Updated Nov 25, 2009 11:29 PM ET
Getting teary-eyed over Tim
Brace yourself and bring the Kleenex.
There won't be many dry eyes before kickoff Saturday in Gainesville. Urban Meyer will lose it at some point, as will Tim Tebow, and if I've gotten to know them at all over the past couple of years, there's a good chance CBS broadcasters Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist get choked up, too. Though the schedule lists the game as Florida vs. Florida State, Saturday's Gators-Seminoles matchup should be renamed "Tim Tebow's last game in The Swamp."
Tebow's Senior Day is probably worth tuning into, even if the game is a Gators blowout. We owe the guy that much. In four years at Florida, Tebow has provided college football fans with countless big moments, unforgettable speeches and tremendous fodder for barroom debates. Though his ownership of the Greatest College Football Player of All Time title still depends on his Gators' performances in December and January, Tebow has put together quite a resume to this point. For the heck of it, here are my top five most memorable Tebow moments from the past four years:
5. Fourth-and-One: Used primarily as a backup behind senior Chris Leak in 2006, Tebow would come in here and there in the first few weeks of his freshman season, run the ball up the gut and give the Florida offense and crowd a lift. He hadn't been used in a big spot until Sept. 16, when, on fourth-and-one with the Gators trailing by six in Knoxville, Meyer put the ball in the hands of the frosh. Tebow rumbled for 2 yards, got the first down and pumped his fist. The Gators went on to win the game, 21-20.
4. The Jump Pass: If the fourth-and-one run in Knoxville was Tebow's coming-out party for Gators fans, the jump pass he threw against LSU a few weeks later was his formal introduction to the rest of the college football world. Minutes before halftime, with the score tied at 7, Tebow took a snap out of the shotgun, took one step forward, one step back and then jumped in the air, releasing the ball at his highest point to an open Tate Casey in the end zone. In the second half, Tebow hit current Oakland Raider Louis Murphy on a 35-yard touchdown pass to put the game on ice.
3. The Heisman Sealer: With Heisman buzz slowly building and a nationally televised game against former Gators Heisman winner Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks, Tebow put together arguably the greatest individual performance of his career. The sophomore wowed voters by completing 22 of 32 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns, running the ball 120 times for five more scores and leading the Gators to a decisive, 51-31 win.
2. The Drive: In perhaps the best SEC championship game ever played, Nick Saban's Tide dominated the third quarter, held the ball for 10 minutes, scored 10 points and grabbed a three-point lead over Florida. Tebow answered by guiding an 11-play, 62-yard, nine-minute drive that bled both the clock and any momentum coming from the Alabama sideline. Florida held on to win the SEC and eventually the 2008 BCS title.
1. The Promise: Less than an hour after Florida's loss at home to unranked Ole Miss, Tebow stood before reporters, apologized to Florida fans and famously promised "no team or player would work harder or push his teammates harder" than he would the remainder of the season. The Gators haven't lost a game since.
The crazy part? In creating this list, I realized that I could have probably put together 15 other moments you would have been fine with.
Yeah, Tim Tebow has had a pretty decent college career.
Oh, who am I kidding? I'm welling up over here just thinking about Saturdays without him.
Is someone peeling an onion? Someone
must be peeling an onion. Please excuse me ...
The pick: Florida 42, Florida State 14.
Get Yer Pistols Ready
Back in September, I wrote a piece in this column naming the Nevada Wolf Pack as one of college football's biggest disappointments of the first month of the season. Chris Ault's boys came out flat and unprepared and were shut out, 35-0, by a bad Notre Dame defense on national TV in their opener, fell to an average Colorado State squad in Fort Collins, 35-20, and then dropped a winnable game to a rebuilding Missouri team at home. Three weeks. Three losses. And that Pistol offense? The one that was supposed to break WAC rushing records in '09? Well, it was "eh."
Nothing horrible, but certainly nothing special. Through three games, the Pack was one of the top 30 running teams in the nation, averaging 180 yards per game. But it was 0-3 and had been beaten by at least 10 points in each contest. So much for that historic season.
Fast forward three months, and we're looking at not only the most explosive running team in the nation, but also perhaps of all time. Since those three out-of-conference losses in September, the Wolf Pack has rattled off eight straight victories, the school's longest winning streak in 18 years. It is 7-0 in WAC play and doing it in pulverizing fashion.
Nevada is averaging a national-best 373.2 yards per game on the ground. To put that figure into perspective, consider that the country's second-best rushing team is Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets average 60 yards fewer per game than the Pack. Air Force is third in the nation in rushing yards, totaling 822 fewer yards than Nevada on the year ...
on
214 more carries. Considering the rather pedestrian rushing numbers from Nevada's first three games, those numbers are even scarier. Over its past eight games, Nevada is averaging 445.6 rushing yards.
Ault's team is also averaging an eye-popping 7.76 yards per carry. Second in that statistical category is UAB at 5.93 yards per pop. Third is Oregon, more than 2 yards less per carry, at 5.5.
