Mount musts: Hayes, Osborne
Mount
Rushmore is associated with excellence, and excellence in college football is measured by national championships.
My Rushmore coaches — Alabama’s Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes and Nebraska’s Tom Osborne — combined to win 17 national championships and 44 conference titles. These coaches didn’t stumble upon greatness. It came over a long period of time.
A quick look at each member:
Bryant is the gold standard by which all others are measured. The Bear has been gone for nearly 30 years, but few coaches have come close to matching his influence on college football. His head coaching career spanned five decades, but he made Cedric Golden’s personal Mount Rushmore of modern-era college football coaches differed slightly from Kirk Bohls’: ■ College football’s gold standard is still revered ■ ’Nuff said ■ 3 national titles, 13 conference titles, 60-3 his final 5 years ■ The New Bear’s fourth BCS title is coming Monday
5 national titles + 13 Big Ten crowns = his legend at Bama, where he captured a modern era record six national championships and 14 conference titles.
He earned the reputation as the sternest of taskmasters. Even if Saban retires with more national titles at Bama, he will still rank second in reverence to the Bear. They still worship the houndstooth down south.
Just like Bryant, Hayes was one hard-nosed son of a gun. Though his legacy was tainted for slugging a Clemson player in the final game of his career, Hayes’ résumé speaks for itself. He won five national championships and 13 Big Ten titles at Ohio State. Nine of his 28 teams finished with one loss or fewer.
Hayes certainly took no prisoners. A reporter once asked him why he attempted a two-point conversion against archrival Michigan — with a 48-14 lead. His answer: “Because the rules don’t allow you to go for three.” He got the two points.
My third Rushmore coach, Osborne, coached at the same school for his entire career and produced some of the most devastating rushing attacks since Texas’ vaunted wishbone. The result was three national championships and 13 con- ference titles.
In his 25 years as head coach, no Nebraska team ever finished with fewer than nine wins. Over his last five seasons, the Huskers went 60-3. Osborne set the bar so high that successor Frank Solich was fired after six seasons despite winning 75 percent of his games.
Saban is the lone active Rushmore member. Already the owner of three national championships and five conference titles, Alabama’s current coach is the Bear Bryant of the modern game. He is the only coach in the AP era to win national championships at two different schools, and he has done it in the SEC, the toughest league in the sport.
He isn’t finished by a long shot. Unless he gets bored, Saban will win more championships, starting with his fourth after Bama beats Notre Dame on Monday. Didn’t he win four titles and invent student body right and turn the Trojans into Tailback U? Thought long and hard about including Woody Hayes. After all, it was only one misguided punch against a Clemson linebacker, and he won five titles and owned the Big Ten.
I considered Eddie Robinson but wanted to focus on those who coached against the highest level of competition. Tom Osborne, who I thought was as classy and consistent as any football coach ever, got a serious look.
So did Darrell Royal, although I’m biased. With Emory Bellard’s help, they ushered in a completely revolutionary offensive concept. Royal won three titles. And he had the innovation of adding the nation’s first academic coach.
Bobby Bowden makes total sense, but I never thought he was the X’s and O’s mastermind these other coaches were. Barry Switzer was considered, but he maintained what Bud Wilkinson began.
All of which proves just how tough this task was. There’s room for argument. Remember, legend holds that Doane Robinson, the South Dakota historian behind the idea for the national memorial, originally wanted to include frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody on the side of the mountain.
Florida State by 13 Northern Illinois seeks to validate its bowl bid after becoming the first MidAmerican Conference team to reach the BCS. Florida State is looking for its fifth consecutive bowl win but is trying to break a streak of four consecutive losses in BCS bowls. The Seminoles’ E.J. Manuel seeks to become only the second quarterback to go 4-0 in bowl games.
Key matchup: Junior QB Jordan Lynch will face a Florida State defense that ranks second in yards allowed at 253.8 per game. Lynch led the nation with 1,771 yards rushing, a record for quarterbacks. The Seminoles allowed only 93.0 yards rushing per game, fifth-best.
