This decade started with the Baltimore Ravens hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and, well, in terms of the NFL’s decade, it hasn’t ended yet. In between, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl three times (and nearly a fourth, if it wasn’t for an outstanding final drive by the New York Giants), the Pittsburgh Steelers won twice, and then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts, and New York Giants each won once.
One of the most startling trends is the rise of passing and the fall of a single feature running back. In the year 2000, the passer rating of the NFL was 75.9 and this past regular season it was 81.2, slightly down from an all-time NFL high of 82.0 in 2008. There are many reasons for this and one of the most prominent is that the NFL has instituted several rule changes that are specifically designed to increase offense. It is for good reason that referees are protecting quarterbacks; they are often left unprotected after throwing the ball and are susceptible to gruesome hits after interceptions or fumbles simply because the defense loves to put a hit on the quarterback. Along with that, there are the rules that were instituted after the Colts and Patriots playoff battles in the first half of the decade. Before that there were no limits to how much a defensive back could manhandle a wide receiver as long as the ball wasn’t in the air. Limiting contact to only 5 yards has greatly increased offensive efficiency and therefore passer rating.
On top of the rule changes, we are seeing a league right now that has a great number of marquee quarterbacks, including several that will be first ballot hall of famers without a doubt. Into this group I would definitely put Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Kurt Warner. Amongst the other quarterbacks that played significant time this year, I would say that it is possible that as many as 10 quarterbacks could one day make the hall of fame. Obviously much of this depends on what these guys do for the rest of their career but anything is possible.
Since 1947 (when it happened first), there have been 45 quarterbacks that had a passer rating over 100 with at least 224 pass attempts (or 14 per game over 16 games). Of those 45 seasons, 21 of them have come in the past decade. Of the 7 players that have ever had multiple seasons with a passer rating over 100, 4 are still active and a 5th (Kurt Warner) decided to call it a career yesterday.
With all due respect to the football players of yesteryear, they are just better today than they used to be and with the rule changes that have favored offense in this decade, it’s a good time to be an NFL quarterback.
THE GAMES
January 10, 2010
Arizona 51, Green Bay 45
This was a very interesting match-up from the beginning because these two teams met in Arizona in Week 17 of the regular season and then had a rematch a week later in the wildcard round of the playoffs. In the Week 17 game, the Cardinals had their playoff spot completely wrapped up and barely made a token attempt at winning the game. They were down 26-0 at halftime and then Green Bay added another touchdown in the third quarter to make it 33-0 en route to a 33-7 victory. The Packers handled the Cardinals in that game but there was a lot of talk afterwards about how Green Bay had maybe ran up the score a little when Arizona had their second string players in. All week there were discussions of how much of a drop there was from the Cardinal’s first string to the second, especially against the #2 defense by yardage in the regular season.
Well, it didn’t take them long to answer their critics and skeptics. At the end of the first quarter it was already 17-0 and early in the third quarter it was 31-10. It would have been very easy for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to give up at that point considering that their offense had been rattled at best and wholly ineffective at worst. However, they responded and those who watched were treated to one of the best football games ever, without a doubt. Whenever Green Bay needed a big defensive play, they got it. Whenever they needed to convert a key play, they did. Over the final quarter and a half, they outscored the Cardinals 35-14, including a wild 21 point fourth quarter to force overtime. When the Packers won the coin toss it appeared as if they were headed for the Divisional Round of the playoffs since neither defense was having any luck at all at stopping the other offense.
Three plays later, the game was over. Unfortunately for Rodgers, he missed a wide open receiver on first down which would have gone the full 80 yards for a win. On third down, Rodgers got hit and lost the ball, which caromed right to Karlos Dansby, who took it 17 yards for the touchdown.
As Green Bay started their epic comeback and appeared to be unstoppable, I jokingly quipped that the first one to 50 would win the game. Sure enough, Arizona 51, Green Bay 45.
February 3, 2008
Super Bowl XLII
New York 17, New England 14
There were a lot of storylines coming into this Super Bowl (as there always are, given that the press has a month to think of all the potential storylines for all the teams in the playoffs should they make the Super Bowl) but people only really cared about one of them. The New England Patriots were trying to cap off a perfect after going 16-0 in the regular season and then winning in the Divisional Round and then the AFC Championship.
On the flip side, the New York Giants went 10-6 in a regular season that was marked by strife and conflicts in the locker room. They were a team full of talent on both sides of the ball but hadn’t really lived up to their potential.
The game itself was a low scoring affair, far from what the high-flying Patriots had been used to in the regular season, when they scored 40 or more points 4 times, including two games with more than 50. In a classic example of how he seems to always do better when the game is on the line, Tom Brady led the Patriots down the field to the go-ahead touchdown with 2:42 remaining and a lead of 14-10. However, he left far too much time on the clock.
Eli Manning led the Giants down the field, going 83 yards on 12 plays in just 2:07, culminating with a 13 yard pass from Manning to Plaxico Burress. The play that everyone remembers (which part of me still doesn’t believe happened) happened about a minute before the touchdown. On 3rd and 5 from their own 44 yard line, Manning spun out of a sack that might have just ended their serious chance at a comeback and lofted a pass down the field. The ball hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before David Tyree leapt and caught it, trapping the ball against his helmet to maintain possession since his other hand was being occupied by the closest defender. It provided the signature moment of that drive but many people forget that that play only put the ball at the Patriot’s 24 yard line with about a minute to go. It wasn’t what I would call a monumental collapse, it was just a matter of the Giants making the plays when they had to.
With that, the Dolphins again pop the corks on their champagne.
February 1, 2009
Super Bowl XLIII
Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23
The first three quarters of Super Bowl XLIII weren’t anything too terribly special. Thank goodness that they play all four quarters of football’s biggest game. At the end of the third quarter it was 20-7 Pittsburgh and they had handled (though not dominated) the game up until that point and seemed well on their ways to a record 6th Super Bowl Championship as a franchise. More than the score at that juncture was how they had gotten those last points. To start the third quarter, the Steelers executed a potentially back-breaking drive; 16 plays, 79 yards, and 8:39 elapsing off the clock.
The Cardinals, led by playoff veteran Kurt Warner, refused to give up. A 1 yard touchdown pass from Warner to Larry Fitzgerald made the score 20-14 with 7:33 remaining in the 4th quarter and little did any of us know, that was just the start of the fireworks. Four and a half minutes later, after a Cardinals punt pegged the Steelers at the 1 yard line, Ben Roethlisberger completed a 20 yard pass on 3rd and 10 but Justin Hartwig was called for holding… in the endzone. The Steelers lead was cut to 20-16 and all the momentum had gone firmly behind the Cardinals.
One play after the free kick placed Arizona at its own 33 yard line, Kurt Warner threw one of his perfect passes straight down the middle of the field to a streaking Larry Fitzgerald who never broke stride on his 64 yard romp to the endzone, a 23-20 Arizona lead, and a lock on the first Super Bowl title in franchise history… except the game clock still read 2:37.
On one of those drives that could define a career, Roethlisberger led the Steelers 78 yards in 2:02 and unlike David Tyree’s catch the year before, the best play on this drive was indeed the one that won the game. Big Ben threw a bullet from the Cardinal’s 6 yard line into the very corner of the endzone where Santonio Holmes made a fantastic catch, barely managing to scrape both of his toes on the turf. If there had been any less shoe shine on his cleats, he may not have managed to get both of them down.
I was definitely rooting for the Cardinals in this game, but that once in a lifetime ending made Arizona losing worth it.
YOU SHOULD NEVER LOSE YOUR STARTING JOB TO AN INJURY
Well, that heading really says it all. I firmly believe that you shouldn’t be demoted to the role of a back-up simply because you got hurt. However, there are two instances of exactly this happening that had a great hand in dictating the events of the first half of the decade specifically and the entire decade generally.
The first one actually happened in the last decade. In 1999 Trent Green was slated to be the starting quarterback for the St. Louis Rams until a hit from Rodney Harrison injured his knee and left him out for the entire season. His back-up during the preseason games was a former grocery bagger and Arena Football League player Kurt Warner. He went on to direct one of the most prolific offensive showcases the NFL has ever seen and if it wasn’t for an injury during the 2000 season, it’s entirely possible that the Rams could have represented the NFC in the Super Bowl for three consecutive seasons.
It was extremely unfortunate that Green lost his job but how can you honestly give him his starting job back after his replacement not only won the Super Bowl, but laid the foundation for a potential run of playoff appearances if not Super Bowl berths?
In 1993, the New England Patriots selected Washington State University quarterback Drew Bledsoe with the first overall selection in the NFL draft. For the next eight years, he threw for over 29,000 yards and 164 touchdowns, won more than 10 games three times and took the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI against the Green Bay Packers. In 2001 he started the first two games and then was injured during a game with the New York Jets. His replacement is someone you might have heard of; Tom Brady. To his credit, Bledsoe played the role of the mentor to Brady and he never complained about being relegated to the bench despite only missing three games.
Bledsoe really showed his professionalism in the AFC Championship game against Pittsburgh. After an injury to Tom Brady, he came in and threw the ball better than he had since the run-up to Super Bowl XXXI, throwing for 102 yards and a touchdown in the 24-17 New England victory. In their next game, one guy who replaced the starter after he suffered an injury (Brady) beat another guy who replaced an injured starter (Warner).
How’s that for symmetry?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Memories of the Decade - College Football Edition
This decade started with Bobby Bowden coaching in his second of three straight appearances in the BCS National Championship Game and ended with Bowden spiking the Seminoles’ Spear into the turf at the Gator Bowl right before he coached the last game of his illustrious career. The past ten years have given us everything from old-fashioned (Ohio State old school football under Jim Tressel) to the new (spread offense under the direction of Urban Meyer). For the first time in BCS history, we saw a small school play in one of the biggest bowl games of the year and then later, we saw two of the four at-large choices come from the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences.
Reading through the series of articles on espn.com about the “everything” of the decade (player, coach program, game, etc.) I’ve decided to make a list of my favorite memories from the past ten years of college football to be followed by my memories of the decade from the National Football League and then Major League Baseball.
Before I begin, however, I must put forth a disclaimer. I was born and raised in northwestern Washington and my first memory of college football was watching the Huskies play in three straight Rose Bowls from 1991-1993 when I was just 6 years old. Ever since I have been a big fan of the Washington Huskies in specific and the Pac-10 in general.
Lastly, there isn’t really an order to these so try not to read too much into why one game was before another.
Now, on to the memories…
GAMES
September 19, 2009
Washington 16, #3 USC 13
The Huskies have a long and storied history which includes 656 wins, 15 conference titles, 20 consensus All-Americans, and 4 claimed national championships. They started the decade (more or less) with a 34-24 victory over Purdue in the Rose Bowl and that 2000-2001 season saw them finish 3rd in the polls. The program slowly slid downhill over the course of the decade, reaching rock bottom December 6th of 2008. They lost 48-7 to California to finish the season 0-12. In virtually every number, offensive, defensive, and special teams, they ranked lower than 100.
To open the 2009 season, they lost their fifteenth straight game to LSU 31-23 but they fought hard and it gave the team a lot of hope for the future of Huskies football. The next week, they broke the streak with a 42-23 win over Idaho and then they had a match-up with #3 USC in Seattle. For all of you Trojans fans out there, there are plenty of reasons why they were not as competitive in this game as they should have been. Their starting quarterback was out, several of their defensive backs were injured, and they were coming off of an emotional win over the Buckeyes in Columbus. Regardless of all of that, the Huskies got the ball back with 4:01 remaining in the game and Jake Locker took the Huskies 63 yards in 10 plays, culminating with Erik Folk kicking a 22 yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining. Huskies 16, Trojans 13.
Washington football is on its long way back.
January 5, 2005
#1 USC 55, #2 Oklahoma 19
In 2004 the Sooners were #2 from wire to wire and the Trojans were #1 from wire to wire and from the beginning of the season, they seemed destined to collide in Miami. Both teams had come close to a BCS championship the year before when USC had been left out by the BCS formula and Oklahoma had been shut down by Nick Saban’s defense in the title game. The game featured two former Heisman trophy winners (quarterbacks Jason White for OU and Matt Leinart for USC) and four of the five Heisman finalists (Leinart, White, OU running back Adrian Peterson, and USC running back Reggie Bush).
Everyone knew that it was going to be one of the all-time great games featuring some of the best players in the history of college football and two of the better teams in college football history. Instead, it was a complete and utter beat down. It was 38-10 at halftime and if it wasn’t for 9 late points by the Sooners in garbage time, the final score might have been 55-10. The reason that this game stuck out to me is because it was a very similar Oklahoma team to the year before and a very similar USC team to the year before when many thought the Trojans should have replaced the Sooners in the Sugar Bowl against LSU. It cemented USC’s place as one of the best teams of the decade, if not ever.
January 4, 2006
#2 Texas 41, #1 USC 38
Since the Associated Press started awarding a national championship in 1936, there have been ten instances where a team has won back-to-back national championships. They are:
Minnesota 1940-1941
Army 1944-1945
Notre Dame 1946-1947
Oklahoma 1955-1956
Alabama 1964-1965
Nebraska 1970-1971
Oklahoma 1974-1975
Alabama 1978-1979
Nebraska 1994-1995
USC 2003-2004
Not one time, however, not once, has a team won three straight AP National Championships. When USC played in the Rose Bowl against Texas, they had a chance to win their 35th straight game and their third straight AP National Title. The former is important because even with several players departing to the NFL after the season, it would have put them within range of Oklahoma’s record winning streak (47 games).
On the other side, the Longhorns came into the game having won 19 straight games, including a thrilling 38-37 win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl the year before. They were definitely the underdogs and one of the storylines was whether or not they would be able to get up to the level they needed to play at to beat USC after having won the Big 12 Championship, finally overcoming the stranglehold that Oklahoma had over the South Division in the first half of the decade.
The result was an instant classic that propelled Vince Young into the NFL on a video game type game (267 passing yards, 200 rushing yards) but I also remember this game for another reason. This game directly led to me despising (and no, I’m not understating that) the prevent defense. I don’t mean to undermine Young’s unbelievable comeback in this game but he could not have done it without the help of the USC defense. With the score 38-26 and 6:42 remaining in the game, it almost seemed as if the Trojans thought the game was over and they were already assured of their place in history. They dropped back into deep coverage and allowed the Longhorns to move down the field and score in just 2:39 to make the score 38-33. Then, after a failed 4th down conversion, the Longhorns again went on to a touchdown, taking just 1:50 to score the winning touchdown.
Countless times in college football and in the NFL, teams sit on a lead and drop players back in coverage, deathly afraid of giving up a big touchdown pass to allow the trailing team to get back in the game. The problem is that it allows the trailing team to put a drive together and get chunks of yards with relatively little time coming off the clock, allowing that team to get into a rhythm and become more efficient on offense. Then, when the leading team actually needs to come up and make a key stop, they can’t. Now, this doesn’t always work out that well but when the two teams are evenly matched, you absolutely cannot give the other team a chance to get some momentum together.
January 3, 2003
#2 Ohio State 31, #1 Miami 24 (2 O.T.)
Coming into the Fiesta Bowl, the Miami Hurricanes had won 34 consecutive games, including the previous year’s national championship. En route to the Fiesta Bowl, the Hurricanes played just two games that were decided by one possession (28-27 over #9 Florida State and 28-21 over Pittsburgh). On the other side, the Buckeyes won 6 of their 13 games by 7 or fewer points.
The game was what a championship game should be. It was close and hard fought and given the two teams, the defensive field-position style of play favored Ohio State.
The turning point of the game was early in the fourth quarter with the Buckeyes leading 17-14. Willis McGahee, who had run for 1,753 yards and 28 touchdowns, ran right and was taken down and out by Ohio State safety Will Allen. Even though the tackle was a clean play, Allen’s helmet hitting right on the side of McGahee’s knee tore three ligaments and changed the question about McGahee’s future from where will he be drafted in the top 10 to will he be drafted at all. Even though Ohio State was leading at the time, there was a big drop-off from McGahee to backup Jarrett Payton. It limited the effectiveness of the Miami offense and played into the hands of the outstanding Ohio State defense.
Still, the game went to overtime and in the second overtime, freshman Maurice Clarett (before he failed to get into the NFL and then was sent to prison for carrying an arsenal in the back of his vehicle) capped off a lackluster day with a 5 yard touchdown run to give the Buckeyes the lead 31-24. The Ohio State defense held and won the BCS National Championship.
First of all, this was a great game and a lot of fun to watch. Secondly, it showed that, at least in college, a good defense can beat any offense. Lastly, it signified the emphatic arrival of one of my favorite coaches in all of football, college or pro, Jim Tressel…
…and of course, his sweater vest.
January 1, 2007
#8 Boise State 43, #10 Oklahoma 42 (OT)
Following a 12-0 regular season for Boise State, they became just the second team not from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, or Pac-10 to play in a BCS Bowl (after Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl). They were up against one of the so called “blue-bloods” of college football, the Oklahoma Sooners. First of all, a quick side note… This was not the Sooners juggernaut of 2003 or 2004 that played for the national title both years but it was still a 10-2 team that won the Big 12 and had Adrian Peterson back from his broken collarbone of earlier that year.
The big question was whether or not a team like Boise State could hang with a team like Oklahoma but the Broncos put that discussion to rest in the first half. Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky threw touchdown passes of 49 and 32 yards and Ian Johnson ran for a 7 yard score to give the Broncos a 21-10 halftime lead. Midway through the third quarter Marty Tadman picked off a Paul Thompson pass and returned it 27 yards for another touchdown and a 28-10 Boise State lead.
One aspect of this game that many people overlook is the fact that after taking that 18 point lead, the Broncos got a little bigheaded and allowed the Sooners to get back into the game. Oklahoma slowly chipped away at the lead until they drew even with a 5 yard touchdown pass and then a two point conversion (after two penalties) to make the score 28-28 with 1:26 remaining. Completing the comeback was Marcus Walker who intercepted Zabransky on the first play after the touchdown by Boise state and took it 34 yards for a touchdown and a 35-28 lead.
That is where this game ceased to be just another game and entered its name into the discussion for the best games in college football history. After a pass completion, a sack, and then two incompletions, Boise State faced a 4th and 18 from midfield. Jared Zabransky, Drisan James, and Jerard Robb then executed the perfect hook and ladder play. James ran a hook route and caught the pass from Zabransky about 15 yards downfield. He then took a couple steps towards the middle of the field to draw the defense and then threw a lateral to Robb, who was coming across from the far side of the field. Robb outran the Oklahoma secondary for a touchdown that tied the game and sent it to overtime.
It became clear that Boise State’s time was running out on the first play of overtime when Adrian Peterson took the handoff and went 25 yards virtually untouched for a touchdown and a 42-35 lead. On the ensuing Boise State drive, they faced a 4th and 2 from the Oklahoma 5 yard line when Zabransky went in motion and the snap went to backup wide receiver Vinny Perretta. Instead of running behind the three receivers, he rolled right and threw a touchdown pass to draw them within 1 point, 42-41. Instead of having his tired defense faced the Sooners offense again; Chris Peterson decided to go for it. The result was a Statue of Liberty fake and handoff to Ian Johnson who went into the endzone untouched for a 43-42 victory.
Do I need to tell you why I still remember this game?
DYNASTIES
This decade was marked by one dynasty rolling into another which rolled into another. From 2000-2003, the Miami Hurricanes went 46-4, won all 4 Big East titles, won one national championship, and played for another and on top of that, they added a 34 game winning streak and a 39 game regular season winning streak. I don’t remember as much about this dynasty as the other two that will be mentioned later but if you want to know how good these teams were, just look at who went from one of those teams to the NFL. The other thing that made this team noteworthy in my mind is that they didn’t possess the brash cockiness that previous and subsequent Miami teams were known for. They were the best team in the country; they knew it, you knew it, and there was nothing you could do about it.
In the 10 years from 2000-2009, the Trojans of USC went 102-26 and if you take out their seasons in 2000 (5-7), 2001 (6-6), and 2009 (9-4), they went 82-9 over a 7 year stretch in which they won the Pac-10 title every year. However, for this discussion, we’ll focus on their run near the top of the college football landscape. From 2003-2005, they went 37-2, winning the AP national championship in 2003 and 2004 and then the BCS national championship in 2004. Finally, in 2005, they were 12-0 and were prevented from making even more history by Vince Young and Texas (see above). Still the 2004 team is widely considered to be one of the best single season teams of all time and their roster included 53 players that would go on to play in the NFL.
CONTROVERSIES
There have been many controversies over the brief 12 year history of the BCS but for the purposes of brevity (something I occasionally struggle with) I’m just going to highlight two of them.
In 2003, USC finished the season 11-1, LSU finished 11-1, and Oklahoma finished 12-0. While LSU defeated #5 Georgia 34-13 in the SEC Championship Game, Oklahoma forgot to show up for the Big 12 title game and got blown out by Kansas State 35-7. Despite being ranked #1 in both the Coach’s Poll and the AP Poll, USC was ranked #3 in the BCS and went to the Rose Bowl against Michigan.
USC defeated Michigan 28-14 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score while LSU defeated Oklahoma 21-14 in a game where the Sooners didn’t appear to belong on the same field as the Tigers.
