That should've been Texas A&M winning it all. Seriously.

The Elk will have us in the championship game next year.

We need to give serious looks at 2 star HS players, walk ons and 25 year olds in the portal.
That and coaches who know how to coach.
Congratulations IU. Well done.
You earned the NC and deservedly so.

HJack20 said:

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I believe even if we overcome Miami, we drop a game to Ohio State or Ole Miss.

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We weren't going to lose to noodle arm Sayin. That team was so overrated.

Ags DEFINITELY #3 in the nation!

TAMU74 said:

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We need to give serious looks at 2 star HS players, walk ons and 25 year olds in the portal.
That and coaches who know how to coach.
Congratulations IU. Well done.
You earned the NC and deservedly so.

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And play in a conference where you many off weeks.

The best team in college football this year win the title. End of story.

We had enough talent to beat anyone this year if we had the type of QB that Miami or UI had this year.

We didn't play Texas all that well, and the entire offense is to blame there. Dropped passes, bad blocking, some bad passes.

Against Miami, Reed throws 6 passes too high. That was the difference in the game.

Not sure if he was injured, or if it was lack of confidence, or if he just wasn't feeling well, but you can't beat a team like Miami if you have a QB that plays as bad as Reed played that day.

What is more is that Reed was pretty stellar most of the year. He just had a really bad game at a really bad time to have a really bad game.

Our defense was better than UI. With Moss and a confident Reed, our offense is better than Miami's.

Our best team is competitive with any team in the nation this year. It's just unfortunate that we were not able to gel down the stretch.

The reality is, if you have a really good team, you are likely going to make the playoffs. You have to have a really good team and a little luck to win a championship. We just didn't have the luck we needed this year. That is football. If there was no luck involved, we would all be watching chess and everyone would be bored.

The good news is with NIL, the transfer portal, a great coach, and more money than God, we are going to reload every year and be nationally competitive more years than not.

We keep using coaches who aren't even working for us anymore in the highest stakes games we've ever played.

Which imbecile keeps allowing this to happen?

Heineken-Ashi said:

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People keep acting like the wind didn't play a huge factor. Both QB's were trash. Beck wasn't hitting guys in stride like he did in every other playoff game. Miami OC realized passing wasn't going to win and committed to running. Our OC decided to pass 90% of the second half. Because he wasn't prepared to do anything else. Marcel was bad. But he should have never been put in the position to throw as much as he did in that game.

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Do cross winds make you throw the ball high?

Did you watch the game tonight? IU ran for less than 3 yards per carry, and our running game is not as good as IU's without Moss.

Reed also threw a couple of picks.

I think that blaming the wind is a bit of a stretch for a QB that typically throws bullets for 8 yards on crossing and stop routes for his main weapon.

BusterAg said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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People keep acting like the wind didn't play a huge factor. Both QB's were trash. Beck wasn't hitting guys in stride like he did in every other playoff game. Miami OC realized passing wasn't going to win and committed to running. Our OC decided to pass 90% of the second half. Because he wasn't prepared to do anything else. Marcel was bad. But he should have never been put in the position to throw as much as he did in that game.

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Do cross winds make you throw the ball high?

Did you watch the game tonight? IU ran for less than 3 yards per carry, and our running game is not as good as IU's without Moss.

Reed also threw a couple of picks.

I think that blaming the wind is a bit of a stretch for a QB that typically throws bullets for 8 yards on crossing and stop routes for his main weapon.

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Yes, it was a factor. I sit in the endzone and watched a pass he threw to the hashes get carried nearly out of bounds that ABR made a great adjustment to.

The pass everyone made fun of where our guy was wide open and the ball landed in the dirt in front of him was killed by the wind.

He should have made adjustments. He should have been better. But we also should not have been passing as much as we did. On the flip side though, OL couldn't block *****

Okay, okay who spiked the maroon Kool-Aid, there is some major delusion going on in this thread.

ag_derp said:

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That should've been Texas A&M winning it all. Seriously.

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Wow cool ! Using this mentality, I can console myself to the "fact" Tech should have won it all.

Heineken-Ashi said:

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People keep acting like the wind didn't play a huge factor. Both QB's were trash. Beck wasn't hitting guys in stride like he did in every other playoff game. Miami OC realized passing wasn't going to win and committed to running. Our OC decided to pass 90% of the second half. Because he wasn't prepared to do anything else. Marcel was bad. But he should have never been put in the position to throw as much as he did in that game.

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35 rush attempts.
40 pass attempts.
Pretty balanced, given how pass happy we had to be at the end, out of survival.

The wind will affect medium and long distance balls.
The wind will not affect a short ball.

Reed, in that game, was struggling with completing EVERY ball, even the short and routine easy balls.

They schemed up to stop the run. Not so much "load the box" in pre-snap alignment, but in assignment.
That forces Reed to have to beat them with at least SOME completions. He couldn't do it.

