Why Tebow to the Patriots is a good move

Tim Tebow’s move to the New England Patriots makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve always been puzzled by the disdain some have to his abilities. He is not a classical quarterback, he’s different. But one thing he has consistently shown is an ability to make things happen when it matters.

I’ve said before that a few years ago I stumbled across some College Football on TV, Tebow got my attention and is largely responsible for my interest in College Football From when I first saw him it was clear he was different but also a winner. This difference is part of the problem he has. I believe that a team that builds it’s offence specifically for Tebow would be successful in the long run. The problem is that this takes time, and time is something that coaches in the NFL don’t always have.

This is why the Patriots move makes sense. Tebow is not going to start for a while but can play a role. And the Patriots have a coach who is secure enough in his job to spend time developing that role. A year or two down the line and we could well find the Patriots have another dangerous weapon on offence.

BT buys ESPN's channels in the UK - what does this mean for watching college football here?

Today BT announced that they have acquired ESPN's UK and Ireland television channels (see announcement here and a BBC news story here). This deal includes the rights to many sports but the relevant information for this blog is that it includes both the ESPN America channel and the College Football rights. However, one thing the announcement does not specify is how both of these will be used, There is no mention of a specialist American sports channel (i.e. a version of ESPN America) continuing. What the announcement does say is:

"the deal will allow BT to continue to show a host of US sports currently shown on ESPN

America, including NCAA College Basketball, NCAA College Football and NASCAR". 

This does not state if ESPN America or some new version of it will continue. The worry for those of us who are fans of these sports is that BT will just add this content to their other sports channels and so they will effectively become schedule fillers around the sports which are bigger over here. This means the Saturday evenings spent watching 2 or 3 games back-to-back will be over.

Unfortunately for me, College Football is nowhere near popular enough to compete for space in the schedule with the Premier League, Rugby or most of the other sports that BT has been acquiring the rights for over the last year or so. 

A positive way to look at this though is that without this deal College Football may have disappeared from UK TV completely. ESPN has lost far too many sports rights to BT over the last year and so it's main sports channel was clearly going to lose money. ESPN wanted to exit the UK market so the fact that BT has bought all the rights ESPN America had means we should at least see some. But the question is how much?

Bowl season winners and losers

Far too much is often read into single games, which for each team the bowls are. However, over the course of the bowl games there are some who will do well, and some not so well. Here's a few thoughts on who may have 'Won' and 'Lost' during the bowl games.

Winners

 

Alabama and the SEC
Still the dominant force in college football. Alabama are now making a claim not only to be the best now, but also one of the best of all time with 3 titles in 4 years. The SEC also had a good bowl season despite high-profile losses by Florida and LSU. They won more bowl games than any other conference, ending with a 6-3 record.

ACC
The ACC had a good bowl season. They went 4-2 overall and, more importantly, won their high profile games. Florida State were expected to win, but Clemson weren't. Clemson's win over LSU and Florida State winning a BCS bowl game is a much needed boost to the perception of the conference.

Ole Miss
How many fans did they take to the BBVA Compass Bowl?

Louisville Cardinals
After that win in the Sugar Bowl they'll probably end up over-rated in the pre-season poll for nest season, but the win was impressive. They dominated Florida and completely deserved the win.

Northern Illinois and the MAC
Just for being in a BCS bowl game

Jadeveon Clowney
After that hit, surely he's now amongst the early front runners for next years Heisman.

Johnny Manziel
The legend of Johnny Football continues to grow.

 

Losers

 

Big 10
A 2-5 record is poor, especially for one of the major conferences. Ohio State will be eligible again next year but will they be ranked high enough even if they are unbeaten again? The performance of the Big 10 in the bowl games has made it harder for any team from the Big 10 to reach the top of the rankings.

Florida Gators
There was a good argument that Florida had the best regular season. They had an 11-1 record from one of the toughest schedules and were a Notre Dame loss away from playing for the national title. Then came the Sugar Bowl. There had always been a suspicion the team had over-achieved. They hadn't always looked impressive. Did this game confirm it? Next season will tell us a lot more.

The atmosphere at the smaller bowls
The smaller bowls are often being played in stadiums that are at best half-full. Should they move to smaller venues which would be more likely to be full and have a decent atmosphere?

The weather for Superbowl XLVIII
The snow bound Pinstripe Bowl should be a warning for next years Superbowl - snow is possible.

Eurosport
You have the rights to a major bowl game, the Cotton Bowl. So do you show it live? No. You show a re-run of boxing from 6 weeks earlier. So surely you'll show some highlights the next day? No, you don't show any of the game. Who on earth makes that decision to acquire the rights to something and not bother to use them?

The BCS National Championship Game - when do Alabama join the NFL?

