Jan 7 | BCS National Championship | Alabama

[WV-IRISH-FAN]

GO IRISH!!!

 

[gcashwell]

UA's injured Center Barrett Jones.

Correct.

Jesse Williams (the guy who benches 600) is said to be 'limited', and uncomfortable in his knee brace. Other reports say that Bama's secondary, which has been banged up most of the year, is feeling better.

I hope these teams meet at close to full strength. I had a long conversation with my father-in-law (a Notre Dame grad) who agreed that there will be no way to tell who is going to win.

You are a fool if you bet on this game.

 

[ARALOU]

Lots of folks around here seem to think its a done deal for Bama. I read an article in a south Tn newspaper that honestly said something about NDs weak schedule and how they got lucky against a "hapless" Pitt team. Shelbyville Times Gazette also ranked it as the 6th best bowl game of the season. LOL

 

[gcashwell]

Lots of folks around here seem to think its a done deal for Bama. I read an article in a south Tn newspaper that honestly said something about NDs weak schedule and how they got lucky against a "hapless" Pitt team. Shelbyville Times Gazette also ranked it as the 6th best bowl game of the season. LOL

I have seen a lot of stuff like that too. Strength of Schedule can be ridiculously subjective. We don't know who had a tougher schedule.

One thing I do know is that this game is going to feature some big kids running into each other really hard. As a 150 pounder, I can appreciate that.

 

[ThePiombino]

I have seen a lot of stuff like that too. Strength of Schedule can be ridiculously subjective. We don't know who had a tougher schedule.

I do. It was Notre Dame. And before you say ANYTHING, I refer you to the following:

W Kentucky
Florida Atl
W Carolina

 

[DSully1995]

I have seen a lot of stuff like that too. Strength of Schedule can be ridiculously subjective. We don't know who had a tougher schedule.

One thing I do know is that this game is going to feature some big kids running into each other really hard. As a 150 pounder, I can appreciate that.

Paging Whiskeyjack, need those comp rankings in here, because SOS can be objective

 

[phork]

Lots of folks around here seem to think its a done deal for Bama. I read an article in a south Tn newspaper that honestly said something about NDs weak schedule and how they got lucky against a "hapless" Pitt team. Shelbyville Times Gazette also ranked it as the 6th best bowl game of the season. LOL

Err we did get lucky vs a pretty bad Pitt team.

 

[gcashwell]

I do. It was Notre Dame. And before you say ANYTHING, I refer you to the following:

W Kentucky
Florida Atl
W Carolina

Objectivity only comes from stats, and there aren't enough common opponents or enough games to come up with truly meaningful statistics.

The better metric is to see that Notre Dame didn't lose. That says a lot.

 

[ThePiombino]

Objectivity only comes from stats, and there aren't enough common opponents or enough games to come up with truly meaningful statistics.

The better metric is to see that Notre Dame didn't lose. That says a lot.

I repeat:

W Kentucky
Florida Atl
W Carolina

There is no honor in scheduling those teams.

 

[scUM Hater]

Notre Dame athletes helped after Alabama tornado - US News and World Report

From last year but still a good story. Hopefully Karma will work out.

 

[Rocky2820]

Notre Dame athletes helped after Alabama tornado - US News and World Report

From last year but still a good story. Hopefully Karma will work out.

Here's a related video: University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

 

[gcashwell]

Notre Dame athletes helped after Alabama tornado - US News and World Report

From last year but still a good story. Hopefully Karma will work out.

That is very well known down here. Those of us who lost property and loved ones genuinely appreciate it. We didn't want to admit it, but we needed all the help we got.

This type of things help remind us that these are kids playing a game, and there is no need for animosity.

 

[Bishop2b5]

I repeat:

W Kentucky
Florida Atl
W Carolina

There is no honor in scheduling those teams.

I'm not necessarily trying to defend scheduling such opponents, as they are cupcakes and our fans don't like it much either. I'll just give an explanation of why they're scheduled.

There are two reasons. First, we usually play an exceptionally tough conference schedule. Some years it works out where we don't play the powerhouses of the other division or, like this year, some the usually tough teams we play like Ark, Auburn, and TN are down, but most years an 8 game SEC schedule sees us face a murderer's row of top 25 teams. Couple that with playing a marquee OOC matchup during the season and we usually face a very tough slate of opponents (not to mention the SECCG). We schedule 2 or 3 cupcakes to give ourselves a break, our starters a chance to rest & heal, and our backups a chance to gain some valuable game experience.

Second, some of this is as a favor to the other school or their coach. It gives them a big payday and some exposure that helps them in recruiting. We played GA Southern because their HC was our former HC Bill Curry. He and Mal Moore are still close friends and the money and exposure was a big boost to his program. Same with us scheduling Colorado St next year. Their HC is Jim McElwain, our OC the past few seasons.

