Hook ’em Horn…Faces, that is! July 20, 2013
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Science.Tags: Arizona, badlands, Ceratopsia, Ceratopsid, Colorado, Cretaceous, Dakota, dino, dinosaur, elevation view, engineering, Escalante National Monument, fenestra, fenestrae, fossil, Grand Staircase, Greek, Jurassic, Latin, Longhorn, Macaw, Montana, Nasutoceratops, National Geographic, New Mexico, paleontologist, Paleontology, parrot, plan view, Scott Sampson, Texas, Utah, Wyoming
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A top view (“plan view” in engineering) and a side view (“elevation view” in engineering) of the top portion of the skull of Nasutoceratops, a new discovered dinosaur species in Utah. Note the curved, longhorn-like horns, and the usually large nose. (Illustration by Samantha Zimmerman)
Another new species of dinosaur has been discovered, this time a Ceratopsid (a term that means “horn face” in Greek). What is particularly striking about this newly discovered species is twofold. One, it was an usually large nose in a suborder/family (Ceratopsia / Ceratopsidae) whose species have large beaks that define their facial features. Two, the horns. The shape and direction bear a strong resemblance to those of, well, a Texas Longhorn (the type of cattle, not a football player!).
The name of this newly-discovered species is Nasutoceratops titusi, which in Greek/Latin roughly translates into “Titus’ Big-nosed Horn Face”. The ‘titusi’ species designation seems to be an attempt at the genitive case of the name “Titus”, but ‘titusi’ sounds much better than the grammatically-accurate ‘titi’. Indeed, the species name was fashioned in honor of Alan Titus, a paleontologist at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah*, which encompasses the area where the fossils were found.
Latin grammar aside, the name is quite fitting. Usually, the first thing that draws the attention of the eye to most Ceratopsid species are the horns, but in this case, it’s a draw. The horns are slightly smaller when compared to, say, Triceratops or Pentaceratops, but the nose is quite prominent, almost identical to that of a Macaw parrot in shape, though obviously much larger than the comparative bird.
The obvious use for horns was self-defense, but also, in the case of this species (if not for others, too) was to lock them with those of other males for dominance in a herd. For years, it was postulated the the distinct frills behind the face and horns were a means of neck protection, but in recent years, that long-held idea has been subject to dispute. As one can see in the “plan view” of the skull, there are two large ‘fenestrae’ (openings in a skull behind the eyeball socket) in the bone frill, which begs the question: if the bone frill were a means of protecting the neck from predators, why have large holes in it? Given that these ‘holes’ are thought to be fenestrae (‘windows’ in Latin), perhaps it might be for muscle attachments for strong jaws instead. At least, that is an alternate idea.
The point of exploring these ideas is very germane towards the discovery of this species. For example, the relatively smaller horns might suggest that there two distinct sets of Ceratopsids, as an interviewed paleontologist suggested in a National Geographic article.
Moreover, Nasutoceratops’ discovery was announced in a study co-authored by Scott Sampson, a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He put the significance of this find very succinctly: “[T]his find raises some great questions and mysteries. We’re just beginning to understand the world of dinosaurs.” Such is a very telling acknowledgement, given that we have been studying dinosaurs for about 190 years.
*Utah is a long-time hotbed for both Jurassic dinosaur fossils as well as Cretaceous ones, including the species that is the subject of this article. Along with its neighboring states (Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and states over such as Montana and the Dakotas), the whole badland interior of the western States has yielded new dinosaur discoveries since the 1870s, and continues to yield a wealth of new finds to this day.
You too can put together a Top 25 CFB preseason poll! February 17, 2013
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: ACC, Alabama, AP, Auburn, B1G, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Boise State, Braxton Miller, Cal, Charlie Weis, Cincinnati, Clemson, college, conference, Duke, Florida, Florida State, football, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville, LSU, MAC, Manti Te'o, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi, NCAA, Nebraska, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pac-12, preseason, Purdue, ranking, San Jose State, SEC, South Carolina, Stanford, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Tim Tebow, Tommy Tuberville, top 25, UC, Urban Meyer, USC, Utah State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Will Muschamp
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Ever wanted to make a college football Top-25 preseason ranking but just didn’t know how? Well, now you do! Thanks to the hilarious writers at SBNation’s Every Day Should Be Saturday, we now have a guide at our disposal to put such a list together and look like prognostication geniuses in so doing! I have taken the liberty of quoting the guiding text to give you reference while we play along. The quoted text from the actual (and funny) guide page is given in italics.
1. Alabama. Look, maybe you have a perfectly strong case for some other school, but if you go off the reservation right away, the readers are going to suspect something is amiss. Stay with the pack here and, if the Tide stumble, you’ll be one of many mistaken scribes, not a distinct and lonesome idiot.
Alabama looks and sounds like a winner to me!
2. Big 12 or Big Ten team. BOOM! Because you started comfortable, those stupid readers didn’t see this knowledge roundhouse coming. Pick a team that didn’t meet expectations in 2012 and talk about how they’ll be “hungry” and “focused” because of it.
Michigan, perhaps?
3. SEC team. Mention how battle tested playing in the conference will leave this team by the end of the season. Then hedge by saying SEC play could eat them alive. SPORTSNIGMA!
Texas A&M; they’re really hot right now. Seriously, so much for them having to get behind Arkansas like we all predicted last year!
4. Ohio State. Emphasize how good the team looked in the first year of a new system. Ignore that they barely beat Cal, Indiana, and Purdue. Clunky suggestion that Braxton Miller could be the next Tim Tebow. Obliquely suggest Urban Meyer could quit at any week for any reason.
Ohio State, and this is why I didn’t put them at the No. 2 spot like I would have otherwise.
5. Oregon or Stanford. Sh-t, you meant to put one of them higher, but that much backspacing seems like a real pain in the ass. Say something here about how you’re being cautious not to put too much stock into a big bowl performance.
Stanford, for reasons of coaching continuity.
6. Team Coming Off A Big Bowl Performance. Clemson-Louisville national championship game ahoy!
Okay, I’ll bite. What the heck; let’s put Louisville in there for the fun of it!
7. SEC team. Which one? Any one THAT’S JUST HOW DAMN GOOD THEY ARE MAN. (Seriously, though, not Auburn.)
Seriously; definitely not Auburn! Already put Texas A&M in there, so let’s have LSU fill this slot, shall we? Or maybe South Carolina; yeah, definitely the Gamecocks. They’re doing quite well right now.
8. Notre Dame. Yes, Irish fans are going to be super pissed at the perceived disrespect, but that’d be true even if you ranked ND numbers one, two, and three simultaneously. Don’t fight a losing battle. Just slot them here and suggest that they could be better off without Manti Te’o.
Notre Dame; and they might not miss Manti Te’o that much if their highly-ranked recruiting class has any teeth to it, unlike “highly-ranked” recruiting classes under Charlie Weis.
9. Oregon or Stanford (whoever you didn’t put at 5). Say something about how they’ve lost a lot of key pieces. Is it true? Players graduate, don’t they?
Oregon, for reasons of lack of coaching continuity.
10. ACC team. You’ll need to construct a paper fortune teller and write the names of four plausibly successful teams twice each. Be sure you only do it twice, because if you write out “Georgia Tech” three times on the same piece of paper Paul Johnson appears out of nowhere and insists on rearranging your pantry.
Well, we already put Louisville at No. 6, so we might as well put Florida State into this one.
11. Team that will likely have three losses before Halloween. Your obligation in preparing this ranking is not simply to come up with a sensible accounting of the top 25 teams heading into the season. It’s also to provide us with teams destined to leave unreasonable expectations unfulfilled. Who will be this year’s Arkansas? THE POWER IS YOURS!
Ole Miss, because expectations are high due to their half-way decent team from last year and No. 7-ranked recruiting class this year.
12. Team with the highest ranked recruiting class that you have not yet included. I mean, all that talent wouldn’t be going to a bad team, would it? And I bet half of them start right away! (note: I do not know how recruiting works)
I want to put Florida here, because they’ve got the No. 4-ranked recruiting class, and I’ve got to stick ‘em somewhere! But, skip down to No 14, and you’ll find out that cannot be done, according to this system. So, we’ll put in Oklahoma.
13. This is exhausting. You really deserve a lemonade, and maybe even an oatmeal cookie. I mean, people bitch about preseason rankings, but then they lap them right up like hungry dogs. Do they not understand how market forces work? Oh, um, Michigan State. Whatever.
