"Steveo's Salvos" - December, 2007 Edition

"Salvos" is presented as the editorial content of CollegeFootballFan.com focusing on current issues surrounding college football and news about some of the teams on the CFF schedule this year.  Originally from a newsletter, this web site, CollegeFootballFan.com, has evolved. 

We did it!!! - October 27, 2007.  CollegeFootballFan.com is #1!!!  Aside from any media types, no one can say that they've seen more College Bowl Subdivision teams than we have.  It's impossible.  There are 119 teams and now we've seen 'em all!  Great time with some big Nevada Wolfpack fans for the Grand Finale against Idaho in Reno.  Now we go on to more great football games this season and next!  Western Kentucky becomes #120 in 2009.  We hope to be at their opener, but a certain Guest Game Analyst (GGA) we've had with us over the years will probably start playing Freshman football in HS that season.  We'll have to work around that.

Get it right! -  College football seems to have the right  technology and the right process are in place to make the right calls to avoid any controversial call from deciding the game, but how come some people reviewing the plays don't understand the rules to make the right calls!  It's a shame with everything supposedly in place, an officiating crew still can't make the right call as demonstrated during the Poinsettia Bowl in an exciting game between Navy and Utah.  After the game , the crew apologized for making the wrong call when they awarded Utah the ball on the one when the Ute receiver fumbled the ball which hit the pylon before he fell out of bounds.  In retrospect, the ruling should have been a touchback with Navy getting the ball at the twenty.  Instead, Navy held and had their backs to the goal line where they tried to convert on a fourth and two from their own nine before being stopped to allow Utah to score again after taking over inside the the ten.  Even as the play was being discussed during the broadcast, Lou Holtz commented that the play is not dead until the carrier touches the ground when he falls out of bounds.  The officials reported a day later that they made the wrong call including a reading from the rule book.  Why didn't they look at the rule while they were reviewing the play.  The replay rule was supposed to prevent this stuff from happening.  There are no do-overs.  The shame of it is that Navy was able to score again with less than a minute and get the ball back on an onsides kick before succumbing, 35-32.  The right call may have resulted in a different outcome, but it's tough when the officiating crew throws more obstacles in your way.  This crew and the replay official should face some kind of fine or suspension for this one.

Golden Boy says "no" to Golden State -  That makes us think that we are right.  Temple Head Coach Al Golden who improved Temple from 1-11 to 4-8 in his second season with the Owls reportedly had two interviews with UCLA before turning down an offer.  We think it says two things.  Number one, he's an east coast guy originally from New Jersey and a former Penn State TE who has coached at his alma mater, Boston College and Virginia. With his recruiting base in the east, if he can continue to make Temple more competitive during the next two to three years, we think he will be in position to take over for Joe Paterno when he decides to finally step down.

Predictions in place - Check out all our bowl predictions for our Texas Bowl Tour starting this Friday in Previews.  After we get back, we hope to include some picture of our Tour along with the Reviews for each game.

Trying to keep up - No doubt Rich Rodriguez's decision to leave his alma mater must have been influenced by the wad of money Michigan threw his way, but it seems the Big Ten is not only trying to improve to gain some momentum to become a Top Ten contender, but it seems in particular that they are trying to distance themselves from the ascending Big East.  We hope the two conferences will find a way to come up with a meaningful bowl contract.  We're disappointed also in that we were hoping to see WVU play under Rodriguez next season in a meaningful regular season game.  Now with his exodus, will Juniors Pat White and Steve Slaton also decide to move on?  Maybe the Mountaineers will be re-building sooner than they thought.  This could be a blow for the Big East reputation.

