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DEL.ICIO.USBCS enjoys ‘grand crescendo’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
There it was, staring you in the face, two Southern California players smiling at you beatifically from the cover of Sports Illustrated. “The best in college football,” read the pronouncement accompanying the good-buddy portrait of Reggie Bush, Heisman Trophy incumbent, and the Trojan he followed, Matt Leinart.
Do you believe in omens? If you do, here was one dead on the nose. Someone on our staff once did some research into the deadliness of the SI cover jinx awhile back, and it would astound you how often it bedevils favorites. This issue came out with crucial timing, the week before the Rose Bowl game, setting up Southern Cal for the perfect kill. By this time, every minute detail of how Vince Young took the Texas team by the Longhorns and showed them to the end zone has been etched in history. (I’m still wondering what those Trojans were thinking, standing around gawking while he ran in the winning touchdown.)
“Perhaps the greatest college football team in history,” you’ve read, I’m sure. The one-two Heisman Trophy finishers against the Texan who finished third. Texas against a team that scorched Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game a year ago. The odds were too great to ignore — until SI hit the street with the cover that often turns a leadpipe cinch into lead.
It never struck a more direct hit than on the Rose Bowl, presaging the crash of the Trojans and the rise of the Bovines of Texas.
Well, so much for that. What effect does a magazine cover have on a football game? You begin to wonder if it isn’t more than locker room trash. Yet, there was something beyond the mystic here. Vince Young was far above the average quarterback, playing like a man possessed, or at least one furious at coming in third in the Heisman polling stations.
Such a game leads to exaggerated emotions. I don’t know how many games I may have seen that I thought was “the greatest.” Usually, I’ve been there. This one I took by television, suffering from the winter sniffles, poised on the edge of my chair, and I can say this, that if there ever has been a greater one, I never saw it, and I’ve been watching college football games since 1934. (I might say here, that the first one I saw was a scoreless tie.)
It was a grand crescendo for the Bowl Championship Series and its protagonists and a solid blow to the chops of those of a playoff mentality. It was the last act of a series that began Dec. 20 with the New Orleans Bowl (played in Lafayette), and through delicate television scheduling by ESPN, worked its way into the major networks and kept us all up until ungodly hours. Some of the games were plagued by missed field goals and extra points, sloppy officiating and gross misconduct that demands that bowl officials turn their vision off the dollar and onto the kind of sordid impression players are leaving on the public.
(Viz.: Marcus Vick of Virginia Tech troding on a prone Louisville player; and the brawl between the LSU and Miami players after the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. And there were more, but I didn’t take names.)
It was a delightful way to take the bowls, though I had no choice, coughing, snorting and barking like a seal through it all. My favorite winner was Navy’s upset over Colorado State, being passionately attached to our armed forces. My suggestion to Georgia Tech: Before accepting another invitation west of the Mississippi, especially one named for a bag of nuts, stay home. Cheers to Alabama, which showed what devout defense can do to a Texas Tech team that averaged 42 points a game. What confounded you about Georgia was, how could this team founded on defense open a game spotting West Virginia four touchdowns?
I’ll conclude with this: All of the critics of this congestion of bowl games may as well turn on the tube, sit back and enjoy the feast. After this rousing series and the $194-million payoff from top to bottom, they’re here to stay.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
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By tim
January 6, 2006 04:08 PM | Link to this
The “grand crescendo” was UGA winning the SEC championship. I’d like to forget most of the 05 season.
By brewerfaninATL
January 6, 2006 11:54 PM | Link to this
tim: I don’t blame you! After the ultimate choke job in the Sugar Bowl, in your own backyard nonetheless, you should be left scratching your head. Same for LSU, Auburn, Florida, Bama, etc. Regroup next year and if you earn the chance to play for the title, I’ll be the first to give kudos! But this year was an absolute P-U for the SEC! Texas earned the chance for the title and seized it…nice job Horns!
By Kennesaw Dawg
January 7, 2006 12:18 AM | Link to this
Im a huge dawg fan, but that WV loss puts a sour taste in my mouth when i think back on the 05 season. I really try to act glad that UGA won the SEC, but man, HOW DID WE LOSE TO WV?!?!?!?!?!?! IN OUR OWN STATE!!!! ON THE ONE CHANCE WE HAD OF WINNING A SUGAR BOWL IN ATLANTA!!!!!!!! AGAINST THE BIG LEAST!!!!!!!!!!!! WHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????!!!!! UGGGGGHHHHHHHH… so many good memories now have a stain on them. Oh well, cant wait for 2006! I feel much better now. Please 06 Dawgs, PLEASE beat Florida!!!
