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.)
Prove to me
that Jim Tressel deserves to be called an elite CFB coach
without providing stats of how OSU has dominated an average Big
Ten conference. The past two years have shown me a side of
Tressel as either a poor clutch decision maker or a terrible
motivator. Obviously, the Nat Champ games come to mind. The
Florida game I can nearly excuse b/c they got blindsided by a
majorly pumped up and ticked off team. Tell me….how can you not
have your team ready to play the next year after enduring that
embarrassment for an entire year? Tressel sent the team home
with videos of the Florida game to pump OSU up….looks like that
didn’t work. That game didn’t have as much poor coaching per
se, but poor motivation. It is evident that when Tressel is
forced to provide decisions outside the basic game plan (aka
when trailing late in a game), he lays an egg. The other game
that completely shocked me was the Illinois game. A team that
is competing to play for a Nat Champ can’t beat a team AT HOME
that won 2 games the year before? Ron Zook outcoached Jim
Tressel. That should be all I have to say.
- JW
A: First, prove to me that the Big Ten has been an average
conference, and feel free to use stats. It’s not the SEC, but
it’s been better than you, or anyone else keeps giving it credit
for, or not giving it credit for.
Sorry, but I’m using stats; they don’t lie. I don’t care if the
Big Ten sucks, if a coach goes 73-16 in seven years with five
BCS appearances, wins three of those games, beats a supposedly
all-timer Miami team for a national title, goes 6-1 against the
arch-rival, and gets his team to two other national title games
and that’s still not enough to make him an elite coach in your
eyes, your standards might be just a weeeeee bit high.
Also, you, and most of the rest of the college football world,
aren’t giving 2007 LSU enough credit for being a special team.
You’re dead-on right about the Florida loss; OSU was fat, lazy
and overconfident, and everyone from Tressel on down has
admitted as much. An argument could still be made, even after
the debacle in the desert, that the 2006 Buckeyes were actually
a better team than those jacked up Gators. Last year’s LSU, when
rested and close to 100% healthy, which it was by the time the
national title game rolled around, was the much, much better
team. Ohio State was supposed to lose.
As far as that Illinois game, yeah, Zook had a fantastic
gameplan and his team executed an all-timer of a fourth quarter
drive to pull off the upset. That’s not Tressel’s fault;
Illinois simply won the game. Kentucky and Arkansas rolled up
huge yards on LSU. USC lost to Stanford. Oklahoma lost to Texas
Tech. West Virginia lost to Pitt. Should I keep going? Lots of
upsets happened last year. Go off the long haul and Tressel
doesn’t have to apologize to anyone.
After reading about
your BCS solution, I think the one thing you're not taking into account is
the fans. Given your hypothetical situation for this past season,
imagine for a moment if you're an Ohio State student. Your team does
well and come that Sunday in December, you get that magical Rose Bowl
bid. Now, you and your friends decide to make the trip, go to Pasadena.
If Ohio St wins, they would then go to the National Championship game a
week later in New Orleans. Is it reasonable to expect fans to travel
to two different cities within the span of a week to watch two
great games? What about those fans who then decide NOT to go to the
Rose Bowl in hopes of holding out for the national championship, only to
have the team lose and them not end up going to any bowl game.
Also, with less fans being able to go to both games, the College
Football National Championship could just become another Super Bowl
where its not fans in the stands, but rather just people who have the
money to blow on the extravaganza and for me at least, part of the great
thing about college football is the willingness to travel from fans.
– DT
A: Boo-hoo. That’s like whining that Kansas basketball fans couldn’t
travel to the regional finals and the Final Four. A Plus-one national
title game would be part Super Bowl, part Final Four, and if some of the
fans not being able to go to both games is the price to be paid for a
more legitimate national champion, so be it. And yes, if you believe it
might be a once-in-a-lifetime shot to follow a national championship
team and see both games live, you go to both. So you’ll be paying off
your credit card debt well past your death. You’ll be doing that anyway
and at least you’ll have had a great vacation. “I’ve got news for you
pal, they’re going to nail us no matter what we do, so we might as well
have a good time … to-ga, to-ga, to-ga.”
There's no particular reason to bring this up right now, but why
haven't the BCS conferences "blackballed" Notre Dame? Obviously Notre
Dame is not just gonna give up its awesome position as an independent on
its own - why would it? That school is raking in the dough. My
question is this - why don't the BCS conferences simply take Notre Dame
off their schedules? Why not mount one united front to put them on a
more even playing ground (at least money earning-wise). Basically tell
the fighting Irish that if they ever want to play a meaningful football
game again they have to follow their basketball program's lead and join
the Big East (who could use the name brand) (or possibly the Big Ten).
– Patrick
A: The rest of the programs don’t really care that much about Notre Dame
having its own gig. Everyone loves having Notre Dame on the schedule. It
gets the fan base fired up, it brings in the national spotlight, and
it’s always good for recruiting. Also, the schedules are made so far in
advance that they’re hard to change for a game this big. Irish games are
sometimes scheduled several years ahead of time.
