Weekly Affirmation: A Thanksgiving Top 25

Each college football season is spent obsessing about the value of beating a "top 25 opponent." In a better and more enlightened world, however, we would spend more of our time rating not the best teams, but the most impressive seasons in the sport. If you want a wholesome top 25 that makes you feel good this Thanksgiving, why not pay tribute to the 25 best FBS seasons for 2009?

By Matthew Zemek
 
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A Weekly Affirmation Thanksgiving: A Top 25 You Can Be Thankful For

Thanksgiving is America's best holiday, without question. Stores don't advertise for Thanksgiving in August. Endless streams of Thanksgiving commercials don't appear on television screens each October. The idea that a piece of jewelry is the foundation of a lifelong marriage isn't connected to Thanksgiving.

No, this holiday celebrates the things that truly keep human beings together in warm bonds of love and affection: Family. The shared meal. Bread broken and given to all in the extended clan, despite its fractured points and its occasional failings. Thanksgiving Day is the holiday that doesn't require commercialism or hype; it merely delivers the (smoked, baked, rich, creamy) goods every single year... kinda like the Ohio State Buckeyes and the far-too-frequently pilloried Jim Tressel.

With its finest meats, its sweetest pies, its thickest gravy, and its heartiest potatoes, the Thanksgiving Day meal gathers our loved ones close, in the satisfying sit-down experience that - if more commonplace in our country - would do much to improve the condition of the American family. Want to knit a family together? Have dinner together. (The largely-lost practice would accomplish a lot more for the family than other measures one could think of...)

So, now that you've gathered 'round the table and have recognized a moment of blessing in the life of your family, why not be similarly moved to celebrate the best and most meaningful aspects of this college football season? It's been hard to find an abundant supply of good football this year, much as it's been difficult to identify encouraging economic news in the nation, but there are always some stories that make the human heart sing, the narratives that belong in a Thanksgiving Day football column.

The Weekly Affirmation spent the past eight years in a Monday or Tuesday slot, but this season we hit CFN on Thursdays. Therefore, in recognition of this special holiday, it's worth striking a sweeter chord as the 2009 season nears the finish line.

The BCS standings and the traditional top 25 rankings produce a culture of competition akin to what is seen at America's department stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving. There are few more disgusting realities than Black Friday's insane rampage for products (which killed a young man last year), and the parade to the BCS's usually mythical National Championship Game feels the very same way.

Why not take a different view of a top 25 list, then? Why not spend a piece of this Thanksgiving Weekend appreciating the teams who - relative to their histories - fulfilled their pigskin potential this year? Why not celebrate and salute the teams who - relative to their abilities and resources - maxed out more than anyone else in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2009? This should be a regular element of each college football campaign, so that the little guys get their deserved day in the fading late-Autumn sunshine. Here's a top 25 designed for overachievers and true believers, the programs who have brought fresh doses of hope to the communities that support them.

25 - Stanford: The loss to Cal dragged down this ranking, but another academic powerhouse is showing that winning and scholarly excellence can mix. That's a good thing for college football... as long as other athletic directors don't get the mistaken impression that all coaches at elite schools should be cranking out wins. Praise the coaches who win at places like Stanford, but don't bury the coaches who can't win at Duke, for example.

24 - Pittsburgh: You might think that the words "Pittsburgh" and "football" can never merge in a discussion of overachievers, especially since the Panthers still need to win at least one more game in order to reach the 10-win plateau. Nevertheless, this program has had a very difficult time playing up to its potential in the first decade of the still-young century. This season therefore represents a refreshing change in the Steel City. Quarterback Bill Stull has been steady and composed; running back Dion Lewis has filled the shoes of LeSean McCoy; and various linebackers - from senior Adam Gunn to freshman Dan Mason - have answered the bell when Dave Wannstedt has called their names. Once a cringe-inducing program, Pitt football now brings more satisfying sensations to the forefront of the human brain's pleasure centers. With wins over West Virginia and Cincinnati, this No. 24 ranking will skyrocket into the top 15 on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 6.

