BOWL WRAP-UP
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE BOWL SEASON-
Here I go on Ricky Williams again, but in an age when most pro athletes would desert their teammates if some other team offered them an extra ham sandwich, how cool was it to see him - maybe the greatest college runner ever - standing with his teammates after the Cotton Bowl for the traditional playing and singing of "The Eyes of Texas?"
With all the hoopla and garbage about the "need for a playoff," I'd like the powers-that-be to consider this:
WE DON'T NEED A PLAYOFF!
(1) Football is NOT basketball. Besides, the NCAA basketball tournament - March Madness - does NOT determine a national champion. It determines a Tournament Champion. Period. That's all a single-elimination tournament can do.
(2) What do Idaho, Marshall, TCU, Ole Miss and Purdue all have in common? They all won bowl games and went home happy, getting ready for the 1999 season with wins under their belts. The bowl games - and the chance to end the season winners - were their rewards. With any of the proposed playoff systems, they likely would not have been selected; if they had been selected, they almost certainly would have been beaten in the next round or two - sending them home with the bitter taste of defeat. Come to think of it, with a pure playoff all but one of the very good teams will go home losers.
(3) Who has the money to go to more than one bowl game? I saw 30,000 Kansas State fans in San Antonio; my son in LA told me the place was crawling with Wisconsin fans. A sixteen-team tournament could require fans to attend as many as 4 games. Which one do you go to? The first-round game, which certainly won't be surrounded by the hoopla of a present-day bowl game? Or do you save your money to go to the final game - and then your guys don't make it? We'll wind up with a final game crowd just like the Super Bowl crowd - a lot of fat cats with a slick, new place to do business, who don't really a have a serious rooting interest in either team.
(4) What if you go to the first-round game, your team wins, and you decide to go to next week's game? Ever tried to buy airline tickets on short notice?
(5) The current BCS nonsense devalues all the bowls other than the Fiesta. Q. Who says Florida State has any more right playing Tennessee than Ohio State, or Wisconsin, or Arizona, or Tulane, etc., etc.? A. The same stupid polls it was supposed to rescue us from, now augmented by an equally stupid pair of computer ratings.
(6) The only sensible way to satisfy those media people who still insist on a winner-take-all system is to scrap the BCS, return to the old bowl system, and after the bowls, try to select four representative teams to take part in a simple 2-week playoff.
SPEAKING OF PLAYOFFS, HERE IS WHERE WE'RE HEADED IF WE GO DOWN THAT ROAD---
THE TOSTITOS FIESTA OVER-HYPED, ANTI-CLIMACTIC,
COULDN'T-POSSIBLY-DELIVER-WHAT-IT-PROMISED BOWL
It was the game that was going to have everything. It turned out to be a game that had very little. It did turn out to be a reasonable, if cheap, imitation of a Super Bowl, because it wasn't very exciting and it wasn't very well played. But it couldn't possibly have been a national college championship game, because it didn't match the nation's two best teams. One, maybe. But definitely not two.
Right from the start, we knew we were in trouble with the coin toss.
It was no ordinary coin, the referee was careful to point out, but a very special one. I wasn't able to tell for sure, but I think he said something about heads being the Tostitos and tails the guacamole dip. Or maybe it was the other way around. (Do you think maybe he was paid to say this?) Anyhow, before any of us had time to figure that out, he tossed the coin in the air and when it landed he said it came up guacamole - er, tails. But who besides the referee could be sure? If they were like me, none of the players had yet memorized which was which.
Florida State won the toss and chose to kick off, but, perhaps feeling a bit of remorse at the hastiness of his chips-and-dip-means-heads-and-tails explanation, the referee asked the Seminole captains if they wouldn't like to reconsider ("Are you sure you want to kick off? Really sure? Don't you really mean, uh, 'defer?'"). I began to wonder if next he might give Tennessee their choice of "taking" the first Florida State kickoff or making the Seminoles kick over, like we used to do as kids in the streets.
The game did have a few high points, especially if you wore Orange. But Florida State, supposedly running for a national championship, couldn't even run for as many yards (108) as it had in penalties (110). Coach Bobby Bowden said his team was stale, but dadgummit, you'd have thought in the six weeks they had to get ready that they'd have learned what that goldurn snap count was for.
They were not the usual Florida State in the air, either, completing 9 of 22 for 145 yards, a puny 6.6 yards per attempt. Pass protection often seemed to be a new and difficult concept for the FSU offensive linemen to grasp.
To their credit, although the Seminoles fumbled four times, they only lost one of them. But they did throw two costly interceptions, the first returned for a Tennessee touchdown, the second coming with just over a minute to play as the Seminoles, with two time outs remaining, threw deep, into the waiting Tennessee coverage.
NOTE TO JEFF SAGARIN AND THE COMPUTER GENIUSES AT THE SEATTLE TIMES: Gotta get new computers. The ones you got put a team with no running game and a third-string quarterback in the "national championship" game. NOTE TO HIGH SCHOOL COACHES WHO STAKE EVERYTHING ON THE PASSING GAME: Even Florida State, with six weeks to get a third-string quarterback ready, goes limp on offense when its first two QB's go down.
Florida State was no title contender in the special teams area, either, with two roughing ("running into") the kicker penalties, a blocked extra point, and a botched onside kick attempt by a kicker who couldn't get out of the way of the same ball that he had just kicked (and then threw a sideline tantrum when the officials had the nerve to tell him so).
Tennessee played sloppily, too, but fortunately for the BCS, did manage to win, and on the strength of its unbeaten record can justify its selection as the national champion. But all that this game really proved was that Tennessee was better than Florida State. So what? So, at least last night, were Air Force, Arizona, Ohio State, Tulane and Wisconsin. Maybe even Miami of Ohio, Marshall, and a few of the teams with two losses.
