Just For Sandhusker

[Mike]

SEC Is Confirmed as King of Conferences

By PETE THAMEL
Published: January 9, 2008
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana State Coach Les Miles interrupted his postgame news conference late Monday night for an impromptu celebration.


"Waaaaaaahooooo!" he screamed, a rebel yell that resonated from Gainesville, Fla., to Fayetteville, Ark.

Along with assuring him yet another set of video clips on YouTube, Miles's celebration was a shriek for the Tigers and a shout for the Southeastern Conference. The other big winner in Monday night's national title game was the SEC, which reaffirmed its status as the best league in college football.

L.S.U.'s comfortable 38-24 victory over Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series title game came a year after Florida's 41-14 dismantling of the Buckeyes in the title game. Those runaway victories have helped create the perception that the SEC is distancing itself from other conferences.

Fans at the Superdome seemed to endorse the idea. They spent part of the fourth quarter taunting the Ohio State players with chants of "SEC! SEC!"

The SEC went 7-2 in bowl games this season, has won 4 of the 10 Bowl Championship Series title games and became the first conference to win back-to-back B.C.S. titles.

"I don't know if we're really far ahead of everyone else," L.S.U. tailback Jacob Hester said of his conference. "But week in and week out it's a tough game. After SEC games I feel a lot different than nonconference games, I can tell you that."

The physical dominance of the players in the league, along with team speed, was considered one of the biggest differences between L.S.U. and Ohio State heading into the game.

Last year in the title game, Florida's defensive front seven overwhelmed the Buckeyes' offense from the opening snap. Monday's game against L.S.U. played out a bit differently, but ended with a similar result. Ohio State's offensive and defensive lines were competitive early, springing Chris Wells for a 65-yard touchdown run and pressuring L.S.U. quarterback Matt Flynn.

But as the game wore on, and as L.S.U. erased a 10-0 deficit, Miles said he was confident his team's defensive front could dominate.

"We just knew we were going to hold their offense," he said. "I mean, at some point in time they were not going to be able to throw the football effectively and/or rush the football well enough to beat us."

The best argument for why the balance of power in college football may be tilting further toward the South is that L.S.U. felt prepared for this game because it had played so many difficult opponents. Ohio State played a weak out-of-conference schedule.

The Buckeyes' only nonconference game against a B.C.S. team was on the road against Washington. Combine that with what was widely considered a down year in the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes spent most of the season coasting against their opponents.

L.S.U., on the other hand, found itself in every conceivable situation on the field. The Tigers were down by 10 points in the fourth quarter against Alabama and needed a comeback to win. They needed five fourth-down conversions to topple Florida. They needed a gutsy call for a touchdown pass in the waning seconds to get past Auburn.

Those experiences might have enabled them to stay calm Monday when Ohio State went ahead, 10-0.

"The SEC is a very competitive league," Miles said. "It's not a league where you're just going to go into the league and have dominant games week after week after week. You're going to have play competitively, play from behind and take risks. I think that puts the SEC champion in a game like this with some comfort."

One thing about the SEC is that a coach can never become too comfortable. Next season, at least three SEC teams are expected to begin the year in the top 10. Georgia returns 17 starters and could end up as the preseason No. 1. Florida returns the Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin, perhaps the most explosive wide receiver in the country.

L.S.U. loses Flynn, the title game's most valuable player, and the defensive stalwart Glenn Dorsey, but it has replacements ready. The sophomore Ryan Perrilloux, who was considered one of the nation's top recruits, will take over for Flynn at quarterback.

The defense showed its depth when the sophomore backup safety Harry Coleman came in and hit Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman, forcing him into an interception, and later scooped up a Boeckman fumble that sealed the game's outcome.

More help is on the way. Miles said L.S.U.'s next recruiting class would allow it to compete for national titles.

"We expect to be a very strong football team," Miles said.

And, as the past two seasons have shown, the Tigers will be playing in the best conference in college football.

 

[Sandhusker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it all before. :roll: Some writer needs a story so he invents somthing like "SEC Speed" and suddenly speed is a geographical phenomenon. :roll: Charlie Weiss was hailed as a genius - then middle of this year people were asking how many years were left on his contract. :roll: Oklahoma was the "Team of the Century" then Kansas St. handed them their asses. :roll: Georgetown couldn't be beat - until they met up with 10 loss NC St. :roll: A couple of years ago, Tiger Woods had lost it.... :roll: A guy can go on and on with the nonsense writers come up with and others parrot. Enter Paul Harvey and the "Rest of the Story Crew";

L.S.U.'s comfortable 38-24 victory over Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series title game came a year after Florida's 41-14 dismantling of the Buckeyes in the title game. Those runaway victories have helped create the perception that the SEC is distancing itself from other conferences.

