Left: bad quarterback. Right: decent quarterback.
Not pictured: Heisman-quality quarterback.
There’s a first time for everything.
I once said that if FSU was playing Bin Laden’s Jihadsquad that I’d be whirling my turban-cloth over my head and shouting “Destroy the infidels!” until the final play of the game.
As it turns out, my standard for vile hatred is lower than I thought.
We all know that FSU has been irrelevant in the national picture ever since Ron Zook christened Bobby Bowden Field in 2004. Ironically, their terrible play has transformed the joy of watching the Seminoles lose. When they flail around helplessly, tanking in another game to another unranked opponent, it is no longer the joyful event it once was.
Now, it’s commonplace. Although it’s still enjoyable, it’s like good music in the background: you’re aware of it and perhaps even humming along subsconsciously, but not really paying any attention to it.
But last night FSU played #2 (ha!) Boston College. I knew going in this was going to be tough: for one, Boston College has that walk-on kicker story which is always fun. Two, no one really cares about them including their own fans, so it’s fun to watch them beat “powerhouse” programs.
But BC had to lose if for no other reason to prevent a mockery of the BCS title game, a scenario in which the weakest #1 (Ohio State) and #2 (then BC) in the history of the college football would have squared off to crown a “national champion”.
There’s another reason, too: Matt Ryan.
He annoys me. Not because he’s a bad kid or even a bad quarterback. He’s decent. But look: this guy is not that good. Certainly he’s not Heisman good. ESPN, ABC, and some other pundits list him as a first-rounder. I think it shows how little attention they pay to the actual games rather than stats and records.
BC’s best win of the year is their last second, lucky-ass win over Va Tech, the same team who LSU annihilated 49-7 early in the season. Other than that, they played Notre Dame, Bowling Green, NC State, Massachusetts, Army… some real humdingers there.
This was never a Top 10 team. I’m not sure they’re even a Top 20 team.
Write it down and look me up later, because this is an unpopular opinion right now: Matt Ryan is not first-round draft material. I’m not sure he’d be drafted anywhere prior to the 3rd round. I watch this guy and flatly wonder whether any pro team will pick him up.
And it was galling to think that Ryan was seriously a lead Heisman Trophy candidate over our own Tim Tebow.
Ryan’s a sub-60% passer who’s thrown 21 touchdowns and 11 INTs. His QB rating is a decent 129.5. Meanwhile, Tim Tebow is a 68% passer, has thrown 21 TDs to 4 INTs, and — oh yeah — has rushed for an additional 14 touchdowns. His QB rating is 179.1 and, just to shut up the folks who made the “glorified fullback” comments when he was national championship backup in 2006, he leads the NCAA in passing efficiency. As in, #1, the best in the country, and he does it against some of the best teams in the country too.
So this Matt Ryan for Heisman talk just had to stop. The only thing going for Ryan is that he’s a senior and BC’s won a bunch of games against terrible teams. That FSU, a truly terrible team in their own right, was able to beat BC 27-17 just shows how obviously overrated they, and Ryan, really were.
I rooted for FSU, and I am ashamed. But it was for the greater Gator good. Tebow is now right back in the Heisman mix, the BC fad is over, and in a weird way, this even helps our strength of schedule — now we get FSU in the Swamp, who beat the #2 (ha! ha! ha!) team in the country before coming into our house for their own beatdown.