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"Terrelle Pryor can run with the best of them but he couldn't complete a pass to an ugly leper. I read after the game that he had injured his throwing shoulder in practice. It must have been bent towards the ground because that's where all of his passes ended up."

THE GAME:

Tressel had them right where he wanted them. Two minutes to go with a four point lead and the Longhorns have to go 78 yards and must score the touchdown against a defense that has slapped them around for three hours. Yep, right where he wanted them.
   That's twice we had Texas in that position and lost both games with just seconds left to great quarterbacks. Colt McCoy is what I hope Terrelle Pryor is in two years. He fumbled and he threw an interception but he always found a way to move the chains. We were in his face on every play but he always found the open receiver. We needed him or his receivers to make just one mistake on that final drive. Just one break. But alas, when the side judge said we stopped them on fourth down and then the other ref ran all the way across the field to say, "Oh no you didn't", well, you pretty much knew things were not going to go our way. Then with 16 seconds left our safety went for the ball instead of the man and it was check and mate. That little error in judgment will probably go down in the annals of Ohio State lore along with the Shawn Springs slip and the Neil Colzie spike.
   Every Ohio State fan in the world knew that field goals were not going to win that game and when we were down 17-6 every Ohio State fan in the world was thinking, "Oh no, don't let it be 41-6." Then, as pathetic as we always seem to be on offense, we still found a way to get a four point lead with two minutes left only to give it up in the end. Oh well, at least 91% of the people in the country were happy with that ending and for those 91% (the ones that could stay up anyway) it was probably the best bowl game of the year because they proved how smart they were to themselves for picking Texas. Plus, that's another whole year of bashing the Buckeyes for everyone and nobody is happier about that than the crew at ESPN.
   Terrelle Pryor can run with the best of them but he couldn't complete a pass to an ugly leper. I read after the game that he had injured his throwing shoulder in practice. It must have been bent towards the ground because that's where all of his passes ended up. Perhaps that's why Boeckman had such a big role in the game. And perhaps that's why Pryor ran out of bounds a couple of times, I've never seen him do that.
   I've said all along that Texas should have been in the national championship game and that Colt McCoy should have won the Heisman. Nothing I saw in the Fiesta Bowl changed my opinion.
   Some moments to remember: Alex Boone getting called for a hold on the first series. Bryant Browning jumping on third and two from the twelve yard line so we could settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown. McCoy's fumble that barely made it out of bounds. That 48 yard catch by Robiskie on third and twelve that put us back in the game. On the last series Rob Rose batted down a pass. He didn't know it but Marcus Freeman was right behind him with outstretched arms awaiting the ball. The fourth down completion to save the game for Texas by inches. Shan Lane sacrificing himself on special teams as he has done for four years. He would be my MVP. Beanie sitting on the bench with yet another injury.
   Perhaps the worst part of the game was trying to sit through one hour of football and two and a half hours of commercials. I've commented all year about how bad the telecasting of college football has gotten but FOX brings new meaning to bad production. They couldn't even work in replays because of the commercials. If you think the no-huddle confused our defense it just about destroyed the producers who had their greedy little fingers on the commercial button but couldn't push it because the plays were happening so fast. I would like to see Ohio State go to a no-huddle an entire game just to piss those people off. And even between commercials they kept focusing their cameras on the little wire riding camera that had "Dish Network" written across it. Just a cheap, crappy production.

THE BOWLS:

"If anyone could lay claim to the title it should be Utah. They were undefeated and played several ranked teams during the year and pounded the crap out of Alabama. As a matter of fact, Utah beat Alabama worse than Florida did. It must have been that Mormon speed."

