On the National Championship
I will outline some criteria in future posts about what a satisfactory national champion would have to produce. I will say I’m picking Ohio State in that Golden Blogs pool because of two words: Les Miles. But not much more than that.
Note these criteria are absolutely arbitrary. But just like any arguments brought up in this champion debate
—Do they have a signature regular season victory?
Examples include Ohio State ’06 (beating Michigan in #1 vs #2) and USC and Texas ’05 (with memorable victories in South Bend and the Horseshoe), USC ’04 (holding off Aaron Rodgers and Cal), etc.
The closest thing that qualifies for LSU is Florida, a game which has lived up to its billing the past year as crowning the SEC champ. Then again, it’s hard to say beating a four-loss team can qualify as your signature win.
The most memorable team? Appalachian State took those honors in week 1 and ran with them, culminating their season in a threepeat. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell they’re years away from denting the current BCS system.
The most dramatic team? Okay, LSU wins this one, and they are in the title game. But the drama required that they had a Frazier to Ali (like that classic USC-Notre Dame game two years back). LSU looked more like Tyson after Buster Douglas, always underperforming with the talent they had, nearly losing four straight right in the middle of the season due to unfocused coaching and questionable playcalling.
The undefeated team? Hawaii. They had an impressive, physical win over Boise State and well…had to come back to beat Louisiana Tech, Nevada, San Jose State, and last place Pac-10 Washington at home. And now they are dead in the water, annihilated by a Bulldog team they never should have faced.
The hottest team? Tossup between Georgia and USC (who were playing entirely inferior competition). But Georgia got creamed into the ground at Neyland early on, and forfeited their rights to the BCS title game. I watched USC’s November victories and couldn’t really identify anything great about their wins–other than the ASU game, their accomplishments this year were a shadow of their 2004-05 greatness.
Who would I crown? Simple. Since we can’t have a winner, we can’t have an actual champion. And that team is…Appalachian State. DUH.
We’re going to have a lot of fun debates over this offseason about who deserves. I just say give it to Appalachian State. They stole this season from the 119 Division I teams from Week 1. They went into the Big House and did something that has NEVER been done before. And they hung tough after the hangover of victory and perservered to retain the crown in Division I-AA. In a season where the upset reined supreme, the Mountaineers usurped the throne.
But that’s a world where college football dreams are made. Tomorrow we’ll look at who will be crowned national champion so they can mock and ridicule them for weeks. HOT HOT HOT!
[youtube pVENWl8uBeg]
On the BCS, Part III
And now we approach what will be college football’s extraordinarily feeble attempt to crown its champion in 2008.
I broached this subject a month ago, but let’s draw some closure to the argument. When I think of a national champion in college football, I think the regular season matters far more than ANY other sport. Because there is a six week gap between regular season and title game, you have an unusually unique situation in which teams play out their season and then don’t immediately play games to determine who should be on top. This has been going on for decades, and it always produced slumber fests for everyone but alumni and traditional fans. “I was here when Archie Griffin plowed the fields of Pasadena!”
Now, you might argue, play the games immediately! Yeah, cute. Dec 13th is bowl championship weekend? I don’t think that’s going to fly with the old people. You know, your parents and grandparents. Old people. And we know old people can’t play football anymore, so their opinions shouldn’t matter. But they do, and they are the majority, so the bowl games stay where they are.
How about the playoff way then! Go straight to the playoffs the week after the season ends! Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. An eight-team playoff takes three weeks and three more games for the best teams to decide who’s best, and that runs through finals and winter break, for students, alumni, athletes, etc.. Who exactly would pay for the bowl games? Who would go to all three, travel from bowl site to bowl site, etc? The playoff logistics would be like an endless road trip for college football players, and they can barely handle two weeks on the road. No no no.
At the moment any playoff system concocted is terribly contrived. So we’re going to have to hope that two legit contenders emerge, separate themselves from the pack, and provide us a wonderful buildup to a title game. Otherwise, just revel in everything that happened before the last game to produce all these chaotic logistics. And realize that the current system we have is imperfect and that it might be awhile before we have a better alternative that satisfies the would-be powers. Let’s enjoy what we have instead of griping on what we can’t get. As much as I hate USC, Pete Carroll’s sunny optimism is oh-so-infectious. Sunlight. Flowers. Love it.
