Plenty of Competition Up in the Booth

It was hotly contested from the start, lively, combative, back and forth until the end.

Too bad ABC’s Tim Brant and Ed Cunningham couldn’t say the same about the game they were saddled with Thursday night.

While USC was knocking the fight out of Iowa with 28 unanswered second-half points in the Orange Bowl, Brant and Cunningham spent the evening playing verbal ping-pong, agreeing to disagree, first-guessing the coaches, second-guessing the officials and second-guessing their own second guesses.

Brant got off to a rocky start, touting the matchup between the Hawkeyes and the Trojans with an enthusiastic, “It’s the champions of the Big Ten [and] the champions of the Pac-10!” -- apparently forgetting that Ohio State still belongs to the Big Ten and Washington State still plays in the Pac-10.

Later, Brant amended the billing to “the co-champions of the Pac-10 and the Big Ten.”

That seemed to set the tone for a game in which USC also fouled up its opening, starting the game about 10 seconds after Iowa did before settling down and settling in.

The Trojans kicked off, took a look around Pro Player Stadium, started thinking “Wow, USC, Iowa, Miami, Jan. 2, the Orange Bowl ... this is really weird.”

And then Iowa’s C.J. Jones snapped them out of it with a 100-yard return down the left sideline and a 7-0 Hawkeye lead.

That, Brant quickly noted, was the longest kickoff return in Orange Bowl history.

By an Iowa wide receiver.

Against USC.

College football purists were still shaking their heads when USC’s Carson Palmer completed his first pass, for 65 yards to Kareem Kelly, setting up a touchdown run by Justin Fargas. The score was 7-7 before ABC could cut away for its first commercial with the annoying FedEx guys, unless you were counting the pregame “scene-setter” by the annoying FedEx guys.

ABC had hyped this game as a showdown between the Heisman Trophy winner and runner-up, big-play quarterbacks Palmer and Brad Banks. So when USC devoted much of the first half to handing the ball to its running backs, student body between the tackles, Cunningham got a little testy.

“The game plan Norm Chow is throwing out on the field right now,” Cunningham observed, “makes you think he spent 27 years at Nebraska, not BYU.”

Cunningham also said he was “a little surprised” as he watched USC line up for second-quarter field goal on fourth down and less than a yard inside the Iowa 20.

When Ryan Killeen missed the ensuing kick, Cunningham repeated, “I’m a little surprised. Pete Carroll is an aggressive coach. Fourth and a little more than a foot. I’m really surprised he didn’t go for it on fourth down.”

The game might have turned late in the half, after USC linebacker Melvin Simmons was whistled for an out-of-bounds hit on Banks. The penalty moved Iowa inside the Trojan 20, helping set up a first-and-goal situation at the one -- an opportunity the Hawkeyes frittered away with penalties and a blocked field-goal attempt.

Initially, Brant and Cunningham criticized Simmons for his hit. But Cunningham changed his mind after watching a couple replays from different angles.

Cunningham: “I don’t like that call at all. From that angle, that is not a penalty.... I think [Simmons] is just making a good, aggressive play.”

Brant: “Ed, you’ve got to make the call.”

Cunningham: “Oh, I don’t know. Let’s see how far he is out of bounds.... No way. Tim, he’s diving. How can he stop himself before [Banks] goes out of bounds?”

Brant: “You’ve got to protect the quarterback. He went down hard.... You’ve got to make that call.”

Cunningham: “I don’t agree with you.”

Brant and Cunningham went on to debate whether Iowa kicker Nate Kaeding would be needed on the drive (he was, but Kaeding’s attempt was blocked) and whether the NCAA made a good decision this season to include bowl game performances in a player’s seasonal and career statistical totals.

Cunningham said he had a problem with the concept because “they’re not doing it retroactively. So all of these guys in the history of college football whose records are being broken don’t get their bowl games counted. I think that’s awful.”

Brant: “What are you talking about? They used to play nine games, 10 games. Now they play 13, 12 games. It’s not fair anyway.”

And, with the rout on in the fourth quarter, Brant mused about Palmer’s future, possibly with the Cincinnati Bengals as the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft. Again, Cunningham disagreed, opting for Marshall’s Byron Leftwich.

On the field beneath them, USC was closing out a 38-17 victory. Palmer thoroughly outplayed Banks. USC dominated Iowa in every facet of the game. On that, no one had any dispute.