| 18 September 2011
Since I may be touching on realignment a bit this afternoon, I’m going to cut this college football Sunday preview a bit short.
And by short, I mean “Only 2,500 words, instead of the standard 3,500.”
In no particular order:
Oklahoma: Above all, there is only takeaway I have on Oklahoma after Saturday night’s win over Florida State, and that’s this: Oklahoma is the No. 1 team in the country right now. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The Sooners weren’t always pretty on Saturday, but proved effective when they needed to be. In the process, they got the most impressive win anyone has had so far this season.
Like most of you, I had plenty of worries about Oklahoma coming into this game. I knew about their problems on the road. I knew that at times, Landry Jones was more inconstant late in games than Sarah Palin is with her alibies. And I knew that for whatever Bob Stoops had done to earn the nickname “Big Game Bob,” he’d probably done enough to lose it by this point too. One has to wonder if he’s been able to hold onto the nickname for so long, simply because it rolls off the tongue so well (After all, “Big Game Bob,” sounds a lot better than “Big Game Gene,” or “Big Game Les,” doesn’t it?).
Anyway, the Sooners impressed me enough for me to say that they are unequivocally the No. 1 team in the country. To go into that stadium, against that team, under those circumstances and pull out a win, proved to me that as long as nothing funny happens, they’ll be a worthy challenger for whomever comes out of the quagmire that is the SEC in the BCS title game.
For Oklahoma, what was most impressive was that in all actuality, the offense really didn’t play that well. A unit which usually hums like a finely tuned German sports car had some funky gas in it last night, as Florida State’s defense made life hell for the entire unit, Landry Jones in particular. Saturday was undoubtedly the worst I’ve seen Landry look in ages, and with just 2.8 yards per carry, the run game wasn’t much better. The credit here of course needs to a wildly underrated Florida State defense, which has the size, speed and skill of any in the SEC, but simply doesn’t get the recognition it deserves because they play in the ACC. They proved it last night, by shutting down the most prolific offense in college football.
Above all, two additional things stood out to me about the Sooners in this win.
The first of course was their defense. In a sport where we spend our time gushing over the speed of LSU, the athleticism of Florida, and the overall fundamental skill-set of Alabama, Oklahoma proved to be just as good as any. And really, nobody was more surprised by that than me; for as much as I watch this sport, I had no idea that Oklahoma would be quite as good as they were Saturday. Their defensive line is simply nasty (just ask Clint Trickett) and linebacker Tom Wort was a maniac last night. It’ll be scary to see what happens when Travis Lewis comes back fully healthy.
But beyond either their offense or defense, what impressed me most about Oklahoma was their resolve. Every time the Sooners needed a play- I mean really needed one- they were able to come up with it. It happened when Wort picked off E.J. Manuel in the red zone to take three points off the board early, and happened later when they responded to Florida State’s fourth quarter touchdown with one of their own. Jones- who again, has been incredibly shaky in the past- made the plays when Oklahoma absolutely needed them, including a beautifully thrown ball to Kenny Stills (which he made a beautiful catch on, by the way), that gave the Sooners a lead they wouldn’t give up.
Either way, credit Oklahoma. They had every reason to cough up that game. On the road, in a hostile environment, and with the other team making wild plays to keep things close. But stayed strong, held tight, and proved they were the No. 1 team in the country.
They earned that victory. They also earned the praise that comes with it.
Florida State: Obviously, seeing Florida State lose was a bit sobering for me. I picked the Seminoles to win the BCS title, meaning that I’ve got an especially bizarre emotional attachment to them. Watching the Noles go down to a team that was simply better than them was tough; if anything it was probably similar to the way a parent feels when they find out their kid wasn’t accepted to their first choice for college. I mean after all, how do you tell your own kid they just aren’t good enough?
Well it was the same with Florida State last night: They just weren't good enough.
Now on defense they were of course fine. Credit to the Seminoles for taking Oklahoma out of their comfort zone, and out of their fast-paced, hurry-up offense. As I mentioned before, Oklahoma genuinely looked uncomfortable all night, and never totally got into a groove. The Sooners had to settle for back-to-back field goals early, when against about 115 other FBS teams, they would’ve gotten at least one touchdown there, if not two. As good as Florida State’s defense is now, they’re going to be scary good by the end of the year. I feel genuine sympathy for anyone who has to play the Seminoles late in the season.
If anything though, the biggest discrepancy between the two teams was with Florida State’s offense, and the Seminoles lack of playmakers. For a program which has made their livelihood on being able to just “out athlete,” you, the Seminoles were woefully thin at the skill positions.
Of course that matter wasn't helped when the Seminoles lost Kenny Shaw to injury, and Bert Reed couldn’t play because of an injury himself. Still, without those two, the game-plan of Oklahoma’s defense was clear: “We don’t think any of these receivers can beat us deep. We don't think any of Florida State's running backs can hurt us. As long as we don’t allow E.J. Manuel to gash us with his legs, we’ll be fine.” And for the most part, they basically were. Once Manuel went out, that game-plan only became clearer, as Brent Venables threw everyone but his own mother at Florida State’s overwhelmed offensive line. Poor Clint Trickett never stood a chance out there (Which will make it even more awkward at practice on Monday, you know, since Trickett's dad is the offensive line coach and all).
