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The poll and why it's such a sham...

The popularity contest continues...The beauty pageant rolls on....

Let's take the top 6 and dissect the sham

#1 Oregon
They played two games I would consider tough. Just two. Both at home.
Ironically both were won via field goal. One that was made as time expired and one that never happened as time expired.
Boise State and Ohio State
Should they be #1? You be the judge on that.

#2 Georgia
Oh the good old trendy favoritism continues.
Beat Clemson at a neutral by a good margin. I don't know the intangibles there..but it was 6-0 at the half.
Since that win they beat Kentucky by 1 point. Yes KU! By ONE!
They were down 30-7 at the half to an average Alabama team. Lost by seven points at the end to a Bama team that should have 3 losses!
Beat a very bad MSU team by 10
Beat a Texas team on the road but this Texas team was riding excitement and trendy rah rah. Texas should NOT have been #1 nor a top 5 team.

#3 PSU
Might have the best resume at present..or the second best. At the very least they should be ranked #2.
No losses, Beat a ranked Illinois team by 14, Beat USC which does have some athletes on the road..
If they can finally get over the OSU hump they should be #1 and will stay there the rest of the year. NO Michigan on the schedule this year.
Not saying they're the best team but at this point probably has the strongest cleanest unbeaten resume.

#4 OSU
They've played one tough game. Just one. At Oregon and they lost. Coulda, woulda, but didn't....
Should be ranked higher than Georgia..

#5 Texas
one tough game and a 15 point loss at home. The rest of their schedule to this point has been WEAK!
They are not a #5 team.

#6 Miami
Can you spell lucky? That said they haven't lost yet.


At this point in the year the undefeated teams should never be ranked lower than a 1 loss team.

This will all sort itself by year's end but half way through the year 1 one loss teams should be lining up behind the undefeated teams. Period!

Army, Navy..
More love for them please!!! Nobody in the top ten would want anything to do with them...
They need ranked higher. period!

If OSU is ranked #4 then Boise State should be no lower than 6th
Again a big game loss on the road that was nearly identical to OSU's only loss.
Yet Boise State isn't in the trendy beauty club. Another reason why we need even more than 12 playoff teams.
Would you like to play Boise State? I promise you Oregon and any other top ten teams want no part of that.

Let's talk about our beloved.
#12

We can run the ball. Perhaps the best in the country.
We CAN'T PASS the ball. The worst thing that happened was Michigan winning last year showing you can win a title being a running team. That's fine but J.J. could throw the ball when needed. Real passes.
RL can't make those throws when needed. Plus Michigan didn't lose. We already lost one.
Defense we are a top 5 unit.
We just don't have the pretty style points and when we HAVE to throw the ball to steal a game...one of those games that always comes up...we will be in trouble.

Where should we be right now?
Who knows..Does it really matter if we are #8 or #14? If we deserve to be in the top 12 it will sort itself out by years end.
The USC game if we get through the academies will be everything and USC playing with motivation to ruin our chances.
Can we get there with only one loss....

That FSU game still scares me. Maybe it shouldn't and perhaps FSU has given the coach the deaf ear and written the season off but that will be a cool fall night game.
Laws of averages can kick in too...as in if they don't win again until then they will be due.
FSU is 1-6
If we sleepwalk in that game it could be a problem.

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Football ***GAME THREAD: No. 12 Notre Dame 31, Georgia Tech 13 (Final)***

I've claimed an unmarked seat in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium press box, so let's get the game thread for Notre Dame-Georgia Tech rolling.

We will use this game thread as the primary home for game commentary from now until after the game. We have some rules we'll ask you to follow, which will be included below.

If you're not following the rules and do not respond well to reminders, we'll remove you're posting privileges for the rest of the day. We have too much to do today to argue about it during the game. This doesn't happen often as we're pretty lenient in the game thread, but please keep that in mind.

@HotCarNut has disciplinary powers as a moderator. You can argue with him about the game, but do not argue with him about the rules.

Our game thread rules:

1. Use this thread until the end of the game for ongoing game commentary. We'd like to keep the conversation in one place. If something from the game merits a separate conversation of substance, go ahead and start another thread for that topic. When in doubt, post in the game thread.

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Navy Game Concerns

Couple things concern me about this game and I'm curious to see how Golden Defends Navy.

Concerns :
Lack of efficiency with our offense
Lack of Depth on D
Youth at LB
Inexperience vs option on D

Now, navy is going to stack the box at times to stop the run and we should still be able to move them and run it. It's the run that goes for nothing or penalty that you need to overcome vs navy and Riley passing when the other team knows it isn't good. They will go zone and make leonard go through his reads, something he is bad at. Navy can't go zone early downs due to having to commit too many players in the box to stop the run.

Defensively, our LBs have gotten exposed in coverage at times. Safeties and LBs will be covering a lot if we go big to stop the run. Or does Golden stay in nickel trying to protect lbs in coverage? My guess is we start out in nickel but I expect you'll see a mix of 3 lbs and 2 lbs at times.

There's a lot of youth defensively that will be playing this type of offense for the first time in college. Pretty much our entire Defense other than Mills, Cross, Kiser, Watts (maybe heard), will all be facing it for the first time. I love what youngs length and athleticism could do here but you have to be so sound.
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Football Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman's press conference transcript after Navy win

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media following No. 12 Notre Dame's 51-14 waxing of 24th-ranked Navy, Saturday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Here's everything the third-year Irish coach had to say. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

OPENING STATEMENT

“We challenged the group. We had to play complementary football today. That was a point of emphasis. This team was No. 2 in the country in turnover margin, and I just told the guys we’re plus-six in the turnover margin. That’s huge. That’s complementary football. Proud of all three phases. A lot of good. When I meet with you again, I’m going to tell you about the improvements that we need to make. It’s the reality of people that aren’t satisfied. We wany more. We want the best, but we’re going to enjoy today. I’m proud of the way they prepared, the way they played. For the most part after halftime, how we came out with a sense of urgency to continue to execute in all three phases and improve. And so, it’s a big win for this program. We’re going to enjoy it as we go into a bye week and get ready for the next one. I’ll open it up for questions.”

