Sometimes, for a single game; even if it's the first game of the season, perception is reality.

Three SBC teams got ESPN airtime on SportsCenter and one of them wasn't GS for blowing out a crappy FCS team.

We know we may not do so hot this year. It's a huge question mark but we got this one. Our next two games have ugly written all over them but if we come out looking better than last year, without a ton of injuries (like OOC last year) and with no quit from the team; we're gonna take it.

We beat our FCS last year 65-0. Look how well the rest of the season went. GS is a better team than us but tap the breaks a little. It was an FCS win. It's a gimme and an expectation. I will root for GS to win all of their OOC games but don't get so ruffled when people see the other 3 games as better for one lousy week.

(09-05-2016 02:06 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Sometimes, for a single game; even if it's the first game of the season, perception is reality.

Three SBC teams got ESPN airtime on SportsCenter and one of them wasn't GS for blowing out a crappy FCS team.

We know we may not do so hot this year. It's a huge question mark but we got this one. Our next two games have ugly written all over them but if we come out looking better than last year, without a ton of injuries (like OOC last year) and with no quit from the team; we're gonna take it.

We beat our FCS last year 65-0. Look how well the rest of the season went. GS is a better team than us but tap the breaks a little. It was an FCS win. It's a gimme and an expectation. I will root for GS to win all of their OOC games but don't get so ruffled when people see the other 3 games as better for one lousy week.

The only feathers being ruffled are the ones pouting about 'arbitrary' rankings provided by others. LOL!

Probably why power rankings make for such entertaining threads... people get triggered easily.

(09-05-2016 02:06 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Sometimes, for a single game; even if it's the first game of the season, perception is reality.

Three SBC teams got ESPN airtime on SportsCenter and one of them wasn't GS for blowing out a crappy FCS team.

We know we may not do so hot this year. It's a huge question mark but we got this one. Our next two games have ugly written all over them but if we come out looking better than last year, without a ton of injuries (like OOC last year) and with no quit from the team; we're gonna take it.

We beat our FCS last year 65-0. Look how well the rest of the season went. GS is a better team than us but tap the breaks a little. It was an FCS win. It's a gimme and an expectation. I will root for GS to win all of their OOC games but don't get so ruffled when people see the other 3 games as better for one lousy week.

Actually we gave up 24 points I think to PVAM last year. In hindsight it was foreshadowing how awful our defense would be, but at the time I just thought it was because their running back was really really good.

(09-05-2016 02:06 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Sometimes, for a single game; even if it's the first game of the season, perception is reality.

Three SBC teams got ESPN airtime on SportsCenter and one of them wasn't GS for blowing out a crappy FCS team.

We know we may not do so hot this year. It's a huge question mark but we got this one. Our next two games have ugly written all over them but if we come out looking better than last year, without a ton of injuries (like OOC last year) and with no quit from the team; we're gonna take it.

We beat our FCS last year 65-0. Look how well the rest of the season went. GS is a better team than us but tap the breaks a little. It was an FCS win. It's a gimme and an expectation. I will root for GS to win all of their OOC games but don't get so ruffled when people see the other 3 games as better for one lousy week.

I'm not getting ruffled over anyone's assessment of the league. I'm just explaining my own reasoning behind my assessment.

Like I said, unless you watch every game and can evaluate talent and execution better than your average fan you are using some sort of prior information, so the idea of creating a blank slate doesn't make sense to me.

FWIW, I think Texas State will lose to Arkansas, but it won't be ugly. La Tech doesn't tower over the entire SBC, the opinion of the erudite dawgxas notwithstanding.

(09-05-2016 02:26 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 02:06 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Sometimes, for a single game; even if it's the first game of the season, perception is reality.

Three SBC teams got ESPN airtime on SportsCenter and one of them wasn't GS for blowing out a crappy FCS team.

We know we may not do so hot this year. It's a huge question mark but we got this one. Our next two games have ugly written all over them but if we come out looking better than last year, without a ton of injuries (like OOC last year) and with no quit from the team; we're gonna take it.

