college
I’ll make you deal Texas fans. Admit Vince Young won you the game single-handedly, and single-footedly with his performance and I’ll stop saying that USC was the better team. You too saw a team unlike you ever had before and without the in”Vince”able you’re a footnote to SC’s 3-Pete and their making college football history.
Vince Young should be the #1 pick in the NFL draft by his hometown Houston Texans who are in need of a playmaker and some star power. That said, SC’ was the better team. They lost the game as much as Texas won it, as the local media and sports TV and talk radio shows have analyzed down to the color of the endzone paint and the air compression rate of the football itself. Fox Sports, ESPN, ESPN the radio, the LA Times 8 page special Rose Bowl pullout section have all Monday Morning Quarterbacked the game ad nauseum. I think I got the break-down right.
First, leading 7-0 USC failed to convert a 4th down and 1 inside the Texas 20 in the first quarter when QB Matt Leinart attempted a Notre Dame style QB sneak left around center, and slipped and fell down short of the first down. This was the right call to go for it by Pete Carrol who didn’t want to kick a field goal and go up 10-0 when Texas could not stop USC and it appeared to everybody that they were on their way in for a second touchdown. My issue with that play was not the call but not lining up Reggie Bush or LenDale White in the backfield to hand the ball off to and pound it up the middle, or at least make Texas think that. I sensed at that moment that SC wasn’t quite right and didn’t seem to have that focus that makes a talented team lethal and has defined their program for the last three years.
Second, on their next possession, still leading 7-0 Leinart threw that little screen pass to Bush who turned nothing into something making Texas defenders miss and unable to tackle him as he scampered down the field 37 yards inside the Texas 20 when he made that now infamous lateral to nowhere that ended up in a turnover and another lost scoring opportunity. SC should have been up at this point early in the second quarter 21-0 and the game over. Should have. More than the turnover, Reggie realized the costliness of his mistake and wasn’t the same player for the rest of the game until that touchdown run where he dove cartwheel style into the endzone. That was clue #2 that something wasn’t right in the land of Troy.
Sure, Texas first touchdown came on the play that wasn’t reviewed when Vince Young’s knee was clearly down before he lateralled the ball to another Longhorn who ran the rest of the way into the endzone. Texas had finally started to move the ball though and probably would have gone the remaining 15 yards into the endzone anyway so that play didn’t really affect the game, it was one of several missed calls however that should not happen in a championship game like this.
Third, the Leinart interception again at the end of another drive that occurred en route to a touchdown when he underthrew Dwayne Jarret by a couple yards. It wasn’t a bad throw or a poor decision though. He put it right there in the corner and the Texas DB came out of nowhere to make an incredible play on the ball. He both left his feet to leap out and grab it and then had the presence of mind to put one foot down in bounds. I give the guy credit for making the play.
16-10 Texas was the score at halftime. No biggie for SC. They were down 18 at Arizona State, at Oregon, at Notre Dame and at home to Fresno State and came back. This was nothing new. What was disappointing was the fact that they were only 1-5 in terms of touchdowns to possessions when they easily should have had 3 if not 4 and been comfortably ahead. Their error wasn’t so much in being behind, but in allowing Texas and Vince Young to remain in the game that they were in control of early and did not put away. Considering what was at stake, and that it was the final game of Matt Leinart’s USC career and most likely Reggie Bush’s and LenDales White’s too, I thought the Trojans execution would have been nearly flawless.
Texas too played sloppy in the first half. They fumbled the ball at least 3 times including on their highly touted punting team that allowed USC to score first. Texas too went for it on a 4th down and short and failed to convert and handed SC a golden opportunity to jump all over them. SC’ did come back in the second half. They outscored Texas 28-10 capped off by that amazing catch by Jarrett reaching all the way up in the Pasadena sky to grab it and then spin around with his arms still outstretched to land in the endzone. USC led 38-26, the biggest lead of the night by either team. Texas had two players down on the field and was beaten.
