Lots of points being scored by all four teams tonight
- Thread starter knight82
- Start date
They also won’t steal our OC with any money.
Well, if Michigan played better D they would have won so yea, defense does win championships
I noticed not many runs on 1st downs. Causes me to wonder why we do it over 90% of the time.
Modern football. Offense beats defense.
No one plays old man football anymore
If a team like Michigan couldn't stop today's offenses how do we expect to?
Our defense couldn't stop Maryland or Minnesota or even Iowa, which was a terrible offense. How will they ever stop better offenses??
We scored a decent amount in 2020 and finished 3-6 in a BIG only schedule with 2 tough losses.
We threw the ball plenty from 2005-2014 when we were a good team relative to our schedule.
It’s not like we are trying not to play Offense. Anyone who thinks this is pretty clueless. The 4 playoff teams have tons of talent. TCU was the most creative on both sides of the ball but still had a great OL, very good QB and some stud WR’s plus a wrecking ball at RB.
We threw the ball plenty from 2005-2014 when we were a good team relative to our schedule.
It’s not like we are trying not to play Offense. Anyone who thinks this is pretty clueless. The 4 playoff teams have tons of talent. TCU was the most creative on both sides of the ball but still had a great OL, very good QB and some stud WR’s plus a wrecking ball at RB.
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It's changing and that worries me if we don't keep up. The SEC has leaned towards more offense and I see the B10 doing the same slightly now with expansion. USC is that with Riley. UCLA has their moments with Kelly. Physical tough midwest and as B10 as it gets Luke Fickell decided that Leach influenced Phil Longo is what is needed to take the next step at Wisconsin. Walters seems to want to keep the offense going with Harrell as his OC. I see more leaning in that direction.
IMO, our first hurdle is to get an offense that can compete with these teams. The way TCU is built this year, IMO is the mold that has the best potential to compete in the B10 for a lower status team. The offense if very productive, the defense is mediocre but the team as a whole has enough of an element of physicality. Not the most physical you'll see out there but good enough. IMO, a team built like that can compete and be respectable in the B10 and occasionally have a magical season.
TCU won that game because of their fast start which was the Defensive stop on the red zone and the pick 6. I do like their Offense. Their offense made Michigan do stupid things like blitz on 3rd and long and throw another pick 6. They took Michigan out of their old man style of Football which got them to the #2 slot.
Except our coach who inexplicably has seen the game pass him by despite him only being in his 50s.
Michigan ran the ball 40 times but TCU contained them and other than that big run on the first play of the game, they didn't give away many explosives on the ground which was Michigan's hallmark throughout the year. Michigan's explosives mostly came through the air because TCU focused on their ground game. Playing from behind, specifically as the game goes on isn't a comfortable place for a team that plays like Michigan. I don't think they abandoned the run, I just think it wasn't working because TCU was focused on it.
I saw TCU this year a handful of times. I knew they could be physical and I was impressed specifically with their Texas game. Texas has 2 big NFL backs in Robinson and Johnson and TCU contained them. So I knew they were physical and capable, it's just a matter of would it show up in the Michigan game and hold up throughout the game and it did.
I don't know that I'll say the more physical like Dykes here but certainly more than physical enough to match Michigan.
From the article:
"I thought we were definitely the most physical team on the field tonight," Dykes said. "We almost outrushed Michigan by 100 yards. Our ability to stop the run I think was a difference in the ballgame."
'Disrespected' TCU stuns Michigan in CFP classic
In the biggest upset since the advent of the College Football Playoff, third-seeded TCU rode its underdog status to a 51-45 victory over undefeated and No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday, securing the Big 12's first berth in the title game.
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Wow-
You watch these games (not just the final four) and marvel at the concepts, philosophies and talent on the field compared to us.
You watch these games (not just the final four) and marvel at the concepts, philosophies and talent on the field compared to us.
TCU had Zach Evans and Kendre Miller as their top rushers last year. Zach Evans transfers to Ole Miss and Dykes/Riley turn Miller into a 1300yd back. Miller was a 2 star. Demercado the back who came in for Miller when he got hurt rushed for 600yds. He was a no star recruit. I've mentioned Hodges here. He's a contributor on their D and was a transfer from Navy with no takers anywhere except TCU. IIRC their DC from Tulsa was familiar with him being in the AAC. Duggan wasn't even the starter this year, Chandler Morris was until he got hurt.
Find a way to make it work with what you have.
Much better coaches than Schiano (like Saban) recognized that the game changed.