Georgia; gotta stick ‘em somewhere.
14. Florida. “Will Muschamp is driving a truck with a great engine and no brake pads. Will Muschamp is eating a sandwich with meat and no bread. Will Muschamp is developing a model that explains how light behaves like a particle but not as a wave.” Metaphor them to death in this middle section.
Okay, NOW we’re allowed to put Florida in there.
15. School that was good six years ago and has stunk since. Because these things are cyclical, or something.
USC, anybody?
16. Team stocked with seniors that have mostly underachieved up to this point. They just want it more, man. That’s why they’re fighting in spring practice. Out of love.
Michigan State, perhaps?
17. Big 12 team with a miserably weak non conference schedule. Basically, this is between Texas Tech, West Virginia, Kansas, and Kansas State. Kansas is out for reasons of being Kansas, so just pick one of the other three and feel like a genius up to, but not beyond, Week 5.
West Virginia is the safest pick out of the three, at least through Week 5. After Week 5, it might be Texas Tech. Just sayin’.
18. Big East team. Start out by noting that the conference had a better bowl winning percentage last year than the every other AQ conference. Pretend you knew that Memphis was joining this year without looking. Realize that the team you pick could join the ACC before this gets published. Shrug, and continue trying to beat Jetpack Joyride.
Cincinnati, because after U of L, UC is the only Big East team that comes to mind, and goodness knows what could happen with Tommy Tuberville at the helm.
19. Team that was terrible but hired a trendy coach. You’ve already won me over, Cal, in spite of me.
Okay, let’s go with Cal. Let me waste another space on something ridiculous, why don’t you!
20. School from a non AQ conference. Again, this is mostly an exercise in antagonizing fans, so just find a Mountain West or MAC team that could plausibly win eight games and put them here. Then say something snide about the Big Ten.
Ah, so THIS is where you put in Boise State!
21. Scandium. Don’t think it belongs here? Check your atomic numbers, clown.
Okay, now they’re being downright silly. Not funny, just silly. Let’s go with LSU.
22. Team with a coach on the hot seat. If you’re not sure who qualifies, just pick any coach that hasn’t won a conference title in the last two years and say he’s on the hot seat.
Texas, because even though I love Mack Brown as a person, he ought to be on the hot seat after three consecutive seasons of underperformance.
23. Almost there! Pick any team, say this is a make-or-break season for the program, and move forward.
Auburn, because after the horrible year they had last season, we’ll now see how quickly they can bounce back.
24. Duke.
Are you kidding me? Alright, we’ll play along for the funny hell of it.
25. Team that barely made a bowl last year. “Trial by fire has made them stronger” sounds way more optimistic than “holy sh– they needed a punt return touchdown to beat Sweet Valley High.”
Heck, Purdue barely made it to a bowl game last year, but I’m certainly not putting them at No. 25! I’d put somebody like Nebraska in there, but I don’t know if it fits the template. Screw it; I’ll put Nebraska in anyway.
Now, let us see how this ranking plays out, according to the above formula:
- Alabama
- Michigan
- Texas A&M
- Ohio State
- Stanford
- Louisville
- South Carolina
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Florida State
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
- Florida
- USC
- Michigan State
- West Virginia
- Cincinnati
- Cal
- Boise State
- LSU
- Texas
- Auburn
- Duke (groan!)
- Nebraska
I know, I know; LSU is ranked way too low, and it bothers the heck out of me, too. Just for fun, let us compare this with the current 2013 AP preseason Top 25 poll:
- Alabama (no surprise there!)
- Oregon
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Texas A&M
- Georgia
- Stanford
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Florida State
- Clemson
- Kansas State
- Louisville
- LSU (beats not being ranked at all!)
- Oklahoma (I knew they were overvalued!)
- Utah State (there had better be a darn good reason for this!)
- Northwestern (quite plausible, actually)
- Boise State (are you sure you want them that high, AP?)
- Texas
- Oregon State
- San Jose State (huh?)
- Northern Illinois (I guess they felt compelled to stick a MAC team somewhere)
- Vanderbilt (also plausible; have you seen their recruiting class lately?)
- Michigan
- Nebraska
For starters, I’m really regretting sticking Michigan in that No. 2 slot, but the formula called for a Big Ten team, and Ohio State was already locked in to No. 4; what was I to do? The Florida State ranking, though, seems pretty spot-on, and many others (Alabama, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Stanford, South Carolina, and Nebraska are within one or two rankings). Yes, it’s all in fun and jest, to be sure, but it shows that sometimes these whacky formulas work, other times, not so much. And it still sticks in my craw that it compelled me to under-value the Bayou Bengals, and grossly over-value Michigan.
The potentially existential problem at the University of Texas February 10, 2013
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Politics.Tags: 3M, academia, academic, B1G, Berkeley, Big Ten, brand, Cadillac, Cal, Carrier, Chevrolet, Chevy, critical, culture clash, doctorate, DuPont, education, engineering, equity, Evergreen, Florida, G.E., G.M., GE, General Electric, General Motors, GM, Golden, Great Lakes, Harvard, higher ed, Hoosier, Indiana, institution, Ivy League, leftism, Lockheed-Martin, Magnum, marketable, marketing, Marxism, masters, Michigan, Minnesota, Pac-12, Packard, Penn State, prestige, professor, public, Purdue, R&D, research, school, SEC, secondary, state, Texas, UCLA, undergrad, United Technologies, university, USA Today, UT, vocation, Washington, Wisconsin, world-class
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On the surface, it seems there has never been a better time to be a part of a major university, particularly the state-funded type. Education remains in high demand, after all, and those working as full-time academics (extra emphasis on “full-time”) make good money. Individual states take pride in their flagship schools as being centers for world-class research, that some of the most cutting-edge, world-changing advances in technology, from electronics to engineering to chemistry to medicine, have come out of these sorts of universities. Note that I said “some” research, for just as many cutting-edge discoveries have come out of R&D departments in General Electric, General Motors, DuPont, 3M, Magnum Research, Lockheed-Martin, and the like (note that they are all for-profit companies in the private sector!).
But that stipulation aside, these flagship schools are often viewed with some degree of prestige. Pennsylvania, for example, rightly takes pride in the academic excellence at Penn State, as it is regarded as a “public Ivy.” Ditto for the University of Michigan in the Great Lakes State, or for both Indiana and Purdue Universities in the neighboring Hoosier State. The Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota are also known for quality, world-class research and are thus a source of pride for their respective states. Same can be said for Cal-Berkeley and UCLA in the once-Golden State or for the University of Washington in the Evergreen State. Even the SEC, not necessarily known for its academic prowess overall compared to the Big Ten or even the Pac-12, nevertheless has a good example of a big, state flagship school with good academics (though a recent development, to be sure) in the University of Florida. And yes, the adjective “state” also means “public,” with college tuition being more affordable for in-state students than if said students were to attend private schools for their higher education instead.
So what is the problem? Well, the issue has two large, important dimensions. At the heart of said issue is an existential crisis that seems to be gripping the University of Texas, another great example of a state flagship school that has good academics both at the undergrad level as well as the graduate one. This existential, if not outright identity, crisis is the result of something of a culture clash within the vaunted institution. USA Today reports that opposing factions within the school have very different visions for the direction and purpose of the UT. The conflict basically goes this way: do we focus on the prestigious aspects of the school, or do we make it more accessible? It’s basically a Cadillac vs. Chevy argument. Cadillacs are much nicer and classier, but Chevys will still get you where you need to go without breaking the bank in the process. Both arguments have merit, but which way should the university go?
The prestige/class argument certainly has its place, but has severe limitations. Undergrads usually choose their school based on its academic reputation, yet said reputation comes from research done by faculty and doctoral students. Just because a professor is a leading researcher in his field does not necessarily mean he will be effectively imparting that insight to the undergrads. In fact, in all likelihood, he might farm out that teaching to his teacher’s assistants, themselves concentrating on establishing their own reputations in academia. The only way an undergraduate student would have a course taught be one of these hypothetical leading professors is if they take an arcane course that is directly within the narrow scope of the professor’s arcane research, as Dr. Thomas Sowell points out. Such is often the case at Harvard and the other Ivy League schools, but less so at certain places like Purdue.