Key word "perception". Note the perceptions in the examples provided above.

The SEC went 7-2 in bowl games this season, has won 4 of the 10 Bowl Championship Series title games and became the first conference to win back-to-back B.C.S. titles.

5 of those wins were by an average of 5 points. That is dominance?

"I don't know if we're really far ahead of everyone else," L.S.U. tailback Jacob Hester said of his conference. "But week in and week out it's a tough game. After SEC games I feel a lot different than nonconference games, I can tell you that."

You're not ahead of everyone else. You felt different because you played one decent non-conf. team - the rest were cup cakes.

The physical dominance of the players in the league, along with team speed, was considered one of the biggest differences between L.S.U. and Ohio State heading into the game.

Considered by who? Where was that team speed when nobody could catch Ohio St.'s running back?

Last year in the title game, Florida's defensive front seven overwhelmed the Buckeyes' offense from the opening snap.

I guess Florida lost their speed somehow from last year to this? Where was it against Michigan?

"We just knew we were going to hold their offense," he said.

Remove OSU's 5 personal fouls and LSU's offense had problems, too.
The best argument for why the balance of power in college football may be tilting further toward the South is that L.S.U. felt prepared for this game because it had played so many difficult opponents. Ohio State played a weak out-of-conference schedule.

Middle Tenn. St, Tulane, La. Tech were on LSU's out-of-conf. schedule.

The Buckeyes' only nonconference game against a B.C.S. team was on the road against Washington.

LSU's only nonconference game against a BCS team was Virginia Tech - a loser to perennial powerhouse Kansas.

L.S.U., on the other hand, found itself in every conceivable situation on the field. The Tigers were down by 10 points in the fourth quarter against Alabama and needed a comeback to win.

A team that struggled to beat 6-6 Colorado.

They needed five fourth-down conversions to topple Florida.

A team that lost to Michigan (who couldn't beat Ohio St., Oregon, or Div. 2 App. St.)

They needed a gutsy call for a touchdown pass in the waning seconds to get past Auburn.

Auburn needed OT to beat Clemson, got beat by S. Florida and beat Missouri-mauled Arkansas 9-7.

"The SEC is a very competitive league," Miles said.

So is the PAC 10, Big 12, ACC....

The defense showed its depth when the sophomore backup safety Harry Coleman came in and hit Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman, forcing him into an interception, and later scooped up a Boeckman fumble that sealed the game's outcome.

One of several great blitzes called by the D-Coordinator, who is leaving for Nebraska.

OK, Mike, you got the reaction you wanted. Rebuttal time.

 

[jigs]

, Oklahoma was the "Team of the Century" then Kansas St. handed them their asses. .

35 - 7

Sandy, you showing the Purple Pride some love just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy......

 

[Sandhusker]

, Oklahoma was the "Team of the Century" then Kansas St. handed them their asses. .

35 - 7

Sandy, you showing the Purple Pride some love just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy......

Don't get used to it. I'm just calling a spade a spade for 'ol Rosy Glasses Mike. :lol:

 

[jigs]

do you want me to get you the book Bill Snyder wrote??? I can even have him autograph it.
want it to read :

to Massengill Sand Husker. thanks, Bill Snyder

 

[loomixguy]

do you want me to get you the book Bill Snyder wrote??? I can even have him autograph it.
want it to read :

to Massengill Sand Husker. thanks, Bill Snyder

Get 'er comin', Jiggsy. I'm sure Sandy would appreciate the toilet paper/woodstove starter, especially this time of year! :lol:

 

[Mike]

OK, Mike, you got the reaction you wanted. Rebuttal time.

I didn't write the article. Why would I want to rebut your insanity? :???:

Looks like you need to debate the national sportswriters and change their "perceptions"! :lol: :lol:

Hey Jigs, I heard this quote used the other day:

"TRADITION" is a term used when the present time is uncomfortable."

That fit anyone you know? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[jigs]

just anyone with a red N ........ but Bozo will lead them back to the promised land!

 

[Sandhusker]

Bo knows football.

 

[Mike]

Bo knows football.

Actually Bo Knows Football AND Baseball:

Bo knows stardom and disappointment
By Ron Flatter
Special to ESPN.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There have been others -- from Jim Thorpe to Deion Sanders. But even now, eight years after he played his last football game and four years since his last baseball game, Bo Jackson is still considered by many to be "the man" among multi-sport athletes.

Although he had the Heisman Trophy on his resume already, Bo Jackson's 221 yards rushing against Seattle a month into his pro career really captivated American sports fans.
Legendary? To this day, memories of Jackson linger, and not just because an ad campaign made "Bo Knows" a mantra. There was that Monday Night Football touchdown run through Seattle's Brian Bosworth in 1988. There was the 1989 All-Star Game home run, which he hit while Ronald Reagan was in the TV booth describing it.

