SCOTT JACOBS

It was a crazy year in college football.  Georgia started the year number one, and they were number two the next week– after winning their first game.  I believe five teams were number one at some point in the year in the AP Poll (Georgia, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama) before Florida beat the Crimson Tide in the SEC title game to make it six.  Once again, no major school went undefeated (But uh, don’t tell that to Utah or Boise State). We had another BCS title game controversy, and another reminder that the system isn’t going away (with ESPN buying the rights to the BCS and all).  ABC’s Saturday Night Football reminded us that just three big schools played a big game every week (Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech), or I guess it just felt that way.  Joe Pa had the Nittany Lions (not a real lion by the way) on the verge of the National title game, and then was handsomely rewarded with a three year extension.  We’re all for 80 year old head coaches, but 83?  C’mon.

We saw Notre Dame lose to Syracuse!  LSU almost lost to Troy,  and Michigan lost to just about everyone this year.  We saw the most points in college football history scored by one team.  But out of this crazy college football season, what will we most remember here at Juiced Sports? Read on, we don’t tease.  We cut right to the chase.

Note: JSB is not liable for any hurt feelings this article may provoke.

And away we go…

Best game of the year: TEXAS-TEXAS TECH
There were so many great games this year, but this one topped em all.  Texas Tech’s coming out party ultimately cost Texas a Big 12 South title and a chance at the BCS Championship game, but it was the way this wild game played out that made it so special.  Tech rolled to an early 19-0 lead and appeared to have a stunning upset in hand, when the Horns came storming back. Early in the fourth, down 10, Colt McCoy found Malcolm Williams down the sidelines and hit him with a perfect strike for a 91 yard touchdown cutting the Red Raiders’ lead to 29-26.  With just a minute and a half left, and down by six, Longhorns running back Vondrell McGee marched into the endzone on a four yard run to give the Horns their first lead of the game, seemingly deflating the Red Raiders and stunning a hostile Lubbock crowd. But it wasn’t to be on this night, as Graham Harrell connected with Michael Crabtree for an unbelievable 28 yard touchdown with just one second on the clock putting the Red Raiders ahead for good.  Crabtree appeared to be wrapped up, but got away from his defender, and willed the ball into the endzone sending Lubbock into a frenzy.  The ending was so good that fans rushed the field before the game was over, delaying the end of a historic win.  The fans had to be pushed back on the sideline until the kickoff, when they were more than happy to re-storm the field, as Tech claimed the biggest victory in school history.

Wildest Game: FLORIDA STATE-MIAMI
Fundamentals?  Not in this game.  Good special teams?  Not in this game.  Turnover free football? Ha! FSU’s soggy, muddy, ugly 41-39 blooper fest over Miami back in early October wasn’t exactly a clinic on how to play football, but there’s no denying it was one of the wildest games of the 2008 season.  There were seven turnovers, 22 penalties, and 80 combined points, not to mention two horribly botched snaps on punts by FSU.  FSU also nearly blew a 24-3 halftime lead, as well as a 31-10 lead in the third quarter and was teetering on the fence of disaster all second half, before they finally finished the Canes off on a 20 yard touchdown by Antoine Smith (who had four for the game). These two programs certainly aren’t what they once were, but this game was as entertaining as it gets.

We thought this one should have meant more: TEXAS-OKLAHOMA
No. five Texas’s 45-35 win over No. one Oklahoma on a neutral field in Dallas, TX was supposed to answer the debate about who the better team was (Texas).  But because of crappy luck, a stunning loss at the end to Texas Tech, and a whacky tie-breaker instituted by the Big 12 in case of three team ties for the division, the Horns head to head win over the Sooners in the end meant a whole lot of nothing. Sure, one could argue that it’s when you win that matters in college football, not who you beat, or how convincingly you beat them, but Texas truly got ripped off.  Because Oklahoma was the highest ranked team in the BCS, Texas not only didn’t win their conference, they didn’t win their division.  No doubt the Big 12 will be looking at that rule in the offseason.

Best Story- UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 
Widely regarded as one of the worst college football programs in the country, the Buffalo Bulls completed a 180 in 2008 that was so dramatic it was almost hard to believe.  The Bulls who had failed to win more than two games in a season from 2002-2006, won a school record eight games, including an impressive 42-24 win over previously unbeaten Ball State in the MAC Championship.  It was an unbelievable turnaround for coach Turner Gill, who took the job in 2006 as the Bulls were coming off of a 1-10 record.  In 2006 Gill doubled that win total.  In 2007 the Bulls won five games, and finished with a winning record in the conference (5-3).  And in 2008 Gill led the Bulls to their first ever bowl game and conference championship.  This week Gill was rewarded with a nice extension that will keep him a Bull for at least one more year.  And now, believe it or, there are expectations at the University of Buffalo.  Yeah, who woulda ever thunk it?

