BC-VT’s Thursday 2 minutes of General Awesomeness…

I enjoy watching the odd non-Saturday games in college football, and this season’s Thursday line-up has not disappointed in the least.  Last week saw then-#2 USF fall to Rutgers in a close match –but it was topped by this week’s incredible #2 BC comeback in Lane Stadium.  I’m not a big baseball guy so I tuned in. I really thought VT was about to close the door on BC’s title hopes and Matt Ryan’s Heisman campaign until those awesome final two minutes.

To recap for those who might have not seen it (or turned the TV off early like my friend in LA): Late in the 4th quarter, BC got the ball deep on their side of the field, was able to go 90-yards and score a TD with just over 2-minutes to go. The then had a very fortuitous on-side kick –the ball was kicked less than 10 yards, but hit a player on the receiving team (thus becoming “live”) and in the charge to get it another VT player accidentally pushed the ball towards the oncoming Eagles players who got possession. Ryan, who had been pretty bad all night until the previous drive, then pushed his team against the tired VT defense and –in an amazing play– was flushed out of the pocket to his left, and after the VT defense crept towards him, threw across the field to the opposite corner of the endzone to an open Andre Callender… Touchdown BC with 11 seconds left. Wow. I don’t know if BC will win out (there’s a strong chance they could face VT again in the ACC Championship Game), but I think the Heisman is now Ryan’s to lose.

Week 9 Preview

I wrote this up and was so happy with getting done before the BC-VT game I forgot to post it… (I write these up in another forum, then tweak them for the blog)

Yesterday, 05:34 PM

Looking ahead at Week 9
(minus the completely uninspiring)

[These use BCS rankings]

THURSDAY
#2 Boston College at #8 Virginia Tech: Huge ACC game; for the second week in a row the BCS Championship picture hinges on a Thursday game involving the #2 team. #1 and #2 are suspect (“last team standing” rather than strong teams), so this should be a good game to watch.

Air Force at New Mexico: I’m sure these teams had a good reason to schedule this game at 9pm ET on a Thursday, but it isn’t very obvious.

FRIDAY

Boise State at Fresno State: A huge WAC match-up between a strong Boise State and a surging Fresno State. Both are undefeated in WAC play, the winner will be the main challenger for Hawaii.

SATURDAY

#7 West Virginia at Rutgers: Rutgers is, somehow, still not ranked in most polls… ( it’s #25 in the AP) If you happened to catch last year’s match-up, know that this is ought to be a revenge game for the Scarlet Knights.

Pittsburgh at Louisville: Pitt has been doing all right, Louisville has been a defensive mess. I’d expect the Cards to edge the Panthers here.

North Carolina at Wake Forest: Butch Davis is a pretty smart coach, but Grobe is smarter (and has players who know his system). I’d look for a Demon Deacon win.

Indiana at Wisconsin: Another battle for the middle-pecking order of the Big 10. Who gets the better bowl?

Ball State at Illinois: After an embarrassing loss to Iowa and a hard-fought loss to Michigan, the Illini look to take it out on a MAC team. Careful… these Cardinals scored a lot of points on Nebraska…

Michigan State at Iowa: Sparty better keep an eye on the Hawkeyes… turn away and you might end up like Illinois.

Northwestern at Purdue:Capping off our morning slate of Big 10 football (do these people not have stadium lights?), the exciting offense of Northwestern challenges the exciting offense of Purdue. This could very well be a “last person with possession wins” sort of contest.

Colorado at Texas Tech: Colorado knows Texas Tech feasts on the weak, can they put up a fight away from Boulder?

Mississippi State at #14 Kentucky: Now that the Wildcats have become a top-half SEC team, they need to prove themselves by destroying weak teams like the Bulldogs.

Delaware at Navy: Yes, Navy has ND next week, but is Delaware really the right way to prepare (jokes aside)? The Blue Hens share a tailor with Michigan.

Iowa State at #13 Missouri: The Cyclones have kept some games closer than they should’ve been, but I think the Tigers will keep them in check.

Florida International at Arkansas: Have a severely under-performing team in need of a boost? FIU is always ready to help you out.

Miami (OH) at Vanderbilt: With the upset of SoCar in its pocket, Vandy is looking to this game as a must win for its bowl hopes… afterwards it would need just one more upset.

UNLV at Wyoming: If the Cowboys don’t win here, they’re falling off my interest radar.

#12 USC at #5 Oregon: Again, those are BCS numbers (while Oregon is #5 in everything, USC is higher in the other polls). USC is getting killed in the BCS by computers for its strength of schedule; but that’s because it faces all the tough opponents in the next month. The gauntlet begins in Autzen, one of the scariest places to play in the Pac 10 (and the country).  Fun facts: This is the first time two top-10 teams have played in Autzen Stadium’s 41-year history (if you take the AP/Coaches polls); and this is the first time the Trojans have been the underdog in a Pac 10 game since November 17, 2001.  I’ll be there!

Southern Methodist at Tulsa: It doesn’t feel right to have a week this season where two CUSA teams don’t combine for over 80 points and an OT or two. Are these our candidates?

Arizona at Washington: Okay, U-Dub, time to put up or shut up: are you at least a mediocre team?

#10 South Florida at #23 Connecticut: How does USF respond to a loss? Is UConn ready for its first major Big East game? This should answer some key questions in the conference.

#11 Florida at #18 Georgia: I’m all for tradition: the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party kicks off in Jacksonville. Can UGA upset the Gators?

Nebraska at #19 Texas: Callahan, it would take a miracle to keep your job. Winning here would be a good start.

Minnesota at #20 Michigan: Oh, this is going to get ugly. The Gophers are awful, and the last time they played in the Big House the Gophers won the Little Brown Jug (the oldest trophy in college football) for the first time in over 15 years. Michigan should be ready for action, even if its without Henne and Hart.

Clemson at Maryland: If you’re into mid-range ACC teams, this is your game.

Baylor at Kansas State: Both of these Big 12 teams lost last week, Kansas State has been ranked twice over the season. Look out Bears.

Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan: There should really be a Directional Michigan Cup. I would make it so it would have an arrow that can be turned towards the team that wins it (left for Western, right for Eastern, up for Central).

#15 Virginia at North Carolina State: NC State got win, now lets see if they can beat the squeaking Wahoos.

Mississippi at #22 Auburn: Coach O might make this game close, but it seems the wheels are coming off the wagon again.

UCLA at Washington State: After upseting Cal, this is the kind of game UCLA prides itself on losing. Wazzu is terrible.

Stanford at Oregon State: Can Stanford play to the Beavers level? Can they win? It certainly wouldn’t hurt USC’s SOS.

#9 Kansas at Texas A&M: A&M is a messy team right now, but playing them at home should be a decent challenge for the Jayhawks.

#16 South Carolina at Tennessee: So which Tennessee shows up this time?

#1 Ohio State at #25 Penn State: This game is definitely feels closer than the rankings would indicate. We’ll get to see Ohio State face a solid test in Penn State at home (look for the amazing White Out crowd). I don’t know if this was really worthy of College GameDay (UO-USC was a higher rank), but it should clarify how much #1 is in the Buckeyes.

