Pick your metaphor

Oh yeah, I suppose I should address our game this weekend.

Sigh.

It wasn't good. The offense played hot potato with the football. The special teams were sub-par. There were many poor or questionable coaching decisions. And the defense couldn't catch a cold.

After each of our previous losses this season, I've tried to look at the big picture. Although we still have a chance to make a bowl game and show improvement this season, the overall numbers are not good, and it does seem like they will improve anytime soon. O fer October in two years. 3-10 in Big Ten play. Out gained by every BCS opponent this year.

So where do we go from here? This loss has definitely brought out the pitchforks in some places and there are plenty of people who want to jettison Rich Rod now. But if you listen to comments made by school president Mary Sue Coleman, that's not going to happen this or next year. He's here through 2011, unless he chooses to leave, which is also unlikely given that he'd owe us a big buyout if he quit.

Personally, I'm glad the people in power have some patience. As frustrating as the last two years have been, firing RR now would put the program back and would potentially extend our walk in the wilderness. While I still support the coach, I have a hard time arguing now with those who say he's a bad fit here or will never be successful here.

Other thoughts:
-It's amazing to watch all the SEC slappies in the media get all over Iowa for trailing Indiana after three quarters, or for getting some questionable calls in the game. Didn't Alabama need a last second blocked field goal to beat a mediocre Tennessee team (hello, we lost at home to UCLA), and didn't Florida get some referee gifts to beat Arkansas? Now, I'm not saying that Iowa should be ranked ahead of those teams, it's just that the vitriol pointing there way seems out of place.
-Wow, Oregon. Chip Kelly's gonna get some coach of the year consideration, which is amazing since after week one, it looked like he was in over his head. Now that's what the spread option offense is supposed to look like.
-MSU's loss at Minnesota was almost as bad as Michigan's at Illinois. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it still puts them in a bad position. They now need to beat either Penn State at home or Purdue on the road to go bowling (assuming they beat WMU). I don't understand why Keith Nichol is still getting any playing time. I also don't see how you give up 42 points to a team that has 17 penalties for over 150 yards. Dantonio's lucky that Michigan has been so bad the last two years. Otherwise the main local story this year would be about the "Same Old Spartans".
-The Pizza Pizza bowl must be licking their chops. With both Michigan and MSU looking like they won't get above six wins, if they make it that far, there's a non-zero chance that they could get one of the two local teams. With CMU still in the running for the MAC title, they have a good chance to sell out Ford Field. Anyone interested in watching CMU carve up Michigan's secondary? How about MSU-CMU II?

Why Texas should be in the Big 12 Championship game (and other assorted takes)

This is a place that I'm sure that Big 12 ADs wish they'd never be in. A three-way tie to be broken by the BCS poll, and by extension, by voters in the coaches and Harris poll, many of whom might have a vested interest in one team or another. It has been pointed out elsewhere that Mack Brown, if he chose to do so, could vote OU out of the poll, thereby putting Texas in the championship game.

That being said, it is the system they have, and two out of the three teams will be unfairly snubbed. In my mind, the team that should get the nod is Texas.

It's clear that Oklahoma has the best offense in the conference, and maybe the best in the country. They have scored over 60 points in their last four games, and over 50 in 8 of 12. Their offensive line is dominating everyone in sight, Sam Bradford is clinical in his accuracy, they have a gaggle of talented running backs and receivers and you get the feeling they could name their score in just about every game.

But it's just as clear that Texas has the best defense in the conference. Texas is the only one of the contenders that has played all the top teams in the conference (OU, Texas, Tech, Kansas and Missouri -- although Nebraska is probably better than KU), and has held each on of them to less points than their season average. They are first in the conference in Scoring, Rushing, and Total Defense, and second in Pass Efficiency Defense.

Each of the three teams went 4-1 in their toughest five games, but Texas played only 2 of those at home, with a road win at Kansas, a neutral game win against OU, and a road loss to Texas Tech. OU played 3 of five at home, with only the road win at OSU and loss to Texas away from Norman. Tech also played three games at home, with the road loss to OU and a win against Kansas. Furthermore, Texas played the second half of their only loss without their best defensive player, Brian Orakpo. Does OU win the Bedlam game if Bradford goes down in the second half? Bottom line, the best two teams in the league played on a neutral field and Texas won. End of story.