Armed Forces Bowl Torrent
Saw the ESPN replay last night–should have an abbreviated writeup soon.
For now, click here and you can watch the whole game for yourself. Enjoy. (As always, special thanks to chicagoaubear from The Bear Insider)
You will need some ISO burning software to view the files, which I guess could be either Nero or one of the freeware options (Active ISO Burner might be one of the better options).
We Won? We Won!
I was in an airport in Buffalo, saw Air Force 21 Cal 7 flash on the ESPNNews TV, and thought “Oh, no, not again”. I just decided it was best to memory wipe this season and snore next to some fat lady in Crocs for the flight, hoping to meditate the suffering away.
Then after I got off my plane in Baltimore and was driving to Dulles, I caught the last few minutes of the game and heard 42-30 on the scoreboard and thought, “Oh, at least we made it respectable.” Then I realized it was the BEARS with the lead, and even though they hadn’t mentioned it, I knew what it meant:
Riley. The future is now.
Oh blast you Cal football, everytime I try to get out you pull me back in.
Well…I wish I could say insightful things about this game. Except I haven’t watched a second of it. Maybe when I find someone with a tape. But it’s always nice to finish things on the upside. I know this is kind of a whimper way to end my coverage of Cal’s season, but I’ll make it up in the offtime.
Happy New Year Golden Bears!
Armed Forces Bowl Open Thread
I have been and will be traveling during the bowl week, and will most likely not see Cal’s bowl game because of these travels. If you guys have any comments on the game, I will try to approve them as soon as I can. Enjoy the game and Happy Holidays!
VIVA! UCLA-BYU Liveblog
You know what’s fun? Liveblogs, that’s what! Don’t really have much else to do this Saturday night. And I love me some bowl action.
5:15–UCLA is one of the fiercest, fastest defenses in the Pac-10…but it’s bowl season, so what do you expect? Miss one tackle, miss another, miss another on a kick return.
5:17–FUMMMBLE! Bruce Davis, again.
Unfortunately, that means the UCLA offense has to take the field. Here comes the six minute field goal drive.
Elvis and Sammy Davis Jr. introduce the starting lineups. I’m not sure if BYU playing in the Las Vegas Bowl is more ironic, or the King introducing the square dancing Cougar lineups.
5:23–After only runs, Rashaan runs a perfect bootleg, with the tight end open…and then blows it and and gets pounded on the three yard line. This is followed by a straight run up the middle that gets pounded backward three yards. Welcome to the 2007 UCLA offense. 3-0, Bruins.
5:33–UCLA looks like it has the potential for blowout if their defense keeps on playing this way…and their offense gets a touchdown. Two would definitely cinch it. Only turnovers could kill…whoops, nearly a Verner fumble. I love me some jinxes.
5:38–UCLA passes on second and long, and Rashaan decides to get hit on another QB scramble. Ugh, I keep on forgetting how awful UCLA’s offense has been this year. Seems Dorrell’s firing has done nothing to change the great Bruin strategy of getting hammered in every way possible. Is there an over/under for a Bethel-Thompson snap?
5:44–The ESPN announcers seem fairly convinced that Rick Neuheisel will be UCLA’s next HC. Sounds about right, only wait a second…Rick Neiuheisel is the RAVENS QB Coach??? Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan probably must be shaking in their boots. “Oh, no, I am fucked.”
5:47–BYU runs the fade route twice and gets a FG to knot it up at 3. And we do have a Bethel-Thompson sighting, and we’re not even through a quarter! I swear UCLA fans are just praying for this game to end so they can get ready at 2008.
5:53–Start of the second quarter, and Bethel-Thompson hits turf. I should do a running count of how many times quarterbacks hit dirt in this one. It might triple the number of passes they attempt (one pass for UCLA in the first quarter).
5:57–Just checked out the Carolina-Dallas game. Ugliness. Back to Vegas I go.
