Here’s the last installment of Terry’s Takes, where I weigh in on some of the high profile topics in the world of college football. Here are a few topics that I wanted to weigh in on, as we get ready for an action-packed weekend.
Purdue should tab Chris Creighton
If Purdue really wants to rebuild its program, it needs to hire Eastern Michigan’s Chris Creighton.
I realize that this statement will irritate some Boilermaker fans. After all, Purdue already tried hiring a coach out of the MAC (Hazell), and it resulted in a disastrous 9-33 record over the last three plus seasons. Considering how well that worked out, it’s understandable why many fans would want to see the school go in another direction.
However, Creighton would be the perfect choice to get the program back to where it was under Joe Tiller. He’s certainly done a great job of rebuilding Eastern Michigan from the ground up. Inheriting a program that has just one winning season since 1991, Creighton has transformed the Eagles into a contender in the MAC West. In his third season at the helm, EMU is 5-2 – one win away from a bowl bid, which would be just the second in school history.
Of course, this turnaround doesn’t really come as a surprise, as Creighton has a proven track record of success. Before arriving at Eastern Michigan, he led Drake to a 44-22 record with two conference championships. Prior to that, he guided Wabash to a 63-15 mark, which included three trips to the Division III playoffs. He also went 32-9 as the head coach of the Ottawa Braves, taking the team to the NAIA playoffs in two of his four seasons there.
It’s tough to argue with those results. In fact, you could make the case that Creighton has a better resume than what Tiller had when Purdue lured him away from Wyoming.
If that last sentence doesn’t scream out “perfect candidate”, I don’t know what does.
Washington is Rodney Dangerfield
Now, that we’re halfway through the season, I have to ask this question: why aren’t people talking about the Washington Huskies as a national championship contender?
Make no mistake about it: the Huskies are the Rodney Dangerfield of college football in that they get no respect. Despite its perfect record — which includes a lopsided victory over Stanford with a healthy Christian McCaffery — Washington didn’t receive a single first-place vote in the AP, Coaches, or FWAA-NFF polls.
This doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, some of the other top contenders have played against tougher schedules, but it’s impossible to ignore what the Huskies have accomplished on the gridiron this year. Washington is arguably the most complete team in the country at this point of the season, ranking in the top 10 in yards per play on both offense (4th, 7.48 ypp) and defense (10th, 4.22 ypp). The Huskies also lead the nation in red zone touchdown percentage (85.71%) and rank 5th in red zone defense (66.67%).
Those numbers speak volumes about how good this Washington team really is. Although they still have a tough road ahead of them in the Pac-12 – including road trips to Utah and Washington State – the Huskies have proved over the past few weeks that they have what it takes to win a crystal football.
The Big 12 did the right thing by choosing not to expand
That’s not a knock on the programs under consideration. Many of these schools would have made the conference much stronger than it is now (at least in football), creating a win-win situation for everyone involved.
With that said, the league didn’t need to expand. Yes, some people – including Oklahoma’s David Boren – wondered if not having a conference championship game would hurt the Big 12 in the College Football Playoff selection process. However, as his beloved Sooners proved last season, the league champion will never have trouble qualifying for the field as long as it plays a tough non-conference schedule.
In other words: the Big 12 didn’t need to add more teams to improve its playoff chances. All it has to do is schedule – and beat – quality competition in non-conference play.
If the Big 12 can do that on a consistent basis, it shouldn’t have anything to worry about in the future. Sure, there are all sorts of “gloom and doom” scenarios in the blogosphere suggesting that the league will ultimately disband. But, if the conference is competing for the national championship year in and year out, it should have no trouble negotiating a profitable TV deal when its current agreement ends. This revenue would probably be enough to keep the league together for a long time.