Other stuff:
-I found it appropriate that Minnesota lost its last game at the Metrodome 55-0 to Iowa. When The Gophers started playing their home games at the Hubert H. Humphrey, they were one of the top 15 teams all-time, having won almost 64% of their games. Since that time they have won only 41.67% of the time. They are .520 at home, which is inflated quite a bit by a number of FCS and lower FBS opponents. They were 0-12 in the battle for the Little Brown Jug, and 0-11 against the Buckeyes. Attendance at the off-campus facility was awful, centering around 40 to 45k out of 64k capacity for most of their history there. This is not to say that the new on-campus facility will cure all that ails Gopher football, but it's a good place to start.
-I also can't help but think there is some sort of metaphor for Gopher Football in this story.
-For all of those making fun of the ACC this year, better get your licks in now, because it looks like it will be much improved next year. Miami and FSU are young and very athletic. Cutcliffe has done a great job at Duke. Carolina will be better if Butch Davis doesn't bolt. Clemson might finally stop being so wildly inconsistent with a new coaching staff in place. And Paul Johnson has done wonders at Georgia Tech this year. Give him one more year to perfect his offense, and it will be nearly unstoppable (if it isn't already)
-BTW, for the first time in forever, the ACC had a winning record against the SEC this year, despite Florida's demolishing of FSU and Miami. They've jumped ahead of both the SEC and the Big 12 in the most recent Golden Rankings (to be posted later today).
-Although I'd like to see USC play somewhere other than the Rose Bowl, I'm glad that Penn State gets a crack at them. Anyone who wants to include USC in the championship discussion should include Penn State since the Knitknees beat Oregon State by 31 and USC lost by a TD to them.
-One of things I enjoy about the Thanksgiving weekend is watching the Michigan High School championship football games from Ford Field. Eight games involving teams from throughout the state running all sorts of offenses, from pro-set, to the spread option, to the wing-T, and even to the single-wing. It's like a walk through the history of offensive football. This year it was a big year for the western side of the state, with three teams from Muskegon winning championships, along with East Grand Rapids, Holland, and Rockford.