23 - Nevada: You might think the Wolf Pack haven't achieved all that much. Romping over WAC programs with video-game rushing totals isn't that big a deal, some will say. Well, in response to such statements, why hasn't Fresno State - the team that makes the sport's big boys sweat - become the Other Big Deal in the Western Athletic Conference? It's Chris Ault's club that's 7-0 in the league heading into Friday night's fistfight at brawny Boise State. Nevada could have folded the tent after getting embarrassed at Notre Dame and then losing at home to a Missouri team that wasn't great shakes after all. Some teams don't recover from September shocks; quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Co. deserve an immense amount of credit for rising from the canvas and then landing more than their share of roundhouse punches.

22 - Houston: It's been a terrific season for coach Kevin Sumlin, Heisman-finalist-worthy signal caller Case Keenum, and a program that made a splash with twin takedowns of Big 12 South schools Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Had the Cougars' defense been able to show up at UTEP, the BCS bowl derby would have had a different flavor entering the month of November, but despite that blemish in El Paso - followed by another loss at Central Florida - this team is on track for a 10-win season, a Conference USA West Division flag, and a shot at a second C-USA title in the past four years. Sumlin's students are certainly scripting a story of fulfillment and restoring luster to the program Bill Yeoman made famous.

21 - Connecticut: Sure, the Huskies are only 5-5, but these young men and the entire staff of head coach Randy Edsall deserve lavish laudatory lines for merely giving a vigorous effort each and every weekend. While bearing life's most unbearable burdens and absorbing unspeakable anguish, UConn has continued to compete, enough to beat Notre Dame and very likely punch a ticket to a bowl game. As long as the Huskies take care of business at home against Syracuse and South Florida, they'll produce a winning season despite everything that's transpired over the past month.

20 - Ohio: Temple is 7-0 in the MAC East... and still hasn't won the division. Steve Pederson has fallen off the map, but Frank Solich is proving how capable he really is on the Bobcats' sideline.

19 - TCU: The Horned Frogs have been really good for the past several seasons, so it's not incredibly surprising that the Purple People in Fort Worth find themselves on the verge of completing a perfect regular season. With that said, recent TCU teams did find ways to sweat and stumble in the spotlight. Agonies at Air Force and late-game yips at Utah derailed this team earlier in the decade, so while the Mountain West Conference wasn't all that intimidating in 2009, TCU still deserves a ton of credit for chasing away its demons.

18 - Army: The Black Knights haven't quite turned the corner, but they show signs of doing so under first-year head coach Rich Ellerson. Five wins is more than any other Army assemblage since the 1996 squad went 10-2 at West Point. This year's Brave Old Army Team hasn't been elegant or overwhelming, but it has learned how to emerge intact from the crucible of crunch time. That's how a culture shift occurs at a place that, in the first half of the 20th century, boasted the nation's very best brand of collegiate football.

17 - Marshall: Remember the Thundering Herd? You know, the green-shirted group that gave college football Chad Pennington, Randy Moss and Bryon Leftwich? The pride of Huntington., W. Va., is one win away from a 7-5 season, as battle-weary coach Mark Snyder - under tremendous pressure through his first four seasons - was shown patience by the university's administration and given a fifth go-round. Snyder's made the most of his extra opportunity, and is now assured of his first non-losing campaign in Appalachia. Beating UTEP this Saturday would put the finishing touches on a sweetly redemptive year for the Jim Tressel protege.

16 - Kentucky: The Wildcats could have hired Doug Williams instead of Rich Brooks for their vacant job earlier this decade, and many scribes - this one included - dusted off the R-word ("retread") to criticize the selection of the former Oregon coach who then sampled the NFL with coordinator gigs in Atlanta and St. Louis. In the last four years, though, Brooks has made the UK brass look enlightened, validating the school's confidence by cranking out winning season after winning season. If Big Blue beats Tennessee this weekend, a Kentucky team that's had zero health at quarterback (making UCLA's situation quite benign by comparison) will be playing in a New Year's Day bowl. Remarkable.

