2014 NCAA Football Thread

[TheRicSlick]

Marcus Mariota unsurprisingly wins the Heisman.

[PSUcelticsWON95]

He has been deserving his entire career, so I'm glad he was able to win it. I know I haven't been alive for long, but he's probably the best player I've seen to play the game in the aspects of both being a good player and being a good person. He is a very quiet, down-to-Earth athlete who could (and should) have a big career ahead of him. If he didn't win, I was gonna boycott college football, so I'm glad he won

[Webfooter]

From the way he speaks and carries himself, you almost wouldn't know he's a top-flight college QB who's won numerous awards. That's a testament to how he was raised by his parents and how much he treasures being a part of the Hawaiian/Polynesian culture. Watch any clip or interview on YouTube about him and you'll see an instantly likable guy who any fan would want on their team. This award couldn't have gone to a more deserving player.

[DS729]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

[See Red]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Finalists are determined by players reaching a voting threshold. He wasn't nominated because not enough people voted for him. I'm with you he should have been invited but they do it the way they do it.

[FiddySicks]

I'm really happy for Mariota. I've had the privilege to see him play several times live, and he really is quite a talent. I watched in frustration as he absolutely ran all over my Sun Devils back during the 2012 season, and I also got to see him pick apart a pretty strong Kansas State defense in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of that year too. It's always nice to see guys from new schools win these big awards.

Man, I really hope he can keep it together in these next few weeks after all this hype. I'd absolutely love to see Oregon finally get over that hump and win a title. It'd be so much more refreshing than seeing Ohio State or Florida State back their way to another win, or even worse, have to watch another narcolepsy-inducing Bama title.

[pianoknight]

Congrats to all my Duck coworkers and friends here in Eugene. Now you've finally caught up to Oregon State in the Heisman standings.

[Kevin W.]

It's really nice and refreshing to see such a good player on the field be such a good person off. I doubt we'll see Mr. Mariota get up to the same off-the-field bull :censored: that Manziel and Winston did.

Well done, Marcus. You deserved to win in a runaway.

[BBTV]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

[DS729]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

When you get down from DC, yeah. It's in the area where "Southern" and "East Coast" are the same thing. "East Coast" wasn't the right word, more just "Eastern" in general, the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC all benefit from that.

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Finalists are determined by players reaching a voting threshold. He wasn't nominated because not enough people voted for him. I'm with you he should have been invited but they do it the way they do it.

Ah, didn't know that. That's kinda disappointing, he had a hell of a season. I remember when he took over for Casey Pachall as a freshman and he and that whole team have really come a long way.

[OnWis97]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

I think it is more of a time zone bias. West coast games tend to go late and become out of sight and out of mind.

[IceCap]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

No, but major American sports media is still centred on the east coast.

[pianoknight]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

No, but major American sports media is still centred on the east coast.

Considering that ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, CT, that statement is absurdly accurate. The one and only thing eastward of Bristol that commands sports attention is the City of Boston.

[DS729]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

No, but major American sports media is still centred on the east coast.

Considering that ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, CT, that statement is absurdly accurate. The one and only thing eastward of Bristol that commands sports attention championships is the City of Boston.

FYP.

[tBBP]

I was afraid Mariota would suffer being out on the West Coast and not in the media-happy East Coast, but it all worked out. Also, how did Trevone Boykin not get nominated? I get it, he wasn't going to win, but neither Cooper or Gordon (especially Gordon) had a real shot.

Is there an "east coast bias" when it comes to college football? CFB isn't really big on the east coast - more of a southern thing.

No, but major American sports media is still centred on the east coast.

Considering that ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, CT, that statement is absurdly accurate. The one and only thing eastward of Bristol that commands sports attention is the City of Boston.

In fairness, Foxboro is also between Bristol and the City of Boston...

...But yeah--aside from that, pretty much the moment you cross I-91 you done entered Boston territory.

[Sport]

I watched The U Part 2 tonight.

Thoughts:

- Entertaining, but it felt a little more thrown together than the first one, which I've seen a half dozen times by now. ABC showed it last Saturday and I watched the whole thing, with commercials, even though I have Netflix and could've watched it commercial free if I wanted. We've all been there. I thought the first one had a better story to tell. The program came out of nowhere and became a hated dynasty. The second coming wasn't as terrorizing and didn't last as long. Florida in the mid 2000's was far more annoying, and so is Alabama right now.

- Those were some impressively good Hurricanes teams (even if it's likely they weren't exactly recruited cleanly). They went from Edgerrin James to Clinton Portis to Willis McGahee to Frank Gore. Najeh Davenport, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Andre Johnson, Roscoe Parrish, Bryant McKinnie, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma, Ed Reed, Phillip Buchanon and so on. They were probably weakest at QB with Ken Dorsey and he was a great college quarterback.

- Those uniforms were better than anything they've worn since and college football needs to stop with the silly alternates and come up with some slick modern designs like that again. One helmet. All you need is one helmet.

