Final Whistle: Navy shows wishbone's not dead, and Barry Switzer agrees
Late Saturday night, the highlights from Navy’s victory against Houston prompted Barry Switzer to tweet an appreciation, of sorts, for the method as much as the upset.
“Have always been asked if ‘Wishbone’ is dead? My answer is no just most of the coaches who coached it are except for one at Navy! @NavyFB”
Putting aside the recurring entertainment value of one of college football’s all-time characters thumbing tweets, Switzer’s thought is worth exploring. Unable to routinely recruit the same caliber of athlete as its FBS-level peers because of service academy requirements, Navy uses the wishbone as an equalizer.
But Switzer insists that while if he were still coaching, he might tweak the wishbone to run it from the Spread, it would work anywhere.
“Without a doubt,” he said. “Without a doubt. There’s no magic playbooks. If you have good talent, the option game is still — it’s a great offense. That would be my base. I would make you defend the perimeter, I would make you defend the dive, I would make you defend the quarterback.
“It’s still the same thing. I don’t care, 20 years from now it will still be the same.”
In Navy’s case, the offense is even more effective because it is so rare. Defenses don’t see it. They practice it only in preparing specifically for the Midshipmen. Against Houston, Navy rushed for 306 yards on 63 carries. Senior quarterback Will Worth had 32 of those carries, for 115 yards (and attempted only five passes — completing three, with two touchdowns).
“It gives them a chance,” Switzer said — and Saturday, it produced a huge upset.
Back to the tweet, and Switzer’s reference to coaches.
“I’ve always joked,” Switzer said, “no one runs the wishbone. People will ask me: ‘Is the wishbone dead?’ No, but most of the coaches that coached it are dead. Darrell Royal, Bear Bryant, Emory Ballard, most of them are gone.”
TIME TO FIGURE OUT HOW AND WHEN TO PLAY
There were good reasons to postpone LSU at Florida. The bickering back and forth about wheres, whys and hows of the decision is unseemly.
Hurricane Matthew didn’t hit Gainesville. But as late as Thursday, when the decision not to play was made, there wasn’t certainty as to just what would happen. Various predictions suggested it would be as strong a storm — potentially catastrophic — as has hit Florida’s Atlantic Coast in a very long time. Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned, “This is going to kill people.”
Ultimately, and thankfully, Matthew didn’t strike as hard as it might have. But first-responders who normally work football games in Gainesville were otherwise occupied along the coast. And the idea that a football game should hold any importance at all during that situation — or that officials at one school or another had ulterior motives, and that correspondingly the SEC commissioner somehow got played — well, enough of that.
It’s time now to figure out how to get the game played. The options aren’t great, but they’re doable.
The best option is Nov. 19, even though it would require both teams to cancel a home game (LSU with South Alabama, Florida with Presbyterian). Buy out those games, play in Gainesville. In that case, though, not only would LSU lose a home game, the Tigers would be faced with three consecutive SEC road games, and in 13 days (they play at Arkansas Nov. 12 and at Texas A&M on Thursday, Nov. 24).
Another option is Oct. 29. LSU is idle, and the Florida-Georgia game could be moved up a week (the Gators and Bulldogs are idle Oct. 22). But the logistics of moving that game are considerable, too, because the game is played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla. The stadium is configured differently for Florida-Georgia than for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, who have a home game scheduled Oct. 23.
Every solution brings its own set of problems. But the game needs to be played — and not simply because not playing it might alter on the SEC’s final standings, the SEC championship game and perhaps even the College Football Playoff picture.
APPLE CUP FOR ALL?
The Pac-12 standings have gone all topsy-turvy. Washington is getting most of the attention – and deservedly so, considering the Huskies’ domination in successive weeks of Stanford and Oregon. But Washington State has done the same thing, only in reverse.
Last week, the Cougars beat up on Oregon, winning 51-33. And Saturday, they blew out Stanford on the road, 42-16.
Don’t look now, but after starting 0-2, Washington State is 3-2. A season that seemed like it might unravel after losses to FCS-level Eastern Washington and to Boise State is instead very much alive. What’s changed?
“Every coach in the country will say this, and most people ignore it and think it’s kind of coachspeak,” Cougars coach Mike Leach said, “but we’ve gotten to where we’re doing our job. There’s a precision to doing our job, where guys sometimes will do it and sometimes they won’t. We’ve been really hard-core about doing your job, do it exactly like this, be real focused on that. You’ve got 11 guys out there, everybody synchronized and doing it together.”
Important context for those comments: Two days after the loss to Boise, Leach unleashed, saying the Washington State program had “the atmosphere of a (junior college) softball game.”
“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s like the team that wins is the one that has the most fun,” he said then. “(Stuff) like that. All that stuff that’s contaminated America where they give every kid a trophy, and they don’t keep score in little league anymore. I think that entire thing is retarding the competitive spirit of America. And I think we need to keep that in mind. And as coaches, you know, we need to aggressively reinforce our points.”
Apparently, it’s working. Leach also says the Cougars have become a more physical bunch. That’s something that has never been their reputation during his tenure. But as evidence: Against Oregon, the Cougars rushed 40 times for 280 yards and six touchdowns.
“Sometimes they gave it to us, and other times we were trying to run the clock, you know?” Leach said Sunday. “But it can’t be ignored that our running backs and our offensive line have all improved.”
The passing game hasn’t gone anywhere. Luke Falk threw for 371 yards against the Ducks and for 357 yards and four touchdowns against Stanford.
And while it’s obvious that Oregon and Stanford aren’t what they’ve been, they’ve combined to win the last seven Pac-12 titles. They’re a combined 5-6 — but Wazzu hung two of the losses on them, and in a big way.
“If you beat those guys in a game of jacks, it’s a huge deal,” Leach said Sunday afternoon.
Don’t look now — or as Leach and Washington coach Chris Petersen would put it, don’t look ahead — but the Apple Cup, which will be played in Pullman on the day after Thanksgiving, could have huge stakes.
HOUSTON WE DON'T HAVE A PLAYOFF
Last Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, media members gathered for what is now an annual mock selection process for the College Football Playoff. Though the group worked with the results of the 2010 season, selection committee chair Kirby Hocutt took time to address current issues — or at least, current before the weekend.
Hocutt said than that Houston “has done everything they could do in the eyes of the committee to deserve consideration” because of a non-conference schedule that included Oklahoma (a 33-23 win Sept. 3) and Louisville (Nov. 17). That was, until Saturday.
“They’ve got to win the games,” Hocutt also said.
It’s easy to overdo the results of one game in a season — we all do it all the time — but Navy’s 46-40 upset of Houston altered the Playoff conversation. Simply put, barring complete chaos Houston needed to win them all to have any shot. Which only means — sorry Boise State, we see you there undefeated, but it’s not happening — we’ll go at least another year without learning whether a Group of Five team can, in fact, find its way into the four-team bracket.
SELECTION COMMITTEE'S DRY RUN
The first College Football Playoff Top 25 will be released Tuesday, Nov. 1, after the ninth week of the season. If you think that’s too early — and we think exactly that — consider that on Sept. 26, new selection committee members Jeff Bower (the former Southern Mississippi coach), Herb Deromedi (Central Michigan’s former athletic director and coach) and Rob Mullens (Oregon’s athletic director) joined Hocutt for a mock selection of their own. They worked with this year’s results — or the first four weeks, anyway.
Hocutt wouldn’t reveal the results, but said there weren’t nearly enough games played to draw the definitive conclusions they were asked to reach. The goal was simply to acquaint the new committee members with the process.
But it points us back to this incongruity with those preliminary rankings — Nov. 1, Nov. 8, Nov. 15, Nov. 22 and Nov. 29 — that serve only to drive conversation. Everything changes in college football, and sometimes every Saturday. Definitive conclusions shouldn’t be drawn until all the games have been played.
(For the record: the media’s mock selection last week of a Playoff field for the 2010 season was: 1) Auburn; 2) Oregon; 3) Wisconsin; 4) TCU. Ohio State and Stanford ranked Nos. 5 and 6, respectively.)
RICHROD'S SEAT: NOT HOT
Arizona fell to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12 in a 36-23 loss at Utah. And here’s a sign of the times: Before the game, Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne was asked if coach Rich Rodriguez might be on the hot seat.
“From time to time, I’ve been asked some ridiculous questions by the media,” Byrne said, according to Tucson.com. “I think that one just went to the top of the list.”
Under Rodriguez, Arizona has played in four consecutive bowl games — a program first. The program has grown tremendously on his watch. Apparently, expectations have, too.
QUOTABLE
“It’s always tough when there’s 70 points up there. It’s like a basketball game. It’s frustrating.” — Oregon defensive coordinator Brady Hoke, after Washington scored 10 touchdowns on the Ducks
“In this league it’s chaos every week.” — Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, after the Sooners outlasted Texas in a Red River, uh, shootout
“We’re certainly not where we want to be, not in all facets of the game.” — Alabama’s Nick Saban, after the Tide’s 49-30 win against Arkansas
THREE TO WATCH
Alabama at Tennessee (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, CBS): The Tide continues to roll, now 18 in a row and counting. Next up, Tennessee, which finally saw its magic run out. Can the Vols rebound?
Ohio State at Wisconsin (8 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC): All the Buckeyes do is roll over opponents. All Wisconsin does is play defense. Can the Badgers slow the Buckeyes?
West Virginia at Texas Tech (Noon Saturday, FS1): The undefeated Mountaineers have won their past two games by four total points, but at least on paper, they’re one of the Big 12’s Playoff hopes. The Red Raiders’ philosophy, meanwhile, is to score and be scored upon. Could be fun.
QUICK KICKS
► After Alabama’s 49-30 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville, Tide coach Nick Saban sought out Hogs offensive lineman Frank Ragnow to offer consolation for the death of Ragnow’s father Jon.
“I lost my father (Nick Saban Sr.) when I was in my first year of graduate school,” Saban told reporters afterward. “He’s a fine young man and player. For him to have to go through that, our thoughts and prayers are with his family. I wanted to tell him that, and try to encourage him to some kind of way embrace the good memories and the good times that he had with his father because that’ll be something that he can keep with him forever.”
Saban’s seeking out of Ragnow joins Arkansas coach Bret Bielema’s decision to accompany Ragnow home last week as examples of how coaches can and should be.
► On the other end of the spectrum, there was the Arkansas fan who cursed Bielema after Bama’s victory. According to SECcountry.com, Lawton Lanier Nalley was arrested and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct. Nalley is an assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness at Arkansas. Higher learning, kids.
►The last play of Oklahoma’s 45-40 win against Texas, a wrong-way lateral-fest as the Longhorns tried somehow, some way to get downfield for a touchdown, lasted 39 actual seconds and ended very near the wrong goal line. And that’s without noting the declined penalty on the play for — ahem — a forward lateral.
► Sad faces for Kansas, which blew a chance for a win against an actual FBS opponent (and hey, a Big 12 opponent) when Matthew Wyman’s 54-yard field goal sailed wide right as time expired. TCU escaped with the win. Kansas’ slog continues.
► Oklahoma receiver Dede Westbrook altered a Red River shootout with 10 catches for 232 yards and three touchdowns — of 71, 42 and 47 yards. That’s good for a golden hat trick.
PHOTOS: BEST OF WEEK 6