Alistair Matheson as his caddie in 2015 was also significant

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen remembers Utahs undefeated, BCS-busting 2004 season that was punctuated with a win against Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.How could he forget?We won every game by [nearly] 21 points, beat three different BCS schools, and didnt get the opportunity to play for the national title, said Mullen, who was the Utes quarterbacks coach that season under Urban Meyer. I thought we were deserving but didnt have that opportunity.Has the opportunity to win a national title truly expanded with the four-team College Football Playoff? The answer lies within each individual committee members stance on whether they should choose the four best teams or the four most deserving ones.?Just like choosing the top four teams is a subjective process, so is drawing a concrete distinction between the best and most deserving résumés. Should you go with a Power 5 team with a tougher schedule that has one or two losses (best), or an elite Group of 5 team that went undefeated against a weaker schedule, with just a couple of marquee wins (most deserving)?The selection committee simply isnt going to seriously consider a team from the Group of 5 that hasnt played any ranked opponents (like Marshall in 2014, which was undefeated through the first 11 games), but had Memphis gone undefeated last year after knocking off No. 13 Ole Miss, theres no question the Tigers would have deserved to be considered. The so-called best teams from the Power 5 conferences have more wiggle room. Because of their talent and aggressive scheduling, they can afford one or two losses because they have played against more elite competition.Its debatable -- or is it?The mission stated right up front, the role of that committee is to pick the four best teams, said Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, a former committee member. Not the four most deserving, not the fan favorites, not the Cinderellas. None of that language is in there. It says the four best teams, and so that might mean something different to everybody in the room, but its still a constant reminder, heres our mission, lets stick to it.That, of course, is the perspective of a retired three-star general. Its not necessarily as clear for every committee member, though.If you read the protocol, it tells you to take the best teams, said former committee member Mike Tranghese. Well theres no clear definition of what is the best. Is the best team the team with the most talent? Is it the team with the best performance? That to me came into play as we discussed Baylor and TCU. Baylor had beaten TCU, but a lot of people felt TCU was better than Baylor. How do you vote? Whether youre a coach or not a coach, you have to vote your conscience at that point. We really never had to take that vote as to which one of those teams was going to get in because of Ohio States performance.ESPNs data from the past two years show the committee has actually sided with the teams that play a tougher schedule. Seven of the past eight teams to make the playoff ranked in the top four of ESPNs strength of record metric prior to being chosen for the CFP. The metric is designed to answer the question: Which teams record is the most impressive given its schedule? It measures how difficult it would be for another top-25 team to achieve the same record. However, only four of the eight playoff teams have ranked in the top four of ESPNs Football Power Index, which is designed to measure the best teams going forward.West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen is certainly on the side of picking the four best teams.Holgorsen said an undefeated team from a Group of 5 conference (the American, Mountain West, Conference USA, MAC or Sun Belt) wouldnt have the same success against a Power 5 league schedule.If they played our schedule, that 12-0 record would be 7-5 and vice versa, said Holgorsen. I think strength of schedule is incredibly important. If you say thats not fair to the non-Power 5, then Id say well then tell that non-Power 5 to do specific things to be in the Power 5. Because each and every one of them would jump at that opportunity in a heartbeat. Its not our fault being in the Power 5 theyre not, and they may have a really good football team, but Im sorry, you dont play the schedule that we play, and I dont think you would be undefeated if you played our schedule. If it hurts their feelings, well, Im sorry.With so much emphasis placed on strength of schedule, its certainly possible an undefeated team could still be left out in favor of a one-loss conference champion that played a more difficult lineup. The most obvious example is whether an undefeated Houston team deserves a top-four spot ahead of a one-loss Power 5 champion. As of right now, Houstons only two ranked opponents this season are No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 19 Louisville.If a team plays the schedule that this team will play and wins every one of their games, said Houston coach Tom Herman, the answer is absolutely yes, or the system is broke and we need a new system.The conversation goes deeper than Houston.Last years Ohio State team had a lousy schedule but was oozing NFL draft potential. Did it deserve a spot, since it was among the best teams talent-wise? Iowa finished the regular season 12-0 and was deserving of a top-four spot, but certainly didnt look like one of the best teams in the country during its loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl.Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said its impossible for the committee to compare teams fairly when every conference schedules differently.I am not satisfied right now with the College Football Playoff components because we do not have equal data points across the leagues, said Fitzgerald. Until there are equal data points, in my humble opinion it still has to be the most deserving because youve got some leagues playing FCS, some leagues not. Some leagues playing nine games, some not. Those are two huge differences in my opinion that really have to be taken into consideration right now as we move forward. Were on one end where its an extreme. If you run the table in the Big Ten and youre being compared to a one-loss team in the SEC and they played an FCS team and only eight league games, I dont know how its a comparable data point.Coaches in the SEC West think their league strength of schedule should outweigh the fact that they may also play some unheralded nonconference opponents. Even Mullen, in spite of his experience with Utah, now has a different perspective.Having been in the SEC West, the question would come, would that [Utah] team have had enough depth to go undefeated through the SEC West? he said. Not, Could that team have beaten anybody? I think that team couldve beaten any team in the SEC West. I think we couldve beaten USC. Could we have gone through a league like the SEC West week in and week out and taking that grind and having the depth of players to be able to do that? Where would a Houston 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? Not just Week 1, not just Week 2, Week 3 and 4, how would they do?Ive been on both sides of this, said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery, who was at Baylor two years ago when the Bears finished No. 5 in the committees final ranking. Its a tough discussion, but I think it is the most deserving. As you look at the schedules and the losses and who they played and all of those things, those are all components of whats going into your body of work.I think we put together a body of work that shouldve gotten us in, he said of the 2014 Baylor Bears. With the politics and everything else that went down during that time, I still believe in my heart as a conference if we wouldve selected -- instead of trying to get two -- if wed have just said heres our true champion, put them in, I think it wouldve happened that year and we wouldve had a chance to go play for it.Maybe.But Baylors body of work that season also included wins over SMU, Northwestern State and Buffalo.Strength of schedule to me is, in my opinion, what should matter most, said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. Thats one persons opinion. Otherwise, why would we be playing Houston and Ohio State in our nonconference schedule?To prove, of course, that the best team is also the most deserving. Air Max 90 Offerta . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. Air Max In Offerta . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. https://www.scontatescarpeoutlet.it/scontate-air-max-270-outlet-italia-c2766.html . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. Air Max Scontate Uomo . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Scarpe Nike In Offerte . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. TROON, Scotland -- Just 18 months ago, Soren Kjeldsen was wondering how hed survive in the world of golfs power hitters.Hes 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters). Hits his drives 280 yards. He was approaching age 40 and had plummeted the world rankings. How was Kjeldsen supposed to compete in the modern game of ever-lengthening courses, against the likes of Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, and Rory McIlroy?The graph was going down, the Danish player said.Now its on the up.Thanks to a shift in mentality, a new caddie, and a big win, Kjeldsen is a changed man -- and a contender at major championships.After finishing tied for seventh at the Masters in April, Kjeldsen is in third place -- three shots behind Phil Mickelson -- at the British Open on Friday following rounds of 67 and 68. Hed previously only broken 70 in two of 20 rounds at golfs oldest major.You certainly heard that story before when people get to 40 and then its downhill from there, Kjeldsen said. So I was fighting pretty hard but determined to get through, and its nice being in this position now.A Scandinavian male has never won a major but the drought could end at Royal Troon. Sandwiching Mickelson (10 under) and Kjeldsen (7 under) is Henrik Stenson of Sweden, who is on 9 under.Few can have thought Kjeldsen would bloom like this. In 2014, he had his lowest finish on the European Tours Race to Dubai since his maiden campaign in 1998 and was ranked No. 367 in the world. He also had an inferiority complex.My problem was mainly on the tee shots, he said. I felt very insecure. I just felt really weak because I dont hit it a long way. You play with guys that are flying 320 (yards) and seem to hit it down the middle every time, and you do sort of wonder.I never considered not playing golf, he added, but I certainly considered if I was ever going to bee good enough to continue to compete.ddddddddddddjeldsen now has an open mind about that.We all have limitations, he said.I look at most of the top players, and one thing thats helped me quite a lot is getting to know the top players, I know what they struggle with. Theyve all got something. It doesnt matter how good you are, theres always a little if in there, some part of the game. So Ive accepted that.Hiring Alistair Matheson as his caddie in 2015 was also significant. Within two weeks, Kjeldsen won the Irish Open in tough conditions for his first title in six years, and the Dane responded to Mathesons enthusiasm and can-do-better mindset.Now Kjeldsen, with his bright blond hair and smiley demeanor, is a picture of serenity on the golf course.At Troon, he made six birdies in his first round and then went bogey-free in the wind and rain for the third-lowest score among the morning starters in the second round. His short game, which he describes as very strong, is holding up as usual.I think the biggest difference now is like when I go into a major like this, I feel normal, Kjeldsen said. I dont make it more important than anything else really. I know the importance of the tournament, but I also know that for me to perform well, I need to get into my little world and get lost in that.And if I control what I can control, then Im doing OK. And thats what I learned from Augusta.And if the wind is howling and the rain is pouring on the weekend, dont bet against the little Dane with the big heart.These conditions (are) what I grew up in, Kjeldsen said. I like playing this kind of golf. I like the battling mentality that you need to play. Yes, I do thrive in this. ' ' '