The Official 2022-2023 Football Thread

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeeeees! It's here! Finally, a reason to use your TV again for something other than being spoonfed wrong-headed opinionations from blatantly biased news sources. We can once again bask in the EnergyStar compliant energy-efficient warm glow of the light emitting diodes,... or perhaps the organic light emitting diodes of a fancy-ass Vizio OLED tv if you're one of those rich bitches.

Odds that Notre Dame will FINALLY beat Ohio State today. Anyone? I'm saying, oh... 500 to 1. By all means Notre Dame, prove me wrong and give me a reason to not believe you've been over-valued by all the polls.

[Sgt. Dick]

It was closer than predicted.

Is Ohio St. overrated

Is ND better than they thought (but still overrated)

Was it really like the #10 team playing the #20 team

[|iR|Focalor]

I think Oregon was greatly overrated. Dunno what the hell possessed the poll idiots to put Oregon anywhere near the top 10. If anyone wants to explain what could possibly be the reasoning behind ranking them that high, I'm anxious to learn. Seems like these polls are just playing favorites with some of these teams - like they think just because Oregon was doing well several seasons ago, THAT'S what they remember and it factors into their voting. They do the same thing with USC Trojans ALL THE TIME.

I was thinking Georgia wouldn't be as good this year after losing some of their biggest defense players, but damn, almost seems like they could be even better this year. QB Stetson Bennett was certainly looking more capable and skilled than last year.

Didn't really get to see the Ohio St vs Notre Dame game. I fell asleep before the 2nd quarter ended. Same for the LSU vs FSU game which was also a close one. Did get to see the UNC vs Appalachian State game early Saturday though. That one was crazy. Something like 60+ points scored in the 4th quarter. One of the weirdest games I've ever seen.

[Sgt. Dick]

I agree Oregon was overrated and it showed bigtime.  UGA did look really good, but how bad is Oregon.
I think UGA is really good, but this game really did not push my opinion either way.
 

Florida beat a #7 Utah.  Is Utah a top team or just a top PAC-12 team.  Florida may be mid-pack SEC team.
I don't agree with putting a un-ranked Florida all the way up to #12 after beating Utah, I could see maybe #20.
Florida plays #20 Kentucky this weekend, I think we will learn a lot more about both of those teams after this game.

I want to hear Haunted's take on UNC this year. 
App State is on of the best small schools out there, but UNC needs to play some defense.

Kelly is already catching some hell at LSU.  If LSU does not have a good season, I see Kelly blowing up at someone before the season is over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTH4XVXAvqM

[|iR|Focalor]

See, this is why you need Discord. You miss all the football talk. You wouldn't need to devote your life to it like another Facebook or something. Don't even have to carry it on your phone all the time. I don't. I only use it on the the pc. The IRC thing was fizzling out so Discord is pretty much the new IRC... although now there isn't really one single "official Tastyspleen" channel. Jehar has the TastyspleenTV channel (probably the closest thing to the official TS channel), Haunted is running NADL, that's were we have a "sports" subchannel where we do football, ufc, etc talk. You need to join us, man!

Kelly is already catching some hell at LSU.  If LSU does not have a good season, I see Kelly blowing up at someone before the season is over.

That's something they were discussing in NADL/sports. Apparently at the end of the last game, he got into an argument with one of his players and the very next morning he went to transer. Oh my. Gonna be a long year for Coach Kelly.

[haunted]

I only got to see a 10 minute highlight of the app state north Carolina game and some bits and portions in between my phone buffering while being busy through the ESPN+ app. And yes, I actually saw statistically that app has the 5th best in conference winning percentage in the last 10 years behind the usual Alabama Ohio State Oklahoma Georgia(beating Boise, ucf, niu, etc) so they're certainly one of the best small schools of not the best. Plus, this is a very "up" year for them and their QB set several school records last year and is considered to be there best QB in quite some time. From what I saw and others that viewed the game more than me, sometimes NC would shut down app's running game, sometimes app would run right over them kind of like a switch would turn on and off. Obviously the defense needs a lot of work, lol, but to what degree I need to watch some more. 115th in defense against 2 non-power 5 opponents looks horrendous on paper. Last year UNC finished 80th or so in D then fired their DC. Chizik off to a great start 

Regarding UNC's offense this year: rookie QB Drake Maye is the highest ranking QB recruit to ever play for NC. He left Alabama for NC. He's very talented but lacks in experience. So far he's doing very well. This looks like a typical NC team; having a top 10 or even top 3  offense and a bad defense. The defense is now loaded with years of Mack Brown recruits though. Many 4 and 5 stars--haha, I just googled to find out exactly how many and sure enough this article was posted 5 hours ago saying exactly what I am:

https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/unc-football-defense-loaded-4-123238448.html

I haven't read it yet, but it's the deepest and most talented NC's defense has been EVER, to my knowledge. Only comparison is 1996-97. The coaches really need to figure something out.... But, I need to watch more so I can figure it out too. Georgia state this weekend @ noon, then ND. I hope NC drops 100 on ND and allows 98 

That app game was definitely wild though. Hopefully that 4th quarter was just great QB play against tired teams.

[Sgt. Dick]

Sucks to be Chicago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-yjdwix59Y

[Sgt. Dick]

Only half of the Gators team showed up, I never saw the Defense 

Congrats the LSU's Offense, they looked really good.  I don't know how much playing UF had to do with it 

[|iR|Focalor]

55-0

Vanderbilt should've brought one of these.



You'd think eventually Vanderbilt would get tired of being the worst team in the SEC.

[|iR|Focalor]

Foc could save his 6K post to be one about the Falcons winning the SuperBowl.

This was 2010. Still ain't done it.

[Sgt. Dick]

I don't think it is happening this year either 

[|iR|Focalor]

If we both live another 12 years, it won't happen before then either. In that regard, one can say that the Falcons are very "reliable".

[|iR|Focalor]

Ohio State fans are mad at the officials, the commercial breaks,... at everything but their kicker. 



As seen in a Dos Equis commercial...

[Sgt. Dick]

I am glad the dawgs won, but they need to tighten up the secondary.  I think that UGA will matchup better against TCU, so they should win that game more easily.

[|iR|Focalor]

Injuries to key players are likely gonna effect the offensive capabilities. Their monstorously tall tight-end D Washington is in a boot. Supposedly nothing broken, maybe just a high ankle sprain, but if he plays in the National Championship, he's probably not going to be close to 100%, and I'd guess he gets re-injured and leaves by the time the 2nd quarter rolls around. Their two TE's are big part of the offenses routine, both for passing and for runs. Bowers is healthy, but everybody knows how dangerous he is so they cover the shit out of him now. WR Ladd McConkey's got knee issues, so he's probably at 50% now, and if he plays at all he will likely also get taken out early. Dawgs better form a plan. Likely TCU will try to copy what Ohio State did and pressure the hell out of QB Bennett. I saw a few cases where he could've taken off running and possibly gotten more yards than throwing. TCU utilized QB runs a lot and it won them the game vs Michigan.