News and Notes: ‘Big Ten Bashing,’ the Coaching Hot Seat, and More
With preseason practices getting underway at campuses around the country, there’s plenty of news and notes to get to. So let's get to it.
- Ron Musselman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote an interesting piece this week about the rise of “Big Ten bashing”—the result, of course, of Ohio State’s back-to-back losses in the BCS Championship game. Musselman writes:
Ohio State's poor performance in the national championship game the past two years seems to have tainted the entire conference.
Apparently, nobody told Ron that logic doesn’t figure much into the thinking of either college football fans or the college football media (hello, ESPN), which seems to be jumping on the anti-Big Ten bandwagon simply because Ohio State (a single Big Ten team) failed to show up for two straight national championship games. For example, it’s interesting that, as much as everybody seems to be slobbering over Florida—allegedly one of the SEC’s best last year and once again this year—nobody mentions how that "great" Florida defense got torched by a not-great Michigan team in last year’s Capital One Bowl. Remember, Michigan lost to Appalachian State last year.It doesn't seem to matter that the Big Ten has five teams ranked in the USA Today Top 25 preseason coaches' poll, tying it for the lead with the SEC and the Big 12.
Meanwhile, don't even get me started on "Southern Speed ..."
- Musselman also caught up with embattled Penn State co-offensive coordinator Jay Paterno, who offered a glimpse (sort of) of the Nittany Lions’ new offensive attack for 2008.
They’re calling it … “Spread HD.”
"It's really a glorified wishbone offense," Paterno tells Musselman. "It's a different system than people have seen the last couple years. The whole idea of it is to give us the best chance to win. We want to get to the point where we have an established running game, and, if we need to, we can throw the ball to win games in the fourth quarter."
My thoughts? We shall see.
- In Syracuse, N.Y., and Seattle, Washington, the hot seat is growing ever hotter for Greg Robinson and Tyrone Willingham.
The Syracuse Post-Standard summed up the state of Robinson’s struggling program in just a few sentences this week, concluding that “the list grows longer and longer of the reasons for the SU Football fan to not want to get out of bed in the morning.”
Meanwhile, Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times writes that, because Washington is such a young team, poor Willingham’s fate "lies with the snotty-nosed young talent on this roster.”
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I should note. There certainly is talent at UW, starting with super-soph quarterback Jake Locker.
But while Willingham has already predicted his Huskies will make a bowl game, the schedule certainly won’t be working in his favor. Washington’s non-conference schedule is among the most difficult, if not the most difficult, in the entire country: Oklahoma, Notre Dame and BYU. Ouch.
Six wins should save Willingham’s job. Eight or more would merit beatification.
- Finally, down in Columbia, Missouri, optimism around the Mizzou football program is at an all-time high.
The Tigers came out of nowhere to finish 12-2 in 2007, and were just one win from playing for the national title. With several key starters back for 2008, expectations are soaring. The Tigers are the runaway favorite to with the Big 12 North and are a dark horse to play for the national championship (if they can just get by Oklahoma).
Quarterback Chase Daniel and his teammates, however, don’t seem fazed.
"We don't worry too much about expectations,'' Daniel told the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. "A lot of the rookies might worry about that (and say) 'Hey, we're ranked seventh in the nation,' but that stuff doesn't matter.''
Photo: Nobody really mentions it much in these days of "Big Ten bashing," but Michigan knocked off a much-hyped SEC team, Florida, in last year's Capital One Bowl. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)
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