What a fantastic final weekend after a fantastic season of football. Now, it seems like we’ll have to wait an eternity for the first of the Bowl games, and even longer for the period over the first nine days of the new year, between the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena and the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans.
C-USA Championship
Southern Miss won the C-USA Championship because they did what no other team had been able to consistently do against the Houston Cougars: they played fast, hard and attacking, aggressive defense and they forced QB Case Keenum, breaker of a plethora of NCAA records, into bad throws. Keenum had been picked off only three times before Saturday’s game, and added two more to that total. One was an INT in the end zone, the other a Pick-6. The Cougars knew what they had to do to unsettle the Houston signal-caller and they did it to perfection. Houston’s high-powered offense was down in all categories: points, passing yards, running yards, yards per play, all those stats that tell the story of the game.
After all the talk about Houston’s BCS chances, it was Southern Miss who had the last laugh, and it was a brilliant coaching effort from Larry Fedora, who should get some big looks from schools like UCLA and Arizona State and Texas A&M who are all in the market for a new head coach. The win on Saturday – really, it was a blowout; once Southern Miss got up 14-0, they never really looked back and Houston could never really recover – raised Fedora’s coaching stock greatly and probably sent Houston’s Kevin Sumlin plummeting down the ranks of most wanted.
I feel sorry for Case Keenum, though. The guy came back for his sixth season, broke a dozen NCAA records across the season, and had the Cougars within 60 minutes of an extraordinary BCS bowl appearance. Their possible match-up against Michigan would’ve been one of the more interesting this December/January. Instead, the Cougars were humiliated on their own field, and Keenum made mistakes that we haven't seen from him all season. In his last game at home, a conference title game on national television, he played his worst game of the season and it’s a loss that will almost certainly haunt him for some time to come.
Now, from the penthouse to the outhouse, the Coogs will probably end up playing in a mid-level Bowl game somewhere like Dallas because the C-USA simply doesn't have a great bunch of affiliations, not even really for it’s conference champion. Ask Boise State; one loss on the season and the Broncos last year went from a possible BCS National Championship and an almost certain at-large bid for a BCS Bowl to playing in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl a couple of days before Christmas. For the non-automatic qualifying schools, the drop from a possible BCS berth to a bowl game to which their conference has ties is a huge one.
Aside from the loss for Houston’s team, the C-USA stands to lose somewhere between $13 and $17 million because the Cougars did not make a BCS bowl. That’s the reward for being amongst the best in the country, and getting to play in one of the sport’s biggest games. It’s a pretty hefty payday to miss out on, but that’s life.
Congratulations to Southern Miss, though. When all the hoopla was about Houston, they clearly felt disrespected and decided to come out and show that there’s more to C-USA than the Cougars. No one doubts that, now.
Bedlam – Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
This was another game that surprised me greatly, in what felt like a weekend full of surprising games I expected a shootout, a high-scoring game where the team who had the football last would probably win. There would be a few defensive stops, but not many, and it would be a duel between Landry Jones and Brandon Weeden for bragging rights in the state of Oklahoma and for the de facto Big XII championship.
Instead, it was Brandon Weeden and WR Justin Blackmon, the best pitch-and-catch combination in the country, and Oklahoma State, the maligned ‘little brother’ in the state who put a serious beating on Landry Jones and the Sooners, whose offense, which hummed along for most of the season, barring the notable exceptions – a mind-boggling loss to a not-very-good Texas Tech team amongst them – and appeared likely to really take it up to the one-loss Cowboys, whose misstep came in sensational circumstances against Iowa State in Ames.
C-USA Championship
Southern Miss won the C-USA Championship because they did what no other team had been able to consistently do against the Houston Cougars: they played fast, hard and attacking, aggressive defense and they forced QB Case Keenum, breaker of a plethora of NCAA records, into bad throws. Keenum had been picked off only three times before Saturday’s game, and added two more to that total. One was an INT in the end zone, the other a Pick-6. The Cougars knew what they had to do to unsettle the Houston signal-caller and they did it to perfection. Houston’s high-powered offense was down in all categories: points, passing yards, running yards, yards per play, all those stats that tell the story of the game.
