SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF COLLEGE FB WEEK #11

After this past college football weekend there was no change within the top eight Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings. Florida continues to lead fellow unbeatens Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise St. One loss Georgia Tech and two-loss LSU are seventh and eighth, respectively.

As noted here before, despite not posting pinball game-like offensive numbers, the Gators just continue to win. Being the defending national champ and going 10-0 to this point is no small feat. Florida must subscribe to the old mantra made famous by the eccentric owner/general manager of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis. Back in their 60’s & 70’s hay-days--“Just Win Baby” was the battle cry echoed by Davis and others among the Black & Silver. A side note, also forever part of their official logo is the tagline “Commitment to Excellence.” Unfortunately, the Raiders have not fulfilled that commitment in recent years.

SIGHTS It was great to see the Stanford Cardinal continue their magical ascent (see last week’s posting below) literally bowling over USC, 55-21 in the LA Coliseum. In doing so, Stanford scored the most points EVER recorded against a Trojan team. The Cardinal has come out of no-where to achieve a #14 BCS ranking. But, Oregon, who has two losses and was a victim of the Cardinal just a week ago, is ranked #11...make sense? Uh, no.

SIGHTS Purple-clad TCU Horned Frogs faithful armed with one of those long telephone pole-like timbers we used to see in the ancient history movies, as they storm the door to the BCS castle. The Horny Toads dismantled their nearest competition, the Utah Utes 55-28, and made them look more like "the two Utes" from the movie, "My Cousin Vinnie". TCU is doing all they can to impress voters and overcome their non-BCS conference handicap.

SOUNDS A loud collective, “Aw, darn it”, from the salt of the earth Iowa fans. Their magical quest for a Big Ten title was still alive late in their game at Ohio State’s famous “Horse Shoe.” The Hawkeyes had already written multiple feel-good chapters in their nine-win season heading into Columbus. Now, with their starting quarterback sidelined with an injury, and a red-shirt freshman from Radar O’Reilly’s fictitious hometown of Keokuk, Iowa at the helm, Iowa trailed the Buckeyes by seven in the waning minutes. Then Lady Luck made another appearance. On their game-tying drive James Vandenberg, the rookie signal-caller, threw a screen pass right into the hands of a Buckeye linebacker who promptly scooted 20+ yards for what looked like the deal-sealer. But, an off-sides penalty against OSU negated the play. Fast forward just a few plays in the same drive—Vandenberg throws a pass intended for star tight end Tony Moeaki deep along the right sideline. Ohio State’s cornerback makes a perfect play defending, goes up to catch the ball, and the gift-wrapped deflection falls into the welcome hands of Moeaki for a startling big play. Iowa, by virtue of these two breaks, goes on to tie the score, only to lose a heart-breaker in overtime. Whew, and we thought having to block two consecutive field goal attempts to beat D-I-AA Northern Iowa was lucky. This one would have topped that.

SOUNDS The grinding process of our brains. Just like the thought process that tells us there is not a truly dominant football team this year, the same is true for the Heisman Trophy race. The early front-runners—QBs Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy are still alive. Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford has been driven to the sidelines with upcoming shoulder surgery. Alabama’s RB Mark Ingram began making a move in October and lately Clemson’s talented C.J. Spiller, who has caused a few opponents’ hearts to skip a beat with his big play ability as a runner and return man, is making a recent charge. Houston QB Case Keenum is putting up ridiculous numbers, but his Cougars have been upset twice—by UTEP and UCF. It’s hard to get enough Heisman votes losing to those schools. Then we have the surging Toby Gerhart, face of the Stanford power running game, who has helped lift the Cardinal onto the national stage.

I can’t honestly make a decision until all regular season games are completed. In recent years, because of wide-open passing attacks and spread offenses that allow the QB to produce eye-popping numbers, it has become a quarterback-dominated award. On some level I would like to see another position get it, but only if deserving, of course. Seeing incredible offensive production numbers by QBs has become almost all too common. I get the same feeling as when watching MLB’s Home Run Derby. Maybe you are like me in finding yourself ooing and ahhing for the first few long blasts, then after a while it’s a little more ho-hum. It’s the same thing with routine QB total yardage numbers.

IN OTHER SPORTING NEWS—It’s becoming increasingly clear that some of our talking heads on football broadcasts, especially a few of the “analysts”, are wannabees. Wannabee what you ask? I am not sure, perhaps corporate execs. Over this past weekend I heard three different broadcasters refer to a certain player’s “skill set.” Wait a minute, are we talking about a football player or about the next administrative assistant you need to hire? There’s no need to bring lingo better suited for a Fortune 500 company’s Human Resources department into football. The old coaching acronym—KISS—Keep It Simple Stupid—applies here. Let’s not try to be something we are not.

Lastly, has anyone noticed the terrible hair color/dye job Pat Sajak is sporting on Wheel of Fortune? Come on, keep it real, Pat.