Ohio State vs. Oregon rematch in National Championship?

[BigWoof31]

Ohio State 45-14-3 v. Iowa. 11 of the last 12 have been wins..... I can't seem to treat that game as an "OSU might lose" sorta game

Maybe Iowa will be 2010's Ole Miss?

Ended the season strong, big bowl win, lots of hype - but eventually can't play that well with a target on their back.

 

[cincibuck]

Maybe Iowa will be 2010's Ole Miss?

Ended the season strong, big bowl win, lots of hype - but eventually can't play that well with a target on their back.

Iowa does not have a huge high school pool to recruit from, doesn't have the history of Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State to draw upon -- that said, they've played tough in the post season and Ferrentz and his predecessor, Hayden Fry, have sent a fair number of kids on to the NFL. IMO they've been a better team over the last 10 years than Ol' Miss. Iowa has played at a .640 average while Ol' Miss played at .520. I don't expect to see them fall off far from 2009 - perhaps going 10 - 3 or 9 - 4 compared with this year's 11 - 2.

 

[Nicknam4]

I'd rather play an SEC team and kick their bloody ass.

 

[scarletmike]

I'd rather play an SEC team and kick their bloody ass.

I agree. Put an end to this SEC silliness once and for all.

 

[Mike80]

Vanilla defense, or a defense that only had to defend 30/40 yards deep? A defense that only needed to stop the touchdown? I was very impressed by how well Iowa's lines handled both sides of the ball -- this with a team relying on their third and fourth string running backs and a true freshman QB, on the road, in one of the acknowledged death valleys of college football.

Iowa's lines were fine since Ohio State was playing the most vanilla of defensive packages. At the time I thought it was because they didn't have much film of the Iowa QB since it was essentially his first game action.

Once they had no choice and dialed it up in OT you saw what happened. Had they blitzed and schemed in regulation like they did in OT it would have been a 20+ point win IMO.

Not to take anything anyway from Tress or the Bucks, they played vanilla because they could afford to, because it was the smart thing to do, because the situations all but dictated it. And it worked.

I don't know where this second statement came from. They sure as fuck didn't play vanilla on defense against scUM or Wisconsin.

 

[cincibuck]

I'd rather play an SEC team and kick their bloody ass.

Not like the Bucks haven't had their chances. Without a win over USC or a top 3 SEC team they're going to continue to get slighted -- and where do almost all of those meetings take place? On the other guys turf.

 

[cincibuck]

Iowa's lines were fine since Ohio State was playing the most vanilla of defensive packages. At the time I thought it was because they didn't have much film of the Iowa QB since it was essentially his first game action.

And playing at home, against a team with two freshman running backs and a freshman QB with little game experience -- why wouldn't the Bucks play vanilla?

Once they had no choice and dialed it up in OT you saw what happened. Had they blitzed and schemed in regulation like they did in OT it would have been a 20+ point win IMO.

And maybe it helped that they only had to defend a third of the field in OT. The Buckeye defense seems to me to excel in short field/red zone situations.

My Quote:
Not to take anything anyway from Tress or the Bucks, they played vanilla because they could afford to, because it was the smart thing to do, because the situations all but dictated it. And it worked.

I don't know where this second statement came from. They sure as fuck didn't play vanilla on defense against scUM or Wisconsin.

The statement came from you. I made no mention of vanilla defense except to respond to you. You're the one who stated that the reason Iowa was able to take the Bucks to OT was because the Bucks played "vanilla defense." I made no mention of Wisconsin or Michigan games -- the later of which was not played in the friendly confines of the 'shoe, is always an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of game.

Look, statistically, tactically, it made all the sense in the world to play safe against Iowa. But let's give Iowa some credit too. The kids played tough and when they caught a break on special teams they grasped the opportunity.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Not like the Bucks haven't had their chances. Without a win over USC or a top 3 SEC team they're going to continue to get slighted -- and where do almost all of those meetings take place? On the other guys turf.

There's a reason it's called The Debacle in the Desert. It was not in SEC territory in January 2007, and it won't be in January of next year either unless the Sun Devils switch conferences out of nowhere.

The No-Show had a great deal to do with team chemistry and very little to do with venue (apart from how long the team had been there exacerbating the team-chemistry problem).

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Vanilla or no, people should remember that the buckeyes were a kick return against and an offsides on Nathan Williams away from blowing Iowa out something like 34-10.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Vanilla or no, people should remember that the buckeyes were a kick return against and an offsides (by 3 inches at most) on Nathan Williams away from blowing Iowa out something like 34-10.

Not exactly a fify... The parenthetical statement I added just highlights your point

 

[stxbuck]

Maybe Iowa will be 2010's Ole Miss?

Ended the season strong, big bowl win, lots of hype - but eventually can't play that well with a target on their back.

My thoughts

1-Iowa won't win all of the close calls they had this year-even counting the tOSU and NW losses. They will get caught up once or twice.

2-It is the Pac-10. The Ducks will not run the table, and will lose a shoot out or two, like every other year. If our RBs read their blocks better, the game is not as close as 26-17.

3-The team to watch out for is VT. They have a tough, nasty D returning, and a stud RB in Ryan Williams. Beamer builds his program in 3-4 year cycles it seems like, and 2010 is the peak of one of those cycles.

4-Bama has 1 starter returning on D. I don't care if you have 3 Heisman RBs returning, that is not a good sign in the SEC-someone will beat them once or twice.

5-Nebraska could also make a nice run, due to a lot of talent returning on D, even without Suh, and a pretty soft schedule-Washington, Idaho, South Dakota State, no Oklahoma, Texas in Lincoln.

6-Georgia-I want to like them, but the OL is always a mess-injuries, and the D-well, let's see what the new coordinator does.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Stx, when you say "The Ducks will not run the table, and will lose a shoot out or two, like every other year." the same sort of reasoning applies to VPI..

VPI loses 3 every year, and it doesn't matter how good they're supposed to be.

 

[stxbuck]

Stx, when you say "The Ducks will not run the table, and will lose a shoot out or two, like every other year." the same sort of reasoning applies to VPI..

VPI loses 3 every year, and it doesn't matter how good they're supposed to be.

I said the Ducks would lose a Pac 10 shootout 45-34, something like that. VT has a nasty defense, and about every 4 years or so has an offense that isn't incompetent-kinda like when they played for the BCS Championship against FSU. This year is the year when the offense should actually score some points.