Season Finale

National Overview

I apologize for not getting this out sooner. The distraction of the NFL playoffs, combined with all the comings and goings of coaches in the college game, necessitated that I wait before finishing my final post of the year. And what a year it was... as long as we're talking about the regular season.

Unfortunately, the 2009 college football season was doomed to the same fate as the NFL's Arizona-Green Bay Wild Card matchup: thrilling throughout regulation, only to end with a resounding thud. This year's bowls were among the worst, if not the worst, I can ever recall. Thank goodness for Idaho and Bowling Green - without the Humanitarian Bowl, fans may have lost hope completely. There were an appalling number of bad games in succession, and the only good contests were the ones involving mediocre teams (see Idaho-Bowling Green or Minnesota-Iowa State). Then, to top off this distasteful bowl sundae, fans were rewarded with a rotten maraschino in the national championship game after Colt McCoy was injured. Not good.

The clear winner of the whole affair was the Big 10, which responded to three years of mediocrity and bowl beatdowns by unleashing a bit of revenge on its opponents. Ohio State finally got off the schnied with their win over Oregon, Penn State shut up LSU, Iowa handled Georgia Tech and Wisconsin physically overpowered Miami (FL). It was exactly what the conference desperately needed - big wins by the league's best teams.

On the other hand, the Pac-10 was the obvious loser. After looking so powerful for much of the season, the West Coast's best went just 2-5, and only Stanford's loss was by any means permissible (due to the loss of their quarterback). Arizona's performance in particular was pitiful, almost certainly the worst of any team in postseason play. The conference will likely be damaged considerably by this exhibition when the polls come out next year.

The most disappointing thing, though - outside of the Texas-Alabama flop - was the Fiesta Bowl. Both Boise State and TCU had a chance (TCU especially) to make a case for a split national championship if they blew out their opponent. Instead, the teams proved that they were each other's best competition all year, and in doing so doomed themselves to second-tier status. This will only give critics of mid-majors more ammunition in arguing for their exclusion from BCS contention.

Final Rankings

I ranked the teams at season's end based on their full season of work, but placed emphasis on the second half of the year and their bowl performance. My final poll is as follows:

1) Alabama

Undisputed, perhaps, though we'll really never know if the Tide deserved to win it all because of how the championship game unfolded. Do they still beat the Longhorns if Colt McCoy plays? Unfortunately for Texas, that question will never be answered. However, Alabama did play well enough this season to be crowed number one.

2) Boise State

Although their dominant offense got exposed a little against TCU, the Broncos defense was clearly for real. After such an extended period of dominance, you have to give BSU their due. That's why I gave them the nod at second.

3) Florida

The Gators responded well to their SEC-title game humiliation by pounding overrated Cincy into the turf. Their only loss came to the top team in the country and they certainly earned this spot with the way they finished. However, that doesn't give them an argument over an undefeated Boise State team.

4) TCU

Despite their Fiesta Bowl meltdown, the Horned Frogs still had a very good season and probably could have beaten anyone in the country. After the victories they posted over BCS and non-BCS powers alike, I'm inclined to give TCU the benefit of the doubt in the rankings.

5) Texas

Horns fans will forever remember the missed opportunity that was the 2010 title game. Heck, if Garrett Gilbert could throw multiple picks and keep Texas in the game, what could McCoy have done? The second championship in four years just wasn't meant to be, though.

6) Ohio State

A very impressive showing against the Ducks, and suddenly Ohio State is worthy of national praise again. I'm not convinced at all that Terrelle Pryor is, or ever will be a great quarterback, but he can definitely draw confidence from his Rose Bowl performance. OSU will likely enter next season in the top three.

7) BYU

No, Oregon State didn't want to be there, but that's no excuse. The Cougars whipped the Beavers pretty badly in the Vegas Bowl and very well could have been playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl if not for the mid-season nightmare loss to TCU. They beat Oklahoma at (nearly) full strength and knocked off Utah too. That's a solid year.

8) Virginia Tech

Tech finally flexed a little against overmatched Tennessee, proving they were just shy of elite yet again. They lost a close game to Georgia Tech, but otherwise would have been in the Orange Bowl for the third straight year. The Hokies' success next season will likely depend on the maturation of Tyrod Taylor once more.

9) Oregon

The Ducks finished their season on a very disappointing note, but still won the Pac-10 for the first time in nearly a decade. They return all but three starters next season and should be primed for another run. The question is, will they get any respect after the way the Pac-10 played this postseason?

10) Penn State

I really don't see Penn State as an elite team and their victory over similarly overrated LSU doesn't legitimize them. It's true that I have the Nittany Lions ahead of the Iowa team that beat them early on; that's because PSU would win if the game was played again.

11) Cincinnati

Good, but clearly not good enough to join any championship discussion. I was expecting a blowout after the Brian Kelly desertion from an amped-up, embarrassed Florida team, but that Sugar Bowl was ridiculous. The Big East, after seemingly working its way back to respectability, will once again go into the offseason facing questions about its BCS status.

