Heisman Trophy Quiz: Name the last five to win the award from a school east of the Mississippi. [Hint: 2000-2010] Answer below.
The BCS and the Bowl Games
I have to admit that while I like to be a cynic, there are a few potentially entertaining bowl games. Jan. 2 is downright outstanding. So here are the ones I find promising.
Dec. 17 – New Mexico Bowl…Temple (8-4) vs. Wyoming (8-4)
Dec. 17 – New Orleans Bowl…San Diego St. (8-4) vs. La.-Lafayette (8-4)
Dec. 29 – Champs Sports Bowl…Florida State (8-4) vs. Notre Dame (8-4)
Jan. 2 – TicketCity Bowl…Houston (12-1) vs. Penn State (9-3)
Jan. 2 – Outback Bowl…Michigan State (10-3) vs. Georgia (10-3)
Jan. 2 – Capital One Bowl…Nebraska (9-3) vs. South Carolina (10-2)
Jan. 2 – Rose Bowl…Wisconsin (11-2) vs. Oregon (11-2)
Jan. 2 – Fiesta Bowl…Stanford (11-1) vs. Oklahoma State (11-1)
Jan. 6 – Cotton Bowl…Kansas State (10-2) vs. Arkansas (10-2)
Yeah, I’ll watch a little Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest on Dec. 30, a titanic battle of 6-6 squads in the Music City Bowl, though I’ll be doing my yearend column found elsewhere on the site that day as well.
And who the heck would possibly want to go to the Dec. 31 Fight Hunger Bowl; a matchup of 6-6 Illinois (as in six straight losses) and a 6-7 UCLA team that needed a special exemption to be able to play despite being under .500!
And who would watch the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4, West Virginia vs. Clemson? For starters, it’s a school night after a long holiday week. Secondly, you have the interminable Orange Bowl Halftime Show so this game ends at 12:30 a.m.
Then there’s Boise State. 11-1, Boise once again gets totally screwed due to a lousy missed field goal. Last year they lost on two muffed kicks in an OT loss to Nevada when they were Rose Bowl bound and ended up in the MAACO Bowl against #19 Utah. This time they lose to TCU as the kicker blows a 39-yarder as time expired and another 11-1 Cowboys team goes back to the MAACO Bowl, only this time they face 6-6 Arizona State! How humiliating. Boise, more than any other school over the years, is a victim of the BCS awarding automatic berths to league champions, such as the Clemson-West Virginia matchup. Realistically, Boise deserves to be there. Or certainly the Sugar Bowl in lieu of Michigan or Virginia Tech.
“So what does it mean now that we have an Alabama-LSU rematch in the national championship game?
“It means the BCS system failed miserably yet again. Not because Oklahoma State was a more deserving No. 2 than the Crimson Tide, but because it sets up the worst-case scenario: If Alabama wins the rematch, how can co-champions not be declared since the teams would have split their two meetings? Wasn’t the BCS supposed to end that kind of nonsense? Instead, it just makes a bad situation worse (just ask Kansas State, Boise State or TCU).
“How did Virginia Tech wind up with a BCS bowl bid after losing 38-10 in the ACC title game?
“This is exactly why Boise State needs to join a BCS league like the Big East – and why the BCS needs to be euthanized and replaced by a playoff. The Hokies’ nonconference schedule wasn’t much tougher than Don Bosco Prep’s [Ed. No. 1 high school team in the country this year, out of New Jersey], though it did produce a ‘quality’ win against Arkansas State. And they lost to the only legitimate top 15 team they played all year (Clemson) – twice, by a combined 61-13. But why shouldn’t they go to the Sugar Bowl when a team that didn’t even win its division plays in the national championship game.”
Oh, if only Boise had made the field goal and Oklahoma State not gone down against Iowa State, we’d have three undefeated teams, Boise probably playing Alabama, while OSU went up against LSU, and it would have been so much fun. I can’t include Stanford in the dream sequence because their loss to Oregon wasn’t a close one.
