AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2008 > January
January 2008
Thanks for a great season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On the morning of the BCS championship game SEC Commissioner Mike Slive wondered out loud: Was the craziness of the 2007 college football season—with all of the upsets and wild finishes—just an aberration? Or was it a sign of things to come? Is this the way college football is going to be for the foreseeable future?
I think the answer is yes which means we’re going to be having a lot of fun.
After coming to you on almost a daily basis since July 9 I’m going to take a little break to let you get through the Silly Season that is recruiting. We’ll come back sometime around spring practice or if there is news that we need to kick around.
As I have traveled around the country a lot of people have asked me if this was the wildest football season I’ve ever been through. I’ve always said yes. And I can prove it. During the 2007 college football season:
**—I went to Lexington, Ky., three times to watch college football and saw three great games.
**—I saw Georgia wear black jerseys, which evoked an emotional reaction I haven’t seen since Herschel.
**—I saw a 7-6 team (Alabama) almost beat the national champions (LSU).
**—I saw Auburn kicker Wes Bryum handle the pressure to make a field goal twice to win at Florida.
**—I saw Kentucky beat the No. 1 team in the nation (LSU) in triple overtime.
**—I sat in a press box full of Florida writers and saw them smile when Ron Zook, the former Gators’ coach, led his Illinois team to an upset of No. 1 Ohio State. Who said sports writers don’t have a heart?
**—I saw Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, whose tenure seemed in peril after a horrible loss to Alabama (41-17), survive four SEC East elimination games against South Carolina (27-24 OT), Arkansas (34-13), Vanderbilt (25-24), and Kentucky (52-50) to reach the SEC championship game. Say what you want about Fulmer, but he can coach with his back to the wall.
**—I jumped on a plane to Fayetteville, Ark., to chase Bobby Petrino, whose presence will certainly add some flavor to the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin this May.
**—I saw LSU begin Dec. 1 ranked No. 7 in the BCS and by midnight the Tigers were headed to the BCS championship game.
**—I saw Hawaii and its fans enjoy the greatest football moment in school history (Sugar) . Today the coach (June Jones) is at SMU and the athletics director (Herman Frazier) has been fired.
**—And I saw the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans and the unspeakable devastation that STILL exists some 27 months after Katrina hit. That put the rest of this stuff in its proper perspective.
Thanks for your support and your input, which made it a season to remember. I appreciate it.
TB
Permalink | Comments (85) | Post your comment |
Can Georgia handle the hype?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As we pack up the 2007 season, keep your eye on these potential story lines:
1. Georgia is going to get a lot of love: It’s really simple. Most of the national college football writers scheduled to cover the BCS championship came to New Orleans early to see Georgia play Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Because the Bulldogs were so dominant they look like a good alternative to putting Southern Cal No. 1 again in the preseason polls. And if Pete Carroll leaves USC, the Bulldogs could be No. 1 across the board. But can Georgia handle the hype? That will be Mark Richt’s greatest challenge in 2008.
2. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany: His champion, Ohio State, just got its butt kicked in the national championship game for the second straight year by a team from the SEC. Here is why that is significant.
After a story appeared in a Chicago newspaper last year about the SEC’s superior recruiting to that of the Big Ten, Delany said: “Winning OUR (my emphasis) way requires some discipline and restraint with the recruiting process.”
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, being the gentleman that he is, didn’t respond to the scathing stereotype.
Rightly or wrongly, Delany is perceived as the single biggest impediment to changing the BCS system because of the Big Ten’s relationship with the Rose Bowl. Delany is a very smart man. He knows his league controls more TV sets than any other and uses that power to benefit his institutions. That is what the Big Ten presidents pay him to do. But as we move forward on the playoff discussion the heat is going to get turned up on the commish.
And just for the record: 11 LSU seniors graduated early this year and all 25 are on track to graduate before the end of the summer.
3. Keep an eye on the BCS commissioners: Now that UGA president Michael Adams has floated his idea of an eight-team playoff run by the NCAA, look for the commissioners to come out with their own plan as a pre-emptive strive. It will be more modest and probably involve four teams. They meet in Miami in April.
4. The Big Ten, Pac-10 are playing a dangerous game of chicken: Delany and Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen say they will simply withdraw from the BCS and do their own deal with the Rose Bowl if there is a move towards a “Plus One” or a playoff. That’s fine. Let’s see how recruiting goes at those 21 schools when the rest of the gang is playing for the national championship. And if there is a four-team playoff, I think there is a pretty good chance that one of the national semifinals will be played on New Year’s Day at 5 p.m.-the same time as the Rose Bowl.
