WEEK
5
THE
COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT
TEXAS
A&M COACHING FIASCO
Let’s
get this straight. Texas A&M QB Mark Farris
is a 27-year old senior for the Aggies this fall.
He has thrown for over 2000 yards in each of the
last two seasons, has started 26 consecutive games,
and is about to break every A&M passing stat
in the school's record book. Coaches decided that
Mark’s 26-game run as Texas A&M’s
starting quarterback apparently needed to end
just prior to a huge game against current #5 team
Virginia Tech.
It is obvious that the first two games of this
year for the Aggies have seen dismal offensive
numbers through the 2-0 start. Farris’ last
four starts represent the four worst completion
percentage games of his career as A&M’s
starter. He is 18 of 45 for 251 yards and no interceptions.
No problem, bring in sophomore Dustin Long who
had previously only played in four college games
and has thrown two interceptions this year…not
such an illogical choice in an effort to add some
offensive sparks. But Long struggles, so you then
bring in the freshman Reggie McNeal who has played
in one whole series the entire year. He struggles
and throws a key interception. Bring Long back
in.
May
I please pose this question? It’s the start
of the fourth quarter, you have three total points
and are getting beat in one of the biggest non-conference
games in Aggie history, you have under 40 yards
rushing and under 100 yards passing, the current
QB’s have each thrown an interception and
can’t muster diddley poo (apologies to ex-Indianapolis
Colts Coach Jim Mora). Hello…McFly? What
are the Aggie coaches thinking at this point?
Mark Farris is so deep in our doghouse that we
will cut his nose off to spite our team? PUT HIM
IN THE GAME! What is the worst he can do; as it
is obvious the other two inexperienced QB’s
are not going to win this one? This has got to
be one of the worst coaching decisions I have
seen all year. And yet, no one outside of College
Station, TX has mentioned it once. Insanity, as
the final results speak for themselves. Watching
that three-point offensive display was worse than
watching corn grow.
MARYLAND
AFRAID OF MARSHALL, TOUGH SCHEDULE
September
28, 2002 – This Saturday the Maryland Terrapins
take on the Wofford Terriers in College Park,
MD. No...you won’t see an ESPN crew there,
you won’t see a close match up for $32,
you won’t see two Division I-A teams, you
won’t know what state Wofford hails from
by asking most fans, and you won’t see more
than a half-filled 48,000 seat stadium. But you
could have.
Maryland
picked up Division I-AA Wofford just this past
February to fill a void created on September 28th
when Troy State dropped out of its contract at
the last minute to play a game with the Terrapins
in College Park. The front office at Maryland
had to scramble to find a new opponent. Someone
came begging for a chance to become the replacement
however, and it wasn’t a Division I-AA school.
If you guessed Marshall - the MAC powerhouse from
Huntington, WV - you would be correct. Marshall
had an open date on September 28th due to a previous
contract dispute, and only maintained an 11 game
schedule (when everyone else has 12 this year).
The Herd desperately needed another opponent on
that date outside of another I-AA school, which
they already had on the schedule.
Oh,
it gets much better. According to Marshall Sports
Information Director Ricky Hazel this past February,
the Herd offered Maryland a one time deal only
for Marshall to come to College Park and play
with no return trip required. On the table was
an ESPN contract for a national television broadcast
to boot. The two preseason Top 25 teams are only
six hours apart and Marshall QB Byron Leftwich,
a top Heisman Candidate, came from Washington,
DC just minutes from Byrd Stadium and played for
the famous H.D. Woodson High School there. Maryland
said no thank you and immediately scheduled Wofford
instead. “Byron was extremely upset when
we told him Maryland was not interested in putting
this game together,” says Hazel. “It
was a unique opportunity to put two highly ranked,
neighboring state schools together on national
television."
The Maryland official stance:
"Replacing Troy State was challenging because
of the timing of its cancellation," said
Rob Mullens, Maryland's executive senior associate
athletics director. "We had discussions with
multiple institutions over the past few weeks,
but only Wofford could meet the rather narrow
criteria needed to make a deal, the most important
of which was that our only option was to re-schedule
for the original date.” So it’s assumed
that playing a team that can beat you on national
television doesn’t fit into that narrow
criterion.
In
defense of the Terps, early dates with Notre Dame
and Florida State in the first three games made
it tough to find the sense in adding another Top
25 foe, at least for a team that is the defending
ACC Champions, who just completed a 10-2 season.
