The Sommer Frieze

Even though I don’t believe a 6-6 team should be in a bowl, much less a New Year’s Day Bowl, I am happy to see Bobby Bowden go out with a win—over a ranked team, nonetheless—and that team was the team he a) coached at before going to Fla St. and b) was coached by someone who once was one of Bowden’s players.

My alma mater, PSU, beat LSU 19-17 yesterday. Personally, I was frustrated that PSU couldn’t get into the end zone. All four FGs were from relatively short distance, but none could really be called “chippies.” Not with a field that was, in short, pathetic. Had PSU scored TDs instead of constantly being stopped inside the five, it could have been say, 27-17. But then balls were fumbled and dropped in the mud all day. If the field was a good field, who knows, maybe LSU benefits. You don’t know If anything proved my point that there are too many bowl games, it was that game yesterday. High school games followed by the Miami/Wisconsin game—all played at the same site—helped to chew up the field. Torrential rain helped to create divots as big as throw rugs, and the mud made it seem like you were watching 22 pigs slopping around for their grub. If you didn’t see the game or highlights, check out this photo for an idea of the field conditions. Check out those divots behind the kicker. Besides trying to kick the winning FG, he probably wanted to make sure he didn’t fall on his ass. Of course the kicker is the only one with a clean uniform…

More divots than in a golf course. Pathetic, especially for a bowl game.
Next time, try a cow pasture.

The last time we saw something as bad as that was when the Steelers beat the Dolphins 3-0 a couple of years ago in conditions so bad that punts landed…and STUCK…in the mud. No bounce whatsoever. Then, as what happened now, the bad conditions were caused by many games, especially high school games, being played on the same field in a short period of time. You wonder where common sense went.

At least no one sprained or broke an ankle.

In the Rose Bowl, it was a coming out party for Ohio St. QB Terrelle Pryor. Only a sophomore, you wonder how his next two years will be. For this PSU alum, the next two years for my alma mater could be a bit difficult. For not only will they have Pryor to deal with, but Alabama comes onto the 2010 and 2011 schedules, meaning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. You don’t know if either will leave early for the NFL and thus not be available in 2011, but those two will be tough sailing for a PSU team that will be losing Clark and Lee (and probably Bowman and Royster, both of whom may leave early for the NFL).

One highlight of 2010 (unless PSU has a really off year)—looking at PSU’s schedule, October 30, 2010 at home vs. Michigan or November 6, 2010 at home vs. Northwestern shape up to be the most likely weekends to have your calendar circled. For that looks to be about the time when 83 year old Joe Paterno would get win #400. You wonder if Bowl win #25 would then follow.

As for the Sugar Bowl, I went to sleep when it was 37-3 early in the third quarter. A complete blowout for Meyer, Tebow and company. 51-24. I felt sad for Cincy. They were huge underdogs to begin with, and losing their coach to ND and having a one-game interim coach that will soon be shuffling off to Buffalo didn’t help. I wish there was something that could be done about that. I realize it’s a business decision, but I don’t respect Kelly or ND for what they did. Kids who worked hard to go 12-0 get the rug pulled out from under them by their coach and another college/university. You wish the NCAA would force coaches to stay with their team for the whole year unless it’s a Leach/Texas A&M situation where the coach gets fired or a health issue like what almost happened to Meyer/Florida and what DID happen to Schembechler/Michigan quite some time ago.

Speaking of Leach/Texas A&M, that will be interesting. Not only from the Aggies’ perspective. Michigan St., the Aggies opponent in the Cotton  Alamo (my mistake—updated) Bowl, had 14 players suspended or dismissed due to a dorm brawl. Boys will be boys?

I obviously don’t know the whole story, just what’s been reported, of the incident that cost Texas Tech coach Mike Leach his job, but if you were to do something like that, don’t you think you wouldn’t do it to the son (Adam James) of an ESPN analyst? I mean, it’s wrong no matter who Leach would have done it to, but of all people?  

By the way, do you remember when the Cotton Bowl was one of the major bowls? Then you, like me, are showing your age. The Fiesta Bowl has nudged the Cotton Bowl out of major status.