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Kansas State: Shades of 1998 November 18, 2012

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We’ve seen this before.  This is not the first time that Kansas State’s national championship run was ruined late in the season.  The Wildcats made a similar run in 1998, defeating powerful Nebraska for the first time in 30 years, among other things.  But come the Big XII championship game of that year, K-State overlooked a hungry Texas A&M, who snuck up on them and overtook them towards the end of the game.  Although that bumped the Wildcats down to only no. 4 in the rankings, it was too late to get a decent consolation prize.

Everyone seemed to assume that K-State was a lock on the Fiesta Bowl (where the BCS national championship was to be held), so other teams got “locked-in” to other BCS bowl games (Orange, Sugar and Rose).  With the Wildcats’ unexpected loss, they were left out in the proverbial cold, having to settle for the Alamo Bowl, then given the no. 4 pick for both the Big XII and the Big Ten.  One would imagine that they would not be too happy with having to settle for that lesser prize.  Purdue, their opponent for the 1998 Alamo Bowl, was, conversely, quite happy to make a return appearance in San Antonio (a fun town for a bowl game, fyi.), having won that bowl game the previous year.  Though the Boilers were unranked and Kansas State was still the fourth-highest ranked team in the land, Purdue came in, what made the difference was that Purdue was happy to be there for the Dec. 29 game, K-State not so much.

Despite Coach Bill Snyder’s moderately happy-sounding speech at the kickoff luncheon the day before the game (Dec. 28, 1998) in a convention room of the Marriott Hotel in downtown San Antonio, where he assured both the Wildcat and Boilermaker fans in attendance that “we’re very much looking forward to playing the University of Purdue,” they sure did not give that impression on the field of play in the Alamodome the next evening.  After a scoreless first quarter, Purdue drew (if you’ll pardon the expression) first blood in the second with a Drew Brees touchdown pass to Chris Daniels, and we never let up for the rest of the game.  Only in the last few minutes did K-State manage to inch ahead of us with a touchdown of their own, but Purdue answered on the very next possession, marching right down the field and put it away for good.  The Wildcats did have the last possession of the game, but with only less than a minute or so left in the game, they were unable to muster the necessary score.  We triumphed in the end, 37-34.  It was our biggest win in probably 20 years.

I say “we” because I was but a freshman student manager on the Purdue team during that game, witnessing all of this first-hand.  The point in all of this, given recent developments, is that we’ve seen this scenario with K-State play out before.  The Wildcats seem to be on the same path today.  The only saving grace for K-State today is that this sudden, season-derailing loss from last night came earlier than when the Big XII championship game would be (there is no such game for this season, given the recent changes in conference membership). Hence, there is still time to salvage things with earning a more prestigious bowl berth than the booby prize of the Alamo Bowl from 14 years ago.

Yet another reason for K-State getting, well, hosed that year is a manifestation of certain perpetual handicaps against the program.  Unlike traditional powers including, say, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, or even Notre Dame, all of whom have strong, national fan bases, Kansas State, although a strong program, lacks that advantage.  Strong fan bases equal strong money and clout, something the Wildcats continue to lack.  Kansas State University is located in Manhattan, Kan., nicknamed “The Little Apple.”  It is in the middle of nowhere, in a state that has the same reputation.  It has no major market to tie itself to, unlike the Longhorns, who can not only claim Austin, but also Dallas and Houston.  The Buckeyes claim Columbus, as well as Cincinnati and Cleveland.  Even Notre Dame can claim Chicago, and to an extent, New York itself.  K-State lacks that major market anchor, and that goes a long way towards its overall lack of relative clout.  Even a team like West Virginia can claim Pittsburgh as its anchor market.  Claiming Kansas City is a stretch for KSU, who must also share the area with the Kansas Jayhawks, along with the Missouri Tigers.  Does that leave KSU Wichita?  Geography has conspired to make the lack of clout an unsolvable problem for the Wildcats, as far as one can foresee.

