Five Thoughts:
Preseason
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Week
4
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Week 7
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Week 8
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9
Uhhhhh, did
anyone watch the Cincinnati or Syracuse games?
By
Pete
Fiutak
1.
College
football talking heads and voters either have the attention span of a two-year
old after eating 14 Nutter Butters, or they haven't watched Louisville
play all year. After their lousy performances this weekend, everyone just now has begun to notice that Florida,
Michigan, and even Ohio State, to a lesser extent, might not quite the
be-all-end-all teams that so easily fit all the preconceived, preseason
notions, but, of course, Louisville is the greatest thing since the
man figured out how to make a taco that was crunchy, chewy and
cheesy. Louisville’s offense at home is unstoppable, but one
monster win over West Virginia, which also showcased just how porous the
Cardinal defense can be, is being given way too much national credit,
while close calls against Syracuse and Cincinnati are being completely
blown off. I’m not saying the Cardinals don’t deserve to be in the
national title hunt or aren’t any good, this really might be a
championship team, but let’s relax a little bit on
jumping on the hot new team every time one pops up after one really big
win. You might have to save something for Rutgers after Thursday night.
The 2006 season
has no clothes
By
Pete
Fiutak
2.
Considering
I spend my entire life around a game a bunch of 18-to-22-year old kids
play, I’m supposed to be ultra-geek college football boy no matter
what happens, and I am, but it’s time to point out the obvious: this
season sucks ... so far.
It was asking a lot for a good year after 2005, when there were epic USC
and Texas teams, a fantastic Heisman battle among all-time talents, the
resurgence of Notre Dame, Penn State and Alabama, and classic game after
classic game, but after this week, this season is going down a quick
path to becoming a forgettable throwaway.
Sure there are some exciting finishes and some wonderful stories, but
there’s flat-out bad football being played all over America week after
week after week. Sorry, but the number one team in the nation shouldn’t
be shut down by Illinois after the opening drive. The number two team in
the country shouldn’t have to hang on at home against Ball freakin’
State. Who’s the best one-loss team? Who cares? They’re all no big
whoop. If you want to sell me on Arkansas, Wisconsin, or Cal rising up
to be among the strongest one-loss teams, at the moment, to throw some
new ideas and new blood into the mix, I’ll listen, but I’m sick of
Florida and Auburn playing mediocre football week in and week out and
being considered national title contenders. I’m tired of the ACC, where
Virginia Tech and Miami can stink up the joint in a 17-10 game that set
the idea of the forward pass back 25 years. Texas is certainly turning
into something special, and it played a great game against Oklahoma
State, but that secondary was getting bombed on way too often before
this week.
And then there’s the yawner of a Heisman race. Outside of the Illinois
game, Troy Smith is certainly playing well, but come on. Is anyone
really doing backflips to vote for him, and is he the main man only because
there’s absolutely no one else out there? A vote by default is hardly a
vote of confidence. I have half a mind to vote for Vince Young just to
ease my inner guilt for voting for Reggie Bush last year.
Here we go 2006 season, you have three more weeks to dazzle us. Michigan
– Ohio State, Cal – USC, Notre Dame – USC, and LSU – Arkansas have the
potential to be special. Heck, Louisville – Rutgers should be fun.
Troy, it's all yours, baby, just do what you do every year against
Michigan and it's all good as far as my vote. Many
of the one loss teams should be over the lull of a long 12-game season
and be ready to kick it into overdrive. Everyone has to start playing
well soon, don’t they? We’re all ready for some good football.
More Ball and more Coach
By
Richard Cirminiello
3.
It's been almost two years since
the Old Ball Coach returned home to college football and the SEC by
putting down stakes in South Carolina.
Shouldn't we expect a little more than a
5-4 record and the league's No. 10 scoring offense from Steve Spurrier?
The Gamecocks rallied in the second half against Arkansas Saturday
night, but it was the same old story, ending with a close loss to one of
the SEC's better teams. If you're keeping score at home, South Carolina
has now fattened up on Mississippi State, Wofford, Florida Atlantic,
Kentucky and Vanderbilt, while losing to heavyweights Georgia, Auburn,
Tennessee and Arkansas.
Where are the upsets, the memorable
moments we figured would be a little more regular in year No. 2 with the
new system and new staff? How about a little momentum off of last year's
7-5 campaign? Since stunning Florida last Nov. 12, South Carolina is
under .500 and 0-6 against teams with winning records. Up next? A trip
to Gainesville to face a Gator team that'll surely have revenge on its
mind. No one expected overnight miracles when Spurrier came on board in
2004, but how about some progress or some offensive excitement? Is it
too much to expect the occasional magic from one of the game's most
innovative coaches? Just like with Lou Holtz, we can dismiss the coach's
failures on Sundays as a bad philosophical marriage, but on Saturdays,
mediocrity and Spurrier are becoming strange and all too common
bedfellows.
More replay madness
By
Matthew
Zemek
4.
Come on, ACC.
After the debacles in Corvallis, Ore., and
Lubbock, Tex., on October 28, we were treated to more instant insanity
in college football's replay system this past weekend. This time, the
Atlantic Coast Conference insulted the eyesight--and the
intelligence--of every ordinary joe watching television from the
comforts of home.
It's a very, very good thing that Maryland was
able to kick a winning field goal at the gun to beat Clemson, because if
the Terps had lost by two points (12-10), a horrible replay mistake
would have been centrally responsible for their defeat.
