College Football 2014: The crowning of Mariota

[Kalbear]

A fade route is one of those things that if it works, great (and it rarely does) but it's almost never going to end badly. It's good against a blitz, there are no reads, it's just one on one coverage.

I hate it with a huge passion, especially if an otherwise competent offense does it. But I understand why some cowardly wusses like to call it over and over.

[Howdyphillip]

A fade route is one of those things that if it works, great (and it rarely does) but it's almost never going to end badly. It's good against a blitz, there are no reads, it's just one on one coverage.

I hate it with a huge passion, especially if an otherwise competent offense does it. But I understand why some cowardly wusses like to call it over and over.

:agree:

It does have a relatively low completion percentage, but the turn over percentage is even lower. I do not think it is a call that should be made when trying to win a game, but it certainly has a place for a team up by 7 in the 4th quarter trying to put a team away without giving them the opportunity to get back in it.

[BLU-RAY]

What it really has a place as is as the second or third option on a play that's designed to be a run. Unfortunately, this is frequently hard to recognize, but I think it's pretty safe to say that "correct" fades (using my criteria and Howdy's as the two examples of situations where you can have a "correct' fade) are... not a huge percentage of all fades thrown. Like,it should be your second option when you have an advantageous mismatch and a quarterback with some touch. But it just gets thrown all the time, frequently in situations where it has basically no prayer of being successful.

[S John]

Jeez, they must have started making UNC football players go to class or something. Clearly don't have their heads in the game.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

A "fade" route, is a route that's generally speaking strictly used in the red zone. Its a timing route they practice unto death. Because, if ran and thrown correctly, it simply cannot be defended. Problem is, 90% of QB's throw it for shit. One of the hardest routes to perfect. As for making it your second or third option in a play, then its no longer a fade, its a "go" route. Again, because its a timing route, it can't be your second or third option. So, basically my point is to agree with you guys. These CF oc's, watch Aaron Rodgers throw it every Sunday.,..and its beautiful! Problem is, there's not many QB's that can do that. I agree stay away unless you perfect it, or you have Megatron in a leap-ball situation.

[BLU-RAY]

A "fade" route, is a route that's generally speaking strictly used in the red zone. Its a timing route they practice unto death. Because, if ran and thrown correctly, it simply cannot be defended. Problem is, 90% of QB's throw it for shit. One of the hardest routes to perfect. As for making it your second or third option in a play, then its no longer a fade, its a "go" route. Again, because its a timing route, it can't be your second or third option. So, basically my point is to agree with you guys. These CF oc's, watch Aaron Rodgers throw it every Sunday.,..and its beautiful! Problem is, there's not many QB's that can do that. I agree stay away unless you perfect it, or you have Megatron in a leap-ball situation.

I agree with most of this, I don't think I articulated my point particularly well - I didn't mean running the fade as, like, a second read in the QB's progression or something, but as the fall-back that the QB can audible to if he sees an unfavorable defense for a run play and a good target in man coverage on the outside. But yeah, everything else stands.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

I agree with most of this, I don't think I articulated my point particularly well - I didn't mean running the fade as, like, a second read in the QB's progression or something, but as the fall-back that the QB can audible to if he sees an unfavorable defense for a run play and a good target in man coverage on the outside. But yeah, everything else stands.

OK, yeah, I didn't understand you correctly, sorry. Yeah, they run it ad nauseum and its a really hard throw, especially in a pressure situation. When WVU had RichRod as our coach, in that situation, he would run a read-option. And it worked, I'm guessing here, 90% of the time. As you say, in a do or die situation, you have to leave yourself some options, whatever they may be.

[S John]

Surprised that there hasnt been much commentary on the games today. Nebraska / USC has been awesome. I gotta hand it to the Huskers they have not given up for one second and now there's 5 minutes left and this is anyones game.

Duke ASU was good, as was Penn State and BC. BC's kicker really fucking blew it on that extra point.

[lokisnow]

I feel like bowl season really began today with a trio of interesting games.

Oh goodness, Sark, you find new ways to make me hate you even as you win. The inept clock management began when USC went up 14 halfway through the third quarter. For the rest of the game, USC took less than 75 seconds off the clock in each of its nine or ten posessions it had for the rest of the game, one of the more memorable one was late in the third, three incomplete passing plays for less than 20 seconds. Oy, a few plays later its a one possession game and not even the fourth quarter yet. it takes special talent at clock-management-failure to fail to protect a lead of two-three possessions for over 20 minutes of game time.

I'm honestly rather shocked we won the game, the only reason we did win it was because of nebraska's refusal to kick a long field goal to tie the game.

In terms of scholarships, we had 51 players on scholarship for our bowl game. I think we have 12 seniors that won't be back, and a couple juniors and seniors that won't be back. So minus fifteen-ish. I think we've got about a dozen red shirts, so really only minus three-ish for a total of 48 "upper" classmen scholarships next year comprising redshirt freshmen through fifth year seniors. We add 25 scholarships, probably 5 of them go to ju-co transfers to plug the worst holes, so now we're up to fifty three. You figure at least ten of those remaining 20 will red shirt so we have a maximum of sixty three scholarships next year without any injuries or academic attrition. I figure we'll be lucky start the 2015 season with about fifty-eight scholarships.

that's why I've been saying that next year will actually be the worst year. 2016 will be the first year of recovery when we should be back to 75-78 scholarships at the start of the season without pre-season attrition. 2017 will be the first year when we have enough scholarships in the upper classes to realistically compete to win the conference champion and contend for a playoff berth.