But another key difference in scenarios today is that, in the wake of K-State being kicked down to the no. 4 bowl pick for the Big XII Conference in 1998 —  much less the overall rankings — shortly thereafter the BCS implemented a rule that a team ranked that highly* would get an automatic berth into one of the BCS “big four,” instead of being relegated to a second or third-tier postseason game.  Perhaps the Fiesta Bowl is not out of the question, boys, but you still must pass through the eye of the needle that is Texas in two weeks’ time.

*Although Kansas State was ranked no. 4 in both the AP and Coaches’ Polls, they were actually ranked no. 3 in the BCS.

College Football Week 5 Awards October 1, 2012

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COACHES
Wish I were him:  Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M
Glad I’m not him: Derek Dooley, Tennessee
Lucky guy: Bo Pelini, Nebraska
Poor guy: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Danny Hope, Purdue
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Tim Beckman, Illinois
Desperately seeking … anything: Kevin Wilson, Indiana

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: North Carolina (defeated Idaho 66-0)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: LSU (defeated Towson 38-22)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Colorado (lost to UCLA 42-14)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Marshall (lost to Purdue 51-41)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Penn State (beat Illinois 35-7)

Dang, they’re good: Florida State
Dang, they’re bad:  Army
Did the season start? Virginia Tech
Can the season end?  Indiana
Can the season never end?  Oregon

GAMES
Play this again: West Virginia 70, Baylor 63
Never play this again: Louisiana Monroe 63, Tulane 10
What? Cincinnati 27, Virginia Tech 24
Huh? Stony Brook 23, Army 3
Are you kidding me? Penn State 35 – Illinois 7

Oh – my – God:  Middle Tennessee State 49, Georgia Tech 28

Told you so: No.5 Georgia 51, Tennessee 44

NEXT WEEK
Ticket to die for: No. 5 Georgia @ No. 6 South Carolina
Best non-Big Six vs. Big Six matchup: Miami (Fla.) @ No. 9 Notre Dame (assuming one were to count Independents as “non-Big Six, otherwise, it would be Miami (Ohio) @ Cincinnati.
Best non-Big Six matchup: Louisiana Monroe @ Middle Tennessee State
Upset alert: No. 8 West Virginia @ No. 11 Texas

Must win: No. 17 Oklahoma @ Texas Tech
Get-well opportunity:  No. 20 Michigan State @ Indiana

Offensive explosion: Washington State @ No. 18 Oregon State
Defensive struggle: No. 4 LSU @ No. 10 Florida
Great game no one is talking about: Michigan @ Purdue

Intriguing coaching matchup: Urban Meyer of Ohio State vs. Bo Pelini of Nebraska
Who’s bringing the body bags? Kansas @ No. 7 Kansas State
Why are they playing? No. 24 Boise State @ Southern Miss

Plenty of good seats remaining: Boston College @ Army (or, New Mexico State @ Idaho, take your pick)
They shoot horses, don’t they?  Arkansas @ Auburn

What we have learned after Week 5:

Remember last week’s predicted “Offensive Explosion”?  Scratch that.  Yes, hindsight is indeed 20-20, but West Virginia’s Big XII debut against Baylor was far more than an “Intriguing Coaching Matchup” between the Mountaineers’ Dana Holgorsen and the Bears’ Art Briles.  The score of the game was so high, in what has become to be a seemingly typical Baylor fashion these days, that one needed oxygen to read the numbers.  The Mountaineers made a very splashy conference debut, winning at home 70-63.

Also, remember last week’s predicted “Defensive Struggle”?  Scratch that one, too.  Penn State defeated Illinois in the Fighting Illini’s home stadium, 35-7.  That cannot be attributed alone to the Illini wearing dark blue helmets for the first time since, well, pretty much ever.  The available evidence on hand indicates that Illinois has worn orange helmets since at least 1945, if not earlier.  I cannot find any photographic record yet of them ever wearing blue helmets, but the search shall continue.  Just don’t hold your breath in the meantime.  That aside, has Penn State found some offense, or is Illinois that horrible?  The Nittany Lions have sputtered offensively practically the whole season until yesterday, while the Fighting Illini were 2-2 going into that game.

