Major Applewhite isn't that far removed from the days when he almost threw down with Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner.
"He's told stories," Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson said.
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| Applewhite has increased Alabama's offense to 414 yards per game. (US Presswire) |
Then came the shouting match with the Schooner drivers in the Cotton Bowl tunnel filled not only with sweaty bodies but with the pungent aroma of the Schooner ponies' poo.
Things are smelling, uh, a little sweeter this weekend. LSU goes to Alabama with Applewhite one of the central characters in the Saban Bowl.
The 29-year-old knows a little something about being a quarterback at a major-college aircraft carrier. He played four years at Texas (1998-2001) becoming somewhat of a Captain Comeback, setting eight school records. Now the apple-cheeked Applewhite finds himself in his first season as Alabama's offensive coordinator.
No pressure there, right?
"He was playing not too long ago and he knows what it's like to be quarterback," said Wilson, who is having a career year taking direction from Applewhite.
"He says that all the time. It's different looking through the facemask. Most of the time he is right."
No matter what happens Saturday, Applewhite will be one of the hottest assistant coaches in the country. His name is already being mentioned for the opening at SMU. Hopefully, he's smarter than that.
When you successfully coordinate Alabama's offense, you deserve better than Death Penalty U.
Wilson is coming off a career day against Tennessee, a game that earned Applewhite offensive coordinator of the week honors from two publications.
Alabama's total offense per game has increased almost 25 percent to 414 yards per game. More important, scoring is up from 23 points last season to 31.5.
"Offensively we were good, we couldn't get anything going," Wilson said. "We were a young team and really didn't know how to win."
That's where Applewhite has come in as a bit of a mad scientist. As Todd Graham's OC last season at Rice, the nation's youngest I-A coordinator oversaw a wide-open attack that produced a school record for points (350) as well as a 1,000-yard rusher and passer.
His star has risen quickly from Texas grad assistant to Syracuse quarterbacks coach (2005) to Rice to 'Bama.
Stars, though, can crash against each other. This week's challenge is against the nation's No. 2 defense coordinator by another rising star, LSU's Bo Pelini.
May the best mad scientist win.
Scouting the nation
• This is how crazy the season has been. Take a look at these BCS pairings based on the current BCS standings (WWL is projecting that Hawaii will qualify automatically among the top 12 in the final standings).
BCS national championship game -- Ohio State* vs. Boston College*
Sugar -- LSU* vs. Hawaii*
Rose -- West Virginia* vs. Oregon*
Orange -- Georgia vs. Arizona State
Fiesta -- Oklahoma* vs. Kansas
* -- automatic qualifier
• Les Miles is showing us something. By suspending Ryan Perrilloux for the Alabama game, the LSU coach is significantly hurting his team's chances of winning.
Or rather Perrilloux is hurting the Tigers. This isn't his first off-field problem. This time it was an altercation at an off-campus bar.
Perrilloux hasn't always been great, but he is that Tebow-like change-up ('06 vintage) that keeps defenses off balance.
Without that change-up, Matt Flynn and his sometimes stone-handed receivers are under more pressure.
• This is why the BCS is great: Arizona State-Oregon.
Well, "great" isn't exactly the right word. Maybe it's best to say one of the unintentional consequences of the BCS is the fallout from Autzen Stadium. This is a de facto playoff game to stay alive for the national championship.
• Arizona State is good television, as they say in the industry. Keep watching because something dramatic is going to happen.
The Sun Devils have rallied to win coming back from deficits of 14-0, 19-0 and 13-0.
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| With every win, Dennis Erickson's bank account grows huge. (Getty Images) |
Erickson gets $100,000 for his ninth win, $200,000 for his 10th win, $300,000 for his 11th win and $400,000 for his 12th.
• WWL is fairly certain there is no one alive who remembers Kansas being a 19-point favorite over Nebraska.
In basketball? All the time. Bill Self's boys have covered that number in four of the past five meetings.
• How deep are the Jayhawks? The leaders in sacks (freshman Jake Laptad, three) and interceptions (defensive back Justin Thornton, tied with three) have not started a game.
• Nebraska's four-game losing streak is its longest since 1961.
• Things that weren't invented the last time Navy beat Notre Dame: dirt, air and toaster strudel.
Yeah, it has been a long time. Forty-three years to be exact. Navy coach Paul Johnson can enhance his job prospects by ending the Midshipmen misery.
• In the middle of this mess of a season, ND is pushing defensive end Trevor Laws for All-American. If you can forget the fact that the Irish are 1-7, Laws has had a heck of a season with 67 tackles, No. 1 nationally among defensive linemen, according to the school.
• Twenty-three players, more than an entire offense and defense, have made their first career start for Notre Dame this season.