Duke at Florida State: After losing to Miami, this is just what the doctor ordered. Unless… nah.

#21 California at #4 Arizona State: If Cal hadn’t collapsed the past two weeks, this would’ve been the best candidate for College GameDay and the game of the week bar non. Instead were looking to see if the Sun Devils are for real.

SUNDAY

New Mexico State at #17 Hawaii: 12:05am EST, early evening in Honolulu. Every fanbase wishes their team would schedule the Warriors. How many TDs will Colt Brennan throw? How many picks? Yee-haw!

UCF at Southern Miss: Away from their home, the Knights have been suspect. The Golden Eagles have been iffy this year, but they should have an edge –especially if they can coral Kevin Smith.

Week 8 Recap

WEEK 8 RECAP
(except for the utterly boring…)

Rutgers 30, (2) South Florida 27: Great game, always fun to see fans rush a field. However, it wasn’t all that shocking for a few reasons: (1) This has been a season of upsets; (2) neither program is established enough to have an aura of invincibility; (3) Rutgers has been very good at defeating ranked teams at home. But besides those broad concepts, Rutgers has become a solid contender under Schiano and it was safe to say going into the game that they were underrated after dropping two games at home and falling from the top-25. With this win Rutgers brought itself back into being a Big East contender. USF needs to respond to its loss like Rutgers did against them. Still, the fact that this game ended up being pivotal to the national picture continues to amaze me in light of college football history. As the excellent SI/NPR (yes, NPR) writer/commentator Frank Deford stated: “And the big game this past week was between South Florida and Rutgers. What? This is like you woke up some morning and found out that Dennis Kucinich and Duncan Hunter have gone ahead in the polls.“

Utah 27, TCU 20: About the score you would’ve expected between two teams that have been equally disappointing.

Connecticut 21, Louisville 17: Completely botched punt return call or not, UConn’s sitting at 6-1, 1st in the Big East, and only one UVA point from being the most unlikely undefeated out there.

Purdue 31, Iowa 6: After shocking Illinois, Iowa is back to being bad.

Wisconsin 44, Northern Illinois 3: Sorry Badgers, no one’s paying attention anymore and NIU is really bad.

Temple 24, Miami (OH) 17: Okay… yeah the Owls are 3-5 overall, but they’re 2-2 in the MAC. That means they’re technically a contender. Sure they were kicked out of the Big East for being terrible, sure they’re relegated to a lesser conference… but even at this low, this could be a sign of a revolution in Owl-country.

Penn St. 36, Indiana 31: Penn State’s getting ready for tOSU. Indiana isn’t great, but should’ve been a good test.

Clemson 70, Cent. Michigan 14: The unpredictable Tigers made a clear message that they’re at least better than a MAC team.

Pittsburgh 24, (23) Cincinnati 17: Within two short games, Cincy has fallen off the college football map. We’ll always have the memories.

Georgia Tech 34, Army 10: No real news, but I’m paying attention to the score… GT beat Notre Dame 33-3, so maybe Army can get itself together for a tight match against the Irish later this season.

(3) North Dakota St. 27, Minnesota 21: This surprised no-one. The Bison were #1 in one of the D-IAA polls (3 in the one used by the AP), the Gophers only barely beat them by a point the last season. This game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate: NDSU was in Minnesota’s grill the whole game, they had a converted fullback-to-RB run for a school record number of yards. Tim Brewster, the Gopher HC, made the bonehead move of saying, the week before the game, that there was nothing in it for his team (recruiting) in playing these “little green men” (someone forgot to remind him that his team was 1-6 at that point). This was the biggest crowd for a Gopher game this year (63k) and over 30,000 were for the Bison (a lot of NDSU grads find themselves in the Twin Cities area). Sure, the Bison may not be finished transitioning to D-IAA (they don’t even qualify for the playoffs this year), but I think these boys have a good reason to start looking even further ahead to an eventual transition to D-IA. After all, USF took just over 10 years to go from program-start to #2 in D-IA, and the Fargodome already seats the D-IA minimum. For fun, check out this absurd victory chain: North Dakota State > Minnesota > Miami (Oh) > Syracuse > Louisville > Cincinnati > Rutgers > South Florida > Auburn > Florida > Kentucky > LSU.

(19) Texas 31, Baylor 10: No surprises in this “rivalry”.

(4) Oklahoma 17, Iowa St. 7: It was 7-7 going into the 4th quarter with a lot of people wondering if the Sooners had forgotten they had a game that day. This didn’t help the Sooners in the national picture. By the way, Texas beat the Cyclones 56-3.

Vanderbilt 17, (6) South Carolina 6: After beating the Commodore 14 times as a player and coach, this Ole Ball Coach got beat… bad. Now the ‘Dores are looking for a couple more wins and that elusive any-bowl bid.

Alabama 41, (20) Tennessee 17: Rivalry games are unpredictable –almost as unpredictable as the Vols this year. Did the Crimson Tide have DeSean Jackson?

Wake Forest 44, Navy 24: WF is still in the hunt for the ACC. Navy will take just about any loss in exchange for the chance to finally beat Notre Dame in a few weeks.

Air Force 20, Wyoming 12: The Cowboys and Falcons have gone in their separate ways. Lets see if the AFA can take the MTW.

West. Kentucky 56, Indiana St. 7: I’d love to see the Hilltoppers taken on the NDSU Bison. Or even take Minnesota…

Arkansas 44, Mississippi 8: As shocking as this sounds, this was the Razorbacks first SEC victory.

Texas A&M 36, Nebraska 14: Franchione got the best of the Buy-Out Bowl as Callahan embarrassed himself for a third straight week –this time also at home, but in front of the new AD: Tom Osborn, the man, the legend… and the person who’s legacy Bill Callahan’s disasterous foray into the West Coast Offense has destroyed. The delicious irony? A&M won using the triple-option offense.

Troy 45, North Texas 7: These Trojans are really outclassing the rest of the Sun Belt since they moved up to D-IA. I think they might make a great addition to Conference USA.

(13) USC 38, Notre Dame 0: USC appears to be back… beating Notre Dame by the very same score Michigan beat them by in week 3 before having their recent resurgence (although this was a road game for the Trojans). Notre Dame Stadium was raucous, both bands took their positions standing in the corners, the weather was unseasonably beautiful (it was 70 and clear –as though God wanted to have a clear view of the butt-kicking), the Irish wore garish 1977 green throwback jerseys (complete with tube socks), and USC appears to be surging back to prominence (against ND, I need to keep qualifying everything with “appears”). Mark Sanchez wore a custom mouthpiece designed to look like the Mexican Flag; I for one thing that’s awesome –of course he isn’t the first Mexican QB: Jim Plunkett (Heisman), Jeff Garcia and Antonio Ramiro Romo (Tony) have all hit the big time. Here are a few photos (make sure you’re looking at just this post if you want to see the whole picture):
The Irish and Trojans take the field (with Touchdown Jesus looking on)

TE Fred Davis makes a solid one-handed grab in the endzone (he was recruiting as a WR but bulked up)

FB Stanley Havili hops in the endzone with Sanchez celebrating in the top-right and Weis & Co. looking on.

