Quick Kicks

The BCS Still Sucks
The BCS began with a giant thud on New Year’s day, with both games decided by an average margin of 31.5.

What Did We Learn?
We learned that Hawaii is not yet ready to sit at the big boy table. Visions of Boise State glory (vis a vis BSU’s win over OU last year) danced in many a Warrior’s head, but Hawaii was never really in the game. Unfortunately too for Colt Brennan, he put up what was probably the worst game of his career in the most important game. Colt Brennan this year was the football embodiment of the Christopher Moltisanti character from the Sopranos- a good earner but ultimately not really respected by the rest of the made men.

We learned that Juice Williams and Illinois were a good, not great team, that played one great game, their best game in fact, in the win against Ohio State. Turnovers doomed the Illini and the win gave a young USC team tremendous momentum heading into next year.

We also learned that, as most people opined when bowl selections were announced, Georgia-USC would have been the best matchup in the Rose Bowl. Thanks to the garbage system that’s in place, we’ll never know who would have won that game.

Heart
Michigan showed they actually did have some heart, getting an impressive win over Florida in Lloyd Carr’s final game as Head Coach. Though Michigan couldn’t stop Percy Harvin, they did a very good job of containing Heisman Trophy winner Lord Tebow and showed remarkable unpredictability on offense, shredding the Florida secondary along the way (they weren’t alone in doing that this season). The disappointing regular season for Michigan’s Seniors ended on a positive note with a gutsy upset over a good, not great SEC team.

Tiger Pride
After Missouri got rolled by Oklahoma in the Big XII Championship game and then shut out of the BCS, I fully expected them to mail it in for the Cotton Bowl. I give massive props to Missouri for steamrolling Arkansas, out rushing them by 160 yards and winning by 31 points.