Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Pages: 120 – 133

Big 12 Preview:

120: Conference Rankings:

1. Texas
2. Oklahoma
3. Nebraska
4. Kansas State
5. Colorado
6. Texas Tech
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma State
9. Missouri
10. Iowa State
11. Kansas
12. Baylor

121: Conference Overview:

“The Longhorns’ string of three consecutive nine-win seasons is their longest since the early 1980s. Of course, that’s all very nice…bit it’s not good enough at Texas, where the seat is always hot for coaches. Mack Brown has often preached about the slow, steady strides Texas has made under his watch. Well, now it’s time to win a championship. And that’s what the Longhorns will do when they beat Nebraska in the Dec. 1 Big 12 title game in the appropriate setting of Texas stadium in Irving.”

(#3 Texas would end up losing to #9 Colorado in the Big 12 Championship Game which helped Nebraska backdoor into the BCS Championship Game Vs Miami, whom Colorado had blown out 62-36 in their season ending rivalry.)

122: All Big 12 Team

2001 All Big 12 Offense:
QB Chris Simms Texas
RB Quentin Griffin Oklahoma
RB Ennis Haywood Iowa State
WR Antwone Savage Oklahoma
WR Roy Williams Texas
TE Daniel Graham Colorado
C Seth McKinney Texas A&M
OL Toniu Fonoti Nebraska
OL Andre Gurode Colorado
OL Frank Romero Oklahoma
OL Mike Williams Texas
All-Purpose Aaron Lockett Kansas State

2001 All Big 12 Defense:
DL Justin Bannan Colorado
DL Nate Dwyer Kansas
DL Cory Redding Texas
DL Ty Warren Texas A&M
LB Rocky Calmus Oklahoma
LB Ben Leber Kansas State
LB Jashon Sykes Colorado
DB Keyuo Craver Nebraska
DB Michael Lewis Colorado
DB Quentin Jammer Texas
DB Roy Williams Oklahoma

123: Big 12 In The NFL:

Top 10 Talent In 2001
1. Jashon Sykes LB Colorado
2. Chris Simms QB Texas
3. Quentin Jammer CB Texas
4. Roy Williams WR Texas
5. Rocky Calmus LB Oklahoma
6. Toniu Fonoti OG Nebraska
7. Ben Leber LB Kansas State
8. Mike Williams OT Texas
9. Daniel Graham TE Colorado
10. Kevin Curtis S Texas Tech

124 – 133: Individual Team Previews:

1. (#3 Nationally) Texas – “Texas has been stuck at nine wins for three seasons under Mack Brown. There are worse places to be stuck, of course. But after the Longhorns watched old rival Oklahoma zoom past them on the way to the national title, this is no time to be standing still. Brown has recruited well as anybody not named Bobby Bowden in the past few years, and this looks like the year of the big payoff. Texas returns nine starters on offense and eight on defense. And there is no longer the burning question: Major Applewhite or Chris Simms? Brown, stung by the amount of controversy the quarterback rotation drew last season, when it arguably cost the Longhorns one game (Stanford) and created inconsistencies that kept the offense from developing, named Simms, a junior, the starter before spring drills opened.”

2. (#5) Oklahoma – “Last season, OU captured its seventh national championship by going 13-0. This year, the Sooners have 12 regular season games and feasibly could go 14-0 with victories in the Big 12 Conference championship and national championship Rose Bowl. Last season was arguably the most celebrated national crown ever won at Oklahoma. While previous championships were expected and demanded, the 2000 title seemingly fell from the sky.”

3. (#7) Nebraska – “Nebraska coach Frank Solich acknowledges that the timing is perfect to have an unprecedented eight home games. Even he says he can’t remember a year when a Nebraska team had as many question marks. Just playing in Memorial Stadium could solve many of the Cornhuskers’ problems. They are 81-3 in Lincoln in the past 13 seasons. Those kind of numbers make you believe that even a somewhat-rebuilding Nebraska can sweep a difficult home slate that includes Notre Dame, Kansas State and Oklahoma. Only one road game looks troublesome – Colorado in the season finale.”

