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THE "C" STANDS FOR COWARDICE - Now we know what all three letters in BCS stand for. You knew about the BS. The "C" now stands for cowardice. A mostly forgettable college football season made one last lunge for heroic meaning on a gripping day of drama Saturday. Cincinnati-Pitt in the snow at Heinz Field for the Big East championship. Florida-Alabama in a national championship semifinal in the SEC title game. A Big 12 title game mismatching Texas and Nebraska that was just what the Dr. Pepper ordered. From Noon-Midnight EST, it was riveting theater. December madness to dwarf the Final Four. One day was making up for three months boredom and disappointment. This college football season was one can of humble, week after week. But then came Saturday. Ndamokung Suh, culminating a Cornhusker career that surpassed that of any Nebraska defender who ever wore the Blackshirt before him, confronted a UT offense whose protection schemes were designed specifically to stop him. Suh responded with 12 tackles, eight for loss, and five sacks. In an heroic hour that that will one day be remembered on Nebraska's return to glory the way Miami's monumental upset of UCLA 11 years earlier to the day was, the Huskers rang up 11 sacks, three interruptions, and what should have been a stunning 12-10 upset of the heavily favored Longhorns. Texas' Colt McCoy, in a final act of Heisman self-denial, somehow decided to snap the ball with nine seconds to play. Confusing the play clock with the game clock, McCoy, rather than curling up between the hashmarks to set up a game-winning field goal attempt by Hunter Lawrence, mindlessly rolled out with astonishing leisure and airmailed a pass out of bounds as time expired. Just as with Texas over Nebraska in 1996, Texas A&M over Kansas State in 1998 and Kansas State over Oklahoma in 2003, the Big 12 Conference threw away its best team's national championship hopes for 30 pieces of championship game silver. Until blatant political pressure forced an official's review, and the adding of one second to the clock to allow Texas to kick the-game winning field goal, anyway. Amazing. It was historic really. How many college overtimes have you ever seen where only one team was allowed to have the ball? Respected college football writer Don Borst of the Tacoma News-Tribune, the author of the annual Best in the West prep football rankings, went back and checked the tape. On 24 previous incomplete passes, the clock elapsed just as it did on the final play. That is, an additional second ran off before the clock was stopped. But the last play wasn't about time-keeping. It was about $15 Million in potentially lost revenue for the Big 12 Conference, and the University of Texas. It was about a referee who had no conclusive evidence to overturn the ruling on the field that the game was over, but felt overwhelming pressure to give the Big 12 Conference what it wanted. If he ever want to referee another Big 12 Conference game, that is. So political pressure beat Ndamokung Suh and the Nebraska Cornhuskers as the Texas Longhorns could not. Texas was shafted out of last year's Big 12 title game, make no mistake. So if this is about a makeup call for the Longhorns, fine. Admit it. But have the same guts to also admit that Nebraska beat Texas this year, 12-10. Thus, it will be the 2008 Texas Longhorns against the 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide Jan. 7, 2010 in Pasadena. By the time the BCS national championship game at the Rose Bowl is over, Alabama will be known as the Crimson Tsunami. Their victory over a one-loss Texas team could have been avoided, for the good of college football. The voters could have had the guts to vote truly, legitimately unbeaten Texas Christian, or Cincinnati, No. 2 in order to play Alabama in Pasadena. But the voters were cowards, too. Our last line of defense was the BCS itself, in its Sunday selections. In an historic year when there were are two non-BCS conference qualifiers in TCU and Boise State, the BCS could have given us the sensational bowl lineup of Boise State against Iowa in the Fiesta Bowl, Cincinnati against Florida in the Sugar Bowl and TCU against Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. But that would have meant BCS schools in Iowa and Georgia Tech risking the embarrassment Oklahoma endured in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Boise State. Remember? That was only the greatest night of the young century in college football. But it was an embarrassment for the BCS. Sunday, the BCS proved what it thinks is more important. If a national playoff, mandated by Congress or whoever else, becomes a big step closer with the likelihood of three undefeated teams on the morning of Jan. 8, the BCS has no one to blame but itself. We trusted them to look out for the best interests of college football. Not the BCS bowls.