15 - Duke: David Cutcliffe continues to show how accomplished a quarterback guru he is. His tutelage of Thad Lewis has helped Duke to enjoy competitive parity in the ACC. A win this Saturday over Wake Forest - in a toss-up home contest - would give the Dukies a 6-6 mark, which is no small thing in Krzyzewskiville. The only true blot on this season was an opening-week loss to Richmond that looms large right now as far as the program's bowl outlook is concerned. Nevertheless, Cutcliffe appears poised to keep Duke in the thick of the ACC fight for years to come.

14 - Auburn: If the national press corps laughed when Bill Snyder was hired at Kansas State (and we all saw how the Old Man stuck it to his critics with a 6-6 year), it positively rolled on the floor and pounded its fists when Gene Chizik, winner of five games at Iowa State over the past two seasons, was brought in to replace Tommy Tuberville at Auburn. But after 11 games in 2009, the scoreboard reads: Chizik 7-4, Auburn critics 0. Chizik's best move was hiring Gus Malzahn to run the offense; those kinds of decisions are among the biggest a coach will make, and give Chizik all due credit for being smart and savvy in assembling his staff. Wise employment practices have made a big difference on the Alabama Plains.

13 - Iowa State: The man who replaced Chizik in Ames, former Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, presided over one of the greatest victory celebrations of all time, ISU's exultant outpouring after a season-making 9-7 upset of Nebraska in Lincoln. Rhoads has clearly instilled a heightened level of confidence into his charges, and that's why the Cyclones are once again bowl-eligible after the ill-fated Chizik era.

12 - Cincinnati: Just recall the simple fact that the Bearcats were not even the majority preseason pick in a cluttered and hard-to-read Big East field. Just because Brian Kelly's crew sits in the top 5 doesn't mean this 10-0 season - soon to be 11-0 - was expected. It wasn't. The Bearcats have already overachieved in '09, even if they lose at Pitt on Dec. 5. (Note: The Weekly Affirmation had Cincy second behind West Virginia in the offseason Big East speculation festival.)

11 - Oregon: In relationship to preseason expectations, this ranking could be generous, but in connection to the LeGarrette Blount episode, it's not. Many pundits scoffed at the notion that USC was ripe for the taking, but the Ducks went out and smashed the Trojans' aura of vulnerability (giving Stanford the belief the Trojans could be conquered in November at the L.A. Coliseum). UO survived in September and lived long enough to find its footing. Once Jeremiah Masoli regained his mojo under center, this team hasn't looked back. Now it's within one win of the Rose Bowl.

10 - Middle Tennessee State: Coach Rick Stockstill has his Blue Raiders whacking everyone in the Sun Belt not named Troy, with a season-ending game against Louisiana-Monroe still to come. Middle Tennessee won two non-conference games above its pay grade in 2009, thumping Memphis and tripping the Maryland Terrapins on the way to an 8-3 record. When you examine the smaller FBS conferences, be sure to include the men of Murfreesboro, Tenn., on your list of high-level achievers.

9 - Clemson: ACC Atlantic Champions. First. Time. Ever. Without a loss at Maryland, Dabo Swinney's students would find themselves in the top 5 of this list. If they beat Georgia Tech on Dec. 5, they might still do so in a hypothetical revision of these rankings.

8 - Georgia Tech: Yes, this team was expected to do well in 2009, but it wasn't expected to beat Virginia Tech for the ACC Coastal (except by the Weekly Affirmation and a few other pundits). Even though the Yellow Jackets aren't a "little guy" in college football, they've frequently fallen short of grander aspirations, as the Chan Gailey/Reggie Ball era so painfully demonstrated. It's taken Paul Johnson only two seasons to transform this outfit into a well-oiled Rambling Wreck. The Tech administration simply hired the right man two years ago, and look at the fruit that move is producing right now near Peachtree Street.

