Hollywood finish for Florida State — and the BCS

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By Art Spander

PASADENA, Calif. — Isn’t this the way the scripts usually run down here Hollywood way? Drama every few minutes. Then when we’re all washed out, the hero comes riding — or passing and running — out of the distance to save the day?

When they’re bringing the curtain down, make certain you leave them something to remember.

Which in this final of the often criticized, soon-to-be-disposed-of Bowl Championship Series, is exactly what this ultimate title game did.

If it wasn’t one for the ages, it was one that left us pleading for more.

And left Auburn, watching and grasping as its magic of last-second success was filched by Florida State, wishing for more time on the clock, impossible as it would be.

On his 20th birthday Monday, Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston did what Heisman-winning quarterbacks are supposed to do, throw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds to play, giving the Seminoles a 34-31 win over Auburn and the perfect finish to a perfect 14-0 season.

“It’s the best football game he played all year,” Florida State coach Jimbo Elliott said of Winston. “Because for three quarters he was up and down, and he fought . . . It’s not ‘my’ night, and you have two or three touches left, and you can lead your team to victory, that’s what a great player is to me.”

Winston, the red-shirt freshman, trailing, wanted to make the difference.

“That’s a storybook moment,” said Winston. “I was ready. I wanted to be in that situation because that’s what great quarterbacks do, That’s what the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Drew Breeses do.

“Any quarterback can go out there and perform when they’re up 50-0. That’s what you’re judged by. I’m pretty sure that drive, I got more respect from my teammates and people around me on that last drive than I got all year.”

Well, he got a great deal of respect from the people who voted him the Heisman.

The plot for the 16th BCS championship was part Alfred Hitchcock, part Woody Allen and all engrossing, with gasps and grasps, fumbled punts and — a Florida State player taking off his helmet and drawing a 15-yard penalty after a touchdown — dumb moves.

But it was compelling. Five days earlier, Michigan State had held off Stanford in the 100th Rose Bowl Game. Then almost before we could blink, we get another thriller in the same Rose Bowl stadium before 94,208 in weather that was like the song "June in January," 69 degrees at the start. 

Kermit Whitfield, untouched, ran a kickoff 100 yards for a Florida State touchdown to give Florida State a 27-24 lead, and a few minutes later Treason ran a handoff 37 yards to give Auburn a 31-27 lead.

Florida State, which hadn’t been behind by more than 11 points in any previous game this crazy year, trailed, 21-3 in the second quarter of his one, and the only thing you could think was that the Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference might be overrated. And under-tested. 

What if they played in the SEC? Or Pac-12? Or Big Ten?

No more questions. They’re legitimate. They’re also the first non-SEC member in eight years to win the MacArthur Bowl as the nation’s top college team.

Winston, confident, brilliant, was 20 of 35 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner. He was sacked four times by an Auburn defensive that was impressive when it wasn’t offensive. That 100-yarder was a game changer.

Winston also ran 11 times but his net distance, ruined by the sacks, was a mere 52 yards.

“He’s a freshman,” Auburn defensive end Dee Ford said of Winston, “and he started second-guessing his decisions, holding the ball. I think tonight we kind of exposed him.”

But who made the big play? Who won the game? Who left Auburn, which once had a 21-3 lead, in the end with a 12-2 record? Jameis Winston and Florida State, that’s who.

The greatest finish in a BCS championship game was when Vince Young scored with 19 seconds to go and gave Texas a 41-28 win over USC on Jan. 4, 2006, also at the Rose Bowl. This one, the last one, the ultimate one, ranks right with it.

Farewell, BCS. You had a great run. And pass.

RealClearSports: Please, We Get It, the SEC Is Special

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Uncle! We concede. The rest of the country, that is. Nobody plays college football like they do below the Mason-Dixon Line, which is not to be confused with the Auburn defensive line.

Compared to the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten is a big nothing. The Pac-10 is a pack of unfulfilled promises.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Auburn's defense the key to winning title

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- On the morning after, they kept handing trophies to Auburn coach Gene Chizik, the one from The Associated Press, the one from the Football Writers Association named for Grantland Rice, the one from the National Football Foundation named for Douglas MacArthur.

On a Tuesday in the desert, all the awards did was verify what happened Monday evening some 20 miles to the west, at University of Phoenix Stadium, where in front of a BCS-record crowd of 78,683, Chizik's team proved it was better than Oregon -- if barely.

Auburn showed what the Jets showed a couple of days earlier in the NFL playoffs: With a stout enough defense, a few key offensive plays down the stretch and a reliable kicker, a team can get through.

For the Jets, it was Nick Folk hitting one from 32 yards for a 17-16 win as time expired. For the Auburn Tigers, it was Wes Byrum hitting one from 19 yards for a 22-19 win as time expired.

In a game that sent Auburn to a 14-0 record (Oregon ended 12-1) and its second national title (the other was in 1957), the Tigers shut down a team that had averaged 49 points a game and had been held under 37 only once.