5. It ain’t going to be a fun spring at Florida: Urban Meyer is not a happy camper with the way the Gators played and coached in the Capital One Bowl. Meyer took the same grumpy approach after this first season in Gainesville and Florida won a national championship in 2006.
Let the “season of discussion” begin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Major League Baseball has its Hot Stove League. Now college football will have, in the words of SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, its “season of discussion.”
There was already going to be a lot of talk about what to do about the post-season in Division I-A football before UGA President Michael Adams floated his idea of an eight-team playoff on Tuesday. Now those discussions will involve a lot more people and will include many more ideas.
In short, there will be no off-season for college football in 2008. This topic is going to dominate everything. Starting with the NCAA Convention this week, every meeting that takes place involving college athletics this year, and there will be a lot of them, will touch on the topic of post-season football.
And that’s a good thing.
The idea of a multi-team playoff in college football has been talked to death. But the topic has never been seriously DISCUSSED among the people who would have the responsibility for formulating and implementing the plan.
It’s one thing to call a sports talk show and to bellow that college football simply MUST have a playoff or life as we know it will end. It’s another thing when you have to actually DO it and will held responsible for the consequences, both intended and unintended.
And understand this. In every effort like this there are unintended consequences.
Here’s one. In early 1994 the NCAA put together a Blue Ribbon panel to simply talk about a college football playoff. The panel even included a couple of student-athletes. One of those was Derrick Brooks, Florida State’s All-America linebacker.
At one point in the discussion Brooks spoke up and said, in so many words: “If the NCAA generates extra millions of dollars with this playoff, how much of a share would the players be expected to receive?”
“It was like somebody had sucked all the air out of the room,” said someone who was actually in the room.
See my point? Any kind of radical shift like this creates all types of circumstances that cannot be foreseen. That is not a reason not to do it. But you better go into the process with your eyes wide open.
What Dr. Adams has done is force all the parties involved to have this discussion and to put everything on the table. There has been anecdotal evidence that some presidents want some kind of a playoff. Others want no part of this issue. Now all of them are going to have to show their cards and we’ll find out exactly how much support is there.
If the support is there and the presidents want to take control and implement a playoff plan then I say go for it. If not, let’s see if we can come up with something better than what we have now.
A four-team playoff could work under the current BCS structure. And at the end of the day, that could be the compromise. We’ll see.
Until then, let the discussion begin.
The battle for a playoff will be very, very ugly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans—The college football season, one of the best I can ever remember, ended late last has night with LSU beating Ohio State in the BCS championship game, 38-24.
But it looks like we’re going to change the subject rather quickly.
By now most of you have learned that University of Georgia President Michael Adams, in his role as the chair of the NCAA Executive Committee, will propose that the NCAA administer an eight-team playoff to decide college football’s national championship. As the chair of the most powerful committee in the NCAA, this is a totally appropriate thing for Dr. Adams to do. I am a strong believer in presidential oversight of college athletics.
But understand what is really going on here.
This is not just about making a proposal to change the post-season structure of Division I-A football, one that many fans say they would like to see. This is going to be an ugly political war among a lot of powerful interests for college football’s soul.
Example: How do you think SEC Commissioner Mike Slive feels about this? Yesterday he finished his tour as the BCS coordinator and has, for the last two years, been a voice of reason when it comes to recognizing the flaws of the BCS system. He has been open minded about change and discussions on that change were getting ready to start as the BCS prepared to negotiate its new television agreement, which would begin in 2010. Now one of his own presidents fires this shot across the bow just hours after an SEC team wins a national championship. It puts Slive in a very uncomfortable position.
Because Dr. Adams’ idea isn’t just about putting together a playoff, it’s about taking the power away from the conference commissioners who have been charged with running college football for about 25 years. If the 120 Division I-A presidents believe that time has come, then so be it. The commissioners work for them. But it is going to messy.
The Big Ten and the Pac-10 have been adamantly opposed to any change in the format but the feeling was that, with some gentle negotiating, they could be coaxed into a “Plus-One” format, which would essentially be a four-team playoff. Dr. Adams must be banking on the belief that the Big Ten and Pac-10 would not go it alone if an eight-team playoff were created. But I do know this: The Rose Bowl, with all of its tradition and clout, will not be a quarterfinal game of an NCAA playoff as Dr. Adams has suggested.
And what about the athletics directors, who are paying huge salaries to coaches and manage budgets now reaching $100 million? Dr. Adams proposes eliminating the 12th regular-season game that just came into being. But if this playoff becomes a reality, he is right. The 12th game has to go.
