There are plenty of reasons to be nervous about this game.
1. This is practically a home game for BYU.
2. Nobody on the Beavers defense will be able to cover the BYU tight end.
3. Max Hall is great at moving the chains on 3rd down.
4. The Beavers red zone defense is terrible.
5. BYU was practicing and prepping for this game a week before the Beavers.
The positive is that the Beavers should be able to put up points on BYU’s slow, nonathletic defense. The game comes down to whether or not OSU’s defense can get off the field. Given my five points above, and the fact that historically the Beavers play (down) to the level of MWC and WAC opponents, a betting man would take the home dog, BYU. The line has me salivating. But I think the Beavers put up a monstrous offensive performance, their best of the year, and bail out yet another uninspired and incompetent defensive showing.
44-34, Beavs
Odd that his is the first reply. I think people are basically ho-hum over the whole thing. It’s winnable, but it’s BYU. It’s easy to lose, but it’s a higher ranked BYU with a better record and at home almost. It’s the LV Bowl. It’s on DEC 22nd.
Part of my malaise is it being an early date, and I will be sitting alone in my basement in Nebraska watching this game, probably well after it had started via my DVR, prepping for my trip out of town the next day.
So I won’t even be watching it with my family as I would have if they got a decent game on New Years day.
It’s just so ho-hum. I wish I could get pumped. I’m struggling to.
I’m having the same problem. Didn’t even want to do a writeup for this game but I figured it’s worth discussing. So, you get this half-assed/lazy dissection of the game. Sorry, just not that into it. It’s hard to figure out the beat of the team. Are they as indifferent as fans? If so, this will be much like Oregon/BYU in ’07.
I’m happy to watch them play. I don’t know what to think of what might be. If both teams play to their potential then we should win pretty easily. But when has that ever been the case?
I’m just looking forward to next year more than I am the bowl game. I think we had a great year given what we had to start it. We could have done better, but I’m not going to complain. I think the bowl ought to be fun to watch.
And I’m hoping Catchings gets to hold on to the ball all the way to the end zone when we go to Palo Alto next year.
I will say that I think the o-line, Canfield and the Rodgers bros. will show up for this game regardless of who else does. At worst, it could end up being like the ’80 or ’81 Holiday Bowls. At best it could be like the ’83 Holiday Bowl.
We used to call the Holiday Bowl the BYU Bowl back in the day.
Another need for an edit function…
I meant to say at best it could be like the ’82 game… OSU 47, BYU 17.
If you need me to edit something shoot me an email. I can’t figure out how to allow users to edit their comments.
Yeah, the prospect of next year is more exciting I guess. I guess 2 in the bush is better than the egg laying turkey we got in our hand right now.
I suppose once kick off starts, the blood might pump better. I’d presume it might be the same for the kids playing.
More support for a playoff in my book. Not that the Beavs would make a possible 16 team playoff, but you don’t get this B.S. excuse of the kids not being excited for the games after the regular season. Clean slate for everyone. If UT and Bama are the best, they’ll get there anyway, but for the Beavs of the world (USC, Arizona…even Oregon) not to mention those that got shafted (Boise, TCU, Cincy) it rights a few wrongs. Those rich fat white guys calling the shots will have to give up their power though.
Just think, if the NFL did it like the NCAA, we’d see Indy and New Orleans for the Championship in a few weeks. Oh, and that Giants team that upset that Undefeated New England team in the SuperBowl? They wouldn’t have been there. It would have been Dallas I believe. Sorry Vikings, your not good enough this year. Sorry Chargers. You’re out.
11 D-1 conferences means the winner of each and an Independent can fill out a 12 team tourney. Top four seeds get a bye and a guarantee to play in one of the four current BCS Bowls.The final 8 play according to seeding–home team is the higher seed. Winners go to the top four seeds for the second round. Two BCS bowls will be the third round, and the NC Bowl can be the following week. The other two BCS bowls are a consolation… just like all four are now.
If an Independent does not qualify for the tourney (simply a top 16 ranking) then an at-large from any conference can take their place and automatically be seeded #9 since they didn’t have the courtesy to win their division.
I know… #8 will not be happy about this, but an at-large doesn’t deserve any post season home games.
