Blind BCS Poll

[Senser81]

or the assumption that USC will even qualify for their conference title game, much less win it.

Sounds like 2012 Florida and 2012 LSU...or 2011 Alabama.

[NAHSTE]

Oh yeah I forgot Texas A&M, which would also beat Notre Dame.

[Jayrock]

Because in their OOC games, teams from those conferences are routinely seen either A. losing to SEC opponents, usually by a lot (see: Michigan, Washington, Arizona State, NC State, etc.) or B. losing to shitty mid-major or FCS opponents (see: Illinois, Penn State, Iowa, Georgia Tech, Virginia, etc.)

Shocking, if you don't prove you can beat good teams, and occasionally lose to bad teams, you eventually start to lose national respect.

OU lost to #4 Notre Dame (by 17) and #2 Kansas State (by 4), they are ranked 12th.

LSU lost to #1 Alabama (by 4) and #6 Florida (by 7), they are ranked 7th.

USCe lost to #6 Florida (by 33) and #7 LSU (by 2), they are ranked 8th.

Clemson lost to #10 Florida State (by 12), they are ranked 13th.

Am I painting the picture clear enough?

[FirstTimer]

That is a really dumb way to frame an argument though, and you know this.

I suppose? But your end statement of

"As I said before, Notre Dame's resume comes down to a close win vs Stanford, a great win over OU in Norman, and then a slew of ACC/Big Ten trash.


"

Could kind of be said for basically each team at the top except for KState who IMO has played the toughest schedule of the 4 as we see it now.

Oregon and Bama each basically have 1 or 2 good wins then wins over poopdick teams. Look, I'm not disagreeing that Notre Dame's schedule hasn't gotten "softer" than it looked preseason(Mich, MSU, and BYU under performing hurt a lot) or even that I expect them to run the table(I don't.) but ripping apart ND's schedule post mortum is kind of lame because going into the season people basically lolled at it and 8 wins seemed like the best possible result.


FWIW I don't think ND ends up undefeated. And I agree with Jesse Palmer, ND has been the least impressive of the undefeated just from the standpoint that they are the most inconsistent from an offensive perspective. At this point I'm just enjoying the ride. Whatever happens, happens. In either case what's important to me is that the program is heading in the right direction in a lot of ways to sustain/build on this success for years to come.

ND's only real hope of getting into the NCG is K-State losing. I think if Oregon and ND are ranked side by side at the end of the year and undefeated the CPU's would end up favoring ND enough to push them past Oregon if they had a one slot advantage in the polls.

That's all kind of pointless though. Each of the 4 teams has a case (if they win out) to go to the NCG. Is ND's the "weakest"? I don't know. We will see. Like I said, I'm just enjoying the ride at this point.

[NAHSTE]

Michigan? Denard would torch our secondary and run through the swiss cheese defense. We forced 6 turnovers and didn't allow a TD (and Alabama allowed 2).

This is a strong troll job by JayRock right here. Strong stuff.

Hey you guys, Notre Dame's 13-6 over Michigan was way more impressive than Alabama's 41-14 win in a game that was over at the end of the first quarter.

[FirstTimer]

Oh yeah I forgot Texas A&M, which would also beat Notre Dame.

SEC homers gonna homer.

[Jayrock]

This is a strong troll job by JayRock right here. Strong stuff.

Hey you guys, Notre Dame's 13-6 over Michigan was way more impressive than Alabama's 41-14 win in a game that was over at the end of the first quarter.

Oh that's what I said?

Pardon me, I just thought the SEC (Bama) was the God of defense... except ND played better defense against the same exact team? (actually a better team since UM players werent suspended)

[Senser81]

Oh yeah I forgot Texas A&M, which would also beat Notre Dame.

Switching gears here, but I've been very surprised at Texas A&M's success in the SEC. I thought they would get steamrolled. Perhaps its more "good timing" than anything. What has your impression been?