The other big controversy happened the next year when 5 teams finished the regular season undefeated (USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, Utah, and Boise State). While there wasn’t a ton of noise calling for Utah or Boise State to be in the National Championship Game, Auburn certainly felt they deserved to be there, having gone 12-0 in the SEC. While Auburn struggled to dispatch Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, USC dominated Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl 55-19, which brought many questions as to whether or not the BCS had gotten it right.
My personal take is that the BCS wasn’t completely wrong either year. In 2003, given that LSU and USC did not play each other, it was perfect for them to share the national championship. The only way it could have been better is if they had played for the title. The following year, I’m not at all convinced that there was anyone who could have beaten USC in that game so it would have been for the honor of being in the national title game and the opportunity to get pasted by USC.
To sum up, it’s been a great decade in college football that has seen relative nobody’s on the national stage stand up and demand attention from the establishment. It has also seen traditional powers struggle at times proving that everybody must endure rebuilding years in a sport where athletes are staying at most 4 years, and more commonly 3 years. The BCS has had more than its share of detractors but it’s hard to say that it hasn’t created its share of thrilling games.
Until next September, we’ll have to dream about the decade that was and the decade that will be in college football.
Reading through the series of articles on espn.com about the “everything” of the decade (player, coach program, game, etc.) I’ve decided to make a list of my favorite memories from the past ten years of college football to be followed by my memories of the decade from the National Football League and then Major League Baseball.
Before I begin, however, I must put forth a disclaimer. I was born and raised in northwestern Washington and my first memory of college football was watching the Huskies play in three straight Rose Bowls from 1991-1993 when I was just 6 years old. Ever since I have been a big fan of the Washington Huskies in specific and the Pac-10 in general.
Lastly, there isn’t really an order to these so try not to read too much into why one game was before another.
Now, on to the memories…
GAMES
September 19, 2009
Washington 16, #3 USC 13
The Huskies have a long and storied history which includes 656 wins, 15 conference titles, 20 consensus All-Americans, and 4 claimed national championships. They started the decade (more or less) with a 34-24 victory over Purdue in the Rose Bowl and that 2000-2001 season saw them finish 3rd in the polls. The program slowly slid downhill over the course of the decade, reaching rock bottom December 6th of 2008. They lost 48-7 to California to finish the season 0-12. In virtually every number, offensive, defensive, and special teams, they ranked lower than 100.
To open the 2009 season, they lost their fifteenth straight game to LSU 31-23 but they fought hard and it gave the team a lot of hope for the future of Huskies football. The next week, they broke the streak with a 42-23 win over Idaho and then they had a match-up with #3 USC in Seattle. For all of you Trojans fans out there, there are plenty of reasons why they were not as competitive in this game as they should have been. Their starting quarterback was out, several of their defensive backs were injured, and they were coming off of an emotional win over the Buckeyes in Columbus. Regardless of all of that, the Huskies got the ball back with 4:01 remaining in the game and Jake Locker took the Huskies 63 yards in 10 plays, culminating with Erik Folk kicking a 22 yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining. Huskies 16, Trojans 13.
Washington football is on its long way back.
January 5, 2005
#1 USC 55, #2 Oklahoma 19
In 2004 the Sooners were #2 from wire to wire and the Trojans were #1 from wire to wire and from the beginning of the season, they seemed destined to collide in Miami. Both teams had come close to a BCS championship the year before when USC had been left out by the BCS formula and Oklahoma had been shut down by Nick Saban’s defense in the title game. The game featured two former Heisman trophy winners (quarterbacks Jason White for OU and Matt Leinart for USC) and four of the five Heisman finalists (Leinart, White, OU running back Adrian Peterson, and USC running back Reggie Bush).
Everyone knew that it was going to be one of the all-time great games featuring some of the best players in the history of college football and two of the better teams in college football history. Instead, it was a complete and utter beat down. It was 38-10 at halftime and if it wasn’t for 9 late points by the Sooners in garbage time, the final score might have been 55-10. The reason that this game stuck out to me is because it was a very similar Oklahoma team to the year before and a very similar USC team to the year before when many thought the Trojans should have replaced the Sooners in the Sugar Bowl against LSU. It cemented USC’s place as one of the best teams of the decade, if not ever.
January 4, 2006
#2 Texas 41, #1 USC 38
Since the Associated Press started awarding a national championship in 1936, there have been ten instances where a team has won back-to-back national championships. They are:
Minnesota 1940-1941
Army 1944-1945
Notre Dame 1946-1947
Oklahoma 1955-1956
Alabama 1964-1965
Nebraska 1970-1971
Oklahoma 1974-1975
Alabama 1978-1979
Nebraska 1994-1995
USC 2003-2004
Not one time, however, not once, has a team won three straight AP National Championships. When USC played in the Rose Bowl against Texas, they had a chance to win their 35th straight game and their third straight AP National Title. The former is important because even with several players departing to the NFL after the season, it would have put them within range of Oklahoma’s record winning streak (47 games).
On the other side, the Longhorns came into the game having won 19 straight games, including a thrilling 38-37 win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl the year before. They were definitely the underdogs and one of the storylines was whether or not they would be able to get up to the level they needed to play at to beat USC after having won the Big 12 Championship, finally overcoming the stranglehold that Oklahoma had over the South Division in the first half of the decade.
The result was an instant classic that propelled Vince Young into the NFL on a video game type game (267 passing yards, 200 rushing yards) but I also remember this game for another reason. This game directly led to me despising (and no, I’m not understating that) the prevent defense. I don’t mean to undermine Young’s unbelievable comeback in this game but he could not have done it without the help of the USC defense. With the score 38-26 and 6:42 remaining in the game, it almost seemed as if the Trojans thought the game was over and they were already assured of their place in history. They dropped back into deep coverage and allowed the Longhorns to move down the field and score in just 2:39 to make the score 38-33. Then, after a failed 4th down conversion, the Longhorns again went on to a touchdown, taking just 1:50 to score the winning touchdown.
Countless times in college football and in the NFL, teams sit on a lead and drop players back in coverage, deathly afraid of giving up a big touchdown pass to allow the trailing team to get back in the game. The problem is that it allows the trailing team to put a drive together and get chunks of yards with relatively little time coming off the clock, allowing that team to get into a rhythm and become more efficient on offense. Then, when the leading team actually needs to come up and make a key stop, they can’t. Now, this doesn’t always work out that well but when the two teams are evenly matched, you absolutely cannot give the other team a chance to get some momentum together.
January 3, 2003
#2 Ohio State 31, #1 Miami 24 (2 O.T.)
Coming into the Fiesta Bowl, the Miami Hurricanes had won 34 consecutive games, including the previous year’s national championship. En route to the Fiesta Bowl, the Hurricanes played just two games that were decided by one possession (28-27 over #9 Florida State and 28-21 over Pittsburgh). On the other side, the Buckeyes won 6 of their 13 games by 7 or fewer points.
The game was what a championship game should be. It was close and hard fought and given the two teams, the defensive field-position style of play favored Ohio State.
The turning point of the game was early in the fourth quarter with the Buckeyes leading 17-14. Willis McGahee, who had run for 1,753 yards and 28 touchdowns, ran right and was taken down and out by Ohio State safety Will Allen. Even though the tackle was a clean play, Allen’s helmet hitting right on the side of McGahee’s knee tore three ligaments and changed the question about McGahee’s future from where will he be drafted in the top 10 to will he be drafted at all. Even though Ohio State was leading at the time, there was a big drop-off from McGahee to backup Jarrett Payton. It limited the effectiveness of the Miami offense and played into the hands of the outstanding Ohio State defense.
Still, the game went to overtime and in the second overtime, freshman Maurice Clarett (before he failed to get into the NFL and then was sent to prison for carrying an arsenal in the back of his vehicle) capped off a lackluster day with a 5 yard touchdown run to give the Buckeyes the lead 31-24. The Ohio State defense held and won the BCS National Championship.
First of all, this was a great game and a lot of fun to watch. Secondly, it showed that, at least in college, a good defense can beat any offense. Lastly, it signified the emphatic arrival of one of my favorite coaches in all of football, college or pro, Jim Tressel…
…and of course, his sweater vest.
January 1, 2007
#8 Boise State 43, #10 Oklahoma 42 (OT)
Following a 12-0 regular season for Boise State, they became just the second team not from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, or Pac-10 to play in a BCS Bowl (after Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl). They were up against one of the so called “blue-bloods” of college football, the Oklahoma Sooners. First of all, a quick side note… This was not the Sooners juggernaut of 2003 or 2004 that played for the national title both years but it was still a 10-2 team that won the Big 12 and had Adrian Peterson back from his broken collarbone of earlier that year.
The big question was whether or not a team like Boise State could hang with a team like Oklahoma but the Broncos put that discussion to rest in the first half. Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky threw touchdown passes of 49 and 32 yards and Ian Johnson ran for a 7 yard score to give the Broncos a 21-10 halftime lead. Midway through the third quarter Marty Tadman picked off a Paul Thompson pass and returned it 27 yards for another touchdown and a 28-10 Boise State lead.
One aspect of this game that many people overlook is the fact that after taking that 18 point lead, the Broncos got a little bigheaded and allowed the Sooners to get back into the game. Oklahoma slowly chipped away at the lead until they drew even with a 5 yard touchdown pass and then a two point conversion (after two penalties) to make the score 28-28 with 1:26 remaining. Completing the comeback was Marcus Walker who intercepted Zabransky on the first play after the touchdown by Boise state and took it 34 yards for a touchdown and a 35-28 lead.
That is where this game ceased to be just another game and entered its name into the discussion for the best games in college football history. After a pass completion, a sack, and then two incompletions, Boise State faced a 4th and 18 from midfield. Jared Zabransky, Drisan James, and Jerard Robb then executed the perfect hook and ladder play. James ran a hook route and caught the pass from Zabransky about 15 yards downfield. He then took a couple steps towards the middle of the field to draw the defense and then threw a lateral to Robb, who was coming across from the far side of the field. Robb outran the Oklahoma secondary for a touchdown that tied the game and sent it to overtime.
It became clear that Boise State’s time was running out on the first play of overtime when Adrian Peterson took the handoff and went 25 yards virtually untouched for a touchdown and a 42-35 lead. On the ensuing Boise State drive, they faced a 4th and 2 from the Oklahoma 5 yard line when Zabransky went in motion and the snap went to backup wide receiver Vinny Perretta. Instead of running behind the three receivers, he rolled right and threw a touchdown pass to draw them within 1 point, 42-41. Instead of having his tired defense faced the Sooners offense again; Chris Peterson decided to go for it. The result was a Statue of Liberty fake and handoff to Ian Johnson who went into the endzone untouched for a 43-42 victory.
