Adams: Golden era for football is right now

My anticipation for the college bowl season is bittersweet.

College football's regular season produced so many compelling games and startling upsets, there's no reason to think the bowl season will be any less eventful. That's the promising side.

But no matter how promising, the bowls also take us to the finish line. And this season has been so dramatic and entertaining, you hate to see it end.

I can't remember any other football season in which the unexpected became so routine. The theme began with Appalachian State upsetting Michigan in Ann Arbor and continued with Stanford knocking off Southern Cal's supposed team of the ages.

The last weekend of the regular season was every bit as riveting. Even in such an unpredictable season, how could you be prepared for a team as pedestrian as Pitt knocking off a West Virginia team on the brink of playing for the national championship?

'A nightmare,' West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez called it. His nightmare was just another chapter in a dream season for college football fans.

As good as this season has been, the last two weren't exactly shabby. The Texas-Southern Cal national championship game two years ago wasn't just the best college game I've ever covered. It was the best game I've ever seen.

Texas vs. Southern Cal was also Vince Young vs. Reggie Bush. They're two of the five best players I've seen in 50 years of following college football. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow from the last two seasons is a third. My fab five also includes Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning and the Big Dawg himself, Herschel Walker.

You might not include the same players in your favorite five, but most of them should make your top 25. And to think, three of them played in the last three seasons.

If you're going to put the last three seasons on a pedestal, you have to make room for Boise State's upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last January. Magicians don't have as many tricks as Boise State's offense did on that evening.

You want to talk about the good ol' days of college football? I say they're right in front of us.

Sure, I would love to see a season like this capped by a playoff. But I won't let that spoil my fun. Instead, I'll take what the game gives us.

And after what I've seen so far, I expect the bowl season, which kicks off Thursday night, to give us plenty.

You know surprises are coming. You don't know when or where.

It's surprising enough that a Ron Zook-coached team is playing in the Rose Bowl. What if Illinois beats Southern Cal?

Maybe Alabama will do in December what it couldn't do in November: Win a game.

Maybe Ohio State will do as an underdog what it couldn't do last year as a favorite: Win the national championship.

Maybe Hawaii will do to Georgia what Boise State did to Oklahoma?

Maybe Chase Daniel of Missouri and Darren McFadden of Arkansas will put on a better show in the Cotton Bowl than anything the bigger bowls can match.

But based on the regular season, the best performance will be the one you never saw coming.

Bowl Picks (through Dec. 26):

Utah 41, Navy 34, Florida Atlantic 27, Memphis 24; Cincinnati 31, Southern Mississippi 14; New Mexico 30, Nevada 27; BYU 27, UCLA 23; Boise State 41, East Carolina 30; Purdue 31, Central Michigan 23.

Record:

199-64 (.756) overall, 124-115 (.519) against the spread.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com