Oct. 15, 2006

Sunday 7: Latest brawl shows Miami can't shake past

By Dennis Dodd | CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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Seven things we learned on Sunday. ...

They're punks: All of them. All the Miami and Florida International players involved in that disgusting brawl.

Larry Coker will take the heat for a Miami program seemingly out of control. (AP)

That's what happened Saturday night. Miami, the U and FIU died a little. It doesn't matter who started it. This is not a slap fight between big brother and little sister. The question should be: Who ended it?

Turns out it had to be the cops.

Whatever comes out of this, Larry Coker is done, kaput, finished at Miami. AD Paul Dee might be close behind. This is the third such embarrassing incident for Miami since the Peach Bowl.

It looks like a program that is literally out of control. It looks like the same old Miami, a reputation that the school cannot shake.

One of the few positives: Both conference commissioners (ACC's John Swofford and Sun Belt's Wright Waters) jumped on this quickly. Let's hope they do the right thing. There was at least one player swinging a helmet. An injured FIU player was waving crutches around. Their kind should be suspended for the remainder of the season.

That is, assuming all of the involved players stay out of jail.

All Day all done: Say a prayer for Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson. On the day his father saw him play for the first time in eight years, OU's magnificent tailback broke his collarbone against Iowa State and likely saw his college career end.

You wonder how the NFL will view a great college player who now has a history of injury (shoulder, ankle, collarbone). A.D. should view it this way: If he's going to get beat up, he ought to at least get paid for it. The next time Peterson takes a snap, he could have an eight-figure signing bonus in his back pocket.

You also wonder where the Oklahoma program is headed. An 8-4 season might be overly optimistic at this point. The Sooners need to rebuild, quickly, to become a factor in the Big 12 South and the national scene again. Doing it by next year might be asking too much.

Doing it by next week? Impossible.

"A.D. is the focal point not only of this offense but the team," OU quarterback Paul Thompson said.

There is officially a quarterback controversy at Florida: There was some not-so-subtle blame aimed at Florida's Chris Leak after Florida's 27-17 loss to Auburn -- from his own side.

Two brutal fourth-quarter turnovers by the senior probably took the Gators out of national championship consideration. A fumble (backed up by review, although many observers still think it was an incomplete pass) and an interception doomed the Gators.

It should never have come to that, Urban Meyer said of the fumble that killed one drive. The point being that a smarter quarterback takes the sack or throws the ball away.

Receiver Andre Caldwell admittedly was running free by 7 yards when Leak threw the interception off his back foot.

"He played an all right game," Caldwell said, "but he made a couple of mistakes that cost us."

Like the whole season, unless Florida can rebound to win the SEC. Leak's last six touches were: fumble, interception, pass batted down, pass overthrown, pass dropped, completion but a lateral that bounced off his chest was run in for a touchdown.

The Gators deserved better after not allowing Auburn an offensive touchdown. Maybe they will get it if freshman Tim Tebow is named the starter. Immediately.

The SEC's anguish: The Super League lost its last remaining unbeaten team (Florida).

But not all hope.

As the BCS' highest-ranked one-loss team, Auburn (No. 4) is not out of the championship race. Neither is Florida at No. 6. Undefeated West Virginia is at No. 5.

Auburn would have to win out and hope that two of the top three (Ohio State, USC, Michigan) lose.

One is guaranteed to lose because the Buckeyes and Wolverines play each other. That leaves USC on the clock. The Trojans play three ranked teams in consecutive weeks, at home in November -- Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame.

Keep hope alive, War Eagles.

Indiana landed Eric Gordon: Oh yeah, there was a football game at Indiana, too. The Hoosiers' upset of Iowa was the second biggest story in Bloomington, Ind., to Kelvin Sampson landing the top basketball recruit -- a distant second. But it was still significant.

The Hoosiers' football coach (Terry Hoeppner) has fought cancer. The team's rep has been dragged through the mud.

But how about those Hoosiers now?

Indiana scored its biggest win in almost two decades, 31-28 over the Hawkeyes. No big deal. To get to 4-3, the Big Ten punching bag had to overcome deficits of 17 (Ball State), 18 (Illinois) and a paltry 14 (Iowa).

Georgia is the new Vandy and vice versa: Let's see how Georgia governor Sonny Perdue likes this headline:

The Dawgs Suck.

The Guv was upset at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week for correctly pointing out that Georgia lost to Tennessee. That one Dawgs might have been able to swallow. But Vandy? Georgia allowed Vanderbilt to drive the field for the game-winning field goal with two seconds left in a 24-22 loss.

It was the first win for Vandy away from Nashville against a ranked opponent since the 1955 Gator Bowl. Hey, Guv, see if this fits in the headline: The Vandy kicker's name is H-a-h-n-f-e-l-d-t, Bryant Hahnfeldt.

Hahnfeldt blew out his ACL (plant leg) last year after being juked by a Tennessee punt returner. Earlier this season, a swirling wind in Nashville knocked down a 48-yard attempt against Arkansas with 55 seconds left. Vandy lost 21-19.

Georgia has 12 SEC titles. Vandy has none. Georgia has an athletic department budget of $63 million. Vandy technically doesn't have an athletic department.

So, yeah, Sonny, this one felt good. In this space and in Nashville.

"I don't know how I'd write the headline," Hahnfeldt said. "I guess the Dawgs really have lost their bite in a way."

The Western Way: Coach Bill Cubit told his Western Michigan players last week they were going to make national news one way or the other.

National rushing leader Garrett Wolfe of Northern Illinois was either going to go off against one of the nation's better run defenses or he wasn't. How does 18 rushes for 25 yards sound?

Wolfe had been averaging 223.8 yards per game before Western Michigan's 16-14 victory. But defensive coordinator Scott Shafer helped devise a scheme that held Wolfe to the second-lowest total of his 27 game college career. Shafer helped recruit Wolfe when he was at Northern Illinois from 1996-2003. After going to Illinois for what turned out to be Ron Turner's last year (2004) Shafer landed back in the MAC.

His rep might be growing. The Broncos swarmed to the ball, keeping Wolfe from breaking the first tackle, which is a big key to his success. The defense had a season-low seven missed tackles, according to Shafer.

"If you miss Garrett and let him outside there's nothing but us on the outside on the sideline," Shafer said. "The key is keeping him inside."

Wolfe's streak of 11 consecutive games of at least 150 rushing yards ended. The nation's No. 12 rush defense had been torched for 257 yards by Ohio earlier this season but held Northern Illinois to zero net rushing yards. It helped that Western Michigan was leading most of the game and controlled the ball for almost 39 minutes. Northern Illinois was able to run only 47 plays.

The Broncos (4-2, 2-1) now control their own destiny in the MAC West after beating the Huskies for the first time since 2000.