Domestic car-makers score with concepts in Detroit
DETROIT, MICH. — Just because the automotive age seems to be moving rapidly into the future doesnÂ’t mean there wonÂ’t continue to be significant backward glances. The Detroit International Auto Show, always a good barometer of whatÂ’s coming, displayed futuristic concept vehicles and new-wave crossover SUVs, but seemed to counter with such bows to traditions as high-powered sports cars, big trucks, and even some new spins on an old, familiar minivan.
It was the same as media preview days began with the unveiling of the North American International Car and Truck of the Year awards. The 49 North American journalists named the Mazda CX-7 and Ford Edge – two new-wave crossovers – among its three truck of the year finalists, but the winner was the Chevrolet Silverado, an entirely redesigned and reengineered version of the traditional, full-sized stalwart pickup truck as its winner.
The same jury paid tribute to the gas-price concerns of the publilc by naming the Honda Fit – a standard-setter for a new wave of small, economy cars – as one of its three finalists, but named the Saturn Aura as the car of the year winner over the Fit and the traditional best-selling Toyota Camry. The Aura is all-new, based on the German Opel sedan with Cadillac’s 3.6-liter V6 engine, and shares the competitive midsize segment with the Camry.
While those awards were a public relations coup for General Motors, GM also commanded the spotlight with the display of a convertible version of its retro Camaro concept car, plus a stunning new plug-in electric powred sports car concept car called the Volt. The car has a 40-mile limit, but also has an on-board generator that can kick in to add power. GM vice president Bob Lutz said 70 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of work, so they could make the round trip before getting home to plug in the Volt.
Lutz said he was as excited about the Volt as he ever has been about any new vehicle. However, as is usual with electric vehicles, the idea has great merit, but any projection of great numbers of such vehicles faces one as-yet insurmountable challenge: the required increase in power from coal-burning power plants can cause an increase of pollution of such magnitude that it could offset the clean-burning benefits of electric car power.
A bigger sure-thing for GM appeared to be the resurrection of the Malibu name on an interesting new midsize sedan, which looks like a Chevrolet version of the car-of-the-year Aura.
Chrysler, always known for clever auto show introductions, groped a bit for ideas at Detroit. A lengthy video and music theme about bread and butter led up to the introduction of renovated 2008 Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country minivans, which have been the company’s “bread and butter†(get it?) vehicles for 23 years – selling 11 million units in that time. Of the 35 new features claimed for the new vans, by far the most impressive is a swivel-seat idea. Second-row bucket seats spin to face the third-row seats, and a table on a floor post turns them into a picnic or card table. Following the easily stored stow-and-go seat idea, Swivel-and-Go could add another 23 years to the segment it created itself, and from which Ford and Chevrolet have faded from in recent years.
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On the second of three media days, Chrysler put an impressive African drum group to work in a very entertaining session that turned out to be a belabored lead-up to a quite lame comment that the company “marches to the beat of a different drummer†as it displayed the Jeep Trailhawk concept, plus a very impressive — and different – four-seat luxury concept called the Nassau.
On the third of three media days, Chrysler marched out its NASCAR race drivers, including Juan Pablo Montoya, former Formula 1 star who will race a new Avenger this coming season. An Avenger? Yes, it is a compact version on the just-introduced Chrysler Sebring platform, but looking like a compacted Charger sedan. A redone Dodge Viper with an 8.4-liter V10 that boasts 600 horsepower, 560 foot-pounds of torque and sub-4-second 0-60 times.
The domestic Big Three enjoys primary focus in Detroit – the hub of the U.S. car industry – even if all three are slipping against imports outside of the city. Along with GM and Chrysler Group, Ford had the most valid connection with the 100th anniversary of the Detroit show, because chairman William Ford’s great grandfather Henry Ford unveiled the Model T at the initial show in 1907.
Ford seemed most focused on futuristic but real-world presence with the announcement of a merger with Microsoft for a synchronized plan that will coordinate hands-free control of vehicle functions, Bluetooth communications and MP3 and iPod musical devices. Ford also showed off a flurry of new products, ranging from the new Lincoln MKR, to concepts such as a slick design model of the Mustang, an Airstream-inspired crossover SUV, and an Interceptor muscle-car, and a completely redone Focus compact that includes a coupe version.
Prideful as they are of their new designs and soon-to-arrive move into the future, all three Big Three manufacturers are fully aware of how they depend on worldwide partnerships to not only succeed in contemporary times, but to survive in a new and global automotive world.
Minnesota football teams could learn from Boise State
The Christmas-New Year’s holiday season always belongs to football. Even if you hated football, you wouldn’t be able to avoid the almost-daily dosage of college bowl games and NFL season-ending games. This year, however, three different games told a unique story about all the best that can happen in football, as well as the worst – particularly in Minnesota.
