CNNSI.com - SI Writers - Stewart Mandel - The Season That Was - Stewart Mandel: A year of rising and falling

New world order

Fiesta finish was par for course in upside-down season

Posted: Sunday January 05, 2003 7:13 PM

SI Online - Stewart Mandel - The Season That Was

It was a season so crazy, the finale had to go a couple of overtimes.

Crazy why? Crazy because never before have so many prominent teams been turned right side up or upside down from one year to the next.

Take a look among the final top 10: Ohio State, Georgia, USC and Iowa. All were hanging around the land of the second-tiers just a year earlier. All decided to have their breakout seasons at once.

Final Fiesta Thoughts

Was it the greatest game ever? I don’t know; I haven’t seen them all. I do know very few games of such importance have come down to a goal-line stand -- not to mention in double overtime -- and none involved ending a team’s 34-game winning streak.

You can debate the infamous pass-interference penalty all you want. Whether it was right or wrong is not why it will be the game’s most lasting image. It was the long delay by field judge Terry Porter, creating a surreal scene in which Miami already had begun celebrating and despondent Ohio State QB Craig Krenzel collapsed on the field as if he had just lost the national title.

In a locker room full of tears, no one was a bigger wreck afterward than Miami’s Ken Dorsey, who, as a consummate perfectionist, likely will blame himself for the defeat for the rest of his life. In reality, his offensive line couldn’t get him the protection he needed, and with the running game shut down as well, his arm was the only reason the ‘Canes were even in the game.

Willis McGahee was one quarter away from entering the 2003 NFL Draft. Now, following his gruesome knee injury, those plans are probably on hold until 2005, and even then there’s no guarantee he’ll return to form. Very, very sad.

Some serious fence-mending is in order the next eight months between Ohio State and Maurice Clarett. Even after scoring the deciding touchdown in a national championship victory, the freshman stood away from the stage on which his teammates accepted the trophy and told a couple of reporters, “This doesn't mean anything to me. I just want to go home.”

It is absolutely abhorrent that ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was allowed to go on the air and play objective analyst minutes after standing on the Ohio State sideline with fellow alums Eddie George and Keith Byars, leading cheers and high-fiving players during overtime.

Look who’s not there: Florida State, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska. Four of the game’s most dominant programs of the past decade or longer decided to fall off the map -- at least temporarily -- all at once.

In between, there was Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Arizona State and Virginia, anonymous to most before the season, at this point fully capable of being next year’s Ohio State.

And it was rough going for a few that thought they had it in them this year: Michigan State, Iowa State and Oregon.

College football’s “elite,” a group you could once count on your right hand, is becoming harder and harder to define.

And it’s wonderful.

Those clamoring for an all-inclusive tournament, à la basketball, ought to realize the regular season has become just that. Ohio State would have been about a No. 4 seed coming in, yet won the whole thing. Iowa would have been the team that reached the Final Four as an eighth seed.

Sure, there will still be your share of carryover heavyweights this year.

The Ken Dorsey era may be over at Miami, but the Hurricanes’ recruiting juggernaut won’t let it fall too far from the top anytime soon. Same with Oklahoma as long as Bob Stoops is there, and Texas under Mack Brown. And any or all among Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, Georgia’s Mark Richt, USC’s Pete Carroll and Notre Dame’s Tyrone Willingham could be building the same thing.

But to reach the national title game twice in a row, as Miami just did -- or thrice in a row, like Florida State before it -- soon could become a thing of the past. There are just too many other contenders.

Ohio State’s 14-0 season. … Miami’s 34-game winning streak. … Nebraska’s first non-winning season in 40 years. … Notre Dame’s 8-0 start under Willingham. … … The stunning off-field implosions surrounding Florida State and Michigan State. … The tremendous impact of such freshmen as Ohio State’s Clarett, USC WR Mike Williams, Missouri QB Brad Smith and Pittsburgh WR Larry Fitzgerald. … The drastic rise and fall of one-time Iowa State Heisman candidate Seneca Wallace. … Texas receiver Roy Williams’ late-season explosion and surprising decision to return for his senior year. … Arizona State DE Terrell Suggs’ NCAA-record 24 sacks. … Texas Tech QB Kliff Kingsbury’s senior-season totals of 5,017 yards and 45 touchdowns. … The downfall of the SEC’s two brightest stars coming into the season, Florida QB Rex Grossman and Tennessee WR Kelley Washington. … The downfall of the SEC in general. … Oklahoma RB Quentin Griffin’s rise from complementary player to difference-maker, rushing for 1,884 yards. … Iowa’s Brad Banks and Virginia’s Matt Schaub going from fighting for their jobs to first-team all-conference QBs. … West Virginia’s improvement from 3-8 to 9-4. … Cal’s winning record in head coach Jeff Tedford’s first season. … The Big Ten’s 5-2 bowl record. … The Pac-10’s 2-5 bowl mark. … Larry Johnson’s final, biting comments about Joe Paterno’s system despite rushing for more than 2,000 yards. … Georgia DE David Pollack’s rise from obscurity to SEC player of the year. … The emergence of such next-generation mobile quarterbacks as Kansas State’s Ell Roberson and Virginia Tech’s Bryan Randall. … Mike Price’s puzzling departure from Washington State to Alabama; Dennis Franchione’s awkward handling of his move to Texas A&M.

Out with the old, in with the new ….

Early, Early 2003 Preseason Top 25
No.	Team	Comment
1.	Ohio State	All 11 starters return on offense; defense will reload.
2.	Oklahoma	Defense will be scary; must replace Hybl/Griffin.
3.	Georgia	Most of 13-1 squad returns; must replace entire O-line.
4.	Miami	Will still be loaded, but losing Dorsey will hurt.
5.	Texas	Quarterback is about the only uncertainty.
and the rest...
6.	Kansas State	11.	Maryland	16.	Pittsburgh	21.	Arkansas
7.	Michigan	12.	USC	17.	Colorado	22.	Florida
8.	N.C. State	13.	Washington	18.	Notre Dame	23.	TCU
9.	Auburn	14.	Tennessee	19.	Virginia	24.	Texas A&M
10.	Virginia Tech	15.	Florida St.	20.	LSU	25.	Purdue

Early, Early Heisman Picture
No.	Player	Pos.	Team
1.	Maurice Clarett	RB	Ohio State
2.	Roy Williams	WR	Texas
3.	Chris Brown	RB	Colorado
4.	David Greene	QB	Georgia
5.	Ell Roberson	QB	Kansas State

Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com.

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