brutus79 wrote: Morning of Sunday 10/28 on ESPN morning radio crew, after Notre Dame went to Oklahoma and the Sooners lost by double digits, and UofM went to Nebraska and lost by double digits, the Sunday college football crew chided in both Oklahoma and Micigan are two of the most overrated programs every year and it is not underahieving, it is really what both these programs are in large part.  Overrated and overhyped.
Both have no real great speed, but Oklahoma has speed at WR though.

coopercougar wrote:

brutus79 wrote: Morning of Sunday 10/28 on ESPN morning radio crew, after Notre Dame went to Oklahoma and the Sooners lost by double digits, and UofM went to Nebraska and lost by double digits, the Sunday college football crew chided in both Oklahoma and Micigan are two of the most overrated programs every year and it is not underahieving, it is really what both these programs are in large part.  Overrated and overhyped.
Both have no real great speed, but Oklahoma has speed at WR though.

Not really.  I think something Bob Stoops he learned from having Mike Leach on his staff was that pure speed is not as important as a position player that is great at his position.  Aside from a few players like Peterson or Murray, Mobilhoma really hasn't had any true speed guys.  They field a lot of 4.6 WRs and DBs and LBs with just enough speed to cover slot receivers underneath.  They make up for it though by having WRs that are great at catching the ball, DBs that keep the play in front of them and wrap up, instinctive LBs, etc.

Where that falls apart though is if you are not great in the trenches.  In '08, they were fantastic in the trenches.  Not so much anymore.  Their OL can pass protect okay but can't run block.  Their DL is weak up the middle and they get nothing from their ends.  They had a definite talent drop-off on defense this year and they struggled at WR breaking in a lot of new guys but took off nicely after a shaky start, but their true problem was in the trenches.  I know the OL dealt with some injuries and shifting players before the season and that may have led to some problems.  Their DL is just not talented.  Bunch of highly ranked recruits that were either maxed out coming out of high school or failed to develop.  Basically the story of the Texas OL.

brutus79 wrote: I agree with you to a degree, that is speed along the D front seven as well.
It was easy to see how much faster TAMU was than  Oklahoma in the open field, and especially as they wore them out in their up tempo offense.
Oklahoma's front seven is not what it use to be since they had Pelini/Stoops as the co DC's a few years ago, they just do not have the talent, depth and explosive D front seven units they use to get and have.
Their OL recruiting has been not to par, and they lack athletic OL outside.
How many high scoring shoots out did Oklahoma win this year, where it showed their defense had issues?  Ok State and WVU for sure.

UCLAMarv wrote: I agree with you regarding the interior of their D-line, or the entire D-line period; Jamarkus Mcfarland did nothing for them, and losing Jeffcoat to you guys was a disaster for them.

I agree about Tom Wort; he's a solid hard-nosed player, but he has no help in front of him.

GatorNation4Lyfe wrote: 2009 Bama says hello...  Utah was up 21-0 before Bama knew there was a game. It was 28-10 in the third and the final 31-17 score didn't do justice to how dominant Utah really was. Utah-under Urban Meyer-beat Bama in the 04' season Sugar Bowl, not 09'. That's why I said 6 years
Just last year LSU became the first MNC team to put up a goose egg on to a 21-0 beatdown to Bama. I think they crossed midfield just once and that was with about 8 minutes in the game. They had a total of 5 first downs... 5. The QB threw for 53 yards. Getting your butts whooped by the NC team once is not a cause for embarassment.
My how people easily forget...

stxbuck wrote: I'm not going to defend Oklahoma, but to be honest, EVERY "big time" program except for Bama, and LSU has had really embarassing defeats and unexpected hiccups over the past 6 years. It's football-it happens. There is a reason why there is only 1 undefeated team in NFL history. A team has one loss and college fans immediately start w/ their "nyah,nyah,nyah,overrated,blah,blah" attitudes-and it snowballs from there.

OSU81 wrote: Let's be REAL clear. There would be no Oklahoma football without Texas recruits.

 

 I think the rise of Okie Lite and Baylor are hurting them more than most people know and the absolute last thing Stoops needs is A&M deciding to stop consistently sucking.

Ole1Sock wrote:

6burgh wrote: Vegas sets the odds so that half of the bets are on one team and half on the other.

The point was about the perception. If the perception of OSU's coach was that he was a big game coach then the betting public would have had a lot more faith in OSU and the Buckeyes would have been favored based on talent on the field.

Amazing that OSU fans have such a low opinion of the program, its players and its resources that they'll defend a coach as a legend who was 1-6 against peer programs FL, LSU, Texas and USC.

LOL, and Michigan and ND aren't "peer programs" with tOSU? If not, why not?

Ole1Sock wrote: Yeah, but isn't tOSU's success over that span relative to ND and Michigan a sort of endorsement of the job Tressel did? Hmmmmmmm

Tress was a big part of tOSU's recent success, no doubt.

I consider the top 5 current programs to be in no order:

Alabama
LSU
tOSU
USC

Oregon

Florida, Boise St. and Oklahoma are just on the outside of the top 5 but one may be back in it if they have a big year and USC sinks even more with their sanction/Kiffin issues. Notre Dame is on the rise but this is their first great year in quite some time, need more consistancy. Texas has to be in the top ten but they have struggled recently. Same with tTUN. Coach Rod really pulled their program down, they are at least recruiting back to their level though, so maybe they will rise up.