Starting 11: Willie Martinez Edition

Defensive coordinator Willie Martinez has to go at Georgia.

Bulldog football fans know it, Mark Richt has to know it, anyone with a semblance of intelligence about sports knows it. My favorite part of watching Saturday's games was seeing Willie Martinez on the sideline after Georgia's defenders gave up one big play after another to Arkansas. Often, you could just see him in the background, arms raised, a puzzled, crestfallen look on his face. My favorite shot was in the third quarter after a Georgia defensive back stood flat-footed and didn't move as a wide receiver ran right by him.

The camera caught Martinez in the background with a pained look on his face. He looked like he'd just stepped in Uga's dog poo while barefoot. Or been forced to coach in red pants. Which would be awful. But what's even worse is that you know every single Georgia fan on earth looked the exact same sitting in front of their television. Without further ado, let's hit the ClayNation Starting 11.

1. The Charlie Weis era came down to Michigan State's quarterback Kirk Cousins missing a wide open receiver in the back corner of the end zone.

Doesn't it seem like 40 years ago when Weis almost upset USC with Ty Willingham's players? Anyone else see the irony of Steve Sarkisian beating USC with Willingham's players? Logic dictates that the best way to beat USC is to fire Tyrone Willingham the season before you play them.

But back to Charlie Weis -- have Notre Dame's football fortunes fallen so far that all it takes is a home victory over Michigan State -- Michigan State! -- to get Irish eyes smiling again? Right now, Notre Dame still controls their own destiny towards a BCS bowl game whipping. Which, honestly, tells us more about the BCS than anything else.

2. Landry Jones threw six touchdown passes for Oklahoma.

I've asked this question before, but in light of the fact that a guy like Landry Jones can come in and lead the offense with such precision, isn't it time Heisman voters start considering Oklahoma signal callers "system quarterbacks?" I think the "system quarterback" argument is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, because it only gets applied to schools with strong quarterbacks that aren't traditional powers.

At least if the media is going to be consistent about applying the label, they ought to make Oklahoma quarterbacks wear the badge as well. For instance, every Texas Tech quarterback, running a very similar offense to Oklahoma's, is called a "system quarterback" which, as used, is a pejorative designation that serves to disqualify Mike Leach's signal callers from winning a Heisman.

Why isn't the same true for schools like Oklahoma? It's the same system. If running it disqualifies Graham Harrell shouldn't it also disqualify Sam Bradford? Otherwise, let's just ditch the system quarterback cliche for good.

3. Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez can't even get his metaphors correct.

The sideline reporter, Erin Andrews, reported that Willie Martinez was telling his players not to worry about the Arkansas offense because they were just throwing grenades.

A perplexed Todd Blackledge then delivered the line of the night: "But grenades hurt when they explode."

4. Best new analogy I've thought of for going for it on 4th down, like moving a baby inside the house after they fall asleep in the car.

This is one of the most difficult calls I have to make. If my son is asleep in the car, do I go get a newspaper and sit in the car while he sleeps, i.e. punting on third down, or do I try to move him inside, i.e. go for it on fourth down, and transfer him to a bed knowing that if he wakes up, the nap is over and dad's back on the hook for playtime?

Honestly, this is such a difficult decision. I consider time of day, likelihood of ambient noise that could wake him up and weather conditions (Could the sunlight wake him? Is it raining?). I'm going to do a whole column on this at some point. Every parent turns into a head coach in this situation, you want the drive, i.e. the nap, to continue, but is it worth the risk?
5. Brian Kelly continues to write his own check for the next job.

Cincinnati beat Oregon State Saturday night. But you didn't even notice because the game happened so late. Look at this schedule and tell me they aren't going to be favored to win every game for the rest of the season. In fact, if you had to look at remaining schedules, Florida, Texas, and Cincinnati are probably the only three teams in America that will be favored to win all of their games.

Now that doesn't mean it will happen for the Bearcats, but it does mean that they're sitting pretty and you should be paying attention to them. If only so you can go on the message boards and argue that Brian Kelly should be hired to replace your present coach.