Here’s the bottom line. Many fans want a playoff and I understand that. They want to eliminate the annual argument and anxiety over post-season football and I understand that.
But understand this: After a great college football season we’re getting ready to have a big, ugly fight about where the game should go next. Maybe it is a fight that has to happen. But it won’t be pretty to watch and some people who have been good to college football will get hurt in the process.
Final thoughts before the BCS championship game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re a little less than an hour from kickoff for the BCS championship game between Ohio State and LSU. Here are five things I’m looking for as keys to this game.
LSU, by the way, just came out in their traditional white jerseys that they wear at home. This place is going to be LOUD.
Ohio State’s entire team just took the field and they are PUMPED UP!!
1. Is Glenn Dorsey REALLY 100 percent? I asked Dorsey, defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, and a bunch of LSU players the same question. Is the Big Guy really completely healthy? Because if he is, then Ohio State is really going to have a tough time running the ball tonight. If Ohio State can’t run the ball, then the play action pass doesn’t work. If Ohio State can run, the Buckeyes have a lot of options.
2. Keep an eye on Brian Robiskie: The word around the SEC is that LSU’s Chevis Jackson may be a pretty good lock down corner but you can hit him for a big play every now and then. Robiskie, the son of former LSU great Terry Robiskie, is the home run hitter on this Ohio State offense. Ohio State knows it can’t sustain many long drives against this LSU defense, but the Buckeyes believe they can hit some big plays.
3. Ohio State wants a low-scoring game: I picked LSU to win the game 24-23 and most of the writers around the country have both teams scoring in the 20s. I believe that if the game gets into the 20s, then LSU wins. Ohio State has the No. 1 defense in the nation (225.25 ypg). Ohio State can win 17-14, but they can’t win 24-20. LSU scored over 40 points seven times this season.
4. Is Antonio Henton really going to play?: The freshman quarterback from Fort Valley (Peach County) has been given a small package of plays that he can run. But the people I know who cover Ohio State are skeptical about whether or not coach Jim Tressel will actually put him in the game. Regardless of what he can do, would Tressel take such a risk in a game that he needs to be so low-scoring? The one thing Ohio State cannot do is give away some cheap points. We’ll see.
5. How long before we see Ryan Perrilloux?: LSU’s Matt Flynn is the senior quarterback and has been waiting a long, long time for this opportunity after backing up JaMarcus Russell. By Perrilloux is more mobile and started and won the SEC championship game against Tennessee. Perrilloux can make the big play but the can also make the big mistake. How much will coach Les Miles use him in a game where avoiding turnovers is going to be so crucial?
If you’ve got some questions or if you have some other keys to the game, let me know. But I’m ready for this thing to get started.
Dogs are preseason No. 1
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TONY BARNHART’S EARLY TOP 25 FOR 2008
(Last season’s record in parentheses)
1. Georgia (Last season: 11-2) The Dogs return 17 starters and will add redshirt RB Caleb King (below) and incoming freshman A.J. Green, one of the top high school receivers in the country. The road schedule looks really tough. Make your plans for Jacksonville (vs. Florida) now.
2. USC (11-2) Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain will compete with Mark Sanchez to replace John David Booty at quarterback. Either one will do the job well, and the Trojans will just keep rolling.
3. Ohio State (11-1 entering championship game) Only two seniors were in the starting lineup for Monday night’s BCS championship game with LSU. The Buckeyes again will be the class of the Big Ten in 2008.
4. Florida (9-4) The Gators return two of the best offensive players in college football, Heisman Trophy winner QB Tim Tebow and WR Percy Harvin. Next season they will finally have a big-time running back in USC transfer Emmanuel Moody.
5. Missouri (12-2) If RB Tony Temple is granted another year of eligibility due to a medical hardship, he’ll join QB Chase Daniel and WR Jeremy Maclin to form the nation’s best offense.
6. West Virginia (11-2) Pat White (right) will return at quarterback, but we’re not so sure about RB Steve Slaton. But if he comes back the Mountaineers will be favored to win the Big East again under new coach Bill Stewart.
7. LSU (11-2 entering championship game) The Tigers lose the most successful senior class in school history, but a ton of great players return. Among them will be Ryan Perrilloux, who will finally get his turn to be the full-time QB.
8. Illinois (9-4) The Illini got hammered in the Rose Bowl, but they return QB Juice Williams and WR Arrelious Benn. Ron Zook will miss RB Rashard Mendenhall, who decided to turn pro.
