Last night LSU finally put an end to a college football season everybody would like to forget (well, everybody except LSU, Appalachian St., and that guy from Missouri who finally felt the sweet touch of a woman after the Tigers beat Kansas.) Les Miles’ team played very well, and in doing so they erased the memory of some poor performances and left people with a good feeling about the recipient of the National Championship trophy. I am thankful for this because it means the college football chatter will finally give way to less hackneyed topics (such as college basketball). Here are three other things I’m extremely thankful for:
–The highlight of the game: Chris Rose asking Les Miles “It’s been an amazing year…what did you learn about your kids that you didn’t know about them back in August?” and having Miles respond “nothing.” Rose had been working on that question for five weeks. After careful consideration those were the words he chose to preface Miles’ first post-championship comments. And then Miles fucked it all up by saying “Nothing.” Miles went on to answer the question like Rose expected, but the look on Rose’s face right after Miles said “nothing” was priceless.
–The kids from Trinity University celebrating after winning the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year. You could tell the school just emailed the whole student body and asked “Who wants to be on TV?”, and then stuck all the kids who said “yes” in front of a camera. What a bizarre thing to jump up and down and feign excitement for. I wonder if next year kids will be wearing sweatshirts around campus that say “Trinity University: 2007 Pontiac Game Changing Play Winners.”
–Anything having to do with Jonathan Zenon. Some day, at some level of football, he will string together a bunch of dominant games. At that time people will nickname him “The Element,” and think they’re very clever for doing so.
Some other BCS Title game thoughts…
–The next tactic to jump from the college game to the NFL is going to be Les Miles’ lead blockers on quarterback sneaks. On QB sneaks LSU lines up a player in tight with the line on each side of the quarterback. When the ball is snapped they lurch forward and effectively function as lead blockers. It’s ingenious, it almost never fails, and it’s going to be used by every team in football very soon.
–Did you see that Todd Boekman run on the Buckeys’ first drive of the 3rd quarter. The guy runs like a gazelle. I’m pretty sure I mean that as a compliment.
–What a huge roughing the kicker call on Ohio State early in the 2nd half. I actually think (at least in the NFL) that roughing the kicker should be abolished for the most part. Obviously a defender shouldn’t be able to do anything that would draw a roughing the passer penalty, but if the defender comes close to blocking the kick why not let him hit the kicker. Sure, in the long run a few more punters might get hurt, but it would bring back the kick-block game. I think that’s worth the cost of a few strained groins.
–How does it feel Michigan? How do you like your coach now? You better hope Rich Rodriguez’s spread-option works in the Big Ten or you’ll be wishing you had offered Miles whatever he wanted—or at least rigged the SEC Championship game so LSU would loose and Miles wouldn’t have to abandon a National Championship team to take the job. That actually brings up a good question. Should Michigan have fired Lloyd Carr earlier in the season so they could get Miles before LSU got deep into the postseason? Or would that have been going to far—both in terms of disrespecting Carr and excessively messing with LSU. The world may never know.
