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An all-SEC BCS title game?
By Tom Dienhart
November 12, 2009
Many already are asking the question: What are the chances of Alabama and Florida playing for the national championship?
According to Jerry Palm of CollegeBCS.com, a lot would need to happen. At minimum, in order to get a rematch of the SEC title game, Texas would have to lose on Dec. 5 in the Big 12 championship game. Given the relative weakness of the Big 12 North, that is unlikely.
There have been some huge upsets in previous Big 12 title games – Texas over Nebraska in 1996, Texas A&M over Kansas State in 1998, Colorado over Texas in 2001 and Kansas State over Oklahoma in 2003.
“Then it becomes an issue for voters. Do they want a conference champion in that game, even if it’s a champion of the Mountain West, WAC, Big East or ACC?” Palm said. “Or do they want a rematch [of Alabama vs. Florida]?”
Another interesting question: What are the chances of TCU and Boise State both getting BCS bowl slots?
“For the team that loses out between TCU and Boise, they need to have no more than two of the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-10 qualify as at-large teams,” Palm said.
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Strong interest
Will this be the year Charlie Strong lands a head coaching job?
The Florida defensive coordinator has been mentioned as a candidate at Memphis. Strong also could emerge as a contender for the jobs at Louisville, Central Florida and Virginia, if they open.
“I just have to work and continue to do this job right now,” Strong told GatorBait.net. “My whole focus is here right now just making sure our defense goes out and plays well.”
Strong has helped build defenses that backed Florida to national titles after the 2006-07 and 2008-09 seasons. His Gator defense ranks No. 2 in the nation this year, allowing just 232.4 yards per game.
“Charlie is more than a coach,” Gator coach Urban Meyer told GatorBait.net. “We’re very close friends and our families are very close. We’ve been that way since the mid-90s when both of us were at Notre Dame. Every year we go away on a retreat as a coaching staff and I always talk about that.
“When you’re at Florida that’s part of the deal, however. Your loyalty is to this football team, these players and this program. Once the season is over, let’s handle this professionally – the interviews, the phone calls and the other stuff.”
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Jefferson’s status for LSU in doubt
LSU isn’t saying if quarterback Jordan Jefferson will play Saturday against Louisiana Tech.
“Jordan has to be able to move around in the pocket and do other things,” coach Les Miles told reporters this week. “We’ll look at [Thursday’s] practice and see how he goes. I do feel good about Jefferson.”
Jefferson hurt his right ankle in the third quarter of last week’s loss at Alabama. If he can’t play, the Tigers will start Jarrett Lee. If Jefferson is out, walk-on T.C. McCartney would be Lee’s backup.
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Kelly could be Irish’s answer
By Dan Wetzel
November 9, 2009
The last time Notre Dame cast its Irish eyes toward Cincinnati in search of a coach it focused on Gerry Faust, who had won five state titles in six seasons at Moeller High School. Yes, high school.
You want to know how college football has changed in the past three decades, Gerry Faust is it. If the move was controversial then (1980), imagine if someone tried it now? The Internet might collapse if a program the caliber of the Irish hired a high school coach. Soon after, protesting mobs might bring Notre Dame Stadium down with it.
Faust lasted five middling seasons, was fired and then spent nine more years not doing much better at the University of Akron.
He was the start of the curse of the modern Notre Dame program – they’re good at a lot of things in South Bend but hiring coaches isn’t one of them. Only Lou Holtz has been a strong choice since the days of Ara Parseghian and Dan Devine.
The recent run of Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and now Charlie Weis, who after five seasons looks finished after losing again to Navy, has left the program operating below potential.
Weis proved great players still want to play under the Golden Dome – it’s ironic that arriving from a career in the NFL what was expected to be his weakness (recruiting) was his strength and his strength (coaching) proved to be his weakness.
Just like anywhere though, Notre Dame needs a total package to contend for BCS titles. It’s no different at Florida, Alabama, Texas and so on.
And so back down in Cincinnati, this time at the University of, resides its best choice – Bearcats coach Brian Kelly.
You only wonder if Notre Dame is able to pull it off.
Notre Dame shouldn’t fire Charlie Weis unless it knows it has a coach-in-waiting. There are plenty of third-party avenues to test Kelly’s interest – and it says here he’d jump at the chance.
If he doesn’t want it and Jon Gruden doesn’t either and they give up on the pipe dream that maybe Urban Meyer will get tired of winning so much at Florida (my personal favorite bit of twisted, delusional logic) then the school should probably just keep Weis.
