COLLEGE CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY, WHAT I SAW
With a handful of conference championships on the line plus a couple of games that will help to shape the bowl picture tomorrow night, what I saw was blowouts, a bunch of them. Only the BIG TEN Championship & Kansas State's 7-point win provided any drama. Here's what I saw.
LSU win over Georgia was maddening to watch.
Mull these stats over for a second. LSU goes 3 & out on every single first half possession, zero first downs. They amass 12-yards of total offense in the first 30-minutes but they're only down 10-7. There were numerous reasons for that, Georgia's lack of execution, 2 touchdown passes dropped, a missed field goal & then there was the "no-touchdown" touchdown scored by Tyran Mathieau on a 62-yard punt return. As Mathieau approached the goal line, he flipped the ball to the side judge before he or the ball crossed the goal line. The side judge & the replay official missed it entirely. Of course the CBS crew caught it after the PAT, so there was no going back. It should have been no touchdown & Georgia's ball. Of course that didn't happen. Then in the third quarter, the Dawgs were forced to punt & instead of kicking away from LSU's only first half producer, they punted the ball right to him & he returned it 67-yards to set up a short touchdown run. Brilliant. If you saw how poorly Alabama played against LSU, tonight Georgia did about the same thing, totally letting them off the hook. I'm not going to say LSU wouldn't have won, but Georgia could easily have been ahead 17-0 or 24-0 at half, they have no one but themselves to blame.
The battle for the other spot in the Rose Bowl was wild.
In a 42-39 game, I'm not going to go thru all the scoring plays, there were just too many. But I do want to single out Badger running back Montee Ball who ran for 137-yards & he scored 4 more touchdowns, leaving him 1 short of the all-time NCAA season record of 39 held by the great Barry Sanders. Wisconsin will return to the Rose Bowl, tho at the end it looked as tho Michigan State would prevail. With 1:47 left, the Badgers were forced to punt on 4th & 2. Michigan State ran into the punter......1st down, game over. The worst part of this penalty was State's Keshawn Martin returned the punt to the Wisconsin 3-yard line all for naught.
Cowboys make their case, but was anyone really listening?
Oklahoma State knew going into their annual "Bedlam" game with Oklahoma they would have to present quite a case for voters to push them ahead of idle Alabama. You know the Alabama that already lost at home to LSU, the Alabama that didn't win their own division or conference....yeah that Alabama. Anyway, OSU did exactly what they needed to accomplish, they put a severe whippin' on the Sooners, holding them without a touchdown until the last 3-minutes of the game while running up 44 points of their own. The Cowboy's defense played lights out, creating another 4 turnovers(they lead the nation & are only 4 behind the all-time record) & completely shutting down anything OU tried to do offensively. The problem for OSU & it's a big one, too many voters have already made up their mind, it was going to be an LSU-Alabama rematch regardless of what happened tonight in Stillwater. Don't bother with those pesky conference championship games or even playing a ranked team in your last game. Just sit at home, watch TV & wait for the spineless voters to make certain we have an all-SEC title game. Of course this will insure another SEC BCS champ & after all, isn't that what we all want? To see a team that couldn't score a touchdown, miss 4 field goals & commit penalty after penalty get a do-over, a second chance to beat LSU? If 'Bama would happen to do that, that would level the series at one apiece, how does that make the Crimson Tide national champs? The whole thing turns my stomach. Oklahoma State beat 5 nationally ranked teams but it was their overtime loss at 6-6 Iowa State that people remember. That Friday night loss the same day 2 OSU coaches lost their lives in a plane crash. But that isn't even a part of the conversation, because as we all know, no one beats the SEC. Even if OSU beat 3 more ranked teams than Bama, beat 2 more winning teams than Bama & their opponents had a better winning percentage than Bama's opponents. One more thing regarding "Bedlam". I can't recall a football game where neither team called a timeout all night, not one.
Clemson showed tonight their 23-3 win over Va Tech back in October was for real.
