The Maryland transfer set school record

The College Football Playoff selection committee has yet to truly sweat it out in the fourth quarter.There was little dispute last season, and Clemson and Alabama proved to be the top two teams in the country. In 2014, Ohio State made the committees decision easier with a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, then proved the committee right -- at least outside the state of Texas -- by going on to win the national title after sneaking into the top four for the very first time when it mattered most, in the final ranking.This year could be significantly more difficult.With Houston off to a 3-0 start and favored by ESPNs Football Power Index to win every remaining game (except against Louisville), its possible the committee will have to seriously consider a Group of 5 conference champion in its top four -- especially if there is a Power 5 conference champion with two losses.How the Cougars would fare against a Power 5 schedule is a debate that has carried over from the BCS system, which no Group of 5 program was ever able to crack.Where would a Houston, [which] on any given day could beat anybody in the country, if they played in the SEC West, how would they do after playing Texas A&M, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State on consecutive weeks? Mississippi States Dan Mullen said before the season.The dynamic of the committee, which will be charged with answering that question, has changed. Four members terms have expired and three new members have joined, increasing the total number of former coaches to five, the highest it has been.Two of the coaches, former Central Michigan coach Herb Deromedi and former Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower, hail from the Group of 5 perspective. Three of them, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, former Notre Dame, Stanford and Washington coach Tyrone Willingham and former Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson, made their living against Power 5 opponents.How much their experiences shape their opinions could be a factor in this years debate.Because the meetings are closed, though, and because committee members arent allowed to talk to the media -- with the exception of chair Kirby Hocutt -- the chemistry and conversations within the room are a well-kept secret.There were times when -- it happened fairly often -- where wed be talking about a particular issue or a team or something like that, and we would turn to Ty and Barry and Coach [Tom] Osborne and say, All right, from a coaches perspective, what do you think? former committee member Mike Gould said. And they would tell you honestly, Heres what Im thinking.But again, that didnt necessarily carry the day. The non-coaches in the room would take notes, say, OK, thank you, and you still formulated your own ideas on how you were going to vote.Deromedi, Bower and Alvarez are each recused from voting for their respective affiliations. Willingham is recused from Stanford and Duke. Johnson is not on the recusal list.Coaches are only one of five categories of individuals who comprise the committee, along with sitting athletic directors, administrators, journalists and athletes.I think what theyre doing right now -- having variety, having diversity -- is working, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. I would support them continuing doing what theyre doing. I think you make your own bed every day. People are going to know the caliber of who youre playing, who youre beating and who youre not beating and theyre going to take all of that into consideration. Having some coaches in there is obviously good, but some of those coaches can be biased towards one conference or one region. You have to be careful about that.There is a coat rack outside of the committee meeting room where the committee members literally check their hats at the door, a symbol started by committee member and former chairman Jeff Long to help remind them to leave any bias outside. Each committee member has a white hat with his or her name on it, and they hang them up every week.Not everyone on the outside is as skeptical.I think every one of those guys has tremendous integrity, very professional, great honesty in what they do, Alabama coach Nick Saban said. I have total faith, trust and confidence. You can try to do whats right, that doesnt mean youre going to be right all the time, but I know they will try to do it right. I think they got it right last year. I think they got it right the year before.Arguably nobody on the committee knows the sport better than the Hall of Fame coaches who were paid to master it, but those who have been in the room say their voices dont necessarily carry more weight than the others.Sometimes there would be a situation that would come up, and somebody would say, Well, lets hear what the coaches say about this, said Osborne, a former committee member. It usually had to do with defensive personnel, pass rush. It wasnt like we, we didnt really dominate the conversation at all. Everybody had their opinion, everybody expressed them, everybody had a vote. No vote counted more than somebody elses vote.Former committee member Mike Tranghese said the coaches have an edge when it comes to evaluating the teams, but when it comes to evaluating the results, each of the committee members are on equal footing.Results are the results, nothing changes that, he said. Schedules are the schedules. The games are the games, nobody can change all that. But as part of it all, you want to know about a team. How talented are they? Are they overachieving? Are they underachieving? Why would Team A have trouble with Team B? Coach Osborne was unbelievable at analyzing special teams. He was unbelievable. He has such a handle on everybodys special teams. Its such a big element of the football game, and that would get thrown into the mix as you try to analyze things. In the end, I think everybody is pretty individual.You take the coaches analysis