The bottom may fall out here – 7-5 is now as distinct a possibility as 9-3 – but with so much returning talent (assuming Jimmy Clausen stays) it’s not like the program is on life-support. They aren’t about to go 0-12 or something.
The coach hiring axiom du jour comes courtesy of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, who asserts that something that must be done eventually should be done immediately. It’s how he justified brooming Ron Zook in the middle of the 2004 season.
There’s a second part to that, though. Foley is cutthroat enough that he lined up a proper replacement, using the time to reach an unofficial deal with Urban Meyer, who was then leading Utah to a perfect season.
Without both parts the decision becomes risky. You get stuck in a quagmire of coaches using ND’s interest to procure raises, then you’re forced into the wrong choice and you’re right back where you started.
That’s how Notre Dame got into this two-decade long funk. That’s how they fired Willingham, then whiffed on Meyer (a day late and a dollar short to Foley), among others, and was stuck gambling on Weis, who had no head coaching experience.
The Irish administration has proven inept at this stuff. This is the same crew who bought Weis’ first-season, media-planted, smoke screen that he had NFL head coaching offers coming and locked him into a paralyzing 10-year deal.
Notre Dame doesn’t just need a smarter coach, it needs smarter campus leadership.
Kelly is, as you might guess, an Irishman from the north shore of Boston, the son of a cop. He’s a self-made sensation. He played at little Assumption College. At age 29 he became the head coach at Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan in 1991 and spent 13 seasons honing his craft. He went 118-35-2 and won two national titles.
In 2004, he took over Central Michigan, then a basement-dwelling team in the Mid-American Conference. His third year they won the league.
Cincinnati snapped him up in 2005 and he’s delivered the greatest four-year run in school history, including what should be three consecutive 10-win or more seasons. UC is ranked No. 5 in the BCS standings and still has a shot at playing for the title.
This is the complete package. This is as close to Urban Meyer at Utah as you’re going to get. There’s nothing to wonder about with Kelly. Can he coach? Can he recruit? Can he run a program? Is he a fit in college?
It’s all been proven.
He isn’t a flash in the pan, a one or two-season wonder. He isn’t riding anyone else’s coattails. He’s proven himself at every rung of the ladder. He’s just 48. This is his prime.
And while he no doubt feels great pride and allegiance to UC, the reality is he’s set to make one last big move. Someone is going to grab him and if the timing was different (Rich Rodriguez will get another season), don’t think rival Michigan wouldn’t jump at the chance.
No matter the critics who focus on the Willingham firing (every top program in the country would’ve done the same thing), the Notre Dame administration does things with an eye toward old school protocol.
Not inquiring about the next coach until the current one is fired is likely one of them.
If there was ever a time to get modern, this is it. They can’t wait for Vatican III to come along and grant such permission. Notre Dame needs to test the waters now, get that wink and nod from the guy in Cincinnati and then proceed on sure-footing.
The Irish have a roster stocked with NFL talent and they should forever thank Charlie Weis for revitalizing that part of their program. He did away with all the crybaby stuff about how Notre Dame can’t recruit like it once did.
It can.
It just needs a Cincinnati coach (college, not high school) to make something of it.
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Notre Dame assistant criticizes Navy coach
By The Associated Press
November 12, 2009
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame associate head coach Corwin Brown criticized Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo for his postgame comments about the Irish defensive game plan and for the way the way his team uses what Brown called "malicious" illegal cut blocks.
"I thought it was very disappointing what the Navy coach said after the game," Brown said. "He didn't want something to be misconstrued, then he said it regarding how we prepared and what we prepared to do."
Brown went into his criticism of Niumatalolo after practice Wednesday night, cutting off a reporter before the first question could be asked and speaking for two minutes about the Navy coach.
The Midshipmen (7-3) beat the Irish 23-21 on Saturday, the second Navy win in three years against Notre Dame (6-3) after an NCAA-record 43 straight losses. Following the game, Niumatalolo said the Navy coaches expected the Notre Dame coaches to use a similar defensive scheme as in 2008 when the Irish held the Midshipmen to 178 yards rushing in a 27-21 loss.
"I think the one thing that helped us, and I really hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year because we knew that they'd line up the same way," Niumatalolo said.
Brown said Niumatalolo should have known how his comment would be taken.
"In all the classy guys I've watched and played under, they would never say something like that," he said.
Brown also criticized the way Niumatalolo coaches his players to block, point to a play last season where linebacker Brian Smith sustained a sprained knee because of an illegal cut block, missing the final two regular-season games. On Saturday, Navy receiver Nick Henderson was called for personal foul on a hit on cornerback Robert Blanton.
