College Football Hall of Fame Bridges Eras
Dave Curtis - SportingNews.com
Jul 20, 2009
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Eras intersect at every turn inside the College Football Hall of Fame. A photo of Reggie Bush shares a corner with a cardboard cutout of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen. There's a locker labeled "J. Berwanger" for the first Heisman Trophy winner and a flag for Western Kentucky, the newest Division I-A program.
The setting chronicles the game's evolution, and on enshrinement weekend here, so do the cast of characters. This year's 21-man class, bookended by Arnold Tucker (Army, 1946) and Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern, 1996), saw college football in all of its modern forms.
So, what do some of college football's greatest players of the past think about current topics in today's college football world?
Good thing we had them in the same place Saturday to ask.
The BCS
Going on 22 years later, Don McPherson still feels fine about his senior season. The 1987 Syracuse Orangemen didn't lose a game, but they never had a chance to win the national title.
A BCS-type structure wouldn't have saved them -- No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Oklahoma, both undefeated and untied, squared off in a de facto national championship Orange Bowl ('Canes 20, Sooners 14). SU still might have ended up in the Sugar Bowl opposite SEC champ Auburn, as it did on New Year's Day, 1988 ('Cuse 16, Tigers 16). But reflecting on it, McPherson said, would have been much different.
"My memories are what an awesome, amazing season that was," he said. "Now, it would be about whether we would get into the right game. And if we didn't, would that cost us millions of dollars? Everybody would be talking about how we didn't win the national championship and all that nonsense. No one would talk about how great it was."
McPherson then paused for a beat.
"Thank God there wasn't a BCS when I played," he said.
The Spread Offense
Thurman Thomas laughs at the talk about spreads and no-huddles and offensive revolutions.
"It's pretty much the K-Gun," he said, referencing the scheme that helped carry his Buffalo Bills to four Super Bowls in the 1990s.
Thomas said he loves watching the high-octane college offenses, such as the one at his alma mater, Oklahoma State. He is, however, troubled by the frequent audibles.
"They all turn toward the sideline," he said. "All 11 of them. I'm like, 'What the hell are they looking at?' I wish the coaches who called the play would trust their players to run it right, or their quarterback to get out of it."
The spread got thumbs-up almost all-around, especially from Texas Tech grad Dave Parks. The 1963 All-American receiver hinted he'd love to hit the fountain of youth and run some slants in Mike Leach's offense.
"Whatever he does, it works," Parks said.
Recruiting
None of the Saturday's inductees received stars next to their name in high school, or had their stats broken down on a message board, or sent tweets about their campus visits. And other than the fact that Coach A from School B wants a high school kid to come play for him, nothing about the recruiting scene is the same.
"Recruiting," former Arizona State lineman Randall McDaniel said, "is a whole different game."
Different pressure, different stakes and different people involved in the process lead the list of differences. Most of those asked Saturday pleaded ignorance about how much things have changed. And they probably don't even want to know.
Body Maintenance
A year ago, Ron Simmons returned to Florida State and grew amazed as he walked around the multi-million-dollar weight room. After three decades in football and professional wrestling, one thought persisted.
"When I look at the facilities, and the accessibility they have to nutrition and strength coaches and all the modern technology, I wonder what myself and the guys I played with would have been able to achieve," he said.
Most of the handful of inductees asked Saturday about steroids in their era evaded the question; Simmons, at FSU from 1977-80, said he enrolled before the performance-enhancing drugs grew popular in the college game.
The Hall of Famers, though, wish they could have lifted and eaten and trained with the guidance and equipment today's players enjoy.
Star Gazing
Tucker turned 80 a few years back, and needs to lean forward in his chair to stay with the conversation. The former Army quarterback lives in Miami these days and keeps busy by … watching college football.
"There are more games on than anyone can watch," Tucker said. "But I watch all I can."
Although McDaniel and former Wyoming star Jay Novacek say they don't watch college games (McDaniel said he's never seen Tim Tebow play), the sport remains alive for many of these players past. Tucker said he pulls for Army against Navy and spends the rest of the year fighting a Tebow crush.
"He's a horse," Tucker said of the Florida QB. "He would have done great back when I was playing, too."
And again, eras intersect here at the College Football Hall of Fame.
Dave Curtis is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at dcurtis@sportingnews.com.
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