  This was, without a doubt, the worst year for bowl games in the history of college football. Coaches are seen as conquering heroes for beating a 6-6 team with a 6-6 team. There were some of the worst match-ups in the worst bowls in front of the smallest crowds ever. The only bowl that means anything is the national championship and once again, the BCS screwed that up. How can they possibly say that either of the teams in the national championship game are better than USC or Texas or Utah? If anyone could lay claim to the title it should be Utah. They were undefeated and played several ranked teams during the year and pounded the crap out of Alabama. As a matter of fact, Utah beat Alabama worse than Florida did. It must have been that Mormon speed. And we already know who's better between Texas and Oklahoma.
   In the long blur of empty seats and bad weather and horrible teams and incessant commercials there were a very few games of interest. Boise State dropped to 12-1 after a one point loss to TCU. I'm not sure if it is worse to miss an undefeated season by one point or lose to a team called the Horn Frogs. Charlie Weis finally found a team that he had a decided schematic advantage over. Of course he had to travel half way around the world to do it. Wisconsin was the first Big Ten team to embarrass the conference. Northwestern out played Missouri for four quarters but found a way to lose in overtime. How's this? You travel half way across the United States and pay for transportation and a room and food, etc., to see Oregon State beat Pitt 3-0. The state of Michigan left their worst team at home and still went 0-3 in bowl games. What was Minnesota doing in a bowl game? That's how bad it has gotten. They were 7-5 overall but only 3-5 in the conference and lost their last five games in a row. Sending them was just pure greed on the part of the Big Ten. Go get killed but bring us home some pieces of silver. Iowa did us proud.
   Those Big 12 defenses showed up again when Mississippi ran through Texas Tech like Bill Clinton goes through cigars, easy and often. My favorite play of the bowls came in a meaningless clash between Buffalo and UConn. By the way, it should have been called the Civil Rights Bowl. The announcers spent three hours talking about Turner Gill being passed over for various jobs and the lack of African American coaches in division one football and the fact that the 1958 Buffalo team was being honored at halftime for refusing to go to a bowl game because two black players were not allowed to play in it. I'm not sure they ever mentioned the game but it had a great moment. This guy is back to receive the kickoff for Buffalo. He doesn't look like a kick returner at all. He looks like a 6-2 235 linebacker and is wearing number 44, a linebacker's number. Anyway, the kick goes into the end zone and he fields it but muffs the catch. The ball bounces around and he chases it clear across the end zone and finally gets his hands on it. Now, this takes several seconds but he doesn't even hesitate and takes off up the field. He is nearly killed at the five yard line. I'm thinking that has to be the stupidest play in the history of football. Surely, some coach in the fifth grade taught him to take a knee if he didn't have an open alley. Not this guy, he commits suicide.
   Then there's the Alabama/Utah game. One for the ages. How come at the end of the game they weren't chanting "SEC, SEC, SEC" like they always do? It was like 21-3 at the end of the first quarter and the Alabama defense had this look on their faces like a bunch of first graders holding hands playing Red Rover and they look across the way and see little Rosie O'Donnell charging them.

BASKETBALL:
   If it wasn't for bad luck, Thad Matta wouldn't have any luck at all. After every good player he ever recruits goes pro after one year, he finds himself with yet another team of inexperienced players to teach the ways of college basketball. He has not one senior on the roster and only one junior that starts. That one junior also happens to be the Team Captain and the best defensive player on the team. So he breaks his foot. When he went down we were 10-0 and had knocked off three top 25 teams. Since his injury we have gone 1-3. Then a very highly recruited point guard, 10 games into his career, decides he isn't getting enough playing time for the immense talent that he is and quits his school and his teammates. So does someone want to tell me how sitting out the rest of this year and all of next year gets you more playing time? I guess he let Florida and $Notre Dame and a couple of other schools know he was interested in raising their basketball programs to new heights but they showed no love. This is another case of a parent getting involved and ruining a kid's future.
   The Buckeye basketball women are 13-2 with losses to North Carolina at home and Auburn in overtime on the road. I know most of you don't watch women's basketball and I don't either except for Ohio State. We have had some really boring teams of late. They were very good and won a lot of Big Ten championships but were as boring as Henry Kissinger reading Hamlet. Take the full ten seconds to get the ball over half court, pass around the top of the key for another 15 seconds and throw the ball to Jessica Davenport. That won a lot of Big Ten titles but rarely got them beyond the second round of the NCAA's. Last year Jentel Lavender came to the Buckeyes (all 6-4 of her) and actually ran with the ball. She was not only voted Freshman of The Year in the Big Ten but also Big Ten Player of The Year. All we needed was a true point guard. In comes Samantha Prahalis, a McDonald's AA from New York. She is fun to watch and should get us over that NCAA hump. If we can recruit a high caliber forward this year we could make a run at the national championship in 2010.
 
