Here at College Football Year in Review, we’re big enough to admit our mistakes.
Picking Wisconsin first in the Big Ten and Northwestern 10th was a mistake.
We were dead certain Notre Dame would be hiring a new head coach this year. Who knew it would be a men’s basketball coach in July? Bob Davie, congratulations on your contract extension.
Another sure bet was that Joe Paterno would become the winningest coach in major-college history. Instead, JoePa still needs two victories to pass Bear Bryant and nervously is watching Bobby Bowden ride up from behind atop his 10-victory-a-year monster.
Despite the snow, everything seems so much clearer now than it did in the sizzling days of August, when the football season was all about optimism and victory seemed possible for everyone, even Duke.
But if hindsight really is 20-20, hindsight would be looking for a new job right about now. The coaching merry-go-round has gone on a maddening spin in the last three weeks. Most coaches were canned for losing. That wasn’t a problem for Georgia’s Jim Donnan and Arizona State’s Bruce Snyder, who led their teams to bowl games. They were fired anyway.
But don’t weep for the coaches. As of this writing at least 20 coaches are paid more than $1 million per year. That’s pretty good money for a glorified gym teacher.
The coaching shuffle has filled the lull between Army-Navy and the bowls. But there’s still time to kill before Texas Christian and Southern Mississippi tee it up Dec. 20 in the Mobile Alabama Bowl. So let’s go to the tape and have a look at the year that was:
Team of year
For now, call it Oklahoma. The Sooners are the only team that navigated the regular season without a loss, and they tacked on a Big 12 playoff victory for good measure. But once the bowls shake out Florida State, Miami and Washington each may deserve consideration.
Game of year
Northwestern 54, Michigan 51 in Evanston. The Wolverines gave up 10 more points in one day than they had in their 1948 national title season.
Player of year
Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke. After becoming the oldest Heisman Trophy winner at 28, Weinke gave new definition to the term “senior.” Weinke was first-team All-AARP.
Flop of year, national
Alabama. With 16 starters back on offense and defense, the Crimson Tide opened the season ranked third in both polls. They lost to Central Florida and Southern Mississippi at home and finished 3-8, their most losses since 1955. The school dismissed coach Mike DuBose before the end of the season.
Flop of year, local
Illinois. After raising hopes with an NCAA-record 63-point explosion in the Micronpc.com Bowl, the Fighting Illini finished last in the Big Ten. Yes, the officiating in the Michigan game was brutal. But those calls might not have mattered if Illinois had tried tackling someone in the fourth quarter.
Coach of year
Lou Holtz. One year after he went 0-11 at South Carolina, Holtz led the Gamecocks to a 7-4 record, and two of the losses came on the final play. Runner-up: John Robinson of UNLV, who led the Rebels to a 7-5 record and a bowl berth two years after inheriting an 0-11 team.
Best conference
The Pac-10. With six victories against Top 25 non-conference opponents, the Pac-10 rebounded nicely this year. Washington, Oregon State and Oregon are the strongest 1-2-3 punch in the nation. Six conference games went into overtime.
Worst conference
The Atlantic Coast. Three of the nine members fired their coaches and a fourth, Duke, went winless. Dishonorable mention: The Big Ten. Its fall was swift and sudden. The Big Ten went 1-6 against non-conference Top 25 foes and produced its first thrice-beaten Rose Bowl representative in 10 years.
Worst fans
Notre Dame. Fighting Irish followers have been called loutish, boorish and obnoxious. After an estimated 30,000 Notre Dame Stadium ticket-holders sold their seats to visiting Nebraska fans Sept. 9, Notre Dame fans may answer to a new name: sellouts.
Best fans
Nebraska. Cornhusker fans obviously have lots of discretionary income. They are also loyal and knowledgeable. We still wouldn’t want them in our living room.
Best magician
Colorado coach Gary Barnett turned a 3-8 season into a two-year contract extension at his present $720,000 salary. Barnett didn’t even have to pretend he was interested in offers from other schools, which was good because few schools pretended to be interested in making offers.
“It makes you want to work harder,” Barnett said after accepting the extension. “It makes you want to do your part in the vision that we have here.”