- The 98 game against UCLA - I wanted UCLA to lose so badly because for some inexplicable reason 11 year old me hated Cade McNown. Three years later I couldn't stand Miami.

- I didn't realize how screwed out of the 2000 NCG they were. They beat a team and that team plays in the game instead of them. The BCS used computers to determine the title game, but this was also the year 2000 and computers weren't exactly on the level of today's technology.

- pretty one-sided portrayal of the 2002 National Championship game. That made it seem like the whole thing was Miami playing poorly and a bad call. First of all, that Ohio State team was a damn good football team that won its share of tough games while Miami played in a weak Big East and hadn't played a team with that same physicality all season. OSU played a great game and forced some of their poor play. Miami had one tough game all season and they lucked into winning because of another bad FSU kicker. The Big Ten at that time was still a legitimate conference and OSU was battle-tested and prepared for a real game. Miami wasn't. Second of all, the overtime penalty everyone always brings up was A. called correctly, B. edited to not show the hold put on Gamble before the pass, C. the doc greatly exaggerated how long it took him to call the penalty, and D. ignores the badly missed defensive holding penalty that if called correctly would've resulted in Ohio State running out the clock in regulation. Either way, the correct team won the game. EDIT: I went back and realized that this is the second 30 For 30 to discuss that game. The previous one was Youngstown Boys which had a decidedly slanted viewpoint in Ohio State's direction. I guess a doc about the thoughts and feelings of Miami players is allowed to be a little biased.

- It sucks that Miami has fallen so hard. College football is more fun when they're the villain. I don't know if they'll be able to turn it around this time though. What Florida high school recruit is going to want to go play in an empty Sunlife Stadium when he could go to Florida State or an SEC school? I think when Miami lost the orange bowl they may have lost their major college football program. you, Loria.

[JayMac]

I was very underwhelmed by The U Part 2. I felt that there wasn't much of a story to tell. Sure, Butch Davis built them back up and Coker guided them to the NCG, but like most sequels, it felt very forced. I hate Miami but I loved the original documentary. This part felt like they could have chronicled any big time program at the time.

[PSUcelticsWON95]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12036743/former-nebraska-cornhuskers-coach-bo-pelini-become-coach-youngstown-state-penguins

It's a tough conference as far as FCS goes, but it should be interesting.

[dfwabel]

I watched The U Part 2 tonight.

Thoughts:

- Entertaining, but it felt a little more thrown together than the first one, which I've seen a half dozen times by now. ABC showed it last Saturday and I watched the whole thing, with commercials, even though I have Netflix and could've watched it commercial free if I wanted. We've all been there. I thought the first one had a better story to tell. The program came out of nowhere and became a hated dynasty. The second coming wasn't as terrorizing and didn't last as long. Florida in the mid 2000's was far more annoying, and so is Alabama right now.

- Those were some impressively good Hurricanes teams (even if it's likely they weren't exactly recruited cleanly). They went from Edgerrin James to Clinton Portis to Willis McGahee to Frank Gore. Najeh Davenport, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Andre Johnson, Roscoe Parrish, Bryant McKinnie, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma, Ed Reed, Phillip Buchanon and so on. They were probably weakest at QB with Ken Dorsey and he was a great college quarterback.

- Those uniforms were better than anything they've worn since and college football needs to stop with the silly alternates and come up with some slick modern designs like that again. One helmet. All you need is one helmet.

- The 98 game against UCLA - I wanted UCLA to lose so badly because for some inexplicable reason 11 year old me hated Cade McNown. Three years later I couldn't stand Miami.

- I didn't realize how screwed out of the 2000 NCG they were. They beat a team and that team plays in the game instead of them. That makes no sense.

- It sucks that Miami has fallen so hard. College football is more fun when they're the villain. I don't know if they'll be able to turn it around this time though. What Florida high school recruit is going to want to go play in an empty Sunlife Stadium when he could go to Florida State or an SEC school? I think when Miami lost the orange bowl they may have lost their major college football program. you, Loria.

Corben only started filming in mid-May, so as he tells it there were some former players who were unavailable which he wished he was able to interview. He could not access Nevin Shapiro as the Bureau of Federal Prisions no longer grants interview visits and while the university is fine with the publicity of his films, he does not get full cooperation.

Plus, they were editing the final cut on Friday, so the pre-screen in Miami last Thursday was slightly different from what was aired on Saturday night. There were some interviews cut as well.

The 2000 Washington Huskies have just as big a beef when it deals with not being in the 2001 Orange Bowl against Oklahoma.

Lastly, when they re-draw the "State of Miami" realize how much that changes since Schnellenberger started it circa 1980. The map went from Daytona Beach, across I-4 to Tampa/St. Pete as the "northern border". Then, there was just two schools within that border: Miami at the Division I level, and Bethune-Cookman at the I-AA level. Today, Tampa (USF) and Orlando (UCF) each have Division I football plus FIU and FAU have recently added programs too.

[Sport]

Maybe he should've taken more time with when he was making Part II? What's your point?

I understand the reasons they've fallen out of the top 25. I don't need a dfwabel lesson.