Nites of the Roundtable: Volume 1

In response to Schembechler Hall:

1) It's early, but thus far, which offseason change or changes in college football are you most excited about? (Editor’s note: my response is the change I’m least excited about, rather than most excited. Apologies to Joey for the altered course)

We’d never dare to admit it, but the three-year Southern California dynasty that fell abruptly behind the San Gabriel Mountains and into NFL mock drafts last January was one of the best things to happen to college football in quite some time.

Say what you will about the thousands of literary tongue baths Matt Leinart received last season, or the sensationalist historical comparisons ESPN made to the 2005 squad (though let’s be honest, I think the Gameday Boys’ declarations were more a cumulative tribute to the past three years than an honest breakdown), but in an age where the Super Bowl media day has become a launch pad for columnists to write asides on why college football “just isn’t there yet,” USC essentially having an NFL minor league team (with possibly the first two picks in the draft) was the electricity that lit the fluorescent bulb we knew our Saturdays were all along.

While in the professional leagues parity is viewed positively, the financial benefits it yields are largely irrelevant in a collegiate enterprise. Instead, the NCAA suffers when equality exists, where – save for fanatics like me and a great portion of the blogosphere – college football becomes a regional sport; you watch for three hours until your team has finished, and then life resumes. Records really don’t matter (other than in regards to conference winners, which is always a secondary goal to begin with), so in a balanced country there isn’t a need to hope for other teams to fall while yours ascends the standings. Winning12 games is always the objective, but of course that rarely happens. And by early-November, all you’re left with is the hope that your team defeats its year-end rival. There’s the Bowl Season, though with the BCS effectively relegating each game but the Championship to a consolation prize, the only reason anyone’s still watching is because it’s their team, they love them, and they don’t know any other way to live on a Saturday.

But for a three-year eternity USC was the stone obelisk that cast its engulfing shadow upon the programs that surrounded it like bits of gravel. It was what ensured that college football would captivate us for the entire season. From the muddy high school fields they pillaged for the talents they desired, to the front page of your newspapers, they had conquered everything. Nearly, anyway, for if not the public’s heart, certainly its disdain, which took a much less romantic, more violent passion than the Midwestern and Southeastern dynasties of yesteryear were quite as capable of. It was the team we all hated, but couldn’t stop rooting against because they were too damn good to do otherwise.

USC gave College Ball a legitimacy the Pro advocates always argued it lacked. They thought the college game was five-receiver-sets, triple-option attacks, running backs playing quarterback; “It’s a student’s game, a bunch amateurs,” they’d say. Yet USC was the preeminent professional, college-offense. They made every high school prospect west of Colorado off-limits; untouchable, and the talent they gathered rarely deteriorated without at least a moment – however brief – that always seemed to be better than anything your players could ever have.

Matt Leinart, Keary Colbert, Winston Justice, Reggie Bush, Mike Williams, LenDale White, Mike Patterson, Shaun Cody, Lofa Tatupu, Kenechi Udeze, Darnell Bing, Dominique Bird. Most were merely secondary components for USC, but would have been centerpieces for you. They always played three hours after your team (deep into some nights on Fox Sports Net, after you might have gone to sleep), but Sunday mornings the results were usually the same: Trojans win; frustration ensues for millions. But for most by late-November, it was nice to have a team around that you could be as excited to watch, regardless which outcome you were hoping for. In the early fall months USC was an entertaining addition to the Saturday experience, but weeks later when your team had lost to the Minnesotas and Vanderbilts and Clemsons, there was USC, now a worthy replacement, walloping the molars out of some Pac 10 hopeful.

You never liked looking at the score, but you always found yourself watching them get there. College football needed a titan, a villain, a universal nemesis. It was an almost impenetrable target, but it was indeed a giant. And for the past three years, I think we were all better off aiming at it together than firing carelessly into the sky by ourselves.

2) With spring practice underway, what are the three concerns about your team that are causing you the most anxiety? (USC fans can't just list the departures of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and LenDale White.)

1. The offensive line. Assuming massive crag-of-life Jake Long is still healthy by the fall, the left tackle spot will be fine. The rest needs work. And I don’t mean “Diane Lane tidying up that cute little villa in Under the Tuscan Sun” work; I’m talking “Tom Hanks in the Money Pit” work.

