CFB Bowl Season News, Picks, and T&A

Bowl Season '08: Five Things to Get You Ready for the Rose Bowl

Posted Jan 1st 2009 5:30AM by Brian Grummell (author feed)
Filed under: Penn State, USC, Big 10, Pac 10, Bowl Games
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FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

New Year's Day has arrived, and with it the ritualized sloth all across America as college football fans settle in for a long day's worth of bowl games. No game more symbolizes the day, and carries more pageantry and pomp than the Rose Bowl.

This year's game will be a good one, matching two powerful teams that fit the game's tradition. Penn State and USC are both 11-1, champions of the Big Ten and Pac-10. Joe Paterno stars as the youthful and charismatic coach, his curmudgeonly foil Pete Carroll on the opposite sideline. Or maybe we have that crossed up. Yeah, yeah we do.

The game kicks off some time around 430 PM ET. Feel free to join our Rose Bowl Live Blog at that time.

Formalities over, let's get down to those five things that should have you ready for this great game.

1)Penn State is not your average Big Ten team

Mind you, Penn State's happy to play gruntled underdog, its motivation on the cheap. However, national opinion and the wise guys are pointing towards a solid USC victory. Hard to blame them when USC has been crushing every Big 10 foe in its path since Pete Carroll arrived.

That said, give Penn State its due.

The Nittany Lions have merged two combinations of numbers you don't see very often atop the Big 10 -- a ridiculous scoring defense and a ridiculous scoring offense. Penn State is averaging 40.2 points/game on offense and allowing just 12.4 on defense. I don't care how good or bad the Big Ten is those are great numbers in any year and in combination rarely happen in the Big Ten.

Penn State is arguably as good or better than either of Ohio State's BCS Championship Game teams, and certainly the best Big 10 team to play in the Rose Bowl game since the 2003-2004 Michigan Wolverines.

2)The obvious -- these teams play some ferocious defense

Penn State's got a few more stars on its defensive line, as America will soon get familiar with end Aaron Maybin. USC's line is no slouch however with a boatload of top flight recruits rotating in and out. These are two big, fast, physical, everything lines.

Penn State is called Linebacker U, but USC's trio is among the best groups we've seen in a while. You know their names, so keep an eye out for Penn State's Navorro Bowman if the hype for USC's guys is too much.

And then there are the secondaries. Anthony Scirrotto is Penn State's playmaking safety, while USC counters with freakish Taylor Mays. Mays' partner in crime, Kevin Ellison, will not play but reserve Will Harris is no slouch and will be starting his sixth game this year.

USC's defense is rightfully getting most of the hype with the ridiculous numbers they've put up. Its a great group but I'd actually consider USC's 2004 defense a little better. You can't argue with the numbers though, but Penn State isn't all that far behind either. Against USC's stop-and-start offense, they have an opportunity to really do some damage.

3)Pete Carroll and Joe Paterno are great bowl game coaches

Paterno's won a boatload of bowl games and Penn State of late is picking up a rep as an overachiever come bowl season. Meanwhile, Carroll has dropped just one of his six BCS bowl games, efficiently blowing out mostly Big Ten foes. Something has to give.

We're just happy to be witness to it all, two guys with a month to prepare in situations they've been tremendously successful doing.

4)What to make of the offenses?

Penn State's had an offensive renaissance this year, assembling its "Spread HD" offense behind a tremendous offensive line, a fleet of reliable receivers, two excellent backs and the poised and mobile Daryll Clark. Things slowed down at times (see Iowa, Ohio State), but the blowout performance against Michigan State to close out the season has the Nittany Lions feeling like the offense has returned to form.

USC's offense however, has been the team's achilles heel all year. The numbers are decent enough, 37.5 points/game, 200+ rushing yards/game and 31 passing touchdowns. However, they've been neutralized far more than USC cares to admit, getting blanked and humiliated in the first half against Oregon State, mustering just 17 points against Arizona and California, self-destructing in almost comical fashion in the second half against Arizona State. That all happened.

Here's hunching both defenses are plenty legit and keep scoring well below the 30-point plateau.

5)This is beautiful, man

USC's vibrant Cardinal and gold. Penn State's classic whites. The beautiful Rose Bowl stadium, Pasadena, nestled in the Arroyo. Two storied traditions representing west and east, public and private, blue collar and flash, young and old.

Yet they share strong histories, identical records and two very talented and physical football teams.

How can you not be in love? Enjoy the game.
 
Three redshirt freshmen don’t make trip to Fiesta Bowl

from Bevo Sports by Brian
After getting bad news on Christmas, Texas fans awoke to more bad news on the first day of 2009. Three redshirting freshmen did not make the trip to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl due to various reasons. The three players are defensive tackle Jarvis Humphrey, linebacker Dravannti Johnson and wide receiver DJ Monroe, all of which are important four-star 2008 recruits. The Statesman reports that each of the players was left behind for a different reason and that none were “serious”.
Unsubstantiated (and hopefully untrue) rumors on Orangebloods are that Monroe is a grade casualty and “don’t expect him back.” That of course would be counter to what the Statesman is reporting that none of the three issues were serious and if true would cost the Horns a possible future dynamic playmaker. Losing Humphrey for the spring or longer would also be a huge blow at one of the team’s least deep positions.
While they obviously would not be playing in next Monday’s game against Ohio State, bowl practices are a time when young players gain a great deal experience during the extra practice time and these guys are missing reps. Hopefully all three players are still in school and back on the practice field for spring football.
 
She’s Uncoachable: What do Ya know, Another BBB, Alice Goodwin

Published by Natty at 9:00 am under She's Uncoachable


Not that this is anything new, but I’m still amazed every single time I see one of these Busty Brits. And Alice Goodwin is by no means an exception. I mean where the hell are all these women here in the US? Is it so much to ask to have a Page 3 type of periodical here in the states?
It’s the folks like Nuts and Zootoday that have the right idea. Sure they have nudity but we really need some sort of U.S. Magazine called “Uncoached.” Yes! A men’s magazine with only chicks like the ones I put up on this site.
Articles, movie reviews, etc etc. Who’s with me? Once again. Who’s with me!!!!
More of Alice after the jump

 
Oxana Fedorova

December 30th, 2008 | 06:32 am
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Where You've Seen Her: Oxana was the Miss Universe representing Russia. The Soviet runner up can be purchased for your next marriage at the low, low price of $273.84.

Pointless Quote: "I am Miss Universe 2002"



 
Adding:

TTech -4 (-110)

This one is really close. For some reason I don't think TT is all that disappointed to be at the Cotton Bowl. Also looking for a 2H play on TT if they are down.
 
owlin': Utah versus the elephant in the room

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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First things first about Utah: The Utes are not Hawaii. Last year's Warriors made the BCS on the back of the softest schedule known to modern man, and often struggled against WAC also-rans on the way. These Utes have beaten three top-25 teams, a blue chip-laden outfit from Michigan on the road and still had enough left over for the Mountain West to win by almost three touchdowns per game for the year. They didn't back into this thing, and if they win it, mythical championship complaints won't be out of line. That said, the burning question when any mid-major outfit goes up against a big, bad recruiting monster on the order of Alabama is whether the little guy can hold up physically. Double this question against the Crimson Tide, which relies so much on winning the line of scrimmage and tended to dominate physically even among the big guys: Bama was second in the SEC in rushing offense and yards per carry, and equally dominant against the run, where it was one of only a dozen defenses that allowed less than three yards per carry for the season. The numbers change very little when you separate the SEC games from the chaffe, and the Tide's worst games in the trenches -- against Ole Miss and LSU -- came largely in the absence of mammoth, crucial run-stopping tackle Terrence Cody, who'll be healthy tonight.
Holding its own on the line of scrimmage, then, has to be Utah's top priority, because Bama will definitely bring the fight there. It's hard to say how to best compare the Utes to specific victims on Alabama's schedule, but from Utah's perspective, there were four games on its schedule that obviously stand out from the Mountain West chaffe: Michigan (because of the Wolverines' size and athletes, despite the final record), and then Oregon State, TCU and BYU, all of which finished in the AP's final top-25 for the regular season. In terms of both running and stopping the run, those games against respectably talented opponents don't bode very well for a date with one of the strongest between-the-tackles teams in the country:
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Utah's defense, of course, is that it won all of those games despite being shoved around or stalemated on the lines; the Utes actually walloped BYU, thanks to a career day by quarterback Brian Johnson and a stunning five-interception implosion by the Cougars' usually sharp Max Hall. They came back from dire holes to beat the Beavers and Frogs and were well in front of Michigan before fumbling the Wolverines back into the game in the fourth quarter. Like all undefeated teams, they've been extremely resourceful and resilient.
Alabama, though, is not in the habit of allowing career days by opposing quarterbacks. Before Tim Tebow in the SEC Championship, in fact, no quarterback had what might qualify as even a "good day" against the Tide (for some perspective on this, the NCAA average for pass efficiency rating is in the neighborhood of 130-140; the highest rating against Alabama in the regular season was 120.03, by Matt Stafford, who spent half the game trying to throw his team out of a huge hole caused, in large part, by his dismal first half). Johnson is not Tebow; he may be as good as Cullen Harper or Jevan Snead, or maybe a little better, but neither is an impressive precedent against a Saban-led defense this year.
The team that most resembles Alabama on Utah's schedule is definitely TCU, another run-oriented offense and strong defense that outgained the Utes in Salt Lake City by 130 yards and missed numerous chances to lock down the win late (mainly by missing two field goals that could have extended the lead to double digits). The Horned Frogs controlled both lines of scrimmage all night, outrushing the Utes by 140 yards (not including sacks) and limiting them to a long run of eight. Alabama might not score a lot -- the Utes' best chance of hanging tough is to load up to slow down the Tide running game, which was made much easier this week by Andre Smith's suspension -- but it's hard to see the Tide giving away a late lead if it wins the trenches.
 
