College Football Again

[Kalbear]

Oh, fine.

It's funny; people consider Oregon to be the offensive powerhouse, but their defense is the thing that's produced NFL caliber players of a lot of note. And naturally, no QBs of note right now.

[Kalbear]

I was only picking current NFL players; Harrington is not. If we're talking historical I think we'd have to go with Fouts. This also meant not picking any current players, otherwise LMJ would be a huge easy win, as would Cliff Harris, Clay Matthews, Brandon Baird and a couple others.

I'm surprised Nick Reed got cut too.

[Kalbear]

Nah, Parker's gone. Like I said, Oregon offensive players aren't actually easy to come by in the league, which is surprising to me.

[Kalbear]

Yeah, for some reason high-caliber WRs just don't seem to want to come to Oregon, and we end up with some odd ducks. Howry was pretty amazing though, and Jaison Williams SHOULD have been great. I guess part of it is the system; we need WRs that are good at blocking and will deal with running games well. That doesn't mix as well with star-happy WRs as I guess folks might want. The other factor is that for the most part USC snatched them all up. I suspect that's going to change and Oregon will get a bit better there in the future.

[chionophile]

I thought this might be an interesting exercise. You have a 2010 NFL fantasy football team. To make it a bit easier, nobody is injured.

Of course, since it is in this thread, you can guess the twist. They all have to come from your favorite college!

Sounds interesting. Here's mine for the Wisconsin Badgers:

QB: Jim Sorgi. A horrible fantasy choice, but he's the only QB from the Badgers currently in the NFL.

RB: Michael Bennett

RB: PJ Hill (I'm mildly surprised Hill is still on a team) Never mind, the Saints waived him. Chris Pressley at fullback then.

WR: Chris Chambers, Lee Evans

TE: Owen Daniels (Torn between him and Beckum or Graham. Daniels has been in the pros longer, so...)

DL: Matt Shaughnessy

LB: Deandre Levy (Would've picked Casillas, but he's hurt)

DB: Jim Leonhard. Hell yeah.

And, just for kicks, an almost complete offensive line:

OT: Joe Thomas, Mark Tauscher

C: Casey Rabach

G: Kraig Urbik

[lokisnow]

well two upsets to start the weekend (and I think A&M was somewhat favored, though I don't know what the line was, even though they were away), anyone else smelling an upset saturday for what is the first big day of conference play for much of the country?

oddly, this week there are very few conference matchups that have a line larger than 7, and most seem to be in the 3-4 range. So I think Vegas is unsure how teams will do.

[Chodawg]

The Georgia Bulldogs are interesting. Not much on offense, but they could field an entire (and IMO fairly competitive) NFL Defense:

QB - Matt Stafford

RB - Knowshon Moreno

WR - Hines Ward

WR - Mohammad Massaquoi

TE - Leonard Pope

Defense (9 current NFL starters, with a few studs):

DE - Richard Seymore

DT - Marcus Stroud (Geno Atkins)

DE - Charles Johnson

LB - Thomas Davis

LB - Dannelle Ellerbe

LB - Will Witherspoon

LB - Quentin Moses

DB - Champ Bailey

DB - Asher Allen (Tim Jennings, Prince Miller)

S - Sean Jones

S - Reshad Jones (Paul Oliver)

[Bronn Stone]

The Georgia Bulldogs are interesting. Not much on offense, but they could field an entire (and IMO fairly competitive) NFL Defense:

QB - Matt Stafford

RB - Knowshon Moreno

WR - Hines Ward

WR - Mohammad Massaquoi

TE - Leonard Pope

Actually, that isn't bad. Ward, Stafford and Moreno are guys generally on Fantasy Rosters and Massaquoi is on some.

[Whiskeyjack]

Illinois has a few viable starters (outside of the QB position).

QB - Kurt Kittner (not playing anymore, but have to use him anyway)

RB - Rashard Mendenhall, Pierre Thomas

WR - Arrelious Benn, Brandon Lloyd, Greg Lewis

TE - Michael Hoomanawanui

K - Neil Rackers

At least Mendenhall + PT would form one of the stronger RB combinations out there.

Looking through ESPN, I was surprised by a few of the colleges that could start to fill out a roster. For example -

Toledo

QB - Bruce Gradkowski

RB - Chester Taylor, Jalen Parmele

WR - Lance Moore, Stephen Williams

Marshall

QB - Byron Leftwich (Chad Pennington)

RB - Ahmad Bradshaw

WR - Randy Moss

Central Florida

QB - ???

