Good ‘ole Lee Corso.
The guy has a sense of ironic humor that nobody surrounding college football possess.
His colleagues Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler couldn’t believe when Corso made this raucous prediction in late August. His choice for the two teams that would play in the Fiesta Bowl for the BCS national title game? LSU and Texas.
Herbie asked — in similar words — “With Matt Mauck at quarterback? …” Corso replied “He was good enough to beat Tennessee, wasn’t he?”
Corso’s prediction was correct, but only in the sense that the two teams from the two best conferences in the country (sorry Pac-10) are on par to meet in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day.
The Cotton Bowl may have lost its luster — due in part to its 10 a.m. Central start time and its less than wonderful coverage by Fox — but it’s still a great bowl. Once upon a time, this bowl was thought of as one of the greatest bowls. Now it’s just an afterthought.
But a Texas-LSU match up would be a good tilt between two of the best college recruiters in all of the land.
In one corner, Mack Brown. Texas was highly criticized for hiring the former North Carolina head man, but after success on the field and in the recruiting arena, Brown is beloved in Austin.
Brown’s classes are a mainstay in recruiting expert’s top five recruiting classes of the year.
And in the other corner, Nick Saban, the passionate 5-foot-9 general of the defending Southeastern Conference Champions. Saban has led his team, which did not have its starting running back and starting quarterback healthy for most of the season, to an 8-4 record in the physical, athletic SEC.
But beyond the coaching match-up, which Saban would obviously win, comes other intriguing matchups. How about Texas running back Cedric Benson running against a solid Tigers’ D-Line and linebacking core?
How about often second-guessed quarterback Chris Simms, who will be closing out his career with the bowl game, and his solid group of receivers — Roy Williams, Sloan Thomas and others — versus the LSU secondary?
Would the Tigers be able to run against former LSU defensive coordinator Carl Reese’s tough Texas defense? Could Michael Clayton and the emerging Skyler Green get by a secondary that picked off Oklahoma quarterback Nate Hybl four times?
Those would be some of the more intriguing storylines. Often I hear Tigers’ fans fret about this season, but they don’t take certain factors into consideration.
LSU was without starting quarterback for the majority of the year. The man only beat Florida 36-7 at “The Swamp.” Secondly, starting running back LaBrandon Toefield broke his arm and was out for four games, but has not been his real self in the last three games.
It’s funny how LSU has a great chance of being in a New Year’s Day bowl game, but people still will look back and call this season a failure.
Well, here’s to a possible Cotton Bowl bid for the Tigers and a good LSU-Texas match-up.
Hell, give Corso credit … he actually might have been right after all, well, in way.