Utah simultaneously saves and destroys the BCS: In which Kyle Wittingham drinks Nick Saban's milkshake

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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Utah 31, Alabama 17. Say what you will about its relative talent, or lack thereof, but this much is certain about Utah: That team was prepared. Out of the gate, the defense had Alabama's head spinning with its presnap shifts, creating four sacks, a couple false start penalties and an interception in the first half. Meanwhile, the offense's opening, no-huddle touchdown drive was a Walshian masterwork, a perfect, crisp homage to the script in five rapid-fire snaps, and probably the most impressive start of the season in terms of marrying plan and execution. Utah knew exactly what it wanted to do, and did it confidently before Alabama knew where it was on either side of the ball. The Utes also proved resilient, answering a turnover and quick Alabama score to cut the lead to four at the start of the second half with a 72-yard touchdown drive that ground the Tide's momentum to a halt, and surprisingly physical -- not in the between-the-tackles game I thought Alabama would win before the game (though Utah held up fine in that regard), but in making and especially breaking tackles, fighting for extra yards and winning those split-second tugs-of-war at the sticks that make the difference in first down and third or fourth. How on earth has a receiver as big, physical and clutch as Freddie Brown escaped my attention his entire career? (I'm not alone: It seems he's escaped the scouts' attention, as well, despite his size and good senior numbers. I blame CBS College Sports).The Utes equaled Florida for most points scored on Bama all season, and Brian Johnson was at least as impressive in this victory as Tim Tebow was in his.
Defensively, there were a lot of free pass rushers, and the Tide never settled down to run the ball effectively enough to get John Parker Wilson in his comfort zone in the play-action passing game. When Wilson tried to set up on the waggles he loves so much, he almost always had a Ute lineman or linebacker in his face. Alabama scored on a punt return and a short field after the Utes' only turnover -- and a freak turnover at that as the ball squirted out of Johnson's hands for no apparent reason. Even after its dominant opening thrust, Utah was just flatly good.
So: What we have here is a 13-0 team with the heads of four other ranked teams on its wall, the most recent of which was a top five team that got pantsed on national television as a 10-point favorite. There's no difference in what Utah did to Alabama and what LSU did to Ohio State in a 14-point pounding in the Superdome last year; if the exact performances tonight were reversed, and Alabama raced out to a 21-point lead in the first ten minutes while sacking the opposing quarterback eight times in an eventual double-digit win, the meme would be "SEC speed strikes again." I don't expect anyone to launch any similar raves about Utah's dominance, despite Paul Kruger and Stevenson Sylvester's repeated abuse of the Tide's rotating left tackle situation in the wake of Andre Smith's suspension. But how, exactly, the only undefeated team in the country will be written off under the circumstances is the mystery.
Appreciate the irony here, please. By providing the the ratings-challenged BCS its most thrilling game in two years, Utah also dealt another severe blow to the Series' fundamental conceit: Again, the two-team playoff is a failure. USC proved its failure by running Penn State out of the Rose Bowl, and even the Fox announcers wouldn't dare bring up the notion of a split championship, I'll say the same thing about the Utes I said Thursday about the Trojans: I'm not willing to say Utah deserves to be the national champion. But I defy anyone who watched the Utes methodically whittle a top-10 opponent into frustration to honestly argue that they don't deserve a shot.
 
I am done for the year RJ.

Just wanted to thank you for this thread every week.

I think you have the best CFB thread on the internet right now and it's just really nice to have all of this information in one spot as it comes in each week.

gl the rest of the way
 
Mike Leach: Genius or a Fraud?

from The Wiz of Odds by Jay Christensen

Mike Leach and his innovative offense have been all the rage for much of this season. He'll be profiled Sunday night on "60 Minutes" and on Friday he brought an 11-1 Texas Tech team to the Cotton Bowl to play a middle-of-the-road Southeastern Conference team.
The result? The Red Raiders got smoked by Mississippi, 47-34.
Tom Kirkendall raises the question: Is Leach really a good coach or is he a coach who knows how to work the system?
Leach has a 76-39 record in nine seasons at Lubbock, which works out to a 66% winning percentage. But Kirkendall points out that Leach's record is padded by his 29-5 (85.2%) regular season record against non-Big 12 opponents.
Only five of those 34 nonconference games have been against other BCS-conference teams. The last time that Tech even played a nonconference regular season game against a BCS-conference opponent was in 2003.
Strip away those nonconference games and Leach's Big 12 Conference record is 42-30 (58.3%). And in the games that really matter — against Texas and Oklahoma — Leach's teams are only 4-14.
So maybe that pounding Tech took against Mississippi wasn't that surprising.
 
We Hardly Knew Ye: Kenny Britt, slayer of Rutgers past

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
Notable players going pro (or somewhere) before their time.
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Kenny Britt was a 6'4", 200-pound, four-star recruit to Rutgers when Rutgers was only just emerging from three decades of hopelessness, and so looked the part of an elite receiver out of high school that you'd think the Knights couldn't wait to get him on the field. Somehow, they did wait: It took Britt two months to break into the lineup as a freshman -- and then about two quarters to secure his place there for the next three years, when, with the undefeated Knights down 25-14 to undefeated Louisville in the third quarter of a Thursday night classic in 2006, he hauled in a third down slant and raced 64 yards to the UL 5. Ray Rice scored moments later to spark Rutgers' second half comeback for the biggest win in school history.
Britt had a terrific finish to that season -- 27 catches for 427 yards in the last five games -- and last year was second team All-Big East by hauling in 62 passes for just shy of 20 yards per catch as a sophomore. This year, though, with Rice's early departure forcing the offensive emphasis to shift to the passing game, Britt really exploded, especially during the Knights' seven-game win streak to end the year: 50 of his 87 grabs came during that stretch, including all seven of his touchdowns, for a ridiculous 18.1 yards per catch.
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He went over 100 yards in all seven games except one, oddly enough, the 63-14 massacre over Louisville to end the regular season, when Mike Teel spread the scoring wealth to four other receivers. But Britt hauled in more than twice as many receptions as any other Knight, broke the school record for receiving yards and landed both first team All-Big East and third team All-America nods.
NFL scouts seem slightly less enthusiastic, probably due to Britt's relatively so-so 40 time. He's one of the bigger receivers in the top end of the draft, but unless he kills in the combine, he seems destined to be tabbed as a borderline second or third-rounder.
 
vegaskyle said:
I am done for the year RJ.

Just wanted to thank you for this thread every week.

I think you have the best CFB thread on the internet right now and it's just really nice to have all of this information in one spot as it comes in each week.

gl the rest of the way
Click to expand...

:shake:

Also done for the season, and also would like to thank RJ for keeping this thread up week in week out. Was a great read and he put a hell of a lot of work into it.

RJ could very well have started a blog or something of that nature but he decided to post it right on here. this disproves the prick since 1974 theory.

anyways, was an enjoyable season (and two years in a row id like to forget bowls even existed).... and see you next year RJ. :cheers:
 
Congrats on a profitable year bro!

Just wanted to say thanks for providing all the great reading material and eye-candy week in and week out! I swear, I spent damn near half an hour browsing through your thread every single day.

Also, even though I'm on tOSU, best of luck to your Horns tomorrow!

:cheers:
 
Thanks, Pags, Aztec, VK, and CapTwo.

Just got back from Phoenix and the game and am about to pass out watching the GMAC Bowl.

