ROLL TIDE!!

[Lionel Hutz]

5 hours ago, Your Brown Eye said:

 

Is that a requirement to like a team?

Of course not. I do think it's weird for people that have no connection to a school choosing to root for them just because they win, especially if they are also Bills fans. 

 

It's like people who became Patriot fans after Brady, or people who root for the Cowboys, Lakers and Yankees. 

[Cynical]

16 hours ago, Lionel Hutz said:

Of course not. I do think it's weird for people that have no connection to a school choosing to root for them just because they win, especially if they are also Bills fans. 

 

It's like people who became Patriot fans after Brady, or people who root for the Cowboys, Lakers and Yankees. 

 

"I do think it's weird for people that have no connection to a school choosing to root for them just because they win..."

 

This happens quite frequently, both at the collegiate level and at the professional level.

 

It's not a coincidence the number of Bills fan grew during the early 90's when the Bills went to 4 SB.

It's not a coincidence the number of CFL fans, who did not even care for the NFL, suddenly became Bills fans in the late 90's because of certain player.

 

[Bill from NYC]

On 12/4/2023 at 9:02 PM, Lionel Hutz said:

Of course not. I do think it's weird for people that have no connection to a school choosing to root for them just because they win, especially if they are also Bills fans. 

 

It's like people who became Patriot fans after Brady, or people who root for the Cowboys, Lakers and Yankees. 

I don't live in WNY but became a Bills Fan the day that the Jets left for New Jersey. I always prefered the AFL/AFC.

 

My father was born in Alabama and I have been a fan of the Crimson Tide for more than 50 years through good times and bad. 

 

Am I to be given a pass?

[Dan in Owego]

9 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

I don't live in WNY but became a Bills Fan the day that the Jets left for New Jersey. I always prefered the AFL/AFC.

 

My father was born in Alabama and I have been a fan of the Crimson Tide for more than 50 years through good times and bad. 

 

Am I to be given a pass?

Yes Bill you are absolved, who among us can question the heart😍.

 

As for me i have been a fan Of Michigan ever since my uncle went there in the late 70's

 

Michigan 27 Tide 20👍

[Bill from NYC]

15 hours ago, Dan in Owego said:

Yes Bill you are absolved, who among us can question the heart😍.

 

As for me i have been a fan Of Michigan ever since my uncle went there in the late 70's

 

Michigan 27 Tide 20👍

You too would probably win the seal of approval from those questioning who we cheer for. 

 

It's going to be a very taxing game for both very physical teams. 

 

I'm thinking Crimson Tide 31 -  Michigan 17 but to win like this they will need to score points on defense.

[Jukester]

On 12/6/2023 at 2:39 PM, Dan in Owego said:

Yes Bill you are absolved, who among us can question the heart😍.

 

As for me i have been a fan Of Michigan ever since my uncle went there in the late 70's

 

Michigan 27 Tide 20👍

@Dan in Owego, nice call!!

 

I’m a Michigan alum and that was a crazy game. Washington will be tough.

[Bill from NYC]

Congrats to all Michigan fans. No excuses offered, Alabama was simply outplayed and frankly; the score didn't really reflect the game. Michigan was the clear winner. I think that Saban did well to lead the team this far given the somewhat shaky QB situation.

 

Once again, The Crimson Tide looks very good going ito 2024. It will be very interesting to see how the QB situation is handled. 

 

ROLL TIDE!!!!!!

 

[Buffalo716]

9 minutes ago, Bill from NYC said:

Congrats to all Michigan fans. No excuses offered, Alabama was simply outplayed and frankly; the score didn't really reflect the game. Michigan was the clear winner. I think that Saban did well to lead the team this far given the somewhat shaky QB situation.

 

Once again, The Crimson Tide looks very good going ito 2024. It will be very interesting to see how the QB situation is handled. 

 

ROLL TIDE!!!!!!

 

Yea rough game for crimson Tide.... Michigan came out the gate ready to play for sure... They weren't awestruck of Bama

 

There were definitely a lot of factors at play.... But a big one was .... 

 

JJ McCarthy > Milroe 

[4merper4mer]

58 minutes ago, Bill from NYC said:

Congrats to all Michigan fans. No excuses offered, Alabama was simply outplayed and frankly; the score didn't really reflect the game. Michigan was the clear winner. I think that Saban did well to lead the team this far given the somewhat shaky QB situation.

