After his Ohio State Buckeyes knocked off Penn State 28-6 Saturday, a reporter asked Jim Tressel if he placed any importance on style points.
"I've never been accused of [having] style," the sweater-vested head coach chuckled in response.
As several aspiring national champions showed on Saturday, sometimes the substance of a win matters a little more than its style.
Tressel's top-ranked Buckeyes weren't the only ones who squeaked out a win in less than dominating fashion. Unbeaten Georgia needed a call to the quarterback bullpen and a miraculous touchdown in the 60th minute against still-winless Colorado to eek out a 14-13 win. Notre Dame needed its own heavenly intervention, not to mention a few gifts wrapped in Spartan green bows, to resuscitate any last gasp hopes of a run to the BCS title game.
While these clunkers aren't the games that will propel teams to a title run, they certainly beat the alternative. In a sport where one loss puts a team in purgatory and a second loss means eternal damnation (well, at least until next year), it's the program that escapes with even the ugliest of wins that lives to contend another week.
As conference play heats up, we've reached this season's point of no return. In all likelihood, a loss past this point spells the end of a title run. Sure, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and LSU all survived late-season conference losses to reach the BCS championship game in the last five years. However, those were all in seasons where the BCS formula placed greater emphasis on the empirical factors like computer polls and quality-win points. Now that human pollsters compose two of the three BCS determinants, a repeat of that scenario seems improbable.
So, Captain Obvious, what is the best advice for this year's college football contenders? Channeling Al Davis — just win, baby.
We often think of college powers running up scores and showcasing superstars as coaches pose for pollsters and solicit for supporters in some gridiron popularity contest, but a look back at last year's title game entrants shows the necessity of winning ugly.
Before last season's Rose Bowl, a certain cable sports network asked if the 2005 USC team was the best ever. Riding an unbeaten streak of more than two calendar years and a Heisman Trophy backfield, the Trojans were the spoiled poster children of dominance. However, a quick look at their scores during that period shows encounters where USC barely escaped.
Few will forget the "Bush Push" quarterback sneak that led the Trojans over Notre Dame, but many fans east of the Rockies might not recall Aaron Rodgers' Cal Bears having four shots inside the 10-yard-line to overcome a 23-17 deficit in the final minutes at the Coliseum. Even Superman-in-cleats, Vince Young, faced the possibility of defeat at Ohio State and, to a lesser extent, against Texas A&M in 2005.
The reality is the same unpredictability that we love in college football also tarnishes some of its best teams. These young men, not yet old enough to rent a car, carry hulking boulders of pressure on their shoulders. Even the best coaches with the most prepared teams are going to have to scrap in the fourth quarter at least a few times each season.
So for fans of Ohio State, Georgia, and every other college football goliath with dreams of Glendale, don't be afraid of that uneasy feeling you had in your stomach Saturday as your squad fought into the game's waning moments. Even BCS champions have to face their own mortality at least once a season.
Consider those nail-biting plays the Mona Lisa smile of college football. Even winning ugly can have a certain beauty.
Leave a Comment