Pat Forde Blows Away SEC Schedules

[PANDFAN]

Can I get some help here. I'm FriendlyIrish. Trying to keep it friendly...

Notre Dame Very Beatable - Page 4

:banghead2 its the same thing..some get it...a lot of them don't...it's not worth the time

 

[koonja]

Can I get some help here. I'm FriendlyIrish. Trying to keep it friendly...

Notre Dame Very Beatable - Page 4

Remind them of the bowl elegible victories.

ND has played AND beaten 9 elegible teams.

Bama has played 5, beaten 4.

Georgia has played 4.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Can I get some help here. I'm FriendlyIrish. Trying to keep it friendly...

Notre Dame Very Beatable - Page 4

Give credit for UM and LSU.

Point out that Western Kentucky (7-5 in the Sun Belt), Arkansas (4-8), Florida Atl (3-8 in the Sun Belt), Tennessee (5-7), Missouri (5-7), W Carolina (ROFL 1-10 in the Southern), and Auburn (3-9) are all terrible teams.

Although Miss St was #11 when they played them, that was based on a high preseason ranking and wins over Jackson St, Auburn, Troy, South Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Tenn St. WOW. They only won one more game all year and it was against a terrible Arkansas team.

Ole Miss had six wins, here they are: Central Arkansas, UTEP, Tulane, Auburn, Arkansas, and the Miss St team that we just dealt with.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Give credit for UM and LSU.

Point out that Western Kentucky (7-5 in the Sun Belt), Arkansas (4-8), Florida Atl (3-8 in the Sun Belt), Tennessee (5-7), Missouri (5-7), W Carolina (ROFL 1-10 in the Southern), and Auburn (3-9) are all terrible teams.

Although Miss St was #11 when they played them, that was based on a high preseason ranking and wins over Jackson St, Auburn, Troy, South Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Tenn St. WOW. They only won one more game all year and it was against a terrible Arkansas team.

Ole Miss had six wins, here they are: Central Arkansas, UTEP, Tulane, Auburn, Arkansas, and the Miss St team that we just dealt with.

That's the thing. I said bottom half of SEC is 12-44. That is absoulutely pathetic.

They say they are playing all the teams in the top half which is dominant. Whatever.

 

[Cogs]

I hate the SEC so much it's unreal. People have bought into that rigged system so much it's ridiculous. All I've heard from people is that Bama or Georgia will stomp ND because "Notre Dame hasn't played anybody." If you don't think ND has chance you are ****ing crazy. End of discussion.

 

[ARALOU]

Vandy beat one bowl eligible team. Ole Miss.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

That's the thing. I said bottom half of SEC is 12-44. That is absoulutely pathetic.

They say they are playing all the teams in the top half which is dominant. Whatever.

So let me get this circle right: bottom half is only bad because the top is so good, and we think the top is so good because they beat up the bottom, FCS, and small conference schools? Nobody plays anyone out of conference because each week in the SEC you play a great team which is based off the records of the top of the conference, which coincidentally also explains the poor records of the bottom of the conference, which only exist because they have to play the juggernauts at the top, which.......

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Seriously, this is what I get in response:

JMO, but If you play Georgia and Bama's schedule you are 10-2.

Miss. State, TAMU and USCe schedule you are 9-3.

Florida, Ole Miss and LSU you are 8-4.

On the other hand, IMO, Bama, Georgia, TAMU, LSU, Florida and possibly USCe are all undefeated playing your schedule.

Wow. Whatever. Not worth it.

 

[Irish#1]

I was surprised. One Bama poster said the article was slanted, but several did reply they thought it was fair and objective. One actually said he didn't like the fact they play any FCS schools.

One did ask why ND was afraid to join a conference. lol

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

I'm reading their responses now. Interesting...

 

[Black Irish]

Has Alabama or Georgia played any FCS schools? From what I can tell, all of their opponents have been I-A, although several are from nothing conferences. Are FCS and 1-AA the same thing, or am I missing something? I want to be sure before I toss out the FCS line and get it thrown back in my face.

 

[RallySonsOfND]

Has Alabama or Georgia played any FCS schools? From what I can tell, all of their opponents have been I-A, although several are from nothing conferences. Are FCS and 1-AA the same thing, or am I missing something? I want to be sure before I toss out the FCS line and get it thrown back in my face.

Yes they have both played at least 1. I think Bama has 2 and UGA 1.

