utah falling back to earth now. poor offense, giving up a ridiculous return instead of tackling, the refs giving them a poor spot on that 3rd and 2 and then utah trying to be tricky instead of just qb sneaking and blowing another drive, and now alabama is already back to midfield. really, if they just tackle on the punt return they're sitting pretty, but now might be facing 21-13 or 21-17 at the half. edit: DB's should learn how to make simple catches. like practice it or something. wilson threw that right to that utah guy and instead of quickly securing it, he damn near drops it which allows the hit from jones to knock it loose. easy way to prevent points and he blows it by not making a very easy catch. doesn't matter with the sack but man DB's should be better at making the easy catches.
Even as a Utah fan, I didn't think Utah had a shot in this game. Even leading 21-0, I still didn't really feel comfortable - kind of like when you're playing against your big brother and you rattle off 10 or 12 points to start the 1-on-1 game...you feel good about yourself, but you realize you're probably still overmatched. But this was fun tonight. I was one of the few who was thrilled that Utah got to play Pittsburgh a few years ago - it was a chance to win a big game on a national stage against an opponent who was a beneficiary of the BCS system. I was terrified when I saw that Alabama was going to be Utah's opponent this year. I honestly was hoping for a close game at halftime. I didn't want Utah to get embarrassed. Certainly this Utes team shouldn't qualify for a national championship game (under the current system). Legitimately, I think Utah should finish at #3 (behind OU/FLA and USC). But for the only time since Boise beat Oklahoma, a mid-major stood up and beat a team that should have every advantage with regards to recruiting and football resources. Whittingham flat out DESTROYED Saban coaching this game. Utah looked like a hungry and pissed off team, while Alabama looked a little bored (at least in the first half). Please, Pac-10, PLEASE pick us. It's our only hope to see if we can really make a go of this thing.
The Mountain West needs an automatic bid. End of story. Give the Big East auto bid to the MWC. Utah or Cincinnati? Two top 10 teams in Utah and TCU.
Utah should be number #1, even though they may or may not be the best team in the country. No one knows if they're better then Florida or OU or Texas. But what we know is that they're the only undefeated team in the country and beat a decent Bama team. You can't even say they had a weak schedule, beat Michagan in the house (not a good win but who knew Michigan would be so terrible this year), beat TCU, beat BYU, beat Oregon State (who beat USC), and just beat 'Bama (who only lost to Florida), and play in the Mountain West who went 6-1 against the Pac-10, and a winning record against other BCS conferences. You can argue they can't hang with USC/Texas/OK/Florida, but the fact is you don't know. What I know is they're the only undefeated. If anything, USC should leave the Pac-10 and play real football in the MWC.
Some of it should go to bama having all the fire sucked out of them from missing out on a championship game they thought they had locked for the longest time only to play a no name team in the sugar bowl. Of course a month off should set that off, or make it worse in that they havnt played in an entire month.
I'm rooting for, and will be watching the Buffalo Bulls tomorrow. Turner Gill has done an amazing job up there in Buffalo, taking a DII school, who moved up to DI and was absolute garbage, and turning them into the MAC champs. He has said he wouldn't go anywhere this season, so they should be bowl-bound next year, also. I wish he'd stay even longer, but I think a more big-time program will be calling his name... Also, a teammate of mine from high school warms the bench for Buffalo, and I played against (and tackled) their running back, James Starks, who's turned into a pretty productive college player. Good to see a small program turn around like that, even if it is at a small/unkown scale.
This seems to happen at lease a couple times a year. A team misses out on a higher bowl that they felt they deserved to be in and they take the lesser/lower ranked opponent for granted. It's hard to get fired up when playing a lesser opponent while the lesser opponent is fired up and treating it like the opportunity of a life time. It's human nature.
That would make some sense for a USC-type perennial contender that expects to be in the national title game or something like that. But this is Alabama's first BCS game. They haven't been on the national stage in a long time, and there should have been no motivation problems playing the Sugar Bowl to finish the season in the top 3 in the country and win their first BCS Bowl. Utah just outplayed them on both sides of the ball. I think people just don't realize that while those smaller schools probably couldn't handle an SEC schedule all season, they have the talent and schemes to play with the big schools in a big game with enough preparation. It's a big argument for a playoff system, and it's a big argument against what the BCS has done by making schools that aren't in the big six conferences automatically looked down upon, no matter how good they really are.