 

[scUM Hater]

Can we get a vbucks going to wager if we get more/less than 5,834 visitors/members on this site, lets say 4 hours prior to 4 hours after the National Championship? Over would be a record.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Paging Whiskeyjack, need those comp rankings in here, because SOS can be objective

Sagarin's model ranks ND's schedule as the 31st nationally, and 'Bama's at 33rd.

Fremeau's model rates ND's SoS at 28th and 'Bama's at 50th.

There are definitely objective ways to measure SoS, but there's a lot of variance from one model to another due to differences in methodology. Most would agree that 'Bama's toughest opponents were tougher and their weakest opponents were much weaker than ND's.

I've looked at lots of objective SoS rankings, and most rate our SoS's comparably. In any case, there's very little support for the argument that ND played an appreciably weaker schedule than 'Bama.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Notre Dame athletes helped after Alabama tornado - US News and World Report

From last year but still a good story. Hopefully Karma will work out.

Excellent video. That sort of stuff was appreciated more than you can imagine. I've never seen such incredible carnage as there was after that storm. Huge parts of Tuscaloosa were just completely destroyed and so many people's lives were turned completely upside down from it. We can't say thank you enough for the help.

Hopefully we'll never get the chance to return the favor, but if we do, we won't forget this.

 

[ARALOU]

I thought it was funny that a member of the media regarded Notre Dame's schedule weaker than Alabama's. As for Ga Southern and Curry I am sure you mean Ga State. Ga Southern played Georgia this year and I was told it was a game that was favor to a former Ga coordinator Erk Russell. I asked the Ga fan that told me that if he knew Mr. Russell had passed away in 2008.

 

[yankeeND]

At this point, strength of schedule means very little. People are always going to compare schedules and what not but we are in and that's all that matters! Is not about how you got there, it's about what you do once you're there!

 

[Bishop2b5]

I thought it was funny that a member of the media regarded Notre Dame's schedule weaker than Alabama's. As for Ga Southern and Curry I am sure you mean Ga State. Ga Southern played Georgia this year and I was told it was a game that was favor to a former Ga coordinator Erk Russell.

You are correct about us playing GA State, not Georgia Southern. As for who played the stronger schedule this year, I'll concede that one to you. Our schedule looked very tough in August with Michigan, LSU, Arkansas, Mizzou, Miss. St, Auburn, and TN, but all of those teams were worse than expected.

 

[Irish8248]

people can hate on all our close games but Im actually pretty pumped thats how we won... it means more now that we won and were in than it would to blow teams out or face marginal adversity... Im not a pro on Bamas schedule or results, the comeback in the SECCG was impressive, but ND has faced adversity and learned to win... thats huge in a CG

 

[ARALOU]

Same here. The Irish schedule did not turn out as it appeared it would before the season. Even our one common opponent isnt much of a gage because even though Alabama beat them more convincingly the Irish had not yet gained the swagger and offensive cohesiveness they now have.

The tornado was a terrible tragedy. One that we can relate to around here. Not only because we have had recent fatal storms but also because Carson Tinker who lost his girlfriend in the Alabama storm, is from here.

 

[Bishop2b5]

people can hate on all our close games but Im actually pretty pumped thats how we won... it means more now that we won and were in than it would to blow teams out or face marginal adversity... Im not a pro on Bamas schedule or results, the comeback in the SECCG was impressive, but ND has faced adversity and learned to win... thats huge in a CG

I agree with you completely. Winning close games is no knock on a team. We won a bunch of butt-ugly close games in '92 (and several during our championship runs of the past few years). They build character and confidence. You learn that you can rise to the occassion, take a punch and get up from it, and you learn to face adversity and overcome it.

 

[ARALOU]

Err we did get lucky vs a pretty bad Pitt team.

I know, they are. Good point. They still had a pretty good run game that day. Kicking game not so good. LOL

 

[philipm31]

Excellent video. That sort of stuff was appreciated more than you can imagine. I've never seen such incredible carnage as there was after that storm. Huge parts of Tuscaloosa were just completely destroyed and so many people's lives were turned completely upside down from it. We can't say thank you enough for the help.

Hopefully we'll never get the chance to return the favor, but if we do, we won't forget this.

My brother in law went to Alabama and as we were driving back to their house for a low-key Christmas dinner, he showed me the path the twister took and pointed out that one area where there USED TO BE a forest of trees was GONE and now you could see a mile or further away to some twinkling lights that were never visible from that distance until the tornado ripped them out.

I have been back a couple of times since the tornado and the devastation there is just mind-blowing, almost as bad as when I went to the LSU-ND Sugar Bowl and you could still see the water-lines on the wall of buildings in downtown New Orleans.

Things like that remind us of just how small and unimportant these game are in the bigger picture.

 

[levicarvalho]

Cant wait

 

[BGIF]

Err we did get lucky vs a pretty bad Pitt team.

It's amazing how the predispostion to rain on one's parade can cloud one's perspective.

"a pretty bad Pitt team" Really? Football Outsider's disagrees. They rank Pitt as the #35 team in their rankings out of the 124 Division 1 teams.

Don't let this fact bias your bias but Pitt was ranked higher than all but 3 of Alabama's opponents.

