College Football Week 5: Train wreck in Oklahoma
The 2009 college football season arrived in Oklahoma with great anticipation. The Sooners and Cowboys figured to be major players, and their star status was never higher.
Eight players were considered college superstars. Either all-Americans or first-round NFL draft choices.
Of those eight, only three have not been cursed, and those three - OSU’s Russell Okung and OU’s Trent Williams and G.K. McCoy - are linemen, whose performances are hard to evaluate.
The others? Hurt or ineligible or largely ineffective. It’s been a train wreck of a season.
Sam Bradford? Hurt.
Dez Bryant? Ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
Jermaine Gresham? Season wiped out by injury.
Kendall Hunter? Hurt.
Zac Robinson? Looks hurt, though he has played to moderate performance levels.
What seemed to be a magical season has gone bust at both schools.
TEN BIGGEST LOSERS OF THE WEEK
10. Howard Schnellenberger: The Colonel’s Florida Atlantic Owls lost 30-28 to Wyoming, about 30 minutes north of where two of his former employers, OU and Miami, were playing the game of the day. Florida Atlantic fell to 0-4 and with two straight road games looming, a disastrous season approaches in Boca Raton.
9. Playing patsies: Texas A&M went 3-0 by playing a non-competitive schedule. But Arkansas brought the Aggies to Earth with a 47-19 stomping that shows Mike Sherman he’s got a long way to go in making A&M a Big 12 force.
8. Nevada parity: Nevada routed UNLV 63-28, its fifth straight victory in a series that ought to be much more contested than this.
7. Larry Fedora: The Southern Miss coach lost a game (30-17 to Alabama-Birmingham) and a quarterback (Austin Davis is sidelined for the season. Suddenly, the 3-2 Golden Eagles are struggling in Fedora’s second year.
6. Butch Davis: Two weeks ago, North Carolina was in the top 25. But now the Tar Heels have to be considered one of the worst teams in a BCS conference. What else can be said after a 16-3 home loss to lowly Virginia? Butch Davis’ rebuilding job is going slowly.
5. Michigan’s revival: The Wolverines were hoping to be 5-0 going to Iowa for what would be the national game of the day. But Michigan State survived a late Michigan rally and won 26-20 in overtime, beating the Wolverines twice in a row for the first time since 1967.
4. Bob Stoops: First, Stoops couldn’t win the big one. Now he can’t win the close one, after Miami’s 21-20 victory over Oklahoma pinned the Sooners with their second one-point defeat this season.
3. Jeff Tedford: California was mentioned as a possible Pac-10 threat to Southern Cal. The last two weeks, the Golden Bears have been routed 42-3 at Oregon and 30-3 at home against USC. Cal’s Rose Bowl drought, dating back to the 1958 season, continues.
2. Bobby Bowden: A 28-21 loss at Boston College dropped Florida State to 2-3 and intensified the call for a change. It seems unlikely that Bowden can keep his job past 2009.
1. Kevin Sumlin: College football’s hottest coach turned lukewarm after a 58-41 loss at UTEP. Houston was on track to contend for a BCS bowl berth. Instead, the Cougars were ambushed by a team that had lost at home to Buffalo (not the Bills) and 64-7 at Texas the previous week.
CUBAN CUISINE
In four trips to Miami, I’ve never really found a restaurant that just demands I return. On my first trip, that OU-Florida State Orange Bowl, I tried some Cuban food. Didn’t really thrill me.
But this trip, we stayed across from a little deli, and I went over three times. One of the trips, I tried a Cuban sandwich.
It’s a hot ham and cheese with some roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.
Excellent. I’ll have another.
REALITY RANKINGS
10. Auburn: I don’t expect this to last.
9. Virginia Tech: Hokies could win out.
8. South Florida: Road win at Syracuse a meaningful accomplishment this year.
7. Boise State: Broncos need to quit scheduling Cal-Davis.
6. Southern Cal: Pac-10 looking a little tougher.
5. Iowa: Hawkeyes a weird team. Play the rumdums close but wins going away at Penn State.
4. Miami: No one in Dade County expected the Hurricanes to be 3-1. Now they will win a bunch.
3. Cincinnati: Who votes for a Cincy-Boise State national title game?
2. Alabama: Don’t rule out a national title for Nick Saban.
1. LSU: Two straight SEC road wins will get you places.
BEACH BOYS
Miami/Fort Lauderdale has two things going for it. Excellent beaches and abundant freeways. Don’t discount either.
