Bowl Wrap Up

A couple thoughts after a bowl season longer than a documentary about a South American socialitst rebel.

40 days between games for the national title participants is far too many: This is a trend that seems to get worse every year and I wouldn't be surprised if the title game in a couple years is played on President's Day or the Monday before the NCAA tourney, but no year has displayed the flaws in this scheduling more than this year. The layoff caused two offensive teams to lose all their rhythm and turned the game into a mistake filled contest masquerading as a defensive struggle. Though the game came down to the final play it was far from good football or representative of Auburn or Oregon's teams this year. I am convinced this game would have been a highly entertaining shootout if played in December, and more importantly would have been a better showcase of the two team's greatest strength, their offenses, which was the reason both teams were undefeated. Both quarterbacks were Carson Palmer like bad, and Auburn's victory was due to their depth of athletes on both sides of the ball, a common factor in the last 5 BCS champions, all from the SEC.

Speaking of quarterbacks, if you are a NFL team in need of a quarterback you might want to trade out of this year's draft. Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton looked like a bigger version of Troy Smith despite winning on Monday; while top prospects Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Mallett, and Jake Locker all finished their college careers with games that will keep Jimmy Clausen and Alex Smith under center next year. Newton has tremendous upside, but Oregon showed that he will take developing, once they took away his running lanes he was unable to read the coverage and showed the inability to protect the football. Mallett and Gabbert both have NFL arms and bodies, but showed that they have the Brett Favre like trait of throwing critically unexplainable interceptions. Mallett's failure to read a zone drop resulted in a game ending interception to a defensive lineman, but it was still better than the worst interception of bowl season, which would be Gabbert's across his body throw on the other side of the 50 which was returned for the game winning score in a 27-24 Mizzou loss. Jake Locker went from #1 pick overall to a 2nd to 3rd round prospect in his senior season that ended after a bowl win where he completed 0 passes in the first half.

You read that correctly, Washington and Jake Locker won a bowl game where he completed 0 first half passes. More unbelievably it was against a Nebraska team they lost to at home by 38 in the regular season. This makes Nebraska the easy choice for the biggest no-show of this year's bowl season. Motivation was obviously a big factor in this game for Nebraska, but the inability to run the football or Taylor Martinez to make a play have to be huge concerns for Nebraska this off-season. Taylor Martinez looked as magical as the "Magic Hour" and has looked as capable of leading a division 1 offense as Magic Johnson did of hosting a talk show. It looked as if Bo Pelini had Nebraska back as a national power, but a New York Giant end of the season has Nebraska thankful they will be entering the not-so Big 10 next year.

After this bowl season the Big 10 division names should be changed to Cupcakes and Pushovers. Only the inability of Arkansas to pick up a blocked punt for a sure TD kept the Big 10 from going 0-6 in meaningful bowls this year. With 5 teams playing in 6 New Year's Day games, losing all five and being uncompetitive in three is as revealing as a JWOW dress. No game showed the talent disparity more than Bama's 49-7 beating of conference co-champs Michigan State. MSU looked to be in slow motion and it is evident that their 10-1 regular season record was due to the weak competition of the conference. After the Capital One bowl, you have to wonder if MSU would have finished bowl eligible in the SEC West.

Rich Rod was lucky to get a plane ride home after the Gator Bowl. Michigan had to fire coach Rich Rod; Miss State's 52-14 beating over Michigan showed how little progress Michigan has made this year. The defense needs an entire overhaul and the offense continues to make drive and game killing mistakes, but Rich Rod breaking down during the team banquet while playing Josh Groban music shows that he was heading into Charlie Sheen like crazy territory. A change was a must for Michigan and Rich Rod's off the field antics are a clear sign that he needed or wanted some time away.

Wisconsin was the Big 10's most competitive team New Year's Day and their rose bowl matchup against TCU might have been the best game of the bowl season. This game showed why a playoff system is so appealing, with Wiscy pounding the ball on the ground vs. TCU's gritty defense and Andy Dalton making big plays. It looked like everyone was going to win with an OT game until Wiscy coach Brett Bielema made the worst coaching decision of the bowl season. Afer wearing down the undersized TCU defense, Wiscy scored to pull within 2 points with under 2 minutes to play, and a playoff looked like a sure bet. Instead of relying on one of the most prolific rushing attacks in recent memory, Wiscy went to a shotgun 4 WR set and promptly had the game tying pass knocked down. As they lined up in this formation, I think I heard half of the stadium and the entire state of Wisconsin screaming NO!

No game could match the UNC/Tennessee game for overall poor coaching that led to the most incredible finish of the bowl season. When Tennessee scored late to lead 20-17, and then promptly missed the extra point, you knew that would be a factor. With under 2 minutes to play UT pinned UNC inside their ten yard line. UNC was able to move the ball inside UT territory thanks to 3 (yep 3) personal foul penalties on Tennessee's defense. Then UNC coach Butch Davis tried to let Derek Dooley off the hook by running the ball in the middle of the field with no timeouts. The clock looked to expire as UNC was unable to clock the ball, and the coaches even shook hands, but after a review the refs put 1 second back on the clock allowing UNC to kick a game tying FG and win it in OT. After regulation was the perfect opportunity to stop the game and not allow OT as both teams and coaches deserved to lose this game.

As for officials, only the Big 10 could send officials to the Cuse/KSU game that would call the worst excessive celebration call in the history of sport and in turn hand the game to Cuse. I thought playing in Yankee stadium would be a benefit for Cuse, but I didn't think it would lead to the refs taking a 50/50 two point conversion attempt and turning it into a no chance attempt from the 18. In the process the refs took the spotlight off KSU coach Bill Snyder and his awful fake FG call that put his team behind in the first place. I guess it could have been worse for Snyder, KSU could have hired his replacement already like WVU did to Bill Stewart. WVU played like a team with 0 or two head coaches in their bowl game and showed the start of what looks to be quite a year in Morgantown. Can't you just see the Phins pulling a move like this by hiring Tony Sparano's replacement this year and putting them together on the same staff?

My final thoughts on the college football season are going to end on a positive note, with UCF beating Georgia in the most under the radar bowl win of the season. The game was played New Year's Eve afternoon in Memphis, which is a recipe for an under the radar game. Despite having their QB injured during the game, UCF won the game 10-6 and this win validated one of the best defenses in the country.