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.

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~ by Bobak on October 25, 2007.