The Purdue-Marshall match-up in West Lafayette, Ind., was tagged for this past week’s “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They” slot.  The selection was by default, since the odds of a major blowout anywhere else aside from other chosen games seemed much higher.  But while the Boilermakers were making gamey mincemeat out of the Thundering Herd in the first half, they let off the gas too soon in the second half.  A clearly visible epidemic of dropped passes in the third quarter especially raised concerns for Purdue’s prospects in the Big Ten.  Until now, plenty of talk has abounded regarding the Boilers having a very attainable shot at representing the Leaders division of the Big 10 in the championship game in Indianapolis.  After this game, some doubts will no doubt linger.  Much work is to be done if Purdue is to triumph at home next week against Michigan, and quell the justifiable newfound doubts in so doing.  Get it together, Boilers.

The LSU-Towson matchup was to be, on paper, a slaughter so massive as to border on a war crime.  Most fans could not even point Towson’s location out on a map (hint:  it is a very nice suburb in the northern part of Baltimore).  The only factor one can attribute to LSU’s inexplicably close margin of victory (38-22) is that the Bayou Bengals must have kept the playbook very, very limited so as to avoid divulging any trade secrets as they prepare to take on a quietly improving Florida team next week.

The Upset Alert prediction of last week (South Carolina @ Kentucky) seemed to almost come to fruition, as the Gamecocks wasted an entire half, trailing the Wildcats in Commonwealth Stadium by more than a touchdown.  Only after they made the proper halftime adjustments did they assert themselves like a top-ten team should, and pulled themselves out of an unnecessary hole with a modest score of 38-17.  South Carolina will not have such a luxury of using an entire half of a football game as their learning curve next week, when they will take on cross-border, arch-rival Georgia in what will without a doubt be the game of the week.

Awesome unis:

The Wisconsin-Nebraska game was not only a great game to watch from a purely game-play standpoint, with great execution on both sides of the ball.  It was also a feast for the eyes from two teams who historically where rather stodgy uniforms.  Both teams had sick-looking alternate, quasi-throwback unis (and we mean “sick” in the hip, with-it, good way!).  The Badgers’ red helmets and red shoulders on white jerseys was a feast alone for the eyes, to say nothing of Huskers’ red jersey-pants combo with tasteful black trim, along with the first black helmets the team as ever donned – EVER.  The proverbial icing on the cake was the large school letters worn on the front of both teams’ jerseys.  All in all, a nice combination of throwback elements from the 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s!  Speaking of which, did anybody notice the nice late ‘50s-style numbers on Wisconsin’s jerseys?  One word: neato!

While we’re on the awesome uniform topic, it was nice to see LSU where purple jerseys again, as they have been known to do once in a blue moon.  Moreover, I am prepared to designate Ole Miss’ road uniforms as the nicest away unis in the SEC.  The all-gray is a unique touch, but the red-on-navy blue trim is an unbeatable combination, especially as it scrolls over the shoulders.  On the other side of the continent, what is up with Oregon wearing gray pants?  This thought especially came to mind as I watched them play Washington State in Pullman, Wash.  Did the Ducks not know full-well that the Cougars were wearing gray pants at home?  Would it have been too much trouble to wear green pants instead to provide a better contrast on the field?  Sheesh.

Purdue debuts new football uniforms August 7, 2011

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As a former student manager for the Purdue football team, I, along with a handful of other lucky souls, have more than intimate knowledge about Boilermaker football uniforms, and college football equipment in general.  Needless to say, whenever I receive news of a total redesign of the Boilers’ gridiron game unis, my interest is more than a little engaged.  At first glance of this redesigned series of gameday garments, part of me says “neat!” while the other part of me says “what on Earth were they thinking?”  First off, I get it.  Young players these days love the latest and greatest football fashions.  It’s the marketing, stupid, and fresh uni designs have been smartly used as a recruiting tool these days.  Hey, it worked for Oregon.  Meanwhile, has Penn State gotten this memo?  Will they ever?

Before further discussions proceed, a full gallery of the new Purdue uniforms can be seen via this link.