Sidebar; this is where I blame the BCS and why this entire wretched system needs to be retired in favor of a playoff tournament. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen bowl games where one team, in this case, both teams came out either flat, out of sync, or rusty, like both the Trojans and the Longhorns were in the first half. They were both too good to stay that way and played an incredible second half that featured 4 lead changes, the 2 highlight plays of the game, Bush’s run and Jarrett’s catch, and the final score with less than 30 seconds to play. But so many prior bowl games, prior BCS games between supposedly the best teams in the country have turned into stinkers or were one-sided affairs that featured half empty stadiums by the end of the game and bargain prices for television commercials by the fourth quarter. Texas and USC turned out to be the exception to the rule which is why this game became an instant classic. The rule is more like what we saw the night before in the Orange Bowl where neither Florida State nor Penn State could kick a field goal in overtime to win the game. Not exactly championship caliber football. What else should we expect when you maintain a bowl system that leaves the winner with nothing more to play for and renders the 27 non national championship bowl games nothing less than the glorified exhibition games that they are. I’m a college football junkie, and on Christmas break with time to kill, so I caught a fair amount of the games I Tivo’d earlier that night but I couldn’t help but think that except for bragging rights and the players who played well and showcased themselves either for the NFL draft or a starting job next year, the games meant little more than the amount of money they took in. That might serve the host cities and the networks that cover them well but it doesn’t do college football justice. It’s why factors that have nothing to do with football and athletic competition impact who plays who and who goes where. It’s why perpetually overrated Notre Dame who has lost their last 8 bowl games and only beat 2 teams with winning records this year was awarded a BCS bowl game against superior Ohio State. And why? Because they travel well and the folks who put on the Fiesta Bowl, like the folks who host every other bowl game want a school with a big name who will sell enough tickets rather than a competitive matchup. Result, Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 20, and the game wasn’t even that close. For every good bowl game, Nebraska 32, Michigan 28, there is a laugher, LSU 40, equally overrated Miami, 3.
That’s why that other major multi-million dollar college sport known as mens basketball is as popular if not more so than college football. March Madness, the 64 team playoff tournament that concludes the season and determines the national champion is as much beloved and exciting for the early round action as for the final game itself. You don’t see the kind of blowouts and one-sided contests, and so many poorly played and sloppy games in the tournament that you do in the bowls. We won’t get such a tournament as long as the bowl system remains and the BCS contract renewed rather than rewarding the top 8, 10, or 12 teams of the season in a playoff system. I don’t fault the creators of the BCS for what they were trying to do, the problem is they created a hybrid system that seeks to both produce a national champion and maintain the bowl system that has led to controversy more than anything. The system isn’t fixed it just got lucky this year. If you get 3 undefeated teams or 3 one-loss teams next year, we’re right back to where we were the last two years and people will once again be asking why we still have this rotten system.
Money perhaps? The 24 bowl games that lead up to the 4 BCS games pay out approximately $33 million dollars. The 4 BCS games each payout $14-17 million for a combined $56-68 million dollars. All together the bowls generate about $100 million dollars. That’s a lot of money. The 6 rounds of March Madness that take place over 3 weekends was just re-signed by CBS for several years for something like $2 billion dollars. It doesn’t take a math or econ major to figure out which of the two marquee college sporting events has the more valuable post-season because it’s even easier to determine which of the two is more compelling to watch and to follow. It shouldn’t take until the second half of the BCS national championship game before college football becomes interesting again.
Tradition? Not anymore. Most of college football’s traditions have been put out to pasture in favor of the almighty dollar. Night games, Friday night games, Thursday night games, Conference championship games, games in December, games after January first, corporate sponsorships ad nauseum, supersized conferences that make no logical sense, only monetary sense (like for example the Big 10 conference now having 11 teams). Each time college football has been faced with choosing to maintain tradition or generate more money, they’ve chosen to take more money. It’s the American way. Be consistent is all I’m asking. Drop the last pretense to a past that has died many times along the way and get rid of the bowl system entirely in favor of a playoff. Include less prestigious and glamorous schools and accept the champions from smaller conferences and let them compete with the big boys.