 

[NOLAIrish]

Has Alabama or Georgia played any FCS schools? From what I can tell, all of their opponents have been I-A, although several are from nothing conferences. Are FCS and 1-AA the same thing, or am I missing something? I want to be sure before I toss out the FCS line and get it thrown back in my face.

Two weeks ago, every contender from the SEC played a member of the Southern Conference with the exception of LSU who'd already done their part in maintaining the noble SEC-FCS rivalry by sneaking past the mighty Towson Tigers. Both schools also played FAU and Bama played Western Kentucky. FAU and WKU are Sun Belt teams that have only recently made the move from FCS to FBS.

To your other question: FCS and I-AA are the same thing. FCS is simply the new term for what used to be Division I-AA.

 

[Rhode Irish]

I support ND but it seems useless to do the comparison week-by-week like that. Every team has peaks and valleys of strength in their schedule. One could say that ND only looks like they have a stronger schedule here because their peaks happened to match up more favorably with the others' valleys.

To get a clearer sense of the strength of schedule, why not just accumulate the opponents of each team and then compare? That seems like the only way that makes sense...In that regard, I think ND and BAMA were around 30th in the nation.

This guy is using a cheap and easy tactic in order to appeal to ND fans. Pretty lame. I support ND but I don't want, or need, to resort to bending facts in order to do it. There is more than enough ammo for ND fans to use against the SEC fanbase.

I read this guy's post yesterday (I think) and thought about responding, but I was too busy. I went to find it today, and see he got banned for it. Haha. That has to be the itchiest trigger finger ever on this site. I mean, the post was stupid as hell, but compared to some of the other posters that made it to, say, 10 posts, I didn't think it was all that bad.

BTW, I'm a big fan of the mods being quick on the draw and erring on the side of throwing people out on their ear rather than letting them troll for a couple days. Not complaining. Just found it funny.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Bama thread response to the Forde article:

As for Forde's schedule breakdown....the gist is that ND doesn't have the pushover schedule some have made it out to be, and that simply playing in the SEC this year doesn't guarantee us a top 10-15 schedule difficulty (thanks Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee). I agree with both points. After reading thru the breakdown game-by-game, it is obvious that the difficulty of our schedules has been very similar to this point. Much moreso than I would have guessed.

The thing I take exception to is how Forde determines whose win was most impressive. Examples:

Fourth-best opponent: Notre Dame played Michigan (20th) at home and won by a touchdown. Alabama played Mississippi (33rd) on the road and won by 19. Georgia hosted Mississippi (33rd) and won by 27. All three won. Most impressive of the three: Notre Dame.

I have a hard time saying ND's win was more impressive. The ratings say Michigan was our 3rd toughest and ND's 4th which means their schedule was a bit more top-heavy, and the intent here isnt to compare our 3rd versus their 4th, but still...we destroyed Michigan...it was never a game. I have a hard time giving this one to ND. It is a push...meaning no one takes away a clear advantage here.

Sixth-best opponent: Notre Dame visited Michigan State (39th) and won by 17. Alabama visited Missouri (43rd) and won by 32. Georgia visited Tennessee (54th) and won by seven. Most impressive of the three: Notre Dame.

I can't even call this a push. The 4 spots between their rank is negligible when you are talking 39 versus 43. We doubled their margin of victory. To say ND's win was more impressive is to say "I couldn't care less if my journalism appears even remotely unbiased". Bama was clearly the most impressive.

Seventh-best opponent: Notre Dame played Miami (52nd) on a neutral field and won by 38. Alabama visited Tennessee (54th) and won by 31. Georgia hosted Georgia Tech (63rd) and won by 32. Most impressive of the three: Notre Dame.

Again, this seems silly. We played at UT in front of 100K+ and won by 31. Sure 38 is one more TD but come on! At that margin you are really talking about whether or not the other team also put in their subs at the same time you did or if they waited 5 more minutes. This one either goes to Bama because it is a true road game in a tough environment or it is a push.

Ninth-best opponent: Notre Dame hosted Pittsburgh (66th) and won by three in triple overtime. Alabama hosted Western Kentucky (82nd) and won by 35. Georgia visited Kentucky (92nd) and won by five. Most impressive of the three: Notre Dame.

Doesn't hold water! We did what we were supposed to against a pushover. Neither UGA nor ND did. Bama was most impressive.

After that they're all a push because they are all blowouts. Comparing blowouts against pushovers is fruitless and doesn't tell you anything about the relative strength of these three contenders.

