Phil Steele's Toughest Schedules

BigBama76

Suspended
Oct 26, 2011
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Atlanta, GA
I'd love to know his other ratings that he uses to calculate his ranking. I think if Auburn were in the Big10 they'd be at least 6-6. Mizzou and Ole Miss would probably be 8-4 or 9-3.

No matter what "power" rating you use you have to make at least an eyeball test of each conferences quality because most losses are going to be in-conference.
 

JIB

Suspended
Nov 2, 2011
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Sterrett
What helps ND is playing crappy BCS conference teams while Bama played WCU and the like. Wake is a gimme but looks better than WCU.

If ND's best win is Oklahoma that's fine. Oklahoma would be the 4th best team Bama would have played.
 

NDGiantsKings

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Dec 2, 2012
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To me, the long delay is a BIG advantage to Alabama because Saban knows what type of balance to strike to best prepare his team. This will be the fourth time he is doing it.
BK has coached in January bowl games before I don't see this being any kind of advantage.
 

rgw

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Sep 15, 2003
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He has twice. His second year at CMU had the most equivalent layoff time too (11/30 - MACCG, 1/6 - International Bowl). He won that game but lost the Orange Bowl to Virginia Tech in the 2008 season at Cincy. Of course, Saban has been a coach at the FBS level much longer than Kelly and has went 6-3 in NYD or later bowls (4-1 in BCS bowls).

Saban has the track record of having his team ready off the long break both in bowl scenarios and these kickoff classic games against a quality opponent to open the season. I don't assume that Kelly can't do the same, we just don't have the sample size to make any real judgements either way. Kelly hasn't ever really had to deal with a layoff where they are the focus of conversation and his players and himself are constantly being asked to speak to quarterback clubs and media folks. I tend to think that part is overblown, the real issue is managing the players so they get dialed in at the right time. If the team is on mental tightropes about the game too early, they tend to get psyched out.

Saban has perfected his approach but it may not work for everyone and it doesn't guarantee victory either. He likes having a few practices before Christmas, where they do nothing but "camp like" drills. A few more practices after before NYD where it is also a "camp like" atmosphere with a little game prep. Then they use the rest of the practice time to game prep. They try to keep things the same...don't make it a game prep atmosphere until as late as possible.
 

Maverick2

BamaNation Citizen
Nov 28, 2012
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Didn't Kelly actually leave Cincy to go to Notre Dame before he had a chance to coach the Orange bowl?

That is correct, not very loyal but most of them will do this. Saban did the same to MSU when he left them to become the HC at LSU.
 

ALA2262

All-American
Aug 4, 2007
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Didn't Kelly actually leave Cincy to go to Notre Dame before he had a chance to coach the Orange bowl?
That was in 2009 before the Sugar Bowl game with UF. Wasn't the first time he had joined another team before Bowl season. In the 2006 season, BK coached against Western Michigan twice in a two month period at two different schools. On 11/10/2006 as coach at CMU and on 01/07/2007 in the International Bowl as coach at Cincinnati.
 
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RedStar

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Jan 28, 2005
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Notre Dame has the 10th hardest schedule and has played:

6. Stanford
11. Oklahoma
18. Michigan

Alabama has the 37th hardest schedule and has played:

7. Georgia
8. LSU
9. Texas A&M
18. Michigan


Notre Dame gets the benefit of the doubt because they played a TON of 6-6 & 7-5 teams that didn't bring their schedule down. Because they're not in a conference they didn't get stuck with teams like 3-9 Auburn, 4-8 Arkansas, 5-7 Missouri, and 5-7 Tennessee.

Our schedule was more top heavy while they basically got to play Ole Miss 6 different times.
 

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
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Yeah, people forget that Kelly wasn't some "fast riser" who coached at the MAC then Big East levels for a few years before landing a huge job. This guy spent a long portion of his career in Division II. He definitely earned his dues and has seen a lot more football than many realize. The bowl season is a unique animal though. His real experience in a championship season is a week-to-week build up and release you see in the playoff system which is more akin to regular season football. The vast majority of the bowl experience he has is in those tiers of bowls where win or lose it was really about the paycheck and extra practices. He's only played in one bowl where there was a modicum of stakes behind the name (the Orange Bowl against VT).

On one hand, I don't doubt Kelly as a guy who truly earned his way up the ranks of coaching and figure he can handle it just fine. On the other, it is hard to deny that the bowl championship model is one of the oddest title game structures in sports. It does seem to claim many good teams to it's build up in hype, mental rust, and physical rust.
 

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