Morning Coffee
by Peter Bean on Jul 20, 2006 8:42 AM CDT
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Print*The Austin American-Statesman has a nice roundup of Texas slotting in the various preseason magazines. To sum:
Sporting News 1. Notre Dame 2. Ohio State 3. Auburn 7. Texas
Athlon 1. Oklahoma 2. Notre Dame 3. USC 7. Texas
Lindy's 1. Notre Dame 2. Ohio State 3. West Virginia 4. Texas
Street & Smith's 1. Ohio State 2. West Virginia 3. Texas
Insiders' 1. Oklahoma 2. Auburn 3. Louisville 5. Texas
Did you know? This is useful information from the Statesman, but guess which magazine - not listed above - has the best track record for picking teams in the preseason over the last 20 years?
Yup: Playboy. Just tuck away that little nugget for the Mrs. the next time she says you're not reading it for the articles.
*I'm a day late on this, but in case you haven't gotten to it yet, Brian's begun his 50 Most Loathsome People In Sports feature, which is first rate. No arguments in #41-50.
*Speaking of Simmons... There are times when I'm primed to write a post and, before I can get around to it, somebody else nails the topic so completely that there's nothing further to be added. Queue: Michael. Couldn't agree more.
*ACC and Boston College fans would do well to check in regularly with Eagle in Atlanta. Goodies galore.
--PB--
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It's wide open all right
Three of those six magazines above have OU rated #1, yet the other three pubs don't even have OU in their Top 3. In fact, no team was a concensus top 3 pick amongst all six of those pubs.
This would be a good year to put some money down in Vegas on a long shot because chances are the odds makers don't have a clue either.
I can't wait to gamble
Winning
I was thumbing through
The reviews of Ohio State interest me the most. I find it funny that almost each one I picked up talked about how the defense isn't gonna miss a beat.
OK, so I take a look at Ohio State's own website out of interest.
http://ohiostatebuckeyes.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2005-2006/teamcume.html#TEAM.IND
9 of the top 10 tacklers are gone.
Everyone contends that the back-ups have valuable playing time. In fact, some played entire games during injuries.
When Carpenter was absent from the line up from injuries two LBs subbed. In three games (Mich, ND and one other) they managed to come up with 1 tackle between them and zero in the Fiesta Bowl. Keep in mind, these two are the returning blue chip LBs filling the shoes of Hawk and Carpenter.
All but one DL is being replaced, but the guy returning is a bad mofo. Another DL started the end of the season. The others didn't really play.
The DBs have 3 converted WRs that played 11 games averaging just under 1 tackle a game. The other safety spot has never played and is also a converted WR.
In 2004 when they had this type of inexperience their defense was 30th total and 35th in run defense, even w/ Hawk and co. They gave up over 400 yards a game and almost over 500 to Northwestern and Iowa.
Don't know what all this means, but I'm guessing OSU will feel the loss of their defensive unit.
Good research
Peter should add this to his preview.
Do you (general questions to the blog) think the media is turning a blind eye to this, or is OSU's high ranking due to everyone having a question mark and the media trusting in Tressel to field a good D?
Rankings
I seem to remember a time when coaches would play down there team to not build up fan expectations. I doubt you will see that anymore in top tier programs.
Of courses maybe just everyone in the media and the state of Ohio is dillusional.
The Columbus Dispatch
http://www.burntorangenation.com/comments/2006/7/20/112058/631/1#1
Freaky how he came to the same conclusions I did by just looking at the numbers.
I am a little jaded in my opinion, because I was at the Northwestern game two years ago when they took OSU's defense to the mat.
I truly thought the box score from that game would show Northwestern with 1,000 plus yards.
Nice Lunchtime Research
I believe those backups might have got some PT but it is nice to see they didn't really do much when they got the chance. To have a D like they did last year and to replace 9 of the top 10 w/o missing a beat is just insane.
I've had this discussion
His sub allowed ND to put up at least one TD, if not two.
He's number 33 and is supposed to be their version of Bobino. His body is still that of a HS player trying to bulk up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-VCNNh88nQ&search=nd%20fiesta%20bowl
You'll notice him getting manhandled on blocks and running around like he's trying to make himself look active, but not anywhere near the ball. Meanwhile Hawk is like God, because he's literally everywhere and around everything.
The wild card is one of the LBs who was injured last year, might be the real deal. Who knows how that turns out. It was a pretty bad knee injury.
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