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COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 13

The final week of the regular season, and a good week it was. Two days of college football, which is great for fans and even better for writers, since we’re at games and can’t enjoy the wall-to-wall football. Thanksgiving Friday was a world-class day for me. Almost every game went the way I wanted.

Didn’t really care about Nebraska-Colorado, but who can resist a 65-51 game? And Texas A&M-Texas was fascinating theater; a coach and team fighting on the edge of the plank, knowing there’s no chance to get back on the ship but winning anyway. Finally, the epic triple-overtime game in which Arkansas took out top-ranked LSU with nothing more than pure enthusiasm and the nation’s best football player, Darren McFadden.

Then at nightfall, I caught some Hawaii-Boise State, but I must admit, I didn’t stay with the Rainbow Warriors. During a commercial, I flipped channels and came across the final 30 minutes of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Jimmy Stewart gets me every time, and the final scene, where as an old U.S. Senator, thinking about how he got to where he was, riding a train through the prairie back to Washington, well, that’s one powerful movie moment.

Then Turner Classic Movies kept me hooked with “The Best Years of Our Lives,” easily one of the 10 best movies ever made. If you haven’t seen it, go find it. With my son-in-law deployed with the 45th and headed for Iraq, the movie packed even more of a punch. Sorry,
Hawaii. You can’t stand up to that.

Coaching Carousel

Thirteen Division I-A coaching posts have come open this month. The problem most of those schools face is this: replacement level. Changing coaches does not automatically lead to better times. You want to hire someone better, you think you’re hiring someone better, but often you don’t.

Here are the 13 changes so far and their chances of improvement.

Arkansas: Houston Nutt. The Hogs won two SEC West Division titles in the last six years under Nutt. Chances of winning two the next six years? Fat. Nutt had some personal issues that led to his demise, and maybe he needed to go, but it’s not likely the Razorbacks will win as much they did under Nutt.

Baylor: Guy Morriss. The Bears hired Houston U.’s Art Briles to replace Morriss, who didn’t win nearly enough but improved the talent level. Briles has a chance to improve the record, thanks to the work of Morriss. I still wouldn’t have fired Morriss.

Colorado State: Sonny Lubick. It was time for Lubick to go, but what a job he did in Fort Collins  —  108-74 in 15 seasons. Lubick is nearing 70 and hasn’t had a winning season in 2003, but he plowed the ground that made Colorado State a decent football school. The next guy can go there and win.

Duke: Ted Roof. Who cares? The worst football job in America. Coaching Temple is better than coaching Duke.

Georgia Tech: Chan Gailey. Some schools have their head in the clouds. Gailey was 44-26 in six seasons at Georgia Tech, excluding his 0-6 record against Georgia. Gailey had a winning record every year and still lost his job. G-Tech plays a solid schedule; the ACC, plus a non-conference slate that includes very few rumdums. I don’t like the next guy’s chances.

Michigan: Lloyd Carr. I’ve always loved this job. It might be the best job in college football, considering all factors, including administration loyalty and fan patience. Whoever Michigan hires, he will win.

Ole Miss: Ed Orgeron. Houston Nutt is replacing Orgeron, and talk about a cushy spot. Anyone will be better than Orgeron, who never should have gotten the job. Mississippi fired David Cutcliffe three years ago in a fit of madness; Cutcliffe went 44-29 in six seasons and was cut loose after his only losing season. Nutt will win in the 55-60 percent range and be a hero, as Cutcliffe should have been.

Nebraska: Bill Callahan. Nobody plays defense these days; nobody is allowed to play defense. But the Huskers were ridiculous under Callahan. A disastrous hire, with embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss. Nebraska tied for last place in the Big 12 North this season. The next guy will do better. There’s no way he couldn’t.

Northern Illinois: Joe Novak. Retired after 12 seasons and actually coached NIU to great glories; in 2003, Northern Illinois beat Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State, and reached No. 12 in the AP poll. I wouldn’t expect a repeat.

SMU: Phil Bennett. A 1-11 season and 18-48 record in six years is hard to defend. But this certainly seems like a dead end job. I guess you could argue that it’s better than Duke.

