Some CFB questions/thoughts

[victor2111]

We're halfway through the regular season....here are some interesting topics/thoughts.

Struggling teams at the top
Ohio State, TCU, & Michigan State are still undefeated. All three of them have struggle in multiple games against weaker competition. Are they not as good as everyone thought they were(all 3 top 5 start the year, still top 5). Are they just playing to their competition?

New coaching chances making huge impacts
It goes to show, how IMPORTANT coaching is in football. Michigan & Florida please stand up. Harbaugh is a great coach. Top 3 coach in CFB right now(Devil, Meyer, Harbaugh). Harbaugh has won where ever he went. When Michigan lost their first game @ Utah, a close game, everyone laugh saying Harbaugh wasn't ready for what he got into. Now Utah looks like a legit playoff contender & now Michigan has 3 straight shutouts. 3. Impressive. This team is not the most talent team but Harbaugh is getting the most out of them right now.

Jim McElwain is having Florida playing some good football right now. A Florida team that has struggled since Meyer left. 6-0, killed Ole Miss. We will find out how fast Florida is back the next few weeks, as they have a couple big games coming up.

And we can do a toss in to Tom Herman who is killing it at Houston. Undefeated, has that offense playing at a great level. Tom Herman will be at a power 5 conference soon as a HC.

Is it time for some coaches to leave?
Bob Stoops(OU), Mark Richt(UGA), Steve Spurrier(USCe).... Is it time to go?

Have these guys taken their program to the highest level they can? Neither of them can get their team to a Championship level anymore(I know Stoops won 1 but that was like 04). These guys have been at their programs for 10+ years. Is this one of the cases where the programs are at their highest level and the next coach could be a drop off? Do these 3 deserve the right to leave on the own and get a couple more years? If you had the choice, would you get rid of any of them?

Toss in: Kirk Ferentz Iowa. Right now Iowa is undefeated so he has that going for him. But this is a guy that has one double digit winning season since the 2005 season. Now we can argue the same thing, Iowa football will have trouble getting to a elite level. But is 7-6/8-5 the best thing for them?

Undefeated list
There are 16 undefeated teams left. That is all. List will continue to get smaller and smaller. Going to be interesting to see what conference power 5 gets left out this year.

ACC - 2
Clemson
FSU
Big 10 - 3
Ohio State
MIchigan State
Iowa
Big 12 - 3
TCU
Baylor
Oklahoma State
Pac 12 - 1
Utah
SEC - 3
Florida
LSU
A&M
Non Power 5 - 4
Houston
Temple
Memphis
Toledo

[mikeytbuckeyes]

I was talking to my twin brother (who is a South Carolina fan primarily) about how Spurrier needs to step aside after this season. Carolina then needs to give Herman serious consideration. They could still get him at a relatively low price yet get a great deal from him. I seriously doubt he's a flash in the pan kind of coach.
BTW, Oklahoma's title was in 2000 I believe. They played for and lost in the title games in 03 and 08 (I may be a year off on those). Either way, it appears Stoops is doing just enough to keep the Oklahoma faithful happy enough. I,however, think that program could and should do better.
Iowa folks love Ferentz (having seen this first hand during my time living in Cedar Rapids,IA) so he won't be going anywhere until he's ready to leave.
Personally, I think Ohio State, TCU, and MSU should be moved to spots 4-6 and Baylor, Clemson, and Utah fill the top 3 spots (in whatever order you choose) for now. Ohio State may end up being the best team in the country, but they aren't yet. TCU has serious issues on the defensive side of the ball that will prove costly. MSU just simply looks uninspired and almost lost at times.

[keln]

Good questions. As for "struggling" teams, I dunno. You have to define "struggling". If it is based on what they are ranked or what is expected based on late last season...well, none of that really means anything. Even if you want to use comparisons, look at Ohio State last season this time and now. There is no question Ohio State is better this year. They are undefeated and there really haven't been any actual scares. Michigan State is really suffering from a loss of Narduzzi as well as some serious injury problems, but I'm not sure I would call them "struggling" as a team. They are still winning games. TCU is still TCU. I wasn't sold on them last year, so I don't have huge expectations for them now. The Big XII is kind of weak right now, so there isn't a lot in the way of challenges to really find out who TCU is. I mean, they let Minny take them to the wire and Baylor has been putting away cream puffs, while OU couldn't even handle a pretty lousy Texas.

As for coaches leaving...I think Stoops is fine. If the only metric to go by is winning championships, he's already better than most coaches in college football by having 1. Other than that, it is so ridiculously hard to win one, I wouldn't use that as the measuring stick by which to fire a coach. Oklahoma always does well. Their bad seasons are good enough that most fans wish their team did that well. Even if he doesn't have multiple championships, he's taken Oklahoma to a couple other champ games. In the end, replacing Stoops might do far more harm than good. Take it fro ma Tennessee fan: we replaced Fulmer and have been kicking ourselves ever since.

I think Mark Richt has another season in him. He's done well enough at Georgia that there really isn't a good reason to can the guy, but maybe if he can't get at least an SEC championship this year or the next, Georgia should probably look for a new coach.

Steve Spurrier must go. He's well past his prime. I grew up hating Spurrier, but that is just a testament to how good of a coach he was. He just doesn't have that mojo anymore. Whether it is because he doesn't understand today's game so well (I highly doubt that), or he just doesn't have the same passion (maybe), either way he's outgrown the position of head coach and needs to be put out to pasture.

I seriously don't see Ferentz going anywhere in the next couple years.

Mikey: Herman is a new HC. Yeah he's doing great at Houston, but he is new. He needs at least two or three years before heading to a major university to coach. I think he'll do a great job though. Maybe he can have Mark Richt's job at GA in a couple years.

[WANG]

Good stuff HBM, you may never post anymore, so it's good that you make your few posts count

Man, Iowa 6-0? I am still struggling to believe it. Mind you, they haven't played anyone good (outside of MAYBE Wisky), but still, Ferentz doing just enough to keep his job (and probably win another B1G COTY because f OSU, they are never going to win one).

Tom Herman is doing some special things at Houston. I only hope that he is still available when OSU comes a calling (after Meyer retires) and that another big name college hasn't scooped him up. I would be shocked if he is at Houston for more than 1 more season (and I wouldn't be surprised to see him snagged after this year).

[mauricxe]

Steve spurrier needs to go.

[mauricxe]

Looks like steve spurrier is retiring

[mikeytbuckeyes]

I need to win a million dollars.



Hoping for the same kind of response we got by saying Spurrier needed to retire.

[WANG]

Oct 12, 2015 20:49:27 GMT -5 mauricxe said:

Looks like steve spurrier is retiring

Damn Ken, can you throw a "Cubs need to win tonight" my way???