12) Iowa

Let's make one thing clear: the defense was for real. The offense, on the other hand, was just really ugly. Iowa won way too many lucky, close games to be considered a top-10 team, regardless of how well they played in the Orange Bowl. It doesn't help the Hawkeyes' cause that it is apparently a simple chore to shut down Georgia Tech in a bowl game.

13) Nebraska

If Iowa's defense was stout, then Nebraska's was an iron wall. The Cornhuskers absolutely annihilated Arizona in the Holiday Bowl, holding the high-flying Wildcats to 109 yards and zero points in a 33-point humiliation. Was the defense great because of the coaching or because of Ndamukong Suh, though? If it was the latter, expect Nebraska to come back down to earth next season.

14) Georgia Tech

Those great regular seasons the Yellow Jackets keep having aren't going to mean anything if they can't come up with some postseason success. The flexbone seems to have replaced the spread as the funky offense that can't be stopped in the regular season but is rendered ineffective when teams have time to learn how to defend it.

15) Wisconsin

After a mostly mediocre string of regular seasons, the Badgers came up big in their win over Miami (FL). Turns out the power game can still work in college football, huh? For Wisconsin to have continued success, though, they've got to finally find a quarterback that can throw a forward pass.

16) Pittsburgh

It would have been easy for the Panthers to fold up after their heartbreaking loss to Cincinnati at the end of the season. I'm impressed in how they battled to beat North Carolina, and the team is stacked for the foreseeable future. Look out for Pitt next season.

17) Utah

After falling into an early hole versus Cal, the Utes continued the Pac-10's misery against the Mountain West. The conference is on the verge of deserving an automatic BCS berth; with more performances like that one, it could potentially happen as soon as 2011. Utah's regular season was underwhelming after their perfect 2008, but they have the talent to rebound next year if they play like they did in the Poinsettia Bowl.

18) Miami (FL)

In 2009, there was good Miami and bad Miami, and bad Miami showed up for the Champs Sports Bowl. I have no doubt that a clicking 'Canes squad could have blown out Wisconsin, but they did very little to prove it against the Badgers. After watching this team fold mentally, I'm starting to wonder if they have the mettle to realize their potential next season.

19) USC

An ugly season concluded with a cathartic win over Boston College in the Emerald Bowl, but 2009 results are the least of the Trojans' worries now. New coach Lane Kiffin has planet-sized shoes to fill and nothing he has done in his short career to this point suggests that he's at all ready for job. Toss in the possibility of NCAA sanctions, and you've got a USC fan's worst nightmare.

20) Clemson

It wasn't exactly pretty, but Clemson did come out with a win over Kentucky to finish the season strong. Of course, the post-C.J. Spiller era won't be easy to transition to, but Clemson should be in better shape than it was under former coach Tommy Bowden.

21) Central Michigan

12-2 isn't bad at all. Although CMU would have been clobbered by some of the better top 25 teams, they definitely could have surprised some others. Their gutsy win at Michigan State demonstrated that the Chippewas could play with a lot of teams this year.

22) LSU

I wasn't impressed with the Tigers all year, and my lack of faith was rewarded when they petered out against Penn State. Although they had a lot of talent, it's just not easy to win when you have bad quarterback play, as LSU found out. Like Wisconsin, the Tigers need to find a good signal-caller in the future.

23) Texas Tech

The Mike Leach drama aside, Texas Tech did a great job of focusing and finishing strong in what could be their last good season for a long time. That's no exaggeration, as I'll discuss later. But nine wins isn't bad considering how much the team lost last year.

24) Navy

Another successful year for the Midshipmen, who continued their use of the flexbone to great effect. The bowl beatdown of Missouri was outstanding, and Ken Niumatalolo is the perfect coach for this team. I hope they can keep him there longer than they did Paul Johnson.

25) Oregon State

The Beavers were saved the humiliation of being the worst Pac-10 team of the bowl season thanks to Arizona, but there was nothing good about the shellacking they received courtesy of BYU. For a team that has conference championship aspirations, that was a step in the wrong direction.

Offseason News and Thoughts

Wow, did a lot of crazy stuff happen in the college football universe the last few weeks or what? With Signing Day just ahead it appears half of the teams in the country have gone insane, firing a coach, seeing a player arrested, or watching as their dynasty comes crumbling down around them (looking at you, USC).

Notre Dame and Brian Kelly got the ball rolling before the season even ended, as the Fighting Irish snagged the former Cincy coach with the classic lure of prestige and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of money. You can't blame Kelly for wanting to take the so-called "dream job," but you can blame him for walking out on his players before the biggest game in their program's history. And you thought Nick Saban was a weasel. Yeesh.

Speaking of Saban, no, he didn't jump schools again (but don't hold your breath, it's early), but he did manage to prove once and for all just how classless he is by running up the score on a toothless Texas team devastated by the loss of their quarterback. Saban is a brilliant recruiter and a very good coach, but the truth is that he'll always only be loved by his current employer, because he leaves a trail of misery whenever he switches jobs (which has proven to be often).