Do I need to tell you why I still remember this game?
DYNASTIES
This decade was marked by one dynasty rolling into another which rolled into another. From 2000-2003, the Miami Hurricanes went 46-4, won all 4 Big East titles, won one national championship, and played for another and on top of that, they added a 34 game winning streak and a 39 game regular season winning streak. I don’t remember as much about this dynasty as the other two that will be mentioned later but if you want to know how good these teams were, just look at who went from one of those teams to the NFL. The other thing that made this team noteworthy in my mind is that they didn’t possess the brash cockiness that previous and subsequent Miami teams were known for. They were the best team in the country; they knew it, you knew it, and there was nothing you could do about it.
In the 10 years from 2000-2009, the Trojans of USC went 102-26 and if you take out their seasons in 2000 (5-7), 2001 (6-6), and 2009 (9-4), they went 82-9 over a 7 year stretch in which they won the Pac-10 title every year. However, for this discussion, we’ll focus on their run near the top of the college football landscape. From 2003-2005, they went 37-2, winning the AP national championship in 2003 and 2004 and then the BCS national championship in 2004. Finally, in 2005, they were 12-0 and were prevented from making even more history by Vince Young and Texas (see above). Still the 2004 team is widely considered to be one of the best single season teams of all time and their roster included 53 players that would go on to play in the NFL.
CONTROVERSIES
There have been many controversies over the brief 12 year history of the BCS but for the purposes of brevity (something I occasionally struggle with) I’m just going to highlight two of them.
In 2003, USC finished the season 11-1, LSU finished 11-1, and Oklahoma finished 12-0. While LSU defeated #5 Georgia 34-13 in the SEC Championship Game, Oklahoma forgot to show up for the Big 12 title game and got blown out by Kansas State 35-7. Despite being ranked #1 in both the Coach’s Poll and the AP Poll, USC was ranked #3 in the BCS and went to the Rose Bowl against Michigan.
USC defeated Michigan 28-14 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score while LSU defeated Oklahoma 21-14 in a game where the Sooners didn’t appear to belong on the same field as the Tigers.
The other big controversy happened the next year when 5 teams finished the regular season undefeated (USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, Utah, and Boise State). While there wasn’t a ton of noise calling for Utah or Boise State to be in the National Championship Game, Auburn certainly felt they deserved to be there, having gone 12-0 in the SEC. While Auburn struggled to dispatch Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, USC dominated Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl 55-19, which brought many questions as to whether or not the BCS had gotten it right.
My personal take is that the BCS wasn’t completely wrong either year. In 2003, given that LSU and USC did not play each other, it was perfect for them to share the national championship. The only way it could have been better is if they had played for the title. The following year, I’m not at all convinced that there was anyone who could have beaten USC in that game so it would have been for the honor of being in the national title game and the opportunity to get pasted by USC.
To sum up, it’s been a great decade in college football that has seen relative nobody’s on the national stage stand up and demand attention from the establishment. It has also seen traditional powers struggle at times proving that everybody must endure rebuilding years in a sport where athletes are staying at most 4 years, and more commonly 3 years. The BCS has had more than its share of detractors but it’s hard to say that it hasn’t created its share of thrilling games.
Until next September, we’ll have to dream about the decade that was and the decade that will be in college football.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
BCS Recap
Another BCS season has come and gone and it’s time to look back and recap what happened and why. First and foremost, it should be noted that after correctly predicting 4 of the 5 BCS bowls a year ago, I completely fell flat. Not only did I misfire on the first 4 games; nothing that I thought would happen did happen. So, without further adieu, let’s take a look at a few observations I made while watching these games. For any questions as to the order, we’ll go chronologically.
JIM TRESSEL MAY HAVE HEARD SOME OF HIS CRITICS
I doubted whether or not he could open his playbook and call an unpredictable game. Despite a final score of 26-17 and a game that was just a field goal apart (20-17) at the start of the 4th quarter, Ohio State dominated this game largely due to the fact that Jim Tressel opened up his playbook and cut sophomore Terrelle Pryor loose. More importantly, Pryor responded by going 23-38 for 266 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception.
As far as the next two years are concerned, this does not bode well for the rest of the country and specifically the rest of the Big Ten Conference. If Tressel calls his plays next year the way he did in the Rose Bowl, I believe they’ll be one of the best teams in the country, certainly in the discussion for the national championship. I also hope that Terrelle Pryor continues to mature because the sky is the limit and if he becomes a better passer, he could end up being a Vince Young type of quarterback.
HOW DARE I DOUBT THE GATORS?
In the Sugar Bowl, I expected that the University of Florida would come out flat because they didn’t have anything other than pride to play for after being trounced by Alabama in the SEC championship game. Instead, they came out determined to send Tim Tebow to the NFL on an emphatic note. The other factor, which cannot be ignored, is the behavior of the Bearcats coaches. First of all, Brian Kelly bailed on the Bearcats for the greener pastures of South Bend, Indiana.
When it comes down to it, Kelly can do whatever he wants and if he wants to try to reverse the recent trend of the Fighting Irish, all the more power to him. The problem is he had just led Cincinnati to a 12-0 record and was being considered for some national championship votes if they put up a strong showing against Florida and the title game turned out to be sloppy. Along with that, considering that they play in the Big East (arguably the worst of the automatic-qualifying conferences), he had the Bearcats in a position to compete for BCS berths and BCS titles in the near future. The worst, for me, was when it became clear that Notre Dame was looking for a new coach and it became clear that they had targeted Brian Kelly, he responded by saying he would not coach Notre Dame. Then, he said that he would “humor” them by meeting for an interview. Then, he was announced as the next coach at the University of Notre Dame.
When coaches in the NFL bail on their teams, it bothers me a lot less. First of all, the players are professionals and are paid a ton of money to play a sport. Secondly, the single person that has the most to bringing that player to that team is usually the general manager, not the head coach (although sometimes they are one and the same). In college, the head coach has more to do with getting a player to go to that school than anyone else. When a college coach bails on his team, usually it is for a more prestigious position and probably more pay. To put it simply; it pisses me off.
Anyways, back to the game. Because of all of this, the Gators jumped out to a 37-3 lead and coasted to a 51-24 victory in which Tebow threw for 482 yards and 3 touchdowns and also ran for 51 yards and a touchdown. On the other side of the ball, Cincinnati’s offense didn’t play great, but they didn’t play horribly either. Their 246 yards of offense were well below their season average (as was their 24 points) but they committed just 3 penalties, held the ball for over 27 minutes, and did not turn the ball over. The real problem for the Bearcats was the fact that they gave up 659 yards of offense.
I have two thoughts before I move on to the Fiesta Bowl. First, during the BCS bowl games, viewers were besieged by commercials touting the merits of their university and enduring this every year during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has made me immune to them. I say this not to demean any of these universities, but I made my own choice of academic institutions 9 years ago and don’t need to know what these schools are working on. Along with these commercials are those touting, not the school, but the conference that these schools come from. One of the core values that almost all of them talk about is sportsmanship.
Through almost the entire 4th quarter, I wondered when Urban Meyer would pull his starters, including Tim Tebow, and let his back-ups get some thrilling experience in a BCS Bowl. At the beginning of the fourth, the score was 44-10. Cincinnati’s chances of coming back to make it a game were practically nil (much less actually coming back to win it). However, after the Bearcats scored to make it 44-17, Tebow came back onto the field. 6 plays and 66 yards later, it was 51-17 with 7 minutes left. I don’t care what your excuse is; this is running up the score and shouldn’t be done in any level below “professional”. Tim Tebow has had plenty of opportunities to set records and pile up statistics in 4 years, there was no need for him to still be in the game.
There was also a lot of talk surrounding this game with regards to Tim Tebow’s viability as an NFL quarterback and these are my thoughts. He will be as good as he wants to be. If he wants to be a starter for 10 years, he has the mentality and the competitiveness to work hard and do exactly that. I think he can be a viable back-up for a good length of time, providing a change of pace type of play, perhaps out of a pseudo-wildcat formation since he is a threat to run or pass. However, a savior of a professional franchise, he flat-out ain’t.
WE STILL DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD BOISE STATE (OR TCU, FOR THAT MATTER) IS
If you think that TCU could have played for the national title, you should also think that Boise State is good enough. What I saw on the 4th of January were two teams that were incredibly evenly matched. The yardage was very close (317-308 in favor of Boise State) and it ended as a one possession game. The only number that jumps out at me while looking over the box score is the 3 interceptions thrown by Andy Dalton against just one turnover for Boise State. However, when you take into account that one of those interceptions was after the Broncos took the lead and it was when TCU was desperate, it looks a lot more even.
Boise State did nothing flashy in this game and in doing so, proved their mettle to me. The mark of a good team is not how well they can play when everything is going right; it is how well they recover after getting hit in the mouth. Even though TCU didn’t really deliver the kind of haymaker I’m talking about, they still were able to stymie the Broncos potent offense and this kind of defensive effort would have frustrated a lesser team (remember, the Broncos offense scored just 10 points with 7 coming off of an interception return). It seemed as if Boise State was just in a holding pattern, waiting for a chance to shift the momentum in their favor.
Three years ago, head coach Chris Petersen used three “trick” plays to beat Oklahoma and he reached into his bag of tricks after 50 minutes of play-calling without a hint of a trick play. The announcers talked about the possibility of a fake of some kind all night long, including showing the replays of the plays that won them the Fiesta Bowl three years ago. At the end of the game it was the least likely of all their playmakers, punter Kyle Brontzman, who lobbed the ball out in front of the line of scrimmage and allowed let Kyle Efaw run underneath it for 29 yards. This play didn’t decide the game but it certainly swung momentum in the Bronco’s favor.
I’m not going to sit here and say that Boise State didn’t deserve their ranking because their schedule was soft. They did everything they could given the schedule they had and they took care of their business. The problem is that, on the national stage, we don’t know how good they really are. I thought TCU was good and Boise State was overrated. However, after seeing Boise State’s defense as well as TCU’s defense, I have a new revelation.
Both of these teams deserved their ranking but we’ll never know how well they’d stack up against the other top programs of the 2009 season.
THE BIG TEN CONFERENCE WAS BETTER THIS YEAR THAN MOST GAVE THEM CREDIT FOR...
…and I include myself in that sentiment. I picked both Iowa and Ohio State to lose in their respective BCS bowls and both of them won. While Ohio State showed flashes of offensive brilliance, Iowa trudged along to a less entertaining, but just as telling, 24-14 win over Georgia Tech.
