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Just remembering you said so...

I won't rub it in too much since you are probably in mourning.

One question needs to be asked though... after UT's game against Cal... Do you still think they are soft? Cal's players were bounced all over the field. One of their supposed toughest guys got knocked out of the game on the first kickoff.

I'd say that anyone who plays UT this year better bring extra chin straps to the game.

 

I guess I wasn't as impressed with UT as others. I don't think Cal is as good as some others do. I will be more impressed to see UT do that to other SEC teams. Time will tell...

 

TN looked great against Cal - but lets not fool ourselves - Cal would be a sub 500 team in the SEC. I hope TN is good this year, I like thier coach and traditions. My wife is a TN girl and her family is nuts for them. As Pastor said above - time will tell. I think they have a rough road ahead

 

I don't know what you guys were saying or thinking before the game but its funny seeing how many people are coming out of the woodwork to say that Cal wasn't any good now. Before the game, most were saying that Cal would dominate UT and go on to football glory.

Cal wouldn't compete for either the east or the west in the SEC. But they wouldn't be sub-500 either.

PastorSBC, What aspect of the game were you not impressed with? The dominance of the d-line? Holding Cal to under 50% passing... even when you include the end when they called off the dogs? Holding the supposed "best backfield in America" to under 100 yards? UT's passing efficiency? Their o-line dominance of "one of the best front 7's in America"? Or, maybe the 200+ rushing yards they hung on a defense that kept 8 or 9 in the box all day?

Who knows what the Vols will do in conference... but doing that to any D-I team with a pulse is impressive.

 

I didn't.

The items you listed were very good against Cal, no doubt about it. They looked great.

Being "dominant" against a team that I don't think is good as many may think they are is not real impressive to me.

UT may be dominant this year, but I will wait and see if they can do that in the SEC. If they do, I will say that they are dominant.

 

I'm still not following.

Would you say you are impressed with ND? GT wasn't as well thought of as Cal.

How about USC? OU? Texas? Ohio State? Penn State?

In fact, assuming the worst case scenario that Cal is a talented but underperforming team this year and finishes in the middle of the pack in the Pac 10, who had a more dominant win over a team of equal talent?

Basically, if UT's win over Cal doesn't impress you, whose win did? And, why?

 

BTW, Fulmer showed more class than Carroll. He could have run the score up on Tedford and didn't. In fact, he probably knows that Tedford would have run it up on him if given the opportunity and still didn't.

It would be really cool if Cal regroups and gets a run away revenge game on Carroll this year. I'd love to see him on the other end of that stick.

 

I'm sorry, I thought I was being clear. I am not impressed with UT's win over Cal. I do not think Cal is as good as many think they will be. I could very well be wrong. If Cal ends up being stronger this year then I will come back and admit I was wrong. If Cal was as strong as some thing, then by all means UT's performance was impressive. Only time will tell which way it goes...

Nope. ND did not impress me either. I grew up not too far from ND and pull for them to have a good year. However, they need to play better the rest of the way or they are going to have a down year compared to all the predictions. They have the talent and the coach to make a solid run this year. But again only time will tell.

USC did impress me. Any team that can go into Arkansas and put a spanking on the Razorbacks has to be impressive. Not to mention the fact that the USC had so many holes to fill from last year's team. USC could very well be right in the middle of the National Title hunt again this season. I do not care much for them, so I really hope I am wrong.

No. I am an OU and Bob Stoops fan, but they were not too impressive against UAB.

Pounding North Texas is what Texas is supposed to do. I was impressed with their new QB and will be interested to see how he performs against OSU and the Big 12. Texas defense is what is impressive to me. Their defense and speed could take them a long ways this year.

No. They won, but they gave up a TON of yards to a team they should have dominated.

I did not see any of the Penn State game or highlights so I cannot comment on how they looked in their first game.

I hope I have answered this in the above statements. If I am still not clear let me know and I will see what else I can do.

Again, UT could very well be dominate and impressive this year. I just am not willing to say that after beating a Cal team that I do not think was very good. I know others were pumping them up before the game, but I wasn't.

 

Clear but not exactly rational. UT beat a team that was at least "good".

Then I really have to question if you actually watched the UT/Cal game. UT dominated the first half. SC didn't.

SC dominated Arkansas' offense until the defense got tired then ran the score up on them. UT was up 35-0 on Cal with 8:31 left in the 3rd qtr. At that point, Cal had less than 100 yards of total offense. Had Fulmer wanted to, he could have put 50+ on Cal and not allowed a point. He called off the dogs in the third quarter, started subbing, and stopped playing pressure defense.

USC didn't eclipse 35 until the 4th qtr. Their starters played almost the whole game. Sanchez didn't relieve Booty until SC had scored 44... about mid way through the 4th qtr.

No thought or apparently thinks that Arkansas is as good as Cal.

UT was much more dominant against Cal than SC was against Arkansas. Even with Carroll's continuing to run his 1st team at full speed until the mid-4th qtr, UT still finished with 519 total yards of offense compared to SC's 472.

Right. And pounding Cal was not what UT was supposed to do... but there I sat with big ol grin on my face when UT went scored their 5th TD in just over 2 qtrs.

Let's see... McCoy was impressive for 12-19, 178 yds, 3 TD's against hapless UNT but you aren't impressed by Ainge's 11/18, 291, 4 TD's against the defense that most experts thought was the best in the Pac 10? That doesn't make sense... and contrary to NASCAR, with football I am mostly about the numbers.

Oh, it took Texas longer to put up 35 against UNT than it took the Vols against Cal.

I would agree... and still be in wonder that you can be impressed with Texas' defense but not UT's.

