Morning Wrap: Alabama Survives Iron Bowl Track Meet

((ht: espn.com))

It was the highest scoring game in the amazing history of the Alabama vs. Auburn game.

A game won by Alabama 55-44 and which featured over 1100 total yards and at least two statistics guys who passed out from exhaustion. (just kidding--they really did combine for 1100+ yards though)

A game that featured Auburn QB Nick Marshall throwing for 456 yards and 3 TD's and featured Alabama star WR Amari Cooper catching 13 passes for 223 yards and 3 TD's.

And a game that had SEC fans nervous, because a Crimson Tide loss likely would have kept the SEC out of the inaugural College Football Playoff.

But the 101,000 + and a national television audience got to see a long, long game that went to the wire. It took Bama scoring 3 straight TD's in the 4th quarter to give the Tide their 11th win on the season while dropping the Tigers to 8-4.

Alabama will move on to play SEC Champ Missouri in the Georgia Dome for the SEC title. If they win that game, they'll be playing for a shot at the College Football Playoff title.

Auburn will be heading to a bowl game as 12 SEC teams qualified to play in bowls this season.

Your highlights from ESPN.com:

ICYMI: Auburn Survives K-State

((ht: espn.com))

Okay, so this game was a heck of a lot closer than we...or anyone else thought it would be. And as it turned out, unless you are an Atlanta Falcons fan, this was the best football game on TV Thursday night be a large margin.

Auburn survived a trip to Manhattan, Kansas and a big scare from the Kansas State Wildcats of the Big 12, winning a non-conference game 20-14.

And to be totally honest, had K-State kicker Jake Cantele made the 3 Field Goals he attempted during the game, we're having a different conversation.

But he didn't.

The Tigers were shut down running the ball and had to rely on Quarterback Nick Marshall to win the game with his arm.

And Marshall did just that throwing for 231 yards and 2 TD's.

Auburn moves to 3-0 and the heart of their SEC schedule begins next week.

Your highlights from ESPN.com:

The End Of An Era, The Beginning Of An Era...

I'll admit it...

I was walking around in 70-plus degree weather yesterday...

All day...

I have seen all the different photos on social media from all of my friends and fellow media describing something going on in most of the country, but I'm going to have to say that I have no immediate recollection of what you're talking about. I remember walking through some jet ways in Minneapolis where I felt like I was walking through that beer commercial where the spelunker is trying to save the very meal his bartenders are trying to serve by bringing the glass bottle they just carved out of the nearest, ultra-convenient mountain side with an ice pick...

And, I dropped to my knees in profound thanks when I got into the concourse where the heat was working...

I'll admit it again...

I'm a very poor responder to cold... and the epic cold the east is taking care of for me can be sent on its way, thank you, by the time I return...

I had a football game to watch...

As someone who was a victim of the "Wide Right" and "Wide Left" eras at my alma mater where your time is marked by missed field goals at the most key moment against your hated rival- and you can recite the kickers who missed them and the direction the missed kicks missed- all of this talk about shoo-in national titles came across my ears with all the smoothness of a 7-year-old kid playing the cello for the first time- because his grandmother thought it would be a good idea...

The chalk across the chalkboard feeling when the kaolin fails to do its job because it isn't pointed enough to create the quadratic equation for Geometry class...???

That feeling...

And as the point spread against an "underdog" Auburn team climbed from 8 to 10 or 10-and-a-half points (depending on the independent businessman you follow for such advice), your hands go straight into "earmuffs" mode the closer you got to kickoff. Sure, the younger generation attached to the current Heisman Trophy winner came into the Arroyo Seco with entirely too much confidence. But they will understand, some day, not necessarily this one- that when you're given all the information and get to study from all angles that nothing is as easy as it's made to look...

I'll say this without qualification...

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is crazy...

And I don't mean that in a bad way at all...

He's the guy who works in his basement at all hours trying to figure out how to make time travel economical for the middle-class family of four. He'll be more than happy to figure out a way to make your sedan run on something that smells like cooking grease, but gets 427,000-miles per gallon. And, if there's a bomb set to go off attached to your ankle, and all he has is a plastic six-pack holder and a to-go bag from In-n-Out Burger...