I was going to write a few thoughts on the BCS National Championship Game but there isn't a great deal to say. Alabama were so far better than Notre Dame that it was over at half-time. Alabama are playing at a level that few teams can live with. They completely deserved their win.

A point I made in earlier blogs was that there was little to choose between the top 6 in the SEC this season. They all beat and lost to each other, and this posed a question of who was better. The problem was this. Alabama only lost to Texas A&M, and that was due to by far the best current player Johnny Manziel. However, Alabama only narrowly beat Georgia. Who lost to South Carolina. Who lost to Florida. Who lost to Georgia but beat Texas A&M and LSU. And so on.

But I think the bowl season has changed, or should that be clarified the order. Alabama were so dominant I don't think there can be any doubt who the best team is this season. And the confusion I outlined above also shows the SEC remains the strongest conference.

Why was the Cotton Bowl not shown by Eurosport?

So far, ESPN America has shown all the bowl games here in the UK. Even when there's been more than one on at the same time they've usually shown the full game on delay later, or they've shown it on the main ESPN channel. Unfortunately there is one bowl game they don't have the rights to show and that's the Cotton Bowl.

This is one of the bowl games I was most looking forward to, so I thought there must be a good reason for this. There is. It's because the rights to the game are owned by Eurosport.

But Eurosport seem to have decided not to bother using these rights. When the game was being played, instead of showing the Cotton Bowl live they showed a re-run of Ricky Hatton's comeback fight. Boxing that was 6 weeks old instead of live sport. I assumed that if they weren't showing it live there would be highlights or a re-run at some point. But looking through their schedule there's no sign of it. Eurosport have acquired the rights but aren't going to use them? Why did they bother getting the rights?

Fiesta Bowl thoughts

The Fiesta Bowl illustrated quite nicely how Oregon has changed the way the game is thought of today. Time of possession, dominating the ball and playing percentages are not as important for Oregon as the old perceived wisdom would have said. Some thoughts on this game:

• Louisville started the Sugar Bowl quick, but Oregon started even quicker here. Wait until the first play after kick-off to score? No, straight from the kick-off.
• I like the way Oregon are always looking to score as many points as they can. They always try and go for a 2-point conversion if they can instead of playing it safe. And so after 12 seconds its 8-0.
• During the second quarter it looked like controlling the tempo of the game would be key. The game was being played at Kansas State's pace and they were dominating possession. While they turned that into points at first (with a touchdown and a field goal), they ultimately didn't turn it into enough points. The missed field goal with 1 minute to go in the first half proved to be a crucial moment.
• After the missed field goal, Oregon showed why time of possession is unimportant to them. The rapid touchdown despite hardly seeing the ball all quarter was a demonstration of just how quick their offence can move and of how they can change the tempo of a game in an instant. The last minute of the first half probably decided the game. Instead of being only 2 points down at half-time if they had made the field goal, Kansas State were suddenly 12 down.
• Kansas State's offence isn't built to chase games. In stark contrast to Oregon's, they are built to do things slowly and methodically. It's very effective until they are chasing. In the last few minutes it didn't look right to see the roles reversed on offence with Oregon slowing things down and Kansas State trying to score quickly. Neither offence looked comfortably to me.
• Who knew there was a 1 point safety rule? Credit to the referee for a clear on-field explanation of what was happening.
• Is that the last we'll see of Chip Kelly at Oregon?

The Sugar Bowl - a deserved upset win

Louisville fully deserved this unexpected win. Arguably Florida had as good a regular season as anyone and deserved their number 3 ranking. But in this game they were outplayed. A few thoughts:

• Could the start of each half have gone any worse for the Gators? The game started with a pick-6 for Louisville which Florida followed up with a 3-and-out before Louisville scored again to make it 14-0. That was bad, but the start of the second half was even worse. The failed onside kick, 2 penalties and ejection make the decision to go for the onside kick a gamble which backfired in one of the worst ways I've seen. That Louisville immediately scored another touchdown made it worse and the first couple of plays of each half probably decided the game.
• Having said that, the gamble Florida took at the end of the first half was brave and worked. 4th and goal on the 2 yard line with seconds to go? Settle for a field goal? No. They were inventive and it paid off.
• Florida's defence had a mixed game. For the majority of the game they comfortably stopped Louisville's running game. But they could do little against Teddy Bridgewater who just took apart their defence with his passing. Bridgewater was impressive throughout this game.
• The Big East needed a high profile win like this. But Louisville is off to the ACC soon which means the ACC may be the ones to benefit from the improvement in the perception of how good Louisville is from this.