Then there was the bizarre Urban Meyer saga, when the Florida coach mysteriously announced that he was retiring for his health and then reversed course one day later after a spirited practice session apparently convinced him that football success is more important that success at staying alive. The game of college football is better with Meyer on the sideline, there's no doubt about that. But why would he want to put his life on the line for something as trivial (in the grand scheme of things) as football? Coach, it's okay to take a few years off for your health. You'll always be welcomed back to Florida with open arms. It's a lot tougher to run your body into the ground and then spend your golden years in a wheelchair. Meyer shouldn't have let the emotion of his players change his mind. He said himself that he needed to reevaluate his priorities; putting football before his health is a mistake.

The biggest coaching shakeup was at USC, though, where Pete Carroll turned tail and ran to the NFL (to Seattle, of all places). If the writing wasn't on the wall with the way the team performed this season, then it's certainly plastered on there in ten-foot neon letters now: the dynasty is over. Everyone knew the Trojans remarkable dominance would eventually come to an end, but no one thought it would come so abruptly and so meekly. USC fielded its least talented team in nearly a decade in 2009 and didn't offer much hope for the future. With the NCAA breathing down the administration's neck as well, it's clear that the glory days have ended.

Of course, USC then went out and made the worst hiring of the year in Lane Kiffin, a decision that still has people scratching their heads. Kiffin has proved nothing as a coach at any level, getting fired in less than two years with the Raiders and than piling up a 7-6 record at Tennessee this season. With his rants, verbal sparring matches with other coaches and outright lies about opposing programs, what makes him a good fit for any school? When Kiffin was fired by Al Davis, everyone assumed it was just another "Crazy Al" moment. Now Kiffin has done the unthinkable: actually making Davis look sane. It's unbelievable that USC would want him. Some people have suggested Kiffin is being hired as a fall guy to take the blame when the NCAA imposes sanctions on the program for the blatant rule violations of the past several years. I hope that's not the case because it's not a good way to run a program, but it wouldn't be any less than Kiffin deserves.

In the aftermath of the Kiffin desertion, Tennessee had to cope with the shock of searching for their second new coach of the last year. Although I thought pushing former coach Phil Fulmer out was a good idea at the time, I had to smile when I heard the school had offered Fulmer the job back. How does that taste, boosters? Fulmer, of course, embarrassed the school even further when he turned them down. Showing up the people who unceremoniously ran him out had to make him feel good. Of course, Tennessee then made the second-most boneheaded coaching decision of the year by panicking and hiring Louisiana Tech's Derek Dooley. Really? A 17-20 record in three seasons in the worst conference in America and that's the reward? What's the deal with fast-tracking mediocre coaches to stardom? Dooley is the son of the great Georgia coach Vince Dooley, so I guess UT was trying to get lucky with a guy who has football pedigree. But right now it just looks like a foolish hire.

Despite all these wild goings-on, though, the most shocking story in the sport revolved around now-former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach and his alleged mistreatment of a player. This nasty situation is on the verge of becoming even uglier now that Leach has been cleared to go ahead with his defamation lawsuit against the school. The university has accepted the story that Leach abused Red Raiders receiver Adam James - son of ESPN analyst and former SMU running back Craig James - by forcing him to spend time in an "electrical closet" and a "shed" when James exhibited a lazy attitude about practice after sustaining a concussion. However, Leach has argued rather convincingly that the areas he placed James in were nothing like the dungeons the player made them out to be.

Further complicating the situation was the story's initial coverage by ESPN, which was nothing short of grade-F journalism. The network reported James' side of the story constantly while never commenting on Leach's rebuttal. ESPN even went to far as to run a quote from another player attacking Leach, but failed to mention the large number of former and current players and assistants who stood by the coach's story. This kind of coverage could easily have influenced public opinion on Leach, which is of course what his lawsuit is all about. All in all, it was the kind of sordid tale that reflects very poorly on the sport and culture of college football.

I don't know all of the facts in the spat - no one does. But I do find it suspicious that James and his father lobbied Leach for more playing time and then asked to transfer to another school (which was refused) before launching this attack on the coach. From video released of the locations James was placed in, I can't say that I see what the problem is. Both are spacious and certainly not the "shed" and "closet" originally reported by the media. Add in the fact that so many people came to Leach's defense, and I feel very uncomfortable with the whole affair. Regardless of who is telling the truth here, though, it has to be said that Texas Tech's run as a player in the Big 12 is over. Leach put the Red Raiders on the map, and they'll be unable to compete with the powerhouses in their division now that such an important figurehead has left the program.

Final Reflections

While it was a disappointing bowl season, it was still another magical year for college football. The emergence of true parity for perhaps the very first time in the sport has electrified an already fascinating game. The traditional powerhouses have almost completely been eradicated and there's no doubt that the old status quo has been eliminated. Mid-majors are upsetting top-tier teams on a weekly basis, recruiting has never been more even and minority coaches are even making a little headway. It's a great time to be a college football fan. 2009 was an appropriately outstanding season, and I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us. I'll be back with periodic updates throughout the offseason, then I'll kick into gear once summer starts. Many thanks to all those who read my blog and/or talked to me about it. I hope to entertain and inform you again next year.