WASHINGTON — It’s always an awkward transition from sports’ best regular season to its most frustrating. Fourteen weeks of thrills and chills spills into five more weeks of letting our football belt out a loop or two…while somewhere in there a champion will be crowned.
Thank goodness ESPN has the programming windows to enable 41 postseason games to take place. While I’m all about seeing the kids who work hard in practice every year enjoy the reward of a postseason game, I’m not all about seeing 6-6 schools that were sub-.500 in their conference (and needed a win over an FCS team to get to six victories) squaring off in some clumsily named corporate game.
I still dream of a world with an eight team playoff that includes the five major conference winners plus three wild cards. I still imagine that quadruple-header December 17 on campus sites that starts at noon in Tuscaloosa and ends in Seattle during the midnight hour. I still want to hammer out a quarterfinal round of Alabama-Wisconsin (Ed. Note: Western Michigan!), Washington-Penn State, Ohio State-Oklahoma and Clemson-Michigan. I want USC fans to be up in arms about how they belong rather than the Badgers. I want high-leverage games in November and December leading to a December Dance that would rival March Madness. Here’s to when this actually happens in 2035.
Beyond the Final Four
#19 Navy (9-3) suffered multiple losses Saturday in its 34-10 defeat to Temple in the AAC Championship. Not only did they see their Cotton Bowl hopes go up in flames, the Mids lost senior quarterback Will Worth along with running backs Toneo Gulley and Darryl Bonner to season-ending injuries. How that will affect the upcoming bowl game is not nearly as important as how that will change things for Saturday’s game with Army.
Midshipman Medals: Backup QB Zach Abey led the team with 70 yards rushing and the team’s lone touchdown while also throwing for 113 yards. Amos Mason tallied seven tackles, including three for losses, and a sack. Punter Alex Barta justified his previous weeks off by averaging 47.3 yards per kick.
Midshipman Miscues: Two interceptions and a fumble led to 17 Owl points. The defense allowed touchdowns on the first three Temple drives, coughing up 204 yards on those three possessions (they’d allow just 104 total yards in the second half) while not recording a takeaway.
Next: Saturday at 3 p.m. against 6-5 Army
#23 Virginia Tech (9-4) had #3 Clemson on the ropes in the ACC title game before a fourth quarter interception sealed the 42-35 Tigers win. So close to a January 1 bowl bid…and yet so far. But order has been restored in the Coastal Division. Meet the new boss: same as the old boss.
Hokie Highlights: Jerod Evans threw for 264 yards and a touchdown while running for 46 yards and two more scores. Cam Phillips tallied 12 catches for 92 yards and a score. The defense was led by brothers Terrell (12 tackles) and Tremaine Edmunds (eight stops).
Hokie Humblings: The defense allowed touchdowns on the Tigers’ first three possessions and TDs on all five Clemson trips to the red zone. Evans was sacked four times and tossed a pair of interceptions.
Next: December 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the Belk Bowl against 7-5 Arkansas.
Maryland (6-6) did not play, but the Terps learned that they will face 6-6 Boston College in the Quick Lane Bowl December 26 at 2:30 p.m., thus interfering with my Christmas gift return rhythm. The Eagles also needed to win the Saturday after Thanksgiving to secure a .500 record. I’m just happy it’s not a return trip to the Military Bowl for the Terps (although they would have become the first school to reach the bowl under three different coaches).
