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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, November 23, 2018 3B
Chasing rivals can
drive coaches crazy
Associated Press
Tom Osborne began
one of the great coaching
careers in college football
history with five straight
losses in the most impor
tant game on Nebraska’s
schedule.
From 1973-77, Osborne’s
Cornhuskers went 46-13
overall but 0-5 against
Oklahoma.
“It was probably getting
to the point where it was
almost a one-game season,”
Osborne recalled this week.
“We could win a
lot of games, nine,
10 whatever, but
if you didn’t beat
Oklahoma it was not
a good year. Fortu
nately, I was able to
survive that.”
Some of the
game’s most suc
cessful coaches
have been labeled “can’t
win the big one” because
of repeated failures against
rivals. Coming up short in
the game that matters most
to your fans can tempt a
coach to question
everything — from
his Xs and Os to his
Jimmys and Joes.
Things have not
quite reached that
level of urgency at
Michigan for Jim
Harbaugh. But it’s
getting there. Har
baugh is 0-3 against
rival Ohio State as
coach of the Wolverines
heading into Saturday’s lat
est installment of the Big
Ten’s biggest rivalry. No. 4
Michigan has lost six straight
overall to No. 10 Ohio State.
As usual, The Game will
help decide the Big Ten
championship. And as has
often been the case, there
are national championship
implications for both teams.
“To us, this is as big as it
gets. Doesn’t get any big
ger,” Harbaugh said. “Most
important thing in our foot
ball lives. For the whole 365
days.”
From the early 1970s
through the 1980s, Nebraska-
Oklahoma was about as big
as it got in college football.
Sooners-Huskers was a top-
10 matchup 15 times from
1971-88. Two other times,
one of the teams was ranked
11th and the other was top
10. The game was usually
for Big Eight supremacy and
often a shot at the national
championship was on the
line. Barry Switzer’s Sooners
owned Osborne’s Huskers
for the first five seasons of
their careers, winning each
meeting, including three
blowouts.
Osborne said he realized
defending Oklahoma’s wish
bone offense required more
than just a week’s
worth of prepara
tion. Nebraska
started dedicating
a period of each
Monday practice
to OU’s offense
throughout the sea
son. Osborne said it
became impossible
to emphasize the
game any more to the play
ers. If anything, he would
have to temper their enthu
siasm and not let past fail
ures affect the confidence
of both coaches and players.
Nebraska’s issues with Okla
homa, Osborne said,
were more physical
than mental.
“I think it can get
in your head, but I
think probably the
biggest difficulty
we had was just
pure athleticism,”
Osborne said.
“Sometimes losing
can be very instructional.”
Osborne started looking
for more mobile quarter
backs like Oklahoma’s and
introduced the triple-option
into his I-formation offense.
“Oklahoma wasn’t nec
essarily our enemy. They
were our friend because
we weren’t going to be able
to pull them down to our
level. We had to get up to
their level. And eventually
we got there,” said Osborne,
who finished his career
13-13 against Oklahoma,
dominating the Sooners in
the ’90s after Switzer left for
the NFL, and winning three
national titles.
Mack Brown had his own
Oklahoma problem when he
was coach at Texas. By then
the Big Eight had morphed
into the Big 12 and the Long
horns and Sooners were
playing for pole position in
the Big 12 South every Octo
ber. Texas lost five straight
to Bob Stoops’ Sooners from
2000-04 while going 52-6
against everybody else.
Brown said pressure mounts
exponentially in rivalry
games for the team on a los
ing streak.
“The guys get tight,” said
Brown, who finished 7-9
against Oklahoma at Texas.
Like Osborne, Brown
started working on Okla
homa all year. Texas would
game plan for the Sooners
without the players know
ing, practicing plays the
staff intended to save for
Oklahoma.
“But we didn’t want them
to think that we were putting
in plays for that game and
running them a few times
because we didn’t think we
could win with our regular
stuff,” Brown said.
In 13 seasons (1988-2000)
at Ohio State, Hall of Fame
coach John Cooper went
2-10-1 against Michigan.
Four times, the Buckeyes
were ranked in the top five
when they lost to Michigan.
“Do I wish we won more?
Absolutely. Yeah, you kid
ding me? But after the
game’s over there’s nothing
you can do about it except go
out and try to recruit better
players and coach better,”
said Cooper, who went 111-
43-4 (.715) at Ohio State.
Since Cooper was
replaced by Jim Tressel in
2001, Ohio State has lost just
twice to Michigan, including
six straight wins since Urban
Meyer took over in 2012.
Meyer has been a master in
rivalry games. With Florida,
his teams went 16-2 against
Florida State, Tennessee
and Georgia. He also went
4-0 at Utah against BYU and
Utah State.
Harbaugh, the former
Michigan quarterback who
guaranteed and then deliv
ered a victory against Ohio
State in 1986, was lured
back to his alma mater four
years ago to close the gap
between the Wolverines and
Buckeyes.