Seeing stars! - The Associated Press announced its All-American team this week, and boy not only did CollegeFootballFan.com see the cream of the crop, but our Texas Bowl Tour coming up, we have seen just about every position on offense but QB filled in right at the top.  At RB is Darren McFadden of Arkansas who will we see New Year's Day.  If it wasn't for a breakdown in communications when we attended Cousin Kelly's wedding in Orland, we would have seen his backfield mate Kevin Smith of Central Florida perform. We saw the two top wide receivers play this year - Texas Tech frosh sensation Michael Crabtree and Kansas State's Jordy Nelson who finished at #1 and #2 in the nation in receiving yards.  On the line, we start out with the top center - Steve Justice of Wake Forest.  At guard is 330-lb Duke Robinson of Oklahoma. Two Missouri players will line up against Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.  TE Martin Rucker and All-purpose player Jeremy Maclin, a freshman, were selected best in the land.  On defense, we saw PSU's Dan Connor win the Bednarik Award, and at another LB position, we saw Jordan Dizon of Colorado, though that was last season.  It was a banner year for us to see All-Americans.

Way to go , Cuz! - Honors were also announced at the D# level by D3football.com.  Highlighting the awards Cousin Robert Keyes, OT for The College of New Jersey, was second team All East!  Teammate Joe King with 28 tackles for losses, 15 sacks, and 7 pass break-ups was named East Region Defensive Player of the Year.  Their Head Coach Eric Hamilton was named East Region Coach of the Year guiding the Lions to an 8-2 record.

One game play-off - As of late, many sports pundits call for a one-game play-off among the best of the bowl winners as a method of determining a true national champ to try to improve the current system since many believe the NCAA will never sanction a play-off system, at least until after the expiration of the current TV contracts in 2010.  We see such an idea as a means of not determining a true national champ, but as a means of muddying the title picture even more!  Take this year as an example.  Eliminate Georgia and Illinois from among the "Elite 8" since the two did not win conference championships.  Figure USC plays Hawaii and the other three match-ups go as scheduled - LSU-Ohio State, Oklahoma-WVU, and Virginia Tech-Kansas.  LSU, WVU, Kansas, and Hawaii win. Which two do you pick pick among four teams all with solid bowl wins - two teams with 11-2 records over a one-loss team and and undefeated team outside the BCS?  Among LSU, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, and USC - which two two-loss teams deserve it more? Ohio State, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Hawaii all win, which doesn't have a legitimate argument to go to a championship game?  Throw LSU in instead of Ohio State, it's still too difficult.  The winners of all four games have a legitimate claim to play in one more game.  It will still be too political damaging the legitimacy of a national championship even further.  We still like our idea best incorporating major bowls into a play-off system.  See our Play-off Proposal.  We still stand by it as the best and only way to crown a national champion!

Get your tickets - fast! - Two of our four bowl games on the Texas Bowl Tour are sold out!  The Cotton Bowl and the Alamo Bowl are filled up.  Luckily we had tickets and hotel rooms booked before the teams were announced.  Missouri's #6 and Arkansas is a short ride to the Cotton Bowl.  Penn State always brings a big crowd to a bowl game and the Aggies are not far from San Antonio.  The Texas Bowl will pack 'em in a little tighter as the day draws near with Houston right at home and TCU about four hours away.  Air Force should be a great draw for the Armed Services Bowl.  We got great seats for three of the four games.

A REAL championship - Throw out the rankings as a team ranked #6 in the polls, Appalachian State,  meta team ranked #13 in the polls, Delaware,  in the final game of the Championship Subdivision to take the title, 49-21!  Both had won three games in a tournament after 9-2 and 8-3 seasons respectively to get there.  UD defeated in-state antagonist #10 Delaware State, #1 Northern Iowa, and #4 Southern Illinois.  Appy State defeated #14 Eastern Washington, # 9 James Madison, and #8 Richmond along the way.  Of course, during the regular season, both teams flexed their muscles against the Bowl Division.  The Mountaineers kicked off this crazy season with their much vaunted win over pre-season #5 Michigan, 34-32.  The Blue Hens knocked off 8-4 Navy on their way to the Poinsettia Classic, 59-52!

Memories of Sean Taylor - CollegeFootballFan.com attended the University of Miami's final Big East game ever back in 2003 when the Hurricanes visited Heinz Field and defeated the Pitt Panthers, 28-14. For the late Sean Taylor who was recently killed tragically during a break-in at his home, it was not only his last Big East game, but an epic game which probably established his value for the pro draft the following spring.  He picked off two that night of his ten INTs during that season which made him the NCAA's 1A leader.  His prowess shut down All-American Pitt WR Larry Fitzgerald who caught only two passes for 18 yards that cold, November Saturday night. Taylor led the team in tackles that season and returned three of those interceptions for touchdowns.  His play gained him All-American status and he was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year.  In the draft of 2004, the Washington Redskins picked him fifth overall. He was a great college football player!  Our condolences to his friends and family.

