Nov 2, 2007

So now it’s white-knuckle time.

The college football season is two-thirds over.

Plenty has been determined.

But you know what? The most important things—bowl bids, championships, season-ending rivalry games—have not.

Believe it or not, folks, only three or four games remain in this 2007 edition of America's Greatest Game. And for many teams, unfortunately, a bowl trip is already out of reach. For still others, it’s a not a question if they’re going bowling, but rather where.

Then there’s those handful very lucky (and/or very good) teams for whom the ultimate goal remains very much in reach.

If only they can survive November.

November is interesting time in the college football year. But not really a fun time.

It is a time when teams are beat up, tired and barely hanging on. Coaches are worn out. The press gets a little snippy. Even Your Editor starts to drag a bit.

The bottom line? November is not as sunshiney as September; it’s not as glorious as October. It is, instead, a time for survival. It is a time when a season's worth of hard work can be flushed down the toilet with just one bad bounce, just one mistake. It is a time when us fans check the ESPN or CNN bowl projections to figure out where our teams might be come January.

The postseason scenarios are lined up, played out, fretted over. Some faithful fans make plane reservations. Some book hotel rooms.

Which only serves to heighten the intensity of the weeks to come.

That's the thing about November: By this point in the year, you kind of know where you're headed. But not really.

Your Editor knows, for instance, that with three wins to finish the year, my beloved Penn State Nittany Lions will likely be playing in the Capital One Bowl, against an SEC opponent (Florida? Georgia?) on Jan. 1. And you know what? I’d take that in a second. Certainly it's not what I hoped for. But given the circumstances, I'd be thrilled with it. And it's right there for the taking.

There’s just that little matter of winning those last three games.

And hoping everything else breaks just right, too.

Of which, of course, there is no guarantee.

Not for anyone.

Not in college football.

Not in November.

Let the worrying begin.

Out And About: News And Notes You May Have Missed

• How much disdain do SEC fans have for the Big Ten? Well, I can’t know for sure, but if an article in this week’s Cleveland Plain Dealer is any indication, those Southern fans certainly don’t have much respect for their brethren up north. Plain Dealer Ohio State beat writer Doug Lesmerises interviewed a bunch of arrogant southerners and found out, basically, that they think nobody north of Kentucky plays real football. "I'm a huge college football fan," Paul Finebaum, a Birmingham-based college football columnist, told Lesmerises. "But if [the Mythical National Championship Game] ends up Boston College and Ohio State, I'm getting a movie on pay-per-view that night. I'm not watching that game." Added Baton Rouge-based radio host Josh Innes: "People think Ohio State is a complete fraud." You know what I think? I think people in the South have a highly inflated opinion of the quality of their football. My thoughts on the “conference superiority” arguments are simple: Which conference a team plays in has absolutely zero relevance to how fast its players can run, how well its offensive line can block, or how well its linebackers can tackle. Conference affiliation is a label, nothing more. Using that label to assess the quality of a team would be like assuming that because some guy is wearing fancy basketball shoes, he is going to be a better player than the guy wearing cheap ones.

• Earlier this week I received an email from TCFA Friend and Pitt grad Scott Burke. In this email, Scott expressed his unhappiness with the state of the Pitt football program thusly: “For the third straight year, Pitt will NOT be going to a bowl game. Wannstedt is 1-13 when trailing at halftime. He has to go.” The timing of this email was interesting, because the very next day, the following headline appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Football program slowly turning the corner: Progress hard to discern for young Panthers, but Wannstedt insists better days are ahead.” Classic! In the article, Pitt coach Dave “Wounded Knee” Wannestedt admitted the program’s progress has been “not as fast as anyone would like, but we're dealing with a great group of kids. The attitude is great. You wouldn't know we are 3-5 if you watched these kids practice and study and get ready to try and win." The coach cited his team’s close losses to Cincinatti and Louisville in recent weeks as evidence that they are close to being good (which, when you think about it, is pretty sad). The the fact is, Wannestedt has been in town three years now. His recruiting has been good. The gameday coaching? Not so much. So now you have to wonder, when Pitt hires a new athletic director later this year, whether or not Wannestedt’s arguments will fall on deaf ears. Here's the bottom line: Pitt plays Syracuse this week. Strange as it may sound, this is an important game for Pitt--and, more specifically, their coach.