Did they ever. I figured Va Tech would take the rematch & they were blown out by Clemson 38-10 & it wasn't even that close. Dabo Swinney's Tigers cruised past the Hokies right into the Orange Bowl. Their opponent, a Big East shill, has yet to be determined but will most likely be West Virginia after a series of tie-breakers. The #5 ranked Hokies should fall out of the top-10 with this decisive loss.
Horned Frogs should be the BCS-buster tomorrow night.
TCU pounded helpless UNLV 56-9 thereby insuring their elevation into the top-16 of the BCS poll & making them the BCS-buster or non-automatic qualifier who awarded an at-large berth into a BCS bowl. For those of you who either don't understand or care, let me shed a little light on this phenomenon. First game this morning was the Conference-USA Championship game between 10-2 Southern Mississippi & 12-0 Houston. If Houston, currently ranked 6th in the BCS, would have won, they would have received about $3 million for their coffers & the rest of the conference members would have split around $8 million. It's a huge deal for smaller institutions, huge. Unfortunately, Houston didn't come to play, So. Miss did & by winning this game, they cost their conference about $11 million. TCU won the Mountain West, finished 10-2 & they will be handed a bowl berth to play with the big boys for the third consecutive season. They upset Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl last January. Their destination will most likely be the Sugar Bowl. These non-qualifying conferences have produced 7 BCS-busters over the years & their record is 5-2.
Boise State & Stanford are the other 1-loss teams, what about them?
I think Stanford will get an at large bid to play in the Fiesta Bowl, or at least they should. Boise will be shuffled down the bowl food chain to something way less exciting & financially rewarding as a BCS game. Can you say Vegas Bowl baby? the broncos finished on a high note today, pasting New Mexico 45-0. I make it my policy to ignore teams as pitiful as New Mexico, they've won 4 games in the past three years, but they were in Boise & so I watched(got 5 screens to fill). Newly hired Lobo head coach Bob Davie has his work cut out for him, this team is beyond terrible.
Man if today's win for Kansas State doesn't convince "Coach of the Year" voters, they're not paying attention.
Wildcat coach Bill Snyder led his team to their 10th win by beating Iowa State 30-23. The 11th ranked Wildcats should get a BCS bid, but they won't. They just don't have any pizzazz with voters or the people running the bowl search committees. The fact that Snyder's team won 8 of 10 by 7-points or less should give you an idea of just how well coached K-State is in 2011. With the talent he has, to squeeze 10-wins out, is really amazing.
Maybe, just maybe, RG3 did enough to win the Heisman.
Baylor's Robert Griffin III was in my top-5 before their impressive 48-24 win over the 22nd ranked Texas Longhorns. RG3 ran for 2 scores & threw another 2 touchdown passes. For the season, he completed over 72% of his passes for 4,000-yards & 36 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions. Griffin also rushed for 644-yards & another 9 scores. His potential downfall could be his turnover-filled blowout loss to Oklahoma State. The junior came up big down the stretch as the Bears closed winning 5-straight. If I had to turn in a ballot tonight, he'd be my first place vote. The remaining 9 would be:
2. Andrew Luck--QB--Stanford
3. Montee Ball--RB--Wisconsin
4. Trent Richardson--RB--Alabama
5. Tyran Mathieau--CB/PR--LSU
6. Matt Barkley--QB--USC
7. Kellen Moore--QB--Boise State
8. Colin Klein--QB--Kansas State
9. LaMichael James--RB--Oregon
10. Brandon Weeden--QB--Oklahoma State
I'm not looking forward to Sunday for a lot of reasons.
First off I'll watch the Chiefs-Bears game, there's an appetite suppressor eh? Then watching the BCS show at 7:15, followed by the bowl invitation show at 8:00 might cause hangover-like headaches. I just don't think I'm going to like any part of this lineup. I've received a few questions as to where I think Mizzou will go bowling, how about the Pinstripe Bowl in NYC's Yankee Stadium against a Big East opponent? Ooooooooooooo. Kansas State played in this bowl last season & got jobbed by the officials, narrowly losing to Syracuse.
