BCS Title Game Could be a Mismatch
Matt Hayes - SportingNews.com
Dec 08, 2009
The eye test already has Nick Saban on edge. Then again, what doesn't?
"You're just being set up when you're listening to talking heads out there," Saban said on a teleconference Sunday night. "It's probably based on a lot of misinformation."
You say misinformation, I say clear explanation: The BCS national championship game is a mismatch.
White-hot Alabama vs. stumbling Texas.
It's almost enough to make you wish for TCU or Cincinnati in the big game. As it is, the unbeaten Horned Frogs and unbeaten Boise State will play in the Fiesta Bowl, and unbeaten Cincinnati will play Florida in the Sugar Bowl after the BCS pairings were announced Sunday night. Iowa was the last at-large team, selected by the Orange Bowl to play Georgia Tech.
The focus, however, is on Pasadena, where Texas will play for the third time in six years and Alabama will play (in the postseason) for the first time since 1946. Texas will try to win its second national championship in the BCS era, while Alabama is shooting to extend the SEC's dominance: five championship games, five victories -- including the last three.
"We're well aware of how our league has played in that game," Alabama guard Mike Johnson said. "We take a lot of pride in that."
A quick look at the game:
Texas two-step: Tide quarterback Greg McElroy and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy both played high school football in Texas. Even though McCoy could win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, McElroy may be playing better right now.
Both played against the best defenses they'd faced all season in league championship games. McElroy had a career game; McCoy had the worst game of his last two years.
Mentor vs. pupil: Will Muschamp thought so much of Saban when the two were together at LSU -- when Saban taught Muschamp everything he knew about defense -- that he left with Saban to coach in the NFL.
Muschamp came back to campus and now is Texas' coach-in-waiting. If Saban could make a carbon copy of himself, it would be Muschamp. Don't think he won't have the Longhorns ready for anything from the balanced Tide offense.
Deja vu all over again: Didn't we see this show in 2005? USC was all flash, no flaws and primed to roll over a Texas team that cruised through an overmatched conference.
McCoy isn't Mr. Everything Vince Young, but you better believe he has the talent -- and more importantly, the moxie -- to do everything Young did in this game.
Including pulling off an upset.
Matt Hayes covers college football for Sporting News. E-mail him at mhayes@sportingnews.com.
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