John Robinson, HALL OF FAMER - Our Sports USA Radio Network colleague takes his rightful place in the College Football Hall of Fame this week at a National Football Foundation gala in New York. The formal induction ceremony will take place in South Bend, Ind. in 2010. We're prejudiced on this one, obviously. But John Robinson was to the power running game at USC what Florida's Urban Meyer is to the spread-option offense in modern college football. It took USC nearly 90 years to win its first two Heisman Trophies. J-R delivered two in three years with Charles White in 1979 and Marcus Allen in 1981. It was interesting to listen from the studio as Coach analyzed Sunday's Tennessee-Indianapolis game. Titans running back Chris Johnson is on a pace to threaten Eric Dickerson's single-season NFL rushing record of 2,105 yards, set while being the centerpiece of an offense Robinson designed specifically for him in 1984. In his heart, I know Coach Robinson would like to see Dickerson keep that record. John Robinson is intensely loyal to his friends and former players. Boyhood pal John Madden will be there along with Larry and Nanci Kahn to share the joy at the NFF banquet in New York. Then next Sunday night at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, Calif., the Trojan Nation will gather anew for the presentation of the 2009 Lott Trophy. When Ronnie Lott unveiled the 42 players on his 2009 Lott Trophy Watch List last April, it was a fascinating luncheon for me to attend. No sooner did Ronnie walk in after flying down from San Francisco than, like a blitzing safety, he made a beeline for Coach Robinson's table to hug his former coach. They sat next to each other throughout the program. Given the man the and beloved national figure Ronnie Lott has become, it's extraordinarily flattering to Coach to hear his now-fellow College Football Hall of Famer refer to him as a father figure. When we visited with the Lott Trophy's namesake to kick off our coverage of the 2009 Lott Trophy in August, I told Ronnie that Coach Robinson would be doing 14 NFL games for us this season. "That's great," the NFL and College Football Hall of Famer said. "Tell Coach, I'll be glad to spot for him any time he wants." After he awards the 2009 Lott Trophy to either Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamokung Suh, Tennessee safety Eric Berry, Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain or TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes, we're going to try to talk to Ronnie about the winner for our Dec. 22 MAACO Las Vegas Bowl GEICO Halftime Report. For the first time in 19 years, the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl will include a pair of top 25 teams when BYU takes on Oregon State. The subject of the newest member of the College Football Hall of Fame figures to come up, too. By the way, the 95th Rose Bowl game is personal, not business, for us at the Sports USA Radio Network. Coach Robinson played on the Oregon team that battled Ohio State in the 1958 Rose Bowl. Tony Graziani, our sideline reporter, was a member of the Ducks' 1995 Rose Bowl team against Penn State.
HITTING ON 21 - They wouldn't do it in Las Vegas. But Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts will try to in our NFL doubleheader opener against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. The Colts will try to win their 22nd straight regular season game, which would set a new all-time NFL record. The 2006-08 New England Patriots also won 21 straight. "Twenty-one in a row," mussed Manning after last week's 27-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans. "I don't know if I've ever won 21 in a row at anything. "Even back to youth basketball and little league baseball, you don't play 21 games. I just hope everyone stops to appreciate this, because it doesn't happen very often. The young guys in this franchise are getting spoiled, I think." Indianapolis went 3-13 in Manning's rookie year of 1998. They endured a 6-10 hiccup in 2001, Coach Jim Mora's last year in the land of the Hoosiers. Since the arrival of Tony Dungy and his alter-ego, current Colts rookie head coach Jim Caldwell, in 2002, Indianapolis has rolled. This is their seventh straight 12-win season, yet another NFL record. Don't bother trying to get Colts linebacker Clint Session excited about the run, though. "It's meaningless to us right now," said Sessions, whose pick-six sealed he 35-27 victory at Houston two weeks ago. "The only thing that matters to us is to win our last game of the season." That would be Super Bowl XLIV Feb. 7 in Miami, where Indianapolis won it all three years ago. It