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 2002 Season In Review2002 finished with perhaps the most exciting national championship game in memory: Ohio State's upset overtime victory over the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes. As (bad) luck would have it, I missed virtually the entire game except for Miami's final series in overtime. How could such an abomination occur? I was in San Diego at the time - home of this year's Super Bowl, ironically ("ironically" given Alanis Morisette's broad and incorrect definition of the term). It was just my second trip to America's most weather-perfect city, and we were staying at the home of two very dear observant Jewish friends of ours. And therein lies the problem... the game took place during the Sabbath. Now I was not bound by their rules, but I was able to respect them until curiosity overcame me late in the evening, when the game should have been over. I flipped on the TV for an instant, and can't say I was too surprised by the score: I had picked Ohio State to win the game. Of course, I didn't know anything at the time, not the controversial penalty call, not Willis McGahee's injury. All I knew, in an instant, was that I'd missed the most exciting national championship game in memory. This season played out a bit differently than in recent years. Early on, Florida, Florida State, and Nebraska all declared themselves non-contenders. Instead it was flashback early 90s when Miami and Notre Dame ruled the world. The Irish turned out to be a bit over-hyped after some late-season losses, but nevertheless Ty Willingham appears to have re-ignited some optimism in South Bend. The Big Ten would have to be the surprise conference of the NCAA this year. To be sure, Ohio State ranks as a surprise national champion. No one really gave them a chance to win until about 10 pm on January 3. But also a big surprise was Iowa, who ran through the conference undefeated (like OSU) and fielded a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate. The Hawkeyes may have gotten waxed in their bowl game, but they put together an unbelievable season. Surprising too was Penn State, who've been anemic in past years, including last season, but exploded this year into a good team again behind the powerful running of senior Larry Johnson. Even Minnesota got to 7-1 before coming back to earth, and Wisconsin posted a good record and a bowl win. It was the first season in history in which teams were allowed to schedule 12 stateside regular season games, and the experiment was probably successful. One downside was the dilution of records come bowl season, when a couple of 6-6 teams landed bowl berths. The bowl season itself was fairly unspectacular, but here's a list of some of my favorites:
Now, on to our annual awards. The SJS Coach Of The Year goes to Miami's Larry Coker, for the second year in a row. Yes he has a lot of talent, yes, it is still Butch Davis' talent, but I'm impressed with anybody who can coach a winning Miami team and keep the gangstas off the sidelines. The SJS Bonehead Of The Year goes narrowly to FSU's Chris Rix, for sleeping through an exam. He faced fierce competition from Florida Head Coach Ron Zook, who called a foolish trick play in the waning moments of a successful and possibly game tying drive against Michigan in the Outback Bowl. The trick resulted in a rather embarassing interception. The SJS Player Of The Year goes to Penn State's Larry Johnson. I thought Johnson was a bit more consistent than Heisman winner Carson Palmer. I always rank the conferences, so I suppose I'll do it again this year:
Some interesting notes: the SEC surely suffered this year with Florida and Tennessee down and with no other team really stepping up except for Georgia. The Pac Ten had 8 teams above .500 this year; only 2 teams were below. The WAC, thanks to Boise State, Fresno State, and Hawaii, was arguably better than their former colleagues in the Mountain West. And finally, it must be said that it was a great season for the web page. I managed to get my commentary count back to acceptable levels, and the Oz - Pony Boy - Kelly - SIR CHAPS finale was one of the tighter races ever in the Picks Contest. So we look forward to seeing you back in August. |
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