The rode to the BCS National Championship is always a rocky and difficult path. Teams have to survive their opponents best shot week after week and they have to be able to win close games. Just look at Auburn's season last year. The Tigers won 6 games by a touchdown or less including 5 games by just 3 points or less. Even a team like Kentucky, who were 2-6 in the SEC, played their best game of the season against the Tigers and just came up 3 points short. In a usual year, there are only one to three undefeated teams in college football. For most teams in the country, their strength and character is tested after they lose a game and fall out of the National Championship picture. Often times, it is much harder for a team to be motivated and get up for a game after a difficult loss than a team that is fighting for a title. While teams like Clemson and Kansas St. may have fallen out of the National Championship picture, they still have a lot to play for.
History shows that teams who have National Championship aspirations and drop a game are often susceptible to further losses down the road because they lose motivation. In 2010 Virginia Tech may have had its best team since 1999 when the Hokies were led by Michael Vick and were undefeated until they lost in the BCS National Championship to Florida St 46-29. The Hokies were in the preseason top 10 at number 6 but had a crushing loss in a highly contested week 1 game against the Boise St. Broncos 33-30 after Kellen Moore threw a game winning touchdown pass with a little over a minute remaining. The Hokies were so distraught over their loss and their National Championship dreams vanishing that they became the second team to ever be ranked in the AP Poll and lose to a FCS opponent when they fell to James Madison the following week 21-16 at home. No disrespect to James Madison, but there isn't a college football fan out there that believes that the Hokies would have lost that game if they had beaten the Broncos the previous week. However, the Hokies had an emotional let down and it put them in a horrible 0-2 hole to begin the season. That same year, Oklahoma rallied off 6 straight wins to begin their season with a perfect 6-0 record and the Sooners were the number 1 ranked team when the BCS standings were initially released. After giving up more than 485 yards of total offense in a 36-27 loss to the Missouri Tigers, the Sooners dropped to number 9 in the BCS standings and out of National Championship contention. The Sooners were unable to rebound from their difficult loss to Missouri and just two weeks later, the Sooners played a horrible game in a 33-19 loss to Texas A&M
Before Clemson's loss to Georgia Tech, the Tigers perfect 8-0 start was their best start since 2000 when they also began 8-0 and their number 5 BCS ranking was the best in school history. Those impressive numbers will now only add to the challenge for the Tigers when they try to recover from their 31-17 loss to Georgia Tech. Although a National Championship is now out of the picture for the Tigers, they still have a lot to play for. Since the ACC split into two divisions in 2005, Clemson has won the Atlantic division just once. In fact, Clemson has not won an ACC Championship since 1991 when the team was coached by Ken Hatfield. If the Tigers want to get to Charlotte, so that they can have a shot at winning their first ACC title in 20 years and making their first BCS Bowl game, they will have to recover very quickly from their loss because they have a huge game in two weeks against Wake Forest. If the Tigers fail to recover and fall to Wake, the Demon Deacons will have to beat a weak 2-6 Maryland team at home to win the Atlantic Division and just like that Clemson would be on the outside looking in. The Tigers also need two wins out of their last three games to win 10 games for the first time since 1990.
Kansas St. is in a very similar position to the Clemson Tigers. The Wildcats began their season with a perfect 7-0 record for the first time since 1999 and were number 8 in the BCS rankings. The Wildcats may have an even tougher time recovering from their first loss of the season than the Tigers for two reasons. First off, unlike the Tigers, the Wildcats had a lot of doubters after their 7-0 start and many fans believe that the Wildcats showed their true stuff after they were destroyed by Oklahoma 58-17 at home. The Kansas St. players are going to hear all week about how their 41-point loss shows who they really are and it may be tough for the Wildcats to have to handle all of the pressure of trying to prove those doubters wrong. Secondly, the Wildcats may have the hardest remaining schedule in the country. They have to travel to play #3 Oklahoma St. in Stillwater, then play #16 Texas A&M the following week, and then travel to Austin to play #24 Texas to finish up a brutal three game stretch. However, Kansas St. should be looking forward to the challenge. They are already bowl eligible and will play in a bowl game for just the 3rd time since 2003. The Wildcats need just one win out of their final four games to end up with at least 8 wins for the first time since 2003 when they went 11-4 and lost in the Fiesta Bowl.
One thing that the Tigers have that the Wildcats don't have is an explosive offense to help them get through their next few games. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd ranks 7th in the country in passing yards and 3rd in touchdowns with 25 and his main target, freshman Sammy Watkins, is 7th in the country in receiving yards and 2nd in touchdowns with 10 in 9 games. Boyd and Watkins power a Clemson passing game that is averaging over 300 yards a game and that put up more than 50 points in 2 of their last 3 games. Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, Kansas St. lacks that offense firepower, which may prove to be costly when they face high powered offenses that score a lot of points like Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M. Out of 120 teams in the FBS, Kansas St. ranks 113th in passing yards per game, as Collin Klein threw for just 58 yards against Oklahoma last week.
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