Normally it’s Texas/Oklahoma, Kentucky/Tennessee, Michigan/Ohio St., but Kansas/Missouri?
This weekend, Kansas and Missouri clash in each team’s regular season finale and for one it actually means something. With the Jayhawks ranked #2 and the Tigers ranked #4 in this week’s BCS standings these teams are fighting for three things: a division title, a shot at the Big-12 title, and a shot at a birth in the national title game. Truly this is the biggest game in the history of the rivalry.
Oklahoma, Oregon Lose Giving Ohio St. Hope
Before and after Ohio St.’s 14-3 clubbing of Michigan last Saturday, they got two signs that despite clinching a spot in Pasadena, New Orleans still could be their destination come January.
Last Thursday, the Oregon Duck’s improbable dream of a national title birth became exactly that as the Ducks lost their second game (and second conference game) to upstart Arizona 34-24.
The victory came about because of two events that came one after the other totally stunning the Ducks and taking them out of their game: quarterback Dennis Dixon’s year ended when he re-injured his knee, an injury that will require surgery, and the Wildcats responded by blitzing Oregon for 24 unanswered points giving them a 31-11 halftime lead; they would not lose that lead.
Two days later, Oklahoma saw their chance to move up in the world spoiled in another trip to Texas. But this time, it would be the Red Raiders of Texas Tech, not rival Texas that spoiled the Sooners season as Tech came out of nowhere with a 27-point first half giving them enough cover that they would not lose their halftime lead.
Tech rode to the win on the back of quarterback Graham Harrel who threw for 420 yards in leading the Red Raiders to the upset win.
It should be noted that in both cases, the top 10 teams in question (Oklahoma and Oregon) did make late rallies to get close, but both ran out of time.
It is interesting that both teams could still participate in BCS bowl games with Oklahoma already having clinched a spot in the Big-12 title game December 1st and Oregon needs both USC and Arizona St. to lose one of their final two games and they will meet Ohio St. in Pasadena having the tiebreaker against both.
Carr retires, Miles “Silent†so far
An era has ended.
On Monday, the inevitable happened and Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr announced his retirement. The announcement wasn’t a surprise to anyone as Carr’s job seemed to hang in the balance last weekend against Ohio St. After a 14-3 loss—Michigan’s fifth in six years against the scarlet and gray—it seemed that it was time for Carr to bid farewell.
Carr’s legacy at Michigan likely won’t be tarnished by Jim Tressel’s domination of the rivalry in recent years as Carr retired the third winningest coach in Michigan history only behind Fielding Yost and Bo Schembechler. Carr was also able to do something Bo didn’t do: win a national championship. Add that to the five Big-10 titles (some shared) that Carr accumulated in his time in Ann Arbor, and I think his legacy is safe.
The Wolverines have announced that a reported list of twenty possible candidates to succeed Carr is being thumbed through and dubbed down. Out of the twenty, LSU coach Les Miles seems to be the top candidate and why not; he has kept the LSU winning tradition alive after Nick Saban’s exit, something (a coach leaving) that has killed a program’s momentum in many cases. Not only has Miles kept the Tigers winning, he has them at #1 with a national title in their grasp.
Miles, however, has said very little about Michigan since Carr’s retirement. The only thing of note that Miles did say in a pretty emotional press conference after Carr’s retirement announcement was that leaving right now would be “unfair to the program†referring to LSU. If Miles chooses to say, then good show. If not, then maybe taking a lesson from our constitution and pleading the fifth would’ve been a better call. That is still up for grabs.
Current BCS Standings
1. LSU
2. Kansas
3. West Virginia
4. Missouri
5. Ohio St.
6. Arizona St.
7. Georgia
8. Virginia Tech
9. Oregon
10. Oklahoma
FINAL THOUGHTS
The fact that this game is on primetime is fitting. The game itself is not only a clash between two top-5 teams, but also a clash between two extremely talented Cinderella’s. At the beginning of the season, neither of these two was picked to be even close to this point. If anything, they were both seen as teams that would play in pre-January 1 bowl games at best. Instead, one of the two will clinch a January 1 bowl bid with the win and the other will be forced to wait and see if a BCS at-large bid is in their future.
I will be watching this game very closely for two reasons: Kansas has a chance to erase the #2 curse this year, and this is both team’s first exposure on national T.V. this year. Kansas coming into the game #2 already puts them at a disadvantage as #2 has not fared very well in game’s like this so far this year with Oregon and Dennis Dixon being the latest victim of such a curse. However, if there’s a team that can break the curse it is Kansas as they’ve been a living example of doing the opposite of what is expected of someone. In the case of the national T.V. exposure, it does add an extra hint of pressure for both teams because neither team has been in a game like this: game of the year feel, national T.V., division title, conference title, national title, there’s a lot riding on this game when you look at the big picture and no doubt that picture is fully ingrained in the minds of every coach and player that will take the field Saturday.
