Author: Paul Costanzo (Page 2 of 21)

SEC has a day only the SEC could survive

November 19, 2011 / Paul Costanzo

An annual tradition in the south is the second-to-last week of the regular season, where many SEC teams get another filling of cupcakes. Why this happens, I’m not sure. But it does, and since the SEC conference slate is so challenging, nobody ever says anything about it.

The fact that the SEC teams usually romp their foes also helps in keeping any national attention off of them. Today, however, wasn’t the SEC’s finest day. Even though none of their teams were upset, none looked all that great against teams you normally only hear about in the first two weeks of September.

Florida defeated Furman 54-32, but needed a 17-0 fourth quarter to do so. Alabama and its vaunted defense gave up more points than it had all season (21) to Georgia Southern, and had a 24-14 halftime lead. Auburn clung to a 14-10 halftime lead against Samford before winning 35-16.

These results shouldn’t be considered high crimes, as every team should be afforded a bad day throughout the season as long as it can hold on and win. But one has to wonder what the national conversation would be if any of the other automatic qualifier conferences would have had a similar day. My guess is there would have been plenty of bashing.

It certainly would have hurt the case for any of those leagues to possibly have two teams in the national championship game. Not the SEC, however, which will come out of this completely unscathed.

And while we’re here, the idea of a rematch for the national title is absurd for several reasons. First off, Alabama’s loss to LSU will essentially mean nothing. The Crimson Tide can get to the title game despite not winning their division, having a loss at home, and possibly owning a single win against a ranked opponent (Arkansas) if Penn State can’t remain in the top 25.

Do I think Alabama and LSU are the country’s top two teams? Yes, actually, I do. But I — and a lot of others — thought Ohio State and Michigan were the top two teams in 2006, and that didn’t turn out so well. The point is, we’ll never know thanks to the absence of a playoff and weak schedules (outside of LSU) that don’t give us an idea how the conferences stack up against each other.

College Football, External Sports

Alabama Furman Samford SEC

For second straight year, kicker costs Boise State shot at BCS

November 12, 2011 / Paul Costanzo

That cigar smoke you see floating over your house is coming from BCS headquarters, where they’re lighting them up at a furious pace for the second straight season.

Boise State lost to TCU 36-35 today, and just like in last year’s shocking loss to Nevada, the Broncos missed a very makeable field goal at the end of the game. This time, it was Dan Goodale who missed a 39-yard kick as time expired to give the Horned Frogs the win in stunning fashion.

Like last year, the Boise State defense gave up a late lead, and that’s probably where a lot of the blame lies. But watching Goodale miss that kick certainly had to give Boise fans flashbacks to Kyle Brotzman’s miscue against Nevada. One big difference with this is that unlike Brotzman, Goodale hasn’t built up a ton of goodwill around campus for having been a spectacular kicker throughout his career.

The loss puts an end to any hopes the Broncos had of possibly squeezing into the national title game, and probably douses all hopes of getting into a BCS game at all.

And how’s this for schadenfreude? The game was played in Boise only because the Mountain West was trying to stick it to TCU as it was set to leave for the Big East. That worked out well, didn’t it?

College Football, External Sports, News

BCS BCS Buster Boise State Boise State loses Dan Goodale TCU

Without Paterno and in shadow of scandal, the game goes on at Penn State

November 12, 2011 / Paul Costanzo

As I type this, the seniors on the Penn State football team are being introduced for their final home game. Senior Day is always an emotional experience, as a four or five year journey comes to an end. But this Senior Day is unlike any other we’ve ever seen.

If you allow yourself, for just a brief second, to think about what these kids have gone through in the last week, it’s mind-boggling that they’re about to play a football game. They just lost their coach in an unimaginable way, as Joe Paterno was fired on Wednesday night for his inaction in regards to the child sex scandal surrounding his former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky.

The psyche of these players is the collateral damage of a scandal that goes so far beyond football, it’s hard to imagine they’re even stepping onto the field today at all.

Paterno’s reputation is also collateral damage, although it’s of his own doing. Every time I begin to feel any sadness over what has become of the legacy of a man who has meant so much to college football, I go back to that inaction, and those thoughts disappear. For what he’s done — or more accurately, what he didn’t do — Paterno deserves to have his reputation tarnished. Any child that was hurt after Paterno had a chance to stop the monster that was Sandusky is a million times more important than any of his 409 wins. They’re a million times more important than his national championship. They’re much bigger than football and the Penn State program.