Q: What was the plan going into the week with regard to red-zone defense?

“We stopped them before the half. But then in the second half, I think there was one that they did end up scoring. We had a good plan. Coach [Al] Golden did a great job. The defense did a great job of — they [the Midshipmen] do some really difficult things in the red zone, but our offense was able to score in the red zone. And we stopped them, which was crucial one of those times in the red zone. So, it's a point of emphasis. You’ve got to have a great plan, but it's also a mindset when you get down that we’ve got to score touchdowns on offense and we’ve got to force them to try a field goal attempt on defense.”

Q: We talked to you this week about this team and its keys to getting off to a faster start. So, what were the keys to it happening today in this game?

“I tell you this every week: Those are outcomes. Those are observations. Like, a fast start starts with a fast first play and a fast second play. And everybody evaluates you — I told the team — based off flows, the flow of the season, the flow of a game. We can't look at this thing based on flows. We’ve got to look at it as one game, one life, one play. And that's what I continue to preach to those guys. So, the result of how we started fast was that we executed on that play early in the game. And then as you look back at it, you say, ‘OK, that was a fast start.’ But more importantly, it’s just a mindset, like win this play. It’s the only thing that matters.”

Q: What can you say about Leonard Moore stepping in and making plays?

“You know, with the snap of a finger, you can be thrust into the spotlight. But I said this, I think in the press conference last time I was up here and I said it to the team: ‘You earn the trust from your teammates and your coaches first before you're ever thrust into the spotlight.’ Leonard Moore earned the trust through fall camp, through the season. And Benjamin Morrison goes down, and he [Mppre] is thrust into the spotlight. Now everybody recognizes it, but he earned that through his preparation, the way he came in here as a true freshman and he approached fall camp, approached each week that way. And so, that's what we’ve got to continue to tell our guys, like, earn the trust of your teammates and your coaches first. And when you're thrust into the spotlight, you'll be ready to go.”

Q: It was reported on the TV broadcast that you remind your team about the Northern Illinois loss every day. Why is that important to you?

“I don’t do it every day, but the most important thing is we can't lose the pain. That's what I want to make sure our guys understand, is that you can't lose the pain. I don't want to lose the pain from that game, because at times we are motivated by fear. At times we are motivated by ‘we don't want this to repeat itself.’ And so, there's times I’ve got to remind them of that pain, so that we can make sure we don't forget it. We’ve got to use that. I said we're going to be grateful for it if we utilize it, if we learn from the lessons that it's taught us. But when you have success, sometimes you forget about that pain of what NIU left in all of our hearts and our guts. And so, there's moments that I want to reflect on that, and I don't want them to lose it. And that’s when I want to use it for motivation.”

Q: What do you think is the biggest lesson learned from that?

“It’s the preparation. I go back and I look at that week of preparation, and I believe the physical part was efficient. But there's a mental preparation of mindset that you have to have going into every week. And that's, to me, what I've learned as the head coach, our program has learned. And we’ve got to take in from that game that there's a mental approach. You better understand that if you don't prepare the right way, you can lose anybody. And I don't want to ever forget that.”

Q: There were several explosive plays today. What did you do today to get your playmakers loose to make the big plays?

“Tying to create one-on-one matchups. I think what you're seeing is a reflection of coach [Mike] Denbrock and our quarterbacks and Riley [Leonard] — the growth of their relationship, the ability to have multiple calls coming into a play and check into the one that we believe is going to have success. There's a trust between the quarterback and the wideouts that's continuing to grow. And Riley’s throwing the ball with confidence. Those are some of the big-play passes. Listen, Jeremiyah Love, the kid’s going to create a big play. He's got a chance to create a big play every time he has the ball in his hands. And that's what, to me, you saw today, some really good connections and executions between the wideouts and quarterback, but also Jeremyiah Love being Jeremiyah Love.”

Q: Billy Schrauth came back today, but at left guard. Can you take us through your discussions with O-Line coach Joe Rudolph in terms of bringing him back in that spot and what does it mean to have him back?

“It's great to have him back. He's a heck of a player. We felt like this was what was best for this game, based off some of the previous evidence that we had. And we said, ‘Listen, that's what we think is best for this offense and this unit, is to put Billy at left guard and keep Rocco [Spindler] in at right. Sam [Pendleton] has done a great job in his preparation. He's a selfless individual. He's ready to go when his number is going to be called, but at the end of the day, each week your role is determined by the coaches to help us achieve the outcome that we want. Every week your role can change, but this is the role we needed for these offensive linemen today.”

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ND Schedule updated

Congrove is used to select FCS playoff teams and brings in a little more credibility and less "predictive" bias than "some" sites. We are #9, up one from last week. Anyway, here are our opponents ranks:
Texas AM 14 please please beat ole purple face in two weeks
Northern Ill 51 higher than I would have thought
Purdue 120 ugh
Miami oh 80
Louisville 25 nice!
Stanford 102
Gtech 39 be careful
Navy 27 nicer
FSU 86 what a difference a year makes
Virginia 61 seem to be improving
Army 22 nicest
USC 34 will likely move up
This is ranked as #22 toughest schedule in large part due the oft derided service academies. Of top 10 teams only ga. and Bama have tougher schedules. Of course that also means the academies and Ga. Tech will present challenges. Will be interesting to see this develop.
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