We beat our FCS last year 65-0. Look how well the rest of the season went. GS is a better team than us but tap the breaks a little. It was an FCS win. It's a gimme and an expectation. I will root for GS to win all of their OOC games but don't get so ruffled when people see the other 3 games as better for one lousy week.

Actually we gave up 24 points I think to PVAM last year. In hindsight it was foreshadowing how awful our defense would be, but at the time I just thought it was because their running back was really really good.

2014 then? Sorry, I'm a little under the weather today.

(09-03-2016 11:24 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  1. South Alabama (Automatic because they beat a P5 team)
2. App State (For giving a Top 10 team hell)
3. Texas State (Because they looked like a real football team)
4. Georgia Southern (Only 54 points against Savannah? Fire the OC!)
5. Troy (Lost a place because they gave up 17 to Peay)
6. Idaho (Despite Latah County comparing Montana State to Toledo)
7. ULM (Made Southern look good)

11 (Tie) Georgia State, Arkansas State, ULL, NMSU (Because they all abjectly failed)

One of the things I like about your rankings is that if accurate, we don't play South Alabama or Georgia Southern this season. We have the game at App State and the other three conference road games are at Georgia State, ULM and NMSU. If we are really a top four team in the conference, the schedule should work to our advantage.

(09-05-2016 11:37 AM)AppManDG Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 10:34 AM)eagleofficer Wrote:  1. South Alabama - Most impressive win of the week. Beating an OOC SEC team is a huge accomplishment for the sunbelt. I see South Alabama as the dark horse of this season that nobody expected to be good. I can't wait to watch the them play GS next Saturday. It just go a whole lot more interesting.
2. Georgia Southern - Shut out an opponent for the first time since 2012. We could have scored many more, but our coach wasn't about running the score up. He wanted our 3rd string QB and 5th string RB to get some experience. We did have way too many penalties, but I can see that many of them may have been forced by Savannah State, since they knew they would lose. They also stacked the box the whole time to prevent us from getting any big run plays. After watching Savannah State play, they have also vastly improved this season. I can see them actually winning FCS games in their conference.
3. App State - I don't believe in the Tennessee hype. They are an average SEC team, and I value it the same way as GS almost beating UGA last year. I do however believe that they should have won the game. If there was better play calling and clock management, it may have been a reality. App State is still the most put together team in the conference, and has the fewest unknowns.
4. Texas State - Beating an average MAC team on the road isn't anything too crazy. It could have gone either direction. I still respect Texas State for getting an OOC win on the road. Tyler Jones looked incredible in this game, and if the defense improves during your week off, I can seriously see you beating Arkansas in two weeks.
5. Troy - Austin Peay is a horrible FCS team on the same tier as Savannah State. They may even be worse than them this season. Allowing their offense to score 17 when they only were able to do that on two (FCS) teams last season is kind of scary. This is still a win, and wasn't really competitive.
6. Arkansas State - Most disappointing loss of the week for me. Though Toledo is a really good G5 team, if Arkansas State wants to be perceived as the best in the belt, they have to be more competitive in these games. Getting beat 31-3 all the way into the 4th quarter is not how you do that. Hopefully their offense improves next week, or they are in for a rough season.
7. Louisiana Monroe - Allowing an average FCS team to be competitive with you isn't the best perception for our conference, but a win is a win.
8. Louisiana - Boise State is one of the best G5 teams, and easily handled Louisiana. I won't fault them too much though, since they were still able to win all but one of their conference games in 2014 and lose this bad to Boise.
9. Idaho - This showed that Idaho belongs in the FCS. They kept it close with a good FCS team, and were able to pull through and win.
10. Georgia State - Just doing Georgia State things. Ball State is really bad, and were able to beat Georgia State in da dome.
11. New Mexico State - At least New Mexico State didn't lose to an FCS team. This might as well be a home game, since the schools are within 50 miles of each other. It is kind of hard to see how they will do with this type of rivalry game.

Only a Ga Southern fan would rank beating the worst team in FCS ahead of a loss in OT to a top 10 FBS team.

Also, going by his logic in the Idaho comment every Sun Belt team we beat this year also belongs in FCS. I'll make a note of it.