6:00–The Mormons are fighting! They’re not even using their Bibles! This is followed by textbook UCLA defense (reading an out and nearly getting the pick-six), and Bruce Davis taking off the BYU’s QB Max Hall’s head. More jawing. I love it.
6:04–Different punt returner, same sloppiness. FUMBLE! The defense should get hazard pay for the way the other two parts of the team put them back on the field.
Another fade route burns UCLA for a TD, followed by an awesome wideshot of BYU fans in suit and ties cheering them on. The Vegas industry must be seething at the incompetence of the bowl tie-ins. 10-3.
6:09–Boy, did I really think UCLA could win this game? Bethel-Thompson throws a deep post that gets dropped, then incomplete, incomplete. This will either get ugly or agonizing for UCLA fans.
6:14–Looking like agonizing–a pick gets negated by an offside, followed by another pass route getting converted for 1st down.
6:15–Bruce Davis and Max Hall get friendly with each other again. Bruce Davis is someone I’m happy we don’t have to worry about seeing again. BYU still can’t run up the middle–3rd and short and 4th and inches get stuffed. Hasn’t everyone learned that running up the middle never works against UCLA? Even the Trojans can’t do it. That should be a sign to stop.
6:17–One, two, three, four, five, six Cougars swarm around a scrambling Ossar Rasshan and hit him in succession. Great strategy by UCLA. I never knew they ran the option. Oh wait, they don’t. Just put it in Chris Markey’s hands the rest of the game and see how far they take you, UCLA. All this absurd scrambling is nauseating.
6:19–There’s UCLA’s gimmick! A wide receiver pass, which I swear they do once a game by default. Don’t expect to see that again.
6:24–Scramble…scramble…horsecollar. Awesome. The field goal strategy is working great so far…if this really is the strategy. 10-6.
6:26–This special teams play has been atrocious. Even Cal wasn’t this bad. Another start at the 40 yard line for Collie. Let’s see how BYU fails to convert on it.
6:28–Mormon missions sound like Study Abroad with all the fun leeched out of it. “Wanna go to the Red Lite District tonight?” “Sorry, I gotta read Philippians tonight.”
6:33–Max Hall is running those short routes to perfection, including a strike for the second TD. 11 point lead for UCLA, which might as well be 31 for this turgid offense.
6:35–UCLA STILL has not completed a pass (well, they complete one now, with 30 seconds left in the half). I’m not sure what I’d desire less–Cal’s soft defense, or UCLA’s anemic offense. Well, the end-result (6-7?) will probably be the same.
6:38–Oh Lord, why dost thou hate the Mormons? Actually, BYU deserves this for running up the middle instead of taking the knee. Fumble at their own 4, and now UCLA has a chance for points.
6:40–The fourth string strikes! Breazell on the slant for a TD. And we have a ball game. Oh, you blasted Mormons, thanks for teasing me. It’s a good thing I have no money on this one.
7:00–Mark May is yelling at the screen. Lou Holtz is being a wizard, and Rece Davis is being the man. Who would’ve thought that combination would turn into ESPN’s best weekly show? Talk about unexpected–there was a time you would have had to padlock me in straitjackets to watch those three together. Now they actually make me almost crack a smile. That’s an accomplishment.
7:05–UCLA has converted one third down, and their quarterbacks have eaten turf a hundred times, forcing yet another punt. I swear BYU has had to play a sixty yard field all night long.
7:10–Three and out and punt. I should’ve just bet the under (46.5).
7:12–The BYU band is playing the worst rendition of the Imperial March I’ve ever heard. I’m almost rooting for the Bruins to win because of this nonsense. I’m actually just rooting for a rout, because these two offenses can make a tied game seem boring.
7:14–Bethel-Thompson is on fire! He’s completed three passes! That’s a man right there! The future of UCLA football!
7:15–UCLA might finally realize that running the ball might be a really good idea. Markey and Ramirez keep pounding the rock as the Bruins are actually moving the ball.
7:17–Seriously. Has anyone taught these Bruin QBs the art of throwing the ball away? Just baffling how many unnecessary hits these guys have to take. A sack knocks the Bruins out of FG range this time, forcing another punt. I guess the strategy for scoring is hoping their defense forces a turnover.