The Orange Bowl - not the one-sided game expected

In advance of this game there were several predictions of a one-sided game. It wasn't that, but then it wasn't close to an upset win either. A few thoughts on the Orange Bowl:

• The result was almost inevitable because Florida State had control over the line of scrimmage, both on offence and defence, throughout the game. Despite that control they never really exploited it as they should have done, meaning the game was far closer than it should have been.
• Given the control their offensive line had, its surprising that, with 15 seconds to go in the first half, Florida State had only scored 7 points.
• The defensive line also dominated, but didn't get much pressure on the Quarterback. There were no sacks in the first 3 quarters. But they did stop Northern Illinois from moving the ball most of the time.
• Northern Illinois went for it on special teams. The fake punt and onside kick were both successful. Their frequent attempts to block Florida State kicks weren't. But I think this shows that they knew they would need to gamble a few times to have a chance of winning.
• For their first drive in the second half, Northern Illinois emptied the backfield and sent five receivers downfield, spreading the field. They seemed to have decided that as Florida State controlled the line of scrimmage there was no point running through it, so they may as well try something else. On that occasion it worked.
• After the successful onside kick, they had a chance (their only chance) to make a comeback. An interception ended that and Florida State won comfortably. But given their dominance of the line of scrimmage, Florida State should have won much more impressively.

The Rose Bowl - a few thoughts

The Rose Bowl could have turned into a classic. It was nicely poised after a good first half but sadly descended into stalemate in the third quarter and struggled to escape that despite the tense finish. A few thoughts on the game:

• Stanford started better. It took a while for Wisconsin to establish the run but, once they did, they finished the first half stronger.
• Whatever adjustments both sides made to their defences at half time were very effective. Sadly the adjustments on offence weren't. In the third quarter the defences took over and slugged it out over field position with neither side gaining much. The quarter is summed up by two stats: 0 points and 7 punts.
• Stanford finally broke the stalemate in the fourth quarter and sealed a tense win with a late interception.
• Its 4th down and the ball is inside the 1 yard line. So why did Wisconsin use a wildcat without Montee Ball on the field? Strange call which didn't work.
• Is it me or was the commentary from ESPN low key at the start of the game?

Best play of the season?

This is easily the best hit of the bowls, and arguably the best play of the year. Awsome hit from Jadeveon Clowney in todays Outback Bowl.

A few thoughts on the Chick-Fil-A Bowl - best bowl game so far

Finally, 17 days into this years bowl season we finally get a great game, possibly a classic. This was by far the best bowl game so far. It was also the first to feature two of the top teams, and it didn't disappoint. A few observations on the game

• In the first half, thje game had a chaotic feel to it. What I mean by that is that nobody seemed to have any control over it and you were never sure if a play would be a 40 yard touchdown run or a sack for loss. At half time I felt the side who managed to get some control, particularly over the line of scrimmage, would win. Initially it looked like LSU may achieve that but as the half wore on Clemson started to control the game.
• Part of the reason for Clemson's control late on was that LSU's defence was exhausted. Clemson ran 100 plays compared with the 48 LSU ran. Partly this was down to how well Clemson's defence played as LSU had a high number of 3-an-outs, but also it was down to LSU's offence playing poorly and their inability at times to move the ball.
• As the 2nd half went on, it looked to me like the game would be decided by the physical battle and test of stamina between Clemson's offence and LSU's defence. This was ultimately won by Clemson but not before LSU had given them a hell of a pounding. The amount of pressure they got on the Quarterback was ridiculous.
• The last point makes Tajh Boyd's performance even more remarkable. He took a lot of hits, but kept coming back for more. Ran the ball, made plays happen and passed the ball very well. That's one of the best Quarterback performances I've seen. Given the number of plays he ran, he didn't put up big passing numbers but that was irrelevant. Making 36 out of 50 for 346 yards under that pressure is an amazing performance. And the 4th down pass completion late in the game is one of the best you will ever see.
• Despite that, should he have been in a position to make that game winning drive? Why did Les Miles call 3 passing plays that late in the game? At the very least a couple of running plays would have forced Clemson to use up some of its time-outs, but they really should have took more time off the clock.
• A lesson from this game for all is the importance of extra points. If LSU hadn't blocked that extra point in the first half, the game would have had a different flow to it late on because it had a major impact on the decision making of both teams coaches.
• This is also a big win for the rest of the ACC. In the last week of the season and last years BCS bowl games they lost every high profile game they played against opponents from the other conferences. If any team from that conference is going to get back in the national title conversation they need more wins like this.

Finally an observation on the bowl games overall. This bowl game felt like more of a big occasion than any other bowl game so far. That's partly due to the match-up but also because the stadium was full. Far too many bowl games have been played in at best half-full stadiums, something that really has an impact on the atmosphere. Should some of the smaller bowls be played in smaller stadiums?