Those two games, combined with Penn State’s 19-17 win over LSU, provided an impressive finish to the season for the conference. They have been much maligned over the past few years for their inability to win their big games (as well as their recent inability to beat USC in the Rose Bowl). And to a certain extent, this reputation was deserved. In the past 3 years, the Big Ten has provided two teams in the BCS each year and they have lost their 6 games by scores of 32-18, 41-14, 49-17, 38-24, 38-24, and 24-21. Is that a bad run? Yes. Does that mean that they didn’t deserve these berths in these games? Not at all. In 2006, Ohio State was the only undefeated team in the country and that record included a win over #2 Michigan. The fact that they got blown out by Florida is beside the point; Florida’s defense had a month to find holes in the Buckeyes schemes and they did. I don’t think anyone could have beaten the Gators on that field. I also believe the same is true of the Buckeyes next title game loss to LSU.
Next year, something tells me we’ll hear a lot more about the 09-10 bowl season than the 06-09 bowl seasons. College football is cyclical; it’s only a matter of time until the Big Ten is considered one of the best conferences in the game again.
IF COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAD AN MVP AWARD...
…the winner would be Colt McCoy. Hands down, discussion over. The Longhorns fought valiantly in the national championship game against Alabama but losing Colt McCoy on the 5th offensive snap was devastating. Here’s another thing I noticed as well. Texas didn’t settle in and begin their comeback bid until after it was announced that McCoy would not be returning to the game. It seemed as if the entire team went into a holding pattern, simply waiting for their leader to come back into the game. Once they realized that he was lost to them, they rallied behind the leader that they had, Garrett Gilbert, and for just a moment, I digress.
Garrett Gilbert will enjoy a long and illustrious career at the University of Texas and his performance last Thursday night was nothing short of remarkable. He had thrown 26 passes in games all year long. He was the second stringer behind a guy who had started every game in 4 years and in doing so, had won more games as a starting quarterback than anyone in the history of college football. His start was predictably horrid. He started just 4-21 for 48 yards with two interceptions. However, at that point, something interesting happened. It became official that Colt McCoy would not be returning to the game and the Longhorns got over it. After his bad start, Gilbert completed 10 of his next 14 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns (a passer efficiency of 190.6). The final turning point of Gilbert’s evening was the sack and fumble and after that, his throws were in desperation and he didn’t have a chance against the Nick Saban led defense.
Colt McCoy may have finished his illustrious career without a Heisman Trophy or a national championship, but he’s arguably been the most valuable player in college football over that entire span.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE 2010 SEASON AND 2011 BOWL SEASON
The Pac-10 returns 8 starting quarterbacks and a number of prolific playmakers.
The Big Ten could start with three teams in the top ten.
The SEC returns the national champion who will be the preseason favorite and odd-on favorite to win the next national championship.
Boise State could potentially return 21 of 22 starters from a team that finished in the top 5 (and TCU will also return much of their top 10 team).
How much success will Rich Rodriguez have in his 3rd year after two mostly disastrous years (with an 8-16 record) in Ann Arbor?
Lastly, how much closer to an automatic BCS bid will the Mountain West Conference move?
JIM TRESSEL MAY HAVE HEARD SOME OF HIS CRITICS
I doubted whether or not he could open his playbook and call an unpredictable game. Despite a final score of 26-17 and a game that was just a field goal apart (20-17) at the start of the 4th quarter, Ohio State dominated this game largely due to the fact that Jim Tressel opened up his playbook and cut sophomore Terrelle Pryor loose. More importantly, Pryor responded by going 23-38 for 266 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception.
As far as the next two years are concerned, this does not bode well for the rest of the country and specifically the rest of the Big Ten Conference. If Tressel calls his plays next year the way he did in the Rose Bowl, I believe they’ll be one of the best teams in the country, certainly in the discussion for the national championship. I also hope that Terrelle Pryor continues to mature because the sky is the limit and if he becomes a better passer, he could end up being a Vince Young type of quarterback.
HOW DARE I DOUBT THE GATORS?
In the Sugar Bowl, I expected that the University of Florida would come out flat because they didn’t have anything other than pride to play for after being trounced by Alabama in the SEC championship game. Instead, they came out determined to send Tim Tebow to the NFL on an emphatic note. The other factor, which cannot be ignored, is the behavior of the Bearcats coaches. First of all, Brian Kelly bailed on the Bearcats for the greener pastures of South Bend, Indiana.
When it comes down to it, Kelly can do whatever he wants and if he wants to try to reverse the recent trend of the Fighting Irish, all the more power to him. The problem is he had just led Cincinnati to a 12-0 record and was being considered for some national championship votes if they put up a strong showing against Florida and the title game turned out to be sloppy. Along with that, considering that they play in the Big East (arguably the worst of the automatic-qualifying conferences), he had the Bearcats in a position to compete for BCS berths and BCS titles in the near future. The worst, for me, was when it became clear that Notre Dame was looking for a new coach and it became clear that they had targeted Brian Kelly, he responded by saying he would not coach Notre Dame. Then, he said that he would “humor” them by meeting for an interview. Then, he was announced as the next coach at the University of Notre Dame.
When coaches in the NFL bail on their teams, it bothers me a lot less. First of all, the players are professionals and are paid a ton of money to play a sport. Secondly, the single person that has the most to bringing that player to that team is usually the general manager, not the head coach (although sometimes they are one and the same). In college, the head coach has more to do with getting a player to go to that school than anyone else. When a college coach bails on his team, usually it is for a more prestigious position and probably more pay. To put it simply; it pisses me off.
Anyways, back to the game. Because of all of this, the Gators jumped out to a 37-3 lead and coasted to a 51-24 victory in which Tebow threw for 482 yards and 3 touchdowns and also ran for 51 yards and a touchdown. On the other side of the ball, Cincinnati’s offense didn’t play great, but they didn’t play horribly either. Their 246 yards of offense were well below their season average (as was their 24 points) but they committed just 3 penalties, held the ball for over 27 minutes, and did not turn the ball over. The real problem for the Bearcats was the fact that they gave up 659 yards of offense.
I have two thoughts before I move on to the Fiesta Bowl. First, during the BCS bowl games, viewers were besieged by commercials touting the merits of their university and enduring this every year during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has made me immune to them. I say this not to demean any of these universities, but I made my own choice of academic institutions 9 years ago and don’t need to know what these schools are working on. Along with these commercials are those touting, not the school, but the conference that these schools come from. One of the core values that almost all of them talk about is sportsmanship.
Through almost the entire 4th quarter, I wondered when Urban Meyer would pull his starters, including Tim Tebow, and let his back-ups get some thrilling experience in a BCS Bowl. At the beginning of the fourth, the score was 44-10. Cincinnati’s chances of coming back to make it a game were practically nil (much less actually coming back to win it). However, after the Bearcats scored to make it 44-17, Tebow came back onto the field. 6 plays and 66 yards later, it was 51-17 with 7 minutes left. I don’t care what your excuse is; this is running up the score and shouldn’t be done in any level below “professional”. Tim Tebow has had plenty of opportunities to set records and pile up statistics in 4 years, there was no need for him to still be in the game.
There was also a lot of talk surrounding this game with regards to Tim Tebow’s viability as an NFL quarterback and these are my thoughts. He will be as good as he wants to be. If he wants to be a starter for 10 years, he has the mentality and the competitiveness to work hard and do exactly that. I think he can be a viable back-up for a good length of time, providing a change of pace type of play, perhaps out of a pseudo-wildcat formation since he is a threat to run or pass. However, a savior of a professional franchise, he flat-out ain’t.
WE STILL DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD BOISE STATE (OR TCU, FOR THAT MATTER) IS
If you think that TCU could have played for the national title, you should also think that Boise State is good enough. What I saw on the 4th of January were two teams that were incredibly evenly matched. The yardage was very close (317-308 in favor of Boise State) and it ended as a one possession game. The only number that jumps out at me while looking over the box score is the 3 interceptions thrown by Andy Dalton against just one turnover for Boise State. However, when you take into account that one of those interceptions was after the Broncos took the lead and it was when TCU was desperate, it looks a lot more even.
Boise State did nothing flashy in this game and in doing so, proved their mettle to me. The mark of a good team is not how well they can play when everything is going right; it is how well they recover after getting hit in the mouth. Even though TCU didn’t really deliver the kind of haymaker I’m talking about, they still were able to stymie the Broncos potent offense and this kind of defensive effort would have frustrated a lesser team (remember, the Broncos offense scored just 10 points with 7 coming off of an interception return). It seemed as if Boise State was just in a holding pattern, waiting for a chance to shift the momentum in their favor.
Three years ago, head coach Chris Petersen used three “trick” plays to beat Oklahoma and he reached into his bag of tricks after 50 minutes of play-calling without a hint of a trick play. The announcers talked about the possibility of a fake of some kind all night long, including showing the replays of the plays that won them the Fiesta Bowl three years ago. At the end of the game it was the least likely of all their playmakers, punter Kyle Brontzman, who lobbed the ball out in front of the line of scrimmage and allowed let Kyle Efaw run underneath it for 29 yards. This play didn’t decide the game but it certainly swung momentum in the Bronco’s favor.
I’m not going to sit here and say that Boise State didn’t deserve their ranking because their schedule was soft. They did everything they could given the schedule they had and they took care of their business. The problem is that, on the national stage, we don’t know how good they really are. I thought TCU was good and Boise State was overrated. However, after seeing Boise State’s defense as well as TCU’s defense, I have a new revelation.
Both of these teams deserved their ranking but we’ll never know how well they’d stack up against the other top programs of the 2009 season.
THE BIG TEN CONFERENCE WAS BETTER THIS YEAR THAN MOST GAVE THEM CREDIT FOR...
…and I include myself in that sentiment. I picked both Iowa and Ohio State to lose in their respective BCS bowls and both of them won. While Ohio State showed flashes of offensive brilliance, Iowa trudged along to a less entertaining, but just as telling, 24-14 win over Georgia Tech.
Those two games, combined with Penn State’s 19-17 win over LSU, provided an impressive finish to the season for the conference. They have been much maligned over the past few years for their inability to win their big games (as well as their recent inability to beat USC in the Rose Bowl). And to a certain extent, this reputation was deserved. In the past 3 years, the Big Ten has provided two teams in the BCS each year and they have lost their 6 games by scores of 32-18, 41-14, 49-17, 38-24, 38-24, and 24-21. Is that a bad run? Yes. Does that mean that they didn’t deserve these berths in these games? Not at all. In 2006, Ohio State was the only undefeated team in the country and that record included a win over #2 Michigan. The fact that they got blown out by Florida is beside the point; Florida’s defense had a month to find holes in the Buckeyes schemes and they did. I don’t think anyone could have beaten the Gators on that field. I also believe the same is true of the Buckeyes next title game loss to LSU.
