CFB 2011: Year in Review

Dec 12, 2011

If you’re like me you woke up Saturday morning, flicked on the World Wide Leader at 10:00am, and immediately started to tear up when the College GameDay crew didn’t not appear on your Samsung.

That is the feeling I get after the last weekend of college football’s regular season is over. No more crazy hometown crowds who line up at the crack of dawn to get some face time for their wacky signs. No more hearing from my wife how handsome Kirk Herbstreit is. No more on-air cussing by Lee Corso.

Just the realization that another regualr season is over, and now all that’s left is the interminable run-up to the only bowl game that matters, the BCS Championship Game in New Orleans on January 9th.

Of course that matchup was determined even before the final regular season and conference championship games were played. Number one LSU will play number two Alabama in title game, a.k.a The Rematch No One Outside of Tuscaloosa Wanted To See.

But what’s done is done, so we must move on. Now that the bowls are all locked and loaded (Famous Idaho Potato Bowl this Saturday, folks!), a deserving, i.e. hype-free, scandal-free, player won the Heisman (RG3 > Cam Newton), and Jerry Sandusky is safely locked away, where things can be done unto him, let’s take a look back at the year that was in college football, 2011.

Biggest Story: Scandals and sorrow plague the sport

As much as I hate to say it, there’s no denying that the biggest stories in the sport this season took place off the field. Without even going into the quagmire that is the conference realignment epidemic, sordid stories like the Sandusky scandal, the death of two fans at the Harvard/Yale game, and the sudden deaths of at least four players in the past few months cast a pall over the entire sport and rendered the on-field results mostly meaningless.

The fact that Oklahoma State is not playing for a national championship because it did have to play a game just hours after learning that two of it’s basketball coaches were killed in a plane crash is both a sad and fitting postscript to this sorrowful season.

Best Game: Stanford def. USC, 56-48 in 3OT on Oct 29

Despite all the off-field drama, there was no shortage of candidates for this title. But at the time of this matchup, Stanford was still undefeated, Andrew Luck supporters still thought he had the Heisman in the bag, and this was the season for Tosh.O and his probation-locked Trojans.

The score was 10-6 at halftime, but the teams combined for 88 points after the break, including three TDs in the final five minutes of regulation and five in the OTs. And if it weren’t for a questionable call by the officials to let the clock run out at the end of regulation, this game could have ended Stanford’s title dreams two weeks before the Ducks did.

Runners Up: Michigan/Notre Dame, Clemson/Maryland, Oklahoma State/Kansas State

Best Play: Michigan’s State’s Hail Mary to beat Wisconsin on Oct. 22

It was one of the best games of the season, capped by one of the craziest college football plays in recent memory. It ended Wisconsin’s title hopes, and gave the Spartans and coach Mike Dantonio a miraculous walk off win for the second year in a row. It was, in a word, awesome, and it’s the reason we love college football.

Runner Up: Ohio State’s Hail Mary to beat Wisconsin one week later

Best Call: TCU’s decision to go for 2 points against Boise State

The undefeated Broncos held a 7 -point lead with a couple minutes to play, and they could smell another BCS berth. But the Frogs got a touchdown pass from instant folk hero Casey Pachall with a minute left, and instead of going for the extra point and the tie, Gary Patterson went for the win, and Pachall delivered a strike to Josh Boyce and a stunning, gut-punching, BCS-busting blow to the beleaguered Broncos.

Biggest Surprise, Team: Kansas State (10-2, 7-2)

Unranked to start the season and picked to finish in the bottom three of the Big 12, the Bill Snyder-led Wildcats climbed into the Top 10 on the strength of a 7-0 start and wound up 8th in the final BCS standings with wins over every conference school except the two from Oklahoma. The Cats earned a trip to the Cotton Bowl for their efforts.

Runner Up: Clemson

Biggest Disappointment, Team: Florida State (8-4, 5-3)

Granted they were WAY overrated at #5 coming into the season, with a green head coach, so-so signal caller and no real star power to speak of on either side of the ball. A tough loss to Oklahoma in October put to bed any hopes of winning a national title, but successive losses to Clemson and Wake Forest, followed by a late loss to Virginia put Jimbo Fisher squarely on the hot seat and knocked the Noles out of the Top 25 for good.

Even wins against rivals Florida and Miami couldn’t salvage this stinker of a season in Tallahassee.

Runners up: Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USF

Biggest Surprise, Player: WR Sammy Watkins, Clemson (77 recs, 1,153 yds, 11TDs; 683 KR yds, TD; 229 rush yds)

The freshman sensation burst onto the scene with a 10 catch, 155 yard, 2 TD effort against Auburn in October, and he followed it up with games of 141 yards, 152, 105 and 153 before being hampered by a shoulder injury. Not coincidentally, his team began to slide from Cinderella story to giant orange pumpkins when Watkins went down.

Runners Up: Montee Ball, Tyrann Matthieu

Biggest Disappointment, Player: QB Landry Jones, Oklahoma (4.302 yds, 28 TDs, 14 INTs)

Sure his numbers looked okay, but look closely and you’ll see his touchdowns were down by 10 from 2010, interceptions were up by two, and his completion percentage was slightly down, too. Granted he lost top receiver Ryan Broyles late in the season, but his season-long questionable decision making and inability to rally his team in losses to Texas Tech and Ok. State led Oklahoma from preseason number one to second fiddle in the Sooner state.

Runners Up: Stephen Garcia, Chris Rainey

Most Exciting Player: QB Robert Griffin III, Baylor

Not often does the most exciting player walk away with the Heisman Trophy, but this year that happened to be the case. From his season opening heroics in a 50-48 win over TCU to his Heisman-sealing touchdown in the final seconds against Oklahoma in late November, RG3 made Baylor games appointment television, and he didn’t often disappoint.