[Warner2BruceTD]

I'm not a TAMU fan, but I live here so I watch them whenever I can. I've also obviously seen ND 3 or 4 times. I think TAMU would beat ND on a neutral field.

In fact, I would not be shocked if A&M knocks off Alabama. That QB is a pain in the neck.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Switching gears here, but I've been very surprised at Texas A&M's success in the SEC. I thought they would get steamrolled. Perhaps its more "good timing" than anything. What has your impression been?

I thought the same thing. But Sumlin has done a great job with Sherman's pro style offensive players, and the freshman QB is a playmaker.

A&M will be a major factor when Sumlin gets his type of players in there.

[NAHSTE]

Oh that's what I said?

Pardon me, I just thought the SEC (Bama) was the God of defense... except ND played better defense against the same exact team?

Strong stuff. Strong stuff. The troll is strong with you, don't give up the fight.

Now remember Alabama was up 31-7 at half and rested their starters. Also remember Michigan finished that game with 269 total yards, and rushed for 100 fewer yards than they did vs Notre Dame.

This is fun.

Switching gears here, but I've been very surprised at Texas A&M's success in the SEC. I thought they would get steamrolled. Perhaps its more "good timing" than anything. What has your impression been?

Good question. I think Sumlin is a good coach, but he did walk into a pretty favorable situation. Experienced defense, dynamo RS-Frosh QB perfectly tailored to his offense, and some down years for the "2nd tier" SEC programs like Arkansas.

They are a weird team though, they seem to come out on fire out of the gate every week, then kind of run out of ideas offensively in the 2nd half. If they can ever figure out how to put together a complete 4 quarters, they will be scary. I hope it comes as soon as this week.

[FirstTimer]

I'm not a TAMU fan, but I live here so I watch them whenever I can. I've also obviously seen ND 3 or 4 times. I think TAMU would beat ND on a neutral field.

In fact, I would not be shocked if A&M knocks off Alabama. That QB is a pain in the neck.

ND vs TAMU IMo would mirror LSU's matchup in a certain sense. I could see the irish having trouble "adjusting" to Johhny Football at the outset but over the course of the game ND's defensive line and LB's have enough good players and really good athletes to hold him "in check" more and more. The money question would be ND's offense. I'm not overly impressed with AM's defense so it all depends what ND offense showed up. If the "above average/good" ND offense shows up then I think the game is a tight battle that comes down to a couple plays in the 4th Qtr. Nuetral field I could see ND being a 4 pt dog or so but I feel like the game would be hyper competitive with each team having chances down the stretch to win.

[NAHSTE]

ND vs TAMU IMo would mirror LSU's matchup in a certain sense. I could see the irish having trouble "adjusting" to Johhny Football at the outset

FWIW, Chavis's adjustment was using six DBs on the field exclusively (his beloved 3-2-6 "Mustang" package) and just sending edge pressure from all over the place. Does Notre Dame have the depth in the secondary to employ the same tactic?

Anyway, LOL at a Notre Dame fan just admitting that the 5th or 6th best SEC team would be 4-point favorites over the Irish on neutral field. That's kind of been my point this entire time.

[FirstTimer]

FWIW, Chavis's adjustment was using six DBs on the field exclusively (his beloved 3-2-6 "Mustang" package) and just sending edge pressure from all over the place. Does Notre Dame have the depth in the secondary to employ the same tactic?

Anyway, LOL at a Notre Dame fan just admitting that the 5th or 6th best SEC team would be 4-point favorites over the Irish on neutral field. That's kind of been my point this entire time.

I like TAMU better than I do Florida FWIW. Georgia is interesting. Honestly, after Alabama the next tier of SEC teams seems to be a mish mash and are pretty evenly matched IMO. So saying they are the 5th or 6th best kind of misses the mark.

And ND's secondary depth is pretty decent/athletic. You'd basically be seeing a lot of DB Elijah Shumate and ND loves Danny Spond(a hyper athletic LB'er) in those situations as well.

[Champ]

"Laughly overrated" is a great quote