What If? – College Football Edition

This is a game that we like to play when we look back and wonder how much the world of sports would have changed if certain things would have happened instead of the actual events.

What if...

Alabama hired Rich Rodriguez:  We believe that Rodriguez will do very well at Michigan, if he is given the time. He has a great mind for offense, but he constantly is involved in situations that make the school look bad. The latest distraction is Rodriguez getting sued by a bank for supposedly owing  $3.9 million for defaulting on a loan to build condos near Virginia Tech’s stadium. Rodriguez is capable of coaching in the SEC, but Alabama would not have had the same success in the second year that Nick Saban did last year with the Crimson Tide.

Tennessee wins the SEC Championship in 2007: The Vols limped into the SEC Championship game and it showed in a 21-14 loss to LSU. This was not one of Tennessee’s best teams to make an SEC Championship game, but Phillip Fulmer would still be the coach at Tennessee if the Vols would have won this game. Quarterback Erik Ainge would have been respected a lot more by Tennessee fans if he would have won this game.

DeAngelo Williams  played against Tennessee in 2005: The Carolina Panthers star running back rushed for 1,515 yards and 18 touchdowns last season and almost was named the NFL MVP. Williams was a very good college running back at Memphis and Tennessee was very lucky that Williams missed the 2005 game with an ankle injury. Tennessee beat Memphis 20-16 and Memphis rushed for 165 yards in the loss. This number would have been a lot higher if Williams would have played and Fulmer would have suffered his first 4-8 season.

Steve Spurrier stayed at Florida: This is still one of the biggest mistakes in the history of sports. Spurrier never should have left Florida and it showed with his 12-20 record in the NFL. Spurrier was attracted to a new challenge and the millions of dollars that the Washington Redskins offered him. Spurrier would have won another national championship at Florida, but would not have had the same success that Urban Meyer is currently having in Gainesville.

Maurice Clarett never bought a gun or drank vodka: The former Ohio State running back was one of the best players that I ever watched play college football and might be the best freshman of the past decade. A sober Clarett would have led the Buckeyes to another national title and would have been a dominant NFL player. It is a shame that somebody can waste this much talent.

The What If? game needs to always be followed by this scene from Mighty Ducks:

Gordon Bombay: We lost in overtime. A quarter of an inch this way

and it would have gone in.

Charlie Conway: Yeah, but a quarter inch the other way and you'd

have missed completely