The Rose Bowl is pretty much the reason why we didn’t have the BCS as early as 1991, and the reason why the BCS is what it is today instead of the playoff that everyone else wants. So… bowl history? 91 Miami/Washington, split national champions. 94 Penn State, unbeaten but didn’t get to play national champs Nebraska. 97 Michigan/Nebraska, split national champions. There’s your Rose Bowl history. Oh, more Rose Bowl history, you ask? 03 LSU/USC, split national champions. 00 Miami/08 Texas, sat at home and watched teams they beat lose national championship games. 04 Auburn, unbeaten SEC champs and not a slot for them in the championship game. 04 Utah/06 Boise State/08 Utah/09 Boise State – unbeaten without even an asterisk. The Rose Bowl is evil. As darkly evil as Jim Delany’s black heart. When Bill Hancock sends Chris Petersen a congratulatory note on his team’s “great season” he should include a dozen roses along with that.

Also Vince Young had the greatest ever performance of all time, now and forever, at the Rose Bowl, which is the only redeeming thing about this bowl’s history.

Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama had damn near a perfect season; short of Auburn and Tennessee (their two rivals, who likely got up and a half for this game), nobody else got within a possession of them. It’s because of that domination that everyone’s expecting the Tide to well, roll. (Yes, I hate that joke. No, I couldn’t think of anything better.)

Alabama’s success is predicated on the typical, cliché-as-hell, “championship team” motto: defense and a good running game. Of course, it’s only a cliché because it’s worked before, and Alabama’s adhered to that as tightly as you’d like. Nick Saban got where he is because he follows the money because he’s a great defensive coach. Saban’s known for preferring to adhere to a Cover 1 scheme, leaving his free safety as a general catch-all and allowing for his strong safety to focus in either run support or as another coverage back. It’s to Alabama’s benefit that FS Mark Barron was as good as he was, ending up as a first-team All-SEC selection and leading the team in interceptions (by far) with 7, including one returned for a TD. Aside from Barron, the rest of the secondary opts for pass breakups; DB Marquis Johnson led the nation in pass breakups with 16, and three members of the secondary (Kareem Jackson being the other) finished the season in the top 30 nationally of passes defended. It’s because of these guys – and the nasty run defense – that Alabama finished 8th in the country in pass defense, including a particularly nasty 9/20 TD/INT ratio.

From there, Alabama is free to stuff the run (something they’ve done very well all season, allowing nearly 80 yards on the ground total per game) – helped a bit by virtual mountain NT Terrance Cody stuffing up the interior running lanes. LB Rolando McClain – last seen sweeping up awards en masse – patrols the middle, functioning as the leader of the linebacker corps and pulling his weight in pass defense as well. He’s decent at that, only finishing as a first-team All-American. All told, the defensive unit finished with only allowing 4.1 yards per play; that seems high at first glance – after all, you’d convert every third down with 4.1 yards per play – except that’s good enough for fourth nationally, behind Nebraska (who uses a similar approach, especially at the nose tackle position).

So what about the second half of that equation? Well, Mark Ingram was one of the best power runners in the nation – the best if you base it on receiving little stiff-armed trophies – at 6.2 yards per carry and nearly 120 yards per game. However, it’s not like Ingram is the only running threat; true freshman RB Trent Richardson is averaging over 5 yards a pop and Roy Upchurch has been effective in limited carries. When a team has that many backs averaging that many yards a carry, it means two things: 1) they have great backs and 2) they have a pretty good offensive line. That offensive line is anchored by Mike Johnson and Alabama has typically done a lot of running between the tackles. Ingram in particular excels after contact (part of the reason he’s been responsible for so many demoralizing runs for the Tide’s opponents).

If there’s a weak spot on this Alabama team, it’s the passing game. QB Greg McElroy has been good enough – he was the potential weak link on a championship-capable team – but he had a rough middle of the season, bottoming out in a 15-34, 147 yard performance against Ole Miss. Still, he’s been good as the season wore on, snapping out of his funk to complete no worse than 66% of his passes against his last three FCS opponents (including a 4/0 TD/INT ratio). Again, he’s not going to be asked to win the game, but he can at least not lose it now. His targets are the incredibly talented Julio Jones, speedy Marquis Maze, and reliable safety valve Colin Peek. Jones is the obvious talent here – so obvious, in fact, that teams have been throwing the kitchen sink at him all year and his numbers have suffered as a result.

Because Alabama isn’t insane enough in its own right, K Leigh Tiffin has also had a fantastic year, finishing as a first-team All-SEC selection after going 29-for-33 in FG attempts (including at least three games where he hit four FGs). P Pat Fitzgerald is a weak link by comparison, but he’s averaging 42 yards a punt; so much for that theory. Arenas also doubles as a return specialist; again, since Alabama is all about imbalance, he’s 9th in the nation in kickoff return average and 3rd in the nation in punt return average (with two TDs on the season).

So if there’s a team with no discernible weakness, how on earth do you attack them? Well, they’re going to be straightforward enough about what they do – and it’s not like it doesn’t work, based on this season – so the answer may lie in throwing them a curveball. Both Tennessee and Auburn had success by forcing the Tide out of their comfort zone – ironically, both with recovered onside kicks in part – and it’s possible to beat Alabama in short chunks. I’m not sure it’s possible to win all 60 minutes against this team, but it’s certainly possible to win 15 and hold on for 45. Maybe this comes via Colt McCoy going over the top a couple of times, or Earl Thomas starts jumping routes, but this unit thrives on things going according to plan. It’s up to Texas to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Texas Longhorns

Perhaps fittingly for a sport that refuses to get with the times, the Texas Longhorns’ drive to the national championship game started last season (take heart, Boise State fans) when they finished 11-1, en route to 12-1 with a BCS victory, but were inexplicably left out of the national championship game in favor of an Oklahoma team who they’d beaten by double digits earlier that season. The strong season and Fiesta Bowl victory propelled the Longhorns to #2 in the preseason rankings, where they’ve stayed pretty much all season en route to a 13-0 record. Perhaps it was voter sentiment about 2008, perhaps it was the second-toughest schedule amongst the unbeaten teams (Alabama facing the toughest of the five), but one way or another the same system that screwed the Longhorns just a year ago smiled upon them in 2009.

Texas cruised through September, surprisingly holding Texas Tech to just 3 first half points in a much better defensive effort than the Horns put up in their lone loss of 2008. A few weeks later, the Horns won an ugly Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma after ending Sam Bradford’s season with an unblocked blitz early in the first quarter. The next month was again a breeze, and Texas appeared destined for a title game berth with an 11-0 record. But rivalry games are strange things, and Jerrod Johnson brought his A+ game to account for total 439 yards against what had been one of the most dominant defenses in the nation until that point, but Colt McCoy had an even better game and the Longhorn special teams were able to seal the deal with a late KR TD, their third on kickoffs and fifth overall special teams TD of the season. Finally, in conference championship week, a very underrated Nebraska team (perhaps now getting a bit more respect after their 33-0 Holiday Bowl win over Arizona) nearly pulled off an upset that would have thrown a bit of chaos into the BCS mix, as Ndamokong Suh repeatedly broke through the Texas line to sack and otherwise rattle McCoy into his worst game of the season. But this time the defense, nearly goats of the A&M game, played the role of heroes, holding Nebraska to 106 yards of total offense and picking off three passes, and at the last possible second Hunter Lawrence was able to hit a game-winning, championship berth-clinching field goal.