Southern Miss: Jeff Bower. This one bothers me. Bower was head coach 17 years, a player or coach at Southern for 29 years, has had 14 straight winning seasons and just got USM into a bowl game for the 10th time in the last 11 years. And Southern Miss pressured Bower out. Sorry, but I can’t see the Golden Eagles doing much better. What? Is an invitation to join the SEC coming?

Texas A&M: Dennis Franchione. I’m not defending Fran’s goofy newsletter, nor his losing Big 12 record, nor his 25-23 overall record. But it’s about time we quit labeling A&M some kind of great football job. Some reader in Texas, usually of a sound mind and not even an A&M fan, argued with me this week that newly hired Mike Sherman would eventually run Bob Stoops out of Oklahoma. You’ve got to be kidding. Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings are two pretty fair country football coaches, wouldn’t you say? Together, they head coached A&M 11 seasons, and their combined record was 52-59-3. Jackie Sherrill cheated like crazy, caught the hated Longhorns in a down cycle and still won just 64.8 percent of his games. Here’s the truth. If Texas slips, A&M can be pretty good. If Texas is dominant, no way the Aggies will be. Bob Stoops, rest easy.

Washington State: Bill Doba. Fired after a fourth straight season without a bowl, but goes out with a 30-29 record in five years. Everyone loves Mike Price, but his 14-year record at WSU was 83-78. Give the Cougars credit, though. They don’t hire bad coaches. Here are the WSU coaches going back 40 years: Doba, Price, Dennis Erickson, Jim Walden, Warren Powers, Jackie Sherrill and Jim Sweeney. Every coach left WSU and won elsewhere, except Walden, who was an interesting guy but didn’t really do much at Iowa State.

Ten Big Winners From Week 13

10. Colorado: The offensively-challenged Buffs needed a win over Nebraska to reach a bowl game. Sixty-five points later, CU was bowl bound in Dan Hawkins’ second year.

9. OU rumdums: In the craziest exacta this side of Pimlico, the two awful teams that have been dragging down Oklahoma’s computer ranking  —  Utah State and North Texas  —  both won on the same Saturday. Utah State beat Idaho 24-19, and North Texas edged Western Kentucky 27-26. Now both teams have two wins.

8. Sylvester Croom: The Mississippi State coach isn’t flashy, and his offense stinks, but give Croom this after a 17-14 victory over Ole Miss. His Bulldogs play defense. His Bulldogs don’t quit, considering they were down 14-0 with eight minutes. His Bulldogs are going bowling after a surprising 7-5 finish. And his emotion is real. We’ve seen Les Miles and Dennis Franchione tear up in recent weeks, and some of it seems contrived. When Croom broke down on the field after the game, you knew it was pure.

7. Phil Fulmer: Love or hate the beleaguered Tennessee coach  —  I love him; down to Earth guy  —  he’s in the SEC title game. Urban Meyer and defending national champ Florida are not. And neither is red-hot Georgia.

6. UCLA: The Bruins beat Oregon 16-0 in an epic that featured 22 punts and teams that have lost more quarterbacks than some schools lose in a decade. Believe it or not, UCLA still can make the Rose Bowl. If the Bruins upset Southern Cal, and Arizona upsets Arizona State, then UCLA is the Pac-10 champ, even though Karl Dorrell’s team is a mediocre 6-5. A series of tiebreakers puts UCLA in.

5. Virginia Tech: The Hokies climbed back into the longshot national title picture with a victory over Virginia. Remember that October game against Boston College, when all the contenders were rooting against unbeaten BC? Turns out, Boston College did everyone a favor by pinning another loss on Virginia Tech.

4. Houston Nutt: Remember in “High Noon,” when Gary Cooper, with no help at all from the townsfolk of Hadleyville, stood up to the band of killers while defending Hadleyville as town marshal? Then he rips off the badge and rides out of town? That’s what happened Friday in Baton Rouge. Nutt’s Razorbacks stunned top-ranked LSU in three overtimes, then Nutt ripped off his Hog hat and rode off to Ole Miss.

3. West Virginia: The Mountaineers routed UConn and are going to the Big Bowl if they beat Pitt. West Virginia will make New Orleans by playing as weak of foes as possible and as few games as possible. They’ve basically won in dodgeball by standing with their back against the wall.