Getting the shakes -  Two weekends without attending games and already we're getting "the shakes".  Despite watching Army-Navy, conference championships, anti-climactic BCS announcements, 1AA and D-III championships, and the NFL we miss not being outdoors fighting the elements to watch a college game somewhere.   The season is too short as far as we're concerned. We're stuck in front of the tube this week until Navy plays Utah Thursday night, so we'll be pumped on December 28 when we start our Texas Tour of four games in five days!   Can't wait!

Thanks, Paul - You can't stop progress, or a man's career.  We're disappointed to see Paul Johnson leave Navy to take over the reigns at Georgia Tech.  He made Navy Football fun too watch while turning around a floundering program to earn five straight bowl bids, dominate Army and Air Force, and lead the nation in rushing for three years in a row running his triple option.  There wasn't much left for him to achieve at the Academy.  We think he made a good choice among the three options he had to leave the Academy.  SMU and Duke made offers, but Tech is in a much better position coming off a 7-5 season and heading to a bowl.  He'll start with a solid foundation and has his ties in Georgia after winning two national championships at Georgia Southern prior to coming to Navy.  We think that Tech will appreciate his offense more among the big schools than would others as Bobby Ross was pretty successful there during his national championship run with the option as his primary threat.  He's going to have to tighten up his defense though.  We always loved following his dead-panned interviews with the press on the Navy website.  We plan to check out the same in the future on Tech's site.  We wish him the best and gives us more incentive to go see GT play in Atlanta some day, but we're hoping Navy can keep the winning tradition going after his departure.  We wait with great anticipation to see who will coach the Mids next!

Quick thinking - Navy AD Chet Gladchuk had his plan in place for an eventual, anticipated departure of Head Coach Paul Johnson.  One day after Johnson's announcement to go to Georgia Tech, Navy named offensive coordinator Ken Niamatalolo as its new Head Coach. The triple-option is what got USNA football to where it's been over the last five years, so what better man to maintain the continuity of what got them there.  It seems that Navy will try to maintain much of its current staff leaving slim pickings to follow Paul Johnson into the ACC.  We believe Niamatalolo's appointment as HC at Navy will make them fun to watch for year's to come!

See you in Big D, Bobby Petrino - Head Coaches need to take a lesson from JoePa - when the pros come knockin', just say no!  Unless of course you have an easy out on your contract so when you realize you can't recruit your players and schedule those non-conference patsies for a few easy wins, you can step down and get a better deal at the next desperate school.  Coaching the pros and in college are two different animals.  Some guys seem to be good at on and not the other.  It seems rare to see a guy who can win in both.  Just ask the Old Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, or USC's Pete Carroll. Like Joe owns State College, Carroll now owns LA.  Got to the pros and your five and out!  Coach in college to your past 80 and it beats collecting social security, right Joe?

Stepping up - Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, whose team we saw win an exciting 49-45 shoot-out over Texas Tech this year, steps up as new Head Coach at Southern Miss.  His Cowboys ranked #9 in offense this year, so expectations are he'll bring some excitement with him to Hattiesburg.

So much for interims - Three teams on our Texas Bowl Tour will be playing under interim Head Coaches.  Houston will play under Chris Thurman, Texas A&M will play under former offensive coordinator Gary Darnell, and Arkansas will play under Reggie Herring.  All three have now had their replacements for next season as Houston named Kevin Sumlin, co-offensive coordinator of the Oklahoma Sooners as their new Head Coach.  Earlier in the week, Bobby Petrino left the Atlanta Falcons to replace Houston Nutt who left Arkansas and became Head Coach at beleagured Mississippi.  Earlier, Mike Sherman left the Green Bay Packers as an assistant to take over the reigns at A&M. 