(Despite the cautious expectations Nebraska went 11-0 with big home wins over #17 Notre Dame 27-10 and #2 Oklahoma 20-10, hosting College Gameday for both. Infamous blowout losses to Colorado 62-36 and Miami 37-14 (not to mention September 2002 season blowout losses Vs Penn State 40-7 and Iowa State 36-14) seemed to've taken the air out of the program since then. If someone were to ask me when “The last time Nebraska felt like NEBRASKA” I would say November 10 2001 beating Kansas State 31-21 to go 11-0, to quote from the comments of this YoutTube highlight):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2jwsp-78w

4. (#11) Kansas State – “The Wildcats aren’t favored to retain the Big 12 North title in 2001. Not when that road winds into Nebraska for a Nov. 10 showdown [see highlights above]. Although Kansas State has won two of the last three meetings with Nebraska (the last time that happened was in the late 1950s), it hasn’t left Lincoln with a victory since 1968.”

(K-State would have a down year, losing to Syracuse in the Insight Bowl in Arizona, to finish 6-6.)

5. (#27) Colorado – “Looking back, there are plenty of reasons for Barnett and the Buffs to expect a turn-around in 2001:
-Four of the losses were by four points or fewer, with two more by eight points.
-CU lost only five starters and six seniors.
-Craig Ochs, who won the quarterback job five games into his true freshman season, has a world of potential.
-Nine More of Ochs’ classmates, including touted running back Marcus Houston, got experienced last season.”

(Colorado turned out to be underrated, roaring to a Big 12 Championship and a #3 ranking before losing to #2 Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.)

6. (#35) Texas Tech – “From talk shows to water cooler conversations, and from T-shirt sales to season ticket purchases, it’s clear Texas Tech fans are giddily anticipating Bobby Knight’s first basketball season at the school. Of course, there is something else on the windswept horizon of West Texas. You know, football season – the sport that, at least until Knight’s hiring, was primarily responsible for stirring the emotions of Tech’s fan base. “I’d just say to all the fans who are itching for basketball to start that they’re going to have a fun fall, too” said quarterback Kliff Kingsbury, who had a record-setting sophomore season in 2000.”

7. (#40) Texas A&M – “During a five-week stretch beginning in mid-October, the Aggies must play at Colorado, at Kansas State, at Texas Tech and at Oklahoma. Since 1995, A&M is a combined 2-6 at those destinations, with both wins coming in 1997.”

8. (#54) Oklahoma State – “Oklahoma State has produced one winning season in the past 12 years – an 8-4 Alamo Bowl campaign in 1997 – but new coach Les Miles doesn’t find a bare cupboard. Miles, who was OSU’s offensive coordinator in that winning season of 1997, inherets 16 returning starters. “There is some talent here,” said Miles, who had been the tight ends coach of the Dallas Cowboys for the past three seasons.”

9. (#71) Missouri – “Gary Pinkel was hired to replace Larry Smith…Pinkel is a self-described Don James disciple – he played for James at Kent State and was a 12-year assistant for him at Washington – which means he’s a no-nonsense guy who believes in a balanced offense and an attacking defense.”

10. (#76) Iowa State – “Coach Dan McCarney likes what he’s been seeing. What he saw last Dec. 28 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix in the was a 37-29 victory by Iowa State over Pittsburgh in the Insight.com Bowl. That wrapped up a 9-3 record by the best team the Cyclones have ever had. Sage Rosenfels left a sizeable hole at quarterback, so that’s why McCarney dipped into the junior college tank to get 6-2, 190-pound Seneca Wallace.”

11. (#80) Kansas – “KU lost 12 starters to graduation and seven of nine assistant coaches – to firings and other jobs. The overhauled coaching staff should make Kansas better than a year ago, but they still have glaring personnel questions.”

