On The Field: Bowl Final

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Bowl Final

Well, no one expected that. When you looked at the two teams going into last night's game, it looked fairly even. This despite the strange nagging feeling I got as I wrote the preview yesterday. I kept feeling like there was too much talent on USC for Oklahoma to win. Yet, something in me still said Oklahoma had a chance and a very good one of winning. When the game was played, a different team showed up. It was a flashback to last year for Oklahoma. All of a sudden, they forgot how to play. The only thing that stank more on the field last night than the play of Oklahoma was the pitiful Half Time show which got booed off the field.

Obviously, with the win, USC finished #1 in the final MRI. Oklahoma with the loss fell to #4, behind Utah and Louisville. Auburn, despite the perfect record, finished 5th. Final Top 25 and full final standings will be posted shortly.

One last thought before some predictions and this leads right into them. Andy Geiger retired as the Athletic Director at Ohio State today effective in June. With so many investigations going on around the basketball and football teams, there was little doubt this would happen eventually. It is strange timing for the announcement to come this early. Obviously the investigation most recently into quarterback Troy Smith and his improper payments from a booster sheds some harsher light onto the Buckeye program. Geiger is running away just as the investigation gets hot. Couple this with his damning words about Maurice Clarett, and this leads me to believe that he is somehow involved in the mess more than he has said. By retiring now, he is hoping to disappear before most of the truth comes out and we find out that the rot that is plaguing Ohio State runs deeper than just these two incidents. I will say, I have no proof of this, but things are not all right in the world in Columbus, Ohio. And that leads me to my predictions for next year...

Ohio State will be investigated and the program will be found guilty in a number of areas. They will come close to getting the Death Penalty much like SMU got years ago. Jim Tressel will be gone and they will lose not just a few scholarships, they will lose half. That rattle you hear is Ohio State athletics never being the same again. Still, they will find a way to beat Michigan in next year's finale and keep the Wolverines from playing for the National Title.

Next year's Half Time show at the Orange Bowl will feature the marching bands of the schools involved. When did it become so important for the Half Time show to be flashy? I turned away even with the "Big Name" stars involved. Kelly Clarkson? Sorry, but she was maybe important two years ago when she won American Idol. And I stress the maybe. Ashlee Simpson? No one since Kato Kaelin ever gained so much popularity through only their relationship with someone named Simpson. Did the Orange Bowl producers not see her embarrass not only herself, but NBC, on Saturday Night Live? Bring back the bands. And if the schools don't want their bands to play, get some of the bands from the Southwestern Athletic Conference to come play. At least the crowd will be entertained by decent performers.

Sorry Miami and San Francisco, but Matt Leinart will stay in school. Norm Chow will run an offense that will enable him to almost win his second Heisman award in a row. Why won't he win it? Because I forecast an injury for Leinart. His backup will come in and play two games. They will lose one of those games and keep USC from winning their third straight National Championship.

Texas will lose to Oklahoma, again. Ok, that one wasn't so hard to forecast.

The best team that no one will be talking about until late in the season will be South Carolina. South Carolina will win the SEC next season with Steve Spurrier at the helm.

Speaking of coaching changes, here is my take:
- LSU will flop with Oklahoma State's old coach Les Miles at the helm. How can you go from a very good coach in Nick Saban to a coach who didn't win any of their big games and got blown out less than a week before against a very down Ohio State team? Sorry LSU, if you were hoping for a string of National Title runs, it won't happen with Miles.
- Notre Dame will go 7-4 with Charlie Weis at the helm. They will go to a bowl, and lose as always against the more dominant competition. The only thing that will go well for Notre Dame this coming year is they will again beat Navy to keep their streak alive.
- Someone will hire Dennis Erickson, who was fired today by San Francisco. In two years, he will turn the program around before leaving again falsely believing that he can coach at the NFL level once again. Erickson is a very good college coach, much like Pete Carroll has shown that he is. They just can't translate that into success at the top level.
- Urban Meyer will turn Florida into a contender again. It will happen next year, and they will beat Florida State. They just won't beat South Carolina or Tennessee which will keep them from the SEC title game.
- Utah will never be the same again with Meyer.
- Dave Wannstedt will win at Pittsburgh. Who couldn't win the Big East, especially when you have a very good and mature quarterback in Tyler Palko at the helm. Louisville and Pittsburgh will come down to the final week of the season.
- Tyrone Willingham will turn Washington back into a contender in the Pac-10. Notre Dame will kick itself in the butt when they realize it is the school and not the coach which is the problem.
- Walt Harris is kidding himself if he thinks he will be able to contend in the new look Pac-10 at Stanford. Look for a mid pac(k) finish for the Cardinal.
- Ron Zook will have Illinois turned around in 3 years. They will never win the Big Ten under him but they will stay close to the top for years.

