October
6, 2003
Thursday
night's near disaster for Miami was another heartbreaker for
West Virginia in their final chance at the Canes as a fellow
Big Easter. Save the 45-3 home win for Miami in the 2001 game,
the Mountaineers have played the four games before that in
Coral Gables to within 14 points, even winning in '97, 28-17.
The other three games were all winnable for WVU until the
Hurricanes secured victory, late in the fourth in each.
To quote
our site's founder Todd Helmick, "Why is it that every
time someone has a choke hold on Miami, they let up in the
end?" His keen observations on this one include WVU's
biggest glaring mistake, a coaching faux pas at that. The
boys from Morgantown played their hearts out as they defensively
kept the play in front of them, closing in only when finishing
against the better-abilitied Canes. But in the closing minutes,
after playing the entire time successfully rushing only three
or four, the Mountain Men blitzed multiple plays, including
the 4th-down and 13 play that left sensational junior TE Kellen
Winslow on a one-on-one island for the inevitable first down
with under two minutes left. They had them, leading 20-19
against the nation's #2!!! It is too bad either sophomore
WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez or defensive coordinator Jeff
Casteel couldn't leave their well-enough-working philosophy
alone, instead playing into a Cane strength (single-man coverage
with their superior receivers). Miami QB Brock Berlin had
to be salivating as he saw the extra men coming after him,
obviously ready as he stood fast and delivered.
The season-ending
ACL injury to RB Frank Gore, Miami's star ball carrier, has
ample implications for this week's Tallahassee tussle. Number
one backup senior RB Jarrett Payton, Walter's son, has size
and some speed, but he doesn't match up well against the sizeable
speedsters the Noles employ. My call (an evident one) - WR
Jason Geathers needs to move back to tailback to inject the
kind of speed that FSU will respect. He was the backup TB
in '02 and averaged 5.9 per carry as he just missed 400 yards.
The two backs should be employed together, switching up inconsistently
to eventually catch FSU and their Top 10 defense for gains
throughout each quarter.
Does anyone
ever get the best of Kellen Winslow? Even when he gets tackled,
the defenders - yes, often multiple opponents - get the worst
of Winslow's physicality. This future Sunday pigskinner fears
nothing, and his complete approach inspires as much in teammates,
a true leader. He may not have the numbers, but Kellen is
one of the nation's best five. This is a man amongst boys,
really.
Utah showed
why Urban Meyer was brought in, as their '03 offensive efforts
have so far matched the strong defensive presence already
established over the past few campaigns. The Utes were seemingly
only missing the offensive insights Meyer has now established.
Nothing too fancy, but his ball-control schemes allow for
larger opponents to be burned in over-pursuit, which in turn
keeps them somewhat flat-footed. Friday night's late tilt
with Oregon proved how well his motivated troops achieve Meyer's
poignant approach, making the Ducks look tentative for the
second straight week. It was to bad the Ute special teams
balked at the first half opportunities earned - Utah went
into halftime down 13-10 instead of up 16-13 after two short
FGAs were missed.
Utah set
the defensive tone right off, hammering Oregon's opening running
play for no gain. The Ute's spirited play stopped Oregon for
357 total yards (80 rushing) and a 17-13 final score. They
were within three points (down 13-10) for the majority of
the time, only letting it get to the final score at 13:07
in the fourth. Their 107th-ranked secondary was Oregon's Achilles
heel.
Offensive
lineman #76 for Utah, senior Thomas Herrion, gets my nod for
complete player of the week. Herrion, a senior, plays drums
and sings in his church and often for his teammates. His humanity
is inspirational, showing the multiple dimensions we all possess
within our humble earthly efforts. Herrion reminds us that
it is just a game, and that we need to be much more than most
expect to fulfill our legacy(ies) both on and off the field.
