Bricks and BCS - both blurry then clear
Today’s weather read like a bad romance novel - cloudy, cold rain spitting - a indoors day with minimum travel. Instead, Zionsville hosted their annual Christmas in the Village parade where the high school band, a miniature train, store made floats and marching german shepherd dogs lead Zanta and Mrs Claus down our quaint cobblestone street. Our dogs, Boudreaux and Dominique, led the parade, side by side as it their life together. The rain parted to a fine, glasses fogging mist as we made the 6 block walk and waved, while behind the Love Furniture Grinch Stole A Couch float.
Meanwhile the BCS committe put their heads together and came up with the logical choices for their Championship Game with lots of juicy match-ups for the college football fan.
Illinois/USC Rose Bowl - should be fun for the first half when USC’s size, talent and west coast offense will wear down the Illini 31-17. OSU vs USC would have been a boring game. Watch for Illinois pairing up with Florida in one of next year’s big time BCS match-ups.
Oklahoma/WVirginia Fiesta Bowl - Oklahoma is a young team that peaked at the end of the season, after getting shelled by TexTech. West Virginia defense is scrappy but won’t contain Sooner running back and freshman no more QB. Stop the Mountaineers’ QB and you stop their offense Oklahoma (watch out for them in ‘08) wins 28-17
Georgia/Hawaii Sugar Bowl - Cinderella stays too late at the ball as man-handling Bulldogs say welcome to the South with smashmouth D and relentless running plays. Too small Hawaii lines can’t stay the course and late rally doesn’t come in time. Brennan’s physical strength a big factor after a couple of SEC sacks. Georgia 27 -14.
Virginia Tech/Kansas Orange Bowl - ACC without a prominent FSU is a borderline als0-ran conference. All sentiment aside, this year VaTech would be a middle of the pack contender in major conference. Kansas wowed their fans but not the rest of the nation with their less than impressive loss to Missouri - compounded by the dual spankings Mizzoo suffered from Boomer Sooners. Could be the New Year’s Day take a nap special - Rock Chalk Jayhawks 35-28
LSU/OSU BCS Bowl - I confess to watching 8 LSU games this year in glowing High Def and admit I like their team and their coach’s style of play.
I also saw 3-4 Ohio State games and did feel this squad was national championship caliber - but that’s the BCS job, not mine. We’ll take this game as probably the best match-up you could glean from the topsy turvy season.
OK, here’s my take on OSU. I was less and less impressed with the Buckeye offense as the season wore on. Buckeye QB is really suspect and doesn’t play catch-up ball at all. Rotating tandem backs only works if your O Line knows their blocking assignments. Too many offensive plays where the back was stuffed. Don’t appear to have more than 1 good long receiver. And you’ll need a good receiver or four when playing catch up ball to an LSU outfit with a team of defensive backfield assasins who really tackle hard and mean.
Defensively, the Buckeyes are big up front and should give LSU some up the middle problems with runs. Linebackers are their big strength, forcing LSU to cut back on their dump passes and short gain end arounds. I think the Tigers’ money plays lie in long passes to any of their receivers - especially Byrd and Lafell.
LSU offense ebbs and flows. QB Matt Flynn is the cool leader while Ryan Perriloux has a cannon for an arm but not a whole lot of discipline. RBs are functional but not exceptional. Hester is a dependable workhorse who can block, catch and run around or, his preference, up the middle. As above, the receiving corps for LSU can be a big factor. They’ve gotten better with every game.
So - who’s the champ? This should be a pretty decent game, not that high scoring and lots of fun in the trenches. Look for some trick plays on both sides, a possible run-back or interception for TD could make all the difference. In my heart, I’m feeling LSU. In my head, I’d never underestimate the Buckeys. But I’ll GEAUX WITH LSU - 24-17!
Defensively, if monster DT Glenn Dorsey knee is healthy, OSU QB will be in for a night of pain. Dorsey will demand at least 2 blockers allowing other behemoth and quick LSU linemen like Jackson and Pittman to run amok in the backfield.