Write On Sports LLC - "Football Week 19" by Tom Zuck

Football Week 19

2008-01-15 22:58:00 | By: Tom Zuck

So last week right before the LSU-Ohio State BCS Championship game I had to go to Fox Chapel H.S. to cover the girl's basketball game against Oakland Catholic; it was a pretty decent game, but I was distracted as the game wore on.

I wanted to be home to watch the LSU game, and what I thought would be another SEC championship. I made it home after the Fox Chapel coach seemed to spend way too much time talking to his team after the game.

I asked the folks at Fox Chapel where former Pitt assistant and current FCHS head football coach Bryan Deal was but they all said he was home singing the Ohio State fight song. Bryan was a very successful coach in Ohio before he came to Pitt. And I think he even won a state championship in Ohio, not a bad thing! Plus, he's an all-around good guy.

Right before I left the high school one of the assistants from Oakland Catholic gave me an update, 10-0, Ohio State. To be honest I was dreading a Big Televen victory although many times I have said that if I had to pick a Big Televen team it would be the Buckeyes. But, since I don't have to, I was rooting for the Tigers.

I made it home when the score was tied at 10 and LSU was just about to score again. So I guess I saw most of the good stuff. I did think a healthy LSU was a better team than Ohio State so the end result made me happy.

Here are the final bowl records for each conference.

Conference records in bowl games

Southeastern (9) 7-2
Big 12 (8) 5-3
Mountain West (5) 4-1
Pacific 10 (6) 4-2
Big East (5) 3-2
Big Ten (8) 3-5
Conference USA (6) 2-4
Atlantic Coast (8) 2-6
Sun Belt (1) 1-0
Western Athletic (4) 1-3
Independent (1) 0-1
Mid-American (3) 0-3

Through the bowls my record was 21-11. The Navy and Boise State games are still bugging me. Then there was West Virginia's HUGE win over Oklahoma. Nobody saw that coming but that was a great job by the Mountaineers. I must confess that by the end of the first quarter I was rooting for WVU.

So my combined record after the regular season and the bowls was a not too bad 174-75. I will take that. A few of you have asked why I don't pick against the spread. Well, I don't gamble so I never look at that stuff. Heck, I really don't know where to find the spreads. I assume some Las Vegas site would have them. But the thing is they don't actually give a team points on the scoreboard.

It's like in golf. I don't want a handicap. If I want to play with the good players I have to practice and get better myself. All of these college teams practice the same amount of hours each season and if Indiana wants to beat Michigan then they have to spend more time lifting, watching film and concentrating in practice. It's that simple.

But now it is time for the end of the bowl season wrap-up. This will be the final mail concerning the 2007 season. We will have one right after National Letter of Intent Day when we take a look at the coolest names of the 2008 recruiting classes.

So here are the Thumbs Up for the 2007-08 Bowl Season

Tony Temple, RB Missouri
I am not sure whether or not Temple's game was because Arkansas just didn't care or that he was just that good. But Temple had one of the greatest games I have ever seen a back deliver; 4 TDs on 24 carries with 281 yards. He overshadowed D-Mac and now it looks like D-Mac is headed to the NFL.

West Virginia and new Head Coach Bill Stewart
The Mountaineers could have just mailed this one in but they didn't. WVU embarrassed the "mighty" Sooners on both sides of the ball. On offense the Sooners were called for a number of holding penalties and truth is it could have been at least double that number. On offense WVU passed at will as well. The only downside was that if I was a WVU fan I would have been wondering where that offensive creativity was during the season, especially against Pitt. And, if it is true that former head coach Rich Fraudriguez squashed the creativity of offensive coach Calvin Magee during the season why would he follow him to Michigan. It doesn't add up to me.

Chris Johnson, RB East Carolina
The East Carolina running back was all over the place and he was the difference in the win over Boise State, even though his heroics were nearly wiped out by a late fumble. Johnson accounted for 408 yards; 223 on the ground, 153 on kick returns and 32 yards in receptions.

Texas Offense
How long have we said Texas needs to get back to running the ball first? A LOT. The Longhorns rushed for 300 yards against Arizona State and won big. Now I guess it's up to former Auburn DC Will Muschamp to fix the Texas defense.

LSU Tigers
The Tigers proved that a two-loss team could win a BCS title. LSU was overpowering. Geaux Tigers.

Kansas Jayhawks
The Jayhawks proved that they belonged in the top-10 with a beating of Virginia Tech. It wasn't a butt kicking but it was the biggest win I can remember for a Kansas team, in my lifetime.

Ray Rice, RB Rutgers
Rice delivered another great effort with 280 yards. That put him over 2,000 for the season. Rice is extremely durable and with his compact size he is like a bowling ball. He should make some NFL: team happy.