This leads us even further into the problem with “prestige.” While some research is very useful in the real world, other research, not so much. If the cutting-edge research is within the fields of engineering, medicine, food science, agriculture, chemistry, computers/electronics, or even business management to an extent, then all those things can translate to useful applications to advance our standard of living in the real world. But if a professor is a leading researcher in sociology, communication, “women’s studies,” or “critical theory” (i.e., Marxism), so what? How does a degree in a field of that sort of related study translate into marketable skills, which, now more than ever, are key to getting a job in a tough economy?
Long gone are the days when just having any old degree will get you a decent-paying job. Employers look for specific skills to make specific contributions to their companies’ productivity. Therefore, if major universities wish to remain relevant, the other argument goes, then they must adapt their teaching curricula to meet these more basic student needs so that said students, once they graduate, can be productive elements of society, and thus truly get their money’s worth.
Specifically, employers are looking for – depending on your industry, and yes, I’m generalizing here – nurses, engineers, chemists (to an extent), I.T. professionals/computer engineers/programmers, and accountants, not to mention HVAC technicians, plumbers, the latter two do not even require a four-year degree insomuch as a vocational certification. Getting a degree in sociology will not help fulfill employers’ needs.
I for one lean towards the latter camp, but coming from an academically-oriented family myself, I fully sympathize with the other side’s point of view. Where I part company with the other side is the blind eye they turn to, if not outright abet, all the side-effects that come with the purely theoretical, no-real-world-application side of academia. To put it bluntly, one does not hear a peep of Marxism, or any other permutation of Leftist philosophy from engineering or medical schools. Perhaps many a chemistry professor might vote for all the local, state and national Democrat lefties du jour, but one hardly hears any of their ideology trickle down into the classroom. Ditto for engineering professors, or even math professors, though one is likely to find some conservatives in those camps and others where part of their profession is making sure that the numbers actually, you know, add up.
That can hardly be said for many courses in communications, English, sociology, “critical theory/studies,” any ethnic study one cares to choose, or even many – though thankfully not all – history courses and pretty else everywhere else within the purview of liberal arts, sadly.
The irony in the existential debate surrounding the University of Texas is that it has the resources to do a mix of both. It has the resources to offer trade-oriented education to the majority of its would-be undergrads, while at the same time offer English, History, Foreign Languages, Math and Science courses to the kids who want to teach in those disciplines at the secondary (i.e., high school level). If kids within the latter category want to continue their studies as actual scholars in those fields, UT ought to have the resources to accommodate that to an extent, as well as continue in the world class research in which the former camp takes so much pride.
A potential problem with this approach is that, yes, it can muddle the brand, and would run the risk trying to make the University of Texas all things to all people, which hardly anybody outside of G.E. and Carrier/United Technologies are capable of doing. Muddying the brand is problematic enough. Packard tried that in the 1930s in order to survive the Great Depression. Rival Cadillac already had the luxury of having the low-priced Chevrolet brand within the larger General Motors conglomerate. As an independent, though, Packard reasoned that it needed to make low-priced models just to survive, but in doing so, it compromised the prestige of the brand. As any marketing professor worth his or her salt will tell you, though, the solution would have been for Packard to come with its own low-priced flanker brand so as to not compromise the brand equity of its famous luxury marque.
Sounds simple in theory, but for higher education, it is not. If UT were to adopt this idea, how could the ‘man on the street’ differentiate the practical vocation-oriented training from the prestigious research that is normally associated with such an institution? Ultimately, it should come down to individual employers’ ability to be able to see how employment candidates from that school can translate the practical knowledge they have learned into applied abilities to benefit the companies, without regard to prestigious research done elsewhere at such a huge school.
This brief exploration of the opposing issues by no means will settle this huge argument in Austin. But approaching market forces might compel the university to adapt some version of this proposed hybrid model, prestige or no prestige. This discussion is surely to be continued.
2012-2013 Bowl Game Awards January 10, 2013
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: A.J. McCarron, ACC, Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Bama, Baylor, BCS, Bill Belichick, Bill Blankenship, Bob Stoops, Bowl, Brian Kelly, championship, Charlie Strong, Chick-Fil-A, Clemson, college, conference, Cotton, Crimson Tide, FBS, FIghting Irish, Florida, football, game, Georgia Tech, Heart of Dallas, Idaho Potato, Lane Kiffin, Louisville, Mack Brown, Mark Dantonio, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, MSU, national, NCAA, ND, Nebraska, Nevada, NFL, Nick Saban, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Outback, Patrick Higgins, Peach, Pittsburgh, Purdue, SEC, South Carolina, Southeastern, Stanford, Sugar, Sun, Texas, Texas A&M, title, Toledo, Tulsa, U of L, UCLA, USC, Utah, Utah State, West Virginia
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What, you’d think I’d be lying down on the job just because the regular season is over?
COACHES
Wish I were him: Charlie Strong, Louisville
Wouldn’t be bad to be him, either: Nick Saban, Alabama
Glad I’m not him: Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
Lucky guy: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
Poor guy: Patrick Higgins, Purdue (interim coach)
Desperately seeking a clue (long-term, notwithstanding the win): Mack Brown, Texas
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Bill Blankenship, Tulsa
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Lane Kiffin, USC
TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Texas A&M (beat No. 11 Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 4, 41-13)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Florida (see below)
(Dec. 15-31)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Purdue (see below)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Louisville (see below)
(Jan. 1-7)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Alabama
Thought you wouldn’t get your butt kicked, you did: Notre Dame
Dang, they’re good: Alabama (and Texas A&M!)
Dang, they’re bad: Purdue
They can’t be that good: Oklahoma State
Dang, they’re overrated: Notre Dame
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Mississippi State (lost to Northwestern in the Gator Bowl, Jan. 1, 34-20)
Did the season start? USC
Can the season end? West Virginia
Can the season never end? Louisville (or Clemson, though really, Louisville more so!)
GAMES
Play this again (Jan. 1-7): Outback Bowl – No. 10 South Carolina 33, No. 18 Michigan 28
(Dec. 15-31)
Play this again: Peach, I mean, Chick-Fil-A Bowl — No. 14 Clemson 25, No. 8 LSU 24
Also, play this again: New Mexico Bowl – Arizona 49, Nevada 48
(All Bowls)
Never play this again: Heart of Dallas Bowl – Oklahoma State 58, Purdue 14
Don’t bother with this one again, either: Idaho Potato Bowl – No. 22 Utah State 41, Toledo 15
What? Chick-Fil-A Bowl — No. 14 Clemson 25, No. 8 LSU 24
Huh? Holiday Bowl — Baylor 49, No. 17 UCLA 26
Are you kidding me? Sun Bowl — Georgia Tech 21, USC 7
Oh – my – God: Sugar Bowl – No. 21 Louisville 33, No. 3 Florida 23
Wow, dude: BCS National Championship – erstwhile No. 2 Alabama 42, erstwhile No. 1 Notre Dame 14
Cal Sport Media / AP Images
That’s why you line them up and play. My father repeated this mantra to me as I was growing up. Going in to the BCS National Championship game, it seemed as though Notre Dame and Alabama were rather evenly matched on paper. The Fighting Irish had some rather impressive wins on their resume this year, far more impressive than the mediocre schedule they had played in recent years. Beating a tough Stanford squad at home, going on the road to humiliate Oklahoma, and then closing out the regular season on the west coast to beat USC, all in the same year, is no small feat. With such a record, it looked like Notre Dame was back, ready to butt heads with the big boys for national prominence.
Moreover, it was supposed to be a down year for the SEC, remember? Michigan played South Carolina down to the wire (though seriously, the overall outcome was as predicted, if not by a slightly truncated margin of error), and an underachieving Nebraska challenged a, well, underachieving Georgia squad. Mississippi State, for what a great regular season had – by MSU standards, at least – came for naught when they coughed it up to Northwestern in the Gator Bowl. The most striking example of building the case for a SEC down year was the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. No way, under normal circumstances would LSU lose to Clemson, though to be sure, the ACC team has been known to pull one over on the SEC team in that bowl game (remember the 2001 Peach Bowl between Auburn and North Carolina?). No. 3 Florida inexplicably losing to No. 21 Louisville can also add fuel to that fire (not that U of L’s win is something to be rued outside of SEC country!).
Forget that the SEC had three losses going into this game. The conference was 5-3, to be exact; still a winning record. Look at the Bama team itself. They had graduated tons of talent to the NFL. Quarterback A.J. McCarron was not a transcendent player at that position (as one often expects on a team that would be in the running for the national title). The offensive line was young and inexperienced. The Crimson Tide’s defense was not overwhelming, either, especially when compared to the smothering D’s of recent champion squads. When paired up against the other team, one could readily predict some clearly potential mismatches. After all, Notre Dame’s receiving corps was big and talented, and proved to be a game-winning factor throughout the season, as the Irish’s opponents had no answer for that part of their offense.