Alabama had plenty of success with a great defense and game managing QBs, and Saban didn’t assume that was going to continue to work in today’s game (even with having among the best defensive recruits) and completely changed his team to an offensive juggernaut.
How is Schiano’s style ever going to work with our recruiting when Saban saw his couldn’t with top 5 recruiting?
I see dynamic,, strong, physically gifted , fast players all over the field on both sides of the ball for TCU.
Duggan is one tough load.
I don’t care about the circumstances or how they got to TCU.
You don’t just get it done without speed, size, explosiveness and physicality
Here's an excerpt from an Athletic article. I've said this before pretty much against the grain of quite a few here. I see opportunity as good as its ever been for those down the status totem pole despite everyone worrying about portal and NIL. It's not perfect parity but the opportunity is greater than it has been in the past.
From the article:
“In today’s college football world, it is a lot different assembling a team than it used to be,” Dykes said. “You used to rely on signing the recruiting class, you redshirted the class if your program is good enough to do that, so all the programs that were good historically had an advantage because they didn’t have to play freshmen. Those teams went to bowl games, got those 15 extra practices and got a chance to work those young players. There was only one way to acquire players, and that was through traditional high school recruiting.
“Well, in today’s world, it’s, it’s a lot different, you know, you can acquire players and a lot of different ways. People don’t really redshirt as much anymore. Because if you do redshirt somebody, chances are, they’re not going to be there for very long. … So what happens is, that opens the door for maybe non-traditional programs to be able to acquire players in a different way, which is kind of what we did.”
TCU took 13 transfers in the offseason. The defensive line was going to be a major issue, but Dykes and his staff were able to address that in the portal. And on a stage like this, against a team like Michigan with a nasty offensive line, those guys showed up.
“Had we not been able to add those 13 transfers, you know, we would have been in trouble defensively,” Dykes said. “So our roster is probably constructed a little bit differently than Michigan’s is, but I do think that you’re going to start to see more teams like TCU, you know, to get on stages like this.”
From the article:
“In today’s college football world, it is a lot different assembling a team than it used to be,” Dykes said. “You used to rely on signing the recruiting class, you redshirted the class if your program is good enough to do that, so all the programs that were good historically had an advantage because they didn’t have to play freshmen. Those teams went to bowl games, got those 15 extra practices and got a chance to work those young players. There was only one way to acquire players, and that was through traditional high school recruiting.
“Well, in today’s world, it’s, it’s a lot different, you know, you can acquire players and a lot of different ways. People don’t really redshirt as much anymore. Because if you do redshirt somebody, chances are, they’re not going to be there for very long. … So what happens is, that opens the door for maybe non-traditional programs to be able to acquire players in a different way, which is kind of what we did.”
TCU took 13 transfers in the offseason. The defensive line was going to be a major issue, but Dykes and his staff were able to address that in the portal. And on a stage like this, against a team like Michigan with a nasty offensive line, those guys showed up.
“Had we not been able to add those 13 transfers, you know, we would have been in trouble defensively,” Dykes said. “So our roster is probably constructed a little bit differently than Michigan’s is, but I do think that you’re going to start to see more teams like TCU, you know, to get on stages like this.”
That's the point. You can get players that contribute and be productive and competitive. It's not a lost cause and woe is me like many here think.
Duggan is tough, but he got banged up in a few games this year.
Schiano would react to that by restricting his running.
I thought TCU‘s D had a say in the outcome. 2 pick 6s and a turnover on downs on the 2 yd line. But it’s all about offense.
They scored 51 not 14 and they wouldn’t even have been in that spot without their 13th ranked total offense and 3rd ranked scoring offense.
Their D is good enough and the team is physical enough and that allowed them to go toe to toe with a Michigan.
If Schiano 2.0 fails, it'll be because of his inability to adapt to modern football. I'd understand if the guy was in his 70s and the game passed him by, but he's in his 50s and still thinks you can win at the highest level playing 2003 style football.
I was not pro or anti Schiano at the time of the hire. However, i had hoped being “outside” of college head coaching had given him an opportunity to evaluate what he did the first time and adapt to what he felt could have done better as well as how the game had changed.
Instead, he appears to have came back with the same mindset he left with. I think playing Wimsatt, but not letting him run, put me firmly in the “this is not going to work” camp.
Plus the fumble recovery on the goal line. Their Defense showed up and their Offense was creative and made some very big plays.
Yes they are Defensive minded but have enough talent to score when needed. You need both to be where they are.
Didn’t tcu get two pick sixes and two goal line stops. That’s 28 points that I think was their defense. You need both offense and defense to win a natty. (Obviously).