Texas runs a very pass-heavy spread attack with a little bit of zone read thrown in as the staple of the running game. Just a few years ago, this offense had Cedric Benson and then Jamaal Charles in the backfield and was extremely deadly on the ground. Freshman Tre’ Newton is now the team’s leading rusher, but with just 513 yards on the season (5.0 ypc). McCoy is the next-leading rusher and leads the team in rushing attempts, something Texas had hoped to get away from but apparently were unable to do so. Vondrell McGee and Foswhitt Whittaker frequently spell Newton, and Cody Johnson is the established short yardage back with 12 TDs. The 152.6 ypg and 4.02 ypc that Texas averages as a team are about average for the NCAA, and indeed the lack of a running game anywhere near the level of their passing game is typically cited as the Longhorn offense’s biggest weakness. (might I add, incorrectly cited – more later)

When throwing the ball, Texas has the most accurate passer in the game, first team All-American Colt McCoy, directing a very precise offense. After setting the NCAA record for single season completion percentage last year, McCoy has fallen off to a mere 70.5% accuracy this season, not even good enough to finish tops in the country (second, behind Dan LeFevour’s 71.3%). It’s a top 20-quality passing offense, but perhaps not top 10 level unlike what we saw last season. Jordan Shipley has had an outstanding season, also receiving All-American honors, averaging 104 ypg receiving with 11 rec TD in 13 games, along with having returned two punts of TDs. But nobody else on the team averages over 50 ypg receiving, which is where Texas really misses having a second elite receiver (Quan Cosby) like they did a year ago, when teams couldn’t double team both Cosby and Shipley without seriously sacrificing the rest of the field. At times, Malcolm Williams, James Kirkendoll, Dan Buckner, and Marquise Goodwin have all shown promise during the season, but in the end none has ever emerged as that reliable #2 threat. At least one, and probably two, will have to step up against Alabama.

Overall, the Texas offense is 3rd in scoring (40.7 ppg) despite being just 16th in total yardage (432.4 ypg), and they can thank a 46% 3rd down conversion rate (15th) for that. This is where it really helps to complete 7 out of 10 passes.

Defensively, Texas runs a standard 4-3 base with their SEC-bred coordinator and outstanding personnel at all positions. If defense was the reason Texas fell just short of the title game in 2008, it’s really the reason they’re here in 2009. The defense ranks 8th in scoring, giving up 15.2 ppg, although the A&M game did a little to inflate that. Texas gives up 251.1 ypg (3rd) and is first in the nation in yards per play at 3.8. The strengths of this defense are run defense (62.2 ypg, 1.99 ypc, both 1st), interceptions (24, 1st – leading to the nation’s 10th best pass efficiency defense), and third down conversions (27%, 2nd). The secondary has returned four picks for TDs, including two by All-American safety Earl Thomas (8 int for 149 yards). While Thomas has been a beast, perhaps the biggest improvement in the Texas secondary has been Blake Gideon’s move from being a safety defenses tended to pick on into an excellent compliment to the conference’s best safety, picking off 5 passes himself and generally playing much, much better coverage than he was known for a year ago.

The DL is also excellent, as you’d expect from the nation’s #1 rushing defense. Sergio Kindle hasn’t been the next Brian Orakpo that many had hoped, but he is a solid pass rusher and is also very useful in stopping horizontal run plays. Lamarr Houston, meanwhile, has been an outstanding presence on the inside, and is probably the single biggest reason why Texas has been able to get away with playing so many smaller defensive ends and relatively quick-but-midsize linebackers compared to, say, Alabama. Three of the top six tacklers on the team play lineman, and tacklers #1 (Roddrick Muckelroy) and #3 (Keenan Robinson) are linebackers – indicative of the fact that the backs and safeties are not having to make a lot of tackles – ie, plays are getting stopped at the point of attack. Indeed, Earl Thomas probably comes in second in tackles more because he has a tendency to come way up to help in run support, as he has excellent recovery/track-back speed which gives him incredible range as a defender. When Bob Stoops analyzed Texas in Rivals’ preview of this game, he singled out Thomas for this very ability as one of the things that makes the Texas defense to difficult to attack, and flat-out said he wished Thomas would go pro.

As has been the case for many seasons, the Texas special teams are a true third prong of the attack. Hunter Lawrence has connected on 22 of 25 field goals, none bigger than the 46-yarder as time expired to win the Big 12 Championship and send Texas to the BCS title game. DJ Monroe, who has been reinstated to the team after being cleared from a midseason arrest for possible DUI, is second in the nation in kickoff return average at 35.8 yards a pop, and has taken two KRs back for touchdowns. They might line up Marquise Goodwin back there with him, as Goodwin was the replacement in his absence and took a kickoff back for a TD against A&M. When Texas fields punts, that duty falls to Jordan Shipley, who comes in 14th in national average at a shade under 13 yards per, and has taken two punts back for scores. Combined with the defense’s interceptions, Texas’ 9 non-offensive TDs leads the nation.

On Defense Against Alabama

Will Muschamp absolutely believes in taking away the run, pressuring the quarterback, and forcing turnovers in the secondary. It’s been fantastic watching the Texas defense become more and more aggressive over the last two years, to the point where they’ve really dictated the flow of the other team’s offense this season. Expect a lot of blitzing from Texas, both in an effort to flood the backfield to stop Ingram and to pressure McElroy into taking risks against this opportunistic secondary.

Make no mistake about it, Texas (not Florida) has the best secondary Alabama has faced this season. But Alabama has the most physical offensive line Texas has faced by a long shot. These two will strike some kind of balance – how much help does the Texas front seven need to stop Ingram vs how well can the Texas back four bottle up Alabama’s receivers to allow the front to go all-in after the Bama backfield? For that matter, how aggressively is Earl Thomas able to support the run defense without sacrificing coverage soundness? Wherever this balance lies, that will determine how successful these two units are.

On Offense Against Alabama

You know how we mentioned that the Texas running game isn’t really its Achilles heel? Well, yeah. Greg Davis is. I’m expecting Texas to come out in lots of 4 and 5 receiver sets, run the same plays they always do (which were easily pattern-read by Oklahoma and Nebraska defenders… and oh hey, Bob Stoops has made a few visits to Tuscaloosa this winter), and score a couple TDs less than they otherwise would because of repetitive scheming. With the sheer volume of receivers Texas sends out on most plays, Colt McCoy can always just play really amazing and make up for it. But the burden falls on McCoy to make the perfect read and throw in the small amount of time it takes Rolando McClain to tear through the line unblocked, because Davis thinks it’s a good idea not to keep extra blockers in the backfield… um, just about ever. But hey, they’re never going to expect the flanker screen in that situation!

