SEASON SUMMARY

Alabama wins its second championship in the last three seasons – and the SEC’s sixth straight BCS title – by topping Oklahoma in the BCS Championship 56.5% of the time and by a score of 27.6 – 23.1. Despite losing ultra-efficient quarterback Greg McElroy and receiving threat Julio Jones, Alabama is stacked. The Crimson Tide appears to have the best offensive line, running back and defense in the nation. Generally, the most likely team in the country to go undefeated is a non-BCS-AQ school (like TCU, Boise State, Houston, etc.). This year, that distinction goes to the SEC’s best.

In other BCS Bowls, the inaugural Big Ten Championship game winner, Wisconsin falls to new Pac-12 champion Oregon in a Rose Bowl shootout 41-31. Boise State, led by Kellen Moore, carries the flag of the BCS non-AQ schools into the Sugar Bowl where the Broncos take out SEC runner-up South Carolina 27-25. ACC winner Florida State shuts down Big East champion West Virginia 23-14 in the Orange Bowl. And Big 12 runner-up Texas A&M spoils Brian Kelly and Notre Dame’s return to a BCS game with a 31-26 victory. Perennial BCS Bowl contender LSU and offensive power house Oklahoma State may not make BCS Bowls despite being top ten teams (two teams from the SEC and Big 12 are already in), but the Tigers and Cowboys turn the Cotton Bowl into the next best match-up, one that LSU wins 37-30. Stumbling from last year’s ranks, defending champion Auburn faces Houston in the Liberty Bowl, while TCU makes the Las Vegas Bowl against Cal. And finally, in an interesting rematch from last season’s Sugar Bowl, Ohio State and Arkansas lose their starting quarterbacks, yet improve over the season to ultimately meet up in the Outback Bowl.

Team recaps, Power Rankings and Preseason Over/Under Win Total Picks are also available at PredictionMachine.com. Here are projected conference championship and bowl results for every game:

BOWL SUMMARY

Conference Championship Results

Brian Kelly has been successful everywhere he has gone, but this might be his biggest challenge.  After resurrecting the Cincinnati football program, Kelly is now in South Bend and will take over a program that has underachieved the last couple of seasons under Charlie Weis.  It’s safe to say the expectations are quite high at Notre Dame for their new head coach.

Brian Kelly joined WJOX in Birmingham with Paul Finebaum to talk about what the biggest adjustment for him is now that he is at Notre Dame, why they wanted to remain an independent, and the expectations at Notre Dame.

On what the biggest adjustment is for him now that he is in Notre Dame:

“Coast to coast, recruiting, 250 alumni groups across the country and obviously the footprint is national for Notre Dame relative to its fan base and quite frankly the interest in its program.  I’ve gone from taking a drive up to Columbus on occasion when I was at Cincinnati to being on a plane from New York to LA.”

On what Notre Dame was thinking with all the expansion:

“(Laughing) We were thinking the Mountain West.  It’s obviously shifting out there.  It’s a dynamic time in college football and it’s never been more popular than it is.  I think we saw that with the conferences and how it didn’t really affect basketball as much as the football schools we’re moving.  Clearly we’ve got to keep our ear to the ground.  Our Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has obviously been in constant communication with all the players but we’re able to stay in an independent status right now.  I’d like to keep it but were also realists and we have to be able to react and have a plan if this turns into super conferences.”

On how difficult the expectations will be to handle at Notre Dame:

“It’s much like Alabama.  You don’t have much time.  Nick Saban went into Alabama and transitioned to a championship team in very short order and we’re gonna have to do the same thing at Notre Dame.  There’s no patience for it any more so it doesn’t matter what you say.  You gotta get it done right away and we’re gonna have to get this football team playing at a national, high level and be a national caliber football team early.  We don’t have the luxury of waiting around.  It’s been too long since Notre Dame has been in that picture and we gotta get it done early.”

On whether or not it has hit him that he is the Head Coach at Notre Dame:

“If I came in the office everyday thinking I was the head coach at Notre Dame, Id jump out my window with the expectations.  I’m focused on the process and the process for me is to work on winning every day.  All the attention to detail, all the things that are necessary to build a championship program, that’s really what I focus on.  I did those every step of the way and I’m gonna continue to do them at Notre Dame.  That’s all I know.  I’ve got 20 years experience as a head coach and I don’t know how to do it any other way.  I will rely on my instincts of working on winning every single day and focus on the process not being the head coach at Notre Dame.”

Listen to Brian Kelly on WJOX in Birmingham here

On Notre Dame’s 49-21 victory over Hawaii in last year’s Hawaii Bowl, their first bowl victory since beating Texas A&M in the 1994 Cotton Bowl:

“It certainly set an optimistic tempo for the whole offseason. I think when you play that well in the last game of the year, all it can do is do good. Whether it be recruiting, or more importantly, the offseason workouts in to spring ball in to summer vacation – I mean, I can’t tell you how many guys I’ve talked to in the past couple of weeks that in the past summertimes, they avoided me like the plague. But I’ll talk, see, or send a text to 20 guys a day. This team’s really excited, and I think the springboard was that Bowl game.”

