In August, we entered the 2009 college football season with several assumptions. We figured the Florida Gators would not be challenged by anyone in the nation (mostly from looking at their schedule). Lou Holtz told us Notre Dame would be national champions. And we heard all kinds of other nonsense.

But here are 10 things that we actually learned during the season, whether we assumed them to be true in the preseason or not.

- Charlie Weis is a pitiful head coach. When hired in 2005, Weis proclaimed at his opening press conference that his team would have, and I quote, “a decided schematic advantage against all opponents.” With that arrogance, you’d think he would lead Notre Dame to victories over teams like Navy and Connecticut. Weis landed the top recruit for the 2007 season in Jimmy Clausen, a kid who won the California state championship all four years in high school. If Weis can’t win with that kid, then that “decided schematic advantage” needs to go back to the NFL.

- Captain Bobby Bowden of the SS Florida State has made it quite clear that he is willing to take his own ship down, just because he also built it. Even if he can no longer remember the names of his crew.

- It’s time for the “small schools” to man up and join a real conference. TCU could instantly make the Big 12 the best conference in college football if they replaced Iowa State in the Northern Division. The Pac 10 could finally have the 12-team conference and a conference championship game if Boise State and Utah joined.

- The SEC Championship Game has been coined “The Real National Title Game,” even though the winner has to beat Texas, likely better than Alabama and Florida. If Colt McCoy were an SEC quarterback, he’d be a shoo-in for the Heisman Trophy, and the Longhorns have won Big 12 games by an average of 21.5 points. Look at their schedule — it isn’t a joke.

- Speaking of jokes, Florida’s schedule. The Gators have played one (1) ranked team all season, but continue to be lauded as the greatest team with the greatest leader ever in Tim Tebow. Maybe the SEC just stinks this year. Would I be praised if I stepped into a junior high football game and beat a bunch of little kids?

- The “U” isn’t back. Miami has gone 9-3 this season and has a shot at a 10-win season, but we can’t call one of the most successful programs in college football history “back” when they finish third in their own division of the ACC, which is absolutely a crappy conference this year.

- Michigan is only getting worse, not better. We’ll leave it at that.

- Georgia Tech will win a national title before Georgia does. They have the coaching, they have the discipline, and they have the athletes. Georgia may be just 12 hours into a 365-day session of bragging rights, but that doesn’t change the fact that they may be sitting at home watching the Jackets play for a FedEx Orange Bowl in January.

- Cincinnati is now the best team in Ohio. I’ve said it all year and I’ll say it again — the Bearcats could have won several of the major conferences in college football this season. They are good. And no, Brian Kelly will not take that Notre Dame job when it opens up.

- Southern California has had a tough year, but they are always one of the classiest teams off the field. Watching them run up scores can make fans dislike their style of play, but if you knew why they do it, maybe they would get more leeway. The Trojans are always bringing in children with debilitating illnesses or injuries and allowing them to be a part of the team. They rally around these kids at team practice and score touchdowns for the kids who will never have the chance to play the sport. If you watched “College Gameday” yesterday, you saw the story of 7th-grader Jake Olson, who was made an honorary member of the team as blindness set on. And before you say the Trojans are done being a national contender, don’t forget about how they lost their tailback, Stafon Johnson, who nearly suffocated during a weightlifting accident early in the season.

With one week to go and then the slew of bowl games, we have plenty of time left to learn more about the 2009 season. But this is why the game is played — because occasionally we are wrong in August.

First off, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break around these parts and also congrats to both the Bucs and the Lady Bucs for getting wins against North Alabama on Saturday at Canale Arena. The Bucs will be back in action Monday against Alabama-Huntsville in another doubleheader at Canale Arena. We’ll be back on Monday night for another episode of STGS with one of the Grizz Girls.

Later this afternoon, the University of Memphis will name LSU assistant Larry Porter, the first African-American to coach the football program in their 97-year existence.

Last week, when Western Kentucky hired Willie Taggart, also an African-American and a former Hilltopper quarterback, I said on this very blog that in order to pump energy and excitement into this football program, you’re going to have to get someone who understands the community and most importantly, knows how to recruit.

Porter fits that same description, given the fact that he’s been national recruiter of the year twice as well as part of a national championship squad in 2007 with LSU plus coached five 1,000-yard rushers in stints at LSU, Oklahoma State, and Arkansas State and he played football here in Memphis.

He knows how it feels to be on the playing surface of the Liberty Bowl on autumn Saturdays, understands what the Tiger football faithful go through after wins and of course, losses.

