Saturday's Stepchild: College Football's Also-Rans

All is serene in college football land.  Everyone—well, just about everyone—won who was supposed to win last Saturday, including the surprising Iowa Hawkeyes, who pulled off a major upset the previous weekend against then number three ranked Penn State.

This past weekend they played Purdue in the last road game in the career of legendary coach Joe Tiller.  Purdue has struggled all year and was not expected to put up much resistance against a mightily improved Hawkeye football team at home on Senior Day in Iowa City.

But then they did.  The Boilermakers played a first rate, aggressive game and created many opportunities for success against the team that shocked the football nation the previous weekend.  

That they could not quite get it done was to Iowa’s great good fortune, because Tiller and his Purdue Boilermakers came to play ball.

Obviously, the focus of the media and the pollsters remains fixed on the traditional front runners—those programs that year after year top the polls.  These are schools rich in tradition, blue-chip recruiting punch, money, backers, and front page propensity.  

We speak of USC, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Nebraska.  There are others that slide in and out of this group. 

Right now, Michigan and Nebraska are struggling.  But one knows they will rise to the top again.  Some day, Notre Dame will recover former glory, too—if the fans have anything to say about it, and believe me, they say plenty.

Then there are the rest of the programs that add to the rich tradition of college football—whose fans come Saturday after to Saturday to cheer on their team, perhaps their alma mater, for one more win! 

Maybe a winning season is the goal, or maybe getting to one of the lesser bowl games is driving the team forward week after week.

It is these programs simmering in the background, providing the foundation for the exalted ones to step over, that need to be accorded the applause and the gratitude of college football fans everywhere. 

Yes, somebody has to be the doormat.  Some teams populated with dedicated players will not rise to the top.  They will struggle anonymously, mired in mediocrity, and relish their minor victories.

These are not the teams the pundits talk about on ESPN.  On ESPN they are arguing about whether Texas Tech or Alabama deserves to be number one.  Or they are talking about whether Oklahoma can finally take down Texas Tech this coming weekend. 

No one much cares that Iowa held on to defeat a really fired-up Boilermaker team that was in the contest until the last play of the game.  Only Iowa folks sitting in the stands or Purdue folks watching on television (the Big Ten Network) truly cared about the outcome.

For Iowa it means a great deal.  Staying alive means that dream of playing on New Year’s Day in a significant bowl persists.  That is important to folks down home in Iowa where the tall corn better be tucked away and the fields cleared by now.

Shonn Greene, No. 23, vaunted Iowa running back and third leading rusher in the nation, pretty much sustained the offense with his thunderous bursts up the field. 

Greene carried the ball the first six plays of the game with the line stacked against him.  He pummeled the defense for 43 yards as he slashed his way down to the 25-yard line of Purdue. 

After two more running plays, Iowa was in the end zone with a touchdown scamper by Jewel Hampton, while Greene rested on the sidelines.

For the day, Shonn Greene ended up with 211 yards, including two touchdowns, one an impressive 75-yard dash in the second quarter. In the second half, Purdue found a way to stop Greene consistently.  But he did much damage during the first half of the contest.

Because Iowa is not among the elite of football hierarchy, a running back like Shonn Greene will go pretty much unheralded. 

He should be in the discussion about the Heisman, but because Iowa, as a team, is not ranked highly, Greene does not get the recognition that running backs from elite programs receive.

For fans watching Greene set another rushing record, it looked to be a pretty easy afternoon.  It did not turn out that way, unfortunately for the Iowa faithful.  The nail biting continued until the last play ended and the curtain came down on another Iowa victory.

This Saturday, Iowa travels north to Minneapolis, where they take on a slumping Minnesota Gopher football team.  Minnesota, who scored hits early in the season, have lost their last three games. 

Both teams have much riding on the Saturday contest, sitting with equal 7-4 records. At stake is a bowl game on New Year’s Day and a chance for a taste of glory.

In the meantime, the big boys with all the hype and all the media glitz will be blazing a path toward promised BCS land.  Oklahoma will be facing Texas Tech in a game of some significance. 

Traditional powers like Michigan vs. Ohio State will be battling—although it just isn’t the same this year.

Penn State will be hoping to survive another stiff contest vs. Michigan State, and this one is for all the Roses because the winner will be assured a spot in the Pasadena Bowl.  Luckily for them, the Nittany Lions will be teeing it up at home.

There will be hundreds of games played on Saturday with thousands of young men suiting it up and getting it on.  Half will win and the other half will lose.  In the end, however, everyone wins who loves college football and the rich tradition it engenders, even those who battle in obscurity...

(photo by artist Knutson)