RB - Kevin Smith

WR - Brandon Marshall, Mike Sims-Walker

K - Matt Prater

Fresno State

QB - Billy Volek (David Carr)

RB - Ryan Mathews

WR - Bernard Berrian

[Eponine]

The only thing I hate about living in Colorado is the regional TV schedule.

[Bronn Stone]

Miami would have an awesome team, lacking only a QB and a K.

QB: Devin Hester (WR)

RB: Frank Gore, Clinton Portis

WR: Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss

TE: Greg Olsen

K: None

DL: Calais Campbell

LB: Ray Lewis

DB: Ed Reed

BN: Philip Buchanon, Jeremy Shockey, Willis McGahee, DJ Williams, Roscoe Parrish

Hester, Parrish, Shockey and McGahee couldn't scratch the starting lineup, unless you let one play QB or K.

[Bronn Stone]

It'd be interesting to see which college would have the best team in this exercise. I would think that USC would be up there as well.

USC is strong at QB, but kinda peters out at WR and RB after Steven Smith (NYG) and Reggie Bush. They do have a kicker, which is another roadblock for many teams.

QB is the big bugaboo. There are only 28 schools or so with a starting NFL QB. Purdue has two pretty good ones (Orton, Brees) but very little in terms of fantasy offense otherwise - pretty much Dustin Keller. Cal having a QB1, RB1.5, RB3, WR1.5, TE1, K1 is going to be tough to match.

[TheBigTEA]

I just want to vent a bit...

So I am from Wisconsin, love Wisconsin and always ALWAYS cheer for Wisconsin sports teams....but todays Badger game has pushed me to the edge!

They are the WORST tackling team in Division 1 that I have watched on the TV this year. It is terrible. Special Teams? I guess Wisconsin football teams of any kind cant have that? Both the Packers and the Badgers are terrible.

John Clay for Heismann? My ass. The guy is fat and slow and funs like a sissy. 255? HIT some people...don't run around them. Hit the hole! James White is only a freshman, and a little guy and clearly a better runner.

Nick Toon? Hello Wisconsin WR's! Catch the ball...it is what you are there for.

GRRRRRrrrr.

I will now return you to your regularly scheduled football musings.

[WarGalley]

I haven't seen an ending like the LSU-Tenn ending in quite some time..

[Darkostar]

They are the WORST tackling team in Division 1 that I have watched on the TV this year. It is terrible.

You'll feel much better when you play the Gophers.

[Skipshot]

I guess I'm just going to have to get used to these games when our defense stops nobody and we only win because Denard Robinson is one of the best players in the nation. Weird mixture of excitement and annoyance.

[Bronn Stone]

Can't wait for Oregon v. Stanford to get going. I can really see this one going either way. Oregon's home field advantage is one of the most powerful in college football, but Stanford is just the type of team to be able to handle that challenge. A older, disciplined team with a very confident coach and a great guy under center. We'll see what happens.

I fear that the decisive category will be Oregon's speed on offense and Stanfurd's lack of it on defense. The Cardinal will score some points, but they won't be able to stop the Ducks.

[Eponine]

Virginia Tech couldn't be much worse in the first quarter. I thought at first that NC State was the better team and there was going to be a blowout, but it turns out that apparently we don't decide to play until the game's already a quarter over.

We were down 17-0 in the first quarter against Boise St, and outscored them 30-16 in the rest of the game.

We were down 10-7 against ECU in the first quarter, then matched them for points in the 2nd, before winning.

We didn't score at all in the first quarter against BC, although neither did they. At least they continued not scoring.

And today we were down 17-0 again, right at the start of the 2nd quarter.

We'd be in a lot different place right now if we could just get out and start playing right away.

[WarGalley]

What a crushing loss for Tennessee. But dudes, what is up with LSU? When they won it all under Miles, it really seemed at the time like they were going to be one of the axes upon which the college football world spun. Great tradition, great natural recruiting base, had just won two titles in five years (counting Saban's split title with USC). They're still a healthy program, but they're much more middling than I would have thought. It makes you wonder if Miles championship was predicated on the lasting impact of the Saban era. I don't think this is something we can say with certainty, but it is some food for thought.

Yeah I give the Saban recruits (especially on the defensive end) more credit than anything Miles did during the NC run. It's not to say Miles is a bad coach but I'm not convinced he's an NC-caliber one. It will be interesting to see if Miles ends up like Fulmer but as you say, it's far too early to tell.

[GrimTuesday]

Holy shit the Ducks need to get it together. an interception and a fumble and it not even the end of the first quarter. I think that Chip Kelly is going to have an aneurysm.