Only A&M #7, LSU #13, and Michigan #21 of Alabama's SCHEDULED 2012 Opponents were ranked higher than PITT. UGA is #10 but they were NOT on Alabama's Schedule. Nor was #6 UF or #12 SCA although many SEC fans and writers will imply that as they're in the same conference. That's the ploy former SEC Commissioner and first BCS Czar Roy Kramer planned when he concocted watered down Division scheduling and Championship Game.


Pitt''s Offense is #36, Defense #34, Special Teams #45, and Field Position Advantage #35 which is pretty uniform. Their QB Tino Sunseri is ranked #18, the highest of any QB ND faced this year.

Pitt put up the 3rd highest Total Offense (in Triple Overtime) against ND's vaunted Defense. And despite another poster's comments about kicking problems ND made 3 of 4 FGs (the miss was a 43 yarder) and averaged 40+ yds/punt. Pitt rushed for 144 yds against ND where only 1 team broke 150 yds for the season. Of Pitt's 144 yds, 103 came in two rushes by Graham of 55 and 48 yds. Their other 31 rushing attempts yielded 41 yds.

ND fans seem to have forgotten it was ND's turnovers and Red Zone mishaps that kept Pitt in the game. Anyone recall Golson's INT in the Pitt End Zone? You guys sure screamed about in the Game Day thread!

Or Rees INT that lead to 7 turnover pts?

Or more significantly everyone seems to recall the "lucky" wide right FG miss by Pitt's kicker in the second OT but all seem to forget it followed Wood's FUMBLE into the Pitt End Zone which preceeded "ND's lucky break". If Wood's holds onto the ball, Pitt would not have been able to even try the FG.

Anyone recall the False Start Penalty which killed ND's first TD drive? ND settled for a FG.

How about the next drive when video replay showed Riddick had NOT crossed the goal line and Riddick was then stuffed for a loss on consecutive plays and ND had to settle for another FG? On ND's first two drives of the game ND ran 8 plays inside Pitt's 10 yd line and could not score a TD.

Seems that "pretty bad Pitt team" could play some Red Zone Defense which should be no surprise as Pitt has the NCAA's 16th Total Defense allowing 325 yds/game. ND but up 522 yds of Total Offense and actually ran 42 MORE plays in that game than Pitt.

Pitt has the 21st Scoring Defense at just under 20 points/game. ND scored 20 in regulation and 9 more in 3 OT's.

The game was only close because ND struggled in the Red Zone.


As for the Shelbyville Times Gazette which commented on ND's schedule being "weak" consider the source. They're located in central Tennessee and have a circulation of 7,500 copies which makes them the 964th ranked newspaper out of over 1400 in the country. If it wasn't for gullible SEC fans and bird cages they'd have no circulation.

BTW, Football Outsiders which shows Alabama facing only 3 teams better than Pitt shows ND faced 5 ranked higher than Pitt, #5 OU, #8 Stanford, #21 Michigan, #23 Michigan St, and #32 BYU.

Bama's next toughest opponent was Vanderbilt at #52.

Football Outsiders's also shows Alabama with only 11 opponents as FEI doesn't recognize games against 1aa teams like Sagarin's 197 ranked Western Carolina.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | FEI COLLEGE FOOTBALL RATINGS 2012

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Nice job BGIF. I was at the game and I saw things, too. The player walk that day was more reminiscent of the Bataan Death March. I still believe, and have almost had this confirmed, that certain key players only made it on the field that day with I/V solutions of fluids, etc. THE GREAT INFLUENZA OUTBREAK OF '12. That affects, morale, timing and then some. So what some call luck, I call the Irish getting their game legs late against a better than average opponent. How many teams played an offensive combo like Tino, Ray the felon, and Shannahan all year?

(Reading this thread lately has been as uncomfortable as walking into a room full of sweaty guys, all just standing around looking inconspicuous.)

 

[BGIF]

The Pitt game was also the week after the upset win over OU in Norman.

Seems I recall reading something about Alabama having a "letdown" at home against A&M after beating LSU in Baton Rouge.

I also recall mention in this thread or the "Good Bad" thread about UA playing A&M with injured and battered players. Like OU doesn't play rugged football.

Anyone remember Farley unsuccessfully trying to stop Pitt's Graham with a one arm tackle on a TD run? Anyone recall that Farley was playing with a soft cast on the other arm due to surgery on that arm 4 days before the game? Were it not for ND's decimated secondary Farley would not have been playing at all.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I remember Farley running him down.

Farley was a little hesitant in the first half, but locked and cocked in the second . . .

 

[Irish8248]

I remember Farley running him down.

Farley was a little hesitant in the first half, but locked and cocked in the second . . .

defn played a much better 2nd half.... the whole team. One stat that consistently gets overlooked on our "lucky-pathetic" win, was that Pitt had 24 or 25 yds in the 4th quarter and during the 3OTs altogether. 25yds. Say what you want about the game, but our defense was plain stingy after halftime