While this isn’t Terry Bowden or Tuberville, but one of the many stars who played for the Tigers, I will say this, should Porter put together an excellent staff, shake as many hands with members of the Memphis community and most importantly, build a fence around the Memphis area and get top recruits, then the Tigers could be on the road towards respectability in Conference USA.

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With under a minute remaining, USC was leading crosstown rival UCLA 21-7 Saturday night. The Trojans seemed content to run out the clock when Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel called a timeout. Returning to the field, USC faked a run directly into the line of scrimmage and quarterback Matt Barkley threw up top to a wide open Damian Williams. Williams scored untouched on the 48-yard touchdown bomb. Final score: USC 28 UCLA 7.

After some USC taunting and sideline celebrating, a fight nearly ensued (see above video.) The LA Times claims the late score by Pete Carroll’s squad left the “city inflamed.”

DAMIAN WILLIAMS CELEBRATES AFTER GAME’S FINAL SCORE

TIM TEBOW THROWS FOR THREE TOUCHDOWNS AND RUNS IN TWO MORE IN VICTORY OVER FLORIDA STATE

Tim Tebow may just win a second Heisman Trophy after all.

Playing in the final regular season game of his career, the Florida quarterback accounted for five touchdowns in a 37-10 victory over arch rival Florida State. A record crowd of more than 90,000 attended Senior Day in Gainesville. Tebow completed 17 of 21 passes and may have finally pushed Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden into retirement.

According to the Miami Herald,Bowden “acknowledeged for the first time” that he may not return as the Florida State coach next season. The Seminoles finished 6-6 this season. At his post game press conference, Bowden admitted he would do some “soul searching” about his future.

HAS BOBBY BOWDEN COACHED HIS FINAL GAME?

Are you kidding me? 0-10?  After being 10-0 earlier in the year?  Are you kidding me?  How hard is it to go 0-10?

The good news is my fellow human opponents suck, too!  2-8, 2-8 and 1-9…though that sneaky AccuScore gained 4 games on me this week.

THE CHARLIE WEIS/JIMMY CLAUSEN ERA HAS BEEN A BLACK EYE FOR NOTRE DAME FAITHFUL

Via SPORTSbyBROOKS

Media reports indicate that Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis has already cleared out his office in anticipation of being fired. The Fighting Irish finished the 2009 regular season 6-6 following a 45-38 loss to Stanford Saturday night. Stanford tailback Toby Gerhart ran roughshod over a pathetic Irish defense with 205 yards and three touchdowns.

Speculation has already started over who will replace Weis at Notre Dame.

TOBY GERHART MOBBED BY FANS AFTER VICTORY OVER NOTRE DAME

CHARLIE WEIS WALKS OFF THE FIELD FOR PROBABLY THE FINAL TIME AS NOTRE DAME COACH

Here we are in the last few weeks of the college football season, and as has been an annual occurence, the BCS arguments have been circling the airwaves.

I am a huge opponent to the BCS, the main reason being the lack of consistency and logic. Here are some random thoughts that I have on the BCS.

Mark Richt, head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, scheduled a game at Oklahoma State for the opening weekend of the 2009 season. Oklahoma State was 6 point favorites, as they were picked by many to have a 1 or 2 loss season and head to a BCS bowl. Georgia lost that game 24-10.

On that same day, Florida was hosting Charleston Southern in Gainesville, and Alabama, to their credit, was playing Virginia Tech a few miles up the road in Atlanta.

Looking back, even if Georgia would have run the table after that game, it is unlikely they would play for the BCS Championship game.

Obviously, Mark Richt wanted to play a tough game, and get his players valuable experience against a top team before they step into conference play in the toughest conference in the county.

The question becomes, what benefit does Georgia really get from playing this game? If Georgia scheduled a cupcake at home instead of the game at Oklahoma State, and went undefeated in the SEC and won in the SEC Championship game, there is no way that they would not play for the National Championship. So where is the benefit in playing a tough game that first week?

The same question can be asked to USC, who played on the road at Ohio State in week 2. Teams like USC and Georgia do not need that signature win to put on their resume to boost their BCS number. If they run the table in their respective conferences, they are going to be in.

The BCS system basically encourages coaches of the big time programs to schedule all cupcakes outside of conference play.

A team like Virginia Tech is in a different situation in playing Alabama in week 1, because the ACC, while a major conference, is not known as an extremely tough conference. Running the table in the ACC would not guarantee Virginia Tech a spot if 2 other teams in better conferences went undefeated.