9. Texas (10-3) Coach Mack Brown found out late in the season that he needed to start giving his team some tough love. With QB Colt McCoy returning, look for the Longhorns to play Missouri for the Big 12 title.
10. Clemson (9-4) If everybody returns, Clemson could win the ACC championship next season. QB Cullen Harper of Alpharetta will be a senior and could have running backs James Davis and C.J.Spiller again. The defense returns nine starters.
11. Kansas (12-1) Quarterback Todd Reesing (3,486 yards, 33 TDs) will return for his junior season, but the defense will be without CB Aqib Talib, who is turning pro.
12. Auburn (9-4) Tommy Tuberville’s change in offense will pay dividends in 2008 as QB Kodi Burns becomes a star. The Tigers will have to replace defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who left for Texas.
13. Oklahoma (11-3) It will not be a fun offseason in Norman after the Sooners got embarrassed (48-28) in the Fiesta Bowl. But there is reason for optimism. QB Sam Bradford (3,121 yards, 36 TDs) returns, as does RB DeMarco Murray (764 yards, 13 TDs). The Sooners will miss RB Allen Patrick (1,009 yards).
14. Arizona State (10-3) With QB Rudy Carpenter (3,202 yards passing) coming back, the Sun Devils will be the second-best team in the Pac-10.
15. Virginia Tech (11-3) Both quarterbacks, Tyrod Taylor and Sean Glennon, plus running back Branden Ore return for the ACC champions. The Hokies will miss linebackers Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi.
16. BYU (11-2) With sophomore QB Max Hall (3,848 yards, 26 TDs) returning next season, the Cougars will again be the class of the Mountain West.
17. Tennessee (10-4) The Volunteers have to find a new quarterback and replace most of their offensive staff, but there are a lot of good young players on this team, including sophomore DB Eric Berry.
18. Wisconsin (9-4) Sophomore RB P.J. Hill will be a Heisman Trophy candidate as the Badgers challenge Ohio State and Illinois in the Big Ten.
19. Wake Forest (9-4) The Deacons won nine games this season after winning the ACC championship in 2006. QB Riley Skinner (2,204 yards, 12 TDs) returns.
20. Texas Tech (9-4) QB Graham Harrell (5,705 yards, 48 TDs) returns for his senior season with a chance to break every major passing record at Texas Tech. Harrell will have the nation’s best young receiver, rising sophomore Michael Crabtree, again as his primary target.
21. Penn State (9-4) The Nittany Lions have to replace QB Anthony Morelli and RB Rodney Kinlaw, but Joe Paterno is ready to return for his 43rd season as head coach.
22. Michigan (9-4) Rich Rodriguez takes over a program that loses a bunch of good seniors, but his offense will be hard to handle for the rest of the Big Ten. By the end of the 2008 season, the Wolverines will be pretty competitive.
23. Boise State (10-3) With Hawaii coach June Jones gone to SMU, look for Boise State to return as the WAC’s best program. TB Ian Johnson returns for his senior season, but the Broncos have another great back in Jeremy Avery.
24. Connecticut (9-4) With sophomore RB Andre Dixon (828 yards rushing) and junior QB Tyler Lorenzen (2,367 yards, 13 TDs) both returning, the Huskies could challenge West Virginia in the Big East.
25. Oregon State (9-4) The Beavers return a pair of talented quarterbacks in Sean Canfield (1,661 yards) and Lyle Moevao (876), who will fight it out in the spring for the starting job. But Oregon State will miss RB Yvenson Bernard (1,214 rushing yards, 13 TDs).
The devastation from Katrina remains
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-Because I had, like you, seen the horrifying images on television day after day I thought I a pretty firm mental grasp on the devastation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on this city in late August and early September of 2005.
I wasn’t even close.
Until you see it up close, the human mind cannot conceive of what really happened here about 27 months ago.
College football will celebrate the end of a season to remember tonight when No. 1 Ohio State takes on No. 2 LSU for the BCS championship. It will cap a stretch of 10 days where hundreds of thousands of fans poured into the city, first to see the Sugar Bowl and now for biggest game of the season.
They have seen a downtown New Orleans that has recovered nicely from Katrina. The French Quarter is just as lively as ever and our hosts here have put out the hospitality as only this wonderful city can. It has been an impressive show. Hosting these two BCS games, which will pump about $300 million into the local economy, is a big part of the ongoing recovery effort.
But drive less an 10 minutes from my very nice hotel and you will see pieces of this community that will move you to tears.
On Sunday I traveled with a group of journalists on a tour sponsored by the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, whose heroic deeds in covering Katrina were more than worthy of the Pulitzer Prize they received.