(9) West Virginia 38, Mississippi St. 13: WVU is the one-loss team that no one really pays attention to anymore. A shame because the Bulls ended up being pretty good.

(1) Ohio St. 24, Michigan St. 17: The Buckeyes started to let this one get away late… which is why people are paying attention to their visit to Happy Valley.

Miami (FL) 37, Florida St. 29: First time since ’77 that both teams weren’t ranked, but that didn’t matter. It was a sloppy game (9 turnovers), but that didn’t matter. What mattered was who got bragging rights, and that would be the Canes.

(14) Florida 45, (8) Kentucky 37: I don’t think anyone foresaw a day where the Gators would upset Kentucky at football, but here we are.

UCLA 30, (10) California 21: Classic Bruin football: beat people you have no right to, lose against those you should dominate. The Bruins sit atop the Pac 10 throne, 4-0 and kings of all they see (for now).

UCF 44, Tulsa 23: BrightHouse Stadium has proven to be a great asset for Knights football.

(15) Missouri 41, (22) Texas Tech 10: Classic Texas Tech: beat up weak teams, fall apart against strong teams.

Syracuse 20, Buffalo 12: The Orange needed to win this game and they did. Hey, since the programs are so close, perhaps Turner Gill would make a good replacement for Robinson?

N.C. State 34, East Carolina 20: O’Brien proved that the Wolf Pack is at least ready for CUSA conference play.

Fresno St. 30, San Jose St. 0: Pat Hill is back. Look out Hawaii and look out Boise State, the Bulldogs are 4-0 in the WAC.

Florida Atlantic 39, LA Lafayette 32, OT: Another fine game no one watched.

(15) Kansas 19, Colorado 14: Kansas may be undefeated, but I don’t find this win as impressive as some others do.

Stanford 21, Arizona 20: Stanford is doing an ace job of playing teams to their level… Don’t turn your backs on them.

Toledo 43, Ohio 40: I’m disappointed in the AP summary of this game: the box score shows the 4th quarter was 19-23, and those final 3 were a FG as time expired to give the Rockets the win. 18,928 people got to see a heck of a game.

LA Monroe 28, Florida Intl. 14: FIU is like the anti-USF: it’s everything wrong with teams jumping up to D-IA.

Boise St. 45, Louisiana Tech 31: Another good win, but are the Broncos ready for Fresno State?

Oklahoma St. 41, (25) Kansas St. 39: Don’t mess with Coach Mike. He’s Gundy, dammit.

(7) Oregon 55, Washington 34: 465 rushing yards and 661 total yards, Oregon’s got offense.

Tulane 41, SMU 34, OT: Tulane’s Matt Forte broke his own Conference USA record with 342 yards on 38 attempts. Can Tulane clone him?

Virginia 18, Maryland 17: Another squeaker for the Wahoos. I’m looking forward to their home opener against the USC Trojans next season.

(24) Michigan 27, Illinois 17: This game was pretty close until the 4th quarter. The Wolverines got themselves an impressive win an a hostile environment. Can Michigan finish the season strong?

Colorado St. 48, UNLV 23: The Rams finally broke their awful losing streak. The 50 mph wind cause some issues: a kickoff got caught in a gust and went forward a total of 13 yards.

(5) LSU 30, (18) Auburn 24: LSU should be glad this was at home, as Auburn was ready to play. I think Tuberville made one crucial mistake: in the 4th quarter, on LSU’s final (ultimately successful) drive, he should’ve challenged when a line judge made a very favorable placement for LSU after a 3rd down play. It should’ve been 4th and inches, but Auburn sat silent (and with 2 timeouts in reserve). Miles nearly bought the farm with a passing play that nearly ran out the clock (which he clearly wasn’t aware of). A weird ending, but great for LSU fans.

Southern Miss 33, Marshall 24: Marshall continues to be stuck among the ranks of the winless.

Week 8 Preview (finally!)

Looking ahead at Week 8
(minus the completely uninspiring)

THURSDAY
Utah at TCU: Yeah, its already going as I write this. Funny thing is in the pre-season people would’ve assumed this would’ve been the game to watch.

FRIDAY

Northwestern at Eastern Michigan: After their great comeback win against Minnesota, it’s anticlimactic to be the Big 10 team bad enough to agree to visit Ypsilanti.

Louisville at Connecticut: Can the Cards follow up their upset of Cincy with a win over still vague UConn… and how good are these Huskies, exactly?

SATURDAY

#23 Cincinnati at Pittsburgh: Cincy needs to get its act together after losing the Keg of Nails.

Army at Georgia Tech: GT should clobber the Cadets, but you really never know with them.

Penn State at Indiana: An underachieving Penn State visits overachieving Indiana in a battle for the upper half of the Big 10.

North Dakota State at Minnesota: NDSU is in an odd position: they are still transitioning up to D-IAA from D-II, but they’re ranked #1 in the D-IAA poll. The bad news is, because they’re still in the transitional mode, they aren’t allowed to play in the D-IAA playoffs! Instead they get to visit Minnesota in a rematch of their nail-biter 10-9 loss. These Bison seriously upset D-IA CMU 44-17 earlier this season. Meanwhile the Gopher offense is pretty solid, but the rest of the team is in shambles. I can see this game being close and possibly going into overtime. The Metrodome is supposed to be close to full –and its not going to be with Gopher fans. A lot of NDSU alumni come from or settle in the Twin Cities area. I call an “upset”.

Central Michigan at Clemson: Clemson better not turn their backs on the Chippewas, but they should win in the end.

Northern Illinois at Wisconsin: If this were the NIU of a few years ago I’d be betting against the Badgers. Lucky for Wisconsin the Huskies are awful this year.

Iowa at Purdue: Eugh, who cares?

#5 Oklahoma at Iowa State: The Sooners know Texas beat the Cyclones 56-3, now –for pride’s sake– they need to try and match or top it.

Vanderbilt at #6 South Carolina: Vandy’s never beat Spurrier and it doesn’t seem likely the will this year.

#21 Tennessee at Alabama: One of many classic rivalries being overshadowed by USF-Rutgers. Think about that.

#22 Texas at Baylor: These are technically “rivals”.

Wake Forest at Navy: This should be a damn fine game of teams that make a lot from passionate kids with average-to-good talent.

Arkansas at Mississippi: Two SEC teams known for frustrating losses try to eek out a win.

Wyoming at Air Force: AFA is looking better, can the Pokes recover?

Texas A&M at Nebraska: Mr. Callahan, have you met Coach Fran? You two might get along. This has been nicknamed the “Buyout Bowl” for its dead-men-walking head coaches.

Michigan State at #1 Ohio State: While Michigan State upsetting the #1 Buckeyes would sound like a great upset, it really wouldn’t be this season.

#15 Florida at #7 Kentucky: So which team is going to jump back into the premiere level of SEC football? The Gators probably wish they had had LSU at home.

