2016 Running Football Thread

[MetalDog]

Yeah.  I got a bum knee.  And a bum brain, too.  I'm really screwed 

[OJsDad]

But just think of all the coeds that you could study with!

[MetalDog]

 :) O0 ^-^

[bayonetbrant]

With 10 minutes left in the game, NC State has 109 yards of rushing, and 140 yards of penalties.

Yeah, they're winning, but gawd do they suck this year. It's been 4 years of Doeren, and they just don't get any better, or any smarter.  Doeren might've exceeded his level of competence...

[Bison]

K-State's offense is horrible.  They had multiple opportunities to put away West Virginia and ended up losing by 1.  It's going to be a long season if they cannot figure out how to score touchdowns.

[JasonPratt]

In the most SEC thing I've seen in years, Tennessee comes back from behind in the 4th quarter against Georgia, including with a forced fumble recovery in an end zone for a TN touchdown, to pull ahead of Georgia by four points --

-- then Georgia, with one minute remaining, and handicapped by a few offensive penalties (one of which burns ten seconds off the clock as well as 5 yards back), marches down the field for nearly 100 yards and a Hail Mary pass to put us out with 10 seconds left --

-- and we return the kick and throw our own Hail Mary successfully into a bed of Georgia defenders, winning the game.

Wow.

Wow.

That's how SEC games used to be played...

[bayonetbrant]

Did you see the last 2 minutes of UNC - FSU?  Same kind of thing...

[airboy]

With 10 minutes left in the game, NC State has 109 yards of rushing, and 140 yards of penalties.

Yeah, they're winning, but gawd do they suck this year. It's been 4 years of Doeren, and they just don't get any better, or any smarter.  Doeren might've exceeded his level of competence...

Brant, Brant, Brant.
NCSU beats an UNDEFEATED team for a conference win and you are whining? 
I guess nothing can make you happy.

I'm very happy.  UNC managed to pull out a road win on a ranked team.  Auburn destroyed a patsy for Homecoming.  And Dook lost.  Perfect football weekend!

[JasonPratt]

Did you see the last 2 minutes of UNC - FSU?  Same kind of thing...

No, but that sounds like the glory days of powerhouse and/or crazy ninja football across the South (whether in one of the SECs or not).

That said, even with an all-win record so far, TN is still overrated this year.

That said, and I'm speaking as someone whose own Mom keeps track of the Vols better than I do, and who has his degree from UTK with my brother: TN is always overrated. We were overrated when we played the first perfect 13 game season, though less so than usually. ;)

Not because we aren't sometimes great -- sometimes we are (although that season it wasn't that we were great, we were just consistently good across the board, and had some good luck). But because, regardless of whether or not we're great, we are always our own worst enemy, by being neurotic drama queens. We're only truly happy when we're coming back from behind to win at the last minute, and if we don't think we can do that against our current opponent we take a game off until they surprise us after which it may be too late to recover. (As with our first two games this year -- both very, very, very typical examples.)

Our team psychology is rarely ever consistently focused in the game. Maybe it's actually different on the field, but that's how it typically looks from up in the epic orange/white stands. We have massive but easily shattered prima donna egos, because we're the Volunteers and have one of the widest and most colorful and devoted fanbases in college history, possibly second only to Notre Dame, SO WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AWESOME YOU GUYS AREN'T WE AWESOME WOOOO ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND FANS IN HEARING RANGE ARE TELLING US WE'RE wait wait wait we're supposed to be awesome waaah waaaaaaahh what's happening why isn't the other team falling before us we've we've we've {sniffle} we've got to be the underdogs and come back the little guys striking back and the big mean teams who think they can win OMG AREN'T WE AWESOME YOU GUYS WOOOOOOO!

We're the most consistently and radically manic-depressive college football team in history. (And it doesn't help that our secondary always seems mediocre to terrible, plunging us into depression at any given moment.) I feel confident challenging anyone for that title.  ::) :P


The commentators tonight were talking about how once / if we get past Bama, we're home free for the back half of our schedule full of win. Man, they don't know TN very well -- we could easily win every game up through Bama, and then easily lose any or all of those latter games. It doesn't matter who against, or whether the SEC (most of those are SEC games) is widely dangerous this year or not. They could all be made of paper; we just might not show up, and then whimper in confusion that they're making us look bad.

[bayonetbrant]

NCSU beats an UNDEFEATED team for a conference win and you are whining? 

Three of their four wins were Tulane, Delaware, and Indiana.  There are some high schools out there that could win those games.

I guess nothing can make you happy.

Don't play like canned ass. 
They looked like shit against ECU, and now against Wake. 
They give up stupid penalties, throw 7 yard passes on 3rd-and-12, and rush 7 & drop 4 on a down where they're sending 5 out into patterns. 
If you play well and lose, OK.  The other guy was just better than you.
If you play like shit, you shouldn't win.  But after today, anyone that didn't watch the game is going to say "but... but... you won by 17 against an unbeaten team!"  It was a farce of an unbeaten team, and that kind of game against any competent opponent and you lose by 10.

Put another way - trade Clawson for Doeren and what would you get?  Wake might be 2-2, and State would be 4-0 with a win in Greenville.

[bayonetbrant]

At least Louisville - Clemson is a pretty good game to end the night with.

[mirth]

And today I know what it feels like to be a Jets fan

[mirth]

Except with a better record

[Bison]

Haha...J-E-T-S!!!!

[Arctic Blast]

Except with a better record

And without having to hope that Ryan Fitzpatrick plays well.