Category: College Football (Page 282 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.

On tap this week: (#1) Ohio State at (#13) Iowa

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.

Nothing shifted in the top six of both polls – although the biggest mover in the top 10 was Georgia with the Bulldogs barely surviving Colorado over the weekend. UG dropped from seventh to ninth in the USA Today poll, while dropping from nine to 10 in the AP poll.

Here is how I see the Top 10:

1. Ohio State (4-0)
Little bit of a scare from Penn State over the weekend, but the defense shut the door when it had to. Here’s an interesting story that came out of this contest – apparently one of the Buckeyes players lost his wristband with some plays typed on it and a PSU’s player found it. The Nittany Lion returned the wristband immediately to OSU’s sidelines, however, and nothing more came out of it. Interesting considering how valuable that piece of information would have been to Penn State in a tight contest – but what an admiral thing to do.

2. Auburn (4-0)
Not much of a test from Buffalo, but boy did the Tigers get it done on the ground this weekend. Freshman RB Ben Tate finished with 111 yards on just seven carries and Brad Lester contributed with 82 yards and two touchdowns. Auburn rushed for a total of 237 yards and will be tough to beat if they can get contributions like this from Tate and Lester to go along with starter Kenny Irons.

3. USC (3-0)
The Trojans were another team that had their hands full on Saturday. It wasn’t until early in the third quarter when USC built a 10-point lead over unranked Arizona. They stayed unbeaten, but the Trojans took a huge hit with loss of WR Dwayne Jarrett for two to four weeks with a shoulder sprain.

4. Florida (4-0)
Chris Leak is continuing to show the NCAA that he is a Heisman candidate. Leak now has 12 touchdown passes on the year and has a QB rating of 173.77. Big SEC test for the Gators comes up this weekend against 3-1 Alabama, but playing the game in the swamps should carry Florida.

5. Michigan (4-0)
Here is the telltale sign of how much Michigan has improved this season on defense – the Wolverines are ranked number one in the nation at stopping the run. Incredible considering how much U of M struggled last year halting teams on the ground. WR Mario Manningham continues his barrage on defensive backs this season – the sophomore now has six touchdowns on the season and is averaging 20.1 yards per reception.

6. West Virginia (4-0)
The Mountaineers impressed me by winning a game in which RB Steve Slaton only had 72 yards on the ground last weekend. But is WV good enough to beat Florida and Michigan? I’m not buying it like the AP and USA Today polls are – both polls has West Virginia at No. 4.

7. Texas (3-1)
The Long Horns true test comes next week when they travel to Oklahoma to take on the Sooners. For now, Texas beating Rice, Iowa State and most likely Sam Houston State this Saturday, keeps the Long Horns right here at seven unless any one of six teams loses this weekend.

8. Louisville (4-0)
Louisville’s perseverance is amazing. The Cardinals lose running back Michael Bush for the season and then lose QB Brian Brohm for a few weeks, but yet they keep pushing on. Louisville is still the top ranked team in the nation in the scoring department.

9. LSU (3-1)
With Georgia having to pull off a last second miracle over unranked Colorado over the weekend, LSU gets to slip past the Bulldogs and into the ninth spot. The Tigers crushed Tulane last week and in doing so, they rebounded from the 7-3 loss to Auburn and got themselves refocused. This week, Mississippi State, but next weekend – top rated Florida in Gainesville.

10. Georgia (4-0)
All right Georgia, this is your warning shot. I know all teams go through games like that, but the Bulldogs better settle on a quarterback (and why not frosh Joe Cox who saved the season for Georgia?) fast or else the defense is going to have to pitch shut outs from here on out.

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 St. Mary’s School of Art.

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

Offensive Player of the Week: Brady Quinn, QB Notre Dame
I’ll be honest, I wish the guy I’ll mention after this won his game on Saturday night, because Quinn’s team should have been beaten by about three touchdowns by MSU and his numbers are inflated with the amount of times he had to throw to get the Irish back into the game. However – 20 of 36 for 319 yards and five touchdowns is hard to argue with.

QB Colt Brennan of Hawaii actually had little bit better numbers than Quinn if you can believe that. But Brennan’s performance was in a losing effort to ranked Boise State, so in my opinion the nod has got to go to Quinn for saving Notre Dame’s season (for the moment). Brennan threw for 388 yards, five touchdowns and completed five more passes than Quinn with the same amount of attempts (25 of 36) in Hawaii’s 41-34 loss to the Broncos.

Defensive Player of the Week: Daymeion Hughes, DB California
What a weekend by the senior defensive back from California. Hughes intercepted two passes in the Golden Bears 49-21 victory over previously ranked Arizona State. Hughes returned his second interception 47 yards for a touchdown to give California a 42-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter and also had 10 tackles (seven solo). He now has five interceptions on the season.