Happy New Year’s for Nebraska
The New Year’s Day missed the Cotton Bowl. On Jan. 1, there were five bowl games. On Dec. 31, where were five bowl games. OK, so some of the New Year’s games were more prestigious than some of the New Year’s Eve games. But still, they don’t make Jan. 1 like they used to. I think it missed the Cotton Bowl, which kicks off on Friday.
Anyway, it still was a fun day of football, led by the Gator Bowl.
Gator Bowl
* Solid, solid win by Nebraska, 26-21 over Clemson. The Huskers won the way most Big 12 teams win; they had the better quarterback. Joe Ganz wasn’t great but was solid. Clemson’s Cullen Harper struggled.
* I never say things like this. Never, never, never. But the CBS broadcast crew of Craig Bolerjack, Steve Beuerlein and Dan Fouts seemed terribly smitten with Clemson.
It wasn’t an anti-Nebraska bent, it was mostly just infatuation with Clemson. Everything was presented from a Clemson perspective. How will this play affect Clemson, how will that development affect Clemson. The play of the game, as deemed by CBS, was a fumble by Nebraska quarterback Patrick Witt that Clemson returned for a touchdown, but then was wiped out by replay.
Huh?
* The biggest play of the game was Quentin Castille’s 58-yard run in the third quarter, which overturned momentum. Nebraska trailed 21-10 after a Clemson TD, but on NU’s next snap, Castille broke free, setting up a Joe Ganz touchdown pass.
* The Huskers have some excellent receivers. Nate Swift’s 17-yard touchdown catch was as good as you’ll see as far as getting feet down in the end zone.
* I don’t know if Bo Pelini will turn things around in Lincoln, but I think he’s off to an excellent start: 9-4, lots of excitement. The Big 12 North seems ripe for the taking. If Pelini finds a quarterback, Nebraska might soon return to the class of the North.
* Crazy stat of the year: Nebraska has won one North title this decade.
* The Huskers sealed the victory with a defensive stand after Clemson reached the 10-yard line late in the game. Nebraska turned back the Tigers by blitzing. Blitzing almost always is the way to go in college football. Brent Venables seems like he’s blitzing Sooners every play down the stretch, and it’s been working.
Orange Bowl
* I was pulling for Cincinnati, but Virginia Tech clearly was the better team and won 20-7.
* The Tony Pike story — from fifth on the depth chart in August to the Orange Bowl in January — is a nice tale, but now we know why Dustin Grutza was the better player.
Grutza suffered a broken leg at OU in September, and Pike was ineffective against V-Tech. He threw four interceptions, and a fifth was overturned by replay.
* Terrible, terrible call. Fourth-and-goal from the V-Tech 1-yard line, midway through the fourth quarter, Cincy trailed by 13.
Pike ran a counter option. Really good play, usually. And it was open this time, at least enough opening for what Cincinnati needed. Pike had running room. But he was hit at the 1-yard line by Barquell Rivers and nailed for no gain. The way the play developed, almost any quarterback would have fallen forward and found the end zone. But Pike, a stringbean, went barrelling back.
* It was fun watching Cincinnati receiver Mardy Gilyard run circles around V-Tech. He had 158 yards receiving and several oh-so-close kickoff returns. Same thing he did to Oklahoma, except for the oh-so-close part.
* Lots of empty seats in the Orange Bowl. I don’t know how these BCS bowls are expected to sell tickets for these extra games. All their marketing effort goes into the Big Bowl a week later. Oklahoma-Boise State, Georgia-Hawaii, Cincy-Virginia Tech. Those are tough sells.
* And another thing. It seems like on ESPN particularly, there don’t seem to be as many commercials sold as usual. That’s got to be an ominous sign.
Rose Bowl
* Haven’t we seen this before? It was 31-7 and 38-14 before Penn State made a late rally and lost 38-24.
* Sorry, Herbstreit and Musburger, but no matter how much you talk about wanting USC in some kind of four-team playoff, no one cries for the Trojans.