I recently read where the NCAA does not currently officially
recognize the football national champion in its count of school national
championships. Is this true? And if so, do you think the majority of
sports fans across the nation know this? Do you think if they do not
know this and are currently against a playoff they'd be more inclined to
push their commissioners (*cough*Delaney*cough*) towards one? - RB
in Denver
A: It doesn’t really matter outside of the greed factor. The conferences
don’t want to split any of the bowl dough with the NCAA, and any sort of
playoff, like an NCAA basketball tournament, would split up the pie a
bit. I don’t think fans care too much about this, but they would
probably care if they actually realized how mythical the college
football national championship really is. It’s sort of implied idea more
than a hard and fast given. Remember, it wasn’t until 1998 when the BCS
made the picture a bit more clear, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t
still room for debate … obviously.
I'm a BYU fan/grad and college football nut. I work with a couple of
other college football fans and they have absolutely no respect for BYU
since we're not in a BCS league. Mentioning our history of a National
Championship (albeit a controversial one), a Heisman Trophy, Cotton Bowl
victory, and dozens of weeks in the top 25 means nothing. Now I realize
that BYU is no USC, Ohio State, etc. But I think we've definitely been
more successful than the average BCS team over the years. My question
for you is what BCS teams do you think are comparable to BYU in terms of
accomplishment in the modern college football era? How would BYU
perform in a BCS league? - Dave
A: Well, yeah, BYU has been more successful than the average BCS team
because it doesn’t play in a BCS league. Any time a great non-BCS team
can gear up for one or two trophy games, it plays well. It’s the long
haul of playing a BCS team after BCS team after BCS team that’s the
problem.
The team has certainly fared well against the big league teams over the
years, at least outside of the Gary Growton era, but some of the records
have been pumped up. That 14-1 1996 team wasn’t quite as good as the
record would indicate, and the 2001 team that started out 12-0 was a
total fraud (I spent weeks in battles with Cougar fans over that
season), but these last two teams under Bronco Mendenhall could’ve
finished in the top four of any conference in America outside of the SEC
and maybe the Big 12. This year’s team should be even better. How would
BYU perform in a BCS league? Under Mendenhall, I’d probably put the
Cougars in the Michigan State, Arkansas, UCLA, Maryland category.
I have had quite enough
of national media outlets bashing the BCS and pining for a playoff that
quite obviously isn't going to happen anytime soon. It would seem to me
that people all over the country spend far too much time and energy
bitching about what's wrong with college football. Meanwhile, it's
likely the second-most-popular sport in the U.S. Perhaps it is the
general state of our culture, but it seems like all the BCS whining
takes away from the numerous positive aspects of college football.
Those FAR outweigh the negatives in my opinion. Do you think there is
too much complaining about the BCS? Not enough? Or just the right
amount. – MH
A: The problem isn’t necessarily the complaining, it’s the complaining
from the wrong people. Those who aren’t really into college football and
whine about the lack of a playoff come across as idiots 95% of the time.
The complaining needs to keep coming from the coaches like Pete Carroll
who have championed a form of playoff or Plus One from the beginning.
The big wigs who really do believe in the cause, like the SECers, have
to keep up the pressure and the good fight.
Yeah, I’ll agree with you that the system in place is better than most
with a gimmicky playoff format, and yeah, the sport is probably No. 2
behind the NFL right now, but the point is that it could be even better
without sacrificing what makes it so great. You can preserve the regular
season, keep the integrity of the bowl system, and make everyone
happier with just one extra game. It’s not asking for the world, and I
don’t think a Plus One format is unreasonable by any measure. The powers
that be are just lazy.
Why has Oklahoma looked
good in the regular season have falter in high profile bowl games:
against Boise State and West Virginia comes to mind. Is it the fault of
the coaches or does this rest on Bob Stoops’ head? Is there a lack of
preparation on the team's part in general?
- Matt, Malden, MA
A: That’s the million-dollar question for Stoops. The huge losses in the
national title games to LSU and USC were simply losses to two better
teams, but the effort just wasn’t there in the debacle against the
Trojans. Don’t forget that it took every conceivable trick and gimmick
for Boise State to pull off the upset, and even though everyone
including the coaches warned the OU players of a letdown, they never got
the machine running against West Virginia. Yeah, the Mountaineers really
were good. Also remember that OU was a killer at home and struggled on
the road last season. Sometimes teams just have a weird quirk that it
needs to fight through.
When the time comes for Joe Pa to retire, what will happen to Penn
State? Sure, they're a Big Ten school with a rich history, etc. But,
without Joe Pa will they just become the IU or NW of the Big Ten? –
SH
A: Or it could go in the exact opposite direction, which is part of the
big fight right now. The issue is how the succession happens. The
Paterno camp wants to bring in a disciple who keeps all the same
traditions going. Penn State is a different animal, and it’s still a
success. There are others who think the program needs to start with a
completely different mindset and direction that takes a little bit of a
turn, but not a total one, from the way Paterno runs things. The
recruiting base, the facilities, and stadium, and the support are there
to succeed, and there doesn’t need to be a Ron Zook at Florida situation
to get to the right guy. It’ll be an interesting soap opera to watch
play out.