Your Candidates for the Early Season Overrated Bowl
There was a small side conversation in the P5 Coach Hot Seat Thread yesterday on this topic and I figure this'll be a good topic for the board at large. Everyone knows there's those early season top 10 / top 15 match-ups which are hyped to the moon but you know both teams are overrated. Or the teams are decent but the winner is incorrectly crowned a title contender in the immediate aftermath
Recent games:
| Year | Rank | Team | @ | Rank | Team | Final Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | #10 | Notre Dame | @ | NR | Texas | 4-8, 5-7 |
| 2016 | #12 | MSU | @ | #18 | Notre Dame | 3-9, 4-8 |
| 2016 | #9 | Tennessee | @ | #8 | Texas A&M | 9-4, 8-5 |
| 2014 | #21 | Texas A&M | @ | #9 | South Carolina | 8-5, 7-6 |
Some early candidates for this year's Overrated Bowl.
| Wk | Rank | @ | Rank | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #9 | Michigan | vs | #16 | Florida |
| 2 | #13 | Auburn | @ | #5 | Clemson |
| 2 | #15 | Georgia | @ | NR | Notre Dame |
| 3 | #23 | Texas | @ | #4 | USC |
I'm not sold that USC is a CFP contender nor do I think Texas is suddenly good. I like Auburn-Clemson as the most likely to look huge early but see both teams finish 9-3. Winner of UGA-ND gets to declare that They Are Back en route to finishing 6-6
August 5th, 2017 at 10:41 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
Clemson has to replace Watson
Exactly.
People underestimate how much difference a player like him makes.
What do Vince Young, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, and Deshaun Watson all have in common? They were all, by far, the main reason their teams won a National Championship.
Their teams woud not have, could not have, won it without them. And when they were gone, their teams all fell off significantly (Watson TBD, but yeah).
You can't just plug in a new player to replace thier singular talents.
That being said I hope USC runs Texas out of the stadium. My hate for Texas is right up there with OSU and Staee. Their fans are obnoxious and so delusional.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
I don't have that much hate for Texas, but I don't like Herman just for the irrational fact that he was a large part of why the buckeyes won the title in '14. It would bring me great joy if Durkin pulls off the upset week 1 in Austin to knock them back to reality.
Finds Herman.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
Interesting.
I've always liked Texas and I've been to a few games and their fans are the most like ours, IMO. They're nice, I've never gotten much hostility out of them. They have the same arrogance we have in a lot of respects.
Your opinion and maybe you've had a different experience. But I don't see that at ALL.
IMO you have Michigan/ND/Texas/UNC/Washington who make up one type of fan...then OSU/PSU/and most of the SEC who are a completely different type of fan.
MSU has so much little brother syndrome that there is NO way you can put them with OSU. OSU fans would still go to games if they weren't good. MSU has no tailgate experience. MSU is just a bunch of MORANS who want so bad to be noticed and recognized as a bigger fan base and then burn shit when they don't get their way.
There are good Texas fans for sure I can't argue that. I am surrounded by Texas fans on a daily basis so yeah I do see the obnoxious/delusional ones more often. I wouldn't put them on a level with the fans of East Landfill or OSU morans but the level of obnoxious/delusion is quite high. I could fill this space with instances too numerous to mention as I am sure we all could with the fanbases of OSU and little brother. Reality and the perception of reality is lost among a big portion of Texas fans, but that goes along with being a fan. I guess my MICHIGAN bias is showing....oh well.
GO BLUE!
Their fans can be a bit overbearing, but they do know football and like to talk about. They can talk Michigan football with me, for instance, and actually know what they are talking about. SEC fans can be pleasant, but they don't tend to know anything about teams not in the SEC (or their particular non-SEC rivals).
August 5th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
When the old season is over, you are going to find that Michigan, Michigan is UNDERRATED, not overrated.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
because being underrated at 9 probably means we finish with 2 losses or less, but if things go like a lot of people expect (9-3ish) and Florida does nothing special, we could be a candidate for that early season game where people try to read way to much into how good the winner will do based on 1 game.