Colorado's troubles are evident after Baylor gave it to them
hard. The Buffaloes' victory over the CSU Rams August 30th
must seem like it was last season they are so far away from
that level. QB Joel Klatt had an ineffective return from his
off time, going 19-for-37 for 393, but with two INTs as CU
played catch up all day. FSU has to discount their win over
CU now, but anything that keeps the Noles from getting too
big-headed as they head into the Miami game is a good thing
to me.
The television
access for games this weekend was limited in the central/western
Pennsylvania region for the early slate. No judgements about
the teams to be mentioned, but all we saw was UConn vs. Lehigh
and Virginia Tech vs. Rutgers. With ESPN dedicating their
presence to playoff baseball, week six gave us men a nice
segment of early afternoon time to actually accomplish something
this past Saturday besides picking up the dinner check. But,
in case you are wondering, I spied the round-rawhide action
and saw Pudge Rodriguez' game-ending, fullback-like tag out
for the Marlin's win.
Speaking
of the Sunshine State, what didn't Florida learn in their
17-14 '02 loss in Jackson? It says much that given the chance
to get revenge on their own field, the Gators didn't properly
prepare, neither their game-plan nor their head space. Ole
Miss is no slouch, but the payback factor should have easily
spelled a home win in Gainesville. Eli got the defense he
needs to succeed, with the Rebels holding UF scoreless in
the second half to give Manning another savory victory that
his brother Peyton never tasted (Tennessee went 0-3 vs. UF
during the older bro's days). "I didn't say anything
after the first win. I might say a little something to him
this week," Eli joked. FireRonZook.com will assuredly
get some first-time visitors after this past week's 20-17
loss made Zook 11-8 since his tenure takeover. To boot, Florida
hasn't lost two in a row at home in one season since 1988-89.
Tailback Ran Carthon called a player-only meeting yesterday,
explaining "We're 3-3 and no one knows what that feels
like around here." Feel it, live it, and hate that feeling
living inside of you, Ran
that's how you internalize
something so as to avoid it the next possible time, never
wanting that experience to ever be repeated.
Alabama
went into Georgia for the first time in eight years to make
2003's first road game that much harder of a test. Being 2-3,
'Bama proved to play shaky at home, which made this year's
first trip, to Athens, something to watch for all of us prognosticators.
Like Ohio State, the Crimson Tide stacked a string of foes
into Tuscaloosa early on for mixed success. This bodes poorly
for when the team(s) finally step out into the football world
somewhere else. Bama got theirs; look for OSU to find similar
results sooner than later.
Georgia
put their backup QB, #3 sophomore D.J. Shockley, in at sporadic
moments to compliment struggling starter David Greene (two
early INTs). Shockley looked so good on a play-call change
at the line of scrimmage that produced a 10-yard, second-quarter
TD (which made it 23-3) that Greene's eventual efforts (over
the entire season) may be discounted just enough to keep Greene
out of most Heisman conversations. As good as the Georgia
defense has proven to be (ranked 6th), inversely the offensive
line has flopped, and accordingly made Greene's season the
uphill battle he has so far experienced. The Dawg special
teams (especially #10 Thomas Davis) get the biggest nod of
this contest - they made up for the LSU debacle by being the
factor that gave the Tide fits. And the 30-10 score just before
halftime was the predicted final tally in NC.net's EDGE preview
of this SEC tussle, and 37 points represents the most points
Georgia has ever scored on the Tide.
Special
teams cost, just ask Michigan. The Wolverines ran several
punt schemes that seemed to be designed to fail. In their
Big Ten battle against Iowa, the Hawkeyes easily penetrated
the overly-spread UM front-seven and then knifed past the
next three sedentary blockers to get to the Michigan punter.
The block Iowa earned proved to be the game's difference -
the short field goal that followed represents the 3-point
differential. But it was the fact that head coach Lloyd Carr
didn't see any problems with this, ultimately forcing UM to
take this failed approach, again and again, until Iowa figured
out how to succeed, which they did with a block. It was as
if each Wolverine punt was part of a scrimmage where UM was
asked to do the same play over and over for Iowa's sake.
