A 5th Down

Article 2.b of Section 3 of the current NCAA football rules and regulations reads:

The ball carrier shall not grasp a teammate; and no other player of his 

team shall grasp, pull, push, lift or charge into him to assist him in forward 

progress.

As anyone familiar with the classic 2005 game between Notre Dame and USC can attest, this rule is often overlooked in ways that are very meaningful to the final outcomes of important games.  This rule was once again overlooked by officials during this weekend’s Southern Cal/Stanford tilt. USC scored their first touchdown, a 1 yard “run,” not so much because Southern Cal’s running back Silas Redd actually ran the ball, but because one of Southern Cal’s offensive linemen actually carried Redd into the end-zone.  In other words, legally speaking, Southern Cal’s loss to Stanford wasn’t even as close as the final score of 14-21 would indicate.

This not-really-all-that-close loss to Stanford represents the 5th Cardinal victory over Troy in the last 6 meetings, and while most of those previous meetings were very close games, this one was only even dramatic because of an important and missed penatly.  The only person on the field during the game who looked shakier than former Heisman front-runner Matt Barkley was his head coach, Lane Kiffin.  And so given the fact that the Stanford fans are getting quite used to winning this game, could this match represent more than a surprise?  Might it represent the Stanford program pulling away from USC?

Maybe. Really, it’s sort of a funny question when you consider that Stanford hasn’t actually accomplished anything in college football since 1940 unless you resort to  a sort of relativism of the sport.  Relative to what Stanford has normally done in the history of college football, the recent successes of the Cardinal represent the K2 of Stanford football peaks.  Gigantic accomplishments for a program that has an all-time winning percentage below 60%.  But even their 12-1 season in 2010 is marred, in dramatic fashion, by an absolute throat-stomping at the webbed feet of the Oregon ducks.  Relative to many almost-were national title contenders of the last 10 years, that black mark is a light year away from the actual accomplishment of a national title.  Still, what Stanford has built is impressive.  They are undoubtedly one of the best programs in the country today until one or two opponents point out otherwise.  And even without having reached the highest peaks of college football, Stanford is without a doubt better than Southern Cal. Maybe that says more about Southern Cal.

It’s always difficult to tease out what any game means for either team this early in the season.  Notre Dame has reached a record of 3 wins and no losses for the first time in a decade this weekend, and they had to do so by beating the #10 Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing at night with a freshman QB.  Does it mean that Notre Dame is actually a very good team? Probably.  A great team? Possibly. But the metric of 3 wins to start a season is hardly useful relative to the rest of college football.  The latest AP top-25 poll contains 17 teams with 3 wins and no losses.  Were this a meaningful milestone for most of college football, there’d be much more debate about who’s currently the best team in the land. And there is no debate. Alabama is the best team in the land.  They, like the Fighting Irish, also have a 3 win, no losses record so far, and, like the Irish, have faced only FBS opponents so far this year.   #4 Florida State, however, has only faced a single FBS team this year. Otherwise they’ve beat up on Murray State and Savannah State. You didn’t even know there was a Savannah State.  No surprise, they are the Tigers.

Florida State meets another set of Tigers this coming Saturday when #10 Clemson meets them in prime time. And unlike Florida State, who did just face an actual FBS opponent (though not much of one in Wake Forest), Clemson should be quite fresh and ready to go after having just beat up upon FCS member Furman.  Hey, it’s an in-state “rivalry.”  That game must be played.  Once the FSU/Clemson game is complete, we’ll know one thing for sure: One of those teams is better than the other.

The same can’t be said of Pitt and Virginia Tech. #13 VaTech got doubled up upon by the same Pitt crew that had already claimed the title of 2012 College Football Laughing Stock.  Pitt, playing under their 3rd head coach in 3 years, didn’t look like they were over the emotional damage of losing to Youngstown State in week 1 as they got run over, around, and through by Cincinnati in week 2.  Maybe two beatings just makes you numb, because Pitt at least looked competent enough to take advantage of 4 turnovers by VaTech to earn their first mark in the win column.  

Four turnovers is an awful lot to give up, even when a team is facing the laughing stock of college football.  Southern Cal only gave up 3 turnovers to Stanford.  Maybe that’s how the Trojans kept it relatively close.  Wisconsin gave up relatively few turnovers this weekend - one in fact - which goes a long way to explaining how they beat Utah. State. With 37 seconds left in the game as Utah State missed a field goal.  From 37 yards out.  Wisconsin didn’t need a missed call for assisting a runner to win, but that was relatively close. 

I was in Marco Island, Florida a few weeks ago. I still owned sandals then - the “athletic” kind that Nike or Columbia make.  The sort that I’ve read a few times any self-respecting male shouldn’t wear.  But I’m a dad, so I own them.  Owned them, anyway.

Turns out that despite all the promises on the shoe box, you can only demand so much from sport sandals.  They’re supposedly designed for a fair amount of rugged wear and tear, but they’re not designed for what I put them through in Marco Island.  At one point, when the temperature was in the high 90s, I found myself walking 6 miles along the main road at about noon.  Turns out the glue that binds the soles and the rest of the sandal wasn’t meant for side-of-the-road walking at noon in August in Marco Island, Florida.  And after about 5 miles, the sole separates, and you spend the last mile looking like a truck trying to drive with a blown-out tire.