I'll empty my reader box too to see if there are any interesting articles about the MNC and other topics.
 
The Latest Sign the End Is Near

from The Wiz of Odds by Jay Christensen
Nothing unusual about coaches making scholarship offers to prospects this time of year. Hawaii coach Greg McMackin recently made one to Reeve Koehler, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound line prospect from Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Here's the catch: Koehler is 13 and has yet to play his first game in pads. The offer makes the eighth-grader the most sought-after prospect in the class of 2013.
Andy Staples of SI.com writes that Koehler could receive more interest after Sunday, when he plays his first regulation, 11-on-11 game in pads in the Football University Youth All-American Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The game will be streamed live at Football University.org beginning at 9 a.m. (Central).
Koehler's brother, Solomon, is a freshman offensive lineman at Arizona.
The young Koehler could have competition in the class of 2013. Thayer Evans and Pete Thamel of the New York Times report on several of the 143 prospects at Sunday's All-American Bowl, including Wes Medeiros, 13, who kicked a 45-yard field goal at the Pittsburgh Steelers' training camp in August, video of which you can see after the jump.
<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="never" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6a2RWnPSv4E&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="470" height="375">Popout
 
Orange Bowl Ratings Hit a New BCS Low

from The Wiz of Odds by Jay Christensen

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring you this note: Ratings for the Orange Bowl between Virginia Tech and Cincinnati were 6.1, the lowest-rating ever for a BCS game.
The number crushed the previous low of 7.6 for the 2007 Orange Bowl between Louisville and Wake Forest.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News sums it up: "Congratulations to savvy viewers who won't be pulled in to watching a meaningless college football game between two faceless teams even if the BCS letters are attached. The road to a playoff will be littered with low-rated BCS bowl games.
"How many more folks would have tuned in if it had been a playoff match-up on the road to crowning a real national champion?"
 
Andre Officially Gone

from Roll 'Bama Roll by outsidethesidelines
Andre Officially Gone

In a statement released by Andre Smith via the Montgomery law firm of Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay:
"I value deeply the opportunity I've had to play for such a prestigious program and to have the support of such a prolific coach in Nick Saban. After much consideration, I am proud to announce my intent to become eligible for the next National Football League draft. Alabama football will always hold a special place in my heart."
 
From The Couch: Ranking The Racks Of San Diego Chargers’ Cheerleaders Via NBC Coverage

Published by J Koot at 9:17 am under From The Couch

Visited 3924 times, 309 so far today
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BC’s winner of the San Diego Chargers Cheerleader Rack competition. ​
Welcome to our new feature for 2009, From The Couch.
The editors don’t have time to dick around with YouTube video mashups that most will never watch. So, we’ve come up with the idea to DVR or actually watch sporting events and bring you screen shots of last night’s action via a camera, from our couches.
Hopefully we’ll have some obscure stuff that wasn’t via national TV channels.
Busted Coverage could use your help on this one. Have a shot from your television that deserves to be seen by the masses?
Take a photo and send it to us. We’ll make you famous.
mail@bustedcoverage.com

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One more from our winner. ​
NBC is to be congratulated for providing us with more than enough cheerleader shots last night to put together this post.
And it only gets better today. Miami is at home.
This is just the type of competition that gives us nightmares because one of these ladies is going to be heartbroken not having her rack ranked the best.
Sorry, ladies. Sometimes we just have to be assholes.
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Runner-up in a very close vote. ​
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Popularity: 4% [?]
 
Boston College Tells Jeff Jagodzinski: You're Fired If You Interview for Jets Job

from The FanHouse - NCAAfootball
by Michael David SmithFiled under: Boston College, ACC, NCAA FB Coaching
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Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski is scheduled to interview for the New York Jets vacancy on Monday. But if he's going to go through with that interview, he'd better be very confident he's going to get the job. Because Boston College is threatening to fire him.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo told Jagodzinski that if he interviews, BC would fire him and promote offensive coordinator Steve Logan to head coach. But Jagodzinski will apparently go through with the interview anyway.

It's not clear whether there's anything in Jagodzinski's contract that prohibits him from looking elsewhere, but this is an attempt by Boston College to say that it would rather find a new coach than keep a coach who views the school as a stepping stone.

If Jagodzinski does get fired, he'll find work elsewhere, even if he doesn't get the Jets job. He was a well respected NFL assistant for several years with the Packers and Falcons, and he's won 20 games in his two years as head coach with Boston College. But the work he'll find elsewhere won't necessarily be a better job than his current gig. So Jagodzinski has a tough decision to make by Monday morning.
 
The aftermath

from The Nittany Line by Galen

I gave it a couple days off before writing anything about the Rose Bowl simply because I didn't want to write something that had less thinking and more emotion (who am I kidding I don't think hard about anything). After watching that effort I really had my fill of football, it just drained me. I've only caught a couple minutes here and there of the other games but I just am done with it for this year. I haven't read any articles on the intertubes because I don't want to read the lazy, rubber-stamped crap that the local beat reporters write. If we take a step back and look at this season and the end to it a couple things stand out to me.
-without a doubt this was a very good year for Penn State. 11-2 and a Big Ten championship is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, this team overachieved no matter what anyone says, they weren't even picked to finish in the top three in the Big Ten.
-the Big Ten was down this season and Penn State took advantage of it. I'm certainly not going to apologize for that nor should anyone else.
-Ohio State really screwed the Big Ten when they got their at-large bowl berth. That moved all the middle mush of the Big Ten up a bowl and put them in much more difficult games. This will only help to perpetrate the "Big Ten is weak" talk from the national media next season. Get ready for it.
-I picked my brain the day after the Rose Bowl but I cannot for the life of me remember a Joe Paterno-coached team that made as many mistakes as this team did. Crushing penalties at the most inopportune times and turnovers when they needed to hold onto the ball the most. I simply don't have an answer at all.
-there is no way I want Tom Bradley as the next head coach at Penn State. I cannot take the 'Bend and then Break our Hearts' defense he plays. The head coach sets the offensive and defensive philosophies and that is one I do not care to see anymore. Bradley relies on a good pass rush from his down four linemen to pressure quarterbacks into mistakes, when Penn State takes on a very good offensive line things break down really fast. Bradley doesn't blitz much and when he does it's painfully obvious he's going to before the ball is snapped. The moment that ended it for me was on a 3-2 with USC up 17-7. Penn State didn't blitz and their cornerbacks were 8 yards off the line of scrimmage and started backpedaling on the snap. Of course USC completed a 14-yard pass for a first down and scored later in the drive. A fellow Penn State fan argued with me (because I was hopelessly yelling at the TV), why would you want the corners to play up? Do you want them to get burned deep? My response was Hell Yes, I'd rather take a freakin' chance than let them sit there and methodically gash the defense with short passes. I just can't take that defense anymore.
So there you have it in a nutshell. Speaking of nuts, it's probably going to be the first time ever but I'm actually going to be rooting for Ohio State tonight because they need to salvage something for the Big Ten. That most definitely means they will lose badly because the universe hates me.
 
Headlinin': The Orange what? Are they still doing that?