So for me, that’s all it comes down to. McCoy, McCoy, McCoy. I expect Texas to run plays that Alabama generally recognizes, plus Alabama has a bit of an athletic edge here so it’s not like you’re going to have three receivers open or players turning four yard outs into 30 yard gains like we did against A&M. But at the same time, the number of players who can run a route and catch the ball that Texas throws at you makes it unrealistic for a college defense to bottle them all up. When McCoy’s on, there’s not really a lot you can do to stop this offense. But McCoy has to be on this game, because the receivers aren’t going to be running for a ton of yards off some short flare against these defensive backs, and the ground game should be just about useless against this defensive front unless the passing game is already working.

–
Alabama section written by our friendly neighborhood co-blogger, Chris.

Last season’s Utah, the nation’s lone unbeaten, claimed 16 out of the AP’s 65 first place votes, finishing second in the country. While certainly more respect than has been afforded to any midmajor team before them, it still took beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl (Oregon State, TCU, and BYU didn’t cut it) for the Utes to earn that respect.

So it’s kind of a cool phenomenon that TCU has been a real part of the title discussion in 2009. It’s not just the “best team in Texas” talk that’s come out of Fort Worth in so many recent seasons, but a real national interest in a team who has played an entire season at a similar level as the other elite teams.

By the Numbers

TCU ranks in the top five of scoring, rushing, and total offense and are in the top six of scoring, rushing, passing, and total defense. While their passing offense ranks #66, this is at least in part due to the fact that the Frogs aren’t often in the kind of games where they need to throw the ball a lot; their team pass efficiency rating is 3rd nationally. It’s fair to say that no other team in the country dominated the competition they faced as well as TCU did in 2009.

The knock on TCU is just that – the competition they faced. This is the thing that would have kept them out of the BCS championship game even had Texas not been ranked so highly in the preseason or even if the Longhorns had fallen against Nebraska (as Cincinnati was next-in-line at #3 in the final BCS standings) – strength of schedule. According to Phil Steele’s blog, TCU had the #89 schedule in the country at the end of the regular season, just about the 25th percentile. Alabama impressed voters with the #22 schedule in the country, thanks to their showdown with Florida, while Texas’ road was a little tougher than most at #43 and Cincinnati’s was about average at #59. In addition to having Clemson as their toughest non-conference game rather than Oklahoma like the year before, this time around Utah lost to Oregon and BYU was throttled by Florida State. (it didn’t help that a potential quality win for BYU, over Oklahoma, was diluted when Sam Bradford went down en route to a 5-loss season for the Sooners; then again, that probably contributed to the Cougars’ 14-13 win) The Mountain West was still a good conference in 2009, and their current 4-0 bowl record backs that up, but it was a much tougher league in 2008 when Utah was also an excellent team.

vs Previous “BCS Busters”

This season, TCU and Boise State became the 5th and 6th teams from non-automatic qualifier conferenced to earn a BCS bid. What about the previous four?

2004 Utah was the first non-AQ team to get a BCS invite, and their strong performance probably paved the way for more to follow. Utah pasted a weak Pittsburgh team 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl. Over the entire season, Utah beat teams by an average of 45.3-19.5, which is good, basically this was a top five offense coupled with a top 30 defense. We’re pretty sure the offense was legitimately that good, trusting Urban Meyer’s coaching ability and Alex Smith’s skillset being such a perfect fit for the Meyer system. Pittsburgh was also the only team Utah faced that finished with 8 wins, so the Utes never faced anything resembling an elite opponent, as nobody on their schedule finished in the final top 25.

2006 Boise State may be the non-AQ team people remember first, famous for their assortment of trick plays used to beat Adrian Peterson’s Oklahoma Sooners in a thrilling Fiesta Bowl game featuring numerous late-game lead changes, fourth-and-forever conversions, and a two-point conversion in overtime. Led by Jared Zabransky and Ian Johnson, the Broncos featured the nation’s #2 scoring offense (39.7 ppg) and #20 scoring defense (17.6 ppg). Similar to 09 TCU, the Broncos were top 10 in most major offensive categories except passing yards, and again similarly the passing efficiency was actually excellent (5th). Defensively this does not quite hold true, as the Broncos were 20th in points per game and 15th in yards per game in 2006. This team certainly had more quality wins than the only BCS busters to come before them, beating three teams with 10+ wins, two of which came from AQ conferences.

2007 Hawaii was the lone non-AQ team to lose their BCS game, and in doing so they really made people think twice about these teams that win all of their games without ever facing a quality opponent. Before facing Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Sagarin had their strength of schedule worse than #119 (I forget what exactly), meaning there were I-AA teams who faced tougher schedules than the Warriors. The result was a 41-10 blowout in the Sugar Bowl against a hot Georgia team that really played on a lot of stereotypes about non-AQ teams. Georgia dropped seven into coverage and got constant pressure with their front four, and on offense they basically just ran the ball for consistent gains and occasionally threw over the top when the defense desparately threw everyone at the line; by the time Hawaii had a drive longer than 50 yards, the score was already 31-3.

2008 Utah did their best to immediately correct those perceptions. Up until now, we’d seen two AQ teams who won all of their games against non-top 25 competition, and a third who got a big win with all kinds of crazy trick plays being able to barely outscore an offense that pretty much attacked directly at them. These Utes were the first “BCS Buster” team who played against quality opponents and won with a standard offense (since by now, the spread option had become one of the standards in college offenses). Their opening week victory in the Big House lost its luster as Michigan tanked for the season, but Utah also defeated Oregon State one week after the Beavers gave a great USC team their only loss, defeated two legitimately good MWC teams in TCU and BYU, and then of course jumped out to a big early lead and held off heavily favored Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. This Utah team maybe wasn’t quite as impressive statistically – 15th in scoring offense (36.9 ppg) and 12th in scoring defense (17.2 ppg), and in total offense they were just #36 – but you can put that completely on the result of them playing by far the toughest schedule of any BCS Buster, including the two teams who made the BCS this year. Counting their game against Alabama, Utah faced the #56 schedule according to Sagarin’s computer.

This season’s TCU seems to fit more into the same category as 04 Utah and 06 Boise, minus the trickery, but unlike those teams TCU’s defense has been a little more dominant against their relatively weak schedule. Indeed, TCU may be the first really defense-oriented BCS Buster we’ve had so far — their performance against Clemson especially makes me a real believer in this defense, holding CJ Spiller & Co to 10 points in their lowest-scoring performance of the season. At the same time, the only defense with the size and depth we expect from AQ teams that contend for their conference titles was able to hold the Frogs’ offense to 14 points, with the game-winning touchdown coming in the 4th quarter. I’m a little more skeptical of how this offense would fare against an elite defense, which unfortunately we’ll never get to see that get played out on the field.