Oregon, with its dozens of uniform combinations -- Monday night, players wore chartreuse shoes -- and dozens of formations and plays, with rare exceptions couldn't get through, around or over the Auburn defenders.

"Man, our defense,'' said Auburn tackle Nick Fairley, the Lombardi Award winner. "We showed America everything we've done each and every Saturday. We went unnoticed throughout the year.''

What didn't go unnoticed was a run by Auburn's Michael Dyer in the game's final series. He seemed to be tackled on his own 45 after a 5-yard gain, but as proved correct by replay, Dyer landed on Oregon's Eddie Pleasant, not the ground, got up and sped to the Ducks' 23 for a gain of 37 yards.

What also didn't go unnoticed was the work of Auburn's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton, who ran for 64 net yards and passed for 265 and two touchdowns.

Whether Newton, who came to Auburn only last winter and became a controversial figure because of claims his father tried to get a payoff for directing Cam to another school, stays around is uncertain.

Asked how the outcome of the game would affect his decision to be an early entrant in the NFL draft, Newton said: "It is something I have to sit down with coach Chizik and my family and just get the vibe of so many different people. We will go from there.''

Where Auburn goes will be an issue. Fairley is a junior. Newton is a junior. If they return, the Tigers will be excellent in 2011.

Reminded Chizik, "I don't think you can have great teams without having some great players at some positions, coaches that know how to use them and a team chemistry that comes together.''

Auburn certainly had all three, and now has three more trophies.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/college-football/auburn-s-defense-the-key-to-winning-title-1.2602449
Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Newton leads Auburn to BCS title

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The speed freaks were freaked out. The quick strike was struck down.

A game that matched two of college football's best offenses was decided, of course, by one of college's finest defenses.

Oregon was supposed to turn the BCS National Championship Game into a track meet, but Auburn, strong and resilent, wouldn't let the Ducks get untracked.

The offense nicknamed the Quack Attack was always under attack.

"We played the best game of our lives,'' Auburn coach Gene Chizik said of his team.

In the end, it was a 19-yard field goal by Wes Byrum on the game's final play that gave the Tigers a 22-19 victory, a score that might have have seemed unlikely when one school, Oregon averaged nearly 50 points a game and the other, Auburn, almost 43.

But Southern California coach Lane Kiffin, who lost to Oregon this season and (while at Tennessee) lost to Auburn last season, predicted exactly what would happen, although he wouldn't predict a winner leading up to the game.

"The key is not going to be who moves the ball,'' Kiffin told the Los Angeles Times, "it's who's going to be able to make them slow down and force them to make the mistake.''

That was Auburn, with a beast of a defensive tackle, Nick Fairley, who won the Lombardi Award and had a great deal to do with a Southeastern Conference team winning a fifth straight title.

Fairley seemed to spend as much time in the Oregon backfield as, well, the Oregon backfield.

"Our blocking needed to improve,'' Oregon coach Chip Kelly said after the Ducks' first loss in 13 games. "It was a battle up front between our O-line and their D-line.''

It was a great battle in a great game, one that thrilled a University of Phoenix Stadium record crowd of 78,603.

Auburn finished 14-0, and when it was over, the players and coaches raced onto the field to celebrate the school's second national title.

"I guarantee you six months ago nobody thought we could do it,'' said Cam Newton, Auburn's controversial -- and Heisman Trophy-winning -- quarterback.

Newton completed 20 of 34 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns, but it was that Auburn defense that made a difference. Only once, in a 15-13 win over California, had Oregon scored fewer than 37 points in a game. Now it's twice.

Oregon did get a touchdown and two-point conversion with 2:33 left in the game to tie it at 19, but in the third quarter, the Ducks could not score in four plays from the 3, a game-changing moment.

When the first quarter was scoreless, you knew it was going to be a strange evening. That was confirmed with a halftime score of 16-11, with Auburn in front. Oregon had the ball most of the first quarter, but after that Auburn controlled the game.

The Tigers finished with 519 yards on offense; Oregon, which prides itself on running off a play every 10 seconds and running up the score, had only 449, most of those through the air. Darron Thomas threw for 363.

"Auburn's front seven is really physical,'' Kiffin had pointed out. "Oregon's built a little bit different. They're not as big defensively but they are really fast and in such phenomenal shape, they're able to play their fourth-quarter defense.''

Auburn basically played defense all four quarters. The adage is that defense wins. In the 2011 BCS title game, it certainly did.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/newton-leads-auburn-to-bcs-title-1.2600752
Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Nothing Shocking About Newton Scandal

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

A scandal in college sports? Impossible. We're shocked, shocked, to borrow from Inspector Renault in Casablanca. He was talking about illicit gambling, which in a way would put him in fine stead these days when dealing with undergraduate games.

© RealClearSports 2010