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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• And I thought the Doobie Brothers halftime would kill. Friday's Virginia Tech-Cincinnati Orange Bowl on Fox was by the lowest-rated BCS game in the Series' 11-year history, shattering the previous low (a 7.6 for the 2007 Orange Bowl between Louisville and Wake Forest) with a 6.1 overnight rating, a little less than half the audience for the Rose Bowl that preceded it on ABC. Maybe the hungover masses who watched USC trounce Penn State fell asleep before they could turn over to Fox -- though the Rose Bowl's ratings were among its lowest of the BCS era, as well. There are still two games to go, but it's not like falling BCS ratings are anything new. This year marks, what, the third year in a row? Texas-Ohio State tonight better bring it.
• We hardly knew ye. Surprising absolutely no one, Alabama lineman and soon-to-be first-rounder Andre Smith made his bid for the NFL official over the weekend, and his lawyer suggests we haven't heard the last of the widespread allegations that his suspension from the Sugar Bowl was related to contact with an agent:
"Andre has not made any contact (with an agent)," H. Lewis Gillis said in the first extended comments offered on Smith's behalf. "Going down the road of some agent is the wrong way to travel. There is nothing there."
Asked why Smith was suspended and sent home from the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Gillis said: "You have to ask somebody else. I can't get in the minds of other people."
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If he's trying to get into Nick Saban's mind, maybe Gillis should contract with Kyle Whittingham.
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Joining Smith in the early parade to the pros is fellow offensive tackle Eben Britton of Arizona, a borderline first or second-round pick, and Southern Miss linebacker Gerald McRath, who might not make the first day of the draft but has endured enough after five seasons in Hattiesburg, thanks to early, season-ending injuries and subsequent redshirts his first two years. UConn's Donald Brown will be throwing his name into the hat, as well, after putting up 2,000 yards in relative anonymity for the Huskies -- and telling the Hartford media a few weeks ago that he was coming back to school when he'd clearly made up his mind to leave. Sorry about that, guys, but y'all are used to it, right?
• Oh no he di'nt, etc. Oklahoma cornerback Domonique Franks kicked off the week in Miami right, publicly dissing Tim Tebow when he said "I think our quarterbacks [in the Big 12] are better." Oh my, whatever will the Tebow Child do in the face of stinging barbs and blah blah? His eyes will surely fill with blood and rage and whatever it is.
At least Franks can get some basic numbers right: Like a lot of people, he refers to Tebow as "a predominantly running quarterback." Uh, Domonique:
Tebow Runs in 2007 and 2008: 364 for 1,459 yards, 35 touchdowns.
Tebow Passes in 2007 and 2008: 618 for 5,801 yards, 60 touchdowns.
Alright, people who don't pay attention to college football may see Tebow as Eric Crouch, but this is ridiculous. Kid's in the top four nationally in pass efficiency for the second year in a row, and even people watching film don't seem to notice he puts it in the air about 68 percent more often than he runs it. I dunno, maybe that's his secret or something: The cloak of passing invisibility?
Quickly ... Bob Stoops, predictably, say he's not interested in the Broncos. ... Scott Shafer, self-proclaimed scapegoat for Michigan's collapse, will take over as defensive coordinator on Doug Marrone's new staff in Syracuse, Shafer's fourth different stop in as many years. ... Speaking of Michigan castoffs, Sam McGuffie appears ready to enroll at Rice. ... USC defensive coordinator Nick Holt is interviewing at Washington for his old SC colleague Steve Sarkisian, for some reason. ... For the hundredth year in a row, the Big Ten has to travel farther to bowl games than its opponents. Can't global warming help a conference out? ... Georgia Tech's Michael Johnson is watching his draft stock fall after a disappointing senior year, and face facts: Matt Stafford is all but gone from Georgia. ... And Mack Brown says "a season like this ... [exposes] some flaws we need to continue to look at" in the BCS. That looks like one crowded limb there, coach.
 
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "> In B.C.S., Dollars Are the Only Relevant Numbers </nyt_headline>

<nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
</nyt_byline> Apart from the few universities that enjoy the guaranteed big payouts, it is almost impossible to find anyone who is completely satisfied with the Bowl Championship Series — and not much easier to find anyone who even understands how it works.
Statistically, the system is such an abomination that at least one expert — Hal S. Stern, a professor of statistics at the University of California, Irvine — advocated that no self-respecting statistician should have anything to do with it. In an article published in The Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports two years ago, he wrote that the B.C.S. computer rankings serve as little more than a confirmation of the results of the two opinion polls the system also uses to create its rankings. The people who run the computer rankings, he noted, have never been given any clear objective criteria to design their programs, and they are not allowed to use the score or site of a game in their calculations. Stern urged a boycott, a refusal by the community of statisticians to lend credibility to a system he regards as scientifically bankrupt.
“They’ve set themselves up to solve an insoluble problem,” Stern said. “You have teams that are very difficult to compare across conferences. Is the best team the one that’s winning the most games now, even though they had a lot of injuries early in the season and lost some games? They’ve never said what the criteria are for picking the best team.”
Stern, President-elect Barack Obama and almost any fan one asks would like to see a tournament, but the B.C.S. is unlikely to provide one soon. The reason, Stern said, is money.
Under the rules, the championship teams of the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern Conferences go to the B.C.S. automatically. This season, the first team in each conference to qualify receives $18 million — win, lose or draw — and that money is distributed in that team’s conference. If a second team from a conference qualifies, the conference shares an additional $4.5 million.
But the rules for the other five conferences are different. One champion from one of the non-B.C.S. conferences gets in if it is ranked in the top 12 or ranked in the top 16 but higher than a B.C.S. conference champion. That is how Utah, ranked sixth, found its way to the Sugar Bowl against Alabama and an $18 million payday, to be shared among the five smaller conferences.
But no other small-conference team made it. Boise State went 12-0, won the Western Athletic Conference and finished the regular season ranked ninth in the B.C.S. For this, the Broncos earned a trip to the inventively named San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl and collected $750,000 — a set of steak knives compared with the Cadillac that is a B.C.S. berth, even after sharing the revenue. Boise State lost that game to Texas Christian, another non-B.C.S. program. The Horned Frogs finished second to Utah in the Mountain West and ranked 11th in the final B.C.S. standings.
Boise State and T.C.U. ranked higher in the B.C.S. than the Orange Bowl participants: No. 12 Cincinnati, winner of the Big East, and No. 19 Virginia Tech, winner of the Atlantic Coast. For their efforts, the Bearcats and Hokies came away with $18 million each for their leagues to share. Strange? It becomes even stranger.
Notre Dame, an independent, goes to the B.C.S. if it ranks eighth or higher in the standings — not a consideration this year because the team made no one’s top 25. But no matter: Notre Dame gets an automatic $1.3 million payout whether it makes it to the championship series or not.
There is, most people agree, a better way. In a paper published last spring in The Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, Brady T. West, a doctoral student in survey methodology at the University of Michigan, conceived a playoff system with the teams selected by criteria that include scoring margin, offensive yardage, first downs a game, defensive yardage yielded a game and a half-dozen other quantifiable statistics, some not unlike the statistics used in the B.C.S. computer rankings. But the goal, West said, is to have a real tournament. Utah, which thumped Alabama on Friday, would agree.
“Because such a large chunk of the B.C.S. ratings come from human polls and subjective opinion, the final ratings may not indicate what team would fare the best when matched up against other top teams,” he said. “A playoff tournament is really the only way to determine the best college team.”
West suggested an 8- or 16-team single-elimination tournament, with the seedings determined in a way similar to what is done in the B.C.S. rankings. Don’t hold your breath, though.
“The six big conferences don’t want to share money with the smaller conferences,” Stern said. “That to me is the story that people don’t tell.”
 
Press conference set for 3 p.m.

Posted by Bob Condotta
A press conference has been called for 3 p.m. today to announce Washington's new defensive coordinator, Nick Holt.
Holt has been defensive coordinator at USC the last three years.
UW coach Steve Sarkisian said last night he was in talks with Holt and hoped to know something one way or the other soon. Sounds like they got it done and Holt's the guy.
I'll link our story here again today with background on the Hold situation. And here's the LA Daily News story from today with some more detail on why Holt might want to leave the Trojans.
Here is Holt's bio from the USC web site. As you can see, he has significant Northwest experience from his days at Idaho. He worked there for a few years with Chris Tormey, who had been on Washington's staff since 2004. Tormey had been told he was being let go but is thought willing to come back to UW so we'll see if Holt's naming as DC brings Tormey back into the fold. Tormey was head coach at Idaho from 1995-98 during a time when Holt was defensive coordinator.
For those who want to watch it, a live video stream will be available on GoHuskies.com. We'll have full coverage here, as well.
 
We Hardly Knew Ye: To the uncoverable receivers of the Class of 2006, well done

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
All weekend, for no reason in particular, I found myself quietly imitating Brent Musburger's call of Texas Tech's winning touchdown against Texas, that breathless, "Crab-trehhhhh!" I guess if they replay it often enough, it worms its way in and just keeps echoing:
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZaN_ce47MOY&hl=en&fs=1" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="295">Popout​
Well, at some point, probably, the call will fade, but hopefully not for Crabtree himself, who brought them out of the stands for two years in Lubbock and now apparently will take his game pro ($) at some point this week. Rumor (key word) has Crabtree hiring a "pro staff" -- including a "personal assistant" who worked with Michael Irvin during the Playmaker's NFL career-- and attending a Deion Sanders clinic before the combine. Because he redshirted, somehow, Crabtree has two years of eligibility remaining, but given the buzz and his exceptionally high grade, the waiting seems like a formality.
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It's common enough for obscure, scout team redshirts to draw "Next Big Thing" raves, but almost unheard of for them to actually exceed the "fool-hearted" visions of grandeur from their own eager fans. Crabtree obliterated every standard, put Texas Tech on the national map and made Mike Leach a national figure, for which everyone should be grateful.
More concretely, another prolific wideout from the Class of 2006, North Carolina's Hakeem Nicks, has already filed the necessary paperwork to enter the draft, where he's likely to be the first receiver off the board after Crabtree.
Nicks probably deserves to be known for something more than the ridiculous behind-the-back catch he hauled in during a career game in the Car Care Bowl: Coaches named him first team All-ACC two years in a row, and he led the conference in receiving by almost 400 yards over the runner-up; Nicks was the only ACC receiver over 1,000 yards, the only one to haul in more than 12 touchdowns and one of only two with double-digit receptions to average more than 17 yards per grab. If his combine numbers are anywhere near as impressive, he'll be justly rewarded on the first day.
 