Miami is like Dallas in that you can’t even keep up with all the freeways. I think I drove on eight freeways in four days. The bad traffic came only during rush hour, though there was a backup on a toll road late Friday night.
Do not underestimate the value of abundant freeways. They are a quality of life issue.
But the beaches trump the freeways. I stayed on Fort Lauderdale Beach last January, and last weekend I stayed on Miami Beach. Superb.
Beautiful sand, warm water, generally no knuckleheads. Where we stayed, you had to rent the chairs under umbrellas - two chairs for $30, though they always cut you a deal - but it was worth it.
I’m 48 years old and never enjoyed swimming in the ocean until this trip. Maybe it’s because the Florida saltwater in early October is a lot warmer than in early January. Maybe it’s because my wife made sure I had plenty of sun block this time. But whatever, the beaches were a blast. Really, the beaches are what make Greater Miami. Nothing else really to get excited about.
And Miami Beach clearly is the best part of Greater Miami. A beautiful boardwalk stretches along the beach itself, the art deco architecture gives the city a retro feeling and character, and characters, abound.
A quick civics lesson. Miami Beach is an incorporated city of almost 100,000 people, sitting on a barrier island between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic. Cross the bridge and you immediately realize you’ve entered a different kind of place.
We stayed at a Courtyard a couple of blocks south of the Fontainebleau, the historic resort where OU traditionally has stayed on Orange Bowl trips but did not stay this time.
When I travel to Miami or Chicago or San Francisco, I’m never ready for the number of foreign tourists. It’s stunning. I promise, probably a third of the people I encountered on Miami Beach were foreigners. Which stands to reason. If Americans go off to roam Ireland and Italy and Brazil, I don’t know why Europeans and South Americans can’t come here.
BIG 12 STINKS
Big 12 football stinks in 2009. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Big 12 schools scheduled a paltry 11 non-conference games this season against fellow BCS league opponents. The Big 12 won only four: OSU over Georgia, Missouri over Illinois, Kansas over Duke and Baylor over Wake Forest.
OU lost to Miami, Nebraska lost to Virginia Tech, Colorado lost to West Virginia, Texas A&M lost to Arkansas, Iowa State lost to Iowa, Kansas State lost to UCLA and Baylor lost to Connecticut. But at least those schools played someone.
Texas and Texas Tech didn’t bother playing anyone from a fellow BCS league, which makes them more of the problem than the teams that lost.
As the season progresses, you will hear Big 12 coaches talk big about their conference. Don’t buy it. You prove your worth in non-conference games. Everything else is just talk.
Perhaps the Big 12 can save some face in bowl season. But until then, the Big 12 ranks a clear last among the major conferences in 2009.
The records so far from each conference against other BCS leagues: SEC 7-3, Pac-10 6-5, ACC 6-6, Big East 6-6, Big Ten 4-5, Big 12 4-7.
RATS!
Land Shark Stadium, where the Dolphins, Marlins and Miami U. play, is a solid ballpark. Easy to get in Miami Gardens, northwest of downtown Miami, surrounded by parking lots and freeways. And it remains relatively functional, considering it’s 20 years old.
But the stadium has some unwelcomed residents. During the game, a rat ran across the feet of at least one OU fan.
TEN BIGGEST WINNERS OF THE WEEK
10. Golden Tate: His quarterback, Jimmy Clausen, gets all the press, but this Notre Dame receiver is quite the special player, too, with nine catches for 244 yards and a TD in Notre Dame’s 37-30 overtime win over Washington.
9. Donald Buckram: Quick. Who does this tailback play for? Never mind. Nobody holds you accountable for not knowing this UTEP slasher, who rushed 32 times for 262 yards and four touchdowns in the Miners’ 58-41 stunner of Houston.
