bicranium

They let Cardale do his thing week 1 vs. VT. He had some bad plays in that game but it never looked like they were anywhere close to pulling him. JT came up in what was basically garbage time. Cardale had no real reason to worry about being pulled moving forward. Cardale has been given 3 weeks of game prep as the starter, getting most of the reps with the 1's, and the offense has gotten worse each week. JT hasn't exactly lit it up when he's come in to save the day but he hasn't been getting the reps in practice and the gameplan has been for Cardale. I think he deserves his shot this week. Give him all the game prep for a week, WMU is similar to NIU (WMU was picked over NIU to win the MAC West, WMU gave MSU a tough game week 1) so it should be telling if JT is the starter this week and all of a sudden the offense clicks.

I don't think it's possible for me to agree with anything more than this ever in again in my entire life. There is absolutely no identity whatsoever for the offense right now. It starts with the OL (Price and Boren have played like hot garbage so far this season) but every snap, regardless of the QB, there is a different set of guys surrounding them. There is no consistency. No opportunity to get in rhythm. Neither QB has looked even good in their time on the field thus far but they've been doing all their game prep with Cardale as the starter. I think after this one they've gotta at least give JT a shot as the starter all week in practice and then into the game. They go out there with Cardale and his offense but there's no Devin Smith, the OL isn't playing like it was at the end of last season, maybe Zeke isn't either, you can't tell because of the OL, and then they pull him and throw JT out there and try to run some funky hybrid of his offense last season and whatever the offense has tried to be this season and it just isn't working. As everyone else has said, at least he defense looks great. That's the only part of the team that is still playing at the same level they were at the end of last season if not better. Right now this doesn't remind me of 2002... it reminds me of 2003.

Paul Finebaum was saying all this off-season that he wouldn't be surprised if no SEC team made the playoffs. Mark Schlabach had an article on ESPN Saturday night talking about the SEC's flawed logic regarding their conference's strength. Everything ESPN does is orchestrated and these SEC guys flipping a switch this hard is too obvious to me.

Week 3 picks #14 Georgia Tech vs #8 Notre Dame #18 Auburn vs #13 LSU #15 Ole Miss vs #2 Alabama Stanford vs #6 USC N. Illinois vs Ohio State (66-6... THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST) #19 BYU vs #10 UCLA I honestly think they're trolling. I think they're looking for any reason to downplay the SEC and praise the B1G right now because they're hoping for the SEC to prove people wrong in the post-season so they can pull this giant Nelson from Simpsons "HAHA" at the end of it. They've been getting complaints for several years now about their SEC bias so I guess you saying they're flipping the script is accurate but I think their motives aren't pure. Bama wins the NC at the end of this season and they won't be able to find enough SEC dicks to put in their mouths. Not saying I'm predicting Bama to win it all or OSU to lose it all, just saying I think that's ESPN's play right now. Throw as much praise, rational or not, on the conference they've shit on for the last 7-8 years (ie. David Pollack after the VT game saying this OSU team would be the highest scoring offense in NCAA history) and if OSU or MSU win it all... they're validated. And if an SEC team wins they come back with a "AND THAT'S WHY WE'VE BEEN SUCKING THEIR DICKS FOR ALL THESE YEARS." The only scenario where they lose is if a B1G or SEC team doesn't win it all.

Torrance is probably more realistically 6'4", 4.4. Still a beast. Have to see if his ankle is healed enough to go. Any freshmen who don't play today (sans injured guys like Gibson and Weber) will likely redshirt. Also, OSU going with the same jerseys from the national championship game. Big, gray stripes and black numbers on the shoulders. I wish the black numbers weren't there but other than that those jerseys (and their away version which was worn vs. Bama and VT) are absolutely perfect.

Pretty much. OSU has some control over the out of conference scheduling and when they scheduled VT they were typically a top 15 team. But OSU has no control over the conference and the fact that Michigan and Penn State have been duds in the B1G East for so long now is an issue. Franklin is looking less and less like the answer in State College and of course it's way too early to tell with Harbaugh but his history says he should be able to right the ship. Also, during the SEC's 7 year stretch of championships they always claimed their tougher schedule was the reason they did better during bowl season. Their teams were more tested. Now they're saying their struggles in the post-season are due to beating up on each other and teams from other conferences being so well rested. It's quite hilarious.

