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| Friday, October 27 Giving thanks a great rivalry is back By Chris Fowler Special to ESPN.com | |||||
After a decade of dormancy, a great rivalry reawakens Saturday.
It's the rivalry Bob Stoops remembers watching as a kid in Iowa. Me, too. I was in Illinois, but wherever you were, if you grew up in late 1960s, '70s, or early '80s, Nebraska versus Oklahoma was an annual football feast.
I got in big trouble Thanksgiving Day, 1971. But no way was I going to come to the family dinner table when "The Game of the Century" was seesawing back and forth. Moms just don't understand. At least my Mom didn't. Then again, she and my dad went to Colorado and they didn't much care for either side.
My maternal grandparents grew up in Nebraska, though. "Let him stay and watch the game," they said.
I did. I watched the big Husker line punch holes for Jeff Kinney in the final, methodical drive for the winning touchdown with about a minute and a half left. Made me lose my appetite. Like Stoops, I preferred the Sooners as a kid. Loved the wishbone.
The 2000 edition is in some ways more intriguing than the old battles. Styles make fights, and these two couldn't be less similar offensively. The Oklahoma defense has to prove it can handle the big nasties up front for Nebraska (they really do have a gnarly, collective mean streak, these Husker O-linemen) and Nebraska's newly grown up defense has to show every bit of the cohesiveness, aggressiveness and sure tackling it has the past two weeks.
Frank Solich says he feels blessed to coach in games like these. "They test all that you know," he says.
That's really well put. I feel blessed to watch them. It's my first Nebraska-Oklahoma game in person.
My approach is a little different than most, and so my AP ballot looks different than most. I'm now just one of three voters rating Oklahoma first, over Nebraska after one switched back this week. My vote is not really a prediction on the Big Red showdown. I don't always cast votes based on who I believe might win upcoming games. (By the way, NOT making a habit of announcing predictions has allowed me to answer the most asked and most annoying question I get each week: "Who do you like?" Simple answer: I'm not in the prediction business. Unless it's a national title game or unless both Kirk and Lee agree on Team A and I respectfully disagree. Example: they both joined our Gameday colleague Tony Barnhart in calling for an Alabama win at Tennessee. I liked Tennessee and said so.) Anyway, I give close calls on my ballot to the team that I think has accomplished a little more at this point. No. 1 Oklahoma. More-Comfortable-Than-the-Score-Looked road win at K-State spoke loudly. Now, the bar is raised higher. Sooners could make me look real bad. No. 2 Nebraska. Ranking here is really no big deal, since I'll likely end up giving the No. 1 to Saturday's winner anyway. No. 3 Virginia Tech. Hokies might not have beaten Syracuse if Troy Nunes hadn't made the terrible decision to heave a pass across the middle as he was falling to his knees in the end zone, with the 'Cuse up 14-3 in the third quarter. The interception started the Hokies' winning flurry. Michael Vick did not resemble a Heisman front-runner until his clinching TD run. No. 4 Miami. Again, placing them behind Tech is not a prediction on the Nov. 4 meeting. Not at all. No. 5 Florida State. Noles' ranking ahead of Clemson is not a prediction on the Nov. 4 meeting. But it might as well be. No. 6 Clemson. Tigers were dismal early, dominant late at UNC. But if Ronald Curry doesn't get knocked out of the game, they may not have stolen so much momentum. Heels were down seven, with a chance to tie before Curry (who returned) threw a pick. Third straight game I have been less than wowed with Tigers, but they keep scoring and winning. No. 7 Florida. Grossman to Gaffney is an answer to Spurrier's prayers. The Gators should handle Georgia (oops, is that a pick?) and if they do, they remain very much in the BCS hunt. Don't bring up the BCS to the Ball Coach, though. It's all about the SEC East for now. No. 8 Oregon. Talk of the Civil War with Oregon State in three weeks is rampant in the state. But the Ducks must beware road trip to Tempe and the Vegas types know it. ASU stops the pass well and may be a charmed team: their charter home Saturday landing safely, despite a hole in the tail caused by a pair of lightning strikes 20 minutes before arrival! No. 9 Washington. Huskies keep on surviving tight games. Of course, Cal helped them a lot with a second major collapse in two years vs UW. It was truly something amazing to behold. Note: if Huskies win out and Oregon State beats Oregon to create a three-way tie atop the Pac-10, the Huskies would win the Rose Bowl tie-breaker based on non-conference wins. 10. Ohio State Bucks' ranking in danger at Purdue. Still the only Big Ten team with any chance to be in the BCS mix and a lot could have to happen. Did you notice? Among the many story lines in this one, is a matchup of the oldest starting QB in I-A and one of the youngest. Chris Weinke is 28 years, three months. Philip Rivers is among the youngest five of the roughly 200 QBs who've started this year, at 18 years, ten months. Rivers has been very impressive, even in the close loss at Clemson. This is the test of his life. But the coach's son has had two weeks to see FSU tape, and he has the one guy who, probably more than anyone, knows the strengths and limitations of the Noles defenders in Chuck Amato, the man who recruited and coached