Liverpooldawg
01-05-2015, 01:16 PM
to let things settle down. Here we go:
MSU: I said, before the season, 7-4 headed to the Egg Bowl and that the home team wins that game if it has a pulse for the most part now so that meant 7-5. I was concerned about the offensive line, the place kicking, and the secondary. I missed the total record bad. What I missed was I expected us to lose to LSU, A&M, and Auburn. At best I thought we might beat A&M out of those three. That three game stretch turned out to be one of the best ever for MSU. The Auburn game was the most fun I have ever had at MSU. That whole day was simply awesome. I never expected us to beat Bama at Bama not even the week of the game so while I was disappointed, I wasn't crushed. The UM game was the crushing one. Going into the season I didn't expect to win it but after the way the season had gone I certainly thought we would. As I said at the time, losing that game to me makes this the most successful unsuccessful season in MSU history. The bowl game was disappointing but don't sell Tech short, that's a good football team. The offensive line surprised me and that's the main reason we were better than I thought we would be, hats off to them. They weren't elite and that showed against the two elite defenses we played but all in all they were better than expected and I think most would agree with that. The place kicking wasn't stellar but it was serviceable. We worked around it and it never really bit us. The secondary was about what I expected. They struggled and that played a major part in losing the games we lost. The most unexpected thing in season was us suddenly seeming to forget how to tackle pretty much across the board in the last two games. THAT to me was the major reason for both of those losses. All in all it's one of the four best seasons in my years as a Dawg along with 1980, 1998, and 1999. Unfortunately it's the only one of those three where we lost to UM.
The SEC: Going in the buzz was that the SEC was going to be down from last year largely because the traditional top teams had question marks in a lot of areas. That seemed to be laughable mid way through the season even though there were a couple of different top tier teams. After the bowl season that perception was back with a vengeance. My take is that at the very top the SEC WAS down just a bit. By that I mean we didn't have one or both of the top 2 for the first time in 8 years. Overall top to bottom the SEC was still VERY tough, perhaps the toughest it has ever been. We got TWELVE teams in bowls and despite the New Year's massacre we still went 7-5. The lower SEC teams did well. The top teams got the best from their opponent's leagues and didn't do as well. That kind of bore out the view that the top tier wasn't as strong. That being said I don't really think the SEC was "down". I think it was returning a bit more to normal. The last 8 years for the top tier of the SEC were simply astounding. To win that many national championships in a row isn't normal for ANY league. I think we will return to what you usually see, the SEC being in the hunt every year and winning it every 2-3-4 years or so.
NATIONAL: This was kind of a transition year, the SEC returning to being first among peers instead of being unquestionably the best. It was a year to see who would fill the slight power vacuum a more normal SEC would leave. It's a more competitive environment nationally. We may not like it but everyone else will. I think THE lesson from the season is that the Big 12 HAS to expand back to the point where they can have a championship game again. If either TCU or Baylor had won a league championship game they would have been in ahead of Ohio State.
MSU: I said, before the season, 7-4 headed to the Egg Bowl and that the home team wins that game if it has a pulse for the most part now so that meant 7-5. I was concerned about the offensive line, the place kicking, and the secondary. I missed the total record bad. What I missed was I expected us to lose to LSU, A&M, and Auburn. At best I thought we might beat A&M out of those three. That three game stretch turned out to be one of the best ever for MSU. The Auburn game was the most fun I have ever had at MSU. That whole day was simply awesome. I never expected us to beat Bama at Bama not even the week of the game so while I was disappointed, I wasn't crushed. The UM game was the crushing one. Going into the season I didn't expect to win it but after the way the season had gone I certainly thought we would. As I said at the time, losing that game to me makes this the most successful unsuccessful season in MSU history. The bowl game was disappointing but don't sell Tech short, that's a good football team. The offensive line surprised me and that's the main reason we were better than I thought we would be, hats off to them. They weren't elite and that showed against the two elite defenses we played but all in all they were better than expected and I think most would agree with that. The place kicking wasn't stellar but it was serviceable. We worked around it and it never really bit us. The secondary was about what I expected. They struggled and that played a major part in losing the games we lost. The most unexpected thing in season was us suddenly seeming to forget how to tackle pretty much across the board in the last two games. THAT to me was the major reason for both of those losses. All in all it's one of the four best seasons in my years as a Dawg along with 1980, 1998, and 1999. Unfortunately it's the only one of those three where we lost to UM.
The SEC: Going in the buzz was that the SEC was going to be down from last year largely because the traditional top teams had question marks in a lot of areas. That seemed to be laughable mid way through the season even though there were a couple of different top tier teams. After the bowl season that perception was back with a vengeance. My take is that at the very top the SEC WAS down just a bit. By that I mean we didn't have one or both of the top 2 for the first time in 8 years. Overall top to bottom the SEC was still VERY tough, perhaps the toughest it has ever been. We got TWELVE teams in bowls and despite the New Year's massacre we still went 7-5. The lower SEC teams did well. The top teams got the best from their opponent's leagues and didn't do as well. That kind of bore out the view that the top tier wasn't as strong. That being said I don't really think the SEC was "down". I think it was returning a bit more to normal. The last 8 years for the top tier of the SEC were simply astounding. To win that many national championships in a row isn't normal for ANY league. I think we will return to what you usually see, the SEC being in the hunt every year and winning it every 2-3-4 years or so.
NATIONAL: This was kind of a transition year, the SEC returning to being first among peers instead of being unquestionably the best. It was a year to see who would fill the slight power vacuum a more normal SEC would leave. It's a more competitive environment nationally. We may not like it but everyone else will. I think THE lesson from the season is that the Big 12 HAS to expand back to the point where they can have a championship game again. If either TCU or Baylor had won a league championship game they would have been in ahead of Ohio State.