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?