2. Hawaii: A 39-28 win over Boise State lifted Hawaii to No. 12, the magic line to reach the BCS. If Hawaii beats Washington this week, the Rainbows will make the Sugar Bowl. But that makes the Sugar Bowl a big loser. Boise State brought a ton of fans to the Fiesta Bowl last season. Hawaii will bring few to New Orleans.

1. Missouri: Let’s see. First No. 1 ranking since 47 years. Biggest win in school history, and it comes over arch-rival Kansas. Quarterback Chase Daniel skyrockets into Heisman contention. Hard to see how anyone ever has been a bigger winner than Mizzou was with a 36-28 win over KU.

Ten Big Losers From Week 13

10. Florida State: Here’s how far the Seminoles have fallen. They lose to arch-rival Florida 45-12, fall to 7-5, finish fourth in their division of the ACC, are 58-35 since losing that Orange Bowl to Oklahoma seven years ago, and no one really seems worked up.

9. Vanderbilt: The Commodores haven’t been to a bowl game since 1982, the longest drought among BCS conference teams. Vandy needed to beat Wake Forest to get to 6-6, no small order considering the kind of program Jim Grobe is building, and it didn’t happen. Wake won 31-17.

8. North Carolina State: Nothing represents pure mediocrity more than a matchup of 5-6 teams, with the winner going to a bad bowl. But if you play in one of those games, the least you can do is win it. N.C. State didn’t. Maryland rolled 37-0.

7. Miami: A 28-14 loss to Boston College relegated the Hurricanes to 5-7, sending Randy Shannon to a rocky off-season in his debut year.

6. Kansas State: What happened to the Wildcats? They were 4-2 and about to win in Stillwater in October before Jason Ricks’ last-second field goal. Then K-State collapsed, beating only Baylor down the stretch. A 45-29 loss at Fresno State dropped KSU to 5-7 and out of the bowl picture.

5. Chan Gailey: The Georgia Tech was fired after his sixth straight loss to Georgia, then wondered if he had set a world’s record. Only coach ever to be fired despite NFL playoff berths in his only two seasons as head coach and fired after going bowling in all six of his college seasons.

4. Steve Spurrier: He’s a good coach, and South Carolina will have its moments, but a 23-21 home loss to Clemson dropped the Gamecocks to 6-6 and reminded everyone that life in the SEC East is rough, even with a flamboyant and great coach.

3. Bill Callahan: Everyone got all worked up when the Huskers allowed 73 points to Kansas. But giving up 65 points to Colorado is much more of a travesty. KU has a good offense. Colorado doesn’t. No way you can criticize Tom Osborne’s firing of Callahan.

2. Texas: The Longhorns seemed headed for the Orange Bowl, where they haven’t been since Tommy Nobis turned back Joe Namath’s quarterback sneak more than 40 years ago. But UT failed to slow Texas A&M’s vaunted passing game and lost 38-30.

1. Les Miles: Playing at home with a superior team, against a one-dimensional opponent with a lame-duck coach, with a chance to play for the national title in a virtual home game in New Orleans, LSU went splat. Arkansas had the ball three times in overtime and scored a touchdown every time. But one silver lining  —  Miles now can take the Michigan job earlier.

Bowl Projections

Jan. 7 Big Bowl: Missouri vs. West Virginia

Jan. 6 GMAC: Tulsa vs. Bowling Green

Jan. 5 International: Rutgers vs. Ball State

Jan. 3 Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas

Jan. 2 Fiesta: Georgia vs. Arizona State

Jan. 1 Rose: USC vs. Ohio State

Jan. 1 Sugar: LSU vs. Hawaii

Jan. 1 Outback: Tennessee vs. Wisconsin

Jan. 1 Cotton: Oklahoma vs. Arkansas

Jan. 1 Gator: Texas Tech vs. Clemson

Jan. 1 Capital One: Florida vs. Illinois

Dec. 31 Armed Forces: Air Force vs. Purdue

Dec. 31 Sun: Oregon vs. South Florida

Dec. 31 Humanitarian: Maryland vs. Boise State

Dec. 31 Music City: Kentucky vs. Florida State

Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A: Auburn vs. Boston College