Iowa's
#33, safety Bob Sanders, looked as marginally good as Wolverine
QB John Navarre looked marginally bad. Navarre has numbers,
but doesn't seem to be the team leader he needs to be for
that championship step. Sanders led his secondary past their
porous first-half performance with spirited play worthy of
note. His TD-saving efforts on a long UM gain proved to also
be just enough, as he single-handedly held UM to three (instead
of seven) for his team's win.
More over,
let's revisit a claim I am going to reiterate until proven
wrong enough to stop. This UM/Iowa game, along with Wisconsin/Penn
State and most of Ohio State's tests so far, show just how
weak the Big Ten is this season. Michigan State, Purdue, and
Minnesota all break the mold, beating both non-cons and conference
lesser-thans as easily as they should. But the whole of the
conference has proven weaker than other BCS conferences. The
worst six Big Ten-ners, a combined 14-22, are 11-13 against
the non-conference opponents. Inconsistent play, blown opportunities
and coaching mismanagement seem to be the norm. Inner-conference
battles consistently feature error-prone sequences and lack
any lengthy durations of error-free efforts. Superior play
is not the reason a Big Ten team beats another Big Ten team,
save this weekend's above-mentioned few. Keep tabs on me with
this one all the way through bowl play
let's see if I
know whether my head and my butt are two different body parts.
Another
item both entertaining and fun to follow is how teams like
Washington try to win without attempting to establish any
running attack. This season's 135 yards-per-game sure beats
last year's 74, but 3.4-per-carry is not enough of an improvement
over 2.13. Huskie QB Cody Pickett set all kinds of Pac-10
passing marks in 2002, but Washington forgot to adjust the
running game enough to support their All-American. It all
came to a head against UCLA Saturday. Washington blew a 16-7
halftime lead, making no attempt to pepper runs into their
pass-heavy approach as UCLA easily held the Huskies scoreless
with poignant adjustments that just begged Washington to run
(the Bruins dropped eight into coverage over most of the final
30 minutes). UCLA's 39 unanswered points show what imbalance
ultimately produces - not much against a decent defense. They
do run it an average of 40 times per game, but effective Washington
isn't. Just 40 more rushing yards per game, about one more
yard per carry, would turn their 44th national total offense
ranking into a Top 20 effort. The 29th-ranked passing game
flanked by the nation's 78th-best running attack equals mediocre
results, as scene in their 3-2 results.
Feel like
this is an isolated case? Just analyze Auburn's balanced attack
(or Tennessee's lack of one) to see this last point again.
Auburn held the Vols to four rushing-yards, but the red flag
here is that it was only on 16 tries. Hmmm, Tennessee averaged
188 ground-yards coming into the Auburn fray, so why try only
16 runs, especially with Vol's barely-proven QB Casey Clausen?
Jabari Davis and Cedric Houston make for one of the country's
best tailback tandems, which make it all that much more perplexing
to see coach Fulmer's play selections. The Tigers reciprocated
with 264 on the ground to amply tire the Vols. Any huge passing
totals (Clausen's 355 yards, Navarre's career-best 389) seem
at-best trivial when another L is the team's ultimate result.
Now, onto
the anomaly which is contained both in players who wear their
team's #1-jersey and players named Williams. It almost seems
planned that several families with this common name must have
once colluded to assure that anytime "Williams"
is called out, it is for describing receiver success. And
from USC's Mike to Texas' Roy to Washington's Reggie, the
football family Williams will have impact on many Sundays
to come. Then there is the significance of being at the numerical
beginning of the roster. Reggie and Mike Williams join Pittsburgh
phenom Larry Fitzgerald, Wazzu's Devard Darling, Miami's Roscoe
Parrish, Auburn's Devin Aromashodu, Georgia's Reggie Brown,
Michigan's Braylon Edwards, FSU's Craphonso Thorpe, Oregon
State's Kenny Farley, Fresno State's Marque Davis, Oregon's
Samie Parker, Tulane's Tristan Smith, Memphis' Maurice Avery,
North Carolina's Derrelle Mitchell, Temple's Phil Goodman,
and Baylor's J.T. Thompson as their teams' - and some of the
country's - receiving elite. Obviously (joking) meant to describe
and rank the evaluated best, #1 has rung true for most of
those listed, with Fitzgerald the number one #1. But by being
a Williams and wearing the #1 on their jerseys, Reggie and
Mike share these most privileged of intangibles that any can
have.