First, the University of Minnesota played Texas Tech in Phoenix in something called the Insight Bowl. Nobody knew how prophetic that name was, but it provided amazing insight into the once-Golden Gophers, who have stumbled through a decade of mediocrity under coach Glen Mason.
By parlaying a cluster of patsy nonconference foes, an average Big Ten record of 3-5, and an embarrassing run of nondescript bowl appearances kept alive, for some reason, for teams that reach the .500 level of mediocrity. In 10 years, a record of about .500 overall might sound decent to those for whom mediocrity is a lofty standard, but it includes the 32-48 mark in a Big Ten Conference that more often than not was a “Big Two or Three†in national stature.
I was at a Dodge Classic hockey tournament game in which No. 1 ranked Minnesota was beating Alabama-Huntsville 3-1 despite not having five regulars, who were playing for the U.S. World Junior tournament team. They flashed the Insight Bowl score when it was 7-0, and got a cheer. Then 14-0, 21-0, and 28-0, and the cheers actually lessened, as the fans realized Texas Tech must be a cupcake. When I left Mariucci Arena, it was 38-7 in the second half.
As I walked to my car, I noticed some activity next door, in Ridder Arena. The championship game of the girls high school hockey Schwan Cup tournament was still going on, so I went in and watched the whole third period as Benilde-St. MargaretÂ’s finished a 6-2 victory over Blake for the title.
Then I went to my car, and when I clicked on the radio, the first thing I heard was David Mona, a former classmate of mine who went from journalist to the dark side — a money-making PR career — and became an enthusiastic booster-commentator on WCCO radio Gopher football broadcasts. Wondering by how much the Gophers had won, the first thing I heard Mona say was: “With such an explosive offense, Texas Tech is not the kind of team you want to face in overtime.Ââ€
What? Overtime? Sure enough, the Gophers had blown a 38-7 lead and was tied 38-38 on a 52-yard field goal with two seconds to go. As I listened in amazement, Minnesota came up with only a field goal in overtime, then Texas Tech got its turn and sliced through the Gopher defense for a touchdown and a 44-41 victory. All I could think of was my sarcastic assessment that if the Gophers had any class, they would have turned down the chance to go to the Insight Bowl. If they had, Glen Mason would still have his job.
Instead, Joel Maturi, the personable athletic director who has drawn wrath from Twin Cities columnists for being a nice guy, fired Mason after being pressured into giving him a big extension a year ago. The total team collapse against Texas Tech wasn’t the reason, so much as it was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The camel itself was Mason’s creation. And so were all those straws on its back, built from a decade of similar collapses, leading up to this record Division I nationally televised embarrassment.
Game 2 was the Minnesota Vikings season finale against the St. Louis Rams, although you could go back to the next-to-last game against the Green Bay Packers just as well. The Vikings had a horrible second half of the season, and the fans booed quarterback Brad Johnson for faltering and clamored for quick-footed rookie Tarvaris Jackson to take over. First-year coach Brad Childress, who chose to be a micro-managing play-caller with an extremely conservative and rigid game plan.
When Johnson, always a loyal soldier, kept quiet and tried to make the best of executing game schemes that gave him little latitude for creativity. He would look sharp, and the offense looked efficient, for the first drive, and maybe the second and third possessions, and then opposing defenses made simple adjustments that led to frequent creaming of the quarterback, and clogging the elementary passing routes for cinch interceptions.
At the end, Childress benched Johnson for being the loyal soldier, and put in Jackson, a rookie who seems to have a rocket arm, and Michael Vick-like feet to make a formidable scrambling threat. But alas, given only the same tightly structured game plan, Jackson could only drop back two or three, or five, steps, and pass. He didnÂ’t scramble, and in the end, he couldnÂ’t come up with any plays that were even up to Brad JohnsonÂ’s standards with that offensive structure. In his first start, Jackson led the Vikings to three first downs, a franchise record low, and the only points Minnesota got came on an interception return.
In the dismal finish, against the Rams, the Vikings were a study in ineptitude. After it was over, Childress, to his credit, announced that next year he would have to do a better job of calling plays, in hopes of scoring more. In my mind, I thought back to when my two sons were youngsters, and my wife and I would round up a couple of their friends in the neighborhood, plus the few parents who were willing, and we would arrange touch football games. I remember mapping out plays that created voids by misdirection, then working pass plays that almost always worked.
I also recalled the first Vikings teams, where quarterback Fran Tarkenton would literally crouch down on the dirt-infield portion of the Met Stadium field and diagram an improvisational play in the dirt. They almost always worked. I got so I would rather watch Tarkenton – given the freedom of Bud Grant’s coaching – quarterback a team that might lose rather than somebody else in a carefully patterned victory.
