It's In The Game

Since EA Sports can't pick one, we'll decide.

Since Carson got the cover 2 years ago, it surely won't be Leinart. Which leaves Reggie Vs VY.

So is it gonna be Reggie....

Or - Reggie-for-the-VY-Faithful.

HAVE SOME!!!!!

The Biggest Hit That Ever Was


That's Texas A&M's Quinton Coryott against TCU in the early '90s.

You are free to think that somewhere, somehow, you saw a more ferocious trainwreck-lick than that one. But this hit - miraculously posted to YouTube recently - was a seminal event in sculpting the world view of The Index. I don't (and never did) have any particular penchant for A&M. Quite the opposite, in fact.

But, 10 years later, probably not a month has gone by that I haven't mentioned that hit in an email or conversation.

It's the hit The Index measures all other hits by.

Brought to The Index's attention by EveryDayShouldBeSaturday

Another Shameless USC Plug

Death.

Taxes.

The Onion.

This marks the second time that the earth's best comedy site has taken a run at SC's Glamour Boys. I couldn't be prouder.

Rose Bowl Spills Down Under

Needless to say, took this pic in Australia. We made the Aussie Open the anchor of a 2-week vacation that I will prattle on about at great length if you care to write me about it.
Never did find the Hook'Em guy in this picture.
But you know I couldn't run up a UT flag without throwing some USC-salute at it.
That same night, on our side of the stadium, I spotted a guy maybe 10 rows ahead of us.
Maroon tshirt, with yellow lettering on the back: “Tommy Does Miami.”

Well, there’s your Orange Bowl.

The night rolls along (I think this was a Lindsey Davenport match), and I get up to walk out for a break. So does USC guy. From the stairs above him, I give him a ‘V’ and “Fight On.”
He smiles and stops. He’s mid-to-late 40s, skinny in a nervous kind of way. Maybe a little jumpy. Kind of guy who, well, would wear a football t-shirt to a tennis match in Australia.
He waits for me at the exit: I say: “Hel-“
“I had cancer.”
He just says it. Just like that. Whammo. Which, I figured, bought him an extra turn talking.
“After that, I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. Since then, I’ve been to three straight Australian Opens here, and every USC football game.”
Through my astonishment, I’m proud to report I managed to ask: “Home and away?”
“All of them.”
So I guess he wins.
By the way – no “Hi”, no “What’s your name?”, no “j’go’da SC?” nonsense. Apparently this guy does conversations-with-strangers like he does sporting events – no time to kill.
We’re walking now, down the steps, out of the tunnel. I go for it:
“What did you think of the Rose Bowl?”
He stops smiling. He shakes his head once. Then he shrugs and nods, like someone had just said something he agrees with.
“I’d rather watch the Rose Bowl 100 times than get radiation therapy.”
Fastball, fastball, curve – have a seat, rook. He’s been here before

Devils

12: Minimum months beyond 18th birthday that still qualifies as "barely 18" according to less-than-authoratative biography and title in video cannon of former ASU cheerleader known professionally as Courtney Simpson.

The full story is here.



2, 3, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22: Numbers that also appear in titles of Simpson's work, according to a search engine called Search Extreme, which a little google work will get you to. It's certainly deep-end level material. The "14," for example, involves a fellow actor named Max Hardcore, which, as you may know, never ends well.

Where's Jim Healy when you need him, because she's a lovely lady and my apologies to her.

Rose Bowl

Got plenty of thoughts on the Rose Bowl, but not for this space.

I put them on my White Noise blog - I even spelled Requiem right.

Song Girl

It's funny. it is.

And while we're at it, the Florida State Scorching Sluts and the definitive picture of the In-WAY-Over-My-Head look.

From Colin Cowherd

Sure he steals stuff from other blogs - but these are excelent stats.

Texas QBs in the NFL, all-time yardage leaders.

1 - Don't you tell me about Bobby Layne (duh).
2 - Chris Simms. Yip, already, the 2nd most successfull UT QB ever in the pros.
3 and 4 - somebody else.
5 - Tom byGawd Landry.

4: Bowl Wins that Fresno State's QB failed to capture as a starter when FSU
lost to Tulsa in the Autozone Liberty Bowl - which would have made him the first QB in history to win 4 Bowl games.

This Week's Number: 3

3 : Heisman Finalists.

Go ahead. Start the Rant music...

Only 3 guys are going to the heisman award. i'm not positive why - either no one else got enough votes to qualify for an invite, or the NYAC just picked the Big 3. Three guys from 2 schools? THE 2 schools? the winner certainly needs to be Young or Bush - either is fine with me - but to not pick 2 others to come out and share a little spotlight is a disgrace. it's not like there aren't candidates.

Brady Quinn has better numbers in every serious category than Leinart (both, obviously, eclipse Young as a passer), and he outplayed Leinart badly in their showdown. How is the story of Quinn's season not on par with Carson's in 02, when he brought SC back from the Darkness? Is that not what Quinn has done, on an even bigger stage?

How about the superb Mike Haas at Oregon State? Absurd stats, and, effectively, the only serious player on his team - short of VY, has any one player been more vital to his team?

Or my man Brett Basanez? So he lost big to Ohio State... so what? With that funky spread offense he passed for a hair short of 3000 yds, ran for almost 400 and kept NU afloat into mid November. that's not worth a chair in NY?

And I guess they don't play football in the SEC - here's some heresy: if you switched DJ Shockley and Vince Young, UT might get a half-a-click drop off. the difference between them is almost entirely their preseason expectations, which were astronomical for VY and sub-zero for Shockley. Turns out, DJ has been fantastic all year, made countless pressure plays and only dragged his team to the championship of the SEC. His only loss was that miracle that Auburn pulled off (he was out for Florida).

Here's DJ v VY passing

210.1: Yards/Game, UGA's DJ Shockley
230.8: Yards/Game, UT's Vince Young

8.3: Yards/Pass, UGA's DJ Shockley
9.7: Yards/Pass, UT's Vince Young

21: TDs, DJ
26: TDs, VY

5: INTs, DJ
10: INTs, VY

If you need 20 extra yards per game, I guess you take VY. But if you could do with 50-percent less interceptions, then DJ might be a better QB.

DJ also rushed for 250 in an offense he wasn't supposed to. In Greg Davis' 'create space' scheme, he'd have been good for a lot more.

Feel free to make the same argument for LSU's Jamarcus Russel, who led the SEC in yards and wins, was never sick at sea on the toughest schedule in the country, and did it all with Fats Domino sleeping in his dorm room besides.

Of course, what they SHOULD have done is let two defense guys come to NY. Just for the effort. AJ Hawk, maybe? Or that Penn State guy who's supposed to be so good.
Or somebody from that Alabama D?

But 3 guys? THOSE three guys? Disgraceful.

INDEX - SPECIAL 'GCGEP' EDITION

VS
(Photos: Dylan Wilson, georgiadogs.com; AP)

AUBURN-GEORGIA '05
VS
"THE GREATEST COLLEGE GAME EVER PLAYED"

THE TEAMS -

2: Undefeated seasons since 1980, THE GREATEST COLLEGE GAME EVER PLAYED participants (Notre Dame 88, USC 04)
3: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia - (UGA 80, Auburn 93, 04)

57-19 (.750): TGCGEP participants, Cumulative record, last three years.
64-15 (.810): Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

3: Consecutive conference titles, TGCGEP participants.
3: Consecutive conference championship game appearances, Auburn-Georgia

108: Auburn-Georgia games.
0: Current SEC teams with more meetings.
1: Difference in series’ all-time point totals

THE GAME -
565: Total passing yards, TGCGEP (2004 Heisman Winner 301, Presumptive
2006 Heisman Winner 264)
586: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia (DJ Shockley 303, Brian Cox 283)

328: Total rushing yards, TGCGEP.
373: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

160: Leading rusher, TGCGEP, (2005 Heisman Winner)
181: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia (Auburn’s Kevin Irons)

61: Length, in yards, of do-or-die, 4th down pass pulled off by visiting team to
set up winning points, TGCGEP.
64: LSame stat, Auburn Georgia.

9: Do-or-die 4th-and-____, TGCGEP
10: Do-or-die 4th-and-____, Auburn-Georgia.

13: Own yardline home team defense stopped Do-or-die passplay on, TGCGEP.
3: Same state, Auburn-Georgia.

7: Seconds left when winning points scored, TGCGEP.
8: Same stat, Auburn-Georgia.

11: Punts, TGCGEP.
11: Punts, Auburn-Georgia.

1: 100-yd receivers, TGCGEP (Dwayne Jarrett, 101)
3: Same stat, Auburn-Georgia (Auburn’s D. Aromashodu, 137; UGA’s
Massaquoi 108 and Leonard Pope, 102)

1: Field goals missed, TGCGEP.
0: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

1: Non-offensive TDs, TGCGEP.
1: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

7: Lead Swaps, TGCGEP.
9: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

3: Winning margin, TGCGEP.
1: Same Stat, Auburn-Georgia.

Average height of grass, Auburn-Georgia, in inches: 1
Average height of grass, TGCGEP in inches: gimme a break….

THE FALLOUT -

3: Number of plays from college games included in that night’s
SportsCenters' “Top 10 Plays of the Day."

1: Number of college football fan-contest gimmicks on “Top 10."

0: Number of UGA-AU plays in “Top 10."

Maybe it was just that we saw “Good Night and Good Luck” last night
after the game, but I find myself uncomfortably drawn to the to the eternal paranoids of the SEC: for once, someone is actually out
to get them.

Take a look around – anyone calling yesterday’s Auburn-Georgia game
the Greatest Game Ever Played? I’ll even take a sighting of an
“among the-“?

Pat Forde at ESPN gave it a ride, but he stopped short of even
comparing it to the Northern Indiana Affair.

And I bring it up only because absolutely EVER’Damn’BODY broke their
thesauraus in a rush to declare the Northern Indiana Affair as the
OU-Nebraska’74 of our time.

And now, a month later, UGA-AU was a better game, no contest.

The defeaning silence is louder than just a media-wide failure to
re-open the all-time Great Games lists. What the highlight shows DID
show us was plenty of LSU-Alabama, which, CBS will confirm, was an SEC
game. OK. That was a close game with – if you squint – slightly more
post-season bearing than UGA-AU. But it was soul-crushingly boring.
Tell the studio guys to ease up. We get it - THEY PLAY GOOD D! But I
know enough to spot two truly hopeless offenses when I see them, and
that was them.

But, of course, Gameday was AT Bama. And the rest of the national
media was either there or at… SC-Cal or something. Possibly watching
a “Bowden Bowl.”

(PS – number of plays it took for me to watch before an FSU QB threw
an interception: 2. Chris Rix, that was for you).

UGA-Auburn got down with Ron Franklin and whoever else stayed up til
11:30 ET to catch it. Which, apparently, was nobody.

How about astericks and caveats? Which game SHOULD have been better? Well, SC would have won by 20 if Dwayne Jarrett had caught ANYTHING prior to That Catch (I counted seven – SEVEN – cold drops). And Leinart had a concussion. And the whole
grass thing (lousy cheaters...).

USC arguably choked in that game, and grabbed it back when ND choked harder. And THAT'S the Greatest Game Ever Played?

Other than that, it was top-tier football.

There are no astericks, caveats or “yeah, buts-“ on UGA-Auburn. Both
teams, with healthy rosters, played flawlessly for every snap, except for UGA's dreary recievers. But that's not a choke - that's an UGA reciever. The Dawgs would
have probably played in two national title games this decade if their
receivers could hang onto key passes in big spots. An UGA drop in the
endzone is not a choke – it’s an UGA receiver earning his scholarship.

I certainly won't pick a winner from among them. It's just
disturbing that no one seems to think it was a race.

Big 10 Calculus (with Quiz!)

Greatest "Third-Best QB in America" of All Time?

12: TD passes for Northwestern's Brett Basanez
1: INTs.

• Nobody else in a Big Conference is remotely close. Way back here, two laps down, in second place is Brian Boehm at Louisville (14 TDs, 3 INTs) or the absurdly-inflated Drew Olsen at UCLA (21-3).
  

311: Basanez's yds/game, 2nd among all major-conference QBs, which is really the same as FIRST among all such QBs cuz Texas Tech's QB is going to actually lead that category, hell or high water, every year so why even count them? (and, to be fair, Basanez is slightly behind ND's Brady Quinn, who's not in a conference).
5: Basanez Rushing TDs
38.8: Basanez rushing yards per game, 5th among major-team QBs.
62: Vince Young rushing yards per game.
50: Percent of Northwestern Big 10 games (2-of-4) in which Basanez has put up 49 points.
99: Points in NU's win over co-Big 10 leader Wisconsin, 51-48.
3: Consecutive wins over once-ranked teams (Ok, that includes Purdue..)

I love Basanez. Classic Warrior QB - never blinks, never misses, never panics. His team has failed him at key moments, but not vica versa. And the Index is delighted to gloat a bit over it's previous notices of Basanez.

Big 10 Calculus (with decimals!)

• (assumption: the following Big 10 'contenders' each "win out" against non-contenders)

1: Magic Number, Penn State - must beat Wisco and it's over - Penn State owns
head-to-head tiebreaks with the other contenders.

1.3: Magic Number, Wisconsin - must beat Penn State, and it's probably over; does not play
Ohio State, so needs EITHER an Ohio State loss (see below) OR to win conference tie-break (that's 3 scenerios, 2 of which UW wins, 1 they don't - +.3)
(Mandatory Index Disclosure: Wisconsin played Temple. Cowards)

2.6: Ohio State - must beat Northwestern (and Michigan(+.3 for difficulty)),
need Penn State to lose and EITHER Wisconsin to lose or win conference
tiebreak (another +.3).

2 - Northwestern - just beat Ohio State and get PSU to lose - simple!

Quiz - Who are these guys?

Kai Ryssdal ("Riz-Dahl")
Scott Jagow
J.J. Yore
John Dimsdale

Is that....
A) The 2005 All Big 10 first team linebackers.
B) The male crew of NPR's Marketplace.

What the Media's not telling you today:

Just How Bad Tennessee Sucks

What that doesn't say - and it's irresponsible not to - is that if the
levees had held, Tennesse would be 2-4, with a bad loss at LSU. Any chance LSU physically
falls apart in the second half of their game if they hadn't spent the
two previous weeks emptying furniture from their apartments so homeless families could sleep on the floors?
Think maybe they missed a few protien shakes?
Think maybe that caught up with the D-line with a field temp of 98 degrees?

We're Number 2.75!

That Bowl System That Shall Not Be Named

I took a long look at BSTSNBN standings. 'Bout as fun as it sounds.

33: Percent of total formula that computers make up - 6 computers
each rank the teams; the highest and lowest ranking for each team gets
dropped; average of the other 4 becomes 1/3 of the BSTSNBN formula.
5: Out of 6, computers that have Texas #1.
5: Ranking, USC, in one computer. 4th in another. But here's the
real key one...
29: Out of a possible 30, (6 computers times 5 slots), Top 5 votes
that went to UT, USC, VT, UGA and Bama.
5: Computers which have 2-loss Auburn UNRANKED.
20, 20, 23, 23, 23, 24: Notre Dame.

What The Media Is Missing Today: It's not OK to roll your eyes and play cool at the
news that UT jumped SC under the "as long as they stay 1-2" pretense.
On its face, that's fine - UT-SC, and all's well that ends well.

But what every single serious commentator should be asking is: "Who's the next Cal?"
The real problem is the less-obvious but more important
jockeying down around the 8-9 slots, which will put one team in the BSTSNBN
for $10 mil, and one team in an off-brand game for maybe $1 mil. Is
someone down the list setting up as the next Cal?"

Index - Best Ever

Best Weekend Ever

(And I'll prove it by not even mentioning You Know Who-beats-You Know
Who-in-You Know What-Color Jersies. If you'd like to know what i think about that game, read that link)
(and just for comparison, here's last year's Best Weekend, which was the best weekend since 2001. And it wasn't even close)

3: Still-undefeated teams that scored the winning points on their
final offensive snap (Alabama at the buzzer, UCLA in OT, and the
Heisman-pile-up in northern Indiana).
4: Still-once-beaten teams that scored the winning points on their
final touch (BC, Wisconsin, West Virginia (3OT), UVA)
2: Additional still-once-beaten teams that won by four or less (LSU,
Oregon State)

18: Games involving Top 25 teams this weekend.
8: Games in which teams came in with a combined two-or-fewer losses.
9: Top 25 games decided in Game Of The Year fashion - in the final
minute, overtime or with some neck-snapping twist of drama.
- BC, down big, scores go-ahead TD on Wake with 1:33 to go
- Wisconsin, down big, scores go-ahead TD on Minnesota on blocked punt
with 30 seconds to go
- UCLA beat WSU in OT
- West Virginia over LVille in 3-OT
- Florida State falls to UVA
- Alabama survives
And the Big Three:
- Penn State-Michigan
- the unimaginable events of Ohio State-Michigan State
- and the Northern Indiana affair

21: Points by which undefeated UCLA trailed Washington State... and
won.
17: Points by which UCLA trailed in the 4th quarter... and won.
2: Undefeated teams suffering their first loss (Penn State, Florida
State)
25: Avg number of seconds remaining in those losses when decisive play
was made (UVA intercepts Weatherford to end FSU's final comeback drive
at 50 seconds (more below); Penn State, well, ya know...)
3.5: Avg margin of defeat.
4: Unbeatens who cruised or sat it out (UGA, VaTech, UT and Texas Tech)
8: Number of real-time minutes it took for the following sequence of
game-deciding events to occur - one-loss Ohio State blocks a field goal
attempt by one-loss Michigan State and runs it back for a TD at the end
of the first half, turning a possible 20-7 halftime into 17-14;
one-loss Wisconsin, trailing by 10 late to one-loss Minnesota, scores a
TD, then blocks a punt for a TD to win; Alabama kicks a game-winning
field goal to win at Mississippi at the buzzer. Eight minutes (the
Index can attest to that time-frame because all three events were
described, live on ESPN radio, during an 8-minute car-ride).
17: Points by which Boston College trailed in the fourth... and won.
9: Points by which BC trailed with 3:29 to go... and won.

BIG PICTURE:
4: Games involving Pac 10 teams decided 3 or less
3: Big 10 games decided by 4 or less, plus Ohio State-Michigan State.
Speaking of which....

BEST WEEKEND EVER, STAT OF THE WEEK
5:25: Time remaining in Ohio State-Michigan State game when Ohio State
ran it's FIRST PLAY ON MSU'S SIDE OF THE FIELD.
Read that again. Now:
21: Points Ohio State had scored to that point, again, without a play
over the 50.
46: MSU Yardline that play was run on.
46: Yards in touchdown pass Ohio State scored on that play. So....
28, 1: Points scored by Ohio State and total snaps on MSU side of
field to do it. And here's how:
2: 50-yard Ohio State TD passes in the second half. And...
10: men on the field for Mich. State on field goal attempt on last
snap of half, allowing Ohio State to block it and run back the ball for
a TD - essentially, the game-winning play, the
Non-Northern-Indiana-Play-of-the-Week. And that coaching gaffe sent
MSU John Smith into a Nick Nolte-meets-Howard-Dean rage. LOVED IT. If
you haven't seen it, go find it. In fact, email me - i've got it on
tape, and i'll figure out how to send it to you.
4: Points in OSU lead, 28-24, with one snap inside the MSU 50.
28: Points OSU had scored to that point, leading 28-24.
4: TOTAL number of OSU offensive snaps on MSU side of the field.

17: In yards, margin of error in Alabama Brody Croyle's estimate of
his own game-winning drive (``We hadn't played well all day, and to go
80 yards to get a simple field goal ... That's what it's all about,''
Croyle said. In fact, the Tide went 63.) That said, a lot was on
display in that game - Alabama's resurgance behind the sublimely named
Croyle, and the first real game for Ed Orugun's Ole Miss - Oregun,
recall, was USC's defensive line coach before leaving this year to take
over Mississippi.
234: Passing yards Ole Miss held Croyle to.
100: Yards rushing for Kevin Darby.
283, 101, 31: Comparable stats and total Alabama points scored in
Florida game (yes, they had Protho in that game).

2: "Dadgums" issued by Florida State coaches/coaching alums this week
in a national setting 1) Bobby Bowden after Virginia's Marques Hagans
led UVA over FSU; ``We couldn't stop that dadgum No. 18."; 2) Mark
Richt, UGA coach and former FSU o-coordinator, discussing with Jim Rome
his experience as Miami's QB, where he was supplanted at starter as a
sophomore by then-freshman Jim Kelly. "That dadgum Jim Kelly. He's
living my life." Mandy couldn't have been happier with that one.
As for comments issued by SEC coaches Mandy had less love for:
0: "Great" teams Lou Holtz sees in the SEC, a comment he decided to
issue aprapos of nothing on Game Day Final. Lou's point - badly
delivered as it was - was that USC, Texas and possibly Va Tech are
playing quite a bit above the next tier of teams in the nation.
However, Lou delivered it as a two-senence chop at the SEC, causing a
napping Mandy to spring back to life on the coach and back up Lou by
affirming that "yeah, we suck so bad we have three teams in the top
ten. Who the Hell does Lou Holtz think he
is?"
2, 30: Number of times Lou said "Notre Dame did not lose" and the
number of seconds he needed to say it.
- and let's just say it: a Trev-less GameDay is a trainwreck.

BEST WEEKEND EVER -VS-VINCE YOUNG
5: TDs accounted for by Vince Young (3 runs, 2 passes) in blowout of
Colorado in a classic trap game.
336: Young passing yards.
2: Minimum number of national writers reported or confessed to have
declared Bush the Heisman winner in the ND press box. Over Vince
Young? Really?
2: Teams remaining on Texas schedule that scored 59 or more this
weekend (Texas Tech 59 and left-for-dead A&M with a holy-crap 62)

Cash Me Out

Cash me out.
I'm rakin' in my chips and pushing back. If, as ol' Kenny said, you
have to know when to hold 'em, fold 'em and when to walk away, then now
is most emphatically the time to run.

28 wins. "I was there." Cash me out. Call me Alan Greenspan cuz
I'm walking away from this irrational exuberance before it swallows my
rationality, my 401K and possibly cardiac health.

Because what could be more irrational than the final 5+ minutes of
that game? If ever USC was Yahoo! at 120, it was the moment Brady
Quinn - so young, alone and unafraid that he looked embarrassed to be
there - trotted out, down by 4 and 85 yards away.

In keeping with any close Notre Dame game, I was desperately
reciting the rosary of Close Calls in the last 2 years and the escape
hatches SC had found each time. Moments that, at the time, felt big.

Though, we know now, they weren't.

There was the 2nd half dominance at Stanford 2 years ago. The way
they kept UCLA at bay in the final game. And Cal, when Aaron Rodgers
couldn't do it all. Last week there was Arizona, a mentally strong
team playing it's biggest game of the decade against a distracted SC;
one-trick but talented ASU the week before; and a lucky and brave, if
overmatched, Oregon the week before that. Hell, there was even VaTech
from 2 season-openers ago, the phantom pass interference and the way SC
capitalized on that sliver of opportunity.

All, in retrospect, were sure-thing, easy wins made dramatic not be the events on the field but
the ever-increasing weight of all the moments before piled on top.

I was madly flipping through those mental index cards - a fumble? A
key sack? Poor clock management and they'll run out of time? - as
Brady Quinn trotted out.

Afterall, hadn't SC just done The SC Thing? March down the field,
late, like the other team was wearing high heels? (nice grass, by the
way - we'll get to that).

And with all those thoughts, I was absolutely sure Brady Quinn was
going to- well, do what he did.

Drive ND down the field. mechanically, with trickery, smarts and
talent, take the lead and smoke off just enough clock to end the game.

And he did. Almost.

Three minutes later he made one mistake -
on a first-down inside the 30, he handed off to Walker, who gained
almost 20 yards, nearly scoring right there and insuring ND was going
to get in with about 2 minutes left, which they did.

(well, sort of - they gave Quinn the TD on a scramble where his
knees sure looked down at the 3 - NBC, house-organ to the end, never
replayed the decisive angle).

Only, thanks to that big gain, he did it with 2:04 left.

Door slightly open. Well, more like not double-bolted.

But out trotted Leinart and Bush and White and the rest, and they
looked beat. Slow, heads tilted almost imperceptably but vitally down.
NDs defense met at midfield. They looked smaller - they were - but
more alert and hungrier. They had only to play out the inevitable and
that would be it.

Then that sack. Third and 19. Hardly a whimper.

Underneath to Reggie, two jukes and dropped.

4th and 8. 4th and forever. 4th and 27-wins. 4th and the those
cheap-gimmick jersies. 4th and the whole unbearable, hometown-honk NBC
storyline.

Time out. the last time out. Oh, get it over with...

To the line. Leinart waves his arms - an audible? You mean they
blew the timeout to salvage their whole season and he STILL thinks he's
so smart that he's gonna call a- HE CAUGHT IT! HE'S RUNNING! ANY FLAGS? NO FLAGS! STILL RUNNING! TOUCHD- tackled at the 10! Ok, fine, tackled at the 10, i mean, that's
good, right? it still counts, right? he, he, he- AT THE 10!

(here it comes, an oldy but goody, and if Dan Jenkins ever had a
moment in mind when he put it in the playbook, this is it:)

AND HOLY SHIT, BESIDES!

So now they're at the 10. The market held. Hoth held. Impossible
held.

Fortunately somebody - certainly not me - was aware that SC still
had to, ya know, score the requisite points to exceed Notre Dame's
total score. It was a requirement - trivial as it seemed - that could
not be waved.

And they had a minute to do it.

Reggie run. Nope. Less than a minute.

Clocks running here - do we need a FG? They're gonna pass, right?
I mean, I know it's all just a matter of semantics now, getting the
points and flying off into history, but they actually HAVE TO DO IT so-
Leinart, keeper, SMASHES into three guys in the corner, lands in the
endzone - Touchdown!!!

No? Down at the- seven seconds left!!! We can't los- wait, he HAD
to get in- this can-

And we lost. Right there, on the no-inch(sic) line, on the last
desperate dive, on the shoulders of the defending Heisman winner, in a flurry of
confusion and fear, we lost.

And, after 15 seconds, I was feeling good - boots on, blaze of glory. We would have
the dignity of falling to the sword of desperation and effort, not on the
tip on an NBC script, and that, for me was going to be enough.

Oh well. We lost.

And then, impossibly, we didn't.

Fumble out of bounds.

Not, vitally, a fumble THROUGH the endzone, which would have been a
touchback and the ballgame, but an honest fumble out of bounds, to,
preposterously, stop the clock.

It even looked - and here's the kicker - totally accidental.

Luck? Hey ND, you can complain as soon as you stop somebody on 4th down and CUT YOUR GRASS!!! Maybe next time, Lucky Shirts. Until then, no complaints entertained.

Camera shows Carroll - spike it! Spike it! Translation: field
goal and overtime. Of course. What ELSE could you do?
Unless that's a fake. Or unless Matt and Reggie and the 11 guys out
there living this absurd moment decide to ride one more crest.

Snap. Push. Not in. Not even close. Roll right. Second surge.

Over, maybe- maybe-

Ref throws up his arms.

Leinart did it.

He limps and lunges to the sideline, alone and unafraid, and totally
empty. Two teammates carry him from the scene. He can't even stand.
They follow him to the bench. His teammates swarm him, he shrugs them
off. In the densest, brightest stadium on earth, he finds a quiet spot on the
bench and the hero of the moment - the man who led the drive, who made
the throw, who made the call, who made the dive, who won the day -
drops his head in hands and appears to start crying.

I've been saying all year there was too much between SC and the
finish line to pull it off - too much Pac 10, too many ND and Fresno,
too many chances to not win 32 straight.

I still thinks so. Now more than ever. I wrote a year ago that, to
build a 10 point lead on USC, Stanford cashed in 11 years of good
luck in 30 minutes: a once-a-year play (fake punt for TD) and once a
decade play (70 yard belly-run on last play of the half). They had no
more luck to trade away, which made SC's 2nd half comeback inevitable.
USC, winners of 28 in a row, 2-time national champs, with the last
Heisman winner and the but-for-Vince-Young next Heisman winner in the
backfield, has no more luck to trade away.

Legacy? They won, in a gaudy blowout, the 'Heaviest' game of all time - the
first-ever dueling Heisman winners, in a 1-vs-2 Orange Bowl showdown.
But that was no legacy. Too easy, and what was worth remembering,
Ashley Simpson ruined. In a way, they were cheated.
In fact, prior to last night, they had a shootout with surface-of-mercury-hot QB in Aaron Rodgers, and that was it.

Not anymore - now they've stared down Notre Dame in the only game Notre Dame will ever
have to beat the best USC team of all time, to break the streak, to do it
in South Bend, to grow the playbook and the grass for 2 weeks, to
wear the 'undefeated' jersies, yada yada yada.

Charlie Wiess could win three national titles, but he'll never be remembered more vividly for another moment.

Nothing more you can ask of a season or a team.

Now I'm gonna watch UT and stop trying to think of phony reasons that SC would stop Vince
Young. Now I get to watch UGA-Florida with Mandy and not worry about
secretly scouting their secondary. Now I get to find the next
Furman-Appalachian State crazy-finish on obscure cable and brag about
having seen it.
I'm gonna check into this Wisconsin offense, this Ohio State D and
this Penn State everything. And hey! Didn't you used to be Alabama?!?
How'ya'mom'n'dems?

Come to think of it, this might have been the greatest
college game of all time but this SURELY was the greatest football
Saturday that ever was. The Big 10 played 5 games and they all came down to the final snap. Same with Alabama. And UCLA/WSU. And West Virginia/Louisville. And UVA/Florida State.

And I pretty much missed it cuz of this whole
streak/jersies/legacy/7-inch-turf thing.

No more.

If SC loses out from here - even to Fresno St. (lousy Freedom
Bowl....) - my smile won't fade a shade (yes, even UCLA - i'll take a
loss there. It's time for that game to mean something again, and unlike ND, USC is the only road home for UCLA).

I wrote an essay two years ago - the night Carson beat ND, the night
the run truly began - where i asked for a moment of forgiveness while i
looked around and admired the view from the up here, cuz i'd never been
so high up the mountain.

Well, here's the top. Let me off. No more admiring the view - time
to head back to the lodge.

Good luck with Cal and UCLA and whoever you end up with in a bowl. I hope you win'em all (and I hope you don't get Texas, for your sake,
or Georgia, for mine). I hope you end up #1, three in a row. After that, you deserve it.

But cash me out.

matt

ps - got UGA-Vandy on in the background as I type this. Somebody from
Vandy is from Howey-in-the-Hills, FL. See? Now I get to pay attention
to more shit like that.

Texas-OU and others

Considering that streaks of all kinds were the hot topics this week -
OU's 5 over UT, SC's 27-and-counting with streak-breaker ND looming -
let's start with THE Streak and some fantastic trivia about it the
Index just stumbled across:

Streak Shots

47: In games, NCAA-record OU win streak, accomplished
under legendary coach Bud Wilkinson.

37: In years, length of Wilkinson's first marriage before divorce.

27: Age of woman he married within a year.

17: Years Wilkinson was at OU.