 

Once again, The Crimson Tide looks very good going ito 2024. It will be very interesting to see how the QB situation is handled. 

 

ROLL TIDE!!!!!!

 

No doubt Saban did a good job and I thought on balance Michigan was a little better but there were stretches where Bama was the better team.  Honestly though, most of the credit for Bama getting that far belongs to the committee.

 

I have no doubt Bama will be back but hopefully the results of yesterday’s games will help end some of the SEC snobbery and the deeming of other teams as completely worthless.  It was always a big SEC circle jerk.  I saw everywhere, not just here but definitely here too, that Washington was a hopeless waste of a playoff spot.  Ummmm……nope.  
 

With 12 teams it won’t matter much.  Sure, there will be a number 13 complaining every year but I think it will be a looooooong time before any team seeded 7 or worse wins it all and 95% plus will probably come from the top 4 over time.

[thebug]

M

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

On 12/6/2023 at 6:23 AM, Bill from NYC said:

My father was born in Alabama and I have been a fan of the Crimson Tide for more than 50 years through good times and bad. 

 

Am I to be given a pass?

Only if you show us your Robert Foster tattoo. 😁

Edited January 2 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[Dan in Owego]

8 hours ago, Jukester said:

@Dan in Owego, nice call!!

 

I’m a Michigan alum and that was a crazy game. Washington will be tough.

Ha wow i watched the whole game and forgot my prediction, might have been a first for me🤩

[dave mcbride]

22 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

Congrats to all Michigan fans. No excuses offered, Alabama was simply outplayed and frankly; the score didn't really reflect the game. Michigan was the clear winner. I think that Saban did well to lead the team this far given the somewhat shaky QB situation.

 

Once again, The Crimson Tide looks very good going ito 2024. It will be very interesting to see how the QB situation is handled. 

 

ROLL TIDE!!!!!!

 

https://theathletic.com/5175155/2024/01/03/michigan-alabama-recruiting-rankings/
 

Bill: Not sure you have access to The Athletic, but this is a very interesting piece that I thought you might find interesting.

[Bill from NYC]

Thanks but I couldn't open it. Was it good news?

 

[dave mcbride]

1 minute ago, Bill from NYC said:

Thanks but I couldn't open it. Was it good news?

 

It's really about how for the first time a team that wasn't completely loaded with 4 and 5 star recruits broke through the super-elite team wall (Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia) to beat one of those teams in the playoffs -- and control the LoS. It says that this Alabama team had the second highest rated recruit class of any team since 2002.  

 

"But as Jalen Milroe, a former top-100 player in the 247Sports Composite, grabbed a low snap and charged ahead behind an offensive line bookended by two former five-star tackles and two more blue-chippers on the interior, he got stoned at the line of scrimmage.

On the play, Alabama’s five-star right tackle, JC Latham, who will likely be a 2024 first-round NFL Draft pick, got pushed onto his back directly into the running lane by Josaiah Stewart, a former three-star prospect who transferred to Michigan after beginning his career at Coastal Carolina.

Stars Matter. They always will.

But Michigan, which won the Rose Bowl and advanced to the national title game in Houston next week, proved that in today’s college football, stars aren’t the only thing that matter.

Michigan did something I’ve repeatedly said is impossible.

Michigan proved me wrong. As a result, it has forever changed how I view the sport.

 

For the entire College Football Playoff era — dating back to the 2014 season — the four-team field has been dominated by super teams that have consistently destroyed their peers on this stage, year after year, game after game, title after title. Until Michigan on Monday.

That may sound odd given Michigan was an undefeated Big Ten champion and a 2.5-point favorite over Alabama heading into the Rose Bowl. But it’s true.

So how are super teams defined? It’s all roster makeup based on recruiting rankings, the results of which are readily available in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite.

There are two types of teams we find on this stage. First, the super teams built like Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, the types of programs that have recruited so well over the previous four or five cycles that they have future draft picks sitting on the bench. They often have double-digit five-star prospects and enough top-100 players on top of that to have a huge margin of error in recruiting hits and misses.

 

The second type is the “developmental teams,” the ones that recruit pretty well and do a tremendous job of evaluating and finding good fits. These teams are very good, but their overall roster strength pales in comparison to that of the super teams.