But for a team like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, or USC, I just do not see the point. So Mark Richt, a guy who wants to toughen up his football team and play a legitimate game in the opening week, really is penalized for going out and doing that. That is certainly not my idea of a logical system.

Then we talk about Boise State. Chris Peterson, following his win over Nevada, was asked his thoughts on the BCS. Peterson said that hopefully the BCS does the right thing, implying of course that his team, Boise State, should get the nod in the title game. My response is one of disbelief. Boise played a great game at home against Oregon. Peterson thinks that they should get in, over a team like Florida who battles every single week in conference play?

Yes, give Peterson credit for building his team up above the competition in his conference. Give him credit for avoiding letdowns that so many teams encounter throughout the course of the year. Give him credit for scheduling Oregon in a game that allowed Boise to showcase their talent against a stronger school. I’m sure Peterson believes that he has a team comparable to the powerhouses in the country. However, does his team’s resume show that? Absolutely not.

Having said that, much of the blame should not fall on Boise State. You cannot blame Boise for the conference that they play in. I’m sure they would love to change conferences, but it is not as easy as simply wanting to switch. Furthermore, why would a top team schedule Boise State? Maybe they could get a middling team in a major conference to schedule them, but a few of those wins would still not be enough to propel Boise. Frankly, I am surprised that Oregon agreed to play a game at Boise to start the season.

In order for Boise to be completely respected, they would have to continue to blow out teams in their conference, while at the same time scheduling 3 bigtime out of conference games. Does anyone see Pete Carroll banging down the door to play Boise in a no win, everything to lose situation? How about Urban Meyer?

The BCS says to Boise, you need to play better teams and show us more during the season. Yet at the same time the BCS says to these better teams, run the table in your top conference, and you will be in the BCS Championship game. The BCS says to these better teams, avoid the potential upset in non-conference games.

It’s a circle that simply does not meet. It is completely flawed logic.

College football is a past-time on Saturday’s in the fall. People gather around their living rooms, bars, and stadiums across the country, rooting their teams on. It is a billion dollar industry in this country. There is no excuse for the current BCS system. None at all.

If there was currently a playoff, and someone suggested this current BCS system to take the place of that playoff, the person suggesting that would get laughed out-of-town. It seems as though these schools and decision makers are so used to confusion and illogical scenarios, that they simply do not care anymore. It’s as though they have an addiction, and they are too far gone to realize how senseless their actions are.

(BCS now at the podium)

Hey Urban Meyer, continue to play Charleston Southern and run the table in the SEC, and we will have a spot waiting for you. Avoid teams like Boise State who could destroy your season while you really have nothing to gain from beating them.

Hey Chris Peterson, you don’t have a spot until you schedule a team like Florida and beat them. Here’s Urban’s number,  I just got off the phone with him…Good luck.

Hey Mark Richt, forget about starting off the season against a formidable opponent, just schedule the cupcakes and wait for conference play to build your resume. Who cares if your QB needs experience? It’s the BCS Mark!

Hey all coaches….We are ranking you based on a points system. So you know how Herm said, you play to win the game? Forget that…You play to improve your ranking!

Hey Mack Brown…While you are playing in your Big 12 championship game, Jim Tressel and his Buckeyes are actually home enjoying football on ESPN’s family of networks. Oh yeah, good luck against Nebraska!

Hey Urban, remember when Lane Kiffin played that game like a scared puppy, and you just kept running the ball because you knew they had no chance to score? You know, you were playing to win the game. Screw that, run up the score, and impress our computers!

Thus is the logic of the BCS. You draw your own conclusions.

Thanksgiving. Endless food. Rivalry football games. Top that.

You can’t.

If there is one thing about the rivalry weekend that is certain, it is that nothing is certain. Just ask the ACC. We’ll start out east, in Carolina, with what we learned.

In case you didn’t already know, the ACC is bad. Really bad. The only reason North Carolina got ranked this week is because there was no one else. It might be true the conference beat itself up the same way the Pac-10 did, but the difference is that the Pac-10 won some non-conference games. The ACC, if you recall, started the season with a blowout loss by Virginia Tech outside of conference, lost two games to TCU at home and had those early slip ups against FCS competition. Today, the season closed much like it started, with South Carolina easily beating Clemson and Georgia taking down Georgia Tech. For the Gamecocks, it really was easy. After C.J. Spiller opened the game by taking the kickoff back for six, USC took over, scoring the next 24 points by rushing for 228 yards. During the day, that North Carolina team lost to N.C. State. Ouch. Then as the lights came on, it was the marquee game, Tech and Georgia. A Bulldogs team that was squarely in the bottom half of the SEC all season, with losses to Kentucky and Tennessee, took care of business, using a much-maligned defense to beat Tech. That means that both participants in next week’s ACC championship game lost to second-tier SEC teams on Saturday. Not good.

