• 3Jan 09

  My Case for Why the 2008 Utah Utes Deserve a Share of the National Title

  Did you know that the only non-BCS conference school (aside from Independent Notre Dame) in 70 years is Brigham Young (1984)?

  Interestingly enough, in 1938, TCU won the national title...

  I bring up this point because earlier this evening the Utah Utes defeated the Alabama Crimson tide 31-17 in the Nokia Sugar Bowl. Utah will finish the season 13-0 as the only undefeated team in the nation. This begs the question:

  Do you the 2008-2009 Utah Utes deserve a share of the national title?

  I say YES! This isn't last year's Hawaii team that got pasted in last year's Sugar Bowl. This wasn't the 2004 Utah team that defeated Pittsburgh in the Orange Bowl. Hell...this wasn't even the 2006 Boise State team that beat Oklahoma 43-42 in the Fiesta Bowl. By the way...that is the best game I have ever seen in my life...

  If you watched tonight's game, you must agree that Utah thoroughly beat Alabama. Roaring out to a 21-0 lead and sacking the opposing quarterback 8 times classifies as a thorough beatdown.

  There was a moment when Alabama made it 21-17 that I thought to myself, "Ok...now the big, bad BCS school is going to use its size, strength, and speed to wear down the underdog." The momentum had clearly shifted and I didn't envision a repeat of the Boise State game.

  You can't seriously expect to be able to pull off a Hook and Ladder, RB option pass on 4th down for a touchdown, and then a Statue of Liberty play to win the game. That kind of stuff happens once in a lifetime.

  Utah had roared out to a 21-0 lead, but by halftime, it was 21-0. Then they fumbled away the ball and allowed Alabama to score a touchdown a couple of plays later. It was 21-17, and for all intensive purposes, there was still an entire half to play...

  Instead of panicking, the Utes kept their composure and focus. They methodically marched the ball downfield under quarterback Brian Johnson's steady leadership. Alabama was the first to blink, one missed tackle later, the score was 28-17 with most of the 3rd quarter gone by the way side. The Utes had weathered the storm and with some solid defense, they would soon have the opportunity to ice the game.

  Did I mention earlier that the Utes sacked Alabama quarterback, John Parker Wilson, 8 times? Wilson was harassed by Utah defenders all night and never had a opportunity to get in rhythm with his receivers. He had no running to take the pressure off of him. Utah was able to get pressure with 3 and 4 man front lines. Numerous times Alabama was lucky not to turn the ball over...

  With about 4 minutes remaining in the game, the Utah added a field goal to the board to give them a 14 point lead. An interception a couple of plays later iced the game and Utah won the Sugar Bowl to cap a 13-0 season.

  Does this 13-0 season warrant a national championship?

  Yes.

  First off, Alabama spent 6 weeks ranked #1 in either the AP, Coaches, or BCS standings.

  Secondly, they went undefeated in the Mountain West Conference. They defeated a rock solid 11th ranked TCU team and also defeated then #14 BYU. I would argue that the MWC was a stronger conference than the ACC and the Big East. I could also make a convincing arguement that the league was as strong or stronger than the Big Ten and the Pac-10...

  Which brings me to point #3. Non-Conference games.

  I don't care that was a new coach and a new offensive system or whatever excuse you want to make. The fact is, this Utah team opened up its season AT MICHIGAN.

  Michigan is a BIG TIME program. They are perennial contenders in the Big Ten, they have the largest stadium in the country, and their program has the most wins of any college football program. So let's not waste our time arguing that Michigan was having an off-year...This Utah team opened up its season in front of 120,000 Wolverine fans and beat Michigan. Case closed.

  Now that I have taken care of the Big Ten, why not take care of the Pac-10 too? I'm not going to say that this Utah team is better than USC. I'm not stupid. I wouldn't bet money against USC if the two schools matched up this year...That said...USC lost a game this year. In fact, they didn't lose the game, they got beat. Oregon State played inspired football and whipped USC on both sides of the ball. When given the opportunity to repeat that performance against the Utes, the Beavers could not respond...