bears repeating that the Colts are doing this year in a year in which they changed head coaches, both coordinators, said goodbye to future Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison and have had to do without another future Hall of Famer, Adam Vinatieri, after his hip surgery. Mike Florio, our NFL Insider from ProFootballTalk.Com, points out that rookie National Football League head coaches Raheem Morris in Tampa Bay and Steve Spagnuola in St. Louis would not be 1-10 if they had Peyton Manning at quarterback. Josh McDaniels, the Denver Broncos' rookie head coach, is certainly happy with the quarterback he has, Kyle Orton. He was reminded of that when his former New England Patriots passer, Matt Cassel, suffered through his worst day of the season before being pulled in the Broncos' 44-13 victory at Arrowhead Stadium. While Orton was shredding the Chiefs' defense, Cassel was going 8-of-25. It was McDaniels' offseason pursuit of Cassel, who led the Patriots to a 11-5 record in place of the injured Tom Brady in 2008, that triggered the events that saw Jay Cutler traded to Chicago for Orton. After a four-game losing skid that included Orton's loss to a sprained ankle in a come-from-ahead defeat at Washington, the Broncos are back playing the way they did during their 6-0 getaway. The Broncos ran the ball down the throats of the New York Giants and the Chiefs the last three weeks. They and the Jacksonville Jaguars are the AFC's wildcard leaders heading into Week 14.
SUPER BOWL XXXIV REMATCH - The doubleheader game of our Sports USA Radio Network doubleheader Sunday takes us to Nashville, where the Tennessee Titans host the St. Louis Rams in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIV. Tennessee's midseason renaissance was rudely derailed last week in Indianapolis. After their 0-6 start, the best the Titans can finish now is 9-7. Following the 1-10 Rams, the Titans meet playoff contenders in Miami and San Diego before closing out the season Jan. 3 at Seattle. The matchup features the top two running backs in the NFL this season. Chris Johnson leads the NFL with 1,509 yards rushing and a gaudy average of 6.2 yards per carry. The Titans' second-year back from East Carolina needs 597 yards in his final four games, an average of 149 per game, to break Eric Dickerson's single-season NFL record of 2,105 yards rushing. Over the last seven weeks, Johnson has been averaging 125 yards each Sunday. Steven Jackson leads the NFC with 1,232 yards rushing. He is on a pace to shatter his personal best of 1,528 yards rushing set in 2006, the last time he played all 16 games in a season. Jackson was a finalist for the National Football League's most valuable player award in 2006, when he also caught 90 passes for 808 yards. His 2,336 yards from scrimmage barely missed erasing Marshal Faulk's NFL record. With future Hall of Fame receivers Torii Holt and Isaac Bruce now gone, the Rams' passing game is in transition. First-year head coach Steve Spagnuola's defense is much farther along. He has some of the pieces in place already in defensive end Chris Long, rookie linebacker James Laurinaitis and cornerback Atogwe Oshiomogho. The announcement of Oregon State and BYU in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 22, a game you can hear on the Sports USA Radio Network, may prove a karmic boost to Steven Jackson this Sunday. Jackson signed off his college career with OSU by scoring five touchdowns in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl in his hometown. St. Louis drafted Jackson in the first round in 2004.
DECK THE HALLS WITH BOWLS OF HOLLY - Our coverage of the College Football Bowl season kicks off Dec. 22 with BYU against Oregon State in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl. On Dec. 28 in Shreveport, La. the Advocare 100 Independence Bowl will match Texas A&M and Georgia. Remember, Nick Saban's first Alabama team closed out its season in 2007 with a win over Colorado in the Independence Bowl. They're 25-2 since. We'll ring in the New Year on New Year's Eve with the Brut Sun Bowl from El Paso, matching Heisman Trophy finalist Toby Gerhart and Stanford and the bruising defense of the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sun Bowl is College Football's second-oldest bowl game, predated only by the Rose Bowl. Finally, the 2010 Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day in Orlando matches Penn State of the Big Ten and LSU of the Southeastern Conference. Penn State coach Joe Paterno will be seeking his 394th career victory and 24th bowl victory, both NCAA records.
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