But there was more. What gave the Irish the strong look of national viability was that Coach Brian Kelly had done an amazing job of massively upgrading the team’s defense. At a school this is much more academically rigid as ND, certain recruiting restrictions tend to put the defensive side of the ball at a disadvantage. One can recruit smart linemen, quarterbacks, tight ends, and receivers, after all, and they are out there. Defense is another issue. Never as well-choreographed as offensive, players on that side of the ball tend to be a bit more reckless, and often have to be to make key stops. Making good grades and doing what defensive players have to do to succeed on the field is oftentimes an incompatibility. Yet Kelly somehow made it work.
So how did things turn out they did? Even yours truly predicted a close game, at least until some time in the 3rd quarter. Turns out, in hindsight, we all made the same mistake we made going into the 2007 BCS game. That year, Ohio State was the undefeated, No.1 team. Florida got in the game almost as an afterthought. Yet despite a touchdown by the Buckeyes on the opening kickoff, the Gators dominated from then on, leaving many viewers in a state of shock and disbelief, and also to ask each other: how did we not see this coming?
The answer comes in two parts. The simplest part is, they are SEC teams. Florida then and Alabama this year played in the most brutal of all college football conferences. Anybody who emerges as the conference champion is battle-hardened, battle tested, and ready and able to go toe-to-toe with anybody else in the country. If one does not believe that the SEC, despite its down year this year, is still not the best conference in the country, you are both blind and detached from reality. For one, SEC teams have won every national title since the 2006-’07 season; that’s seven consecutive years and counting. But even more to the point, the NFL is the ultimate truth serum when it comes to who produces the best players in college football. One NFL team general manager once observed that you could field a competitive team in the pros just by drafting players out of the Southeastern Conference. Lots of money, along with people’s mortgages and livelihoods, rest on making such key decisions – think about that.
So Ohio State then, and Notre Dame this year, were frankly NOT consistently playing the same level of competition that SEC teams face week in and week out. It’s fine for Notre Dame to beat Oklahoma on the road, but to turn right around the struggle at home to Pittsburgh the next game should have raised a few more eyebrows than it did.
The other part to explain how Bama ended up dominating Notre Dame is that Nick Saban is the best college coach in the business. He learned his grinder’s work ethic from his father growing up in West Virginia, and learned how to be detail-oriented as an NFL assistant under Bill Belichick. Being detail-oriented is a transferrable skill that works well at either the college or the pro level. Saban knows how to prepare. Alabama might have seemed relatively weak (compared to recent teams) having to go from one tough game to another (LSU then Texas A&M, for example). But give Saban a full month to prepare, and the team’s true potential shines through. Pay no attention to the Tide getting humiliated to Utah in the 2008 Sugar Bowl; pay attention to Saban’s, and the team’s, more recent body of work, that being three national titles out of the past four years. They say that hindsight is 20-20, and in this case, it most certainly is: Bama played better competition throughout the year, had even better overall athletes, and are guided by the best coach in the business. Sometimes, you have to line them up and play just to be able to see those things with sufficient clarity.
Some thoughts on the Bowls as of Dec. 28 December 29, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: ACC, Arizona, B1G, Bearcats, Belk, Bengals, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Blue Devils, Boise State, Bowl, Brent Musburger, Capital One, Champs Sports, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Citrus, college, Duke, ESPN, football, Golden Gophers, helmet, Hokies, Holiday, Independence, Kirk Herbstreit, Las Vegas, LeGarrette Blount, Little Caesars, MAACO, Meinecke Car Care Bowl, Minnesota, Mountain West, NCAA, Nevada, New Mexico, Ole Miss, Pac-12, Red Raiders, Ronald Reagan, Russell Athletics, Rutgers, Scarlet Knights, SEC, Tangerine, Texas, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Washington
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From azstarnet.com; try to ignore the Arizona player bumping into the ref and instead, focus on how cool their unis look, along the with the awesome color contrast between Arizona’s and Nevada’s helmets!
The New Mexico Bowl kicked off the season to a surprisingly auspicious beginning. I say “surprisingly,” because let’s be honest; nobody thought that the first bowl game of the year would be that swell, and moreover, it seemed as though Nevada had the game well in hand by the end of the 3rd quarter before Arizona managed to make a pretty good game out of things yet and scored 18 unanswered points to pull ahead at the end, 49-48. And to think that I predicted that the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 would be the bowl season’s “offensive explosion,” yet so far, the results of the New Mexico Bowl have fit that distinction more than any other of the 2012-2013 bowl span.
But wait, there’s more! As more teams unveil special bowl game helmets (read: Cincinnati, Virginia Tech), the jury will still be out until Jan. 7 to decide this ultimately, but thus far, the Arizona-Nevada matchup is definitely the “most aesthetically pleasing helmet contrast,” with the Wolfpack sporting their dark blue helmets on one side, and the Wildcats sporting their special red domes on the other!
Moreover, it will be very difficult for any other team to top the Wildcats for the “sartorial splendor” award, as they have set a new precedent. Normally, if a team has dark blue and red for their colors (technically, Cardinal and Navy Blue, as is the case for both Arizona and Ole Miss), the modern precedents have been something along the lines of 1) dark blue helmets, dark blue jerseys, and either white or gray pants, or white helmets, or 2) white helmets and pants with dark blue jerseys, or 3), dark blue helmets, red jerseys, and white or gray pants. What Arizona did was break through normal precedents and set a whole new one with red helmets, dark blue jerseys, and red pants. It does not get much better than that!
Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports
Speaking of good games, this year’s MAACO Bowl of Las Vegas turned out to be a ‘dandy’ of a game, folks! There are times when you swear that ESPN does actually have a crystal ball in some secret location on their Bristol, Conn., campus, because they sent their front-line crew of Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit to call the game, reflecting on the fact in real time that it was worth tuning in to see! Either that, or it was an elaborate rouse to get Musburger in touch with Chan Lo and the Chinese Triads to settle his gambling debts: who knows? That having been said, what on Earth was Boise State doing wearing those god-awful matte black helmets instead of their pretty metallic blue domes? Sometimes it pays to leave well enough alone; such is what Washington did with their tasteful combination of metallic gold helms, white jerseys and purple pants.
Of all places, this pic came from Bengals.com!
The Belk Bowl also exceeded expectations in terms of a competitive, watchable game. Only two things overshadowed Duke’s first bowl game since the mid-1990s: 1), Cincinnati’s garish, red, carbon fibre-colored helmets, a first in football helmet decor, and 2), the Bearcats ultimately won. Still, it was nice that the Blue Devils wore their tasteful royal blue helmets instead of their generic-looking white ones, which overall made for a nice helmet contrast between the two teams as they played each other in Charlotte. Moreover, keep in mind that the Bearcats pulled off the win with basically a five-man coaching staff (for purposes of comparison, college teams usually have about 10 coaches on staff, not including graduate assistants).
Another very interesting teams’ helmets contrast took place on Dec. 28 in the Russell Athletic Bowl, formerly the Champs Sports Bowl, formerly the reincarnated Tangerine Bowl (basically, the other bowl game they play in the Citrus Bowl before the real Citrus Bowl game, which is now called the Capital One Bowl. Got all that?). Rutgers put up one heckuva fight against Virginia Tech, but came up a field goal short in overtime of tying the Hokies after the first round in overtime. But the contrast was nevertheless unique in that the Scarlet Knights had their newly characteristic chrome shells, while the Hokies sported new, matte maroon helmets with an orange decal of a “Hokie,” which, from what us fans can deduce, is basically a turkey bird on a roid rage. Virginia Tech has undertaken numerous helmet styling experiments during the 2012 season, some kind of interesting, some downright head-scratching. The white helmets with turkey feet clearly belonged in the latter category!
