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 Friday, December 13, 2002
Weekend wrap-up: Can anyone knock the Sooners down?
By Terry Bowden
Special to BCSfootball.com
Bowden's Weekly Chat Show
Every Sunday throughout the season, ABC studio analyst Terry Bowden will weigh in his assessment of the weekend's games, the highlights, the lowlights and the surprises.
Three Game Balls:
Oklahoma: A lot of people have said there were no great teams out there this year, but if you ask me after Oklahoma beat Texas, Kansas State and now Nebraska, the Sooners are beginning to look like a great football team. Saturday's destruction of the Cornhuskers continues what may be one of the great stories in college football. Oklahoma not only becomes the front-runner to win the Big XII championship, but the Sooners now become everybody's consensus No. 1 as the best team in the country.
I still can't figure out if it is all about coaches and schemes or about athletes, but you have to say that somebody is going to have to do something special to knock Oklahoma out of first place.
Purdue: The Boilermakers have talked about having a great year, but until Saturday's last-minute victory over Ohio State, you couldn't be sure if it was going to happen. Drew Brees may have thrown four interceptions on Saturday, but after he threw three fourth quarter touchdown passes and led Purdue to victory over the Buckeyes, Purdue is almost a shoo-in for the Rose Bowl and puts Brees in the driver's seat to take home the Heisman Trophy.
If you look at the statistics of Brees and Josh Heupel, there is no comparison. So if the Heisman is all about performance, no quarterback is doing more this year than Brees. Still, you have to wait and see who can maneuver around the minefield of potential upsets before you pick a winner.
|  | | Oregon's Joey Harrington threw six TD passes in the Ducks' 56-55 victory over Arizona State. |
Oregon: You know you have the greatest job in the world when you are sitting in the studios in New York, watching 12 TV monitors of nothing but college football. In a day when at least 10 major games were decided on the last play, Oregon's improbable 56-55 double-overtime victory over Arizona State had to be the best. Oregon's home-field advantage is becoming famous, but for the Ducks to go to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. and win like they did is what champion seasons are about. Joey Harrington is not being mentioned as a candidate for the Heisman, but his six touchdown passes against the Sun Devils was one of the great performances of the season.
Surprises of the day:
Georgia Tech's victory over Clemson: All the talk in the ACC this year has been about the up-and-coming Clemson program, but Georgia Tech has all but put an end to the Tigers' miracle season. Fans of the Yellow Jackets know perfectly well that Tech could very well be undefeated, but for a close loss to Florida State and an overtime tumble to North Carolina. This team keeps getting better and better. Tech won this game on offense and on defense and showed why George O'Leary's program is a lot more serious than the one we thought was just riding the coattails of last year's quarterback sensation, Joe Hamilton.
|  | | Ja'Mar Toombs bulldozed his way to three scores against Kansas State. |
Texas A&M's dominance of Kansas State: The Aggies have not been mentioned much in talk of the nation's top teams, but in their victory over Kansas State, they showed why they are a southwestern team that must be reckoned with. When Texas A&M plays great defense like it did Saturday, the Aggies always challenge for the Big XII championship. But with the offensive show they put on against the Wildcats, you have to think they just might be a team that could throw a wrench into a lot of people's national championship plans. You better circle your calendar for Nov. 11 when Texas A&M plays Oklahoma -- in College Station -- because you just may see a shakeup in the No. 1 position.
Central Florida: If you had to pick a football program that has a chance to become a new contender for national honors in the next 10 years, it would have to be upstart Central Florida. For a team that played Division III football just a decade ago, to beat Alabama -- in Tuscaloosa on Homecoming Weekend -- is improbable. You can't ignore the progress the Knights have made. I still think back to the first game of the season when Central Florida blew a last-minute lead over Georgia Tech that foretold the quality of this up-and-coming program. Beware all you conference contenders if you think about putting Central Florida on your schedule as a Homecoming opponent.
Helped themselves:
Notre Dame: Most people don't give a lot of credit for a win over Air Force, but Notre Dame's overtime victory over the Falcons is just another example of this Fighting Irish team's ability to win close games. When I think of all the close losses Notre Dame should have won the past two years, it seems like the Irish are getting rewarded this year with a lot of miracle victories. It looks like Bob Davie is on the way to guiding this team to a 9-2 season and a place in the Bowl Championship Series' elite eight.
Washington: With all the talk about Oregon and its heroic exploits this season, we forget about another team in the Pac-10 that is having an incredible season. Washington blew an 18-point lead in the final six minutes against Stanford Saturday, but came back for an incredible victory to remain one of the few one-loss teams in the country. Although the Huskies' chances of making the Rose Bowl are slim by fact that they lost the head-to-head competition to Oregon, they are putting the finishing touches on head coach Rick Neuheisel's second year of building this championship-caliber program. Just another reason you would have to say that the Pac is back.
Florida State: Although everybody expected the Seminoles to come away from North Carolina State with a victory, no one figured they would do it so convincingly. This is a Top 25 Wolfpack team that played Clemson and Georgia Tech extremely close, and yet they were not in a league with Florida State on Saturday night. Whether the 'Noles get to the championship game or not, they are better than last year's national champions in every phase of the game with the exception of their kicking game. If any one-loss team is going to make it to the FedEx Orange Bowl, you have to think it is going to be Florida State.
Hurt themselves:
Nebraska: I really questioned whether the Cornhusker defense could stop the explosive passing attack of the Oklahoma Sooners, and of course, they did not. But who would have imagined that their NCAA-leading rushing attack would be shut down as it was in Norman, Okla.? After jumping to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Nebraska did nothing offensively that would make you think they were the No. 1-ranked team in the country. You have to wonder if enough improvement can be made over the next few weeks to get Nebraska up to the level of play that might give them a chance to get back into the Big XII Championship Game and beat that same Sooner team on a neutral field.
Clemson: Although this game was very close and Georgia Tech had to win it on a touchdown pass with seven seconds left to play, Clemson did not show us a football team that can win its conference, much less a National Championship Game. If it had not been for a blocked punt that led to a touchdown and a punt return that went for seven, Tommy Bowden's offense was pretty much shut down by the Yellow Jackets. So not only is the Tigers' ability to stop the big play on defense in question, but you have to wonder if the ACC has figured out how to corral Clemon's newfangled attack. The next two weeks will say a lot as to whether this is going to be a good 8-3 ball team or whether they will be a real contender for national honors.
Kansas State: We were all ready to put this team into the championship game just a few weeks ago, but after a loss to Oklahoma at home and a shaky victory over Texas Tech, Texas A&M revealed the truth about this Wildcat football team. They are good, but so are a lot of other football teams. And the question still remains whether this football program can become one of the elite in the nation.
Terry Bowden is ABC's college football studio analyst and hosts a weekly audio chat on BCSfootball.com on Thursdays at 5 p.m. ET. This week, he will be joined by his father, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, and his brother, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden.
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Oklahoma's Andre Woolfolk pulls down the circus-catch on his back with one hand.