The sad fact of conference realignment played itself out on Thursday night when Texas and Texas A&M met for the last time in a long time - and, perhaps, forever - because the Aggies, in part due to Texas' Longhorn network, are headed to the SEC in 2012 and the Horns have advised that their schedule is full til at least 2018. Shame to see a rivalry dating back 100 years fall by the wayside, but that, unfortunately, is the way of big-time college football in this era. At least the final contest was a memorable one, with Texas recording a 27-25 on a field goal as time expired. Mack Brown and the 'Horns really needed that.
Barring a meltdown in the C-USA Conference Championship Game against Southern Miss, the Houston Cougars will record their first-ever undefeated season. The pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is a BCS bowl berth, probably the Sugar Bowl and probably against Michigan. A great way, win or lose, for senior, record-setting QB Case Keenum to go out. A Cougars vs. Wolverines match-up will be very intriguing.
The gap between the two best teams in the country - LSU and Alabama - and the third - Arkansas - was painfully obvious on Black Friday, when the Tigers put the cleaners through the Hogs to the tune of 41-17 after Arkansas had led early in the second quarter, 14-0. Anyone who doesn't believe that the BCS National Championship Game should be a rematch of LSU vs. Alabama is way off the mark. The talent gap between those two and everyone else is huge.
Finally, Michigan gets a victory over Ohio State after seven straight losses. What a season it's been for the rejuvinated Wolverines under Brady Hoke, the man who has resurrected the program after Rich Rodriguez left it in tatters. The defense is better, the offense keeps humming along, and there seems to be plenty of optimism going forward. Could anyone have predicted such a stunning turnaround? If Hoke isn't Coach of the Year, there's something wrong. Credit, too, to Greg Mattison, whose defense really stepped up after too many years under Rodriguez of giving up games and huge total yards numbers. Michigan should end up in the Sugar Bowl, a good end to a brilliant comeback season. The future is bright in Ann Arbor.
The Penn State dream finally crumbled, as the Nittany Lions, besieged by internal and external pressure for weeks now, folded against Russell Wilson and Wisconsin 45-7 at Camp Randall Stadium, and now we get the best match-up possible for the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game. A question without notice: were it not for two extremely lucky and fortuitous Hail Mary passes for Michigan State and Ohio State against the Badger defense, Wilson might well have sewed up the Heisman Trophy.
Clemson are in all sorts of trouble heading into the ACC Championship Game. Since getting their ticket to the game punched, the Tigers have looked lacklustre during a horror stretch, losing two of their last three, stretch in which QB Tajh Boyd, once touted as a Heisman candidate as the Tigers opened 8-0 and had their high-powered offense rolling, has thrown 7 picks. Clemson has committed 11 turnovers in that time. So what happens next week when Clemson take on a high-flying Virginia Tech team fresh off of it's best win of the season? Nothing good...
USC went out and pounded UCLA for sixty straight minutes to ensure the country will take notice of them in 2012, when the post-season ban is done. That once maligned Trojan defense pitched a shutout after doing enough to contain Oregon's LaMichael James and Darron Thomas last week. The 50-0 drubbing, in which QB Matt Barkley threw 6 TDs and bested Carson Palmer's school record for most touchdowns thrown in a season, has probably cost Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel his job at Westwood, a few days after claiming that the "gap" between the Bruins and Trojans has closed. Mind that gap, Rick.
As USC sit out another post-season, UCLA, battered around from the get-go against USC and perhaps sixty minutes of football away from a new coach, are now going up to Eugene, Oregon to play Chip Kelly's Ducks for the Pac-12 Championship, and, barring a miracle win that not many people even give a remote chance of happening, will have to apply to the NCAA for a waiver to play in a Bowl game, as they will be under .500. If that isn't the biggest joke in Pac-10/12 history - that the Bruins are actually in the Championship Game - I honestly don't know what is.
Illinois head coach Ron Zook lost his job on Sunday, after spearheading a season of two definite and distinguished halves. The Illini looked among the Big Ten's best as they opened 6-0 but the wheels fell off in the worst possible way after that, as they finished 0-6. Whoever inherits that program has a LONG way to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment