Post by elp525 on Jan 13, 2009 6:09:32 GMT -5
January 13, 2009
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN - Cleaning out a crowded notebook and a cluttered mind while again wondering just who is in charge here:
So here we are, once again, doing the dumbest thing in all of sports - debating who should be college football's national champion.
Of course, there should really be no debate. I mean, Florida beat the No. 1 team in the country - first Alabama and then Oklahoma - in back-to-back games at the end of the season. Game, set and match, right?
Well, except that Alabama and Oklahoma got to be No. 1 because those same people who now have decided Florida is No. 1 - the media and the coaches - were convinced earlier that Alabama and Oklahoma were the best teams in the country. Uh, news flash: The only tangible thing that Florida's consecutive wins over No. 1 teams proved was that the voters were wrong about who was the No. 1 team. The point being, why should we trust their judgment now?
It's all just so absurd, isn't it?
You can talk all winter about whether Florida or Utah or Southern California or Texas deserved to be No. 1 and make terrific cases for all of them. Personally, I like Texas, which was the only one of the four that didn't get a first-place vote in the Associated Press media poll (the coaches were obligated to vote for the Florida-Oklahoma winner).
Here's a team that played the most difficult four-game stretch in the country (Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in 22 days when those teams were all unbeaten and ranked No. 1, 11, 7 and 6, respectively) and until Tech, at home, pulled off the most famous play of the season with one second left in the last of those four, the Longhorns navigated it.
Sorry, but that's more impressive than losing at home to Mississippi (Florida), taking its annual week off (Southern Cal, at Oregon State) or resting up for its three regular-season games against ranked teams by playing 5-7 UNLV, 3-9 Utah State, I-AA Weber State, 4-8 Wyoming, 7-6 Colorado State, 4-8 New Mexico, 2-10 San Diego State and, yes, 3-9 Michigan (Utah).
Now, I'm pretty good at this debating stuff and I could make a pretty good argument for the other four, as well. I chose the fourth of those four because that's the one that got the least respect in the final polls.
The point, though, as it always is, is why are we debating this and not playing it? I just don't get it.
nn
Speaking of debates, I won't with Greg Isdaner. For starters, he's a lot bigger than I. And, judging by my conversations with him over the past 31/2 years, I think he might be a lot smarter than me, too.
Still, I just don't get his decision to give up his final season at West Virginia and try to make it in the NFL.
I know, he's already earned a degree (in finance and in 31/2 years; told you he was smart) and he would just be staying in school to play football. But if your goal is the NFL, there's something to be said for staying in school for a football education.
I bring that up because during Isdaner's first three seasons (including as a true freshman) he played for coaches (Rick Trickett and Greg Frey) who did a terrific job of tailoring an offensive line to a college-based running game. As a junior in 2008, under new line coach Dave Johnson, he and the rest of the line were introduced, for the first time really, to the kind of pass blocking it's going to take for these guys to succeed at the next level.
Given that, it just seems he could have learned a lot more and been better prepared with another year.
nn
Isdaner, of course, is going. But what about those who are supposed to come - specifically the mid-year enrollees in West Virginia's football program?
Well, if you're waiting for the big names, wait a while longer.
Wide receiver Logan Heastie has apparently completed all the course work he needs to graduate from high school in Virginia, but he hasn't formally graduated because his high school doesn't graduate students in the middle of the year. In other words, there's a transcript problem there that everyone is trying to work out and if they can, he should be in class this semester and ready to go through spring drills.
Two others who had hoped to graduate in the winter and enroll early may have just missed - quarterback Eugene Smith and wide receiver Deon Long.
Tevita Finau? Well, wait a while longer for him, too. The defensive end didn't make it out of junior college in Arizona and West Virginia's coaches are apparently trying to convince him to come East to finish the work he needs to do in order to be able to enroll in the summer or fall. The letter of intent he signed in December is no good now because he didn't qualify to enroll at mid-year, so getting him to this side of the country might also help keep him away from some of the Pac-10 schools that are recruiting him.
