posted November 27, 2009 at 15:43 EST in NCAA F Articles
College Football Insider - Teams on the Up and Up
by Charles Jay
I'd like to spotlight a few a of the teams who made progress this season in college football, and (honestly) coincidentally, they turn out to be schools that had new coaches in their first full year at the controls.
CLEMSON is a team that I think has made remarkable progress this season, and it has been propelled by a superstar running back who, believe it or not, had only eight collegiate starts coming into the season.
I know he's not going to win the Heisman Trophy, but more than one NFL scout has told me that unequivocally, CJ Spiller of Clemson is the best skill player in the country, and could be the first choice in the NFL Draft. I've heard some of the TV pundits mention him in the Heisman conversation, but his stats probably aren't enough to impress the voters who primarily look at those things.
His stuff is a little spread out - he has 894 rushing yards, which is not among the nation's leaders; he has 421 yards receiving, and 751 yards in combined return yardage.
Spiller is third in the nation in all-purpose yards, averaging 187 yards a game. He even threw a touchdown pass against North Carolina State a couple of weeks ago. he is the most complete package of talent in the college game, and he has been a principal reason Clemson has become such an explosive squad, and will be dangerous in any bowl they get into. I like the progress of freshman quarterback Kyle Parker too.
This has all been pretty important, because if you recall at this time last season, the Tigers, who were expected by some to be a national championship contender with all the weapons on hand (which included running back James Davis and quarterback Cullen Harper), had completely fallen apart, which led to the ouster of coach Tommy Bowden.
Dabo Sweeney picked up the pieces and has this program going into the right direction. Too bad Spiller will be playing on Sundays next year.
I kind of like the progress Rich Ellerson has made as a first-year coach at ARMY. The former Cal Poly coach hasn't led the Cadets to many upsets, but they're 12th in the nation in rushing, and with the exception of the game against Tulane, they have beaten the teams they should beat, and because of that they find themselves in position to grab a bowl bid, that is, if they can beat Navy on December 12.
The Eagle Bank Bowl would love for that to happen, because it would like to invite Army to participate, but there may not be a big chance of that happening. There is supposed to be a #9 seed from the ACC going to that bowl too, but there is no way that is going to happen, because there is no way for North Carolina State or Wake Forest is going to qualify.
I imagine Ellerson is going to stay at West Point for a while, and if he does I can see him closing the gap between the Cadets and Navy with each passing season.
I know that he takes a lot of criticism, and didn't necessarily get himself off to the best start in the SEC with the comments he made about Urban Meyer's recruiting techniques, but Lane Kiffin has truly made some positive steps at TENNESSEE.
For one thing, he's got a team that is bowl-eligible, and fans were quite dissatisfied about that 5-7 no-bowl record last season. With his father at the helm, the Vols have built a defense that can stack up with most in the SEC. They are rated 11th in defending the pass, and have only allowed five TD passes all year. Not many of the conference opponents were able to figure out Monte's Tampa-2, and I don't know how many passing attacks are sophisticated enough to handle it. Narrow defeats to strong programs like Alabama and Auburn indicate that they are not far from ascending to the upper echelon in the SEC.
Jonathan Crompton came on a bit as the season went on, and he threw 11 TD passes with just one interception over a four-game period toward the end. In a situation where the Kiffins have a lot of extra time to prepare, they are going to be a difficult team for anyone to deal with in a bowl game.
I have to say, you may not even notice another school that has made significant progress, because they are not going to a bowl game, and don't have a winning record. But when you consider where the WASHINGTON program was last season, it is striking where they are now compared to where they were last season.
U-Dub was so bad last year that it actually lost to Washington State, and that's bad. This season they brought aboard Steve Sarkisian, who was the offensive coordinator at USC, and they immediately started to be competitive. Washington gave LSU a very good ballgame at the beginning of the season, scored an upset win over USC, went to overtime with Notre Dame, beat Arizona, and played close games with a couple of other teams.
True, they are 3-7 straight-up, and have been blown away in a couple of contests by strong teams (Oregon, Oregon State), but this is a team that has thought about winning every time it has taken the field. Jake Locker (2356 yards, 17 TD's) has been developed into more of a conventional pro-style passer by Sarkisian, and if takes leaps next year the way he did this season (if he doesn't go to the NFL Draft), he could lead this team into position where it can challenge for a Pac-10 title. I notice that they only have a couple of seniors on offense.
To be honest, I don't know that I wouldn't give more for Washington's immediate future than I would for Michigan's under Rich Rodriguez. I mean that.
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