, you know, the last time they played Arizona), I'd be willing to bet that Manziel has a better NFL career than Mariota does.
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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Freddy Linn said:
He's accounted for 124 TDs (25 rushing) versus 12 INTs in the last three years.
 
Against clown-shoed defenses.
 
(I think the same of the Big 12, just for the record)
 
His two rush TDs tonight, if you were to diagram them out, I think would end up looking like plays that get dropped by every NFL D-Line for a loss.  Both were kinda scrambles where the DL basically fell down trying to accelerate to close out laterally.  It's the same reason some of Manziel's bag of tricks won't fly in the pros - I just think he has a deeper bag of tricks and a more accurate throwing arm.
 

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MentalDisabldLst said:
 
Against clown-shoed defenses.
 
(I think the same of the Big 12, just for the record)
 
His two rush TDs tonight, if you were to diagram them out, I think would end up looking like plays that get dropped by every NFL D-Line for a loss.  Both were kinda scrambles where the DL basically fell down trying to accelerate to close out laterally.  It's the same reason some of Manziel's bag of tricks won't fly in the pros - I just think he has a deeper bag of tricks and a more accurate throwing arm.
You're basing these conclusions on watching one game?
 
Mariotta is 6'4" versus Manziel's 6'0".   That's a significant difference.
 

Freddy Linn

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MentalDisabldLst said:
I'm not impressed with what I'm seeing out of Mariota tonight.  A bunch of throws that are commonplace in the NFL have been placed behind, above or well in front of his receivers.  His defense looks like national championship material, and his O line basically looks like they're playing against high schoolers, but he has not been as impressive as I was expecting in the first full game of his that I've watched.
 
For example, on that 2nd and goal play just now, his two right-side receivers came out, the wide guy cut inside but was covered, the slot guy cut outside and was open by a mile - but he locked onto the inside guy and didn't just make a poor decision, he made a bad throw way too far in front of the guy.
 
If the Jets draft this guy in the top 3 picks, they're going to get Geno Smith 2.0.  I don't see him as an NFL difference-maker based on what I've seen tonight, even if he gets the Heisman.  Unless you guys tell me this is the worst night he's had all year (other than, you know, the last time they played Arizona), I'd be willing to bet that Manziel has a better NFL career than Mariota does.
 
I'm surprised that you decided to come to these conclusions, on this site, after admittedly watching a single game.  I'd be curious what SoshCentral has to say.
 

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Mariota certainly has a lot of work to do in transitioning to the NFL.  MDL's right that the holes available to him to run, even against top FBS opponents, won't be there against NFL defenses (it also helps if a defender falls on his ass).  That's baked into any assessment, though; you know as an evaluator that he can't run as much, so you focus on his passing.
 
My big concern if I'm considering drafting Mariota is his footwork.  He seems to throw off the back foot or use a jump pass an awful lot, even when he's in the pocket.  Those lollipop passes are getting defensed or intercepted a lot more often in the NFL where speed in defenses closes holes in the passing game quickly.  A big part of that could be Oregon's offense, though, since it puts Mariota in motion by design quite often.  That doesn't give him much opportunity to set his feet.  But I'd still want to see him do it before I drafted him near the top of Round 1.
 
In a sense he reminds me of Philip Rivers.  When Rivers was coming out, he was lollipopping the ball all over the place using that crazy shot-put throwing motion that had worked at NC State for four years.  I thought there was no way that shit would fly in the NFL because (a) defenses would close on the ball and (b) he'd get passes blocked at the line.  But he was adaptable enough to change his motion and become an excellent NFL QB.  
 

Infield Infidel

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The footwork thing is basically the way it is for any QB coming out of a spread system. RG3, Manziel, heck even Drew Brees had trouble with it his first couple seasons. I think Mariota will figure it out, but he has at least shown that his footwork is usually good, but has lapses here and there.
 
The bigger issue is playing under center, he hasn't ever had to do that. He's pretty good at reading defenses but it's another thing to read a defense during a dropback as opposed to the shotgun. 
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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If Bama, TCU, FSU and OSU all win, what do people think it would take for FSU or TCU to fall out of the top four? An OSU crushing of Wisconsin and weak win where one of TCU or FSU looks bad? Is there any chance any undefeated FSU couldn't get in?
 