In the end, Florida State is going to be fine. If anything, this proved to me that they are in fact ready for the prime-time, and are ready to become the dominant program in the ACC. Other than Miami (who we’ll talk about more a bit later), I don’t think anyone has the athletes, experience and overall skill to keep up with the Seminoles, at least not this year (Or likely next year either). Also, I can't lie, that Florida-Florida State game is way more intriguing today than it was a few weeks ago.
But to get over that hump, to get into the discussion with Alabama and LSU and of course Oklahoma, it’s going to take time. Give Florida State another year’s experience, and time for some of their big-time recruits to develop (especially running backs James Wilder and Devonta Freeman), and the Seminoles will be fine.
They’re not there yet, but they are close.
Florida: The best analogy I can make with this team is as follows: You know how when you start dating someone, people always say, “You don’t really know someone until you live together?” Well, I kind of feel like it’s the same with college football. Until your team actually plays someone decent, you don’t actually know anything about them. Oregon can play 100 UL-Monroe’s and New Mexico’s, but let’s see what happens when they play LSU. We learned the same with Mississippi State and Ohio State this weekend.
Well with that, I present you the Florida Gators. Yes they were impressive and dominant against Tennessee….but now that I’ve actually seen them play a real team, I’m probably a bit more concerned about them than I was a week ago. I’m not sure that totally makes sense, so let me try and explain.
First to the good, and that good is of course the Gators defense. Add Urban Meyer’s recruiting with Will Muschamp and Dan Quinn’s sick, creative, defensive minds,
and you’ve got quite possibly the most terrifying defense in college football. I’m not saying Florida’s D is better than Alabama’s or LSU’s. But they’re closer than I expected them to be.
Still, for all the chatter about how “Florida is BACK,” the victory provided me with a few more questions, along with all those defensive answers.
The biggest one is that I’m still not sure what to make of this offense. Yes Charlie Weis is a genius, yes he seems to have salvaged John Brantley (not to mention Chris Rainey) and yes they look about 281,000 times better than they did last year. I’m not arguing that.
But with the way people are talking about the Gators today, you’d think that they were the 2007 New England Patriots offensively or something. They aren’t, or even close. Quite frankly, I see a pretty flawed offensive football team actually. To Weis’ credit, he might’ve been able to put a band-aid over it against Tennessee. But I’m just not sure he’ll be able to do the same against the really good defenses in this conference.
What am I talking about? Well for one, after the opening drive (which Weis always scripts by the way), the Gators looked, umm, completely average. They had to settle for three straight fields and a punt on their next four possessions, despite starting three of the four in Tennessee territory. And really, when you add in the one explosive touchdown run from Rainey (83 yards), the Gators offense was kind of stagnant otherwise. Take out Rainey’s run, and the Gators had less total offense than Tennessee did. And that was a Tennessee offense without Justin Hunter of course.
Really, the concern for Florida is big-picture though.
A couple things here. One, Florida seemed to stall once they got to the red zone, and stalled because they don’t have a big back to punish defenses on the goal line. As good as Rainey is out in space, if Florida is going to beat really good teams (they’ve got four Top 10 teams of their remaining nine games by the way), they need to put the ball in the end zone when they get close. And they need a big back to do it. Maybe that guy ends up being Trey Burton, I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s an issue that needs to get addressed before they play the real heavy hitters in this conference.
Then there’s John Brantley. Look, at the end of the day, I’m rooting for the kid. Nobody went through more last year than he did, and nobody deserves to have a good senior season quite like he does. At the same, can we hold off just a tiny little on him? I mean what has really shown so far, other than the ability to throw a quick swing pass to the outside, and let Rainey do the heavy lifting (aka running) for him? Has Brantley even tried to go deep once the entire season? Not that I’ve seen. It’s like my buddy Marc Ryan pointed out on my podcast last week: Brantley is so afraid to make a mistake downfield, that he just checks down the first chance he gets. It’s a Pavlovian reaction at this point. But it better change quickly; Florida isn’t going to dink and dunk past the best teams in this conference.
Again, I know its nitpicky, and at the end of the day Florida looked good yesterday. Really good.
Still, when you’re Florida, you’re going to be compared to the absolute best of the best in the SEC. And I’m not sure they’re quite there yet.
Tennessee: My only quick take on Tennessee is to not take too much out of this one for the Vols. Tennessee is young, and by all accounts at least a year away. They still lack big-time depth on defense, or more accurately, really any depth on defense at all. To win for at least this year (and maybe next too), they’re going to have to outscore teams, something made next to impossible once Justin Hunter went down yesterday.
