Official College Football Thread

[Soxbadger]

That recruiting chart shows that scouts are really good at telling the difference between top talent (top 10) and the rest.

 

Once you get down to the 10-40 classes it seems much harder to tell whats going to happen.

[bmags]

Gameday is comin to San Antonio!!! Oh man I'm so excited! Any sign ideas appreciated. I'm going to do background checks on all Oklahoma players. Row 16 in the end zone (fun for field goals.). I'm so amped.

 

What a sight to see the papers...I have every single BCS standings in the USA Today, New York Times, St. Louis Dispatch and Columbia Missourian taped to my wall. I truly feel lucky. Only 2 has this happened in mizzou's history and it happens when I'm here. Kudos to Mike Alden. He's really turned our athletics around.

[WhiteSoxfan1986]

NIU football coach Joe Novak is retiring today, there is a press conference at 3 pm to make it official and he's told the team. It's a damn shame he's leaving after his only losing season this entire decade (and 6 of the 10 losses were by a touchdown or less, despite the team having over 2 dozen players from the 2 deep get injured and only 9 seniors, so that's even deceptive), but he left the program in about 1,000 times better shape than he found it. Hopefully, his 2 wishes are honored in 2008, as a team that should be very healthy and definitely talented has a shot at that elusive MAC Title, and subsequently hopefully we finally get the football team their indoor practice faciility in DeKalb. I am VERY interested to see where the coaching search leads, I'd be lying if I said I had any clue in terms of names right now. I know one thing though, there are only 10 open scholarships in this recruiting class so it's a small class either way, thus I hope our really good athletic director, Jim Phillips, takes his time and finds the right guy.

 

Joe did a great job, but he needed to go. The recruiting has been awful the last 2-3 years.

[Heads22]

Iowa State could be a bowl eligible team and I think Kstate should've been better.

 

Nebraska is losing all of their recruits with the callahan debacle.

 

With South Dakota State, Kent State, Iowa, UNLV, Baylor, Colorado, Kansas State, Nebraska, A&M, and Oklahoma State on the schedule, I'm going to be a little disappointed if we can't find 6 wins.

[RockRaines]

Yeah, Illinois fans should be LSU fans for the same reason. Probably Va Tech fans as well.

Not really. LSU wins and it doesnt move Illinois up to the Rose bowl, same with Vtech

[bmags]

Heads - you should start off 5-0 with that schedule.

[Buehrle>Wood]

Not really. LSU wins and it doesnt move Illinois up to the Rose bowl, same with Vtech

 

As long as Mizzou loses it will.

[WHarris1]

Not really. LSU wins and it doesnt move Illinois up to the Rose bowl, same with Vtech

No, but Tennessee and Vtech losses get Illinois into the top 14.

[RockRaines]

As long as Mizzou loses it will.

Hence being a big Oklahoma fan.........

[bmags]

Stop this talk. Take it MU.

[Heads22]

Heads - you should start off 5-0 with that schedule.

 

That isn't the order of our schedule. I think we play KU first next year in the b12.

[bmags]

well in that case, I think you will have at least 6 wins.

[Rex Hudler]

Don't get too excited about the Ferentz/Michigan rumors. The rumors started on mgblog and were stated as just that, rumors. The blog theorized that Michigan had or would offer the job to Ferentz and that he would decline, not accept, out of loyalty to Iowa. For those that don't know, Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman hired Ferentz at Iowa so there is a connection there.

 

Rumors started to fly everywhere over the weekend, all reverting back to this one blog. An Iowa TV station even jumped into the fray last week, still with no more substantial sources than this blog and chatter surrounding the sources. The TV station even credited the mgoblog as its source.

 

So folks we have one big circular reference here.

 

The problem with this is, in no way do I believe that Michigan pulls an Alabama/Rodriguez and offers the job to someone who doesn't take it. There will only be one offer and that is the one that is accepted. Until then there very likely will be feelers such as "if offered the job, will you take it" either directly to the coach or more likely to his intermediaries/agent.

 

Think of the movie The Firm, when Tom Cruise stepped into his initial interview with the firm. Tom was told they had an offer for him in a sealed envelope and that any lawyer worth the offer could tell them what was in it without opening it. Michigan doesn't have to make the offer without knowing what the answer will be.

 

Ferentz is being considered and there is a faction inside Michigan that thinks he can carry the program with the values it expects.

 

All that said, if I am a betting man, I am still betting on Miles getting the job. I'll say it's 68% Miles right now.

[Heads22]

MGoBlog:

 

A Dassault Falcon 20 left Willow Run at 6 EST and arrived in Cedar Rapids a little more than an hour later. After about 15 minutes it left, returning to Willow Run. The return leg is scheduled to touch down in approximately 30 minutes.

 

 

 

[maggsmaggs]

Don't get too excited about the Ferentz/Michigan rumors. The rumors started on mgblog and were stated as just that, rumors. The blog theorized that Michigan had or would offer the job to Ferentz and that he would decline, not accept, out of loyalty to Iowa. For those that don't know, Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman hired Ferentz at Iowa so there is a connection there.

 

Rumors started to fly everywhere over the weekend, all reverting back to this one blog. An Iowa TV station even jumped into the fray last week, still with no more substantial sources than this blog and chatter surrounding the sources. The TV station even credited the mgoblog as its source.

 

So folks we have one big circular reference here.

 

The problem with this is, in no way do I believe that Michigan pulls an Alabama/Rodriguez and offers the job to someone who doesn't take it. There will only be one offer and that is the one that is accepted. Until then there very likely will be feelers such as "if offered the job, will you take it" either directly to the coach or more likely to his intermediaries/agent.

