Daily briefing: On the Big 12, MTSU’s standout performance and Darrell Mudra
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Conference play in Big 12 promises to be exciting ride
If the next two months of Big 12 football are as good as the first month, prepare for a hell of a ride. None of the 10 schools finish September with a losing record, an achievement that will end Saturday because the two .500 teams, West Virginia and Texas, play in Austin on Saturday night. The Big 12 has gone 7-2 against the other Power 5 conferences, including a loss to then-No. 1 Alabama by one point (Texas). The league is 24-1 against unranked opponents. No. 9 Oklahoma State appears to be the best, but three other schools are ranked; TCU and Kansas remain undefeated and unranked. Given that every team in the conference is capable of beating the other nine, the chance of a Big 12 team making the College Football Playoff is slim. But I’m making my popcorn now. It will be great fun to watch.
Undersized defensive end, Middle Tennessee deserve spotlight
Middle Tennessee State defensive end Zaylin Wood is the national Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week, thanks to the pick-six, fumble recovery and two sacks he had in the Blue Raiders’ stunning 45-31 win at Miami. The beautiful part of the story is that Wood is a 6-foot-1, 280-pound defensive end. Guys with those measurables rarely play defensive end at Power 5 schools, no matter how many sacks and pick-sixes they collect. Doesn’t mean they can’t play. Alabama coach Nick Saban is famous for having minimum heights and weights for each position. He made an exception for a skinny receiver from Louisiana named DeVonta Smith a few years ago because no one could lay a hand on him at Saban’s summer camp. The best part of watching Power 5 teams buy home games is seeing the rent-a-victim teams come in with something to prove – and proving it.
The head coach who worked from the press box
Darrell Mudra held the honor of being the oldest living College Football Hall of Fame coach when he died last week at 93. Mudra won a Division II national championship at Eastern Illinois in 1978 and later took Northern Iowa to the I-AA semifinals. He was better known for being the head coach who worked from the press box. In 1974, the first of Mudra’s two miserable (4-18) seasons at Florida State, the Seminoles took a 16-game losing streak to Tuscaloosa to play No. 3 Alabama. The ’Noles, a 34-point underdog, led 7-3 in the final two minutes when Mudra chose to take a safety rather than punt out of the end zone. Alabama took the free kick, drove down and kicked a field goal as time expired to win 8-7. Mudra and his staff got so angry they punched holes in the wall of their press-box booth. The next week, Alabama sent Florida State a $600 bill for the repairs.