GASabresIUFan

The only way to upgrade this receiver room is in the draft. Shakir and Palmer are locked up. Shavers will be retained. Coleman is under contract, but I think he gets traded in the off-season (see Elam for example). That leaves 3 opening for a vet (Davis/Cooks) and two draftees. We need to start developing our own boundary receivers with size and speed. I’m taking a WR early and another in the 4th or 5th. We need to get younger at the position with more upside and more contributors under cheaper rookie deals.

I looked it up and there 136 FBS teams. Odds are that college football eventually moves to something like my idea, but with about 80 teams in 4 20 team conferences. The ACC is already at 17, Big 12 16, Big 10 18 and the SEC has 16. That's 67 teams already in the Big 4. That leaves 13 spots for ND and 12 other schools. Based on revenue and a program valuation, Oregon St, Wash St, Boise St, SDSU, UNLV, Fresno St, Colorado St, Wyoming, S Florida, and UTSA are the next 10. I'd then add JMU and Tulane as two up and coming schools to complete the 80. JMU is 119-28 over the last 12 seasons and Tulane is 43-12 over the last 4.

I’m not exactly sure how this “roster is a disaster.” On offense: QB, RB, TE and OL are among the best in football both in quality and depth. How many teams could lose 2 high quality tackles and still win? WR is an issue, but Shakir is solid in the slot and most of the rest of the group will be gone after this season leaving Beane an opportunity to finally draft some pieces. On Defense: There are more holes to plug but it’s hardly terrible especially with McD calling the D. The DBs are either good now or developed into good players with Benford, Bishop, Hairston and Hancock as a good core group. Biggest question is former all-pro Taron Johnson. LBs are solid this season with Bernard, Thompson, a healthy Milano who has been much better of late and depth in Williams. The question here is how much Milano and Thompson have left and how much it will cost to bring them back. The D line is the biggest question due to injury (Hoecht and Oliver), age (Jones, Phillips, and Bosa). Walker is going to be a star and Sanders is looking better now that he’s healthy. This roster isn’t perfect obviously but it’s clearly playoff quality and it’s certainly not a disaster. Beane has some work to do this off-season, but the sky isn’t falling. In not sure how many teams could overcome the injuries the Bills have had along both the lines and still be competing for the division title.

All those stats are very nice, except it’s the TEs/RBs that are more productive in terms of Yards per catch, yards per attempt, TDs and chunk plays. Josh has thrown to 9 WRs (218 targets) this season with 8 making catches (147 receptions for 1694 yards). That’s a 67.4% completion %, a 11.5 yards per catch and 7.77 yards per attempt. Josh has thrown to 8 TEs and RBs (156 targets) with all 8 making catches (121 receptions for 1443 yards). Thats a 77.6% completion %, a 11.9 yards per catch and 9.25 yards per attempt. This group also leads 12 TDs to 10 with 6 different TEs/RBs catching a TD pass to only 4 WRs. 3 of the 4 longest passing plays have gone to Kincaid, Cook and Johnson. Slot receiver Shakir has the other. Last I looked the RBs and TEs were supposed to be the safety blankets, not the primary downfield threats. If the WRs were so good, why has Beane brought in during the season Cooks, Davis and Hardman while releasing Moore? Injuries are a factor, but so ineffectiveness. Face it, the strength of our passing attack is Cook, Johnson, Kincaid, Knox and Hawes. Shakir is having a down year, and the boundary wide outs aren’t good.

Allen, Cook, Spencer Brown, Benford and Bosa.

OJ was injured and only played 7 games.

McD should be pissed. He has the best QB in the NFL with no one for him to throw to. Add that instead of drafting WRs he signed mediocre FA who can’t get open and get hurt. I support Beane in general, but his consistent failure to properly address the WR position is mind boggling and has cost this franchise.

Beane will (& should) sign him to an extension.

The problem here is Davis slimmed down this offseason and hasn’t been used in that bruiser role. Instead Josh has been in the short yardage role whether that the best use of our QB or not. I understand wanting less wear and tear on Josh and Cook, but a play on the 2 years line to take the lead isn’t the time to change what you have been doing well all season.

The Cin fumble was a bad personal decision in redzone short yardage. In the cold and snow, you leave the ball with the 6-5 240 lbs QB/Monster named Josh Allen vs the 5-11, 190 non-bruising RB.

I’ve thought that for years. Philly won a Super Bowl with UGA’s defense.

The answer is both simple and impossible. There are about 120 FBS teams. Divide them into 8 15 team geographic divisions. The top 2 teams in each division play for a division championship and the 8 champs make the playoffs. Settle it on the field. No committee, no rankings, no BS.

Despite the ND tears, I actually think there is a benefit from the current structure. Seeing teams like Indiana and Texas Tech breakthrough and having a few upstarts like Tulane and JMU expands the interest in the game.

No, but one can hope.

Kid is talented, but not talented enough to add him to the mix. Try to trade for Adonai Mitchell this off-season and draft 2 WRs in the draft.

He was a pain in the behind at GA, Bama and now the pros. Talk about Red Flags.

