Category: College Football (Page 211 of 296)

      The college football regular season is not a playoff

      November 7, 2008 /

      Phil Guidry of SI.com is my hero:

      The regular season is a playoff
      Of all the absolute nonsense network sportscasters and BCS apologists spew during the season, this might be the most galling. If the regular season is a playoff, it’s the most asinine, unfulfilling playoff ever devised. If this is a playoff, it’s missing one teeny, tiny, possibly useful ingredient for the big picture: the actual “playing” part.

      Things would be fine if everyone played the same balanced schedule and the best teams got the chance to pick each other off during the season until a true champion emerged. But if there’s one thing college football fans can agree on, it’s that conference schedules are not created equal…

      In reality, this alleged regular season playoff settles virtually nothing on the field, and that means at the end of the year we could have the following situation: Florida could get shut out of the title game even though it’s churning through SEC opponents by 30 points per game. Penn State could get shut out even with an undefeated season. USC could get shut out even though it’s, well, shutting people out (three times this season, and it hasn’t even faced UCLA yet). Texas could get shut out even though its only loss came against an unbeaten team, in the final seconds, thanks to the best play of the season. Oklahoma could get shut out even though Texas is the only team that beat it…

      Imagine a world where the NFL didn’t have playoffs. It just had a 17-Week regular season and at the end, the New York Giants played the Tennessee Titans because each team had the right combination of wins, common opponents and margin of victory points.

      I think I just threw up in my mouth. And that’s how I feel watching college football every Saturday knowing that there’s no true playoff system to tell me if Penn State is better than Texas Tech or Alabama is better than Florida.

      College Football

      Utah keeps BCS hopes alive with last minute TD to beat TCU

      November 7, 2008 /

      Brian JohnsonThey had trailed all game and their BCS hopes appeared to be dashed. Yet back-to-back missed field goals by TCU had kept No. 8 Utah alive.

      Down 10-6 the entire second half, the Utes started at their own 20 with 2:48 left in the game. There, QB Brian Johnson marched Utah down the field in rhythmic fashion, even completing an 11-yard pass on a 4th and 5 from TCU’s 26-yard line. Then, on a 2nd and 4 from the TCU 9-yard line, Johnson found Freddie Brown for the go-ahead touchdown with only 47 seconds to play. Utah held on the final 47 seconds for a 13-10 win.

      It took the Utes nine plays and 80 yards, but they had saved their season. For the No. 12 Horned Frogs, it had taken them just two minutes and one second from blowing the opportunity to knock off the No. 8 team in the nation and perhaps climb into the top 10 themselves.

      Utah’s comeback was incredibly impressive and what a game by the senior Johnson. But TCU blew a golden opportunity to put the Utes away several times in the fourth quarter. Twice they had marched into the red zone with less than seven minutes remaining in the game and twice they were unable to put the game away with touchdowns or even field goals, as they missed two 30-yard attempts that would have at least kept the game tied once Utah scored.

      It’s hard to blame TCU’s defense for finally yielding in the final minutes. Normally when you hold the No. 8 team to only 13 points (including 6 until the final three minutes left in the game) you should walk away with a victory.

      College Football

      Ryan Leaf placed on leave after asking player for painkillers

      November 6, 2008 /

      Ultimate NFL draft bust Ryan Leaf is searching for work again after West Texas A&M placed him on leave after he asked one of their football players for a painkiller. Leaf had been working as the team’s quarterback coach.

      Ryan LeafPresumably Leaf was asking for something a little stronger than Tylenol or Advil. What isn’t known is how the incident came to light. Did somebody overhear the question? Did Leaf get a guilty conscience? Did the player narc on his coach?

      The latter seems to be the most likely. I’d imagine it has to be a little strange to play for Ryan Leaf. Anytime the coach critiques a player, the kid must be thinking, “Dude, you’re Ryan Leaf. What can you tell me about quarterbacking? I was at that game when you went 11-26 with two picks and threw a pass that hit your center in the thigh. And you’re telling me to ‘keep my wits under pressure.’ Just like you did when you flipped out on that reporter, right?”

      Leaf, who also coaches the school’s golf team will be on leave “indefinitely.”

      Where do you go from here if you’re Ryan Leaf? High school? If West Texas A&M doesn’t want you, there aren’t a whole lot of college teams left that are going to want anything to do with you. He might want to check out Dick’s Sporting Goods or something.

      College Football, NFL

      Utah is overrated

      November 5, 2008 /

      Or so says Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune.

      Utah UtesThe No. 8 Utes can feel some satisfaction about their being 9-0, supposedly on course for a BCS bowl, and the No. 15 Cougars can handle being 8-1, despite higher aspirations earlier this season, until TCU blasted them to smithereens.

      But based on what they’ve shown thus far, neither of these teams is as good as the record suggests. That’s not a mean-spirited rip, it’s simply an obvious truth. They just do not belong, not so far, among the country’s elite.

      The goings-on last weekend are Exhibit A: squeaking by with three-point wins over competition that wouldn’t create much of a threat to the teams ranked around them, not even in a season where upsets have been plentiful.

      Utah made the New Mexico Lobos look like the New York Giants on Saturday night, unimpressively edging them, 13-10. We all get sick of judging and guessing who would do what against whom in college football, but . . . anybody think Penn State or Florida or Oklahoma or any of the teams ranked ahead of Utah would struggle the way the Utes did to beat the 4-6 Lobos? Would any of those ranked teams put just 13 points on them?

      I completely agree, but this is what you get when you have a college football system that’s so broken. Utah is No. 8 because they’re undefeated. They’re undefeated because they don’t play anybody on a consistent basis. So every year we have to wait until they either are upset by a lesser opponent and therefore justify not being ranked that high, or get screwed out of a chance to play for a title because their conference/schedule is weak.

      This is unavoidable with the way college football is set up.

      College Football

      Good thing Pam Ward doesn’t coach college football

      November 4, 2008 /

      ESPN play-by-play announcer Pam Ward isn’t a fan favorite when she does college football games and it’s not hard to see why when she gaffs like she did last Saturday during the end of the Michigan State-Wisconsin game.

      Announcers deserve a break from time to time for saying the wrong things. Announce enough games throughout the season and you’re bound to stumble of words, mispronounce names and flat out say the wrong thing. But Ward continuously struggles with the easiest things. She gets so excited to get her words out that she doesn’t stop to think what she’s saying sometimes.

      College Football, Video

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