NCAA: College Football Continuity

What struck me about this past Saturday in college football, which offered
more than a mouthful to chew on, was the way in which a lot of familiar
scenarios played out across the country.

BOILERMAKERS CAN'T STAND THE HEAT

The best example came in South Bend, Ind., where Joe Tiller, Drew Brees and
the Purdon't Boilermakers once again found a way to lose at Notre Dame.
Tiller has done much to revive the Purdue program, and his aggressive
pass-oriented philosophy is cutting edge in the sport today. Too bad that
philosophy wasn't on display Saturday, as running back Montrell Lowe seemed
to be the featured part of the Boilermaker attack.

Worse, however, is the fact that, when crunch time comes a callin', the
Boilers regularly find a way to lose. Two years ago, a 30-21 lead in the
final minutes turned into a 31-30 Irish win, thanks to two Brees
interceptions that were set up in part by horrendous play calling from
Tiller.

This year, Brees did throw a clutch TD pass to put his team in
front, but two big facts dwarfed that drive: 1) the defense couldn't hold it
up, a commentary on the team as a whole, not so much as Tiller, who is
primarily concerned with offense; 2) after factoring in a Notre Dame
interception that was returned for a touchdown, Brees and Purdue's
high-octane offense scored a net of just 14 points on a day when a fairly
pedestrian 28 (for Purdue) would have been enough.

This latest failure in South Bend, a reversal from Purdue's win over the
Irish in West Lafayette last year (which was made possible not by anything
Tiller did, but by a meltdown from Irish coach Bob Davie and quarterback
Jarious Jackson), underscores how the Boilermakers have failed to pull out
close games that hung in the balance in the final minutes. Razor-close
losses to Penn State, Ohio State and Georgia--along with much more decisive
losses to Wisconsin and Michigan--did much to blot out Purdue's one
impressive game in 1999, a blowout of a formidable Michigan State team. This
Notre Dame debacle must have Boiler backers scratching their heads.

SPURRIER SUR-PASSES FULMER

Poor Phil Fulmer. The Tennessee Volunteers' coach, a former UT lineman and a
thoroughly honorable man, has to suffer the agony of losing to Florida and
Steve Spurrier yet again, even when he came up with one of the best-coached
games of his career. The Vols were clearly more focused, hungry, and
prepared on Saturday, especially on the offensive line, where Fulmer's
coaching really showed as his big 'uns pancaked Alex Brown, Gerard Warren,
and company. Yet, after 60 minutes, Florida had four more points than the
Vols did.

What should this game tell us, about the Florida-Tennessee rivalry and about
football in general? Look at the stats a little more closely. Sure,
Tennessee sustained its excellence throughout the game, but first downs,
total yards and turnovers were fairly even. What was the one distinguishing
factor in the stats? The Vols owned a big rushing advantage, while the
Gators decidedly outpassed the Vols. Tennessee's marches ate up clock, but
that's because they needed so many plays to slowly work their way down the
field.

When the Vols ran out of real estate inside the Gator 10-yard line,
they junked their multi-receiver shotgun sets and reverted to their more
traditional I formations. The result? The Gators stacked them up and kept
them out of the end zone.

As for Florida's drives, the Gators needed just five or six flicks of Jesse
Palmer's wrist to cover a lot of real estate. When the Gators got in the red
zone, they scored touchdowns on two of their four opportunities, despite the
total absence of a running game. What does all of this prove?

Old-time smashmouth football traditionalists might disagree, but in today's
football world, anything less than a fully dominating ground game will get
beaten by an above-average passing game that minimizes big mistakes. That's
exactly what happened in Neyland Stadium on Saturday, and it's exactly why
Steve Spurrier, whether on a good coaching day or not, will usually beat
Phil Fulmer and Tennessee. The Vols will barely beat the Gators, even when
they max out; on the other hand, the Gators will clobber the Vols (and have
done so in the 90s) if they can ever manage to bring their "A" game,
something they haven't done in the rivalry since 1997.

Stanford and Texas: different outcomes from '99, same
personalities

One of the more amazing results from Saturday was Stanford's 27-24 upset of
sixth-rated Texas. Stanford lost its annual home game to San Jose State for
the second straight year. Yet, just like last year, the Cardinal rebounded
from that loss by posting a big win the following week (last year, UCLA was
the Cardinal's bounce-back victim in September). In light of the loss to
their Bay Area brethren, Stanford seemed to have no shot against a Longhorn
team that beat them by 52 points the year before. The fact that they
engineered a 55-point turnaround from last year's game in Austin shows that
both programs--and the college game--are just as unpredictable as they were
last year.

Stanford didn't have a monopoly on Jekyll-and-Hyde performances last year,
when the San Jose debacle turned into a Rose Bowl season. Texas' 69-17
drubbing of the Cardinal followed an embarrassing home loss to North
Carolina State. A momentous win over Nebraska got cancelled out by
disappointing showings against Kansas State and against Arkansas in a Cotton
Bowl fiasco. Saturday night showed that Mack Brown's program has a long way
to go toward cementing itself as a year-in, year-out power.

From the heartland to the Southland to the West Coast, it's amazing to see
how the more things change in college football, the more they stay the same.
Expect more of the same old--but hardly bland--unpredictability that defines
the college game today.