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| Connor Halliday threw 89 passes on Saturday, while the starting pitcher for the Red Sox threw 85 pitches. Hmm, it might be amusing if pitchers had to throw strikes while being blitzed by linebackers ... |
This sort of comment is not particularly unusual in the bizarro world of college football, where blowouts and running up the score is commonplace. As I’ve mentioned before, there is sort of a grey area as to what constitutes running up the score and humiliating opponents. College football is a strange entity in that the entire construct is that of being an exhibition – without any legit playoff system to determine who is the best – and so the game uses all sorts of apples-to-oranges ways of comparing teams in an attempt to decide it. Yes, style points matter in college football. And one of the ways to make yourself look good is to post lopsided wins. Hence the need to score 62 pts. and win by a massive score.
Which is precisely what happened in the game that quote refers to. The winning team in that game scored 62 pts. So clearly, that comment came from a frustrated coach whose team got crushed, right?
Actually, no.
Those were the words of Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti after the Ducks 62:38 win over Washington State in Eugene – a game in which W.S.U. QB Connor Halliday completed 58 passes (tying an NCAA record), attempted 89 (setting an NCAA record) and amassed 557 passing yards (a W.S.U. school record). It’s a pretty amazing performance, actually, one born from desperation, as the Cougars were down 14 pts. after about 5:00 of the game and were playing catchup throughout. Evidently, Oregon wasn’t really happy that W.S.U. coach Mike Leach left his starters in the game long after the outcome was decided. Such a sour graping statement would be understandable if you lost by 24 pts., but in the actual context of this game, it’s one of the more bizarre statements from a coach that I have ever heard.
The Good Guys are a young team which has shown considerable improvement after enduring a 5-year death march during which they compiled a 12-49 record. W.S.U. had no realistic chance to win this game, but their best chance involved letting their good young QB Halliday throw the ball all over the place.
Oregon, meanwhile, was a 39½ pt. favourite in the game, according to the oddsmakers in Las Vegas. The Ducks are one of the best teams in the country, if not the best. The Ducks average 57 pts. a game – as much as some NCAA basketball teams – and win by an average of around 40. They’ve became a national powerhouse in the past decade employing a cutting-edge offense that runs up numbers and stats you normally see in videogames. They’ve also become the 2nd-most loathed team in the Pac-12 in doing so, as the sentiment among the other schools is that their success has been bought.
Pac-12 foes deride Oregon as the University of Nike, since their athletic department has been bankrolled by sneaker king and billionaire benefactor Phil Knight. The Ducks now have a seemingly inexhaustible budget at their backs. Pretty much anything the school wants, rich Uncle Phil will get for them. (Including the endless array of groovy uniforms they trot out week after week, although the LOSE gives them props for the pink helmets as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which will be auctioned to raise money). The Ducks success and their deep pockets have also created something of a sense of entitlement in Eugene – which apparently also means that they should get to dictate how their opponents play at the end of the game, if this statement is to believed.
Sure, Oregon had their scout teamers out there when W.S.U. scored 2 TDs in the last 3:00 of the game – but they also had their 1st team, Heisman-candidate QB throwing a TD pass with 12:00 left in the game, when the outcome wasn’t any less in doubt than it was the end. The Ducks generally roll up huge numbers in the first half and then sit a whole bunch of players on the bench in the 2nd half – but they also make a point of scheduling teams like Nicholls St. every year, who they beat 66:3 to start the season, which gives them ample opportunity to run up the score in the first half.
The Cougars, who were down 48:24 in the 4th Quarter, had no reason to stop throwing. They were getting beat, and they were trying to make plays. They’re also building for the future, and any accomplishments and achievements matter in that context. Their QB setting records is something to be proud of when the season is over. And as for Oregon having 3rd and 4th string defenders in the game, what better way to get experience than to play a top calibre Pac-12 QB? Good for The Good Guys. They didn’t necessarily play well – the Cougars committed 5 turnovers, while Oregon ran up 720 yards of offense in only 24:00 of possession time, which is absurd – but they played hard and competed and ultimately made a mockery of that 40-pt line in Vegas.
How this all comes off, in the end, is that Oregon was mad that the Cougars didn’t quit. And a 62:38 win looks less impressive as 62:24 when it comes down to polls and computer rankings – and, sure enough, Oregon is #3 in the BCS right now, the looney tunes system used to determine national champions in the sport. Then again, a pretty good way to win 62:24 would’ve been to, oh, play some defense! He should be more concerned about the fact that his defense gave up 557 yards, for goodness sake.
This was, in the end, one of the stupider things I’ve ever heard a coach say. Being addicted to Quack apparently can lead to delusions.
The funny thing about stuff like this is that players, coaches, and fans have LONG memories. Oregon is great right now, and W.S.U. is not. It was only a decade ago that the roles were reversed. It goes in cycles, and when you do something obnoxious, is almost always comes back around to get you later on. Given Mike Leach’s pedigree as a coach, and seeing the progress he’s already making, I suspect it won’t be that much longer before W.S.U. is competitive with the Ducks again. And I suspect that, should that happen, and should the Cougars get the lead, they’ll remember 2013 and throw the ball another 80 or 90 times and run up 62 on the Ducks just for old time sake, at which point some grumpy defensive coordinator will probably about the Cougars running up the score. Good. Let him quack all he wants, and let him eat some crow while he’s at it.