Oh, and the guys at EDSBS, you boys have some ‘splainin’ to do! You ranked the Meinecke Car Care Bowl of Texas last among your list of the 35 bowls for this season. In the words of Musburger, the game turned out to be a real ‘dandy.’ Thanks to the realignment of bowls, this Texas Bowl is about the only B1G vs Big XII matchup we have to look forward to, as the Alamo Bowl no longer affords us that luxury. The game did not disappoint, as Minnesota and Texas Tech butted heads in dramatic form practically from the whistle giving the green light for kickoff. The game remained close and competitive for the whole 60 minutes, though a turning point came when a Red Raider receiver pancaked a Golden Gopher defensive back in the end zone and walloped him — right in front of the back judge. That led to the player, No. 22, to be summarily ejected from the game (and due to an arcane NCAA rule, he shall also have to sit out the opening game next year, too). LeGarrette Blunt would no doubt be proud. A third and goal near the one became a third and goal at about the fifteen. The next play was botched, leading to a field goal. Minnesota called a timeout just as the ball was snapped, and on the next, true snap, the Gophers blocked the kick! A sure TD was reduced to, well, nothing. Yes, in the end, the Red Raiders won on a last-second field goal. Still, the game was riveting from the opening kickoff to the very last play, and that’s all we fans can ask for in any of these bowl games.
In all frankness and honesty, the 2012-2013 bowl season has been overall underwhelming this far. The Little Caesars Bowl and the Independence Bowl (oh, my, have the mighty fallen!) have been nothing about which to write home, and similar things can be said for most of the other bowls up to this point. But having said all that, it is worth pointing out that there have been some high points thus far, and odds are, it can only get better from here. After all, Ronald Reagan himself was known to joke that if one searches through enough mounds of manure, sooner or later one is bound to find the pony!
2012-2013 Bowl Games of High Interest December 26, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: ACC, Aggies, Alabama, Alamo, Andrew Luck, Auburn, B1G, Badgers, Baylor, BCS, Bears, Big 10, Big Ten, Big XII, Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops, Bowl, Brent Musburger, Bruins, Bulldogs, Capital One, Cardinal, Cardinals, Chick-Fil-A, CHip Kelly, Citrus, Clemson, college, conference, Cornhuskers, Cotton Bowl, Crimson Tide, Ducks, Fiesta Bowl, FIghting Irish, Florida, football, Gator, Gators, Georgia, Granddaddy, Herbie, Holiday, Hotlanta, Jerryland, Kansas State, Kevin Sumlin, Kirk Herbstreit, Kwanzaa, Lou Holtz, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi State, national championship, NCAA, Nebraska, Nike, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Oregon State, Outback, Pac-12, Peach, Pro Combat, Rose Bowl, SEC, Sooners, South Carolina, Southeastern, Stanford, Steve Spurrier, Sugar Bowl, Teddy Bridgewater, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, voodoo, Washington, Wildcats, Wisconsin
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As mentioned in the previous installments, I have ranked the bowl games by category, with the major criterion being level of desirability to view, partly on my end, partly on the end of the average viewer who is NOT a certifiable college football addict like yours truly!
To find a complete bowl game schedule where each game is found in order of date and time each game is to be played, go here.
This third installment is of bowl games about which I am VERY interested (as usual, all times are Eastern Standard). Happy Kwanzaa (LMAO! I’m sorry, I just can’t say that with a straight face!).
Holiday Bowl (San Diego), Thurs., Dec. 27, 9:45 PM EST
Baylor (7-5) vs. No. 17 UCLA (9-4)
My [potential] “offensive explosion” bowl game for the 2012-2013 season. To paraphrase the guys at EDSBS, what’s better in a bowl game than seeing both teams’ offensive coordinators emptying the most shameful corners of their playbook? Better yet, it pits bears vs. bruins; how often does one see that in a bowl? Just sayin’!
Alamo Bowl (San Antonio), Sat., Dec. 29, 6:45 PM
No. 23 Texas (8-4) vs. No. 13 Oregon State (9-3)
Yes, I’ll admit, I’m a bit biased. After all, I was part of the team that won the 1998 Alamo Bowl, arguably one of the more memorable games in the series. But that aside, the Alamo Bowl is always a good matchup. Is it quite as good as when it was Big Ten vs. Big XII? The realignment to a Pac-12 vs. Big XII matchup has not watered things down any, at least not yet. Remember last year’s offensive explosion between Baylor and Washington? That one is not soon to be forgotten, either. This time, the Longhorns are playing, which automatically makes it good. Granted, Oregon State is favored on paper, but do not underestimate Texas’ home field advantage, given that their campus is only a little over an hour away.
Chick-Fil-A Bowl (Atlanta), Mon., Dec., 31, 7:30 PM
No. 8 LSU (10-2) vs. No. 14 Clemson (10-2)
Nothing like closing out the old year by watching a classic SEC-ACC matchup in Hotlanta! Of course, there have been plenty of such “classic” matchups on paper over the past several years, but they have usually amounted to rather one-sided affairs in favor of the Southeastern Conference. You’ll have that. After all, not all Peach Bowls, er, Chick-Fil-A Bowls can be like the Auburn-North Carolina game back in 2001! In any event, the funny guys at EDSBS have come up with three possible scenarios of how this one will play out (all with varying degrees of probability – refer to game ranking #6). I particularly like the “LSU blowout” scenario!
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.), Tues., Jan. 1, 12:00 PM
Mississippi State (8-4) vs. No. 20 Northwestern (9-3)
My “great game that nobody is talking about,” for it pits two scrappy teams struggling for respect in their respective conferences. Better yet, it’s a very dramatic culture clash within the bowl season, for the only private school in the B1G meets, well, the “clanga-clanga” of cowbells. It also makes for an intriguing coaching matchup in one coaches favors the pass while the other favors the run. How can a viewer lose with this whole proposition?
Outback Bowl (Tampa, Fla.), Tues., Jan. 1, 1:00 PM
No. 10 South Carolina (10-2) vs. No. 18 Michigan (8-4)
The matchup is intriguing on the surface alone. One side is a traditional blue blood, figuratively and literally. They won the first ever bowl game and gave birth to the college fight song as we know it today. Oh well, and Michigan also has the most wins of any football program, ever. The other side, South Carolina, is something of a late bloomer. A relatively late joiner of the SEC, for years they had been a conference doormat prior to the Lou Holtz and especially the Steve Spurrier eras. But this game is where the newcomer will take down the old guard, should everything work out on paper. Yes, that’s a rather dry way of putting it, but if I made any allusions that the Gamecocks should bury the Wolverines underneath the pavement for some horrified archaeologists to discover a century or two later, well, I might get accused of plagiarism, or something.
Capital One Bowl (Orlando, Fla.), Tues., Jan. 1, 1:00 PM
No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 16 Nebraska
First of all, let us get this out of the way right now and admit that this game is not quite as interesting as the Outback Bowl, but it’s interesting nonetheless. If Nebraska had their hands full against a 7-5 Wisconsin team at a neutral site, good Lord, what is the seventh-ranked Georgia squad going to do to them? Second, what on Earth are the Cornhuskers doing being ranked 16th in the AP after a such can of whoopass had been opened up on them in Indianapolis? All that being said, the only thing that Nebraska has going for them (and I mean the only thing) is that the Bulldogs are a senior-laden team that was underachieved all season, and be very, very aware of such teams when they show up in bowl games, as they are likely to disappoint.
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.), Tues., Jan. 1, 5:00 PM
Wisconsin vs. No. 7 Stanford
The good news for Wisconsin is that they caught Nebraska off guard during the Big Ten championship game and have earned a third-straight berth to the Granddaddy of Them All. The bad news for Wisconsin is that they must face a Stanford squad that is arguably more formidable than last year’s Andrew Luck-led team. The Cardinal can more than match the Badgers in the trenches, and that instantly takes away their competitive advantage. More bad news: barring the possibility of Stanford breaking out their black helmets and all-cardinal Nike Pro Combat unis, this bowl game will be the matchup of the generic uniforms. The good news for all of us is that we will be “looking live,” as ABC’s front line crew of Brent Musburger and Kirk “Herbie” Herbstreit will be calling the game, folks!
Sugar Bowl (New Orleans), Wed., Jan. 2, 8:30 PM
No. 21 Louisville vs. No. 3 Florida
Yeah, yeah, I know that I filed this upcoming game under “who’s bringing the body bags?” That’s my safe prediction. My less-than safe prediction, shared by others, is that Florida’s occasional quarterbacking ineptitude might align itself with Louisville’s occasionally vulnerable secondary. Of course, even if both of those things click simultaneously, it’s not that safe of a bet that the same clicking will occur between the Gator’s formidable defense against the Cardinals’ Teddy Bridgewater, as sad as I am to say. Then again, it is the Big Easy, and the Charlie Strong can always dial up some voodoo magic.