Looking Back

I’d also like to take a look at the 2008 edition of the Horned Frogs. This TCU team finished 11-2 with a Poinsettia Bowl victory over Boise State, a real treat of a bowl game played so early in bowl season. That team outscored opponents by an average of 33.6 – 11.3, outgaining them 421.3 – 217.8 in the process (5.4 yards per play versus 3.8).

But 08 TCU did one thing that the 09 edition never got the opportunity to do: take on a nationally elite BCS conference opponent. Championship Game losers Oklahoma defeated TCU 35-10 in Norman, outgaining the Frogs 436 – 314 in the process. If we remove this game from the sample, the 2008 Horned Frogs went 11-1, winning by an average of 35.6 – 9.3 (430.3 – 199.6 yardage) against a similar set of opponents to what TCU faced in 2009.

Keep in mind that the 2009 statistics are 12-0, average score 40.7 – 12.4, average yardage 467.8 – 233.3. Aside from allowing and gaining an average of some 30 ypg and a few ppg more on both sides of the ball, the team seems to be doing about the same as a year ago. So why 12-0 vs 11-1? (again, looking at the similar parts of the schedule)

The difference, of course, is the Utah game. One thing I was not really aware of is how much TCU dominated the gameplay between these two teams in 2008. The final score read Utah 13, TCU 10. Nothing else was so close. TCU outgained Utah 416 – 275. They gained 4.2 yards per rush to the Utes’ 1.8. Andy Dalton averaged 6.8 yards per pass, Brian Johnson 5.9. The deciding factors were Dalton throwing 2 INT and Evans making just 1 of 3 FGs. Committing 11 penalties to the Utes’ 2 did not help matters either. I won’t say it was purely luck – Utah tended to pull out of games like this with wins in 2008, and some credit goes to Brian Johnson for having a knack for leading these comebacks and being a great leader for the team in general. But the statistics say that, on a play-by-play basis, TCU dominated this one but couldn’t translate that to the scoreboard.

Fast forward a year and TCU outgains Utah 549 – 284. This time, turnovers are even at 2 apiece and Utah commits 14 penalties to TCU’s 5. The result is a 55 – 28 blowout that played out remarkably like the pervious year’s game on the field. Only rather than the Utes catching all the breaks for a somewhat fortunate win at home (on a go-ahead pass with 48 seconds left, to boot), the Frogs coast to a comfortable win in their home stadium that is a little more indicative of what you’d expect given the yardage totals.

What does that mean for TCU?

There is some good news and some bad news here.

The good news is that, barring a heroic performance by Kellen Moore, this does bode well for the Frogs in the BCS game they are playing tonight, the Fiesta Bowl against Boise State. Like in their loss to Utah, in the Frogs’ close win over Boise State in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl, they actually dominated the yardage statistics and should have won by more than they did. Boise State has done little this season to make me think that they are better than they were a year ago. In all likelihood, the Frogs should emerge from the Fiesta Bowl victorious and ranked #2 behind the Alabama/Texas winner.

The bad news is that the difference between 12-0 this season and 11-2 last season had more to do with a) not facing a championship game-caliber team and b) Utah not catching a ton of breaks / possibly missing Brian Johnson’s leadership… as opposed to some massive improvement by the Frogs. Indeed, this is basically the same team it was last year, playing at about the same generally high level. And therefore, I see little reason to believe that they wouldn’t face a similar outcome against an elite team than what happened a year ago. I’d expect Alabama, Florida, or Texas to beat the Frogs comfortably.

But we shouldn’t end things on a sour note, so there is some more good news here… and this ultimately matters more anyway. The team is becoming stably dominant over the over teams that they typically face. Indeed this consistency of playing about the same from year to year means that the Frogs have taken a step towards not just having a great team, like Utah seems to have every three or four years, but towards becoming one of the standards for consistent high-level play on a year in/year out program level. With consecutive blowout wins over BYU and consecutive strong performances against Utah, TCU is becoming the king of the MWC. Should they beat Boise State for a second year in a row, they essentially claim the title of best non-AQ program in the country. They’re losing a few key playmakers this offseason, notably Jerry Hughes, Rafael Priest, and Nick Sanders from their defense. Andy Dalton and most of the offense, save for RB Joseph Turner, should be back. With Max Hall graduating from BYU, who is going to challenge them for the MWC in 2010? The only non-AQ team in a better situation is actually Boise State, who should return 21 starters (all as juniors or seniors) with only CB Kyle Wilson graduating. But again, if they’re the premiere non-AQ program, as opposed to just having an elite team every few years or whatnot, there’s no reason why they can’t just fill this relatively small number of holes and continue to field top 10 squads year in and year out. I’m interested to see how they do without three of their biggest defensive stars in 2010, to see if they really are at the level where they can just reload the way the great programs do.

TCU will face Baylor in 2010 and 2011, and they add Texas Tech in 2011 as well. If they want to get national championship invites over a team from, say, the Big 12 with the same record, then they will need to put Texas or Oklahoma on the schedule in a year when that team wins 10 other games, or alternatively try to face USC or a high-level SEC opponent. Indeed, with Boise State facing both Oregon State and Virginia Tech in 2010, they probably wouldn’t even be first on the pecking order amongst non-AQ teams trying to get their first title berth ever, or competing for that lone at-large bid in a season where the AQ conferences field one or two more elite teams than they did this year. However, if their strategy is to merely avoid getting passed over by a team with a worse record a-la what happened to Utah last season or Boise State in 2006, then a schedule like they faced in 2009 and will face in 2010 is just the ticket for doing that (which very nearly worked out for the Frogs this season as Texas and Cincy both squeaked by in week 14).

[probable followup with more detailed analysis coming in the weeks following the Fiesta Bowl]

One of the last games of the year, the Sun Bowl has had its share of good games and good stories in recent history – Oregon rebounding from the devastating loss of Dennis Dixon to win big in 2007, Oregon State making a huge 4th quarter comeback against Missouri and memorably going for two rather than sending the game to overtime… in fact, no game in the last eleven years has been decided by more than 12 points, and only two had double digit margins. Of course, close isn’t always good, as last year’s 3-0 win by Oregon State over Pitt was a complete disaster of a game, all the way down to the 1/4 FG line, but hey that shouldn’t happen this year, right? I mean, it’s not like one team has a great defense but at the same time has been completely decimated by injuries on the offensive… oh wait. But nah, this’ll be a good game! We promise!

Oklahoma

The 2009 season was not a kind one for the Oklahoma Sooners. Already having lost All-American TE Jermaine Gresham in the offseason, Heisman QB Sam Bradford suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of week 1 that effectively ended his college career, as he briefly returned only to have it re-aggravated in the first quarter of the Red River Rivalry. The Sooner defense picked up the slack for much of the early season, even in losses, holding Texas to their second-lowest points total of the season, and only three times all year did the opposition break 20 points against this unit, with the Texas Tech game being a 41 point blip on the radar as a tribute to Mike Leach’s genius. (For those who just watched Nebraska shut out Arizona while holding the Wildcats to 36 total yards until their final drive, realize that Leach’s offense scored 31 against that same defense in what was by far their worst outing of the season. Great move, getting rid of him.)

