By
Pete Fiutak
Fire over your questions to me at
pete@collegefootballnews.com. I might not be able to answer them
all, but I promise they're all read. Any e-mails sent to this
address may be published or edited unless requested otherwise.
(Please put ASK CFN in the subject line, and PLEASE keep the
questions short ... it makes my life easier.)
I great up in
Vermont and went to school in Maine, and I’m a die-hard college
football fan who grew up with no real rooting interest. I sort
of like BC and UConn, but I don’t care that much. So as a
general fan, who should I be rooting for?
– CL
A: There’s two ways to do this. As a neutral observer who
has to love all 119 teams equally, and someone who does this for
a living, I always root for the really big game and the really
big moment. Along the way, there’s nothing like the excitement
of seeing the possible upset that ruins that big matchup, and
therefore becomes a big moment itself like the Pitt win over
West Virginia last season, or the Arkansas win over LSU. On the
opposite side of that, you should always root for the little
guy. Hawaii getting a BCS bid last year meant everything to the
program both financially and with its fan base. That was a
once-in-a-lifetime season for Warrior fans, and getting to the
Sugar Bowl doubled the school’s athletic budget. UL Monroe fans
will forever talk about beating Alabama. Appalachian State will
always mean something to college football fans, and it's not
because of the FCS national titles. It’s impossible to properly
explain just how massive the gap is between the really big
monster programs and the non-BCSers, and it's impossible to
overstate how much the non-BCS over BCS upsets really mean to
the fan bases.
PLEASE SETTLE AN OUTGOING DEBATE BETWEEN MY FRIEND AND I. WE
BOTH LOVE OHIO STATE AND WERE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE LAST 2
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES. MY FRIEND SAYS THE BIG TEN SUCKS
THE LAST 2 YEARS AND WAS THE WORST B.C.S. LEAGUE OUT OF THE 6.
HE'S SAYS #5 (ABOVE THE ACC IF HE'S NICE). I SAY THE MEDIA (NOT
C.F.N.) HAVE BEEN VERY UNFAIR TO COMPLETELY BASH THE BIG TEN
EVEN THOUGH I ADMIT IT HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING AT TIMES. WOULD
YOU PLEASE GIVE US YOUR RANKINGS OF THE 6 B.C.S LEAGUES FOR THE
2006 AND 2007 SEASONS SO WE CAN MAYBE END OUR ONGOING DEBATE?
– JB
A: WHY ARE YOU YELLING? No, the Big Ten wasn’t the worst BCS
league at all. For the last two years, the SEC was the
unquestioned No. 1 BCS conference. I’d put the Big 12 second,
the Big Ten third, the Pac 10 fourth, and ACC fifth and the Big
East sixth. You could probably flip-flop the ACC and Big East if
you want.
why does every national media personality be them writers or
tv commentators, talk radio hosts and non-Georgia fans alike,
their memories all begin in 1990? Every single stat that gets
mentioned nationally regardless of year only references what has
happened since 1990. Not 1989, ’88, 87 etc, you get the point.
Just who anointed history to be written from there? – HW
A: Maybe it’s because the current crop of young players weren’t
born before 1990. It creeps me out that the 2009 incoming
freshman class was born the year Nevermind was released.
I’m freakin’ old. Actually, the modern era of college football
from a historical sense starts in 1970. That’s when the bowl
games started to play a bigger role in determining the national
champion, and that’s when almost all programs were finally
integrated. By the way, if any alleged Georgia fan doesn’t know
what Run, Lindsay Run means, you can dismiss them.
So, there’s been some debate as to who is the team of the
decade with 3 seasons left. Who would you go with at this point?
I, as a completely biased LSU fan vote for LSU but USC obviously
makes a compelling argument. What’s your thought? Thanks
-Tyler, Winston-Salem
A: Ooooooh. There’s no right answer to this, but I’d have to say
USC. Six straight double-digit win seasons, 70 wins over that
span, one national title and an AP title. The biggest selling
point is a run of six straight BCS games and an all-timer of a
performance from Vince Young needed to keep it from being
six-for-six with two national championships. It’s hard to argue
against LSU going 6-2 in bowls in the decade, with a phenomenal
last second play by Iowa from making it 7-1, to go along with
the two national titles. No. 3 is probably Ohio State with a
national championship and five BCS appearances in six years,
including three Fiesta Bowl wins, and three appearances in
national title games. Oklahoma is right there, and could be No.
3, with three national title game appearances and six BCS games.
The whole "Bill Self to Oklahoma State" thing this weekend got
me thinking about the Rich Rodriguez saga again. Can you
remember any other time where a coach voluntarily left his alma
mater, where he had a legit shot to play for a national
championship, to go to another school (albiet a historically
more prestigious one)? To me, it would be like Frank Beamer
leaving Virginia Tech (his alma mater) to coach Notre Dame - I
doubt the Hokie fans would be very happy about that. Now, I
would never condone death threats or vandalism, but I think the
fact that this kind of move is unprecedented is lost on some of
the people who were overly critical of the WVU fan base's
reaction. Why hasn't anyone pointed that out?
– WP
A: Mountaineer fans need to let … it … go. It’s Michigan,
and you’ll be fine. I know West Virginia fans feel jilted, and I
know they were used to the long Don Nehlen era and can’t fathom
that one of their own could ever want to go somewhere else, but
it’s Michigan. This is the job coaches dream about. Remember,
coaches aren’t normal and are never, ever comfortable in one
spot for too long. This is as big as it gets without going to
the NFL, and it’s even bigger than coaching half the big-league
teams.
