Remember Gary Crowton, whose claim to fame around here is that he nearly ran BYU football into the ground? Don’t look now, but he has resurfaced as one of the best and gutsiest offensive coordinators in the country.
LSU coach Les Miles is getting knighted for punting rationality and throwing a dangerous pass instead of playing it safe for a go-ahead field goal. The college football world knows what happened next. Freshman Bertrand Lee hit Brandon LaFell on a swing pass that went for an 18-yard touchdown with 1:03 left to beat No. 10 Auburn 26-21.
So instead of only having to get past midfield for a game-winning field goal, Auburn had to go the length of the field for a touchdown. It wasn’t close. Miles is getting the credit, but Crowton made the call. Miles merely signed off on it.
“It was calculated,” said Crowton, a Colorado State alumnus. “I didn’t think it was a risky gamble. We had confidence in our kids.”
Crowton, 51, didn’t disappear when BYU fired him in 2004 after three straight losing seasons. He went to Oregon, installed the spread and produced the ninth-ranked offense in the country in 2006. Then he went to LSU, where his players dubbed him “The Wizard” after a school-record 541 points and the national title.
Some head coaches maybe just belong as assistants. Speaking of whom . . .
Trouble in West Virginia.
No coach has gone from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than West Virginia’s Bill Stewart. Suddenly, Mountaineers fans are agreeing with national critics who claimed West Virginia’s brass, needing good news after Rich Rodriguez’s getaway, made a knee-jerk decision by removing Stewart’s interim label after he led that 48-28 Fiesta Bowl rout of Oklahoma last season.
Who can blame the fans? His performance in Thursday night’s nationally televised 17-14 overtime loss to Colorado was one of the worst anyone has ever seen. Tied 14-14, he had the ball at his own 44 with 51 seconds left, two timeouts and Pat White, the best running quarterback in the nation, at the helm.
Two short passes took 29 seconds and put the ball on the Colorado 47. West Virginia didn’t take a timeout until four seconds remained after Noel Devine lost a yard. Stewart, not wanting to give CU the ball back with time left, still had a timeout when White’s Hail Mary pass failed miserably.
Mountaineers websites are already calling for Stewart’s head. It’s not just that ESPN’s cameras caught him looking lost on the sideline or that he was amateurishly fumbling with his headset or that he was on the outside looking in during a crucial timeout huddle. It was this comment after the game:
“I absolutely wouldn’t change a thing.”
Mitch Vingle, sports editor of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, wrote, “New head coach Bill Stewart has taken a team once resembling a streamlined yacht and turned it into a motorboat. In embarrassing fashion. In front of the college football world.”
BYU, Utah to the wire.
Now that East Carolina has gone from BCS buster to, well, East Carolina, it may be archrivals BYU and Utah going to the wire for the non-BCS teams’ lone spot in a BCS bowl. In Sunday’s USA Today coaches poll, one of three elements used in the BCS ranking formula, BYU (4-0) is 11th and Utah (4-0) is 17th.
Don’t be surprised if BYU gets a third straight shutout for the first time since blanking Western State, Wyoming, Utah State and Montana State to close the 1937 season. The Cougars’ next opponent on Oct. 3, Utah State (1-3), lost to BYU two years ago (38-0), lost to Utah on Sept. 13 (58-10) and is 88th in total offense.
The Pryor Era begins.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel’s plan to split plays 50-50 between senior Todd Boeckman and freshman phenom Terrelle Pryor ended when Pryor started with a hot hand. He finished with four touchdown passes. Boeckman, meanwhile, is merely finished.
Sure, Pryor did it against the easier Troy, but he also was the more effective quarterback in the 35-3 trouncing at Southern California.
“It doesn’t surprise me because I’ve seen a lot of it in practice,” receiver Brian Robiskie said.
Watch Wisconsin.
My dark-horse candidate to make the BCS title game: Wisconsin. The 3-0 Badgers are eighth in the coaches’ poll and get Ohio State and Penn State at home Oct. 4 and 11. They could quietly run the table.