After all the talk about Houston’s BCS chances, it was Southern Miss who had the last laugh, and it was a brilliant coaching effort from Larry Fedora, who should get some big looks from schools like UCLA and Arizona State and Texas A&M who are all in the market for a new head coach. The win on Saturday – really, it was a blowout; once Southern Miss got up 14-0, they never really looked back and Houston could never really recover – raised Fedora’s coaching stock greatly and probably sent Houston’s Kevin Sumlin plummeting down the ranks of most wanted.
I feel sorry for Case Keenum, though. The guy came back for his sixth season, broke a dozen NCAA records across the season, and had the Cougars within 60 minutes of an extraordinary BCS bowl appearance. Their possible match-up against Michigan would’ve been one of the more interesting this December/January. Instead, the Cougars were humiliated on their own field, and Keenum made mistakes that we haven't seen from him all season. In his last game at home, a conference title game on national television, he played his worst game of the season and it’s a loss that will almost certainly haunt him for some time to come.
Now, from the penthouse to the outhouse, the Coogs will probably end up playing in a mid-level Bowl game somewhere like Dallas because the C-USA simply doesn't have a great bunch of affiliations, not even really for it’s conference champion. Ask Boise State; one loss on the season and the Broncos last year went from a possible BCS National Championship and an almost certain at-large bid for a BCS Bowl to playing in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl a couple of days before Christmas. For the non-automatic qualifying schools, the drop from a possible BCS berth to a bowl game to which their conference has ties is a huge one.
Aside from the loss for Houston’s team, the C-USA stands to lose somewhere between $13 and $17 million because the Cougars did not make a BCS bowl. That’s the reward for being amongst the best in the country, and getting to play in one of the sport’s biggest games. It’s a pretty hefty payday to miss out on, but that’s life.
Congratulations to Southern Miss, though. When all the hoopla was about Houston, they clearly felt disrespected and decided to come out and show that there’s more to C-USA than the Cougars. No one doubts that, now.
Bedlam – Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
This was another game that surprised me greatly, in what felt like a weekend full of surprising games I expected a shootout, a high-scoring game where the team who had the football last would probably win. There would be a few defensive stops, but not many, and it would be a duel between Landry Jones and Brandon Weeden for bragging rights in the state of Oklahoma and for the de facto Big XII championship.
Instead, it was Brandon Weeden and WR Justin Blackmon, the best pitch-and-catch combination in the country, and Oklahoma State, the maligned ‘little brother’ in the state who put a serious beating on Landry Jones and the Sooners, whose offense, which hummed along for most of the season, barring the notable exceptions – a mind-boggling loss to a not-very-good Texas Tech team amongst them – and appeared likely to really take it up to the one-loss Cowboys, whose misstep came in sensational circumstances against Iowa State in Ames.
Really, the final score, 44-10 to State wasn't indicative of the game. The scoreboard flattered the Sooners. In front of a raucous sell-out crowd at Boone Pickens Stadium, the Cowboys did everything right, and provided the perfect send-off for senior QB Weeden and Blackmon, still a junior, but almost certainly headed to the National Football League next year.
It was a case of “win and you’re in” for the school that came out on top of the Big XII, and Oklahoma State’s high-powered offense is likely rolling into a BCS match-up with Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal. Now that’s a game I’d pay good money to see.
Great to see the Oklahoma State defense, statistically amongst the worst in the country, nab two scores from two horrendous Landry Jones mistakes. The SoonersSooners tried from the outset. If OSU’s defense plays the same way against Stanford...watch out!
The defeat leaves the Sooners to record a rare three-loss regular season, and it leaves Bob Stoops with some tough questions to answer in Norman over the winter, I’m sure. It’s a far cry from being a pre-season #1.
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