Dec. 31 Insight: Oklahoma State vs. Indiana

Dec. 30 Independence: Colorado vs. Mississippi State

Dec. 29 Meineke Car Care: Wake Forest vs. UConn

Dec. 29 Liberty: Central Florida vs. Alabama

Dec. 29 Alamo: Texas A&M vs. Penn State

Dec. 28 Texas: TCU vs. Houston

Dec. 28 Champs Sports: Virginia vs. Michigan

Dec. 28 Emerald: Georgia Tech vs. UCLA

Dec. 27 Holiday: Texas vs. Oregon State

Dec. 26 Motor City: Michigan State vs. Central Michigan

Dec. 23 Hawaii: East Carolina vs. Fresno State

Dec. 22 Papajohns.com: Cincinnati vs. Southern Miss

Dec. 22 New Mexico: New Mexico vs. South Carolina

Dec. 22 Las Vegas: California vs. BYU

Dec. 21 New Orleans: Troy vs. Memphis

Dec. 20 Poinsettia: Utah vs. Navy

I was on a St. Louis radio show Tuesday night, on KMOX, the station that carries Mizzou, and the host, Kevin Wheeler, told me he’s picking OU to win the Big 12 title game. Funny thing, I said, I had been thinking Missouri would win. Bob Stoops seems awfully confident, so I was starting to change my mind, but it got me to thinking.

Most media people, even the non-allegianced, tend to slightly overrate the teams they cover. Toss-up game? OU-Texas or OSU-Tech or something? Generally, we think the locals will prevail. Unless they’re no good. But you get my point.

Which made me wonder about OU-Mizzou. If I’m leaning toward Missouri, and the St. Louis guy is leaning towards OU, this must be one heck of a matchup. And it is. First Big 12 title game matching top-10 teams since 2001, when Colorado and Texas played at Texas Stadium.

This is going to be fun.

I’m getting a little tired of hearing fans and coaches gripe about the disparity of some conferences playing league title games and some not. No one put Pistol Pete’s six-shooter to anyone’s head. If a league is playing a title game, it’s by choice.

And besides, a league title game in the Big Ten or Big East wouldn’t solve anything anyway. If Ohio State played a title game this week, exactly how much hope would you place in the Buckeyes going down? An upset is possible, but a big upset it would have to be. Ohio State played one bad game, lost at home to Illinois, and no one else in the Big Ten put up much of a fight.

But at least the Big Ten historically has had some parity. Not so with this new Big East. West Virginia is going to make the title game with one of the easiest roads ever. West Virginia is 10-1 and will be 11-1 when it spanks Pittsburgh. Kansas is 11-1 and I’ve been hooting the Jayhawks’ schedule all year. But KU’s schedule is no worse than West Virginia’s. West Virginia’s best wins: at Maryland, which finished 6-6; home against Mississippi State, 7-5; at Rutgers, 7-4; at Cincinnati, 9-3; and Connecticut, 9-3. So its best wins are Cincinnati and UConn, two upstart programs. West Virginia lost to South Florida.

Compare that to Kansas. Its best wins are at Texas A&M, 7-5; at Oklahoma State, 6-6; and at Colorado, 6-6. UConn. Kansas lost to top-ranked Missouri.

I don’t see much difference. Yet West Virginia is ushered into the national title game, because of the softness of the Big East. The problem isn’t conference tilte games. The problem is some conferences.

If the NCAA would adopt my playoff plan — an 11-team playoff, with only conference champions involved — think how great would be not just the playoff, but the regular season. That’s the problem with all the 16-team or 8-team playoffs. When you bring in the wild cards and at-large berths, you’ve got just as big a mess as we’ve got now, and you’ve watered down the regular season.

But if only conference champs were involved, we would hit December with still seven conference titles to be determined: Big 12, ACC, Pac-10, SEC, Conference USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt. Talk about a royal Saturday. Do-or-die is what makes for great theater, and that’s what we’ve had the last couple of weeks, and what we would have Saturday, and then what we would have in the ensuing playoff, in which five teams would get first-round byes and the other six champs would fill out the bracket.

My plan is the best combination of protecting the regular season while also creating a post-season buzz.

