OK, the bowl season is well underway, and surprisingly, I have only watched two of the games. Here are my thoughts.
-Central Michigan vs. Purdue: Keep in mind, this was the first time I had seen either team play. I realize that one game does not necessarily make for fully informed opinions (the word “opinions” always looks like “onions” to me). That being said, it seemed to me that Purdue was so much better than Central Michigan, it was baffling to figure out how this game came down to a last minute field goal. Considering Purdue had passed for 400 yards with 27 minutes still to play, it seemed like they’d run away with this game.
However, never underestimate the ability of token “scrappy white quarterback who is inexplicably able to run very well” to make things interesting. Central Michigan’s QB Dan LeFevour was like a poor man’s Stephen McGee, and had a horrible arm (despite putting up like 3600 passing yards this year), yet the guy produces. Further examination shows that he had, on statistics alone, arguably one of the 5 best seasons by a quarterback in the history of college football. He’s the only player besides Vince Young to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 3,000 in the same season, and he was one rushing touchdown short of becoming, in the same season, only the second player ever (along with Heisman winner Tim Tebow) to throw and run for 20 touchdowns each in the same year. Insane. Yet when you watch him, he seems kinda lame. Shows how much I know, I guess.
Regardless, Purdue’s offense didn’t belong on the same field as Central Michigan’s defense, and I think they were clearly a better team.
-Arizona St. vs. Texas: This game, as a Texas hater, drove me crazy. Texas is NOT a very good team. They went all season without beating any teams in the top 40, their biggest quality win was over a 7-5 TCU team (at home, and they trailed 10-0 at halftime), and they could barely even beat Arkansas State and Nebraska. Yet of course, they are hailed as a great team, because they are Texas.
It helped them they got to play one of the worst 10-2 teams I think I’ve ever seen. How ASU won 10 games with that quarterback, I’ll never know. He was TERRIBLE. I have never seen a quarterback at a major, successful program have such a weak arm. He couldn’t even throw a 20 yard pass without putting a serious arc under it.
Even so, Texas struggled to win. It took something like 6 turnovers by ASU for the Longhorns to really succeed here, and don’t give me the whole “give them credit, they FORCED those turnovers” routine. 3 of them were pure luck. The two tipped interceptions and the fumbled punt, and then throw in the fact that Cart McCoy (yeah, that’s right, I called him Cart. He’s a woman.) fumbled into the end zone and despite ASU being the first team to recover that ball, they didn’t end up with it after the requisite dogpile, so Texas got a cheap touchdown there.
And don’t even get me started on the fact that the final onside kick wasn’t even reviewed. That was VERY questionable. And it totally deflated ASU, who then promptly gave up an easy touchdown to Jamal Charles (another overrated Longhorn). Charles had played decent, but that little gift helped his number look downright great. It all feeds into the pervasive misconception that Texas is great and all of their players are too. Sickening.
Texas is easily one of the worst BCS-conference 10 win teams I’ve ever seen. I don’t think there’s another team in the top 25 that they’d beat if they played tomorrow. I’ve said all season long and still say that this year, they were a 7 win team. They lucked into a 10 win record, but they were a 7 win team. I think that, unfortunately, the fact that they weathered their down year to still win 10 games will bode very well for them, allowing them to avoid a letdown over the next few years that very could have happened with a 7 win season.
Anyway, the Aggies are starting so I will post more later. My unresearched prediction: Texas A&M: 27, Penn St.: 24
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