2008 Arizona Edition - 10/26/08
One need to look no further at the idiotic devastation the BcS system is generating throughout the land than to hear the commentary throughout the media and cyberspace before the month of October is even complete. USC plays one of its toughest road games of the year, has a rather sub-par offensive performance, but puts on one of the strongest defensive shows of the season, and even USC's own fans bemoan the fact that Texas, Alabama, and Penn State all won. How unbelievably retarded is this world becoming????? The BcS's system is to blame for coming up with the most inept way of subjectively determining a champion since the Munich Olympics, but the BcS can not even be blamed for taking the brains of college football fans and replacing them with scrambled eggs.
A real sport figures out who its champion is by playing it out. Some sports use a "best-of-seven" playoff series. Some have single elimination. But they all - all of them - allow teams to play for it, and they do so at the end of the year. The idea that people are sad because such-and-such team did not lose in the third week of October, or because a computer is saying this or that, is certainly an indictment of the failed system. But I plead with people who claim to love this, the greatest sport of all time, to knock it off. Quit playing into this idiotic nonsense. The chart will probably re-shape itself four times between now and December 7. And more than that, you validate this criminality when you admit it is affecting your rather soft and fragile emotions. Let it go. Win all your games. And be done.
Okay. My rant is over. If you think I am upset about this, wait until the email I send November 5. On to the fun ...
- I actually would not say USC played that bad of a game offensively. I would just say that Mark Sanchez played pretty poorly, and a couple inopportune penalties and turnovers kept the game close. But with a defense like that, who needs an offense.
- Stefan is one of the best backs in college football, and he is the best back on the Trojan. He got the right amount of carries, and needs to get them again this week, and next week, and next week.
- Mark happened to throw a couple bad passes on plays where the game could have opened up. That crowd was off the hook, and they fully expected to win the game. We will be fine. Arizona is one of the better teams in the conference, and we went in there and kept them to less yards in a game than they practically average in a quarter.
- For one of the first times in eight years, I would say USC might have actually benefitted from the referees rather than suffer from it. Mark certainly should have called for grounding on that one play late in the second half, and I am still not sure what to make of the personal foul that cost Arizona the ball at the one yard line. They also missed a passing interference penalty on Ellison on a key third down. The bottom line is that we would have won no matter what, but I do believe we got a few good calls (for once).
- Anyone who saw the Alabama/Kentucky game earlier in the year, and then the Florida/Kentucky game on Saturday, would not even question who is going to win the SEC this year. The question is: Will Alabama be undefeated going into the SEC championship against Florida?
- Tennessee would finish right, directly above the two Washington schools in the Pac-10 this year if they were in the Pac-10 conference. Not worse, but certainly not better.
- Penn State looks well-positioned to be the team representing the losing side of the BcS nonsense this year. USC, Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma could beat them by 28 points. But in college football you have to avoid letdowns, and Penn State has done so thus far. I would personally not bet the farm that they win the next three, but they ought to.
- Taylor Mays was the MVP for the Trojans last night. When he broke that midget in half he completely took away Arizona's confidence that they could do anything whatsoever offensively against us. What the USC defense is doing this season with the one heartbreaking exception of the first half in Corvalis is incomprehensible.
- I can not spare the brain cells this year to read the football chat boards, but do I assume correctly that the same idiots who last year were calling for Sanchez to replace Booty are now calling for Corp or Mustain to replace Sanchez? If so, LOL.
- The two Washington schools will not finish a combined 1-23. The reason I know this: they play each other on the last week of the season. But yes, they will finish 2-22.
- I believe in taking it one week at a time, but I will cheat a bit and say that Cal on Nov. 8 at home and UCLA on Dec. 6 at the Rose Bowl are the two games I most worry about. Washington is just not good at all, and Stanford is very likely to wish they never ever showed up (call it a hunch). Notre Dame is going to come into the Coliseum with one of the worst head coaches in college football facing the best in the country, and those of us from the area know that there is an all you can eat Sizzler buffet across the street from the campus before Figueroa and Jefferson. Weis will not know what to do. Oh yeah, plus they are not very good. UCLA is actually even worse, but they are still UCLA, and I have seen enough fluke wins from the basketball school to know anything can happen. Cal, on the other hand, is good. If they had our third string quarterback they could compete nationally, and I am being serious.
- It is hard to watch UCLA this year, and part of the reason is because they are so freaking bad, that I just can't even bear the idea of them beating us. I actually don't even think a 13-9 fluke is possible this year, but hey, you never know. I will say this: Neuheisel seems to be doing his best to make sure that Craft enters each game so totally unsure of himself that he is unable to play QB at even a Junior College level. Weird.
- For those keeping score, Virginia is 3-1 in conference play, and Clemson is 1-3.
- I just have no interest in predicting how this thing plays out. Yes, it is possible (even likely) that USC will finish out the year with one loss. But whether or not that gets them into the BcS game is irrelevant to me, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. They screwed up badly that night, and whatever happens, frankly happens. The stuff that can and will happen with other teams is hard to say, but the chips will fall where they are destined to fall. I believe in playing for the Rose Bowl. I am about sure as can be that if we end up playing in Miami that we are better than Oklahoma, Alabama, and Penn State. Texas and Florida are right up there with us. But it is all a waste of conversation in late October. Win out. Win big. Have fun. And thank God for this era.
For it is the most successful dynasty in the history of college football.