LSU win over Georgia was maddening to watch.
Mull these stats over for a second. LSU goes 3 & out on every single first half possession, zero first downs. They amass 12-yards of total offense in the first 30-minutes but they're only down 10-7. There were numerous reasons for that, Georgia's lack of execution, 2 touchdown passes dropped, a missed field goal & then there was the "no-touchdown" touchdown scored by Tyran Mathieau on a 62-yard punt return. As Mathieau approached the goal line, he flipped the ball to the side judge before he or the ball crossed the goal line. The side judge & the replay official missed it entirely. Of course the CBS crew caught it after the PAT, so there was no going back. It should have been no touchdown & Georgia's ball. Of course that didn't happen. Then in the third quarter, the Dawgs were forced to punt & instead of kicking away from LSU's only first half producer, they punted the ball right to him & he returned it 67-yards to set up a short touchdown run. Brilliant. If you saw how poorly Alabama played against LSU, tonight Georgia did about the same thing, totally letting them off the hook. I'm not going to say LSU wouldn't have won, but Georgia could easily have been ahead 17-0 or 24-0 at half, they have no one but themselves to blame.
The battle for the other spot in the Rose Bowl was wild.
In a 42-39 game, I'm not going to go thru all the scoring plays, there were just too many. But I do want to single out Badger running back Montee Ball who ran for 137-yards & he scored 4 more touchdowns, leaving him 1 short of the all-time NCAA season record of 39 held by the great Barry Sanders. Wisconsin will return to the Rose Bowl, tho at the end it looked as tho Michigan State would prevail. With 1:47 left, the Badgers were forced to punt on 4th & 2. Michigan State ran into the punter......1st down, game over. The worst part of this penalty was State's Keshawn Martin returned the punt to the Wisconsin 3-yard line all for naught.
Cowboys make their case, but was anyone really listening?
Oklahoma State knew going into their annual "Bedlam" game with Oklahoma they would have to present quite a case for voters to push them ahead of idle Alabama. You know the Alabama that already lost at home to LSU, the Alabama that didn't win their own division or conference....yeah that Alabama. Anyway, OSU did exactly what they needed to accomplish, they put a severe whippin' on the Sooners, holding them without a touchdown until the last 3-minutes of the game while running up 44 points of their own. The Cowboy's defense played lights out, creating another 4 turnovers(they lead the nation & are only 4 behind the all-time record) & completely shutting down anything OU tried to do offensively. The problem for OSU & it's a big one, too many voters have already made up their mind, it was going to be an LSU-Alabama rematch regardless of what happened tonight in Stillwater. Don't bother with those pesky conference championship games or even playing a ranked team in your last game. Just sit at home, watch TV & wait for the spineless voters to make certain we have an all-SEC title game. Of course this will insure another SEC BCS champ & after all, isn't that what we all want? To see a team that couldn't score a touchdown, miss 4 field goals & commit penalty after penalty get a do-over, a second chance to beat LSU? If 'Bama would happen to do that, that would level the series at one apiece, how does that make the Crimson Tide national champs? The whole thing turns my stomach. Oklahoma State beat 5 nationally ranked teams but it was their overtime loss at 6-6 Iowa State that people remember. That Friday night loss the same day 2 OSU coaches lost their lives in a plane crash. But that isn't even a part of the conversation, because as we all know, no one beats the SEC. Even if OSU beat 3 more ranked teams than Bama, beat 2 more winning teams than Bama & their opponents had a better winning percentage than Bama's opponents. One more thing regarding "Bedlam". I can't recall a football game where neither team called a timeout all night, not one.
Clemson showed tonight their 23-3 win over Va Tech back in October was for real.
