No Love For The Tiger

Discussion in 'The Tiger's Den' started by JoeReckless, Nov 24, 2003.

  1. JoeReckless

    JoeReckless Founding Member

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    1. No love for the Tiger
    While USC will probably be in New Orleans to face Oklahoma for the national title, everyone needs to realize how sticky this will get over the next few weeks. LSU, even after beating media favorite Eli Manning and Ole Miss in Oxford, still isn't getting the national respect the Trojans are, and no one's pointing out that an Oklahoma-USC national title game isn’t a guarantee if USC beats Oregon State. USC is a bit more complete right now than LSU and is more explosive on offense, but USC-as-number-two isn’t the slam-dunk that everyone is assuming it is if only because LSU has had more chances to prove how good it is. The strength-of-schedule would suggest otherwise, but USC’s slate is nowhere near as tough as LSU’s with the best Trojan win coming against Auburn. LSU did that as well. As far as those other great USC wins, they’ve come against Washington State, and UCLA. Whoopee. If LSU wins the SEC title, it’ll have beaten Georgia, Alabama at Alabama, Ole Miss at Ole Miss, Arkansas and then either Georgia or Tennessee in the championship. All of those games are tougher than anything USC has had to play since the Auburn game, and losses by Washington State and Oregon State this last weekend are going to kill the Trojans in the BCS formula. Does that mean USC is bad and doesn't deserve to play OU? Of course not. It's just important to recognize there's another team out there playing just as well and that the BCS, with a mind of its own, could change everyone's plans.

    http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2003/5_Thoughts/Five_Thoughts.htm
     
  2. SabanFan

    SabanFan The voice of reason

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    I disagree with the first statement. Even though we had a sub par offensive game, all of the talk is about how the LSU defense went into Oxford and shut down Manning. If we had won 48 -44 it would be Manning for Heisman talk.
     
  3. JoeReckless

    JoeReckless Founding Member

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    Three other good reads from that link:

    3. Why the heck would anyone want to coach in the pros?
    Sure the money is great and you don’t have to recruit or make your players go to class, but there doesn’t seem to be any tangible reason why a superstar college head coach would want to test his mettle in the league of mercenaries. Look at the last three high profile examples of college coaches jumping to the next level. Dennis Erickson doesn’t seem like he’s having much fun getting to deal with Terrell Owens and an average 49er team, Steve Spurrier might as well have FireRonZook.com on his visor so he can go back to being a god, and Butch Davis has to be wondering daily why he’s living in Cleveland when he could be one of college football’s biggest superstars living in south Florida. Looking at the reverse, Pete Carroll, Al Groh and Chan Gailey appear to be having a ball, and success, in the college ranks. And then there’s Keyshawn Johnson. If you’re a star head coach, you’re going to be a multi-millionaire and you’re going to be set for life. Why on earth would you want to deal with players like Keyshawn? If a Super Bowl winning head coach like Jon Gruden can’t handle him, what chance does anyone else have? Don’t think Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, and all the other hot head coaches don’t understand how good their lives are as the man at their schools.

    4. Why Tennessee should play for the SEC title
    The nearly unthinkable is going to happen and the SEC East is going to finish in a three-way tie. Barring a major miracle, Florida will be the odd team out because of its three losses, and that’s probably fair since Tennessee beat the Gators in the Swamp and Miami in the Orange Bowl. Florida, of course, lost its game to Miami in the Orange Bowl. Of course, Georgia blasted Tennessee and might be ahead in the BCS rankings, so in the end it’ll most likely be a Bulldog-LSU SEC championship game. That’ll be a classic game and it might be the most fair as they’re probably the two best teams in the league, but Tennessee should still get the nod. Georgia, while banged up at the time, already got its shot at LSU and lost. Rematches have to be avoided in college football whenever it’s possible or else some of the luster is taken off the regular season. Take away the importance of the regular season, and college football is just another sport. Why should Georgia beating LSU (if it happens) count more than when LSU beating Georgia the first time around? It shouldn’t.

    5. The surprise, disappointment, and best moment of the weekend were…
    The surprise and disappointment were wrapped up into one: the average Rivalry Week games. O.K., so LSU and Ole Miss was almost amazing with Eli Manning having the ball in his hands with one final shot at the SEC and the Heisman, but it wasn't the classic that other great SEC games have been over the years. There was only about a four-minute span of true excitement in Michigan’s win over Ohio State before Chris Perry put an end to any hopes of a thrilling finish. The Apple Cup? Great, the lousy Huskies beat the nation’s sloppiest team, Washington State (PLEASE Cougars, stop with the penalties and turnovers already.) Boise State-Fresno State? Sucked. Oregon State-Oregon? It was a college football game. No more, no less. Alabama-Auburn? It wasn’t bad, but it’ll never be called a classic. Cal-Stanford was only fun because Geoff McArthur went nuts. Utah-BYU was simply sad. The best moment was seeing Michigan State QB Jeff Smoker get his proper respect on Senior Day before coming through with a brilliant performance against Penn State. After everything the guy has been through, few deserve to be honored like he was as the veteran leader in John L. Smith’s turnaround season.
     

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