lsu - the spoilers
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:04 am
from the lsu site
Too Bad
That's a shame.
College football is built on events – bowls, rivalries, showdowns – unfortunately, college football was robbed of two such events this past weekend. LSU and Florida and Texas and Oklahoma were supposed to meet this coming Saturday in epic clashes of undefeated, Top-10, conference rivals. The eyes of the sporting nation would be off the baseball playoffs, off the NFL, and squarely set on Baton Rouge and Dallas. A day for college football to shine.
Apparently, the memo to Auburn, Kansas State and Colorado got caught in the spam filter.
I love the sport of college football more than any one team. I want the sport to grow and succeed and find new fans. I want the rest of the country to become as passionate for the game as we are here in the SEC. I want others to experience the emotion I find in college football every weekend.
Two nationally televised early October games pitting unbeaten Top-10 super-heavyweights would have helped spread the gospel of college football.
But it was not to be.
Of all the upsets from Saturday, Auburn's win over Florida was the most jaw-dropping to me.
I have mocked Auburn in this space before, mocked quarterback Brandon Cox. I said on radio (http://www.sportstap.net) the Tigers had no chance to beat the Gators. I thought Auburn's biggest concern at this point in the season was bowl eligibility, not getting back into the SEC West race.
Auburn thought otherwise, but I never feel bad about missing a pick when a team shows me something on one given day it had proven repeatedly unable to do.
Imagine if I had written last week that I expected two-loss Auburn to beat Florida. I expect Auburn QB Brandon Cox, who has six interceptions in his first three games and a completion percentage of about 50%, to have no turnovers and complete 65% of his throws. Not only that, but Cox, who has been jumpy, gun shy and playing scared all season, will exhibit a cool determination and unflappable leadership that will guide the Tigers.
Imagine if I also told you that an Auburn offensive line that looked as coordinated and efficient as a llama ice skating will provide plenty of time for Cox to find receivers down field and open gaping holes for the running backs. Furthermore, I think Auburn's club-handed wide receivers will catch everything thrown to them, make plays after the catch, and on top of all that, the Auburn defense will stymie Heisman cinch Tim Tebow, rendering him largely ineffective on the ground and through the air. And Auburn would do all of this in college football's most hostile environment where Florida coach Urban Meyer has yet to lose a game and the Gators are riding an 18-game winning streak.
What would you have thought if I had written that last week?
Dude, how do I score whatever you're smoking? Why don't you take that Auburn degree and roll your last in it because clearly you've gone through pounds to come up with that nonsense. Did your mom write this for you? Is this Tigerbait or "The Onion?"
Yet, what I just described above, what Saturday morning would have made the headlines of the "Weekly World News" look well researched and likely, is exactly what happened.
Auburn, playing with a confidence and competence it hadn't come close to approaching in its first four games, toppled the Mighty Gators and their makes-the-Terminator-seem-cuddly head coach and their ultimate evolution of homo sapiens, DNA engineered in a BALCO laboratory quarterback.
As for what was to be the other half of that showdown, LSU, the Tigers should just be happy to have survived a weekend which resulted in such top-ranked carnage.
LSU disappointed me thoroughly.
Surely the Tigers were looking ahead to Gators and yes Tulane played with all the gusto they could manage, but that doesn't explain a one point halftime lead over a 40 ½ point underdog.
What troubles me most is the play of QB Matt Flynn who seems to be worse each week. Flynn's offensive line did him no favors. When the Tiger linemen weren't jumping off sides, they were missing blocks against ordinary C-USA defenders. Flynn was beaten up like morality on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras and what his confidence is heading into the Florida game, I can only imagine.
But LSU won despite the comic performance. Everyone's allowed a stinker and I'm guessing that was theirs. I'm not going to let two-and-a-half bad quarters from them outweigh the two exceptional games I have seen them play. I still believe LSU is a great team and they've got plenty of opportunities left to show it, starting this coming weekend.
One last thing –
Don't you get it? Don't you see this is what makes college football so wonderful? Don't you see this is why we don't need a playoff and if we had one, the sport would be worse off for it?
If college football had an eight or 16 team playoff, the winner of the Texas-Oklahoma game would still get in. So would Florida if it beats LSU. So would West Virginia or Rutgers if it wins the rest of its games. As it stands right now, because there is no playoff, they're all out. Because you can be eliminated from playoff contention with just one loss, on any weekend of the season, the first or the last or any one in between, college football has the most meaningful regular season in all of sports.
College football has the only regular season in sports you have to follow each and every week precisely because there is no playoff. The regular season is the playoff. That creates drama, tension, importance and urgency.
I didn't watch a single NFL game this weekend. Didn't need to. Nothing about the post-season was determined this weekend. If the Patriots lose Monday, they're still the best team in the league and a lock for the playoffs. Chargers start 1-3? Big deal. They'll turn it around and make the playoffs yet.
Oklahoma lost Saturday? At Colorado? Oh, damn, I guess they're out. Yup, they're out, I hope you were watching, I was.
College football has no need for a traditional post-season tournament, ours starts from the opening kickoff of week one and continues through the final whistle of the final week and a lot of teams were just knocked out.