12. (#83) Baylor – “The junior college quarterback that coach Kevin Steele had recruited specifically to provide an inexperienced team with much-needed maturity was gone for the season with a broken collarbone. Last season, Baylor finished last in the Big 12 in total offense and total defense for the third consecutive season. In a three game stretch in October, the Bears didn’t score a point, dominated by Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Nebraska, 110-0.”

(Man, forgot how bad Baylor once was! And having only known Kevin Steele as Auburn’s recent DC, had no idea he was once Baylor’s former HC.)

Pages: 134 – 145

Pac 10 Preview:



134: Conference Rankings:

1. UCLA
2. Oregon
3. Washington
4. Oregon State
5. Stanford
6. USC
7. Washington State
8. Arizona
9. Arizona State
10. California

135: Conference Overview:

“On paper, at least, UCLA is the class of the conference…The Bruins appear to have it all – an offense that should again be one of the best in the Pac-10, and a defense that should be one of the most improved, thanks to a slew of talent and a new attitude under first-year defensive coordinator Phil Snow…If UCLA stumbles, the conference’s expanding powers in the Northwest are likely to take advantage.”

136: All Pac 10 Team:

2001 All Pac 10 Offense:
QB Joey Harrington Oregon
RB DeShaun Foster UCLA
RB Ken Simonton Oregon State
WR Kareem Kelly USC
WR Brian Poli-Dixon UCLA
TE Jeremy Stevens Washington
C Chris Gibson Oregon State
OL Eric Heltmann Stanford
OL Levi Jones Arizona State
OL Scott Peters Arizona State
OL Mike Saffer UCLA
All Purpose Bobby Wade Arizona

2001 All Pac 10 Defense:
DL Kenyon Coleman UCLA
DL Eric Manning Oregon State
DL Terrell Suggs Arizona State
DL Larry Triplett Washington
LB James Allen Oregon State
LB Lance Briggs Arizona
LB Robert Thomas UCLA
DB Marques Anderson UCLA
DB Rashad Bauman Oregon
DB Dennis Weathersby Oregon State

137: Pac 10 In The NFL:

Top 10 Talent In 2001:
1. Larry Triplett DT Washington
2. DeShaun Foster RB UCLA
3. Joey Harrington QB Oregon
4. James Allen LB Oregon State
5. Robert Thomas LB UCLA
6. Jarremy Stevens TE Washington
7. Dennis Weathersby Oregon State
8. Carson Palmer QB USC
9. Ken Simonton RB Oregon State
10. Kareem Kelly WR USC

138 – 145: Individual Team Previews:

1. (#8 Nationally) UCLA – “Thanks to coach Bob Toledo’s efforts, UCLA has the best collection of talent in the Pac 10. But to win the conference title, all those former high school blue-chippers will have to overcome the program’s soft, no-defense image. Even when UCLA was within minutes of playing for the national title in 1998, the bruins were horrific on defense, allowing more than 28 points per game, and collapsing when it matter most against Miami…On offense, much rests on the right shoulder of junior Cory Paus…Paus has a strong arm, reads defenses well and possesses the intangibles to be an outstanding quarterback…something UCLA hasn’t had since 1998…since Cade McNown left, the Bruins have won only 10 – 23 games.”

2. (#10) Oregon – “With their 20-game home winning streak the longest in the league and second longest in the nation, the Ducks continue to upgrade their facilities, a project that has seemingly mirrored their rise on the field…The level of confidence the coaching staff has in Joey Harrington is such that the senior saw little action during spring drills…Joey Harrington spent much of the spring working on improving his throwing technique, developing a more compact passing motion that is expected to result in him throwing more darts and fewer rainbows.”

3. (#12) Washington – “The Huskies were once again the best in the West last season and Neuheisel appears to have the program in good shape for the future. This year could see a slight fall off, however, as the early schedule is unforgiving for breaking in a new QB and offensive line. Still, this team has learned how to win, and figures to contend once Pac-10 play begins.”

