The columns are readily identifiable and convenient – wins and losses.

 

At this juncture in the fading season, the teams heavy in the win column are preparing for either conference championship games, bowl matchups, or the playoffs.  Their counterparts, however, are competing now for pride, the opportunity to play spoiler, or for the simple fact that a game remains on the schedule.

 

But wins and losses can be deceptive. Too much is involved in any single game to end up with an absolute result. In fact, in many scenarios, winners can be found among the losers.

 

Take the Clemson defensive front four, for instance. In the game column, the Tigers’ 29-7 loss is magnified. It dropped the ACC stalwart to a mediocre 6-6 record for the season and served to be the Tigers second straight loss to their in-state rival. The loss looms largely in Death Valley probably. But within the game, though, Clemson had a huge victory.

 

Essentially, none of the Gamecocks’ scoring output came behind the normally potent rushing attack led by stellar freshman Marcus Lattimore. Consequently, the Duncan native ran into an immovable wall nearly every time he or any other South Carolina back touched the ball out of the backfield.

 

The reason? Da’Quan Bowers, Jarvis Jenkins, Brandon Thompson, and Andre Branch manned the interior of the Tigers’ defense, and did it masterfully. The four combined for 20 tackles, including four tackles for losses. They did such a dynamic job of the stuffing the run, that they made it relatively easy for the linebackers, Corico Hawkins and Brandon Maye, to fly through the gaps for stops. Hawkins led the Clemson defense with 13 tackles.

 

Lattimore, who came into the contest averaging more than 100 yards per game, finished the night with just 48 yards on a grinding 23 carries. The potential freshman All-American didn’t have a carry go for more than 10 yards and averaged a woeful 2.1 yards per carry, his lowest average on the season.

 

If not for a Clemson botched punt that helped South Carolina score easily and two touchdowns through the air from Stephen Garcia to Alshon Jeffrey, Clemson would have had a chance to compete for the victory behind their stout front four.  

 

It’s no surprise then that Bowers and Jenkins were just named to the All-ACC first team. And that Bowers, who still leads the FBS in sacks with 15.5, was also named to the American Football Coaches Association All-American team over the weekend.    

 

South Carolina might have celebrated the victory, but Clemson fans and coaches should be rewarding the big guys up front for winning their battle.

 

Connecticut also finds itself representing the winning losers, but in a much more favorable way. The Huskies have won just one more game than Clemson; however, the Big East staple might find itself in an immortal BCS bowl game come January if they are able to knock off South Florida in the final regular season contest for both schools.

 

Randy Edsall’s team lost four of its first seven games but a four game winning streak has Connecticut on the verge of the Big East automatic bid. The Huskies are currently tied with West Virginia and Pittsburg with 4-2 conference records. Should they end the season tied with the Mountaineers and Panthers, the Huskies would claim the tie-breaker, as two of its victories in the four consecutive wins came at the expense of West Virginia and Pittsburg.

 

Despite a dismal first half of the college football season, Edsall’s team would qualify for a premiere bowl game based on a prospective 8-4 record if it slips past South Florida.

 

In the current system, it is apparently of no value that UConn isn’t even ranked in the top-25 in the BCS standings yet will possibly play in a BCS bowl. And that a team like Boise State, which has only one loss this season, a loss that came to a top-20 team in Nevada, will in all likelihood not. Neither perhaps will the loser of the Oklahoma and Nebraska Big 12 Championship game. Both the Sooners and Cornhuskers are ranked in the top-15 in the BCS rankings and have each won 10 games.   

 

For Edsall, the opportunity to clinch a BCS berth is his only focus. The losses at the beginning of the season are a forgone memory.

 

“I never really look back,” he said at his weekly press conference. “We’re in the position we wanted to be in at the beginning of the year, and that’s the bottom line.”

 

Edsall is right in that the Huskies are playing in a system that’s well explained and highly defined. It’s a system that dictates a conference’s make up as much as any other factor, perhaps.  

 

For example, Connecticut’s future conference mate, Texas Christian, will in all reality earn an at-large invite to a BCS bowl game and has a chance to vie for a trip to the national title game if Oregon and/or Auburn should lose this week. Thankfully the Horned Frogs’ regular season is complete. Had they accrued one loss, just as Boise State did, TCU would have gone from national title contender to afterthought.

 

Anyone who is confused about how TCU’s addition to the Big East (2012) makes sense geographically should examine the BCS system, and the result of that research would be even more dizzying. The fact is, joining the Big East makes perfect sense for the Horned Frogs. After all, they were one loss away from perhaps envying UConn this season.

 

Where wins and losses might not completely matter for Connecticut’s foreseeable success this season, they were chiefly responsible in Miami’s firing of head coach Randy Shannon. After last week’s loss to the Huskies’ next opponent, South Florida, the Hurricanes decided to part ways with Shannon.

 

With the loss, the U fell to 7-5 on the season after opening the year with ACC title aspirations. No, the Hurricanes weren’t winning games. But tagging the word loser to Shannon might fall along the lines of satire. Because despite contrary opinion, Shannon, a former Miami player himself, has quietly built a national power in south Florida.

 

Prior to his firing, the fourth-year coach ranked third in the nation among active coaches with a career Academic Progress Rate of 977, according to The Center for Research on Sport in Society. This data tracks an athletic program’s ability to move its student-athletes toward graduation.

 

“This is a credit to our student-athletes and the support staff in our academic area,” said Shannon when the results were announced in August. “Academic success is important to the players on this team and they are receiving the credit they have worked so hard for.”

 

Miami sophomore wide receiver LaRon Byrd added that “We are defining what it means to be a student-athlete at the University of Miami. Our job is to be successful in the classroom and on the field and I’m proud of our program and my teammates for achieving at such a high standard.”

 

Byrd’s idea of high standard didn’t apparently equate to the vision of the Miami administration. It begs the question: Did Shannon spend too much time emphasizing textbooks when he should have been focused on the playbook? And if he did, is he a winner or loser for doing so?

 

It likely depends on who you ask, one could guess. No need to ask Miami at this point. They’ve already weighed in.