Five Thoughts:
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Week Four Thoughts
I'm still anti-playoff, but ...
By
Pete
Fiutak
1.
I've always been against a playoff in college football mostly
because I think the powers-that-be would screw it up, but this year, I
think I'll need one.
Don't get me wrong, I think the BCS is weird and believe BCS No. 1
should play No. 4, No. 2 should play No. 3, and then the two winners
should play in one extra game. I just don't like the idea of the
importance of the regular season being diminished. However, without a
real playoff, it's unlikely that we'll really have some closure on this
dead-even, wild season with no sure-thing top team.
I think USC is the best team in America, but it's hardly going to be
compared to the greatest juggernauts of all-time. Ohio State certainly
looked vulnerable against an average Penn State. Auburn came within a
strange call of possibly losing to LSU (and still probably has to play
Florida twice). Michigan, West Virginia, Florida, Louisville, Georgia,
Virginia Tech, Oregon, and anyone else you want to name all have talent
and could all beat anyone on any given week, but there are things to
nitpick about with each of them.
Last year everyone is more than fine with USC vs. Texas. This year, what
will Florida fans say if their Gators lose a squeaker at Auburn, go on
to win the SEC title anyway, and get passed over for the national title
game by West Virginia just because it's unbeaten? What will Michigan
fans think if their Wolverines go unscathed until an end-of-the-year
loss at Ohio State, but Notre Dame gets in to the title game after going
on a great run with a win over USC? Don't even think about what would
happen if Ohio State, Auburn, USC and West Virginia all go unbeaten. The
point is that even if we have two unbeaten teams at the end of the year,
that doesn't necessarily mean anything will really be settled.
Keep the eyes on Texas
By
Richard Cirminiello
2.
Unlike the last couple of seasons, there
are no dominant, borderline invincible teams in 2006. That was evident
this past weekend, when Ohio State, Auburn, USC, West Virginia, Florida,
Michigan, Georgia and Virginia Tech all got pushed before pulling away
late. Everyone is vulnerable and no one is unbeatable this fall-good
news for college football and great news for Texas. The 'Horns are way
off the national title chase radar, courtesy of their loss to Ohio
State, however, that's going to change as they continue winning and
other top 10 schools inevitably fall by the wayside. Plus, with the
national spotlight off the program for now, freshman QB Colt McCoy is
getting a chance to mature and develop with far less scrutiny than if
Texas was perfect. Keep an eye on the Longhorns. Even though they have a
loss, Glendale remains the goal for this team.
.
Still figuring out the clock
By
Matthew
Zemek
3.
In an ongoing
discussion of clock rules in college football, the NCAA and relevant
football people would do well to consider what has been said by many
since the beginning of the season: have the clock run after first downs
if you want to shorten games in a more natural and fluid way. Having the
clock run before first-down snaps (following changes of possession) is
an artificial and manifestly awkward vehicle for moving the game along.
Having the clock run after first downs (so that officials can do their
job more easily) is a profoundly more effective way of managing the
tempo of a game.
I said a few weeks ago that running the clock
after first downs was particularly effective because it would stop the
process in which a ref has to stand over the ball at the scrimmage line
and then jump away when the ball is ready for play. This unwieldy
process makes quarterbacks (and centers) afraid to snap the ball too
early, even if they have to snap the ball right away in order to beat
the game clock. This happened at the end of the 1998 Rose Bowl between
Washington State and Michigan, when the Cougars got jobbed for this very
reason. It happened again Saturday night in Gainesville, as
Kentucky--after getting a first down in field goal range with two
seconds left in the first half--spiked the ball one second too late in
the eyes of the officials. Kentucky QB Andre Woodson was afraid to snap
the ball with the spotting official still running away from the
scrimmage line, and that half-second made all the difference. Wildcat
head coach Rich Brooks was wrong to claim time had run out prematurely,
but if he and his staff had noticed, the clock operator--after UK got
its first down with five seconds remaining--ran three ticks off the
clock. It was that (unfair) loss of three seconds (from five down to
two) that killed the Cats, not the final two seconds. It's obvious now,
from all appearances, that if you only have two seconds left in a half,
you can't snap a ball in time after a first down, given the one-second
delay that inevitably occurs between the ref winding the clock and the
ball-spotting official getting away from the scrimmage line. If you've
snapped the ball with one second left, you obviously can't spike the
ball before the double-zeroes emerge.
