Everybody knows the BCS is screwed up, that's nothing new to anyone. But does anyone see it for what it really is? I'll explain:
Texas has a VERY valid argument. They should have been in the Big 12 title game, and ultimately the national championship game. Look at it this way: OU beat Texas Tech in Norman. Texas Tech beat Texas in Lubbock. Texas beat OU on a neutral site. Home field advantage is HUGE in college football these days, especially when you play in the Big 12 South. Stadiums that hold 70,000 or more are loud, hostile, and just plain intimidating when they're 90% opposing fans. The OU-Texas game in Dallas was split straight down the middle, and if you watched the game you know what I mean. The stadium was almost exactly half red, half orange. If you want a true champion next year, play all 3 of those games on neutral sites. You'll find out who is truly the best in that division.
The Alabama vs. Utah matchup is intriguing. Utah went undefeated in the MWC and is ranked 6 in the latest BCS poll. If Utah can pull out a win against a pissed off Alabama team, there's the biggest argument of all time for a playoff system. If it happens that Utah wins, how would you know that Utah couldn't beat OU, UF, Texas, USC, or any of the other "major" schools? You wouldn't. If you had a playoff system, even if Utah lost, at least you'd know that you got it right and truly had the best team in the country.
Ohio State has got to be paying someone off. They do NOT deserve to be in the Fiesta bowl AT ALL. They had to hope for Iowa to beat Penn State to just share the Big 10 title. Why couldn't Boise State- a team that went undefeated in the regular season, and beat OU in the Fiesta bowl 2 years ago- replace Ohio State? Another dropped ball by the BCS system.
DOH! Well, after this article, it should be obvious who gets this article's award. the BCS comissioners. Your system sucks. Get rid of it so everyone will be happy. Noone gets upset when the other sports crown their champions.
07 December 2008
03 December 2008
A few thoughts
Well fans, I've been thinking about this for a while now: What are this years surprises, disappointments and concerns? To save time, space, and my hands from carpal tunnel sydrom, I'll list two per catergory. I'll end with the DOH! award, as always.
Forget that I'm a WVU fan for this article.
Surprises
1-) Georgia Tech- The Jackets look to be comfortable with that triple option offense. The passing game was used beautifully. GT only threw for 1140 yards and 5 TDs AS A TEAM (4 players threw for Tech this year). Shitty, you say? Sure, if this was any other offense, that would be absolutely terrible. But this is GT under Paul Johnson. This is a true triple option offense. The Jackets rushed the ball a whopping 600 times this year for a grand total of 3388 yards. That's an average of 5.6 ypc. To top it off, they hit paydirt 32 times. Now that's eating some clock- a very valuable asset against some of today's high scoring offenses.
Oh, in case you missed it, Ga Tech trampled UGA's defense for 409 rushing yards. Who's the big dawg in the state now, Georgia?
2-) Cincinnati- That's a basketball school right? Wrong. This year it became a football AND basketball school. The Bearcats won the Big East title (with a bit of help from Pitt) in style. Wins on the road at then #25West Virginia (in OT) and then #20Pitt were only part of a 5 game winning streak that UC carries into it's final game at Hawaii (nice place to end a season). Tony Pike made himself known by throwing for just under 2100 yards, with a TD/INT ratio of 17/5. If Chazz Anderson can stay healthy through spring and fall camp, Pike will have a legitimate backup. Anderson threw for 500 yards as a freshman, and in only 3 games played. Cincy could be a Big East contender again next year.
Cincy will likely get the ACC champion in the Orange Bowl.
Disappointments
1-) LSU- The defending national champion is....sitting on their couches during championship weekend. They finished 7-5 (3-5 in the SEC)and lost at Arkansas (5-7, 2-6 SEC) to cap off (in my opinion) the most disappointing season of the year. What went wrong?
LSU was a balanced offense for the most part. 2450 yards in the air(364 attempts), 2000 yards on the ground (460 carries), but they only averaged 30 points a game while giving up 25. Florida hung 51 pts on them, with Georgia ringing up 52 pts. LSU's highest point total of the season was 41- in Baton Rouge against North Texas. Today's SEC is too dangerous for this type of a team to thrive. Some adjustments are needed. We'll see what Les Miles has in store for the bowl.
