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Game Thread 2015 Sugar Bowl: (1) Alabama vs. (4) Ohio State, Jan 1st @ 8:30p ET, ESPN (civilized thread)

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Coqui said:
So what happens when the personnel provides power run (Ezekiel Elliot) with spread speed run (Jalyn Marshall or Dontre Wilson) with the deep threat pass (Evan Spencer, Devin Smith, or Michael Thomas, or any two of them)?

As well as the formation could be any of those.




And it turns out to be a QB Draw?
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The defensive front is taught to play gap control, and the LBs fill in with help from the safeties unless pass is shown at the snap. Good luck with the QB draw...
 
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jwinslow said:
I thought I would take a minute to address some of the blowback our visitors may encounter on BP:

Regional pride

This is a very foreign concept up here. Iowa City, Madison, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Happy Valley are not very similar and their residents would never say they are from the Midwest. The south takes great pride in their region and often seems to place that above their own hometown when identifying themselves to others (and themselves). This is largely cultural and surely stems in part from the original divide and the development of the culture since then.

Bama fans: applicable

Rooting for conference rivals

Understand that this is viewed as perverse blasphemy and unfathomable up here. Most want Michigan and Penn State to be ruined and to a lesser extent Bucky (and no, psu is not a rival). Some want Michigan to recover but only enough so that the importance and anguish is higher when osu rips out their hearts. It isn't just the principle of the issue though.

Osu and UM do not thrive simultaneously. Their success comes at the expense of the other and often for sustained stretches. The ten year war between bo and woody was epic and the most balanced stretch of the rivalry yet UM was not winning championships. The depth of the conference has waned considerably in the last few decades , between population shifts, scholarship restrictions, coaching payrolls, recruiting budgets and so forth. So our entire perspective is built around The Game and the hatred and hopes for their destruction.

Perhaps if Michigan had been more relevant or if PSU and Nebraska had not had their teeth kicked in when they joined, we might have a different perspective on conference brethren success. But as it stands it is largely a two team conference and those two undermine each other.

Bama: very relevant

Coattail riding

One of the most frustrating trends for us Yankees is the proximity to greatness silliness that goes on in the sec. Your league is phenomenal and has outpaced most other conferences. The depth of talent, coaches and possible title contenders is remarkable. That said, we finally saw the media catch on to the circular logic of the sec this year.

In the early years, it was Bama, lsu and UF and then a steep cliff. You 3 were head and shoulders above the rest yet not only did the fans of mediocre programs pretend like they won too, but the mouthpiece of college football did the same (and was indistinguishable from homer network cbs in their hyperbole ). This was repeated so often that everyone started buying it. This helped transform mediocre programs like south Carolina, ole miss and others who weren't actually winning themselves. Frankly I'd include auburn here but they were always lurking nearby. They needed Florida's dynasty to be derailed by signing away their disgraced future qb.

Worse yet was the special treatment given in the polls. When an unranked sec foe - David - slays goliath , they skyrocket in the polls, while goliath only stumbles slightly. Having your top team fail somehow proves your league's greatness (we even heard this silliness after Bama played poorly against Arkansas but won). In other leagues those upsets are hailed as proof that the league isn't as good as we thought.

This finally came home to roost this year, when the media could no longer ignore the absurd rankings of south Carolina, the aggies, the tigers and the mississippis. Their greatness was self created in a comedic cycle of poll inflation.

What was lost on most people was the inability to spot this phenomenon while still believing the league was strong and deep. It absolutely is, but this cyclical inflation takes it to another level.

Bama involvement: mild. Naturally you would still tout the league's dominance during the rare years where you aren't in the title game, and the cyclical logic helps cover some warts for alabama. But overall you guys do not ride the success of others, they are riding yours.

Oversigning

This was a very hot topic during the tressel years. Natural us fanatics like to delude ourselves into believing that our coach is honorable and the opposition (especially the winners) are the ones guilty of breaking the rules.

Nick caught a ton of flak for having to find 10 extra spots after every off-season. It was easier to hold this objection under tressel as he took a rare sniper approach to recruiting. He would tell kids where they were on the board and cast a very shallow net by position. Combined with a down to earth approach to recruiting (read: not slick or sexy ) he frequently Whiffed on the high profile recruits around signing day, leaving them a few spots under 85 most years.

Fast forward to now and we have an sec coach of our own. While we may try to say he is only wiggling out of a few verbal commitments per year and not cutting 10 each off-season, that is semantics and not a very sturdy high horse :)

Bama: very relevant, but much more hypocritical now with urban running our program

Bowl locations

A major sore spot for B1G fans is the corrupt bowl system that has no end in sight. We get that fans would like a balmy vacation spot for many bowls but the real story is that Midwest fans will travel to any location while the southern schools have little interest or impetus to consider coming up here. This is not why the disparity exists right now, but it is a nice advantage. There is a reason they seed teams closer to home.

