jikespingleton said:
bear2be2 said:
jikespingleton said:
bear2be2 said:
jikespingleton said:
bear2be2 said:
jikespingleton said:
bear2be2 said:
blackie said:
RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:
Stefano DiMera said:
Probably the 5th time you've posted that.
Never met a male so focused on tampons.
No need to be pissy. It was just a joke. Baylor Football is 8-4 and should certainly accept their participation trophy. Life is good.
Its not about participation trophies. It is about 15 extra practices, recruiting narrative, and general perception of the program.
Both our 2013 championship team and our 2019 Sugar Bowl team benefitted greatly from the boost they got off "mediocre" bowl wins.
How did they benefit greatly and which specific bowl wins are you referring to?
If what you claim is true, then wouldn't we have been hurt greatly by the loss to UCF in the Fiesta bowl in 2013 and the loss to Georgia in 2019? Seems to me that we did just fine in 2014 and in 2021 after Covid and CDA got his feet wet.
It wasn't just the bowl game in 2012 and 2018. It was the momentum those bowl wins preserved/continued.
In 2012, we rallied from a 4-5 start (1-5 in Big 12 play) to win our last four games with a lopsided bowl win over UCLA.
In 2018, we bounced back from four losses in five games -- the last a really tough one to a bad TCU team -- to earn a bowl berth with a unexpected win over Tech and continued that momentum with an impressive bowl win over a solid Vandy team.
In both cases, teams that many had concluded were mediocre or worse finished the season playing good football -- not unlike our team this year.
That stuff matters. Momentum and confidence are a huge deal in college football.
I think you are putting far too much value on the bowl games (and presumably the 2-3 weeks of practices they come with).
A bowl game is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of time spent lifting weights, conditioning and working with your teammates throughout the year. Strength can be built throughout the year, but cohesiveness and game-ready skills are build during the summer and through the playing season. I guess some would argue spring practice counts, too. My point is that those months and months of practice and playing games (May-Nov) are what builds teams - not a bowl game.
Momentum as related to how a team plays, can only be gained while the team is playing. Once the season (or bowl game) is over, they won't play another team for 8-9 months.
Whatever playing momentum that was had in the prior season evaporates quickly after the last game is played. New momentum has to be built. It's not magically transferred from a prior season.
What you have, in effect, just said is that experience doesn't matter in college football, which could not be further from the truth.
I said nothing of the sort. I said you placed too much value on 1 bowl game and I don't think you understand momentum.
Months and months of practice and playing games (May-Nov) are what builds teams. The hundreds of hours of practice, lifting and being with your teammates- a process that takes places over many many months.
You are placing too much value on the experience of 1 game (bowl game) and it's effects on the following season.
For the second time now, it's not the bowl game in a vacuum. The bowl game is an extension of a greater trend. We would not be creating momentum with a bowl win, we'd be maintaining it -- as we did in 2012.
1 bowl game doesn't "greatly" boost a team. That was your claim and that's what started this discussion.
It wasn't the bowl itself that boosted those teams. It was hitting the offseason on a high note, versus hitting it on a downer.
Bowl performances tangibly change the way those in and around a program feel about their season. Dismantling a solid UCLA team in 2012 to finish on a four-game winning streak was a big deal -- both for that team and our program.
The same was true of winning our last two games in 2018 to prove to fans and players alike that we can win without Art Briles and that Matt Rhule's process was working.
Without those bowl wins, those seasons aren't viewed the same way and we don't carry the same level of momentum into the offseason that we did.
This bowl game will be similar. Win this one to go into the offseason on a seven-game winning streak, and everyone involved in our program will be talking about Big 12 championships next year. Lose that game, and expectations will be tempered and old feelings of pre-streak doubt will creep back in.
Winning is contagious. And so is losing. Unless we're in the playoff and competing for a championship, I will always take and value a bowl win for the vibes they bring to a program -- especially one that's already riding a wave of momentum, as we currently are.