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Four thoughts for the college football weekend ahead ...
1. Three years later, the “I’m a man. I’m 40!” guy has proven to be a pretty darn good coach.
After Mike Gundy famously went off on a reporter in that press conference in 2007, he became the laughingstock of a nation. Regardless of the fact that the reason Gundy exploded was because he thought one of his players was being profiled unfairly by a journalist, Gundy’s “I’m a man. I’m 40!” sound byte got more action than that female Duke student with the thesis on the guys she’d slept with (a PowerPoint deck? Really?).
Gundy was widely lampooned and written off by casual sports fans as just another crazy coach with a hot temper and a few good lines worthy of a future Coors Light commercial.
Sure enough, Gundy has moved beyond the incident (though he never said he regretted it) and has put together a fine college football program in Stillwater. Three years after his rant, his Cowboys are the No. 20 team in the nation and feature one of college football’s highest-scoring offenses. The Cowboys had two players selected in the first round of last year’s NFL Draft and saw another two get drafted. Gundy, meanwhile, reached a milestone two weekends ago, notching his 40th career win in a victory over Texas A&M.
He’s only the third Cowboys coach to win 40 games and the quickest to do so.
“Quite honestly, those things aren't important to me,” Gundy told reporters this week.
"I'd like to win a lot of football games here because that means the players are happy, the (assistant) coaches are having success, the administration is selling tickets and everybody is happy."
The “I’m a man. I’m 40!” speech came following the Texas Tech game three years ago. Since then, Gundy’s quietly become one of the more respected coaches in the nation.
I’d love to say he’s come a long way since the day that made him famous, but I never thought his behavior was wrong. He loves his players and he loves Oklahoma State. When the Cowboys take on Texas Tech this weekend, they’ll be led by one of the hottest, most well-regarded young coaches in college football.
Gundy is a man. And now he’s got 40. Wins, that is.
2. August means nothing in college football.
We’re nearly halfway through the 2010 college football season. I had Marvin Austin, Duenta Williams, A.J. Green and Marcel Dareus on my preseason All-American squad in August. They’ve combined for just six starts on the year. Some guys who actually have made an impact this year? Here’s my midseason All-American squad. Note, only four players — James, Crick, Carimi, and Peterson — were on my team in August.
Offense:
QB: Denard Robinson, Michigan
RB: LaMichael James, Oregon
RB: Jon Clay, Wisconsin
WR: Alshon Jeffrey, South Carolina
WR: Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma State
WR: Ryan Broles, Oklahoma
TE: Michael Egnew, Missouri
OT: Lee Ziemba, Auburn
OT: Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin
C: Jake Kirkpatrick, TCU
OG: Rodney Hudson, Florida State
OG: Zach Hurd, Connecticut
K: Dan Bailey, Oklahoma State
P: Anthony Santella, Illinois
Defense:
DE: Vinny Curry, Marshall
DE: Wayne Daniels, TCU
DT: Jared Crick, Nebraska
DT: Drake Nevis, LSU
LB: Lavonte David, Nebraska
LB: Greg Jones, Michigan State
LB: Casey Matthews, Oregon
CB: Patrick Peterson, LSU
CB: Cliff Harris, Oregon
S: Ahmad Black, Florida
S: Tejay Johnson, TCU
Kick Returner: William Powell, Kansas State
Punt Returner: Patrick Peterson, LSU
3. We should savor Cal-USC while we can.
A week after falling to Stanford in a heartbreaker out in Palo Alto, USC takes on Cal this weekend. Enjoy it while you can.
Though not the rivalry games in the Alabama-Auburn or Oregon-Oregon State mold, USC’s two games vs. its in-state rivals to the north have a certain prestige and history to them. As it looks now, those games will no longer be annual traditions when the new two-division conference alignment takes place.
USC Athletic Director Pat Haden sounded crestfallen leaving a booster club meeting in San Gabriel, Calif., Wednesday night. According to reports, the Pac-10 (soon to be Pac-12, technically) will be divided as follows: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, Utah and USC in one division and Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, and Washington State in the other.
