2014 College Football Thread

[edinatlanta]



One of our star receivers, Malcolm Mitchell, is out for the season with a torn ACL from a celebration jump. What a disaster.

One of my friends posted a snarky status about Clemson on Thursday and I trolled the **** out of her friends making all kinds of ridiculous claims about how ACC was superior ("conference goes from Miami to Canada" and "it takes a special conference to send Wake, Maryland and Georgia Tech to BCS games" etc). Anyway one bought it hard and commented in response to my post from today of "A-C-C" in another thread: "you're a fool. Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

 

[edinatlanta]

So I really think this is both Clemson and UGA's now-or-never moment. UGA hosts all their toughest opponents at home (except UF, obvi) with Aaron Murray in his senior year. Clemson hosts FSU and FSU's defense isn't nearly as strong as it was last year, this is the last year of Tajh and Sammy... There will be enough turmoil in the SEC for UGA to make the conference game, the ACC is the ACC...

Both Oregon and Alabama have cakewalks to their title games (i think a combined five away games for the rest of the year for both teams) but I doubt the former's ability without Kelly and a younger squad, Ohio State has two tough away games... basically what I am trying to say is that I predict a Clemson/Bama championship game.

 

[HORNS]

Sorry about the Jawjaa loss, Mr. G, and I have no love whatsoever for Clemson, but this whole phenomenon of faking injuries in College Football to slow down an offense is ******* BULLSHIT and must be stopped posthaste . . .

 

[nerdykarim]



Sorry about the Jawjaa loss, Mr. G, and I have no love whatsoever for Clemson, but this whole phenomenon of faking injuries in College Football to slow down an offense is ******* BULLSHIT and must be stopped posthaste . . .

CMR discussed that particular incident in his Sunday night teleconference.

"When a guy is injured, he needs to stay down and not try to drag himself off. In the old days, they'd always tell you that you had to be tough, to drag yourself off the field. Now, if you're hurt, stay down until the official stops the play so you can come off the field," said Richt, who claimed Floyd was unintentionally leg-whipped during a play. So, what happened? "He got hit in his privates," Richt said.

This is what happened on the play prior to the gif:

Straight-up kick to the nuts.

 

[MrG]

Solid research, K.

For what it's worth, I agree that faking injuries is a ***** move, but I also think the whole "gas the defense by going at them nonstop" approach is kind of bitchish. That's not strategy, or superior play; it's taking advantage of the limits of human endurance while trying to prevent the defense from substituting for fatigue or package. You're basically saying, "I know my guys probably couldn't outplay yours, but you're on the side of the ball that's harder to play at a fast pace, so I'm going to grind your players until their bodies give out."

I'm not sure what, if anything, you do to address it. However, it doesn't exactly break my heart to see coaches do whatever they can to slow play, given the whole super-fast offense thing is a blatant attempt to fabricate an advantage that has little to do with coaching or player skill.

One of our star receivers, Malcolm Mitchell, is out for the season with a torn ACL from a celebration jump. What a disaster.

Unbelievable. Have you seen the video of when it happened? Complete fluke. To be honest, I kind of wonder if he was just on borrowed time with that knee.

 

[edinatlanta]



I'm not sure what, if anything, you do to address it

Easy. Assign a line judge to monitor players after the play, if, in the official's judgement there is a questionable injury, 15 yards + loss of down/automatic first down or if you go down, you must sit out that series and the next.

 

[MrG]



Easy. Assign a line judge to monitor players after the play, if, in the official's judgement there is a questionable injury, 15 yards + loss of down/automatic first down or if you go down, you must sit out that series and the next.

I was actually talking about whether they ought to do something to address the offensive approach, as well, but I don't agree with this approach to the injury question. That's an enormous penalty for a very subjective judgement call, especially when you're talking about letting officials determine whether a college kid's injury is legit. Also, it's entirely possible to have a real injury that warrants coming out for a few plays but allows you to come back in after a bit of time on the sideline, and this approach would force guys with legitimate injuries to sit needlessly.