Indeed, when we go to the stat sheet, we quickly see that Oklahoma is 7th in the nation in both scoring and total defense, 8th against the run, and 22nd against the pass which is pretty good considering the style of offenses run in the Big 12 (plus BYU on the schedule); the defensive pass efficiency is 9th. This defense is outstanding at all positions, particularly linebacker where Travis Lewis leads the team in tackles and Ryan Reynolds’ return from a midseason injury last year has clearly reinvigorated the unit. One does wonder what the 2008 season would have been like for Oklahoma had the defense played even close to this good. Surprisingly just three Sooners made the all-conference first team defense (Gerald McCoy, Lewis, and Dominique Franks) although another three made the second team.

This is contrasted by an offense that placed just two skill position players on the second team offense ( DeMarco Murray, Ryan Broyles) and lineman Trent Williams was the lone Sooner of the conference first team offense. Landry Jones’ struggles at QB will take a lot of blame for that, but the fact is also that OU’s offensive line has been brutalized often by opposing defenses. Indeed, Bradford was repeatedly hit by BYU, not known as a physical defense, and pocket pressure was a season-long issue for the offense. In a loss to Texas in which the defense played very well and Jones played as well as you could ask at the time, the offense was held to -16 yards on the ground, with big losses from sacks and no real gains in the running game to offset that. I’m not even that interested in the stats, as OU blew out some of the creampuffs on their schedule to pad those, but in conference losses against Texas, Nebraska, and Texas Tech, this unit scored a total of 29 points.

Stanford

Stanford is quite the opposite. Behind Toby Gerhart, a Heisman finalist at RB, the Cardinal boast the nation’s #11 rushing offense, and at least nine of the teams above them are either midmajors, run the option, or both. Stanford runs a straight ahead, physical attack featuring the #2 yardage running back in the nation, and tops in rushing touchdowns. The Cardinal are 10th in scoring and 13th in total yardage. Freshman QB Andrew Luck has had a respectable season, doing enough to keep defenses from stacking up too much against the ground attack, with his primary target Ryan Whalen hauling in 861 yards for the season. Beware Toby Gerhart throwing the ball as well, with a 581 passer rating on the year, absolutely devastating opposing secondaries… okay, he’s thrown one pass. Got it in the end zone though. Along with Gerhart, lineman Chris Marinelli was named to the all-conference’s first team offense, and TE Jim Dray and lineman Chase Beeler received second team honors.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals are a bit softer on the defensive side. Coming in at #66 in scoring and #85 in total yardage, thanks largely to the nation’s #105 pass defense, the defense has been the culprit in three of the Cardinal’s four losses. In each of these conference losses, the offense scored at least 28 points, and every time it wasn’t enough to offset a poor defensive effort. Even in some wins the defense looked bad, such as a 51-42 near-comeback by Oregon, or a 45-38 shootout against Notre Dame. It may not be surprising that not a single Cardinal player was named to the all-conference defense.

What to Expect

Well, don’t look at me! In November, Stanford followed huge wins over Oregon and USC with a completely unexpected loss to Cal, then survived a shootout with a Notre Dame squad led by a lame-duck coach. That same month, Oklahoma beat Texas A&M and rival Oklahoma State by a combined 92-10, but lost to Nebraska and Texas Tech by a combined 51-16. Frankly I have no idea what kind of performance to expect from either team in this one, let alone how the two are going to compete against each other on the field.

All I can say is that this is a bowl game, and one of these is a Bob Stoops team.

Pick: (heads) Stanford

Missouri

The Missouri Tigers were expected to suck hard after losing Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin, and pretty much everybody except Derrick Washington from the 2008 offense. I took Illinois in week 1 of my pick’em league and was shocked as Missouri not only won the game, but did so a lot more comfortably than any of Daniel’s squads did. (2009 ended up being a surprising year for both of those teams, in very different ways) A tough stretch in October brought this team down to more of the level we might have expected in a rebuilding year, although certainly a loss to Robert Griffin-less Baylor was a huge surprise. Since falling to 5-4, the Tigers have won their last three although against questionable opposition.

Gabbert isn’t exactly doing what Chase Daniel did his last two seasons, but he is completing 60% of his passes to the tune of 275 ypg and a 23-7 ratio to lead the #12 passing offense in the NCAA. By far his favorite target has been Danario Alexander, who averages 137 ypg receiving and has caught 13 touchdowns. Mizzou’s next-leading receiver, Jared Perry, has about half those totals.

Defensively Missouri is very average in both scoring and yardage defense, and with this offense they’ll take that. Sean Weatherspoon is the standout middle linebacker who has made first team all-conference in two consecutive seasons, and he’ll obviously be a big factor in trying to defend Navy’s triple option.

If it comes down to it, kicker Grant Ressel was first-team all conference in a league with some pretty good kickers, making an outstanding 24 of 25 FG tries and all 38 of his PATs. But unlike during the Maclin years, Missouri does not have a touchdown from a kickoff return nor from a punt return.

Navy

Two years after his departure, Navy is still running Paul Johnson’s base offense with great results. The Midshipment started the season with a trip to Ohio State and were in position to send the game to overtime when Ricky Dobbs threw an interception on the pivotal two-point conversion which was returned for a Buckeye score in a 31-27 loss. At the time, I felt like the Midshipment should have run the midline option as a called QB iso as the Buckeyes hadn’t shown any ability to stop this play all game. In overtime, with offensive possessions starting at the 25 and with this offense… who knows? Certainly not us, and with a tough opening schedule that also included Pitt, Navy started out 1-2. Since then, the Middies have won eight of ten including a sweep of the Commander in Chief’s trophy, a win over ACC foe Wake Forest, and a huge win over Notre Dame, the program’s second victory over the Irish in three seasons.

The Midshipment are rather the opposite of the Tigers, with the nation’s #4 rushing offense (272 ypg) and all the way down at #120, the passing offense. Scoring is average at #60, but with the 6th-highest time of possession in the country, the effect of this is better than you might expect. The Middies rank #21 in scoring defense, and part of that can be attributed to just keeping the ball away from the other team.

QB Ricky Dobbs is the focal point of this offense. As its leading rusher, he keeps on just under half of the plays and has scored 24 of its 40 rushing TDs. Vince Murray is his top choice for the give, carrying for about 13 attempts a game and 71 yards. Marcus Curry and Alexander Teich round out the heart of the running attack, carrying about 6 times per game apiece for another 80 yards in all.

