College Football 2005-2006: Season in Review

[JohnBM01]

GTPlanet, I've "stratgically" created this thread to discuss the year in review. It's s time to look at the season gone by and talk about big names, big wins, big losses, big players, anything you'd like. I'll offer my commentary later, but here are topics up for mention:

POSITIVE CATEGORY*
- Biggest Win of the Year
- Best Team of the Season
- Biggest Story of the Year
- Game of the Season*
- Biggest Name of the Season
- Best Coaches
- Most Improved Team
- Biggest Sleeper of the Year
- Most Exciting Player

NEGATIVE CATEGORY*
- Most Disappointing Loss of the Season
- Most Disappointing Team of the Season
- Team With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress
- Game With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress
- Worst Coaches of the Season

NEUTRAL/OTHERS*
- Ownage of the Season (largest margin of victory)
- Most Exciting Moment
- Biggest Hit of the Season (players who clobbered the other team's players hard)
- Most Underrated Team/Player/Conference
- Most Overrated Team/Player/Conference
- Upset of the Year (underdog wins under pressure to tougher team)
- Surprise Teams/Players/Conferences

* = includes postseason play; all Divisions of NCAA Football and other non-NCAA schools qualify

As I stated, I'll offer up my commentary in future posts. But for now, if you have your votes, have your say in a post.

 

[Danoff]

This is easy

POSITIVE CATEGORY*
- Biggest Win of the Year - Texas vs. USC
- Best Team of the Season - Texas
- Biggest Story of the Year - Texas upsets USC
- Game of the Season* - Texas vs. USC
- Biggest Name of the Season - Vince Young
- Best Coaches - Mack Brown, Pete Carrol
- Most Improved Team - Uh... Texas
- Biggest Sleeper of the Year - Don't know
- Most Exciting Player - Vince Young

NEGATIVE CATEGORY*
- Most Disappointing Loss of the Season - USC
- Most Disappointing Team of the Season - USC (has to be, look at how many fans were devastated)
- Team With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress - Don't know
- Game With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress - Lots of good games this year, can't think of a boring one with big expectations
- Worst Coaches of the Season - Texas A&M

NEUTRAL/OTHERS*
- Ownage of the Season (largest margin of victory) - Big XII Championship
- Most Exciting Moment - Young making that final TD to knock off USC
- Biggest Hit of the Season (players who clobbered the other team's players hard) - Not sure about this one... but in keeping with my 1 dimensional theme I'll have to nominate the shelacking the Texas D' put on Matt Leinart when he treid to run.
- Most Underrated Team/Player/Conference - Texas/Defense/Big XII
- Most Overrated Team/Player/Conference - USC/Bush/Pac10 (Yes they were good, but can any team live up to the hype about them?)
- Upset of the Year (underdog wins under pressure to tougher team) - Texas vs. USC


Thus ends ends my 1-sided, 1-dimensional post... Go Longhorns!!

 

[JFM92_GTRacer]

POSITIVE CATEGORY*
- Biggest Win of the Year-Texas vs. USC
- Best Team of the Season- Texas
- Biggest Story of the Year- Dunno...
- Game of the Season*-USC vs. ND Yeah...i saw it. 👍
- Biggest Name of the Season-Reggie Bush
- Best Coaches-Joe Paterno
- Most Improved Team-Penn State
- Biggest Sleeper of the Year-dunno.
- Most Exciting Player-Reggie Bush

NEGATIVE CATEGORY*
- Most Disappointing Loss of the Season-VT vs. Miami (FL) aww...
- Most Disappointing Team of the Season-VT
- Team With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress-VT
- Game With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress-Dunno.
- Worst Coaches of the Season-Pete Carrol

NEUTRAL/OTHERS*
- Ownage of the Season (largest margin of victory)
- Most Exciting Moment-Vince Young's GW run against USC and Leinart's GW run against ND
- Biggest Hit of the Season (players who clobbered the other team's players hard)-Marcus Vick stomping on Wisconsin literally
- Most Underrated Team/Player/Conference
- Most Overrated Team/Player/Conference
- Upset of the Year (underdog wins under pressure to tougher team)
- Surprise Teams/Players/Conferences

That's mine. Next season again! Nice coverage JohnBM01

 

