Jan 13th, 2010
Two thoughts to sum up the college football seasons of 2009 and 2010:
2010 — Boise State will play in next season’s national championship game, attracting more attention than any previous title game and creating a weird reversal of the criticism leveled at the BCS system.
2009 — After four months of competing, positioning and debating about which teams will or should play for the national championship, the title game became a farce after five plays.
Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore has a chance to win the Heisman Trophy next season -- Associated Press photo by Marco Garcia
Let’s begin in the future, where nothing we say can be debunked – yet:
Boise State returns 21 of 22 starters from a team that went 14-0, beat Pac-10 champ Oregon in its opener and No. 6-ranked and previously unbeaten Texas Christian in its finale. The Broncos probably will begin next season ranked in the top five, which means they won’t have to jump past many teams to climb into the top two spots.
Boise State plays two challenging nonconference games – a September 25 home game against Oregon State and an October 2 game against Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The Broncos should win the first because it is on the Broncos’ blue turf and because the Beavers typically don’t play as well early in the season as they do later. The Virginia Tech game will be tougher, because Landover, Md., is less than 250 miles from Virginia Tech campus, giving it a bit of a home-field advantage and because the Hokies should be a preseason top-10 team too. But a win would give pollsters and the computers more than enough ammunition to put the Broncos in the top two at season’s end.
To this point, opposition to the BCS format has come from the less prestigious conferences, which claim they don’t have a fair shot at getting into the championship game because the system is rigged to favor the six major conferences.
If Boise State gets to the national title game, the cleats will be on the other foot. Supporters of the six major conferences will argue Boise State does not play top-notch competition on a regular basis in the Western Athletic Conference and does not deserve a shot at the ultimate prize. “If they had played in the (fill in SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-10), they would have lost two or three games,” the complaint will go.
It’s like the argument Memphis faced in basketball for so many seasons playing in Conference USA, until the Tigers got to the 2008 national title game and outplayed Kansas in a disappointing overtime loss.
People just can’t get past the thought of an Idaho-based WAC team with virtually no big-time high school recruits being in the national title game. None of the Broncos’ past eight recruiting classes has been ranked higher than 60th in the country by scout.com, and the Broncos have only 11 former players in the NFL at the moment. That pales in comparison to Miami (50 former players in the NFL), USC (48), Texas (46), Alabama (31) and Cal (37). Even Washington State (22) and Vanderbilt (15), bottom feeders in their respective BCS conferences, have more players in the NFL.
Maybe we should ask Fresno State about Boise State. Fresno has 24 former players in the NFL, and the Bulldogs seem to be looking up at Boise State in the WAC standings every year.
Boise State in the national title game would get non-football people interested. It may not show up in TV ratings for the game, but folks who read only the Wall Street Journal or Elle magazine might be intrigued by a college football game for the first time.
Our top five for 2010: 1. Ohio State, 2. Boise State, 3. Alabama, 4. Nebraska, 5. Oregon
Now, as for this season:
All that buildup for a game that lost its appeal two minutes in. Yeah, yeah, Alabama won the national championship game on the field, and depth is a part of the game and blah, blah, blah. But Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was by far the most important player in the game, more so than Heisman winner Mark Ingram, who had a more-than-adequate backup in Trent Richardson, who rushed for more than 100 yards. Besides, McCoy plays quarterback, a position that affects the game’s outcome more than does a running back, and McCoy was considered the nation’s best quarterback this season.
When McCoy left the game, Texas’ title hopes were put in the hands of a true freshman, Garrett Gilbert. Some day Gilbert (son of former Cal quarterback Gale Gilbert) will be an outstanding quarterback, but when he stepped onto the field Thursday, his statistics in his five Big 12 appearances were as follows: 4-for-12 for 13 yards. Against Alabama he was 15-for-40 and threw four interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown with another setting up a touchdown. He also fumbled at the 3-yard line to virtually give the Tide another touchdown.
What do you think Texas’ record would have been this season if Gilbert had been its quarterback all season? To echo an earlier claim, “If Gilbert had played in the Big 12 this season, Texas would have lost two or three games.”
Final thought: A statue of Alabama coach Nick Saban will be going up outside the Tide’s football stadium in Tuscaloosa. The man has been Alabama’s head coach for three seasons. This, folks, is disturbing.
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