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2013/2014 Bowls: Takeaways

Uncle Ken

Smoke Chedda tha Ass Getta
Club Member
I realize that there's a lot of football to be played still. And I also acknowledge that bowl games tend to be unique for a number of reasons. Still, are there any lessons learned regarding the landscape of college football?

A few:

--The Pac 12 matches up comfortably with the ACC in the mid-range of our conferences.

--Lane kiffin was really holding USC back.

--The B1G might be a better conference at the top and the middle then we've given them credit to be.

Others?
 
The spread may be the most popular offense but we are seeing bigger bowls being won by teams that can still present a balanced attack that includes some good old fashion smash em in the mouth football along with throwing the ball.
 
I realize that there's a lot of football to be played still. And I also acknowledge that bowl games tend to be unique for a number of reasons. Still, are there any lessons learned regarding the landscape of college football?

A few:

--The Pac 12 matches up comfortably with the ACC in the mid-range of our conferences.

--Lane kiffin was really holding USC back.

--The B1G might be a better conference at the top and the middle then we've given them credit to be.

Others?

I certainly agree with this but that was pretty evident well before we got into the bowl games.

In general there weren't very many good bowl games between the NM Bowl and the Chick-Fil-A last night.
 
I watch the bowl games but I don't take too much away from them other than the title game. A lot of the time, it's just what team and/or coach is more motivated. There's essentially one meaningful game, the rest are glorified exhibitions games.
 
The Chick-Fil-A bowl was one of the best bowl games I've ever seen. Very entertaining
 
Furd should not have a Fusker as an OC, even if Shaw calls the plays, those calls are based upon what info Frost relays down from the booth. Garbage in, garbage out on the field. The Furd offensive game plan was singulalry unimaginative and doubly unimpressive against Sparty. And Hogan steps down to his usual mediocre level of play.

On "D", the Furd zone had gaping holes. They outsmarted themselves tremendously on "D".
 
Furd should not have a Fusker as an OC, even if Shaw calls the plays, those calls are based upon what info Frost relays down from the booth. Garbage in, garbage out on the field. The Furd offensive game plan was singulalry unimaginative and doubly unimpressive against Sparty. And Hogan steps down to his usual mediocre level of play.

On "D", the Furd zone had gaping holes. They outsmarted themselves tremendously on "D".

I think Frost is at Oregon.
 
I watch the bowl games but I don't take too much away from them other than the title game. A lot of the time, it's just what team and/or coach is more motivated. There's essentially one meaningful game, the rest are glorified exhibitions games.

While I acknowledge that motivation is one of the unique factors that is sometimes amplified during bowl games, I think it's shortsighted to suggest there aren't meaningful lessons that can be learned during bowl season.
 
Im glad that ND passed on O'leary. I also noticed that one particular poster loves to call Stanford Furd so much that he incorporates it into every post. That guy is hilarious.
 
I certainly agree with this but that was pretty evident well before we got into the bowl games.

In general there weren't very many good bowl games between the NM Bowl and the Chick-Fil-A last night.

Regarding Lane Kiffin, it was possible that Uncle Ed was just a great coach until the bowl season. When USC excelled with its third coach during the season, I found it telling.
 
While I acknowledge that motivation is one of the unique factors that is sometimes amplified during bowl games, I think it's shortsighted to suggest there aren't meaningful lessons that can be learned during bowl season.

I think you can make some assessments on bowl results, but there are so many factors, that it's difficult to do when trying to gauge across an entire conference. In addition to motivation (see USC's Sun Bowl experience -> http://deadspin.com/5971476/usc-was...wl-dinner-so-georgia-tech-got-pissed-and-left), I think another factor that is related is the Coaching Carousel. How much time did the Boise staff spend getting ready for OSU vs how much time did they spend working the Rolodex, looking for their next gig? Has Briles been distracted? Then again, UW had a nice win with an Interim coach.

I think you are correct that the Big 10 acquitted itself well at the top (MSU). Not sure they did well past that. Wiscy played well but lost to SC. NU needed a near-NCAA record for dropped passes to beat UGA. Mich got destroyed by KSU. Iowa couldn't hang with LSU.