Traveling north

Like Oversigning, this is a slightly dated complaint. A decade ago, Georgia, florida and many other sec teams just flat out refused to leave their region. Some of them had gone 60 years without choosing to do so. Florida had gone half a century with out doing it by choice or by bowl selection. Back then, there were a few exceptions to this, namely lsu and Tennessee.

Fast forward to now, and the last few years have seen an explosion in big ooc matchups from the sec. Naturally some still prefer "neutral" matchups in Dallas or Atlanta, but the trend has shifted. I think part of that is the state of the league and each program, as there was no sudden change to inspire Georgia to grow the courage or interest to travel for big games (frankly the non southern schools are viewed with much less respect these days).

Hopefully the playoff committee will inspire more teams to schedule elite ooc matchups. I just wish that those teams would schedule home and away series instead of neutral site paydays. Beating or losing to alabama in Jerry world is nowhere near as exciting as in Tuscaloosa.

Naturally we will never get our wish and bring you up here in late October or November, but a few more elite sec vs osu matchups would be nice if they were in their home stadiums. Sadly the now defunct p12 b1g matchup forced us to cancel our series with Georgia and Tennessee. Hopefully alabama or lsu can be lined up for 2024 or so (which is what makes scheduling those so difficult )

Bama: slightly relevant. Anyone know why the Sparty series was cancelled ?
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Some valid points.I have no idea why the Sparty series was cancelled. Kinda disappointed. We really have no desire to play in the snow so good luck scheduling something late October, early November. Traditionally, that's when we play Tennessee and LSU. As far as rooting for conference rivals, it helps with strength of schedule when comparing conferences which ultimately gives us the benefit of the doubt in the rankings.
 
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tidefan1 said:
Some valid points.I have no idea why the Sparty series was cancelled. Kinda disappointed. We really have no desire to play in the snow so good luck scheduling something late October, early November. Traditionally, that's when we play Tennessee and LSU. As far as rooting for conference rivals, it helps with strength of schedule when comparing conferences which ultimately gives us the benefit of the doubt in the rankings.
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Makes one wonder how much you can hate Barn when you're happy if they win.
 
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Don't believe everything Jwins tells you: ie, within this site there's a not insignificant bunch of us who root for our conference in bowl games and ooc games - that includes Michigan. I also root for anyone playing Notre Dame unless they happen to be this year's Semiholes. Like you, I believe that other conference teams doing well only enhances Ohio State's reputation and chances to get into select games.

Further, if this is to be a National Championship it needs to have a NATIONAL setting. Miami, NOLA, Dallas and LA do not make a NATIONAL setting. If the NFL can site playoff games north of the Mason - Dixon line, then so can CFBS. Don't worry, southern boys have done very well in the winter climate - Bart Starr sneaking it over to beat the Cowboys is still a fond memory of mine.
 
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Buckeye513 said:
I remember when they were playing Oregon some of these silly fucks were rooting for Barn so the crystal football would stay in-state. Unfathomable.
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Vast majority of fans I came across were pulling for Oregon. But I guess if you look hard enough you can always find an example somewhere. Tigerdroppings has an extremely popular SEC form. You can already see tons of Auburn and LSU fans who have changed their logos to OSU and as it gets closer to January many more will. It was the same way for Duck logos vs Auburn. So yea not really.

th
 
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cincibuck said:
Don't believe everything Jwins tells you: ie, within this site there's a not insignificant bunch of us who root for our conference in bowl games and ooc games - that includes Michigan. I also root for anyone playing Notre Dame unless they happen to be this year's Semiholes. Like you, I believe that other conference teams doing well only enhances Ohio State's reputation and chances to get into select games.

Further, if this is to be a National Championship it needs to have a NATIONAL setting. Miami, NOLA, Dallas and LA do not make a NATIONAL setting. If the NFL can site playoff games north of the Mason - Dixon line, then so can CFBS. Don't worry, southern boys have done very well in the winter climate - Bart Starr sneaking it over to beat the Cowboys is still a fond memory of mine.
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Fine points. Just follow the money. It will lead you to the answer every time.
 
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BamaInHoustonRTR said:
Vast majority of fans I came across were pulling for Oregon. But I guess if you look hard enough you can always find an example somewhere. Tigerdroppings has an extremely popular SEC form. You can already see tons of Auburn and LSU fans who have changed their logos to OSU and as it gets closer to January many more will. It was the same way for Duck logos vs Auburn. So yea not really.

th
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I live in Huntsville around real life Gumps and Barners. So yea really.
 
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