Reed seems like a great kid. Hope he develops into a 1st round Draft pick, both for the team and for himself.
But at the same time, it's ok to acknowledge that he played like sh*t in his last 3 legit D1 games (skip Samford).

Heineken-Ashi said:

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BusterAg said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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People keep acting like the wind didn't play a huge factor. Both QB's were trash. Beck wasn't hitting guys in stride like he did in every other playoff game. Miami OC realized passing wasn't going to win and committed to running. Our OC decided to pass 90% of the second half. Because he wasn't prepared to do anything else. Marcel was bad. But he should have never been put in the position to throw as much as he did in that game.

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Do cross winds make you throw the ball high?

Did you watch the game tonight? IU ran for less than 3 yards per carry, and our running game is not as good as IU's without Moss.

Reed also threw a couple of picks.

I think that blaming the wind is a bit of a stretch for a QB that typically throws bullets for 8 yards on crossing and stop routes for his main weapon.

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Yes, it was a factor. I sit in the endzone and watched a pass he threw to the hashes get carried nearly out of bounds that ABR made a great adjustment to.

The pass everyone made fun of where our guy was wide open and the ball landed in the dirt in front of him was killed by the wind.

He should have made adjustments. He should have been better. But we also should not have been passing as much as we did. On the flip side though, OL couldn't block *****

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Wind had nothing to do with his three turnovers, and those were what sank us.

Should have covered the spread. I bought it down to -6.5 only to have them win by 6.

Shouda wouda couda since 1956. I watched the Bear Bryant at A & M and that did not happen and has not happened since although Slocum had some good years>

Our team was not equipped to go on a run and beat Ohio State, Ole Miss, and Indiana. That was never going to happen. It wasn't us and certainly shouldn't have been us. We simply didn't have a national championship caliber team this year.

BusterAg said:

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We had enough talent to beat anyone this year if we had the type of QB that Miami or UI had this year.

We didn't play Texas all that well, and the entire offense is to blame there. Dropped passes, bad blocking, some bad passes.

Against Miami, Reed throws 6 passes too high. That was the difference in the game.

Not sure if he was injured, or if it was lack of confidence, or if he just wasn't feeling well, but you can't beat a team like Miami if you have a QB that plays as bad as Reed played that day.

What is more is that Reed was pretty stellar most of the year. He just had a really bad game at a really bad time to have a really bad game.

Our defense was better than UI. With Moss and a confident Reed, our offense is better than Miami's.

Our best team is competitive with any team in the nation this year. It's just unfortunate that we were not able to gel down the stretch.

The reality is, if you have a really good team, you are likely going to make the playoffs. You have to have a really good team and a little luck to win a championship. We just didn't have the luck we needed this year. That is football. If there was no luck involved, we would all be watching chess and everyone would be bored.

The good news is with NIL, the transfer portal, a great coach, and more money than God, we are going to reload every year and be nationally competitive more years than not.

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Why are you making excuses for Reed? Did you watch the 1st half of the USC game? He could have easily had 5 picks instead of 2, just 3 were dropped. Then he plays the 2nd half of the decade. It's that inconsistency that keeps you from winning 3-4 hard games in a row. He threw high because he's inconsistent. He can be great but he needs to be better in 26.

Heineken-Ashi said:

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HJack20 said:

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I believe even if we overcome Miami, we drop a game to Ohio State or Ole Miss.

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We weren't going to lose to noodle arm Sayin. That team was so overrated.

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Their offense is about as good as Miami's. And their defense is too. And we lost to Miami at home despite them missing 3 FGs and not scoring more than 10 points. lol

I don't know how anyone can see how we finished the season and think we were capable of winning 4 playoff games.

We won 11 games. First top 10 finish in 4 years and escaped Texas 8&4 purgatory. All in year 2 of Elko. Be happy.

Kashchei said:

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ag_derp said:

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That should've been Texas A&M winning it all. Seriously.

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We couldn't score a touchdown. At home. And you think we should be national champions? The maroon Kool Aid is still strong I see.

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He mixed in a strong dose of everclear.

There's no way, NO WAY, Marcel makes those back shoulder throws that The Cuban did.

In my best Sheriff Buford T Justice voice

Teams that have to take up collection jars for false start penalties don't tend to win the national championship. Our turnover margin was also one of the worst in the country. We went about as far as possible.

Somebody been dranking the purple drank.

Congratulations indeed.

Congrats to #Indiana, but #TexasAM should have won it all. pic.twitter.com/7QElnHz97C

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) January 23, 2026

45-70Ag said:

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Congratulations indeed.

Congrats to #Indiana, but #TexasAM should have won it all. pic.twitter.com/7QElnHz97C

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) January 23, 2026

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The prize OP was going for all along.