7:33–UCLA’s defensive possessions go something like this–can’t defend the fade, Bruce Davis knocking Hall down, destroy the run up the middle. It’s all rather *snore*.
7:36–Play action by UCLA? The revolution begins. Hire Walker! Breazell for 25 yards.
7:38–Fading the out pattern by UCLA for a turnover? The revolution dies. Hire Neuheisel! Back to BYU.
7:40–29 married men on the BYU football team? So is that 110 wives?
7:42–UCLA is really on its last legs. They don’t stop BYU here, this game is probably dead. Two scores in the 4th quarter is way too much to ask of this coaching clownery.
BYU’s QB is injured…somewhat. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing for UCLA.
7:48–Wow…the silliness in the ESPN booth is almost infectious. Paul Maguire dressing up as Santa, spitting and Bob Greise and Brad Nessler playing it straight? Amazing.
Anytime Bethel-Thompson throws a completion, I have to mention it. I think that’s five, this one for 21 yards. All I know is Maugire is spitting out his beard hair…and…well…
7:54–UCLA wastes a 3rd and short with a penalty. I think we can label UCLA’s season as “Mental Errors.”
7:57–Price just nails the tailback. God, what a waste of a great defensive line. I’m just dreaming about what that UCLA D-line would’ve been like if they had been matched up with Cal’s offense. And now drooling.
7:59–I admit it; I’ve been in love with Bonnie Bernstein for several years, and I can just tell by the look in her luminous eyes that she’d probably plow me into submission in bed. I’ll take it. Anything for Bonnie.
8:03–UCLA has a short field, inside BYU territory–they’ve had to drive about 80 yards to score 13 points. Apparently both of these teams would have needed a sixty yard field to hit the over. Sounds about right.
8:06–I swear. UCLA has driven 10 yards in three minutes. Is this what it was like watching the Bruins all year? No wonder Dorrell is gone.
8:07–Forbath connects from over 50 again to cut the lead to one–17-16 BYU. You know you’re in trouble in college football when your most valuable offensive weapon is your kicker. Well, unless you’re Florida State.
8:11–The Mormons are cool and calm all game long, which makes it easy for them to dissect lousy opponents. But it also means they lack the killer intensity to finish off close bad teams. They really could have used some alcohol before this game. Or at least some low-stakes poker. 20 cents big blind low-stakes.
8:12–Haha. Paul Maguire just suggested Walker for HC. Two more heads at Bruins Nation exploded.
8:15–UCLA is the master of the one minute drive. One minute and punt, that is.
8:17–Max Hall channels his inner Rex Grossman and goes deep. Well, 30 yards is deep in this type of game.
8:20–What is UCLA doing? Call a timeout! Timeouts are way more valuable being burned on defense. Absolutely Dorrellian strategy.
8:23–I’m trying to imagine whether I want someone like Walker coaching (hideously conservative nonsense) or Neuheisel (dangerous as hell). I originally said I hate losing to someone as embarrassingly bad as Dorrell, but I”m not sure I can handle a 2nd USC, especially in the same state. Whatever, to be continued.
8:27–UCLA has moved 30 yards in a minute. Not bad. If they could do this for more than two minutes.
But hey! Bethel-Thompson scramble, scramble, scramble, BAM, wasted timeout! These UCLA coaches need to have a 4 unit course entitled “THROW THE BALL AWAY”. In caps. It would emphasize the point.
8:29–Holy crap. The Mormons show balls! They blitz ! On 3rd down and long! Unfortunately, this is probably the worst time in the world to blitz. 30 yard gain on the tight end route. Amazing–if they had just played deep, BYU would have won this game.
8:30–Bruce Davis is crying, and they haven’t even kicked the field goal. I love guys like these. We really needed one.
8:32–Forbath has been hitting from 50, so what do you got to do? BLOCK THE KICK! OH NOES. The Mormons have conquered sinful Vegas once more! Pretty good conclusion to a slumbering game.