A Split National Title Needs to Happen

from The FanHouse - NCAAfootball
by Mark HastyFiled under: Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Utah, BCS, Big 12, Mountain West, Pac 10, SEC, NCAA FB Media Watch, Bowl Games
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Thursday night, Florida and Oklahoma will meet in Miami to play the BCS Championship Game. The winner of that game will be regarded as the national champion by their fans, by the BCS, and by the coaches who are forced to declare them as such. Nobody else has to acknowledge their legitimacy, and nobody else should.

The reasons why you, the fan, shouldn't let the BCS tell you who the national champion is are many, but they all center around the same problem. The polls, both human and computer, have far too much say in determining who gets to play for this bogus national title which usually proves to be about as legitimate as a politician's apology. Sometimes the polls get it right; more often, the poll voters whiff it.

This year the pollers sent the Gators and Sooners to the title game. A few weeks back that seemed like a reasonable conclusion. The Gators beat Alabama, the No. 1 team in the country, in the SEC championship game. The Sooners made a little less sense, given that they'd lost to Texas, a team which seemed to have a pretty strong claim themselves. But two horrible miscalculations screwed everything up, just like always.
 
BC Update: Jeff Jagodzinski isn't fired (yet), but he is past tense

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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Nothing is official yet, at least not until Jeff Jagodzinski goes ahead with the interview with the Jets tonight or Tuesday that will apparently lead to his termination as head coach at Boston College. But athletic director Gene DeFilippo doesn't sound like a man in wait-and-see mode:
"Jeff is a very good man and an excellent football coach," DeFilippo said. "He did a wonderful job for us while he was here at BC. I wish Jeff would not take this interview and would remain as head coach at BC."
​
Emphasis is mine, for obvious reasons: When your boss is referring to your performance in the past tense, that is a bad sign.
If Jagodzinski's fired, the school could be on the hook for the last three years of his contract, but the breaking point doesn't seem to be anything specific in Jags' contract as much as the fact that he allegedly denied reports that he'd had contact with New York when DeFilippo asked him Saturday, not long before reporters tipped the AD to a planned meeting between Jagodzinski and the Jets, according to the Boston Globe. It seems there was also a "mutual understanding" Jags wouldn't go job-hunting for at least three years, another potential deal-breaker:
Even if Jagodzinski canceled the meeting [with the Jets] and wanted to return to BC, DeFilippo feels that the issue of trust had been breached, which would make it difficult for the coach to return for a third season.
The Globe also backtracks on the earlier assumption that offensive coordinator Steve Logan is the de facto promotion; longtime defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani, who's survived the Tom Coughlin and Tom O'Brien regimes and was a candidate for the top job two years ago, is in the mix as well. If DeFilippo is looking for "a true BC guy," Spaziani's about as entrenched there as you can be -- although not entrenched enough to ward off the inevitable Phil Fulmer rumor ($). I don't know if ESPN's willing to let him go just like that, guys.
 
The Reason Utah is not in the BCS title game: Harris Voters admit to not watching Utah

from The Mountain West Conference Connection by Jeremy

In a great insightful article by Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel that had quotes from multiple Harris Poll voters who admitted to not seeing any or very little at all of Utah’s games this year. Let me remid the readers that the Harris poll makes up one third of the BCS which pits the number one versus number two teams for the mythical national champion for college football. The AP pulled out because they did not want to make the news, and they were replaced by many former coaches, athletes, and others to vote. The Harris poll had a diverse group from across the country but that did not stop voters from watching games.
Just ask some of the voters in the Harris Interactive Poll, which helps determine the title-game matchup.
“I did not see them play [in the regular season],” Bobby Aillet said.
“I didn’t see any live games,” Lance McIlhenny said. “I just [saw] highlights.”
“I don’t recall if I saw them play specifically during the regular season,” David Housel said. “I don’t remember a specific game.”
​
All I can say is WOW! Another excuse was that the Utah games are difficult to find with being on Versus, CBS College Sports and the league owned Mountain West network. In years past the Mtn. was only available in the great Mountain West region, but this year the league owned channel is available on DirecTv. The argument that the games are hard to find is some what valid, but the Pac-10 has a crummy tv deal where one would need the same package to see all the games that are on the Fox Sports Net regional channel.
Yes, the Pac-10 has some games on ESPN and ABC, but Versus is in as many households as ESPN and CBS College is widely available. These voters do not need to watch every game of every league, but one would think that they would watch something especially with Utah who was undefeated and finished their regular season the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Another great quote from this article is Wetzel’s comment, ‘Whether Utah deserved to be ranked No. 1, 2 or 25 isn’t the point of this argument. The Utes deserved to have voters at least see them.’
The worst offender is broadcaster Don Criqui, didn’t even bother to cast a final ballot. That vote should be taken away for not caring about this process, but why would he care if the title is not really decided. Utah has the disadvantages of playing in a league that is 10 years old, and does not have the history of the team they just embarassed on national televison. If the same players donned the unis of a Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame, or any university with history they would have been in the title game no questions.
Utah may not be as good as Florida, Oklahoma, or USC but they are in the same class as those schools this year and in the past decade. If history does matter then schools should do their research and know that Utah has been to six consecutive bowls and won them all, and currently have the longest bowl win streak at eight. The Utes are the only school in the BCS era to finish undefeated twice. Is that enough history for you?
Also, I am posting a link to ESPN’s video where former Ute Jamal Anderson debates Skip Bayless who is a complete idiot! Watch the video and he comes off like an idiot. Bayless big argument that Alabama was defleated for not making the title game and that the loss of Andre Smith. Those arguments are weak, because just after Bayless says those he follows straight in line by saying that the Utes right end, 0r better known as Paul Kruger, ran wild. So, what does that say about the Alabama back ups, yes having Andre Smith not in the game hurt but he does not play defense and does not throw the balls.
Bayless came out like the typical east coast homer, by saying history does not count but history and tradition is what gave Alabama the benefit of the doubt of being number one, and it gives USC some credit for getting a share of the title. The same USC team that go handled by Oregon State who was defeated by Utah.
Just go watch the video, it is priceless.
 
The Fiesta Bowl's little miracles

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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Texas 24, Ohio State 21. The fourth quarter of this game was miraculous in two specific ways: a) Texas rallied from behind for a dramatic, game-winning two-minute drill, on which it was an inch or so from going home a loser on a key fourth down spot, and b) Ohio State found enough fight on offense to actually make it a game in the first place. Make no mistake, "miracle" is the most appropriate word to describe the fact that Ohio State led in the final seconds and very nearly won. I sincerely hoped to see a little derring do from an offense with an exceptional athlete coming into his own at quarterback and absolutely nothing to lose. Instead, we got a heavy dose of Todd Boeckman. Once the Longhorns tightened the screws on Beanie Wells in the second quarter, OSU's offense devolved into a flurry of bewildering Boeckman bombs and Pryor hardly throwing at all because he was too busy running for his life. The Buckeyes had no deep passing game with Pryor (I don't think he had a chance to set his feet on a single throw), no horizontal passing game to keep Texas honest in the flats and seemingly no chance once Texas' offense found a little life with time running down in the first half.
During one stretch in the second and third quarters, the Buckeyes gained 10 yards on 11 plays on three straight drives, during which they also fell behind 17-6. Colt McCoy's touchdown pass to Quan Cosby near the end of the third, to cap an 85-yard drive just a few minutes after the Longhorns went ahead on a 15-play, 73-yard march out of the locker room, that was game. Texas finally showed up, Ohio State faded again, the Horn defense was in a position to pin its ears back with a two-score lead, etc. By the looks of things, the Buckeyes had been put out of their misery with 1:04 to play in the third quarter.
Instead, they strung together back-to-back-to-back drives covering 47, 83 and 70 yards (easily more yards than on their previous eight possessions combined), did some ridiculous thing with Boeckman lobbing up a touchdown pass to the suddenly Crabtree-esque Pryor, scored 15 unanswered points and gave themselves a legitimate chance to win. If the side judge spots James Kirkendoll a few inches short of the OSU 40-yard line on a short fourth down completion on Texas' subsequent game-winning drive, the Buckeyes would have won. That, at least, is a step forward for a team that's faded fast and spun out of control when other elite opponents have rallied for two-score leads under similar circumstances. That, and Terrelle Pryor still can still outrun everyone on the field while barely breaking a sweat.
As for Texas, I enjoyed Mack Brown and Colt McCoy's rehearsed "We're No. 1 and we can beat anyone in the country" routine after the game, when they were 16 seconds away from blowing a late double-digit lead to a nine-point underdog. That's more than a little disingenuous -- perfectly understandable, given Kyle Whittingham's politicking following Utah's win in the Sugar Bowl and the open talk of splitting the national championship -- but not exactly sincere under the circumstances of this win. A 12-1 season with three wins over top-20 teams is a 12-1 season with three wins over top-20 teams, though, so if there's a case for the Longhorns to claim a fourth piece of the fractured title picture, I'm more than willing to help them make it. In the morning.
 
