National Coach Of The Year?

wishiwasalonghorn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:14:48 -0000

I realize this may be a bit early, but after the all Big 12 awards came out and I saw, to my confusion, that Bob Stoops was voted Big 12 Coach of the Year, I started wondering who the national coach of the year would be. For me, the question is a no-brainer: Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech is the obvious answer. The man is simply an offensive wizard. I will admit, I am an old school option fan. Those who know me know I used to be a huge Nebraska fan till they converted to the West Coast Offense. That’s where me and Big Red parted ways (and it was because of the switch in offense, not because they all of sudden sucked). I was really excited, and nervous, to see the flexbone in action in a legit (well semi- legit, I realize the ACC sucked this year) BCS conference this season. It worked to perfection. There was only one time this year, against North Caroline, that the Jackets were totally out of the game. A couple fumbles bounce the other way, and Johnson could be looking at an 11-1 team. Kudos to Johnson and Georgia Tech for having the courage to go retro, especially when mainstream media thought it couldn’t work. That’s my choice for coach of the year, who is yours?

Poll

Who is the National Coach of the Year?

Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech

12 votes

Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

2 votes

Mack Brown, texas

17 votes

Joe Paterno, Penn State

0 votes

Mike Leach, Texas Tech

16 votes

Kyle Whittingham, Utah

3 votes

Chris Peterson, Boise State

1 votes

Urban Meyer, Florida

0 votes

Nick Saban, Alabama

12 votes

63 votes | Poll has closed

DeMarco Murray: The Chris Simms of OU

wishiwasalonghorn — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:06:51 -0000

It’s amazing to me how people jump on a player’s band wagon and ride the hell out of it. Murray is Back!!! Look at all that confidence!!!! Instead of automatically claiming Murray has returned to greatness, lets look at the numbers. But wait, would that possibly lead a person to the logical conclusion that Murray hasn’t returned to greatness, that maybe, just maybe, the opponents got weaker? Lets look at it the numbers and then decide.

DeMarco Murray has had 5 games with 100+ rushing yards this year. Since the texas game, where he had an awesome average of 0.9 yards per carry, he has had 3 100+ games. Everyone, especially the media, now claim he got his confidence back in his knee, and that’s why he is doing so great. Conversely, that’s why he was doing so poor at the beginning of the season; his confidence was gone, silly!!!!!!. On a whim, I started thinking, maybe those teams just weren’t great at stopping the run. Maybe his confidence wasn’t in his knee, it was in the poor run defense of his opponent.

Here are the facts: Since the Texas game, and his resurgence of "confidence", every one of the teams Murray rushed for over 100 yards against gave up a 100 yd rusher the very next week!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME, THE VERY NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- vs. K-STATE Murray rushed for 104 yards, the very next week Jake Sharp rushed for 181 yards against K-state

-vs A&M he rushed for 123 yards at, I will admit, a very impressive 17.6 per carry. The very next week though, against Baylor, Finley had 116 yards, a season high I should note, against A&M

-vs Tech, his last 100 yd game, he rushed for 125 yards, at 6.9 per carry, another good showing no doubt. The problem is the very next week, against Baylor, Tech nearly gave up two 100 yd rushers. Griffin was 18 for 99 yards and Finely had 105 yards on 15 carries.

-Baylor’s Finley had 2 100yd games this year, both were against teams where Murray regained his “confidence”.

-Jake Sharp’s season high was against a team where Murray regained his “confidence”

-Washington was Murray's first 100yd performance against a D1 team, the very next week Stanford’s Anthony Kimble had a season high 157yds against Washington.

Really people, lets look at the facts before we make excuses for his poor performances like, "he just didn’t have his confidence in his knee". It’s easy to lose your confidence against a team that shuts you down and then later magically regain it when facing a team whose run defense sucks. Chris Simms always seemed to gain his confidence at the most convenient times, too.

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