The 21st-ranked scoring defense is anchored by a pair of senior linebackers, with Ross Pospisil leading the team with 98 tackles. Unfortunately for this matchup, the Midshipmen are a little better against the run (#38) than they are against the pass (#47 yards, #52 efficiency) and Missouri is going to throw the ball a lot. The team has picked off 11 passes this season, just about average.

What to Expect

Honestly I’m not sure what to expect here. My suspicion is that Missouri will have difficulty with the triple option, as many teams do, but that Navy will have difficulty against Missouri’s spread passing attack as they’re not particularly dominant up front to produce the kind of game Nebraska did against Mizzou, nor do they have five or six good DBs where they can just absorb the Tigers’ four receiver sets.

As with many Navy games against solid offenses, the key factor here may simply be the Midshipmen’s ability to play keep-away, as they did so successfully against Notre Dame (at least for three quarters).

Pick: Tossup. Let’s say Missouri… go-go conference homerism!

Arizona

Though the Wildcats finished behind both Stanford and Oregon State in the polls, some inane technicality of a tiebreaker called “head to head games” (the Big 12 conference gives a puzzled look at that one) gave Arizona the conference’s slot in this one.

If you look over Arizona’s offensive stats, you’ll find a team that ranks somewhere between 39 and 45 in the NCAA pretty much everywhere. They’re a little above average at everything, not particularly strong in any overarching area. For this program’s standards, they’ll absolutely take that. Before Sonny Dykes came to AU from Texas Tech in 2007, the Wildcats’ offense had averaged just 16 ppg to sabotage a pretty good defensive unit in 2006, leading to a 6-6 record with no bowl berth. Two years later the team won their bowl game over BYU to finish 8-5, as despite some slip on defense the offense bailed the team out to the tune of 36.6 ppg.

This year’s team lost some experience on that side of the ball, but Nick Foles has stepped up to deliver a solid performance at QB, with a 66% completion percentage and a 132 rating. Keola Antolin gradually replaced Nic Grigsby at RB around midseason, and Greg Nwoko has re-emerged as a short yardage back in recent weeks. Despite the Airraid connection, AU runs the ball about 34 times per game while passing 38, a very balanced attack that also incorporates a sophisticated screen game. The Wildcats don’t seem to have a standout receiver and five players average between 3.1 and 3.9 receptions per game, exactly what we’d expect from an offensive coordinator of Dykes’ pedigree.

Defensively, we’re also not looking at any kind of top unit here, but the Wildcats are 45th in scoring defense and 22nd in total D. They’re perhaps a little better against the run than the pass, and we’re not expecting the latter to hurt them in this particular matchup.

Not a single Wildcat was named to the Pac 10’s first team all-conference, although seven received second-team honors. Indeed, there isn’t a superstar in this bunch, really. But when you’ve got an offense derived from Mike Leach’s system and a defense under Mike Stoops, the schemes and execution are usually solid.

Nebraska

Nebraska is a team many watched take the Pasadena-bound Texas Longhorns to the limit, coming within a second of clinching perhaps the biggest upset yet in a Big 12 championship game. Indeed the Huskers are no strangers to disappointment this season, losing a road game to Virginia Tech in the closing seconds after controlling most of the game, and losing by two points to Iowa State in an eight-turnover debacle. The Huskers shouldn’t get the Holiday Bowl hangover, though… with three losses going into the conference championship, nobody would mistake this team for a top 10 squad nationally even if they had pulled off the upset. Although 9-4 is the same record they finished with a year ago, this team is vastly improved because of their defense, and they should be eager to try to hit 10 wins for the first time since 2003.

Offensively, this is a team in the bottom third of college football. They’re 80th in scoring offense and 101st in total offense… the closest thing to any good news is that they’re 68th in rushing offense with 141 ypg. That’s the work of Roy Helu, the only Husker to be named to the all-coference team (second team) on offense, and Nebraska’s best hope of moving the ball this week. Junior WR Niles Paul is the only Husker averaging over 2 catches per game, and the thing that surprised me the most about Zac Lee’s 13-10 TD-Int ratio as a QB is that he actually threw more TDs than INTs. His three picks are basically the reason they didn’t win the conference championship, and I wouldn’t be surprised to watch him blow a winnable situation against Arizona.

On the other side of the ball is a whole other story. Four Huskers were named to the all-conference first team defense, including AP Player of the Year Ndamukong Suh. With 82 tackles, 12 sacks, 10 pass breakups, 19 hurries, 3 blocked kicks, and an interception, Suh’s stats aren’t that far off from the entire defensive lines at Alabama, Florida, and Texas. So it’s no wonder that the defense ranks 2nd nationally in scoring, 9th in total yards, 10th against the run, and 3rd in pass efficiency. Keep in mind that this is despite the offense typically giving the ball right back to the other team after the defense forces a stop. So if I just said that Lee could easily blow this game on offense, it’s perhaps equally likely that Suh figures out a way to outscore Arizona by himself 9-6 (safety, touchdown, and blocking a late potential tying FG).

Nebraska also fields the Big 12’s all-conference second-team kicker, Alex Henery. Henery has connected on 83% of his FG and 100% of his PAT on the season and hit long kicks from 52, 45, and 43 yards in the conference championship game. In the low-scoring, sloppy game I’d expect in this one, Henery’s leg could be the difference.

What to Expect

Expect ugly. Although Texas Tech was the one team to have offensive success against Nebraska this year, Arizona doesn’t field that caliber of passing attack and Dykes has gone away from the pure Airraid attack. At the same time, NU’s offense has struggled in most of their conference games and the Wildcats should be able to keep this woeful unit bottled up. Three things I look for in this one are a game-changing play by Suh, late-game productivity by Helu, and Huskers’ points in the first three quarters coming from getting Henery in range until one of the former happens.

Pick: Nebraska

Honestly, not a bowl I find particularly interesting. A very quick overview…

Georgia (7-5, 4-4)

By Bulldog standards, the 2009 campaign was a bit of a disappointment, particularly on the defensive side. Georgia ranks 40th nationally in rushing ypg allowed and 33rd against the pass, to come in 30th in total defense and a shocking 70th in scoring defense (26.4 ppg). Though the season started off with a loss, in more tpyical mid-low scoring fashion, consecutive shootout wins over South Carolina and Arkansas in weeks 2 and 3 may have signaled what was to come. Indeed, defensive problems resurfaced throughout the season – in key losses against Tennessee, Florida, and a surprising loss to Kentucky. These collapses as well as the season-long trend of being unable to come up with stops, led to the firing of defensive coordinator Willie Martinez as well as two assistants. While the program may improve from this over the next season, where is obviously some uncertainty as to how the unit will perform on Dec 28.

Offensively, UGA scores just above the nation’s average at 27.7 ppg, despite being only 73rd in total offense. The Bulldogs spent most of November without top WR AJ Green, who is reported as healthy now and expected to start in the bowl game. The timing of this injury is interesting; in games 1-5, Green accounted for 43% of UGA’s offense, and the Bulldogs were extemely one-dimensional in terms of what actually worked. In the three games Green missed, the offense has been much more balanced and perhaps in part due to that, has gone over 400 yards each game. If UGA can maintain that balance when Green returns to the lineup, this team will be much more deadly than they were when they managed just 10 points and 257 yards against Ok State.