Pete Carrol’s right. Winning teams should play on until you lose or win the whole thing. Ohio State deserves to play another day. So does Penn State. So does West Virginia. LSU played pretty well in their bowl game. So did small conference Utah who beat a major conference team, Georgia Tech 38-10. That’s the other obvious flaw in the system, lesser known schools and schools from smaller conferences get to play in the warm-up games during Capital One’s bowl week rather than on New Years Day and in the BCS, and of coarse receive smaller dollar payouts that reinforce the inequity that is the status quo. Collusion that’s what it is. Bowl Collusion Series, that’s a more fitting description of the BCS. Not so come March Madness where the Duke’s and the UConn’s and half the ACC conference that make up college basketball’s elite are stuffed into the same brackets as the winner of the Big West conference and teams from schools and with mascots even knowledgable college sports fans haven’t heard of, where upsets aren’t all that upsetting and where the #12 seed often beats the #5 seed and a team from Eastern Washington can parlay a great tournament run just short of the Final Four into an annually competitive and entertaining program. Where is college football’s Gonzaga? Answer, there isn’t one and as long as the big 6 conferences maintain their monopoly on the BCS, as long as there is no playoff system, as long as the bowl system stays in place that cares more about what teams will travel well and fawning over teams like Notre Dame for their name and not their play, the injustice will go on.
Bowl Collusion Series.
USC could fall into that trap. Pete Carroll could rest on his laurels and talk about all the national championships the Trojans have won, and the Heisman that have left their legacy at Heritage Hall. He could act like Notre Dame or Miami. It would be very fitting actually for USC, the University of Spoiled Children, national rival to Notre Dame to sell excellence but play mediocre. USC didn’t become the greatest show on turf the last three seasons because of legend or mystique and doesn’t have to refer to itself as “The U” in order to feel good about itself.
I sided with the Bruins in this rivalry along time ago when I was a little kid and bleed blue and gold. I’m a University of California alum who loves to see overpriced, overrated private schools go down to defeat. Yet the University of Southern California football team not only impresses me, they capture the imagination especially for all of us SoCal football fans who don’t have a professional team to root for. Except for when they play the Bruins I root for SC, and even then I want them to do well. That may sound sacreligious, but it’s true. Pete Carroll has put together in five years something very special that I don’t think we will see again. Not only was SC’—Carson Palmer, Mike Williams, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Dwayne Jarrett, Dominique Bird, Steve Smith—the most talented and most fun team in the country, they never took themselves too seriously. Any school that allows the pre-game tailgating party to take place in front of its administration building and keg stands just outside the doors to its law school like some kind of campus invasion tour can’t be all bad. And I’m attaching the pictures to prove it.
In what was undoubtedly a bitter loss, to an inferior team that featured a special player who rose to the occasion, Pete Carroll waited quite a while after the game for Texas coach Mack Brown to make his way to the middle of the field, amidst all the Texas celebration and media onslaught to congratulate him on his victory. Leinart and Bush went over to the Longhorns locker room, moments after the game ended to congratulate the team that had just beat them. Forget how good Leinart and Bush are, they are even better sportsmen, and in Leinart’s case he passed up millions of dollars and being the #1 pick in last year’s NFL draft to come back for one more year. That tells me all I need to know. In a college football world so desperately in need of a regime change, Pete Carroll, and all that he represents, on the field and off, is what is right about college football, about college and about sports. The word I heard mentioned the most after their loss wasn’t disappointment, it was pride; in themselves, in their team and what they accomplished. Coming up 2 inches short on a 4th down and 2 that would have sealed the victory can’t even change that. And oh did they accomplish a lot.
My disappointment is in the fact that this group, so fun and exciting to watch and to root for will never play together again. LenDale White said it best, “You can’t win them all.” No you can’t. Even when you’re the better team. USC will be back. I hope UCLA gives them a better game next year but given how many top recruits have already commited to SC, they’re still the gold standard and come next fall it will be the Pete Carroll show version 3.0.
Fight On!
