Clemson's Whomping of UVA
- Thread starter DC_Area_Panther
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I think most teams are 20 points south of LSU, OSU, and Clemson
Yeah, but they lost by 45!
And Virginia beat us fairly easily, and finished 2 games ahead of us.
when I say most teams, I should have clarified. Almost all teams outside of the top 15 are 20+ points below those teams, as are some of the top 15.
It’s an arms race and they are winning
Clemson is 20+ points better than all but perhaps 6 teams in America this year
College football has evolved into a super class of maybe 6-10 teams, then the rest. You can't compare yourself to those top echelon teams. Just look at history, they rarely change from year to year. The system and the money on play won't let it happen
College football has evolved into a super class of maybe 6-10 teams, then the rest. You can't compare yourself to those top echelon teams. Just look at history, they rarely change from year to year. The system and the money on play won't let it happen
People need to remember this when asking for a coaching change. It's a culture thing that goes all in regarding recruiting from President/Chancellor, monied boosters, on down. Our coaches don't get that at Pitt.
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The clustering of players at the Top 5-10 schools keeps getting worse and worse. College football has turned into the EPL where you have 5-6 blue bloods and nobody else has a shot except for a miracle season by Leicester.
Really division one football has four levels
1. Power five.
2. Group of five. Technically they're FBS also but they can't get into the playoffs even if they go undefeated (UCF finished undefeated and was ranked I believe #12, well outside the top four.)
3. FCS teams who participate in the FCS playoff system
4. FCS teams who declare they don't participate in playoffs (e.g. the Ivy League.)
But even within level 1, there is super teams and everyone else. So it's like a hierarchy of five levels and it's nearly impossible to move between them.
Within Level 1 take those super teams and form a separate Power 1 Conference. The other P5 teams can reform conferences but not play the P1 teams during regular season. However, make it like the EPL in that teams can play their way in and out of the P1 conference based on W/L records.
I have a family member that coaches at the FCS level. I don't think there are really two tiers at that division, unlike how there are clearly two tiers in FBS. If there are any tiers at the FCS level, for about a decade it's been North Dakota State and then everyone else.
Really, college football has about 8 divisions. The top tier are so significantly ahead of the next tier that I think they deserve their own ranking. Teams like Clemson that have beaten other top 4 teams by 4 touchdowns deserve their own tier. Same with Ohio State and Alabama.
Depressingly, Pitt is pretty far down. I don't believe that we deserve to be in the same conversation as the cream of the P5 or even the good teams like Penn State. If we were historical armies, Clemson would be the USA in 1945 and Pitt would be the Ottoman Empire in 1914.
1) The "blue bloods" who are in the Playoffs multiple times - Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State
2) The "near peers" who have made it once or twice but not consistently - LSU, Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, Georgia
3) The "greats" who are close to making it and usually in the top 15- Penn State, Baylor, Southern Cal, Florida, Auburn, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc.
4) the "solids" ranked 16-30 multiple times over the past few years with select higher finishes - Iowa, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Oklahoma State
5) Rest of P5 plus a select bunch of G5 like BSU, App State, UCF...this is where Pitt is at.
6) Rest of G5
7) FCS Playoff
8) FCS non-Playoff
Depressingly, Pitt is pretty far down. I don't believe that we deserve to be in the same conversation as the cream of the P5 or even the good teams like Penn State. If we were historical armies, Clemson would be the USA in 1945 and Pitt would be the Ottoman Empire in 1914.
1) The "blue bloods" who are in the Playoffs multiple times - Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State
2) The "near peers" who have made it once or twice but not consistently - LSU, Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, Georgia
3) The "greats" who are close to making it and usually in the top 15- Penn State, Baylor, Southern Cal, Florida, Auburn, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc.
4) the "solids" ranked 16-30 multiple times over the past few years with select higher finishes - Iowa, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Oklahoma State
5) Rest of P5 plus a select bunch of G5 like BSU, App State, UCF...this is where Pitt is at.
6) Rest of G5
7) FCS Playoff
8) FCS non-Playoff
Nobody rational does. The way the conferences have been realigned and with the CFP system there is no way Pitt or 95% of the rest of P5 programs can ever get to that level.
But beating the BCs, 2019 Miamis, scoring more than 0 against the VTs, regularly winning 9-10 games, consistently being one of the top 2 teams in the Coastal, and not being a laughingstock is certainly attainable. And Pitt hasn't attained it.
great post. I love your second paragraph and that is what is so frustrating. we don't have to be great to be where we want. we don't have to be Clemson, spend 100M on a football only facility where the players have a mini golf course and slides, our situation doesn't require that we land all 4 and 5 stars to get to where we need to be..
we are in the coastal. being kind of good pretty much gets you competing for the coastal crown every year.. beating bc and va tech this year, you don't have to be great to do this.. you don't have to land top 10 classes annually to do this.
No reason Pitt can't be a perennial top 20 team just by taking care of its business in the coastal and a couple of OOC games every year. This does not require a stacked roster. But it does require good coaches and some good players on both sides of the ball. Both are doable for Pitt. It appears that we have neither at this point.
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Pitt is a program that competes for the Coastal Championship almost every year. They go bowling every year. (9/10) The current regime has pulled a fair number of upsets vs higher ranked opponents in the 5 years here. It's not a bad product at all.
If it were easy to build a perennial Top 20 team at Pitt, surely someone would have figured that out in the last 30 years.
Let's put it this way--it has never been easier than it has been since 2013.
Bowls? That means you won 6 games. Like 78 other D1 teams.
Upsets of higher ranked programs? How many of those versus losses to lesser opponents?
Agree it has gotten worse and worse. 20 years ago there was a top group but it changed from year to year. Look at psu they would contend for a title one year and then the next year they would be 7-5. There were basically 20 teams that cycled between the top 5. Now it is basically 10 and that is being generous. Mainly its been alabama,clemson,osu,ok and lsu or georgia from the sec. I guess you could add nd,fsu and oregon as they have gotten in the top4 as well. Still since the cfp only 9 different schools have gotten in.
I would like to see the number of ships capped at 75. That would really increase parity at least back to levels it was at 25 years ago.
It is still not easy. It isn't easy to recruit at Pitt. It isn't easy to keep quality coaches at Pitt.
Been saying this for many years. It is a disservice to these kids that go to these places and sit the bench for 3, 4, and 5 years. I know. They could just make smarter decisions but they cant. They all want to play for Alabama, Clemson, LSU, and Ohio State. Its like a drug to them. They need it bad.