Brown called the hit on Blanton "one of the most malicious plays I've ever seen since I've been playing."
Brown said he called Niumatalolo about the hit, saying he considered saying something to him before the game about the way Navy blocks.
"Very malicious," Brown said. "In this game, which we're supposed to be playing for our kids and we're working for our kids, you don't let your players do something like that."
Brown wouldn't say how Niumatalolo reacted.
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Notre Dame-Pittsburgh Preview
By BRETT HUSTON
November 11, 2009
Notre Dame's spot in the Top 25 is gone after a surprising loss, and with that likely went its hopes of a trip to a BCS game.
Boasting its highest ranking in 20 years, Pittsburgh's chances of representing the Big East in a major bowl game are growing stronger by the week.
The eighth-ranked Panthers' final two games will determine if they're conference championship material, but they won't be looking past Saturday night's showdown with the stumbling Fighting Irish, who visit Heinz Field hoping to avoid an eighth straight loss to a top-10 opponent.
Pitt (8-1) is off to its best start since Dan Marino's senior season in 1982, which was also the last time the program was ranked in the top 10 this late in the season.
The Panthers haven't been ranked this high since being No. 7 on Oct. 24, 1989, but they also haven't really been tested. Pitt has won its five conference games by an average of 17.8 points, piling up 481 yards last Saturday in a 37-10 rout of Syracuse.
"I think we did a good job of keeping our feet on the ground, knowing the importance of this conference game putting us 5-0, coming out and not taking nothing for granted," coach Dave Wannstedt said.
Pitt visits rival West Virginia and hosts No. 5 Cincinnati in its final two games, and the contest against the Bearcats could be a de facto Big East championship and BCS elimination game.
The Fighting Irish (6-3) likely lost their chance at grabbing a BCS bid after a stunning 23-21 home loss to Navy last Saturday dropped them from the rankings. The Panthers' players, though, are hardly treating it as a tune-up.
"Everybody is excited about Notre Dame," tailback Dion Lewis said. "We've got to have a good week of practice, bring our 'A' game. ... We've got to keep coming."
Lewis has been arguably the biggest reason for the Panthers' resurgence. LeSean McCoy declared for the NFL draft after his sophomore season, leaving Pitt with a big hole in the backfield, but it hasn't missed a beat with Lewis.
The 5-foot-8 freshman is seventh nationally with 126.6 rushing yards per game and needs 190 yards to surpass McCoy's Big East freshman record of 1,328.
Notre Dame will certainly need to do a better job stopping Lewis than it did against the Midshipmen, who gained 6.1 yards per carry in racking up 348 on the ground. That, plus three Irish turnovers, allowed Navy to control the clock and overcome a career-high 452 yards passing from Jimmy Clausen.
"It's not about statistics at all," said Clausen, the nation's third-highest rated passer. "It's about production and putting points on the board and at the end of the game coming up with a win. ... It's just heartbreaking right now."
The biggest difference in Clausen this season has been his efficiency. Michael Floyd (124.8) and Golden Tate (117.7) rank third and fourth, respectively, in the nation in receiving yards per game, and Clausen has continued to find them without turning the ball over. He's thrown three interceptions in 308 attempts after throwing 17 in 440 as a sophomore.
Both Floyd and Tate had 100 yards receiving against Pitt last season in South Bend, part of a 271-yard, three-touchdown day for Clausen. That wasn't enough for a win, though, as the Panthers overcame three interceptions to win 36-33 in four overtimes.
Clausen will have his hands full Saturday against a Pitt defense that's first in the nation with 39 sacks, led by junior end Greg Romeus' 7 1/2.
Notre Dame's defense ranks 88th against the pass (237.4), and this season Bill Stull seems much more prepared.
Stull missed the game against the Irish last season with a concussion, and threw nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions in his other 12 contests as a junior. He was the Big East's fifth-highest rated passer (119.9).
This season, Stull is fifth nationally in pass efficiency (161.6). He's been sacked eight times after going down 25 times last season and has thrown 17 touchdowns - nine to Dorin Dickerson - and four interceptions.
Pitt has lost both games against Notre Dame at Heinz Field, falling 42-21 in the last matchup Sept. 3, 2005 - Weis' first game on the sidelines for the Irish and Wannstedt's coaching debut with his alma mater.
A week later, Notre Dame beat No. 3 Michigan for its last win over a top-10 team. Considering many critics are calling for Weis' job, he knows the Irish could use another in Pittsburgh.
"They're ready for their dog and pony show," Weis said. "They're all ready for their major celebration when Notre Dame rolls into town, and we're going to go there with the intent of spoiling it."
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