Bob Stoops will leave Oklahoma after next season to try the NFL. Norm Chow won't leave USC to be a head coach anywhere.

Next Year's Heisman Winner: Reggie Bush, over Adrian Peterson in the closest battle ever.

Next year's National Champs: Miami over, get this, Minnesota.

Have a good off season everyone. I will be around from time to time On The Field, but not as much as during the season. Look for full coverage of college basketball at Sitting Courtside to get your sports fix.

Comments:

I have a prediction: Washington will win 6 games next year, followed by 4, 3, 8, and 6 over the next 5 years. Willingham is not a good coach -- look at his record!! He was a sub-.500 coach at Stanford, he was barely above .500 at Notre Dame, and only had a winning record there because of his incredibly lucky first season. The problem is not with the school; the problem was with a coach who couldn't motivate his team to put away bad teams, who couldn't create a gameplan to CONSISTENTLY contend with the best teams, and who had a team playing worse after three years rather than better. Since they can't fire him in the next five years or else be branded as racists, Washington's in for a long strecth of mediocrity.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:24 PM

Hmmm, let me guess, Notre Dame fan. I will grant you that Tyrone Willingham's job will not be easy at Washington. He has to fix an offensive line which was, well, offensive. They gave up 13 sacks in the last 4 games including five against Arizona. He is bringing with him his offensive line coach from Notre Dame, Mike Denbrock. If Denbrock can get the line running well, it should give Casey Paus some more time in the pocket and cut down some of the interceptions thrown this season.

Looking at Washington's schedule and giving the team another year of experience plus spring practice, let's see what they might do.

Air Force: Let's give the Huskies a win against the military academy
Cal: Loss, no amount of improvement will get them over this hump that fast
Idaho: They better win this game. Idaho is consistently one of the worst teams in the country
Oh Look, Notre Dame: Loss but closer than this year's game since it is in Washington.
@ UCLA: Loss. UCLA is improving fast in the PAC-10.
@ Oregon: Loss. Paus won't throw 4 interceptions against them again. This one will be a shootout with the Senior Oregon offense scoring big, but the Oregon defense still being full of holes. On the road, gives this one to the Ducks.
USC: Loss. No shot.
@ Arizona State: Loss. Looks like Sam Keller was as good as that Walker guy.
Oregon State: Win. Sophomore QB for the Beavers, lose their #1 rusher.
@ Arizona: Win. This one was close this year, in about as close as a 10 point game can be. Both teams are trying to improve quickly. Washington wins in another close one.
Washington State: Loss. If Washington State solves their quarterback mess, with two young guys, they can be very good with another year under their belts. Rivalry game is always close. Washington might pull this one out.

That puts Washington at 4-7 without knowing what kind of recruiting class they are bringing in. They will be 2-6 in conference which is an improvement over this year when they won 0 in the PAC-10 and only 1 total. Their biggest improvement should come in Willingham's second season when his top players will be seniors and he will have two years of recruits in. I don't see where you see 6 wins next season, but hey, if they do that, he pulled a miracle. And I guess that is why they hired him in the first place, to bring miracles back to Washington.

# posted by fxdirect : 11:13 PM

Great stuff. Thought I'd drop you a line to introduce a new blog.

Dedicated to Pardon The Interruption, it's called Pardon The Eruption.Feel free to check it out! Thanks!

# posted by Drew : 1:17 PM

Actually I think 4 and 7 at Washington will be a dissapointment. This team actually has talent and everybody returning, as much as I hated "newiesel" he recruited fairly well at the skill positions, and thier lines both look much improved. They were just so poorly coached last year and made so many mental mistakes it was amazing. I think they could actually surprise some people, and have a relatively quick turn around. Perhaps if the ball bounces right end up 6-5 or 7-4. They probably have more talent than notre dame where I'm not sure any players outside of the upper midwest aspire to go to anymore.

# posted by Anonymous : 8:00 PM

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