Rivalries

Utah players and fans will be putting out a few more bowls of chips and salsa on Thursday when they get together for Thanksgiving. And then at the meal, they will be giving Thanks for being #6. #6, as it turns out for the Utes is a good place to be as that will guarantee them a trip to one of the four big bowls. With the win over BYU on Saturday in their big rivalry game and final game of the regular season, Utah has all but guaranteed themselves that they will remain at least #6 in the BCS standings. They are not quite off the bubble yet, with 2 weeks of football still remaining, but they are the closest that any non-BCS conference school has ever been in the 7 years of the system.

If the MRI was included in the BCS, Utah might be drinking more orange juice than eating chips and salsa. That's right, the MRI has Utah as #2 in this week's standings. As it stands, they will most likely not remain there in the final two weeks with the most likely finish for them being in the top 5. They have been impressive all season and this week, it paid off with the #2 ranking. They have won every game this season by at least 14 points, something that has only been done four times since 1950. In their 11 games this season, they have won by an average of 28.2 points. How is that for domination? While their schedule is among the middle of the pack in terms of toughness, they never once played down to the level of their opponents and made sure to close out every win. Congrats to the Utes who will most likely be playing the Big East champion in the Fiesta Bowl.

Quick Shots for this week:

• Boston College has now completed two-thirds of its task. With a convincing win against Temple, BC is a win against Syracuse away from playing in the big bowls. A loss by the Eagles means that West Virginia will go instead. There will be a lot of eyes on the game this weekend as the winner of the Big East is right now slated to be the most likely opponent for Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. With the way things have gone this season, according to the MRI, BC has an 90% of winning the game and representing the Big East in its final season in the league.


• Michigan fans will need to send the Iowa team something nice to thank them. A letdown game against Ohio State could have cost Michigan its chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Ohio State came into the game and showed off the defense that was supposed to take them to the conference title this year. They held Michigan to less than 100 yards on the ground and forced Freshman quarterback Chad Henne to beat them. Henne was unable to put together enough consistent drives to come back against the Buckeyes. All hope was pretty much lost when he was intercepted by Ohio State CB Ashton Youboty on a pass from the 8 yard line on a drive when it looked like Michigan would cut into the lead with a touchdown. The loss meant that Michigan had to hope for an Iowa win against Wisconsin to keep the Badgers from taking the BCS and Rose Bowl spot. Iowa not only won, they won big, earning themselves a share of the Big Ten title, but losing out on a tie breaker with the Wolverines. Iowa did a great job of distinguishing themselves in the Big Ten this season, rolling off seven straight wins after the conference opening loss against Michigan. Wisconsin fell for the second straight game and now finishes third in the Big Ten.


• Lou Holtz ended his coaching career Monday in a news conference which all but named Steve Spurrier as his successor at South Carolina. Holtz had a very distinguished career as a coach. He has seen success with every team he has coached at the college level, and in all cases, it can be attributed directly to him. He won a National Title with Notre Dame, and consistently had his teams ready to play each week with the belief that they could be anyone on any day. His only trouble came in the mid-70s when Holtz was hired to coach the New York Jets in the NFL. His biggest mistake there might have been believing that the team needed a fight song, and then proceeding to write one himself. His team went 3-11 and Holtz went back to college, where he not only made great football teams, but great men. Don't let Saturday's fight be an indication of Lou Holtz, the man. That legend was made on Saturday afternoons for the past 33 years, and snowy days in January.


• The fight in Saturday's game between Clemson and South Carolina has been written about, and written about, and compared with the Friday's NBA fight between the Pistons, Pacers, and Detroit fans, and then written about some more. I am not going to write about either fight, but I would like to comment on two things. First, there is no excuse for the fight. Clemson had fought back from being 1-4 to go into the game needing the win to be eligible for a bowl. With a few minutes left, the Tigers should have been celebrating the chance to play in the post season instead of trying to beat someone's helmeted head. There is no excuse and Tommy Bowden trying to blame this on the NBA fight is ridiculous. Bowden should be ashamed for not owning up to this and apologizing to both his fans and everyone who had to watch that happen. The Athletic Directors of both schools did the right thing on Monday and declined all bids for bowl games which might be coming. Suspending the players involved would have been impossible if the teams wanted to be competitive in the games. As a result, they did the right thing and punished the teams by not even sending them. The players will learn that there are consequences to their behavior. Hopefully, the underclassmen who will return next year will learn from this and use this as motivation to get back to a bowl game. Hopefully Bowden and most likely Spurrier will have more control of their teams in the future. Hopefully, kids in South Carolina watching this game don't think this is the right way to play ball. Hope is about all you can have that the ending to all of this is better than the beginning.

That's it for me this week. Have a great Turkey Day everyone.

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© 6:30 PM by Ben Miraski