He'll figure something out...

Defensive Coordinator Ellis Johnson isn't too far behind Malzahn, either... he just needs to figure out the cooking grease equations his boss has on the whiteboard...

In the first half of this title game, Malzahn ran his game that got Auburn to the last game of the year. It included a pass down the seam to a tall receiver that you had to go deep into the stat book to ask yourself who he was and did he, in fact, exist before Monday night. To even find who Melvin Ray exactly was, you had to know exactly where North Florida Christian School was and that Casey Weldon was his high school coach (Yes, the FSU Casey Weldon, but hang on to your conspiracy theories- for now).

Ray had caught only four other passes the entire season and his 6-3 height advantage was used mainly on special teams...

Until he was so blatantly ignored travelling down the seam, that it was 14-3...
((HT: ESPN))


Johnson dialed up 30 days worth of coverages that freaked out Jameis Winston and kept him in the pocket- and also kept the Seminoles from running their offense quickly enough to tire a defense that had given up yards all year...

They, simply, weren't doing it...

But football is all about adjustments... and you can talk about the fake punt Jimbo Fisher called being absolutely huge to keep his team from getting blown out of the gym...

It was...

And you can talk about how FSU pushed everything offensive from the tackle box (where Auburn likes to make it's three and four-yard gains all night if you let them) to the edges where their superior pursuit speed gave it more of a shooting gallery look going from side-to-side and gaining little yardage in the second half...

It did...

But it took a kickoff return by Levonte Whitfield...


And a 50-yard pass that set up the winning score as part of a 21-point fourth quarter to turn Auburn's last chance with the football into something that looked like a failed attempt at a Cal-Stanford play to chase one more miracle...

It took an entire half for Winston to find Kelvin Benjamin as a receiver and, doing the math, Devonta Freeman only got to run the ball 11 times in the entire game.

"Fortunate" is a word I would use as an alum to determine what happened at the Rose Bowl for Florida State fans. And with Tre Mason, Nic Marshall, and a lot of people returning, I look at Auburn to do some strong things next season...

Even if, with this new playoff system, the arguing will only escalate since more teams will be left out of the loop when you even get to choose more to be involved in a four-team playoff...

A few non-game points to close:

The Rose Bowl has no concept how to deal with incoming crowds...

The sign to your right was a microcosm of the day... they actually use it to keep some kind of control from the moment the gates allow you into the stadium proper and attempt to get to your seat. And, this "crown control" actually kept a lot of people from missing a lot of the pre-game activity on the field.

Do not misunderstand... the Rose Bowl is a gorgeous venue for football...

They just need a lot of Ess-E-Cee ushers and state troopers to get you in and out in the fashion with which the rest of the world is accustomed...

Translation: "A timely fashion..."

And, the other note...

The beauty of coming to Southern California is getting to sample some of the best food ever...

The unifier of all faiths from the Rose Bowl...
In-n-Out Burger...

This was our besieged and overrun In-n-Out across the freeway from our hotel in Universal City. They didn't think that there would be a big crowd, so they were understaffed...

Woefully so... but you notice that there are fans from both teams there- and the crew that keeps the Florida State appaloosa, Renegade, happy for his cross-country ride back to Tallahassee.

One FSU fan, obviously, dialed up on liquid courage wanted to know if there were any "National Championship winners" in the building. And yelling this question made him the envy of none...

A Seminoles fan waiting to place his own order in front of him turned and requested that he stay classy about the win...

"You don't want us compared to those 'Canes, do you?"

Eastern rivalries are never far from anyone, anywhere...
And that's football for you...

Enjoy the off-season people, National Signing Day is only a month or so away...
And it starts all over again...

Your BCS Championship Game Preview: Take 2 or It's My Opinion

((Opinions expressed here are mine, not necessarily the entire view of the OSG Sports team))

Hey,wait, what? Qualifying a column?

Really?

