Past TQs
- These three teams
are for real, these three aren't
- After 2 weeks,
who's better, who's worse?
- 10 Greatest Quarterbacks of
All-Time
-
10 Greatest Defensive Players
of All-Time
- 10 Greatest Regular Season
Games of All-Time
-
10 Greatest
Playmakers of All-Time
- 10 Worst Heisman Winners
| 10 Greatest Bowl Games
-
All-Time Offensive Team
| All-Time Defensive Team
Pete
Fiutak
Q:
The early, top coach of the year candidate is ...
A:
10. Pete Carroll, USC - How about giving some credit to the guy who
lost Leinart, Bush, and White, along with several key players to injury,
and still keeps cranking out a juggernaut?
9.
Chris Petersen, Boise State - He's keeping the machine rolling. The
offense is producing as well as ever.
8.
Urban Meyer, Florida - His running game is rolling, and he's doing a
great job of getting Tim Tebow involved without disrupting the offensive
flow.
7.
Dick Tomey, San Jose State - Other than Temple, San Jose State is
the toughest program in the nation to turn around. Tomey is doing it.
6.
Doug Martin, Kent State - The Golden Flashes were among the nation's
worst teams last year, and now it's 2-0 in MAC play and a contender for
the title.
5.
Bobby Ross, Army - This team has absolutely no D-I talent, but it
pushed Texas A&M, beat Kent State, and upset Baylor.
4.
Greg Schiano, Rutgers - This is no fluke. Rutgers is playing
extremely well.
3.
Bobby Petrino, Louisville - He lost both his All-Americans from his
backfield and has the team rolling as well as ever.
2. Lloyd Carr, Michigan - He transformed his coaching staff
and his team. Now Michigan is in the national title hunt.
1.
How many teams could lose their starting quarterback and their
number one running back and still start the season 4-0? Well, Louisville
can, but the talent pool is much deeper for the Cardinals than it is at
Wake Forest.
It's not like the Demon Deacons are full of future NFL stars, and many
wouldn't start for most ACC teams, but head coach Jim Grobe has
his team playing extremely well on the way to a 4-0 start, and will
likely be 5-0 with a layup against Liberty this week. Reality might hit
hard against Clemson, but the NC State game is winnable, and so is the
road date at North Carolina. Grobe has gotten this team playing well in
the clutch and has come up with his best defense yet holding opposing
offenses to 266 yards and 9.75 points per game.
Richard
Cirminiello
Q:
The early, top coach of the year candidate is ...
10. Bobby Ross,
Army – An upset of Baylor and a painfully close loss against Texas
A&M has Army believing it can win the Big 12 North. That’s quite a
turnaround for a program that had lost 39-of-42 before getting hot last
October.
9. Urban Meyer, Florida – Meyer has seamlessly worked Tim Tebow
into the Gator offense without it being a distraction to Chris Leak, and
has the Gators where they need to be with Alabama, LSU, Auburn and
Georgia next on the schedule.
8. Jeff Tedford, Cal – Plenty of teams wouldn’t have recovered
after getting shellacked the way Cal did in the opener with Tennessee.
Three wins later, Tedford has the Bears back on track, playing with
short memories and large expectations.
7. Gary Patterson, TCU – Patterson out coached Texas Tech’s Mike
Leach two weeks ago in a signature victory that has the Frogs No. 15 in
the latest Coaches’ poll and on target for a potential BCS bowl bid.
6. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest – As if a 4-0 Demon Deacon start isn’t
startling enough, Grobe and Co. has gotten to this point without the
services of starting quarterback Ben Mauk or starting back Micah
Andrews, who’ve both been lost with season-ending injuries.
5. Pete Carroll, USC –Even after losing so much talent to the NFL
and a tumultuous off-season, Carroll has the Trojans where they’ve been
since he arrived—favored to win the Pac-10 and in the national title
hunt. The defense, which is his baby, has been sensational through
three games.
4. Tyrone Willingham, Washington – The same Washington team that
figured to be 1-3 at this point is 3-1 after back-to-back wins over
Fresno State and UCLA. Credit Willingham with instilling a winning,
more physical attitude in a Husky team that won just twice in 2005.
3. Lloyd Carr, Michigan – Carr made a handful of off-season
coaching and philosophical changes, all of which appear to be working
through the first third of the season. Michigan’s dismantling of Notre
Dame two weeks ago was one of the best overall performances by a team so
far in 2006.
2. Bobby Petrino, Louisville – No Bush. No Brohm. No change in
expectations. Louisville has lost its two Heisman hopefuls for extended
periods of time, yet is still unbeaten and on course to contend for the
Big East title or more.
1. Greg Schiano, Rutgers – Unbeaten and Rutgers used to only be
in the same sentence when Miami or Virginia Tech was next on the
schedule. Schiano has Rutgers up to number No. 23 in the rankings, a
remarkable accomplishment for a perennial punch line program that hasn’t
made a poll appearance since 1976. The Knights are winning with defense
and the running game, but for this story to end as amazing as it’s
begun, Rutgers must continue winning the winnable games once Big East
play begins this Friday in Tampa.
John
Harris
Q:
The early, top coach of the year candidate is ...
A. So
much can change over the next ten weeks of action, but the coach of the
year through this point of the year is Michigan’s Lloyd Carr. 365 days
ago, there wasn’t a soul living on this earth that could’ve convinced me
that Carr would ever be a coach of the year. But, there’s no other
coach who realistically deserves this award at this point. He made the
right changes within his staff this past winter and he’s gotten his team
to play up to their expectations each week, not to the opponent’s level
of difficulty. In 1997, he got his team to do the same thing every week
– they didn’t just throw their winged helmet out on the field and expect
that would win the game. This team has that same attitude. They’re
showing up every week with the purpose of putting 2005 in their rearview
mirror. That goes back to what Carr has done for this team and for that
he’s the early favorite for coach of the year.
Matthew
Zemek
Q:
The early, top coach of the year candidate is ...
A: The first four weeks of the college football
season--cupcake-filled and dominated by unpredictability--offer a poor
sample from which to pluck a "Coach of the Year" candidate. With that
said, if one had to arrive at a candidate today, the winner would be
Gary Patterson of TCU. Anyone who can hold Texas Tech to three points
while keeping a non-BCS school competitive on a national level is doing
something really special. Lloyd Carr and Pete Carroll get honorable
mention.
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