It's that time once again. Another week of rousing sports action and there's plenty to pick apart, love, and hate. As has been customary, we'll start with college football. I'll get to my thoughts on the Heisman in a moment, but first, here are my BCS predictions.

BCS Predictions

National Championship: Florida (12-1) vs Oklahoma (12-1)

This game is similar in many ways to the Championship a few years ago that pitted a terrifying offense (USC) against a team led by a legend that single-handedly ended a dynasty (Vince Young). This year's high-powered offense scored even more points than USC that year, and they have a newly crowned Heisman winner at the helm. On the other side, Tim Tebow's legend grows with every huge win, missionary trip to the Philippines, and Lee Corso tongue bath. He won't let his team lose. I don't think Oklahoma should even be in this game, but since they are they better play their best game of the season or they might get rolled. The Gators beat a very good Alabama team without Percy Harvin, who will be back for this game. Their defense is better than Oklahoma's, and their offenses are pretty much a wash. I think the Gators have too much speed and too much Tebow. The Sooners will take the "most disappointing and overrated team" title from Ohio State, adding to their losses to West Virginia, Boise State, and that 55-19 debacle against USC last time they played in a title game. Chomp chomp.

Prediction: Florida 38, Oklahoma 24

Fiesta Bowl: Texas (11-1) vs Ohio State (10-2)

This is a really bad matchup for the Buckeyes. They don't do particularly well against mobile quarterbacks or elite offenses, and Texas has both. Colt McCoy is the best player in the nation this year and Texas is a national championship caliber squad. Ohio State is not. Terrelle Pryor needs a coming out party similar to Vince Young's against Michigan in his sophomore season if the Buckeyes have any chance. If the defense is as vanilla and passive as it has been in the last two national title games, Ohio State is in for a rough night. The Longhorns are the real deal, and the added motivation of being robbed of their rightful place in the championship game can only help an already superior team. It's going to be another sad January for Buckeye fans.

Prediction: Texas 35, Ohio State 20

Sugar Bowl: Utah (12-0) vs Alabama (12-1)

The annual David vs Goliath matchup is the most intriguing game outside of the national title. Utah comes in undefeated and with something to prove. I was down on Alabama for much of the season because they didn't play anybody, but the effort they put forth in the SEC Championship game showed me that they are much more than smoke and mirrors. They have superior line play and a stable of running backs that can wear down the best defenses. Add in an opportunistic defense and you've got the best smash-mouth team in the country. Utah is good, but they don't have the guys in the trenches that can stop Alabama from running consistently. Then again, nobody thought Boise State could match up with Oklahoma two years ago. Anything can happen in these games, but Alabama's style of play makes the margin for error for their opponents minimal. I think Utah will make one too many mistakes.

Prediction: Alabama 24, Utah 13

Rose Bowl: Penn State (11-1) vs USC (11-1)

This is another poor matchup for the Big Ten. Penn State's Spread HD offense put up a whopping 13 points against a pretty good but not great Ohio State defense, with their only touchdown coming when they had less than half the field to drive. USC's defense destroyed Ohio State and essentially ended Todd Boeckman's career. The Trojans are fast and extremely physical defensively, anchored by superfreaks Rey Maualuga and Taylor Mays. I'd be surprised if the Nittany Lions' offense gets off the ground. USC's offense hasn't been as good as their early season performances promised, but they'll be good enough. USC shows up to play in bowl games, and with this game essentially being at home, they should add another Rose Bowl trophy to the case.

Prediction: USC 31, Penn State 10

Orange Bowl: Cincinnati (11-2) vs Virginia Tech (9-4)

When you can get two teams with a combined six losses into a BCS game, it's a real treat. What I'll be watching out for is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Heisman Fail

This time last year I wrote an article detailing why the voters got it right when they chose Tim Tebow as the Heisman winner. At least, I mentioned it somewhere in my verbal destruction of the ESPN crew who was barely able to stop drooling over him long enough to award the stiff-arm trophy. This year, the vote was incredibly close, with Tebow getting the most first place votes yet finishing third. As if the Texas Longhorns and their fans didn't already think the NCAA has a vast conspiracy against them, the Heisman went to the second best quarterback in the Big 12. Colt McCoy said and did all the right things this week, but he has to be torn up inside about the epic double snub he has been given in the last seven days.