Worst Story- UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Michigan’s been playing football for a long time, so to lose the most games in school history following a nice farewell Capital One Bowl win for Lloyd Carr the year before, was in a word, stunning.  The Wolverines didn’t fall from grace in 2008, they free falled, going 3-9, and failed to make a bowl game for the first time in 34 years.  In addition to the worst record in school history, the Maze and Blue had a losing season for the first time in 41 years!  It was all done in a year’s work for new coach Rich Rodriguez, whose system didn’t match the players Michigan had.  Following an ugly divorce from West Virginia, Rodgriguez’s 2008 nightmare in Ann Arbor probably didn’t help. Making matter worse was a 42-7 pummeling to hated rival Ohio State, making it five straight losses for UM to OSU.

The Slipper Didn’t Quite Fit: OREGON STATE
With their stunning 27-21 win over heavily favored USC early in the season, the Beavers ultimately knocked out the Trojans from a chance at another national title. They also gave themselves an improbable opportunity to get into the Rose Bowl.  And boy did they come close.  After eeking out a win over Arizona in Tuscon, all the Beavers needed to do was beat Oregon at home to secure the school’s first Rose Bowl berth since 1964.  But they never really came close.  Oregon put up 65 and pummeled Oregon’s Rose Bowl dreams into the ground, beating the Beavers by 27.  It was the highest scoring game in the history of the storied Civil War, but not a game Oregon State fans will want to remember. Instead, the Beavers fell to 8-4, and out of the BCS, landing in the Sun Bowl, where they will playanother late season disappointment: Pitt.

Where did they come from?: RUTGERS
After starting the season 1-5 many fans around the country were wondering if Greg Schiano really had the resources to continue to make Rutgers a relevent football school year after year.  Well, it’s never easy to say what the future holds, but in 2008 the Scarlett Knights went from nightmare to lights out, winning their final six games to claim a winning record, and an impressive 5-2 mark in a tight Big East. After squeaking by UConn 12-10, Rutgers got things rolling, scoring no less than 30 points the rest of the season uncluding a 63-14 slaughtering over Louisville to end the year.  To say the Knights are peaking at the right time– well, that’s an understatement if there ever was one.

What happened?: MISSOURI
Coming off a dream season in which they were number one going into the Big 12 title game, the Tigers looked primed for another special year.  Instead, they saw their delusional national title dreams fade after a red hot start.  The Tigers opened 5-0 and scored more than 40 points in each of their first five wins, but a surprising loss to Oklahoma State at home, and a blowout loss to Texas knocked the Tigers from No. three to No. fifteen in just two weeks. By then Missouri’s title dreams were dead (BCS that is).  But they still had a chance to finish the season strong after winning the North, as well as an opportunity to avenge their 2007 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.  But that storyline became moot as Oklahoma mutilated Mizzou 62-21 in Kansas City, dropping the once high flying Tigers entirely out of the top 25, and into the Alamo Bowl, a far cry from where they had hoped to be.

It sucks to be in a non-BCS Conference: BOISE STATE
Boise State beat six schools that are going to bowl games this year, including Oregon, but running the table and winning the WAC convincingly didn’t truly get them a sniff of the BCS.  Close, kinda.  That is if you consider the top 10 close, which is where the No. nine Broncos find themselves.  Unfortunatley, Utah also ran the table, and was ranked higher in the BCS, so the Broncos, who went undefeated for the third time in five years, once again find themselves on the outside of the BCS picture looking in. It really has to suck when you don’t get picked by the Fiesta Bowl, because Ohio State brings in more fans. But that’s how the system works, and Boise State has to really hate this system.

Most Mind Blowingly Irrelevant BCS Conference: BIG EAST
Once West Virginia stumbled out of the gate the Big East was pretty much forgotten as a whole. It’s not often a team can go 11-2, and still remain completely annonymous to pretty much the whole country, but Cincinatti managed to pull that small feat off.  Look, the Bearcats are a nice story, and going to the Orange Bowl for them has to be a huge thrill, but can anyone look me in the eye and persuade me that the Big East truly deserves a team in the BCS?  And I’m not just picking on the Big East, because I don’t think the ACC has any right to have a team in there either.  Fittingly the Bearcats and Hokies face off in Miami in what may be the lowest rated BCS game in history.

Don’t ever take a Bowl Game for Granted: VANDERBILT
This is to all the Michigans’ and Florida States’ of the world: never take a bowl game for granted, no matter how crappy the bowl game is.  Why?  Because Vanderbilt is ecstatic to be going to the Music City Bowl, their first bowl appearance in 26 years!  How bad has Vandy been?  Consider: Vandy hasn’t had a winning season in 25 years and counting, and their 6-6 record this year doesn’t change that. Vanderbilt started the season out 5-0, and had some believing they might even be an SEC contender (ha!), but things quickly fell apart for the early season surprise, which had to scrap past Kentucky to secure bowl eligibility.  Vandy then proceeded to lose their final two, failing to record a winning record.  But hey, thanks to the current bowl system, they’re getting rewarded for mediocrity.  In an alternative universe, where only good teams get rewarded, they’d have to wait another 25 years.