Congratulations to Penn State, you got hit with double the sanctions USC received, yet managed to have all of them lifted precisely one season before they create a "lost decade" as outlined above. If Penn State had the same restrictions on them this season they'd face the same long road back, but mysteriously the sanctions were lifted before they could have any long-term effect. That's because using the football program to facilitate child rape and using the football program to cover up child rape is not nearly as bad as outside sports agents bribing a college player in the off-season to leave college early, amiright?

[Ken Stone]

I was really expecting Nebraska to get blown out of that game but they pleasantly surprised me. Kept fighting to very end.

[BLU-RAY]

I feel like bowl season really began today with a trio of interesting games.

Oh goodness, Sark, you find new ways to make me hate you even as you win. The inept clock management began when USC went up 14 halfway through the third quarter. For the rest of the game, USC took less than 75 seconds off the clock in each of its nine or ten posessions it had for the rest of the game, one of the more memorable one was late in the third, three incomplete passing plays for less than 20 seconds. Oy, a few plays later its a one possession game and not even the fourth quarter yet. it takes special talent at clock-management-failure to fail to protect a lead of two-three possessions for over 20 minutes of game time.

I'm honestly rather shocked we won the game, the only reason we did win it was because of nebraska's refusal to kick a long field goal to tie the game.

In terms of scholarships, we had 51 players on scholarship for our bowl game. I think we have 12 seniors that won't be back, and a couple juniors and seniors that won't be back. So minus fifteen-ish. I think we've got about a dozen red shirts, so really only minus three-ish for a total of 48 "upper" classmen scholarships next year comprising redshirt freshmen through fifth year seniors. We add 25 scholarships, probably 5 of them go to ju-co transfers to plug the worst holes, so now we're up to fifty three. You figure at least ten of those remaining 20 will red shirt so we have a maximum of sixty three scholarships next year without any injuries or academic attrition. I figure we'll be lucky start the 2015 season with about fifty-eight scholarships.

that's why I've been saying that next year will actually be the worst year. 2016 will be the first year of recovery when we should be back to 75-78 scholarships at the start of the season without pre-season attrition. 2017 will be the first year when we have enough scholarships in the upper classes to realistically compete to win the conference champion and contend for a playoff berth.

Congratulations to Penn State, you got hit with double the sanctions USC received, yet managed to have all of them lifted precisely one season before they create a "lost decade" as outlined above. If Penn State had the same restrictions on them this season they'd face the same long road back, but mysteriously the sanctions were lifted before they could have any long-term effect. That's because using the football program to facilitate child rape and using the football program to cover up child rape is not nearly as bad as outside sports agents bribing a college player in the off-season to leave college early, amiright?

I think you need to qualify the term "child rape" with "serial," but yes, I think other than that you're broadly correct.

I motion we change the name of the Big 10 to the "Big 40", because so you even know how many teams are in that conference anymore? Also, I want to make jokes about drinking 40s to get through Illinois games.

Man. I think Stanford's ceiling right now (given Hogan and this lack of a dominant run game) is about one notch above mediocre, but I would take us -20 over Maryland. How did Maryland go 7-5?!

[S John]

Man. I think Stanford's ceiling right now (given Hogan and this lack of a dominant run game) is about one notch above mediocre, but I would take us -20 over Maryland. How did Maryland go 7-5?!

I too think that Stanford is going to roll Maryland but they aren't terrible, every team they lost to is going bowling. Though their best win is probably @ Penn State which is not really that impressive. They should be easily manageable for Stanford, but they can be weirdly explosive.

Big 12 has 3 games today.

WVU and A&M is a toss-up in my mind. I think WVU has a better defense than A&M, but Trickett has retired from football and Howard doesn't have too many starts under his belt. WVU hung with its opponents tougher than A&M did, but A&M probably has more raw talent on the sideline than WVU and both teams have had a month to prepare. So even if I were in the habit of betting on WVU, which I am not, I would still stay away from this game.

I like OU over Clemson. Clemson has great D but QB issues going into this game.

Texas / Arkansas could go either way.

[Bronn Stone]

Man. I think Stanford's ceiling right now (given Hogan and this lack of a dominant run game) is about one notch above mediocre, but I would take us -20 over Maryland. How did Maryland go 7-5?!

Whereas I have a small bet getting 14 on the Terps. I think the Cardinal will play to the level of the opposition.

[sperry]

I think A&M - WVU is a close game. OU blows out Clemson, and Arkansas blows out Texas.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

I think WVU wins this by 10. I like Holgs chance of putting up points if he gets a month to prepare. I think Howard is probably a better all-around QB than Trickett, and his ability to run will keep the sticks moving. Got a good feeling about today. And though I wish him the best in life, and that he'll be a good coach, I am painfully thankful that the Trickett era is over in Motown. Bring on Mr. William Crest, please!

[Maithanet]

Why aren't there any bowl games today? There's no MNF...

[Ferrum Aeternum]

WVU/A&M is living up to the billing thus far.

[Maithanet]

We actually do have games. A&M v. WVU is on now. :)

A few more later, but nothing great on paper today.

Right, I was looking at the date wrong, thought today was the 28th.

[BLU-RAY]

I think A&M - WVU is a close game. OU blows out Clemson, and Arkansas blows out Texas.

Any reason you have OU blowing out Clemson? I think you guys win that game something like 13-9. I also think Arkansas beats Texas 21-10 with both defenses scoring a touchdown.

Bronn - yeah, it could happen. We have looked shoddy frequently, but we scored 30 in each of our last two games and blew the doors off of Oregon State.

[Kalbear]

I think OU beats Clemson. Probably like 20-3.

My preview of the bowl games and Oregon-FSU are up, in case any one wanted to take a look. FEI appears to be a bit better than S+P does so far.