Blacksburg, Va. – Drat.
Right when I was sharpening my scimitar for a third straight November of carving up the Bowl Championship Series like a Cornish game hen, two unbeatens lose and the BCS appears headed for a controversy-free season.
That will mean two lone, unbeaten teams, No. 2-ranked Texas and top-ranked Southern California, will be meeting for a national title in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4.
How neat. How quaint. How unfortunate.
Those of us pushing for a Plus-One system – one more game pitting the top two teams after the bowl games – were hoping for three or more unbeatens at season’s end. More controversy might mean more change, significant change.
“It’s about as clear as it can be this time of year unless someone loses,” analyst Jerry Palm of collegebcs.com said.
Yes, there are three unbeatens. But fourth-ranked Alabama (9-0) has lost its best receiver to injury and has scored one offensive touchdown in its past 13 quarters in the Southeastern Conference. Coach Mike Shula has held this team together with love, defense and duct tape.
If you think that will hold against No. 5 Louisiana State (7-1), then No. 15 Auburn (7-2) and either No. 9 Georgia (7-1) or No. 12 Florida (7-2) in the SEC title game, you have houndstooth in your wardrobe.
The pity of it all is unless Texas (9-0) loses, we’ll probably never see Miami defend USC (9-0). I’ve seen USC twice, Texas twice and Miami twice, and third-ranked Miami has by far the best defense in the country. Saturday’s 27-7 dismantling of previously unbeaten Virginia Tech convinced me that Miami could at least slow a Trojans team leading the country with nearly 600 yards and 50 points a game.
An unbeaten Texas deserves the Rose Bowl berth, but Miami has held its last five opponents to fewer than 200 yards and forced Marcus Vick, the nation’s second-ranked passer before Saturday, into one of the worst games in Division I-A all season.
“This puts us right where we want to be,” Miami coach Larry Coker said. “Down the stretch, a lot of crazy things can happen.”
We can only hope.
Mediocrity at Nebraska
When Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson fired Frank Solich two years ago to stem creeping mediocrity, he never thought he would buy into the exact definition with the hiring of Bill Callahan.
Callahan’s record: 10-10.
Nebraska’s rapidly snarling fans can blame Callahan’s slowly evolving West Coast offense all it wants, but defense has dropped the Cornhuskers to what could be the cellar of the Big 12 North. In Saturday’s pratfall at Kansas, Nebraska gave up 428 yards to the worst offense in the Big 12.
This is the same defense that returned nearly every starter a year ago and finished eighth in the league, and in its past three games – all losses – has given up 429 yards and 37 points a game. Callahan is openly questioning the defense’s toughness.
“Our overall intensity on defense was not up to standard,” he said. “It was disturbing. I didn’t see the passion you want playing on the road.”
Oh, yes, the offense still stinks. It doesn’t have a first down in its past two first quarters.
Bad news Bruins
Which was a bigger fraud, Milli Vanilli or UCLA? Finally a team with a decent defense didn’t panic when the Bruins started their patented comeback. Mike Stoops has quietly built a very good D at Arizona, and now his terrific offensive recruits are surfacing.
But if Mike Bell and Gilbert Harris each rush for more than 100 yards on UCLA, when combined they barely averaged that much coming into the game, what will USC’s Reggie Bush and LenDale White do to the Bruins on Dec. 3?
Terrible Temple
Don’t feel sorry for Temple. We appreciate outgoing coach Bobby Wallace’s honesty, but should he really announce on ESPN that 95 percent of his players didn’t get another Division I-A scholarship or, after Saturday’s 51-3 loss to Virginia, say the Owls “could play Virginia 19 times and 20 times it would be just like that”?
The 0-10 Owls are last nationally in scoring (9.0) and scoring defense (46.0).
Footnotes
USC coach Pete Carroll is 14-0 in November; UCLA’s Karl Dorrell is 1-9 in November and beyond. … With Kansas ending its 36-year skid to Nebraska, the longest losing streak is Navy’s 41 straight losses to Notre Dame, which hosts the Midshipmen on Saturday. … Tulane has played eight games in eight stadiums. Navy comped its hotel rooms Saturday, and even gave the players gift boxes in their rooms. … First-year coach Bill Cubit, the former Stanford offensive coordinator, has lifted Western Michigan to bowl eligibility at 6-3 after it went 1-10 last year and was picked last in the Mid-American West. Also eligible is Central Florida (6-3), which entered the season with a 15-game losing streak. … Why will Penn State win the Big Ten? It held Minnesota’s Laurence Maroney and Wisconsin’s Brian Calhoun, the Big Ten’s top two rushers, to 48 yards and 38, respectively.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