Mississippi State at #9 West Virginia: Time to see how Croom looks outside the SEC. No one’s been paying much attention to the Mountaineers since USF “upset” them.

#12 California at UCLA: Cal visits the West Coast’s most schizo team. Look out: you might blow them out or find yourself in a mess.

#14 USC at Notre Dame: They say you can throw records out the window in rivalry games, but it’s extremely unlikely we’ll see anything other than (at best) a close Notre Dame loss this season. At least Charlie Weis finally realized Evan Sharpely was his best QB.

#24 Texas Tech at #16 Missouri: An interesting Big 12 game that will help us see if Mizzou is so-so or if Oklahoma is really good.

Miami (FL) at Florida State: “What? FSU and Miami are playing each other? This week? Why haven’t I heard about it?” How the mighty have fallen.

Buffalo at Syracuse: What might’ve been an easy win for the ‘Cuse is looking like a toss-up. If Gill pulls this off he may have a seat ready for him in Lincoln.

Tulsa at UCF: Time for UCF to recover and continue on a bid for the CUSA title.

North Carolina State at East Carolina: NC State is awful and ECU is looking better as the season progresses. I’d look out if I was the Wolf Pack.

San Jose State at Fresno State: This is sort of a rivalry between to Cal State University schools. It should be an interesting WAC game to watch.

#13 Kansas at Colorado: I’m sure the Jayhawks remember what happened to Oklahoma on their visit to Boulder.

Stanford at Arizona: “Hey, we beat USC!” “Yeah, we sort-of almost did!”

Boise State at Louisiana Tech: Not the time to face Boise, they’re ready to play anyone to the end of time.

Ohio at Toledo: Solich, are you reading this? I assume you are. I just wanted to say that I think Nebraska should give you a second chance now that Callahan’s turned out to be a super-bust. If they do, you should publicly turn them down on SportsCenter. They earned it.

Kansas State at Oklahoma State: Two Big 12 teams on the bounce-back try to get another bounce.

#10 Oregon at Washington: Not everyone outside the region my realize this, but these two teams are rivals. So don’t write this game off as an Oregon romp just yet.

#19 Virginia at Maryland: Now that UVA’s got ranked (it just took six consecutive wins after their embarrassing opener), let’s see if they can hold it together against an unpredictable Maryland squad.

#25 Michigan at Illinois: This is make or break time for the Illini –are they for real? Meanwhile the Wolverines earn a square pat on the back for returning to the Top-25 after an opening 2 games I’ll be kind and not mention. The sad thing is they are the only other Big 10 team in the top-25 other than paper-#1 OSU.

#17 Auburn at #4 LSU: Auburn shut down the Arky offense in Fayetteville, so they might be able to slow down LSU. Too bad Auburn’s offense isn’t very good. Regardless, I predict the Tigers will win.

SUNDAY

Southern Miss at Marshall: Meh, nothing will top last Sunday.

Week 7 Recap

WEEK 7 RECAP
(except for the utterly boring…)

Navy 48, Pittsburgh 45, OT: Wednesday night was home to a great game between two teams no one really pays much attention to (but are better than most lower-level teams). The Pitt Panthers tried to put the game away with a 4th down attempt for a TD in OT, but failed (with Navy up by 3). I just want to reiterate that the talented Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada needs to be in the NFL just for the jersey. Things aren’t better for Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, who tore his Achilles tendon this week…

Wake Forest 24, (21) Florida St. 21: Huh, here FSU is getting something together and ready to strike revenge on the dastardly Demon Deacons who demolished them 30-0 last season and the instead get a tight game which they again lost… the first time WF’s ever had a 2-game winning streak against the Seminoles. I guess you might be able to attribute this to the Wake Forest home field advantage.

(16) Hawaii 42, San Jose St. 35, OT: I watched the second half of this mess and can say that Hawaii is doing its very best to keep its games exciting. Their white jerseys were brown from the soggy field (something June Jones noted he wasn’t happy with after the game), and Brennan had another one of his “everything and the kitchen sink, good & bad” games… check this: He was 44 of 75(!) for 545 yards with 4 INTs, 4 TDs, was sacked 4 times and ran for one TD. With that all said, SJSU has been known to stress supposedly dominant WAC teams during conference play, so I wasn’t completely shocked.

(5) South Florida 64, UCF 12: Someone made sure USF got the note: LSU and Cal are going to lose, so if you pound the living crap out of UCF you might make it to #2. They listened.

Rutgers 38, Syracuse 14: Rutgers gets itself together during its first road game and is ready to host USF.

Northwestern 49, Minnesota 48, OT: This game symbolizes all that is right and wrong with the Gophers this season. Right? Offense is working pretty good. Wrong? Everything else. No defense. The ability to allow the other outmatched team to catch-up (the Wildcats came back from 35-14). Then the inept coaching skills of a guy who was a tight ends coach in the NFL last year: when they Gophers made a tying TD in 2OT, he decided to go for two –which was stupid considering the Gophers were unstoppable on offense for the whole game and would’ve tired out the outmatched Wildcats.

Michigan 48, Purdue 21: Purdue is most definitely a pretender and Michigan is looking like a sort-of surprise contender for the Big 10.

(3) Ohio St. 48, Kent St. 3: Games like these (and the embarrassing state of the Big 10 this season) are why Ohio State is the least respected #1 in a while.

Georgia Tech 17, Miami (FL) 14: The football gods love to flip a coin to see which GT team will show up. Miami is just confused these days.

Ohio 48, East. Michigan 42: Solich finally one a game he was supposed to. Actually, if Turner Gill gets hired away from Buffalo to coach Nebraska, then I can excuse his loss to the Bulls (and there’s some irony if the Huskers hire a guy who beat Solich)

(12) Virginia Tech 43, Duke 14: VT did what VT does to the Dukies, until basketball season…

Iowa 10, (18) Illinois 6: This game single-handedly snuffed out nearly all the respect I had left for the Big 10. I mean, really… did the Illini fall asleep?

(23) Texas 56, Iowa St. 3: After losing 2 games in a row, Texas was a little angry. I guess they were also ready for their former DC.

(20) Kansas 58, Baylor 10: The Jayhawks are looking quite good. And here’s one of the funniest shirts in a while:

Oklahoma St. 45, Nebraska 14: Its official, the wheels of Nebraska have come off the wagon. Days after Callahan noted he’s got a long term contract, the school fired the AD who hired him (and also had a long term contract). The rest of his season can be deemed, without something completely unexpected, a lame duck period.

Alabama 27, Mississippi 24: Coach O had another painfully close loss to a bigger and better team. I’m not sure of the Ole Miss faithful are going to give him more time based on these close calls.

Buffalo 43, Toledo 33: Buffalo is 3-4 overall and 3-1 in MAC play. For this program that’s nothing less than astonishing. No wonder Husker-alum Turner Gill is being talked about as a possible replacement for his alma mater.

New Mexico 20, Wyoming 3: The weather at Laramie was crazy, which would lead one to think would benefit the home team. Alas, the Cowboys were eaten alive by the Lobos.