Next year, something tells me we’ll hear a lot more about the 09-10 bowl season than the 06-09 bowl seasons. College football is cyclical; it’s only a matter of time until the Big Ten is considered one of the best conferences in the game again.
IF COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAD AN MVP AWARD...
…the winner would be Colt McCoy. Hands down, discussion over. The Longhorns fought valiantly in the national championship game against Alabama but losing Colt McCoy on the 5th offensive snap was devastating. Here’s another thing I noticed as well. Texas didn’t settle in and begin their comeback bid until after it was announced that McCoy would not be returning to the game. It seemed as if the entire team went into a holding pattern, simply waiting for their leader to come back into the game. Once they realized that he was lost to them, they rallied behind the leader that they had, Garrett Gilbert, and for just a moment, I digress.
Garrett Gilbert will enjoy a long and illustrious career at the University of Texas and his performance last Thursday night was nothing short of remarkable. He had thrown 26 passes in games all year long. He was the second stringer behind a guy who had started every game in 4 years and in doing so, had won more games as a starting quarterback than anyone in the history of college football. His start was predictably horrid. He started just 4-21 for 48 yards with two interceptions. However, at that point, something interesting happened. It became official that Colt McCoy would not be returning to the game and the Longhorns got over it. After his bad start, Gilbert completed 10 of his next 14 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns (a passer efficiency of 190.6). The final turning point of Gilbert’s evening was the sack and fumble and after that, his throws were in desperation and he didn’t have a chance against the Nick Saban led defense.
Colt McCoy may have finished his illustrious career without a Heisman Trophy or a national championship, but he’s arguably been the most valuable player in college football over that entire span.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE 2010 SEASON AND 2011 BOWL SEASON
The Pac-10 returns 8 starting quarterbacks and a number of prolific playmakers.
The Big Ten could start with three teams in the top ten.
The SEC returns the national champion who will be the preseason favorite and odd-on favorite to win the next national championship.
Boise State could potentially return 21 of 22 starters from a team that finished in the top 5 (and TCU will also return much of their top 10 team).
How much success will Rich Rodriguez have in his 3rd year after two mostly disastrous years (with an 8-16 record) in Ann Arbor?
Lastly, how much closer to an automatic BCS bid will the Mountain West Conference move?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
BCS Preview: National Championship Game
On January 7th, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas Longhorns will collide in Pasadena to decide which team shall hoist the crystal football as BCS National Champions. With all due respect to Boise State and TCU (the only other teams that have a chance to finish the season undefeated), this game will determine the National Champion. Could TCU or Boise State go punch for punch with Alabama and Texas? Possibly. However, they are the teams that the BCS formula decided upon and I for one do not disagree with that.
Alabama played the 20th hardest schedule in the country this year and Texas’ schedule was ranked 44th. For those who say that TCU or Boise State belonged in this game, explain away their relative schedule strengths, 84th and 98th, respectively. If there was a playoff system in college football, they would have their shot but as long as the BCS is here, if they are going to play schedules like that, they have to be better than the big boys and this year, all they did was break even with the big boys.
Both of these teams have had close games and both have had games where they were seemingly the only one on the field. Alabama’s biggest scare, of course, came against Tennessee when they needed Defensive Tackle Terrence Cody to block not one, but two field goals to preserve their 12-10 victory. For the Texas miracle, one needs only look back to the 5th of December in the Big XII Championship Game. They needed a 46 yard field goal as time expired to beat Nebraska 13-12 in a game that I would argue, neither offense deserved to win. Colt McCoy had arguably his worst game of the season and the Nebraska offense gained just 106 yards, lost 64 yards due to penalties, and converted just 2-16 third downs.
The difference between them is what they’ve done for me lately. With all due respect to Bo Pelini and the program he has put together over the past few years, they will not be mistaken for one of the best teams ever and they stymied the Longhorn offense, holding them to 13 points and 202 yards (well below their season averages of 40.7 points and 432.4 yards per game). Given that Alabama has a very good defense and a monster of a defensive tackle; this does not bode well for the Longhorns.
On the other hand, Alabama played against one of the best college football dynasties the game has ever seen. The Florida Gators went 48-7 the past four years, won two SEC titles, and two national titles and on the 5th of December, Alabama humiliated the Gators 32-13. The biggest reason that this bodes ill for the Longhorns is that their offense centers around Colt McCoy whereas the Gators offense is run by Tebow but centers on having too many playmakers for you to cover at once.
And now that I’ve tipped my hand as to who I think will win, let’s get onto the other sections of this post…
By the Numbers
This game features two offenses that have been somewhat streaky this year and two defenses that have been nothing short of dominant. In rushing yards allowed, they finished number one (Texas) and two (Alabama). In total yards allowed, they finished number two (Alabama) and number three (Texas). In turnover margin, they finished fifth (Alabama) and ninth (Texas). In other words, statistically speaking, these two defenses are difficult to separate from one another.
The Alabama Crimson Tide allowed more than 20 points just twice this season and allowed fewer than 10 points 6 times. The only thing that gives me pause when it comes to the Tide’s chances is the fact that their offense has disappeared at times this year. For a four game stretch that encompassed their games against Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU, the most points they scored in that stretch was 24 and they averaged just 19.5 points. However, they appear in this post because their defense never allowed more than 15 in that stretch and allowed just 34 points in those 4 games.
The Longhorns are built more around their offense than their defense and yet, they had one of the best defensive units in the country, statistically speaking. While they did allow 14 or fewer points 9 times this year, they also gave up 39 points to Texas A&M, the lone aberration of their season.
Offensively, the Horns failed to put 30 points on the board just twice, in their wins over Oklahoma (16-13) and Nebraska (13-12). If you take those two games out, they averaged 45.5 points per game.
Why the Longhorns Will Win
Colt McCoy. As important as Tim Tebow has been to the Gators’ success the past few years, Colt McCoy has been just as important to Texas’. He threw for 3,512 yards and 27 touchdowns but also ran for 348 yards (2nd highest total on the team) and added 3 rushing touchdowns.
As McCoy goes, the entire offense goes. As I mentioned before, there were only two games in which the Longhorns scored fewer than 20 points. In those two games, Colt McCoy’s passer ratings were 84.5 and 81.8 (compared with a season average of 147.5).
If he is able to get into a rhythm and is able to complete passes against the Alabama secondary, they have a good chance to win the game. If he doesn’t, they won’t.
Why the Crimson Tide Will Win
They have all the momentum right now. Texas backed into the national title game with what was nearly one of the more boneheaded plays by Heisman finalist Colt McCoy. On the other hand, Alabama played what was probably their most complete game this year in their handling of Florida and it was in that game that they showed what they are capable of.
Their biggest liability this year has been the quarterback play of junior Greg McElroy. His job for most of this year was to stay out of the way of sophomore Mark Ingram’s successful Heisman season. In the SEC championship against one of the best defenses in the country, Nick Saban put the ball in McElroy’s hands and told him to win them the game. He went 12-18 for 239 yards and a touchdown. He played with poise that the Tide haven’t seen this year and if he is able to play like that in national title game, the Texas defense will be in serious trouble.
On top of McElroy’s emergence as a leading quarterback, they have the most recent Heisman Trophy winner in Mark Ingram. The sophomore rushed for 1,562 yards and 15 touchdowns while catching 30 passes out of the backfield for 322 yards and 3 more touchdowns. He is the type of dynamic playmaker that can break open the game with one play, such as his 69 yard catch and run late in the first half against Florida.
If both Ingram and McElroy are on, it’ll be a long night for Longhorns fans.
The Verdict
From the beginning of this season, the three teams that everyone talked about with regards to a national championship were Florida, Alabama, and Texas. Of those three, Florida already had two titles in three years and perhaps didn’t have as much motivation as the others. Many people say Texas was robbed of a chance to play for a national title a year ago and used that as motivational fuel all year. Alabama used the end of their dream 2008 season (a loss to Florida followed by a devastating loss to Utah in the Sugar Bowl) to fuel their 2009 season.
The difference is that Texas has had to prevent themselves from slipping up while Alabama has been tested week in and week out. Texas played 2 BCS top 30 teams, neither of which was in the top 10. Alabama played 7 teams in the top 30, 2 of which were in the top ten.
All of this points to the fact that because Sam Bradford played very little this year, Texas hasn’t been pushed, and therefore hasn’t had to push back. Alabama has and they are playing the best football of the year at the end of the year. Roll Tide Roll.
Alabama 27, Texas 14
Alabama played the 20th hardest schedule in the country this year and Texas’ schedule was ranked 44th. For those who say that TCU or Boise State belonged in this game, explain away their relative schedule strengths, 84th and 98th, respectively. If there was a playoff system in college football, they would have their shot but as long as the BCS is here, if they are going to play schedules like that, they have to be better than the big boys and this year, all they did was break even with the big boys.
Both of these teams have had close games and both have had games where they were seemingly the only one on the field. Alabama’s biggest scare, of course, came against Tennessee when they needed Defensive Tackle Terrence Cody to block not one, but two field goals to preserve their 12-10 victory. For the Texas miracle, one needs only look back to the 5th of December in the Big XII Championship Game. They needed a 46 yard field goal as time expired to beat Nebraska 13-12 in a game that I would argue, neither offense deserved to win. Colt McCoy had arguably his worst game of the season and the Nebraska offense gained just 106 yards, lost 64 yards due to penalties, and converted just 2-16 third downs.
The difference between them is what they’ve done for me lately. With all due respect to Bo Pelini and the program he has put together over the past few years, they will not be mistaken for one of the best teams ever and they stymied the Longhorn offense, holding them to 13 points and 202 yards (well below their season averages of 40.7 points and 432.4 yards per game). Given that Alabama has a very good defense and a monster of a defensive tackle; this does not bode well for the Longhorns.
On the other hand, Alabama played against one of the best college football dynasties the game has ever seen. The Florida Gators went 48-7 the past four years, won two SEC titles, and two national titles and on the 5th of December, Alabama humiliated the Gators 32-13. The biggest reason that this bodes ill for the Longhorns is that their offense centers around Colt McCoy whereas the Gators offense is run by Tebow but centers on having too many playmakers for you to cover at once.
And now that I’ve tipped my hand as to who I think will win, let’s get onto the other sections of this post…
By the Numbers
This game features two offenses that have been somewhat streaky this year and two defenses that have been nothing short of dominant. In rushing yards allowed, they finished number one (Texas) and two (Alabama). In total yards allowed, they finished number two (Alabama) and number three (Texas). In turnover margin, they finished fifth (Alabama) and ninth (Texas). In other words, statistically speaking, these two defenses are difficult to separate from one another.
