Wow, what a great weekend for college football. Lots of great games 1. Texas defense took care of business and forced Neb to become a team they aren't...a passing team. Meanwhile Garrett Gilbert who hasn't really run the ball at all this season other than for his life, had designed run plays for him, not Read Option plays where he has to make decisions...but QB draws and sprint (a misnomer when GG is running it). outs. No doubt caught the Huskers by suprise early. I think really the Texas offense used the speed of the Husker defense against them and something I did not know but the announcers pointed out that the Husker LB's are not very big. 2. Ohio State vs Wisconsin. Maybe the most physical game I've seen in awhile. Early on it was Clay and White just running over around and under the Ohio State defense, the Wisky OL just owned the LOS. Then the game turned and Boom Herron looked like he was shot out of a cannon and Pryor was hitting his recievers who even if not open made incredible acrobatic catches. Wisc got it back under control and finished strong. Hard to imagine how Wisc lost to Mich State, while teams do get better, and it's been 3 games since we played them they did not look anywhere nearly as good as Wisc to me, when we played MSU. MSU now in the drivers seat, until of course they go to Iowa. 3. SEC? What a mess. The SEC East is a crap shoot and the SEC West looks to have 3 really great teams this year. I mean who would have thought in his 2nd year that Gene Chizik would have Auburn where they are right now. I chuckled when they hired him, sure failure comming right up.....um no they look excellent. And the SEC West has 3 top 10 teams right now....will be a barn burner finish in the West, will they beat each other up and knock the SEC out of the BCS champ game for the first time in 4 years? I think so. 4. PAC10. WTF CAL...look like Tarzan one week and Jane the next. But the 12Pacs best team didn't play, good thing...they are now #1 in both polls....can they hang on and beat USC at LA and go to Oregon State and beat them as well. I'm thinking it's going to be very tough. Speaking of USC they still have a ton of talent on offense, Matt Barkley is outstanding and they have a couple of WR's who are outstanding as well...funny thing is that they are a team who at one time recently had something like 7 HS AA TB's on the roster, but really I can't name any of them. 5. Irish, nice to win again, we are getting to the part of the schedule that most teams put in Sept. WMU had a nice QB and not much else. Also Brian Kelly has admitted that he worked on his game plan for Navy this week, which is up next. A couple of things of note, our defense which seems to play soft on the passing game is not soft on the run game. BC ran for almost 200yds on FSU at FSU, we held them to less than 50. Pitt barely 100yds, WMU 37 yds, even Stanford who is avg 200+ did not get that many against the Irish. So it's a positive. for sure. Now we just have to beat Navy, which isn't as good as those Navy teams that beat us. 6. Boise, TCU, Utah, all just kept rolling along. TCU and Utah both have to play Air Force and each other, plus Utah has to come to South Bend the week after the TCU game. So I'm hoping that Utah arrives undefeated and gets their BCS bubble busted in South Bend!! BTW what's going on down in San Diego? They beat Air Force, have they finally found a real coach who can take advantage of all their natural advantages...sunshine, beautiful girls, easy academics, loads of talent within a couple hundred miles. JO'Co always says they are a sleeping giant. 7. ACC...Is FSU sort of back? They are 6-1, and undefeated in conference play? I follow recruiting and they are doing extremely well, Jimbo Fisher has put together an excellent recruiting staff. At one point they dominated Fla recruiting, even with Spurrier at UF. Could they be headed back to that? Va Tech has seemingly recovered and is also undefeated in Conf play. I thought Ga.Tech would roll this year, but they haven't, and with Clemson, VaTech, Miami, and Georgia to finish out the season, I think they could finish barely above .500 Maybe Paul Johnsons offense won't work in Div1 after all. 8. B12 I would be suprised if anybody other than Neb and OU play for the championship. I think Pellini will be able to handle Missouri and the rest of the teams on their schedule. Please note that after getting emasculated by the Huskers, Kansas State got back on the horse and put almost 60 on hapless KU. OU as well should be heavy favorites in all their remaining games. Tommy Tubesteak continues his destruction what the Pirate built in Lubbutt. 9. BCS, Boise to me is the team that will make the run undefeated and play a BCS conf team for the championship. Their problem will be to stay in the top 2 with a declining SOS. They can help themselves in the Human polls by making sure that they don't let one of their WAC brethern even come with in 40 points of them. AP and Coaches will vote for them as long as they run up big scores. Speaking of running up Big Scores look for Big Game Bob (Stoops) to pile on as many points as possible against his opponents He knows that is how you make points with the voters in the polls...won't help with the computers but they are only 1/3 of the formula. While MSU is up to #8(I don't think they will) and if they finish undefeated and Boise finishes undefeated, and Oklahoma finishes undefeated I think MSU will be this years Auburn 2005. Of course if Oregon wins out ( I don't think they will), then it will be Oregon vs Boise State. IMHO!
