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BROOKS: BCS keeping coaches baffled

By B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 6, 2008 at 6:24 p.m.
Updated November 6, 2008 at 11:15 p.m.

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Penn State football coach Joe Paterno watches drills during practice this past August.

Photo by Carolyn Kaster © Associated Press

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno watches drills during practice this past August.

USC head coach Pete Carroll watches the Trojans play Virginia on Aug. 30, 2008, in Charlottesville, Va.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox © Getty Images

USC head coach Pete Carroll watches the Trojans play Virginia on Aug. 30, 2008, in Charlottesville, Va.

Change did him good

The Football Bowl Subdivision’s sacks leader used to be a tailback. Junior defensive end Jerry Hughes arrived at Texas Christian from Austin High School (Sugarland, Texas) as a ballcarrier. Then he bulked up to 248 pounds (he’s 6-foot-2) while retaining most of his speed. He has 14 sacks and 17 1/2 tackles for loss, also the best in the FBS, as are his five forced fumbles.

Kickoff

BIG 12 SMALL TALK

* Should the South Division end in a three-way (or more) tie, the highest-rated Bowl Championship Series team advances to the league title game to face the North winner. If there's a two-way tie, the head-to-head winner makes the trip. No. 2 Texas Tech (9-0, 5-0), No. 5 Texas (8-1, 4-1), No. 6 Oklahoma (8-1, 4-1) and No. 8 Oklahoma State (8-1, 4-1) are within a game of each other. Texas has the less formidable road to Kansas City, Mo., closing with Baylor, Kansas and Texas A&M.

* Texas coach Mack Brown believes college football is due a tragedy if fans aren't prevented from rushing the field, as happened Saturday in Lubbock, Texas. Said Brown: "I think the Big 12 and NCAA should do something for security and safety of kids and coaches after games like that. It's really, really dangerous. . . . We're going to have a real sad situation or a real tragedy at some point."

* Kansas State receiver/return specialist Deon Murphy kicked off game week against intrastate rival Kansas last week by saying he was going "to take one to the crib . . . that's the bottom line." The real bottom line: Kansas 52, K-State 21. He was far from contrite afterward: "No. I don't wish I didn't say it. I mean, I'm confident. I'm that dude. That's just me. If anybody doesn't like it . . . oh, well."

He also said Kansas probably would "wish they recruited this whole team the way we're going to play this weekend." Maybe not.

GAMES TO WATCH

* No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 5-0) at No. 15 Louisiana State (6-2, 3-2), 1:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS 4): Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban takes his top- ranked team to Baton Rouge, La., where he's not the most revered individual. Should be an, ah, interesting afternoon.

* Colorado State (4-5, 2-3) at Air Force (7-2, 4-1), 4 p.m. Saturday (the mtn.): The Rams don't have a winning record, but they appear to have come to life of late and could make a run at bowl eligibility.

* No. 8 Oklahoma State (8-1, 4-1) at No. 2 Texas Tech (9-0, 5-0), 6 p.m. Saturday (Ch. 7): How much emotion do the Red Raiders have left in the tank after Saturday's comeback win against then-No. 1 Texas? And Texas Tech plays at No. 6 Oklahoma on Nov. 22.

* No. 4 Florida (7-1, 5-1) at Vanderbilt (5-3, 3-2), 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2): Having dispatched Georgia, the Gators can clinch the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title with a win against the Commodores.

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Penn State's iconic coach, Joe Paterno, and Southern California counterpart Pete Carroll are on a long list of college coaches who either don't understand the Bowl Championship Series ratings or understand them just enough to abhor them.

JoePa pleaded indifference this week to Texas Tech leapfrogging his unbeaten team and moving behind Alabama as No. 2 in this week's BCS poll. All three are 9-0.

"I haven't got the slightest idea (about) the BCS - is it the BCS or BSC?" Paterno said. "I don't know. They are going to do what they are going to do and it won't make any difference what I say or comment on."

Carroll, meanwhile, flatly said the BCS formula "stinks."

The Trojans, who haven't played a non-Division I-A opponent since the current division format was established in 1978, drubbed Washington State and Washington by a combined 125-0 in two of the past three weeks.

Still, USC (7-1) dropped two spots, to No. 7, in the BCS poll.

"The more we win, the worse we get. Amazing," Carroll said. "I don't think I'm going to start caring (about the BCS rankings) now."