Dec 10, 2012
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Dernells Casket n Flagon said:
If Bama, TCU, FSU and OSU all win, what do people think it would take for FSU or TCU to fall out of the top four? An OSU crushing of Wisconsin and weak win where one of TCU or FSU looks bad? Is there any chance any undefeated FSU couldn't get in?
Yeah, I don't think so, Bama, FSU (and Oregon) all control their destiny. Maybe a 5 OT victory where the refs mess up, gets FSU out with no losses. I think if an SEC team like MSU would have had one loss total, they could be argued over FSU, but not TCU, OSU, or Baylor.
 
If baylor destroys KSU, they're in. (assuming favorites win). If not, a good TCU victory gets them in. If neither happens, OSU can make it. But I think OSU loses anyway.
 

Infield Infidel

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In that TCU/Baylor discussion on Gameday, it was very convenient that no one mentioned Baylor's loss to WVU. It's like it didn't happen. For me that's the difference between these two teams. If Baylor's loss was to a better team, like Oklahoma or KSU, it would be close, but WVU is 7-5. WVU lost to every team better than them on their schedule (Bama, TCU, KState, Texas, Oklahoma), except for Baylor.
 
As long as TCU blows out a very bad Iowa St team, they are in for me. 
 

axx

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Infield Infidel said:
As long as TCU blows out a very bad Iowa St team, they are in for me. 
 
The committee could conveniently avoid the controversy by putting OSU in the playoff instead.
 
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MentalDisabldLst

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Oh yeah, there'd be no controversy about the kind of program Urban Meyer runs, none at all...
 
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Infield Infidel said:
In that TCU/Baylor discussion on Gameday, it was very convenient that no one mentioned Baylor's loss to WVU. It's like it didn't happen. For me that's the difference between these two teams. If Baylor's loss was to a better team, like Oklahoma or KSU, it would be close, but WVU is 7-5. WVU lost to every team better than them on their schedule (Bama, TCU, KState, Texas, Oklahoma), except for Baylor.
 
As long as TCU blows out a very bad Iowa St team, they are in for me. 
It's funny that you mention Oklahoma, because based on that result pair, Baylor would be the choice.  I think if Baylor has the better record in 3 of the 4 (each other, OK, KSU, WV), along with the "title," they have a debatable right to be in, negating the MN win by TCU. However, if you count Cowboy State and Texas Tech . . .  But then Kansas?
The question is do you count all conference games equally?
 
I would personally have no problem with Alabama, Oregon, TCU, and Baylor as the four, but I know there's zero chance of that happening if either FSU or OSU win.
 

mabrowndog

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Not only are the TCU critics brushing aside Baylor's WVU loss, they're dismissing the non-conference schedules. Both teams shut out SMU, and both dominated middling FCS programs (TCU beating Samford, Baylor over NW State).
 
But while the Bears played Buffalo on Sept. 12, the Frogs went out the next day and hammered Minnesota.
 
Anyway, TCU now up 14-0 on the Cyclones.
 

johnmd20

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Iowa State had 4th and 4 on the TCU 39. They punted. In two plays, TCU was past the 39 yard line, on their way to a touchdown. If you're playing TCU, how do you put on the 39 yard line of TCU? 
 

Infield Infidel

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If you are playing anyone, how do you punt at the opponent 39 if it's 4th and 4. You have to have some confidence in your offense, and, shit, it's the last game of the season and your team is going nowhere. Let them play
 

tims4wins

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ISU offense really letting them down. Their D is hanging in there. Door may be open for Baylor.

TCU also lost one of their best wideouts. Not sure of his status. Could make a difference.
 

mabrowndog

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FCS Updates
 
* UNH up 14-0 on Fordham after a quarter.
 
* Chattanooga leads 14-0 over Indiana State, 3:00 left Q1
 
* Richmond & Coastal Carolina scoreless, 4:00 left Q1