7 - Iowa: The Hawkeyes displayed uncommon resilience and mental dexterity in 2009. Need two blocked kicks to fend off Northern Iowa in week one? Done. Need a stand-on-your-head defensive performance plus clutch special teams play to win at night in Happy Valley? Done. Need a steely second half from Ricky Stanzi and Tony Moeaki in Madison against the Badgers? Done. Need a ballsy now-or-never last-minute drive to steal one from Sparty under the lights in East Lansing? Done. Iowa overachieved all season long, showing its truest self - ironically enough - in a heartbreaking overtime loss at Ohio State. A 10-2 mark for an incomplete but untiring collection of kids rates as a distinctly elevated achievement. Take a bow, gentlemen.

6 - Northwestern: Quiet as a church mouse, with all the fanfare of a parish bake sale, the Wildcats have won at least eight regular-season games for the second straight season, and have secured their third consecutive non-losing campaign in Evanston under wildly successful coach Pat Fitzgerald, who has carried the torch with distinction for the school after the death of beloved coach Randy Walker. What makes this 8-4 spectacular even more astounding is the fact that Northwestern - like Kentucky - has seen its quarterbacks ground into mulch for much of the year. The Cats don't have flashy playmakers or super specimens beyond their defensive front, but they simply win Big Ten games.

5 - Oregon State: The Beavers regularly beat USC at home. They can be counted on to win a minimum of eight games per season, no matter who quarterbacks them and regardless of any outside circumstances that might conspire against them. Mike Riley is the best coach the college football world knows the least about; that will change, however, if OSU wins the Civil War against Oregon on Dec. 3. Just let this simple fact sink in: For two straight seasons, Oregon State has entered the final weekend of Pac-10 play one win from the Rose Bowl. Not many teams reach the sky the way this program does.

4 - Navy: The Midshipmen lost to Temple, yes, but by taking Ohio State to the wall in Columbus and then knocking Notre Dame out of the running for a BCS bowl, the Men of Ken Niumatalolo reaffirmed their place as the Kings of Extra Credit. Few football programs have maxed out the way Navy has throughout this decade; another stellar season in 2009 only enhanced the Naval Academy's already-glittering on-field reputation.

3 - Idaho: As disgusting as it was to see Dennis Erickson use the Vandals (the Arizona State coach Vandalized the town of Moscow, one could very rightly say) as a one-season stepping stone en route to a bigger gig, it's been even more heartwarming to see the U of I respond to Robb Akey, the former defensive coordinator under Bill Doba at nearby Washington State. Idaho has owned a Notre Dame-like propensity to play almost every game close, and in a magic carpet ride through an enchanted Autumn, the Vandals have managed to see the sunshine side of the divide on more occasions than not. "Bowl eligibility" and "Idaho" haven't belonged in the same sentence, as a beleaguered program flailed and failed throughout a dismal decade. But now, the Vandals will be ticketed for a postseason destination, a reality that is still quite difficult to comprehend.

2 - Southern Methodist: June Jones came alarmingly close to dying in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. Because he emerged from that horrible scare, Jones has gained a new lease on life. With his second chance, the former head honcho in Hawaii has engineered a resurrection almost as big as the one which (might have) occurred roughly 2,000 years ago in the Middle East. Assuming SMU beats a terrible Tulane team this Saturday, the Ponies will possess a 7-5 mark, and will have a shot at a bowl game. "SMU has died, courtesy of the death penalty. SMU has risen. SMU will play again in the postseason." There are no words.

1 - Temple: Last year's Vanderbilt is this year's Temple, only with a 9-2 record and an unblemished league mark through seven meetings with other Mid-American Conference clubs. Even if the Owls lose the MAC East this Friday at Ohio, and even if they get demolished in a bowl game, they've undone decades of college football futility in Philly. No other program, relative to its credentials and reputation, has flown higher than the Owls have in 2009, and it's not a terribly close call, either.