[JohnBM01]

Okay, here are some of my picks for my own bullets. Of course, I'll add a few more elements, but here are my spectrum-wide selections. You'll see some bullets I didn't include, but bear with me:

POSITIVE CATEGORY:
- Biggest Win of the Year = Penn State's Orange Bowl Victory
- Best Team of the Season = Texas
- Biggest Story of the Year = (tie) Penn State Rises from the Dead, Texas Responds to Hype and Lives Up to it
- Game of the Season* = (tie) Texas vs. Southern California, and Texas at Ohio State
- Biggest Name of the Season =
- Best Coaches = Joe Paterno (Nittany Lions Football Lives again!); Mack Brown; Art Briles (Houston; took Houston to two Bowls in three years)
- Most Improved Team = Central Florida
- Biggest Sleeper of the Year = Texas Christian University
- Most Exciting Player = Vince Young

NEGATIVE CATEGORY*
- Most Disappointing Loss of the Season = Tennessee's lost to Vanderbilt
- Most Disappointing Team of the Season = (where do I start?) Washington, Temple, Savannah State (1-AA), Indiana State (1-AA), Texas Southern (1-AA)
- Team With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress = Tennessee
- Game With Highest Expectations, but Failed to Impress = 2005 Peach Bowl (Miami/LSU)
- Worst Coaches of the Season = whoever coaches Temple, Ron Zook for Illinois, Dave Wannedstat(?) for Pittsburgh

NEUTRAL/OTHERS*
- Ownage of the Season (largest margin of victory) = (Div. 1-AA) Prairie View smashes Concordia (AL) 82-7
- Most Exciting Moment = 4th and 5 with 29 seconds or so left- 2006 Rose Bowl. I was personally scared seeing this moment. Can still feel it in my body watching that play.
- Biggest Hit of the Season (players who clobbered the other team's players hard) = I think the biggest hit had to be in that Clemson/Boston College (I believe), where a defender hit the Clemson QB very hard, but still came back to center after one play
- Most Underrated Team/Player/Conference = West Virginia (team) (player - no idea) Conference USA gets six teams to Bowls
- Most Overrated Team/Player/Conference = Notre Dame for Team, Marcus Vick for Player, and (Conference - no idea)
- Upset of the Year (underdog wins under pressure to tougher team) = Texas Christian defeats Oklahoma
- Surprise Teams/Players/Conferences = Rutgers, Kansas, Texas State (1-AA)

I'd also want to congratulate Grand Valley State (Div. 2) for their great job securing the Division 2 title for the GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).

 

[DavidRoy90]

gotta say the biggest sleeper of the year HAS to be Notre Dame. Didn't expect the Irish to be that good. Though they cooled off by the end of the year they still surprised me by breakin' into the top 10. Any other positive category has gotta be Texas. UofT@A all the way. Though I'm from Birmingham, born and raised, I gotta tell ya' Texas have always been my favorite team.

Dave

EDIT: My biggest disappointment, the school to which my Mom is an alumnis, Purdue. Terrible year, they need to find a QB!!!

 

[JohnBM01]

My two disappointments were Michigan and Tennessee. These are two teams you'll normally see go to Bowl Games. Now, even though Michigan did go to a Bowl game, they lose to NEBRASKA. Yeah, 1995 National Champions, but still. I just think both teams had a less than stellar year in the eyes of enthusiasts.

But if you ask me, I think both teams will have a better year, make a Bowl Game, and have their fans forget all about the past season. I think Michigan will play in a January bowl, or a late December at best. I see Tennessee as a late December bowl team next season. Until they get a solid cast like they did in 1997 (en route to a National Championship), then Tennessee will just be a middle of the road SEC team. Call me crazy, but I also think that North Carolina (yes, they have a football team) may make a Bowl Game. To me, I think North Carolina is on the rise, whereas Duke is ice cold. If North Carolina get some more big wins like they did vs. Miami a few years ago, then they should be solid. A really good high schooler is going to try to make Kentucky a better football team. Kentucky may not have Tubby Smith walking on the gridiron, but they'll need some help to get to a Bowl game.

Those are just some of my thoughts for next season. Carry on if you want to review 2005-2006 with your ideas.