The folks over in the SEC need to get their stories straight.
You hear Nick Saban blaming up-tempo offenses for his team's downfall one year, then the Dec. 15 early-entry draft deadline the next. And, oh yeah, Saban also intimated that his team wasn't interested in playing Oklahoma in New Orleans last year after losing out on a bid for the BCS title game.
Now Gus Malzahn pulls out the excuse of SEC teams being too beat up after going through the "grind" of the conference schedule to put up their best fight in the College Football Playoff.
Can't find a story on this, so apparently it was limited to a comment ESPN's Travis Haney attributed to Malzahn during a conversation yesterday in Bristol. He basically said SEC teams are at a disadvantage in the playoff because other teams are fresher.
Dude, there's more than a month between the conference championship games and the College Football Playoff. And by the way, the same Wisconsin team that Ohio State murdered in the Big Ten title game pushed Auburn around in their bowl game.
We could go on. But guys, get your stories straight. One of you says it's because guys are excessively focused on the draft. The other says it's because they're dog tired and can't possibly recover between early December and early January.
If the SEC is such a relentless grind, how does that explain Clemson and Georgia Tech looking quite energetic in their bowl games ... after beating SEC teams in their regular-season finales?
Maybe Florida State was just dog-tired in the CFP semis after the grind of beating an SEC team in the regular-season finale.
We'll close with a pretty good parting line by Stewart Mandel:
A few Wednesday links:
-- George Schroeder of USA Today writes about a crazy Bedlam game changing the 2014 fortunes of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
But the mood on the opposite side of the ballroom at the Omni Dallas Hotel reflects ample reason for caution. That’s where Oklahoma center Ty Darlington explained the other end of Bedlam.
“Devastating,” he said, adding: “When you look back on that game, that one hurt. It hurt bad.”
Things likely weren’t going to be great for Oklahoma this offseason, anyway. Even before the Bedlam loss, the Sooners had tumbled a long way from lofty preseason expectations.
But after losing to Oklahoma State, they were blown out by Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl, completing a fade from preseason top five to five losses — and beginning an offseason that has included a shakeup in the coaching staff and questions about whether Bob Stoops’ program is in decline.
-- Mistuh College Football says one of the biggest playoff myths is that it'll expand from four to eight teams sooner rather than later.
Well, for 16 years fans and media clamored for the BCS to expand and it didn’t happen until 2014. The fact is that the people who run college football were very pleased with the four-team playoff because it struck a balance. It gave the public the playoff it wanted but the college football calendar basically stayed the same. It was a lot of fun, the ratings set a record for cable TV, and everybody made a lot of money.
As the late, great Al McGuire once said: “Why mess with happy?”
The CFP has a 12-year contract that runs in three-year cycles in order for each of the New Year’s Six bowls to host the semifinals. So change, if it happens, would have to take place after three, six, nine or 12 years. I predict there won’t be a serious discussion about it until the halfway point of the contract and the earliest it would happen would be in nine years.
-- Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman learns more about Trevor Knight dating a Clemson cheerleader.
OU quarterback Trevor Knight made news earlier this month when he posted a photo on Instagram of himself and Clemson cheerleader Rachel Wyatt together at DisneyWorld. That created an Internet sensation, considering Knight was in Orlando last December to quarterback the Sooners in the Russell Athletic Bowl, where OU lost to Clemson 40-6.
“She’s a great girl,” Knight said. “Met her at the bowl game. We went to a concert together (a few months ago), then went out to DisneyWorld. Had a great time. She’s an awesome girl.”
“Had a great time. Had a good picture out of it. Posted it on Instagram. Next thing I know, she’s my girlfriend. Funny how everything gets blown up real quick. But it’s fun, too.”
-- Jeff Schultz of the AJC says perception is reality for Jimbo Fisher and Florida State.
How bad is a situation when a university president (John Thrasher) feels compelled to address players directly about their conduct in a team meeting, write an open letter to alumni and meet with the editorial board of that city’s newspaper? How big of a problem has something become when a football program suddenly implements a “four-point program” intended to improve athlete behavior and the head coach is moved to ban players from clubs and bars at night?
“We banned them from putting themselves in bad situations,” Fisher said. “Don’t put yourself in third-and-20.”
Please. No football analogies.
Fisher took a seat in front of the assembled vultures Tuesday at ACC media days for the first time since Florida State returned to the news for the wrong reasons. He’s well-practiced in situations like this.
Fisher said he doesn’t minimize the seriousness of domestic violence. He doesn’t run a renegade program. He does not have the moral fiber of nougat.
When a player is involved in an incident that casts the program in a less-than-complimentary light, he said, “I look at myself as: I could not reach those guys. Why not?”
He’s saving souls. That’s what he’s doing.
-- Speaking of hopping on the bus, Gus, we close with a classic from Paul Simon:
LW
