The Round Up

By Heismanpundit on November 27, 2006 in Uncategorized

Well, November is almost over and what a month it was. As December rolls in, the college football landscape is almost completely different than it was just 30 days ago.

Coaches are getting fired everywhere, it seems. John L. Smith has been gone for a while now. Then it was Larry Coker, Chuck Amato, Dirk Koetter and Mike Shula getting the axe. The ensuing scramble for these jobs will be fascinating to watch in the next few weeks. One spot has already been filled, as Michigan State will go with Cincinnati coach Mark Dantonio.

I went to bed Saturday night amazed that USC was going to end up the likely challenger to Ohio State in the BCS title game. Is this really the same team that struggled so much early in the season? Apparently not. If the Trojans do make it past UCLA, then even their worst enemies would have to admit that what we are witnessing is a college football dynasty.

With that thought in mind, I would equate this USC squad with the UCLA basketball teams that came right after Lew Alcindor’s 3-year run–I’m talking the teams with Sidney Wicks, Steve Patterson and Curtis Rowe. Maybe they weren’t as star-studded and maybe they ended up somewhat forgotten by comparison to the teams that came before and the teams that came after, but they were pretty accomplished in their own right. If USC can lose the guys it did and still make it to the title game, then what will happen next season when everyone comes back?

Unless the Bush scandals stick or something else pops up, there’s enough talent at USC to keep it going for a while.

Most bowl eligible teams by BCS conference, on percentage:

Pac-10: 80 per cent (8 of 10).
SEC: 75 per cent (9 of 12).
Big 12: 75 per cent (9 of 12).
Big East: 75 per cent (6 of 8).
ACC: 66 per cent (8 of 12).
Big Ten: 64 per cent (7 of 11)

Considering that, according to Sagarin, Pac-10 teams played 10 of the 11 toughest schedules in the country and the most games against BCS conference teams and still managed to get eight out of 10 teams bowl eligible (with a ninth at five wins), I think only you’d have to be bordering on lunacy to NOT rate the Pac-10 as the best conference in 2006 so far. Sagarin, as usual, agrees.

Tom Dienhart asks some great questions in his latest column:

4. Is anyone else dying to hear what Florida coach Urban Meyer is going to say about the BCS this week? This ought to be good.

11. Speaking of great coaching performances, has anyone done a better job than Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe? Of course not. He’s the national coach of the year. Don’t think so? Well, ask yourself this: How many Wake players rejected scholarship offers from Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson to sign with the Deacs? Uh, that’s right: none.

17. Is South Florida the second-best program in the Sunshine State? Sure it is.

The South Florida question had me really thinking. You know, that program has a great opportunity right now to step it up, especially with Miami and Florida State in flux right now. Every year they seem to beat one of the big boys–last year it was Louisville, this year, West Virginia. With almost everyone back next season from a team that went 8-4 in ’06, the Bulls could be a sleeper team in the Big East. Heck, maybe they’ll be the Rutgers of ’07.

Stew Mandel has the thankless job of projecting all 32 bowl matchups for SI. One that caught my eye–Oregon vs. FSU in the Emerald Bowl. That’s about as good as something called an Emerald Bowl could get, I think.

Speaking of the bowls, why can’t we bring the Cotton back as a major bowl like it used to be? Couldn’t it become a BCS bowl somehow? I think that the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton and, okay, the Fiesta, should be the only bowls played after Jan. 1.

I mean, the Capital One bowl is nice and all, but you do understand….

I will leave this round up with a Youtube clip from a high school game between Texas schools Plano East and John Tyler in 1994. I saw it a long time ago, but forgot about it. It’s an amazing comeback (Plano was down 41-17 with 3 minutes left) and an even better ending, but the pure entertainment value comes from the announcers, who begin the clip with ‘Bingo-Bango-Bongo’ and end it with ‘I’m going to throw up.’

Good Gosh Almighty:

About Heismanpundit

Chris Huston, A.K.A. ‘The Heisman Pundit‘, is a Heisman voter and the creator and publisher of Heismanpundit.com, a site dedicated to analysis of the Heisman Trophy and college football. Dubbed “the foremost authority on the Heisman” by Sports Illustrated, HP is regularly quoted or cited during football season in newspapers across the country. He is also a regular contributor on sports talk radio and television.