Oh wait...the 12th best opponent wasn't a blowout for ND! They only won that game by 15 freakin points. We won by 49, but since WCU is #204 I won't even try to make an argument. Of course Forde listed it as another comparison in which ND was more impressive. Geez.

So after adjusting the results to include a bit of common sense, the most impressive win breakdown...

Bama - 5
UGA - 1
ND - 1
Push - 5

...doesn't quite make the point Forde wanted to make. After we play UGA Saturday the comparison gets even worse for ND.

 

[Irish#1]

Bama thread response to the Forde article:

So Western Kentucky is equal to Pitt? LOL

 

[Irish#1]

Here's another response.

Feel free to take offense, ND doesn't have much of one. Your comparison of the Bama run game to Stanford is far worse. Stanford doesn't have an offensive lineman that would start for Bama. SJSU couldn't hold Bama to 37 yards rushing if we started our scout team. wsu held Stanford to 120. Our worst rushing game was against a bowl bound ole miss team, and it was 28-7 at the half.
ND has a decent defense, but you have not played a team with an OL remotely as physical...or receivers that block as well as catch.

I politely told him that if he really believed the scout team would roll, then he's drank way too much kool-aid.

 

[Rhode Irish]

So Western Kentucky is equal to Pitt? LOL

I think the point was that beating WKU by 35 was more impressive than beating Pitt in overtime. Not that the two teams are equal. And I think it's a fair point. Actually, I think a decent amount of that guy's post is fair. The point of Forde's piece was to demonstrate that ND's schedule wasn't soft compared to Bama's (which is a stupid point to have to make in the first place). And Forde's, as much as I love him for writing the piece, didnt need to come to a conclusion about whose win was most impressive to make that point. Just putting the opponents and results up there and letting them speak for themselves would have been sufficient to me.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

I think the point was that beating WKU by 35 was more impressive than beating Pitt in overtime. Not that the two teams are equal. And I think it's a fair point. Actually, I think a decent amount of that guy's post is fair. The point of Forde's piece was to demonstrate that ND's schedule wasn't soft compared to Bama's (which is a stupid point to have to make in the first place). And Forde's, as much as I love him for writing the piece, didnt need to come to a conclusion about whose win was most impressive to make that point. Just putting the opponents and results up there and letting them speak for themselves would have been sufficient to me.

Agree. The kid's post was not bad, and respectable.

However, guy in the same tidefans.com thread straight up told me he thinks Golson is Jordan Jefferson, nothing more. Wow.

 

[Irish#1]

Agree. The kid's post was not bad, and respectable.

However, guy in the same tidefans.com thread straight up told me he thinks Golson is Jordan Jefferson, nothing more. Wow.

I wasn't on tidefans.com so we may be talking about the same poster on two separate forums or two totally different people so there may be some discrepency. Pitt isn't a world beater, but I would pick them head to head against WKU.

The poster I have an issue with, maintains that Stanford would finish 3rd or 4th in either division in the SEC. He also maintains the Irish have no passing game and Alabama's O-line is far superior to Stanford's and would wear down the Irish D-line. I agree that Alabama's O-line is better than Stanford's, but I'm not sure it is significantly better.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

I wasn't on tidefans.com so we may be talking about the same poster on two separate forums or two totally different people so there may be some discrepency. Pitt isn't a world beater, but I would pick them head to head against WKU.

The poster I have an issue with, maintains that Stanford would finish 3rd or 4th in either division in the SEC. He also maintains the Irish have no passing game and Alabama's O-line is far superior to Stanford's and would wear down the Irish D-line. I agree that Alabama's O-line is better than Stanford's, but I'm not sure it is significantly better.

Most of them think we have no passing game. And no team has worn down our D line. If Stanford couldn't do it through OT, it's definitely not a guarantee that Bama's would. I think its quite the opposite: our D-line could quite feasibly wear down their Oline, as they probably haven't seen a D line like ours yet.

The thing I am realizing now more than ever is that stats don't matter with them. No matter what, the argument is circular. It all cames back to your stats don't matter because you don't play in the SEC.

 

[RDU Irish]

Turning around to watch Kappy, Shembo, Tuitt and Nix in the backfield really isn't that exhausting, especailly when you do it three times every half an hour. Our d-line really doesn't wear down offensive lines as much as it embarrasses them.