Their final resume’ includes two victories over the best of the Big Ten and an 8-1 record against the Pac-10. The team America should feel sorry for remains Texas; the Longhorns came out on the short end of the Big 12 three-way tie. The national title game should be and is the showdown between champs of the Big 12 and the SEC. The only question was which Big 12 team should get to play.
* Does every USC receiver stand 6-foot-4?
* I swear, USC quarterback Matt Sanchez reminds of Matt Leinart. Not when he throws, but in his face. They look alike.
* I don’t know what the answer is to the USC-dominates-the-Big Ten-in-the-Rose Bowl dilemma, but I’m pretty sure no one in Pasadena cares or even thinks it’s a dilemma, so maybe it’s not.
I’m not one of these Rose Bowl bashers. I think it’s cool that the Rose Bowl and the Pac-10 and the Big Ten want to keep hold of their tradition. I say go for it.
* I’ll never get tired of seeing Galen Hall in the pressbox, calling plays. Only in Happy Valley could Hall, the Penn State offensive coordinator who joined the OU staff in 1966, be considered a young coach.
Capital Outback One Bowl
I just lump these two bowls together because I can never keep them apart. Which one used to be the Citrus (Capital One)? Which one is in Tampa (Outback)? Which one matched Georgia vs. Michigan State, or was it South Carolina vs. Michigan State, or was it Georgia vs. Iowa, or was it South Carolina vs. Iowa?
Way too confusing. Anyway, Iowa beat South Carolina 31-10 and Georgia beat Michigan State 24-12.
* Georgia-Michigan State was a fabulous uniform game. Simply elegant. Georgia white, trimmed in black and red, against Sparty green.
* Matthew Stafford was banged up. Don’t compare him to Sam Bradford off this performance, though it was still solid — 20 of 31, 250 yards, three TDs, one interception. Truthfully, this was great quarterbacking compared to what we’ve seen out of most of the bowls.
Michigan State’s Brian Hoyer was a typical Big Ten quarterback: 18 of 34, 169 yards, one interception.
* I loved Michigan State’s Javon Ringer all year, but Iowa tailback Shon Greene is better. Ringer gained 47 yards against Georgia; Greene had 121 yards and three TDs against South Carolina.
* I guess the Outback Bowl is supposed to host the SEC’s No. 4 team, and if two teams make the BCS, then it becomes the No. 5 team. But if South Carolina is the SEC’s fifth-best team, that’s not much of a league. The Gamecocks are awful, and Steve Spurrier doesn’t look like he’s much into coaching anymore.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
I watched every bowl game yesterday, heard all the commentators discuss who was going to be the national champion, in their opinion, and came to one conclusion. Although I would love to see a playoff system, if for no other reason it would mean more football to watch, still, everyone would think their team is the best and they would provide some excuse as to why their team didn’t win. We all are biased toward our favorites, as was evidenced by the comments yesterday. Watching the Rose Bowl, you would have thought that you should just hand over the National Championship trophy to the Trojans. I think USC played a good game, they have good talent, and a great head coach, and they may be the best overall team in the nation, but they did get beat during the year. I think Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, or Alabama could beat them, and I know Oregon St. can. I know, they weren’t healthy then, right? If USC had won all their games, they would be the best, but they didn’t, and neither did Florida, OU, Texas, or Alabama. Theyfore, if Utah wins today, they should be the the National Champions, right? I know, but…….
It was very interesting to hear Herbstreit promote USC as the national champion should OU win the BCS championship. In a segment late in the game when the cameras were trained on Kirk and Musburger, Herbstreit made the ludicrous claim that there was a general perception that the Big 12 was weak, primarily because people were always telling him that they played bad defense and MEDIOCRE OFFENSE.
I was in no way surprised to hear Herbstreit spew his venom towards the Big 12, most especially OU, but enjoyed the response from Musburger who looked at Kirk in amazement and said “You’ve got to be kidding me”.
Regardless of whether you like Musburger or not it doesn’t appear to me that he has his own personal agenda, as is very clear with Herbstreit.
I would love to hear the sports media challenge Herbstreit and his elevated role with ESPN as the most powerful pontificator of all things related to college football.