Cincinnati back then, Does anyone think we would be ranked #2? There is too much Anti- ND sentiment for that to happen. We clearly are not a deserving #2 had we won.. top 5 maybe.. But no where near the team from last year.
If you want the "best" team then just go by recruiting rankings and returning starters and skip right to the National Championship.
If you want to go by wins and losses on the field, then you are picking the "most deserving" teams. Ideally, most deserving and best will not be mutually exclusive.
their next 5 games.
Right now, they’ve earned the ranking.
Some of that mediocrity is marginally better than others, and some of that mediocrity is good enough offensively or defensively (but rarely both) to occasionally pick off another good team.
Cincinnati is as good as any of the others this year. But there’s a pretty wide gap between the top two and the rest, regardless of last week’s aTM flash in the pan.
Bell beat them. Just watch how the ND defense took him out of the game and do the same thing. But Iowa had single coverage on him with no safety help and that was a disaster. Bad coaching.
For multiple reasons.
I'm not saying he is/should be the guy (although I definitely think it's a possibility he could be the right guy), but there are distinct differences between Fickell and Kelly, despite the fact both were HCs at Cincinnati.
Namely three things that didn't apply to Kelly:
a) His background as both a player and assistant at a top, high-level program and being familiar with the pressure/expectations;
b) (Related, but distinct, from point a) His experience as a coordinator under not only one, but two of the best coaches of the generation (one of whom - Meyer - can legitimately be called legendary), who they themselves were different from each other in terms of both personality/temperament and football X's and O's, so there's presumably lots of information/strategies he could take from both;
c) He has shown the ability to compete against the big boys/teams (almost defeating UGA in the Sugar Bowl last year, beating ND in South Bend with much less talent). Kelly had two such games - Oklahoma and Virginia Tech in 2008 - and was not competitive in either (and I hesitate to even put VT in that category as they finished with 4 losses that season - including 3 conference losses and a loss to East Carolina yet somehow won the ACC and got to play BK's UC team in the Orange Bowl).
My shoddy memory seems to remember people thinking bk had a ‘hot’ cinci team back in the day but I might be oversimplifying it.
I wasn’t too impressed with how Cinci played against us, but like you said, there are other points of differentiation.
Then our present day AD ever will. Please don’t read this as a knock against you- your points are valid
coaching women's softball at Assumption Community College in his early 20s?
win alone is more impressive than any win in Kelly's entire pre-ND career. Fickell learned under masters. Kelly is a self-made man who's NEVER learned under a master and he certainly isn't a master himself.
Next, Fickell's run-dominant offensive scheme is exactly what we need. His RPG since 2018 are 240, 208, 212 and 200 (YTD). That's an average of 215 yd. Meanwhile, Kelly's ND career average is 175. That's an enormous difference.
Finally, Fickell is highly respected among HS head coaches in Ohio. He would do VERY well in recruiting the state for ND. We have underperformed recruiting in Ohio, especially in Cincinnati, which is a Catholic HS hotbed and is absolutely not an OSU stronghold like Cleveland and Columbus are.
Fickell would be a recruiting monster for ND in Ohio. Hell, he just beat us with the Ohio kids OSU didn't want. Look at the linked UC roster. It's loaded with Catholic HS kids from Ohio. Fickell would dominate at ND.
that us knowing that we have three more seasons of Kelly after this season, is the surest sign of purgatory on earth, if not in the afterlife.
What purpose does this post serve? They won at Indiana and at ND by 11 in a game where they missed two easy field goals. Does one loss Alabama (to an unranked team) deserve it more? Iowa, who lost to an unranked team? Oregon, who lost to an unranked team? Ohio State, who lost at home to Oregon without their best player? Michigan, who eeked it out against Nebraska and Rutgers? Penn State, who lost to Iowa the week before Purdue beat the shit out of them? Oklahoma, who lucked out against three loss Texas?
It was a stirring clash of the titans in a most inhospitable venue. Who could forget that place from Breaking Away and other classic contests?
Take 11/12 and call it a day. Cincinnati is a good football team this year. Don’t double down on your opinion about the one team that ended up becoming better than they were in the preseason.
Toledo: lost again today. Virginia tech: blown out by Pitt. Wisconsin: who knows. SC: didn’t have a game today so the interim coach could not lose. North Carolina can thank Miami for blowing it today. Purdue actually looked dominant against an Iowa team waiting to be handed a loss, but will end up 7-5 still.
In the history of man.
Which makes it all the more embarrassing Weis went 6-6 that year.
Possibly 2016 (depending on how you feel about 2016 USC vs 2021 Cincinnati). Which makes it all the more embarrassing Kelly went 4-8 that year.
Remember the entire notion is that are not really as good as a typical second ranked team. They play a bullshit schedule.
And should be ranked higher, because, one might argue, that ND's loss was to the No. 2 team in the country and Bama's was to an unranked team, and.....Again, nobody is about to make that argument.
If Cincinnati goes 13-0, it'll be interesting to see if the committee will cave under the media/fan pressure built up over the years and reward that scheduling model.
Swarbrick is intrigued, I'm sure.
With the Peach Bowl game last year. I'm not saying that it should have any bearing on this season, but it most certainly does.
And I also think it probably shouldn't.
Cincinnati would beat Iowa, Michigan, and Penn State.
Iowa is simply not that good, and they demonstrated that today.
Bama, Georgia, and OSU? No.
They have played a bunch of Big Ten East tomato cans + Tulsa (ranked 87th in ESPN FPI + the 3rd-worst team in all of FBS by ESPN FPI (Akron). The highest-ranked team they have beaten is Minnesota (55th).
The only team that beat Ohio St. (Oregon) almost lost at home last night to a bad Cal team and has gotten worse with every game since beating the Buckeyes.
BUT...in your defense, ESPN FPI ranks 3rd-overall and SP+ has them 2nd! That's amazing, given that they have beaten nobody of consequence.
Ohio State has beaten no one of relevance to deserve a higher ranking than Cincinnati at this point.