What’s also noteworthy is that the running game has found its stride since midseason when Washaun Ealey began getting playing time. Ealey racked up 183 yards on the ground in the big win over Georgia Tech, although he has only found the end zone three times all season.

The story of the year could also be turnovers, where the Bulldogs have forced just 10 while giving up 27.

In marquee nonconference games, the Bulldogs lost their season opener against Oklahoma State 24-10, but ended the year on a positive note, beating in-state rival and ACC champions Georgia Tech 30-24.

Another thing to watch out for with UGA is that Drew Butler is leading the NCAA in punting, with a 48.8 yard average.

Texas A&M (6-6, 3-5)

While 6-6 and a losing record in conference isn’t what Aggies go into a season hoping for, 2009 has been a big step up for a team who finished 4-8 and was blown out by Baylor just a year ago. The improvements have largely come on one side of the ball – the offense. Freshman WR Uzoma Nwachukwu and converted QB Ryan Tannehill are the team’s two leading receivers, and are two of five Aggies who have caught between 31 and 44 receptions on the year. A&M is 5th in the nation in total offense and 14th in scoring offense (33.9 ppg). This has been achieved through a balanced attack – Jerrod Johnson has a QB rating of 140.7 and throws for 268 ypg, and the Aggies as a unit run for 190.4 ypg using a lot of zone read type plays. There is even a little bit of premature talk of Johnson being in the Heisman picture in 2010, but early as that may be, the fact is that he played brilliantly in the Aggies’ biggest game of the regular season and certainly led the offense to the kind of game where they could have knocked off Texas.

Of course, that last sentence should end with “if the defense could have come up with any stops, ever” and that is why the Aggies are 6-6 rather than having 9 or 10 wins. In the month of November, the Aggie offense scored 34, 10, 38, and 39 points in their four games, but the team won only once. TAMU’s defense is 104th in scoring (32.7 ppg) and 107th in total yardage. They’re a little worse against the pass (111th) than the run (88th), although that could be an artifact of the team’s tendency to get into shootouts. About the only thing this defense does well at all is forcing enough turnovers (21) to offset the number the offense gives up, which if nothing else is a lot better than what their upcoming opponent does.

What to Expect?

I think it’s clear that, when Georgia has the ball, they’re going to be moving and scoring. There’s just no indication that the A&M defense can stop anybody with even a semi-competent offense, so look for Ealey and Green in particular to have a field day here.

However, A&M’s offense is certainly capable of making this game into a shootout rather than a blowout. In the final month of the season, A&M went against two top ten defenses – Oklahoma and Texas. The Sooners completely shut down this attack, while the Aggies baffled the Texas defense in what was by far the most success any team has had against the Longhorn defenders all season. Watching that game from start to finish, I can say that there is precisely one reason for that: Jerrod Johnson played an unbelievable game. Avoiding what looked like sure sacks, making throws on the run or backpedaling, he made plays that most QBs can’t make. He allowed the offense to be successful even when things looked good for the defense. Georgia does not have a top ten defense, but it will likely take that kind of effort to put the team over the top in a game where they’re likely to give up 30+ points.

Pick: Georgia

I’m going to focus on the points allowed, because frankly I don’t feel like sifting through hundreds of box scores to look at yardage and yards per play numbers.

Through 11 seasons, every BCS champion has had two things in common statistically speaking – a junior or senior at starting quarterback and a top 10 scoring defense during the regular season. 2007 LSU is the exception to the latter point, but if you only count points scored in regulation (as I did when I analyzed both their offense and their defense), the Tigers were #6 in scoring D so they certainly fit the spirit of the trend. Depending on the result of the Arkansas-LSU game this weekend, Texas’ defense will drop to #9 or #10 in points per game allowed.

Since 2001, only 2008 Florida (30-31 to Ole Miss) has ever given up over 30 points in regulation and gone on to win the BCS. Oklahoma twice allowed 31 points during 2000, Florida State gave up 35 to Georgia Tech in 1999, and Tennessee gave up 33 to Syracuse in 1998.

Now, the fact that it’s happened to the last BCS champions, as well as the first three, already says to me that this isn’t a harbinger of certain defeat at the hands of the SEC Champions. But my immediate next question was – how many teams have even gone on to lose in the championship game after giving up 39 points in a regular season game? Typically a defensive performance like that results in you losing the game, which makes it very difficult to even play in the BCSCG. Here are the regular season games in which the BCS runners-up surrendered more than 30 points. 39 points or more in bold.

1998 Florida State: only twice allowed more than 20 points
1999 Va Tech: only twice allowed exactly 20 points
2000 Florida State: only twice allowed more than 20 points
2001 Nebraska: 31 points in win over Texas Tech…. 62 points in loss to Colorado
2002 Miami: 45 points in win over Virginia Tech
2003 Oklahoma: 35 points in Big 12 Championship loss to Kansas State
2004 Oklahoma: 35 points each to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M
2005 USC: 31 points to Notre Dame, 42 points to Fresno State
2006 Ohio State: 39 points against Michigan (other games all below 20)
2007 Ohio State: 28 points in loss to Illinois (other games all below 20)
2008 Oklahoma: two games over 30 points, and allowed 41 points against Oklahoma State. I feel like there was another game where they gave up even more than that, but if it ever did happen surely it’s been deleted from the archives.

Since Texas must go unbeaten in order to play for the MNC this year, comparisons to 2008 Oklahoma are off. (Besides, their defense allowed lots of points on a weekly basis. Texas Tech’s 24 is the only other time anyone has broken 20 against Texas.) Same goes for 2001 Nebraska, whose 62 points allowed to Colorado were not only a whole other level of defensive collapse, but also resulted in the losing the game. As it turns out, only three teams have even been able to go undefeated and play in the championship game after allowing 39 or more points in regulation. If the nature of this win puts Texas in the same category as 2002 Miami and 2005 USC, I’m okay with that. Doesn’t that more or less indicate what we thought back in August – that they’re a team who is capable of playing for the title but won’t be expected to knock off Florida? Nothing’s changed; this was simply the one game all year when McCoy and the offense have had to carry the team.

All of that isn’t to simply write off this performance, however. If nothing else, Florida now has an exact gameplan for how to beat the Texas defense. The fact that it revolves around a running quarterback is particularly troubling, and I’ll go as far as to say that if Tim Tebow makes the volume of plays that Jerrod Johnson did, Texas will almost surely lose. Given that Tebow is a Heisman winner, most touchdowns scored in SEC history, Jesus’ younger brother, etc etc etc… that’s a definite possibility.