People repeatedly counter the “stars matter” mantra with things like “coaching matters” and “development matters,” but that was always so tiresome to hear because it’s not like Alabama and Georgia don’t evaluate and develop their players. Their players just often naturally do things physically that lower-ranked players can never do, regardless of development, heart or time spent in the gym and film room.

The super teams always, always, always beat the developmental teams at the end of the year.

Well, Michigan just proved it’s not always.

The 2023 Alabama team boasts the second-most talented roster — on paper — in the modern recruiting era (dating back to 2002). The average scholarship player on this team was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school. That is an absurd statistic. Even if half of the signees didn’t pan out, Alabama would still have 40-ish players who lived up to their recruiting hype and would be among the best players at their position in the country. That’s basically an entire two-deep. It’s unfathomable how many good players are on this team.

Michigan, meanwhile, ranks No. 14 in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite and has 16 fewer five-star prospects on its roster than Alabama. That doesn’t even account for how much more highly rated Alabama’s four-stars are than Michigan’s.

The result? Michigan, a senior-laden team, beat the crap out of the Crimson Tide. Sure, there were moments when it felt as though Alabama was going to win in the second half, but anyone who watched that game saw the Wolverines physically impose their will on Alabama, all the way to the final play."

[Bill from NYC]

Good article, thank you.

 

As @Simon stated in his post, quarterback made the biggest difference, and I very much agree. I think that Hurts, Tua, Mac, or Bryce would have had better results but again, the better team won. 

 

The good news is that many of these big time recruits have barely played. For instance, they have a lb named Quandarius Robinson who looked great in his few appearances, and might be one of the best special teams gunners I have ever seen. Another LB Jihad Campbell looked like a future star on his limited plays. 

They also got two 5 stars from the portal who jumped ship from Texas A&M. 

Bama should be OK for a while, especially if the QB issue gets fixed.

[Buffalo716]

11 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

Good article, thank you.

 

As @Simon stated in his post, quarterback made the biggest difference, and I very much agree. I think that Hurts, Tua, Mac, or Bryce would have had better results but again, the better team won. 

 

The good news is that many of these big time recruits have barely played. For instance, they have a lb named Quandarius Robinson who looked great in his few appearances, and might be one of the best special teams gunners I have ever seen. Another LB Jihad Campbell looked like a future star on his limited plays. 

They also got two 5 stars from the portal who jumped ship from Texas A&M. 

Bama should be OK for a while, especially if the QB issue gets fixed.

I'm not Saying Milroe is amazing... But be careful what you wish for

 

He is a much better college player than you're giving credit for

 

And for the record he has a higher rating and more touchdowns passing in a season then Jalen hurts ever did at Alabama with better receivers

 

Hurts turned into a thrower at Oklahoma... He was a physical project at Alabama that lost the job to tua

[Bill from NYC]

9 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

I'm not Saying Milroe is amazing... But be careful what you wish for

 

He is a much better college player than you're giving credit for

 

And for the record he has a higher rating and more touchdowns passing in a season then Jalen hurts ever did at Alabama with better receivers

 

Hurts turned into a thrower at Oklahoma... He was a physical project at Alabama that lost the job to tua

Ah but Hurts never got rattled. He also never got emotional during games. He is still like that. And I dare say that although our receivers might not be quite as good as in past seasons (ESPECIALLY the 2020 class with Smith, Waddle, and Metchie), it is hard to rate them with Milroe. And hey, they ARE pretty good. 

For instance, I think that Jermaine Burton would likely be a #1 pick with ANY of our previous four QBs. 

 

I am just hoping for an honest competition at QB next season. If Milroe is all that, he should just declare for the draft, no?

[GunnerBill]

I think this version of Alabama did extremely well to make the final four. It was one of Saban's best coaching jobs IMO.

[4merper4mer]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

I think this version of Alabama did extremely well to make the final four. It was one of Saban's best coaching jobs IMO.

It was gifted to them.  They played one game which earned them consideration.  The Georgia game.  They were great in that game but the rest of their season was life and death to win against average or below average teams, a curb stomping by Texas, and big wins against teams like the Chattanooga Choo Choo’s.  To their credit, once the were given a spot, they respected it and played well against a good opponent.