It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Part of the beauty of college football is that there is no force-fed parity like you get from the NFL. Sometimes you're up, and sometimes you're down.
In 2001, the Washington Huskies defeated the Drew Brees-led Purdue Boilermakers in the Rose Bowl and finished No. 3 in the country at season's end. On Saturday they'll be trying to break a streak of six straight 20-point losses. They'll be facing off against their in-state rival the Washington State Cougars. Washington State was in the Rose Bowl as recently as 2003 and beat Texas in the Holiday Bowl the following year. The Cougars will be looking for their second win of the year; unfortunately, the only other one came against the Portland State Vikings of the Football Championship Subdivision.
In Norman, Okla., a football game will be played that features two teams at the opposite sides of the college football pyramid. Texas Tech comes into the game as the No. 2 team in the nation and has two legitimate Heisman candidates in Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree. The Oklahoma Sooners have a meager one loss themselves and will be coming into the game looking to defend their home field, where they have only one loss since 2001. You read that correctly, one home loss.
Viagra might as well jump on the opportunity to sponsor this year's annual Apple Cup, the name of the rivalry game between Washington and Washington State, because this game is sure to feature a great deal of offensive impotence. The Huskies rank 117th out of 119 schools in offensive yards per game at 263.5, yet the Cougars were able to do them one better, ranking 118th with 236.4 yards per game. The Cougars have already lost two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries and were forced to hold open tryouts to find another quarterback for their roster.
On the other side of the spectrum are the offenses of both the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Their match-up on Saturday will make a fast-forward version of the Apple Cup look like slow motion. Oklahoma touts the best offense in terms of points per game at 51.4, and its super-sophomore quarterback Sam Bradford has led the team to third in passing yards per game with 355.5. The Texas Tech Red Raiders are just a modest third in scoring offense, with just 47.9 points per game, but they do carry the banner for the nation's most traveled passing offense with 433.7 yards per game.
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