A few days after Barnett’s extension was announced, Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla wrote that the coach had discussed the Texas Christian coaching vacancy with a representative of the school.
“The humble appreciation from Barnett [for his extension] might have come across as more sincere if not for a modus operandi of regularly dropping his name in job searches from Georgia to Notre Dame since lifting lowly Northwestern to the Rose Bowl in 1995,” Kiszla wrote.
An outraged Barnett called a press conference to denounce the story, copies of which were handed to reporters with offending passages highlighted.
Best dive
UCLA. The Bruins beat then-No. 3 Alabama and then-No. 3 Michigan in September.
“We beat the SEC’s best and the Big Ten’s best,” Bruin guard Brian Polak said at the time. “Now all we have to do is beat the Pac-10’s best. If we do that, there should be no denying us a shot at the national title.”
The Bruins went 3-5 in conference play. There’s no denying them a berth opposite fellow underachiever Wisconsin in the Sun Bowl.
Best bowl
Miami vs. Florida in the Sugar Bowl. These Sunshine State powers ought to meet every year.
Worst bowl
Amid the morass of mediocrity, it’s impossible to pick just one. So we’ll give the nod to Hawaii’s Oahu and Aloha Bowls, which pit Georgia against Virginia and Boston College against Arizona State. The four participants are a combined 25-20, and Georgia and Arizona State fired their coaches.
Best prediction
After Rutgers beat Villanova and Buffalo to open the season, Scarlet Knights coach Terry Shea said, “There’s no question we have a train waiting at the end of the tunnel.” The next week Rutgers lost to Virginia Tech 49-0. The Scarlet Knights finished 3-8 and Shea was fired.
Courage award
To Penn State’s Adam Taliaferro and Washington’s Curtis Williams, who both sustained severe spinal cord injuries in games this autumn. Both universities have established funds to help cover expenses not met by family, university and NCAA insurance coverages. In addition, the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at Washington has announced a “Run to the Roses” to raise $25,000, with 50 percent going to Williams, 10 percent to Taliaferro and 40 percent to spinal cord injury research. Fraternity members will carry a football from Husky Stadium to the Rose Bowl, a distance of 1,400 miles, in time for the Jan. 1 game.
Best stat
Purdue is 0-4 against Notre Dame and Michigan State in years it goes to the Rose Bowl.
Best team never to win a title
Kansas State. Well, not never. The Wildcats won the Big Six in 1934.
Biggest challenge
Dennis Franchione inherits a broken Alabama team that may face an NCAA investigation. Franchione is a fine coach, and his services were sought at several other schools, but he may find that he has the same problem as Alabama’s last five coaches: His last name isn’t “Bryant.”
Best superstition
In the foyer of Purdue’s Mollenkopf Athletic Center sits a statue of former Boilemaker coach Jack Mollenkopf, the first, and until this year only, coach to lead Purdue to the Rose Bowl. Every time quarterback Drew Brees enters or leaves the building, he pauses to touch the brim of Mollenkopf’s hat.
“I don’t know why,” Brees said. “It’s kind of like paying your respect. It’s like he’s watching over us.”
Best national title case for TCU
Florida State lost to Miami, which lost to Washington, which lost to Oregon, which lost to Wisconsin, which lost to Northwestern, which lost to the Horned Frogs. If Florida State beats Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, TCU has to be No. 1.
Best fantasy
After Oregon State snapped its Pac-10 record 26-game losing streak against Southern Cal this year, Beaver linebacker Nick Barnett proclaimed, “Tradition doesn’t work anymore.” Someone ought to tell USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who said he “never bought into” the concept of parity. If there’s no parity, why are Purdue and Northwestern co-Big Ten champs, why is Oregon State in a Bowl Championship Series game and why did Alabama, Penn State and USC go a combined 13-22 this year?
Most improved
Iowa. Yes, the Hawkeyes finished 3-9. But in their last four games they beat Penn State in Happy Valley, knocked Northwestern out of the Big Ten driver’s seat and lost to bowl-bound Wisconsin and Minnesota by a combined nine points.
Wait till next year award
To Penn State, which faces seven 2000 bowl teams in its first eight games: Miami, Southern Miss, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State at home and Virginia and Northwestern on the road.
