FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Utah QB Brian Johnson celebrates with the Utes faithful after putting the finishing touches on a perfect regular season.
AP

No. 8 Utah finished a perfect regular season and claimed the Mountain West title with a convincing 48-24 win over No. 16 BYU. Following the momentous victory, Rice-Eccles Stadium hosted a grand celebration. Cheers reached a fever pitch when star QB Brian Johnson took the mic.

"Where do you want to go?" Johnson delightfully asked a gleeful crowd. "Miami? New Orleans? Arizona?"

That's right -- the 12-0 Utes will return to one of those magical Bowl Championship Series locations; the original BCS Buster is back. Now Utah can just sit back and wait until Dec. 7, when the BCS pairings will be announced and Johnson will receive an official answer to his question.

While the 2004 Utes were defined by Urban Meyer's prolific offense, this edition is a more balanced bunch. The Johnson-led offense is perfectly capable of putting points on the board, but Utah's defense probably deserves more credit for this BCS run. Both units made major contributions in today's win. The Utes D completely terrorized former Heisman candidate Max Hall, who threw a career-high five interceptions and lost a fumble. Offensively, Utah followed the lead of its vastly underrated signal-caller. Johnson completed 30 of 36 passes to eight different receivers for 303 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. It was a well-rounded effort against a quality BYU team.

Washington State fans stormed the field after their Cougars beat an FBS team for the first time this season.
AP

When it came to deciding the worst team in major conference football (if not all of America), 60 minutes just wasn't enough time.

Washington State (2-10) outlasted rival Washington (0-11) 16-13 in double overtime, setting off a raucous celebration at midfield of Martin Stadium among Wazzu players and fans.

Although the quality of play definitely lived down to the billing, the 101st Apple Cup did provide a thrilling finish. (Or a tragic finish, if you're a tortured Huskies fan.)

Washington State entered today ranked 118th in both scoring offense (12.64 points per game) and total offense (236.36 yards per game), and in the game's first 59 minutes, the Cougars plodded along with its usual ineffectiveness. So when the Cougs got the ball back at their own 20 facing a 10-7 deficit with 56 seconds left and no timeouts, I began writing the "Washington finally wins a game" take. Seriously -- this game was over.
 
Then Kevin Lopina turned into John Elway. 

Notre Dame's Charlie Weis is one of the highest paid
coaches in college football.
AP

I think it's now safe to say with no hint of reservation: The Notre Dame-Charlie Weis marriage is officially doomed.

College football's $40 million man got a reprieve for his 3-9 debacle last year because, according to his apologists, it was Tyrone Willingham's fault. While there were growing grumblings following recent Irish losses to Pittsburgh and Boston College, most reasonable observers believed a 7-5 season would assure Weis' return next season, and AD Jack Swarbrick quickly put out a statement echoing such.

But that was before Notre Dame lost to Syracuse. That's right, folks: Syracuse. Saturday in snowy South Bend, Weis' band of former five-star recruits blew a 23-10 lead and lost to lame-duck coach Greg Robinson's 2-8 Orange.

Notre Dame has suffered a lot of bad losses under Weis. This was one was unquestionably his worst yet -- and, most likely, his death knell in South Bend.

It's all but assured now that the Irish -- following their inevitable beatdown at USC next week – will finish their fourth regular season under Weis at 6-6. That is unacceptable. Despite a set of three straight recruiting classes nearly any school in the country would envy, Notre Dame is no better than a low-level Big East team.

Once again, Weis has been exposed as an incompetent college coach, incapable of developing young talent.

At a campus pep rally on Friday night, Joe Paterno told the assembled crowd that he will coach Penn State in 2009.
AP

A cane-wielding Joe Paterno told a campus pep rally crowd Friday night that he'll be back to "run out of the tunnel" in 2009.

Who are we to question him?

With its 49-18 victory over Michigan State on Saturday, 11-1 Penn State has earned it first trip to Pasadena since 1995 -- and the Nittany Lions' 81-year-old patriarch has successfully squashed his critics for the second time in four years.

It's hard to believe that the same program that suffered through four losing seasons in five years earlier this decade has now captured its second Big Ten championship in four years. And here's the scary part: In both 2005 and 2008, Penn State came within seconds of notching an undefeated regular season, losing on a last-second touchdown to Michigan in '05 and a last-second field goal against Iowa this year.

The other shared theme of both title seasons: Paterno, Penn State's head coach since 1966, came into both facing the most tenuous job security of his career. 

RB Brandon Minor scored Michigan's only touchdown.
AP

In spite all the evils floating over Ann Arbor this season, Michigan fans entered the day with hope.

Beat Ohio State and we can end this miserable campaign on the highest of high notes.

But instead of curing the Wolverines' ills, the 105th installment of The Game further confirmed that Rich Rodriguez's first team is the worst in Michigan's 129-year history.

Ohio State earned its fifth straight win over the Wolverines with a 42-7 throttling at Ohio Stadium, and Jim Tressel improved to 7-1 against "the school up north." But with all due respect to the Buckeyes, this game was not about Ohio State's dominance. This game was about the complete ineptitude of the winningest program in college football history.

Although Ohio State easily covered the 21 1/2-point spread, this Buckeyes bunch just didn't wow me. What wowed me was Michigan's complete failure to sustain any type of offensive flow in the 12th game of the season. What wowed me was UM safety Stevie Brown looking completely lost in pass coverage and taking absurdly bad angles on runs. What wowed me was Michigan's continued inability to just TUCK ... THE ... FRIGGIN ... FOOTBALL.

So, the season mercifully ends for UM. The Wolverines finish at 3-9 and 2-6 in Big Ten play -- one win better than last-place Indiana. The obvious question is: Where does Michigan go from here?