Clemson Hires Bama's Kevin Steele As DC

from The FanHouse - NCAAfootball
by IanFiled under: Alabama, Clemson, ACC, SEC, NCAA FB Coaching
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Well, at least someone from the Alabama program is having a good 2009 so far. Not to be confused with "defensive coordinator," "defensive head coach" Kevin Steele is being tabbed as the new DC at Clemson under the no-longer-interim, no-he's-not-the-new-Bill-Stewart Dabo Swinney. He will also coach the linebackers. It's a return home for the 50-year old from Dillon.

It continues Swinney's infatuation with former 'Bama coaches, and expectedly so considering his ties to the program. Sources aren't certain whether it's a significant pay raise for Steele, but if Clemson's been knowing to have deep pockets when things like this hang in the balance. Regardless of the performance in the Sugar Bowl (Steele coaches the inside LBs), it's probably a wise hire for Clemson, as its become clear that expanding further into SEC territory can only help taking into account the dearth of top-level talent in their own state.
 
Headlinin': Texas wins poll of Texas coaches

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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• If the Horns are champions in their own hearts, that's all that matters. At least Mack Brown (who actually voted Texas No. 2 in his final regular season ballot, behind Florida) and Colt McCoy think Texas deserves a piece of the mythical championship, because almost nobody else thinks it's going to happen after the Longhorns' too-close-for-comfort win in the Fiesta Bowl. Based on just a quick run through the morning opinions, John Bridges and Kirk Bohls (despite what I think is a misleading headline, "Texas has look of a champion") in the Austin American-Statesman, Berry Tramel in the Oklahoman as well as national observers Dan Shanoff, Mike Freeman (who is a terrible writer but has a forum), Olin Buchanan and Adam Rittenberg all go with some variation on, "Nice win, but not nice enough." Bohls speculates the Horns will be No. 2 in both the AP and Coaches polls. I suspect Utah will have something to say about that, and possibly USC as well. Not that any of the hair-splitting distinctions below No. 1 will be worth more anything more than a dissatisfied grumble, anyway, unless you just think of them all as champions, polls be damned.
• We have no stake in the polls, but that's OK. Meanwhile, Ohio State's loss is the Big Ten's sixth straight in BCS games and means the conference finishes 1-5 in this year's bowl slate (woo Hawkeyes!). After Penn State's Trojan-induced implosion in the Rose Bowl, Big Ten commish Jim Delany told the Chicago Tribune he's not worried about the slide, because these things are "cyclical." Maybe he's right: The Big Ten was 8-5 in BCS games from 1998-2005, virtually tied with the SEC (7-4) for the best winning percentage of any of the major leagues in the Series' first eight years. That still doesn't stop Delany from looking like a complacent, oblivious captain of the Titanic after three terrible postseasons in a row.
• This just in: Nothing's changed. Jeff Jagodzinski apparently remains Boston College's head coach this morning, though the Jets interview and his subsequent termination still loom while his athletic director and local columnists alike are already referring to him in the past tense.
There is some buzz that Jags wants out of the college ranks ($), mainly because he's not too keen on recruiting, and is willing to take the axe and rejoin an NFL staff. If he goes through with his meeting with the Jets today, whether he gets that job or not, he'll get his wish.
Quickly ... With receivers coach/assistant head coach Trooper Taylor, four-fifths of Auburn's new coaching staff is black. What does Charles Barkley think of that? As for the one white guy, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, he drinks a lot of coffee. ... Kevin Steele is definitely leaving Alabama to become defensive coordinator at Clemson, but it's going to cost the Tigers in the end. ... Longtime Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis, rumored to be hired at LSU last week, officially joined the Tiger staff Monday. ... Steve Sarkisian has lured his old USC colleague, Nick "Stone Cold" Holt, to be his defensive coordinator at Washington. Holt's replacement will probably be promoted from within the Trojan staff, likely secondary coach Rocky Seto or linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. ... Dan Mullen is a man with two cell phones. ... South Carolina linebacker Eric Norwood, after declaring for the draft following the Outback Bowl, has changed his mind and will be back with the Gamecocks. ... Ex-Trojan Emmanuel Moody thinks Florida has too much speed for his old mates, hypothetically speaking. ... And the Jamarkus McFarland piece was one thing, but does Thayer Evans really think Bob Stoops' BCS championship in 2000 bears John Blake's fingerprints?
 
Bevo's Daily Round Up 1.06.09

from Burnt Orange Nation by dimecoverage
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Fantastic finish.
Though the Buckeyes took the lead with 2:05 to play, a 26-yard touchdown pass from Texas star Colt McCoy to Quan Cosby with 16 seconds remaining left the Buckeyes to end their third consecutive season in defeat, No. 3 Texas taking the Fiesta Bowl over the No. 10 Buckeyes, 24-21, on Monday night.
"It's a loss. We can't be proud of close," Pryor said. "It's the type of game you've got to take over. We've got to win these games. Hanging with them is not good enough."
​
The win last night speaks volume about this year's team.
Texas made its statement with heart, resolve and a relentless will to win.
This is the kind of game Mack Brown will cherish long after he’s done. When people ask why he loved coaching, he’ll tell them about this Monday night. He’ll talk about Quan Cosby, who has neither the speed nor size of a great wide receiver. Yet he’s a great wide receiver because he has soft hands, terrific instincts and deceptive strength. He’s a lot like quarterback Colt McCoy, who is gifted in ways that can’t always be measured. He is another guy Brown will remember. Not because he’s big or strong. Not because he does anything flashy, either. He’ll be remembered because he wins.​


SI's Arash Markazi believes it could not have ended any other way.
It's become a storyline as cliché as boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in the end.
Only for Ohio State, its romantic comedy has devolved into a horror film where the Buckeyes get the lead, lose the lead and continually fall short in the end. It's a script they've followed the past three years in BCS bowls, although this year's episode provided the most heart-wrenching finale.
​
Mack Brown will finally vote Texas No. 1.
"I wasn't sure before right now, but Friday morning I'm going to vote Texas No. 1 because I think this is the best team in the country," Brown said.
​
Brown still does not believe the current system can pick a definitive national champion.
Mack Brown said Sunday that recent upsets in BCS bowl games, combined with a matchup of one-loss teams in Thursday’s BCS national championship game, make it clear that "our system is not set up to have a definite [No. 1] in years like this."
​
Barking Carnival discusses the game and provides a wrap-up.
A last look at Eleven Warriors.
Ouch. This one will take a while to get over, but for the first time in three bowl seasons, we can all be proud at how the Buckeyes played.
​
NewsOK's Barry Tramel does not believe the Fiesta Bowl squeaker should vault the Horns into the No. 1 spot.
AP voters, of course, are not bound by the BCS national championship game, and they can do whatever they want in poll voting, and FOX broadcasters kept asking if the Longhorns could jump to No. 1 in AP.
Let me get this straight. The No. 3-ranked team is supposed to ride a narrow victory, achieved in the final seconds, over the No. 10 team, and leapfrog whoever wins the No. 1 vs. No. 2 shootout of Oklahoma-Florida?
This is not a discussion for people dealing in reality. There is not, and there was not, a scenario by which the Longhorns could jump to the top.
​
CBSSports' Mike Freeman did not think Texas made a statement last night, either.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Congratulations, Texas. You won. You beat a tortoise-slow Ohio State team with its overrated coach who can no longer win a big postseason game. Nice work. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Now comes the tough love. The Longhorns were victorious and losers at the same time. Yes, both these things are true. They won the game and lost a chance to tell college football that they belong with the big boys this season. They choked away a long shot at history. [/FONT]
​
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg thinks we made our case, despite the cose win.
The Longhorns won by only three points Monday. They showed tremendous fortitude, made key plays and rallied past an Ohio State team that finally began to play to its potential. Yet a 3-point win against the runner-up from the beleaguered Big Ten Conference won't convince many that Texas should be at the top. Neither will an offense that produced well below its season averages.
​


MIke Leach was profiled on 60 Minutes. The Wiz of Odds has the video, in case you missed it. Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall asks if Leach really is a genius or jjust a master of working his own system.
Ben Burns, a starter on the Cyclone offensive line in 2000 and a third-team All-American, is still at Gene Chizik. He has started a blog.