Did they ever. I figured Va Tech would take the rematch & they were blown out by Clemson 38-10 & it wasn't even that close. Dabo Swinney's Tigers cruised past the Hokies right into the Orange Bowl. Their opponent, a Big East shill, has yet to be determined but will most likely be West Virginia after a series of tie-breakers. The #5 ranked Hokies should fall out of the top-10 with this decisive loss.
Horned Frogs should be the BCS-buster tomorrow night.
TCU pounded helpless UNLV 56-9 thereby insuring their elevation into the top-16 of the BCS poll & making them the BCS-buster or non-automatic qualifier who awarded an at-large berth into a BCS bowl. For those of you who either don't understand or care, let me shed a little light on this phenomenon. First game this morning was the Conference-USA Championship game between 10-2 Southern Mississippi & 12-0 Houston. If Houston, currently ranked 6th in the BCS, would have won, they would have received about $3 million for their coffers & the rest of the conference members would have split around $8 million. It's a huge deal for smaller institutions, huge. Unfortunately, Houston didn't come to play, So. Miss did & by winning this game, they cost their conference about $11 million. TCU won the Mountain West, finished 10-2 & they will be handed a bowl berth to play with the big boys for the third consecutive season. They upset Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl last January. Their destination will most likely be the Sugar Bowl. These non-qualifying conferences have produced 7 BCS-busters over the years & their record is 5-2.
Boise State & Stanford are the other 1-loss teams, what about them?
I think Stanford will get an at large bid to play in the Fiesta Bowl, or at least they should. Boise will be shuffled down the bowl food chain to something way less exciting & financially rewarding as a BCS game. Can you say Vegas Bowl baby? the broncos finished on a high note today, pasting New Mexico 45-0. I make it my policy to ignore teams as pitiful as New Mexico, they've won 4 games in the past three years, but they were in Boise & so I watched(got 5 screens to fill). Newly hired Lobo head coach Bob Davie has his work cut out for him, this team is beyond terrible.
Man if today's win for Kansas State doesn't convince "Coach of the Year" voters, they're not paying attention.
Wildcat coach Bill Snyder led his team to their 10th win by beating Iowa State 30-23. The 11th ranked Wildcats should get a BCS bid, but they won't. They just don't have any pizzazz with voters or the people running the bowl search committees. The fact that Snyder's team won 8 of 10 by 7-points or less should give you an idea of just how well coached K-State is in 2011. With the talent he has, to squeeze 10-wins out, is really amazing.
Maybe, just maybe, RG3 did enough to win the Heisman.
Baylor's Robert Griffin III was in my top-5 before their impressive 48-24 win over the 22nd ranked Texas Longhorns. RG3 ran for 2 scores & threw another 2 touchdown passes. For the season, he completed over 72% of his passes for 4,000-yards & 36 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions. Griffin also rushed for 644-yards & another 9 scores. His potential downfall could be his turnover-filled blowout loss to Oklahoma State. The junior came up big down the stretch as the Bears closed winning 5-straight. If I had to turn in a ballot tonight, he'd be my first place vote. The remaining 9 would be:
2. Andrew Luck--QB--Stanford
3. Montee Ball--RB--Wisconsin
4. Trent Richardson--RB--Alabama
5. Tyran Mathieau--CB/PR--LSU
6. Matt Barkley--QB--USC
7. Kellen Moore--QB--Boise State
8. Colin Klein--QB--Kansas State
9. LaMichael James--RB--Oregon
10. Brandon Weeden--QB--Oklahoma State
I'm not looking forward to Sunday for a lot of reasons.
First off I'll watch the Chiefs-Bears game, there's an appetite suppressor eh? Then watching the BCS show at 7:15, followed by the bowl invitation show at 8:00 might cause hangover-like headaches. I just don't think I'm going to like any part of this lineup. I've received a few questions as to where I think Mizzou will go bowling, how about the Pinstripe Bowl in NYC's Yankee Stadium against a Big East opponent? Ooooooooooooo. Kansas State played in this bowl last season & got jobbed by the officials, narrowly losing to Syracuse.
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