But you don't think a domination of Cal is more impressive than a manhandling of Arkansas or North Texas?

 

Sure Cal is "good", just not as "good" as many think. Maybe it isn't rational.

I did not watch every single play, but I did watch a good majority of it.

I just don't see it that way. USC went on the road to a very hostile place and dominated a solid SEC team. UT played a "good" Pac 10 team at home. If UT had done that on the road it would have been more impressive to me. USC also had some amazing players to replace from last years team.

McCoy is a redshirt freshman replacing a HUGE figure in Vince Young. That is what made him impressive to me. He looks to be someone that can take that pressure and excel. I was referring more to that than the actual numbers. Yes, Ainge had a good game, but isn't he supposed to do that at some point?

Texas and UT are not in the same class right now on the defensive side of the ball.

I don't have any problems with UT. It really matters not to me if they have a great season or if they have a terrible season. I just don't think we have enough information yet to tell. One win over a "good" pac-10 team doesn't do it for me.

 

UT, playing at home, first game of the season, not a bad performance. Cal is probably over-rated. We'll see how "good" Cal really is compared to the rest of the Pac-10. LSU has Arizona this week in Baton Rouge, and Arizona has been picked to finish 6th out of the 10, well below Cal. If it's a blowout, then we can say Cal was over-rated. If it's close, well, maybe the Pac-10 is stronger than thought and if that's the case, Tennessee's opponents better watch out. Arizona surprised BYU last week, winning 16-13 on a last second field goal as 2 touchdown underdogs, and the line is LSU by 18. But the Bengal Tigers, even though playing in Death Valley, have Auburn the next week. Will the 'Cats catch them looking ahead? That has the potential to be the upset of the week.

Arkansas, a "solid" SEC team? You've got to be kidding, right? Maybe, when compared to Mississippi State, but I think Houston Nutt might be looking for a job come November.

Georgia Tech is going to surprise some people in the ACC this year. They'll knock off one of the big boys, either Fla State or Miami, neither of which impressed me Monday night.

I am SO looking forward to the Texas-Ohio State game this weekend. I think its great that they play each other, and so early in the season. It gives the loser a chance to crawl back into it and set things up for a rematch during the bowls. Of course, from a personal perspective, I would love to see Ohio State beat the living daylights out of the Longhorns, but I think that's going to be a knock down, drag out.

 

That's unfortunately what I was thinking. I had hoped that Arkansas would be solid. They certainly didn't look that way against SC.

OTOH, they'll improve. I think they'll probably finish with a winning record and beat Bama.

I hope not. Nutt is one of the genuinely good guys out there. Hopefully they'll give him a full season next year with Mustain at least.

Yeah. And in typical GT fashion they'll choke against teams that shouldn't be on the field with them by half time. The biggest problem they have was apparent against ND... they don't finish.

I think Texas will probably win also. OSU lost too much on defense to have it back together by now.

OTOH, the defenses usually progress faster than the offenses and, in spite of what SBCPastor was impressed with, McCoy's greatest claim to fame so far is a mediocre performance against a team that finished 2-9 last year and would probably be fortunate to reach that lofty perch again this year.

 

I think USC is a better than expected team - Arkansas did ok in the first half, but USC really wore them down. The FSU Miami game was a big let down, I expected to see some fireworks, instead saw the back of my eyelids.

I am really looking forward to the tu game against Ohio State this weekend. Texas seems to have an advantage on the defensive side of the ball, but that OSU qb is quite vince young like. McCoy could be the real deal - Mack brown called him a Major Applewhite with legs, his dad is a coach and he claims to have been able to read defenses since the sixth grade - hope his reading up to masters level this weekend.

Of course I want to see tu undefeated when they come to Kyle Field for the A&M game so the Aggs can SAW THE HORNS OFF! I will wear my Psalms 75:10 tee shirt for that one - "I will cut off the horns of all the wicked"

 

I guess it depends on what your understanding of solid is. I would say a SEC team that many think has the chance to be 7-5 this year is solid. They are not great and will not contend for the conf title, but I would say they are still solid. And I bet any of the teams in the SEC would say they are a solid team especially playing at home.

 

That's the disconnect in your reasoning. You say Arkansas is "solid" because some think they have a chance to be 7-5 coming off a 4-7 season where they didn't beat a single quality opponent... but Cal isn't any good though the "experts" were saying they had a chance to have 10+ wins, dethrone USC, and play in a BCS game... they're still considered to have several NFL caliber players on both sides of the ball.

Arkansas is solid even though the only QB they have with legit SEC skills is a true Fr. Cal is over rated though they have a QB who Tedford said was better than Aaron Rodgers.

The only way what you are saying makes sense is if you have some kind of automatic bias against UT or for SC.

UT may not win another game. But for this first game, they had a better win over a better opponent than SC did.

 

Let me say this once again. I do not care either way for or against UT. If they go undefeated and win a National Title it really wouldn't upset me. In fact, I have cheered for UT before, esp during the Manning days. OTOH, if they go winless and stink up the SEC it does not really matter to me either.

I def do not have a bias for USC. I do not care for USC. I do not want them to ever win. In fact, I hope they lose the rest of their games and never win another National title again. Growing up not too far from Notre Dame and having a soft spot for their program, there is basically no way you can also like and cheer for USC.

So I don't see how what you are saying is true either. I don't have a bias against UT or for USC.

I still think going on the road and beating a SEC team is a better win that beating an overrated Pac-10 team at home. Perhaps I am completely crazy. :laugh: :thumbsup:

 

I think I'll wait until we see how Cal handles Minnesota before going on from here. Utah State should provide Ark a soft enough pillow to land on so that won't really tell us anything.