The Sooners

The Sooners go bipolar. Remember this article from Barry Tramel from back in October? Now, they are asking if this is their greatest offensive team to date.
OU vs. Florida is turning into a bad drama with a lot of subplots.
Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer discuss the BCS title game. Barry knows how to be diplomatic.
Both are outstanding players, Heisman Trophy winners. I always said, if I had a quarterback who's going to run my offense, my quarterback's going to have the ability to run (the ball). If I was coaching, I would probably want Tebow because of my playbook. But Oklahoma has a different playbook. Tebow probably couldn't perform as well in Oklahoma's playbook as Bradford does, and Bradford certainly wouldn't run the option like Tebow runs it. ... You're not going to get me into saying I wouldn't have Bradford. I live in this state. (Laughing.) Bradford's going to be the guy playing quarterback for me, OK?
​
Barry Switzer does not believe past OU's BCS loses have any thing to do with this year's game.
"Anything that has to do with the past doesn't have a damn thing to do with this game. This is a different football team. This is a better team than they've taken to previous bowl games. Anytime you go to a BCS game, especially the championship game, you are playing teams good or better than you. The last two times Oklahoma has been in this situation, they played teams I believed were better than them."
​
Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was clearly not impressed with Dominique Franks comments about Tim Tebow.
Florida’s Tim Tebow chuckled Monday when asked his reaction to comments made by Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks, who said Tebow would be the Big 12’s fourth-best quarterback.
But for Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes, it was no laughing matter.
"If they can stop our offense, hey, my hat goes off to them," Spikes told reporters during media day. "But I really don't think they can. As long as we play well on defense, give the ball back to Tim and the rest of those guys, we should roll.
​
Tim Tebow takes the criticism from Franks in stride.
During Monday’s media day at Dolphin Stadium, Tebow smiled slyly when Franks’s comments were brought up.
"There are a lot of good quarterbacks in the Big 12," Tebow said. "I take it as a compliment."
​
Linebacker Travis Lewis is still tired of hearing about Big 12 defenses.
"We’ve got a lot of guys going out there with chips on their shoulders," Lewis said of what he, and teammates, perceive as media criticism of OU’s defense. "We do listen to the media. We do read some of the articles. It's great to see that everybody expects us to just go out there and two offenses show up and one defense (Florida's) shows up.
​
The Sooners do need to provide some proof. Remember, A&M scored 14 points off kick returns. Yes, that A&M.
Venables' unit was further compromised by one of the nation's worst kickoff defenses, which allowed four returns for touchdowns and all too routinely gave away field position.
"Our first four games, we really dominated our opponents," Venables says. "Then we lost our middle linebacker (Ryan Reynolds to a season-ending knee injury) and had a bad fourth quarter against Texas. Against Kansas, we had one bad quarter. Gave up a couple of hundred yards, had a guy fall down on a post route and that scored some easy points. We had a bad quarter against Kansas State.
"Nebraska, they scored a touchdown with less than a minute to go. (Texas) A&M scored 14 points off kick returns."
Yes, he gets a little … uh, defensive.
​
If Percy Harvin is healthy, OU better be prepared to run.
Sam Bradford isn't necessarily comfortable with the notoriety that comes with winning the Heisman.
OU has a three-game losing streak in bowl games. Bob Stoops is sick of hearing about the past.
With OU days away from Thursday's BCS National Championship game against Florida and yet another chance to end the big-game "whoops," Stoops plays it cool when the streak question comes up.
Does it bother you?
"You've got a chance to win a national championship. That's what I'm focused on," he said.
"No, that stuff doesn't ..." his voice trailed off as he shook his head. "We've won our share of games."

​
Bob Stoops sympathizes with Utah's plight.
"Absolutely," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said Monday when asked if he sympathized with college football's lone undefeated team being shut out of the Bowl Championship Series title game. "They're a good football team … an excellent football team. They beat a really good Alabama team."
​
Basketball

Rick Barnes is good at getting under the skin of opponents, especially Arkansas.
When we last saw the Texas Longhorns basketball team, it was being heartily booed in Alltel Arena during the NCAA Tournament.
Rick Barnes, the head coach, said if the fans didn't treat his team fair he would cancel the game he had scheduled with the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
He was kidding.
It was just a joke that some folks took the wrong way, and today at 8 p.m. on ESPN2, a once-fierce rivalry will be resumed.
​
Texas forward Connor Atchley may not play tonight.
Kansas State has five consecutive wins and they are feeling good about upcoming conference play.
It’s the last nonconference game, a final tuneup for Big 12 play. Coach Frank Martin isn’t sure how his Wildcats will respond when the league portion of the schedule begins, but only because they’re not there yet.
He’s not discouraged by what he’s seen, but he chooses not to issue predictions.
"We continue to grow," Martin said. "That’s what you’re looking for."
​
No. 6 Oklahoma beat Maryland Eastern Shore 100-64.
The Aggies may not be as good as their 13-1 record.
"I want them to play well all the time"
That's a simple and obvious statement Texas A&M men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon made about his team after the Aggies latest win, a 57-52 victory over 5-7 McNeese State on Saturday.
There are legitimate reasons why Turgeon wants more from his team. Even though the Aggies are going to finish with a better nonconference record than most had predicted, there have been stretches during games that make you wonder how this team is 13-1 going into its final tuneup Monday before Big 12 play.
​
Baseball

Baylor's field of dreams. Bear baseball has been around since 1902 and the school has produced some outstanding players. The Waco Tribune looks at the all-time greats.
 
Ohio State's moral victory for the ages

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton
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Because I'm fascinated with the group psychology of mega school fan bases in general, and especially those that can plausibly consider winning 10 games, earning a BCS bid and finishing in the top 12 or so for the fourth year in a row a disappointment, I was interested to see the reaction this morning to the question on the Columbus Daily News' Buckeye front page: "What grade do you give the Ohio State football team this past season?" But when I clicked on the link, nothing was there. Is this supposed to be some kind of metaphor? Or were the responses just unprintable?
My sense, given the staggering expectations at the start of the year and the supposed lack of Fiesta Bowl buzz at the end, was that finishing as a three-loss, Big Ten runner-up with all of one win (Michigan State) over a team that might finish in the final polls will go down as a disappointment -- or as much of a disappointment as anything short of a wholesale, Michigan/Auburn/Tennessee-like collapse could be. OSU was supposed to be a national championship team and ends the season with no championship of any kind, national, conference or bowl. Hell, Cincinnati was going around before the Orange Bowl proclaiming itself the champion of Ohio.
That may be unfair, though, because preseason expectations were so thoroughly obliterated at Southern Cal in September. If you recalibrate the Buckeyes' scarred mindset from that sobering blowout going forward, OSU fans seemed to have one goal -- just don't get humiliated again in national games against other mega-schools -- and by that standard, Monday's last-second, 24-21 Fiesta Bowl loss to Texas was a smashing success:
Remember the 1992 tie with Michigan that Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee called the greatest win in the school's long football history? This was something like that.
OSU's 24-21 loss to Texas last night in the Fiesta Bowl isn't the new greatest win, but it did feel more like a victory than so many of the others. ... This last-minute loss, bitter as it is, looks positively gorgeous when you place it next to the program's three recent high-profile losses.
​
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That's the Dispatch. You can find similar sentiments today at Eleven Warriors ("... at least it temporarily halts the slide [the program] had been on for two years."), Around the Oval's short open thread ("Some measure of redemption for the program, I would think."), Men of the Scarlet and Gray ("Even with the loss, the Buckeyes clearly won back quite a bit of respect.") and, of course, on the message boards.
Not that there's anything wrong with the "moral victory" route, per sé -- after three straight blowouts at the hands of elite non-conference competition, it's one of the first thoughts I had after a close Ohio State loss, too, mainly because OSU had to show some fight from two scores down in the fourth quarter to make it close -- but please, Buckeyes, don't let your recent big-game angst infect your pride and joy for the next two years, who still only understands winning:
"It's a loss. We can't be proud of close," Pryor said. "It's the type of game you've got to take over. We've got to win these games. Hanging with them is not good enough."
​
This is just another way Pryor reminds me of Vince Young, who inherited the submissive end of Texas' lopsided rivalry with Oklahoma: Like VY, Terrelle obviously has a long, long way to go in the pocket, but at least he doens't seem like the type to ever fall prey to an inferiority complex.
 