This leads me to Steve Spurrier.

During South Carolina’s opening game against Vanderbilt, I was reminded of the look of those sandals on their last mile.  Vanderbilt looks surprisingly competent, and SC’s starting QB suffered a shoulder injury to his throwing arm.  Spurrier and the Gamecocks won the game, but there was a look on Spurrier’s face that, on the surface, signaled irritation, but combined with his stance - hunched over, holding himself up with his hands on his knees - it really screamed exhaustion.  And that was in week 1.

South Carolina currently averages exactly 400 yards per game.  The gamecocks sit at 8th in the most recent AP poll, after that contest against Vanderbilt and another with ECU.  They feature a middle-of-the-pack Heisman contender in running back Marcus Lattimore and Spurrier is one of the all-time great innovators in offensive football. And at their current pace of 400 yards per game, they’re more than a full game behind UCLA in offensive production. Yeah, UCLA.

UCLA has been 88th, 100th, and 72nd in total offensive production over the last 3 years. And tonight they’re 3rd behind Oklahoma State and West Virginia.  Their red-shirt QB, Bret Hundley, is the talk of the town today, but what should really make hard core fans of football sit up and take notice is the Bruins’ rushing game - currently ranked 3rd in the country.  They average 7.39 yards per rush.

The stats are incredible - oh what a difference a coach makes - but what’s really amazing is to actually watch the Bruins with your own eyes.  The opposition hasn’t so much missed tackles of their lead running back, Johnathan Franklin as much as he’s dismissed those attempts.  Wide receivers make names for themselves by showing up 40 yards down field to make key blocks on running plays.  And everyone’s legs are moving faster than their opponents.  There’s no hesitation with the Bruins offense and it’s damned fun to watch.

Less fun to watch has been Penn State.  Never mind they’re now 0-2 with losses to Ohio and Virginia.  The Nittany Lions have managed to average just 15 points per game.  And to top that off, their kicking game left 13 points off the board by missing 4 field goals and an extra point against Virginia.  I normally take great joy in the misery of others, but it’s not even fun to pick on the Nittany Lions any more.  Thanks, Joe.  You ruined everything.

Everything was somehow on the line for Notre Dame against Purdue this weekend.  And when that happened, naturally Brian Kelly looked to Tommy Rees to finish a game in which starting QB Everett Golson had completed 68% of his passes at 9.3 yards per attempt.  Rees gamely missed on 5 of his 8 throws and lulled the Purdue defense into over-confidence with 4.4 yards per attempt while driving the Irish down the field to set up a game-winning field goal in the final 2 minutes.  Winning a game like this is incredibly improbable, but to call it “luck” is inaccurate.  That was way too ugly for luck.

4.4 yards per attempt is bad, but 4.04 yards is even worse.  That’s what New Mexico is currently averaging.  The Bob Davie coached Lobos stand at 1-1 after destroying Southern University in week 1 and then going scoreless against Texas in week 2.  Put another way, Bob Davie coached his team to a 66 point drop in production from the first week to the second.  I didn’t watch that game, but I have to figure at half-time Texas’ AD offered New Mexico’s AD the invocation of a mercy rule and a replacement for Bob Davie from any of their graduate assistant staff.

Perhaps Arkansas would like that deal.  The now-formerly #8 Razorbacks lost to Louisiana Monroe and have since dropped out of the top 25 entirely.  Arkansas head coach John L Smith also filed for bankruptcy this week.  That’s a bad week.  Then again, Nick Saban and Alabama once lost to Louisiana Monroe too, and that’s all worked out well for the Crimson Tide.  Maybe Arkansas should be patient.  It’s doubtful that Nick Saban has ever filed for bankruptcy, however.  There’s a reason the term “Saban-money” exists among fans who long for him.  Since 2006 John L Smith has reminded me of blown-out sport sandals. He’s probably exhausted too.  Bankruptcy must involve a lot of paper-work.

I didn’t even make it 6 months.

Less than 6 months ago, I retired from writing and owning HerLoyalSons.com because I was burnt out. I haven’t missed it at all.  The guys who are running that show now have been doing a great job and will continue to do so.  I feel great about that decision.  I don’t miss being a Notre Dame Football blogger even a little bit.  But I do miss writing, and I found myself more excited about this new college football season (not just ND’s) than I’ve been in a long time.  So that’s what I’m doing here; I’m just putting together 2 of the things I really enjoy.

Running a “big” site like HLS was a grind.  There was the constant self-applied pressure to churn out “content” and grow the audience.  At the same time there was the never-ending turmoil between the polarized pieces of the ND fanbase that just sucked all the fun out of it.  And there was the undeniable fact that any time I wrote about anything not involving ND (as in, any other program in the country), almost nobody would read it.  Many ND fans are not, in fact, college football fans.

Most likely, almost nobody will read whatever I put up here either, but I get to enjoy just writing about whatever college football topic I want to.  Sure, there will be some ND content, but there’s going to be lots of bloviating on matters from Washington State to Miami too.  And it’ll happen whenever I feel an urge to write.  So if you happen to come across the site, thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy it.