Since when I have ever qualified anything, particularly when it comes to Sports….?

But…since we here at the Global HQ consider ourselves somewhat of a College Football based group, we feel an obligation to put our 2-cents worth in about who is going to win the final BCS Championship game of all-time.

And I'll add this: Brother Jon went to Florida State. His lovely bride--an Auburn Grad. Brother Wilkie---part of his world includes covering FSU on a regular basis.

Me--yeah, sure, I grew up in Florida, but that is my only tie to either program. Yes, that's right, I got no dog in the hunt.



Sorry about that, hopefully you are still reading….

So, you've got undefeated FSU, 13-0, not really pushed by anyone this season versus 12-1 Auburn who made it this far basically on two lucky bounces late in 2 different games.

Yet, the game is going to be close. You know it will be.

And high scoring.

Florida State does a little bit of everything. They run. They pass. They block and they don't make a lot of mistakes. They were the highest scoring team in all the land, averaging 53 points per game. Their leader (and he really leads) Jameis Winston, won the Heisman Trophy. He threw for 38 TD's and ran for 4 more.

Their leading runner, Davonta Freeman, ran for nearly 1,000 yards and scored 13 times. And 3 different receivers had over 50 catches, including 6-5 Kelvin Benjamin who caught 14 TD passes.

The Defense, well they were #1 too, giving up only 10 points a game.

As for Auburn, their offense ain't bad. The #1 rushing team in College Football at 335 yards a game, 9th in scoring at 40 points a game. While Nick Marshall doesn't have Winston's numbers, he's pretty good. Nearly 1800 yards passing and over 1000 yards running. Running back Tre Mason, all he did was run for over 1600 yards on the year.

No, the offense here isn't the issue. It's the "D".

They gave up 24 points a game and very nearly gave back a couple of games. The Tigers were way ahead of Georgia in November before allowing the Bulldogs to score 21 4th quarter points. Of course that's when the Nick Marshall/Corey Louis miracle pass happened.

Predictions: So…you are probably saying "All the numbers are great, who's going to win?" The short answer, Florida State.

But it won't be easy.

I'm quite sure this game will resemble a track meet. There will be points, lots of points scored. The game will take a long time, it won't end until after midnight (note--I won't be awake to see the end--gotta work).
The defense that stops one of the offenses, that team will win.

While Auburn has been a fantastic story, going from worst to first, catching all kinds of lucky breaks, we have to remember, luck will only get you so far. At some point reality sets in.

Would we be shocked in Auburn wins? No. Not at all. Do we expect them to? No.

Our (my) prediction may very well be wrong, but to be totally honest, the numbers don't lie. Look for The Seminoles to get the win in what could be the best BCS game ever played.

Final Score: FSU 47, Auburn 43

Our partners at the ACC Network give us their game preview:

Bee-Cee-Ess Preview: Auburn, Destiny, And Taking From Your Neighbor's Plate

There are two stats that don't mean anything (or, actually, "less and less" is more accurate) in today's football- regardless of level...

Time of possession and yards allowed...

Hear me out...

In the days of power football, you wanted to keep the other guy off the field since he ran (literally) the same offense you did. If you kept the other guy's running game off the field, and you capitalized on your drives with points, the other guy simply didn't have the opportunity to score.

Today, I dare you to tell me how the streetball/basketball on grass/spread offenses really give a tinker's damn about time of possession. In the college game, we've seen Baylor, UCF, Clemson, Ohio State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Northern Illinois, and any other pass happy-five wide outfit not care and cover the field from one end to the other in a few minutes.

Auburn's offense is the same way...

And it took the shortening of the playbook and familiarizing yourself with an athlete's talents that has put Auburn one game away from an improbable title- probably, the most shocking one of them all in the BCS era...

“It wasn’t something I was used to,” he told Ryan Black of the Macon Telegraph. “… In high school we ran the spread. But as I got here, they sat me down and taught me how the offense worked and (I) studied on film and watched what we do. It went from there and I got better as the weeks went.”