 

[ickythump1225]

Most of them think we have no passing game. And no team has worn down our D line. If Stanford couldn't do it through OT, it's definitely not a guarantee that Bama's would. I think its quite the opposite: our D-line could quite feasibly wear down their Oline, as they probably haven't seen a D line like ours yet.

The thing I am realizing now more than ever is that stats don't matter with them. No matter what, the argument is circular. It all cames back to your stats don't matter because you don't play in the SEC.

Exactly and it's so frustrating. It's why I don't even discuss stuff SoS or anything like that anymore with SEC homers because they'll just wave it off because we're not in the SEC. So now I just smile and say "I just hope *insert SEC champion* is as cocky and overconfident as their fans."

 

[Irish#1]

Most of them think we have no passing game. And no team has worn down our D line. If Stanford couldn't do it through OT, it's definitely not a guarantee that Bama's would. I think its quite the opposite: our D-line could quite feasibly wear down their Oline, as they probably haven't seen a D line like ours yet.

The thing I am realizing now more than ever is that stats don't matter with them. No matter what, the argument is circular. It all cames back to your stats don't matter because you don't play in the SEC.

That's how this guy is. There are a few that think ND would give them a good game that could go either way. One poster said what worried him most about ND is that this team just finds ways to win games.

Turning around to watch Kappy, Shembo, Tuitt and Nix in the backfield really isn't that exhausting, especailly when you do it three times every half an hour. Our d-line really doesn't wear down offensive lines as much as it embarrasses them.

LOL

 

[RDU Irish]

I didn't put it in italics, therefore I take offense to your laughing at my comment.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Some guy on tidefans told me that because we got lucky against Pitt, we are not a championship caliber team. God I am so pi**ed right now.

Anyway, and I want to know what teams in the past have made their NC run, where they had a few things go there way during the season that allowed them to get there. Florida, 2007? I can't remember distinctly enough at this point.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Anyway, and I want to know what teams in the past have made their NC run, where they had a few things go there way during the season that allowed them to get there. Florida, 2007? I can't remember distinctly enough at this point.

I can tell you the number of games that were decided by less than a possession during a champion's season...

2011: Alabama - 1
2010: Auburn - 6
2009: Alabama - 2
2008: Florida - 1
2007: LSU - 6
2006: Florida - 4 (a loss by 10 points, too)
2005: Texas - 2
2004: Southern Cal - 4
2003: LSU - 3
2003: USC - 1
2002: Ohio State - 7
2001: Miami 1
2000: Oklahoma - 3
1999: Florida State - 3
1998: Tennessee - 4
1997: Michigan - 4
1997: Nebraska - 3
1996: Florida - 3
1995: Nebraska - 0

You'd have to go all of the way back to 1995 to find a team that clearly won every game.

It's also work pointing out the stats of the Pittsburgh game. I know the first downs was 13 to 34 in favor of Notre Dame and the yardage was ~300 to ~500 in favor of Notre Dame.

 

[ickythump1225]

Some guy on tidefans told me that because we got lucky against Pitt, we are not a championship caliber team. God I am so pi**ed right now.

Anyway, and I want to know what teams in the past have made their NC run, where they had a few things go there way during the season that allowed them to get there. Florida, 2007? I can't remember distinctly enough at this point.

My wife is a big Gators fan so I bought her this commemorative book for that 2006 season and she was just looking through it the other week and she was like "man we were so lucky that season." They had several close calls including a blocked field goal to win.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

I can tell you the number of games that were decided by less than a possession during a champion's season...

2011: Alabama - 1
2010: Auburn - 6
2009: Alabama - 2
2008: Florida - 1
2007: LSU - 6
2006: Florida - 4 (a loss by 10 points, too)
2005: Texas - 2
2004: Southern Cal - 4
2003: LSU - 3
2003: USC - 1
2002: Ohio State - 7
2001: Miami 1
2000: Oklahoma - 3
1999: Florida State - 3
1998: Tennessee - 4
1997: Michigan - 4
1997: Nebraska - 3
1996: Florida - 3
1995: Nebraska - 0

You'd have to go all of the way back to 1995 to find a team that clearly won every game.

It's also work pointing out the stats of the Pittsburgh game. I know the first downs was 13 to 34 in favor of Notre Dame and the yardage was ~300 to ~500 in favor of Notre Dame.

This is legit. Thanks. Man, Florida '06.

 

[Irish#1]

I didn't put it in italics, therefore I take offense to your laughing at my comment.

Sorry