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The thing that stuck out to me was how the lines of Notre Dame - which I thought were a strength - were simply shoved around by Alabama. I was particularly surprised by the defensive penetration of Alabama's defensive line and by the coverage. For the second year in a row, Alabama put on a coverage and open-field tackling clinic. I also was surprised at how much of a non-factor Teo was. Don't get me wrong, I think Teo will be a good LB in the pros, but the defense overall was just beaten up on the lines. And that's just what the top one or two S-E-C schools do.
Well Notre Dame had been getting by in a "bend but don't break" defensive philosophy for most of the year because we're simply not deep enough nor do we have enough 4/5 stars spread out over our starting 11 to play "crush your soul" defense like Alabama does. We relied on strong tackling and limiting big plays and forcing teams to have perfect drives to score on us. Most college football teams can't play perfectly 5 of 6 plays in a row much less a 10 play drive covering 80 yards. Well Alabama played perfectly last night.
We have the #1 recruiting class coming in and we're reloading with more talented players than we are losing for the most part. Te'o will be difficult to replace but we have a lot of 4/5 star talent coming into South Bend plus we have a fair share of returning starters so our future is still bright. We were about a year ahead of schedule making into the MNC this year as it is and we showed that we're close but we're not at the level of the upper tier of the SEC just yet. Losing to Alabama doesn't discredit what a tremendous season we had.
What do U.S. News college rankings have to do with football?
To paraphrase Jack Welch...
"Can't play football. Change the subject."
I actually don't give a crap if the SEC wins every game for the next 10 years.
But if you want to run around bragging about your universities because of their sports programs and make fun of other schools because of theirs (like Vandy) then you've kinda thrown down the gauntlet now haven't you?
Imagine if the Lions had won the Superbowl last year and someone started talking about how Detroit is the greatest? Nah, nobody would laugh their butts off at that one.
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
LSU
Texas A&M
South Carolina
And maybe the 8th best, if they had to play Vanderbilt in Nashville.
ND wouldn't have the guts to schedule vandy at vandy, afterall, they get to play 8 of 12 games at home every year, and in the recent past it's even been 9.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathguy
Yeah, those 3 are good....isn't it funny though that SEC people are making fun of Vandy though in threads like these?
I really don't even know why there is an argument. I think we all agree that the SEC has been a dominant sports conference but come on...academically they aren't anywhere the league of say...the Big10 academically where only Vandy would be in the upper 1/2 or so.
yeah, b/c this is why people tune into college football
But if you want to run around bragging about your universities because of their sports programs and make fun of other schools because of theirs (like Vandy) then you've kinda thrown down the gauntlet now haven't you?
No, that makes no sense at all. That's a very knee-jerk, butt-hurt way to react. It's like threads in the City-v-City forum where one city "loses" according to the criteria established in the OP. The boosters of the city that lost invariably say something like "Fine, you can keep your stupid museums, diversity and subways, but at least I don't have to live in a city with awful weather filled with crime ridden housing projects!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathguy
Imagine if the Lions had won the Superbowl last year and someone started talking about how Detroit is the greatest? Nah, nobody would laugh their butts off at that one.
Please feel free to direct me to the posts where someone claims that a specific school is superior to another on the basis of a football program. Saying that SEC football is superior to ____ Conference football is completely different from saying that SEC schools overall are superior as a result of having better football programs.
Yeah, but that excludes schools that are in the various conferences....ah, of course that's why you want to use the list that removes some of the best schools.
But for arguments sake, we can go ahead and use your list....I passed 4 big 10 schools before I saw the first SEC school.
This is like watching a Big 10 fan trying to argue that their football teams are a match for the SEC's. Waterboard those stats and rankings some more....make them tell the story you want to hear.
Um, I think all the votes are in on this thread. Closed.
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