AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 13
Monday, November 13, 2006
An amazing weekend of games
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Looking back on the weekend:
*Here is why college football has the best regular season of any sport on the planet. Just went you think you’ve got it all figured out, here comes a weekend where four Top 10 teams get beat and the national championship deck gets completely reshuffled.
I know a bunch of you guys want a playoff, but if there were a playoff, what happened last week would not be nearly as dramatic. Louisville losing to Rutgers would not mean as much because Louisville could still make the playoffs. Florida almost losing to South Carolina would not have been so big because Florida could still win the SEC championship and make the playoffs.
*I was reminded yesterday why I’m not a big fan of the computer polls when it comes to the BCS. The computers had Rutgers ranked at No. 2, ahead of Ohio State. Is there any level, other than mathematics, where that makes sense?
Get rid of the computers, bring back the strength of schedule component, and add another poll: The Masters Coaches Survey. This panel of former coaches, including Pat Dye, Vince Dooley, Gene Stallings, and Bo Schembechler, are studying games on Monday and Tuesday and then meeting each Wednesday to make their picks. Their expertise is an element that is currently lacking in the process.
*LSU has the best talent in the SEC, but Arkansas has the best team. The Hogs have gotten better each week and Houston Nutt should probably be the SEC Coach of the Year. The great thing is that we’ll have a chance to prove it on the field when Arkansas meets Florida in the SEC championship game. If Arkansas wins out and Southern Cal loses to Oregon or Notre Dame, then the Hogs have a shot at the title game.
*I take back every negative thing I have ever said about LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell. The past two weeks against Tennessee and Alabama, he has been magnificent. There is no other player in college football like him and if his offensive lines protects, there is not a defense that can stop him.
*After Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe is named the ACC Coach of the Year, he should then become the National Coach of the Year. Wake Forest is 9-1 for the first time in 105 years of college football after beating Florida State 30-0 in Tallahassee. And he’s doing at a place with some of the toughest entrance requirements in the county with a student body of 4,000. Amazing.
