Category: College Football (Page 273 of 296)

In honor of the 2006 College Football Season, Bullz-Eye.com will preview an up-and-coming game of the week, each week, for the entire length of the NCAA season.

Each week a game will be highlighted and broken down by each teams strengths and weaknesses vs. its opponent. Plus, no preview would be complete without a forecasted score – you’ll find a prediction on the game at Bullz-Eye.com as well.

After weeks of not being on the Game of the Week radar, the Big East get the honors for the second straight week. Louisville is coming off of its huge win against West Virginia last week and has now is one of the favorites to make a National Championship appearance. Rutgers is arguably the feel-good story of the year and looks to spoil the Cardinals party.

On tap this week: (#3) Louisville at (#15) Rutgers.

ESPN.com is reporting that Miami Hurricanes defensive tackle Bryan Pata was shot and killed outside of his apartment Tuesday night. Investigators don’t have any leads to Pata’s assailant at this moment, but have already ruled that the shooting was a homicide.

According to teammates, family members and friends, Pata was a soft-spoken young man who was well liked and had dreams of playing in the NFL. Nobody could grapple with the fact that Pata possibly had any enemy who would want to do this to him.

“Brian was cool, calm and collective,” Telfort told ESPN’s Joe Schad on Tuesday night. “He would do anything for his friends. He was a guy everybody loved. Bryan never got in trouble with anybody. I have no clue who would do this to him.”

“But I know the streets and to my knowledge he had no conflicts in the streets,” Graham said, sobbing. “Maybe someone was jealous. Maybe someone tried to rob him. I have no idea why he was shot. I just know he was shot. I didn’t know anyone that disliked him.”

This is now the University of Miami’s fourth death in one decade. Former safety Al Blades and linebacker Chris Campbell were killed in two separate car accidents within a year of each other. In 1996, reserve linebacker Marlin Barnes was murdered in a campus apartment while just a few months ago, reserve safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks in an apparent robbery. Current starting safety Brandon Merriweather apparently shot and missed Cooper’s assailant. Since then, head coach Larry Coker has restricted his players from keeping guns (legal or not).

It’s sad that another young man has perished so early in his life. It’s also just as sad that the University of Miami is involved in another one of these situations.

With the new AP and USA Today Top 25 polls posting over the weekend, it’s time to take a look at the top 10 in college football.

These two polls can never just get along can they? The top two spot after Ohio State in both of these polls are always off. USA Today likes Texas at No. 3, while the AP prefers Louisville. As for me, Louisville still doesn’t crack my top five.

Here is how I see the Top 10:

1. Ohio State (10-0)
Previous Rank: #1
There is no question to me who the two most improved teams are from last year in the NCAA. One is Illinois, who gave the Buckeyes fits in the second half of OSU’s 17-10 victory in Champaign on Saturday. The other one you’ll have to wait until I talk about Florida. As far as the Buckeyes, hey, every program has hiccups at some point during the year. The main thing is that OSU survived and is still standing tall at 10-0.

2. Michigan (10-0)
Previous Rank: #2
Speaking of hiccups, the Wolverines almost choked away a huge lead to a Mid-America Conference team. And not even the best MAC school – it was Ball State. There are only two takeaways from Michigan’s narrow victory over the Cardinals on Saturday. One, the Wolverines won. And two, WR Mario Manningham may not be 100% yet, but he was on the field again for the Wolverines, which is huge.

3. Texas (9-1)
Previous Rank: #3
The Long Horns are really on the outside looking in as far as National Championship. Even at 9-1, I don’t think Texas’s schedule is tough enough to slide into a title appearance. Especially not with Kansas State and Texas A&M left on its schedule. The Wildcats aren’t ranked and with the Aggies losing to Oklahoma on Saturday, they might not be ranked by the time Texas faces them on November 24.

4. Auburn (9-1)
Previous Rank: #5
The Tigers are an interesting case as far as a title appearance. Yeah, Auburn lost to Arkansas. But the Razorbacks keep winning and therefore are making the Tigers strength of schedule look better and better every week. If Arkansas can pull off wins against Tennessee this Saturday and LSU in two weeks, the Tigers might seemingly come out of nowhere to make a National Championship appearance. This all depends on if Auburn doesn’t choke against Georgia and Alabama, of course.

