College football 2013 running discussion thread

The SEC will be great for years but there are degrees to that greatness. The SEC isn't invincible.

In 2012: 6 teams with at least 10 wins, 3 more with 9, 8 and 7 wins and 5 losing records
In 2011: 5 teams with at least 10 wins, 3 more with 8 and 7 wins and 4 losing records
In 2010: East's best two had 9 and 8 wins and the other 4 had losing records; Auburn went 14-0, 4 others had at least 10 wins
In 2009: 2 teams with at least 10 wins, East was weak with three 7-win teams; Bama went 14-0 in a strong West
In 2008: 2 teams in East with at least 10 wins, 4 pedestrian teams; West winner was 12-2 with 5 other pedestrian teams

 

Is that Wayne Knight in the background?

I think I just saw him in "Goodfellas" yesterday too, as the JFK heist guy who gets whacked, with his girlfriend, in the pink Caddy.

 

With 14 teams, chances are good that one of them is going to win 10, 11, 12 games.

 

How much shit is AJ McCarron getting when Bama is on the road this year?

 

Worth it, wouldn't you say?

 

The woman on the right is his mom.

 

Yeah, but six?

This year, LSU, A&M, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina all look able to repeat. There seems to be separation from those six and the rest of the league.

If Ole Miss beats Texas, it'll have a puncher's chance of joining those six, but at the expense of somebody else, of course. I don't see Ole Miss getting to 10-2 without beating LSU, for example.

 

True. The downside to these larger conferences and more conference games is that somebody has to be the punching bag. And/or you'll wind up with a lot of 7-5, 8-4 teams. One or more of the big six you mentioned will have a down year by their standards and go 8-4, 9-3. No idea which one

 

My money's on Texas A&M at this point. Not impressed. Joeckel carried a heavy burden on offense and Moore on defense and they are both gone. I think it'll take them a couple of years of recruiting as an SEC school -- in other words, beating Texas in recruiting in-state because of their association with the SEC -- before it has the quality depth the other five have.

I'm not convinced the Aggies' 2012 season wasn't unlike the occasional Arkansas 10-2 type season. They got on the back of a few superior players (like Arkansas with a Darren McFadden) and competed evenly with teams like Alabama and LSU who had better top-to-bottom talent.

They lost two of their studs and I think they're still a recruiting class away from being quite as deep as the other five top schools. But they still have Manziel, so all bets are off.

On the other hand, Ole Miss has their next Eli Manning team. Great recruiting class, but I doubt if they can sustain recruiting at that level year-in, year-out. They were lucky to have landed a marginal (by SEC standards) linebacker talent in Denzel Nkemdiche a couple of years ago. Typical Ole Miss recruit in that he was obviously an SEC-level player, had he possessed a flaw (he's small) that kept him from getting the serious looks from the top five.

So Ole Miss got him. And a couple years later, his little brother is the No. 1 player in the country and decides to play with big brother. And, as a well-liked member of his class, he influences a couple other top recruits to join him in Oxford.

That's lightning in a bottle. Can't see Ole Miss pulling that kind of stuff off again. Meanwhile, the big six will recruit top 15 classes every year without a whole lot of effort.

 

Good gracious. That's fantastic. All of it. Both of them.

 

Another thing about Denzel Nkemdiche ... he didn't qualify until the very last minute (like May of his senior year), and Ole Miss under Nutt was notorious for over-signing (even for the SEC). He's the reason they started enforcing the 25-man signing class rule.

 

Wood. Wood.