Ball St. 35, West. Kentucky 12: The emerging Hilltoppers were down a respectable 14-12 at halftime, but didn’t have enough to keep it close in the 2nd half.

(25) Tennessee 33, Mississippi St. 21: The Vols did a good job of pacing themselves to more points than they allowed for the Bulldogs. Nothing exciting, but it’ll do.

Texas Tech 35, Texas A&M 7: Coach Fran’s ship is sinking fast.

Penn St. 38, (19) Wisconsin 7: The Badgers have proved to be one of the season’s biggest pretenders. Further sinking the Big 10 as a whole.

(9) Oregon 53, Washington St. 7: It was 40-0 at halftime, the Ducks are one embarrassing fumble from being the clear #1.

(7) South Carolina 21, North Carolina 15: Butch Davis had a shot at Spurrier, but the Ole Ball Coach’s had a few more years to build up his team.

(17) Kentucky 43, (1) LSU 37, OT: I’d say you can credit this at least somewhat to the sometimes ambiguous home-field advantage. I watched much of the 2nd half, then missed OT because of a flight. I wasn’t surprised to hear the Wildcats pulled it off, by the end of regulation I figured it would be a coin-flip.

Houston 56, Rice 48: These to intra-city rivals duked it out like nobody’s business in an epic game no one outside the area/alumni-base watched.

Virginia 17, Connecticut 16: The 6-1 Cavs proved UConn as an unbeaten pretender; but the Huskies also proved they weren’t as much of a pretender as people assumed. This game went to the final minutes.

(4) Boston Coll. 27, Notre Dame 14: BC had a good lead, then ND switched QBs from Clausen to Evan Sharpley again and the ND offense put up some points. Imagine what it would’ve been like if they’d gone with him to start… (it won’t be long as he’s starting against USC this week)

Cent. Michigan 47, Army 23: Army isn’t awful this year, Central Michigan is just solid in the MAC. I mention this because the Chippewas were dominated in a 44-17 romp by transition D-IAA North Dakota State earlier this season. The NDSU Bison take on Minnesota this week. More on that later.

(10) USC 20, Arizona 13: Thanks to a spectacular stretch of injuries, USC had a new QB, half of the starting offensive line, one regular TB (of 5 originally named starters) and back-ups at CB and LB in the game against Arizona. The Wildcats took advantage, leading 13-10 in the 3rd before USC talent, in the name of super-frosh Joe McKnight, finally awoke. This was McKnight’s first game to really show why people thought he was the next Reggie Bush (highlights). QB Mark Sanchez had a decent-but-not-spectacular start as Booty’s injury replacement, showing opening night jitters in the first half by throwing two badly though-out picks in the 2nd half before getting his act together and having a solid 2nd half, throwing a TD. It caused the Trojans to drop in the rankings, but USC will happily take this win.

TCU 38, Stanford 36: Remember the team that shocked the world with a monumental upset against USC last week? Yeah, well… they’re “back”.

Temple 24, Akron 20: Remember the team with the super-play last week? They lost to Temple… ooo, burn!

(24) Georgia 20, Vanderbilt 17: Vandy has a fairly okay chance at getting the magical 6th win, but this game was heartbreaking –after upseting UGA at home last year, they nearly upset them again this year but finally caved in at the end. Will they recover?

(6) Oklahoma 41, (11) Missouri 31: The Sooners are back in the mix after dispatching a team they may end up facing again in the Big XII champsionship.

North Texas 31, LA Monroe 21: The Mean Green won a game. Moving on…

Michigan St. 52, Indiana 27: This game made the Spartans next game against Ohio State a while lot more interesting.

Louisville 28, (15) Cincinnati 24: An upset that was overshadowed by many others, the Cardinals upturned the undefeated the Bearcats and reminded them why people love to hate their arch-rivals.

(22) Auburn 9, Arkansas 7: Forget the hogwash on how this was such an exciting SEC defensive match-up. It was a boring game that helped put a nail in McFadden’s Heisman hopes. Please compare to:

Oregon St. 31, (2) California 28: Yeehaw, another Pac-10 high-flying upset. Last year the Beavers upset a top-5 USC team in a firefight, this year it was Cal. If you saw the ending you know exactly how painful this loss was for the Bears: the had to start their backup QB due to injuries, he leads them decent enough but then makes a classic redshirt freshman mistake at a critical moment: after leading the Bears across the field in a minute and within comfortable FG range (for the tie), he has a bad moment and decides to run for a long first down when his team had no time outs and less than 20 seconds left in the game: he’s stopped, time runs out before the FG kicker can run on, game over. This is also why the college game can be fun to watch.

Kansas St. 47, Colorado 20: K-State recovers nicely from their bitter defeat to the rival Jayhawks.

East Carolina 45, UTEP 42, OT: Let’s recap UTEP’s last 3 games: two weeks ago a 48-45 OT win over SMU, last week a 48-47 win over Tulsa, now this. These guys play for one thing, and that’s excitement.

(14) Arizona St. 44, Washington 20: The Sun Devils are looking good at the half-season mark (though this wasn’t unexpected), now they face the brutal second half with Oregon, Cal and USC on the horizon.

Boise St. 69, Nevada 67, OT: What a perfect Sunday dessert for the week. This 4OT barn burner had it all: I started watching in the 2nd half and it was all tied up, and kept staying that way. Both teams simply stopped playing defense when they needed to. The game went into OT. The first 3 plays in OT all went for 25 yard touchdowns, then –after one incompletion– the fifth play also went for a 25 yard TD and we were in the 3rd OT. The game slowed, they exchanged field goals, then on the 4OT Boise made the TD and the 2-pt conversion while Nevada made a TD but got sacked on the 2-pointer. Game over: Broncos won 69-67, make no mistake, their combined 136 points were the most in modern history.

Overall a great week of college football.

Rush-Preview of Week 8 Thursday

Since I’m running out of time for the preview, I’m rushing this out:

THURSDAY

USF at Rutgers: Would anyone have guessed at the beginning of the season that we would be saying “The Bulls pathway to the National Championship come to a pivotal match during this Thursday game at Rutgers.” Now go back 5 (or even 3) years and say that same thing… you’d be committed. I am greatly looking forward to watching this (though I’ll likely be missing the first half). Big game, USF’s chance to prove itself on a national stage in front of all the media.

Everybody’s “Favorite” Poll: The BCS returns!

The first BCS rankings are out, nothing too surprising except for the Pac-10 which is reversed. ASU is the best team in the BCS, followed by Oregon then Cal and USC.

1 Ohio State
2 South Florida
3 Boston College
4 LSU
5 Oklahoma
6 South Carolina
7 Kentucky
8 Arizona State
9 West Virginia
10 Oregon
11 Virginia Tech
12 California
13 Kansas
14 USC
15 Florida
16 Missouri
17 Auburn
18 Hawaii
19 Virginia
20 Georgia
21 Tennessee
22 Texas
23 Cincinnati
24 Texas Tech
25 Michigan

Hawaii’s got some climbing to get a guaranteed bid, but these days they need to worry about staying undefeated. Although Lou Holtz called Kansas his #2 team, they remain in the teens. Michigan at least has a moral victory of ending up at 25. Virginia seems to have some computer fans.