The Alabama Crimson Tide allowed more than 20 points just twice this season and allowed fewer than 10 points 6 times. The only thing that gives me pause when it comes to the Tide’s chances is the fact that their offense has disappeared at times this year. For a four game stretch that encompassed their games against Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU, the most points they scored in that stretch was 24 and they averaged just 19.5 points. However, they appear in this post because their defense never allowed more than 15 in that stretch and allowed just 34 points in those 4 games.
The Longhorns are built more around their offense than their defense and yet, they had one of the best defensive units in the country, statistically speaking. While they did allow 14 or fewer points 9 times this year, they also gave up 39 points to Texas A&M, the lone aberration of their season.
Offensively, the Horns failed to put 30 points on the board just twice, in their wins over Oklahoma (16-13) and Nebraska (13-12). If you take those two games out, they averaged 45.5 points per game.
Why the Longhorns Will Win
Colt McCoy. As important as Tim Tebow has been to the Gators’ success the past few years, Colt McCoy has been just as important to Texas’. He threw for 3,512 yards and 27 touchdowns but also ran for 348 yards (2nd highest total on the team) and added 3 rushing touchdowns.
As McCoy goes, the entire offense goes. As I mentioned before, there were only two games in which the Longhorns scored fewer than 20 points. In those two games, Colt McCoy’s passer ratings were 84.5 and 81.8 (compared with a season average of 147.5).
If he is able to get into a rhythm and is able to complete passes against the Alabama secondary, they have a good chance to win the game. If he doesn’t, they won’t.
Why the Crimson Tide Will Win
They have all the momentum right now. Texas backed into the national title game with what was nearly one of the more boneheaded plays by Heisman finalist Colt McCoy. On the other hand, Alabama played what was probably their most complete game this year in their handling of Florida and it was in that game that they showed what they are capable of.
Their biggest liability this year has been the quarterback play of junior Greg McElroy. His job for most of this year was to stay out of the way of sophomore Mark Ingram’s successful Heisman season. In the SEC championship against one of the best defenses in the country, Nick Saban put the ball in McElroy’s hands and told him to win them the game. He went 12-18 for 239 yards and a touchdown. He played with poise that the Tide haven’t seen this year and if he is able to play like that in national title game, the Texas defense will be in serious trouble.
On top of McElroy’s emergence as a leading quarterback, they have the most recent Heisman Trophy winner in Mark Ingram. The sophomore rushed for 1,562 yards and 15 touchdowns while catching 30 passes out of the backfield for 322 yards and 3 more touchdowns. He is the type of dynamic playmaker that can break open the game with one play, such as his 69 yard catch and run late in the first half against Florida.
If both Ingram and McElroy are on, it’ll be a long night for Longhorns fans.
The Verdict
From the beginning of this season, the three teams that everyone talked about with regards to a national championship were Florida, Alabama, and Texas. Of those three, Florida already had two titles in three years and perhaps didn’t have as much motivation as the others. Many people say Texas was robbed of a chance to play for a national title a year ago and used that as motivational fuel all year. Alabama used the end of their dream 2008 season (a loss to Florida followed by a devastating loss to Utah in the Sugar Bowl) to fuel their 2009 season.
The difference is that Texas has had to prevent themselves from slipping up while Alabama has been tested week in and week out. Texas played 2 BCS top 30 teams, neither of which was in the top 10. Alabama played 7 teams in the top 30, 2 of which were in the top ten.
All of this points to the fact that because Sam Bradford played very little this year, Texas hasn’t been pushed, and therefore hasn’t had to push back. Alabama has and they are playing the best football of the year at the end of the year. Roll Tide Roll.
Alabama 27, Texas 14
BCS Preview: Orange Bowl
In arguably the least anticipated BCS bowl this year (outside of the home cities of these two schools of course) Iowa will play Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl in Miami. For both of these schools, this is a story of what could have been.
Iowa won their first 9 games and was ranked as high as #4 before its crippling loss to Northwestern. Couple with that their overtime loss the next week to Ohio State and they were denied the Big Ten title and an automatic berth in the BCS. Instead they had to rely on an at-large berth, which I personally didn’t think they had done enough to deserve. However, they were probably helped by the fact that they had beaten their main competitor for that BCS berth, Penn State, 21-10 back in September.
Georgia Tech lost early in the season to Miami on September 17th and managed to make it back to #7 in the rankings (behind 6 undefeated teams) before losing to Georgia in a rivalry game right before the ACC Championship Game.
With the exception of Ohio State’s win over Iowa, the other three losses by these teams were against teams they should have beaten. Granted, with 5 teams going into the bowl season undefeated, it’s unlikely that either of them would have played for the national title even if they had finished undefeated but it’s possible that they would have gotten a better draw against a higher profile opponent. No offense to either of these teams, but neither of them has been in the national title discussion since Iowa sustained their first loss.
By the Numbers
This game will feature two teams with two completely different strengths.
Georgia Tech may not have been the best offensive team but their triple option attack was certainly ranked quite highly. They ranked 2nd in rushing with 307 yards per game, 11th in total offense (443 yards per game), and 8th in passing efficiency (157.4). For a team that runs the ball as much as they do, those numbers are very good.
This Yellow Jackets team also had little trouble putting points on the score board, surpassing 30 points 8 times this year, including 4 games with more than 40 points. However, the flip side of that coin is that their defense has been pedestrian at times. Georgia Tech has allowed more than 30 points 6 times this year and their defense is a major concern. They finished the regular season ranked 58th in points allowed and 54th in yards allowed per game.
Iowa’s strength this year has been defense with just enough offense. Their offense managed to score 30 points just 3 times this year but their defense never allowed more than 28 points and ranked 10th nationally, allowing just 15.5 points per game.
Why the Yellow Jackets Will Win
They have a ball control offense against a team that has trouble scoring points. That right there is a winning combination. Going slightly deeper, Josh Nesbitt has played well for the Yellow Jackets, passing for 1,689 yards, rushing for 991 yards, and combining for 28 touchdowns.
The only concern when it comes to Nesbitt is the fact that he only completed 47.7% of his passes. If Iowa’s 33rd ranked rushing defense is able to stop Georgia Tech’s option attack and it’s up to Nesbitt to carry this team, it might be difficult for the Yellow Jackets to win. If Nesbitt and Jonathon Dwyer (1,346 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns) are able to dictate the tempo and keep the Iowa defense on the field, the Hawkeyes will have a very hard time winning.
Why the Hawkeyes Will Win
The number one reason that they will win is that junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi will be back in the line-up. Georgia Tech’s defense is vulnerable and if Stanzi can keep the Hawkeye offense on the field, they definitely have a chance to win.
Unfortunately, everything hinges on their ability to stop the Yellow Jacket ground attack. If they can, they would force Josh Nesbitt to start throwing into the Hawkeye defense that ranked 8th in passing yards allowed and 4th in passing efficiency allowed.
Lastly, they won’t panic if they fall behind and they are very used to coming back from a deficit. In their 10 wins this season, they trailed into the second half in 5 of them and into the 4th quarter in 4 of them. They know how to come back if they trail early or late.
The Verdict
Iowa is hoping for a defensive minded, field position type of football game. Georgia Tech is hoping that they can get out into the open field and run around a bit and it’s most important to Iowa that they dictate the pace of the game. Georgia Tech can still win a slower paced game but Iowa will have very little chance of winning a shoot-out. In the end, the triple option will take home the Orange Bowl trophy.
Georgia Tech 28, Iowa 17
Iowa won their first 9 games and was ranked as high as #4 before its crippling loss to Northwestern. Couple with that their overtime loss the next week to Ohio State and they were denied the Big Ten title and an automatic berth in the BCS. Instead they had to rely on an at-large berth, which I personally didn’t think they had done enough to deserve. However, they were probably helped by the fact that they had beaten their main competitor for that BCS berth, Penn State, 21-10 back in September.
Georgia Tech lost early in the season to Miami on September 17th and managed to make it back to #7 in the rankings (behind 6 undefeated teams) before losing to Georgia in a rivalry game right before the ACC Championship Game.
With the exception of Ohio State’s win over Iowa, the other three losses by these teams were against teams they should have beaten. Granted, with 5 teams going into the bowl season undefeated, it’s unlikely that either of them would have played for the national title even if they had finished undefeated but it’s possible that they would have gotten a better draw against a higher profile opponent. No offense to either of these teams, but neither of them has been in the national title discussion since Iowa sustained their first loss.
By the Numbers
This game will feature two teams with two completely different strengths.
Georgia Tech may not have been the best offensive team but their triple option attack was certainly ranked quite highly. They ranked 2nd in rushing with 307 yards per game, 11th in total offense (443 yards per game), and 8th in passing efficiency (157.4). For a team that runs the ball as much as they do, those numbers are very good.
This Yellow Jackets team also had little trouble putting points on the score board, surpassing 30 points 8 times this year, including 4 games with more than 40 points. However, the flip side of that coin is that their defense has been pedestrian at times. Georgia Tech has allowed more than 30 points 6 times this year and their defense is a major concern. They finished the regular season ranked 58th in points allowed and 54th in yards allowed per game.
Iowa’s strength this year has been defense with just enough offense. Their offense managed to score 30 points just 3 times this year but their defense never allowed more than 28 points and ranked 10th nationally, allowing just 15.5 points per game.
Why the Yellow Jackets Will Win
They have a ball control offense against a team that has trouble scoring points. That right there is a winning combination. Going slightly deeper, Josh Nesbitt has played well for the Yellow Jackets, passing for 1,689 yards, rushing for 991 yards, and combining for 28 touchdowns.
The only concern when it comes to Nesbitt is the fact that he only completed 47.7% of his passes. If Iowa’s 33rd ranked rushing defense is able to stop Georgia Tech’s option attack and it’s up to Nesbitt to carry this team, it might be difficult for the Yellow Jackets to win. If Nesbitt and Jonathon Dwyer (1,346 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns) are able to dictate the tempo and keep the Iowa defense on the field, the Hawkeyes will have a very hard time winning.
Why the Hawkeyes Will Win
The number one reason that they will win is that junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi will be back in the line-up. Georgia Tech’s defense is vulnerable and if Stanzi can keep the Hawkeye offense on the field, they definitely have a chance to win.
Unfortunately, everything hinges on their ability to stop the Yellow Jacket ground attack. If they can, they would force Josh Nesbitt to start throwing into the Hawkeye defense that ranked 8th in passing yards allowed and 4th in passing efficiency allowed.
Lastly, they won’t panic if they fall behind and they are very used to coming back from a deficit. In their 10 wins this season, they trailed into the second half in 5 of them and into the 4th quarter in 4 of them. They know how to come back if they trail early or late.