Against New Mexico State last week, the Wolf Pack ran the ball 61 times for 574 yards. Read that again. They
ran the ball for 574 yards.
Perhaps the hottest team in all of college football, Nevada travels to Boise on Friday night to not only play the role of BCS spoiler, but also to play for the 2009 WAC championship. Both the Broncos and the Wolf Pack are undefeated in conference play, and Friday night's winner will determine the conference champion.
The Broncos lead the nation with 44.4 points per game and also rank among the top 10 in the country in yards per contest with 456.0. But the defense, though impressive enough statistically on the year, has had its share of spotty moments. Louisiana Tech put up 35 points on BSU a few weeks back, and Fresno State's Ryan Matthews gashed the Broncos for 234 rushing yards back in September. The Broncos haven't seen an offense like the one they'll see against Nevada.
And that includes Oregon's.
Nevada runs the "pistol" offense, a formation once viewed as quirky and unique to the Wolf Pack, but now greeted with widespread respect. In the set, the quarterback lines up out of the shotgun, roughly 3 yards behind the center, with the running back lining up 1 yard behind him.
Chris Ault is the unofficial godfather of the pistol, and after the season his Pack is having this year, you can be sure to see it replicated by more teams next year. LSU went to the pistol several times against Ole Miss last weekend, Alabama has used it a few times this season and Missouri has featured the formation throughout the year, as well. The Kansas Chiefs actually ran a few plays out of the pistol last season when backup quarterback Tyler Thigpen was at the helm.
But no team comes close to running the pistol like Nevada. When it gets in that set, it's nothing short of a college football work of art. The past few months of Nevada football have been Ault's Mona Lisa.
Nevada's offense is spearheaded by quarterback Colin Kaepernick and running backs Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott. All three have already topped 1,000 yards rushing on the year. The Pack is the first team in Division I-A history to feature three 1,000-yard rushers in the same season.
Alas, Nevada hasn't won in Boise since 1997, and the Broncos haven't lost a regular-season game on the Bronco Stadium blue turf since 2001. The Wolf Pack has also lost its past eight games against Boise.
But anyone expecting a cakewalk for BSU has another think coming. The last time the two teams met on the blue turf, the Broncos squeaked out a 69-67, four-overtime victory in one of the highest-scoring games in college football history. Make no mistake about it, Nevada will come out guns blazing in a rare national television appearance Friday night.
With the Thanksgiving holiday week, class isn't in at either school this week, meaning both teams have a little extra time to study film and prepare. The schedule also gives both teams a little extra time to rest. Nevada's pistol is fully loaded. Boise's defense — a question mark — better be able to make at least a few stops.
Of course, no one recognizes what Nevada has done over the past few months more than Broncos coach Chris Petersen.
"It's impressive to be able to start how they started and be where they are now," Petersen told reporters Monday. "Early on, if you win some games and get momentum going, things build on itself. To not start where you want to start and to get where they are — tremendous job of coaching those guys."
We should be in for an offensive fireworks show on Friday night. Kellen Moore and that Boise passing game, Nevada's three-headed running monster and explosive return men on both sides — this one should deliver the goods on every offensive possession.
Whether it signifies a changing of the guard in the WAC or an exclamation mark on Boise's BCS-worthy season, we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. If the game were being played in Reno, I'd consider giving Ault's boys the nod. But on that blue turf, I think the Broncos find a way.
And with a win, they're going BCS bowling, right?
(Silence)
Right?
For more on that, check out my BCS Bowl Projections below.
The pick: Boise State 48, Nevada 42.
The forgettable seasons
Find me the college football fan who predicted Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida State and Notre Dame all finishing the year with .500 or worse records and I'll find you a person with some crazy soothsaying skills. Or a damn good magic 8-ball.
Michigan's 5-7 season is done, but with losses this weekend, the Sooners, 'Dawgs, 'Noles and Irish will finish the year with matching 6-6 records.
Oklahoma has Oklahoma State in Norman on Saturday afternoon, and though many still expect the Sooners to pull it together in time to ruin the 'Pokes' BCS at-large dreams, I just can't see that happening after Oklahoma's embarrassing, 45-13 loss in Lubbock last weekend.
At 6-5, Georgia is coming off a similar head-scratching loss between the hedges to Kentucky. They've got 10-1 Georgia Tech on Saturday. Nothing from any game this season gives me any reason to think Willie Martinez's beleaguered 'Dawgs D will be able to stop the Tech rushing attack.
Notre Dame, in the midst of a three-game losing streak, with a head coach sitting in college football purgatory and featuring a star quarterback who was reportedly punched in the face by a Notre Dame fan earlier this week, isn't beating Stanford in Palo Alto.
If all three national powers lose on Saturday, Michigan, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Georgia could finish a combined 23-25.
Toss in Florida State — which will be losing to Florida on Tim Tebow's last afternoon in The Swamp — and that's five of college football's most storied programs going 29-31 on the year.
It has been a strange college football season. That stat alone tells the story.
