Week 14: College Football Review

The regular season is over and wacky bowl season is about to start. To avoid the normal recency affect that so dominates college football I've decided that this week to review the season that was in college football.

Pac 10

Surprise: Stanford - picked next to last and finished in 2nd
Disappointment: USC - their reign of terror ended with a thud
Player of the Year: Toby Geirhart - RB Stanford from out of nowhere

Big 12

Surprise - K-State. The return of coach Bill Snyder moved them from last to respectability
Disappointment: Oklahoma - In many ways a mirror image of USC. Yes Bradford was injured but if he had left like Sanchez had would there season have been any different?
Player of the Year – Ndamukong Suh- The star DT for the ‘Huskers. Colt didn’t exactly show up against average team while Suh anchored a team than came within a second of winning the Big 12 thanks in no small part to his 4.5 sacks.

ACC

Surprise – Boston College – Expected to finish near the bottom, certainly after they lost their star LB to cancer BC somehow finished the year 5-2 in the ACC
Disappointment – Florida State – Picked to finished first in the Atlantic Division FSU stumbled so badly they needed to fire Bobby Bowden
Player of the Year – CJ Spiller – Short of also coaching the team there’s nothing more this running back/returner/athletic trainer could have done to help Clemson win the ACC

SEC

Surprise: Auburn – Auburn seemed at low ebb after a terrible season and then hiring an ex-Iowa State coach who had only slightly more wins than I have. However Auburn finished with respectability and gave Alabama far more of a game than Florida did.
Disappointment: Ole Miss – Given all of the hype and expectations to finish basically exactly where they did last year (Cotton Bowl) is a disappointment.
Player of the Year : Rolando McClain – The middle linebacker for Alabama was the heart and soul of the most dominating defense in college football.

Big 10

Surprise: After thinking long and hard I’m going with Northwestern. Picked to finish at the bottom of the Big 10, Northwestern went 5-3 and was selected to the better bowl over Wisconsin (Outback).
Disappointment: There’s really two: Illinois and Michigan. Both were expected to be around .500 and both finished near the bottom of the Big 10. Yes Illinois had a more veteran team than Michigan but they also finished with a better record – which makes them equal disappointments.
Player of the Year: Kurt Coleman. Safety for tOSU. The team MVP, the defensive MVP, the senior leader. Ohio State won the conference by defense so Coleman deserves the accolades.

Barry Sanders Player of the Year Award

Since the Heisman Trophy has largely evolved into the award for the most prominent quarterback or running back in the national championship game I’ve decided to start my own trophy for the best player in college football. This year that award goes to Ndamukong Suh. For a defensive tackle to lead one of the better defenses is impressive. However Suh put up Barry Sanders type crazy numbers. I mean a defensive tackle with 82 tackles, 23 tackles for losses 12 sacks, 1 INT and 3 blocked kicks is ridiculous. He gets the first annual Barry Sanders Player of the Year Award.