The reality of what we were about to see hit home when we traveled to Lakeview, a middle class neighborhood that was badly flooded. Our tour guide was Living Edtior James O’Byrne who took us to an empty lot that was surrounded by houses in various degrees of damage and repair.
The empty lot was where O’Byrne’s house used to be.
Then we went across the street to see a house where the floodwater had risen to the ceiling. The floors were buckled. There were faded photo albums on the floor. It was clear the house would have to be torn down.
“This,” he said. “Is one of the better ones.”
With each stop the neighborhoods got poorer and the devastation grew worse. And when we reached the Lower Ninth Ward, where the poorest of the poor once lived, the enormity of it all hit home.
The small houses that were not completely swept off their foundations by the floodwaters have pretty much been gutted out. The image that will stick with all of us on the tour was the black “X” on each door. It was put there by the National Guard search team to signify what they had found in the house. The number on the bottom of the X represented how many bodies were in the home.
But there is hope. Actor Brad Pitt, who now lives in New Orleans, stepped up and bought 150 lots and is raising money to build low cost homes. Among the grayness and despair of the Lower Ninth Ward is an incredible village of structures covered by pink tarps, each one representing where a house will be built. One those homes are built, the hope is that the rest of the area will begin to regenerate.
When our tour was done, we didn’t have to drive long before we ran head on into streets blocked by Ohio State and LSU fans getting ready to party the night away. The contrast to what we just witnessed was very sobering.
The point is this. Tonight’s game should be a celebration and the folks who have come here should enjoy every minute of it. This city has survived and has recovered from an unthinkable horror and still works every day to get better.
But not everyone has recovered here in New Orleans and we shouldn’t forget that. There are people here whose lives are not even close to being normal over two years later. And the sad truth is they may never be normal again.
I’ll come back later today once I get to the Superdome with some final questions to ponder before kickoff.
It’s going to be an interesting Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-It is going to be a very interesting Sunday for your humble correspondent.
It is the day before the BCS national championship game, which means we will have the final press conference with the two coaches. The players don’t have to participate and frankly, I don’t blame them. By now they are pretty sick of our questions.
This press conference goes pretty quickly because by this point there is really nothing left for the coaches to say or for us to ask. LSU’s Les Miles will get to our meeting room at the Marriott about 2 o’clock. He’ll visit with us for about 25 minutes.
Ohio State’s Jim Tressel will then arrive and the two coaches will pose together for a photo with the BCS National Championship Trophy, the one with the crystal football on top. One year during the final press conference one of the handlers almost dropped the crystal ball, which is worth thousands. Now THAT would have been a photo op.
There really won’t be any news coming out of these press conferences. This is just about the coaches digging one last time into their bag of clichés and reminding us that their teams have to focus on the job at hand and not worry about things they can’t control-or something to that effect.
By late Saturday night I had pretty much wrapped up my preview package for Monday morning. I put together a piece asking if LSU were a team of destiny. When you really look at all the closes finishes the Tigers had, it really makes you wonder if Fate didn’t play a hand in their getting here. I’ve matched up the teams by offense, defense, special teams, etc. I will tell you in advance that this game looks much closer than the experts think.
This afternoon I’m going to take part in something special when I go on a journalist’s tour that will show us the parts of New Orleans that have not yet recovered from Hurricane Katrina, which hit in late August of 2005.
As I told you when I first got here 11 days ago, the downtown area of New Orleans has come back very well. There are some places in the French Quarter that did not re-open but to me it looked like it had fully recovered.
That is not the case, I am told, for other parts of the city. We are going to the Lower Ninth Ward and other places that, for one reason or another, have not been rebuilt. I’ve had others tell me about these places but I want to see it for myself. I’ll let you know what I find, but I’ve braced myself for a very sobering experience.
Tonight I will gather with a number of former presidents of the Football Writers Association of America, of which I am one, for our annual dinner. It is our chance to sit back, have a glass of wine, and reflect on another season. And this one, my friends, is going to give us all a lot of reasons for reflection.
It’s been a long trip, but a fun trip, to New Orleans. I’ve eaten everything on the room service menu at last once and the folks bringing the food to the room are starting to call me by my first name. That must mean it’s time to go home.
Monday is Game Day. Kickoff can’t come soon enough.
Hope you have a good Sunday too.
Why is Muschamp headed to Texas?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-It’s media day at the BCS championship game. Both LSU and Ohio State will bring their entire teams, in uniform without pads, to the Superdome and each will have an hour-long session.
