Maaco Las Vegas Bowl Preview

Utah vs. Boise State

                I guess Vegas is where the best teams in the country that no one wants to acknowledge get to play. Utah is better than several teams in BCS bowls games and Boise State is still the best team in the country, in-spite of their loss to Nevada. This game should be very interesting to watch. It certainly won’t be much of a quarterback battle if history is any indication. While Kellen Moore is the single best quarterback in the country, Terrence Cain is getting the start solely because of an injury to the regular starting quarterback Jordan Wynn. This can both help and hurt the Utah offense. On one hand, Cain is tremendously athletic and could bring a different dimension to the rushing offense. On the other hand, Cain is not a great passer, especially in the intermediate routes. He does have the arm strength to challenge the secondary deep, which can be helped by the solid play of wide receivers DeVonte Christopher, Jerome Brooks, Shaky Smithson and Luke Matthews. However, Utah cannot become a pass first team in this game. Boise State is simply too good at pressuring the quarterback and handling man-on-man coverage for Cain to beat them with his arm. They need to rely on their rushing game, particularly the power rushing of Matt Asiata. While Eddie Wide brings a lot of explosiveness to the rushing game, Boise State’s defense has the athleticism to match those sweep plays that Wide excels at. The best way for Utah to keep up offensively, is to just let Zane Taylor, Caleb Schlauderaff and the rest of the offensive line drive the Boise defenders off the ball and be methodical with their play calling.

                Boise State on the other hand has a tremendous advantage with their offense, not just because they have the best quarterback in college football (Kellen Moore) and one of the best offensively innovative minds (Chris Peterson) stalking the sidelines, but because they make sure their offense is completely balanced. They excel at both rushing the ball and passing it, allowing them to adapt to whatever the opposing defenses puts in front of them. In this game, the Broncos don’t need to dominate on the ground, they just need Doug Martin and Jeremy Avery to keep Utah’s defense off balance. Utah’s pass defense has been porous in the red zone and, in spite of the efforts of talented cornerback Brandon Burton, have given up 18 passing touchdowns (only 5 rushing touchdowns were scored against them this season). While average teams may only be able to exploit that defense in the red zone, Kellen Moore should be able to pick apart the holes in that defense and take advantage of every possible matchup. It helps that he has two very good wide receivers in Austin Pettis and Titus Young. Pettis has great size and is a precise route runner while Young is a speed demon. Don’t be surprised if you see wide receiver Tyler Showmaker or tight end Kyle Efaw have big games either. There are only so many defensive backs Utah can get on the field at any time, leaving an opening somewhere in that defense. Kellen Moore is the kind of quarterback who can take advantage of that. Also, don’t underestimate his ability to step into the pocket and move to avoid sacks. I think the pass rush of Utah will be neutralized by that savvy.

                The special teams match-up is also going to be interesting to watch. Both teams have a dynamic returner and a strong placekicker. Titus Young, who I mentioned earlier also returns punts and kickoffs for the Broncos and can be dangerous if given a hole or two. However the bigger issue is Shaky Smithson, the Utah returner, leads the nation in punt return average (19.7 YPR) and Boise State has had issues covering kicks and punts. If Utah has Smithson back returning kicks as well as punts, they may not have to concern themselves with keeping up offensively. Also, when you consider the very public failures Boise state Kicker Kyle Brotzman experienced during the Nevada game, it’s easy to assume that he may have some issues keeping his cool in this spotlight.

Prospects to Watch

                Utah

                                Zane Taylor – Offensive Center/Guard: Taylor is an experienced and intelligent center. He shows great toughness and awareness pre-snap. However he lacks ideal bulk and shows some inconsistencies with his technique. Strengthening up before the combine could help his cause, but as it stands he could fit in well with a team that runs a zone-blocking style run offense. He could go in the later rounds.

                Boise State

                                Titus Young – Wide Receiver: While Young is not as precise a route runner as his teammate Austin Pettis, he has the speed to draw interest from numerous teams. He also has experience as a returner, which is in high demand these days. I’d expect to see him come off the board between the 3^rd and 6^th rounds, depending how he tests during the combine.

Final Pick

                Boise State – All the signs indicate that Boise State remains the superior team. While I know Utah can pull the big upset, it’s difficult to see them pulling a major upset in this game. 

The Heisman Trophy

                “Heisman Trophy Winner.” It’s a phrase that all the young high school signing their letter of intent dream of hearing. It’s one of biggest selling points that schools sell recruits on and perhaps the highest honor that some of these players could ever achieve.

                ……At least it used to be

                In recent years, the luster of Heisman hype has seemed just a bit dimmer. Truth be told, the Heisman Trophy simply isn’t the sought after prize it once was, no matter what the old-school pundits may tell you. For all the pomp and circumstance, watch lists and debates, red carpet events and television coverage; what is the big deal with this trophy? As much as people around college football try and build up the importance of this trophy, the simple fact is that it has lost a great deal of its luster. But why?

