Category: College Football (Page 280 of 296)

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.

As far as the two official polls go, there weren’t any big changes…unless you consider Auburn falling to #10 and #11 (in the AP and USA Today polls, respectively) a big change. The other big move was Florida, which after essentially crushing LSU on Saturday, moved into the top three in both the AP and USA Today 25 polls.

In my rankings, there are going to be movers and shakers as well. Like I said in my Weekend Wrap for college football, I will not eat the corn bread on SEC teams as much as I have. Yes, LSU and Auburn are still powerful football teams and yes the SEC has a tough schedule – but giving a two-loss team rights over West Virginia is just horse manure and I won’t stand for it anymore, SEC fans!

Here is how I see the Top 10:

1. Ohio State (6-0)
The Buckeyes schedule is a cakewalk until November 18 vs. Michigan. OSU is at Michigan State (which has obviously lost all sanity after the defeat to Notre Dame), home for Indiana, Minnesota and then at Illinois and Northwestern before the Wolverines come to town. Expect QB Troy Smith and WR Ted Ginn Jr. to pad their Heisman stats for another five weeks before really having to play again.

2. Florida (6-0)
Nobody has a tougher three-game stretch than the Gators. Florida dismantled LSU in an impressive fashion last Saturday and now has to travel to a pissed off Auburn team this weekend before coming back to Gainesville to face Georgia. If the Bulldogs can somehow stay ranked (and I say “somehow” after watching them get destroyed by Tennessee), they would be the fourth top 25 opponent that the Gators would have played on its ’06 schedule. If Florida can top Auburn and Georgia the next two weeks and Tennessee keeps up its surge to the top 10 (remember, Florida beat the Vols 21-20 earlier this season in Knoxville), than the Gators might have an outside chance at being ranked #1 if OSU falters even a little bit.

3. Michigan (6-0)
What a trio of performers the Wolverines own in RB Mike Hart, QB Chad Henne and WR Mario Manningham. Manningham is starting to become for Henne what Braylon Edwards was for Jon Navarre a few seasons ago. It’s hard to believe that Super Mario is just a sophomore too. Unlike Ohio State, however, Michigan still has a few programs left on its schedule that can still trip them up. The Wolverines still face Penn State and Iowa the next two weeks before finishing with some fluff teams before traveling to Columbus.

4. USC (5-0)
The true test for the Trojan comes soon in a three-game stretch in which USC will play Oregon, California and Notre Dame (all somehow at home). For now, however, the Trojans aren’t an undisputed #4, but QB John David Booty is finding other weapons in his offense while his number one wide out, Dwayne Jarrett, is still out with an injury. It was Steve Smith who emerged two weeks ago against Washington State while this past Saturday it was sophomore Patrick Turner (12 catches, 116 yards and one touchdown) against Washington. USC isn’t thrashing opponents, but they aren’t losing to Arkansas either.

5. Texas (5-1)
Nice effort by cornerback Aaron Ross in the Long Horns win over the Sooners last Saturday. Ross had two interceptions, eight tackles and scored essentially the game winning points for Texas on a fumble recovery for a touchdown. I wrote last week how people seem to have forgotten about the Long Horns after their defeat to Ohio State, but wouldn’t it be something if Florida and/or Michigan get tripped up in the next two weeks and Texas squeezes back into the top five of either the AP or USA Today polls?

6. West Virginia (5-0)
Yeah, I know that the Mountaineers aren’t playing any stiff competition because of the conference they’re in. But they also have the second best rushing attack in all of college football and have the third best rusher in the NCAA in Steve Slaton. West Virginia would beat LSU and Auburn right now on natural ground – mark it down.

7. Tennessee (5-1)
Oh, man did the Volunteers take Georgia behind the woodshed last weekend. 51-33? If Tennessee could have staved off a late comeback to Florida in Knoxville earlier last month, the Vols are easily a top five program. Erik Ainge and Robert Meachem are coming to a playground near you.

8. Auburn (5-1)
Hey, every team has games like the Tigers did against Arkansas last Saturday and lets face it, the Razorbacks have been playing good football as of late. But you just can’t lose at home to an unranked team when you’re rated at #2 in the nation. I’m glad I saved face and moved Auburn down to #4 in my Power Rankings last week before this past weekend’s debacle.

