NCAA Football Week 12 Reaction

I was in Boston this weekend so I was unable to catch anything but highlights, but I thought I'd just offer a quick reaction to what happened in Week 12 of college football. What we basically learned is that Charlie Weis will be out of a job very soon and Urban Meyer will not be the next head coach at Notre Dame. That was an absolutely terrible loss for the Fighting Irish this weekend because it was a game they absolutely had to have to at least try to save face on an already disappointing season. They were playing a UConn team that had been struggling recently after the death of CB Jasper Howard so if you want to say that UConn was motivated to win one for Howard, well you could say that about all the other games they've played without him. This was a game that Notre Dame was in control of early. Jimmy Clausen's 8 yard pass to Golden Tate, along with Clausen's 1 yard TD run, put the Irish up 14 early in the 2nd quarter. But the Irish defense, which has indeed been their greatest weakness this season, allowed the Huskies back in the game with Jordan Todman's 43 yard dash for a score and a late field goal making the game 14-10 at halftime. Motivation turned at that point as the game was nip and tuck the rest of the way. The Irish could not extend their lead against a UConn defense ranked 68th in the nation. And even though Notre Dame played surprisingly well in the 2nd half, a late field goal pushed the game into overtime. Both teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, the Irish settled for a field goal, and UConn scored on a 4 yard touchdown run by Andre Dixon to win the game 33-30. So where do the Irish go from here? They got one game remaining against a much-improved Stanford team that will be angry after losing to Cal this week. So you're most likely looking at a 6-6 record with another appearance in a lesser bowl game for Weis and company. And Charlie Weis said it best during his press conference this week. "I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to fire me because 6-5 is simply not good enough". It is definitely not good enough, not for a Notre Dame team that can hang with any major team in the nation offensively. On the defensive side of the ball, Notre Dame is mediocre at best. Their last three coaches have been unable to solve Notre Dame defensively. And the academic demands of the school are drawing recruits away and pushing coaches into an uncomfortable position where they cannot necessarily get everyone they want. So what will become of Notre Dame in the future? They need a big name head coach (which they will not get) to turn this program around and to make it nationally prominent again. They need athletes who will perform up to their standard on the football field. They need playmakers and they need them on a consistent basis. I don't doubt the effort Notre Dame is putting on the football field, but effort does not guarantee you wins. This is a Notre Dame team without any pride or any heart. And they haven't had that in quite a while. Weis showed promise when he took USC down to the wire a few years ago. Notre Dame got excited and will now bite the bullet for their excitement. They need to show patience now because if they don't, then Notre Dame will never rebuild and will remain an average football team at best, relying on the strength of their storied history to undeservingly get into BCS bowl games.

In other action this week, we saw Oregon stave off a challenge from an Arizona team that has had an incredible season in the Pac-10. The game was back-and-forth all night long with QB Nick Foles leading Arizona back from an early 14-point deficit to put them up 24-14 early in the 3rd quarter. But as expected, the Arizona defense had trouble containing Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli all night long as he threw for 3 touchdowns and ran for 3 touchdowns. They absolutely had no answer for him and could not contain LaMichael James at all either as he ran 19 times for 117 yards. But Foles kept Arizona alive throughout the game, going 30/46 for 314 yards and throwing 4 touchdowns passes. But at the conclusion of the 2nd overtime, it was Masoli who carried Oregon on his back to seal the victory and a possible Rose Bowl appearance should they beat Oregon State in two weeks. Kudos to Arizona for putting up a hell of a fight offensively against an impressive Oregon team. They unfortunately ended up on the wrong side of a game that could have gone either way because both defenses chose not to show up on Saturday night. Oregon controls their own destiny now. With a victory over Oregon State, they will meet Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. And with Oregon State ranked 16th in the nation, that will be no easy task because it is a rivalry game and both teams will be hungry for that victory. I don't expect Oregon to book their trip to Pasadena so easily. Most definitely a game to watch in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere in the Pac-10, Stanford had no answers for Cal's backup running back Shane Vereen the other night as he absolutely torched the Cardinal defense for 193 yards on 42 carries and 3 touchdowns. And Vereen is not even their premier running back. For the Stanford defense, that is incredibly embarrassing to have the backup completely manhandle you at the line of scrimmage and basically allow for the Cal offense to control the pace of the game. Stanford hung tough though on the legs of RB Toby Gerhart, who ran the ball 20 times for 136 yards and scored 4 times. So it wasn't like Cal was blowing Stanford out early in the game, thereby making it unwatchable. The difference in the game ended up being the quarterback play as Cal QB Kevin Riley was able to manage the game for his offense and simply let Vereen take control at the line of scrimmage. Stanford QB Andrew Luck had a horrible game and threw the late interception that sealed the game for Cal. This was a game that the Golden Bears had to have simply because it showed that they could perform in a big game and with a win over Washington, gives them a decent shot at a New Years' Day bowl game. As for Stanford, they get a reeling Notre Dame team at home next weekend and should be able to get to 8-4 with no real problems, closing the book on a season of incredible development and vast improvement while also opening the doors on a potentially exciting future for the Stanford football program.

The biggest blunder of the week came in the LSU-Ole Miss football game this weekend. Everything that Ole Miss had to do to win the football game on Saturday was done. Jevon Snead didn't play outstanding but also didn't turn the football over. Dexter McCluster ran the ball 24 times for 148 yards and even threw a touchdown, backing up his outstanding performance last week against Tennessee with another outstanding performance. LSU blew an 8-point lead in the 3rd quarter by allowing McCluster's touchdown pass, a field goal, and a 3-yard TD run from Jesse Grandy. LSU QB Jordan Jefferson cut the lead to two on a 25-yard strike to WR Reuben Randle but could not convert the two-point conversion. And it seemed like LSU was on its way to a crushing defeat as Jordan Jefferson fired a desperate Hail Mary into the Mississippi night. To his surprise...THE BALL WAS CAUGHT!!!! What happened then, well you have to hurry down the field because the clock is running. There's too little time remaining to get the field goal unit on the field so you have to fire the ball into the endzone right? WRONG!!!! Les Miles instructs Jefferson to hurry the offense to the line of scrimmage so they can spike the ball. Time is running out, the game is nearing its end, will they get there in time? Jefferson gets there, spikes the ball, one problem...NO TIME LEFT ON THE CLOCK!!!! GAME OVER!!!!! LSU LOSES!!!!!! And what ensues after the game is another game in general...THE BLAMING GAME!!!!! Miles throws Jefferson under the bus by telling the press he didn't tell Jefferson to spike the ball. Apparently, Miles was signaling the official for a timeout but "I didn't relate that to the official apparently and that was the mistake." WHAT!!!!!! HOW DO YOU LET THAT HAPPEN!!!! YOU'RE THE HEAD COACH!!!! Miles admitted after the game that "the management at the back end of the game was the issue...It's my fault that we didn't finish first in that game." Again, YOU'RE THE HEAD COACH!!!! You are supposed to plan for every situation imaginable in the game. That is why YOU ARE THE HEAD COACH!!!!! You see there's very little time on the clock. The field goal unit could not get on the field in time, you have to tell your quarterback to go for the win, not spike the ball. That's horrible time management, that's poor play calling, that's just absolutely terrible head coaching. And to throw your quarterback under the bus like that...that's a shame. As a coach, you are expected to prepare for every situation imaginable. Miles wasn't expecting that pass to be completed and what happened...chaos ensued, panic surrounded, time ran out, the game...was over. And so too was LSU's shot at a 10-win season.

That's it for now...check out my pro football column tomorrow. Bye bye for now