Meanwhile, the Big East is now said to be adding Boise State, San Diego State, SMU, UCF and Houston, with Boise and SDSU entering as football-only members, while the other three join for all sports. Navy is also expected to join as a football-only member and the conference is hoping Air Force comes into the fold as well, though ESPN says because of scheduling commitments, the two academies wouldn’t be able to join for years.
And on the Heisman front, the five finalists are Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson, Tyrann Mathieu and Montee Ball. I’m surprised how many now believe Griffin will win, seeing as it seemed to take a good 7-8 weeks for him to catch fire nationally.
NFL Bits
–Mark Maske of the Washington Post notes that after the ease with which the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers took Green Bay down the field in the last minute against the Giants last week, it’s certainly appropriate to ask whether Rodgers is having the greatest year ever for an NFL quarterback. Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Rodgers are all on track to break Dan Marino’s single-season NFL record of 5,084 passing yards. Brees and Brady are on course to throw 40 touchdown passes apiece. Brees is completing 70 percent of his passes.
“Yet even they must take a back seat to Rodgers in his season for the ages. Rodgers has completed 70.59 percent of his passes, just behind Brees’ single-season NFL record of 70.62 percent for the Saints in 2009. Rodgers’ current passer rating of 125.3 would top the record of 121.1, set by Peyton Manning for the Indianapolis Colts in 2004.
“Rodgers’ 37 touchdown passes with four games left give him a chance to break Brady’s single-season mark of 50 for the Patriots in 2007. That season, Brady had 50 touchdown passes while throwing eight interceptions. Rodgers, at his current rate, would finish this season with 49 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.”
So it seems it comes down to Brady’s 2007 season and the current one for Rodgers. Brady’s Patriots won 18 straight before losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl. Rodgers needs to win the Super Bowl for his year to be treated as the best.
–The Denver Broncos started 1-4, then it was Tebow time and they are 7-5. Since 1970, only nine teams have started 1-4 and then won their division.
1970 – Bengals…8-6…went to divisional playoff
1975 – Colts…10-4…divisional playoff
1976 – Steelers…10-4…AFC title game
1983 – Lions..9-7…divisional playoff
1992 – Chargers…11-5…divisional playoff
1993 – Oilers…12-4…divisional playoff
2002 – Jets…9-7…divisional playoff
2002 – Titans…11-5…AFC title game
2004 – Packers…10-6…wild-card round
–I like this line by Jason Gay of the Journal in discussing Tim Tebow throwing for a season-best 202 yards and two touchdowns last Sunday, thus “surprising skeptics who have maintained that the former Heisman winner plays with lobster claws for hands.”
–As the New York Times’ Judy Battista points out, even the NFL had no idea just how big an impact their decision to move the kickoff up to the 35-yard line from the 30 would have.
“But with one month to go in the regular season…the new rule, which also allows only a 5-yard running start for coverage teams…(has led to) only eight returns for touchdowns – half as many as through Week 13 last year – and none since Week 11….
“Even more striking is how many kickoffs have resulted in touchbacks. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, through Week 13 last season, 18.8 percent of kickoffs resulted in touchbacks. This year, the figure is 45.9, well above the 30 percent the NFL expected when it changed the rule. Eighty-three percent of kickoffs have gone into the end zone, compared with 22.1 percent last season. As a result, the average yard line for the start of drives this season is 22.1, more than 4 yards behind last year, when the average starting point was the 26.4-yard line.”
The New York Mets
Last time I wrote that I kept staring at the Mets’ roster and my projection for number of wins next season was down to 48. That turned out to be about two hours before the official announcement that All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes was leaving; signed, as expected, by the Miami Marlins to a six-year, $106 million contract.
Of course us Mets fans knew all along the team wouldn’t re-sign Reyes, the feeling being that the club wouldn’t give the oft-injured player more than a 5 and $75 deal, which is all he deserved.
But, I now project the Mets will win 30-32 games. Say 31-130 (one rainout not made up due to indifference). And unlike 1962’s 40-120 version, this one won’t be funny.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating. Maybe they win 46. It is going to be one lousy year at Citi Field and we have one guy to thank for our misery…Bernie Madoff.