Twelve bowl teams, and counting - That's how many we saw during the regular season this year:

1. Auburn goes to the Chik-fil-a (they play this in the Georgia Dome so cows can't parachute in); 2. Rutgers goes International; 3. Navy has a good match-up with Utah at the Poinsettia in San Diego, a Navy town; 4. Penn State follows us for the the second year in a row so we can "Remember the Alamo!"; 5. Oklahoma, our only BCS squad will party at the Fiesta Bowl while we think they should be playing LSU; 6. Tulsa should have done better as C-USA's #2 team than in the GMAC against Bowling Green; 7. Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy should give the media some more Insight in Arizona about being a man; 8. Texas Tech's passing game will challenge the rush of UVA's Chris Long, son of Howie; 9. South Florida will play in and under the Brut Sun in El Paso; 10. Purdue will have a hard time revving up for the Motor City Bowl against Central Michigan whom  they defeated earlier this season, 45-22; maybe they should switch places with 11. Wake Forest who'll be blowing their pipes out in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against UConn; 12. Nevada-Reno, our 119th team seen this past year, won their sixth game in the finale to get to play New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl.  We'll surely exceed our season record for bowl teams this season by adding seven more (we see PSU again) during our Texas Bowl Tour - TCU, Houston, Texas A&M, Air Force, Cal, Mizzou, and Arkansas!.

Penn State and Missouri and Cal -oh my! - We just can't let this one go in anticipation of our Texas Bowl Tour.  To paraphrase Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tin Man's "Lions and Tigers and Bears - oh my!", we trek through Texas to watch three of eight teams with mascots that trio dreaded while skipping through the haunted forest.  For us though, this Texas Tour will be our trip to "Oz!" How about "Cougars and Falcons and Toads - as well!"  "Razorbacks" has one too many syllables!

In the end - Only three teams we saw this season remained in the AP Top 25. Oklahoma finished at #3.   Auburn (8-4) came in at #22 , one notch ahead of 9-3 South Florida who defeated the Tigers  at Shug-Jordan.  The BCS makes more sense with USF at #21 and Auburn at #23.   Sportswriters have short memories.  Missouri is our only upcoming bowl team in the BCS standings at #6.  Their AT&T Cotton Bowl opponent, Arkansas, finished at #25 in the AP final regular season poll.  We thought the SEC would have obliged the Cotton with a higher ranked team like Auburn or Tennessee.  Dallas was evidently too long a trip for those schools compared to the Razorback fans.

Following the Leaders - At the end of the regular season, we've certainly seen our share of individual and team leaders, and will see a few more during our Texas Bowl Tour.  Oklahoma Frosh QB Sam Bradford (180.53) finished first in QB ratings, and to our surprise, Paul Smith of Tulsa fell out of the top five which he'd been in all season, only to be replaced by another Frosh QB we saw play this year!  Colin Kaepernick of Nevada grabbed fifth place with his season finale performance to get the Wolf Pack to 6-6 and a bowl bid as his rating jumped to 161.06!   Mike Crabtree of Texas Tech and Jordy Nelson of Kansas State finished  #1 and #2 in receiving yards with 1,861 and 1,606.  Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell led the nation in passing yards with 5,298.  Paul Smith placed second with 4,753.  In the Cotton Bowl, we will see #5, Missouri's Chase Daniels, with 4,170 yards.    Ray Rice of Rutgers is the nation's third leading rusher with 1,732 yards and is followed by another player in the Cotton Bowl, Arkansas' Darren McFadden with 1,725.  Wake Forest DB Alphonso Smith finished tied for first in the nation with 8 INTs, while he and DB Trae Williams whom we saw play for South Florida, both returned three for TDs.  In team stats, Oklahoma came in #3 in scoring with 43.4 points,  Navy is by far tops in rushing yards averaging 351.5, and we will see the #2 rushing team in the Bell Helicopter Armed Services Bowl when we see Air Force who averages 298.5, and we will see the #3 rushing team in the Cotton Bowl, Arkansas, with 296.8.  Texas Tech dominated the air lanes with 473.6 per game.  Tulsa came in third with 374.6 per game.