8. Stanford: Jim Harbaugh is doing one heck of a coaching job on the Peninsula. The Cardinal beat UCLA 24-16 to go 2-0 in the Pac-10, 4-1 overall.
7. Wake Forest: The Deacons ended North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson’s NCAA record streak of 379 passes without an interception and beat the Wolf Pack 30-24. Don’t look now, but Wake could again win the ACC’s Atlantic Division, since Virginia Tech, Miami and Georgia Tech are in the Coastal Division.
6. Temple: Who knew the Owls still played football? But Temple beat Eastern Michigan 24-12 for its second straight Mid-American Conference win. Coach Al Golden’s Owls are 2-0 in the league and should be 3-0 when they go to Toledo on Oct. 24.
5. Gamblers: Ball State coach Stan Parrish (yes, the guy who preceded Bill Snyder at Kansas State) believed in his team and put the pressure on himself, ordering a 2-point conversion after the winless Cardinals drew within 29-28 on a touchdown with 42 seconds left. And Ball State was rewarded, as Miquale Lewis ran for the conversion. Alas, Toledo’s Aaron Opelt threw a 51-yard TD pass 15 seconds later to give the Rockets a 37-30 victory. But compare Parrish’s confidence to that of new Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads, whose team scored a last-minute touchdown to draw within 24-23 of Kansas State. Rhoads kicked to go into overtime, but K-State blocked the attempt.
4. Coaches on the hot seat: Not every coach in trouble is circling the drain. Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema raised his record to 5-0 with a 31-28 win at Minnesota that sets up a showdown against Ohio State. And Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen, whose team had lost to Middle Tennessee and almost lost to James Madison, knocked off Clemson 24-21.
3. Noel Devine: A year ago, this West Virginia speedster seemed a budding star. We saw why in a 35-24 victory over Colorado: 22 carries, 220 yards and a touchdown.
2. Gene Chizik: Some wondered why Auburn would hire a guy who went 5-19 at Iowa State. They remember the 5-19 part and forget the Iowa State part. Hard to win in Ames. But now Chizik already has equaled his number of Iowa State wins, after a 26-22 win at Tennessee that makes the Tigers 5-0.
1. LSU: The Tigers slumbered through September against mediocre competition and should have lost at Mississippi State in Week 4. But the Bayou Bengals roared at Georgia, with a come-from-behind, 20-13 victory that stamps Les Miles’ team as a legit threat to beat Florida this week.
-------------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. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
I would like to argue about your conclusion that the Big XII stinks this year, but the facts are what they are. You are talking about the strength of the league and a (3-7) record stinks. OSU and OU have plenty of reasons, or excuses, but it what is…
Big XII has always been a weak conference, the only people who thought it was a powerhouse is/are/was/were the teams in the big XII.
Otherwise, they’re like the JV squad in the national level of things….
Okay, the big XII has always been a week conference, lets not talk about the powerhouses of Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska that have once been on top of the national polls..the most combined weeks! And the numerous national championships, heisman winners…must i go on? Yes, Baylor and Iowa State are weak teams, but look at the other teams…they have their years. So don’t say the Big XII has always been a weak conference!
Article sounds like an exercise in Trivia…If the beaches in Miami are the best you’ve ever encountered then O.U. should schedule some teams in Hawaii, Fiji, Society Islands or even Australia and perhaps to stretch it a bit, if you don’t care for your safety,…Capetown, South Africa.
Why are you making any judgements about OU/Big 12???Who do you think died and left the last word to you? You are like all media, i.e., looking for the big prize in “journalism”????
I will be on my broom in Dallas…watch it!!Boomer Sooner!!!
boo, Salem.
Sorry Tram. The season is not bust yet for either team. What if they win out? OSU could be BCS bound. OU could be Cotton Bowl bound.
hey tram, know you have to have something to write about, BUT…season’s not over/ possibley you may be eating CROW for Thanksgiving, and I sure hope so, cause I’m sure going to remind you!!!! you, sittler, you guys all are wannabe soothsayers/ nada nada nada!!!!!!!
“Texas didn’t bother to schedule a BCS team in non conference.” That is incorrect. Arkansas cancelled on UT this year.