(10-11-2015 11:47 AM)stever20 Wrote: You are delusional if you think swagger, or absolute confidence- doesn't win football games.
Or maybe putting it a different way- if you don't have swagger- it sure costs you winning football games. Look at Michigan last year to this year. Last year they didn't have swagger or confidence. They were 5-7. They have it this year, with pretty close to the same team- and they're 5-1.
But last year, they could have had plenty of swagger going into the season, and lack of playing as a team and lack of individual skills would still have beaten that swagger out of them.
A defense does not whitewash opposition offenses on swagger alone ... they do it on working together as unit, each individually accomplishing the task allocated to them, and covering for each other when a good play by an offensive player creates what could be an opening. OTOH, learning how to do that, and being convinced that they are learning how to do that, and then seeing the result on the field ... that defense is going to start
showing some swagger, because they believe that they have earned the right.
They had the players last year ... those players just didn't play up to their potential.
And in a slightly different part of the state, quoth I yesterday:
Quote: (10-10-2015 10:24 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: I'd like to present as evidence of media bias ... Michigan State. They are doing their best FSU 2014 impression, escaping against everybody including really bad teams. And we spent alllllllll year hearing how FSU maybe shouldn't make the playoff and how they're really doing poorly. If the CFP Poll comes out to day and it is honest ... Michigan State should be getting the full FSU 2014 treatment.
First the media bias has to happen ... after a lackluster win against Purdue last week, MSU dropped two spots in the AP (more than the one spot in the coaches poll) ... if MSU takes this one narrowly, as now seems likely, and if they drop another one or two spots in the media poll, despite having fewer undefeated teams going in, then that wouldn't seem like media bias.
It seems like what Robert Smith said on Sports Center may be true ... Michigan State is good, not great. Meanwhile, That School Up North seems to have remembered what a Defense is, and as sometimes happens when you rediscover an old favorite, seems to really be enjoying it.
And, sure enough, the media penalized MSU for another lackluster win over what ought to be beatable competition, placing MSU at 7th in the AP poll, where the coaches place them 4th. So no substantial media bias there.
Now, you could argue that MSU is 11th in the ESPN power rankings, behind That School Up North at 9th, but if the power rankings are predictive of their future results, then they'll be heading there sooner rather than later.
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This Week In Schadenfreude -- Week 6
