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Topic: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown

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ELA

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #532 on: June 02, 2020, 03:40:13 PM »

#6 Wisconsin Badgers
#3 in Big Ten
Minnesota was rolling along, having their best season in five decades, one win away from their first trip to Indianapolis, until their rivals reminded them that the West was still their division...before being reminded that the conference still belonged to Ohio State.  The West Division will likely again come down to the Axe game...which unfortunately, for the first time since 2012, will not be played on Thanksgiving weekend.  Instead it is at the end of a very difficult four game stretch for Bucky, which starts September 19 at home against Appalachian State, then a road trip to Michigan, a neutral site game in Green Bay against Notre Dame, before returning home to face Minnesota on October 10.  After that, things settle down with as easy a five game stretch as any Power 5 team could get in conference play, before a season ending trip to Kinnick.  The first time Wisconsin has closed the season against that rival since 2004, when Iowa won to cost Wisconsin a share of the Big Ten title.  The Badgers bounced back from a disappointing 2018, with a strong 2019, and look to be even better in 2020, but they’ll look quite a bit different.  At this time last year even I was saying I’d be shocked if Jack Coan held off Graham Mertz for the quarterback job, after an underwhelming showing in 2018, and Mertz being the highest rated quarterback Wisconsin had ever brought in.  Coan proved me wrong, completing nearly 70% of his passes, finishing #9 in the nation in QBR, and Mertz not even burning his redshirt.  With the redshirt concern out of the way, I would expect to see Mertz get a few more game reps this year, as that seems to be the trend in college football.  He will almost certainly be the starter in 2021, and you don’t want him to have gone nearly three years without a meaningful snap.  He will benefit from perhaps the best edge protection Wisconsin has ever had, and that is saying quite something, but with two returning All-Big Ten tackles, to pair with an elite tight end in Jake Ferguson, good luck getting around the outside on that.  They do have to replace the interior of the line, including maybe the best center in the country, and oh...the first running back in NCAA history to top 6,000 yards without playing his senior season.  For maybe any other program in the nation that would be a concern, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had this much doubt about the Badgers’ running back situation, and yet I still have total faith.  Losing Quintez Cephus early, and Aron Cruickshank to the transfer portal hurts the ceiling of the receivers, but with a senior Coan, and a deep group, I still think the floor will be plenty high.  The defense finished second in the Big Ten, and sixth nationally in ypp allowed, but might be better this year.  Much as the strength of the offense shifted from the interior line and running backs to the tackles and quarterbacks; the strength of the defense shifts from the linebackers to the line and secondary.  The line draws from two great edge rushers, but needs to improve the interior play, although they have had really bad injury luck there in each of the last two seasons.  The secondary, one of only five Power 5 units to hold opponents below a 52% completion rate last year, should be elite, probably best in the Big Ten on paper, although Ohio State always seems to have another cornerback on deck, ready to go.


KEY PLAYERS
QBJack Coan, Senior
TEJake Ferguson, Junior
TCole Van Lanen, Senior
.
DEIsaiah Loudermilk, Senior
CBFaion Hicks, Senior
SEric Burrell, Senior


Brutus Buckeye

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #533 on: June 02, 2020, 03:59:39 PM »
ELA Top 5 demographics

2 B1G East
1 SEC East
1 Big 12 
1 ACC



By State: 1 in each Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and S Carolina.
By Time Zone: 4 Eastern, 1 Central
2 South, 3 North (Midwest/Northeast) 
It isn't going to contain the Wolverines. 
1919, 20, 21, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42, 44
WWH: 1952, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 68, 70, 72, 74, 75
1979, 81, 82, 84, 87, 94, 98
2001, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

CWSooner

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #534 on: June 02, 2020, 04:49:23 PM »
ELA Top 5 demographics

2 B1G East
1 SEC East
1 Big 12
1 ACC

.

By State: 1 in each Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and S Carolina.
By Time Zone: 4 Eastern, 1 Central
2 South, 3 North (Midwest/Northeast)
It isn't going to contain the Wolverines.
So Oklahoma must carry the load for the entire country west of the ETZ?
Come on, Texas, USC, fOregon, U-Dub! Nebraska!  Step it up!
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FearlessF

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #535 on: June 02, 2020, 04:57:07 PM »
working on it!
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

bayareabadger

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #536 on: June 02, 2020, 06:37:34 PM »
ELA's fact got me curious about seasons that ended without playing Minnesota at the end/in the conference finale. Here's what I got:
2013: Penn State on Thanksgiving week, Minnesota the week earlier. Last year of leaders and legends
2012: Penn State a week after OSU. Minnesota was on Oct. 20
2011: Penn State, Minnesota was Nov. 12
2010: NW, Minnesota was Oct. 19 (the card game)
2009: NW ending the conference season. At Hawaii to finish. Minnesota was a early Oct. game to christen the new stadium for conference play
2008: Cal Poly was the season closer, but Minnesota wrapped conference play
2006: Iowa wrapped conference play, then a weird Buffalo game
2005: Iowa, then at Hawaii
2004: Iowa
2003: Iowa
2000: At Indiana on Nov. 11, then two weeks off before at Hawaii

ELA

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #537 on: June 02, 2020, 07:43:04 PM »
ELA's fact got me curious about seasons that ended without playing Minnesota at the end/in the conference finale. Here's what I got:
2013: Penn State on Thanksgiving week, Minnesota the week earlier. Last year of leaders and legends
2012: Penn State a week after OSU. Minnesota was on Oct. 20
2011: Penn State, Minnesota was Nov. 12
2010: NW, Minnesota was Oct. 19 (the card game)
2009: NW ending the conference season. At Hawaii to finish. Minnesota was a early Oct. game to christen the new stadium for conference play
2008: Cal Poly was the season closer, but Minnesota wrapped conference play
2006: Iowa wrapped conference play, then a weird Buffalo game
2005: Iowa, then at Hawaii
2004: Iowa
2003: Iowa
2000: At Indiana on Nov. 11, then two weeks off before at Hawaii
Missed that one, I think I just looked at the date and assumed.