Pac-10 athletic directors reportedly voted 7-to-5 in favor of the alignment.
Haden voted “nay.” As is, USC would no longer play both Cal and Stanford every season, and in some cases, wouldn’t play either at all.
UCLA, which also has a rich tradition vs. its NoCal rivals, would face a similar dilemma.
"I told (the rest of the ADs) my alumni will kill me if we don’t play the Northern California schools," Haden said.
"I proposed a 5-2-2 model that has us playing the five schools (in our division) every year and then have the Northern California schools as part of our regular two and then rotate the other two. We need to play Stanford and Cal."
Cal plays USC this weekend in the rare game where both squads are unranked. However, one of the teams in Saturday’s bout is at least headed in the right direction. The other, coming off consecutive defeats on last-second field goals, and with no prospect of a conference title or bowl game in sight, could very easily fade fast.
The Golden Bears nearly knocked off Arizona in Tucson a few weeks back and straight-up manhandled UCLA in a 35-7 blowout last weekend. USC, meanwhile, has lost two straight. Lane Kiffin’s true coaching mettle will be tested over the coming weeks. It’s one thing to keep a bowl-ineligible team motivated when they’re winning games in September. It’s another to do so after a few devastating October losses.
If Kiffin’s the master motivator he’s thought to be, he’ll keep his Trojans players up and competitive for the remainder of the Pac-10 season. If he and his cast of cohorts on that coaching staff aren’t, it could get ugly from here on out. After Cal, the Trojans have Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State. USC could conceivably lose seven straight and just one — the Washington loss — could really be considered an upset.
Cal hasn’t won a game in the Los Angeles Coliseum since 2000 and has lost six straight to the Trojans.
Saturday’s battle should be a real fork in the road for both teams. It will be a dandy. Savor it while you can.
4. Garcia needs to prove he can win on the road.
Those ready to hand the SEC East over to South Carolina after last week’s 35-21 win vs. Alabama might want to take a step back first.
For as dominant as the Gamecocks looked in the win — 14 points was the largest margin of victory over a top-ranked team since 2000 — South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia is 0-5 all-time in conference road games, including SC’s lone loss of the season at Auburn this year.
It’s an awfully odd stat for a guy that’s seemingly been playing college football since the Reagan Administration.
It’s been a long road for Garcia, the one-time star freshman who’s been benched multiple times in his South Carolina career. Though teammates Alshon Jeffrey and Marcus Lattimore stole the headlines last weekend, Garcia went 17-of-20 and threw three touchdown passes in Saturday’s win. The performance earned him Southeastern Conference offensive player of the week honors. He also was recognized as the national offensive player by the week by Walter Camp Foundation and was named the Davey O’Brien quarterback of the week..
For a kid who’s been beaten down and criticized by the South Carolina faithful since he stepped on campus, the performance was a career peak.
Now he just needs to prove he can win on the road. Garcia and the Gamecocks travel this weekend to Lexington for a battle with a plucky Kentucky team that nearly knocked off Auburn last weekend. The Wildcats are without star running back Derrick Locke, which should only add to Garcia and the Gamecocks’ chances of victory. In a wide-open SEC East featuring down years in Gainesville, Athens and Knoxville, Garcia and Co. could very well be the team to beat.
South Carolina, of course, has never won the division since the conference divided into two divisions. They’ve never played in an SEC Championship Game.
If you had told me in August that Stephen Garcia would be playing in the 2010 SEC Championship Game and that Les Miles would be the guy coaching against him, I would have called you crazy and asked for your keys. Having you on the road would have been a hazard. Six weeks into the season, that scenario is very possible.
The lesson? August means nothing in college football.
Then again, the way South Carolina's finished the past two seasons neither does early October.
Schrager BCS Bowl Projections Through Week 6
BCS National Championship Game: Nebraska vs. Oregon
Rose Bowl: Boise State vs. Iowa
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. TCU
Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia
Schrager Heisman Ballot Through Week 6
1. Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan
2. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
3. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