He never played for a world champion, but the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Jackson was the first athlete named to play in the All-Star Game of two major sports. Not bad for a guy who won a Heisman Trophy and became a 1998 College Football Hall of Fame inductee in a sport he described as his "hobby."

"When people tell me I could be the best athlete there is, I just let it go in one ear and out the other," Jackson said when his star was near its apex in 1990. "There is always somebody out there who is better than you are."

Maybe in one sport or the other. But from the fall of 1987 to the winter of 1991, Bo knew no equal among paid athletes who took less than two months off.

In baseball, he was a career .250 hitter with 141 home runs and 415 RBI in 2,393 at-bats in eight major-league seasons (1986-91, 1993-94) as an outfielder and designated hitter with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. He hit 107 homers for the Royals from 1987 through '90, when he also played pro football.

As a part-time running back making full-time money with the Los Angeles Raiders, he ran for 2,782 yards on 515 carries, an impressive 5.4 average, and scored 18 touchdowns running and receiving in that 1987-90 period. He is the only player in NFL history to have two rushing touchdowns of 90 yards or more, with a 91-yarder coming when he rambled for a Raiders record 221 yards against Seattle a month into his pro football career.

His last play as a Raider began the end of both his football and baseball careers. Even though the 1991 injury would lead to hip-replacement surgery in the spring of 1992, Jackson would make a triumphant return to baseball before retiring for good.

Vincent Edward Jackson was born Nov. 30, 1962, in the steel town of Bessemer, Ala. The eighth of Florence Jackson Bond's 10 children, he was named after her favorite television actor, Vince Edwards, who portrayed Dr. Ben Casey. A child renegade, his family said Jackson was as wild as a "boarhog." Eventually, he came to be known as "Bo."

About his tough childhood, Bo said in his book "Bo Knows Bo," "We never had enough food. But at least I could beat on other kids and steal their lunch money and buy myself something to eat. But I couldn't steal a father. I couldn't steal a father's hug when I needed one. I couldn't steal a father's whipping when I needed one."

Hardly a model student, Jackson showed his prowess in sports -- plural. At McAdory High School in McCalla, Ala., Jackson claimed two state decathlon championships. As a senior, he ran for 1,173 yards on 108 carries (10.9 average) and scored 17 touchdowns in football, and slammed 20 home runs in 25 games in baseball.

His baseball talent caught the attention of the New York Yankees, who selected him in the second round of the June 1982 draft. But Jackson turned down their multiyear contract offer to accept a football scholarship from Auburn.

In college, Jackson ran for 4,303 yards and scored 43 touchdowns in the regular season. Twenty-one times he rushed for three figures. He culminated his Auburn career in 1985 with four 200-yard rushing games in a 1,786-yard season and won the Heisman Trophy, an achievement Jackson called "my greatest honor."

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Jackson the first selection of the 1986 NFL draft. But Jackson rejected their five-year, multi-million dollar contract. "My first love is baseball," he said, "and it has always been a dream of mine to be a major-league player."

So Jackson, who as a junior center fielder at Auburn hit .401 with 17 homers with 43 RBI in 42 games, waited until the Royals made him a fourth-round pick in the 1986 baseball draft before signing his first pro contract. After spending only 53 games in the minors, Jackson made his major-league debut on Sept. 2, 1986, and got an infield single off Steve Carlton in his first at-bat.

It would not be long before he would moonlight. Since he did not sign with the Buccaneers, his name went back into the 1987 draft, and the Raiders picked Jackson in the seventh round. Unlike the Bucs, Raiders owner Al Davis embraced Jackson's baseball career. When Davis offered full-time money to pursue part-time football work after each baseball season, Jackson signed a four-year contract.

By 1989, Jackson was a baseball All-Star. His mammoth home run to center in Anaheim off Rick Reuschel leading off for the American League made him the All-Star Game MVP.

In 1990, the 698 yards he gained in 10 games with the Raiders earned him a selection to the Pro Bowl, though he would never play in the game. That's because on Jan. 13, 1991, he suffered a hip injury while being tackled during the Raiders' playoff victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. No one knew at the time, but the resulting condition, known as avascular necrosis, would lead to the deterioration of the cartilage and bone around his left hip joint.

When Jackson's hip did not respond to treatment, the Royals released him. He was picked up by the White Sox, but Jackson's natural hip had given out for good after he played only 23 games in 1991. Within a year, the joint had deteriorated so much, doctors replaced it with an artificial hip.

Medical and athletic experts figured Jackson would not be heard from again. Apparently, there were no Bo Jackson experts to be heard. During the months after the operation, Jackson worked himself and his prosthetic hip back into shape. Not just to walk, but to run and compete.