9. Louisville (5-0)
The Cardinals just scored again…somewhere in America.

10. Notre Dame (5-1)
Somehow, someway, the Irish fight their way back into the top 10. Damn you Michigan State! You had ND on the freakin’ ropes for three quarters you shmucks! Ahh well, the Irish still have one of the best quarterbacks in the nation and RB Darius Walker is starting to hit is stride again, so I guess Notre Dame is deserving of top 10 honors again…I guess.

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.

Remember though, the two athletes I pick are usually going to be on a team that played somebody other than The International School of the Blind.

That’s just how I roll – here are your top performers of the week:

Offensive Player of the Week: Darren McFadden, RB Arkansas
Any player that helps an unranked program top the formerly #2 overall team in the nation on its home turf gets my attention for player of the week honors. McFadden and fellow tailback Felix Jones were the Razorbacks’ offense on Saturday in Arkansas’ 27-10 victory over Auburn. He rushed for 145 yards on 28 carries and his touchdown in the second quarter was the first rushing score that the Tigers had given up all season.

Reason to further embrace McFadden’s performance (and Jones’ performance as well) is that Razorbacks’ QB Mitch Mustain only attempted 10 passes. McFadden and Jones combined for 249 yards and two touchdowns, which was more than 68% of Arkansas’s total offensive output.

Defensive Player of the Week: Aaron Ross, CB Texas
Okalahoma didn’t prove to be that much of a challenge to Texas after all, but that was mainly because of Ross’s performance on defense for the Long Horns. Ross had two interceptions, eight tackles and scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery in Texas’s 28-10 victory over the Sooners.

Ross’ fumble recovery was intended for Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson, but Ross turned it into a scoring play for Texas. The play eventually provided the Long Horns with the winning points in the contest and will keep Texas in the top 10 of college football’s elite.

So, what did we learn this weekend in college football?

– I’m sorry SEC fans, but after this weekend nobody is going to convince me that LSU and Auburn are better than a team like West Virginia. I drank the Cool Aid when guys were harping on me to look more closely at the schedule when ranking teams. Guess what? The Mountaineers would run all over Auburn and LSU would crap themselves at the thought of another “big game” atmosphere.

– Florida just finds ways to win. Crazy plays being drawn in the dirt, the offense has to carry them one weekend, then the defense carries them the next, the use of two quarterbacks, whatever – the Gators just find ways to beat opponents.

– I gave props to one poster last week (slappy SEC fan John) after he said LSU should have been ranked higher in my Power Rankings. This week, I’ve got to hand it to another poster (SEC Larry) as he told me that JaMarcus Russell would throw more than one interception against Florida. Russell had three…great call slappy Florida fan Larry.

– Ohio State is still the most well rounded team in college football and I’m thoroughly convinced that QB Troy Smith is a cyborg robot that was built to do one thing on this earth – throw three touchdown passes in every game he plays.

– The Michigan Wolverines are throwing the ball with a lot of consistency – throwing the ball!

– After Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Auburn have all fallen the way they have the past couple of weeks – California is starting to look like a pretty good football team again.

– The Trojans can’t make it a habit of eking out wins and being ranked as high as they are, can they?

Lets take a look at the biggest games of the day and then follow the rest of the action with some quick hits:

(#5) Florida 23, (#9) LSU 10
Oh, how I love admitting how wrong I was every week. In my College Football Game of the Week for Bullz-Eye.com, I thought the Tigers were going to somewhat run away with this game. Florida hadn’t started a season 6-0 since 1996, the Gators were winning close games by smoke and mirrors and that stingy LSU defense was going to rise to the occasion and suffocate the better than average Florida offense.

Well, unless it’s an Ohio State game, I’ve proven that I simply can’t predict the winner of a highly touted college football contest. Believe it or not, I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again – probably next weekend.