  Oregon State was no slouch this year. In fact, if they didn't blow it against Oregon in the season finale, they, and not USC, would've gone to the Rose Bowl. By all accounts, Oregon State should've been the Pac-10 champ. But we all know USC is the better team...

  Utah beat Alabama, Michigan, Oregon State, TCU, and BYU this year. Those are 5 marquee wins there. I'm not going to go as far as saying it is more or less impressive than Florida or Oklahoma, but I am going to say that this team is well deserving of being called a champion.

  I began this post by highlighting the fact that in the past 70 years, no non-BCS school (Notre Dame does NOT count) has won the national championship, other than the 1984 BYU Cougers. The common thread that ties these two teams is that both were the only teams in the nation to go undefeated.

  With all due respect to other great undefeated teams that have not won a national title, with a personal shout out to the 2003 Auburn Tigers (Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams, and Jason Campbell), this is the most deserving team of a share of the national title.

  Would I pick the Utes to win a championship if the best teams in the country played a playoff? No. Would I pick the Utes to beat Florida, Oklahoma, or USC? No. But I didn't think they had it in them to beat Alabama either...The way they beat Alabama made me go back and do some research on their special season.

  The Utes took the schedule that they were given. Looking in retrospect, they were given a fairly difficult schedule by anyone's standards. It's not their fault they didn't have Florida, Oklahoma, and USC also scheduled...Let's hope the AP gives credit where it is due and crowns a well deserving, undefeated, non-BCS national champion this year.

  We've only had 1 non-BCS school win in the last 70 years. This team is well deserving of the honor. The 2008-2009 Utah Utes are a very special team.

  • Posted Jan 3, 2009 12:07 am GMT
  • Category: Sports
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• 20Sep 08

  Where have all the great RPG's gone?

  At least once a year I like to sit down and sink my teeth into a good RPG. I'm tired of playing online shooters and I still can't bring myself to drop $60 on Madden because I know I'm going to be disappointed. I'm in my RPG mode right now and the fact that there is NOTHING on my PS3 to play kind of depresses me.

  I own Oblivion, but truth be told, it never really grew on me. Maybe it didn't grow on me because it was too open-ended. I swear that one day I'm going to actually take the time to go and play through the story.

  Thank god I own a PSP because without it, I'd be (poop) out of luck right now. It's sad to think that I've passed up gaming on my beautiful 40 inch Sony Bravia XBR4 1080p HDTV to play games on my 4.3 inch "Phat" PSP.

  What game am I playing right now? Jeanne D'Arc. I downloaded it off of the PSN the other day and I am enjoying the game very much. I've been brainwashed by Square Enix for too long and have not opened myself up to RPG's made by other companies. Level 5 created a winner when they created this game. It's nothing revolutionary, but technically speaking, it's rock solid and fun to play.

  So my question is...where have all the great RPG's gone? Are they now on the Xbox 360? Are developers still making all the great RPG's on the PS2? Or have the DS and PSP stolen all of the classic remakes?

  Why the heck are the portable systems getting all of the remakes? I found out today that the DS is going to get Chrono Trigger (Yes, that Chrono Trigger from the SNES era!) in the middle of November! If the economy wasn't so bad, I honestly would've went out and bought a DS today!

  The DS just got a remake of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy III before that. The PSP got a remake of Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II. Two years ago, they got a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics...which by the way, will be my next PSP purchase.

  Where are all the great RPG's for my PS3? It's frustrating to think that I have to mentally classify games like BioShock and Fallout 3 as Action-RPG's to allow me to get over the hump. Final Fantasy XIII isn't coming out anytime soon either...And last, but not least, classic RPG's from the PS One era like Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, and Suikoden are nowhere to be seen on the PSN. Don't give me this licensing crap either. If Square Enix can work out an arrangement where Super Mario RPG comes out on the Virtual Console for the Wii, then we should be able to get Chrono Cross on the PSN.

  I think I'm being more than fair when I say that this is a pretty bad time for PS3 owning RPG fans. One day, a couple of years from now, we'll be laughing, but it's sad to see that even PSP owners can laugh in our faces right now.

  • Posted Sep 20, 2008 2:08 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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