Of course, they were put aside to help protect all of those things, which is the most disgusting thing I can think of. This scandal is so much worse than the free tattoos, elicit boat trips or even elaborate pay-for-play scandals that the NCAA has cast its eye upon. This one looks to be outside the NCAA’s jurisdiction, and maybe that’s a good thing. For once, the men who were at the center of it all will be punished, and the kids, like those seniors that are walking onto their home field for the final time, will not be. That doesn’t change what has happened or make it better, but in a society that has obviously failed in protecting the kids, it’s a good start.

College Football, External Sports

Jerry Sandusky Joe Paterno Penn State scandal

LSU survives in overtime, has inside track to national title game

November 5, 2011 / Paul Costanzo

Defense and kickers, that’s what might have just decided the national championship. LSU survived a 9-6 overtime slugfest tonight against Alabama in a matchup of the top two teams in the country.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but that doesn’t mean it was bad football. Quite the contrary, actually. These are two defenses unlike many we’ve seen in college football, and that’s fun to watch. They’re big, they’re fast and they’re physical. And let’s remember, when these two teams aren’t playing each other, the offenses do just fine.

The key in this one wound up being Alabama’s ineptitude in overtime, as the Tide went backwards and were forced to try a 52-yard field goal, which missed, um, poorly. LSU merely had to run the ball and set up a field goal on its possession, and it did, kicking a 25-yard game winner from the center of the field.

But A.J. McCarron struggled all game long, and Nick Saban showed late the lack of confidence he had in his quarterback by not calling a timeout with a little less than 2 minutes left and LSU set to punt it away. A coach that’s confident in his quarterback and offense calls that timeout and gives them a chance to drive for a game-winning field goal. Saban sat on his timeout and played for overtime.

Now, unless there aren’t any unbeaten teams remaining, there’s no chance we get a rematch here, nor should we. While I feel these are the country’s two top teams, they’re certainly not unbeatable, not with those quarterbacks. If either team runs into a situation where its defense is struggling against a good team, it’s in a lot of trouble. Do you trust McCarron, Jarrett Lee or Jordan Jefferson to bring a team back at the end of a game? I don’t.

That said, would you bet on either defense failing? I wouldn’t.

College Football, External Sports, News

A.J. McCarron Alabama Crimson Tide Game of the Century Jarrett Lee Jordan Jefferson LSU Tigers Nick Saban SEC

Iowa’s win against Michigan was just so … Iowa

November 5, 2011 / Paul Costanzo

Coming off a loss at lowly Minnesota, Iowa looked to be lost. But really, it was just Iowa.

The Hawkeyes are consistent this year. That’s not necessarily a good thing. They’re awful on the road (0-3) and good at home (6-0). Teams playing better at home than on the road is not at all out of the ordinary. But when you lose at Minnesota then win at home against Michigan, there’s something major going on. Does the team bus have a carbon monoxide leak?

Iowa picked up a 24-16 win against the Wolverines by shutting down Denard Robinson and playing better defense than it probably has all year. The Wolverines had four plays from inside the 5-yard line as time was running out, but couldn’t punch it in (cue Michigan fans claiming Junior Hemingway did actually score on one of the plays — he pushed off, folks).

So just so we’re straight, Iowa held Michigan to less points than it did Minnesota. To be fair, I guess, Michigan State did the same thing, eking out a win against the Gophers today.

So now Iowa, which has lost to a team that is 2-7 and another that is 5-4, controls its own destiny in the Big Ten Legends Division. It has Michigan State at home next week, then plays at Purdue and at Nebraska to close out the year.

If things go as they have so far this season, that means a 1-2 finish for Iowa and a middling bowl. But with a well-balanced offense and a defense that can apparently stop people every once in a while, there’s a decent chance Iowa will be playing in Indianapolis. Yes, Iowa, the team that lost to Minnesota.

College Football, External Sports

Big Ten Denard Robinson Iowa Hawkeyes

Author: Paul Costanzo (Page 2 of 21)

SEC has a day only the SEC could survive

For second straight year, kicker costs Boise State shot at BCS

Without Paterno and in shadow of scandal, the game goes on at Penn State

LSU survives in overtime, has inside track to national title game

Iowa’s win against Michigan was just so … Iowa

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