Most Important/Most Disappointing: The moment Colt McCoy headed to the locker room the BCS Championship Game was over. I doubt UT could have won with him but they never had a shot without him. The victory means another year of SEC is the best ever proclamations and more fuel for what's seemingly an unstoppable combination of hype, money, and demographics. The bigger question is does Alabama's win propel them to control the SEC or will the rotation of SEC Champs routine. If I was to guess my answer is yes. Saban still doesn't have a full 4 years of recruiting and the Roll Tide don't lose anyone of importance on the offensive side. Begin your countdown to who plays 'Bama in next year's BCS Championship game.
Most Enjoyable: Of course I'm biased but tOSU winning and winningly definitively over Oregon. After all the Big 10 and tOSU bashing winning the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1997 was sweet. Oh so sweet....
Craziest Bowl : Easily goes to Northwestern's loss to Auburn. Over a thousand yards of offense, tons of turnovers, lots of points, overtime, and the game ending in a fake field goal.
Worst Bowl: The Cotton Bowl....two teams that were among the most disappointing all season (Ok State and Ole Miss) put together a boring and sloppy. 12 turnovers simply isn't enjoyable.
Most Prophetic: A stout defense shutting down a high powered offense. Nebraska's victory over Arizona perfectly predicted OSU's romp over Oregon (or Iowa's win over G-Tech).
Worst Field Conditions: Outside of maybe Heinz Field I don't think I've ever seen as bad field as I did during Penn State's v. LSU's game. It was like a bombed out swamp. Can I blame Disney?
Biggest Surprise: This one is a tie between FSU over West Virginia and V-Tech over Tennessee. Florida State was only in the Gator Bowl because of Bowden so the theory going in was West Virginia should win. They didn't. I expected Monte Kiffin with an entire month to slow down V-Tech. V-Tech not only won but but routed them by putting up 33. Didn't see that coming...
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I have only a few thoughts on last night's game, which is the only bowl game of which I watched more than 10 minutes:
- I suspect that the story of the game will not be Bama's victory but McCoy's injury. That's almost unfair to the Tide - they had a terrific season and are a terrific team. But you're right, Mikey - Texas never really had a shot once McCoy went down.
- I feel really bad for McCoy. He had a great four years and led his team where every college player dreams of going...and then, bam, like that, he's on the sidelines.
- What a great, gritty performance by Texas, and by Garrett Gilbert in particular. Those guys should hold their heads high today - they came awfully close to shocking all of us. Further, Kirk Herbstreit pointed out in the waning moments, last night could go a long way toward Gilbert's development into the next great Texas QB. His high school resume is stellar, and now he's already got big-game experience.
Mighty, I agree with your Bowl Season awards.
In response to Hitman's/Herbstreit's observation regarding Garrett Gilbert's development...I think that's silly. He's going to be a rookie QB next season and playing last night's game doesn't change that. His talent will dictate how he and Texas perform next year, not 60 minutes of football eight months in advance of when his career truly begins. That's mainstream media simplistic garbage.
Finally, Jevan Snead is coming out for the NFL draft. Given how horrendous he was this year and how disappointing Ole Miss was this year, why on earth does he think this is a good idea? I won't say he's the worst college QB I've ever seen but, considering the hype and the fact that he comes from a major conference, he's definitely not impressive.
I was really impressed with the amount of fight Texas had with their backup QB. Not many 18-year olds get thrown in the fire like that, so it was very interesting. It's too bad Texas gave up that TD at the end of the 1st half.
Anyways, great awards... that field at Heinz field was so awful I had to turn off the game!
Also... go Big 10!
Seriously? You really think that playing 60 minutes on college football's biggest stage against college football's best team WON'T help Gilbert's development? That strikes me as illogical.
I'm not saying that Gilbert will all of a sudden be a great college QB just because he played last night. Obviously, if the raw talent isn't there, no amount of game experience can help him break through that ceiling. But it has to be good for a young football player to get experience, especially in the environment of the title game. It also has to be good for his confidence - which is of greater importance for an impressionable 18-year-old than a professional.
I understand a debate about how much last night will matter. I don't understand a debate about if last night will matter. Of course it will.
Who he played against ('Bama) and the context of the game (National Championship) is irrelevant. Experience is experience and all experience has a certain amount of value but one game isn't a big deal. Terrelle Pryor played half the season as a true freshman and Ryan Mallett played just about the whole year as a true freshman. Experience matters but Herbstreit is making a big deal about how this one game will kick start his career. He's still a rookie and that means he'll still suck as all rookies do.
If he had played Alabama in Septmeber of 2010 in his first game, would we say that this was a great head start on his career?
Too much is being made of the fact that he played a game he wasn't expected to play in and how playing unexpectedly will mean he's not green next year. Of course he'll still be green. He's never started a game! It doesn't matter who he played or where he played, it only matters that he has only attempted 66 passes as a collegiate player. The 40 he threw last night aren't more important than the 26 he had thrown prior...it all amounts to the same thing.
Mainstream media garbage. Over-rating the meaning of a college football game and the quality of an opponent.
Nobody's saying he's now an "experienced" QB, or that he won't still be green, or that he'll be good next year solely because of last night. I don't know where you're getting those notions from. The argument is simply that it has got to be a good thing for Gilbert's development to play as well as he did on the biggest stage in college football.
To those ends: surely it's a more important game for Gilbert than, say, having his first significant game experience in September 2010 against North Texas. So who he played against, and the context of the game, are absolutely relevant. Again, we can argue the weight of that relevance, but I'm hearing you argue that last night was relatively meaningless for Gilbert, and that just doesn't make sense to me.
You heard me right, last night was no more meaningful than any other game. Beyond saying that any experience is good experience, I'm not buying that the opponent or the context matters that much.
Terrelle Pryor's first game experience was vs. USC in 2008. He still sucked for 14 months thereafter and I didn't see any evidence that his game vs. USC in his freshman year made any difference.
Overrating context/opponents is the realm of the national media that can't understand that this shit just doesn't matter.
You're free to think otherwise -- makes no difference -- but Herbstreit's claim cannot be proven and make it a habit not to buy into claims made by members of the sports media that cannot be proven.
That last paragraph should read:
"You're free to think otherwise -- makes no difference -- but Herbstreit's claim cannot be proven and I make it a habit not to buy into claims made by members of the sports media that cannot be proven."
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