By Jim in Pine Mountain
January 7, 2006 08:01 AM | Link to this
Navy’s coach must be running under the radar. We don’t hear much about what a job he has done at the Academy. He must be one of the best football coaches in the country.
By Jimmy Hair
January 7, 2006 09:16 AM | Link to this
To all you folks who think Mr.Bisher is hopelessly stuck in the past: Read this article. He sees what you see, but he has the advantage of comparing it to a memory bank that (now you know) dates back to 1934 (at least for college football). But he doesn’t hesitate to state what we all saw, a game that has never been surpassed. Maybe equaled, but never surpassed for geatness. We all have selective memory, but I feel compelled to mention one game that is the equal to this latest Rose Bowl. And as a lifelong Dawg fan the memory still hurts, but that doesn’t take away from the greatness of the game. The No.1 ranked Dawgs, chasing a second national title in the Herschel era, do what champions must do, marching some 90 yards late in the game to take the lead; but unfortunately for the Bulldog nation the opponents had one Dan Marino, who calmly, methodically, unbelievably picked apart the Dooley prevent defense for a last-second game winner and heart breaker. I guess it’s like trying to decide if Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, or Cobb is the best hitter of all time: it’s impossible to choose one. All you can do is choose what or who belongs in the “greatest of all time” category. This Rose Bowl certainly belongs.
By James
January 7, 2006 09:43 AM | Link to this
Furman,
Just thought I’d let you know, VY finished 2nd in the Heisman voting, not third. I thought you had just made a mistake the first time you proclaimed him 3rd to Bush and Leinert, but the 2nd time? Where have you been?
By northwestDAWG
January 7, 2006 11:36 AM | Link to this
The ‘05 season was a bitter sweet for me. Yes, we won the SEC title but to get to the game we didn’t “finish the drill” The DAWGS had two chances to win the EAST themselves and couldn’t do it. We have to say “THANK YOU SOS for beating the Reptiles! That’s what put us there,not the play of our team. It’s not a case of please beat the Reptiles, no it’s a case of our OC better figure out how to beat them and AU, now add the ‘Cocks. I don’t like thanking SOS for anything but our HC needs to do some soul searching. Out here, since a million (now really that many but a lot)know I’m a DAWG have asked we so many times this year about coaching decisions this year and I finally, in the SUGAR bowl ran out of excuses. I told my deformed relative(he’s a Reptile) last night that I’ve decided that MR just has a LUCKEY STAR over his head and I’ll take luck any day of the week. AU 2-3, Reptiles 1-4, I truly believe that if this trend continues it’ll be a long time before we return to Atlanta and the Ga. Dome. Last but not least, after we got down 28pts., our OC opened up the play book. He had no choice, that type of offense should be run all season long. Will that happened?
By regularjoe
January 7, 2006 04:51 PM | Link to this
We have a good final BCS game and Furman is so happy. What about last year Furman? The fact is college football, lucky this year, is broken. Now we have five “BCS” bowls. What the hell does that mean? It means nothing if you want to find out a real champion. Lucky for us we have the wise college presidents who “care for their players” more than begging for bowl dollars and ol (old) Furman stuck in the past.
By jimbo
January 7, 2006 08:11 PM | Link to this
Shouldnt there only be one “BCS” bowl per year? There is only one “national championship” (i use that term loosely) game a year. Its almost mind numbing how stupid the college football postseason is set up. I dont understand why they cant set up a playoff. I keep hearing about money, money, money… Well, I dont think it would be too hard to market a playoff system.
By War Eagle
January 7, 2006 09:44 PM | Link to this
I was a 12 year old kid when I first saw Furman Bisher. It was early 50s when he was a beat writer for the Atlanta Crackers atole Ponce De Leon Ball Park.I met him through Earl Mann, owner of the Crackers and a friend of my Dad. A year later I saw him again at a LPGA golf tournment At Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton, where Louise Suggs, Babe Zacharias, Patty Berg was striving for the $900.00 winners share. I have run into at UGA-Auburn games ocassionally and he has always been the same. I have read almost all his writings since 1949, when he first started as a beat writer, what a honor to have LEGENDARY writer in our home state as Furman Bisher. The above article is one of his best, plus his “I Am Thankful For’ on Thanksgiving Day. THANKS FURMAN FOR ALL THESE YEARS YOU HAVE GAVE SO MUCH TO THE SPORTS WORLD.