Rarely does any news or anything really interesting come out of this because by now the players and the coaches have been dealing with the media horde for several days and really have their guards up. But if there is news I’ll get back to you this afternoon.
But there is interesting stuff going on elsewhere:
Why is Will Muschamp going to Texas? I tried to reach the Auburn defensive coordinator and former Georgia Bulldog, who has decided to leave Auburn to take the same job at Texas. Based on previous conversations with Will, I know that he really wants to be a head coach sooner rather than later. He saw the fact that Gene Chizik (Iowa State) and Greg Robinson (Syracuse) both used the DC position at Texas as a launching pad to a head coaching job. I just think you can get there as easily from Auburn as you can from Texas. Gotta believe money was involved as well.
What about Jon Tenuta? Looks like he’s going to be busy. LSU is going to need a defensive coordinator after Monday night’s BCS championship game. Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville is going to the coaching convention where he will be looking for a DC. Could Georgia Tech’s Tenuta be going to the SEC? Jeff Casteel, the current defensive coordinator at West Virginia, is thinking about joining Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, according to published reports. If he stays at West Virginia, Tenuta will be a candidate at Michigan.
Another tough year for the ACC: The biggest surprise of the bowl season was the way West Virginia took care of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But the second biggest surprise to me was Virginia Tech losing to Kansas. I thought the Hokies came into the game playing just about as well as anyone. But Kansas played great and deserved to win.
The loss gave the ACC a 2-6 bowl record this season. Since the BCS was founded in 1998, the ACC is now 1-9 in BCS appearances. The only win was Florida State over Virginia Tech (then a member of the Big East) in the 1999 national championship game at the Sugar Bowl.
Mangino a class act: Speaking of Kansas, I got a chance to spend some time with head coach Mark Mangino last night as the Football Writers Association of America honored him as the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year. To go 12-1 at Kansas is quite a feat. Coach Mangino had been up all night celebrating the Orange Bowl victory with his players and staff and then flew straight from Miami to accept the award. He was very gracious and very appreciative. He told me that the challenge now is to sustain the program, something that has been difficult to do at Kansas.
Should Kansas share the national championship?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-I’m not trying to stir up trouble this morning. Well, maybe I am.
But as your humble correspondent, I just gotta ask:
If LSU (11-2) beats Ohio State (11-1) in the BCS championship game Monday night, should the media members who vote in the Associated Press poll give Kansas (12-1) their national championship?
And if it happens, will the world as we know it come to an end?
Yeah, the Jayhawks played a very weak non-conference schedule (Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International) and didn’t have to play Texas or Oklahoma during the Big 12 season. Kansas is in a BCS conference and it finished the season with just one loss-to Missouri (36-28) in the regular-season finale in Kansas City.
If Ohio State beats LSU, the BCS will crown a national champion that played a non-conference schedule against I-AA Youngstown State, Akron (4-8), Washington (5-7), and Kent State (3-9). And like Kansas, Ohio State only had one smudge on its record, a 28-21 loss to Illinois AT HOME on Nov. 10.
The Jayhawks beat the No. 3 team in the nation (Virginia Tech) in the Orange Bowl and we saw what Missouri did to Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.
And for those of you keeping score at home, there seems to be the perception out there that there is ONE national championship and one only, the BCS. I get that note every now and then when I point out that Southern Cal won the 2003 AP national title while LSU was crowned by the BCS.
My LSU friends tell me there is only ONE national championship in college football and that is the BCS national championship. Well guys, I do this for a living and I never got that memo.
Understand what the BCS national championship is. It is the one that the major conferences and the television boys have thrown their weight and money behind. They decided that if they worked together, they could maximize their profits on post-season football and better focus the nation’s attention. It has worked. The ratings have been good and everybody’s making a lot of money. For all of its flaws, the BCS is an improvement on the old bowl system, where LSU and Ohio State could NEVER have played for a national title.
But college football has a long tradition of awarding more than one national championship and the AP poll has been doing it since 1936, long before the BCS was a twinkle in Roy Kramer’s eye.
Will it happen? I don’t think so. But doesn’t it make for a nice argument on a Friday morning? But wouldn’t it make for the most fitting ending to the craziest college football season ever?
Still waiting for a good BCS game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans— Well, we’ve had three BCS games and three blowouts. The only thing compelling thus far was the way that West Virginia just destroyed (48-28) Oklahoma when nobody gave the Mountaineers a shot.
If we have another lopsided game tonight in the Orange Bowl (Virginia Tech vs. Kansas), the conference commissioners who run the BCS are going to catch some heat. And they probably should.