Bulls on Parade

With the chaos of this weekend, we have a fractured search for #1. Six different teams got first place votes in the AP poll, three in the Coaches. The surprise AP #2 had me thinking of a classic Rage Against the Machine title.

AP: (first place votes)

1. Ohio State (50)
2. South Florida (11)
3. Boston College (1)
4. Oklahoma (1)
5. LSU (1)
[. . .]
12. Arizona State (1)

Coaches:
1. Ohio State (56)
2. Boston College (1)
3. South Florida (3)

The most striking change was USF’s surge ahead of BC in the AP Poll –they even had two more first place votes than BC in the Coaches Poll despite being ranked one below. It seems the pollsters have realized BC is (so far) a team with questions in what’s been a questionable conference this season (Ohio State can be accused of the same thing), and given the Bulls the nod after they throttled UCF.

Preview: Week 7

Well, the Navy-Pitt game is already in the 2nd quarter, so I’ll skip a preview.

Looking ahead at Week 7
(minus the completely uninspiring)

THURSDAY

#21 Florida State at Wake Forest: The reinvigorated Seminoles are going up to Winston-Salem with last year’s shocking 30-0 loss to the Demon Deacons (in Tallahassee!) in mind. I’d keep an eye on this.

FRIDAY

#16 Hawaii at San Jose State: Hawaii should breeze through this no matter which QB is playing.

SATURDAY

Kent State at #3 Ohio State: Kent State upset Iowa State… but that has no bearing here. Buckeye domination.

UCF at #5 South Florida: UCF doesn’t look good away from home, so I’m not sure this is going to be very close. Still, USF really bungled their game with FAU, and UCF should be able to take better advantage of any miscues. Of course, Leavitt looked like he was going to break a gasket last week, so he may have the Bulls back in line.

#12 Virginia Tech at Duke: This is the sort of game that VT, every few years or so, mysteriously drops –like their notorious 1998 loss to Temple (I love that the New York Times archive is now free again). They were ranked #14 then… but I jest, that shouldn’t happen this year –then again this is a strange year.

Minnesota at Northwestern: Northwestern is a team that seems to want to get it together. It really gave Michigan some fits two weeks ago, then it beat Michigan State in Spartan Stadium in OT. Minnesota’s just plain bad. The Wildcats should win this.

Purdue at Michigan: After Purdue was exposed by Ohio State, this game will be an early barometer of how the Wolverines stack up to their bitter rivals. Will Michigan be a Big 10 title contender?

Rutgers at Syracuse: Okay Rutgers, I can forgive losses to now-#15 Cincy and even Maryland (which appears to be underrated). But if you lose to the ‘Cuse, there’s no ex’Cuse. Lame, lame, lame… but not as lame as a loss would be.

Eastern Michigan at Ohio: Solich! Redeem yourself under the eyes of Bob!

Georgia Tech at Miami (FL): If this weren’t in the OB, this might be a close game –but I think Shannon will have his Hurricanes ready for a bounce-back win over the schizo Jackets.

#18 Illinois at Iowa: Zook is lookin’ good right now. Illinois jumped from NR to 18 with their win last week. Now they need to confirm their ability by trouncing the disappointing Hawkeyes.

Baylor at #20 Kansas: Kansas is in the same boat as Illinois, just swap the relevant details.

#23 Texas at Iowa State: Texas should fricassee the Cyclones. Then again, Gene Chizik was their defensive coordinator, so there might be a hiccup if the Cyclones can keep the Longhorns offense in check –the only problem is ISU has no real offense.

Alabama at Mississippi: Saban better not overlook Coach O and his growling –his team still hasn’t returned to the ranking after nearly losing to the Cougars.

Oklahoma State at Nebraska: Two teams that are in the exact same middle spot in their respective Big 12 Divisions square off to see who can right the ship. Sam Keller should get over his awful game against the Tigers, but it should be pointed out that he’s not forty years old, and therefore is not a man like Mike Gundy.

Toledo at Buffalo: Toledo, you better make up for nearly losing to freakin’ Liberty by beating up the Bulls.

Western Kentucky at Ball State: The Hilltoppers are back in action, trying their hand against a MAC team that’s probably a bit too strong for them at this point in their transition.

New Mexico at Wyoming: Classic Mountain West: two D-IAA teams from public universities in sparsely populated states square off at high altitude. The Cowboys are good at home, so look out Lobos.

#25 Tennessee at Mississippi State: Remember what I said about SEC teams having a habit of losing to teams they shouldn’t? Let’s hope the Vols remember that’s how they got ranked this week.

San Diego State at Utah: Lets see if the Utes can be consistent after getting a decent win over Louisville.

#1 LSU at #17 Kentucky: Both teams lost some luster: Kentucky straight-up lost to South Carolina, and LSU nearly bit it at home against Florida. Its hard not to watch any LSU-Kentucky game in Commonwealth Stadium without thinking about the now-legendary Bluegrass Miracle (if you’re not familiar, read the linked article and watch the video; if you can’t get enough, here’s the original broadcast). I think this game will be close for a while, but LSU will separate itself in the 2nd half.

#4 Boston College at Notre Dame: They may have exhumed the Gipper, but it will take something even more supernatural than the cascade of UCLA errors last week for the Irish to upend the Eagles.

#7 South Carolina at North Carolina: Steve Spurrier vs. Butch Davis. This would’ve been awesome in 1996, but I’ll take this 2007 remix for an interesting game.

Washington State at #9 Oregon: The Cougs nearly got the Sun Devils, lets see how they do against another top-Pac 10 team.

Arizona at #10 USC: So how does USC respond? It looks like highly-touted back-up Mark Sanchez may get the nod since Booty’s finger isn’t healing quick enough to practice (if that’s the case, why didn’t they pull him during the awful 2nd half last week?). Still, USC should trounce the Wildcats (Sanchez couldn’t really ask for a better team to start against given the rest of the schedule). If they don’t, if its even a close win like against the Huskies, then the problems at USC are much bigger then expected.

#19 Wisconsin at Penn State: The Nitany Lions were already outed as pretenders to the Big 10 throne after reaching #10 in the rankings; the Badgers tripped that wire last week at Illinois. With the game at Happy Valley, Penn State should have the edge.

Rice at Houston: Houston nearly beat Alabama at Tuscaloosa and Rice finally beat somebody… I’m going with the Cougars in the battle for the Bayou Bucket.

Connecticut at Virginia: Is undefeated UConn for real? We’ll find out as they visit a 5-1 UVA.

Army at Central Michigan: Can Army take that big win last week on the road? CMU blew out Ball State last week, so I have my doubts.

Texas A&M at Texas Tech: These two teams have developed a fine hatred for each other in recent years. They made national news when a Texas Tech frat came up with “Vick’em” shirts with the Aggies beloved mascot Reveille getting hung by Michael Vick (article + picture) in a parody of A&M’s loved phrase/gesture “Gig’em Aggies“. TT will throw up a lot of points, we’ll see if they have a defense to stop the Aggies from outscoring them.

