Wow, were there some exciting high school and college football games last week or what? I have to start off with Garden Grove High. They are in the finals, folks! The Argonauts 2009 saga will probably be a book and a movie someday but that’s all this team needs is more pressure for Friday’s championship game against La Mirada.
As most of you know, the team lost an outstanding player, and young man, Kevin Telles, in the beginning of the season. Telles fell on the football field at Westminster High School and died playing the game he loved. The whole school got behind his team’s decision to dedicate the season to him.
But no one could have envisioned a 13-0 run and a berth in the CIF Southern Division final. The team has one of the best offenses I’ve ever heard of at this level and the defense is no slouch either.
One thing bothers me. Head coach Joe Hay calls his players “a team of destiny.” The success of this team has been dedicated to Telles. If La Mirada wins tomorrow (Friday) night, will it be too much for this team to handle?
I’m rooting for Garden Grove with all my heart. If Grove wins, it will be because they have great football players and played better than La Mirada (12-1), who, by the way, have a great team, also. Those extra incentives are neat but it’s going to come down to preparation and execution in this game.
Telles is doing back flips, up there, over 13-0. He will at 13-1 and 14-0 too! Believe me. It is already an unbelievably successful season. Garden Grove, you have fulfilled your promise to KT. Put the icing on the cake.
La Mirada wants you to walk home with just the cake. Do everything you can to win. But if you don’t I hope I don’t see one hanging head! KT would is proud of all of you already, as are all of us in this community. But since you’re going to play the game. Score your 40 points so we can make the movie!
How long is a second? Long enough for Texas (13-0) to kick a winning field goal and go to the BCS championship game. For you who were getting ready to see Garden Grove defeat Norwalk, 35-23, you didn’t see Colt McCoy’s Texas Longhorns apparently lose the game, 12-10. But wait! The refs decide there is one second left on the clock so Texas kicks a 42-yard field goal to win the game, 13-12!
If Texas lost they would not have been in the title game and Nebraska (9-4) wouldn’t be bitter today. I don’t blame them. I watched the replay and time ran out. Where they got that extra second I’ll never know. How long is a second? Ask Nebraska.
Does Alabama deserve to be in the title game? You bet! They beat unbeatable Florida, 32-13. What happened to Tim Tebow? He looked like a freshman USC or UCLA quarterback on Saturday. I guess it happens to best of them.
My bloodshot eyes had enough in them to take in a couple more games. The Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game was one of the best I’ve seen. At least “offensive” game, anyway. And in a snowstorm! The final score was Cinci 45, Pitt 44. This one was decided by a missed extra point try. And they say those are automatic!
Georgia tech beat Clemson in the ACC title game, 39-34, and USC lost 21-17 to Arizona to close out my Saturday TV viewing in which all the games were close except for the one I thought would be, The Alabama win over Florida!
There is one thing that happens this time of year I don’t like. Coaches are fired but asked to come back and coach a bowl game, or worse, they are still playing and another school comes calling.
Cincinnati just won its biggest game of the year over Pittsburgh for the Big East championship and the right to a BCS game. What do the reporters want to know? Was Cinci head coach Brian Kelly interested in the Notre Dame job? He declined questions.
What a time to be asked about that! There should be no decisions on coaching jobs as long as a team is still playing. Remember last year when USC had two coaches coaching in the Rose Bowl after they had taken coaching jobs at Washington?
Contact Don Alexander at Journaldon@aol.com.