Speaking of a bowl, LSU is most likely going to the Outback bowl, or the Chick-Fil-A bowl against an ACC team. That should be a confidence boost-depending on who they get.
2-) Georgia- Preseason #1 turned championship-week-couch potato. The Dawgs finished 9-3 (6-2 SEC), lost KEY games. Then #8Bama beat them in Tuscaloosa, then #8Florida beat them at the cocktail party in Jacksonville, and then #22GT upset them between the hedges. All 3 were upsets. That doesn't look too good to voters. They did win at Arizona State, at LSU and at home against then #22Vanderbilt.
Georgia has all the makings for a title run next year however. Stafford is a Junior, Moreno is a sophomore, and possible Heisman candidate for next year. Leading reciever AJ Green is only a freshman. Defense will need to tighten up a little bit, averaging 26 PA per game.
Georgia looks to be headed to the Capital One bowl.
Concerns
1-) Michigan- After posting the worst season in Wolverine football history, Rich Rodriguez will probably not want to go into Athletic Director Bill Martin's office until spring practice rolls around. Sure, he has an offensive system that is on the opposite end of the spectrum than the previous regime's, and inherited talent sutied for that old system. But 3-9 is cause for panic in Ann Arbor. The Blue will miss out on the postseason for the first time in 34 years.
While I do say that this season is cause for panic, I do have to state that Rodriguez is a great recruiter. He'll get his type of players, and Michigan will beat Ohio State in 4 years (write it down now). Wolverine fans, be patient.... Sorry.
As mentioned above, The Blue are missing the postseason. Michigan fans can now cheer for Detroit.... Whoops, sorry.
2-) UCLA- Rick Neuheisal struggled this year, going 4-7 heading into the game against USC. They started off great, upsetting then #18Tennessee in OT. The very next week, they went to BYU with high hopes, only to get those hopes torn apart. Not just a little torn- I'm talking tree chipper vs. toothpick here. BYU demoralized UCLA by not only shutting the Bruins out, but makin them look like pee-wees playing defense. BYU put up 59 points on the powder blue kids. 59! To ZERO! This started a 3 game slide for UCLA.
The best game the Bruins played this year was a 28-3 win. I know what you're thinking- "well that's a good game!" Did I mention that game was at home against Washington State? Enough said.
Neuheisal is an offensive genius, but his team still only managed to scored 19 points per contest. Through 11 games, UCLA has not rushed for 1000 yards as a team, with 11 total players recording rushing stats. It doesn't help that Kevin Craft threw 19 picks and only 7 TDs. Craft is a Junior. The Bruins desperately need to rebuild that offensive line. Craft will struggle through next year if the line doesn't improve, and Freshman Chris Forcier will have the same problem. Upsetting USC this weekend would help UCLA's recruiting base in SoCal and the rest of the western US (including Hawaii). O-linemen out of that region are bred for that type of offense.
UCLA (obviously) is done after Saturday. Countdown to spring ball starts in 4 days Bruins' fans.
DOH!
Well, the award today goes to (drumroll please)........ Plaxico Buress, for reasons that should be obvious to any sports fan. Didn't your momma ever tell you not to take your gun to the club?
Forget that I'm a WVU fan for this article.
Surprises
1-) Georgia Tech- The Jackets look to be comfortable with that triple option offense. The passing game was used beautifully. GT only threw for 1140 yards and 5 TDs AS A TEAM (4 players threw for Tech this year). Shitty, you say? Sure, if this was any other offense, that would be absolutely terrible. But this is GT under Paul Johnson. This is a true triple option offense. The Jackets rushed the ball a whopping 600 times this year for a grand total of 3388 yards. That's an average of 5.6 ypc. To top it off, they hit paydirt 32 times. Now that's eating some clock- a very valuable asset against some of today's high scoring offenses.
Oh, in case you missed it, Ga Tech trampled UGA's defense for 409 rushing yards. Who's the big dawg in the state now, Georgia?
