By
Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
DENNY
O'BRIEN'S HARRIS POLL BALLOT
For the second year in a row, Denny O'Brien is a member
of the
voting panel
for the Harris Interactive College Football Poll,
commissioned by the Bowl Championship Series. O'Brien
was nominated to the panel by Conference USA.
The
Harris Poll is a component of the BCS Standings.
The
initial 2007 BCS Standings, which also take into
account the USA Today Coaches Poll and an average of six
computer service rankings, were released on Sunday, Oct. 14.
Here is
this week's Harris BCS Poll ballot submitted by
O'Brien on Sunday:
1.
Ohio State
2. South Florida
3. Oklahoma
4. South Carolina
5. Boston College
6. Kentucky
7. LSU
8. Oregon
9. West Virginia
10. USC
11. Arizona State
12. California (Cal)
13. Oregon State
14. Florida
15. Virginia Tech
16. Hawaii
17. Kansas
18. Missouri
19. Texas
20. Tennessee
21. Virginia
22. Texas Tech
23. Cincinnati
24. Auburn
25. Michigan
Complete BCS Standings
|
|
|
EL PASO, TX — Say what you
want about life in Conference USA, just don’t call it boring.
That’s about the only
label that doesn’t apply to the nation’s most geographically diverse
conference.
Among the many solid
choices, perhaps the Land of Misfit Defenses is most appropriate.
That’s certainly what was
on display Saturday night in the Sun Bowl. And ECU’s improbable 45-42
comeback victory over Texas-El Paso had the look of an XBOX shootout,
one in which scores occurred from nearly every potential computerized
scenario.
There was a 52-yard field
goal by ECU’s Ben Hartman, who just a few weeks ago couldn’t hit
anything outside of an extra point. There was a blocked extra point that
Pirates cornerback Travis Williams carted 90 yards for a rare
two-pointer, a play that that occurs about as frequently as Halley’s
Comet.
End arounds dialed
long-distance scores both on the ground and through the air. Bubble
screens, misdirection, and quarterback draws often extended drives in
scenarios in which the defense typically owns the upper hand.
About the only defense
either side could muster was a timely turnover or random sack.
“We didn’t play perfect.
We made some mistakes,” Pirates coach Skip Holtz said after the game.
“We had some bad plays on both sides of the ball.
“We didn’t tackle very
well. We had too many missed assignments on defense and gave up cheap
plays. But at the same time, when they had to make the play, in
overtime, our defense got the sack.”
In the first half alone,
UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe mined the Pirates for 216 yards on
21-of-26 passing — a full-night’s work on most occasions. All totaled,
the Miners posted 275 yards before intermission, which is darn near what
the Pirates limited Virginia Tech to for the entire game.
But that was six games and
many yards ago, and East Carolina has held only one opponent to under
400 yards since.
“It is (a concern),” Holtz
said about his defense. “It’s something that we’ll sit down and look at
tomorrow. It’s not something that we’re going to beat ourselves up with
tonight, when you can win on the road in this conference against the
number one team in the West division, and to do it in the fashion that
we did it.
“There were some mistakes,
and we’re not perfect. We made way too many mental mistakes. Right now,
Pierre (Bell) and (Jeremy) Chambliss are both nursing those shoulders,
and with (Quentin) Cotton not here, you’re playing a lot of young guys
at linebacker.”
To be fair, East Carolina
has experienced no shortage of injuries, many of which have occurred to
key veterans. In any program, coaches rely heavily on seniority,
especially during the grind of a conference race.
And it’s not like
defensive coordinator Greg Hudson has shown a reluctance to abandon the
status quo when it simply isn’t working. The injury parade has put him
into a constant plumbing mode, with a new leak occurring the moment he
has another fixed.
We’ve seen a switch from
ECU’s base 4-3 to a smaller 3-4, back to the 4-3. Linebackers at times
have shifted to the defensive front, while almost every personnel
combination has been explored.
Through it all, ECU’s
inexperience in the secondary has proven too faulty for a fool-proof
fix. The Pirates are repeatedly beaten over the top and underneath, with
both corners and safeties chasing aimlessly after receivers in the open
field.
But at some point you
would think the experience gained from game repetitions might begin to
eliminate some of those painfully familiar mistakes.
At this stage, the
Pirates’ best defense is its ability to match scores. It would be
helpful if the Pirates could consume clock with a consistent running
game, but this is an offense that is relying more on big plays than
extending drives.
Though Chris Johnson has
experienced the most productive period in his record-setting career, the
bulk of his yardage occurs in large chunks, not with clock draining four
and five-yard plunges. That the running game is hardly automatic in
third-and-short can’t be overlooked.
Nor can the fact that
ECU’s defense makes it a candidate for defeat on a weekly basis. Even
though the Pirates are tops in C-USA’s East Division and have already
faced their toughest opponents, ECU’s 'D' has shown no evidence outside
of Virginia Tech that it is capable of shutting down any offense.
Last season East Carolina
made a strong push for the C-USA title largely because its defense was
one of the league’s best. This year, it looks more like one of the
worst.
That’s typically not a
formula with which championships are won.