Rice's James Casey Declares for NFL Draft, But What Position Will He Play?

from The FanHouse - NCAAfootball
by Michael David SmithFiled under: Rice, Conference USA, NCAA FB Prospects
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The most intriguing pro prospect in college football, Rice's James Casey, has declared for the NFL draft. And if you've never heard of Casey and you're not sure why he's the nation's most intriguing pro prospect, let us count the ways:

1. He's 24 years old.
2. He only played two years of college football.
3. He's a ridiculously good all-around athlete, having spent four years as a minor league baseball player and one season as a javelin thrower on Rice's track team.
4. He was so versatile at Rice that he started his first spring practice at safety, then got moved to defensive end, and also lined up at quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, fullback and running back. Oh, and he also played special teams.

And it's that last one that is the most interesting of all, because we really have no idea what position the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Casey will play in the NFL. After setting a Conference USA single-season record for catches with 111 last year, one would assume he'll play wide receiver or tight end, but that's not necessarily the case.
 
Morning Coffee Munches On Leftover Tostitos

from Burnt Orange Nation by GhostofBigRoy
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Too small and not fast enough. Putting aside the infamous dropped interception in a certain West Texas town, true freshman safety Blake Gideon came out of nowhere (or Leander, whichever you prefer) to earn a starting safety position this season. Cerebral, and the coaches son, Gideon generally covered his physical deficiencies by understanding the scheme and putting himself in a position to make plays. What Gideon isn't, though, is physically gifted enough to start at safety for Texas over the next three years. With undersized Earl Thomas lining up alongside Gideon in the secondary, the Longhorns lack the size and the ability to lay any serious wood on receivers wanting to catch the ball over the middle. In other words, the Longhorns need a Craig Loston or a Kevin Brent, both big, fast, physical safeties who escaped the Lone Star State.
Ohio State exposed Gideon's lateral quickness and explosiveness, of which he seems to possess neither. Basically, Gideon is fine reading and reacting downhill, but has absolutely no ability to change direction. The greatest attribute for a safety is range, not just in one direction but also laterally. The play against Pryor in the end zone was just an unacceptable effort. Lacking time to turn and find the ball, Gideon should have relied on Pryor's eyes to see when the ball was coming and attempt to get a hand or two up in his face. Didn't happen and Gideon looked pathetic.
Christian Scott needs to learn the scheme this offseason and overcome whatever mental obstacles have kept him off the field because the Longhorns will need him next year as a physical presence in the secondary to complement Earl Thomas. In a concession to inexperience, the defensive coaches simplified their schemes to left and right safety, instead of the usual strong and free definitions--expect that to change and for Scott to find his way onto the field.

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Colt McCoy's legacy drive. Amongst Colt McCoy's precision passes and assault on the Heisman trophy and Texas record book, the predominant question surrounding McCoy this season was the question of his legacy, his place alongside the best Texas quarterbacks ever to don the burnt orange. After leading second half comebacks against Oklahoma and Texas Tech, smashing the NCAA single season completion percentage record, and obliterating a host of Texas records, what did McCoy have to prove?
How about a game-winning drive in a BCS bowl game? With slightly less than two minutes left on the clock and following a punch-in-the-stomach drive by Ohio State to take a late lead, McCoy was faced with the task of marching his team 79 yards to the red Ohio State endzone, needing a touchdown with a four point deficit. Despite pressure in his face all evening, McCoy calmly lead the team down the field, several times hitting Brandon Collins and connecting with James Kirkendoll on a fourth down that barely crossed the plane of the first down marker. Yes, McCoy was about to place himself in the pantheon of all-time greats, with just a little help from his friends.
Enter the oldest player on the team, former minor league baseball player and Mart quarterback, Quan Cosby...
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Cosby goes out in style. With more style than the sweaters Bill Cosby used to rock on his television show. It wasn't a gaudy or garish style, unlike the sweaters worn by the comedian. It was consistent, efficient, just like Cosby has been for years now. All night, Colt McCoy found Cosby open, connecting 13 times before the final offensive snap. It was Cosby with a one-handed catch on a long third down play crossing the field and picking up another set of downs. Cosby using his body once more to shield the defender as McCoy put a dart right in his chest. Cosby, with a bone crunching block reminiscent of the lick laid to Lendy Holmes in the Cotton Bowl, freeing Colt McCoy for the first Longhorn touchdown.
Finally, with the clock nearing 30 seconds and the number of chances to avert a disastrous loss dwindling by the ticking of the clock, McCoy found Brandon Collins for a 14-yard gain and a first down, with Collins coming up limping after the play. Perhaps expecting the Longhorns to substitute for the injured player, the Ohio State defense seemed caught off guard when McCoy and his offense rushed to the line of scrimmage, as they had done to great effect in the second half.
Fatally unprepared, the Buckeyes left no safety deep and brought their linebackers up near the line of scrimmage, a monumental blunder of the type that would even be uncharacteristic for Brent Venables. You. Must. Protect. Your. Endzone. Or not. Cosby ran a slant, McCoy hit him in stride, and Cosby eluded the safety, the last line of the Buckeye defense and found nothing but green grass in front of him and the red-painted turf of the Ohio State endzone to greet his celebratory dive, the last offensive play of his career at Texas. It was fitting that it would end this way, McCoy to Cosby, the most prolific throwing and catching duo in the illustrious history of the program. Yes, fitting that this team leader and role model to his younger teammates would put the exclamation point on one of the greatest seasons in Texas football history.
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Pryor is the real deal, but...Does he just hate to get hit or what? Several times in the first half when running the football, Terrelle Pryor went weakly out of bounds, leaving yards upon yards of open field in front of him before the closest Longhorn defender. Repeatedly, as the Texas defensive line got pressure on him, he failed to step into his throws, consistently leaving them short of his receivers, giving them no play on the ball. For such a big, strong kid, the lack of desire to mix it up with smaller defenders speaks volumes about Pryor's toughness, or complete lack thereof. I mean, it's not like there is anyone in the back seven for Texas who is likely to knock you out, unless it's Sergio Kindle, who seemed only to play situationally against the Buckeyes.
Beyond the toughness factor, Pryor is the real deal. Kid blew up the angles of Longhorn defenders all night and used his quickness to avoid Longhorn rushers time after time. After that performance, it's hard to believe that he was sacked 19 times this season--the Longhorn defenders didn't have a chance unless Pryor failed to realize they were there until the last second. Like Robert Griffin, it's an extremely difficult task to keep contain and not stray too far upfield and leave gaping running lanes for the long-legged quarterback (yes, that means you Henry Melton). The passing game was a struggle, as Pryor's footwork often left him, as he failed to step into a great many throws when pressured, as mentioned above. Compared to the mechanical disaster that is Vince Young throwing a football, the footwork impediments to passing success are much less significant than faced the Longhorn great. Pryor doesn't have the elusiveness or balance of Young, but he does run well behind his pads and his long stride and grace when running certainly call to mind VY. Ohio State will return to a national championship game before Pryor leaves Columbus.
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Quick hits. Goodbye Deon Beasley, the Texas defense no longer requires your non-tackling service. Oh yeah, and after you blatantly hold someone, don't clap like you just made a good play...As good as Brian Orakpo is, the Longhorns will miss man-beast Roy Miller clogging the middle more next season...I will parrot PB--What does it take to get Malcolm Williams on the field and have some balls thrown in his direction?...I can't wait to see Aaron Williams on the field consistently, showing off his incredible form tackling...Was Lamarr Houston limited this season because of his ankle, or does he just have a lot harder time affecting the game inside?
 
Jeff Jagodzinski Interviews With the Jets; The Ball Shifts Back Into Boston College's Court

from The FanHouse - Navy Football
by Chris BurkeFiled under: Boston College, NCAA FB Coaching, NCAA FB Rumors
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You were warned, Jeff Jagodzinski.

Athletic director Gene DeFilippo told you that if you interviewed for the New York Jets' vacant head coaching job, you would lose your current head coaching job at Boston College. You went ahead and interviewed with the Jets anyway.

So now this is going to happen:
Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski did indeed interview with the New York Jets and he will therefore not be retained by the school, two people close to the situation told ESPN's Joe Schad on Tuesday.
...
DeFilippo, sources say, thought that Jagodzinski was "disloyal" by not speaking with him before scheduling the Jets interview. One source said on Tuesday that Jagodzinski's decision to follow through on the interview made his fate "a done deal."​
 
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