My career as a college football handicapper looks pretty shaky. With only three games left on the board, I stand at 12-18-1 and am guaranteed a losing record.
Several of the games were complete surprises:
1. Missouri's miserable meltdown against Navy is probably at the top of the list, although, as a long-suffering Tiger fan, I might have expected it.
2. Air Force's annihilation of Houston was a bombshell.
3. SMU's rout of Nevada was unexpected.
4. Although the line was only a point, I really thought Bowling Green would beat favored Idaho.
5. Fresno State's poor showing against Wyoming got things off to a miserable start.
6. Florida's rout of Cincinnati probably shouldn't have come as such a shocker, given the departure of the Bearcat coach and the motivation for Tim Tebow in his final game.
Although I picked Nebraska to beat Arizona, the manner in which the Cornhuskers manhandled the Wildcats was depressingly impressive. Maybe the Bugeaters' Coach Bo Pellini can smile now that his team has reclaimed favored status atop the Big 12 North. The dour Pellini hadn't smiled since Texas kicked a last-second field goal to win the conference championship game. Seriously, did you ever see him smile during all the post-season awards shows he attended with Ndamukong Suh?
Basically, I really missed the strength of the Mountain West and overestimated the Pac 10. I picked against Iowa State out of spite and really just hoped Florida State would stumble in Bobby Bowden's last gasp. He certainly didn't run out of breath in the post-game press conference.
All the coaching drama was hard to figure. Florida's rout of Cincinnati was pretty much unexpected. I thought it possible the Gators, under the shadow of Coach Urban Meyer's off and on retirement announcements, would win a much closer game. Apparently the Bearcats were hit harder than I thought with Brian Kelly's exodus to Notre Dame. The Mike Leach saga seemingly had only minor implications in Texas Tech's narrow win over a Michigan State team racked by disciplinary suspensions.
I 'm 6-5-1 picking underdogs based on the line that came out just after the bowl schedule was announced. The dogs have gone 17-13-1 through the games in the books.
There have been some hugely entertaining games, including the opener that went to overtime. The Outback Bowl between Auburn and Northwestern was rife with turnovers and missed opportunities and ended bizarrely when the Wildcats eschewed a field goal try to tie in overtime. Pittsburgh cost me a pick, narrowly beating North Carolina with a last-minute field goal; and Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions escaped with a 2-point win over LSU in the slop in the Capitol One Bowl. Idaho's miraculous finish against Bowling Green, capped with a 2-point conversion with 4 seconds on the clock had to be one of the most dramatic finishes in bowl history.
A number of great individual performances have been turned in this bowl season. Freddie Barnes, Bowling Green's star wideout, broke all NCAA receiving records in his last college game, the loss to Idaho. Barnes, a Biletnikoff finalist, caught 17 balls for 219 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 34 seconds to play. He finished his career with 155 catches. No one can convince me Notre Dame's Golden Tate deserved the Biletnikoff Award over Barnes.
Navy's junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs had his best day ever, running for 166 yards and three TDs and completing 9 of 14 passes and another TD in the Midshipmen's shellacking of Missouri in the Texas Bowl. While shredding Mizzou's hapless defense, he topped 1,000 yards rushing and passing for the season and set an NCAA single-season record for quarterbacks with 25 rushing touchdowns.
Dexter McCluster, Mississippi's standout running back, saved the Rebels' cause in a 21-7 victory over Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl. The diminutive senior picked up 182 yards and two TD's on 32 carries in a game in which the teams combined for 12 turnovers.
With Texas Tech trailing 31-27 in the fourth quarter of the Alamo Bowl, Interim Coach Ruffin McNeill pulled starting quarterback Taylor Potts and replaced him with Stephen "Sticks" Sheffield who promptly engineered two scoring drives that put Michigan State away. Sheffield had been part of Leach's 2-headed QB rotation early in the year.
Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State's much ballyhooed sophomore quarterback, finally played like he has been expected to and helped the Buckeyes and Coach Jim Tressel shed a 3-year BCS bowl jinx. Playing with a partially torn knee ligament, Pryor threw for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns while keeping Oregon off balance with 72 yards on some timely runs.
Tebow, Florida's main man, saved his best performance for his final college game, an utterly convincing 51-24 pasting of outmanned Cincinnati. After a pedestrian showing in the SEC title game against Alabama and the potential distraction surrounding Meyer's health issues, the 3-time Heisman finalist and 2007 winner hit his first 12 passes and led the Gators to scores on their first five possessions. He threw for a career-high 482 yards and three TDs, with another 51 yards on the ground including a rushing TD. His 533 total yards set a BCS record, eclipsing Vince Young's 467 in Texas' 2007 Rose Bowl over USC. Despite the tiresome and non-stop hype surrounding Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, there may be a case for Tebow as the best college football player ever. He received more Heisman votes than anyone in history and led Florida to two unprecedented 13-game winning seasons and a 22-game win streak that included last year's BCS championship. While it remains to be seen if Tebow can succeed in the NFL, one cannot discount the toughness and leadership he's shown as the signal caller at Florida.
No comments:
Post a Comment