So what did the BCS accomplish, other than giving us Super Bowl Lite, while cheapening the other bowls? Was anything settled that couldn't have been settled by a Tennessee win in the Sugar Bowl, where everyone knows SEC champs belong?
The tragedy for the TV and marketing guys is that all the bozos who only watch pro football turned on their sets expecting to see a Monday night pro game and saw instead a college game. And an ugly one at that - even by pro standards. And now that they've actually seen a college game, they think that college football sucks, and they won't be back. I say good riddance. Let 'em listen to Madden and eat Tostitos.
Speaking of which, the night was almost saved, for me, by the comical sight of the corporate suit trying to shove an open bag of Tostitos at Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer during the post-game trophy presentation. I mean, I've grown used to seeing the winner of the Indy 500 chugging his bottle of milk after the race. But Tostitos? After a football game? Where was the dip?
COACH WYATT'S BOWL COACH OF THE YEAR RANKINGS
GUARANTEED TOTALLY NON-SCIENTIFIC
NO COMPUTERS WERE USED IN COMPILING THIS RANKING
(NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED, EITHER)
1. JOE PATERNO, PENN STATE (beat Kentucky) He's old and he's from Pennsylvania - like me. Plus, I always enjoy watching one of these "grass basketball" teams get stuffed. Especially by a head coach with 33 years at the same place and a staff averaging 20 years per man at Penn State.
2. DENNIS FRANCHIONE, TCU (beat USC) This guy can coach. Stuck it to the Trojans. Very classy of the Men of Troy to walk off afterwards without congratulating the Frogs.
3. JOE TILLER, PURDUE (Beat Kansas State) I know, I know. All they do is throw. But they started the Big Ten on its way to a 5-0 bowl finish, and they did it with Drew Brees, a Texas kid that the Texas schools all passed on. And the Boilers did play a little bit of defense against K-State, too.
4. DICK TOMEY, ARIZONA (Beat Nebraska) Wildcats got over their disappointment at not going to the Rose Bowl, won their 12th game. Coach Tomey always seemed to know which of his two gifted QB's to go with. Lost only to UCLA - why is that more damaging than Florida State's loss to N.C. State?
5. FISHER DE BERRY, AIR FORCE (Beat Washington) Two weeks ago, Huskies' Coach Jim Lambright's job seemed safe. After watching the Coach DeBerry's Falcons abuse Washington, wealthy UW boosters changed their mind and demanded a change. Hey, the Falcons lost only once.
6. BARRY ALVAREZ, WISCONSIN (Beat UCLA) Did as good a job as anybody did on UCLA's offense all year, and mixed it up beautifully on offense. Did it with mostly Wisconsin kids, too - although he did persuade Ron Dayne, a New Jersey kid, to stick around for another year. Oh, yes - why do the Badgers (11-1) have to bow to Florida State (11-1)?
7. CHRIS TORMEY, IDAHO (Beat Southern Mississippi) Q. When is Idaho mentioned in the same breath with Penn State, Texas A & M, Tulane and Alabama? A. When you name the only teams to beat Southern Miss this year.
8. DAVID CUTCLIFFE, OLE MISS (Beat Texas Tech) Coached the Rebels in just this one game, taking over after Tommy Tuberville left for Auburn. Hastily assembled a staff totally unfamiliar with the kids, spent his Christmas in the hospital, rallied himself and his new team andbecame the first Ole Miss coach in 20 years to win his first game.
9. CHRIS SCELFO, TULANE (Beat BYU) Replaced Tommy Bowden and got the Green Wave their unbeaten season and their first bowl win since 1970. They beat everyone on their schedule. Don't they have a claim on the title? At least on a place in the Top Five?
10. FRANK BEAMER, VIRGINIA TECH (Beat Alabama) Back in the Blue Ridge Country, far from any major recruiting area, sharing the state with UVa, this guy has still built a national powerhouse. What Hokie fans ever thought they'd see the day their boys would thump the Crimson Tide? Tip: don't try to punt against them.
11. JOHN COOPER, OHIO STATE (Beat Texas A & M) Under perhaps the most intense pressure of any coach in the country, he did all but one thing he had to do - he even beat Michigan. Why is Ohio State's 4-point loss to Michigan State worse than Florida State's 17-point loss to North Carolina State? Why doesn't Ohio State's 24-14 bowl win over a Texas A & M team at the top of its game count for more than Florida State's 23-14 win in a pre-season game?
12. PHILIP FULMER, TENNESSEE (Beat Florida State) Overcame the graduation of Peyton Manning; lost his offensive coordinator, David Cutcliffe, to Ole Miss after the regular season. Had the good fortune to be matched up against a sub-par Florida State team in the so-called "national championship" game, but give him credit - with a brand-new offensive coordinator and a heck of a pass rush, he got the job done. It wasn't pretty, but how many Super Bowls are?
13. LLOYD CARR, MICHIGAN (Beat Arkansas) Not so much for the bowl win as for rallying his troops after opening the season with two straight losses.
14. MACK BROWN, TEXAS (Beat Mississippi State) After a shaky start, the 'Horns finished looking like a Top Ten club. Earns his way on the list for talking Ricky Williams into staying, then letting the nation see what he could do. Imagine Ricky Williams going to waste at some throw-the-ball-on-every-down program.
15. BOB PRUETT, MARSHALL (Beat Louisville) Just two years out of Division 1-AA, the Herd (21-4 in 1-A) could have beaten lots of the teams in the better-known bowls.
16. GEORGE O'LEARY, GEORGIA TECH (Beat Notre Dame) Followed up a win over Georgia with a big one over the Irish to finish with 10 wins.