• Georgia coach Mark Richt has been mostly praised this week for his “brilliant” motivational tactic of sending 70 of his players onto the field during last week’s Georgia-Florida game. It was a move that some say helped his team to an impressive 42-30 upset of the (overrated) Gators. I say it was utterly classless, and could have led to an all-out riot, both on the field and in the stands. Richt was unapologetic after the game, but then this week backtracked and offered the following (much too late) apology to both the SEC and the Gators: "I apologize that I put everyone in that situation and specifically apologize to you, the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Florida. You can be assured I will not ask our team to do this type of thing again. … Two weeks ago when our preparation began for the Florida game, I told the team that we have got to have more energy and enthusiasm in this ball game or we are going to get whipped pretty good. I said, as a matter of fact, when we score our first touchdown, I expect you guys to celebrate to the point where the official will throw a flag for excessive celebration. I admit this was inappropriate." There’s something about that last line that just made me laugh out loud.

Quick Hits: Straight And To The Point

• If you haven’t noticed, folks, the Temple Owls have won three straight football games. Three straight! They are coming off a win over Miami of Ohio and, with a not-great Ohio University team coming up next, are now looking at four straight. If  they win this week, it’s not entirely impossible that the Owls (currently 3-5) could win six games. And become bowl eligible. But when Temple coach Al Golden was asked about that possibility recently, he pulled a much lower-key Jim Mora-styled freakout. Said Golden: "A what? A bowl game? I don't know. I'm just trying to win another game. Bowl games? Wow. No, let's just keep moving forward here."

• Quotable: CBS college football analyst, Big Ten traitor and increasingly whiney guy Gary Danielson, lamenting the possibility that poor old LSU might get passed over for the Mythical National Championship game: "This is a sorry way to crown a mythical national champion."

• There are coaches in the Big Ten whom you can tell Joseph Vincent Paterno likes. And there are some you know he doesn’t. I can tell you with much certainty that Paterno does like Purdue coach Joe Tiller. As Penn State prepared this week to take on the 7-2 Boilermakers in a key game for both teams, Paterno expressed his admiration for what Tiller has been able to accomplish in his decade-long tenure at Purdue—specifically Tiller's ability to change the nature of Big Ten football. Said Paterno: "I think when Joe came in, he turned around the philosophy, or the character, of the Big Ten, because he started throwing the ball around a little more and spread us all out. When he came in from where he had been coaching [Wyoming], they said, 'Well, you can't do what you did out there,' and he said, 'Why not?' They said, 'Because of the weather,' and he says, 'Don't you think it's cold in Wyoming? The wind blows out there, too.'"

• Notre Dame plays Navy this week, and for the first time in 43 years, the Midshipmen might actually have a chance to win. Yes, the Irish now own a 43-game winning streak over the Mids, but with the 2007 version of the Irish standing at 1-7, and the Mids at 4-4, could this finally be the year? Hey, what’s Navy got to lose, right? Explained Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada (and what a name, folks; what a name): "If we lose this game, it's like what the other 43 teams went through—it's a loss. But if by some chance we beat Notre Dame, we rewrite the history books."

• Unfortunately, there’s just one problem for Navy: Their defense. Once again, the middie defenders are pretty bad (i.e., slow and small). They are ranked 105th in the nation in total defense, and have surrendered 40 or more points five times this season. More to the point, it’s been the Navy defense—not the offense—that has recently blown their chances to beat the Irish. How bad has Navy’s defense been in this "rivalry" game? Here’s a good indication: They have not forced Notre Dame to punt since 2004.

• Hey folks, if you hadn’t noticed the NBA tipped off this week. I am sure you’re excited. Oh wait. Honestly, is there anything worse than the NBA? I mean, besides the NFL, of course.

• Finally, we offer you proof that even College Football Gods can be boneheads: Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, who was recently named the school's athletic director, was asked this week whether or not he would re-institute the Cornhuskers' famed walk-on program, which was eliminated by current Nebraska coach Bill Callahan. Osborne answered with the following: “Well, that will depend somewhat on the new coaching staff." The only problem? Callahan, um, hasn't been fired yet. Oops.