5. Florida (8-1)
Previous Rank: #6
If you read what I wrote for Ohio State, you’re waiting for me to tell you what other team I think has most improved since last year. If you didn’t read what I wrote for the Buckeyes, than what the hell are you doing skipping all the way to #5? Anyway, Vanderbilt is the other team that I feel has come a long way since last season. The Gators still got the job done on Saturday, but I guarantee you it was a lot tougher than maybe Florida expected. Best case scenario for Florida: win out, hopefully play and defeat Auburn in the SEC Championship game and hope that the BCS doesn’t screw you over by ignoring that gauntlet of a season you just went through. Losing DL Marcus Thomas is a huge blow, though.

6. Louisville (8-0)
Previous Rank: #9
If I liked USC a little bit more than I do, I would put the Cardinals at No. 7…but I don’t feel for the Trojans. While Louisville beat a very good West Virginia team, how could the BCS possibly put the Cardinals in the National Championship – even with an undefeated season? If Louisville gets passed over for a title appearance, then maybe this will provoke the Cardinals to put a little more “meat” on their schedule from here on out. In my opinion, Louisville is lucky that Rutgers have been so good this season, because it will appear that the Cardinals played a “decent” schedule.

7. USC (7-1)
Previous Rank: #7
I said it on Saturday night in my college football recap and I’ll say it again now – where was the 42-0 effort all season Trojans? USC has sleepwalked through its entire ’06 schedule and finally got tripped up two weeks ago. Now, the Trojans face a tough three game stretch against Oregon, California and Notre Dame. But every single game will be at home! How did USC get this schedule?

8. Notre Dame (8-1)
Previous Rank: #10
The Irish get this spot by default with West Viringia and Tennessee losing. But hey, that’s not me taking away that hard-fought 45-26 win over North Carolina they just had. Or the wins ND will get over Air Force and Army the next two weeks either. Actually, you want one of my upsets of the year? The Falcons will top the Irish this Satuday.

9. California (8-1)
Previous Rank: Unranked
Boy the Bears have really come full circle haven’t they? Tennessee trounces California in the season opener, only for the Bears to take a full season to come all the way back and re-join the top 10…ahead of Tennessee. Interesting.

10. Arkansas (8-1)
Previous Rank: Unranked
Can I say it again? I hate this #10 spot. West Virginia’s offense is unreal with Pat White and Steve Slaton, but the defense is atrocious. Tennessee fights hard, but I think they’ve been overachieving all year and the loss to LSU sealed that notion for me. And LSU has let me down two before (I picked the Tigers to beat Auburn and Florida earlier in the year). So, why not jinx the hard-charging Razorbacks? Expect Arkansas to fall this week at home against the Volunteers – it’s just the curse of the #10 spot.

Here are your college football players of the week.

Remember, if you feel that another player was worthy of higher honors than the two I chose, post the athlete and let me hear why you think he or they were more deserving.

Here are your top performers of the week:

Offensive Player of the Week: Colt Brennan, QB Hawaii
Although Brennan’s Warriors didn’t play the stiffest of competition in Utah State, the quarterback had quite a game on Saturday. Brennan tossed six touchdown passes in Hawaii’s 63-10 win over the Aggies. He also broke Timmy Chang’s single season record for touchdown passes (39). Brennan didn’t stop there, either, as he set a new Hawaii record for consecutive passes without throwing an interception at 182 (he was intercepted in the third quarter on Saturday to halt the mark).

Defensive Player of the Week: Quinton Culberson, LB Miss. State, Erin Henderson, LB Maryland, J Lehman, LB Illinois
I can’t decide on which out of these three linebackers had the best day, so I’ll give due to all of them.

– Culberson had team-high 10 tackles and returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown in the Bull Dogs 24-16 win over Alabama.

– Henderson recorded 18 tackles and a forced fumble while leading a defense that held Clemson to just 12 points in Maryland’s 13-12 win over the Tigers.

– Anybody that saw at least a fraction of the Illinois-Ohio State game saw Lehman in on virtually every Illini play on defense. The kid was a machine in recording 19 tackles, a forced fumble, a sack and recorded at least three tackles for loss in U of I’s 17-10 defeat to the Buckeyes. The guy even spent his time in-between plays orchestrating chants for the crowd…literally.