Osborne
Harbaugh
Auburn devising
plan to stop Tua
and No. 1 Alabama
Deshaun Davis can’t
believe some of what he’s
seeing out of this Tua Tago-
vailoa-led Alabama offense.
The Auburn linebacker
and defensive leader’s film
sessions, which started
shortly after last Saturday
night’s game, illustrate both
the challenge of facing Tago-
vailoa and the top-ranked
Crimson Tide’s stylistic
transformation.
Auburn’s defense is fac
ing anything but the typical
‘Bama offense in Saturday’s
Iron Bowl at Bryant-Denny
Stadium.
“It’s extremely differ
ent,” Davis said. “When you
watch film and it’s third-
and-1 and they’re throwing
digs — I never thought I’d be
able to see that. That’s just
who they are.”
The Tigers (7-4,3-4 South
eastern Conference) have a
different primary defensive
mission than most recent
Iron Bowls.
There’s no stop-the-
run-and-you-stop-Bama
mentality.
It’s more about trying to
find some way to contain
Tagovailoa and his dan
gerous targets led by wide
receivers Jerry Jeudy and
Henry Ruggs III and tight
end Irv Smith Jr. And then
figure out a way to deal with
the runners, too.
Auburn beat Jalen Hurts
& Co. last season by hold
ing the Tide to 103 passing
yards. Jarrett Stidham out
played Hurts, who did run
for 82 yards.
Alabama hasn’t lost since,
with Tagovailoa coming off
the bench to lead a national
title game comeback against
Georgia.
Tagovailoa is a Heisman
Trophy contender with a
school-record 31 touchdown
passes against just two inter
ceptions. He has thrown
for 2,865 yards and is the
nation’s top-rated passer.
“You can tell they feel
like they can call anything
and Tagovailoa can make it
right and most of the time he
does it,” Auburn coach Gus
Malzahn said.
It will be the first Iron
Bowl start for Tagovailoa, a
left-hander from Hawaii.
He has gained some
notion of the game’s sig
nificance during his time in
Tuscaloosa.
“When you grow up in
Alabama, I’ve heard, you’re
either an Auburn fan or
an Alabama fan,” he said.
“It’s going to be packed this
game, I know that, but it’s
not like we haven’t had an
opportunity to go into this
game and try to perform.”
Tagovailoa has come back
to Earth some after a torrid
start to the season that had
him widely regarded as the
Heisman front-runner.
Associated Press
GEORGIA
■ Continued from 1B
Justin Fields provides new
worries for Georgia Tech’s
defense.
Georgia Tech (7-4) has
won four straight and
boasts the nation’s top rush
ing offense.
As always, the Yellow
Jackets’ biggest advan
tage is their spread-option
offense is unique among
Power Five teams.
Every week, opposing
coaches moan about the
difficulty of attempting to
prepare for Georgia Tech’s
option attack in only one
week. No opponent can find
scout team players who can
imitate the speed and effi
ciency with which the Yel
low Jackets, led by senior
quarterback TaQuon Mar
shall , run the option.
“No, you can’t practice it
every week,” said Georgia
coach Kirby Smart. “We’ve
got too much stuff to do. We
try to work on it in the off
week, we work on it in the
offseason, we work on it
during the season on some
Mondays when we feel like
we’ve got a simpler game
plan for whoever
we’re playing.
But it’s hard to do
every week.”
Smart said
the challenge of
defending Mar
shall’s runs and
lightning-quick
option pitches
seems almost
unfair.
“You’ve got to remem
ber they’re doctorate
experts in it and we’re one
week a year,” Smart said.
“So you’ve got to be smart
about what you do and
you’ve got to sell your team
on being able to play the
right way against it. ”
Unfair? Georgia has won
seven of 10 games in the
series since Johnson and
his spread-option scheme
arrived in Atlanta in 2008.
The Bulldogs took a lop
sided 38-7 win at Georgia
Tech last year.
Georgia’s 2017 defense,
led by speedy linebacker
Roquan Smith, had a
wealth of players who
had experience against
the option.
Marshall knows the Bull
dogs are leaning
on more newcom
ers on defense this
year.
“I don’t think
they’re as good as
they were last year
defensively,” Mar
shall said. “I think
they had a lot of
guys that went to
the next level that
contributed a lot last year.
I mean, I still think they
have a pretty good defense
but I don’t think they’re as
stacked on defense as they
were last year.”
Georgia still ranks
13th in the nation in total
defense.
Georgia Tech ranks only
42nd in total defense but
has made good use of its
24 takeaways, more than
twice its total of 10 last
season.
Johnson says his defense
just has to give the Geor
gia Tech offense a chance.
Last year the Yellow Jack
ets’ offense spent too much
time on the sideline.
Smart
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