I’m not sure about leaving an alma mater, but coaches leave
great situations all the time for supposedly bigger and better
ones, especially in college basketball, only to fall flat on
their faces. How did that Michigan State run work out for John
L. Smith after he built up a monster at Louisville? Look what
Boise State did the year after Dan Hawkins left for Colorado,
and look at what the Buffs did.
I hear you keep saying there aren’t any true No. 1 receivers in
this draft. O.K., how many No. 1 receivers are there, really, in
the NFL right now, and what do you define a No. 1 receiver to
be? My friend and I are debating on the number of true No. 1s
there already are, and we want to see what you think.
– GT
A: A number one receiver is a player who produced even though
every opposing defense gameplans to stop him. As the saying
goes, an NFL defense can take away any one player if it focuses
enough on stopping him, and the playoffs proved that with Randy
Moss, but that’s sort of what an NFL offense wants. Fine, roll
your safeties over to stop my one guy, and the rest of the
offense will blow up. A No. 1 receiver is a guy who can beat
just about any top corner at any time, or will at least win more
than his share of battles, and he’s a target who can make a
mediocre quarterback look terrific and a great quarterback a
Hall of Famer. He’s also a player who can shine in any system
with just about any NFL quarterback, so no, I don’t include Wes
Welker.
To me, there are 11 NFL receivers who would be a true No. 1
right now on any team he played for. Reggie Wayne, Randy Moss,
Chad Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, Terrell Owens, Braylon Edwards,
Torry Holt, T.J. Houshmanzadeh, Plaxico Burress, Anquan Bolden,
and Andre Johnson. I count two other receivers who are absolute
No. 1 targets if they’re healthy, Marvin Harrison and Steve
Smith, and I have four who will most likely be true No. 1s next
year: Calvin Johnson, Marques Colston, Brandon Marshall and
Dwayne Bowe. Joey Galloway, Roddy White and Roy Williams might
be No. 1s, but I wouldn’t put them in the elite of the elite
level.
Considering you seem to be a football historian, where do you
put Brett Favre on the on the all-time list of greatest
quarterbacks? I’m in an e-mail battle about this and we need an
“expert” opinion. What’s your list of the top five greatest pro
quarterbacks? – HU
A: My problem with Favre is that for all the wins and all the
touchdown passes and all the durability, he took his team out of
almost as many big games as he won. While everyone loved his
gunslinger mentality, how many times did he throw a bad pick at
the worst possible time? He falls in my grouping of guys like
Peyton Manning, Steve Young and Dan Marino as legends who
probably make the list of the most talented quarterbacks ever,
but not ones you’d want under center for the proverbial Game to
Save the Universe.
The all-timer list starts with John Elway. To be totally
high-brow pretentious, I immediately mentally dismiss any expert
who doesn’t have Elway as the greatest of all-time, and this is
coming from someone who was never a fan of his. Everyone forgets
just how mediocre those early Denver teams were that Elway took
to the Super Bowl, and everyone seems to remember the late
version of the legend and not the early one that had one of the
strongest arms ever and could run. And no, he wasn’t just
along for the ride for those two Super Bowl wins; Denver doesn’t
get to either one without him. From the comebacks to the sheer
talent to the validation from the Super Bowl wins, he’s the
greatest ever and there’s no real second option.
Based on what actually happened on the field, Joe Montana is my
number two, but I can’t get past my unshakeable belief that he’d
have been just another guy, like a Marc Bulger, if he hadn’t
played under Bill Walsh and on that team. Elway would’ve been a
legend anywhere, while Montana was mostly part of a system.
Tom Brady is third. Name the legendary wide receivers he had to
throw to in his three Super Bowl wins. My personal No. 4 is Troy
Aikman. In today’s day and age of fantasy football, Aikman
doesn’t get his historical due mainly because he wasn’t a
numbers guy, but as far as accuracy, leadership, as the
steadying force for those ultra-talented, but ultra-nuts teams,
he deserves to be considered among the greats. I suppose you
have to put Johnny Unitas in the top five, although I’m not
ecstatic about it. He was the first great modern passing
quarterback, was ridiculously consistent, and was great in the
clutch, but he was also an interception machine.
What are your thoughts on where the Sun Belt is as a conference
and what do you believe is the conferences' potential?
Obviously we lack the TV deals and bowl-tie ins at the moment,
but our football teams are deceptively just as good as C-USA and
the MAC. Do you think C-USA and the MAC have peaked? I do, and
I think the geographical location of the Sun Belt will
inevitably allow it to become a much stronger conference. –
Wiley
A: No, Conference USA and the MAC haven’t peaked. The MAC is
loaded with experience this year, and while Conference USA is
top-heavy, it’s still a better all-around league. Yeah, the top
Sun Belt teams have proved they can play, but the league isn’t
going consistent. Yeah, Florida Atlantic was able to beat
Minnesota and Memphis, but it got obliterated by Oklahoma State
and Kentucky. Troy beat Oklahoma State and battle hard against
Georgia, but got steamrolled by Arkansas and Florida. Even so,
the league has gotten better.
The Sun Belt has a nice thing going for it with the location, at
least compared to Conference USA. Generally speaking, C-USA gets
most of the recruits who get overlooked or bypassed by the ACC.
The MAC, again, generally speaking, gets the players who didn’t
get to play in the Big Ten. The Sun Belt gets a lot of players
who great up dreaming of playing in the SEC, and the Florida
schools like FIU and Florida Atlantic get plenty of players who
spent their high school careers playing with and against future
Miami, Florida State and Florida players. One thing to remember
about getting stronger as a conference, the Sun Belt will lose
its stars in a hurry. Conference USA will eventually lose a few
schools to the Big East, and it’ll hope Florida Atlantic and FIU
will be big enough to bring into the fold.