All McCoy did was lead an offense with less talent than Tebow's and Bradford's to similar success, beating Bradford in the head-to-head matchup. He completed a much higher percentage of his passes than Bradford, despite Bradford's reputation as an ultra-accurate passer. He narrowly outrushed Tebow, adding 10 touchdowns on the ground and leading the Longhorns in rushing. In the toughest games he came up the biggest, dismantling every Big 12 competitor with the exception of Texas Tech, and all he did against the Red Raiders was lead his team back from a 19-point road deficit to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. McCoy's numbers stacked up with Tebow and Bradford, but because he did it with less around him and was the best player on the field in every game he played for a nearly undefeated team, he should have been holding the trophy when the night was over. As Sam Bradford put it over and over in his acceptance speech, last night was "unreal".

The NFL's Greatest Game? Give Me a Break.

Following the Heisman presentation last night, ESPN put on a colorized, high definition restoration of the 1958 NFL title game between the Colts and Giants. It was a pretty cool idea and, for the most part, was well-executed. Players from the '58 game sat down with the guys who play their positions on the current incarnations of the franchises. It was interesting to hear how the old-timers had regular jobs during the offseason and how little they made compared to today's players. Art Donovan was particularly fun to listen to because he had some funny insight and his ears always make me giggle like a school girl. My problem wasn't with the idea or the execution, it's with the moniker that game has been given.

It's all the rage for older people to reminisce about the good old days when life was simpler and, if you listen to anybody old enough to remember JFK, far superior to today's go go go, overly connected American lifestyle. At this point, I've had it. I'm sure life was better when bread cost a nickel and your friends' phone numbers were a single digit, but shut up about it already. Your "greatest generation" won World War II and stopped fascism, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. But you also sprayed black people with fire hoses and to this day show a general intolerance towards anything new. Giving the '58 championship game the title of the greatest game ever is a farce. Watching the game, I was amazed how haphazardly the players swung the ball about as they ran. In the first half there were four lost fumbles. Four freaking fumbles!? When was the last time that happened in a Super Bowl?

Ask most guys that played ball before it was the cool thing to do about the old days and they'll tell you, ad nauseum, about how pure the game was and how the fundamentals were stressed. The guys never celebrated and there was no T.O. prima donna stuff. But the fact is that the product is better than it's ever been. 1958 paved the way for the expansion of the NFL's popularity, but the greatest game ever it was not. We tend to romanticize the past, forgetting all the bad and exaggerating the good. This game is a perfect example.

My grandpa used to play quarterback when he was in his teens, and I was asking him what made him a good quarterback. Then it dawned on me. When he was playing QB, the forward pass hadn't been invented! So what qualifies you as a good quarterback if the passing game doesn't exist? What a boring game that must have been. I bet you're going to run the ball! I then took my line of questioning towards other sports and managed to extract his hatred for the three point shot and the dunk in basketball. Why does he hate these things? Because it is the mantra of the elderly that new ideas can never improve anything. The cell phone is the devil's work! Change is scary! Sorry old people, but the Greatest Game Ever is a lie, the forward pass is fantastic, and dunking is better than even the sweetest mid-range jumper. Think about this the next time you scold a celebrating player over a hot cup of Sanka: if the past was so great, then why did we change anything?

Send comments, questions, love or hate to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Lloyds Apple said:

	I'm not sure if Texas scores 35 on Ohio State. I like Texas but like Ohio State at -10. Pryor could be officially unleashed. I agree with McCoy as the Heisman. But really, I'm just glad Tebow did not repeat so Archie still has his record 2 heismans. I pretty much agree with everything. I want to like Cincinnati but VTech is playing well.
	report abuse vote down vote up

December 14, 2008
Votes: +0

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment