I wish I didn't have to be at work later this morning (I'm writing this early in the morning but will schedule it to publish later in the day) because, after Michigan's loss to South Carolina I'd like to sleep in, and wake up pleasantly hungover.
Instead, I had to watch the game (mostly) sober.
That said, even had I tied one on I'd probably be feeling better this morning than Vincent Smith. You remember Smith, the Michigan running back that got destroyed by SC defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney? Yeah, him. I feel really sorry for him. Not as sorry as I'm feeling for Michigan right now, a team that is losing their marquee player and is in the middle of yet another retooling. Fortunately, I do believe that Brady Hoke is the long term solution, but it's going to have to be long term because the Wolverines have a long way to go.
Too bad for Northern Illinois as well. Sure there were plenty of people who were rooting against them, including the Orange Bowl committee itself but, for a lot of us, those B(C)S busters serve as proof of case that the system is flawed. For those that support "college football elitism" this is just another data point in their argument that some schools just shouldn't try to play with the big boys.
What everyone forgets however is that the problems that plague Michigan and NIU are very, very similar. In both games each team was lacking in overall team speed, and power. It's easy to point at NIU and laugh at their ineptitude last night against FSU but the fact is the Seminoles are the ones that should be mocked. With all of the talent, speed and power on their roster it's they that shouldn't have been in that bowl. They should have taken care of business and been in the National title game.
But they weren't, because they apparently don't have very good coaching at the position level and (especially at QB) they have talented players who can't consistently produce. Contrast this to NIU, who has less talent, but who gets every last inch out of it and you had the makings of what could have been a pretty good game. However, NIU lost their coach and that was probably too much to take for a team that needed everything to go right.
There's a reason college football on Saturday's is often a much more entertaining product than what you see on the NFL on Sundays. It has a lot to do with speed and power mis-matches all over the field that teams can take advantage of. When you add-in modern offensive schemes (the NFL is 20 years behind the College game in offense) and coaches who aren't 100% risk averse you get a better product for entertainment, despite the fact that the quality of talent is uneven and lower than that of the professional league. If the NFL is about schemes and systems, then college football is about speed, power and passion.
In that respect, give me the college game any day of the week when it's available, except for any bowl game played before Christmas Day. To succeed in today's college football market however Michigan is going to have to take care of a couple of things: They're going to have to get faster and they're going to have to get stronger. For teams like NIU (read: Non B(C)S conference teams) the answer is speed. If you can get enough athletes to run with the big dogs you can beat them in bowl games with large payouts. In the coming environment, it could be possible that you could win two games and a championship, unlikely, but possible. Until we expand to 5 sixteen team super-conferences that is, then you're all getting a demotion anyway so that will be that.