BYU 17, UCLA 16–Final
Poor UCLA. They deserved better than 6-7. Then again, so does Cal. But that’s what it could be in a week in a half.
Goodnight guys.
A Merry Christmas for Cal Football!
Don’t feel too bad for the players. Take a look at the lovely gift package the Armed Forces Bowl extracted for Air Force and Cal players:
Slingbox SOLO, Timely Watch Co. watch, Armor Gear rolling duffle bag, and (haha) ball.
I guess my question about the ball is what type of ball? Plastic? Rubber? Football? Basketball? Flubber? And what will these players do with their Slingboxes? Watch Oprah and March Madness during lecture?
Oh…
I want one.
Bowling Time
I have no concrete plans for how much I’ll be covering bowls this year. Hell, I might not even watch Cal’s bowl game–not because I don’t want to, but I’ll probably be on a plane for the majority of the game. I’m going to be traveling this holiday season to see old friends, and I have no interest in watching more than a handful of games during the Christmas break.
I just think that after such a fantastic regular season and the collapse of the Bears, there’s nothing I’m terribly enthused about except January 1st and the BCS bowls. Kind of a downer I know. Maybe I should put money on the games again, just to renew my interest. I will be watching most of the post-New Year’s games though, and might live blog several that look promising. If I’m up to it I’ll live-blog as many as I can. Not much else I’m doing these nights.
There are a few random thoughts that chug through my head scanning the schedule.
That week-long gap to the title game. Is this really necessary? It should always be right after the Orange Bowl. I know Friday night is a lousy TV night, so just put the Orange and Fiesta Bowls at 5 PM and 8:30 PM on Wednesday and put the title game on Thursday. No casual fan is THAT interested in either game for it to warrant a single night of buildup.
Now we’re going to get stuck meandering through bowl games in Toronto and Mobile, Alabama. How do you like your Bowling Green in 2008? Just finish LSU-Ohio State on January 3rd so we can move onto the NFL playoffs. It seems logical. Oh wait, this is college football. Never mind.
There needs to be more flexibility with these matchups. Can’t we finally have an SEC v. Pac-10 battle? Cal-Tennessee was one of the more exciting intraconference matchups this year, and next year we’ll get Georgia-Arizona State. A bowl matchup between the two best conferences would definitely draw the highest non-bowl ratings. I’d much rather see Arkansas (best running duo) duke it out with Oregon State (best running D), Alabama vs. Cal (the battle of collapsing 6-6 teams), or even UW vs. Auburn, just because I have a sadomasochistic streak and would like to see Jake Locker meet turf some more. The matchups just work out better.
PUT THE HOLIDAY BOWL SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO NEW YEAR’S DAY ALREADY. Let’s see, on New Year’s Day the SEC has four teams, the Big Ten has three, the Big 12 has two. Guess which powerhouse conference has the Fight On Trojans as their lone representative? The Pac-10 has their two perennial collapsing teams in Oregon and Cal on New Year’s Eve, while always marooning their second best team in a game three days before Christmas.
This could be solved by putting the Holiday Bowl on New Year’s Eve, a game that always delivers and is the best game during the post-Christmas week, but that will never happen while Tom Hansen sucks giant volleyballs. Ugh. I’ve channeled all disappointment about this season into a healthy rage to fire our commissioner.
These are all exhibitions. I’ve clarified my position before. Most of these games will be fun, but the later we get into bowl season you will see sloppier defense, hideous decision-making by players and coaches alike. It’ll be like Week 3 or 4 of the regular season again. So it’ll be a glorious mess. But unlike the NFL, or college basketball, you can’t really crown a champion this way. The bowls are too far away from the season to really justify considering the winner of the BCS championship the true national title–if Hawaii beats Georgia, I might consider them worthy. You can make an argument seven ways before the bowl games play out, and you can make one seven ways after their conclusion.
So just sit back and stop getting indignant about who the champion should be this year. Because you, the fans, are the champions this year. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Any thoughts on games to watch? What are you looking forward to this bowl season?
Tha1 Be Gone?
I don’t think many of us expected otherwise.
