I must admit that I never quite trusted Georgia last night. Sure, they played very well for most of the game and they certainly deserved a better outcome. And, no, I wouldn't give coach Richt shit at the press conference. Perhaps the LSU game was still fresh in my--in all of our--memories. Alabama was going to rally and there really wasn't anything that Georgia was going to do about it. They did string it out to the very end and who knows what would have happened if that last pass was not tipped. But it was tipped. It was always going to be tipped. Georgia was trying to win the bout on points. You have to knock out the champ.
And now we wait. All of the build up from August until today leads to a match-up that will attract a huge audience....more than a month from now. Sure there is more college football from now until then, from Army-Navy through the Beef "O" Brady's Bowl to the Rose Bowl. And I will watch way too much of it. But the wait does suck.
But how can I complain compared to the kids on the Louisiana Tech squad? 9-3, with each loss to a bowl team including the crazy 59-57 near upset of "mighty" Texas A&M and the memorable game against eventual WAC champs Utah State that went into OT, and they will stay home this post-season. Ironically they ended up being screwed by--well their AD--but also the inclusion of MAC champ Northern Illinois in the BCS which sent dominoes flying downward beginning with Oklahoma (whose BCS spot was lost which is fitting as their loss to Boise in January of 2007 is item A in the case for non BCS teams getting BCS bowl berths). No matter who is to blame it is a real shame that we cannot watch La Tech play La-Monroe in Shreveport. That would have been fun.
It's 1am here so i'll sign off for now but break down the best bowl games tomorrow.
I blame the NCAA and Georgia Tech for La Tech's absence. No 6-7 team should be given a waiver unless all teams with 0.500 records or better have bowl destinations.
ReplyDeleteI had an off-topic question for you. Are you a Ray Guy Award voter?
BYU punter Riley Stephenson was a semi-finalist, but not a finalist despite having one of the best seasons of any punter in the nation. (BYU is second in net punting, and so is Stephenson--I think. Stephenson is second in gross punting, ranks very, very high in punts inside the 20, as well as punts 50 yards or longer.)
Can you offer a better explanation than "the panel of voters didn't pick him" for why Stephenson did not make the cut to be a finalist?
Thanks.