There's no other way to say it: the replay
official simply made a horrendous, Oklahoma-Oregon-style call in
overturning a safety Maryland had scored in the fourth quarter of
Saturday's Terp-Tiger tilt. There was no way Clemson's C.J.
Spiller--sliding along the grass toward the goal line--fully possessed
the ball outside his own end zone. The Tiger running back might have
begun to touch the ball on the half-yard line, but full possession of
the loose ball could not have been established unless a portion of the
ball touched the goal line, which would have made the play a safety.
When you also consider the fact that Spiller's body was behind the ball
as it rolled away from him toward the goal line, it becomes that much
more difficult to conceive how Spiller could have cradled the ball (with
his body at the 1) while keeping all of the pigskin completely out of
the end zone. The official on the play--who had a clear view of the
scramble--called the play a safety. There was a clear lack of the
"indisputable video evidence" needed to overturn the call on the field.
No problem. The replay reviewers overturned the
ruling anyway.
And then there was the Boston College-Wake Forest
game, in which Demon Deacon tight end John Tereshinski seemed to fumble
after catching a pass in the fourth quarter of the crucial ACC Atlantic
encounter. The referees called the play a fumble, which--with the
subsequent recovery and return by the Eagles--would have given BC the
ball at the Wake 14. Needless to say, this ruling--and particularly the
upholding thereof--would have given the boys from New England a
tremendous opportunity to tie the game. This was a hugely significant
call.
Replays showed that Tereshinski certainly moved
the ball around in his hands, but they didn't conclusively prove that
the tight end lacked control of the ball. The Eagle defender on the play
clearly seemed to strip the ball from Tereshinski's hands as they
clutched the football. All in all, the play was very similar to the
Maryland-Clemson safety call in three core respects:
1) Repeated viewings of the play seemed to support
the ruling the officials had made on the field in the first place.
2) Even if the play might have been somewhat
debatable, there was--at the very least--a lack of the "indisputable
video evidence" needed to overturn the call.
3) After prolonged periods of review--which should
suggest, in and of themselves, that there was insufficient evidence for
an overturn--the original calls were overturned anyway.
The LSU-Tennessee replay failure from Saturday--in
which an on-field call SHOULD have been overturned (a touchback for the
Vols that should have been a touchdown, given a video shot of a
Tennessee return man clearly touching the ball and changing its
trajectory)--was bad enough. But the ACC's two ridiculous overturns of
correct on-field calls (especially in the Maryland-Clemson game) only
worsened this nightmarish season for the replay system. Once again,
coach potatoes at home could do an exponentially better job than paid
staffers who are evidently unable to perform what should be a simple
job: see call, use basic intelligence, honor the "indisputable video
evidence" proviso, and phone in the ruling to the lead official.
Lots of Americans live in poverty. ACC
Commissioner John Swofford should allow a homeless guy to make a decent
wage by plucking him off the street and putting him in the replay booth
one of these next few Saturdays. That homeless man could do a better job
than the folks in Clemson and Winston-Salem did this past weekend.
How many more games--and division title races and
conference championships and BCS bowl bids--are going to be affected by
horrible replay rulings? No one died, but a lot of kids are getting
jobbed, and darnit, that's just not right.
A salute for dealing with the salute
By
John
Harris
5. As the season winds down, most of our talk is going to be
about the BCS, conference titles and the Heisman Trophy, but one
incident that happened this weekend really piqued my interest, partially
for its indirect association to one of the worst moments of this season.
Against USF,
Pittsburgh’s Darrell Strong caught a touchdown pass in the fourth
quarter of the game and then proceeded to ‘salute’ the Bulls fans in the
stands. The ramifications of that move was felt when Pitt was assessed
a 15 yards penalty on the try and the Panthers were forced to score a
two point conversion from 18 yards, instead of three. Down 10 points
after the touchdown, a two point conversion would’ve brought the
Panthers within one possession, but the 15 yard penalty eliminated any
realistic chance of scoring the two. Immediately after the game, Pitt
head coach Dave Wannstedt indefinitely suspended the Pitt pass catcher
for his conduct.
Earlier in the season,
UNC LB Marlon White gave a similar salute to UVA’s fans in a game on
Thursday night. White was to start for the first time in his career,
but instead head coach John Bunting was standing right behind White and
saw him do the deed, so to speak. Bunting not only gave him a tongue
lashing, when the Heels went in after warm-ups, he had the young man
take off his equipment and sat him down for the whole game. Of course,
a few days later, Bunting was fired for the Heels lack of progress over
his tenure.
These two incidents
will be blips on most people’s radar screen, but they need not be. The
worst incident in recent memory – the Miami/FIU game – has become the
poster incident for what can happen when ‘extraneous’, unnecessary
behavior takes on a life of its own, but it’s the actions taken by
Wannstedt and Bunting that can help prevent these things from
happening. The NBA has taken a stand as well – you complain, you’re
going to get T’d up, right now. Surprising what has happened – the game
actually doesn’t have crying every single play. College football
doesn’t need one fingered salutes – the game is better than that. Score
a TD, flip the ball to the ref and score a two point conversion to help
your team win a game. Shut up a crowd with knee-knocking hit.
Neither one of these
two will win a coach of the year award, but in my mind, they deserve as
much respect for doing the right thing – something most of us, if not
all of us, can learn from.