I don't think an unbeaten OSU team would have been left out, they started ranked high and ascended to #1. MSU, like Auburn, in 2005 started out not recieving any votes in the preseason poll, can't start any lower than that. They have worked their way up to #8, but if at least 2 of the undefeated teams ahead of them stay undefeated, particularily Oregon, Oklahoma and/or Boise State, I don't see them slipping by them.
They only have a chance with Boise State, not OU or Oregon. Those teams will have a SOS equal to or greater than MSU. Plus I think in the Human polls that Boise is going to get some what of a pass, I think Human voters will, in the back of their minds, feel like Boise deserves a shot and keep them in the top 2 as long as they keep winning and get style points with wins. MSU, to me at least, doesn't seem like the type of team that will win game by big margins, another factor in keeping them behind the current teams in front of them. Of course if they are the only unbeaten left, they are in, if they are 1 of only 2 unbeatens left they are in.
8) re: Cal I told you about Cal. Try not to look at them. They only want attention. re: Auburn Their coach must be doing something right. They look average to better-than-average to me and I keep expecting them to fall flat on their face, but they never do. They're performing above their talent level and that's usually the best sign of good coaching... re: ND defense If Herbie the Wonderbuck had played against our "high school defense" when he was in high school, Carlo and Manti would have knocked him into the choir with all the other sopranos... re: San Diego State I'm not the only one who thinks that San Diego State is a sleeping giant. Today's LA Times claims that Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun has been saying that for weeks and then the Aztecs beat him... SDSU head coach Brady Hoke seems to have his team headed in the right direction in his 2nd year. Their only losses were by 3 points on the road at BYU and by 3 points on the road at undefeated Missouri. They're not bad and they're getting better... re: 12 Pac The fit will hit the shan starting next week when Oregon visits the Coliseum in LA. USC has a pair of all-world receivers and one of them, freshman Robert Woods, is all but unstoppable. This is the kid who beat out Kyle Prater and he's one of the best that I've seen. His presence should make Oregon-USC a classic 12 Pac shootout. http://www.examiner.com/usc-trojans-in-los-angeles/usc-football-robert-woods-is-the-trojans-next-great-receiver
Ron Johnson is excellent as well, and Matt Barkley is a very hot QB right now. I wouldn't be suprised if USC/Oregon is 65-43!! Wait we already had one of those games!
He did a great job here in Indiana at Ball State, which hasn't been the same since he left. Remember the almost-undefeated season? He obviously is an excellent coach.
Bowl Projections. Irish to Champ Sports Bowl vs ACC Gators to either Music City or Gator Bowl Neb to either Cotton Bowl or Alamo Bowl. Texas to either Cotton Bowl or Alamo Bowl Bowl Projections
Hey.....maybe Florida could score on Michigan. I know that with a healthy DR back there they would have to.... Sounds like a fun match....two spread option guys going at it.
I was reading through the rumours on ESPN. Thought a couple of them were pretty interesting. 1. Colorado might try to talk Bill McCartney out of retirement. He hasn't coached in quite awhile, so you have to wonder if that is really a good move. Using KState getting Bill Synder to come back is different, Synder wasn't out as long as McCartney has been. 2. Mike Leach to Minn? That would be a good move for both, IMHO. Leach is not likely to build any team into a consistent top 10 program, but at Minn I don't think expectations are for that and his offense would be good no matter where he goes. 3. Turner Gill a 1 and done coach if things don't pick up fast for him.