Western Michigan at Northern Illinois: The Mustangs are likely depressed from that last-second loss to Akron. Luckily the Huskies are bad enough to give them someone to beat up.

TCU at Stanford: The Horned Frogs have been a disappointment this season, forgotten. Stanford just pulled the biggest upset since they knocked off a #1 Notre Dame team in 1990. The Cardinal are, unsurprisingly, deciding to stick with their former back-up QB Tavita Pritchard after his game last week (he beat a team in Los Angeles you may have heard of). What a nightmare for T.C. Ostrander, his O-line allows him to get sacked 7 times against Arizona State, he then has a seizure the next day and his held out of the next game for safety measures, then he loses his starting spot.

Fresno State at Idaho: Pat Hill should take his team to 4-2, the Bulldogs need to stay above .500 after a disappointing 2006.

Air Force at Colorado State: The Air Force lays siege on Fort Collins in a game that should probably go their way. Still, the Rams have been losing close recently, and they might surprise them.

#24 Georgia at Vanderbilt: Unless Vandy was saving their energy during the blowout loss to Auburn last week, this probably won’t be close. I’ll be in town for this game in Nashville… too bad I’ll be hoping on a plane an hour after it kicks off –I’d enjoy seeing some SEC action, even if one of the teams is Vandy.

Temple at Akron: Akron just won one for the ages and Temple just won one, period. I think the Zips will have the edge.

#11 Missouri at #6 Oklahoma: College GameDay broadcasts from Norman as these two Big 12 front-runners battle it out in what could be a preview of the Big 12 title game.

Oregon State at #2 California: Cal is thrilled to be #2. They can’t wait to prove themselves against USC. Be careful, that’s when a team like Oregon State will get you.

Louisville at #15 Cincinnati: These two rivals will battle for the Keg of Nails. For the first time in a long time, Cincy is heavily favored. Still, this is a rivalry game so anything can happen (see last year’s USC-UCLA).

Indiana at Michigan State: This is where 5-1 Indiana, who only lost to #15 Illinois, can prove themselves. The Spartans need to get themselves together after an embarrassing loss to Northwestern (losing to the “team that lost to Duke” remains tainted).

Louisiana-Monroe at North Texas: The Warhawks are next on “who’ll beat North Texas now?”

#22 Auburn at Arkansas: While it won’t determine championships, I want to see which of these two SEC programs is for real this season.

Middle Tennessee at Memphis: Can Memphis take the emotion win from last week and channel it into a win this week? MTSU isn’t a push-over.

East Carolina at UTEP: The over-under for this game should be at least 80.

Colorado at Kansas State: K-State just had a very tough loss to rival Kansas. Colorado is looking good in a two-game winning streak. Should be a good game.

Brigham Young at UNLV: After nearly upending Wisconsin, UNLV has disappointed. BYU is looking to march to the Mountain West title.

Washington at #14 Arizona State: The Sun Devils should get a test from the Huskies, but they do have the home advantage.

SUNDAY

Nevada at Boise State: Nevada ought to be nervous after seeing what the Broncos did to the Aggies last week on the Smurf Turf. Since this is their second Sunday game in a row, I think Idaho has just gone ahead and made Boise State their default pro team… Good choice.

Week 6 Recap

WEEK 6 RECAP
(highlights only, while I can live without every MAC game, though the Akron-WMU ending proved there’s occasionally something worth watching)

Memphis 24, Marshall 21: In a pretty close game, the Memphis Tigers got an emotional win after losing one of their players to what now appears to have been a senseless robbery (4 arrests). Sadly, this Tuesday story really got buried under some of the upsets, starting on Thursday.

Rice 31, Southern Miss 29: Rice finally got a win, against a Southern Miss team that’s looking to be having a down year.

(11) South Carolina 38, (8) Kentucky 23: The Old Ball Coach put these upstarts in their place. Andre Woodson just couldn’t get his team together.

Utah 44, Louisville 35: As I said before the game, this was a meeting of what were recently two of the biggest mid-major programs until Louisville made the jump to the Big East. The Utes quickly proved why, even in a weird year like this, they can beat supposedly tough teams (see also: UCLA). Brian Brohm will still go high in the NFL draft (or at least in the first round).

(13) West Virginia 55, Syracuse 14: The Mountaineers are back in form and the Orange, unfortunately, are too!

Northwestern 48, Michigan St. 41, OT: If we had seen this score before Wisconsin and MSU had a really close game, Illinois “upset” wouldn’t have been nearly as surprising. The Big 10 is a mess.

North Carolina 33, Miami (FL) 27: This game was actually much better than I thought it was going to be at halftime. The Tar Heels took an amazing 27-0 lead in the first half before the Hurricanes stormed back with 20 unanswered 3rd quarter points. Two clutch field goals in the 4th put UNC ahead enough to withstand a Miami TD and preserve (barely) this win. Did the fact that they were beat by Butch Davis make it better or worse for Hurricanes fans?

Kansas 30, (24) Kansas St. 24: To be fair, this isn’t really an upset. Kansas was undefeated (though due to cupcakes) and the one-loss K-State wasn’t expecting to roll over a rival. Still, Mangino (who comes off as a bit of a jerk in post-game, on-field interviews –maybe he was hungry?) seems to have something going… thus far.

Indiana 40, Minnesota 20: Not a surprising score. Two players have joined others in leaving the sinking Gophers. Meanwhile, Indiana deserves to be ranked! They’re 5-1 and their only loss was to Illinois… a team which has proven to be quite good! The Illini only lost to the still undefeated and ranked Missouri Tigers… This whole situation demonstrates exactly how bizarre this season has turned out.

Illinois 31, (5) Wisconsin 26: So the Illini are for real, as noted they only lost to a team that appears for now to be the best in the Big 12. In a somewhat rare fit of logic, the Illini are now ranked 18, just above the now-19 Badgers.

Maryland 28, Georgia Tech 26: Surprisingly well fought game (usually GT wins close or tanks) where the Yellow Jackets nearly mounted a successful come-back. The Terps look to be a force in the weak ACC. Should be fun to see their Nov 10 game against BC.

Michigan 33, East. Michigan 22: This game was in contention until the 3rd quarter. Then again, Michigan hasn’t really cared about winning “pretty” since week 2.

Cent. Michigan 58, Ball St. 38: The Cardinals need to watch some Letterman and man up!

(7) Boston Coll. 55, Bowling Green 24: Bowling Green, huh? These Eagles might get into the Championship game based on their weak schedule.

Auburn 35, Vanderbilt 7: The Tigers look back in form after their Florida upset… they clobbered the Commodores in classic SEC tradition.

Temple 16, Northern Illinois 15: NIU is truly terrible this year. They have now snapped the Owls 8 game losing streak (27 of their last 28 games). It was Temple’s homecoming… though I bet the Huskies were distracted at the spectacle of playing in a near-empty Lincoln Financial Field.

Wake Forest 41, Duke 36: Viva rivalry! The Dukies nearly got their come-back on the Deacs, but now they’ll have to wait for multiple chances in the B-Ball season.

