Mid-point bowl update

A funny thing I saw while flipping channels during the bowl games: I stopped momentarily on some Cops-style show, and the cop had pulled over a couple and found drugs in their car. He found some crack and some crystal meth. He was doing the whole cocky cop thing, questioning them just for the fun of it, and finally the poor little girl, seeming quite exasperated, said “well what was I supposed to do?” To which the cop slowly replies, with a straight face, “You’re supposed to not smoke crack.” It was funny, trust me.

Now, for the bowl update. First, the Alamo Bowl.

Surprisingly, I don’t have too much to say on this one. Nothing surprising about the outcome. A close game, could have gone either way, but on the crucial 4 ^th and 1, A&M couldn’t get it done. Speaking as a tortured fan, I suppose that’s typical of the Ags in my lifetime. My issue with that play was not the fact that A&M ran the option. I’m ok with that. What I’m not ok with is leaving Lane on the bench for that play. Clearly, the Aggies were thinking that the defense would expect the run up the middle, so instead, they would run outside. But Lane is the guy that is the threat up the middle. With him out, the defense knew the Aggies were running outside, and it was stuffed. You have to at least have Lane in as a decoy. I thought this lesson was learned for coaches everywhere when USC left Reggie Bush on the bench for their crucial 4 ^th down play against Texas. Sure enough, the Longhorns stuffed the middle, knowing that LenDale White was headed there, stopped the Trojans, and it cost USC a national championship in the process. Note to all coaches: on the most important play of the game, make sure you put your best players on the field. Sounds simple, but apparently it’s not.

I think one of the biggest disappointments for me was the offensive play-calling as a whole. After seeing the new wide-open attack against Texas, and the rumors that that game was called completely by offensive coordinator Les Koening (without Fran ever overriding any plays), it seemed that we would see more of that against Penn State. We all thought that since big bad conservative Fran wasn’t there to hamper Koening’s genius, it would be dynamic and exciting. But it was not so. It seemed that A&M spent their entire bowl preparation working on a couple gimmick formations, one of which worked a couple times but then didn’t anymore, and the other of which was only tried once, and didn’t really work anyway. The rest of the game was exactly what we’ve seen all season. Lack of rhythm, imagination, and feel for the game lack of ANY production by the wide receivers, stupid mistakes by the players at critical times, and an inability to protect McGee when we absolutely had to protect him. And that’s just on offense.

Defensively, A&M still can’t stop a 3^rd down, and with their horrible 4-2-5 that only puts 6 and sometimes 7 (but with the 7 ^th being a smaller player) in the box, can’t stop the run, even when we are 100% sure the opponent will run the ball. It’s sickening. I think Darnell is a good guy, but he is not a good defensive coach. I said at the beginning of the season that all of the supposed improvement A&M made on defense in ‘06 was a complete illusion, that really the schedule just pitted the Ags against the worst collective group of offenses you could have ever asked for, along with an A&M offense that controlled the clock for 35 minutes a game, meaning we only had to defend for 25, along with the new clock rules that shortened games and helped defenses. I said that our defense would be right back to the 80’s or 90’s for total ranking. Not to toot my own horn, but uh, toot toot. I was right. Unfortunately. The good news is, all those coaches are gone, and we get a fresh start. There will be bumps along the way (there always are with coaching changes… see: Louisville 2007), but there will be new hope. I’m already ready for the ‘08 season.

Now to comment on a few other things:

Gator Bowl- I was surprised Tech played so bad actually. I thought they’d win easily and score over 40 points. They played pretty bad. But give them credit, they made 4 or 5 HUGE plays down the stretch, and that was the difference. Got outplayed for 55 minutes, but dominated 5 minutes and won the game. Football is cool like that. As an Aggie, I’m not allowed to say what I’m about to say, but I think Tech is a team to watch next year…. NATIONALLY. I know, I know, Tech will never win more than 8 games, according to prevailing logic, but in all honesty, they have it set up pretty well for next year. The two teams from the North, Mizzou and Colorado, who gave Tech fits each of the last 2 years, are off the schedule. Tech has proven they can beat OU. They consistently abuse A&M. They always stay close with Texas (although they usually lose, lately), and they do get the Longhorns in Lubbock next year. And to top it all off, they return EVERYBODY. Seriously, they only lose like 3 guys off of their entire two-deep, and they’ll have a 3 year starter at quarterback, the best receiver in the country, and a defense that wasn’t good in ‘07, but will certainly be better in ‘08. And hey, it was good enough to win 9 games this year. I think Tech will win at least 10 and could possibly pull a Mizzou-style 12-win season out of their hat in ‘08. I haven’t looked at their non-conference schedule yet, but it can’t be too hard. Pretty disgusting, huh?

Rose Bowl- I still don’t think USC is as good as some people seem to think they are (I’ve heard more than one analyst say they are the best team in the nation), but they clearly were on another level from Illinois. And that really isn’t a surprise. They have been a recruiting machine for years now, picking up elite athletes from all over California, while Illinois just picked up their recruiting in the last couple years with Ron Zook. Zook is obviously a heck of a recruiter, considering he also left Florida with talent enough to win a championship. He will likely keep Illinois on the upswing, but in reality, they shouldn’t have been in the Rose Bowl yet. They’re ahead of schedule, which is good, but it’s also a reality check to then jump in to that level before your program really belongs there. Congrats to them for making it though, and even bigger congrats to USC for having their 7 ^th straight 11-win season. That is ridiculous. They are putting together a “Florida St. circa the entire decade of the ’90s” type of run, and actually probably exceeding what FSU did.

Cotton Bowl- Mizzou was for REAL. They embarrassed Arkansas and didn’t even have to use their passing game, which is their strength. They shut down Arkansas’ offense, dominated all around, and got the breaks they needed to keep the large margin. Looking back now, only one team beat Mizzou (OU), and that one team could, with a victory tonight, end up being a top 3 team when it’s all said and done. Therefore, you can realistically say Missourri was clearly a top 10, and arguably top 5 team in the nation this year. Insane.

Sugar Bowl: OK, I think most football fans saw this one coming. Hawaii, like Illinois, did not belong on the same field with Georgia. I think it was obvious to most everyone going in that they don’t have the athletes to compete at the major conference level. The whole 12-0 thing was a farce. When they have to defend big time athletes, they proved to be totally incapable, and when they had to try to move the ball with their all-pass all the time offense against real, athletic defenders, they couldn’t get anything going. I wish this would cause the “every team deserves a chance at the national championship” crowd to shut up, but I’m sure it won’t. I would go on a lengthy “we don’t need a playoff in college football!” rant, but I’ll save that for after the bowls. Anyway, I’m all for still inviting one crappy 12-0 team from a minor conference into the BCS each year, for no other reason than how much fun it is to see them get clobbered, thus reminding everyone that not all conferences are created equally.

I’ll comment on the Florida-Michigan game later. Also, Jamaal Charles leaving Texas early for the NFL, and some NFL playoffs (and Patriots) talk. Happy New Year!