6. Trooper Taylor's hypnotic towel-waving at Auburn.

Last week I talked about Auburn's offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, this week I want to talk about assistant head coach Trooper Taylor. You might remember Taylor from previous stops at Baylor, Tennessee, and Oklahoma State. Taylor is incredibly popular with players yet his public persona seems to consist of three traits: A.) wears hat backward B.) jumps around a lot on the sideline and congratulates players with bear hugs and jumping backside bounces C.) waves a towel.

The towel is the most important, his go-to move: If you took away Trooper's towel, you'd strip away 75 percent of his coaching ability.

And, I'm not going to lie, the towel-waving is hypnotic. So much so that Auburn fans are now selling official Trooper Towels on the Internet. They only cost $5. That, and your masculinity. Pompoms are bad enough, but combining the two?

Who knew that all it took to get your team to perform to its highest level was waving a towel maniacally on the sideline?

7. Tyrod Taylor's touchdown pass for Virginia Tech against Nebraska was unexpected.

Raise your hand if you're a Virginia Tech fan and you had any confidence at all that one of his final passes was going to be caught for a touchdown? Even when he threw that pass while scrambling right, you were screaming, throw it away, throw it away!

And be even more honest, you expected Taylor to get sacked on a scramble and for time to run out.

It's okay, you can be honest with me, I won't tell anyone.

8. The hit that Texas Tech's quarterback Taylor Potts took from Texas's Sergio Kindle would have killed you or me.



Couple of things:

A.) The hit was illegal.

B.) Is this the least likely quarterback name and defensive end name to end in a sack-fumble combo on the year? First, even though he threw for 420 yards, Taylor Potts sounds like the androgynous kid who was born after his parents turned 40. Second, Sergio Kindle? Seriously, Sergio Kindle.

Right after the sack, Kirk Herbstreit says, "Well, for all the people who have been wondering where Sergio Kindle has been..." And I was like, he's been on a beach in Ibiza. Clearly. That's the only place where you can ever find people named Sergio Kindle.

Having said all that, he wasn't flagged for the hit, and if I was a Texas fan this video would play in endless loops on my computer. I don't think I would work for a week. It takes that to get over the Crabtree reception last year.



9. Florida State putting up 54 on BYU has to be one of the most shocking results of the year.

I still don't have any idea what happened in this game. Imagine all that BYU lost on Saturday. With the USC loss, BYU would have surged into the top five in the country. The BCS bid would be a foregone conclusion. All they would have needed to do is hang around and it's very likely they would have been playing in the BCS title game.

Now?

Their season is effectively over. A loss would have been one thing, but an utter embarrassment at home?

Wow.

10. My boys at Roundtable Radio in Birmingham, Ala., ran an online poll. If you could only take two people on a modern day ark, who would you take first? The winner? Nick Saban.

He beat out several hot women, including Megan Fox. Which two people would I take? Sienna Miller, her turn as the Baroness still keeps me up nights, and Megan Fox. Unless my wife is reading this. Then I would take my wife and son.

But Nick Saban?

You know the Crimson Tide love affair is intense, but what is he going to do on the ark? Get the giraffes excited to play a game?

11. Jake Locker and Washington beat USC.

If there was ever any doubt about how much college football has become like the NFL, Jake Locker should stand as exhibit A in any argument. And I don't know that there even needs to be an exhibit B. Last year Washington went winless without Locker. This year they've already played a competitive game against LSU and knocked off USC.

All because of Locker.

In major college football the days of a place-holder quarterback are over. Look across the scope of the country, if a team is going to be successful, they're only as good as their quarterback is. Think about what this means for year-to-year variety in college football.

In the NFL if you find a guy who is a stud and plug him in at quarterback, you've basically got a decade's worth of playoff appearances scheduled. College football? You've got to scramble every couple of years to find the right guy or your team and season can go off the tracks in a heartbeat. This is really the story of college football in the modern era, the quest for competent quarterbacks is becoming every bit as important in college as the pros. Only you can't rest on your laurels in college once you find your man, it's already time to replace him.