1. I have to start with the tremendous defensive effort by the Texas defense to hold Baylor to 50 points and allow the Horns to escape with the win. I think we did tackle a few guys somewhere, I forget where, but we must have. I am however giving the game ball to Art Briles who down 2 scores late in the game with a Baylor defense that hadn't stopped Texas decided to punt rather than go for it on 4th down. Talk about trusting your defense. Texas running backs would like to play Baylor again though. Joe Beregon had a career day, hot knife through butter comes to mind. I do fear however that trips to Lubbock and Manhattan Ks will tack on a couple of more losses. Manny Diaz looks lost and worried on the sidelines. Oh and Mack reminded us he's not going anywhere and has a contract through 2020. It's Bobby Bowden part deux. Of course maybe the Texas defense was distracted by the presence of Natalie Portman at the game. 2. Notre Dame! Irish with reformed riverboat gambler, throw it all over the field coach in Brian Kelly put another bruising ground game into action and beat a good BYU team. Now here is a guy who can trust his defense! Only negative continues to be our lack of punt returns and our kick returns. Both our return guys have tons of ability but never have a chance with our return schemes. 3. Gators...Muschamp in his post season lectures will be featured in the how to win without an offense! 193 yd and 44 points. As Bill pointed out the defense sets it all up. Oh that Mack Brown would have retired after the 2009 BCS Championship game! Gators are in the drivers seat now. They should beat UGA and clinch it for the SEC Championship game. But can they beat FSU? 4. Aggies...good effort in the game vs LSU, made some mistakes that cost them, but hung in there and LSU like UF is happy to get out of Kyle with the win. Next up a road trip to Auburn who is not very good this year, they need to get a solid win there since they have to go to Bama and Miss State. 5. Michigan...since beatings by Alabama and the Irish the Wolverines have quietly been working on a good season. The 12-10 win over MSU might not have been pretty, in fact I wonder when the last time UM won without scoring a TD? But looking at their schedule they could run the table till that trip to Ohio State. They are still in it for the Rose Bowl. Not a bad transition season for Hoke, next year they'll move to their preferred offense and will have a team full of Hoke recruits. 6. Ohio State...tough gritty win for the Buckeyes, lose their QB and best player and still win. As was noted else where this game was classic for what can happen when you play not to lose. It looks to me like the Buckeyes could easily ended undefeated and staying home for bowl season. Has to be somewhat of a bittersweet pill to swallow. Doubt if many of you Buckeyes were thinking undefeated season, but now that it's a possibility you have to wonder where you would be in the Nat'l Championship picture if not for the sanctions. 7. Penn State....O'Brien has to be pretty happy with how things have played out so far for him. It looked like it would be a disaster season, player defections, recruits bailing, future bleak, but for now the PSU fans have to feel pretty good about him as a coach. However the sanctions will hurt the next few years more than this year as his team size declines due to scholarship restrictions. 8. Kansas State...you have to give Bill Synder a ton of credit, he has rebuilt KSU a second time. Colin Klein to me is the Heisman Trophy winner, barring any slip ups. While he doesn't have the flashy stats like Geno Smith, although Geno's don't look so flashy anymore. He's more like Eric Crouch, a guy who is just a winner and a great college football player. WVA...bye bye. 9. USC...I loved it when there were articles and talk about Matt Barkley's play this weekend getting him back into the Heisman race...say what? Sure he had good stats but he should have, Colorado is pathetic. They were 40 point underdogs. Now don't get me wrong, Barkley is an outstanding QB, but a big performance against Colorado's defense really doesn't mean anything. 10. Oregon..amazing Ducks maybe the most fun team to watch in college football. Seems like now they have a better defense than in past years. OK if they get into a game with Alabama though, why will it be different than the game with Auburn or LSU. Corey said Kelly didn't play his game in either of those two matchups and that was why the Ducks looked ordinary. But one thing is for sure you are going to have to bring your defense when you play these Ducks. I'm not sure though that with a finishing schedule of USC, Stanford, Oregon State and USC again is going to result in an undefeated season. 11. A couple of teams that nobody wants to talk about are Oregon State and Mississippi State. Both undefeated and barely noticed. Doubt either will remain so, but they will cause some troubles for people.
The Ducks lost to Auburn in the NC game on a FG as time ran out... fyi.. before revision just runs wild since I've seen that game referred to as a beating here before. Kelly has done that before and not just against SEC teams. There seems to be times when he doesn't truly trust his own offense for whatever reason. This year, he's pretty loaded and deep. Here's this week's proposed plot twist.. Oregon or Oregon St goes unbeaten. KState wins out. Florida loses to FSU but wins the SEC by upsetting Alabama in the SECCG... I'm almost rooting for that just to watch heads explode.
Well if Oregon goes unbeaten then they are in of that I have no doubt. If Oregon State goes unbeaten and there are more than 2 unbeaten teams I'm not so sure. If Kansas State wins out then they are in. If Notre Dame wins out they might, jump over KState, but might not. If Oregon, KSU and ND all finish unbeaten somebody's fans are going to be pissed esp if Alabama or Fla finish unbeaten. This year it's possible, but not likely, that Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Louisville all to finish unbeaten...that'll make heads explode. Even the new 4 team playoff wouldn't work.
I think there is only one 100% certainty and that is if the SEC Champion goes unbeaten....they're in. Otherwise there presently is a pool of several teams that could get in and I wouldn't be that surprised to see the BCS Title game contain two once beatens....but not over one of those unbeaten majors you listed.
The Gators, I think that Georgia is a better team than FSU so I fear this game more. However both are big rivalry games for the Gators and the FSU is in Tallahassee and FSU is very hard on the Gators there. BCS, if either Florida or Alabama finish unbeaten I think they will be in. I think Oregon has the inside track on the second team if they finish unbeaten, but to do that they may have to beat USC twice. Notre Dame, to finish unbeaten have to beat Oklahoma and USC, not an easy task. If they do they might jump the other teams. Kansas State, what a story, who would have thought prior to the season starting they would be here. No one talking about Miss State who is also unbeaten and ranked 11th. But they get Bama this weekend so we will see how good they are.
Hah!! Now we have the reason for Texas poor play this year. It's the freakin' Longhorn Network, careful what you wish for boys!
Damn....I'm starting to let stats get the better of me re: UF.... "The Gators have not allowed a touchdown against two Top-10 teams in back-to-back home games and held both opponents to under 50 yards rushing." Those teams were run oriented LSU and South Carolina. I don't recall in recent memory two better games for the Florida defense. A total of 17 points scored combined by such highly ranked teams.... 5 field goals and a 2 point blocked kick score.