See, the main problem with each of the guys contending for a spot on is that they’re basically the equivalent of baseball’s utility infielder: They all play everywhere, but none of them are really very good anywhere. So instead you get guys like Rueben Riley moving from center, to guard, to tackle, to guard again like he was Miguel Cairo or some shit. I guess Adam Kraus is closer to Placido Polanco, having played well enough to start just about every game last season, but none of them are anywhere near the caliber of a guy like Chone Figgins; Baas was the last Figgins Michigan had. From left guard through right tackle, you’re looking at any four of Riley, Kraus, Mike Kolodziej, Alex Mitchell and Mark Bihl to make up some store-brand-quality goulash of “protection”.

Like most of the line, Riley’s frequently seemed way too fat. I always liked him at right guard, as monstrous guys that are quick enough to play tackle usually make good interior lineman, but according to Carr’s press conference yesterday, Riley spent the first two weeks of practice at right tackle before hurting his ankle. So with that, pencil in another year of him watching the backs of opposing defensive ends long enough to figure out how many scrabble points their last names are worth. Assume that Long and Riley will start at both ends of the line, with Kolo backing up both of them, and any variation of the Kraus, Mitchell, and Bihl soft-as-ring-ding triumvirate on the inside.

As I said, I like Kraus, but without Riley manning one of the guard spots he seems like the only one who they’ll feel comfortable enough to move over from center. Just for thought: the games Kraus started at center last year were against Michigan State, Minnesota, Penn State, and Iowa. Hart had 100 yards in each but the Iowa game (where he was injured). So the move, at least now, seems like a bad idea. Mitchell’s the youngest of the linemen looking for work, but did see game action three times last year (mop-up duty of course). If you’re looking for hope, he played in the Michigan High School All-Star game and was part of a West Offense that rushed for close to 300 yards. Banking on a youngster is trouble, especially with offensive lineman, but he’s looking at a lot higher a ceiling than center-to-be Mark Bihl is. I’m sure there are a few Tiger fans are reading, so think of it like this: Mitchell’s Chris Shelton, Bihl’s Bobby Higginson.

In short: Kraus and Long should get the job done; Riley could be a disaster; Bihl’s about as good as a guy with the name Bihl sounds like he’d be; and Mitchell just needs to cement one of the guard spots so he doesn’t end up at tackle by ’07.

2. Aggressiveness of secondary. Last year Michigan’s pass defense had about the same complexity as you see in all-star games; where there isn’t enough time to learn an entire playbook so the players just run whatever they’ve remembered from the “universal” setting on Madden. There wasn’t a quarterback who couldn’t put his team in a 2^nd and 2 situation ever series he played in the fourth quarter, and watching it happen so often conveyed an indifference that a coaching staff just should not have. The way each crucial drive inevitably began with Grant Mason backpedaling from his receiver before the ball was even snapped was just one play in what would always become a handful of identical ones. More than likely, Ron English will call for more decisive schemes that seek to utilize strengths rather than mask weaknesses, but a regression to what we witnessed last year would not be the first time something so obviously detrimental had occurred multiple times.

3. Another year of recruiting talent left wasting away to nothing. Things that need to happen: Adrian Arrington provides the go-up-and-grab-it red zone threat any 6-4 guy with 4.45 speed should. Prescott Burgess loses 10 pounds and tries to remember how to play like a safety in a bigger body. Morgan Trent matures into more than “that guy who once beat Ted Ginn in a track meet”. Those players certainly are not the only ones with expectations at levels much higher than the ones at which they’ve actually performed, but they’re the most likely contributors at positions of need, whether they excel at them or not.

3) Care to take a stab at a preseason top five?

As well as Ginn, Smith, Holmes and, to a lesser extent, Pittman did last year, Ohio State was a defensive team. They’ll be starting what was last year’s scout team, so I think that’s worth a loss or two at least. Vince Young won the Rose Bowl last year, Texas just happened to be the team he was on; Notre Dame might have the best offense, but plan on their secondary being generous enough to hand at least one quarterback a career day. Rhett Bomar might very well turn into something special, but I’m not really supposed to take anyone serious who thinks it’s a guarantee, right? I like Florida, I like West Virginia, but I think that’s mostly because they run offenses that are fun to watch. LSU impresses me the most on paper, and if Perriloux even sniffs the QB spot I have no problem moving them to number 1 based on hype alone.