Yes, not only did the Mets lose $70 million last season, but the Madoff debacle continues to hang over the Wilpon family, owners of the Mutz.
So the team has no money to spend and Mets fans can only hope that by 2013, young hurlers Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler are ready.
At least GM Sandy Alderson quickly shored up the bullpen on Tuesday in signing free-agent relievers Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, while trading for reliever Ramon Ramirez and center fielder Andres Torres of the Giants for Angel Pagan.
“There was a time when New York would tolerate the kind of empty, hapless ownership the Wilpons provide the Mets. We didn’t always live under Steinbrenner Law, believing our citizenship papers as New Yorkers entitled us to certain inalienable rights of sporting success.
“The football Giants once went 18 straight years without making the playoffs, and it wasn’t until Year 15 when the anger finally resulted in someone hiring a plane to buzz a message over the Meadowlands.
“We get all weepy about how things used to be when the Dodgers lived here, but Brooklyn won one championship in 77 years. The Knicks waited 23 years before winning their first title, and did so in a blissful, boo-free basketball city.
“And, of course, there were the Mets of 1962-67, whose average record was 54-108. And who were beloved anyway….
“Look, the idea that Jose Reyes is gone forever stings deeply if you invest yourselves in the Mets, the way casting free Darryl Strawberry did for one past generation, and the exiling of Tom Seaver did for another. If the Mets were owned by different people, they might even be able to sell the notion – and it’s a fair one – that a player who relies on his legs and has a history of leg problems isn’t worth six years and $106 million.
“But they aren’t owned by different people. They are owned by the Wilpons, and the Wilpons have done nothing – they’ve done less than nothing – since buying out Nelson Doubleday to be given the benefit of this doubt, or any doubt. Do you believe they will take advantage of their newfound payroll flexibility to strengthen a team earmarked for fifth place? Do you believe they aren’t meddling with Sandy Alderson’s plans any time those plans involve digging into coffers that ring hollow and empty, like so many Wilpon promises?”
“”(It) is intellectually dishonest to suggest that the incarcerated Uncle Bernie has nothing to do with all this failure and loss. Madoff robbed the guts and heart of a franchise. I will never believe that Fred Wilpon and (partner) Saul Katz consciously defrauded loved ones and friends, but nothing is the same with this team. The fans know that, and are staying away. Tickets are going for pennies on the Web, and that is Bernie Madoff’s doing.”
Mets attendance at Citi Field.
2009…3,200,000
2010…2,600,000
2011…2,400,000
2012 (projected by the crack staff at Bar Chat)…118,575 (40,000 or so coming Opening Day)
Back to the Marlins, who also signed closer Heath Bell to a 3-year, $27 million deal, they have offered Albert Pujols a 10-year deal. The Cardinals offered a 9-year, $198 million deal last January that Pujols rejected, but are now said to be substantially above $200 million in their attempt to retain him.
Finally…on a different subject, baseball’s Veterans Committee (now called the Golden Era Committee) voted Ron Santo into the Hall of Fame. I have long argued Santo deserved enshrinement, but, sadly, it came almost one year to the day that he passed away. Nonetheless, at least his family, including his wife, will have the bittersweet experience of seeing him inducted next July 22.
Santo, the nine-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove winner for the Chicago Cubs received 15 of 16 votes (12 needed…or 75%). He becomes the 15th third baseman in the Hall (including three from the Negro Leagues).
Jim Kaat fell short with 10 votes; Gil Hodges and Minnie Minoso each picked up nine. I was a little surprised Luis Tiant received “less than three votes” (as the Hall puts it).
—AP Basketball Poll
1. Kentucky
2. Ohio State
3. Syracuse
4. North Carolina
5. Louisville
6. Baylor
7. Duke
8. Xavier
9. UConn
10. Missouri
25. Harvard…incredibly, first time ever in top 25!
–The NBA is going to cram 66 games into 124 days so you better have some depth, just sayin’. Some teams will face back-to-back-to-back. Because of an ice skating show at United Center, the Bulls will spend Jan. 29-Feb. 12 on the road for nine games. The NBA also has games the night of the NCAA men’s basketball championship, when it’s normally idle.