Most impressed with: Freshman Tim Tebow is a stud and here’s major props to head coach Urban Meyer for using him even though he already has a highly successful QB in Chris Leak. You see, sometimes coaches over think themselves (like Joe Torre against the Tigers for example) and they don’t use all of their weapons. Meyer found a way to get this kid on the field and it translated into Tebow going 2 for 2 passing with two touchdowns and a rushing score to tie the game at seven all in the first quarter. Tebow finished with 36 yards passing on just the two tosses, 35 yards rushing and also played the quad drums at halftime, I think.

Least impressed with: I built up Russell like a campaign manager for a political candidate in my game of the week. And what do I get for my campaigning? Three interceptions and a costly fumble at the Florida one-yard line in the second quarter that negated a potential Tigers scoring drive. At least he responded well once he got the ball back – by throwing his first of three picks on his first passing attempt after the fumble. I can’t fault LSU’s defense that much, since Russell was totally inept all game and the Tigers had a punt blocked at midfield. But this is twice that the Tigers wet the bed in big games this season and this loss comes after LSU knew that Auburn had already been beaten.

Arkansas 27, (#2) Auburn 10
The score up above is not a misprint folks – #2 Auburn actually lost to the Razorbacks…at home. The worst part about this game for the Tigers isn’t that they lost to an inferior opponent nor was it that they will lose their number two ranking or even that they were beaten at home. The worst part about this for the Tigers is that they didn’t fumble, didn’t throw an interception to beat themselves – no, they just got outright hammered by ArkanFREAKINsas.

Most impressed with: RB Darren McFadden for the Razorbacks was unbelievable Saturday. McFadden rushed 28 times for 144 yards and a score on one of the best defenses in the nation (at least coming into this contest they were on of the best). McFadden won this game by himself on offense and there is no better proof of that than looking at QB Mitch Mustain’s numbers after the game – 7 of 10 for 87 yards and a touchdown. The starting quarterback only threw 10 times, are you kidding me?

Least impressed with: Well done Auburn. Like I’ve already noted – it wasn’t Brandon Cox or Kenny Irons or anything else. The Tigers just got beaten silly.

Quick Shots:
Just a few more seconds and Washington might have pulled out an upset over (#3) USC. The Trojans get the 26-20 victory, but how good is Pete Carroll feeling after two back to back weeks in which his team had to escape the claws of death late in the game?…(#1) Ohio State routed Bowling Green 35-7 thanks to the cyborg Smith going 17 of 20 for 191 yards and three touchdowns. Also, WR Ted Ginn Jr. caught 10 passes for 122 yards and a score… (#4) West Virginia, who will be ranked higher again in my Power Rankings next week, tore up hapless Mississippi State 42-14. I don’t care who they played, the Mountaineers can score and hey, they didn’t lose to Arkansas. Steve Slaton is a freak (26 carries for 185 yards and a TD)…Some people actually thought that Michigan State could trip up (#6) Michigan in Ann Arbor this weekend, because of how close the Spartans usually play the Wolverines. Then Mike Hart, Chad Henne and Mario Manningham ran onto the field and laid a 31-13 beat down on Sparty and those same people vowed never to speak again…I said this last week and I’ll say it again – people are forgetting about (#7) Texas. The Long Horns went into Oklahoma and handled a pretty good Sooners team 28-10 rather easily. Freshman Colt McCoy continues to have a solid season in not doing more than what is asked of him and the Texas defense continues to be pretty solid as well. The Long Horn D couldn’t stop Adrian Peterson (25 carries for 109 yards and a TD) all game, but kept him in the ballpark enough for him not to kill them…After seeing (#13) Tennessee completely dismantle (#10) Georgia 51-33 in between the hedges Saturday, I’m now thoroughly convinced that the Volunteers are a top 10 team. Erik Ainge to Robert Meachem is just fun to watch…Like I said in the intro, (#16) California has been sitting in the back of the bus all season after losing its opener at home to Tennessee. But after a 45-24 rout over (#11) Oregon on Saturday, the Golden Bears are starting to inch closer to the spot they were ranked before the Vols knocked them of course… (#12) Notre Dame beat Stanford 31-10 after another slow start by the offense – whoopee. QB Brady Quinn threw three more touchdown passes – again, whoopee. I will give credit to RB Darius Walker, however, which after rushing for back-to-back 140-yard games, is starting to hit his stride again…Oh, (#15) Clemson you almost scared me! I’ve been pimping the Tigers’ play for three weeks now and they almost dropped the ball against a Wake Forest team that had them up against the ropes for most of the contest. Clemson rallied for 24 points in the fourth quarter alone, however, to beat the Demon Deacons 27-17 and save me from further embarrassment this weekend…

Random Thoughts:

– Another game, another 40-plus points scored by (#8) Louisville. The Cardinals beat Mississippi Valley State Central Eastern Fordham Road Langston U 44-17 on Friday night.