For Florida State, Manuel has a career completion percentage of 66.8, best in school history. He leads an offense that averages 7.01 yards per play, which is tied for best in the nation. For Northern Illinois, Lynch made second-team All-American as an all-purpose player and finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting. He leads the nation in total offense and needs 38 yards passing to become the first player to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,500 in a season.
Northern Illinois’ lone loss came in its season opener against Iowa, 18-17. ... The Huskies and Oregon are the only teams to win at least 11 games each of the past three seasons. ... Rod Carey will make his debut as a head coach for the Huskies. He replaces Dave Doeren, who was hired as coach at N.C. State on Dec. 1. ...The Seminoles are playing in a bowl for the 31st year in a row, the longest active streak.
Stanford by 6 Stanford can close its Pac12 championship season with its first victory in the Rose Bowl since 1972, while Wisconsin has a chance for its first win in three straight trips to the“Granddaddy of Them All.”The Badgers will be led by athletic director Barry Alvarez, who picked up his coaching whistle for one more game after Bret Bielema left for Arkansas.
Wisconsin RB Montee Ball vs. Stanford LB Shayne Skov. Ball has scored more touchdowns than any player in FBS history. Skov is the leading tackler on the nation’s thirdstingiest rushing defense, allowing just 87.7 yards per game.
For Wisconsin, linebacker Mike Taylor has more tackles than any FBS player over the past two seasons, and he’ll have to lead an impressive defensive effort to slow down Stanford RB Stepfan Taylor. For Stanford, quarterback Kevin Hogan took over the starting job in November and immediately beat four ranked teams, including top-ranked Oregon.
The game is the 99th edition of the Rose Bowl. ... New Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen is expected to watch from the sideline while Alvarez and the Badgers’ current coordinators run the team. ... Stanford is playing in four consecutive bowl games for the first time in school history.
South Carolina by 4 What’s at stake: South Carolina is trying to close out the most successful threeyear run with the second 11win season in school history. The Gamecocks, who’ve won four straight after consecutive losses to LSU and Florida derailed hopes of playing for the SEC title, won 11 games for the first time last season. Michigan is trying to avoid ending a two-game losing streak. Three of the Wolverines’four losses came against the top three teams in the Associated Press poll (Notre Dame, Alabama and Ohio State) heading into the postseason.
Michigan’s 42 bowl appearances are the most in college football history. The Wolverines are 20-21, including 7-4 against SEC teams in bowl games. They are 18-17 in January bowl games. ... South Carolina is making its seventh bowl appearance under coach Steve Spurrier. Georgia by 9
The Bulldogs came up just a few yards short of capturing the SEC crown and a trip to the BCS national championship game, when they fell to defending BCS champion Alabama, 32-28. They acknowledged this week that wound hasn’t fully healed, but want this bowl game to be the first step. The Cornhuskers are looking to erase the memories of their lopsided 70-31 loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, which cost them a trip to the Rose Bowl. Nebraska had won six in a row before its championship game loss.
Georgia thrived this season offensively behind Tampa, Fla. native Aaron Murray. He led the nation in yards per passing attempt (7.8), while throwing for 31 touchdowns. He will be opposite a Nebraska defense that allowed 148.2 yards per game passing this season, ranking No. 1 in the nation. Northwestern by 1
Bowl streaks. Northwestern has lost an NCAA-record-tying nine consecutive bowls, including four in the past four years. The Wildcats’last bowl win came in the 1949 Rose Bowl, a 20-14 victory over California. Mississippi State has won its past five bowl games dating to 1999. It’s the longest streak in the nation. The Bulldogs’streak includes a 52-14 romp over Michigan two years ago in the Gator Bowl.
Oklahoma State by 17 Oklahoma State is trying to avoid its first three-game losing streak since 2005. The Cowboys already have consecutive losses for the first time in three years, with setbacks against Oklahoma and Baylor to end the regular season. Purdue is going for its fourth consecutive win since a five-game losing streak that included a three-point loss at Notre Dame and an overtime road loss against Ohio State.