Game 3 snapped me out of those memories. Game 3 was the Fiesta Bowl, in which a Boise State team that was as unheralded as it was undefeated faced ominous power Oklahoma. It seemed almost a condescending token to allow Boise State in to play with the big boys, but that soon became a needless condescension, as the Broncos pounded Oklahoma to build a startling lead. Oklahoma, of course, is far from a pretender, and came stalking back, making up the deficit with cold precision. In the closing minutes, the Sooners caught up, scored the equalizing touchdown, and got the tying two-point conversion on their third try, with penalties saving each team once. Then they kicked off.
On Boise State’s first down, a Sooner safety intercepted Jared Zabransky’s sideline pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. The kick put Oklahoma ahead 35-28 with barely a minute to play. Zabransky brought the Broncos to midfield, but with fourth and 17, and 14 seconds to play, it looked like Cinderella’s coach was already morphing into a pumpkin. But a brilliantly creative version of the “hook and ladder†play, with a 15-yard pass to a receiver who was immediately converged upon by defenders, who were caught completely off-guard by a little lateral to a speeding Jerard Rabb, who went the rest of the way and dived into the end zone for a touchdown with 0:07 left. The kick made it 35-all, and overtime ensued.
Oklahoma got the ball first, and on first down at the 25, Adrian Peterson sprinted around left end and went all the way for a sudden touchdown. The placekick made it 42-35 for Oklahoma. Again, pumpkin time, but maybe thatÂ’s why Boise State wears so much orange.
On their turn with the ball, the Broncos advanced, but in smaller bits. Since they had spent their trick play, it seemed that only a big but programmable play could remain when it was fourth and two, but when they lined up, suddenly Zabransky took off, in motion to the left. Have you ever seen a quarterback go in motion? Neither have I. Receiver Vinny Perretta took the snap, and while a pass to the roaming quarterback seemed likely, Instead, Perretta passed to his right, to tight end Derek Schouman, for a touchdown that cut it to 42-41.
Enough with trying for the equalizer. First year Boise State coach Chris Petersen – isn’t that a great, Minnesota-sounding name? – went for two. In a sensational bit of gamesmanship, the Broncos lined up with three receivers right. Oklahoma called time out. Petersen knew Oklahoma does some of its best scholastic studying when it comes to opposing videotapes, and he knew that the Sooners braintrust had scouted the tapes so well they recognized the formation as one from which Boise State had won a game on a screen pass to the three-receiver set.
Zabransky took the snap and dropped back a step. He brought the ball up with both hands to pass, then as he came up with his right hand and made his best throwing motion, complete with a full snap of his right wrist, everybody looked to the right end zone. Everybody but star running back Ian Johnson, who was running hard from right to left behind Zabransky. ZabranskyÂ’s fake pass was so convincing nobody realized he was holding the ball behind his back with his left hand while he flipped his right wrist, and by the time the fake was executed, Johnson had already taken the ball out of ZabranskyÂ’s hand and was dashing untouched into the left corner of the end zone. Not to be overlooked was that the left side of the Boise State line all had moved left, and sealed off any unfooled Sooner defenders who considered reacting to the sleight-of-hand.
To have such trick plays, and to have them so well-rehearsed that everybody on the field acted out their parts, is truly impressive. Imagine how much fun it must be even to practice in such a setting.
The two-point conversion gave Boise State a 43-42 victory, and a perfect 13-0 record. Afterward, Johnson successfully proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on live national television. She said yes. If she hadnÂ’t, she probably would have been swarmed by the entire Boise State cheering section.
Less noticed was the post-game interview with coach Petersen. (Did I mention he had a Minnesota-sounding name, and that he was in his first year as head coach? Do coaches lose their enthusiasm and creativeness after a few years?) In the interview, Petersen give credit to his star players, but when asked about the trick plays that won the game, he promptly said that his two backup quarterbacks had worked on those plays and convinced him to go for them at the critical turning points.
In a sport where coaches blame their players for mistakes, even when they might be due to coaching shortcomings, here was a coach willing to duck the easy credit for two or three of the greatest play calls of this or any season, and instead give the credit to his two backup quarterbacks.
Maybe Ohio State will win the championship game and stay No. 1. If Florida beats the Buckeyes, Southern Cal, which throttled Michigan, would be the likely No. 1 if Florida isnÂ’t. But it doesnÂ’t matter. Boise State is my No. 1 team.
The imaginative, creative offense obviously kept the Broncos stimulated and fired up enough to win the game, and kept players like Zabransky determined to finish off the colossal upset by being unafraid to make a mistake, and knowing he wouldnÂ’t hear any blame for the huge mistake he did make.
It made you wonder if now-ex-Gopher coach Glen Mason had watched that game. And it made you hope that current Vikings coach Brad Childress had not only watched it, but taken copious notes.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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