The Big Ten doesn’t belong. Best part about this weekend? No Big Ten games. And no one noticed. The 12 pm E.T. time slot was significantly better without a sloppy Iowa-Indiana matchup with no flash and no real competition. The conference as a whole, from top to bottom, simply does not belong.

While it has been somewhat of a down year for the SEC, the top of the conference is on a level it hasn’t seen in a while. Yes, Auburn should’ve beaten Alabama, but again, rivalry game. And guess what, despite having their best back and one-time Heisman candidate shut down, ‘Bama took care of business, like they’ve done all season. And Florida played one of the worst defenses in the country, with the numbers to show it. But remember at the beginning of the year, we pointed out that Florida had lost to an SEC West team for the past several years in a row, but obviously didn’t this year. Take that along with Alabama making it through the rugged West undefeated and you have one helluva game set for next week.

Boise State belongs in the BCS. They can thank Oklahoma State, but they belong there now. The Broncos are 12-0 and overlooked. If they weren’t overlooked, Kellen Moore would be a Heisman candidate. This team deserves a trip to Glendale for the Fiesta Bowl, not down the street to their own bowl game. And, should Texas lose the Big-12 championship game, TCU belongs in the national championship game.

No one really knows how good Texas is – yet. The Longhorns have literally just been taking care of business, easily. Texas A&M is going to pretty good next year, on offense at least and again, it was a rivalry game, in College Station. Have you ever been at your best in College Station? Not possible. It will take a game against an SEC opponent for Colt McCoy to validate his career. He needs a “Vince Young moment“.

The Pac-10 is the conference 1A in 2009. If the SEC is the best conference, which isn’t such a slam dunk as usual, the Pac-10 is definitely 1A. From 1-9 this is the one solid conference. ASU lost on a last second field goal to Georgia. UCLA won at Tennessee. They took care of the Mountain West. Washington played with LSU for four quarters. USC won at Ohio State. And then the teams beat each other up every week. Except, again, one.

Which leads to the worst big six conference team in America: Washington State. Here is the most telling stat: Washington State (1-11) did not lead a single game for a single second in regulation all season. Yes, they have a win, but they needed a late touchdown to tie the game against SMU and send it into OT, where they won. They came into the final week thinking they might have a chance, but instead were shutout in Seattle for the first time since 1964. Washington toyed with WSU, dominating them 30-0 in the Apple Cup. The Cougars are now 1-17 in the last two years in the Pac-10 and just 3-21 in Paul Wulff’s two seasons. This is how bad it has gotten for WSU: at one point Washington knocked both of WSU’s healthy QB’s from the game and, not wanting to put their prized freshman into the game, the Cougars inserted their backup punter.

Finally, Toby Gerhart should be the frontrunner for the Heisman. Now, this should be qualified with this: Colt McCoy should win the trophy. McCoy is the winningest quarterback in college football history. Unbelievable that he hasn’t won the Heisman. No, it isn’t a lifetime achievement award, but it isn’t like the guy has bad numbers. In the rivalry game he scored five touchdowns and ran for a career high yardage total. He plays big in big games and has put up some crooked numbers. He should win. However, based on 2009 alone, Gerhart is the man. He just plays bigger as the games get bigger. Against Notre Dame today he went over 200 yards, again. He ran for the game-winning touchdown and that came after throwing for one earlier in the game. A big bowl game (240 yards or so) will give Gerhart 2,000 yards rushing. He is that good. Another Pac-10 guy could split the west coast vote, Jeremiah Masoli, but it should be the big Stanford back. And it will be hard not to look at that head coach, Harbaugh, as coach of the year.

2007. Photo by Scott G. Winterton / Deseret Morning News.

I’m usually just looking at the players as players and don’t look too far past that unless they make it really easy for me to see. In max’s case, it wasn’t a good one. Hopefully he was on some psychedelic drug that made him say that. I believe we’re all entitled to some mistakes. This mistake by what some call “Maxi-pad Hall” was NUTS!!!
-cameron