 

[nerdykarim]



I was actually talking about whether they ought to do something to address the offensive approach, as well, but I don't agree with this approach to the injury question. That's an enormous penalty for a very subjective judgement call, especially when you're talking about letting officials determine whether a college kid's injury is legit. Also, it's entirely possible to have a real injury that warrants coming out for a few plays but allows you to come back in after a bit of time on the sideline, and this approach would force guys with legitimate injuries to sit needlessly.

I assumed Ed was just trolling us with that suggestion. You probably don't want to create team-based incentives for kids to play through real injuries that might have not have been seen by a line judge.

 

[edinatlanta]



I assumed Ed was just trolling us with that suggestion.

I was not. Referees/umpires in all sports have to make huge subjective calls where the official ruling, as spelled out in their manuals is: "if in the judgement of the official..." Unsportsmanlike conduct is determined every play, for example.

Frankly, there isn't a large enough problem to warrant the NCAA's Football Rules Committee or Playing Rules Oversight Panel to investigate looking in to this. But if it becomes a soccer-like phenomenon then yes, they would investigate something. The second option isn't a bad idea*. If you're injured you sit out. If you're not don't stop the game for your "injury". This would be no different from now when players re-setting dislocated joints is a common occurrence, it would just stop "flopping."

*Ideas of course are not fully hashed out.

 

[HORNS]

Strategies and paradigms change all the time (forward pass??? Blasphemy!!!) and I think that a hurry-up offense is NOT a easily achieved and executed gimmick. It takes intelligence and organization to pull it off and shouldn't be negated by something that we Americans are so rightfully scornful of occurring in soccer.

 

[archibaldleach]



Strategies and paradigms change all the time (forward pass??? Blasphemy!!!) and I think that a hurry-up offense is NOT a easily achieved and executed gimmick. It takes intelligence and organization to pull it off and shouldn't be negated by something that we Americans are so rightfully scornful of occurring in soccer.

+1.

 

[MrG]



I was not. Referees/umpires in all sports have to make huge subjective calls where the official ruling, as spelled out in their manuals is: "if in the judgement of the official..." Unsportsmanlike conduct is determined every play, for example.

Frankly, there isn't a large enough problem to warrant the NCAA's Football Rules Committee or Playing Rules Oversight Panel to investigate looking in to this. But if it becomes a soccer-like phenomenon then yes, they would investigate something. The second option isn't a bad idea*. If you're injured you sit out. If you're not don't stop the game for your "injury". This would be no different from now when players re-setting dislocated joints is a common occurrence, it would just stop "flopping."

*Ideas of course are not fully hashed out.

Things like excessive celebration are much clearer than determining whether or not an injury is real. Refs are experts on the rules of football which include a prohibition on overdoing it with celebrating; that's a far cry from asking them to determine whether an injury is real enough to "count."

I do agree, however, that the alleged flopping hasn't yet reached a point where it really needs a rule.

Strategies and paradigms change all the time (forward pass??? Blasphemy!!!) and I think that a hurry-up offense is NOT a easily achieved and executed gimmick. It takes intelligence and organization to pull it off and shouldn't be negated by something that we Americans are so rightfully scornful of occurring in soccer.

That's my point, though. This isn't a paradigm shift where something new is being brought to the game; this is taking advantage of the fact that defenders' jobs are more taxing and players aren't machines who don't fatigue. It's certainly more complex than simply saying "play fast," but I still think it relies too much upon wearing down the defense and creating chaos with substitutions for my taste. I'd prefer strategy and talent to "make 'em too tired to resist."

Again, I'm not convinced that there ought to be a rule in place to prohibit/alter running such an offense, but I'm not a particular fan.

Also, again, I think flopping is a ***** move, but I'm just not heartbroken when I see it happen to the super-fast offense teams.

 

[nerdykarim]



The second option isn't a bad idea*. If you're injured you sit out. If you're not don't stop the game for your "injury". This would be no different from now when players re-setting dislocated joints is a common occurrence, it would just stop "flopping."

*Ideas of course are not fully hashed out.

I agree with you here. I see it like the helmet rule--if you lose your helmet, you sit out a play. If you claim an injury, you have to sit out a play (or two plays, or whatever).

But, IMO, a loss of yards rule creates some perverse incentives for players.

 

[MrG]

FWIW, the current rule requires leaving for a play if you're injured.

 

[edinatlanta]

Hey horns which do you like least aTm or TT