When would those games be played? Unless I’m missing something, you’re talking about adding 2 or 3 extra games with that format or cutting the regular season short.
This weekend would be the second round in this format… leaving two weeks for the New Year’s Day games.
I’m not a big fan of 12 games on the schedule, let alone 13 or 14 like we have now with some teams. The way it’s going, we’re going to have those two to three extra games on everyone’s schedule in the near future anyway. There is the potential to add four games to someone’s season, but I don’t think that school would mind in the end.
90% of *student* athletes aren’t going pro, so to ask them to take on 3 more games so old, stodgy white guys can get richer is asking a lot.
I do think a playoff is needed, but it would have to be concise, like the top 4 teams and work within the framework of the bcs. The BCS is bad at determining a champion, but it’s pretty good at pinpointing the top 10.
Montana will be playing game #15 when they face Villanova in the D1-AA championship. Sheldon played 14 games after winning the 6A Oregon football championship, and these guys don’t get a month break. It’s darn near 15 straight games. Some of these schools are 2 or games into the season before school even starts…so start earlier and get half way through or something.
Cut a couple non Conf games, get ‘er done!
I think the old, stodgy white guys have too much invested in the status quo. That’s why they come up with the brilliant argument that Florida at home against the DeVry Institute or NNSWE Gulf Coast College are such meaningful regular season games.
I’m only asking the champions of each respective conference to play the extra games. I honestly think the WAC and MWC should combine in a super-conference formation by culling some football affiliations… much like the Big East has done. And I think the Big East needs to add two teams to gain a legitimate BCS standing. The other conferences can play in the Independent/At-large pool, and we can cut the seeding to 8 teams.
One weekend is all that’s needed to set the four BCS bowl games as outlined above. 8 champions play on New Year’s Day with four of them vying for one extra week to be crowned NC.
With that format, we would have all the wuss schools in the SEC and Big 12 who happen to have good records and rankings but weren’t good enough to win their conferences whining.
I say win your conference. If you want to whine about not getting a shot at your conference winner during the season then whine at your conference. I don’t have any sympathy for you.
Or maybe this would be the first weekend of four so as to not interfere with finals.
Just think… if Notre Dame doesn’t make it every year, and an at large sneaks in then Boise State would likely be the #8 seed. What at-large wants to play in Smurf Town in the month of December?
Kids thinking NFL should consider January in Green Bay. It’s could happen anyway. NE has hosted quite a few January games on their way to Super Bowl stardom…gotta live with it.
I was just thinking of the Smurf Town Streak. Unless Toledo beats BSU in the opening game next year, they are trying to tie the record for consecutive home wins (58 by Miami).
Technically the 2005 Humanitarian Bowl loss to BC is not considered a home game.
It’s not like anything is going to change, but I can almost guarantee that I just put more thought into it in the last half hour than the BCS officials have done in the last decade.
Some good news:
http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/article_fb135b4e-ec1b-11de-83cf-001cc4c03286.html
Jim Basnight reported almost two weeks ago that Nelson would be eligible by the time conference play rolled around, but his report was the only news I could find. So I ignored it. Maybe Basnight has an inside contact and let something slip?
Hopefully he’s now in John Wall status… miss two games then go for it. I’m tired of watching Haynes play the star off the bench. There’s a reason he’s coming off the bench people.
I guess the promising part of this announcement is that Nelson will be allowed to receive athletic financial aid (scholarship) according to the NCAA. It’s odd that they only partially cleared him, but the timing (after end of fall quarter) and direction say that he will be fully cleared in the near future. I can’t imagine the NCAA allowing something as serious as a scholarship to be released unless they were willing to finish the job.
Then again… who knows? This is the NCAA we’re talking about.
Remember back to pre-season. Most prognosticators were predicting 7-5 or 8-4 w/ a trip to the LV Bowl (due to non-repeat @ Sun Bowl). The Beavs are right in line w/ it. It’s just that the Beavs had a shot for something MUCH bigger until the last game of the season.
OS should be strong next season, but so are other teams. Stanford keeps getting better. UCLA and UW seem to be making progress. USC still has heaps of talent. UA did so much w/ so little this year. Cal will get over-hyped in the preseason and then choke down the stretch. UO shouldn’t be too hurt by graduation – playmakers are back.