(09-04-2016 09:14 PM)AppManDG Wrote:  

(09-03-2016 11:24 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  1. South Alabama (Automatic because they beat a P5 team)
2. App State (For giving a Top 10 team hell)
3. Texas State (Because they looked like a real football team)
4. Georgia Southern (Only 54 points against Savannah? Fire the OC!)
5. Troy (Lost a place because they gave up 17 to Peay)
6. Idaho (Despite Latah County comparing Montana State to Toledo)
7. ULM (Made Southern look good)

11 (Tie) Georgia State, Arkansas State, ULL, NMSU (Because they all abjectly failed)

You get more credit for winning on a missed fg over what is essentially the team picked last in the SEC, than for taking the #9 team in the country and preseason pick to win the SEC East into OT?? ?

Sent from my XT1254 using CSNbbs mobile app

I get your point (I'd rank USA 1A and App 1B) but you must have missed a couple of other big plays in the game. Like, the two inexcusable 25 yard FG's USA missed in the first half for example. The missed FG by MSU didn't determine the outcome of the game nearly as much as USA going to a prevent D and USA's swarming the MSU FG kicker on that missed try. Take a look at that missed FG again and tell me that kicker didn't see all of the Jags jumping toward him and diving for the block before he even touched the ball.

I'd really like to see CJJ drop his (bend but don't break) prevent defenses in these last minute situations. It has led to more losses for the Jags than any other single factor, including the bowl loss to Bowling Green. Had that kick gone through the uprights, I'd put the loss upon CJJ. In my opinion the Jags won despite his bad judgement on that last MSU drive.

/rant

Like the thread states, completely arbitrary rankings. You can't really predict what will happen with such a small sample size. I knew I would offend someone with me believing that my school played better than most this past week. Time will tell what will happen. But I honestly believe that Idaho belongs in the FCS, and that App played well. If App would have won I would have ranked them number 1. Tennessee may in fact be really good, but for now I don't see that.

(09-05-2016 12:47 PM)stodgdog Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:16 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 12:17 AM)CatMom Wrote:  You beat an FCS. USA beat an SEC team and we beat a possible contender MAC team. Yeah, go ahead and put your team above ours.

Just going on experience from following the FCS for years.

Every year there is one team that gets an impressive-looking FBS win early in the season and inevitably there's discussion of "is _______ the best team in the country?" and there's a knee-jerk reaction to jack up where they are voted in the AGS poll. This year it looks like that team is Richmond (I will bet they don't make it past the round of 16 in the FCS playoffs).

It happened with Jacksonville State beating Ole Miss in 2010, Indiana State crushing WKU in 2011, with Youngstown State beating Pitt by 2 touchdowns in 2012, and with with McNeese State clobbering South Florida in 2013 just to name a few. None of those teams won an FCS playoff game and the Indiana State and YSU teams didn't even make the playoffs.

More often than not these teams are closer to what the consensus says they were preseason than what they appear to be. By the same token, I'm not ready to completely relegate Ark State and ULL to the basement.

Like chiefsfan says, though, we'll settle it in Mobile in 6 days.

TV Network? Should be a good game

ASN. ESPN3 for those who don't get ASN.

(09-05-2016 01:54 PM)stodgdog Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 11:56 AM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:29 AM)CatMom Wrote:  GS was supposed to beat Savannah St. If they didn't or the game was close it still was an FCS team. Doesn't matter if the MAC east "sucks" Ohio still makes Bowl games consistently. Their last losing season was 2009.

We came into our game 21 point dogs. We had 14 guys that had ever played in an FBS game. Our DLine was 50 lbs on average, across the line, lighter than their OLine and our OLine was smaller than their D. We were picked 10 or 11th in the SBC and we won.

It's about this week's game only. Some people just refuse to give TXST any credit. We may suck and we may suck the rest of the year but this week those young men earned some respect.

And some people don't view power rankings that way. I don't disagree with looking at the entire body of work, and right now there are some lingering concerns about last year with just one game in the books for this season. Some people are going to need more persuasion that TX State has turned a corner. It's a good win, but flukes can happen as well. The question is what do ya'll do to follow it up?

