El Mundo Sports

Over the past few decades, The University of Miami has produced some of the best football teams and players in the history of college football. From quarterback Jim Kelly to wide receiver Michael Irvin and Defensive stalwarts Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, the Hurricanes have had a certain swagger that has made the program one of the best in the country. But something happened. Something changed.

After the Hurricane’s won the National Championship in 2001, a steep decline occurred in the performance of the players on the field. It all seemed to start with the loss in the 2002 National Championship game to Ohio State. The next year, the Canes’ lost two games, which is still considered respectable. That’s when things progressively got worse. After losing three games in 2004, the Hurricanes would again lose three in 2005 including a blow out loss to LSU by a score of 40-3. The Miami players didn’t know what hit them, and they had no idea what was coming the next year.

2006 was quite possibly the lowest point for a storied program that was used to winning National Championships and only a game or two a year. Not only was the team struck with the tragic death of player, Bryan Pata, but the team lost six games en route to one of their worst seasons in decades. 2007 turned out to be even worse as Miami lost seven games and were considered a laughing stock by many. For a program so menacing for so long to lose six games for the third straight year was unthinkable. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened in 2008, as the Canes lost exactly six including the Emerald Bowl to California.

Then, a Freshman by the name of Jacory Harris showed up. At the start of this season (2009), Harris has led the Hurricanes to huge wins over ranked opponents, Florida State and Georgia Tech. All the talk this week has been how the Hurricanes are back and the program has been turned around. The savior of this football team is supposed to be the sophomore quarterback Harris, who has looked like a true Heisman candidate to this point. So, the Hurricanes faced nationally ranked Virginia Tech in the third game in a row facing a ranked team. What happened?

Many questions were answered, and the discussion about whether or not the Canes are back can be put to bed. The Hokies beat the Hurricanes to a pulp, 31-7. Harris looked no better than an average high schooler, and the Miami defense didn’t look good either. They probably aren’t far from being back on the national scene, and next weeks meeting with nationally ranked Oklahoma would do a lot of good toward the future of the program if they can pull out a win. Most people thought the CAnes would start out 0-4, but they’re a respectable 2-0. We’ll see how they bounce back from this loss.

Right now, they still aren’t “The U.” At least not the old one.

Share/Save

I love college football. It’s a time of year, as an American sports fan, that people of all ages rejoice in with the youthful exuberance of a child playing in the pee-wee leagues. The college football season is a time of celebration, a time for togetherness, and a time for some of the best food cooked on bar-b-que pits this country has to offer. It’s an experience that is hard to describe to others outside of this part of the world, unless they see if for themselves. It has become truly America’s game.

The innocence of the game is what allows me to indulge in that feverish moment when I wake up on Saturday mornings and wonder what gems the day will bring. Will the underdog pull off the big win this week? Will the biggest game of the week live up to the hype? Will a relative unknown team hit the biggest stage with a flurry for all of this country to see?

I just don’t have the same feeling for Professional Football, that I do for the collegiate game. Maybe it’s the money. Maybe it’s the attitudes. Honestly, I think that it’s the fact most people can relate. Not to being a football player per se, but to being a college student. Football players still have to go to class. Students have to go to class. Football players have a job to do, which is to practice and play football. Students have jobs in most cases. Football players have to study. So do students.

I remember sitting in my Freshman Geography class at LSU when in walked one of the receivers on the football team. I admit that I stared at him as wide eyed as a baby looking at a piece of candy or a dog waiting for his master to give him a treat. But the football player came to class everyday, sat down, and took notes. He took the tests. He passed the class. He was…well a real student. I vividly remember thinking that he belonged with us. Maybe it was more like we belonged with him.

In an age where the combination of money and power has been intertwined in sports, the innocence of college football seems to be losing its luster. The problems with the BCS system of ranking teams and deciding who goes to what bowl game has been a topic of major discussion over the last decade. With athletes ready to leave their schools early and go pro, in order to make as much money as possible, has changed the game known for its passion than anything else.

A new problem seems to be surfacing over the last year or so and it doesn’t seem to be going away. With all of the money the “business” of college football generating, people are actually being paid to create pre-season rankings based on how good they think all of the teams should be. I get why this happens. If you think about it, it creates a buzz and interest in the game and adds to the excitement. It also creates “big” matchups vs the highly ranked teams. Only there’s a huge problem with this.

Pre-season ranking are at best a wild guess as to who is truly better than anyone else. In trying to match-up teams, and create hype, what’s actually happening is several teams start out closer to the bottom of the list (closer to #25) and never have a realistic chance to make a BCS game or play in the National Championship game. Teams that start out much higher can lose a game - or possibly two - and still have a shot at the BCS Championship game. If you take a look at the polls right now, there are 8 teams in the top twenty-one of the AP poll, and yet #’s 22 & #23 are still undefeated. That means the coaches who vote on this poll still believe that 8 teams with loses are better than several teams still undefeated.

If we take a closer look, Houston is still one place behind Oklahoma State, despite beating the Cowboys on the road by 10 points. No one thought Houston was going to be any good, so they weren’t even ranked. Oklahoma, who lost to BYU, are 9 spots ahead of the Cougars with an identical record. The pollsters though the Sooners were going to be awesome and ranked them at #3 to start the season. Worst of all, Washington is still 12 spots behind USC, even after shutting down the Trojans and pulling out a last second win in Seattle. Reasoning? Washington was 0-12 last year, and no one thought they’ed be any good. So, they didn’t start out with a high ranking. I don’t think anyone really thinks the Huskies are more talented than the Trojans, but you get the point.

I think the point here is that we have to see how good the teams actually are before we rank anyone. It’s important to rank properly - even pre-season - because it is counted in the BCS formula for picking the top 2 teams to meet for the National Championship. The BCS problems are a whole different argument that I just didn’t get enough sleep last night to go into right now.

Even with these problems, college football will remain America’s Game.

Share/Save