Jonathon Stewart, RB Oregon
Once Oregon QB Dennis Dixon was gone the offense relied even more on Stewart who really had a great one against South Florida. Stewart carried 23 times for 253 yards as the Ducks put a nice end to a very difficult season.

Penn State
The Nittany Lions did a really nice job against a decent Texas A&M team. But as I watched I couldn't help but think that this season could have been so much more if Joe Paterno had used backup QB Daryll Clark more often. Do you all remember Anthony Morelli attempting to run against Illinois; and then fumbling? How about Clark's six carries for 53 yards and a score against A&M? Penn State fans have to be asking a big, "what if?"

Michigan Wolverines
With the coach on the way out and the new guy on the sideline this was an awkward situation. But Michigan came out and played some serious football against a highly ranked team. The Wolverines attacked on offense and especially on defense. The defense was more impressive to me. But once again, I would be asking where that aggression was during the season? Now before someone gets too excited about the offense please remember that the Florida defense was the perhaps the WORST in the SEC. It gave up an average of 250 yards a game through the air. But still, it was a good win for UM in a tough situation.

*Michigan almost lost its Thumbs Up due to a new course at what is supposed to be one of America's top universities. Section Two of English 317 at UM is a course entitled "How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation". It's worth three credits. Go Big Blue; or is that Go Big Blew?

Auburn Tigers
The Auburn defense was its normal self, tenacious and fast; but the thumbs up goes to the offensive players and the staff who all worked together to install a new offense in just 10 days under new OC Tony Franklin. No matter who you are that's pretty darn good.

USC
The Trojans looked pretty darn good. They are not as vertical as they have been in the past but they still beat up on a pretty good Illinois squad. The USC defense was outstanding. The Trojans may have some storms on the horizon when some books are published but for now they deserve a big thumbs up.

Georgia
The Bulldogs were in a tough situation because if they struggled, yet beat, a good Hawaii team people would say they were overrated. Lose and as Vicki Lawrence sang some 35 years ago the lights may have gone out in Georgia. The Bulldogs were led by Marcus Howard who helped the Georgia defense brutalize Hawaii's offense. Howard had three sacks, forced two fumbles, recovered one for a score and tipped a pass that was intercepted.

The SEC: Thumbs Up
A 7-2 record in bowl games put to rest the arguments for another season. The conference now has four BCS titles and look for plenty of SEC teams to be in the BCS chase next season as well.

Now there were some pretty poor performances during bowl season as well. Some were from coaches and some were by teams

Thumbs Down

Ohio State Cheerleaders
How many times have we heard the Ohio State fans lead the cheer..O.H...I.O? I'd say thousands. But as the team came out for the second half against LSU here is what it looked like..Game over.

Florida
Not the Gators, how about the ENTIRE STATE. Florida, Florida State, South Florida and Central Florida all lost their bowl games, and not in very spectacular fashion either. None of the Florida teams looked good. The Gators couldn't stop Michigan, USF can't stop turning the ball over, Florida St. is a joke and UCF did nothing with one of the nation's top running backs. AND, Miami, the Big Bad Wolf, didn't even make it to a bowl.

Texas A&M
Yeah, the Aggies had an interim, since hired, head coach but what the heck was Mike Sherman thinking? The Aggies drove from their own one to the Penn State two but when the time came he kept 295-pound Jorvorski Lane on the bench. A guy who has scored 44 TDs in his career was on the bench and A&M tried to run wide against a Penn State defense that is just too active. It was a terribly Dumb Call, to say the least.

Florida Gators
How long will it take for Boy Genius Urban Meyer to get a tailback? Timmy Tebow is awesome. But he is really a fullback playing quarterback. That is one of the reasons the Michigan defense did not have as much trouble as they did against Oregon or Appalachian State. Tebow doesn't break the big runs. There is no way Tebow can survive the beating he took this season and that is why you have all read that Meyer plans to use a two QB offense next season.

Oklahoma
The Sooners looked slow and dumb against WVU. How did they look dumb? Try 13 penalties. Bobby Stoops isn't looking like such a genius these days.

Virginia Tech
The Hokies won the ACC this season, but so what. Tech doesn't have an offense and in the game with Kansas they didn't have much offensive coaching either. The Hokies had one drive where they actually attempted to pound the Jayhawks. It worked and they scored a touchdown. After that they kept trying to force the passing game. It didn't work. Tech needs to get back to the two-back system and power football.

The ACC
The conference that was supposed to be a powerhouse was 2-6 in bowl games. Wake Forest and Boston College carried the torch. The rest need to do more.

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