This is the same stuff we went through in 2014. People thought we were just a flash at NC State. Then "oh well it's just SSU." Then GT happened. And finally, when we pasted USA, perceptions started shifting. Your body of work up to this point has been pretty bad. You've had a potential turning point. You have to follow it up with good performance though.

TX State and GA Southern both have a very limited "body of work" at the FBS level. It is probably too early to judge the teams.

But what we've done so far looks LOTS better than what TX State has done.

(09-05-2016 06:52 PM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 01:54 PM)stodgdog Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 11:56 AM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:29 AM)CatMom Wrote:  GS was supposed to beat Savannah St. If they didn't or the game was close it still was an FCS team. Doesn't matter if the MAC east "sucks" Ohio still makes Bowl games consistently. Their last losing season was 2009.

We came into our game 21 point dogs. We had 14 guys that had ever played in an FBS game. Our DLine was 50 lbs on average, across the line, lighter than their OLine and our OLine was smaller than their D. We were picked 10 or 11th in the SBC and we won.

It's about this week's game only. Some people just refuse to give TXST any credit. We may suck and we may suck the rest of the year but this week those young men earned some respect.

And some people don't view power rankings that way. I don't disagree with looking at the entire body of work, and right now there are some lingering concerns about last year with just one game in the books for this season. Some people are going to need more persuasion that TX State has turned a corner. It's a good win, but flukes can happen as well. The question is what do ya'll do to follow it up?

This is the same stuff we went through in 2014. People thought we were just a flash at NC State. Then "oh well it's just SSU." Then GT happened. And finally, when we pasted USA, perceptions started shifting. Your body of work up to this point has been pretty bad. You've had a potential turning point. You have to follow it up with good performance though.

TX State and GA Southern both have a very limited "body of work" at the FBS level. It is probably too early to judge the teams.

But what we've done so far looks LOTS better than what TX State has done.

(09-05-2016 07:27 PM)CatMom Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 06:52 PM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 01:54 PM)stodgdog Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 11:56 AM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:29 AM)CatMom Wrote:  GS was supposed to beat Savannah St. If they didn't or the game was close it still was an FCS team. Doesn't matter if the MAC east "sucks" Ohio still makes Bowl games consistently. Their last losing season was 2009.

We came into our game 21 point dogs. We had 14 guys that had ever played in an FBS game. Our DLine was 50 lbs on average, across the line, lighter than their OLine and our OLine was smaller than their D. We were picked 10 or 11th in the SBC and we won.

It's about this week's game only. Some people just refuse to give TXST any credit. We may suck and we may suck the rest of the year but this week those young men earned some respect.

And some people don't view power rankings that way. I don't disagree with looking at the entire body of work, and right now there are some lingering concerns about last year with just one game in the books for this season. Some people are going to need more persuasion that TX State has turned a corner. It's a good win, but flukes can happen as well. The question is what do ya'll do to follow it up?

This is the same stuff we went through in 2014. People thought we were just a flash at NC State. Then "oh well it's just SSU." Then GT happened. And finally, when we pasted USA, perceptions started shifting. Your body of work up to this point has been pretty bad. You've had a potential turning point. You have to follow it up with good performance though.

TX State and GA Southern both have a very limited "body of work" at the FBS level. It is probably too early to judge the teams.

But what we've done so far looks LOTS better than what TX State has done.

Your jimmies sure are rustled the last 3 days.

Last 3 days?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

(09-05-2016 08:37 PM)SBEagle Wrote:  Last 3 days?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I'm just having fun guys. Please don't take it as ruffled anything. My feathers fell off a long time ago.

I just can't wait until next year so Coastal will be on these lists...

In the meantime...