Speaking of Hunter, I have no idea how if he would have effected that game. What I do know however is that in all of the SEC, only Marcus Lattimore is more valuable to his team’s offense than Hunter is. With Hunter in the game, he stretches the field, and makes things easier in the middle for Da’Rick Rogers, Zach Rogers and everyone else. Without him, well, you saw what happened. Tyler Bray is good, but not nearly as effective, and the other wide receivers don’t have the open space that they do when he is in the game.
Let’s hold our horses before making any long-term judgments on what to make of this team.
Ohio State-Miami: The first thing here is the most obvious: Credit to Miami for coming out and asserting their will on this game. I don’t know whether it was because they had two weeks off, because of the embarrassment of the Maryland suspensions or because they just really liked Al Golden’s shirt-tie combo, but you could almost feel in the air how much that game meant to the Canes. From the beginning, Miami played fast and hard, and if it weren’t for a few gaffes from the always gaffe-able Jacory Harris, this game could’ve been a lot worse than the 24-6 final. Personally, I think this is the best team in the ACC Coastal (including Virginia Tech), and as far as I’m concerned, the only real threat to Florida State walking away with the ACC title. Either way, it looks like the ACC may finally get what they wanted when they went to 12 teams back a half dozen years ago: A Miami-Florida State conference championship game (I can only imagine how empty the stadium in Charlotte would be for that one).
Now….to THE Ohio State University. To any Buckeyes fans that are reading at this point, please, put down the bottle of rat poison. Take a step back from the ledge. And remove your scarlet sweater vest. Everything will be ok.
First things first, it’s impossible to evaluate this team until Boom Herron, DeVier Posey and Mike Adams come back. It just is. No team can lose their best running back, wide receiver and left tackle, and not expect to take a hit. Hell, look at how much better the running game looked just yesterday with the addition of Jordan Hall from suspension. Now think about how much better the overall offensive attack will be with those guys.
As for the quarterback position, well, I’m starting to side with most Ohio State fans, and say that it’s time to send Joe Bauserman to the glue factory, and give Braxton Miller the keys to the car.
Look, I know that Miller didn’t look very good last night (although in his defense, he definitely didn’t look worse than Bauserman). But at this point, with this young a team, it isn’t about trying to piece together wins in the next two games, but put the team in the best position to win once everyone comes back. I’m not saying that putting Miller in instantly makes Ohio State the favorite in every game they play from then on out. But given what I’ve seen from everyone else, there’s no reason to think they won’t beat most, and stay competitive with the likes of Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Plus, remember this: Having a dynamic, athletic, play-making quarterback will only help those other guys when they get on the field. How much better will Posey be when Miller is creating outside the pocket? I’d certainly think better than with the statuesque Bauserman back there. How about Boom Herron? Those running lanes will be a lot wider when teams aren’t stuffing the box because they know Bauserman can’t beat them deep.
In essence, give it time Ohio State fans. Things will be ok. There may be no run at the National Championship this year, but really, nobody expected that anyway. I still think with the right mix of luck, development and overall improvement, 10-2 or 9-3 isn’t totally crazy. Besides Wisconsin, I think every game on the schedule is winnable.
Only time will tell, but be patient. It’s not where you want to be. But it could be a lot worse too.
Texas: Finally, there's Texas.
On the one hand, there's not much to take out of the win for the Longhorns. After all, UCLA is awful, and if anything, my one pervasive thought throughout the Bruins loss to Texas was "Man, I hope Rick Neuheisel has started updating his resume." UCLA wasn't just bad, they've downright given up on Slick Rick at this point.
Still I want to talk about Texas. Because just the same way that I think Florida is trending upward, I believe the Longhorns are doing the same. Unlike last year they've got bona-fide playmakers at key offensive positions. Jaxon Shipley resembes his brother Jordan (in both skill and just general look) that it has actually become scary, and Malcolm Brown has finally given the Horns that running back they really haven't had since Cedric Benson left a half a decade ago. Not to mention that the defense has looked good as well. You can't recruit that many five-star guys without some of them eventually coming through for you.
Then finally, there are the quarterbacks.
Quite honestly, I don't know if it's David Ash or Case McCoy who is the long-term answer under center, but if anything, we learned yesterday that it's not Garrett Gilbert. Now that's no disrespect to Gilbert, and I wish him the best. At the same time whatever moxie and inherent trust from his teammates that he lacked, the other two have. So much about playing this position is giving off good vibes, and making everyone else believe in you. It's what the great ones- Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Cam Newton, Colt McCoy- all do. Sure, they had plenty of skills to back up that confidence, but even when they were having a bad day, they knew they could count on their teammates to pick them up. For what it's worth, Gilbert just never had that.
Look, I'm not saying this makes Texas a big-time contender nationally, and I'm not even necessarily saying it means that they can compete with Oklahoma State and Texas A&M for a Big XII crown this year. But if I were any of those teams, I'd be afraid.
Texas has always had the talent. They're just starting to realize it now.
Until next week…
Also, for my take on Auburn-Clemson, please click here.
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