THE BCS:

   Once again they didn't get it right. So let's do the numbers. There are approximately 120 division one college presidents and most of them appear to be against a playoff system. There are 34 bowls and let's guess there 25 people on each bowl committee or roughly 850 more. That's 980 plus the BCS committee itself. So there are about 1,000 people in the entire world that think the BCS is a good thing. There are about three hundred million people in the United States and you have to figure that at least a third of them are college football fans (100,000,000) and I've never personally met a college football fan that didn't think the BCS is a bullshit system and would prefer some kind of a playoff to determine the national champion on the field of play. So how do we fix it? Well, it just so happens that I have been thinking about that lately and I have the solution.
   When Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20, the first thing he should do is name me College Football Czar. This is the system I would set up:
   All division 1 colleges would go back to 11 regular season games. They would all start their season on the same date in late August and would play their last game the weekend before Thanksgiving. Each team would have one bye week.
   The NCAA would pick one non-conference game for each schedule. It would be a team of equal standing in another conference and it would be a home and away two year deal. For example, you might have USC playing Florida and Northwestern playing Vanderbilt. How about Oklahoma and Ohio State or Oregon and Texas Tech? These games would all take place in the first three or four weeks of the season and it would be some of the best football of the year. It would avoid everybody ducking the hard games and only playing the cupcakes. That would kill Wisconsin and LSU so maybe the NCAA could just have them play each other.
   There would be no conference championship games. All those games represent is another way to make a buck for the college presidents. And as this year's Big 12 game proved, they are meaningless. The best team in the conference wasn't even in the game.
   On Thanksgiving weekend the top eight teams would be announced. The rankings would be by computer only, no politics, no human polls. The ranking would be based on the won/lost record and the strength of schedule (the teams you beat and the teams they beat). If you have the best record and played the toughest schedule, you get in the eight. This would force teams to beef up the schedules to go along with the NCAA mandated non conference game.
   All of the currently meaningless bowls can start playing the weekend after Thanksgiving but must be played by New Years Eve. For those teams that have a winning record and see the Weedeater Bowl as a reward for a winning season, go for it.
   The eight teams in the playoffs will play two weeks after Thanksgiving. The top four seeds get home field and 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, etc. This means you could actually get a southern team playing in the north or east or west instead of always having home field advantage.
   That gets us down to four teams and four major bowls. These bowls would rotate each year as they currently do. The bowl that had the national championship the last year would get to pick among all of the teams that didn't make the final eight. This would probably be two teams with at least 9 or 10 wins and would be a great match-up. Of course, both of these teams will feel they should have been in the final eight but as it is based on wins and strength of schedule and calculated by computers, they have no beef. If you want to get to the final eight get a tougher schedule or win more games.
   The four teams would play on New Years Day in two of the four major bowls and the NCAA would decide in which bowls they are played. It would be their job to make these two games as "neutral" as possible so that no team is playing in their back yard.
   The winners would play for a true national championship on a Saturday night approximately two weeks later. No more week night championships when people have to get up and go to work.
   Travel seems to be a big issue with the no playoff crowd (see 1,000 above). The NCAA would put out bids to the airlines to guarantee planes be available to take people to the primary bowls. They could get it all from one airline per bowl or get planes guaranteed from several air lines and charter companies. Everybody has time to pack and the air lines get full planes. The NCAA would negotiate air fares months in advance so that the air lines make a respectable profit but cannot gouge the fans.
   The only real issue I might have with my system is the fourth bowl getting two teams not in the final eight. That would be the Orange Bowl this year. They had Cincinnati and Virginia Tech (two BCS conference champions) that they had to take and nobody wanted to see. You could buy a ticket at the Orange Bowl before the game for one dollar. Under my system they could have had Texas Tech and Georgia or Boston College and Oregon or Oklahoma State and LSU, etc., ect. They could have picked a match-up that would have at least been interesting enough to fill the bowl.
   Of course, the BCS and ESPN hold reign over the current system through 2014. As the NCAA would have a major role under my system they would need to free up some resources which means they would have to have the Reggie Bush issue resolved by 2015 and I doubt if they can get that done.
   Of course, by me being Czar I would start the new system this fall and everybody would just have to adapt.

The Coach

Tags: bcs, bcs national championship game, ncaa football, ohio state basketball, ohio state football