4. (#18) Oregon State – “Coach Dennis Erickson’s stable is far from depleted. He redshirted his entire 2000 high school recruiting class; he has numerous experienced backups who have played significant minutes the past two seasons; and he signed eight junior college players…Oregon State is set up with center Chris Gibson, quarterback Jonathan Smith and tailback Ken Simonton. They’re the cornerstone of an offense that racked up a school-record 400 points and scored 30 or more points in eight of its last nine games.”

5. (#24) Stanford – “The Cardinal finished 5-6 overall and 4-4 in the conference, good enough for fourth place. This year, with nine offensive starters returning, Stanford seemingly has enough ingredients to contend for the conference title.”

(Two seasons removed from their 1999 Rose Bowl run, Stanford would go 9-3, finishing the season ranked #16, and earning Tyrone Willingham the Notre Dame job. My favorite season of Willingham’s will always be Washington’s 2008 0-12 catastrophe.)

6. (#32) Southern Cal – “It might have been corny or maybe just downright goofy, but coach Pete Carroll brought a football to his first meeting with his new players. At one point, he raised it high in his right hand. “He just said, ‘This is your family, in this room. And this ball is your life – on defense, you have to get the ball; on offense, you have to hold onto it,” said junior quarterback Carson Palmer. Forgive Carroll for being a wee bit trite, but if the Trojans handle the ball like they have the past few seasons, he knows he will eventually suffer the same fate as Paul Hackett, whose dismissal last winter followed a 19-18 three-year stretch.”

7. (#53) Washington State – “The Cougars were neither boring nor uncompetitive in 2000. They just were the Cougs…their 4-7 record was so close to success, with three overtime losses making all the difference, and therein lies a big dose of optimism for 2001.”

(Washington State would go 10-2 finishing the season ranked #10 with a win over Purdue in the Sun Bowl. The next season the Cougars made the Rose Bowl.)

8. (#56) Arizona – “New coach John Mackovic re-enters the college game in a fix not uncommon at Arizona: Facing a quarterback situation that is not promising…Junior inside linebacker Lance Briggs, second in the Pac-10 with 113 tackles last year, is superb…Arizona’s marketing people have repackaged Mackovic – fired at Texas in 1997 – and have sold him to a constituency crying for a different way of football.”

(By the end of his tenure, Arizona’s “marketing people” were happy to repackage Mackovic as “Mackoprick.”)

9. (#58) Arizona State – “New coach Dirk Koetter is confident his new offense can be as explosive as his Boise State unit was last season, when it ranked No. 1 in the country by averaging nearly 45 points a game.”

10. (#70) California – “With the arrival of Al Borges from UCLA, coach Holmoe has his best chance yet to reverse the Bears’ losing ways…Borges brings the reputation of someone who can develop quarterbacks, and he’ll be trusted to get the most out of promising-but-frustrating junior quarterback Kyle Boller, who has yet to fulfill predictions of greatness.”

6. (#32) Southern Cal – “It might have been corny or maybe just downright goofy, but coach Pete Carroll brought a football to his first meeting with his new players. At one point, he raised it high in his right hand. “He just said, ‘This is your family, in this room. And this ball is your life – on defense, you have to get the ball; on offense, you have to hold onto it,” said junior quarterback Carson Palmer. Forgive Carroll for being a wee bit trite, but if the Trojans handle the ball like they have the past few seasons, he knows he will eventually suffer the same fate as Paul Hackett, whose dismissal last winter followed a 19-18 three-year stretch.”

Perhaps Frost should have done this when he arrived in Lincoln

Pages: 146 – 157

ACC Preview:

146: Conference Rankings:

1. Florida State
2. Georgia Tech
3. Clemson
4. NC State
5. North Carolina
6. Virginia
7. Maryland
8. Wake Forest
9. Duke

147: Overall Conference Overview:

“Florida State’s dominance of the Atlantic Coast Conference has lasted for as long as the Seminoles have been in the league…and any expectation that it will end anytime soon is, well, a guess based on the law of averages…even though Florida State has less experience than it has had in years, its overall talent and depth and understanding of how to win, makes the Seminoles the team to beat in the ACC in 2001.”