many of them. These factors give N.C. State a chance. By the way, Amato's family still lives in Tallahassee, where he assisted Bobby Bowden for 18 years. His daughter Selena is an FSU student who happens to date the Seminoles' center, Jared Moon. Will she root for her school (and her boyfriend of three years) or the old man? Coach Amato has laid down the law: She will cheer for the Wolfpack, or she'll be tossed out of the press box by a cop and have "to listen to the game on the car radio in the parking lot." He's kidding. I think. Selena will wear N.C. State red, but also don an FSU button with Jared's picture on it. Aawwww. Maybe Selena's loyalties were swayed a bit by this quote Moon gave to the Tampa Tribune. "Women and football are like vinegar and water. They don't mix and they shouldn't mix." Wow. If a coach said that, he'd be slapped with a lawsuit in a nanosecond. Funny stuff The brass here at ESPN.com probably won't want me mentioning the address of a Web site that's been created to spoof it. More precisely, the site spoofs what its creator perceives as an ESPN Heisman bias toward Michael Vick. The site is well done and I laughed out loud. But it's way off-base. Maybe I'm a little sensitive about being seen as biased toward a particular candidate. The rap doesn't stick. Sure, I mentioned in 1992 that Mr. Corso's weekly trumpeting of Gino Torretta should include a mention of San Diego State's Marshall Faulk. In '98, we simply reported that the Heisman race was not developing as the Peyton Manning landslide it was being widely portrayed as, based on some good info I had the final weekend of the season. A lot was made of that. Now, we're being viewed as strongly Pro-Vick. Huh? Last Thursday night, Rod Gilmore did tab Vick at the top of his current top five. But Mike Gottfried followed by leaning toward Eric Crouch. Saturday, Lee Corso reaffirmed his choice of Chris Weinke and put Vick down the list. Kirk Herbstreit said Drew Brees was his leader of the moment. I've pointed out many times that Vick's candidacy has been largely based on memories of the Sugar Bowl magic, preseason hype, and his flair for producing several Sportscenter-stealing highlights per game. Voters have all sorts of criteria for the Heisman. So, if you think the college football studio crew is part of some ESPN plan to turn the trophy, the Web site, and a large chunk of the company stock of over to the talented Mr. Vick, you're not watching very closely. So far, we've been fair and balanced and mean to stay that way. But the site is good humor. You'll have to find it yourself, though. Top Ten pep talks Dave Letterman's hysterically funny rant about the gridiron miseries of his alma mater, Ball State, was tough for the Cardinals to take. After their 20th straight loss, Dave implored the players (who he said were breaking curfew to watch his show in the first place) to show some spine. . .some pride. . .something! On and on he went, as the nation laughed at their futility. The Cardinals responded by going out there and losing their Homecoming game to MAC rival Northern Illinois. And they found nothing amusing about the late-night national negative pub. But then, something magical happened. The Cardinals went and spoiled Homecoming at Miami. OK, it was the Miami in Ohio, but that team had beaten the SEC's Vandy in Week One. Next victim: Eastern Michigan. Then, Ball State slapped around I-A rookie Buffalo. From 21 straight L's to three W's in a row! Ball State has a great chance to make it four, at 1-6 Central Michigan Saturday. The Cards are 3-0 since Bill Lynch switched to redshirt freshman QB Talmedge Hill. He's injecting more athleticism and mobility to the position and running some option. Meanwhile, it's nice to see the many members of the once-beleagured senior class enjoying success. They'd endured much since arriving the year after Ball State won the MAC in '96. That's right, the Cards were the old guard MAC team to win the title before Marshall muscled in. Appropriately, Letterman is front and center on this new juggernaut's bandwagon, showing weekly highlights of Ball State's wins. Suddenly, the school's most famous alum is lauding their efforts for all to marvel at. Dave has requested game tapes be sent each week. He's talked of returning to campus for a football weekend but hasn't found time yet. Hurry, Dave, tickets for the big Western Michigan showdown (with MAC West title implications!) are disappearing fast. Gameday road show No. 62 Hope to see you Saturday morning live from Norman. It's the show's third regular season visit to a 1 vs 2 game. I'm counting this as 1 vs 2 because that's how the BCS standings rank them and it is the current method for determining the title game combatants. Gameday will come from inside Owen Field, as the place fills up and minutes to kickoff tick down. Tom Osborne and Barry Switzer will join us as we look back at some of the series' best moments. We'll have a feature on Torrance Marshall and Rocky Calmus, OU's fine linebacker tandem and a report on how the Husker defense has grown up fast. Plus, a feature on Florida's Rex Grossman and Jabar Gaffney and a report from the Cocktail Party. Should be big fun. Chris Fowler is the host of College Gameday and his column appears every Thursday. | ALSO SEE College Football ... On Campus with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit Norman notebook: Oranges just a slice of history Norman notebook: Now everyone wants to see OU Herbstreit: First ... And 10 | ||||
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