Pac-12 has looked strong across the board, with the exception of ASU, who pretty much got their heads handed to them by TTech.
 
While I acknowledge that motivation is one of the unique factors that is sometimes amplified during bowl games, I think it's shortsighted to suggest there aren't meaningful lessons that can be learned during bowl season.
I don't disagree with you that bowl experience can be a learning one. I'm just saying psychologically speaking it's different especially in terms of the lower bowls. Coaches approach different ways as well. I think sometimes the team with more to play will come out on top when they wouldn't most times during the regular season.
 
Im glad that ND passed on O'leary. I also noticed that one particular poster loves to call Stanford Furd so much that he incorporates it into every post. That guy is hilarious.
Not like Willingham had some great tenure or Charlie Weis after him.
 
I think you can make some assessments on bowl results, but there are so many factors, that it's difficult to do when trying to gauge across an entire conference. In addition to motivation (see USC's Sun Bowl experience -> http://deadspin.com/5971476/usc-was...wl-dinner-so-georgia-tech-got-pissed-and-left), I think another factor that is related is the Coaching Carousel. How much time did the Boise staff spend getting ready for OSU vs how much time did they spend working the Rolodex, looking for their next gig? Has Briles been distracted? Then again, UW had a nice win with an Interim coach.

I think you are correct that the Big 10 acquitted itself well at the top (MSU). Not sure they did well past that. Wiscy played well but lost to SC. NU needed a near-NCAA record for dropped passes to beat UGA. Mich got destroyed by KSU. Iowa couldn't hang with LSU.

Pac-12 has looked strong across the board, with the exception of ASU, who pretty much got their heads handed to them by TTech.
Out of all the non-BCS CG bowls, I think teams are most likely to treat the Rose Bowl like a real game. I know it's a contractual sell out, I'm not sure if any teams have actually had trouble selling there allotment before atleast recently.
 
I was very disappointed in Stanford's performance yesterday. Their unwillingness to change up their offensive game-plan in the face of a defense that was clearly designed to stop the run was a horrid piece of coaching. I don't know if it's a blueprint for how to beat Stanford or not, but they looked awful. If there's one game a Pac 12 team should get up for, it's the Rose Bowl. There is no excuse for that kind of performance from Stanford.
 
I think you can make some assessments on bowl results, but there are so many factors, that it's difficult to do when trying to gauge across an entire conference. In addition to motivation (see USC's Sun Bowl experience -> http://deadspin.com/5971476/usc-was...wl-dinner-so-georgia-tech-got-pissed-and-left), I think another factor that is related is the Coaching Carousel. How much time did the Boise staff spend getting ready for OSU vs how much time did they spend working the Rolodex, looking for their next gig? Has Briles been distracted? Then again, UW had a nice win with an Interim coach.

I think you are correct that the Big 10 acquitted itself well at the top (MSU). Not sure they did well past that. Wiscy played well but lost to SC. NU needed a near-NCAA record for dropped passes to beat UGA. Mich got destroyed by KSU. Iowa couldn't hang with LSU.

Pac-12 has looked strong across the board, with the exception of ASU, who pretty much got their heads handed to them by TTech.

Three B1G teams played three SEC teams with identical conference records yesterday. And though the SEC teams were all ranked higher (and mostly proved themselves to be better teams), the B1G took one of the games, Iowa played LSU within a touchdown and though Wiscy lost by ten, I think they have a good chance to win the game if their starting quarterback is playing. I think they represented themselves relatively well in the middle of the conference too.
 
I was very disappointed in Stanford's performance yesterday. Their unwillingness to change up their offensive game-plan in the face of a defense that was clearly designed to stop the run was a horrid piece of coaching. I don't know if it's a blueprint for how to beat Stanford or not, but they looked awful. If there's one game a Pac 12 team should get up for, it's the Rose Bowl. There is no excuse for that kind of performance from Stanford.

Shaw really lost some of his luster. That loss was clearly on his shoulders.
 
Shaw really lost some of his luster. That loss was clearly on his shoulders.