In that state title game for Wilcox County's Patriots, you could see Marshall had the arm to ad lib when he needed to and had the speed to make something out of less than nothing...
((HT: GPB/GHSA))


Auburn Undercover's Philip Marshall caught up with FOSG Wilcox County Head Coach Mark Ledford to talk about Nick's development and success...


But look deeper... and the invasion by Rodney Garner in taking Georgia talent away from his old boss has shone out...

The defensive front is young with Gabe Wright (Carver-Columbus), Carl Lawson (Milton), and Montravious Adams (Dooly County)...

CJ Uzomah (North Gwinnett) has finally found a home as a tall wide out that gives match-up problems on the outside...

And the upcoming recruiting classes include QB Tyler Queen (North Cobb) in 2015, and Kal Bessent a DB from Camden County, Myron Burton an ATH from Peachtree Ridge, Dontavious Russell a DT from Carrollton, and Stanton Truitt a QB from Monroe Area High who will be ATH'd in college...

And one of the largest flaws in Georgia's approach to winning in the Ess-E-Cee has given their neighbors their best shot of one of the best turnarounds in Division I history...

And that should be a big red flag to the folks in Athens...

ICYMI: Auburn Outscores Missouri, The BCS Magic Carpet Ride Continues….

Talk about your dream season. Yeah, we're talking about you Auburn…

After snatching victory from the jaws of defeat twice in the final 3 weeks of the regular season, Auburn University is BCS title game bound.

The Tigers, behind 46 carries and 304 yards rushing from running back Tre Mason, beat Missouri in an SEC track meet masquerading as a football game, 59-42.

The game didn't exactly feature a lot of defense, but Auburn's did enough to stop Mizzou when it needed to.

And that was all Tiger coach Gus Malzahn's high powered offense needed. 545 yards rushing was more than enough to overcome 2 Nick Marshall fumbles and 10-penalties.

CBS Sports gives us our highlights:



So…the Auburn win, combined with the Ohio State gag job makes everyone south of Kentucky (SEC world) happy and continues the run of SEC teams in the title game.

It sets up an Auburn/FSU game which should be just as high scoring as this one. Though we might add the Seminole defense is considerably better than Missouri's.

We won't make our pick for that game here, but we will add that it will be hard to pick against Auburn, who will not be favored. The Tigers have escaped twice and if you ask even the most die-hard of Tiger fan in August if they thought this game would happen, they'd be lying to you through their teeth.

Auburn Athletics shows the scene at the famed Toomer's Corner, a scene that got even crazier once fans realized Ohio State was losing and their beloved Tigers were Pasadena bound…

Crazy Finish: Auburn Beats Georgia 75-yard TD

To those who watched, it was one of the craziest ends to a football game they've ever seen.

The Auburn Tigers beat The Georgia Bulldogs Saturday 43-38, in a game that featured 415 yards passing by Georgia and 320-plus by Auburn. It also featured the Dawgs coming back from a 2nd quarter 27-7 deficit, to take a 38-37 lead on Aaron Murray's 5-yard TD run with 1:49 left in the game.

But the hapless Georgia defense couldn't stop Auburn and QB Nick Marshall. Facing a 4th down with 18-yards to go and 25 seconds left in the game, Marshall let it fly. He threw deep down the middle of the field to seemingly covered Wide Receiver Ricardo Louis. Louis was covered by Georgia safties Josh Harvey-Clemons and Trey Matthews. Both Harvey-Clemons and Matthews did what they were supposed to, they kept Louis in front of them. The problem, rather than bat down the pass or catch it, Harvey-Clemons tipped it. And as the two Georgia defenders slowed to make the play, the tip kept the ball moving....right into the waiting hands of Louis, who bobbled it slightly before waltzing into the end zone.

The play you'll see a lot the next couple days (Thanks CBSSports)

 

Here's another angle of Louis' game winning catch.  (Thanks WSFA-TV)


WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.
To their credit, the Dawgs weren't done. Murray got the ball back and drove his team from the Auburn 25 to the Georgia 20 before running out of time.