On the other hand, the Maryland September slate
has Akron, Eastern Michigan, and Wofford. The
scheduling philosophy of Head Coach Ralph Friedgen
is "what it is" for spelling wins and
confidence, but please don’t tell the season
ticket holders living inside the metro beltways
that it is imperative to start filling empty seats
for home games against these three schools while
claiming this was all we could find at the last
minute. Maryland did not want any parts of Marshall,
and they went so far as to avoid a sell-out crowd
on national television and a chance to show incoming
recruiting prospects that Maryland loves being
in big games on the tube. But how would that look
spelled out in the Media Guide? Or even worse,
how would that look in the won-loss column?
Marshall
still has an 11 game regular season schedule for
2002.
ME,
MYSELF, AND IRISH
As
if the BCS doesn’t have enough rules for
Independent Notre Dame, it looks like the Irish
will be fighting for more. Notre Dame has played
in four football games and won them all. However,
the BCS system currently counts the Irish as having
only three wins to their credit.
Notre Dame opened the season with
a win over Maryland in the Kickoff Classic, which
is normally considered an "exempt'' preseason
game. But Notre Dame contends it should not be
considered an exempt game because it was played
the same weekend most teams started the season
-- not a week ahead like most years. The game
was originally scheduled for Aug. 24, but was
moved because it conflicted with freshman orientation
at Notre Dame. So by the time the Kickoff Classic
kicked off, most teams already had begun their
seasons. Regardless, the BCS still considers the
game to be exempt when counting the number of
victories required for the Irish to be BCS eligible.
There were eight preseason classics
played this year, which equals 16 teams. Out of
all those 16 teams, only one university decided
to not add an extra 13th game to their schedule.
That was Notre Dame, who sited earlier in the
summer that the schedule was already difficult
enough for the student/athlete in South Bend.
No one is disagreeing with the Irish right to
only play 12 games while forcing the Kickoff Classic
to move its originally scheduled August 24th contest
back a week to accommodate the university. But
here is the bottom line: If Maryland cannot receive
BCS credit for that accommodation, neither can
the Irish because they chose to only play 12 games
unlike everyone else. But if you credit Maryland
in the BCS for having played 13 games, don’t
you have to extend that courtesy to everyone else
that participated in the preseason games? If the
Irish would have followed the other 15 school
examples and added that 13th game, we wouldn’t
need this complaint from South Bend. Really, the
only way around it is to add another asterisk
(*) to the BCS Rules.
(*)
Notre Dame
September
23, 2002
Ricky
Sixx's Top 25 Breakdown
(
-/+ difference) from the Sixx poll
1.
Miami - Still no reason to think this team isn't
the best in the country after beating Boston College
by 32 points. ( - )
2. Texas - No reason to disagree with a #2 ranking
after two consecutive weeks of inspired football.
( - )
3.
Oklahoma - October 12th will tell us if they are
#2 or not, but for now it's not worth splitting
hairs between the Sooners and the Longhorns. (
- )
4.
Florida State - Last week we couldn't decide between
teams #2 through #5. This week it's teams #4 through
#6 that are interchangable. No problem with FSU
being #4 for now though. ( - )
5.
Virginia Tech - Stock continues to rise after
victory against Texas A&M. ( - )
6.
Ohio State - I have a feeling even with Maurice
Clarett, the Buckeyes would still have come out
flat vs. Cincinnati. Virginia Tech took advantage
of Ohio State's uninspired play. ( +2 )
7.
Georgia - It took a visit from Northwestern State
for the Bulldogs to finally play well. For now
I still think their # 7 ranking is about nine
spots too high. ( +9 )
8.
Oregon - Still a hard team to gage, we know they
are good, but how good? I will nervously agree
with the #8 ranking but would not go as far as
saying they're not top 10 material. ( +1 )
9.
Florida - Knowing very well that Tennessee is
not that bad of a team, it makes us wonder. Is
Florida ranked too low? Is Miami that good when
they want to be? Despite the blemish on their
record, I think Florida could be ranked a few
spots higher. ( -3 )
10.
Notre Dame - Got to give Notre Dame credit, they
don't know how to lose but in reality who have
they beaten? Maryland is looking like a .500 team
without Bruce Perry, Purdue just lost to Wake
Forest but yet barely lost in South Bend, Michigan
will play anyone outside the Top 10 close, and
Michigan State's two man team was handled a lot
easier by California. Unlike the media, I'm not
falling in love with Notre Dame until they can
at least look dominant against the average teams.