Too Bad
That's a shame.
College football is built on events – bowls, rivalries, showdowns – unfortunately, college football was robbed of two such events this past weekend. LSU and Florida and Texas and Oklahoma were supposed to meet this coming Saturday in epic clashes of undefeated, Top-10, conference rivals. The eyes of the sporting nation would be off the baseball playoffs, off the NFL, and squarely set on Baton Rouge and Dallas. A day for college football to shine.
Apparently, the memo to Auburn, Kansas State and Colorado got caught in the spam filter.
I love the sport of college football more than any one team. I want the sport to grow and succeed and find new fans. I want the rest of the country to become as passionate for the game as we are here in the SEC. I want others to experience the emotion I find in college football every weekend.
Two nationally televised early October games pitting unbeaten Top-10 super-heavyweights would have helped spread the gospel of college football.
But it was not to be.
Of all the upsets from Saturday, Auburn's win over Florida was the most jaw-dropping to me.
I have mocked Auburn in this space before, mocked quarterback Brandon Cox. I said on radio (http://www.sportstap.net) the Tigers had no chance to beat the Gators. I thought Auburn's biggest concern at this point in the season was bowl eligibility, not getting back into the SEC West race.
Auburn thought otherwise, but I never feel bad about missing a pick when a team shows me something on one given day it had proven repeatedly unable to do.
Imagine if I had written last week that I expected two-loss Auburn to beat Florida. I expect Auburn QB Brandon Cox, who has six interceptions in his first three games and a completion percentage of about 50%, to have no turnovers and complete 65% of his throws. Not only that, but Cox, who has been jumpy, gun shy and playing scared all season, will exhibit a cool determination and unflappable leadership that will guide the Tigers.
Imagine if I also told you that an Auburn offensive line that looked as coordinated and efficient as a llama ice skating will provide plenty of time for Cox to find receivers down field and open gaping holes for the running backs. Furthermore, I think Auburn's club-handed wide receivers will catch everything thrown to them, make plays after the catch, and on top of all that, the Auburn defense will stymie Heisman cinch Tim Tebow, rendering him largely ineffective on the ground and through the air. And Auburn would do all of this in college football's most hostile environment where Florida coach Urban Meyer has yet to lose a game and the Gators are riding an 18-game winning streak.
What would you have thought if I had written that last week?
Dude, how do I score whatever you're smoking? Why don't you take that Auburn degree and roll your last in it because clearly you've gone through pounds to come up with that nonsense. Did your mom write this for you? Is this Tigerbait or "The Onion?"
Yet, what I just described above, what Saturday morning would have made the headlines of the "Weekly World News" look well researched and likely, is exactly what happened.
Auburn, playing with a confidence and competence it hadn't come close to approaching in its first four games, toppled the Mighty Gators and their makes-the-Terminator-seem-cuddly head coach and their ultimate evolution of homo sapiens, DNA engineered in a BALCO laboratory quarterback.
As for what was to be the other half of that showdown, LSU, the Tigers should just be happy to have survived a weekend which resulted in such top-ranked carnage.
LSU disappointed me thoroughly.
Surely the Tigers were looking ahead to Gators and yes Tulane played with all the gusto they could manage, but that doesn't explain a one point halftime lead over a 40 ½ point underdog.
What troubles me most is the play of QB Matt Flynn who seems to be worse each week. Flynn's offensive line did him no favors. When the Tiger linemen weren't jumping off sides, they were missing blocks against ordinary C-USA defenders. Flynn was beaten up like morality on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras and what his confidence is heading into the Florida game, I can only imagine.
But LSU won despite the comic performance. Everyone's allowed a stinker and I'm guessing that was theirs. I'm not going to let two-and-a-half bad quarters from them outweigh the two exceptional games I have seen them play. I still believe LSU is a great team and they've got plenty of opportunities left to show it, starting this coming weekend.
One last thing –
Don't you get it? Don't you see this is what makes college football so wonderful? Don't you see this is why we don't need a playoff and if we had one, the sport would be worse off for it?
If college football had an eight or 16 team playoff, the winner of the Texas-Oklahoma game would still get in. So would Florida if it beats LSU. So would West Virginia or Rutgers if it wins the rest of its games. As it stands right now, because there is no playoff, they're all out. Because you can be eliminated from playoff contention with just one loss, on any weekend of the season, the first or the last or any one in between, college football has the most meaningful regular season in all of sports.
College football has the only regular season in sports you have to follow each and every week precisely because there is no playoff. The regular season is the playoff. That creates drama, tension, importance and urgency.
I didn't watch a single NFL game this weekend. Didn't need to. Nothing about the post-season was determined this weekend. If the Patriots lose Monday, they're still the best team in the league and a lock for the playoffs. Chargers start 1-3? Big deal. They'll turn it around and make the playoffs yet.
Oklahoma lost Saturday? At Colorado? Oh, damn, I guess they're out. Yup, they're out, I hope you were watching, I was.
College football has no need for a traditional post-season tournament, ours starts from the opening kickoff of week one and continues through the final whistle of the final week and a lot of teams were just knocked out.