They take everything posted there as pure gospel. Look, the French guy is good at analysis and knows more about football than I probably ever will but in the end he's still a VT fan so his stuff is going to have a tinge of bias no matter how hard he tries. When he posted a couple months ago that he was more confident that VT would beat OSU than he was that VT would beat Pitt that's when my disdain for VT fans started. Most of them genuinely believed OSU didn't really get any better as last season progressed and other teams simply didn't have the talent/coaching to do what VT did to them. VT's defense IS talented and Bud Foster IS a great defensive mind but to say that MSU, Bama, even Michigan and PSU (whose defenses were statistically fantastic even with their dead weight offenses) don't have similar talent and coaching and OSU simply took advantage of dumb coaches and unskilled players? Please. Whenever TKP's analysis was posted on reddit OSU fans would point out and paste links to tons of articles and analyses about how Urban and Herman started working on "bear beaters" pretty much as soon as the VT game ended last season and VT fans would just say the teams didn't do it right or didn't have the personnel. I can agree on the personnel as Urban said himself after the VT game last year that he could only think of two teams in the country with the players to try and pull it off - MSU and Bama. OSU ended up playing both and neither of those teams tried it because their coaches were smart enough to recognize the changes OSU had made after the VT game and knew if they tried the exact same defense VT used last season they'd get burned. And guess what? Foster agreed because he changed his own scheme up for this year's game knowing OSU had made adjustments and improved. And what is TKP's/French's reaction in his analysis? "VT should have just run what they did last year." I wish Ross Fulton's stuff wasn't behind a paywall at Rivals. He tweeted when he joined the staff there within the last month or so that his stuff likely wouldn't be behind the paywall but sure enough, game 1 in the books, can only read a couple paragraphs. For those who don't know, Ross Fulton would be the OSU equivalent of TKP's French. Lots of football knowledge but still a fan in the end. But I would love to get the OSU-flavored side of the story. And with all that said I'm done with VT. Rainbow Warriors in town tomorrow. OSU is a 40+ point favorite. I think OSU will probably put up 70+ a couple times this year due to the weak schedule and the fact that OSU has 2 QB's who are probably better than about 90% of the starters across the country. Tomorrow is one of the better opportunities for that to happen.

I probably watched that 20 times when it went up. I had to figure out if the thumping sound was actually Thomas' feet hitting the ground. For the sound of his stutter step to be loud enough to get picked up there he must have put so much force into it. Also, VT fans are all convinced Fuller wasn't 100% for the game since Thomas beat him several times. Got him on the slant early, drew the PI in the end zone and then just embarrassed him with the stutter step. This series definitely made me dislike VT fans quite a bit.

Also, polls are out. Obviously OSU kept the #1 spot in both. Even retained all of the first place votes in the AP. Bama and TCU flip flopped in each poll. ND moved up a couple spots in each. A&M is in the top 20 in both now. SEC has 10 teams in the AP top 25 and 9 in the coaches poll which is probably warranted. Tennessee smothered Bowling Green limiting the MAC powerhouse to just 550 yards and 30 points. Mississippi State had a dominating 34-16 victory over traditional power Southern Miss which gets the Golden Eagles off to a rocky start as they were hoping to improve upon an impressive 3-9 season in 2014.

I believe we used it for the 2-point conversion to tie it in regulation. My issue with the throwbacks working against OSU again is that the defense seemed to have that fixed last season. Michigan and Michigan State killed OSU with throwbacks in 2013. Not even kidding, I think Michigan had close to 200 yards on throwback screens. But last year a few teams tried them since they worked so well in 2013 and I can only remember one that didn't get stopped for less than 5 yards. I don't know whose fault each of the TD's on throwbacks were last night but it seems Josh Perry was at fault for at least one and maybe both.

Probably an 11W comment. Up until a couple days ago everything I was reading said JT was going to start and that's what I thought all along myself just going off last season so I wouldn't have said anything about running Cardale. He definitely did some damage running tonight though, 99 yards rushing. VT made him keep on the option all night and he did enough to hurt them. That was a much better performance out of the offense than I was expecting though. So awesome seeing Braxton out there making plays again. The offense wasn't at full strength due to 4 of the top 5 WR's being out but it was still this crazy Frankenstein mixture of the last couple seasons. You had Cardale's arm, Zeke's running, Braxton's everything, JT comes in for spot duty and scores almost instantly... it was awesome to watch. That VT defense is good and at less than 100% OSU still put up almost 600 yards and 42 points despite 3 turnovers. I don't like how OSU is consistently losing the turnover battle going back to November of last season but they keep winning so whatever.

Sounding like redshirt freshman Parris Campbell will start opposite Mike Thomas at the other WR spot Monday night. He played mostly RB in HS and was recruited as basically another "Percy Harvin" type guy but is apparently just a plain WR now. Interesting note about him... he is young. He was 16 when he got to OSU, turned 17 his first summer in Columbus and just recently turned 18. He's younger than many of the true freshmen on the team. He skipped either kindergarten or first grade, not sure which.

Official OSU-VT trailer from Ohio State...

I posted my feelings on TCU possibly returning to a more "normal" existence (along with Baylor) in the last thread. TCU lost a good chunk of their defense which was mean last season and returned basically their whole offense which averaged over 45ppg last season. They're going to be leaning on their offense most of the season and if they can only put up 23 in tough games they could be in for a few losses this season.

Will never forget the title of the article about big, bad Urban Meyer and how destroyed Florida. "From Champs to Chomped: How Urban Meyer Broke Florida Football." My default response to every idiotic Florida fan after OSU hired him was simply... "I hope he breaks OSU football the same way he broke Florida football."