As I mentioned before it looked to me to be one of those cases where a coach sets out to prove that he is going to win it "his way." As it turned out he was neither able to do it his way or to win.

Dantonio is also a coach who cleary believes in a tough running game, controlling the ball, minimizing risk, and imposing your will on the defense. The difference was that he recongnized early on that this wasn't going to work and adjusted. They still ran the ball enough to force Stanford to stay in the defense they had prepared for to stop the run. He didn't go full out and throw the ball 60 times but he did have his QB throw more often than they normally would and took some shots further downfield than they normally would. The result was the highest passing yardage total they had in a game for the entire season and a convincing win.

MSU didn't abandon who they were but they adjusted within who they are take advantage of what Stanford was giving them. Stanford didn't make those same adjustments. That goes back on the coach.
 
As I mentioned before it looked to me to be one of those cases where a coach sets out to prove that he is going to win it "his way." As it turned out he was neither able to do it his way or to win.

Dantonio is also a coach who cleary believes in a tough running game, controlling the ball, minimizing risk, and imposing your will on the defense. The difference was that he recongnized early on that this wasn't going to work and adjusted. They still ran the ball enough to force Stanford to stay in the defense they had prepared for to stop the run. He didn't go full out and throw the ball 60 times but he did have his QB throw more often than they normally would and took some shots further downfield than they normally would. The result was the highest passing yardage total they had in a game for the entire season and a convincing win.

MSU didn't abandon who they were but they adjusted within who they are take advantage of what Stanford was giving them. Stanford didn't make those same adjustments. That goes back on the coach.


Well said. These teams were pretty evenly matched. MSU defense was impressive. But the lack of adjustment by the Trees is a bummer per the outcome.
 
The biggest takeaway is Shaw has no faith in Kevin Hogan. Starter for the better part of two seasons and he was mostly a spectator yesterday.
 
The biggest takeaway is Shaw has no faith in Kevin Hogan. Starter for the better part of two seasons and he was mostly a spectator yesterday.

You really think that's why he refused to pass the ball? I honestly took it as an indication of obstinance on his part. He was going to run the ball come Hell or high water. I mean, even when it was fourth down and they needed three yards (three yards that they never managed to get on the ground all day long), the guy would run straight up the gut into the teeth of the MSU defense. That's just stupid. When it's not working, it's not working. You gotta try something different, don't you?
 
Shanahan had that same attitude. He was going to run the damn ball no matter what. JE overcame some bad Shanny coaching if you ask me. I like how they can run the ball with PFM, but let him throw as much as he wants to.
 
You really think that's why he refused to pass the ball? I honestly took it as an indication of obstinance on his part. He was going to run the ball come Hell or high water. I mean, even when it was fourth down and they needed three yards (three yards that they never managed to get on the ground all day long), the guy would run straight up the gut into the teeth of the MSU defense. That's just stupid. When it's not working, it's not working. You gotta try something different, don't you?

Good point. And they didn't even make adjustments in the running game. They didn't try to stretch to the outside running the ball on short yardage. Instead they sent it right back against the brick wall that they hadn't been able to move all game. They didn't try to put in any deception, everyone including MSU knew exactly what was coming and MSU was obviously ready for it.
 
Shanahan had that same attitude. He was going to run the damn ball no matter what. JE overcame some bad Shanny coaching if you ask me. I like how they can run the ball with PFM, but let him throw as much as he wants to.

Might have had something to do with TD being the best player in the game there for awhile.
 
Weird to see Hogan's regression or at least Shaw's continued lack of faith. He has been dynamic at times, and was damn near perfect against Oregon.
 
I don't think Stanford has the speed to test the edges, so I can kind of understand their reluctance to try that approach. Their bread and butter is off-tackle, pound it football. Still, when that isn't working, I think you have to go to plan B. They did have some success passing the ball, but they really didn't try it much.
 
Sacky, Hogan was effective running the ball (picked up two first downs) and they really didn't use him much there either. One team trusted their QB yesterday and the other one didn't, striking difference really.
 
One other takeaway is that ASU might need to make a switch from Taylor Kelly to take the next step.
 
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