10-20-08 Give and Take

Forrest:
OK Marty,

Here are my thoughts on college football right now, use them how you see fit and I would be pleased to hear your response.

I think Texas is the unchallenged #1 team in the nation right now. I think they would run Alabama off the field and I think Penn state, while better suited athletically would struggle. Reason being Colt McCoy is so darned efficient its is hard to stop that offense. When you complete 80% of your throws and you can run those are video game type numbers and attributes. Add that to the fact that Texas's DB's are young and getting better every game, also playing in the lead allows them to be more aggressive and not get tight and over think themselves. They will be tested by Kansas and Tech but I think that Defense overall is just too good to lose.

Alabama lacks the explosion on offense to win the National title and maybe the SEC. Yes they put up big numbers against Georgia during the blackout but have struggled against some mediocre teams. When you're constantly playing to the level of your opponent someone is going to catch you.

I love Penn State, I think they have all the tools to win the title and I think a PSU vs UT game would be amazing, like Vince vs USC amazing, however I don't know that they can make it past this weekend. PSU has always tripped up in a big situation recently, (see Michigan '05) and OSU for all the loathing I have for them is starting to look really good. Pryor is legit and Beanie is healthy. I think PSU might have the athletes to contain then, and going against the spread every day in practice helps, but playing in the horseshoe is never easy. By the way does any back that consistently gains over 150 yards a game get less pub the Royster?

Current Heisman:
Colt McCoy
Tim Tebow
Bradford (Can not be ranked ahead of McCoy because McCoy beat him)

Thoughts

Marty:
Texas was damn impressive saturday night, I'm not sure who could stop that offense. But it's exactly the same way I felt about Missouri's offense a couple weeks ago and we all saw how that turned out. So I'm not entirely sure that it's going to stay that way. Oklahoma State had a good game plan against Missouri, maybe they will against texas as well. Kansas doesn't have the skill on defense to hang with texas, and I think texas tech is just going to get bottled up by that texas defense. Even if they beat everyone they are still going to have to win the big 12 championship game, it would be at a neutral site against probably missouri, playing in austin may have had something to do with the way missouri played, they just seem to suck at austin.

Someone has to catch Alabama, I don't know who it's going to be, but it's going to be bad when it happens. Could even be Tenn. who have got to be pissed about where they are at the moment.

I'm torn on Penn State. I see them one week and they are great for a whole game. But against michigan if they don't score at the end of the first half I think it's a different game. I don't think they go crazy in the second half and I'm not sure they win at all much less look as impressive as they do. Penn state really has to beat OSU this weekend to make me think that they could play well against texas, I'm even leaning toward favoring osu in that game. The problem with Penn State getting a bunch of hype is the fact that everyone they've beaten has proven to be paper tigers, so they haven't really shown how good they could be, maybe they will against OSU.

My heisman would probably be something like:
Colt McCoy
David Johnson (Tulsa)
Zach Robinson (OKst)
Graham Harrell
Kellen Moore (Boise)

Forrest:
I think I pretty much agree with everything that you said. Also, I will agree that you should be leading your team to an undefeated season at this point. But that begs the question of how do you define the heisman? Is it the best player in the land or simply the MVP of the best team? I tend to see it as the best player in college football not necessarily the MVP of the best team.

Marty:
I agree with your definition, but at this point in the season all the best players in college football are on one of the many undefeated teams.

Forrest:
Hmm, so you wouldn't consider that Tim Tebow is one of the best players in the land? Nor Sam Bradford? Is McCoy goes 24-28 for 300+ and still loses is he no longer in the fight for the trophy? You couldn't tell me he is somehow less of a player then Boise's QB at that point.

Marty:
First of all, the best quarterbacks statistically in the country right now are all grouped at the top with such ridiculous numbers that the only way you can tell some of them apart is the fact that some have only wins and some have a loss. If McCoy had a great game and lost he would still be on the list. Tim Tebow on the other hand played poorly in their loss and several other games. He had alot of yards in that loss but he made poor decisions on key plays. I think he's a great player, but the fact that he played poorly in the loss to Miss takes him out of my top 5. Boise's QB on the other hand is completing over 72% of his passes and is averaging 267 yards a game with 13 td's and 3 int's. He also threw for 386 and 3 tds at Oregon when they were still ranked. Tim Tebow (who's team is only ranked higher by virtue of their preseason ranking) is completing 62.4% of his passes and is only averaging 2.5 yards a carry and is averaging 236 yards (rushing and passing) a game. I love Tim Tebow but he's not having a heisman year at this point, in the case of Boise he's actually got running backs with better stats behind him...

Forrest:
Have you watched Boise play? I just do not feel good about that guy, too stiff and robotic. Definitely not a next level guy.

Marty:
Being a next level guy is not a requirement for the heisman...and by virtue of the fact that their the only team that plays eveyr wed or thursday for the last two weeks and for the next 23 weeks I've seen and will continue to see quite a lot of Boise. If stiff and robotic gets you a 72% comepletion rate I'll take it any time.

Forrest:
I want to see how he looks against Utah and Fresno.

Marty:
Luckily he only plays Utah State and not real Utah. Boise, Ball State, Tulsa, and Utah all in BCS bowls baby.

Forrest:
That would be horrendous. I am a big conference elitist I think. While it was fun watching Boise upset Oklahoma there is just something about watching games like USC vs Texas or Penn State vs Alabama that get me excited.

Marty:
Utah and Boise did it in the past. History tells us that there's no way all 4 of those teams make it out undefeated. But what if they do? I mean then all your at large bids should go to them. Shame we don't have a playoff.

Forrest:
Every argument against a playoff is ludicrous. It needs to happen.

Marty:
Your 2008 National Champions Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Forrest:
That would be a travesty and here is why. When an underdog wins March Madness or the College World Series they have actually earned it and beaten the best teams. This makes their story even better and more inspiring. If a team like Tulsa beats a 1 loss Big 12 team and gets the title while there are 3 other 1 loss major conference teams then you do not know that they really earned it. Just like USC didn't earn it because they didn't play Auburn.

Marty:
That's why there needs to be a playoff. There can still be bowl games, but there's no reason to not have a playoff. All the other divisions do it. USC earned the title under the system, it's not their fault that Auburn wasn't ranked higher in the pre-season.

Forrest:
Well that is why there shouldn't be preseason rankings. They shouldn't rank teams at all until week 7.

Marty:
Exactly. Also they should give me more money and I should have a girlfriend.