Bama-Texas BCS Clash Had Friday Night Lights Feel To It
- Friday, January 8, 2010 12:41 AM
- Written By: Harry Parmenter
Well, that was at once an exciting and horrific display of college football.
It reminds us that these are kids out there, teenagers with acne doing their best to grow up on television.
What a game.
Great to see both coaches also behave like adolescents, between Nick Saban's first-series idiotic fake punt and Mack Brown's first-half dumbass call that cost his team the game.
The Man of The Hour is clearly Garrett Gilbert. Even though his team lost, what a performance by an untested freshman. It is somehow poetic that, after all the hype, the game changed instantly when Colt McCoy went down.
Yes, the kid coughed it up at the end and Bama lucked out with a win, but Gilbert deserves kudos for his performance under pressure.
He came in out of nowhere, he kept his team in the game, and if not for Brown's inexplicable call at the end of the first half, it may have all been different.
What I loved about this game is that it was full of youth.
We are all so jaded by college athletes and young professionals who are so poised and perfect. And tonight was like going to a Friday Night Lights high school game where anything can -- and did -- happen.
It was wonderful.
On the other hand, after watching ESPN's Classic Replay of the Texas-USC 2006 Rose Bowl faceoff, it looked like a girly match tonight, but, hey, these are kids, like I said. The aforementioned game was the greatest CFB game in history, full of Men named Young, Leinart, Bush, Smith and White, with one man (Vince) turning in a magnificent individual effort to lead his team to victory.
Tonight was different.
Mark Ingram was impressive but not dominant, and he will not be the second coming of Chris Johnson or Emmitt Smith in the NFL.
I won't even bother to quote McElroy's embarrassing stats ... he got his W and a BCS Title. Good for him.
The Arenas-Crittenton incident reminds us all that these are all young men under the million dollar glass of national scrutiny.
Here's to the amateur athlete, who was on ample display tonight.
God Bless Em.