Each team will play 48 games against conference opponents and 18 games against interconference opponents, meaning not every team will visit every city. The Lakers, for example, don’t travel to New Jersey, Indiana, Cleveland or Charlotte; which sucks for those franchises looking to fill the place.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay, on the recent trend of some star athletes to blow off the opportunity to play in New York, such as pitcher Cliff Lee, or LeBron, while now the Knicks are “the team with allure. Amar’e Stoudemire led an early-season revival and Carmelo Anthony locked himself in the bedroom in Denver until the Nuggets dealt him to New York. Now it’s Chris Paul’s turn. The gifted guard, a free agent next season, has reportedly let it be known he wants a locker in the Garden. This possibility will be discussed somewhere between a billion zillion and a zillion billion times over the next few months.
“But Paul gets it. He knows there is only one place on earth where in the space of an hour you can do your laundry, have a Lou Reed sighting, drink an $11 smoothie and see a rat carry a discarded pizza box across a train. A place that will hand you an extraordinary amount of money to play some games in the downtime.
[Fellow Wake alum Phil W. is fearing for my sanity should Paul become a Knick. He is right to do so.]
–I like what the NHL is doing as it realigns, probably next season, into four conferences of either seven or eight teams, with four from each making the playoffs. The conference I would care about (if I were a bigger hockey fan) will have Carolina, New Jersey, N.Y. Islanders, N.Y. Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington. Boy, that’s stacked, and teams in 7-team conferences play each other six times.
–Update: Lindsey Vonn won the super-G at Lake Louise on Sunday to complete a sweep of the weekend’s World Cup races in her first competition since she announced she was going through a divorce. Your editor missed this just slightly…OK, so I thought Lindsey would be a mess after splitting with her husband/manager of ten years (husband for four). Can you blame me for thinking that way? I mean, c’mon….did any of you think she’d sweep her first races afterwards?!
By the way, Lindsey said she was nervous before the super-G but that listening to music by Lil Wayne and Drake helped her prepare.
Before I do Bar Chat, I too am normally very tense but listen to Perry Como and Mel Torme to settle the nerves.
By the way, Europe’s snow issues continue to plague the World Cup’s early season. There just isn’t any, so, for example, a race scheduled next weekend for France was rescheduled for Beaver Creek, Co., near Vonn’s home of Vail.
–At the PGA Tour’s Q School, former major winners David Duval, Lee Janzen, Rich Beem, and Shaun Micheel failed to get their cards for 2012, though they’ll undoubtedly receive many sponsors’ exemptions.
–Ripped from the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald:
“Police suspect a crocodile may have killed a diver on a spear fishing trip off Cape York.
“The 49-year-old Cairns man [Ed. I was in Cairns about a year ago] disappeared yesterday and a friend on the same dive raised the alarm.
“ ‘There are indications that he may have been injured by a marine animal,’ police said.
“ ‘The waters in far north Queensland are well known crocodile areas.’”
Heck, if you aren’t careful at some of the beach resorts around Cairns, you could be devoured walking back to your room after dinner. Really. I saw them sitting in canals right next to walkways.
–The most realistic estimate I saw from the luxury car pile-up in Japan, 8 Ferraris, 3 Mercedes and a Lamborghini, was $3 million. I had to laugh when the first estimate I saw treated the Ferraris like they were $100,000 each. Specifically, two of the Ferraris were F430s, two 360 Modenas, and two F355s.
Olive Garden: “When you’re here, you’re family.” Chad: “Family? If my mother cooked like this, I would’ve run away from home years earlier than I did.”
Walmart: “Save money. Live better.” Chad: “Actually, if you’re an employee of the world’s largest retailer, it’s more like, ‘Work lots. Earn little.’”
Target: “Expect more. Pay less.” Chad: “Hmm. I’m torn between saving money and living better or expecting more and paying less.”
IBM: “Let’s Build a Smarter Planet.” Chad: “What’s smarter than us, Jupiter? Uranus? Seems to me this planet has sustained life for a pretty long time with a pretty good return on our money, so who needs a bunch of computer geeks assembling a whole new world?”
