NCAA Football Week 9

[RShack]

GT is closing in on Penn St in the Coaches poll, but not passing them... from 115 points back to 70 points back to 32 points back...

[RShack]

GT is closing in on Penn St in the Coaches poll, but not passing them... from 115 points back to 70 points back to 32 points back...

Penn St closing in on GT in the writer's poll, but not passing them... from 107 points back to 80 points back to 63 points back...

Combine the two polls and it's gone from Penn St +8, to GT +10, to GT +31... not that that matters any...

[RShack]

BCS #3 has GT at #10, just a tad in front of Penn St. These 2 are pretty well separated from #9 and #12.

Do you think either one is over- or under-rated? If they played each other right now, who do you think would win?

ps: Paul Johnson gets mildly annoyed when people say he's running the Triple Option as a gimmick. He points out that he runs it 20% or less of the plays. On the other hand, he looks pretty annoyed and disgusted no matter what's going on. I couldn't get the Vandy game on TV, but during the second half of the UVA game, the TV-guys kept looking to see if he'd ever smile. He kinda almost-smirked once for about half-a-second in the 4th quarter, and they took that as a smile.

[geschinger]

BCS #3 has GT at #10, just a tad in front of Penn St. These 2 are pretty well separated from #9 and #12.

Do you think either one is over- or under-rated? If they played each other right now, who do you think would win?

ps: Paul Johnson gets mildly annoyed when people say he's running the Triple Option as a gimmick. He points out that he runs it 20% or less of the plays. On the other hand, he looks pretty annoyed and disgusted no matter what's going on. I couldn't get the Vandy game on TV, but during the second half of the UVA game, the TV-guys kept looking to see if he'd ever smile. He kinda almost-smirked once for about half-a-second in the 4th quarter, and they took that as a smile.

It'll be interesting to see how PSU does this weekend. I have no idea if they are overrated or underrated. They've played one strong team and lost and do not have any wins that I would consider impressive.

[goodburger34]

BCS #3 has GT at #10, just a tad in front of Penn St. These 2 are pretty well separated from #9 and #12.

Do you think either one is over- or under-rated? If they played each other right now, who do you think would win?

ps: Paul Johnson gets mildly annoyed when people say he's running the Triple Option as a gimmick. He points out that he runs it 20% or less of the plays. On the other hand, he looks pretty annoyed and disgusted no matter what's going on. I couldn't get the Vandy game on TV, but during the second half of the UVA game, the TV-guys kept looking to see if he'd ever smile. He kinda almost-smirked once for about half-a-second in the 4th quarter, and they took that as a smile.

As a biased PSU student I think that PSU would win, but mostly because its a good match up for them. The strength of PSU is the front seven, to move the ball against them you need to spread them out and force the linebackers into coverage where they are very weak. Clark is a capable college quarterback, with lots of weapons around him but he doesn't do well with pressure. And the o-line is shaky at best, as is the secondary.

[RShack]

As a biased PSU student I think that PSU would win, but mostly because its a good match up for them. The strength of PSU is the front seven, to move the ball against them you need to spread them out and force the linebackers into coverage where they are very weak. Clark is a capable college quarterback, with lots of weapons around him but he doesn't do well with pressure. And the o-line is shaky at best, as is the secondary.

Well, it would be a fun game to watch.

I don't know anything about Penn State's pro's and con's. If spreading out the front 7 is the key to beating PSU, then I imagine GT would have a good shot. While the TV guys mislabel it as a tweaked triple option, Johnson calls it the "spread offense". I think it's more a descendant of the run-and-shoot than anything, it just uses the running game instead of the passing game as its foundation. One problem with the run-and-shoot was that it stopped the clock a lot, so the O would be on and off the field in a hurry. Even when it worked, the other team had lots of chances to score too. Johnson's scheme does the opposite, with GT's O being on the field a whole lot more than the other guys are. Recently it's been twice as much. It's hard for the other team to score when their O has the ball for just 20 minutes, just like it's hard for their D to maintain when they're on the field for 40 minutes. So far, GT runs away in the 2nd half. Part of this appears to be that they need halftime to adjust the O-players to whatever non-standard assignments the D is using, and part of it appears to be that it's hard for D to work when they're on the field all the time.

I understand the latter, but I don't really grok the former. Why do they need halftime to do that? I'm sure the coaches upstairs have it figured out pretty quickly. I'm not sure why they can't just huddle the O on the sidelines and accomplish whatever it is they do at halftime without waiting for halftime to do it. Anybody know why they need halftime to make adjustments?

[mrbig1]

All five writers for CBS sportsline.com are picking Bama to beat LSU. They must see something I don't.

[Big Mac]

All five writers for CBS sportsline.com are picking Bama to beat LSU. They must see something I don't.

LSU isn't very good, but if Bama plays like they did against Tennessee, there's no way we come out on top.

[CrimsonTribe]

All five writers for CBS sportsline.com are picking Bama to beat LSU. They must see something I don't.

LSU isn't very good, but if Bama plays like they did against Tennessee, there's no way we come out on top.

It really all depends on McElroy. Is he going to be the guy from the beginning of the season or the jittery mess that we've seen lately? Our defense can handle LSU's offense; the real question is whether we can actually score when we get an opportunity.

[mrbig1]

If LSU shuts down our running game it's over. I just hope we can get some turn overs and keep LSU on there end of the field.

[Life Long O Fan]

LSU isn't very good, but if Bama plays like they did against Tennessee, there's no way we come out on top.

If LSU beats Bama are they still not a very good team? They have 1 loss this year and that is to Florida. They are still in the top 10 and could vault themselves higher with a win this week. It would be a shame to have a not very good team around the top 5, wouldn't it?

[CrimsonTribe]

If LSU beats Bama are they still not a very good team? They have 1 loss this year and that is to Florida. They are still in the top 10 and could vault themselves higher with a win this week. It would be a shame to have a not very good team around the top 5, wouldn't it?

You won't find me saying that LSU isn't very good. Their offense isn't impressive despite scoring 73 points in their last two games (Auburn and Tulane), but neither is Bama's. Both defenses are typical top-of-the-line SEC defenses. Personally, I think it's going to be an ugly game* and going on recent history, it's 50/50 either way.

*Unless you love defense, which I do.

[Life Long O Fan]

You won't find me saying that LSU isn't very good. Their offense isn't impressive despite scoring 73 points in their last two games (Auburn and Tulane), but neither is Bama's. Both defenses are typical top-of-the-line SEC defenses. Personally, I think it's going to be an ugly game* and going on recent history, it's 50/50 either way.

*Unless you love defense, which I do.

I am pumped for this game. I love seeing the defenses blow up the offenses. I think Bama will win in a close low scoring game. Even if LSU wins, they still have Arkansas and Ole Miss so Bama could still win the west. Both of those teams play LSU tough no matter who they put out there.

[CrimsonTribe]

I am pumped for this game. I love seeing the defenses blow up the offenses. I think Bama will win in a close low scoring game. Even if LSU wins, they still have Arkansas and Ole Miss so Bama could still win the west. Both of those teams play LSU tough no matter who they put out there.

I think this is probably what will happen too, but I'm still not psyched about playing a close game against LSU. Doesn't seem to work out for us often (other than last year).

[Life Long O Fan]

Congrats Bama. There was definitely some shady calling though.