But again, wasn’t that always the case that if Tebow has a monster game, Texas really wouldn’t have much chance to put up 40+ against the Florida defense? Jerrod Johnson is obviously no Tim Tebow, but his gameplay on 11/26/09 was better than anything I’ve seen from Tebow in 2009. Johnson typically plays a few levels below this, which is why A&M came into this game with 6 wins rather than 10, but it was one of the better quarterback performances of the season – not just the stats, but making throws from a full sprint or off his back foot, completing passes into double coverage, the guy was on fire. This is what Terrelle Pryor was supposed to be capable of.

And yet, the offense was up to the task, and the special teams provided the difference. Pretty much what we expected back in August.

[SGE:] And we’ve got what he was really thinking.

What are looking for from your team down the stretch?

We are looking for some inexperienced guys to play better and to play at a winning level. Just more consistently, regardless of our injuries. We have 11 guys out there. We need to play well. Just more consistency in how they play.

Tears. Crying. But not out loud.

Do you think your team has been snake-bitten?

I don’t like to say that, but obviously it has been an incredibly unusual situation with this many injuries. And, really, almost all of them are on offense.

No, I think they’re just bad at football. After that frightful documentary, we check our team plane to make sure there aren’t any snakes on it, so I don’t think that’s been an issue.

Have you ever been a part of something like this in all of your years?

No. Not at all.

You mean a complete implosion/trainwreck? Every January.

Have you talked to anyone about how to deal with it?

No. I don’t think anyone else has been through something like this, either. Not this many [injuries].

No. I don’t have anyone to talk to. Nobody likes me.

Has this been your most difficult year?

Oh, absolutely. With all of the different players being gone at different times, sure. No doubt about it.

Technically, it’s only been as bad as 2005. We haven’t even lost to TCU. (yet?)

What part of team has surprised you in how it has developed?

I wouldn’t say ’surprised,’ but it has been very positive in how we have played defense. Other than losing [end] Auston English, we have stayed healthy and have played really well. That has been a big positive.

How it’s done what?

How is Sam Bradford still helping the team?

Just in his presence and positive attitude and that kind of thing. He’s always around at practice and in meetings. His presence being there — he does all he can, that’s for sure.

Just by hanging out on the sidelines, he reminds our WRs that they used to have a good QB to get them the ball.

What did you say to him after his season ended?

We talked and told him that we appreciated all of his hard work and his commitment here. He was a great teammate to his buddies and a great competitor for us. ? We at least are excited that he’s on his way to healing up again and getting this behind him and moving forward, and hopefully it just continues to go well.

Yeah, you were right, you should have gone into the Draft. My bad.

What has impressed you most about redshirt freshman quarterback Landry Jones?

Just his overall poise and comfort level from the beginning. It wasn’t as evident and he didn’t have a very good game vs. Nebraska [on Nov. 7]. And that’s the first one he hasn’t played at a winning level. Really, up until that game, he was playing awfully well. In that game, for whatever reason, he was off a little bit on some of his inside throws and didn’t play like he had in a bunch of the other games. But, overall, I think he’s had a lot of positive plays for the most part, and hopefully he’ll learn.

A QB needs to be able to forget about his mistakes. Landry’s had a lot of practice here.

Who does he remind you of?

I don’t think guys ever remind me of someone else.

None of out other QBs have sucked this bad. Alternatively, Jason White, but only during BCS games.

What does Jones need to improve?

Just maturity on the field. He’s a young guy. He needs to improve at everything, but that’s to be expected from a freshman who only has played in a few games.

Learn to pump gas.

Does trying to feed the “Oklahoma beast” ever wear on you?

No, that’s what you want. That doesn’t bother me at all, really. When you are in a situation like that, it means you are winning an awful lot. It’s to be expected then.

It’s not that hard, really. You’d be surprised how easy it is to lose to your rival, ride your reputation to a major bowl game, then lose again.

Did you spoil fans by winning that national title in 2000 in just your second season?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe. Whether I did or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad we did it. It doesn’t bother me if we did [spoil them].

The funny thing is, Mike Leach has been gone for 9 or 10 years, and they still think we can win.

Would you like to see a playoff or no playoff?

I could take either one. In the end, it’s not quite as feasible and easy as everyone thinks it would be. So in the end, I would say probably not.

Hell no. Anything where you can advance all the way to the finals on reputation alone is better for Oklahoma rather than having to win one or, god forbid, two games against talented teams just to get to the championship. And then what? You have to win ANOTHER game once you’re there? You do realize that in all these years of playing in prestigious bowls with as an overrated team, we haven’t won three games in total? How the hell are we going to pull it off in one season? In fact I’d rather they just use the BCS formula to determine the champion without the futility of a game afterwards. Big Game Bob: 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2008 Champion coach. How’s that sound to ya?

What would you change about college football?

I’m not going to get into it. I have my opinions on some things, but it wouldn’t be right to put them out there right now. This isn’t the right time to talk about it.

That stupid decision by the Big 12 conference over the summer, to count head-to-head as a tiebreaker between the top two teams. Like we can really beat the best team in the conference!

Also can we go back to the 60s when the champions were decided before bowl season? That whole “having to beat the your bowl opponent” thing hasn’t worked out for us.

How does growing up in blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio, still impact you today?

Just probably that you earn what you get and that you have to work hard for whatever it is you’re after. And it doesn’t come easy and you have to continue to have a great work ethic.

Growing up in Ohio, I don’t have a soul. Can’t you tell?

How often do you talk to your brothers and also to fellow Youngstown native Bo Pelini?

I talk to Mike [the coach at Arizona] and Mark [the defensive coordinator at Arizona] at least once or twice a week. I talk to Bo every now and then.

The last time I talked to Mike, he told me I wasn’t really Mom’s son. She said that’s okay, that doesn’t mean I’m not a part of the family now. I don’t talk to Mike much anymore.

Is this your last coaching stop?

Oh, who knows? I’m not that old, I guess. I haven’t reached 50 yet. So, who knows what’s in store, you know?

When we lose our 10th straight bowl game, they’ll probably fire me.

It was in 2006 that Chris asked me to start writing for a site he’d created called Left Field Bluffs – the specific meaning of which I’ve honestly never known until reading his Reintroduction this week. The first year’s postings were sporadic and fizzled out quickly, so a year or two later we were back with a mutual friend, Russell, to try to provide consistent content about the national NCAAF landscape. Being the only one of us living west of the Mississippi, I naturally took the Big 12 and Pac 10, and had a pretty good time with that.

Somewhere along the way, I got invited on as the Big 12 writer for Fantasy College Blitz, a gig that’s been good fun and kinda made me pay more attention to personnel beyond just my favorite teams, and individual player statistics related to the college game.

When I relocated to DC this past April, Chris and I tossed around the idea of weekly podcasts and expanding the content on our existing site, and eventually decided we’d outgrown the old blogger site we’d come to know. Due to early technical issues and a complete lack of time to deal with them, Simulated Gameday Experience launched about three months later than we’d hoped, but on the plus side now we can get all the kinks ironed out as this season winds down and be all set for an epic 2010. Or so one can hope.