BCS finally gets perfect matchup

There’s no thorn on this BCS rose.

After a pair of perfect lockstep marches through the regular season, college football is poised to present a rare controversy-free, national title scrap at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4. USC (12-0) and Texas (12-0) began the season as Nos. 1 and 2, and neither blinked during unbeaten marches to what seemed a preordained meeting in Pasadena.

In its eight-year existence, the BCS never has had such a clear-cut title game.

The closest was the 2003 Fiesta Bowl that featured top-ranked Miami against unbeaten Ohio State and resulted in the Buckeyes ending Miami’s 34-game stranglehold on the college football world in a double-overtime thriller. But even that matchup had a few isolated critics. USC ended the season on a seven-game tear behind Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and likely would have been favored against Ohio State.

Nobody can question this season’s title-game selection, though the system deserves little credit for identifying a game more obvious than Uncle Lou’s toupee. The Trojans and Longhorns started at the top, finished as the nation’s only two unbeatens, divvied up statistical offensive dominance and feature the nation’s two most electric players in Reggie Bush and Vince Young.

And both devoured Saturday’s penultimate course like so much sorbet, turning Colorado and UCLA into little more than a pair of palate-cleansing, one-bite challenges. Without ever threatening their camera-swallowing grins, the Trojans and ‘Horns flicked aside Colorado and UCLA by a combined score of 136-22.

Perhaps Texas was more impressive in its emasculation of the Buffaloes in the Big 12 title game. The ‘Horns rolled out to a 70-3 lead through three quarters before sending in the ball boys and sorority girls for the final stanza.

What a disgraceful performance from the Buffaloes. The boys from Boulder rolled just their helmets out on the field in the most important game of the season, completely capitulating after a disastrous first quarter. These guys no longer deserve their ubermacho mascot. The Back Judge would like to see Fifi the poodle, not Ralphie the buffalo, lead Colorado onto the field for its bowl game.

As for USC, Bush put a nice, tidy bow on his Heisman package by rushing for 260 yards and two touchdowns in the Trojans’ 66-19 over the Bruins.

The Heisman Trophy will be awarded Saturday night in New York. And if anybody but Bush walks away with the Bronze Boy, the award never will mean anything again. As USC quarterback and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart said after yesterday’s game, “If Reggie doesn’t win, it would be a crime.”

Let’s get this straight: Texas’ Vince Young is a nice player, a difference-maker even, and if he returns next year for his senior season as promised, he certainly will be the Heisman favorite. But Young isn’t in the same area code as Bush when it comes to ability.

Bush is a once-in-a-decade talent, a player who demands the entire world’s attention each time he touches the ball. He’s Barry Sanders with hands. He’s Marshall Faulk with more muscle and mean. His cuts make neurosurgery look clumsy and crude. Bush isn’t just the best back in college; he’s the best back in football, hands-down, no-debate, stuff-your-LaDainian, period.

Any conflicted and confused members of the Heisman panel need only consult his final two weeks of work against ranked teams from Fresno State and UCLA: 47 carries, 554 yards. He rests his case.

Forget for a moment his impressive receiving and return yards. Bush finished the regular season with 1,658 rushing yards on 187 attempts. That’s 8.9 yards a carry, the highest per-attempt average of any back with more than 120 carries in NCAA history. The previous Division I-A leader in the 150-plus carry category was Nebraska’s Mike Rozier, who averaged more than a full yard less in 1983 (7.8 yards a carry).

Want a nice little yardstick for Bush’s season? In his senior season at USC in 1968, O.J. Simpson picked up the Heisman by gaining 1,709 yards on 355 carries. Bush dwarfs O.J.’s season basically by matching that output with basically half as many carries. Eat your heart out, Al Cowlings.

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