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| SJS College Football Extravaganza |
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| Commentary | ||
Commentary: January 5, 1999The Last National ChampionWell, the last national champion has been crowned. Just as we are looking forward to the full slate of New Year's games on January 1, 2000, the clocks will strike midnight and every computer and embedded microchip will become frozen. Planes will fall from the sky. Investment portfolios will disintegrate. People will take to the streets, smashing storefronts and running off with TV sets that no longer function. Civilization as we know it will end. But at least we have one more regular season. Of course, that's only one interpretation of the Year 2000 problem. Another scenario has it that computers and embedded microchips will continue to function, now believing it is 1900 rather than 2000. In that alarming scenario, Army, the University of Chicago, and Dusquene may again rule the college football world. But now, a few ramblings about the season that has just ended. The Boring BowlIt was a crazy formula. There was much bickering, consternation, and stress. In the end it seemed that we had the two best teams going head to head. And all that paid off in one of the sloppiest, most aggravating bowl games of all time. Tennessee had six dead ball penalties. Wasn't Phil Fulmer an offensive lineman for gosh sakes? (I'm going by his physique here.) Can't a team that has won 12 straight games figure out the damn snap count? Florida State, on the other hand, reserved their stupid penalties for during the play, like hitting people late and roughing kickers. The refs did a good job; I don't think they missed too many calls. There is no excuse for the lack of discipline both teams displayed, unless the excuse is nerves. But still, as a fan you figure the last bowl game is going to be a display of well-coached, disciplined football, but in this case, it was a display of stupid football. The other aggravation was the relative timidity shown by the teams' offenses. It took until late in the fourth quarter before Tennessee finally did some roll out throws to the fullback (a variation on the John Makovic theme) rather than run up the middle on third and short. On the other side of the ball, Mark Richt was reticent to have Outzen try the deep ball, despite Tennessee losing their best cover corner before halftime, and despite the fact that Florida State has three of the fastest guys in college football (receivers Peter Warrick, Laverneous Coles, and Marvin Minnis). Where did the running game go after the first drive? Richt and Bowden looked like offensive geniuses with all of the fake reverses and beautiful deceptive sets, but Florida State reverted to an offensive attack of: drop back and get sacked.
Both teams did play some defense, though, woah Nellie! Tennessee was hampered all day in running the ball; Bryson, Henry, and Stephens got virtually no running room, and Tee Martin ran only two options and scrambled for a few more yards. On the other side of the ball, Travis Minor had a pretty good night but only carried the ball 15 times. The real story was the pressure the Vols brought to bear on Outzen. The rooster played well enough under pressure for a backup quarterback, but Florida State didn't force enough turnovers and couldn't stop one long pass to Peerless Price, ruining an otherwise great performance for the country's best defense. The BCS Team That Didn't BelongRightly so, Kansas State fans and Arizona fans griped and complained that 9-2 Florida did not belong in a BCS bowl. There is no doubt that both of these teams were more deserving than the Gators, whose entry into the BCS was augmented more by their legions of fans willing to travel and their attractiveness to a TV audience than their football performance. But a fair minded appraisal of the BCS teams leads to a different conclusion: if one team should have been excluded, it was Syracuse. Syracuse has been thrashed in the big game for two straight years. Prior to that, Virginia Tech was dismantled in 1996, and a whining Don Nehlen's undefeated Mountaineers were undressed in the 1994 Sugar Bowl. If anyone is taking up space in the four major bowls undeservedly, it is the Big East representative. The fact is, the SEC, Big Twelve, Pac Ten, and Big Ten often have a runner up team that is far and away better than the Big East champion. It is the conference exemption (read: Big East exemption) that should be criticised more than Florida's inclusion. Who's Number One?Now that Tennessee has walked away with the National Championship by virtue of winning the so-called national championship game, we no longer have to worry about other teams stumping in the face of a one loss FSU. For example, consider this resume from another one-loss team: 1) They were co-champs of a conference (the Big Ten) that went 5-0 in bowl games, 2) they took care of a powerful bowl opponent in a BCS bowl game on January 1, 3) their only loss was the result of playing one bad half against a pretty good team from the state of Michigan. Am I pounding Ohio State's drum? Not at all! I'm talking about the Wisconsin Badgers. As one of those who suffered through Brent Musberger's insane and inane blubber about how the Buckeyes had a legit claim to number one in the wake of a Tennessee loss, I find it curious that the Badgers, with pretty much the same resume, had no such ballyhoo surrounding them. Their loss came to a better team than Ohio State's, and their bowl opponent was probably stronger.
Then there's poor Tulane. I have always felt that it was unfair to ignore a team that goes undefeated, because I think that every player in the country should feel like they could be national champion when they start the season. You lose that right when you lose on the field, but in what other sport besides Division I-A football does some teams have no chance of winning it all even if they win them all? It just seems so unfair. Tulane won every game and they still have no chance of being number 1. But when all is said and done, the correct national champion would have been crowned even if Florida State had beaten Tennessee. As distasteful as it may be to us Gator fans, there was no legitimate counterargument. The system did right. The Big CollapseThe muddled championship picture of late in the season got unmuddled really quickly. That was due to some of the most excrutiating games (for home fans) ever witnessed. Never before have so many promising seasons come unglued so quickly, so definitively, and in such torturous fashion. What am I talking about? Consider:
It isn't too uncommon for there to be a few undefeated teams late in the year, but how rare is it that most of them go on to start losing streaks? How Smart Are We?Here's a look back at some of our preseason thoughts. Good calls are listed in red; foolish choices are in blue.
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