Why the fiesta bowl was good for football

Humans and science have evolved since the invention of football. Today's athletes eat better, exercise more efficiently and take more steps to prevent injuries. Agility, Strength, Speed and Endurance have all improved. Linebackers are now as fast as quarterbacks, who are now as fast as running backs, who are now as fast as safeties and wide receivers. With these improvements, we also have endless hours of footage for research, new formations, and the ability to utilize players differently. Football, like baseball, has also become so much more mathematical and statistical, that its got no more balls. No Guts. I'm not talking about the players, it's really the coaches who are so risk averse that the games are like watching a hand of blackjack. You already know what the coaches are going to do, before they do it. "If it's 4th down and 1 and we're up by 7, we punt, if we're up by 8, we go for it." There are so many well defined rules for what to do in certain situations that the game is more akin to watching your average McDonalds employee remembering to say "How May I help you?" "Do you want fries with that?" and "would you like to supersize that?" They call this Strategy. I say "What channel is bowling on?"

This was really brought to light by watching the Boise State game. Coach Peterson, coaching a perfect season in his first year as coach, had more balls and guts than I've seen in a coach in a long time. I've never seen so many trick plays by one team in a game that wasn't held on a school playground. Trick plays aren't used that often, primarily because they are "statistically" unsuccessful. For a trick play to work, the coach has to have complete confidence in his players, not only to execute to perfection, but to improvise if things don't go as planned. That's a really novel idea, confidence in one's players. Coaches at the collegiate and professional level have recruited, bought, and developed the players they wanted. If you don't think your players can truly make the big plays, why bring them on in the first place? It doesn't make sense to me that coaches so rarely go for 2 points or go for it on 4th down. Think about the subconscious psychological impact this has on players, who may be the best in the league, to see their coach opt to punt on 4th and inches. "Doesn't he think we can advance the ball a few inches?" If you think your team is good enough to get 10 yards on 3 downs, why all of a sudden back down when it is 4th down? Today's average coaches don't coach to win, they only coach not to lose. They are conservative, and more interested in keeping their jobs than in winning games. Practically, if you follow all of the rules and don't do anything risky, then you have to have a really bad season for you to lose your job. This isn't fair to all coaches, there are exceptions. But I'm a fair-weather Redskins fan. Coach Gibbs has made more conservative calls than anyone I've seen this year (my football viewing is limited). The Skins paid alot of money for this slick new offensive coordinator. I'm really sorry to point this out, but if our arsenal consists of "Sweep left" and "Sweep right" the 80 year old two rows behind me could have been used for alot less money.

Thanks to Coach Peterson, who played to win and believed in his team enough to not fall victim to the temptation of conservative, mathematical number crunching that is better suited for overpaid corporate middle managers. Coaches take note and start to coach some real football.