and you factor it in, he said, but in the end, its the results that determine whos getting in and whos not getting in.Would Houstons results be good enough? What if their only loss was to Louisville, which went on to win the ACC title? The rest of the Cougars résumé would feature just one win against a ranked opponent -- Oklahoma -- and thats assuming the Sooners can regroup and be a factor in the Big 12 race. The most likely scenario remains that Houston would have to be undefeated.Kansas coach David Beaty, who spent three seasons at Texas A&M, has also coached in Conference USA and said there is a difference in the level of competition the committee cant ignore.We were in the SEC West and we were pretty good when we were there and we never finished higher than third, which is crazy, he said. Thats how good and talented that SEC West is. I think you have to take into account the level of teams that are in those conferences. I just dont think you can leave that out. Theres no doubt in my mind you have to take those things into account.Tom Herman is one of my best friends in the world, Beaty said. He actually led Ohio State to the national championship on a third-string quarterback who was pretty stinkin good, by the way. But he had a lot to do with that. And hes done an unbelievable job at Houston and Im happy for him and his family, but the reality of it is, an undefeated Houston team wouldve had a hard time getting in there [in 2015]. Theres a reason why. Because the conference affiliation there might have been a situation that maybe something else wouldve overtook them as a result, because they werent in the SEC or Big 12.Houston has a chance to help change that perception this year.The Cougars have to do more than go undefeated, though. They have to win over the entire committee -- not just the former coaches. Football Jerseys China . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Wholesale Football Jerseys Authentic . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. http://www.cheapfootballjerseysoutlet.com/ . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Discount Football Jerseys . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. Cheap Football Jerseys China .C. -- Chris Thorburn thinks one of the reasons the Winnipeg Jets have been successful under new coach Paul Maurice is that theyre playing together as a team. After Syracuses record-setting loss to Pittsburgh that ended the Oranges first season under Dino Babers, the coach revealed his immediate plans.I am going to be out Sunday recruiting, Babers said after Saturdays 76-61 loss at Heinz Field.Smart move.Babers was hired almost one year ago to replace Scott Shafer, whose final game at Syracuse was an emotional home win over Boston College that left the Orange with a 4-8 overall record and a 2-6 showing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Babers ended his first year at Syracuse with the same record and the team on a four-game slide.Theres room for more improvement on both sides of the ball.Five of Syracuses losses came against teams ranked this week in the AP Top 25 -- Clemson, Louisville, Florida State, Pittsburgh and South Florida. Those five outscored the Orange 282-123, and only one of Syracuses victories came against a team with a winning record.Syracuse embraced the new coaching regime and Babers uptempo offensive blueprint, finishing the season ranked 11th in passing offense (321.3 yards per game). But too many injuries on both sides of the ball, reminiscent of what happened to Shafer, and an inability to score despite some gaudy passing numbers, relegated the Orange to another losing season.Helped by that final crazy game against the Panthers , Syracuse finished its season ranked 89th in scoring nationally, averaging just 25.7 points per game. Coupling with a defense that was ranked 121st and allowed nearly seven yards per play was not a winning formula, especially with a run game that averaged just 3.2 yards per carry and was ranked 119th.Still, the players like what theyve seen, especially their upset win over then-No. 17 Virginia Tech, which will play Clemson for the ACC championship.People have truly changed the way they act on and off the field, said quarterback Zack Mahoney, a capable fill-in for injuured starter Eric Dungey .dddddddddddd People buy into coach Babers methods. I just hope that in the future we continue to push ourselves.The biggest question heading into the offseason is the health of Dungey, the cornerstone of the offense who missed four games last year with at least one concussion and the final three games this season after incurring a hard hit to the shoulder-head area in the first quarter of a 54-0 loss at Clemson. Dungey, who will be a junior next year, was on the sidelines throwing before each of the final two home games but did not play and also didnt play Saturday.Whoever lines up over center wont have the most important cog of this years offense -- wideout Amba Etta-Tawo. The Maryland transfer set school records in his final year of eligibility -- 94 catches for 1,482 yards (second nationally) and 14 TDs. Also departing is kick returner Brisly Estime, who led the nation with 17.7 yards per punt return.Defensively, the Orange allowed 501 yards per game, 35 TDs rushing, and 5.4 yards per rush, all school records. The good news is that the Oranges top three tacklers -- LBs Parris Bennett (110) and Zaire Franklin (101, 10 TFLs), and CB Daivon Ellison (90) -- return next season.There was growth, Babers said. Could we be better on defense? Yes, we could be better on defense. We can be better on offense. The one thing that happened this year that is a blessing is that a lot of guys got to play because of a lot of injuries.Normally, it looks bad one year. But the negatives from one year can be the blessings the next year. We have to roll through and see how it goes.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 .---Follow Kekis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Greek1947 ' ' '