0: Wilkinson home games during which it rained.

100: Percent of OU home games I've attended where it did (1/1).

As They Say On Hoth, "Here They Come."

299: Yards accounted for by UCLA's Maurice Drew in 47-41(!) win over
Cal.

162: Drew punt return yardage.

65: Drew rushing yards.

52: Drew recieving yards.

20: Drew kickoff return yards.

135: Minimum rushing yards, each, for Cal's top 2 runners.

7:48: Time remaining in game when UCLA trailed 41-24.

- UCLA isn't demonstratably "better" than SC. But the trend lines are
sure starting to bend their way, huh?

As They Say In That Diet Coke Ad, "Dance All Night To
This DJ"

286: Yards accounted for by presumptive-Heisman
winner Vince Young in as-suspected-mismatch over unranked Oklahoma,
45-12.

258: Yards accounted for by presumptive-liability DJ Shockley in
unanticipated-mismatch over No. 8 Tennessee, at Tennessee, 27-14.

27: Passing attempts for both QBs.

51.85: VY completion percentage.

59.25: DJ completion percentage.

70: Avg. Length of VY-led UT scoring drives.

73.5: Avg. Length of DJ-led UGA scoring drives.

(66.5: Avg. Length of VY-led UT scoring drives if you don't count the
1- and 2-play "Where'd-Who-Go?" busted play strikes in the second
quarter. Not Vince's fault OU can't tackle a running back dive - but
then, not exactly a resume bullet, either).

73: Yards in UGA's nail-it-in, fourth quarter scoring drive to go up
by 3 TDs.

9: Plays in drive - all runs by freshman T. brown.

30: Seconds remaining in first half when UGA's huge tight end Justin
Pope caught a DJ pass inside the 1yardline but failed to get in on
third down, with no timeouts left.

0: Seconds remaining when kicker brandon Coutu's field goal sailed
through after UGA successfully executed a clock-running field-goal
line-up. Pope was ruled down on about the 1-inch line - the REAL call
would have been to have DJ line everybody up real fast and take it in
on an unsettled sneak. But it was a terrific bit of hustle,
co-ordination and discipline to get that kick off.

1,1: Length in yards and plays of Tennessee's only scoring drive
prior to final two minutes - a QB dive after an INT return to the UGA
1.

0: Seconds remaining in game when Tennessee scored it's second TD,
which is to say: don't let the score fool ya - UGA tore Tennessee
apart. In the two-tier list of unbeatens - SC and Contenders, Florida
State and Pretenders - DO NOT talk yourself into thinking UGA is in
the latter.

Big 10^2

99: Points scored by Northwestern and Wisconsin.... WHAT?

98: Total points in week 1 Wisconsin-Bowling Green game.

27: Total points at the half (17-10 UW)

41: Northwestern second-half points.

77: Completion percentage for losing QB, John Stocco, Wisconsin.

72: Comp. percent for Brett Basanez, NU.

244: Rushing yards for NU freshman Tyrell Sutton.

674: NU total offense (school record).

250: yards accounted for by UW's Brian Calhoun, 122 rushing and 128
receiving - first UW player ever to get 100+ in both categories in a
game.

4: TD receptions by UW's Jonathon Orr.

16: Kicks attempted - 13 PATs, 3 Fgs

15: Kicks made - NU's kicker missed one PAT.

I'm Learning Excel

Points per game per team by conference

26.19: SEC (Miss St 14.1, worst in BCS)

26.7: ACC

27.75: Big East

30.71: Big 12

32.67: Big 10

34.69: Pac 10

Hello, operator? Connect me with the police. Somebody stole the Big
10!

(With thanks to the Rabbi)

<bold><bigger>Dwindling Cast

</bigger></bold>9: Unbeatens - SC, UT, VaTech, FSU, Bama, UGA, Texas
Tech, UCLA, PSU.

2: Weeks until we can seriously consider what-ifs, but let's take a
preview, shall we?

5: Maximum which could be unbeaten for the bowls - each of the above
teams except Penn State must face another of the unbeaten teams by
season's end (SC-UCLA and UT-TT; VaTech-FSU and UGA-Bama in conference
championships).

Major Hurdles
(excluding Conf. Title
Games)

4: Penn State (Michigan, Purdue, Wisc- oh, forget it. Great year for
Paterno, but not that great).

3: SC (ND, Cal, UCLA), Bama (Tennessee, LSU, Auburn), UCLA (Oregon
St., ASU, SC)

2: FSU (Clemson, Florida), UGA (Florida, Auburn), TT (UT, OU)

1: VaTech (Miami)

0.5: UT (Greg Davis)