Back Corner Fade

I guess we should be excited. The regular season is over, we won 9 games, and have a New Year’s Day match-up with the LSU Tigers. Things really could be worse. Still, even after the smoke settled from the melt down in Palo Alto, it still stings. It would be so much nicer to be looking forward to a NYD 6 game as opposed to the Citrus Bowl.

The situation is what it is. Now, go out and get better in the practice sessions, clean some stuff up, and get that 10th win against an SEC school (a league better than the NFC East, don’t you know.)

What a way to close up shop on the regular season this past weekend in the conference championship games. Here’s what we learned:

• I thought Georgia would give Auburn a better game, but I didn’t think they could beat them, and sure as well didn’t think they would run roughshod on them. Georgia was the better team on both sides of the ball, and you could tell Auburn was just not there. That’s what happens when you play the #1 team in the country two out of three weeks then have to come back and play a great team for the league title. I think someone called that, wait for it, “mental fatigue.”
• UCF and Memphis blew up the 80 point over/under with the Knights outlasting the Tigers in OT. It took Frosty the Husker a solid 20 minutes to say peace out and left to try to rebuild his alma mater.
• Yeah, The U was welcomed back to reality these last two weeks now haven’t they? First a horrible loss to a bad Pitt team, and Saturday were clubbed like baby seals by Clemson. Again, this infuriates me to no end. That team was not 30 points better than ND, and their last three games have shown it. That one was truly inexcusable.
• Finally, the great debate: Alabama or Ohio State. In the end, I think the committee made the right call. Yes, OSU did win their conference title. Here’s the rub: the Big Ten stunk this year. You want to look at the top three teams in the Big 10 against the top three teams in the SEC? OSU, Wisconsin, Penn St…….Georgia, Auburn, Alabama. Not even close. If they had a round robin between those three teams maybe the Big 10 could win one of those match-up’s. Ohio State also has no one to blame but themselves. You can’t have 2 losses and get beat by a mediocre Iowa squad by 35 points. Frankly, a two lose USC team made more sense than OSU. One last point: Alabama is a 1.5 pt favorite against Clemson. Do you think OSU would be favored or even a 5 pt underdog? Me either. I hate to give the SEC any kind of love…..it really makes me ill to have to defend them to a certain degree.

There really isn’t much to look forward to this week. Let’s touch on a few things that is news fit to be news…..

• Tennessee. Oh my Lord has the once proud Big Orange feel flat on their head. It’s so bad that their getting shot down by a guy that don’t even have a gig (Kevin Sumlin.) I just can’t believe that the situation is that toxic that nobody will take that job. It’s the SEC East, it’s a proud football tradition, and if you win there consistently, you’ll be treated like a god. To think that they’ve offered everyone but Kent Baer and nobody will take it is truly a head scratcher. Maybe Davie could come in and teach those boys some “footbowel.” No? Just a thought.
• Speaking of what in the hell: 10 years, $75 million for Jimbo Fisher to go to College Station?!?! I could see if Texas were winning big right now and the old guard at A&M didn’t want to take a back seat to their success (basically as they have for the past hundred years,) but they’re not lighting the world up either. So, hire a guy that’s as shady as you can get and see if he can turn the Aggies into a challenger to the Alabama freight train in the SEC West. I wonder if Jimbo can take care of star players/thieves/alleged rapists in Aggieland as well as he did in Trailerhasse? Friggin chooch.
• Herm Edwards to Arizona St???? I’ve always liked Edwards and his bluntness (you do play to win the game, don’t you know) but the guy hasn’t been on the sidelines for years and I have no clue the last time he coached in the college ranks. Ask Lovie Smith how easy it is to go from the pro’s to the college level. There was another guy that tried that about 12 years ago. Big guy, huge Bon Jovi fan. The name escapes me, anyway, good luck to Herm. This one is going to be interesting.
• Arkansas: you really didn’t think Gus Malzahn was leaving that sweet gig at Auburn to come back and try to rebuild your program now did you? I honestly have no clue who would make sense there. There’s got to be an up-and-coming Sun Belt stud willing and able. Quick note: I’ve never liked Big Bret, but the way Arkansas launched him was despicable: telling him he was fired as he was leaving the field after their last game. Not a good way to treat someone……..the Pat Hayden/Lane Kiffin way is much more civilized.
• One game this week: Army/Navy. Not much more to say. I’ve loved this game since I was a little kid and I’ll be plopped down on the couch watching again this week. As a son of a sailor and a grandson of a WWII Navy vet of the South Pacific, I say “Sink Army!”

We’ll take a look further into the Citrus Bowl in the coming weeks during the “BCF Bowl Predictions and Shared Egg Nog Recipes” edition. As I mentioned earlier, it stings that the boys aren’t going to be playing in one of the big daddy bowls, but this is probably about the best scenario the Irish could land in. LSU has dudes, no question about that. They also have BCF favorite, Eddie O calling the shots. That should make all of us feel a lot better.

I’ll close this with a quote Bobby Knight once had about LSU and former Tiger basketball coach, Dale Brown. I kind of feel this way about Ed Oregeron, and I paraphrase: “Going into that game, I had a few sleepless nights. They had Shaq O’Neill, Stanley Roberts, and a great core group of players around them. Then we got to game time, I looked at their bench, saw Dale Brown sitting there, and I knew we’d be ok.”

Go Irish!