Here’s the honest truth that nobody on TV, and certainly nobody with a financial interest in these bowls, will tell you. The commissioners had it within their power to make better match-ups in the BCS bowls but that requires everybody involved to say “yes.” And trust me when I tell you that this group of people cannot agree on whether or not the sky is blue.
Consensus on anything is hard to come by in the bowl business because each conference has its own agenda and wants to protect its interests and its relationships.
There was no way the Big Ten, for example, was going to agree to let Georgia play in the Rose Bowl instead of Illinois. If I’m Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, it’s my job to use all of the political power I have to protect my conference.
And if I’m SEC commissioner Mike Slive, I’m not going to let the Rose take Georgia away from my bowl partner, the Sugar. The Sugar has already lost LSU to the BCS championship game and needs Georgia to protect its game. It is Slive’s job to protect the long-term interests of the SEC and not sacrifice them for one game in one year. That is what the SEC presidents pay him to do.
And quite frankly, if I’m the other BCS commissioners, why would I want to just give the Rose Bowl the best game (Southern Cal-Georgia) of the season? The Rose Bowl, along with the Big Ten and Pac-10, basically hold the rest of the BCS hostage to any kind of meaningful change. They have their own TV deal with ABC. They operate in their own universe.
Why in the word would the other commissioners want to help those guys?
And if you said “for the good of the fans,” you obviously don’t know about the bowl bidness.
Goodbye Sugar, Hello BCS championship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-Today is transition day in New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl crowd will get out of town early and the LSU and Ohio State fans will begin to come in and start getting ready for the BCS championship game Monday night.
The teams arrive here and those of us in the media have been invited to meet with Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and LSU coach Les Miles at their respective hotels this afternoon. I’ll start filing reports on the BCS championship game starting with Thursday’s newspaper.
But before we move on to the BCS championship and the end of an unforgettable 2007 season, here are a few final thoughts about what all took place on New Year’s Day.
The Sugar Bowl really helped Georgia: Early this morning I was asked by a friend what the 41-10 win over Hawaii meant for Georgia as it prepared for next season. I think it was huge from this standpoint. A lot of the national media were at the game last night because it was a compelling story line and because they were going to stay over and cover the BCS championship. Those national media saw how athletic and talented Georgia is. They will remember that when it comes time to mark their preseason ballots. I’ll be stunned if Georgia is not a consensus top five team this August.
Is the Rose Bowl sorry? Mike Bell at 790 The Zone asked me this morning if the Rose Bowl had egg on its face for not taking Georgia to play Southern Cal, which just destroyed Illinois. I had to remind him and I’ll remind you. The Rose Bowl is not embarrassed by that game at all because they don’t care what the fans think. They had their parade and their game. The more and more I talk to people I become convinced that the Rose Bowl was never going to take Georgia because it would have changed their traditional Big Ten-Pac-10 match-up and it would have hurt the Sugar Bowl, which needed Georgia to sell out.
This was Mark Richt’s best year as a coach: Forget the black jerseys. Forget storming the field in Jacksonville. Those were just fun snapshots at a much larger picture. In his seventh season at Georgia, Mark Richt has grown into a big-time college football coach, one of the five best in the country. He better understands the big picture, he knows how to delegate, he knows how to motivate, and he knows how to recruit. He is now the complete package. There should be a very nice raise in his immediate future.
Just thinking: Add redshirt freshman running back Caleb King and incoming receiver A.J. Green to this mix and what do you have in 2008? I’m always skeptical of freshmen in this league until they actually prove it against SEC competition. But if just half the hype on these two kids is true, then Georgia offense will be the best in the SEC. And I will say this. On defense, Georgia has the best collection of players who can run that I have seen in a long, long, time. They are certainly faster as a team than LSU, which I saw a bunch this season.
There is still a big difference in the Division I-A leagues: The five non-BCS conferences were really encouraged by Boise State’s win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last year. They hoped that a Hawaii win would prove once and for all that one of them belonged in one of these five games each year. But Hawaii’s loss, because it was so decisive, will reopen the argument and make a BCS bowl less likely to take one of the little guys unless they automatically quality. There is a big difference between football programs like Georgia and Hawaii and it showed.
Will June Jones stay?: Jones, the former Falcons coach, has done a magnificent job at Hawaii but you have to wonder is he will move on after this magical season. It will be hard to put together another collection of players as good as this. He has told friends that he only wants to coach about 5-6 more years. SMU is still looking for a coach and with his offense, Jones could probably win that league (Conference USA) in a short amount of time.