• Never thought back in September that WWL would write this now: Michigan (seven) has the nation's third-longest winning streak heading to Michigan State.
Chad Henne and Mike Hart should return, so assume it will be eight in a row.
• "At least they'll be on time for the game," Michigan's Jake Long said of Michigan State's "countdown clock" to the Michigan game that was instituted when Mark Dantonio took over.
• Dennis Franchione would have been better served by putting his smack talk in that subscription-only newsletter. At least the comments he made about Oklahoma would, like the e-newsletter, be gone by now.
But nooooo. Speaking to the Houston Touchdown Club in August, Coach Fran broke down the Oklahoma quarterback situation.
"That may be the only question mark they have," Fran said, "other than what jobs they are going to work this year."
That was clearly a shot at the Big Red Imports scandal last year that cost OU another close encounter with the NCAA.
Bob Stoops said: "It surprised me." Translated, that means an extra 10 points heaped on the butt-whipping he's planning for the Aggies.
• Vanderbilt (5-3) can end the suspense and nail down its first bowl bid in 25 years by winning at Florida. The problem is the Gators are 16-point favorites. Will they respond after being outscored and out-celebrated by Georgia?
Yes, WWL said bowl bid for Vandy. Beating Florida at Florida gets you a bid somewhere, not just bowl eligibility.
• It has gotten this bad at defensive tackle for Florida:
Six of the seven players rotating at the position are true freshmen or redshirt freshmen.
The lone upperclassmen, senior Clint McMillan, has one career start. He is the only one of the seven who has started a game going into Vandy.
Freshman Mike Pouncey, the backup center, was moved to defense this week.
• Who is Matt Forte? On surface, he is the nation's leading rusher, averaging 192.4 yards per game for Tulane. If that average holds up, Forte would rush for the second-most single-season yards in history.
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| Put Tulane's Matt Forte on a BCS team, and he could be talking Heisman. (US Presswire) |
"If I was at UCLA and had Matt," Green Wave coach Bob Toledo told USA Today, "he'd be a Heisman candidate."
Maybe. It would certainly help if the 6-foot-2, 223-pound Forte wasn't at 2-6 Tulane, a member of Conference USA. Forte (vs. Tulsa this week) has surpassed 200 yards in five of the past six and has rushed twice for more than 300 yards.
As far as next-level backs, WWL's NFL mole likes Oregon's Jonathan Stewart and West Virginia's Steve Slaton better.
• Open your newspaper, web browser or TV Guide, the Big Ten is taking some hits.
The six BCS computers have it rated at an average of fifth best. Four of the six have it at No. 6. It's the Big Two and the Little Nine, again. Every team in the league except No. 1 Ohio State has at least two losses. The only other major conferences that, um, consistent are the ACC and SEC. We'll take the whip to those leagues later. For now the Big Ten deserves every criticism it gets.
The hangover from last year's Debacle in the Desert seems to be real. The Buckeyes, like those guys in the Viagra ads, are wondering whether they're ... good enough. Penn State proved to be a fraud. Wisconsin started 5-0. It is now 7-2 headed to Columbus. Only two teams are ranked in the AP poll (No. 15 Michigan is the other).
At this late date, 10 of the 11 teams can still become bowl eligible. That's good if you're the Motor City Bowl. Not good if you have to watch the Motor City Bowl.
"Not only did that change people's perspective of us," Ohio State's Malcolm Jenkins said of the 27-point loss to Florida, "it changed people's view of the Big Ten. A lot of people don't really respect the Big Ten anymore."
• Washington (2-6) must beat Stanford this week or Ty Willingham will become the first coach in school history to have three consecutive losing seasons.
• Ole Miss' Ed Orgeron (9-23 in three seasons) got a vote of confidence this week from AD Pete Boone. That can only mean one thing with the Rebels headed into the Northwestern State game.
(Does have WWL have to draw it out for you?)
• Your driver's seat team in the SEC East has lost three road games by 26 points per game. It is 89th in scoring defense (31.3 points per game) and has a great future.
Tennessee (vs. Louisiana-Lafayette) controls its fate in the division and has Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky left after Saturday.
"This is a crazy league," quarterback Erik Ainge said. "You are never out of it."
• Auburn's Tommy Tuberville kind of, sort of addressed the Texas A&M rumors this week, but never quashed them. Auburn AD Jay Jacobs said Tubs has a "lifetime contract." One that that is not co-signed, we can assume, by trustee-for-life Bobby Lowder.
• Stat of the week: Colorado (vs. Missouri) kickoff guy Tyler Cope has made seven tackles this season. Before this season, CU kickers had made three tackles this decade.