Cal also was right there. Logistically, it made perfect sense. Close to home, close to his mother, who raised him and daughter Jessica alone. Though committed to Florida, Moore still took a recruiting visit to the Berkeley campus over the weekend.
Friday’s festivities included dinner at Tedford’s house and a hearty meal of steak, buffalo wings and “the biggest shrimp I’ve ever seen,” Moore said. Saturday, it was more dining in San Francisco and a lot of chatter about the benefits of Berkeley.
Sunday, a breakfast buffet and more talk of Cal, of how Moore would be the program’s next star receiver, that he could take over for DeSean Jackson, whom Moore was told “is headed to the NFL draft.” What’s more, Moore’s high school pal James Montgomery, a Bears tailback, also was trying to get a commitment.
“Tedford’s real good, fun to talk to,” Moore said. “He told me it’d be a mistake if I went to Florida, that I should come to Cal. I thought about it.”
The comment was mentioned innocously in a SacBee article about recruiting the highly touted Carl Moore, who will in all likelihood be heading to the Swamp next year. Despite Tedford’s and Jackson’s best attempts to hide the truth, it felt inevitable this kind of story would leak, indirect as the source is.
If he is leaving, I won’t be shocked. I think we all knew we were getting Jackson for a limited amount of time; his Tennessee and Oregon performances were more than enough to cement his first round status. It’s likely if the season had gone better (10 wins and a BCS appearance probably), and Longshore had been able to perform effectively after his injury, Jackson might be inclined to return. But despite putting up only average numbers the rest of the season, his brief September flirtation with the Heisman has been enough to keep him high up on the mock draft boards.
I will wax about Desean when I’m certain he’s leaving. I try not to judge players based on rumor and speculation, so I’m going to focus my analysis to him solely on the field. But I wish him well, regardless of whether he leaves or stays.
He will be playing in the bowl game.
Do you want our gamebreaker back or not?
Say Goodnight to Tedford-to-Michigan
Now all we have to worry about is the 49ers job.
West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez, who met with U-M president Mary Sue Coleman and athletic director Bill Martin on Friday in Toledo, has accepted the Michigan coaching job, replacing retiring coach Lloyd Carr, the Free Press learned this afternoon.
An official announcement is expected at 3 p.m.
According to the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette this afternoon, Rodriguez had a 10-minute meeting with his team, told the 11th-ranked Mountaineers that he was leaving for Michigan and went back to his office.
The players, according to the paper, had little comment but looked “somber-faced.”
Also, the country’s top quarterback prospect told Superprep.com this afternoon that Rodriguez had called him with similar news.“I just spoke to Coach Rodriguez about 10 minutes ago and he told me he is going to Michigan,” the QB, Terrelle Pryor, told Superprep.com. “He said they made him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Rodriguez’s decision came after nearly two days of pondering Friday’s discussion and, according to the Charleston Gazette, two meetings with West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong on Saturday.
Although Rodriguez did not comment about the U-M job at his previously scheduled Saturday morning news conference, instead talking about his team’s impeding Fiesta Bowl date against Oklahoma, his lack of a denial kept hope alive for many Wolverines fans. Combined with his decision to cancel an afternoon practice, a move seemed possible.
MgoBlog is in ecstasy. I would be too; despite the pathetic way that Rodriguez deserted the Mountaineers, this was probably the best option that Michigan had looked up (certainly better than Brady fucking Hoke). For the matter, I never really thought Tedford would go to Michigan–the Wolverines didn’t seem the least bit interested in looking towards the West Coast.
So now all I’m worried about is the SF job, which should almost certainly open up after a nightmare. He is a West Coast man who only seems interested in staying on the West Coast–accepting the 49ers position would mean no movement at all and only a shift across the Bay to the Bay Area’s most successful franchise. But Coach has never shown interest in high NFL profile jobs (the 49ers to name one), so I’m not terribly concerned.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’d be shocked if he leaves until his contract runs out. We should be thankful that cowards like Rodriguez don’t take off and leave us hanging. We have an honorable man running our program. No matter his failings this year, remember Tedford’s failings are better than Holmoe’s or Gilbertson’s greatest successes.
