I Love College Football and Its Lessons

Now, anybody who knows me will tell you that I am a huge Alabama football fan; I used to work at the home games during middle and high school, and I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing like that environment. Even in the years when we couldn't get anything resembling an offense going, the true fans never gave up hope. I believe that I speak for all Alabama fans when I say that this 13th national championship (not 8th) was long overdue.

As much as I love Alabama, however, I also respect college football itself. There's nothing like seeing guys go out there and give it their all for the sake of their team and just that pure competitive nature.

That being said, there are two things that happened recently that made me love this sport even more: 1.) Colt McCoy's postgame speech and 2.) Lane Kiffin's leaving/Derek Dooley's hiring.

Check out Colt McCoy's speech below:



I was as happy as anyone else, probably happier than most, about Alabama's win, but I gained a ton of respect for McCoy by the way he handled himself after not being able to finish his final collegiate game. Part of his message applies to all of our lives: we have to let God be in control of our lives, and trust the decisions that He makes for us; He knows what he's doing. Good luck in the NFL, McCoy.

Now, as much as I hate Tennessee (who doesn't?), I was happy to see Lane Kiffin leave. Not because he left the program in a tough place, but because he never deserved to be there.

People in the SEC take pride in their football, which is why their was a mini riot when fans found out he was leaving. You don't quit the SEC; the SEC quits you. I say good riddens...have fun underachieving at USC.

Tennessee is better off with Derek Dooley in my opinion. Son of Georgia legend Vince Dooley, and a former high-powered attorney (read his story here), Dooley understands the traditions of the league and what it takes to win. He's not coming in just waiting for the next best thing to come along. Don't get stuck on his 17-20 record at Louisiana Tech. Check out his quote below on what has happened recently within the Tennessee program:

"If you think this is as hard as it gets in life, look out," Dooley said. "Because life is tough. You're going to get knocked down a bunch. The quicker you learn to deal with how you react to it, dust your britches off and move on, then the quicker you're going to lead to happiness."

Another life quote! See how much college football can teach you about life?

Anyway, outside of the best college team the world has ever seen (biased?), guys like McCoy and Dooley are the reasons I love college football.

Cheers,

JIP

My View on Mid-Major College Football teams

Jon Becton might have you believe that I'm not a fan of mid-major college football teams...this is not entirely true. I'm not a fan of mid-major teams who don't play anybody all season and whine about why they should be in a BCS bowl. Yeah, Boise State somehow won in '06 against an Oklahoma team that had a high school quarterback-converted to college wide receiver-then back to quarterback for his senior season. Fantastic. The stuff movies are made of, especially the cheesy proposal after the game. But this is 2009, and this team is still riding off that victory. Of course you should go undefeated in whatever conference Boise is in (the WAC...appropriate title). But a season where an extremely average Oregon team is your toughest competition won't cut it.

Now, I'm sure that many who are reading this will, if you haven't already, will point to the weak schedules of some of the teams in automatic qualifying BCS conferences, particularly out of conference, take Florida for example. And I agree, there's no reason for the defending champs to have the 119th hardest schedule in the country, but being in a conference that is extremely competitive does afford you some luxuries.

For instance, your Floridas-Texas-Alabamas of the world can lose one game, maybe two and still make the national championship game, as they should. You have to judge a team on the level of competition of who they play the majority of their games against, which is their respective conference. As of today, when you face an FCS team in UC-Davis and 8 other teams that rank between 60 and 105 in the CollegeBCS.com ranking (yes you, Boise State) won't cut it.

Now, as much as it pains me to say this, Utah obviously had a good team last year and they showed that against Bama. But another luxury afforded to schools that are proven is that they are ranked more favorably in the polls because of their ability to consistently recruit top talent. Mid majors don't necessarily have that ability, and the polls reflect that. That's why Utah finished the year as #2 and started this year as #19 in the AP poll. They have to consistently show and prove.

To wrap this up, I respect mid-majors more for scheduling a hard, or at least competitive, schedule and losing a couple of games, than taking the Boise State route and whining about why they should be in the BCS and how they get cheated, etc. Once they learn that the only way to gain respect is to consistently challenge top talent and do it with success, then maybe it'll reflect in the polls. Who knows, maybe I'll even cheer for them.

Cheers to BYU after they got massacred on the 19th,

JIP