I should have added it. I just took the list of games that were being picked from the last thread and stuck with it. Because I'm lazy. Will definitely be flipping back and forth between TCU-Minnesota and Utah-Michigan tonight.

Games start today, don't want the other thread crapping out in the middle of the weekend or the OSU game Monday night so starting fresh. The big games that were being picked on the back end of the last thread for those who would like to add their picks... #2 TCU at Minnesota Washington at #23 Boise State Virginia at #13 UCLA Louisville vs. #6 Auburn (neutral site game) Texas A&M vs. #15 Arizona State (neutral site game) Texas at #11 Notre Dame #20 Wisconsin vs. #3 Alabama (neutral site game) #1 Ohio State at Virginia Tech http://i.imgur.com/d7VNSfs.gif

Are you trying to sell that truck or...?

Remember to check your DVR's and make sure they're set to record tonight's episode. With DirecTV since I only have it set to record the first run of an episode it considers tonight's finale a second run so I had to set it manually. Also, the episode tonight should be at least 1 hour 15 minutes of TV time so adjust for that if you have to. There's also supposed to be something after the end credits so I added an additional 15 minutes to make sure I get that as well.

Only reason I picked up on it is because I have an A&M friend who has been talking about this game for probably a year. I've been bashing A&M's horrible non-conference schedule (basically Baylor-level bad for the past few years) so he's been throwing this one around as much as he can.

They do have Petrino back. This will be his 2nd year back at the Ville. Was funny hearing about the Kyle Flood thing at Rutgers last week and thinking if they end up firing him it would be great if they got Schiano back. Would be like going back in time 10 years except both teams are in real conferences now. My picks... #2 TCU at Minnesota - TCU probably wins by about what Vegas expects, 2 scores. Minnesota is solid but unless their new RB just bursts out with Cobb-level production they're going to have to adjust. Washington at #23 Boise State - Petersen hasn't been great at Washington yet. Not Dan Hawkins-level terrible but not great. Virginia at #13 UCLA Louisville vs. #6 Auburn (neutral site game) - interested to see how good Auburn actually is since they're getting crazy hype Texas A&M vs. #15 Arizona State (neutral site game) - going with A&M here. Like their QB and their WR's are pretty good. Chavis should have the defense at least respectable which couldn't really be said since Sumlin has been there. Texas at #11 Notre Dame #20 Wisconsin vs. #3 Alabama (neutral site game) - probably a closer game than anyone down south would expect. Bama has some things to figure out. Wisconsin will do what they do. Just hope Stave is ready to actually play some QB. #1 THE Ohio State Buckeyes at Virginia Tech - keep VT under 20 and OSU wins. Just need the defense to play at the same level they did in the post-season and the offense will manage with 3 of their top 4 WR's suspended. Urban seemed excited about Braxton at his new position for the first time really at his presser yesterday so we'll see if he's ready. BTW - had to change a few things. Louisville vs. Auburn is in Atlanta and A&M vs. Arizona State is in Houston.

I think I might start a new thread Thursday AM since we're probably getting close to the point where the thread will start double posting and we don't want to deal with that/starting a new thread right in the middle of opening week.

I really have no idea how good Utah is so that 19% number is surprising. I'll definitely be flipping back and forth between the Minnesota/TCU (ESPN) and Utah/Michigan (FS1) games Thursday night. Vegas' input on those games... Utah favored by 6. TCU favored by 14 1/2.

I want Minnesota to do well vs. TCU and I expressed my lack of faith in TCU's greatness this year but they don't have Cobb anymore. Definitely think it could be a good game Thursday night but not getting my hopes up for the upset. Michigan @ Utah should be a good game Thursday night as well.

Think I'm gonna go crazy with my playoff predictions... Ohio State - homer/chalk pick Georgia - they never seem to be able to go into a season healthy/without some kind of weird suspension (not too dissimilar from us the past few years I guess). But it seems they've made it through this off-season unscathed. Not a ton of certainty throughout the SEC and they've got Chubb. Oklahoma - I have this weird feeling that TCU and Baylor are going to drop a few games a piece this year. TCU was a 4-win team the year before last and lost a lot of their defense from this past season. Everything is on Boykin and Co. to outscore people but even looking at their demolition of Ole Miss in their bowl game Boykin was far from perfect (3 picks). Oklahoma emerges from the Big 12 victorious and things start to go back to normal in the conference as Texas wins 9+ as well with one of those coming against Baylor or TCU. Oregon - I'm just a big fan of Vernon Adams. Oregon has a lot of returning players aside from Masoli and I was never all that impressed with him anyway. Adams was recently named the starter after officially joining the team just a couple weeks ago. I am the conductor of the Vernon Adams hype train. Edit: I just now read Johnny Bravo's post 2 posts ahead of mine and see him mentioning Georgia/Oklahoma as well...haha. Be brave man! No torn ACL's for Georgia's OL yet this year. Chubb hasn't gone out and signed everything in sight like AJ Green and Todd Gurley did... yet. Oklahoma is operating somewhat under the radar. And obviously I'm right with you on TCU/Baylor dropping off a bit from this past season.