Jackson's return to the White Sox was even a bigger splash than his previous double burst into pro sports. In his first game back in 1993, Jackson pinch-hit a home run off the Yankees' Neal Heaton. Although he hit 16 homers that year, he batted just .232 and the White Sox released him. Jackson then hit a career-high .279 with 13 homers in 201 at-bats for the Angels in 1994.

His career ended all too quietly when that season was cut short by a players strike. Not long after, his "Bo Knows" campaign for Nike, once a loud voice on the advertising landscape, ended just as quietly. Before the 1995 season began, Jackson retired from pro sports.

"God has his way of opening up our eyes to see reality," he said. "The way He opened my eyes is to allow me to have this hip injury. That is a rough way to go, but I had to accept the fact."

Keeping a promise he made to his mother before she died of cancer in 1992, Jackson went back to Auburn and graduated in December 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in family and child development.

He opened a motorcycle shop outside Chicago and went into partnership with Charles Barkley on an Alabama restaurant. He serves as president of the Sports Medicine Council, a non-profit, youth outreach organization of HealthSouth Corporation.

 

[jigs]

just think how great he could have been, had he not lowered himself to an SEC team.....

 

[katrina]

just anyone with a red N ........ but Bozo will lead them back to the promised land!

So when do we get to see you sporting your NU red????

 

[Mike]

just think how great he could have been, had he not lowered himself to an SEC team.....

I agree. He could have grown up to be just like Johnny Rogers. :lol:

 

[Sandhusker]

NEW ORLEANS — It was a familiar airport scene on Tuesday, a bunch of people dressed in red telling each other sad stories about the previous day's football misery.

Anyone who has made airplane journeys to Nebraska road games in recent years has witnessed this behavior the day after disappointment — visits to USC, Texas and Colorado come quickly to mind.

Except this time it was Ohio State fans, sitting around Gate C15 with pained expressions and sulky voices, taking it hard in the Big Easy.

A man with a big "O" on his hat shook his head as he stared at the very large photo on the front sports page of USA Today. There, smack in the center of the picture, was Bo Pelini, caught by a camera click in a moment of untamed celebration after an interception.

Nebraska fans hope this is just the beginning of Pelini causing heartache to other fan bases.

After Monday night's BCS title game, a 38-24 victory for LSU over Ohio State, Pelini is now red all over, fully removed of his duties as the Tigers' defensive coordinator.

"I'm sure going to miss him," LSU coach Les Miles said Tuesday morning. "… He has all the qualities — intelligence, competitiveness, the ability to motivate players. I think he's going to be a great coach at Nebraska, and we look forward to facing him in a game like this years from now."

LSU defenders were similar in their sentiments after the game. Tigers' defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, possibly the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, even joked that he wouldn't mind going and playing a few snaps for Pelini the head coach.

"He'll be a tremendous coach," said LSU safety Craig Steltz. "Players love him. He's a great person, not just on the field but off the field."

LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson said it was an emotional pregame locker room as Pelini talked to his guys for the final time.

His last message to his LSU defense was a simple one.

"He just told us he loved coaching for us, he was going to miss us and that we had to go out for him and play for him one last time and put on a show for him," Steltz said.

Despite the pressure of holding two job titles at once, having been named NU's coach on Dec. 2, Tigers' players say it was the usual Pelini preparation heading into the title game.

Sophomore Harry Coleman, who would come in for an injured Steltz and have the game of his young college career, said Pelini was a tough coach when he had to be, but also cracked jokes to ease the tension leading up to the game, "just clowning."

LSU gave up 133 yards within the game's first six minutes, but then settled in, allowing 353 yards for the game, sacking Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman five times and forcing three Buckeyes' turnovers.

"I don't think he was ever able to get real comfortable," Pelini said. "If a quarterback can't get comfortable, you're going to win most of the time."

Ohio State did score three touchdowns, the second one bugging Pelini the most. The score came on a fourth-and-4 pass from the 5-yard line late in the third quarter. For a moment, it looked like the pass might be intercepted.

"Oh, we should've. Miscommunication over there. We should've held them," Pelini said on the field after the game, still a tad annoyed at the thought of that play even amid the postgame celebration. "I knew what the route was, but what are you going to do?"

His wife, Mary Pat, stood nearby as purple and gold confetti rained down. The band blared and fans screamed so loud you could barely hear a person 5 feet from your face.

"This is why you're in this game, that's why you're in this sport, to reach the pinnacle," Pelini yelled above the noise. "Obviously, there's nothing higher than a national championship. I've been fortunate. I've won a Super Bowl in the pros and now I'm part of a national champion. It's just a dream come true."