New Year's Observations

For many of us, New Year's is the best holiday of the year. Some people are into the Eve parties and so forth, the ball dropping, and Dick Clark, who by the way, doesn't really have it anymore to the point that I really feel bad for him.

Christmas comes again on New Year's Day. A day full of college football. Lovely.

Luckily for us, this year was full of great games. Regardless if you have any allegiance to Tennessee, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Texas Tech, or Virginia, you without a doubt had reasons to watch these games...they came down to the wire.

Then there was Illinois, Arkansas and Hawaii.

I made many keen observations yesterday, so here the best ones in no particular order.

1. The Big Ten is soft. This is nothing new. Set Michigan aside because we are going to get to the shortly, but the Big Ten is an absolute joke. I didn't give the Vols much of a chance against Wisconsin. We were missing three of our best players and we traditionally don't play well in bowl games, especially after we should have been in a BCS game. Then I watched Wisconsin's entire team complain about a "cheap shot" on their quarterback.

Tyler Donovan dove into the endzone to even the score at seven. Dove, key word. Eric Berry about broke Donovan's neck with his helmet...well, by breathing really, but his neck snapped around in every way. Donovan laid there before eventually going back in and getting kicked around some more.

Their linemen were talking about it being a "cheap shot." If you're a quarterback, and you lead with your head, you're going to get hit hard. That's how the game is played. Everyone talks about the speed in the SEC and how it consumes the Big Ten. I think it's about being physical. Michigan was complaining about the same things as Wisconsin. If you want to play soccer, go play soccer. Football is a violent game where you wear pads to protect yourselves. It's a nasty game. If you can't get nasty, play soccer. If you don't want your players to get injured or hit to hard, play soccer. That Donovan kid is a tough kid. His coach isn't. You think UT was bad? Wait until you see what those guys on the LSU defense throw on the field. They are straight nasty. Call up the bodybags.

2. Health is without a doubt the most important factor in college football. I gave Michigan no chance whatsoever of beating Florida. I thought Florida was going to absolutely wipe the floor with Michigan. I was wrong. I said it, quote me. I was wrong.

Chad Henne is a better pro prospect than Tom Brady ever was. Mike Hart talks a whole lot about how he has to put his team on his back and so forth. I think Mike Hart talks a lot bigger game than he has, but he still played well. Their receivers looked like pro prospects. Michigan clicked for the first time really all season. Why? They were healthy for the first time all season.

The layoff allows teams to get back together, as I have stated before. This was Michigan's one game to be ready to go, and they brought it strong. USC hasn't really been healthy either. They get a lay off and...they lead the Pasadena Death March against Illinois. LSU hasn't been healthy since they did things so bad that they can't be described to Virginia Tech. I mean, any questions?

3. Tim Tebow is not the best player in the nation. I've been saying this for a while. Who is? Not sure, but if you didn't listen to me then, listen now. HE ISN'T THE BEST PLAYER ON HIS OWN TEAM. Percy Harvin is the most special talent I have seen in a while. He literally has another gear he goes to and he does it so smoothly. If you want to know where Tebow's passing yards come from, it's from Harvin averaging something ridiculous per touch, most of it after the catch. If you think otherwise, then you are just mistaken.

4. Your playoff system wouldn't work this year. Yeah, we've talked about you before, you who have your own concept for a playoff. I'm going to tell you why it wouldn't work. Unless it was a 64 team tournament like basketball, you wouldn't have had unranked Michigan in your system. Let me tell you that the Michigan team that played yesterday would have beaten most teams in the nation. So, that being said, your system would have been flawed.

5. I feel so bad for Hawaii. I mean, I really thought they were going to win that game. I thought they were going to be able to spread out Georgia and use their speed. Well, I was wrong.

Their line simply wasn't good enough to play with Georgia's front seven. It was sad. I mean, I turned the game off after the 3rd, but Colt Brennan just didn't have the time to throw anything other than a shovel pass or a slip screen. Hawaii just isn't good enough to play with the big guns. It's that simple. They can't compete on an athlete to athlete basis, and linemen at that level are athletes. They played hard and I give them all the credit in the world, but what Georgia did to them is going to absolutely destroy the notion of a non-BCS conference making a BCS game. The BCS was correct on that one. Missouri played in the Cotton Bowl...think about that for a second.

6. Georgia fans were wearing shirts about how they got hosed in the BCS.

You know, maybe if you wouldn't have been down 28-0 at half in Knoxville this year, you would have had a shot at the title.

That being said, you better be scared for next year. Georgia is going to be one nasty team.