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Poetry in motion Nothin' prettier than an air-attacking duo like USC'sPosted: Sunday December 01, 2002 6:21 PM
Besides cheerleaders in white sweaters, nothing in college football is prettier to watch than a quarterback who is in perfect sync with one of his receivers. And lucky for us, both were on full display Saturday night at the L.A. Coliseum. In between frequent cutaways to the famed USC Song Girls on the sideline, most of the country watching on ABC saw Trojans QB Carson Palmer put the finishing touches on quite possibly the most open-and-shut Heisman case since Ricky Williams, producing the most yardage of any player ever to face Notre Dame. Ever. But what was most fun to see was the obvious connection Palmer has with 6-foot-5 freshman star Mike Williams. It seemed that wherever Palmer threw the ball, there was Williams, who repeatedly made mincemeat out of arguably the nation’s top cornerback, Shane Walton. On several occasions, Palmer dropped back and, facing heavy pressure, unleashed long, seemingly doomed balls that turned out to be right on the money. Such has been the case nearly the entire season for Palmer, Williams and the torrid Trojans. Palmer, who went 34-of-48 for 425 yards and four touchdowns against Notre Dame, finished his staggering senior season with 3,639 yards and 32 TDs despite facing opponents with a combined record of 83-40. With 10 catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns against the Irish, Williams finished his true-freshman season with 1,166 yards and 13 TDs, the latter tied for second nationally. Palmer and Williams weren’t the only pitch-and-catch duo putting on a show this weekend. A year after hooking up on the game-winning touchdown to shock Oklahoma the first time, Oklahoma State QB Josh Fields and WR Rashaun Woods shredded the Sooners’ vaunted defense worse than any opponent in Bob Stoops’ four-year tenure. Taking advantage of perhaps too much aggressiveness from OU corners Andre Woolfolk and Derrick Strait, Woods repeatedly found separation on the deep ball, and Fields repeatedly put the ball right where he wanted it. Woods finished the day with 12 catches for a school-record 226 yards and three TDs. He finished the season No. 2 in the country with 1,531 receiving yards. And just imagine what could happen if both Fields, a sophomore who threw for 29 TDs with just nine picks on the year, and Woods, a junior, both return next season. Georgia sophomore QB David Greene has a certain rapport with one of his fellow underclassmen, sophomore Fred Gibson. Specifically, it’s put the ball high in the air and let the 6-4 playmaker come down with it, as he did on a 49-yard touchdown during the Dogs’ 51-7 rout of rival Georgia Tech. Gibson has accounted for only 653 of Greene’s 2,599 yards on the year, but he averages a whopping 18.1 per catch. It’s a relationship not unlike that of Miami’s Ken Dorsey and Andre Johnson, who teamed up on six throws against Syracuse that resulted in 181 yards and two touchdowns. Dorsey and Johnson, like Fields and Woods and Greene and Gibson, have been doing this for the better part of two years now. But that’s not to say experience is exclusive with chemistry. Arkansas earned a trip to next week’s SEC championship game when QB Matt Jones found sophomore WR Decori Birmingham in the back of the end zone for a game-winning 31-yard touchdown. It was the kind of play you could see them working on over and over during practice, and perhaps they did. But it was Birmingham’s only catch of the game.
Woods has managed to fly under the radar despite consecutive 1,000-yard seasons thanks to the Cowboys’ relatively low profile outside the Big 12 region. He wasn’t even included among the finalists for the Biletnikoff Award and likely will be left off many All-America teams -- but not those that waited until after Saturday to make their selections. His whopping numbers and endless highlights in the weekend’s most stunning result leave him behind only Nevada’s Nate Burleson among the nation’s receiving leaders, ahead of such luminaries as Michigan State’s Charles Rogers and Washington’s Reggie Williams. And his 16 touchdowns are three more than the nearest competitor's.
Yes, Oklahoma State’s win was big, but it meant only the difference between the Tangerine Bowl and the Humanitarian Bowl. But the Trojans very likely cashed a $13 million check with their record-setting 44-13 blowout of Notre Dame. Even if UCLA doesn’t knock Washington State out of the Rose Bowl next week, USC appears to have moved up high enough in the BCS standings to guarantee an at-large berth. Good thing, too, because no one in the country has played better football over the past two months. And yes, that includes Miami, Ohio State, Iowa and Kansas State.
Oh, it was certainly ugly, no doubt. But would you expect anything less with the SEC West on the line? Jones, the Razorbacks’ underrated sophomore quarterback, entered his team’s final drive a ghastly 2-of-13 for 46 yards and needing to go 81 yards in 40 seconds to win. So, on first down he completed a 50-yard Hail Mary-esque throw to Richard Smith, and then, after one failed attempt, found Birmingham for the division-clinching score (though it wasn’t official until David Carlton made a 35-yard extra point). For LSU, which beat Kentucky four weeks earlier on its own miracle pass, you couldn’t have scripted a worse case of reverse karma.
Wish granted. Florida State’s performance against the hated Gators showed not a hint of the seemingly overwhelming distractions of the week leading up to it: starting QB Adrian McPherson’s dismissal and arrest on a stolen check; widespread rumors of further improprieties to come; and general outrage over the 'Noles’ 17-7 loss to N.C. State. Despite regaining his starting role by default, Chris Rix did nothing to indicate he wasn’t the man all along. He still tries to force things too much, resulting in a low completion percentage (13-of-29), but he pulled off several big Chris Weinke-esque home-run balls and he even managed to run for 83 yards. Some teams need bulletin-board material to fire themselves up. For others, it’s disrespect in the polls. For Florida State, however, it’s apparently malfeasance. Now, it’s Florida’s fans who’d like to hold up a “Save the Season” sign, but unfortunately for them, it’s too late. Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Stewart? Click here. |
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