This does bring up a strategic point, then...
until this stupid set of clock rules gets changed, anyway: if I have no
timeouts and I just got a first down in field goal range with two
seconds left in the half, I will instruct my quarterback and center to
initiate a premature snap, even if it means getting a delay of game
penalty. At least I know I'll be able to kick the ball (the adjustment
is to ensure that a five-yard flag won't make a FG attempt unmanageable
in terms of distance). And if I don't want to give up five yards, I
would instruct my QB to kneel underneath the center so that he can
immediately put the ball on the ground, instead of receiving the
belt-high snap and then throwing the ball into the turf from the waist.
Might as well get close to the ground; that's the
only way one can spike a ball inside of two seconds these days.
But of course, that's all background to the bigger
issue: just let the clock run after first downs so we don't have this
silly ('98 Rose Bowl/Kentucky-Florida) scenario anymore. Force teams
(like Wazzu and Kentucky) to get out of bounds, period. If people want
to shorten a game, do it that way; get rid of the new clock rules
instituted for this season.
The Washington resurgence
By
John
Harris
4. Watching Notre Dame struggle through much of their matchup
with Michigan State last night, I couldn’t help but think about their
former coach and current Washington Husky head ball coach Ty
Willingham. Relax, Domers, this one isn’t about you; it’s about a man
who has been a good coach for a long time, got caught in a difficult
situation at Notre Dame and ‘escaped’ to an outpost in the Pac Northwest
to take over a floundering Husky program. It may not have looked like
the best situation on paper at the time, but it was the perfect tonic
for Willingham who had to be thrilled by the challenge of rebuilding the
Huskies in the Pac-10. After a 2 – 9 year in 2005, it looked as though
Willingham’s rebuilding project was going to be a rough one, but outside
of one poor half at Oklahoma, Willingham’s Huskies have played solid
football this season. His team’s performances have stoked the passion
and energy of a football program that needed a boost in the worst way.
Is this a team that’ll absolutely, 100% without question be bowl bound
this December? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s not the point. For that
group of seniors, those guys having been recruited by Rick Neuheisel,
coached by Keith Gilbertson and now by Willingham, this is one final
opportunity to leave a legacy. They’re the ones who’ve suffered through
more changes than an aging actress on a plastic surgery binge; yet, they
have a chance to rewrite the fortunes of Washington football for the
foreseeable future. That change was evident last night as the Huskies
came from behind to beat a previously undefeated UCLA team. Husky
Stadium was electric and when Dan Howell, whose father passed suddenly
only six days ago, intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown to
seal the win, the television picture shook, as Husky Stadium erupted
into a euphoria that hasn’t been experienced in quite some time. That
was early 1990s, Steve Emtman-Mark Brunell emotion coming forth from
that crowd Saturday night, a by-product of what one man and his team of believers have
wrought. After the game, the TBS cameras caught Willingham hugging a
player with a huge smile on his face before he did his post-game
interview. Of course, as Willingham turned toward the cameras, the
public conscious head coach broke back into ‘game face mode’, but you
knew what he was feeling. It might’ve been odd to see Willingham with
that huge grin on his face, but it spoke volumes of what he and the rest
of Husky nation must be feeling today as they wake up 3 – 1 and in the
mix for a bowl game.
Is this more fun?
By
Pete
Fiutak
5.
Last year we had several
all-time great games, an epic battle between USC and Texas in the
opinion polls, an all-time great Heisman battle with Reggie Bush, Matt
Leinart and Vince Young all worthy of the honor, the resurgence of Notre
Dame, Alabama and Penn State, and, arguably, the greatest national title
game of all-time. So far this year, most of the big games have stunk,
there's not a dominant team, and the Heisman race inspires a yawn.
However, in a quirky, different sort of way, is this season almost as
fun?
It's never going to live up to 2005, but there are more teams in the
national title race than ever with a sense that things are building,
building, building to something really cool. By early November, there
were be an all-out war of ideologies and belief systems between fans of
the various conferences. At least, that's the hope. If Ohio State and
Auburn win out and there's no debate in the end, it'll make for a great
national title game, but the season will likely lack the drama and the
flavor of past years. Here's hoping things pick up a little bit over the
coming weeks. I expect they will.