– (#17) Florida State lost to North Carolina State 24-20 on Thursday night. Somebody explain to me again how these new clock rules are better for the game? NC State had the ball with over two minutes left in the game and was able to run the clock out on three plays? Interesting…

– Illinois goes on the road and beats Michigan State last week, but falls to Indiana at home this weekend? This is further evidence that John L. Smith and the rest of the boys up in East Lansing need to be shown the door.

– Here is another shocker: Pittsburgh is now 5-1 after beating Syracuse 21-11 on the road this weekend. But the Panthers only loss this season? Michigan State…at home.

– Speaking of the Orange that is Syracuse, do they not have some of the worst uniforms in college football? I actually like Oregon’s uni’s after starring at Syracuse’s threads for three hours on a Saturday.

– Wisconsin has a pure bowling ball of a running back in freshman P.J. Hill. The kid is 5-9”, 242 lbs. and just rolls over opponents. Hill racked up 249 yards on 35 carries in the Badgers 41-9 victory over Northwestern on Saturday.

Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville has been the Tigers head coach for eight years now – and he’d like to officially announce that he’s had it with the NCAA “playoff” format.

In a recent ESPN.com article, Tuberville voiced his opinions about the current BCS format and more specifically, how it hurts SEC teams trying to get to a national title.

“I’ve about had it with this playoff deal,” Tuberville said after a lengthy, emotional argument for a playoff. “We all understand in our conference how tough it is. In our conference, that’s about the only chance we’d have to make it.”

“The problem we have is you have 120 universities that are I-A and probably 25 would say they have a legitimate chance each year,” he said. “And you have presidents that for some reason look at it more as for the money than having a national championship on the field. They keep coming up with lame excuses about academics. Football players miss fewer classes than anybody.”

“Presidents take the money and go spend it, but they don’t worry about the business of making it better,” Tuberville said. “They keep coming up with excuses, yet we’re playing [the national championship game] Jan. 8. It’s hypocritical.”

Amen.

I love college football, but I’ve been telling everybody within earshot for years that the NCAA will never hold the power that the NFL has without a playoff format. Teams like USC and Nebraska (albeit not lately for the Cornhuskers) have been beating tiny schools and boasting powerful rankings for years. While other programs like Auburn and LSU beat each other up and virtually have no chance at a National Championship. As Tuberville noted, 120 (119 to be accurate) schools participate in the college football season every year. But you can eliminate about 110 of them from having a realistic shot at being ranked #1 or #2 right off the bat.

The last quote I took from Tuberville up above is the one that should hold the most water. The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are each run like a business. You have your entertainment, you market it and you sell it to the public. You also take those profits and you work on making it better. The NC-Two-A gets it’s entertainment from players who are playing purely for the love of the game or for a chance to reach the next level. It’s a cheaper cost to run things and the big wigs of the NCAA have no interest in making it better for the general public or for the students/coaches. Sure, they still have to pay for coaches, fields, equipment, etc. But they also receive money from boosters and sponsors (how much does Nike shell out to but its swoosh on those hideous Oregon uniforms?) – so don’t tell me they need all of these bowl sponsors (and more specifically their money) just to support the programs.

Tuberville is right – it’s about the players. So, give these student athletes what should matter most:

1) A great education to prepare them for life after sports.

2) An opportunity to showcase what they can do in case they are good enough for the next level.

3) And three – give these athletes something bigger than the Fritos-Pampers Instate.com Bowl at the end of season – due to the fact they had to go through Auburn, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State and Georgia just to get there, while their competition is ranked #1 and had to face Little School U, Blind Mary’s School of the Deaf and Central High School.