In one manner of thinking, the BCS and the College Football Playoff transformed college football from a regional to a national sport. The outcome of the Michigan-Wisconsin game Saturday has an impact on the Stanford-Washington winner and every other school in the hunt for one of four playoff berths. But with so many of its heroes, college football remains regional. Witness the deaths this week of former Nebraska offensive line coach Milt Tenopir, 76, and Iowa quarterback Randy Duncan, 79. Tenopir was the foreman of the assembly line that cranked out one All-American after another during head coach Tom Osborne's glory years. Duncan led the Hawkeyes to the 1958 Big Ten championship and the Rose Bowl, and finished second in the Heisman vote to Army back Pete Dawkins. Green Bay selected Duncan with the first pick of the 1959 NFL draft. He spurned the Packers for three years in the CFL, after which he went to law school. But he was forever a Hawkeye hero. If you want to know how current and former Huskers players felt about Tenopir, read Dirk Chatelain's story in the Omaha World-Herald about the coach's last days. Prepare to be choked up. 1. It has been 14 years since we've had three games that matched AP top-10 opponents, and the list of those games illustrates how much the power structure has changed since 2002. No. 1 Miami defeated No. 9 Florida State, the Hurricanes' 28th consecutive victory in a string that reached 34; No. 2 Oklahoma defeated No. 3 Texas 35-24, the third of five straight Sooner victories in that rivalry, and remember how Mack Brown couldn't win the big one? He put that canard to rest in 2005; and No. 6 Georgia, under second-year coach Mark Richt, beat No. 10 Tennessee 18-13 in a game that served as a springboard for the Bulldogs to end their longest SEC championship drought (20 years) in school history. 2. Likewise, two of this week's three top-10 matchups could have a lasting impact on this season. If No. 3 Louisville wins at No. 5 Clemson, the Cardinals will have beaten their top two competitors in the ACC Atlantic (they embarrassed Florida State 63-20 two weeks ago). Given Oregon's struggles, the game between No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Washington will anoint the front-runner in the Pac-12 North. But since No. 8 Wisconsin and No. 4 Michigan are in different divisions of the Big Ten, the outcome of their game will take a back seat to the teams' head-to-head matchup against whichever divisional foe challenges them. 3. One last note about the demise of LSU head coach Les Miles, fired because the Tigers couldn't keep up with the Alabama dynasty coached by his predecessor, Nick Saban. Contrast Miles' unwillingness to change the Tigers' offense to the evolution that the Crimson Tide has undergone during the Saban Decade. Saban has gotten smaller and quicker on defense. He has said that Terrence Cody, the 6-foot-4, 345-pound two-time All-American defensive tackle, wouldn't fit in the current Tide defense. And after beginning in Tuscaloosa with a pro-style offense, Saban and coordinator Lane Kiffin have spread the field with running-passing freshman Jalen Hurts in charge. 4. As the Big 12 dithers over whether to expand, and it looks increasingly as if the league couldn't get eight votes to decide that today is Thursday, Houston is making a compelling case for an invitation. Members of a conference want a new member to carry its own weight in the marketplace. And Houston is doing that in its home TV market. Since Texas A&M bolted to the SEC, so has the Houston TV market. SEC games made up six of the top 10 football telecasts last season in Houston. But this season, the Cougars' game against Oklahoma on Sept. 3 had a 12.8 rating in Houston, and the Thursday night game against Cincinnati on Sept. 15 had a 6.78. Those are big numbers. 5. The top talents among the 156 semifinalists for the Campbell Trophy, the "Academic Heisman" awarded by the National Football Foundation, include at least three compelling stories: BYU sixth-year, oft-injured quarterback Taysom Hill, Duke corner DeVon Edwards, who just tore his left ACL and MCL on Saturday, and Syracuse tight end Cameron MacPherson, the grandson of College Football Hall of Fame coach Dick MacPherson. The NFF will name on Nov. 1 the "12 to 14" finalists, each of whom will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. The Campbell Trophy winner, named at the Hall of Fame dinner on Dec. 6, receives an additional $7,000 grant. 6. Penn State is still suffering the effects of the NCAA scholarship penalties. You can judge that by the scoreboard, where the Nittany Lions are 0-2 against Power 5 opponents, including a 49-10 loss at Michigan on Saturday as one-sided as it appears. Or you can judge that by the comments of Penn State head coach James Franklin at his weekly media conference on Tuesday. "Their (\[defensive] front is big, strong and physical, and we did not handle that well," Franklin said. "Defensively, I think we're playing hard; however, we need to be more physical up front." To paraphrase Franklin, Penn State isn't as talented as Michigan. And undefeated Minnesota (3-0) comes to State College on Saturday. 7. Georgia Tech (3-1, 0-1) already has won as many games this season as it did last, but the 26-7 loss at Clemson last Thursday night, when Tech gained only 124 yards, illustrated how head coach Paul Johnson hasn't solved his offensive woes. Johnson's option attack at its best chews up yardage and clock in big chunks, which is to say, the statistic that most reveals Georgia Tech's struggles is time of possession. The Yellow Jackets rank 61st in the FBS, averaging 29:38 per game. That's four-plus minutes fewer than in 2014, the year that Georgia Tech won the ACC Coastal. The Yellow Jackets finished third in the FBS that season, averaging 34:09 per game.
|