The winner of the game will see themselves being immediately thrown into the CFP discussion (Can Florida beat Bama?? or Is Michigan the favorite to win the East now??), when it's entirely possible both teams finish 9-3
August 5th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
I'd be cool with beating Wisconsin twice this year
August 5th, 2017 at 10:26 AM ^
Ya so I am redundant but after watching Wisconsin lose another Big championship ( at least not by 63 this time) can we please re-align the divisions or just get rid of them. This shit is becoming as predictable as the sec except the east has a different winner each year. I have the east winning the next ten years and this year it will not be close.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
The Wisconsin Bedshitters. It never or seldom fails. Man they suck.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
As a Michigan fan, I like the divisions exactly as they are. The Big Ten East is one of the top "glamour" divisions in all of CFB, and being in it helps our recruiting outside of the midwest footprint.
other fan bases make fun of us. Hey, we're recruiting well though! And we're in a glamour division!
Harbaugh helps our recruiting outside of the regional footprint. Has nothing to do with our division. As long as we play OSU every year and that rivalry remains strong, it doesn't really matter which other B1G teams we play.
I'm not advocating for realignment. Our division is fine. What makes it "glamourous" is us and OSU and as long as we stay in the same division as them or eliminate divisions altogether, the combo of other teams doesn't matter.
It definitely helps that our division has us playing in the NJ and DC/MD/VA areas regularly.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
That is all.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:45 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
Curious to see if Washington can live up to the hype. I know they were close last year, but it's hard to make the jump to elite.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:31 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
finally has a legit QB in Sam Darnold. He's being viewed as a #1 overall worthy of a pick by NFL scouts. He's the one with the biggest buzz at the NFL combine this past February.
They have a great back in Ronald Jones. Their defense is full of NFL prospects including Porter Gustin, Iman Marshall.
I don't think they're overrated. They're rated properly and they were one of the hottest team in the country to end the season.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
The biggest storyline for osu is whether or not Kevin Wilson can fix JT Barrett. If he returns to freshman JT form, they could be dangerous. If he's too far broken and we see more of the same from last year, their offense doesn't concern me.
Mike Weber spends more time fumbling and poking eyes than scoring. Their WRs and their coach Zach Smith spend more time in Twitter battles than they do learning a route tree.
August 6th, 2017 at 12:01 AM ^
NFL scouts are high on Mike Weber. They viewed him as a day 2 pick. They love his size, tenacity and ability to churn first downs after first downs.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^
Not sure how they are overrated. They bring back a lot of talent from last year. If they are overrated, who does Matich think should be ranked ahead of them? I think at worst, they should be ranked #3 behind Bama and FSU.
August 5th, 2017 at 12:47 PM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
Not an actual matchup, but LSU being ranked preseason #12. Sure they look good on paper with tons of talented recruits, and arguably the best two coordinators in CFB. However, their starting quarterback is also former Purdue backup Danny Etling.
The hype just seems premature. Coach O won't have to do much of anything to win games with Aranda and Canada, but I can see him managing to lose some for them.
August 5th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
Caranada!
in the country outside of maybe Saquon Barkley, in Derrius Guice. NFL scouts feel that he's a better RB than Leonard Fournette which is amazing. Guice is viewed as a potential top 10 pick.
QB? If they have their usual line play on both sides of the ball, they'll be the same old LSU, which is right in that 10-15 range.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
Georgia / Notre Dame is a good pick for the Early Overrated Bowl most years actually, and even better, even though Mark Richt is now gone from Athens, they can still blame him for losing control of the program. Actually, someone in Athens probably WILL do exactly that.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^
Ohio State - Oklahoma.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^
Waaaaaay back and out of any conversation at years end.
August 5th, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
August 5th, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^
nice pike, fella.