Delayed College Football Thoughts

Sorry, loyal readers, but postings are going to be sparse over the next few weeks as I enter finals.  Bear with me please!

This may be short and sweet, but I think important.  To get back to the parity issue in college football this year (as a top 5 team lost to an unranked team for the 12th time this year), I earlier argued that the simple fact that more talent is spread across the country and not focused in the traditional powerhouses is not enough to explain the unusual circumstances of this season.  There is more to a team than the star running back or quarterback (though Oregon is a potential counterargument - who would guess they would implode so fully after losing Dixon?), and powerhouse teams should not lose as often as they have this year.

To use the home team as an example, Texas should have been much better this year.  Ending the regular season with only three losses is lucky, considering all the close games they won against inferior opponents.  They have the talent, the money, and the facilities to be a perennial 10-win team (which they have been for years).  However, you have to wonder why they played so poorly this year.  I posit that they may in fact be a victim of their own past success.  They have recruited some of the top talent in the country out of high school.  But in DI, talent alone can’t win every game.  These talented boys, who were so physically gifted they were able to avoid really learning the game and their position and instead could rely on their speed and strength to run down opponents, have gotten to the big leagues and realized that they aren’t the only talented players on the field.  Suddenly they need to work together, actually play their positions, study game film, prepare for war each week, and come out of the tunnel inspired.  I think UT’s uninspired play this year is exactly what happens when these talented kids get thrown together and aren’t driven by either an inspirational leader (Vince Young) or a maniacal coach (Pete Carroll).  This year UT had neither.  Sadly, I wonder where the leadership is in any of the traditional championship teams this year. 

While the “parity” card made this season intersting, I hope this is not a growing trend in college football.  I love an occasional upset, but if we start devolving the game into leaderless, uninspired play by uber-talented individual players with no emphasis on teamwork, then we might as well be watching basketball.

This week in College Football

News Alert:  Texas Tech knocking off #3 Oklahoma is the eleventh time an unranked team has dropped a top five team this year.  This is the first time in college football history that such a thing has happened so often.  What does it mean? 

The popular answer and buzz word of the day is the newfound “parity” of college football.  Because superstar players in talent positions like quarterback and runningback are more willing to forgo the big-name schools in order to get playing time, the theory goes, talent is spread more evenly across the country enabling less-known schools such as Louisville and Boise State to occassionally compete with the big boys.  And this is true, there are very talented players leading teams like Kentucky and Hawaii, and these talented players can surprise teams and pull off victories.  That is truly the beauty of college football.

However, key players with immense talent do not generally win games on their own.  In fact, the oft-forgotten linemen in the trenches play after play are the real deciding factor in most showdowns.  Offensive linemen that can protect those key talents allow them the chance to shine.  Defensive linemen that can outmaneuver those offensive linemen take away the talented players’ ability to shine.  One side eventually tiring the other is what shifts the critical momentum for the final quarter of play.  And unfortunately the lesser-known schools, for all the talent they may be able to attract, can rarely fill out a line with players big or quick enough to compete with the behemoths the big schools bring in.  This is the heart-breaking reality to bely the parity claim.  Rarely can talent overcome the eventual grind of a bigger, stronger opponent in the long run.

So then where do this year’s uncharacteristic losses come from?  I would say it is a combination of overall underachievement and slightly more even conferences.  The perennial conference kings are playing non-inspired football for whatever reason, meanwhile the other teams in the conferences are hungry and smell blood.  This is where parity in the talent positions can be a factor.  A team like Illinois has enough talent at key positions to drop an unmotivated Ohio State when they want it bad enough and the Buckeyes are looking past them.  But the parity alone is not what won the game for the Illini - OSU had to be willing to give them the win.  Enough of that sermon…

Just when the future was looking brightest for either team, both Oklahoma and Oregon lose their quarterbacks and drop a dangerous road game.  What an interesting karmic coincidence, given these two teams’ history ever since the botched call “cost the Sooners a national championship”.  Oregon can’t forget due to their own self-righteousness, and Oklahoma won’t forget because of the alleged slight they suffered.  Now its as though the college football god just took the ball away from them and said, “now neither of you can play with it.”

Notre Dame finally found someone they could beat, sorry Duke fans, basketball fever is just around the corner.

And finally, my Washington State Cougars blew it again.  They get your hopes up, draw near the bowl eligibility requirement, only to have Brink throw 6 interceptions and an “easy win” away.  Oregon State had only one 2 of the last eleven games played in Pullman.  Way to go Cougs, break my heart again.  There’s always next year…

My College Football Musings for the Week

When Notre Dame began the season 0-4 I was quietly happy to see the only team with the gumption to have an exclusive television contract and their own BCS rule in such embarrassing straights.  At 1-9 (with their only win a larger testament to Karl Dorrell’s ineptitude than their own talent), I am just sad for the struggling Irish.  Which really ticks me off, because they rob me of the guilty pleasure of my hatred for the pompous prima donnas - almost.

The Ohio State drop off seemed inevitable, didn’t it?  No one outside of the Buckeye nation really thought they were the best team in the county, did they?  The Big Ten is pathetically weak this year, so OSU’s record was no indication of their ability.  I am just glad it was Illinois and not Michigan that knocked them off.  The only thing that could have been worse than Ohio State getting drummed in the national championship game again would be Michigan, losers to Appalachian State, in the Rose Bowl.  Luckily we won’t have to suffer through either.

Is Kansas really that good, or is the Big 12 just as bad as usual?  If the Jayhawks can survive the next couple weeks, I think they deserve a shot at the title even if they are not traditional contenders.  That is a big if, but nevertheless, a team from a BCS conference without a loss should be in the championship game over any team with a loss.  Can Kansas hang with an LSU, or Oregon?  I’d say not a chance.  But deserve to be there, I would say absolutely.

And now for the final thought… Last year my friends thought I was crazy to choose Oregon as the next national champion.  Sadly, they did not live up to expectations in 2006.  However, with nearly the same roster they are making a pretty good run at it this year.  To be that close to choosing an outside-odds winner is pretty impressive.  They have to take care of business, but if they do I think I should get props for picking the right team, just the wrong year.  Fellas?…