| |
Dennis Dodd and J. Darin Darst of CBSSports.com provide analysis on weekly college football topics. | Dennis Dodd | J. Darin Darst | | 1. Let's play make believe: Not counting Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford, which player would you start a college team with right now? | | Call me a glue sniffer, but I'll take LSU left tackle Ciron Black. That's 6-feet-5, 325 pounds of All-American quarterback-protecting, road-grading muscle. A good left tackle gives you a chance. A great left tackle is the second-most important position on the field. Don't believe me, believe the NFL. It pays quarterbacks top dollar, followed by left tackles. You want to know how important a left tackle is? Ole Miss just had one, Michael Oher, who was taken in the first round by the Ravens. Oher was the subject of Michael Lewis' 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. Now they're making a movie about the book. Reportedly, half the SEC coaches are going to be in the film, playing themselves. All of them, no doubt, trying to get face time so that some future left tackle prospect sees them on the big screen. Black is the foundation for another LSU line that could be the difference in the Tigers winning the SEC West. LSU has had a tradition of great offensive lines this decade. That explains why quarterbacks Matt Flynn and Matt Mauck have national championship rings and that maybe -- someday -- Jordan Jefferson might have one too. | When building a team the golden rule is to get a left tackle first and then build the rest of the team around him. Well, this is my team and I don't do things by the book ... I'm finding a quarterback. I want one that can run as well as throw and somebody that doesn't make too many mistakes. Another thing I want is somebody that still has at least three years left in college. I don't want to pick a senior and have him leave after one season ... I'm trying to build a conference champion here! N.C. State's Russell Wilson had a fantastic freshman year, but his injuries scare me. Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor would be another logical choice, but his passing skills aren't there just yet. The one guy that fits my style is Baylor's Robert Griffin. He threw for more than 2,000 yards with 15 touchdowns and only three interceptions, while also rushing for 843 yards and 13 touchdowns on a four-win team. He also did pretty well against strong competition. He ran for 102 yards and two scores against Oklahoma, while throwing for 283 yards against Missouri. Now I just need to get the rest of the pieces in place to get my fictional team to a BCS bowl. I'm sure I can muster up at least a 6-6 record and Independence Bowl bid. | | 2. Bob Stoops will make $5 million in 2011. Urban Meyer is going to get a raise that might push him above $4 million. Nick Saban looks like he is going to get an extension. Does any of that bother you and who deserves their reward the most? | | None of it bothers me. It's the cost of doing business. The dollars are getting up into the NFL stratosphere, which makes sense. The only way for Stoops and Meyer to move up in the profession at this point is to go to the pros. Saban has been there and the guess is he will never return after the negative experience in Miami. In essence, Oklahoma, Florida and 'Bama are paying NFL wages to keep their coaches from going to the NFL. That kind of cash also keeps a smile on a coach's face. They are happy. They are the face of the university. You want those guys out front because they project an image of success. It's weird. You give pro athletes the big bucks and (sometimes) they tank. You give a college coach the large green and they are as focused as ever. Maybe it's in their personalities. I've been around all three coaches. Maybe they wear slightly better clothes when they go out. Maybe they get better haircuts and drive better cars. But football still drives them. It's who they are. It's what they do. Money isn't going to make them soft. | As long as the schools or boosters, or whoever, keep paying these contracts, it doesn't matter to me. Dodd is right, with the NFL calling and offering major money and other potential schools offering more money to lure these guys, their current schools have to "pony up" to keep their coach. Who deserves it the most is the more important question. Despite a five-game losing streak in BCS games, Bob Stoops continues to have his team in the thick of things every season. So the Sooners are definitely getting the most bang for their bucks. As for Urban Meyer, he too has been successful everywhere he has coached and has brought two national titles to Gainesville. Think about it -- Charlie Weis' salary is in the same ballpark as Stoops' and Meyer's and what has Notre Dame accomplished? | | 3. The NCAA took away 21 wins from Alabama from 2005-2007 and might take away as many as 14 wins from Florida State and Bobby Bowden. The question is, which program is hurt more by the loss of victories? | | Clearly, Florida State. The school is fighting to the bitter end to keep Bowden's 14 wins from being vacated in the academic fraud scandal. The NCAA infractions committee rebuked FSU in a reply to its appeal recently so it looks like the wins are gone. That means Joe Paterno is the unofficial winner of The Race to the Grave. FSU and president T.K. Wetherell will be bitter but the next question is how Bowden will react. He basically has until 2011. That's when FSU owes coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher $5 million if he isn't named head coach. Does Bowden step down before this season? Step down after 2010? Keep pressing through the 2011 barrier? It will be great theater. As for Alabama, it cares a lot less about its 21 victories than FSU does about its 14. Included in that number are a couple of mediocre seasons that 'Bama fans would like to forget anyway. The school is appealing to save face. It doesn't believe the textbook violations merit a loss of victories. However, as pointed out here, the school is a longtime repeat violator. Losing victories is a heck of a lot better than the death penalty. Saban is stressing the positive: The program did not gain a competitive advantage and no scholarships were taken away. | With no disrespect to the Crimson Tide faithful, nobody will care or remember about Alabama's wins being taken away in a few years. Seriously, does anybody really care that Michigan had their wins and conference titles stripped in college basketball? No. But if Florida State ends up losing 14 wins, that will affect Bobby Bowden's career win total. Currently he has 382 wins and depending on what happens this year, could push through another season after 2009 to get to 400. But if those 382 wins are dropped to 368, he has no shot of catching or passing Joe Paterno and that is something that will live on through history. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a major travesty, but those win totals for coaches are a pretty big statistic. Especially if any other coach starts climbing toward 300, we'll always have those official coaching numbers for the rest of time. |
|
Jackson's Ex-Wife Won't Attend Memorial
Back To Top
RSS
The Future Of Fashion
RSS
Day In Pictures