First of all, here is what I like, either sort of, or all the way.  Let’s start with the numbers, which I sort of like.  Of all the number designs, do I find this font to be the most aesthetically pleasing?   No, I do not.  Frankly, the traditional jersey numbers have worked just fine for traditional powers such as Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU, Georgia, Ohio State, and so on, so part of me asks, ‘what makes Purdue so special?’  That being said, the press release on Purdue’s athletics website points out that these numbers are in the “DIN” font, a typeface first developed in 1923, and since the mid-Twenties has been adopted as the standard font for engineering applications.  It also became the typeface of choice for metal stencil applications in trainyards.  Seeing things along those lines, the engineering and train connection to the DIN font makes this a very appropriate choice.  Plus, a font that’s almost 80 years old, when applied in a new way (new jerseys) can still look current; further proof that what is old is new.

Speaking of the numbers, another thing I love about the new design is the all-gold numbers on the black home jersey.  Those familiar with earlier eras of Purdue football will no doubt recall that “back in the day,” Purdue had a long-standing history displaying gold numbers on black jerseys.  Iconic photos of players in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, as well as the 1960s attest to this (check out some of the photos of Bob Griese and Mike Phipps as Boilermakers, and you shall see what I mean!).  While that started to change in the 1970s and espeically in the 1980s with the introduction of white numbers on Purdue’s black jerseys, gold numbers were still not unheard of as recently as the ’90s, but have been no more for about 14 years, until now.  Kudos to whomever had them brought back, as they are a nice, throwback touch.

Dare I say, I also applaud the choice to go back to a plain black stripe on the helmets.   To be sure, white and thin double-black stripes were a unique touch, one that was without precedence when Coach Tiller had them implemented on his new design (that template essentially being a carbon-copy of his Wyoming uni template, one that he transplanted with him in 1997).  But the single black stripe on the gold helmet again speaks to some of Purdue’s glory days, such as the ’60s and the Mollenkopf era — another nice, traditional touch.

Now on to the more unpleasant matters.  Let us start with the stripes.  To preempt any misunderstandings, I am very happy that stripes stayed on the pants.  I abhorred the 1990s fashion trend of stripe-less pants, and I am glad to see that we in the football community have moved on, with some exceptions.  What I do not like is how the stripes changed.  I absolutely loved our thin, double-stripe pattern.  It was a direct throwback to our older styles of uniforms from the 1940s through the 1960s.  The black pants with the gold stripes looked like an army general’s dress uniform — very classy.  Plus, we, along with Alabama, were the only teams to use such stripes.  I understand that times they are a-changin’, but if marketing is going to modify the stripes on the pants, can they at least have the decency to make sure those stripes are complete?  These new stripes fail to go all the way up the pants, for goodness sake!

In another matter, there is no earthly reason why Purdue should ever be wearing white pants.  Ever.  Period.  The only time I would condone it is if we had a black road helmet to provide the proper aesthetic contrast, say, a black helmet with a metallic gold “P” and a metallic gold 1-inch center stripe.  Then the get-up wouldn’t look half-bad — for a road uniform, at least.  In the meantime, though, my advice is, forget the white pants ever happened, and stick with the black pants on the road.

One recurring issue that nobody seems willing to address is the terrible shade of gold to which Purdue has been chained in recent years.  A simple looking up of our official school colors will show the inquisitive individual that Purdue’s school colors are Old Gold and Black.  Got that?  Old Gold and Black.  Sadly, the last time the Boilers had a real, old gold in their helmets was 1996, and the last time their pants were the genuine old gold was 1995, Mike Alstott’s senior year.  Since 1997, the gold in Purdue’s pants has been a watered-down, urine-specimen shade of gold, and it’s downright pathetic.  The ghastly pale shade is made all the more evident when mated with the white road jersey.  One would have hoped that a total redesign of uniform would have given occasion to rectify this problem.  Yet nothing has been done about this glaring weakness.

Whether the marketing wing of Purdue’s athletic department is at fault for consciously picking this sickly shade of gold, or Nike is being a less-than-responsive provider in imposing a one-size-fits-all shade of gold on all its clientele that use that hue, or both, the bottom line is that it remains unacceptable.  Check out UCLA’s gold pants some time.  They still have a substantive gold in their uniforms, which is proof positive that the proper shade is available.  Get it together, you guys.