Any other school with the same wins not wearing
gold helmets would be no higher. ( +11 )
11.
Tennessee - After laying the perverbial egg at
home, it's expected that the Vols would drop this
low. But is this team really the 11th best? I
personally think by the time they face Miami they
will play at a higher level, but until then we
cannot assume they are this good either. For now
it's safe to keep Tennessee at #11. ( -1 )
12.
Penn State - Another impressive Penn State victory
has some believing they are a "great"
team. Despite what Beano Cook says, the Nittany
Lions need to prove they can not only beat good
teams consistently, but do it on the road before
we start thinking undefeated. For now #12 could
be a little too high for Penn State. ( +3 )
13.
Washington - Other than the Michigan loss we really
don't know much about the Huskies until conference
play starts. Like I said before
Michigan
plays anyone outside the top 10 close so there
really is no complaint with Washington's 13th
ranking. ( +1 )
14.
Michigan - I'm not sure if it's me, but has this
team been getting worse as the season goes on?
The lack of a killer instinct is really hurting
this team and though I can't see Michigan losing
to many teams out there, I really can't see them
beating a lot of the top teams either. Until Michigan
can show they can take care of teams in less than
60 minutes I don't think they warrant a top 15
ranking. ( +6 )
15.
NC State - Finally, the Wolfpack played a game
that would let us know how good they are and it
took overtime for Coach Amato's team to come out
with a victory. Since Texas Tech is not a top
20 team there should be no reason why any of us
should think NC State is close to being the 15th
best team in the country. ( +9 )
16.
Wisconsin - As soon as I felt Wisconsin was not
deserving of a Top 25 ranking they go and whip
up on a decent Arizona team. I must admit I was
impressed in the way the Badgers won, but I'm
not going to consider them worthy of the 16th
ranking.
( +8 )
17.
Kansas State - They didn't look pretty but they
got it done and beat a good USC team for the 2nd
year in a row. ( - )
18.
Washington State - The Cougars took care of Montana
State and look to prove next week versus a good
California team that Washington State should be
ranked higher than the #18 team in the country.
( - 7 )
19.
Nebraska - I originally thought Nebraska was not
deserving of their original #7 ranking and again,
we come to question the Huskers' current rankings.
Next week's game versus Iowa State will tell us
if Nebraska is worthy of #19 and if Iowa State
truely does deserve to be ranked higher. ( N R
)
20.
LSU - The Tigers look to quietly improve and show
people that this young team will end up being
a much better squad that got caught up in the
Virginia Tech buzz saw. A sound win over a good
Miami of Ohio team tells me that there are a few
teams ranked ahead of LSU that are no better than
Nick Sabban's bunch. ( -2 )
21.
Iowa State - The Cyclones have yet to look bad
all season long and should have never been punished
by losing a close game to the Noles. A victory
over 19th ranked Nebraska would move them up to
where they belong. ( +8 )
22.
USC - This is pretty much about where the Trojans
belong. They could end up losing next week, but
keep in mind that their opponent is one of the
better teams in the country. By seasons end the
Trojans should finish ranked just about here or
just outside the top 25. ( +4 )
23.
Colorado State - Now that the toughest part of
the schedule is behind them, the Rams are looking
at a very possible 11 win season. After going
3-1 I can't argue with a top 25 ranking, but there
are other equally good teams not ranked. ( NR
)
24.
Oregon State - Lots of people call it east coast
bias, I call it east coast ignorance. The fact
that this team is NOT in the top 10 is a crime,
if you have seen the Beavers play this year then
you would not question their worth. ( - 17 )
25.
Auburn - Finally, the Tigers get ranked after
a close game versus a good USC team on the road.
If not for quarterback problems this would be
a top 12 team.
( +6 )
Ricky
Sixx's top 25
1.
Miami
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. FSU
5. VT
6. Florida
7. Oregon State
8. Ohio State
9. Oregon
10. Tennessee
11. Washington State
12. Alabama
13. Iowa state
14. Washington
15. Penn State
16. Georgia
17. Kansas State
18. Southern California
19. Auburn
20. Michigan
21. Notre Dame
22. LSU
23. Arkansas
24. Nc State
25. Wisconsin
Six
teams on the waiting list: Texas A&M, Colorado
State, Clemson, Boston College, Iowa, Air Force
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