WTD25

My nightmare is tosu, but if Oregon wins the championship, I’d want it beating tosu . . .

What is the minimum Oregon has to do for you to consider the season a success? I ask this question now because I assume most of us would have been disappointed with the season had the Ducks not made the playoffs. Now that they have, I'll bet there's a little more diversity of thought about how to define a successful season. Winning one playoff game isn't enough for me. I view the game against JMU as a "non-conference warm-up game". If this game is anything less than a warm-up game (i.e., close game), I have far bigger concerns. Winning two playoff games is my minimum requirement to consider the year a success. The Ducks can't go out against a BIG 12 team; can't happen. The Ducks need to make it to the Semi-Final game . . . otherwise I'll be a Negative Nancy.

I think the game is a coinflip. I'm rooting for Oklahoma.

Beautiful . . . simply beautiful.

He had the maturity and long-term outlook to realize he needed to sit for a year and learn. My guess is that same approach will be applied here. Moore will recognize that more experience is what is best for him.

We here at the OBD Forum know a non-answer when we hear one. Maybe he's negotiating a better contract with ASU, or maybe he's on the way out . . .

You humbly disagreed with me, but I don't disagree with anything you said . . . which means I think we might actually agree :) Wasn't trying to defend ND over Miami, I understand why the committee did what they did. I just happen to think they should both be out. To steal the line of yours that I "quoted" above: "Your 3 point win to ND shouldn't overcome the two head-scratching losses to unranked teams>" My opinion is kick both ND and Miami out, and pick one of BYU, Vanderbilt, or Texas.

Thanks again for the article! This is in no way a defense of ND--I like that they're excluded--but I'm still a bit burned that Miami got in. My rationale: Head-to-head matchups should matter, but only increasingly as the year goes on and teams develop. For example, the Ducks got blown out by GA in Dan Lanning's first year. However, I'll bet the game is closer if they had played again at the end of the year. My point, when Miami and ND faced off in week one, no one had any idea what to expect. ND lost by 3. In my mind, that game is a wash for both teams. ND then lost the next week to TA&M by 1 point. ND's two losses were at the very beginning of the year, when teams are NOT the teams they'll be by the end, and ND lost to two very good teams by a total of 4 points. In my mind, what happens the remainder of the year is more important. ND continued to win and appear to get better while Miami lost to two unranked teams . . . should be game over for Miami. Your overall point--one I agree with wholeheartedly--is that teams that just missed out on the 12-team playoff need to be quiet, because they are miles from qualifying for a 4-team playoff. My favorite justification for an expanded playoff was that the pool would be large enough to remove any risk of potentially leaving out a national championship caliber team. With 12, all teams capable of winning the Natty are in, and they're likely in the top 5-7 . . . definitely not in the 10-13 rank. But who knows, I guess . . . that's why they play the games.

Nicely done Indiana! Almost nothing better than seeing tosu lose. Cignetti reminds me of Mike Leach. Very entertaining to listen to.

Indiana! Let’s go!!! Take down tOSU

Darn!! - Time for this OBD Forum topic to disappear to the depths.

Seeing these "hostage" tactics are bit disheartening . . . but that's the way it is for the time being. Not sure why every Top 5/10 player doesn't simply "not sign", and say they're "weighing their options". A flood of teams will rush in with their actual highest and best offer.

What a line up of teams going after him. Didn't know LSU was involved, but Kiffin still wants a say.

Henry announced for Ohio State. Oregon has the No. 3 ranked receiver in the nation along with the No. 15th best receiver in the US signed in this class. Plus we add Brandon Bair, one of the fastest players in America to the team this fall as well as he returns from a two-year mission. So next year we have Evan Stewart, Dak, McClellan, and a ton of talented freshmen. We are in GREAT shape at receiver... Evan Stewart

I’ll go with my usual OC request: An under-the-radar, up-and-coming phenom that Dan Lanning has identified first.

Thanks @Darren Perkins for the article. Re: your comment about the conference championship needing to go . . . I stumbled across this yesterday. I thought it was intriguing:

@AnotherOD

Each column is a comparison against itself, with green (good), yellow/orange (middle), and red (bad/worst). But as you noted, those colors are relative to each other, and not necessarily "good" or "bad" in general. Your example could go the other way as well. If rushing yards per game was 101, 100, and 99, then the 101 would be highlighted green for "good". That said, what I wanted to presented was to see how Stein's offenses did relative to each other. I'll present the full data table in my next post that compares all coaches back to 2007, or so. That will give a better indicator of actual "good, middle, bad".

Theoretically, the DC is Dan Lanning, so I’m not too worried about this. I’ll definitely miss his recruiting prowess.

That’s a good observation. Experience/time in the system definitely impacting things.

Stein's offense statistics. ** Data below includes both conference and non-conference games: ** Data below includes only conference games: Some might say, "But let's not count the two bad weather games." I disagree with excluding these games, but for fun, if I only count conference games and exclude the Wisconsin/Iowa games, the average "Off. Points per Game" is 31.8 ppg. Still less than prior year. I'll not make any conclusions, but welcome the OBD Forum's comments.

Excellent full post, but I have to give an "amen" to this statement. I also hope for an external hire. Don't want a watered down version of Stein's offense.

Good luck, but BE GONE!! I don’t like him pulling double duty; cut ties and move on. I want my OC to be all in during a college football playoff run.

I believe the offense is more than a little off. A bit troubling if we’re hoping to make a run in the playoff. Season offensive stats coming soon and the trends are not good. Only one Sadiq drop was really bad, the other one I remember was a terrible throw way behind him. I don’t fault him for that one.

This is my main concern. I don’t want a massive playoff to devalue the regular season. Saturdays in the fall are sacred to me, and I want to keep it that way. In a 24 team playoff, does the Texas vs TA&M game even matter? I imagine teams in TA&M’s position doing load management and resting players at the end of the year. 24 is too much IMO, but if they expanded to 16 and stopped, I think that would still work in providing the week in, week out excitement.