Now, for
a few random thoughts (that last paragraph is trivial, not
random): Northern Illinois bounced back from the Ohio Bobcat's
effort to upset their Cinderella story's hopeful ending and
stayed unbeaten and an outside candidate for a BCS bid. Give
'em some dap now, c'mon
Troy State slept well Saturday night after taking the Cornhuskers
deep into the third quarter of their match-up down only 10-0
USC looked much more mortal against Arizona State than when
they plastered Auburn in the Tiger's home opener. Regardless,
they seem to be flying high, that is until they take on (at)
Washington, Wazzu, UCLA and then Oregon State within their
final five-game stretch
Oregon State's Steven Jackson ran amuck last year versus Cal
for 239 yards in the Beavers win. So why didn't the Golden
Bears see him coming again Saturday, especially since the
All-American Jackson is at the top of every other defensive
coordinator's priority list? Oh, well - 35 carries and 227
yards later, they may just review this games' film if Jackson
returns for his senior campaign
Papa Joe took my (and many others) advice to bench Penn State
QB Zach Mills for fledging field general Michael Robinson.
Robinson responded for Penn State's second highest passing
total ever, going 22-of-43 for 379 yards, with two TDs and
no INTs (ironically, ranking behind Mills' 399-yard effort
against Iowa last year), but he couldn't earn the win as Wisconsin
ripped PSU 30-23
Which North Carolina State team will show up on any given
Saturday is obviously not known by anyone, especially the
Wolfpack themselves. Georgia Tech was the latest 29-21 benefactor,
so we'll guess starting two freshmen on the defensive line
(which is already glaringly shallow) was not a great idea
Shhh, Minnesota
Special Teams Player of the Week has to be a guy like Oklahoma
State's Darrent Williams, who brought back punts of 59 and
78 yards for TDs
So, how good was Tommy Bowden's choice to parlay Tulane's
perfect season into his head skipper's job at Clemson?
Virginia Tech will earn it if they can run their gambit. Only
Pitt and Miami are their only ranked opponents, but those
other Big East foes (along with Virginia) stacked into their
remaining seven games all want one last shot at the Hokies
before their desertion to the ACC
With their next game at Wisconsin and then at home with Iowa,
as well as with Michigan State, Purdue, and (at) Michigan
to end their slate, the defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes
will also earn anything they get. And mark my words - someone
will knock them off, sooner or later
Oklahoma is good, but they, too, look rather volatile in that
ever-tough Big XII
Oh, and don't put any money on the FSU-Miami game, in case
you know nothing about these two teams' histories
Just get ready for the biggest weekend of the year so far.
These mind-blowers will definitively (re)shape the national
championship landscape, which is soon to be ultimately reflected
in those BCS standings. Besides Miami-FSU, the tally of Oklahoma-Texas,
Ohio State-Wisconsin, Auburn-Arkansas, Georgia-Tennessee,
LSU-Florida, Virginia Tech-Syracuse and Michigan-Minnesota
arguably make seven other contests that pertain to the title
hunt
But, of course, we NationalChamps.net college football
gurus will all be assembled at our annual throwdown, which
occurs this Saturday October 11th at the (6 pm E.S.T.) Pittsburgh-Notre
Dame battle, in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field. Free beer and food
accompanies our satellite coverage of the day's game-slate,
so you can effortlessly enjoy your Saturday in the Allegheny
Region on what promises to be a great time. Meet NationalChamps.net
site-founder-and-president Todd Helmick, myself, and
a few of the other NC.net bigwigs who bring you the
best in college football
Regardless of where you are
on this super Saturday, please, enjoy the splendor.
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