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity

Greetings to my regular readers out there (all three of you), sorry about the absence of comments in the last week or so. Family took a short vacation on the west coast of Michigan in a pleasant little town of South Haven. Despite the lack of snow (what global warming?), it was a very relaxing little getaway.
-Of course one of the drawbacks of this trip was the lack of consistent internet access, and an inability to keep up with all of the various comments on all the games and goings-on in college football. As it turns out this isolation turned out to be a blessing in disguise given the results of the Rose Bowl.
-You would think as a lifelong Michigan fan, I would be used to Rose Bowl losses by now. In my lifetime Michigan has won four Rose Bowls, two of which I attended, and has lost eleven. But each loss is different and brings renewed pain. This loss was frustrating because it seemed like we added nothing to the offensive or defensive packages for this game. We made no halftime adjustments. No screens, no draws, no misdirection, nothing to account for USC’s constant blitzing that was destroying our offensive flow. I didn’t think our defense played with much intensity, especially after USC got up a TD. They showed little or none of the fire they had in the first 11 games of the year. I don’t think this was an unstoppable USC offense, or an immovable defense. We simply got out-coached.
-That being said, you won’t ever find me calling for Lloyd Carr to be fired. Carr is a man of integrity and is a great representative of the university. He’s pretty mediocre as an X-O guy, but he is a great recruiter, a good teacher, and a good role model for our student athletes. I think when Carr finally steps down, the chance that we get a coach who is better than Carr are not that great, maybe 5-10%. The chance that we get a coach who is measurably worse than Carr is greater than 50%. I take issue with what Herbstreit and Mush-burger were saying during the Rose Bowl broadcast about “the Michigan bloggers” being hard on Carr. I would not consider myself a full-fledged blogger, but most, if not all the Michigan blogs I read would not call for Carr’s ouster. There was quite a bit of mainstream media claiming that Lloyd Carr was under fire, when in fact that was never the case. The only ones talking about Carr getting heat were the national media. Now them seem to have figured out that the powers that be at Michigan will allow Carr to choose his departure time, they have decided to blame “bloggers” for what was really their fabrication. Check out this post at MGoBlog for a better explanation of this (down lower, below the college hockey stuff).
-My New Year’s Day was saved somewhat by the remarkable Fiesta Bowl win by Boise State. What a fantastic game! That game demonstrates the need for a playoff that includes all of the league champions, not just the BCS teams. Plus one, four team, eight team, all of those formats would have left the Broncos out in the cold. They could be the best team in the country for all we know.
-As I am writing this, The Florida Gators are putting the finishing touches on a shocking dismantling of the OSU *uckeyes. What amazed me the most is how unprepared the Buckeyes looked on defense. I understand why they struggled on offense once they lost Ted Ginn and fell way behind. But I would have thought that they would have practiced for Florida’s short passing game, and would have run more nickel and dime coverages to get faster DBs in the game instead of slower LBs. I also thought they would have blitzed more. I know the Florida’s offense throws a lot of different looks at you, but Jim Tressel is generally the best in the country at preparing his team to play. Or at least he was prior to this year. There’s a reason why he won three national championships at Youngstown State and was 4-1 in bowls. But Urban Meyer just totally out-coached him.
-Meyer has to be considered to be the top coach in the country right now. Two years at BGSU to turn 2-9 to 9-2. Two years at Utah to go 13-0 with a BCS win. Two years at Florida to win a national title. If he can recruit and doesn’t get wanderlust, he could create a real dynasty at Florida.
-Of course Florida is now the answer to the ultimate trivia question: The only school to win College Football and College Basketball titles in the same calendar year. Considering only five other schools have won both titles all time (UCLA, Ohio State, Syracuse, Michigan State and Michigan), that’s not likely to be duplicated anytime soon.
-Speaking of wanderlust, Nick Saban leaves the Dolphins to return to college ball. He swears this time he’s going to stick around for a while. No way is he in Tuscaloosa when the contract runs out. This guy makes Larry Brown look like a homebody. I understand why folks down Baton Rouge might have a slightly higher opinion of him, but I don’t see how he is worth $4 million a year, or whatever it is he got. I don’t think he’s one of the five best coaches in the country, I’m not even sure if he’s one of the ten best.
-Since Florida has locked up #1, the question turns to, who is #2? I think good arguments could be made for three teams: USC, LSU, and Boise State. The case for Boise is about giving the little guy a fair shake. They probably would get beat by the other two, but they did win every game they played, and no other team can say that. Heck you could argue that they should be #1 for the same reason. I think USC had the best quality wins, with four wins over teams with 10 or more wins, but they also lost to worse teams than LSU. I think that USC did better than LSU against two common opponents, Arkansas and Notre Dame (margin of victory 56 points vs 33 points). But I think Jamarcus Russell would be the best player on the field in a fictional matchup between the two teams.
-I wanted to comment about a recruiting matter. Joseph Barksdale, one of the top DT prospects in the country from Detroit Cass Tech committed to LSU at the Army All-Star game. Barksdale has been all over the map with his comments and leanings the last 10 months or so. At one time or another he listed Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan State as his leader. In the end, UM, ND, and MSU all backed away from him. I don’t know if he ever mentioned LSU as one of his favorites. I don’t know if all this means anything or not, but it is the type of behavior which makes you wonder exactly what is going on.
-Loved the Dallas/Seattle ending. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer team or a nicer coach.
-I was kinda surprised by the Glen Mason firing. I understand the frustration at that loss, but Mason really has brought that program up from the depths. That being said, Minnesota is an athletic program that really has more tradition than people realize. For the first 60 years of the 20th century, they were on of the top programs in the country in just about every sport. They have a good baseball program, and perhaps the number one hockey program. They may seem like a mid-level Big Ten program to most, but I can see how those inside the program might expect more. I think they’re wrong, but what do I know.
-I included my updated college basketball rankings. Now that the college football season is done, I will try and do a full basketball comments.