Buffalo 31, Ohio 10: Keep playing like this, Frank, and you’ll be dead to me.

Wyoming 24, TCU 21: One-loss Wyoming is still in contention for the Mtn West.

Mississippi 24, Louisiana Tech 0: Colonel Reb’ ain’t cryin’ this week.

Mississippi St. 30, UAB 13: Looks like Egg Bowl’s going to have two more victories between them.

Alabama 30, Houston 24: This game ended close on the defensive play. Bama nearly fell asleep at the wheel.

Penn St. 27, Iowa 7: Iowa’s 7 came in garbage time and the Hawkeyes look truly terrible this year.

(10) Oklahoma 28, (19) Texas 21: The Sooners reclaim the unclaimed title of “Big 12 South power”.

Tennessee 35, (12) Georgia 14: As I predicted: unloved SEC team beats a higher ranked team, only to still be ranked one below the team it just beat…

Florida St. 27, N.C. State 10: That victory over Bama seems to have invigorated Bowden’s Seminoles. Then again this was only NC State.

(6) South Florida 35, Florida Atlantic 23: This game was surprisingly close. If FAU had pulled it off.. wow. If you can, track down USF Coach Jim Leavitt grabbing one of his players by the jersey like he’s about to smack him for a boneheaded late hit.

(18) Arizona St. 23, Washington St. 20: …after seeing that score, every coach on the Sun Devils future schedule got copies of the tape to dissect ASU’s weaknesses.

Oregon St. 31, Arizona 16: Don’t worry Wildcats, you have USC next. At this point I really don’t know what that means…

Fresno St. 49, Nevada 41: The Bulldogs pulled out the win in another exciting WAC firefight no one watched.

San Diego St. 24, Colorado St. 20: CSU is bad this year, but these losses haven’t been bad. Lubick deserves better than this.

(15) Virginia Tech 41, (22) Clemson 23: Not a surprising result, but it was nice to see Beamer-ball back in full effect: TDs off of a punt return, kick return and an interception return.

Troy 34, Florida Intl. 16: The Trojans are dominating the Sun Belt, as expected. Hopefully the other Trojans can look up to them this week.

Toledo 35, Liberty 34: The undead ghost of Jerry Falwell came thisclose to upseting the Rockets just to spite me –but not this time!

LA Lafayette 38, North Texas 29: In a battle of the bottom of the D-IA heap, the Ragin’ Cajuns came out with their first W.

Stanford 24, (2) USC 23: Stop me if you heard about this one… Seriously though, this was a classic case of a big team coming in and trying to ride through on talent. It works sometimes (as it did against Washington the previous week), but this time it came back to bite them. USC had twice as many yards of offense as the Cardinal, but they also turned over the ball a lot. After leading 9-0 in the first half, during which QB John David Booty broke his middle finger on his throwing hand, Booty went to throw four picks in the second half. He was not helped by dropped passes by open receivers. A blocked extra point in the second quarter came back to haunt the Trojans in a big way. In the end, Stanford finally got its offense together in the 4th quarter, making the plays, and making history… This was the biggest upset in the history of sportsbook spread betting, but according to the polls, this wasn’t as severe as the Michigan loss to Appy State (or a number of other upsets). Conference losses have a habit of not having as much effect, even when they’re to supposedly abysmal teams. It also helped that USC lost in one of the most bizarro years for top-25 teams.

Virginia 23, Middle Tenn. St. 21: An ugly win, based on a winning FG with 9 seconds left (for an ACC team to beat a Sun Belt team), but now the Cavs are 5-1 with their only loss to a surprising Wyoming in week 1. They get to be the first quasi-legit team to take on the undefeated UConn Huskies this week.

Texas Tech 42, Iowa St. 17: The Cyclones are bad, but at least they can be happy to be better than the Hawkeyes all year round.

Akron 39, W. Michigan 38: Feel free to look at my previous comments on the spectacular ending.

Army 20, Tulane 17, OT: The Cadets (pardon, “Black Knights”) are now 3-3 after this important victory for a program that’s been perennially struggling.

Arkansas 34, Chattanooga 15: I’m sure Darren McFadden played in this game, but it was against a D-IAA team in the middle of the season. Bleh.

Colorado 43, Baylor 23: 4-2 and still cocky after upseting Oklahoma, the Buffs could make it into a bowl if they keep up the solid play (could!).

Texas A&M 24, Oklahoma St. 23: These two teams symbolize the mess that is the Big 12 South this season. A&M leads the South Division, but for how long?

East Carolina 52, UCF 38: Away from BrightHouse castle, the Knights fell short… I guess Pirates > Knights –though a 28-point 3rd quarter certainly didn’t hurt.

(4) Ohio St. 23, (23) Purdue 7: Ohio State throttled the pretenders in West Lafayette. I’m still not sure the Buckeyes are national title contenders, but they certainly shall remain in the top tier of the Big 10. Back to the middle of the pack, Boilermakers!

Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6: If this game didn’t happen, USC would’ve been the ultimate laughing stock of Los Angeles. As it turns out, they were only the prelude to this almost equally unbelievable result (almost). Amazing what’ll happen when you lose your staring QBs to injury and have to sub in a former walk-on in the 1st quarter. The Irish remain a perfect 2-0 in the Rose Bowl stadium. Kirk Herbstreit (as well as SportsNation) hit the nail on the head when they attributed this game to UCLA’s mistakes rather than Notre Dame’s ability.

(20) Cincinnati 28, (21) Rutgers 23: Cincy once again demonstrated they need to be taken seriously. Rutgers isn’t bad, its the Bearcats that are really good this year. I hope they don’t get too cocky, that’s when you lose to a lame team –like when Rutgers lost to Cincy last season.

(1) LSU 28, (9) Florida 24: Cal had a bye this past week, so no doubt they were watching with amusement as USC went down (albeit to their hated rival) and gave them the #2 by default. Imagine what they felt watching this game, when the Gators nearly handed them the #1 by coming exceptionally close to upseting the Tigers at Tiger Stadium. The Gators had an impressive 17-7 lead at the half, they nearly held of the Tiger comeback… but now LSU has definitely won themselves the #1 ranking –but they’ve also led more in the media to expect them to lose at least once (the game also gave hope to their opponents).

Air Force 31, UNLV 14: AFA’s looking pretty good. I can’t wait to see them against Notre Dame.

UTEP 48, Tulsa 47: The Miners can really give you your moneys worth: in this come-from-behind victory, UTEP won even closer than their 48-45 win over SMU last week.

(17) Missouri 41, (25) Nebraska 6: Mizzou neutered Sam Keller and decimated the Cornhuskers in a game that sets them up as the favorite for the Big 12 North (with competition from Kansas) and a dark horse for the national title.

(16) Hawaii 52, Utah St. 37: Brennan got injured so Graunke came in again and walloped the Aggies.

Boise St. 58, New Mexico St. 0: Remember Boise State? The guys that were the Cinderella last year? They guys on the blue turf? The guys who were a mid-major BCS hopeful this year until losing at Washington? Well…they’re still pretty damn good.