Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
I have never been one of those anti-bowl game guys. Never been one to care much about how many postseason college football affairs are played. But when the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl kicks off today in Tucson, the perception of Mountain West football will endure a devastating punch to the gut.
Some insist there is no such thing as perfect timing, that it’s not a trait you can teach, but rather that which you hear in your head.
Plausible scenario: A one-loss North Carolina football team beats No. 1 Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship on Saturday, takes out the side that the College Football Playoff committee has for weeks deemed the nation’s best, and still isn’t chosen for a semifinal game when the final rankings are released Sunday.
Perhaps the best reaction about the latest College Football Playoff rankings came from a friend Tuesday when asked why there was a major shuffling of teams this week: “Because,” he said, “It’s a television show. They need something to talk about.”
It is conceivable, perhaps more than not, that the fourth and final spot in the College Football Playoff this season will point directly to a team that is 4-6 today, has been outscored 299-249 and has little to no chance of qualifying for a bowl.
For the first time since the College Football Playoff rankings became a weekly occurrence to be debated and dissected, a concept that dates decades has shown its face among the top four teams: The power of Notre Dame, and how strong it could ultimately prove.
It’s skewed in a way. The total through nine games includes a 517-yard effort against awful Idaho State, which I am fairly certain the lunatic wearing a red hat and acting as lead cheerleader on UNLV’s football sideline each week could run for over 100 against.
Peni Vea wasn’t alone in his desire to get off the rock, one of many born and raised in Hawaii who covet a chance to experience another place, another sense of culture and tradition. No, really.
They should put a monk on the College Football Playoff committee. Or a monkey.
Tony Sanchez wouldn’t answer the question, which usually means if you give him a few minutes and attack the point in a different manner, he will have something to say.
It’s not the sort of arms race those in Power 5 conferences engage in annually. We’re not comparing a Dassault Falcon to a Gulfstream. More like a Beechcraft to a glider.
The final opportunity to impress computer polls and human polls and any other entity that claims to know which are the nation’s finest high school football teams each season came for Bishop Gorman on Friday night, when the Gaels hosted a perennial power from New Jersey, complete with tough kids and one of those quintessential East Coast booster/hanger-on/Jersey Guys strolling the sidelines.
The poster is from 2001 and hangs in the office of Vernon Fox, a reminder of another time for Fresno State football, another era.
When they turn out the lights and flip on the film, when they begin to dissect a 33-27 overtime loss to a beatable San Jose State side on Saturday night, UNLV football coaches will likely come to this conclusion: They just might have gotten the most Kurt Palandech could offer.
Did you hear the one about when Tony Sanchez as football coach at Bishop Gorman High was afraid of an opposing local team? No, there isn’t a punchline.
