The Need For Speed

Let me tell you a little bit about speed as it pertains to college football.

Speed changed the game of football about 15-20 years ago. Smashmouth style was the norm for decades, but then Bill Walsh perfected the west coast offense in the early 1980s. Once the popularity spread, all those speedy athletes growing up in Florida suddenly had NFL futures.

But first they had to play in college, so Florida, Florida State and especially Miami grabbed them up by the dozen. And once schools outside the Sunshine State took note of the need for speed, NCAA football became a track meet.

Ohio State's John Cooper was probably the first Big Ten coach to bring in "athletes," those not necessarily dedicated to one position or another. They ended up playing skill positions for sure, often wideout or cornerback, and they usually returned kicks. He's known more for his awful record against Michigan and in bowl games, but Cooper doesn't get the credit he deserves for being a good recruiter, for helping bring speed to the Big Ten.

And Jim Tressel picked up right where Coop left off, as far as recruiting players with game-breaking wheels.

But let's not forget that speed is rooted in the south more than any other area. Sure Texas and California have plenty of it, but as far as an entire region, the south is where it is, and the SEC is Exhibit A.

Everybody wants to talk about how Florida's speed is what killed Ohio State in last year's national championship game. This is actually not true. Florida's team is what dominated the Buckeyes. Sure I'm a diehard OSU fan, but I have no problem admitting where the fellas might be weak. If you want to talk about a decisive edge in speed that resulted in an embarrassing Buckeye loss, we can talk about Florida State's dismantling of Ohio State in a Sugar Bowl 10 or 12 years ago. Cooper and the boys had no answer for Peter Boulware and company. Few did in the 1990s, and you can thank speed above all else for that.

Last year, OSU was slower, sure, but the Buckeyes simply played bad football. Missed assignments, ill-timed turnovers and other mistakes gave Florida several scoring drives on short fields. Certainly the Gators had a lot to do with OSU playing poorly. They were far hungrier, partly a result of hearing for six weeks how inferior they were to the favored Buckeyes. This time around, OSU has heard for a month how it will be overmatched, and for a year how it was slow and weak and undeserving.

But nowadays in the sport, the playing field is much more level. Just ask Michigan, or Appalachian State. Or plenty of other teams this year who were involved in any of the many upsets. Recent scholarship limitations haven't only made it possible for middle-of-the-pack squads to pick up higher-quality players they weren't getting five years ago, but by so doing, they're also taking away a blue-chipper from one of those Florida schools, for example. Just look at Louisville since 2000. Lots of Sunshine kids are leaving burn marks on the Cardinal Stadium turf in recent years.

So for a month now, the common wisdom has been that speedy LSU will run circles around Ohio State's cornfeds. Not so fast. If LSU wins, it will be because its Glenn Dorsey-led defense will have rattled OSU quarterback Todd Boeckman into making mistakes. If the Tigers can't pressure Boeckman, he'll have a nice night finding guys like Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline. And if they're doing that, that means running back Chris Wells is probably chewing up nice gains on the ground as well.

So while Boeckman might be OSU's X factor, its defense has no X factor. The Buckeyes have future NFL stars on each layer. End Vernon Gholston and linebacker James Laurinaitis are studs, and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins is among the finest cover guys in the country. The Bucks didn't give up too many big plays this year, but even if they give up two, maybe three, tonight -- which is possible because the Superdome's turf track will reveal a slight edge in speed for LSU -- I still think Ohio State has enough firepower to get its score into the middle 20s. And if that happens, then the Bucks will silence those with the gigantic SEC boner and hoist another national championship trophy.

And finally, here's a video clip we shot at work a month ago when the BCS bowl pairings were announced:



Add to My Profile | More Videos