There are, however, a few newcomers enrolled and in class. The most notable is Chris Palmer, a defensive lineman who signed last February, rehabilitated a shoulder injury and is now in school. And so is a walk-on kicker, Cameron Starke from Halifax County High School in Virginia.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN - Cleaning out a crowded notebook and a cluttered mind while again wondering just who is in charge here:
So here we are, once again, doing the dumbest thing in all of sports - debating who should be college football's national champion.
Of course, there should really be no debate. I mean, Florida beat the No. 1 team in the country - first Alabama and then Oklahoma - in back-to-back games at the end of the season. Game, set and match, right?
Well, except that Alabama and Oklahoma got to be No. 1 because those same people who now have decided Florida is No. 1 - the media and the coaches - were convinced earlier that Alabama and Oklahoma were the best teams in the country. Uh, news flash: The only tangible thing that Florida's consecutive wins over No. 1 teams proved was that the voters were wrong about who was the No. 1 team. The point being, why should we trust their judgment now?
It's all just so absurd, isn't it?
You can talk all winter about whether Florida or Utah or Southern California or Texas deserved to be No. 1 and make terrific cases for all of them. Personally, I like Texas, which was the only one of the four that didn't get a first-place vote in the Associated Press media poll (the coaches were obligated to vote for the Florida-Oklahoma winner).
Here's a team that played the most difficult four-game stretch in the country (Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in 22 days when those teams were all unbeaten and ranked No. 1, 11, 7 and 6, respectively) and until Tech, at home, pulled off the most famous play of the season with one second left in the last of those four, the Longhorns navigated it.
Sorry, but that's more impressive than losing at home to Mississippi (Florida), taking its annual week off (Southern Cal, at Oregon State) or resting up for its three regular-season games against ranked teams by playing 5-7 UNLV, 3-9 Utah State, I-AA Weber State, 4-8 Wyoming, 7-6 Colorado State, 4-8 New Mexico, 2-10 San Diego State and, yes, 3-9 Michigan (Utah).
Now, I'm pretty good at this debating stuff and I could make a pretty good argument for the other four, as well. I chose the fourth of those four because that's the one that got the least respect in the final polls.
The point, though, as it always is, is why are we debating this and not playing it? I just don't get it.
nn
Speaking of debates, I won't with Greg Isdaner. For starters, he's a lot bigger than I. And, judging by my conversations with him over the past 31/2 years, I think he might be a lot smarter than me, too.
Still, I just don't get his decision to give up his final season at West Virginia and try to make it in the NFL.
I know, he's already earned a degree (in finance and in 31/2 years; told you he was smart) and he would just be staying in school to play football. But if your goal is the NFL, there's something to be said for staying in school for a football education.
I bring that up because during Isdaner's first three seasons (including as a true freshman) he played for coaches (Rick Trickett and Greg Frey) who did a terrific job of tailoring an offensive line to a college-based running game. As a junior in 2008, under new line coach Dave Johnson, he and the rest of the line were introduced, for the first time really, to the kind of pass blocking it's going to take for these guys to succeed at the next level.
Given that, it just seems he could have learned a lot more and been better prepared with another year.
nn
Isdaner, of course, is going. But what about those who are supposed to come - specifically the mid-year enrollees in West Virginia's football program?
Well, if you're waiting for the big names, wait a while longer.
Wide receiver Logan Heastie has apparently completed all the course work he needs to graduate from high school in Virginia, but he hasn't formally graduated because his high school doesn't graduate students in the middle of the year. In other words, there's a transcript problem there that everyone is trying to work out and if they can, he should be in class this semester and ready to go through spring drills.
Two others who had hoped to graduate in the winter and enroll early may have just missed - quarterback Eugene Smith and wide receiver Deon Long.
Tevita Finau? Well, wait a while longer for him, too. The defensive end didn't make it out of junior college in Arizona and West Virginia's coaches are apparently trying to convince him to come East to finish the work he needs to do in order to be able to enroll in the summer or fall. The letter of intent he signed in December is no good now because he didn't qualify to enroll at mid-year, so getting him to this side of the country might also help keep him away from some of the Pac-10 schools that are recruiting him.
There are, however, a few newcomers enrolled and in class. The most notable is Chris Palmer, a defensive lineman who signed last February, rehabilitated a shoulder injury and is now in school. And so is a walk-on kicker, Cameron Starke from Halifax County High School in Virginia.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
