AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 10
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Some fun nuggets from the final coaches’ poll
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I now understand why the coaches who vote in the USA Today poll don’t want their ballots released on a weekly basis. There is just too much entertainment value in them.
By rule, the final ballots in the coaches’ poll must be made public. That’s the one that helps to determine the final BCS Standings and sets the national championship game. Thus the public has a right to know if some hanky-panky is going on. After going through the ballots on the USA Today website, here are some nuggets that I found particularly entertaining:
**—In the print edition of this morning’s AJC there was a report that Georgia coach Mark Richt had Florida and Alabama, two teams that beat the Bulldogs by a combined score of 90-40, 1-2 on his ballot.
There is nothing wrong with Richt sticking up for the SEC because the Big 12 coaches certainly took care of their teams. Four of six Big 12 coaches in the poll (Dan Hawkins, Colorado; Bo Pelini, Nebraska; Gary Pinkel, Missouri; Gene Chizik, Iowa State) had Oklahoma and Texas in the top two spots in their ballots. Chizik, who was Brown’s defensive coordinator at Texas, had the Longhorns No. 1 and Oklahoma No. 2. Two Big Ten coaches (Jim Tressel, Ohio State; Joe Tiller, Purdue) had Oklahoma-Texas at 1-2 and Florida, the SEC champion, at No. 3.
**—Four coaches (Chizik, Todd Dodge, North Texas; Rick Neuheisel, UCLA; Mike Price, UTEP) had Texas No. 1 on their ballots. Neuheisel had Texas No. 1 and Oklahoma No. 4 behind Florida and USC. Oklahoma got 31 first-place votes while Florida got 26.
**—A total of 20 coaches had Texas No. 1 or No. 2 on their ballots.
**—Two Big 12 coaches did not have Oklahoma and Texas 1-2. Brown of Texas voted Florida No. 1 and his Longhorns No. 2. Mike Leach of Texas Tech had Oklahoma, the only team that beat his Red Raiders this season, at No. 1 and Texas Tech No. 2. He had Texas, whose only loss was to Texas Tech, at No. 5.
**—Of the six SEC coaches who vote in the poll, five had Florida No. 1 on their ballots. The only holdout was Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, a Florida graduate who had Oklahoma No. 1 and the Gators No. 2. Understand that Spurrier and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops are close friends.
**—Former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden had Florida No. 1 but his dad, Bobby Bowden of Florida State, did not. Daddy Bowden voted Oklahoma No. 1 and Florida No.2.
