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.

Flash of Personal Revenge While at Roman Colosseum

When I planned a trip to Rome to celebrate my wife's and my 30th wedding anniversary I knew that we would see a week's worth of amazing sites, sculptures, and paintings. As it turned out, it was essentially a fantastic week-long history lesson.

Just like in the old Rocky & Bowinkle show, turning Mr. Peabody's "Wayback Machine" to 1974-75-76, our Iowa Hawkeye football team was subjected to one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules. Our head coach, the late Bob Commings, a former starting guard on the Hawk's 1959 Rose bowl team, dubbed us "The Chosen Children" because of the brutal schedule. In 1974 we played USC, UCLA, and Penn State. All three had legendary great college coaches--John McKay, Terry Donahue, and, of course, Joe Paterno, just a middle-aged guy then. We actually upset UCLA in Iowa City that year, lost in a competitive game to the Nittany Lions, but got whacked in L.A. by the Trojans, 41-3.

USC came to us in 1975, and we hung tough, even had a shot to win before falling 23-16. Then in 1976, after upsetting Penn St. in Beaver Stadium 7-6, we traveled west again only to be throttled again by the Trojans, 55-0. The total score of the two games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was a combined 96-3. USC was "Tailback U." at the time, continuing the incredible tradition started by O.J. Simpson and Mike Garrett just a few years earlier. During this three-year span defenses were trying to find a way to stop Anthony Davis and Ricky Bell, and were having little to no luck. Ask Notre Dame, who saw Davis reach pay-dirt five times in one game against the Irish.

Aside from being embarrassed some 35 years ago, I didn't think that those two visits to the L.A. Coliseum bothered me that much. I do remember the 55-0 shellacking was on my birthday in '76, so not much celebrating on the flight home. But other than that, life went on.

Until I got to Rome.

Unbeknown to me, for the last three and a-half decades there must have been a very slow but steady simmer in the deep recesses of my mind and soul which continued to develop into a violent rolling boil. The end result of me being quietly perturbed for such a long period of my adult life because of the embarrassment suffered at the hands and feet of the USC Trojans, culminated in the complete loss of control during my trip to THE COLOSSEUM--the original structure in Rome which was completed in the year 80 AD under Emperor Titus.

You can see in the action photo above, I have over-taken one of the soldiers who was clothed in an outfit similar to the USC band outside The Colosseum. I was waiting for the crowd to signal either thumbs down or throat slash, just like crowds did in Ancient Roman times, so I could put an end to my personal rage and this soldier's life, too. But, as she has for 30 years, my wife settled my emotions, which allowed me to gather myself and put together a few lucid thoughts. Thus, the life of the solider actor, who poses with tourists from around the globe daily outside what was known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, lives another day to take more photos with more tourists.

In total, 96-3 for two visits to LA's Coliseum...I can still see vivid images of the USC Trojan solider on that big white horse, Traveler, gently galloping around the track in the Coliseum with sword held high. Now in mid-life all I can do to put some of the demons to rest is take this silly picture with a fake Roman solider, in a Trojan look-alike suit, and try to laugh it off.