148: All ACC Team:

Recognizable names: QB Woodrow Dantzler, Clemson; DL Julius Peppers, UNC; DL Darnell Dockett, FSU.

149: ACC Top Ten Projected NFL Talent:

1. Julius Peppers DE North Carolina
2. Kelly Campbell WR Georgia Tech
3. Greg Gathers DE Georgia Tech
4. Levar Fisher LB North Carolina State
5. Brett Williams OT Florida State
6. Bradley Jennings LB Florida State
7. Chris Hope S Florida State
8. Antwoine Womack RB Virginia
9. Woodrow Dantzler QB Clemson
10. Kendyll Pope LB Florida State

150 – 157: Individual Team Previews:

1. (#6 Nationally) Florida State – “Chris Rix, a redshirt freshman, is the leader in the clubhouse to replace Heisman winner Chris Weinke after heir-apparent Jared Jones was booted from the team after breaking unspecified team rules. Rix then narrowly outperformed Anquan Boldin, a junior during spring practice.”

2. (#9) Georgia Tech – “Georgia Tech enjoyed playing the underdog role last season. But the Yellow Jackets can no longer sneak up on anyone. Especially not Florida State, which is just a little too aware that Georgia Tech is being widely projected as the ACC favorite this season. “I’d rather have the expectations we have than the expectations when we first took over,” coach George O’Leary said.”

(After a disappointing 7-5 season which included losses to its three strongest rivals – Clemson, Florida State, and Georgia Tech – O’Leary was hired and promptly fired by Notre Dame after several inaccuracies were uncovered in his coaching resume.)

3. (#23) Clemson – “The Tigers’ offense should be as prolific as ever behind quarterback Woodrow Dantzler, whose numbers suggest that he could enter the Heisman Trophy race.”

4. (#30) North Carolina State – “Coach Chuck Amato, a star linebacker at NC State in the late 60s, returned to his alma mater last year after 18 seasons as a top aide to Florida State’s Bobby Bowden. He immediately shook up the Wolkpack community by declaring that not a single one of the NC State players he inherited could have started at FSU.”

5. (#43) North Carolina – “Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, and a fan base that, on a whole, has not had the most reasonable expectations, the reality of the situation is not terribly good – North Carolina doesn’t have the talent to compete with the very best in the Atlantic Coast Conference…North Carolina’s key player is senior quarterback Ronald Curry, the point guard of the basketball team.”

6. (#46) Virginia – “Coach Al Groh shocked the football world late last December by resigning as head coach of the NFL’s New York Jets in order to return to his alma mater.”

7. (#63) Maryland – “Ralph Friedgen waited 32 years to become a head coach. It took just four months at the helm of Maryland for Friedgen to change almost everything about the program. Friedgen, 54, realized a lifelong dream when he was named Maryland coach on Nov 31. A 1969 graduate who played for the Terrapins under Jerry Claiborne and coached under Bobby Ross, Friedgen returned to College Park to discover the program hadn’t made much progress since he departed with Ross in 1986. So by the time spring practice began on March 31, the heavyset coach, who doesn’t mind be being nicknamed “The Fridge,” had already put his stamp on the program.”

(The Fridge would indeed leave an immediate stamp; Maryland roared through a 10-1 regularly season, losing to Florida in the Orange Bowl. Maryland would go 31-8 during the first three years of Ralph Friedgen’s ten year tenure.)

8. (#89) Wake Forest – “Second year coach Jim Grobe has a lot of work to do. In eight years under Jim Caldwell, Wake Forest had just one winning season. He was the 11th consecutive coach to have a losing record at Wake.

9. (#96) Duke – “Duke was painfully young an inexperienced last season. Franks played 23 freshman, which goes a long way towards explaining that 0-11 record – and Franks’ optimism that 2001 will be better.”

(Duke would finish 0-11 again.)

They went to the PAC, where football programs go to die.

yup, academic liberal tree hungers think football is barbaric and for mouth breathers

they think it adds nothing to higher society

that's a long scroll, let's turn the page