Bedlam football provided something I’d never seen before. A combined performance by the OU and OSU marching bands, doing a tribute to the Centennial. The field was arrayed with crimson and orange musicians, and while they stood with their backs to each other — except for the OSU percussion section, which mingled with the Pride of Oklahoma — that was for volume purposes, not a political statement.

It was a nice gesture and maybe took a little of the rancor out of the series, which has become more and more bitter in this Internet age. My brother-in-law, an OSU season ticket holder, turned down a ticket to the game Saturday because of the way he was treated by the Owen Field crowd when he went to the 2005 Bedlam game. Ex-OU quarterback Nate Hybl told me he was treated worse on the sidelines in Stillwater than anywhere else he played.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Maybe the bands can remind us that we’re all in this together. Oklahomans and Americans.

This game could still get interesting. Sam Bradford’s what’s-he-doing pass, intercepted by Jacob Lacey and run back to the OU 1-yard line, put OSU back in this game. Funny start to this half for the Sooners. Third-and-1, and Bradford throws deep, and incomplete, leading to OU’s first punt. Then OU’s running game is finally stuffed by the Cowboys, leading to a 3rd-and-12 and the Lacey interception.

Disaster has just struck OSU. First-and-goal at the 1-yard line, and OSU sends Julius Crosslin up the middle twice for no gain. Then Zac Robinson is stuffed for no gain on a counter option. Finally, the Sooners stretch out a fourth-down option play, with Marcus DeGranger corralling Robinson, who seemingly panicked and tossed the ball into the end zone. D.J. Wolfe picked up the fumble and ran it back to the OU 13-yard line. So in addition to not scoring, the Cowboys let the Sooners out of the shadow of the end zone.

Here’s my problem with the series. Crosslin. Nothing against Juice, but you’ve got this amazing offense with Robinson and Dantrell Savage, and you give up two downs giving the ball to a guy who carries once or twice a game. As Mike Gundy has said many times, his offensive line is not overpowering. So why try to overpower the Sooner interior?

OSU can run the ball. With 2:25 left in the half, OSU has 116 rushing yards, and that includes an 8-yard sack. Robinson has 58 yards on 12 carries and Savage 49 yards on six carries. But Julius Crosslin got two straight handoffs when the Cowboys sniffed the goal line.

Sometimes you don’t want to make outlandish predictions too early, but here’s one. Allen Patrick could break OU’s single-game rushing today. Patrick has 107 yards on 10 carries so far — his 33-yard run just set up Chris Brown’s 3-yard touchdown. That’s through 18 minutes and 11 seconds. So Patrick is on pace for 33-34 carries and 358 yards. The OU record is Greg Pruitt’s 294 yards vs. Kansas State in 1971. Patrick could get that today, if the Sooners keep feeding him the ball. And with no DeMarco Murray to eat up carries, why wouldn’t they keep feeding Patrick?

Zac Robinson’s value to Oklahoma State’s offense was apparent on the 87-yard touchdown drive the Cowboys just produced. Thirteen plays, and 10 were either Robinson runs or passes. Dantrell Savage carried thrice for 18 yards, but Robinson carried seven times for 55 yards and threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Savage on a lovely touch pass over the OU blitz.

The Sooner pass rush seems potent through one quarter, but OSU can offset that with Robinson. His quick dashes on scrambles can slow that pass rush. The only downside to Robinson’s play: He’s taking some hits, including a solid blow that led to a fumble (Brandon Pettigrew recovered to keep the drive alive). Robinson’s health will be at risk if he carries nine times a quarter, as he’s done so far.

Bob Stoops admitted early in the week that OU got away from the running game too soon in Lubbock. The Sooners seem intent on not making that mistake in Bedlam. We’ve played less than nine minutes at Owen Field, and OU has rushed for 91 yards on 13 carries. Allen Patrick has 66 yards on seven carries and Chris Brown 25 yards on six carries.

OU is not fooling around. There seems to be no obvious passing down. First series, 3rd-and-7, handoff to Brown for six yards, setting up a fourth-down conversion. Second series, 2nd-and-12, blast play up the middle to Patrick, who broke a tackle or two and dashed 41 yards. Then, 3rd-and-8, shotgun handoff to Brown for 12 yards to the 5-yard line, from where Patrick scored the next play.

The Sooners lost their attitude in Lubbock. They seem ready to get it back.