2-) Cincinnati- That's a basketball school right? Wrong. This year it became a football AND basketball school. The Bearcats won the Big East title (with a bit of help from Pitt) in style. Wins on the road at then #25West Virginia (in OT) and then #20Pitt were only part of a 5 game winning streak that UC carries into it's final game at Hawaii (nice place to end a season). Tony Pike made himself known by throwing for just under 2100 yards, with a TD/INT ratio of 17/5. If Chazz Anderson can stay healthy through spring and fall camp, Pike will have a legitimate backup. Anderson threw for 500 yards as a freshman, and in only 3 games played. Cincy could be a Big East contender again next year.
Cincy will likely get the ACC champion in the Orange Bowl.
Disappointments
1-) LSU- The defending national champion is....sitting on their couches during championship weekend. They finished 7-5 (3-5 in the SEC)and lost at Arkansas (5-7, 2-6 SEC) to cap off (in my opinion) the most disappointing season of the year. What went wrong?
LSU was a balanced offense for the most part. 2450 yards in the air(364 attempts), 2000 yards on the ground (460 carries), but they only averaged 30 points a game while giving up 25. Florida hung 51 pts on them, with Georgia ringing up 52 pts. LSU's highest point total of the season was 41- in Baton Rouge against North Texas. Today's SEC is too dangerous for this type of a team to thrive. Some adjustments are needed. We'll see what Les Miles has in store for the bowl.
Speaking of a bowl, LSU is most likely going to the Outback bowl, or the Chick-Fil-A bowl against an ACC team. That should be a confidence boost-depending on who they get.
2-) Georgia- Preseason #1 turned championship-week-couch potato. The Dawgs finished 9-3 (6-2 SEC), lost KEY games. Then #8Bama beat them in Tuscaloosa, then #8Florida beat them at the cocktail party in Jacksonville, and then #22GT upset them between the hedges. All 3 were upsets. That doesn't look too good to voters. They did win at Arizona State, at LSU and at home against then #22Vanderbilt.
Georgia has all the makings for a title run next year however. Stafford is a Junior, Moreno is a sophomore, and possible Heisman candidate for next year. Leading reciever AJ Green is only a freshman. Defense will need to tighten up a little bit, averaging 26 PA per game.
Georgia looks to be headed to the Capital One bowl.
Concerns
1-) Michigan- After posting the worst season in Wolverine football history, Rich Rodriguez will probably not want to go into Athletic Director Bill Martin's office until spring practice rolls around. Sure, he has an offensive system that is on the opposite end of the spectrum than the previous regime's, and inherited talent sutied for that old system. But 3-9 is cause for panic in Ann Arbor. The Blue will miss out on the postseason for the first time in 34 years.
While I do say that this season is cause for panic, I do have to state that Rodriguez is a great recruiter. He'll get his type of players, and Michigan will beat Ohio State in 4 years (write it down now). Wolverine fans, be patient.... Sorry.
As mentioned above, The Blue are missing the postseason. Michigan fans can now cheer for Detroit.... Whoops, sorry.
2-) UCLA- Rick Neuheisal struggled this year, going 4-7 heading into the game against USC. They started off great, upsetting then #18Tennessee in OT. The very next week, they went to BYU with high hopes, only to get those hopes torn apart. Not just a little torn- I'm talking tree chipper vs. toothpick here. BYU demoralized UCLA by not only shutting the Bruins out, but makin them look like pee-wees playing defense. BYU put up 59 points on the powder blue kids. 59! To ZERO! This started a 3 game slide for UCLA.
The best game the Bruins played this year was a 28-3 win. I know what you're thinking- "well that's a good game!" Did I mention that game was at home against Washington State? Enough said.
Neuheisal is an offensive genius, but his team still only managed to scored 19 points per contest. Through 11 games, UCLA has not rushed for 1000 yards as a team, with 11 total players recording rushing stats. It doesn't help that Kevin Craft threw 19 picks and only 7 TDs. Craft is a Junior. The Bruins desperately need to rebuild that offensive line. Craft will struggle through next year if the line doesn't improve, and Freshman Chris Forcier will have the same problem. Upsetting USC this weekend would help UCLA's recruiting base in SoCal and the rest of the western US (including Hawaii). O-linemen out of that region are bred for that type of offense.
UCLA (obviously) is done after Saturday. Countdown to spring ball starts in 4 days Bruins' fans.
DOH!
Well, the award today goes to (drumroll please)........ Plaxico Buress, for reasons that should be obvious to any sports fan. Didn't your momma ever tell you not to take your gun to the club?
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