Upsets of top teams not all due to Bruin prowess

  Jim Guthrie Guthrie really needs to
start turning in his own taglines. Comments can be sent to [email protected]

When the UCLA Bruins handed the first loss of the season to the
Alabama Crimson Tide and the Michigan Wolverines, the hills of
Westwood were ringing with two of the greatest upsets in school
history.

Or were they?

According to the great adage, “hindsight is 20-20,”
and that is what all of the college football analysts, forecasters,
prognosticators are thinking.

Let’s start with ‘Bama. The Tide made the trek to
the Rose Bowl as the No. 3 team in the country, loaded with talent
and looking to revive the glory days of Bear Bryant. On the heels
of a New Year’s Day bowl berth the year before, the Tide had
lost a significant number of starters including running back Shaun
Alexander, but was still thought to be fairly intact.

And then there were the injuries, starting with senior defensive
end and All-America candidate Kenny King, who was lost for the
season. Then inter-team turmoil threatened to bring an end to the
Tide’s run for the Orange Bowl. Finally, the Tide began
losing to teams that most people haven’t even heard of
(a.k.a. Southern Mississippi, Central Florida).

Attention, attention … paging Mike DuBose for a scapegoat.

Just a year after a 10-3 season, coach DuBose handed in his
letter of resignation in the midst of a 3-6 season.

Was Alabama justified in this resolution to one of the worst
year’s in Tide football history? In my opinion, the answer is
yes and no.

Yes, it is the duty of the coach to lead his players out onto
the field in the best shape and with the most preparation possible.
Yes, a team with this much talent should have won more than three
games by this point in the season. But is it entirely his
fault?

First off, the Tide offense was crippled with a quarterback
controversy where neither option was very good. Andrew Zow and
Tyler Watts split snaps at the beginning of the season causing
confusion on the offense, which hindered the ability to get the
ball to star wideout Freddie Milons.

Secondly, the Tide could not find a viable option at running
back to counter the loss of Alexander. Instead the Tide went with a
ball carrier by committee attack consisting of Brandon Miree, Shaun
Bohanon and Ahmad Galloway. The trio were stopped often by good
defenses who saw a weak offensive line in the wake of the departure
of Chris Samuels.

The last straw was the defense, which never materialized to
DuBose’s liking. The Bruins scored 35 points on what was
supposed to be one of the great defenses in college football
anchored by linebacker Saleem Rasheed. I guess that theory went out
the window about the time the Tide was in the middle of losing to
Central Florida.

Now, the situation for Michigan is a little bit different. The
Wolverines have a respectable 6-3 record, are still clinging to a
spot in the rankings, and coach Lloyd Carr is probably not going to
get fired at the end of the season. This season, however, certainly
cannot be classified as one of Ann Arbor’s finest.

The boys from Michigan also came to Southern California boasting
a No. 3 ranking and a boatload of talent including RB Anthony
Thomas and wide receiver David Terrell. Even back-up QB John
Navarre was filling in beyond expectations for the injured Drew
Henson.

So, what went wrong in the Big Ten?

Well, the Big Ten itself played a major role.

While the Bruins did defeat the Wolverines in late September, a
close loss to a ranked opponent on the road should not have seemed
that big of a bump in the road for Michigan. But then the Big Ten
season started.

In what was expected to be a conference dominated by perennial
favorites Penn State, Ohio State, and the aforementioned Michigan,
the Midwest seemed to pull a 180 and completely contradict
everything everyone thought … ever.

In recent weeks it has been the Minnesotas, Indianas, and even
Northwesterns that have been the top teams. The Wildcats even
outlasted the Wolverines in a battle of big animal mascots to win
54-51 on Saturday.

What a world.

While the Bruins can tell stories of upsets past, when broken
down it seems more of a product of the opponents having some
tremendously off years.