Looking Back at College Football in 2004

What will we think of when we reflect on the 2004 college football season? I suppose if we're living in Alabama, we'll forever carry a heavy chip on our shoulders that Auburn was shutout of an opportunity to win a national championship. After Oklahoma proved so completely overmatched by the Trojans of Southern California, Auburn Tigers fans could be heard weeping tears in their beers, ranting and raving that they'd been disrespected, and might have given Southern Cal a real fight.

While I personally doubt that the Tigers would have fared much better than the Sooners (no one understands just how much faster the Trojans are than nearly everyone else till they run on the same field), the claims of injustice seem hollow considering the Tigers played a non-conference schedule that would have challenged my Division III college football team, but not many others.

Maybe, if we're living life in Big 12 country, we'll remember the introduction of freshman sensation Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma's superstar running back. All the talk of Ohio State's great freshman back from 2002 has been forgotten now. There's a real amazing talent in town, and he seems to carry no baggage! Now there's something to revel in. Had Peterson had any kind of success against the Trojans in the Orange Bowl, he might have eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark.

In ACC land, we might be wondering where all the great football has gone. Florida State, while still a national presence, is falling and falling quickly. The Seminoles failed to win the ACC for only the second time since joining the conference in 1991. While that might not be cause for concern, the real problem lay in the fact that Florida State has failed to win the ACC in two of the last four years. Adding insult to injury, the 'Noles were knocked from their perch by first-year conference member Virginia Tech.

In the Midwest, where football was born, Ohio State is suffering from the same maladies that befall any athletic program that turns a blind eye to the willingness of boosters to rub elbows and shake hands and leave hundred dollar bills in the pockets of student-athletes. While I personally have little sympathy for the program, I have the strong impression that Ohio State has simply been doing business in the way that the majority of major college athletic programs do. And, if that's the case, what hope is there of major sports retaining any semblance of amateurism, at least the Division I-A level?

Mediocrity prevailed in the doomed Big East football conference. The WVU Mountaineers proved to be mostly, if not completely, fraudulent in their pursuit of their second straight Big East title. Ultimately, the conference, down to seven members in 2004, had four members finish in a tie for first place. WVU had a chance to win the conference outright, but lost to Boston College (in their final season in the conference) on their home field.

The following week, though, the conference obtained some retribution, and Syracuse crushed Boston College on their home field, in a game that kept the Eagles from winning the conference in their last year. The rebuilding of the Big East will be an arduous task. Next year, its best team seems to be a new member, likely Louisville.

And, out west, the best college football team in at least six or seven years won an undisputed (by all but Auburn fans, anyway) national championship title. Southern California might not have even seen its best days. With superstar-to-be quarterback Matt Leinart choosing to stay for his senior year of eligibility, the Trojans look to be stacked on the offensive side of the ball.

Add to Leinart the explosive talent of Reggie Bush, the maturation of Duane Jarrett, an offensive line returning all but one starter, and perhaps most important, the oversight of Norm Chow as a head football coach at Stanford, leaving him in the coach's booth at The Coliseum, and the Trojans will be odd-on favorites to win an unprecedented third straight national championship.