Ripper Ramblings

Nebraska: At first glance the perfect candidate to bring Big Red back to its past glory is Craig Bohl, current head coach at North Dakota State. In the last two seasons his only loss is a 10-9 defeat by Minnesota in '06, the same school the Bison's up-ended last weekend. Over that time NDSU has beaten Ball State and blew out Mac West leader Central Michigan this season. It gets better for Bohl. He grew up in Lincoln and was a reserve defensive back for Tom Osborne in the late 1970's. He held the defensive coordinator's job at Rice between '89 and '93. He coached the defense during Duke's surprising '94 year that saw the Blue Devils go 8-4. He coached at Nebraska from '95 to '02, seeing two national titles and an 85-18 record. He was the linebacker's coach for the first five years before leading the blackshirts from '00 to '02. Thats where it turns bad. Bohl was leading the defense when things turned for Nebraska. We all remember when that was: November 23, 2001 when Bobby Purify and Chris Brown ripped through the Cornhusker defense to the tune of 380 rushing yards in route to a 62-36 victory in Boulder. The following year Nebraska went 7-7 behind the nation's 55th best defense, also led by Bohl. He was subsequently fired. While Bohl experienced the hey-day of Nebraska football, he was at the controls when things turned south. He isn't the man to turn things back around.

Texas A&M: It will be interesting to see if the Aggies will be able to wiggle out of thier contract with Coach Fran due to Frangate. Either way they'll be in the market for a new coach (follow the search here, http://www.aggiecoach.com/). A&M will be in the market for both Tommy Tuberville and Bo Pelini. How things work out with those three parties will have ramifications across college football. The Nebraska job, Les Miles, Michigan, Houston Nutt, and the Tar Heels are just some of the pieces in what is now a twisted and tangled web. In the coming months we'll see just how those pieces fit together.

Ole Miss / Clemson Theory: Stewart Mandel wrote about this theory recently and it appears that Minnesota and Tim Brewster may be the latest victim. The theory concerns mid level programs who have success under one coach then ditch him in an effort to take the next step, only to fall backwards. Ole Miss and Minnesota did so by going with the ace recruiter-type coach. Let that be a less for the rest of you mid-tier programs.

Boston College: They have been criticized for playing a soft schedule and slipping by teams. I don't think that is totally justified. While others were opening with non-conference softies the Eagles opened with three conference games, including Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Boston College poured 527 yards of offense including 435 yards passing on Georgia Tech - the ACC leader in both total and scoring defense. The nation may have a very different attitude towards Boston College when everyone wakes up Friday morning. A big game by quaterback Matt Ryan and another impressive defensive showing will do a lot for them to shake their pretender image. Virginia Tech will need an outstanding effort out of young quarterback Tyrod Taylor to pull the upset. While things do get tougher from here for BC, they do matchup well with most of their remaining opponents. BC is allowing only 46 rushing yards per game, good enough for first in the nation. Meanwhile their pass defense is dead last in the ACC. However, three of their remaining opponents average under 200 yards per game passing. FSU at 231 yds/game is not daunting. That leaves their visit to Death Valley and Clemson's 278 yds/game pass defense as their toughest remaining game.

Heisman: Andre Woodson has to be the only guy in the last several years to improve his Heisman stock in a losing effort. His 35 of 50, 415 yards, 5 td, and 0 interception performance against Florida leaves Woodson in a very good position. Wins to close out the season against Georgia and Tennessee would close out a 10-2 season for Kentucky and Woodson would be headed to New York.

Rose Bowl: Two potential interesting Rose Bowl match-ups could take place. As we sit, Michigan and UCLA sit atop their respective conferences. Both programs would head to Pasadena with some non-conference baggage. Michigan's App State loss and home blowout by Oregon coupled with UCLA's mysterious blowout to Utah and loss to Notre Dame would be very un-Rose Bowl like. Additionally, a Michigan versus Oregon would prove interesting. Certainly the question that game would hope to answer would be, did Michigan really improve or is the Big Ten just that bad?