CWSooner

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #538 on: June 02, 2020, 09:28:07 PM »
working on it!
Well, that's a start.
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FearlessF

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #539 on: June 02, 2020, 10:28:31 PM »
only missing 9 players

5 up front on the O-line and 4 upfront on the D-line
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

Brutus Buckeye

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #540 on: June 02, 2020, 10:55:34 PM »
It has gotten to the point where it is difficult to zero in on the weak link. 

Is it Penn State? Oklahoma? Florida? 

Maybe it's like the poker table, where if you can't figure out who the sucker is, then it's you. 
1919, 20, 21, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42, 44
WWH: 1952, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 68, 70, 72, 74, 75
1979, 81, 82, 84, 87, 94, 98
2001, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

MrNubbz

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #541 on: June 03, 2020, 08:05:08 AM »
Mecole Hardman left two seasons ago, FYI, and Herrien is spelled with an e.
Crap for some reason I thought he was in Gainesville.Supposedly a Buckeye lean at one time and obviously developed nicely
Suburbia:Where they tear out the trees & then name streets after them.

847badgerfan

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #542 on: June 03, 2020, 09:16:47 AM »
Looks like the ND/UW series is no longer neutral. 


https://saturdaytradition.com/wisconsin-football/lambeau-field-may-not-be-hosting-wisconsin-notre-dame-this-year/


It will be in South Bend this year (ND was the "home" team in Lambeau) and then Madison next year (UW was the "home" team at Soldier Field).
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

FearlessF

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #543 on: June 03, 2020, 10:14:03 AM »
much better!
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

bayareabadger

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #544 on: June 03, 2020, 12:11:39 PM »
Missed that one, I think I just looked at the date and assumed.
To be fair, with how that game went, I wish I missed it too. 

ELA

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Re: 2020 ELA 130 Team Countdown
« Reply #545 on: June 03, 2020, 01:52:21 PM »

#5 Florida Gators
#1 in SEC
For all of the “Texas is back” or “Michigan is back” or “Notre Dame is back” talk we seem to get, Florida won 8 of 18 SEC titles from 1991-2008, including 3 national titles, playing in current New Years Six bowls in 13 of 18 years.  Even the three Zook years resulted in New Years Day bowls and top 25 finishes.  Then from 2010-2017 (8 seasons), Florida won no conference titles, finished unranked five times, missed bowls twice, and played in the Birmingham Bowl once.  Yet in just two seasons Dan Mullen has gone 21-5, with a pair of top 7 finishes, and a pair of New Years Six bowl wins.  By comparison, that’s as many top 7 finishes and New Years Six bowl wins as Texas has in the past 14 seasons, Michigan in the past 21 seasons, and Notre Dame in the last 29 seasons.  Yet, I didn’t hear any “Florida is back” talk, they just were.  That said, Florida hasn’t been to an SEC Championship Game since getting blasted 54-16 by Alabama in the 2016 game, marking their first three year gap in appearances in the three decades the game has existed.  It’s no coincidence that it has coincided with a three game losing streak in the Cocktail Party.  Getting back to Atlanta means winning that game, otherwise it will be their first four game losing streak in the series since losing six in a row from 1978-83.  Dan Mullen is an offensive guy, and while the advanced metrics still really liked his first two Gator offenses (ranking both in the top 15 in SP+, despite being out of the top 25 in ypp), it will need to take the next step to elite for Florida to get past the Bulldogs.  Kyle Trask, taking over as the starting quarterback once Franks got injured, got off to a bit of a slow start, being asked to do very little against Kentucky, but then taking off the following week against Tennessee.  His low QBR the rest of the year was 59.4 against Auburn, finishing 10th in the nation in the metric.  He might not have even been the best Kyle on the offense, with sophomore tight end Kyle Trask perhaps being the best tight end in the country.  They just need to get a LOT more from their backs and receivers after finishing #85 nationally in ypc, and their leading receiver, the graduated Van Jefferson, barely edged out Pitts for the team lead in receiving yards.  Miami transfer Lorenzo Lingard just learned his waiver was approved, so he likely immediately jumps to the top of the running back depth chart.  If Penn State transfer receiver Justin Shorter gets the same news, that should help as well.  Although Shorter, who was the #1 receiver prospect coming out of high school struggled to even get meaningful snaps in Happy Valley.  The defense, which has been elite for the past two years, won’t be able to shoulder as much of the load this year, with the graduation of 5 seniors, plus the early departure of cornerback C.J. Henderson.  David Reese II and Jonathan Greenard alone are nearly impossible to replace, which Reese finishing with 40 more tackles than anyone else on the roster, and Greenard with more than twice as many sacks.  Georgia transfer Brenton Cox will be asked to immediately replace Greenard’s pass rushing ability, but the leadership of Reese, and the ability of Henderson to shut down half the field, will not be as easily replaced.  The secondary is in slightly better shape, with the return of ballhawk safety Donovan Stiner, to pair with Shawn Davis, and Marco Wilson, who toyed with leaving early.  True freshman cornerback Kaiir Elam came on strong late, but with Henderson’s departure, his assignments became a lot tougher.


KEY PLAYERS
QBKyle Trask, Senior
TEKyle Pitts, Junior
KEvan McPherson, Junior
.
LBVentrell Miller, Junior
SDonovan Stiner, Senior
SShawn Davis, Senior


 

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