2016-2017 NCAA Football Season Thread [ARCHIVED] Football • Page 226

"In hindsight"

 

i understand that they aren't his best team. last night proved that, though this clemson team is better than the one the bama team (probably a worse one) beat last year. but they certainly arent the worst saban bama team. the 2007 and 2010 teams were certainly worse, and the 2013 one probably was as well.

 

I definitely over-exaggerated by saying worst team, but I definitely felt like this was one of his weakest teams to date.

 

I mean, let's not forget (and I'm an Auburn fan, so I'll never let anyone forget) Saban's 2007 team lost to Louisiana Monroe. No contest who his worst team was.

 

I'm already tired of people saying this Bama team wasn't as good as previous years or that they weren't as good as advertised. Nobody was saying this two weeks ago. It really does seem like every time Clemson beats a team, people try to say that the team was overrated and it's ridiculous. Going in, Bama was unquestionably the best team in college football. This team was 14-0 going into the national championship.

 

I have a similar feeling with people saying the "Pac-12 had a down year" just because the usual suspects weren't very good (i.e. Stanford/Oregon/UCLA).

The conference has 5 teams in the final AP Top 25 with two in the Top 4. Just because other teams are good that aren't the standard prizefighters of the conference over the last ten years does not mean the conference was in a "down year".

Been fighting that one all year.

 

Yeah...4 teams with 10 or more wins... what a down year. The SEC had 1. Lol

 

Pac-12 had six teams (that's half the conference) with five or fewer wins. SEC had two. Not saying the narrative that the Pac-12 was having a down year isn't dumb or that the SEC wasn't having a down year, but you can't just look at it one way.

 

True. Another interesting tidbit here...

6/12 teams in Pac-12 (Half) finished .500 or below in conference play.

10/14 teams in SEC (Over 70%) finished .500 or below in conference play.

The Pac-12 at least at some parity meanwhile the SEC has little to none. Now, I'm not sure this is an issue with teams not named Alabama being poor more than it is just that Alabama is that much further along that all of them moreso being the problem.

 

Six from each conference finished below .500*

I don't necessarily see those differences in the Pac-12 to be a signifier that they are a better conference.

 

I was just assuming that statistic was the main thing driving the negative narrative, so I was offering evidence for a counter narrative.

 

Nope. We're fighting. Time to fight.

 

I don't even know what we are doing here. I never was arguing which was the better conference, although I do believe the Pac-12 was better than the SEC. The SEC gets all the love because they have Bama, and I get that.

I was merely arguing that the Pac-12 did NOT have a "down year" as so many have said because the usual suspects weren't at the front of the pack.

 

See: The above post

But yeah you're right, the Pac-12 was shit on all year because USC wasn't immediately good and Stanford, UCLA, and Oregon were bad while Colorado and Utah were top teams.

 

I think Stanford turning it around after consecutive blowout losses to Washington and Washington State in Sept/Oct helped and then the second half resurgence of USC put the Pac-12 back in the mouths of the media at the end of their articles/tv and radio shows.

If the end result of the conference this year was the same but you swap out USC and Stanford with Utah and Arizona State then the Pac-12 is likely getting shredded even more so.

 

I think it's a shame that individual teams get judged by the perceived quality of their conference. I mean conference determines SOS so I get it to an extent, but the actual quality changes so much year to year.

 

Solution - relegate half the FBS.

 

Auburn OC Rhett Lashlee just left for, uh, UConn?

I am beyond confused and incredibly bummed that Lashlee is leaving Auburn for UConn. Makes me worried that something is about to come out at Auburn. Malzahn did the same thing leaving for Ark St (granted as the HC) the year before Chizik got fired. Went from very excited for next season to very nervous.

EDIT: Already talk that we might hire Art Briles. Hell. No. I would have to hand over my fandom. Please don't be that dumb, Auburn.

 

Sources are now saying that there's no chance that Auburn hires Art or Kendal Briles. I can breathe.

 

Good, now remain true for every other school in the nation.

 

The pay-cut that Lashlee took to leave for UCONN is huge. He's really betting on himself.

 

The Auburn source specifically stated the sexual assault case as the reason why he won't be interviewed. It's so sad that it was even on the table (by media & fans), but such is the state things, sadly.

 

2007 doesn't really count. He was still cleaning up the mess of a roster and trimming the fat from the program. Didn't even have the full coaching staff he wanted until 2008.

2013 was a great team and one of the best despite them not winning it all and dropping the sugar bowl against Oklahoma. That season was derailed by the Auburn black magic. Bama would have lit up Jameis Winston (sorry, but the dude is not mobile enough to give Alabama trouble) in the BCS game and we'd be talking about a 2011-2013 threepeat. Senior McCarron was as good as any QB in the entire country that season. Yeldon, Drake and Henry at RB. The Bama defense was so deep that year too... CJ Mosley, Clinton-Dix, Landon Collins, Vinnie Sunseri, etc.. I thought that team was better than the 2012 team, it just didn't pan out the same.

Same goes for 2016. That team was better than 2015's. Results just weren't the same.

With that said, Saban's weakest championship team (2009) was the only one that went undefeated. That team was sooo vanilla and they basically just fed the ball to Mark Ingram all season and chewed clock to win games. It worked though and they ran the table with it.

 

Seeing reports that Cristobal is leaving Bama to be co-OC / OL coach at Oregon, dang

 

Smart left and Saban got stronger. Cristobal leaving should be a positive for me but they'll probably allow no sacks next year while allowing Hurts to do his taxes under center.