Of the unbeaten trio currently atop the BCS poll, Penn State has the best chance of winning out. After playing at Iowa (5-4) on Saturday, the Nittany Lions close with home games against Indiana (3-6) and now-No. 18 Michigan State (8-2).

The Big Ten Conference doesn't have a championship game. The Southeastern and Big 12 conferences do, leaving Alabama, Texas Tech or whoever winds up in those leagues' title games at a disadvantage to advance to the BCS title game.

Above the fray

If you're recruiting Southern California on a Friday night, how do you beat the traffic? If you're UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, you sweet-talk a Bruins booster and borrow his helicopter - presumably, his pilot, too.

For the second time this season, Neuheisel took to the air while recruiting, scouting prospects last week at Palmdale, San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga high schools.

Said Neuheisel, whose first Bruins team is 3-5: "It's an expeditious way to get around."

Lil' Bo creep?

An anger management course might be in line for Nebraska coach Bo Pelini.

He acknowledged at his weekly news conference that his volatile sideline behavior - featured on YouTube - could be casting a negative light on him and his school.

"Perception is reality, so that's something I've got to fix," Pelini said. "I understand that. I'm a highly emotional guy. I've got to be careful."

Lip-reading family members - he's married with three young children - disapproved of his language caught on camera during last weekend's 62-28 drubbing by then-No. 4 Oklahoma.

Pelini expressed his regrets: "There's a difference between being animated and using some words you wish you didn't use."

After the beat-down in which the Cornhuskers gave up 35 points in a quarter for the first time ever and also allowed a school-record 49 first-half points, he didn't allow his players or assistant coaches to use any words, making them off-limits to the media.

Pelini said he was "the voice of this team" and grew irritated when reporters asked for a further explanation of his last-minute ban.

"If you don't like it, tough. Ask me the questions you'd ask the players," he said, noting players would be available for interviews this week.

Flashback

Washington State, awful and getting worse, has been shut out in consecutive games, the first time stopping a 280-game scoring streak that spanned 24 years.

This might have been a highlight in last weekend's 58-0 flogging by Stanford: On his first pass attempt, quarterback J.T. Levenseller - the fifth Cougars' QB to play this season - hit backup tight end Tony Thompson for a 14-yard gain.

Thompson's dad, Jack, Washington's State's "Throwin' Samoan" in the 1970s, used to pass to J.T.'s dad, Mike, who has been on the Cougars' staff since 1992.

Said the elder Levenseller: "Maybe it's a good omen."

Troubling trip

After breaking a five-game losing streak by routing San Diego State 35-10, Wyoming travels Saturday to Tennessee, and who knows what the Cowboys will find.

Embattled Vols coach Phillip Fulmer is out at season's end, agreeing to a $6 million buyout after 161/2 years at the school. The Vols are 3-6 (same as the Cowboys), and this statistic speaks volumes about their offense: Safety Eric Berry's six interceptions match the offense's number of touchdown passes.

Saturday's game is the last under a three-game contract between the schools. None was played in Laramie, as Wyoming accepted $2.35 million to move its 2002 home game to Nashville's Titan Stadium. Tennessee won the first two meetings by a combined score of 89-24.

Joe Glenn, feeling pressure in his sixth season as Wyoming's coach, said in the Laramie Boomerang he was certain Fulmer and his assistants "feel violated . . . it's hard to know how this game will play out. It was a tough moment for a guy who has given a good portion of his life to that program. It's hard to separate it all."

Last and short

* Speculation on who lands in Tennessee to replace Fulmer will be rampant for the next month. Count this quartet out: South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, Duke's David Cutcliffe, North Carolina's Butch Davis and Cincinnati's Brian Kelly. All say they have no interest in relocating to Knoxville. Then again, no offers have been made.

* USC's Carroll, who voted for president-elect Barack Obama, held a pre-election mock debate among his players. He started it with a show of hands for Sen. John McCain and Obama. "Then the guys went back and forth," Carroll said. Then, "it almost got out of hand and I called it off."

* A coaching change would be costly for Auburn, which has lost four in a row and sits at an uncomfortable 4-5 for coach Tommy Tuberville. His contract reportedly has a $6 million buyout clause, and most of his assistants are on multiyear contracts. The Tigers will even their record this week (they play Tennessee-Martin), then look for bowl eligibility against their two biggest rivals - Georgia and Alabama.