by John Walters
Starting Five
Matt Boermeester’s 46-yard field goal as time expired sealed it for the Trojans
Rose, To The Occasion
USC 52, Penn State 49. The Nittany Lions blow a 14-point lead in the final six eight-plus minutes in a classic from Pasadena—although both squads had double-digit leads at times. Also, in the second and third-quarters, the Nitty Lions scored a touchdown on each of four consecutive offensive plays (that’s good efficiency) and Saquon Barkley had a Reggie Bush-reminiscent 79-yard touchdown run. Trojan frosh Sam Darnold passed for 453 yards and five TDs and will be a Heisman frontrunner next season.
Barkley will also be a Heisman contender in 2017
The takeaway thus far? The Orange and Rose Bowls that bookended New Year’s Eve weekend were fantastic, the semis were desultory. Sure, it isn’t that way every year, but by setting off the two semis from the other bowls, we’ve created an unnatural schism. The plus-one model may have always been the best idea: Play out the bowls and then select the two teams from them you want to see in a playoff. Or, if you really like, the four. Make the bowls be the play-in games (and if you want to eliminate conference championship games, that would be fine.)
2. Circle of Stink
The Buckeyes, like almost all of the Rust Belt, took their lumps
It wasn’t a good bowl season for the Rust Belt. The state of Ohio went 0-4 in bowls, as did the state of Michigan. If you take the bowls in which a school from Ohio or a school from a state adjacent to Ohio played—Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania—the total record was 1-15. The only school to win its bowl was Western Kentucky, which won the vaunted Boca Raton Bowl over Memphis, 51-31.
Ohio State, the highest ranked team of all 16, was the only one that was shut out, 31-0.
3. Exit, Lane
Nick Saban gave offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin the “Here’s-your-hat, what’s-your-hurry?” treatment yesterday from Tuscaloosa. Steve Sarkisian, who succeeded Kiffin at USC a few years ago, will now succeed him calling plays in the national championship game next Monday night. Kiffin has already been hired as FAU’s head coach, and yes, it does sound like’s he’s engineering a reverse-career progression: NFL head coach to SEC head coach to head coach at alma mater to offensive coordinator at a huge program to head coach at a Group of Five school.
From Pete Thamel’s SI.com story over Christmas break:
Kiffin’s profile comes up as a conceptual thinker. “You’ll like this,” Kiffin says with a smile. “It means I’m imaginative, intuitive about ideas, visionary, enjoys the unusual and learns by experimenting.”
He laughs: “Doesn’t that explain me and everything that’s not in the staff room at Alabama?”
Yeah, it was time to go. But is Saban taking a mighty risk here?
4. Gonzaga? Still Gonzaga
Goss-zaga? Goss-zaga??? Anyone?
There are three remaining undefeated teams in men’s college basketball: defending national champion Villanova, Baylor, and Gonzaga (here’s to the private religious schools!). The Zags are 14-0 and are winning by an average margin of more than 20 points per game. Their closest game was a 73-71 win against No. 21 Iowa State. The only other ranked teams the Zags played, No. 16 Arizona, they won by seven.
The only ranked opponent remaining on the Zags’ schedule? No. 16 St. Mary’s.
All five starters score in double figures, but none more than Nigel Williams-Goss‘ 13.8 points per game. If that name is familiar, the 6’3″ guard was Washington’s leader in scoring and assists two years ago. Then he opted to transfer across state.
5. And It Begins
Virginia congressman Bob Goodlatte, no relation to Jim Pumpkinspicelatte, made the proposal to kill the independent ethics committee.
In a special January 2 night session, and just a day before the new Congress is sworn in, House Republicans voted to gut an independent ethics panel that acts as a watchdog against criminal acts by sitting members of Congress. So that’s not at all ominous and discomfiting, now is it?
The “Just Trust Us” era has officially begun in Washington. Watch your back. And your front.
Reserves
I’m 100% certain I made this analogy on Twitter in the past few months. It’s just that I cannot draw.
Music 101
Mirror Man
This 1982 song by the Human League followed up the British New Wave act’s phenomenal success off the album Dare and the single “Don’t You Want Me?” This was both the title track to the follow-up album. The band later revealed that the song was about fellow British New Wave act Adam Ant.
Remote Patrol
The Late Show
CBS 11:35 p.m.
Oprah Winfrey, who would have made a superior 45th president to the one we’re getting, guests.
Kiffin has always come across to me as an oblivious, spoiled jerk. However, I actually feel some sympathy for him here – no matter WHAT happens in the NCG, he can’t win. If Bama wins, it just looks like he was completely unnecessary & not a vital component of their undefeated championship season. If they lose, Bama can/will just blame the “disruption” of his “leaving the program” at that vital time. Saban knows this. Saban must really hate Kiffin.
Meanwhile, what makes me far more nauseated than Kiffin is the genuflecting of Saban by the CFB media guys. Maybe, just MAYBE if Saban didn’t present himself as the SINGLE MOST JOYLESS INDIVIDUAL SINCE EBENEZER SCROOGE, it wouldn’t be quite as bad, but he does & it is.
And while we’re talking about “nauseated”, OMG, THE Ohio State! I did not watch the 2nd half. I just couldn’t. I didn’t think the Buckeyes could win the championship this year & thought there was a good chance they’d lose to the older, more experienced team in Clemson, but I NEVER saw them being shut out. They & Urban must be devastated. Of course, now Urban has the PERFECT motivation for all next year – “Remember the Fiesta Bowl!”
I’m surprised no one mentioned that if I love ‘A Christmas Carol’ so much, then why don’t I love watching ‘The Nick Saban Story : Before the Spirits’ play out in real time? That’s just it, who wants to watch Scrooge in the middle years, the obsession decades? What I LOVE about ‘A Christmas Carol’ is Scrooge’s realization of his total asshatness (thanks to the Spirits) & that it’s NOT TOO LATE to change & then we get to SEE the change in all its giddy glory. What wouldn’t you give to see Nick Saban dancing around in his nightshirt trilling ‘I’m as light as a feather, as giddy as a schoolboy!”?
I guess this means Lane Kiffin is Bob Cratchit? HAHAHAHAHAHA.
In 3 years of the CFP, only one semifinal has been decided by 7 points, the other 5 have been decided by: 39, 20, 38, 31 and 17. The higher seeded team has won every game except for when Ohio State beat Bama.