The game moved Auburn to 10-1 on the season, 6-1 in the SEC. It also lines up this years Iron Bowl date with Alabama as the biggest game left in the SEC season.

As for Georgia, if it wasn't for bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck. They drop to 6-4, 4-3 in the SEC and likely a minor bowl game.

CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson talked to Marshall and Auburn coach Gus Malzhan after the game.

CFB Saturday: Wrapping Up SEC Upset Craziness

Anybody still want to argue that the SEC is the best conference in college football?

Saturday's game action proved one thing--They're not.

Pretty much every "name" program in the conference lost. And not for the 1st time this season.

We start in Vanderbilt where the limping Georgia Bulldogs continue their tumble down the polls. And ironically, the Dawgs were up 13 going into the 4th quarter in Nashville.

But that's when the wheels fell off.

A fumbled punt, a botched punt snap and a solid performance by Vandy's backup QB Patton Robbinette was all it took for that lead to evaporate and Vanderbilt to get the their 1st win over a ranked team since the 2008 season, 31-27.

Your highlights from CBS Sports:



The craziness continued just 3 hours East in Knoxville when Tennessee knocked off media darling South Carolina when Michael Palardy drilled a 19-yard field goal at the buzzer giving the Vols a 23-21 win.

The Gamecocks didn't exactly help themselves with 3 turnovers and 9 penalties. This despite a big game by star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.

But Tennessee stayed close, and a circus catch by freshman WR Marquez North was enough to put Palardy in position to give his team their 1st win over a ranked team since 2009.

Your highlights from our friends at ESPN:



And while that was happening, Missouri took full control of the SEC East by dominating an outmanned Florida team in Columbia, Missouri.

QB Maty Mauk stepped in for the injured James Franklin and threw for 295 yards and a TD, Henry Joseph ran for 136 and a score and the Tigers defense sacked beleaguered Gator QB Tyler Murphy 6 times and was in his face pretty much the entire game.

The 36-17 win will get Missouri a place in the Top 10 and a now 2 game lead over their closest competition in the SEC East.

Your Highlights again from our friends at ESPN:



And finally Auburn continues in run towards regaining relevance by taking down Johnny Football and Texas A&M in College Station early Saturday evening.

Auburn QB Nick Marshall threw for 236 and 2 TD's and ran for 100 yards and two more to lead the Tigers to a crazy 45-41 win.

The Tigers were winless in the SEC in 2012 and arguably one of college football's worst teams. The change this season under new coach Gus Mazlahn is nothing short of miraculous.

No, there wasn't a lot of defense played in this game, Manziel threw for 434 yards and 4 TD's and his WR Mike Evans caught 11 passes for 237 yards and a couple of scores. But when Manziel went down with a shoulder injury, the Aggies defense couldn't stop Auburn. Manziel would return, but had a hard time throwing.

The loss pretty much eliminated the Aggies from SEC West or any national title contention.

Your highlights from CBS Sports (There are a lot of them):

Three Kicked Off UGA Football Team- Marshall, Sanders, Seay

For alleged theft of money from other players...

The HQ is working to confirm that...

But two of the names are Georgia heavyweight high schoolers...

Special teamer Nick Marshall from Wilcox County High and Chris Sanders from Tucker High, along with Lee County grad Sanford Seay are all gone.

CMR sent out his standard release that said in part that "It's a privilege to play college football and to be a part of this team and University.

"Along with that privilege comes certain responsibilities. Mistakes were made and part of our job is helping them learn from mistakes. Going forward, we are committed to assisting them find opportunities where they can continue their education."

Wilcox County head coach and FOSG Mark Ledford told WMAZ-TV in Macon that Marshall "had a great opportunity, made a mistake and he's going to have to try and learn from it."

Ledford did not say what the cause for the dismissal was. He did say to WMAZ-TV that other schools have already contacted him about Marshall. Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio told WALB-TV in Albany that he thinks Seay will go to a junior college.

Here's some old highlights of Marshall from his Wilcox days...
((HT: wilcoxpatriots))