Despite paying little or no attention to college football in my blog this year, in the spirit of the recently-concluded "rivalry weekend" (or I guess I could say week now, as there were games on Thursday and Friday), I'm going to force you to choose whether or not to be subjected to my musings. (But the answer is yes).
-First of all, hats off to Michigan for beating the Buckeyes for the first time in seven years. Granted it was a very close win at home against a far inferior opponent, but still- a win is a win. A lot has changed at Michigan since the last time they beat the team from the south. Michigan has been doing the Hoke-y Pokey this season, which seems to have turned themselves around (which is really what it's all about). Jim Tressel (the anti-John Cooper) is busy rocking his sweater-vest as a consultant for worst NFL team in the world (for once, not the Detroit Lions). Terrelle Pryor, highly esteemed four year OSU starting QB, graduated and....wait, you mean Pryor didn't graduate? He was forced to leave school early because of a scandal? Oh. Never mind*.
- Urban Meyer, former Florida Gators coach and current ESPN talky guy, created quite a stir this weekend by denying reports that Ohio State had offered him its head coaching position, but then asking to be taken off of the broadcast team for the OSU-U-M game. Meyer has admitted that if the Buckeyes make an offer, he'd have "a decision to make" (which shows that Meyer has come a long way from middle school, when girls would ask him to dance and he'd just sort of stand there until they either gave up or just grabbed his arms and dragged him to the dance floor).
I mean, if he does decide to return to coaching, he's not going to get much of a better offer than OSU. Top notch school, great tradition and history, able to pick from the best players every year- with a great offensive mind like Meyer has, OSU would be back on top in, like, two seasons. Tops.
And I hate that we're even talking about this. Not just because it's OSU, either.
What pisses me off is that he "retired" last December (which is, according to my calendar, less than a year ago) to "spend some time with his family". I used the ".." because I think it's probably B.S. And I'm not just hating on Meyer. I know other coaches have done this as well, and and retiring to spend time with his family, only to quickly return to some other lucrative coaching opportunity.
At least Meyer did take some time off. Yeah, he took off about a month and a half before he was hired by ESPN in January of 2011 to be a college football analyst. This probably means one of three things:
1) He realized that he really doesn't like his family that much.
2) He does like his family, but in that month and a half he was able to spend so much time with them that there was literally nothing else that they could do as a family.
3) Urban is really, really bad with money and just needed to get a job.
Of course, a fourth reason is probably that he realized Tim Tebow had graduated and that a string of 4-5+ loss seasons was looking him square in the face. That's enough to send any coach to the hospital with chest pains. I think coaches leave for this reason or that reason, and the "spend time with family" one is supposed to somehow dumb things down- like they're trying to convince us that they really are humans (just like us) and not simply overly-competitive workaholic megalomaniacs.
I wonder if his kids got really excited when they found out he was quitting the job that meant he was never, ever home (and probably distant/stressed out when he was home)- and what their feelings were when, less than two months later, he was going back to another job that meant lots of hours, phone calls on birthdays and 'hurry up and open your damn Christmas presents, I have to be at practice at 6 a.m. today' holidays.
Note to future Urban Meyer players: If Urban Meyer ever refers to your team as 'family', then abandon ship- you know that you are about to be thrown under the bus.
-Speaking of throwing under the bus, Montee Ball from U-W decided that, in his quest to break Barry Sanders' single-season record for TDs (and by the way, when I read that, I realized how strongly I still feel about Barry Sanders because it sort of made me mad that someone was approaching his record), he would give his O-line the Marq-tran Heave-ho. After the Badgers win against Penn State, he said (in terms of the record), "Whatever the offensive line wants. If they want me to get there, then I'll get there".
Alright, so I guess it's not really throwing them under the bus, it's more like a well-time hip check just as the bus is coming by.
Still, I couldn't believe it when I read that. You're putting the onus on your O-line to get you this mark? That whether or not you achieve your record is dependent on their level of desire? Never mind which plays the coaches call, down/distance, game situations, defensive game planning, what have you. The latent statement here is "If I don't get it, it's because my O-line is a bunch of selfish slackers". Which isn't really a message you want to send to the guys protecting you from the 250+ pound Ball-seeking missiles.
Montee, you've had a phenomenal season, even if you don't break the TD record (and I'm hoping you don't. Just saying). But could it be that maybe you got your sports cliches mixed up? That is, you recognize that the O-line is a huge part of your success and you know that every player is an important part of the team but you had to answer a question about an individual record and there was some sort of short circuit in your brain...maybe?
It'll be interesting to see if the Badger O-line takes it personal (and I'm hoping they do. Just saying).
-After a topsy turvey seasons end, the BCS is finally shaping up a little bit...unfortunately it looks like it's going to be an SEC title game in the NCAA title game. As a football fan and SEC ambivalist, I'm not really looking forward to this.
I don't want to take away anything from the LSU Tigers- they were pretty much dominant in every game this season (only one win was by less than 2 TD- technically. 13 point win against Mississippi State) and they look like the best team in the country. I'm still holding out hope that Georgia pulls the upset in the SEC title game but I'm not holding my breath. And even if I were holding my breath, I'd wait until much, much closer to the actual game itself because I would surely pass out several times if I started now.
But after seeing Michigan lose out on a shot at a rematch against OSU a few years ago (when they met late in the season as #1 vs. #2) , I'm not overly keen on seeing LSU-Alabama II for all the marbles. Yes, they're ranked #1 and #2- but my personal feelings are that those rankings are (maybe) more indicative of where they started the season ranked. At seasons beginning, LSU was ranked #4 and Alabama was #2. Now, they did each have an early season test (which they both passed)- but there was a lot of fluff to be had on those schedules as well. And overall, the SEC had what I would call a down year.
I've already written about the inherent flaw in the ranking system, so I won't get into that again. In fact, I'm not even going to hyperlink to it. If you want to read it, then by golly get up off your lazy butt and find it! Sorry, I was just channeling my inner-Montee Ball there for a second.
As someone who likes to see underdogs succeed, it's very frustrating that teams like Oklahoma State (who admittedly had a really, really bad hiccup), Boise State (who lost a much more defensible close game at home versus a very good TCU team), and even Stanford (with only one loss, which came against a top-10 team) are going to be left on the sidelines while Alabama gets the second chance that Michigan didn't get five years ago.
- If Mark Ingram won the Heisman back in 2009 (which he did, according to my sources), then Trent Richardson deserves to win it in 2011. I would vote for Richardson on principle, but he's had superior numbers to Ingram and ended his regular season with a monster game in the Iron Bowl against Auburn (unlike Ingram, who limped to the finish and pretty much won the Heisman because he had a captive audience the weekend the votes were cast). There are plenty of worthy candidates- but Richardson has been a beast all year playing for the #2 ranked team. He was held under 100 yards rushing 3 times- against Kent State (37 yards, probably only played like a quarter, did have 3 TDs), Tennessee (77 yards, had 2 TDs), and LSU (89 yards, with 80 yards receiving). So even when he was "sub-par", he was still pretty "sup-er". Did you see what I did there? Impressive, no?
So that's my football thoughts for now. In the meantime, Go Snow Flurries!!!
*Obviously I knew about the scandal. Even though I no longer consider myself a die-hard Michigan fan, this disdain for OSU has died hard, and I couldn't resist a little elbow-to-the-ribs of the Buckeye nation. Nothing like a rivalry win to make me feel a little Internet bravery, eh?
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