Fiesta Bowl (Mesa, Ariz.), Thurs., Jan. 3, 8:30 PM
No. 4 Oregon vs. No. 5 Kansas State
When two teams in a bowl game that are very closely ranked square off, it is almost always interesting. But the game is watchable for other reasons as well, such as the intriguing contrast between the two teams. In one corner, wearing purple trimmed with white and silver are the Wildcats, with old man Bill Snyder working his magic albeit with a conventional offense. In the opposing corner, wearing some sort of green trimmed with yellow (we think: it could be black, silver, or something else, for that matter), is Chip Kelly’s Ducks, along with his progressive, hurry-up, hyper-drive offensive play. Think of the overall interest amounting to a weird variation on the old saying that “opposites attract.”
Cotton Bowl (Arlington, Texas), Friday, Jan. 4, 8:00 PM
No. 9 Texas A&M vs. No. 11 Oklahoma
Old conference rivals reunite in a relocated classic bowl game (used to be in, well, the Cotton Bowl, now it’s in Jerryland). What makes the matchup even more interesting is that the Aggies’ current head coach, Kevin Sumlin, was at one time an assistant under Sooners’ head coach Bob Stoops. That notwithstanding, in all likelihood the pupil will become the teacher. Oklahoma is another one of those teams about which to beware, that being a team with lots of seniors that has underachieved all year; rarely does a team like that come through victorious during bowl season. Moreover, during the later part of the regular season, Coach Sumlin was coaching A&M so well that it seemed as though they could beat anybody in the nation. With that being said, this will be a major test to see whether or not they can beat anyone in the postseason.
BCS National Championship (Miami), Mon., Jan. 7, 8:30 PM
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Alabama
On one hand, it is unlikely that Notre Dame has ever encountered any team with Alabama’s overall athleticism. On the other hand, Notre Dame has won lots of close games, and there is some skill to that. Ultimately, the game will come down to one of two things: will the Irish receivers be too much for the Crimson Tide’s secondary, or will Bama’s offensive line gradually take over in the middle of the third quarter? The result of the game will hinge on either contingency.
College Football Week 14 Awards December 3, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: ACC, Alabama, Arkansas State, Army, B1G, Baylor, Big 10, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Bo Pelini, championship, Charlie Strong, Charlie Weis, college, Florida State, football, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Gus Malzahn, Kansas, Kyle Flood, Louisville, Mack Brown, Mark Richt, Navy, NCAA, Nebraska, New Mexico State, Nicholls, Nick Saban, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Pac-12, Rutgers, SEC, South Alabama, South Florida, Stanford, Texas, Texas State, UCLA, West Virginia, Wisconsin
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(Note: All rankings are week 14 AP polls unless otherwise noted.)
COACHES
Wish I were him: Nick Saban, Alabama
Glad I’m not him: Mark Richt, Georgia
Lucky guy: Charlie Strong, Louisville
Poor guy: Kyle Flood, Rutgers
Desperately seeking a clue: Charlie Weis, Kansas
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Gus Malzahn, Arkansas State
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Bo Pelini, Nebraska
Desperately seeking … anything: Mack Brown, Texas
TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Oregon State (beat Nicholls 77-3)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Stanford (beat UCLA 27-24 in the Pac-12 championship)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Kansas (lost to West Virginia 59-10)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Georgia Tech (lost to Florida State in the ACC championship)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Texas State (beat New Mexico State 66-28)
Dang, they’re good: Alabama
Dang, they’re bad: South Alabama
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Nebraska
Did the season start? Rutgers
Can the season end? South Florida
Can the season never end? Wisconsin
GAMES
Play this again: No. 2 Alabama 32, No. 3 Georgia 28
Never play this again: No. 15 Oregon State 77, Nicholls 3
What? No. 8 Stanford 27, No. 16 UCLA 24
Huh? Louisville 20, Rutgers 17
Are you kidding me? No. 21 Northern Illinois 44, No. 17 Kent State 37
Oh – my – God: Wisconsin 70, No. 12 Nebraska 31
Told you so: Baylor 41, Oklahoma State 34
NEXT WEEK
Only one regular season game is to be played next week, which is the annual Army-Navy game: a cherished American tradition. Go Armed Forces – God bless our troops!
Teams that hit the wall November 29, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: 'Canes, ACC, Alabama, Arkansas, Austin, Ball State, Baylor, BCS, Belk Bowl, Big 12, Big East, Big XII, Bobcats, Bowl, Bowling Green, Bulldogs, Butch Jones, Cardinals, Charlie Strong, Cincinnati, Clemson, college, Dan Mullen, Dana Holgorsen, Duke, Egg Bowl, Florida State, football, Frank Solich, game, Hurricanes, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Kent State, Longhorns, Louisville, LSU, MAC, Miami, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Mountaineers, MSU, NCAA, North Carolina, Ohio U, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Pittsburgh, Rebels, Rutgers, Scarlet Knights, SEC, Southern Miss, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, U of L, USF, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, WVU, Yeoman
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Ohio U: The Bobcats were off to a great start under Frank Solich. They won seven consecutive games, and were even ranked No. 24 going into the Miami (Ohio) game on Oct. 27. After that game, they were undefeated no more. The team lost the next four of five games, including their last one to currently No. 18 Kent State. That loss was understandable, even excusable. Losing to Ball State the previous week? Less understood, even less excusable. But losing to Bowling Green? No excuse at all. Perhaps the Bobcats just ran out of energy, which is one form of hitting the proverbial wall.
Correction: A well-informed, experienced observer brought something else to my attention regarding Ohio U. The biggest reason they hit the proverbial wall was injuries, especially injuries to their offensive line. By season’s end, they were playing third-string linemen without any subs — brutal! Upon further review, that might explain their loss to Bowling Green after all!
Mississippi State: Poor MSU (the Magnolia State MSU, not the Great Lakes State MSU). They try so hard, but they try to excel in the most brutal of all college football neighborhoods. Dan Mullen has done the Yeoman’s work making the Bulldogs more than respectable, and making their fan base believe in the team’s potential. Seven consecutive games, seven consecutive wins: so far, so good. Then came the game at Alabama: automatic loss. Fair enough. Still ranked No. 16, they were to play Texas A&M at home. That turned out not so well, either. The next game was at LSU; care to guess how that turned out? The thing was, after the big win over Arkansas (45-14), one would think that the worst was behind them. After all, in the Egg Bowl (their traditional rivalry game against Mississippi), they were favored. Ole Miss is mediocre, and Mississippi State has had, all things considered, a great season. But then they inexplicably lost to the Rebels 41-24. What gives? They obviously hit the wall, but how? Was it loss of energy, in clear case of Ohio U, or was it just the more brutal part of their schedule? The latter cannot explain things alone, since, hello, they lost to Ole Miss, and though the Rebels have improved, they have not improved that much. The answer might therefore be, a little of both. Let us hope Dan Mullen can allow for some of the energy in the team to recover for the bowl game.
West Virginia: The Mountaineers were flying high after their big debut in the Big XII, beating Baylor at home in an offensive explosion for the ages, 70-63. The following week, they journeyed to Austin to take on then-No. 11 Texas, where they beat the host Longhorns 48-45. It went downhill for five straight weeks after that, with consecutive losses to Texas Tech (49-14), Kansas State (55-14), TCU (39-38), Oklahoma State (55-34), and Oklahoma (50-49). Welcome to the Big XII, Dana Holgorsen. The obvious wall WVU hit was tough schedule, plain and simple. That said, five tough losses obviously took something out of the Mountaineers as well, since they had to struggle to beat Iowa State this past weekend. Whether they have recovered any energy at all will be demonstrated when they play Kansas this upcoming week for what should be a fairly easy clean-up win.
Louisville: So much for running the table for Louisville after losing to Syracuse 45-17 on the road for their tenth game. To be sure, most of their wins up to that point were a little more than close for comfort, such as beating North Carolina only 39-34, beating Southern Miss 21-17 (the rain notwithstanding), or beating awful South Florida only 27-25. With such a pattern of wins, one would think an ugly loss would be inevitable, if only to get it out of their system. Sadly, whatever ailed the Cardinals in Syracuse did not yet pass, for the following game, they coughed up another loss at home to Connecticut in the third overtime. Worse yet, they only have until this Thursday to bounce back on the road against Rutgers in order to win a BCS bowl berth. The Scarlet Knights lost badly that same day to Pittsburgh, so both teams are in a must-win situation. But with the recent pattern of play, the concern remains that U of L might have lost their energy. Thus, the upcoming proposition is dicey at best. Charlie Strong might want to go easy on his boys so they can get their energy.