T. Rowe Price: “Invest With Confidence.” Chad: “I just read a New York Times article about commodities firm MF Global’s bankruptcy, and it appears that $1.2 billion of clients’ money is missing – customers may never see their cash, though it supposedly was protected – so excuse me if I just invest in a better mattress to put my nickels and dimes under.”
Capital One: “What’s in your wallet?” Chad: “Curiously, Alec Baldwin. Interesting chap – on Mondays, he’s outspoken about corporate America’s greed; on Tuesdays, he’s a commercial spokesperson for corporate America.”
Prudential: “Bring Your Challenges.” Chad: “Okay, here’s one – I can’t dance a lick, but I’d love to join the Bolshoi Ballet. Can you folks help?”
—The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is one of the great museums of any kind in the world, but the product continues to get cheapened with some of the recent inductees, 2012’s just-announced list including the hip-hop Beastie Boys. At least there are some legitimate acts entering the Hall, namely Guns N’ roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, singer/songwriter Laura Nyro, Donovan, and The Small Faces/The Faces (which included Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood).
The Hall passed on Donna Summer, Joan Jett, Heart and Rufus with Chaka Khan, as well as War and the Spinners.
I like Donovan, but he’s marginal, while as much as I love the Spinners, if I had to choose between them and War, I go with War. [Both of their Greatest Hits albums would rank in my top ten all time, however.]
“(McCartney) sounds a lot younger than his 69 years. There is no reason to think this will be his valedictory tour. But don’t risk it. Hey Jude with Paul McCartney at a pub piano, should be the new national anthem. If you can possibly get to see him, then go. He was in The Beatles, you know. Don’t be surprised if he’s good.”
Heisman Trophy Quiz Answer: Last five from east of the Mississippi.
2000 – Chris Weinke (Florida State)
2006 – Troy Smith (Ohio State)
2007 – Tim Tebow (Florida)
2009 – Mark Ingram (Alabama)
2010 – Cam Newton (Auburn)
Top 3 songs for the week 12/3/83: #1 “All Night Long (All Night)” (Lionel Richie…eh…not aging well…as in no one will be playing it in another ten years) #2 “Say, Say, Say” (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson…Sir Paul again just looking to cash in on his name, but a nation peopled with idiots buys this crappola nonetheless… Michael totally incoherent, thinks he’s recording with Sting) #3 “Uptown Girl” (Billy Joel…weak effort from the Piano Man)…and…#4 “Islands In The Stream” (Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton…was very disappointed in Dolly for doing this and told her so beforehand… “Don’t do it, Dolly! He’s about to get a new face!”) #5 “Say It Isn’t So” (Daryl Hall-John Oates…sounded real good when I saw them ‘live’ last year) #6 “Love Is A Battlefield” (Pat Benatar…found this depressing) #7 “Cum On Feel The Noize” (Quiet Riot…too loud) #8 “Heart And Soul” (Huey Lewis and the News…one of their better ones) #9 “Crumblin’ Down” (John Cougar Mellencamp…sucks) #10 “Church Of The Poison Mind” (Culture Club…anything by these guys made me want to commit hari-kari)
Next Bar Chat, Monday…a very brief one…as in just a few paragraphs. Because, you see, this is my weekend to run the half-marathon down in Kiawah, South Carolina, on Saturday. No hiding what I do. I’ve run a 1:51 half as recently as 1999, age 41, before I almost killed myself doing the full marathon at Kiawah that same year (famous story involving black bean soup the night before), but in 2009, it took me 2:14! (not including the three minutes to get to the starting line), though I didn’t walk any of it.
This time, your now 53-year-old editor expects a similar effort as I’ve trained minimally. But I promise to run the whole way through. You should be able to look it up by Sunday morning.
At least my friend and I are playing the Ocean Course the day before the race, this being the site of the 2012 PGA Championship, so that should be fun, if not a bit masochistic. I’ve played it three times before and held my own but I’m anxious to see what kinds of changes they are making to toughen it up further.
Anyway, as I’m traveling back on Sunday, don’t expect anything Monday.