The Verdict
Iowa is hoping for a defensive minded, field position type of football game. Georgia Tech is hoping that they can get out into the open field and run around a bit and it’s most important to Iowa that they dictate the pace of the game. Georgia Tech can still win a slower paced game but Iowa will have very little chance of winning a shoot-out. In the end, the triple option will take home the Orange Bowl trophy.
Georgia Tech 28, Iowa 17
Friday, January 1, 2010
BCS Preview: Fiesta Bowl
Monday, January 4th will provide one of the more interesting match-ups of the 2009-2010 bowl season when the Texas Christian Horned Frogs play the Boise State Broncos in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
Both teams wanted to be somewhere else, playing on a different night and many people around the country will say that these teams deserved better than they got in their bowl selection. To this point I will dedicate this paragraph and nothing else. The thing you have to remember about the BCS selection process is the teams have no say in where they play and the NCAA (I believe) also has very little say in where teams play. I refuse to believe that there was a conspiracy to make sure that these teams didn’t play teams from the bigger conferences. The Fiesta Bowl officials wanted the best game they could get and considering that some of the other power teams were taken along the lines of conference tie-ins, these are the two best teams they could get. On top of that, there are storylines that the Fiesta Bowl has this year that no other bowl can boast and that will help boost interest in the game, and therefore revenue produced. Yes, I’m sorry to say, when it comes to bowl selection, money has a ton to do with it. But please, don’t say that the NCAA or the BCS arranged this match-up to protect their borderline unassailable fortress because that is preposterous.
Now, on to the game...
This game could be a replay of the Poinsettia Bowl from a year ago, when TCU beat Boise State 17-16. This year, TCU is trying to finish off the very good bowl season that the Mountain West Conference is working on. Boise State, on the other hand, is trying to get validation for the Western Athletic Conference that seems to be falling well behind the Mountain West as the pre-eminent non-automatic qualifying conference.
By the Numbers
This is going to be a game between two teams whose numbers were probably inflated by their relatively weak schedules (84th for TCU, 98th for Boise State).
TCU and Boise State rank (TCU and Boise State, respectively) in the top 20 nationally in points per game (4th and 1st), rushing yards (5th and 20th), total yards (4th and 8th), passing efficiency (3rd and 2nd), points allowed per game (6th and 16th), passing defense (4th and 13th), total defense (1st and 13th), and passing efficiency defense (2nd and 12th).
The biggest number that jumps out is the turnover margin of both teams. TCU ranked 41st in the country with an average turnover margin of 0.33. Boise State, on the other hand, had an average margin of 1.46 which was good enough for 2nd in the country.
Why the Horned Frogs Will Win
Offensively, the Horned Frogs remind me of the Florida team that won the national championship a year ago. Andy Dalton had an efficient year at quarterback (159.6 quarterback rating, 4th nationally) who also finished with 522 rushing yards. Dalton was one of four players on the team who rushed for over 500 yards this year, including Edward Wesley (630), Matthew Tucker (667), and team leader Joseph Turner (732 yards with 11 touchdowns). Any time you have that number of playmakers on your side, you stand a very good chance of winning the game.
However, I feel the Horned Frogs will win because of their defense. They allowed just 233 yards per game and allowed quarterbacks a passer rating of 90.3, a key statistic considering their opposing quarterback in this game.
Lastly, despite the fact that they haven’t played a close game in almost three months (the last game decided by one possession was their 20-17 win over Air Force on October 10th) they have shown that they can win games when their offense doesn’t play well, when their defense doesn’t play well, at home, or on the road.
Why the Broncos Will Win
First and foremost, Boise State has more to gain and much more to lose in this game than TCU. TCU doesn’t need to win for the Mountain West Conference to have a good postseason. If Boise State loses, their reputation, as well as that of the WAC, will be seriously damaged. I doubt the Boise State coaching staff has impressed this point upon the players, but I’m sure they all know the stakes given the hits their reputation has taken in the media this season.
The reason they will win starts and ends at quarterback with Kellen Moore. He led the nation in passing efficiency and led the Broncos to the top ranked scoring offense in the country while throwing 39 touchdowns with just 3 interceptions.
They also have a dynamic 1-2 punch at running back between Jeremy Avery (1,130 yards with 6 touchdowns) and Doug Martin (723 yards with 14 touchdowns). If the two of them can hammer out some tough yards against the 3rd ranked rushing defense of TCU, Kellen Moore should be able to pick apart the TCU secondary.
The Verdict
This is by far the toughest game to call because both of these teams had games where they played well against teams from automatic qualifying conferences and they both had games where they played inferior teams and blew them out of the water.
The signature game that stands out to me when it comes to predicting this game was Boise State’s home game against Nevada. At that point in the season Boise State was trying to impress the voters and in the first quarter it felt like they were going for style points. After returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, the Broncos scored again less than six minutes later at the 9 minute mark of the first quarter and they went for two. In the defense of the Broncos, maybe their place kicker was hurt or asleep for that try, but considering that Kyle Brotzman kicked five extra points and a field goal, I have a hard time believing this. Despite the fact that they missed the conversion, they raced out to a 27-3 lead at the 10 minute mark of the second quarter.
At that point, for whatever reason, the Broncos disappeared. From that point until the end of the game, Nevada outscored the top ten ranked Boise State 30-17 and outplayed the Broncos. In all fairness, I was not part of the offensive huddles nor did I see or read any post game comments from Boise State players or coaches. On the surface, this smacks of a game in which a higher ranked team raced to a big lead early and then gave up on the game.
I didn’t see this in any of TCU’s victories this season. They jumped out to leads and finished strong, beating teams soundly. This game will be another close game but it will be the first loss for Boise State, not for TCU.
TCU 24, Boise State 17
Both teams wanted to be somewhere else, playing on a different night and many people around the country will say that these teams deserved better than they got in their bowl selection. To this point I will dedicate this paragraph and nothing else. The thing you have to remember about the BCS selection process is the teams have no say in where they play and the NCAA (I believe) also has very little say in where teams play. I refuse to believe that there was a conspiracy to make sure that these teams didn’t play teams from the bigger conferences. The Fiesta Bowl officials wanted the best game they could get and considering that some of the other power teams were taken along the lines of conference tie-ins, these are the two best teams they could get. On top of that, there are storylines that the Fiesta Bowl has this year that no other bowl can boast and that will help boost interest in the game, and therefore revenue produced. Yes, I’m sorry to say, when it comes to bowl selection, money has a ton to do with it. But please, don’t say that the NCAA or the BCS arranged this match-up to protect their borderline unassailable fortress because that is preposterous.
Now, on to the game...
This game could be a replay of the Poinsettia Bowl from a year ago, when TCU beat Boise State 17-16. This year, TCU is trying to finish off the very good bowl season that the Mountain West Conference is working on. Boise State, on the other hand, is trying to get validation for the Western Athletic Conference that seems to be falling well behind the Mountain West as the pre-eminent non-automatic qualifying conference.
By the Numbers
This is going to be a game between two teams whose numbers were probably inflated by their relatively weak schedules (84th for TCU, 98th for Boise State).
TCU and Boise State rank (TCU and Boise State, respectively) in the top 20 nationally in points per game (4th and 1st), rushing yards (5th and 20th), total yards (4th and 8th), passing efficiency (3rd and 2nd), points allowed per game (6th and 16th), passing defense (4th and 13th), total defense (1st and 13th), and passing efficiency defense (2nd and 12th).
The biggest number that jumps out is the turnover margin of both teams. TCU ranked 41st in the country with an average turnover margin of 0.33. Boise State, on the other hand, had an average margin of 1.46 which was good enough for 2nd in the country.
Why the Horned Frogs Will Win
Offensively, the Horned Frogs remind me of the Florida team that won the national championship a year ago. Andy Dalton had an efficient year at quarterback (159.6 quarterback rating, 4th nationally) who also finished with 522 rushing yards. Dalton was one of four players on the team who rushed for over 500 yards this year, including Edward Wesley (630), Matthew Tucker (667), and team leader Joseph Turner (732 yards with 11 touchdowns). Any time you have that number of playmakers on your side, you stand a very good chance of winning the game.
However, I feel the Horned Frogs will win because of their defense. They allowed just 233 yards per game and allowed quarterbacks a passer rating of 90.3, a key statistic considering their opposing quarterback in this game.
Lastly, despite the fact that they haven’t played a close game in almost three months (the last game decided by one possession was their 20-17 win over Air Force on October 10th) they have shown that they can win games when their offense doesn’t play well, when their defense doesn’t play well, at home, or on the road.
Why the Broncos Will Win
First and foremost, Boise State has more to gain and much more to lose in this game than TCU. TCU doesn’t need to win for the Mountain West Conference to have a good postseason. If Boise State loses, their reputation, as well as that of the WAC, will be seriously damaged. I doubt the Boise State coaching staff has impressed this point upon the players, but I’m sure they all know the stakes given the hits their reputation has taken in the media this season.
The reason they will win starts and ends at quarterback with Kellen Moore. He led the nation in passing efficiency and led the Broncos to the top ranked scoring offense in the country while throwing 39 touchdowns with just 3 interceptions.
They also have a dynamic 1-2 punch at running back between Jeremy Avery (1,130 yards with 6 touchdowns) and Doug Martin (723 yards with 14 touchdowns). If the two of them can hammer out some tough yards against the 3rd ranked rushing defense of TCU, Kellen Moore should be able to pick apart the TCU secondary.
The Verdict
This is by far the toughest game to call because both of these teams had games where they played well against teams from automatic qualifying conferences and they both had games where they played inferior teams and blew them out of the water.
The signature game that stands out to me when it comes to predicting this game was Boise State’s home game against Nevada. At that point in the season Boise State was trying to impress the voters and in the first quarter it felt like they were going for style points. After returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, the Broncos scored again less than six minutes later at the 9 minute mark of the first quarter and they went for two. In the defense of the Broncos, maybe their place kicker was hurt or asleep for that try, but considering that Kyle Brotzman kicked five extra points and a field goal, I have a hard time believing this. Despite the fact that they missed the conversion, they raced out to a 27-3 lead at the 10 minute mark of the second quarter.
At that point, for whatever reason, the Broncos disappeared. From that point until the end of the game, Nevada outscored the top ten ranked Boise State 30-17 and outplayed the Broncos. In all fairness, I was not part of the offensive huddles nor did I see or read any post game comments from Boise State players or coaches. On the surface, this smacks of a game in which a higher ranked team raced to a big lead early and then gave up on the game.
I didn’t see this in any of TCU’s victories this season. They jumped out to leads and finished strong, beating teams soundly. This game will be another close game but it will be the first loss for Boise State, not for TCU.
TCU 24, Boise State 17
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