Addendum 12-07-12 — Duke: Part of me says “poor Duke,” while the other part of me says “hey, all things considered, they’re doing pretty well.” But nevertheless, they were flying high during the middle of the season, or high by Duke standards at least! Throught Oct. 6, they were 5-1, with the one loss coming to them on the road against Stanford. Any reasonable person would quickly excuse that! Then the next week, they lossed to Virginia Tech, 41-20. Fair enough. Moreover, credit goes to this team, as the following week, they rebounded to beat North Carolina 33-30. Then came four consecutive losses in their last four regular season games, first to Florida State (48-7; imagine that!), then to Clemson (56-20), then to Georgian Tech (42-24 — keep in mind that the Yellow Jackets run out of the flexbone!), and then lossed a shootout to Miami (52-45). In the first three out of four, they were clearly out-manned. The last loss could be attributed to having too much stuffing beat out of them by the first three of those four teams, hence having nothing left in the tank against the ‘Canes. But at least they got a Belk Bowl berth, and have a decent shot at winning it, too, since Cincinnati’s head coach Butch Jones just took the Tennessee job.
College Football Week 13 Awards November 25, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: Air Force, Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, B1G, BCS, Big 10, Big Ten, Bill Snyder, Boise State, Brian Kelly, Buckeyes, Charlie Strong, Cincinnati, Clemson, college, Columbus, Commodores, Connecticut, crasher, Dana Holgorsen, Dores, Eastern Michigan, Fighting, Florida, Florida State, football, Fresno State, FSU, Gamecocks, Gators, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Iowa, Irish, Jay Cutler, Jimbo Fisher, Joker Phillips, Kansas, Kansas State, Kent State, Kentucky, Kyle Flood, Lane Kiffin, Liberty Bowl, Los Angeles, Louisville, MAC, Mack Brown, Madison, Michigan, Mississippi State, NCAA, Nebraska, Nevada, Nicholls, Noles, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Penn State, Pete Carroll, Pittsburgh, rival, Ron English, Rutgers, Seminoles, South Alabama, South Bend, South Carolina, South Florida, Stanford, Tallahassee, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Tigers, Todd Graham, Trojan, UConn, Urban Meyer, USC, Vanderbilt, Vandy, Washington, Washington State, West Virginia, Will Muschamp, Wisconsin
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(Note: All rankings are current AP [post-week 13, pre-week 14] unless otherwise noted.)
COACHES
Wish I were him: Will Muschamp, Florida
Glad I’m not him: Mack Brown, Texas
Glad it’s finally over: Joker Phillips, Kentucky
Lucky guy: Todd Graham, Arizona State
Poor guy: Charlie Strong, Louisville
Desperately seeking a clue: Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Urban Meyer, Ohio State
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Kyle Flood, Rutgers
Desperately seeking … anything: Ron English, Eastern Michigan
TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Alabama (beat Auburn 49-0)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Nebraska (beat Iowa 13-7)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Georgia Tech (lost to No. 3 Georgia 42-10)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Washington State (beat Washington 31-28, OT)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Ole Miss (beat Mississippi State 41-24)
Dang, they’re good: Stanford
Dang, they’re bad: South Florida
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Arizona (lost to Arizona State 41-34)
Did the season start? Texas
Can the season end? Kansas
Can the season never end? Florida
GAMES
Play this again: No. 12* South Carolina 27, No. 11* Clemson 17 (notwithstanding Baylor 52, Texas Tech 45, OT)
Never play this again: Fresno State 48, Air Force 15
What? TCU 20, No. 15* Texas 13
Huh? UConn 23, No. 20* Louisville 20, 3OT
Are you kidding me? Pittsburgh 27, No. 18* Rutgers 6
Oh – my – God: Ole Miss 41, Mississippi State 24
Told you so: No. 13* Oklahoma 51, No. 21* Oklahoma State 48, OT
*Week 13 AP rankings
NEXT WEEK
Ticket to die for: No. 2 Alabama vs. No .3 Georgia in Atlanta
Best non-Big Six vs. Big Six matchup: (none)
Best non-Big Six matchup: No. 19 Northern Illinois @ No. 18 Kent State (MAC Championship, Friday night)
Upset alert: No. 7 Kansas State @ No. 23 Texas
Must win: Alabama vs. Georgia in the SEC Championship game (notwithstanding Louisville @ Rutgers)
Offensive explosion: Baylor @ Oklahoma State
Defensive struggle: Cincinnati @ UConn
Great game no one is talking about: Louisville @ Rutgers, Thursday
Intriguing coaching matchup: Mack Brown of Texas vs. Bill Snyder of Kansas State
Who’s bringing the body bags? Nicholls @ No. 16 Oregon State
Why are they playing? South Alabama @ Hawaii
Plenty of good seats remaining: New Mexico State @ Texas State
They shoot horses, don’t they? Kansas @ West Virginia
Rivalry Week in Review:
Give Urban Meyer a ton of credit: Ohio State had nothing to play for this year. Nothing. No matter how well they played this regular season, they were ineligible for any sort of bowl game or any other post-season play, not even the Big 10 Conference championship game. That is too bad, because they currently, er, lead the Leaders division of the conference by a virtual mile (two games, to be exact). Moreover, the team they lead is Penn State, who is ineligible for a much longer stretch of time, sadly, and for even more bizarre reasons. The Buckeyes’ current lead in the conference is three games ahead of the actual eligible member of the Leaders division, that being Wisconsin, whom Ohio State defeated in Madison, Wis., in overtime. As stated earlier, the Buckeyes had nothing to play for this year, and as such could have just lied down and given up early on. Yet Coach Meyer has kept his team focused and hungry every week. Best of all, they capped off an undefeated season by beating arch-rival Michigan 26-21. If these shadows remain unchanged, then the future in Columbus, Ohio is very bright indeed.
Yes, Florida won: But give Jimbo Fisher a ton of credit. He has brought Florida State back to near-football factory status, which has, in turn, brought the Sunshine State Rivalry back to prominence, which is good for football. The Seminoles put up on heckuva fight against the Gators in Tallahassee, but in the end, the latter’s defense proved too much for the former, as Florida triumphed in the end, 37-26. Yet to put things in perspective, this “rivalry” had been rather one-sided since 2004, be it in recent wins on the part of the ‘Noles (31-7 in 2010, 21-7 in 2011), or in consecutive wins (the Gators won all matchups with FSU from 2004 to 2009). The level of play, the overall excitement, and reasonably close score indicate that the one-sidedness has come to an end, at least temporarily. Expect this rivalry to retain its regained intensity in the future years to come!
Speaking of Florida, it looks like Muschamp is “the guy” after all. Folks had left him for dead at the end of last year after he went only 7-6 in his first season as head coach of the Gators. Yet this year, he has lost only one game, has just defeated his No. 10-ranked, in-state rival, and his team is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation. The Gators look to be in good hands after all.
Is the USC-Notre Dame rivalry back? Could be. Brian Kelly has put enough pieces together at Notre Dame to make the team recall the physical squads that made the Irish top contenders for years on end. Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin has gradually been putting pieces back together at USC after years of probation. Notre Dame was downright dormant as a former national power for a decade and a half. Meanwhile, USC was severely weakened by scholarship reductions due to probation, which they have now survived, and are looking to get back to where they were under Pete Carroll’s tenure. Going in to the most recent game, this rivalry, like the previous one mentioned, was also one-sided over the past decade. The Trojans won all but one of these games since 2002, and embarrassed the Irish in South Bend last year, 31-17. This year, Notre Dame stepped up and won in Los Angeles, 22-13, against a Trojan team with a back-up redshirt freshman and a team that has yet to find itself in terms of a necessary level of discipline and consistency. Regardless, though, the game was competitive, and we look forward to more of it in the coming years.
Speaking of one-sided rivalries: The South Carolina-Clemson game is one that has overall been in the latter’s favor, as the Tigers led the rivalry 65-41-4. Nevertheless, with the Gamecocks’ recent win, they have now won the last four games between them and the Tigers. This is the first time South Carolina has repeated this streak since from 1951-1954, and it ties the record for their longest win streak against their upstate rival. Moreover, South Carolina has won five out of the last seven of such games.