SUNBELT TEAMS TRANSITIONING TO FBS

1) Coastal

(09-05-2016 03:41 PM)airtroop Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:14 PM)AppManDG Wrote:  

(09-03-2016 11:24 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  1. South Alabama (Automatic because they beat a P5 team)
2. App State (For giving a Top 10 team hell)
3. Texas State (Because they looked like a real football team)
4. Georgia Southern (Only 54 points against Savannah? Fire the OC!)
5. Troy (Lost a place because they gave up 17 to Peay)
6. Idaho (Despite Latah County comparing Montana State to Toledo)
7. ULM (Made Southern look good)

11 (Tie) Georgia State, Arkansas State, ULL, NMSU (Because they all abjectly failed)

You get more credit for winning on a missed fg over what is essentially the team picked last in the SEC, than for taking the #9 team in the country and preseason pick to win the SEC East into OT?? ?

Sent from my XT1254 using CSNbbs mobile app

I get your point (I'd rank USA 1A and App 1B) but you must have missed a couple of other big plays in the game. Like, the two inexcusable 25 yard FG's USA missed in the first half for example. The missed FG by MSU didn't determine the outcome of the game nearly as much as USA going to a prevent D and USA's swarming the MSU FG kicker on that missed try. Take a look at that missed FG again and tell me that kicker didn't see all of the Jags jumping toward him and diving for the block before he even touched the ball.

I'd really like to see CJJ drop his (bend but don't break) prevent defenses in these last minute situations. It has led to more losses for the Jags than any other single factor, including the bowl loss to Bowling Green. Had that kick gone through the uprights, I'd put the loss upon CJJ. In my opinion the Jags won despite his bad judgement on that last MSU drive.

/rant

They really only ran a prevent D on the first play of MSU's last drive. After that they rushed four or five every snap. Just couldn't get pressure, which was true most of the day.

(09-05-2016 09:46 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(09-05-2016 03:41 PM)airtroop Wrote:  

(09-04-2016 09:14 PM)AppManDG Wrote:  

(09-03-2016 11:24 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  1. South Alabama (Automatic because they beat a P5 team)
2. App State (For giving a Top 10 team hell)
3. Texas State (Because they looked like a real football team)
4. Georgia Southern (Only 54 points against Savannah? Fire the OC!)
5. Troy (Lost a place because they gave up 17 to Peay)
6. Idaho (Despite Latah County comparing Montana State to Toledo)
7. ULM (Made Southern look good)

11 (Tie) Georgia State, Arkansas State, ULL, NMSU (Because they all abjectly failed)

You get more credit for winning on a missed fg over what is essentially the team picked last in the SEC, than for taking the #9 team in the country and preseason pick to win the SEC East into OT?? ?

Sent from my XT1254 using CSNbbs mobile app

I get your point (I'd rank USA 1A and App 1B) but you must have missed a couple of other big plays in the game. Like, the two inexcusable 25 yard FG's USA missed in the first half for example. The missed FG by MSU didn't determine the outcome of the game nearly as much as USA going to a prevent D and USA's swarming the MSU FG kicker on that missed try. Take a look at that missed FG again and tell me that kicker didn't see all of the Jags jumping toward him and diving for the block before he even touched the ball.

I'd really like to see CJJ drop his (bend but don't break) prevent defenses in these last minute situations. It has led to more losses for the Jags than any other single factor, including the bowl loss to Bowling Green. Had that kick gone through the uprights, I'd put the loss upon CJJ. In my opinion the Jags won despite his bad judgement on that last MSU drive.

/rant

They really only ran a prevent D on the first play of MSU's last drive. After that they rushed four or five every snap. Just couldn't get pressure, which was true most of the day.

True enough. But then again, look back at our 4th quarter last three minute or less losses and you'll probably see we employed that exact same philosophy and (GRATEFULLY!!!!!!) were able to pull THIS one off Saturday.

Think back to (just off the top of my head) the Southern Utah, Troy, the Camellia Bowl, and ALL of those other <7 point losses with 3 or more minutes left, where we held a small lead. What happened in EVERY single one of them until this Saturday? L, L, L, L, L (etc., etc.)

I'm not knocking our "New Ball Coach", but I am definintely challenging his wisdom of playing prevent D in ALL of those situations. Seems like this weekend is the only time ever it actually worked.

Hey, one thing we'll ALWAYS agree on brother - GO JAGS!!!!