The picks: Georgia Tech 31, Georgia 20;
Oklahoma State 31, Oklahoma 23; Stanford 37, Notre Dame 28;
Florida-Florida State: see below.
Schrager's BCS Bowl projections
Title game: Florida vs. TCU
O.K., O.K. Before you go nuts and X out of this screen, let me explain. As you likely already know from my
column on Monday, I'm taking Nebraska over Texas in the Big 12 championship game. Such an outcome wouldn't necessarily eliminate the Longhorns from the BCS title game — Oklahoma went after losing the Big 12 Championship Game in '03 — but with momentum building for TCU's cause and comparable strengths of schedule, I think TCU would barely edge out the Longhorns, a one-loss SEC runner-up and undefeated Boise in the polls and the computers.
Which brings up a worthy alternative — the Cincinnati Bearcats. Call me a contrarian, but in addition to Nebraska over Texas, I think Pittsburgh knocks off the Bearcats at Heinz Field on Dec. 5. Are the voters brazen enough to give a BCS championship spot to a non-BCS conference team? I think they are. And if all of these chips fell the way I'm forecasting — both Texas and Cincinnati losing in their final games before the bowl season — TCU should get the nod. The Horned Frogs would deserve the right to play for a national title. I think the voters do what's right. And I think they'll get their chance.
Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State
Ohio State's already in. I think Oregon holds its own on its home field in next Thursday night's 103rd Civil War.
Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. Penn State
With a Big 12 championship victory, the 'Huskers would lock up the automatic Big 12 champion Fiesta Bowl bid. Though everyone seems to think two-loss Iowa locked up a BCS bowl bid with its 12-0 win over Minnesota last weekend, I think the national cachet of Joe Pa and his Nittany Lions would get the Fiesta Bowl nod. Sure, Iowa's fans travel well. And yes, Iowa beat Penn State in Happy Valley. But I think the media sizzle and national appeal of a Penn State-Nebraska bowl game would be too much to turn down.
Be outraged, Iowa fans. If things shake out the way I see them shaking out, you won't be the only ones with bones to pick this January.
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Pittsburgh
The Sugar Bowl gets its SEC championship runner-up in 'Bama, and scoops up the Big East champion Panthers as the opponent. Nick Saban and Dave Wannstedt — two former Miami Dolphins head coaches — go at it down in the Bayou.
Orange Bowl: Texas vs. Georgia Tech
With a win over Clemson in the ACC Championship on Dec. 5, Paul Johnson's Yellow Jackets lock up an Orange Bowl berth. With their at-large selection, the Orange Bowl opts to take Colt McCoy and one-loss Texas. Tickets are sold, people tune in and we're given a matchup of one of the top offenses in the nation vs. one of college football's top defenses.
On the outside looking in
If Nebraska beats Texas and Pittsburgh beats Cincinnati, the fallout would be epic. The all too controversy-free 2009 college football season would be thrown into flux.
First,
Oklahoma State — a team everyone will be penciling in for an at-large bid after its win over Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday — would be left out in the cold and sent to the Cotton Bowl. Remember, only two teams per conference can play in BCS bowl games. With the 'Huskers and 'Horns already in, the 'Pokes would be left out.
Second,
Boise State — an undefeated team everyone will be pushing for an at-large bid after wins over Nevada and New Mexico State — will be left out in the cold and sent to the Hawaii Bowl for a battle with — instead of Penn State or Georgia Tech — Southern Miss! Sorry, Boise fans. I know I got your hopes up last week, but it's one thing to get an at-large bid over Oklahoma State. It's an entirely other thing getting an at-large bid over Texas, Penn State, and 'Bama. The BCS antitrust lawyers will go bonkers and members of Congress will have news conferences, but it won't do any good. Hey, at least Hawaii's a nice locale, right?
Third,
Cincinnati — a one-loss team out of the Big East — will be left out in the cold and sent to the Gator Bowl for a rematch of last season's Orange Bowl with Virginia Tech. Again, in any other year, Cincy would be a solid at-large candidate. But with Iowa, Penn State, Alabama, Texas and undefeated Boise State in the conversation, the one-loss Bearcats won't be BCS bowling.
Fourth,
Iowa — a two-loss team out of the Big Ten that has beaten Penn State head-to-head — will be left out in the cold and sent to the Capital One Bowl for a battle with Ole Miss. Again, I know I'm in the minority here — but I think the Fiesta and/or the Orange are taking Penn State over Iowa this year, regardless of what happened when the two met head to head.
Giddy up.
Schrager's Heisman ballot
1. Colt McCoy, QB, senior, Texas
2. Tim Tebow, QB, senior, Florida
3. Mark Ingram, RB, sophomore, Alabama
4. C.J. Spiller, RB, senior, Clemson
5. Ndamukong Suh, DT, senior Nebraska
Upset picks of the weekend
I went 0-for-2 last weekend with Minnesota and SMU, sinking me to 8-14 on upset calls for the year. My picks this weekend? I like Oklahoma State with its curious quarterback situation over the Sooners in Norman and red-hot Arkansas over ice-cold LSU in Baton Rouge.