 

Think of the movie The Firm, when Tom Cruise stepped into his initial interview with the firm. Tom was told they had an offer for him in a sealed envelope and that any lawyer worth the offer could tell them what was in it without opening it. Michigan doesn't have to make the offer without knowing what the answer will be.

 

Ferentz is being considered and there is a faction inside Michigan that thinks he can carry the program with the values it expects.

 

All that said, if I am a betting man, I am still betting on Miles getting the job. I'll say it's 68% Miles right now.

haha, was 70% or 75% just a bit too much? Lol.

[Rex Hudler]

MGoBlog:

 

A Dassault Falcon 20 left Willow Run at 6 EST and arrived in Cedar Rapids a little more than an hour later. After about 15 minutes it left, returning to Willow Run. The return leg is scheduled to touch down in approximately 30 minutes.

 

Despite rumors that Ferentz (who, again, is a serious candidate) has been offered the job (and some, even, that he had accepted), sources close to the situation say that’s not likely. As a few astute posters have observed, Ferentz couldn’t officially be offered the job until after it had been posted for a week - it went up today - though athletic director Bill Martin could certainly have come to an agreement behind the scenes before interviewing others, then gone through the process.

 

There have been rumblings of flights from Willow Run, MI to Cedar Rapids, IA and back again tonight. While such a flight has taken place, there is no indication that a plane has been sent to pick up Ferentz. In fact, the jet in question is not the one Michigan typically uses (and used throughout the basketball search) for such occasions. In addition, Bill Martin would typically accompany a coaching candidate on such a trip. He is currently in Livonia for the annual football bust.

[Rex Hudler]

Heads, MGoBlog seems to be the only source for this thing right now. I am not saying there is no credibility, but he has everything to gain and nothing to lose by sticking his neck out while no one else is right now.

 

All other sources I read just aren't buying what he is selling. That is not to say that Ferentz may not end up getting the job, but it seems he has put himself out on a limb on this one a bit too early.

 

Another post on Rivals (no clue of its credibility):

 

Channel 4 reports that the flight from Iowa City to Willow Run Reply

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

was a frieght run

Edited November 27, 2007 by Rex Hudler

[Rex Hudler]

And another exceprt from the very same blog on MGoBlog that included the plane reference you posted.....

 

6. IMO, the most likely scenario: Michigan has talked quite a bit with Ferentz. The general tone of the conversations has been of the sort when you have a really good job interview and the last guy is just like "well... we really like you. Do you like us? We really like you." Like in the job interview, you assume you have been offered the job but the formal decision has not been made.

 

7. The high level summary of my beliefs based on everything I've heard and read: Ferentz is the #1 candidate and either has already been or will be offered the job. I have no idea whether he'd take it or not but if you put a gun to my head I would say he turns it down.

[Heads22]

Believe it or not, the flight tracking craze started at Iowa State. The day Chizik was named, there was a flight out of Austin to Ames.

 

The biggest question in all of this is why in the heck they want Ferentz anyways, aside from Coleman being in his corner.

 

As far as MGoBlog, Brian's a good guy. I've dealt with him before, and I think that he's not going to post BS without some sort of source. It must suck to be a Michigan fan right now. Coaching searches can suck.

[witesoxfan]

Houston Nutt in at Ole Miss...that was fast.

[shaneomacfan]

Just wanted to add this (non) information that came out this afternoon:

 

According to their sources today, Ferentz did in fact board a plane yesterday, but not to go to Michigan to interview, rather to visit a couple NFL sites to look at practice facilities as Iowa is looking at overhauling theirs, especially the indoor facility.

 

They are also reporting that according to a source extremely close to the situation, Ferentz is no longer an option for the Wolverines. In their words, it's over and done with, Ferentz will not be the next head coach at Michigan.

 

Now, they will turn their full attention to Les Miles. If that falls through, never say never with regards to Ferentz, but according to their source, "Once Kirk has come to a conclusion, he doesn’t second-guess himself.”

 

This is according to the Michigan Rivals site. Ferentz also had a team meeting yesterday to discuss practice and things of that sort. Apparently they can still practice until they're officially out of bowl consideration.

[Heads22]

Phew. I'm glad Kirk's sticking around.

[The Bones]

Wisconsin Accepts Bid to Outback Bowl

 

I thought that these types of bowls would wait until after this weekends games to start inviting teams with the possibility of Illinois getting bumped up to a BCS bowl and everything. I guess since they played in the Capital One Bowl last year this was the best they could do so they took it.

[bmags]

If we don't win on saturday, they said we'll probably get the cotton bowl, with KU getting a BCS bid. What a load of horses***.

[Rex Hudler]

Wisconsin Accepts Bid to Outback Bowl

 

I thought that these types of bowls would wait until after this weekends games to start inviting teams with the possibility of Illinois getting bumped up to a BCS bowl and everything. I guess since they played in the Capital One Bowl last year this was the best they could do so they took it.

 

Wisky played in the Capitol One the past two years, so they were not a good option for it this year (the bowls also like to keep things mixed up). It's my understanding that if Illinois bumps into the BCS, then Michigan will go to the Capitol One Bowl. If not, Michigan will likely slide to the Alamo, but unless something new is out, they could go to the Champs Sports instead.

 

On the Michigan coaching front, rumors today were flying out of Louisiana that Miles is all but a done deal at Michigan and to expect some kind of announcement early next week after LSU plays in the SEC Championship this weekend.