See Joe, see records - Every time we go see PSU play, we see Joe Paterno setting some kind of record or establish some kind of bench mark.  At the Alamo Bowl, he goes for his 34th bowl game ever.  If he wins, he'll maintain his lead in wins and extend it to 23, most ever.  No wonder why he's in the Hall of Fame!  It will also be his 500th game at PSU.  We have to go back and see what other milestones of his we've see along the way.   For us, it's his 78th game he's coached that we've attended since 1979.

Big Three - We did pretty well this year at getting to see some significant award winners - top WR, LB, and eventually RB.  Freshman Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as top receiver.  Despite his team's 49-45 loss to Oklahoma State the day we saw him play, his performance was award-winning - 14 catches for 237 yards and 3 TDs.  His numbers could each have been bigger and his team could have one more win, however, if a last second pass didn't glance off his shoulder pad in the end zone to end the game!  Penn State's Dan Connor, whom we saw each year during his career at Linebacker U, earned the Chuck Bednarik Award as top LB.  It was the third year in a row a Nittany Lion took the award as Paul Posluszny captured the last two before heading off to play for the Buffalo Bills.  We attended the PSU win over Purdue when Connor surpassed his former teammates mark for the most tackles in school history, quite a feat at LBU, but how can you compare such records against eras when freshman couldn't play and the regular season was limited to ten games?  Lastly, we will see Darren McFadden of Arkansas, winner of the Doak Walker Award as best RB in the nation, when we attend the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day.  The Award means something a little special to CFF.com as we got to meet and shake hands with the late Mr. Walker in 1995 at a Heisman autograph session.  He among four of the winners signed our book about the history of College Football.  He was a gracious, nice man who had big, strong hands when we remember meeting him.  Jim Plunkett, Howard "Hop-along" Cassady, and Steve Owen were among the others we met that day.  Heisman finalists McFadden and Missouri QB Chase Daniels came in as runners-up to Florida QB Tim Tebow, but we'll bring that same book along for our Tour for potential autographs any way!

Arizona State Watched - We predicted that ASU would play the spoiler roll with the upset of USC this year, but we were wrong as the roles were reversed.  The Sun Devils, now 10-2 and ranked #11 in the BCS,  fell to the Trojans (10-2),44-24, on Thanksgiving night at home.  At least we didn't pick USC to win it all like everybody else did (Pitt made us look bad though having predicted WVU)! A revenge win over UCLA got the Boys from Troy in the Rose Bowl.  Arizona State will got a good bowl bid to the Holiday Bowl in what should be a good match-up with Texas.  The Holiday always seems to get one of the best match-ups of the bowl season.  We have to think about a California Bowl trip next year.

Streak interrupted - Florida International's 23-game losing streak came to an end with a 38-19 win over North Texas State in their final game of the 2007 season. First-year  Head Coach Mario Cristobal's team ended the frustration over the 2-9 Mean Green coached by first-year HC Todd Dodge who came in as the much heralded HS coach from Carroll (TX) Southlake HS, alma mater of Mizzou QB Chase Daniels.  We saw FIU lose early on  during that streak last season in one of their closest losses, 14-10 at Maryland where former NFL QB and then HC Don Strock seemed to have no clue on how to run a two-minute drill!  Maybe this is a start for the Panthers to get out of their funk.

Nice move -  Mansfield University, a small state school in Division II's Pennsylvania Athletic Conference, dropped varsity football after the 2006 season after many futile years as a doormat in that conference.  Football at the north central Pennsylvania campus will be revived again in 2008 though not as a Division II football member in the same PSAC, but as a new member of the Sprint Football League.  Sprint football is regulation college football rules played by players with a weight limit of 172 lbs.  Among the competition at this level is Army, Navy, Cornell, Penn, and Princeton.  The school admits it pared its athletic budget down from about $500,000 to $155,000, but the intention still gives students a chance to continue their football- playing careers.  We think it's a great move for the reasons stated.  We think that there are plenty of good, former high school players that go on to college that have to give up a sport they love because they are not among the elite in size or speed, but would still cherish the need to be part of a football team that can go out and compete on the field on a fall Saturday.  We think more schools should do it for such students.  We're interested to see how this program works out for the school.  Maybe others will take note and it can catch on.