On some of the violations going on around the country and his thoughts on running a clean program:

“Well, I think there’s a couple of factors that come in. Obviously we didn’t write the book on how to do things the right way. But we try as best we can to try to do things the right way and it minimizes the amount of problems you end up having, especially major ones. You know, that being said, when you’re dealing with 100+ 18-22 year old kids that are very impressionable by outside forces, you know I think control of a lot of situations has to be handled pretty strongly, and you know, try to stay on top of it as much as you possibly can, because you never know what could end up happening.”

Listen here to Weis on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis

So, one would think that what he might have to say about Notre Dame potentially joining the Big 10 would be very important. One would be right in that regard. And one would also be interested, one could presume, in Tressel’s opinion of LeBron James and his ability to play football on the college and professional level, no? Well, one is in luck. 

On recruiting LeBron James:

“I was in St. V – St. Mary one day after his junior year and we were recruiting another guy and I felt this big pair of hands on my neck … and it was LeBron and he said, “I could play wideout for you” and he had already demonstrated on high school football film that he could play wideout and Coach O’Brien was our basketball coach at the time — I said, “Coach O’Brien and I would love to have you here for a year, and I’m sure it wouldn’t be much longer than that, but you’ve got a scholarship if you want it.” 

On LeBron being successful in the NFL:

“Oh, absolutely. He’s just so competitive and so physical. The speed at which he goes with 265 pounds — I don’t think there’s anyone at that size who moves with the speed like that. I remember watching his high school football film and it was frightening.”

On Notre Dame joining the Big Ten:

“You know, I think the fact that you can talk about Notre Dame because they’re not in a conference. I don’t know what the possibility is — it would add someone to the western side of our geography, but it wouldn’t really enlarge our territory. And so much of the discussion in this day and age is enlarging your market and enlarging your interest base and so forth. So there are some ups and downs there.”

On whether he’d join the Big 10 if “he was Notre Dame”:

“Well, to be aligned with a group of schools like the ones that are in our conference … when you talk to young people in recruiting … I think it’s been a huge boom from Penn State institutionally to be in this alliance. So if I was Notre Dame it would be something that would interest me, but obviously they have the things listed as 1, 2, and 3 as to what’s important to them. And obviously I can’t speak for them, but the Big 10 is a pretty special group of schools.”

Listen to Jim Tressel on Dan Patrick

In 2007, I worked with Tim for a full football season every week and he gave me tremendous stories about Norv Turner as Raiders head coach.  How Turner had no leadership ability and avoided confrontation at all costs.  I looked forward to my interview with him every week knowing I would come out more football savvy after talking to him.

Last week Tim Brown was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame for his outstanding years at Notre Dame including winning the Heisman Trophy in 1987.  I have no doubt he’ll receive that same honor in the NFL in the future.  He’s third all-time in receptions and managed to play under Al Davis for 16 years which should earn him some sort of monument.  Brown joined WCNN in Atlanta to discuss his election to the College Football Hall of Fame and you’ll see with the quotes below how frank he can be with his answers.

On choosing to go to Notre Dame and playing football there:

“It was absolutely great. Actually, when I got there Gerry Faust was still the coach. So obviously I didn’t go there because the football was so great at the time because that certainly wasn’t the case. I went there because of the education and hoping to play good football but certainly knowing that I would leave there with a great education. And it just worked out both ways for me, I got my great degree but on football, things just went to another level once Lou Holtz walked in the door. The whole outlook for me as far as football just changed once I had a couple of conversations with him.”

On meeting Al Davis for the first time:

“Meeting Al (Davis) was pretty unique. I found out five or ten minutes after my first practice there that he hated African-American athletes from Notre Dame. And they literally told me that. They literally told me that because we’re known for using our education more than our athletic ability that he thought that I would be one of these guys that would basically take the money and run. I don’t know if that was a ploy to get me amped up, but it certainly worked.”

Could he still play now at age 42:

“I think I could, man. I probably couldn’t play 90% of the snaps like I did for the majority of my career. The only thing about spot playing, I found out my last year in the league, it’s harder on you than playing every snap. Standing on the sideline, waiting for somebody to call your number, trying to stay warm is a very, very difficult thing. So from that standpoint they may have to get their 10 plays out of me early in the game, after that I probably would be no good.”

Listen to Tim Brown on WCNN in Atlanta with Chuck Oliver & Matt Chernoff

Listen to Vitale on Mike & Mike In The Morning on ESPN Radio

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