News Article: Utes not worried after studying film of 'Bama
- Thread starter crimson_blood
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It looks like that quote was actually written in the Chattanooga Times Free Press by Darren Epps. I'll provide the link below.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/dec/08/florida-gators-sooners-matcup-set-bcs-title-gameb/
By the way, I agree with the quote from Urban Meyer in this article comparing the talent level of Utah and Alabama:
"The difference between Utah and Alabama are not the first-team players. It’s the depth. If Utah can stay healthy and get guys ready to go, I think it’ll be a very competitive game. Those are two strong defenses playing, and I look forward to watching it.”
I look forward to a great game coming up on the 2nd. I've enjoyed your board so far these past couple of weeks. Lots of good insight.
Meyers is trying hard to be kind to his old friend (utah coach)...I dont think it will be too close.
That and the school that he left. I don't think that he believes what he said for a second.
"Two strong defenses playing..." :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Still doesn't change the fact that it is some hack reporter trying to stir things up. I was at the game and turned the radio on when I left. I heard Coach Saban make the remark and it had nothing to do with Utah. Again, he made the comment when asked if he was disappointed and he was following up his reply to demonstrate that he was proud of his team being the only BCS conference team to go 12-0. If you want to play make believe then go ahead and use it to whatever advantage you deem.
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Exactly. Utah is not from a BCS conference. If you guys need that to motivate y'all, it's going to be a long evening in the dome for ya.:biggrin:
Its really hard to figure out how good this team really are. They beat a poor Michigan, but then, UNLV, Utah State, Air Force, Weber State......etc. Now Bama.
I suppose the Ute fans will say that this schedule compares well with Clemson, Georgia, Ol Miss, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, etc., but it just doesn't.
The best I can say is that they are an "unknown". I hope its a good game and we win. I think the latter will definately be true.
I suppose the Ute fans will say that this schedule compares well with Clemson, Georgia, Ol Miss, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, etc., but it just doesn't.
The best I can say is that they are an "unknown". I hope its a good game and we win. I think the latter will definately be true.
Interesting that you left off the ranked teams Utah beat (Oregon St., TCU and BYU) and also left off the crappy teams Bama beat (Western Kentucky, Ark. St., Miss St.) According to the NCAA, Utah's strength of schedule actually is better than Bama's this year. But at this point it doesn't matter who each team has played, it only matters how they play on January 2. I hope Bama's players think it's in the bag like you do, but I doubt it.
Agreed - the SoS are about equal, with a slight overall edge going to Utah, but a "big game" edge going to Bama.
The more I look at the game, the more it looks like exactly the type of game that both teams play well in - low scoring. The one unknown is whether or not Utah will be able to stop the Bama running game. If you cannot, that single issue will cost you the game. If you can, it is a crapshoot...
The problem is that many of the most important factors that would determine schedule strength are intangible factors, or factors that change as the season goes along. For example, if Team A had played Texas Tech early in the year, and Team B played them late in the year in a game where Harrell and Crabtree were out due to injury, the strength of schedule would be the same, even though Team B played a much easier game.
Also, many of those strength of schedule rankings take only wins and losses and opponents wins and losses into account, not the relative strength (e.g. rankings) of those teams, or at least weigh more heavily than the latter. If Team A plays, say, an unranked 7-5 North West Poly and Team B plays an unranked 7-5 Big State U, both teams count the same on SOS. It doesn't matter that Big State U beat North West Poly 82-6 when they played.
Although, several of the computer rankings that list sos ranking, and use weighted ranking there, have Bama's strength of schedule above Utah's, including Sagarin's Predictor, which is almost always the most accurate of the computer rankings.
The truth of the matter is two-fold: a) it doesn't matter how many wins and losses your opponents have when comparing two teams, it matters how you do against common and/or similar opponents and b) it's less about how good you are overall and more about how you match up.
I think we match up better against Utah than we have against several of our opponents this year. I don't think Utah matches up well with us.
Utah played a team that is very similar to Alabama this year - TCU.
TCU ran all over them, so I predict success on the ground in this game. They had 165 yards on the ground, and converted 8 of 19 3rd down attempts.
TCU also fields a Bama style defense - strong up the middle. Utah only had 45 yards rushing.
This game will be decided in the trenches, with the edge going to Bama...
I wasn't trying to play down the schedule strength of Utah. And I certainly wasn't leaving out teams on purpose to strengthen my arguement. Of course I'm biased, if I wasn't I wouldn't read the Alabama BB everyday.
I guess I strongly believe that if you matched our opponent each week up with Utah's opponent that week, I think the Bama opponents would win more than the Utah opponents.
If Bama played Utah's opponents we would still have a 12-0 record. The question is, if Utah played Bama's opponents would they still be 12-0. I don't think they would be.
My point is that we cannot assume that we would be 12-0 with their schedule, just as they cannot with ours. They had a few legit teams on their schedule that could give any team a hard time...
I think you are trying to be very respectful here and I think that is the right thing to do. So again, I say this with the utmost respect to Utah. I do not think you would go 12-0 if you had to play Clemson, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Old Miss, Auburn and Kentucky, or any other SEC teams in that you might mix in.
Do I think Bama would be 12-0 if we played their schedule? Very possible. And to put TCU as their signature victory? Okay, TCU didn't get trampled by Oklahoma, but they did lose by 25 points. Utah beat them by 3. So, who else did TCU beat? No one that looks really scary.
Back to my original comment, I just don't know how good Utah is, because I can't really compare them to teams that I'm familiar with.
I agree with your assesment. You do play in the SEC... but, I do think most of our opponents beats Tulane by more than 14 pts in their own house. Tulane was not a good football team this year.
Good point. However, having watched a few Tulane games this year, the Tulane that played Bama close was not the same Tulane team getting blown out at the end of the year. It was like night and day watching some of those games.
A strength of schedule argument can't be determined from one game (ie Tulane). There are many more factors in place. For instance, LSU played Bama very close. It was a very emotional game for LSU. UGA killed LSU and we beat UGA. Why didn't we crush LSU? More factors were in place during that game. Each game is played on a different day so a different game will be played. That is another reason why one game shouldn't make or break a strength of schedule argument. With all that said, Utah has played some great teams. However, due to their opponents records against inferior teams, they have a higher strength of schedule according to some NCAA rankings. Anyone can realize that is the only reason that Utah has a greater strength of schedule. If you look at Bama's schedule, the total body of work is more impressive due to the strength of their opponents schedules. Bama's opponents played teams of better quality so therefore had worse records and gave Bama a lower strength of schedule. Most people here and around the country will simply believe Bama played tougher teams. Arguing strength of schedule will not change that belief.
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