I was driving back to Atlanta from the Big 10 championship game when I texted to a group text of my friends in Atl from Buffalo to get the Bills going with the Bills with trailing 28-18. Within minutes of the text the Bills scored 21 points to lead 39-28. The guys texted me back, you asked you received. Talk about a great football weekend IU 13 OSU 10 UGA 28 Bama 7 Bills 39 Cinn 34.

Like all things there is politics. It wouldn’t be politic to have 50% of all FBS teams to be ineligible for the Championship. I honestly have no problem with JMU or Tulane in the playoff. They were the best teams in their part of college football. As an IU fan, we realize how good JMU’s players have been in recent years. (Cignetti brought many of his JMU players to Indiana). People are under the wrong impression that the goal of the CFP is to get the top 12 teams in college football. It’s really the top 8 and plus 4 teams to expand opportunity. The only way to get a top 8 or 16 best on best tournament is to get ND in a conference and create a new top end end division of college football. Essentially Division 1, Division 1A and Division 1B.

I don’t have any real complaints of who the CFP selected, except their lack of transparency regarding ND vs Bama vs Miami I personally don’t think Bama or ND or Miami earned their playoff berths, but since only two slots were open because of the 5 conference champs rule, I thought Bama, with multiple CFP final ranking top 25 wins and Miami with their Head to Head win over ND “deserved” the slot over ND. That said, the CFP ranking of ND ahead of Miami for weeks despite them both have the same record for a month was stupid. My biggest complaint was how was OSU ranked ahead of GA in the final poll? Both had the same record. GA won their championship game and had more quality wins. I’m also unsure how Oregon was ranked ahead of TexAM and Ole Miss. Oregon’s best win was over USC. The Aggies beat ND and Ole Miss Oklahoma. I’d have ranked them Ole Miss 5, Texas AM 6 and Oregon 7. I also think the CFP ranked the teams a little bit for matchups. Bama stayed 9 after getting killed by GA because the CFP wanted a Bama vs Okla rematch. Go Sooners! Overall I think the CFP rankings are pretty straight forward. If you are a Power 4 conference team and go undefeated or have only one loss, you’re in the playoffs. If you have 2 losses, you are on the bubble. It’s really that simple. At that point head to head comes in and maybe other factors such as strength of schedule. A third regular season loss is pretty much an eliminator. Back to ND for a second. They played two teams in the playoff and lost to them both. BYU played one playoff team all season and got killed by them twice. Vandy played two bubble teams, Bama and Texas and lost to both. Utah played one CFP team and one bubble team and lost to both. IMHO Texas is the hardest one of the bubble teams, except 3 losses should be an eliminator. They beat CFP teams Oklahoma, Texas AM and bubble team Vandy, but lost to OSU, GA and a terrible Florida team. If they had beat Florida they’d be the 8th seed. To me Bama is comparable to Texas. They beat CFP team GA, and bubble Vandy, but got killed by GA when it counted, lost to Okla and lost to terrible FSU. To me they also should have been eliminated from the playoffs, except they skate because only 2 of their losses were in the regular season and one was out of conference.

Did they? ND lost to Miami and their best win was against Navy. Not exactly a great resume.

It was. Being there is a lifetime memory

If I’m the Bills, I’m drafting Sarratt

Here we are 1. IU - only undefeated team 2. UGA - SEC champ who just demolished the team that beat them in Bama. They also have more quality wins than OSU. 3. OSU - lost to former No. 2 IU. No shame and they only drop a couple of slots. 4. Texas Tech - Their only loss was when their starting QB sat out a game.. 5-7 Miss, Oregon, Texas AM in some order. 8. Oklahoma 9. ND/Miami/Bama 10. ND/Miami/Bama 11. Tulane 12. JMU Now the debate - Miami beat ND, but lost to two mediocre teams. ND’s two losses are to TexAM and Miami, but the won 10 straight with a couple of decent wins. Bama’ has the best wins of the 3 including UGA, and Vandy, but lost to FSU, got demolished in the SEC Championship and has 3 losses now. I’d eliminate all 3 as none are worthy. Does head to head mean anything? Does playing a hard schedule mean anything? Dies playing for a losing a Conference title game mean anything even if you get dominated? IMHO ND should be out because they lost to Miami and played a nothing schedule.

I have to say the Bucks fans were graceful in defeat. They were sad, but were calculating that they’d still get a bye. It was such a well played hard hitting struggle between the two best defenses in college football. IU’s offense had better balance and that was probably the difference.

I was in Indy for the game. The crowd and the game was electric. The fans went crazy as the clocked ticked to zero. I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I managed to catch some of the UGA demolition of Bama at a hotel bar near Lucas Oil field. What an incredible sports day. Hopefully the Bills tomorrow make it 3 for 3. When I was a student, tonight was something I never believed would or could happen. Thx Cig! The OSU fans took the loss with a great deal of grace and kindness. Also thanks to everyone for their kind words about my Hoosiers. FYI first Big 10 outright champion for IU since 1945. First undefeated regular season. 1st appearance and win in the Big 10 championship game. First time to be ranked No. 1 in AP poll history. Best news for me is that my teams, IU and UGA can’t meet until the final if both make it.