Is it too early to say that this is the greatest Vanderbilt team of modern times, if not of all time? Don’t laugh. When is the last time you saw the Commodores go 8-4? In recent memory, Vandy teams showed some signs of brilliance (the Jay Cutler-led squads, for example), but even they struggled to win six games, most of the time falling short of that mark. This team not only surpassed that mark for bowl eligibility, it blew passed it completely. Along the way, they blew out Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wake Forest. Not the most impressive opponents, to be sure, but the fact that they were able to hold off a rapidly-improving Ole Miss should count for something. To be sure, they have proven not to be able to handle the true heavyweights of the conference, losing badly to both Georgia (48-3) and Florida (31-17), and lost the season opener at home to South Carolina (17-13). Still, despite these weaknesses, the ‘Dores are bowl eligible for the second season in a row, something unprecedented in the history of the program. If that is not enough, the team reached other key milestones as well. The evidence speaks for itself. That said, if any doubts remain, last year, Vandy went only 6-6 before losing to Cincinnati in the Liberty Bowl. This year, they are a stronger team, and are 8-4; a bowl win should quell any doubt that they are the greatest Commodore squad of modern times, if not since the program’s inception in 1890.
Here’s something to blow you mind: Iowa and Kentucky, both cellar-dwellers in their respective conference divisions, are the only reasons why there is not some undefeated MAC team out there threatening to crash the BCS. Check it out. Iowa beat Northern Illinois by one point in the season opener, and Kentucky beat Kent State 47-14 in week 2. Want to make things even more interesting? Ask yourself the following question: would either of these “Big Six” teams beat any one of those two MAC teams at this stage of the season?
Oh yeah, and Notre Dame will be playing for the national championship for the first time in 24 years. Yay.
Teams that could beat Notre Dame November 22, 2012
Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.Tags: 2012, A&M, Aaron Murray, Aggies, Alabama, Bama, Bayou Bengals, BCS, Bowl, Brian Kelly, Buckeye, Bulldogs, Capital One, Cardinal, college, Cotton, Crimson Tide, defense, Fighting, Florida, football, Gamecocks, Gators, Georgia, Glendale, Independence, Iowa, Irish, Jadeveon Clowney, Jeff Driskel, Johnny Manziel, Kevin Sumlin, LSU, miracle, Mississippi State, NCAA, ND, Nick Saban, Notre Dame, offense, Ohio State, Our Lady, Pasadena, Penn State, Purdue, SEC, South Bend, South Carolina, Stanford, Steve Spurrier, Sugar, Tennessee, Texas, Tigers, UAB, Urban Meyer, Wisconsin
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From the latest edition of Sports Illustrated. The Latin phrase at the top translates to “The Miracle of Our Lady 2012”
In case some dear readers have been hanging out in a cave for an extended period of time, Notre Dame is now the no. 1 college football team in the nation for the first time in 19 years to the month. Given the national following the Fighting Irish have, there has been more than a bit of hoopla over this development. Without going into obscene details, I can see Regis Philbin and other ND-loving celebrities losing control of themselves right about now. But just because the Irish are no. 1 by default, does not mean they are invincible? Of course not. Yes, they are undefeated; yes, they have beaten some decent teams. To be fair, Notre Dame is formidable. Brian Kelly has done an incredible job of bringing in a talented receiving corps for the offense while massively upgrading the team’s talent defensively. Their front five and front seven are both sufficiently physical to compete with anybody. But there are teams out there that would give ND fits, if not ruin their season outright if the two played each other. I therefore submit this list of teams to a candid world:
Practically sure things:
LSU: Without a doubt, LSU would give Notre Dame all it would want and then some. Over the past decade, there is no team that has been known to show up in big games and win them like LSU. Yes, they lost at home to Alabama this year. Yes, they lost the national championship game to Alabama at the end of last season. Yet ought these not to be a strong commentary on the Crimson Tide’s prowess rather then to the Bayou Bengals’ detriment? The Tigers have won two national titles within a decade. Aside from the BCS game this past season, they have won almost all of their bowl games*. Stretch the scale of time back to 15 years, and every time the Irish have played the Tigers in a bowl game (the 1997 Independence Bowl, the 2006-’07 Sugar Bowl), LSU has won both games handily. The odds, talent, and the mindset are all in LSU’s favor. Notre Dame ought to pray that the two teams do not meet anytime soon.
*LSU’s only bowl losses were to a tough Texas team in the 2003 Cotton Bowl, and inexplicable losses in the Capital One Bowl to both Iowa (30-20 on Jan. 1, 2005), and Penn State (19-17 on Jan. 1, 2010).
Stanford: Don’t laugh. Yes, they already lost to Notre Dame this year, but by that same token, let us put things into perspective. A), the game was in South Bend, B) the weather was horrible, C) what did the Cardinal in was two consecutive horrible play calls on the goal line in overtime. Now imagine the two teams playing each other again, this time on a neutral field, and reasonable weather. Stanford has the personnel to fight the Irish effectively on the line on both sides of the ball. They sport a very physical front seven, and their offense is ground-and-pound. This approach was two horribly-called plays shy of working under very adverse circumstances on the road. Imagine how well it would work in, say, Glendale, Ariz., or Pasadena.
Texas A&M: The Aggies have proven that they can move the ball on tough defenses. Quarterback Johnny Manziel has gotten better and better as the season has progressed. They moved the ball effectively on Alabama, after all. Moreover, Coach Kevin Sumlin has proven to be an excellent motivator in getting his men ready for big games. Some of their margins of victory are impressive. For example, they beat a respected Mississippi State squad 38-13, and then turned around the following week and beat then-no. 1 Alabama. What this tells me is that you can count on consistent play from A&M at this stage of the season. That, plus quick defense and superior quarterback play add up to being too much for the Irish to handle.
Ohio State: Yes, Brian Kelly has proven to be one of the best coaches in the college game. But so has Urban Meyer, and his resume of winning big games with more teams, one could argue, trumps Kelly’s. Never count out Meyer in big games. Moreover, once he brings in more of his own style of players, they will execute his spread offense all the more effectively. True, the Buckeyes were playing some teams too closely for comfort earlier in the year. After all, they only scored 29 points on abysmal UAB, of all teams! But lately the offense runs like a well-oiled machine. During their last games, they have averaged scoring 49 points each. Their lower scores during that span were 29 points (where Purdue’s defense actually showed up) and 21 points against Wisconsin’s traditionally stout ‘D.’ Notre Dame has not encountered anything like Ohio State’s offense throughout this memorable season of theirs.
Questionable teams:
Florida: Yes, their defense is practically impregnable. Good luck moving the ball on the Gators. The problem is on the offensive side of the ball. Jeff Driskel is a mediocre quarterback at best, and Notre Dame’s defense will not play dead simply because they are facing such a vaunted program. The game would be very low-scoring, with the outcome depending on how well Driskell executes, which is a crap-shoot.
South Carolina: On paper, this team should be a very formidable foe for the Irish. A strong running game, one of the best QB’s in college football in Connor Shaw, and defense with potential NFL talent, anchored by Jadeveon Clowney. The problem lies in consistency. The Gamecocks blew out a tough Georgia team earlier in the year, only to embarrass themselves at Florida a few weeks later. After that, they played an awful Tennessee much more closely than the game should have been, again, on paper (they won that game only 38-35). The Ol’ Ball Coach triumphing over the hot-headed Irish Coach will depend on the team that gave Georgia its only loss of the year to show up.
Georgia: The Bulldogs have an incredibly talented offense led by experienced, highly-rated quarterback Aaron Murray. On paper, the offense would give Notre Dame’s talented defense all they could handle. Defensively, Georgia sports a typical talented, ultra-quick SEC defense. The problem, like that of South Carolina, is consistency. Yes, they could theoretically take Notre Dame, but it all comes down to which team shows up against them: the team that beat Florida handily on an ostensibly neutral field, or the team that lost badly earlier on to South Carolina?
Alabama: Easily the least-questionable team within this category. The only reason they are in said category as opposed to the above one is that Texas A&M exposed a chink or two in their impressive armor. Their defense is talented, but young, and their offense is not the most imaginative of teams at their level. But let us say that the two – Bama and ND – end up playing each other in the BCS national championship game. Give Nick Saban a month to prepare – a luxury no team has had thus far, to be sure – and he is practically unstoppable. Advantage, Crimson Tide.
If any dear readers think other teams merit being added to the list, I would be more than happy to entertain suggestions! (P.S.: Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!)
intellectualgridiron 