Championship Weekend Rewind
By Judd Hall
Championship Saturday in college football provided some great finishes and one clunker of a game. And I’m pretty sure that clunker was one we never saw coming.
The day started with the Big East title up for grabs between the Bearcats and Pittsburgh at Heinz Field. The sportsbooks weren’t terribly sure about this contest by making Cincinnati a 1 ½-point road “chalk.” Can’t fault how the betting shops handicapped this game since the Panthers hadn’t lost a single game at home this year.
The Panthers took advantage of good play calling on their part, along with some dumb execution from Brian Kelly’s crew, to jump out to a 31-10 lead. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person that thought the game was over at that point. Then Mardy Gilyard gave Cincy a glimmer of hope. Gilyard returned a kickoff 99 yards to help pull the Bearcats within 14 points before halftime. Kelly said it best, “The kickoff return was the spark that got us back into the game.”
That one touchdown helped get Cincinnati back into gear on defense, allowing Pitt to have to drives that were longer than 30 yards in the second half – both of which went for touchdowns. The final score for the Panthers, however, saw Andrew Janocko do his best Tony Romo impression by fumbling the snap on the point after attempt. That missed extra point proved costly as Tony Pike found Armon Binns for a game-tying score with 33 seconds left in the game. Zach Collaros didn’t have any issues putting the ball down for Jake Rogers to give the Bearcats’ a 45-44 victory.
The Bearcats’ second straight Big East championship is truly incredible when you consider that they returned only one player on defense. And let’s not forget about the distraction that is Kelly getting bombarded about the vacancy at Notre Dame.
Everyone figured that that Cincy-Pitt game would be a great appetizer for the game that was destined for greatness in Atlanta between the Gators and Crimson Tide. Of course, that was before opening kickoff of a 32-13 triumph for Alabama.
Alabama’s offense was able to make damn near every big play it was faced with, converting 11 of its 15 third downs and have twice the amount of first downs as the Gators (26-13). Greg McElroy did a masterful job of running the attack, completing 12 of 18 passes for 239 yards and a score. The most impressive for McElroy was that he was sacked just once, which tells you just how good the Tide’s offensive line was performing.
Mark Ingram might have pushed himself into the front of the Heisman Trophy race after picking up 189 total yards and three rushing touchdowns.
The SEC’s other Heisman candidate, Tim Tebow, certainly looks like he bowed out of the running after Saturday’s performance. Tebow connected on 20 of 35 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown. Yet he couldn’t get much going on the ground like we’re used to seeing, gaining only 63 yards on 10 carries. The most damaging play for Florida’s signal caller was getting picked off in the end zone on a first-and-goal from the six-yard line. That interception took what could have potentially been a 32-19 deficit early in the fourth to a game that was out of reach.
The other major player in the Heisman derby, Texas’s Colt McCoy, had arguably the worst performance of his career against the Cornhuskers. McCoy was chased by Nebraska’s athletic defensive line all night long, sacking him nine times. He only picked up 184 yards passing and was picked off three times.
McCoy’s effort was magnified by the fact that the ‘Huskers had no type of offense, but were still have cost his team a win had it not been for the fact that the ‘Huskers have no type of offense, scoring four field goals. Still, that was just enough to take a 12-10 lead late into the fourth quarter.
Of course, you can erase all bad things with one good drive. McCoy got that chance with the Longhorns’ final drive. He completed one pass for 19 yards to Jordan Shipley that got augmented with a 15-yard horse collar tackle penalty. A pair of runs by the Texas gunslinger set up what was more of the interesting plays I’ve seen in college football.
McCoy was chased out of the pocket and threw an incomplete pass with as time expired to give Nebraska the upset…or so we thought. The dark shadow men of the Big XII went under the curtain and determined that McCoy’s pass hit a luxury suite’s railing with one second remaining.
One second was all the time that Hunter Lawrence needed to sneak a 46-yard field goal to put the ‘Horns into the BCS. Make no mistake about it, Texas was given special treatment to get this win.
As far as the other game of the day that had BCS implications, Georgia Tech took care of business for a 39-34 win against the Tigers in the ACC title game that was wild at the very end.
The Yellow Jackets looked like they were set to roll to a big win, taking a 33-20 lead into the fourth quarter. But C.J. Spiller picked up a score in the fourth quarter and gained 233 yards and four touchdowns as Clemson pushed out to a 34-33 lead with just over six minutes to play. But the Rambling Wreck had them right where they wanted.
Georgia Tech executed a 13 play, 81 yard drive that lasted just under five minutes. Jonathan Dwyer finished that drive with a 15 yard run to put the Jackets up by five. Tech only faced third down once on the drive (failed to convert) and one fourth down play (two yard run by Josh Nesbitt) on its championship-winning drive.
Not a bad way to finish off Paul Johnson’s second season on the job in Atlanta.