The Gators didn’t plan on a loss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some final New Year’s Day observations as we head into tonight’s Sugar Bowl:
The Gators didn’t plan on a loss: The Capital One Bowl was supposed to be Florida’s launching pad for a run at the national championship in 2008. I’m not saying that the Gators can’t win it all with Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin as juniors. But at 9-4 Florida may not start next season in the top five. In fact, if Georgia beats Hawaii late tonight and finishes 11-2, the Bulldogs will probably be ahead of Florida in the preseason polls this summer. Now that will start a lively debate.
Kudos for Lloyd Carr: Having said all that about Florida, you have to give credit to Michigan. Those players wanted to send Lloyd Carr out as a winner and they played at a high level from the opening kickoff on. I think Florida was surprised by their intensity. You have to feel good for Carr, the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year.
Great win for Tennessee: The Vols actually played well enough to beat Wisconsin a lot worse than they did (21-17), but we shouldn’t be surprised that it was a close game. That was the way that Tennessee won all season. The Vols lose quarterback Erik Ainge, who was great in his final game, but have a lot of good young talent coming back. Now Fulmer has to go out and hire a new offensive staff. Don’t be surprised if he makes at least one change on the defensive side of the ball as well.
The Hogs were worse than disappointing: I really thought Arkansas would compete in the Cotton Bowl against Missouri much better than they did. Those players had been through so much you would think they would be excited about playing on New Year’s Day. They didn’t look very excited to be there in the second half. Missouri is good, but they’re not that good (38-7).
Interim coaching staffs don’t win: The problem at Arkansas on Tuesday is the problem a bunch of teams are having this bowl season. Try as they might, interim coaching staffs and lame duck head coaches find it very difficult to hold things together. Going into tonight’s games, interim and lame duck coaches are 1-7 with Michigan’s Lloyd Carr being the only winner. The losers thus far are: Georgia Tech, Arkansas, UCLA, Navy, Texas A&M, Southern Miss, and Houston.
Five burning questions as we begin New Year’s Day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans—Happy New Year folks! If you’re a college football fan this is the most fun day of the year with wall-to-wall games, ending with our Sugar Bowl match-up tonight.
When New Year’s Day gets here I always have a lot of questions. Here are my top five. What are yours?
I’ll come back with an update at the end of the day and give you some final thoughts before tonight’s Sugar Bowl.
1. Can the SEC go 9-0? Auburn’s dramatic overtime win over Clemson in last night’s Chick-fil-A Bowl gives the SEC a 4-0 record in the bowl season thus far as Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Alabama have also won. Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Georgia all play today. LSU plays for the BCS championship here on Monday night. At the end of this day the SEC could be 8-0 in bowls after going 7-1 last season. It’s a long shot, but it could happen.
2. Will Tim Tebow be more fired up than normal?: The Florida quarterback isn’t into smack talk, but he is an intense competitor, one of the most intense I’ve ever seen. So when Michigan linebacker Shawn Crable says that Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner, “is just a quarterback” you have to wonder if the big fella may play pretty well today in the Capital One Bowl. Shawn, my man, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape.
3. Will Darren McFadden step up? Arkansas running back Darren McFadden will be one of the top three picks in the NFL draft even if he were to sit out today’s Cotton Bowl with Missouri. And it has not been a fun week for McFadden as charges swirled that he obtained a car from an agent in violation of NCAA rules. McFadden was cleared of those charges but you have to wonder where his mind is as this game begins. Does he run with a chip on his shoulder? Or does hold back?
4. Will West Virginia care? We know the Mountaineer fans don’t care about the Fiesta Bowl because they turned back so many tickets. Traditionally West Virginia fans travel better than anybody, but it’s been a tough month for them. West Virginia lost a chance to play for the national championship with the inexplicable collapse against Pittsburgh on Dec. 1. Then coach Rich Rodriguez bolts to Michigan in what has become a very messy divorce. Forgotten in all of this, as is usually the case, are the players. What is their mindset going to be when they take the field against Oklahoma? Oklahoma, we should point out, is very, very good. Think the Fiesta Bowl people are wishing right now that they had taken Hawaii?
5. What is the over and under on how many times Colt Brennan will get hit? Trust me when I tell you that, win or lose, Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan will need to spend some time in the hot tub Wednesday morning before he goes back to Honolulu. Georgia is going to keep it clean, but every time the defense gets a chance to give him a love tap, they will. Try to keep score at home tonight and see now many times he gets “nudged.” I will say this: He is a tough kid and he’s used to getting hit. But I don’t think he’s used to getting hit by SEC defenses.
Services »
