| | By Scott Brown
Special to ESPN.com
At this time last year, Virginia Tech's Michael Vick would have had a hard time giving away his autograph. By the end of the season, the quarterback had been an honored guest at the Downtown Athletic Club, posed with Tigers Woods for a picture at the ESPY's and made perhaps the biggest impact of any freshman in college football since Herschel Walker led Georgia to a national championship in 1980.
In turning college football fields into his personal playground -- Vick even made Florida State's vaunted defense look like Rutgers at times during the Sugar Bowl -- Vick turned the one question mark Tech had going into the season into an exclamation point.
|  | | Michael Vick carried the Hokies to a near-perfect season. |
To attribute Tech's rise to new heights solely to Vick would be a bit too
simplistic. With a handful of teams capable of pulling a Virginia Tech this
season (i.e. turn what is supposed to be a good regular season into a perfect
one), Hokies coach Frank Beamer will be the first to admit that the emergence
of a dynamic playmaker is not all a team needs to run the table.
Experience and leadership are key. A favorable schedule is important, too.
Having the college football gods smile on you once or twice during the season
is a must. What follows is a look at how these factors shape an undefeated
season.
Leadership
The last four teams to post perfect seasons had at least
one common denominator: strong leadership at quarterback. Florida State had
27-year-old Chris Weinke and Marshall had Chad Pennington last year, while
Tennessee had Tee Martin and Tulane had Shaun King in 1998.
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The next Virginia Tech
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OK, so they don't actually come from out of nowhere, but every year there is a surprise team which makes a run at perfection, climbs the polls and lobbies for its shot at the national title. This year's candidates, in no particular order:
Clemson: Tommy Bowden's shrugging off suggestions his Tigers could be a sleeping giant, but the Tigers lost four games by four points or less last season, including a three-point loss to FSU. A favorable schedule could have the Tigers 9-0 when they travel to Tallahassee on Nov. 4. A win there and a trip to Miami could be next.
Georgia: This is what we mean when we say they don't always come from out of nowhere. The Dawgs are a storied program, but have stumbled against Florida and Tennessee (1-7 the last four years) recently. Georgia's loaded this season and the Vols and Gators are down. This is the Dawgs' best chance to claim an SEC title and possibly more.
Washington: The Huskies have a great QB in Marques Tuiasosopo and a decent defense, and if they get by Miami (Fla.) and Colorado in September, they could be looking at a trip to Miami instead of Pasadena in January.
TCU: LaDainian Tomlinson, a Heisman Trophy-caliber running back who is shooting for 2,000 yards this season, teamed with an aggressive defense and a soft schedule could have the Horned Frogs undefeated at the end of the season.
Virginia Tech: Why not? The defense will still be tough and last time we checked, Michael Vick hadn't gone anywhere, so if the Hokies get by East Carolina, the Nov. 4 showdown with Miami could be for more than just the Big East title.
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Tech was the exception to that rule and not just because of Vick's
transcendent talents. The Hokies had seven senior starters on one of the
nation's top defenses. The leader was Outland Trophy winner Corey Moore, who
was as vocal a player as college football has seen in years. Think any of the
Hokies wanted Moore to get in their face for dogging it in practice?
The presence of such leaders is crucial in October when the aches start
to become more pronounced and the fatigue from classes, practice and film
sessions starts to become a factor.
"When things are done from within a football team, there's always a
better chance of getting it done," Beamer said. "I don't think we ever had a
letdown as far as how we played or how we practiced last year."
"Kids have to believe in what you're doing," Marshall coach Bob Pruett
said. "That comes from leadership."
Schedule
Tommy Bowden believes that Tulane could have played with either
Tennessee or Florida State in the 1998 national championship game.
The reason Bowden didn't raise much of a fuss when the one-loss Seminoles
played in the Fiesta Bowl instead of his unbeaten Green Wave was Tulane's
schedule.
"Our strength of schedule was not that difficult. That's one of the
reasons I didn't think we belonged in the BCS," said Bowden, who now coaches
Clemson. "We might not have been undefeated had we played three or four teams
in the top 25."
Indeed, the Conference USA schedule proved to be more conducive for going
undefeated than say the Big Ten.
Tech did play several ranked teams last season, but its schedule was not
terribly demanding. The Big East was down a little and the Hokies got both
Syracuse and Miami (Fla.) at home.
How much of a factor is the schedule in going undefeated? Texas Christian
would appear to have a better chance of winning all of its games instead of
Georgia, which returns an abundance of talent. Yes, the Horned Frogs have
Heisman Trophy candidate LaDainian Tomlinson to lead them. Just as important,
they play in the WAC.
Georgia, on the other hand, must negotiate the treacherous Southeastern
Conference. It has to get past Florida and Tennessee as well as the rest of
an SEC slate that won't be very forgiving of a letdown. If the Bulldogs make
it through all of that unscathed, a date in the SEC Championship game, likely
against Alabama, would await them.
Luck
Let's face it, every team that goes undefeated gets a lucky break or
fortuitous bounce along the way. Colorado needing five downs to beat Missouri
in 1999 is an extreme example of luck, but there are plenty of others.
In 1994, Michigan's Amani Toomer got behind Penn State's secondary late in
the fourth quarter of a close game. What looked like a sure touchdown turned
into incomplete pass when Toomer lost Todd Collins' perfectly thrown pass in
the lights and dropped the ball. The Lions held on for a win.
Two years ago, Arkansas appeared to be a first down or two away from
closing out Tennessee. Then Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner lost a
fumble deep in Arkansas territory and the Vols scored a late touchdown that pulled out a win.
Tommy Bowden still can't explain how Tulane won a nail-biter against
Louisville two years ago. The Cardinals had the ball at Tulane's line
and enough time for one more play. Tulane survived when Louisville
quarterback Chris Redman threw an incomplete pass in the end zone.
"And the guy was open," Bowden recalled. "He just didn't complete the
pass."
All of which proves that teams with designs on a perfect record better be
very good and a little lucky.
Scott Brown covers UCF for Florida Today | |
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