                Well, there’s probably a lot more going on behind the scenes than I know about, but I can narrow down some of the reasons I do know about.

                One of those reasons is the controversy surrounding the 2005 award that was presented to Reggie Bush. A scandal involving an agent providing over 200,000 dollars’ worth of benefits that fell outside the rules established by the NCAA regarding player eligibility rocked Bush’s world just before the 2006 draft. It was only this past summer that sanctions were finally leveled against USC, including a two year ban from bowl games and all memorabilia from Bush’s time with the team being removed. In essence, they tried to strike Bush’s existence from the record books. In all honesty, it’s foolish to believe that that action has nothing to do with the consistent increase in player/agent impropriety. The case with Bush was just the tip of the iceberg in the NCAA’s nightmare. Since then, between the scandal at North Carolina and the Cam Newton allegations, the NCAA has to feel that they are watching their carefully crafted monopoly crumble under the weight of public scrutiny.  While scandal has always surrounding the NCAA, the level of scandal that is almost continuously raining down upon their heads these past few years has greatly hurt their image. When constant questions exist surrounding the eligibility of players, it makes all awards feel somewhat…..secondhand. This is especially true when awards are handled differently from case to case. It also doesn’t help that current Heisman finalist Cam Newton has been accused (and is probably guilty of) of extremely similar offenses.

             Another major reason the Heisman’s importance has plummeted, is the lack of professional success for those winning this award. The entire concept of the award is to recognize the best player in college football right? Well, when the supposed best player in college football has had an, at best, mediocre professional career; it damages the reputation of the award as well as interest the awards receives from NFL fans. Think of it this way, between 1975 and 1990, four Heisman Trophy winners were selected number one overall in the NFL draft, three more found themselves in the Pro Football Hall of Fame {PHoF}  (one more [Tim Brown] to follow if the voters have any sense at all) and one (Earl Campbell) accomplished both feats. However since that fifteen year period, only two players (Carson Palmer and Sam Bradford) who have won a Heisman trophy, have also been selected number one overall in the NFL draft. Also, none have been inducted into the PFoH.  While I could make an argument about some current (Charles Woodson) and recently retired (Eddie George) being worthy for PHoF induction, however that doesn’t change the fact that there are so few Heisman trophy winners are making an impact in the NFL. It’s this lost legacy that has made the Heisman trophy such a joke in the eyes of NFL fans and less than relevant in the eyes of NFL Draft-nics (like me).

              But probably the biggest reason the Heisman trophy has lost so much of it’s meaning in the eyes of fans like me, is the simple lack of integrity and narrow-mindedness that seems to accompany the selection of the winner of this (formerly) prestigious award. Since the first Heisman Trophy was given out in 1935, there have been have 75 Heisman Trophies awarded, and of those, five have not been either quarterbacks or runningbacks. Also, eight of those winners have come from schools that are currently not in a BCS conference, three of those winners came from schools that are current in the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA). So with the exception of TCU, SMU, Houston and BYU, no school that isn’t currently in a BCS conference or independent has had a Heisman Trophy winner. When you break down the numbers like that, consider that since the inception of the BCS, no player from outside a BCS conference has won the trophy and correlate the player winning the trophy with the BCS ranking of the school he played for, it’s easy to see that there is clearly a great deal of bias surrounding the selection of the winner of this trophy. Take last year’s awards as an example, everyone who followed college football knew how incredibly dominant Ndamukong Suh was and how he could change a game by himself, quite a feat for a defensive lineman. He was clearly the best player in the country during the course of the season; however that was clearly not enough for the Heisman voters. He finished fourth in overall voting behind Colt McCoy (playing the BCS title game), Toby Gerhart (1800+ yards rushing and 28 touchdowns) and the winner Mark Ingram (playing for BCS title). While Ingram didn’t have a bad year, when you take away what team he was playing for, he wouldn’t have even gotten an invite. When I think of the most dominant player in college football from year to year, I don’t take whether or not the team is winning into account. To see both the most outstanding player in college football and the most outstanding offensive player in college football get beat out by a great player on the eventual BCS championship team shows me what the Heisman Trophy actually is about. It’s about being the most impressive offensive force on a team that is competing for a BCS title. While I’m sure in some people’s minds, that moniker is equivalent to being the most outstanding player in college football as a whole; the truth is that it’s just an extremely bias award that helps promote the BCS title game as a product. It’s a marketing tool and nothing more.

              Maybe I’m just crazy, but that seems to me to why the Heisman trophy has become so irrelevant to many fans of football. But because it is a major event, here is my prediction of who will win tonight:

Who Will Win:

                        Cam Newton – Quarterback – Auburn

My Vote:

                        Kellen Moore – Quarterback – Boise State

Who Should be There:

                        Justin Blackmon – Wide Receiver – Oklahoma State