Week 6 thoughts
This was an interesting week in college football. There were a number of big games, most notably, Texas-Oklahoma, USC-Cal, and Georgia-Tennessee. There were a number of games which looked lopsided on paper and then ended up being very close victories for some teams. All of this served to shuffle the MRI around a lot and throw a new team on top of the pack. Even teams that lost this week moved ahead of the team that beat them, most notably, Cal, after their strong game against USC, proving that they could hang around in the second half and still give themselves a chance to win.
My thoughts this week are varied so stay with me. I meant to post the last two weeks, but things have been crazy so some of these may be a little longer than you are used to.
- First, I am going to dismiss Fresno State from the BCS contenders. It was a nice run the first few weeks of the season, and I thought that they definitely had what it would take to mow through the rest of the season without a hitch, especially after their win against Kansas State, which I have talked about before. However, the last two weeks they have blown it. A shocking loss to Louisiana Tech last week would pretty much have ended the hopes for anything outside of one of the WAC's bowls. This is especially true after watching how Louisiana Tech got destroyed by Auburn this week. However, you should have expected Fresno to come back this week. Instead, another shocking loss this week to UTEP makes their chances of winning the WAC a long shot as they are now 0-2. Not only does this second loss hurt Fresno State, but it also hurts Boise State. How you ask? Boise State goes against Fresno State, in what was thought to be the matchup which would leave one team undefeated and with a chance to break into the BCS top 10 and a chance at an at large bid. Now that game doesn't have the same schedule strength for Boise State and will most likely hurt them, even if they do win. Fresno State with the second loss of the year is now 3-2 and lingering at 48th in the MRI standings. This will be a position hard to maintain, especially given the weakness in the WAC this year, which now Fresno State is part of.
- The Big East is missing and someone better call their mothers, because they haven't been heard from in two weeks. If you look up and down the rankings this week in the MRI, you will notice that no team from the Big East is listed in the Top 25. There is one member of the WAC, Mountain West, and Conference USA. Even the two team independents managed to squeeze in Notre Dame this week after their win against Stanford. However, no team from the Big East was rated high enough in the MRI to warrant the blue and yellow Top 25 numbers next to their name. The current MRI leader for the league is Boston College(#26), a team who no one expected to be tied for the lead in the conference, yet they are on top in the weakest of the BCS conferences. West Virginia(#29), a team that everyone expected to be on top in the conference has yet to play a conference game was thoroughly beaten by Virginia Tech(#34) last week. This week during their bye, they had a lot to work on. The Big East was even listed under the Mountain West last week in the MRI standings. How bad is that? Besides Wyoming(#43) and MRI #9, Utah, no other team in the Mountain West has a record over .500. The Big East was able to move back ahead this week despite BC and West Virginia having the week off. A late comeback by Rutgers for a win, a close game between Syracuse and Florida State, and the surprisingly close game between Pittsburgh and Temple helped to move the Big East back up. While we mention it, Pittsburgh should be ashamed of themselves. Temple last week was massacred to the tune of 70 points. Pittsburgh came into Temple this week and played down to their level. Temple led throughout the game until the final 8 minutes when Pitt was able to score twice and hold off the Owls who scored late to make it only a five point victory for the Panthers. You can definitely say that Pittsburgh will be happy to see Temple leave the Big East at the end of this season.
- One of the teams which will take up play in the Big East next year is Cincinnati, and they have some explaining to do this week. They got beat by Army. Yes, Army. You remember them. They hadn't won a game since 2002. They hadn't won a home game since 2001. The last team they had beaten in both cases had been Tulane. Yet, somehow, the Cincinnati Bearcats played like pussycats, and got creamed by the cadets of West Point. Army, and their coach Bobby Ross, deserve a lot of credit for their win. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a turn around for Army. Cincinnati, meanwhile, has a lot of soul searching to do. Quarterback Gino Guidugli was quoted as saying, "We're probably the laughingstock of the nation." Gino, yes, yes you are.
- How bad is SMU? They lost to Rice on Saturday. That alone wouldn't have been enough to make me call them out. However, you could count the number of times that Rice threw the ball on one hand. Yes, they only threw the ball five times. How many passes did they complete? You only need one finger for that number. Rice completed one attempted pass for five total yards. Yet, they still won the game and racked up 496 yards on the ground. You would have thought that SMU would catch on. If their rushing defense is that pathetic, SMU should just give up, because in this game, just guessing run every down would have been right 94% of the time. There was a reason that SMU went winless last year. Had they not played San Jose State this year, they might have had a chance to do the same again this year.
- I called it two weeks ago. The Navy and Notre Dame game next week will actually mean something. Navy took care of business against Air Force, despite a close game which was really a pleasure to watch. Notre Dame survived this week against Stanford, despite doing everything they could to lose the game. Navy, with a win against the Irish at home, has a chance to go through the season without a loss, as their remaining games should be a lot easier than what they have seen so far. Notre Dame, with a win, has 3 games left which could actually help them climb into the Top 10, despite not being ranked currently. If they could win against BC, Tennessee, and possibly beat USC in the season finale, they definitely will be in the hunt for an at large BCS bid. This is a tough call for Notre Dame. They have, at times, looked terrible this season, including opening night against BYU, and their game yesterday. They will need to step up their performance, and the first step in doing that will be beating Navy on the road. Personally, you all know how much I hate Notre Dame. GO MIDSHIPMEN!
- Whoever purchases the receiver gloves and stick-um for the Nebraska Cornhuskers should be fired. Nebraska had 7 turnovers against Texas Tech in their game on Saturday, the worst loss ever for Nebraska in their 114 year history. This marks the fourth time in five games that Nebraska has had 4 or more turnovers in the game. They currently have a -11 turnover ratio, which is next to last in Division 1 football. The only two teams who are worse are SMU and Clemson, both at -12. Nebraska would most likely lead the league if it weren't for Western Illinois holding onto the ball just as poorly in their game against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers, currently #58 in the MRI, have a lot of work to do starting with holding onto the ball and not throwing to the team wearing the other colors. After that, they have to get their offense working as the only team they have more than 3 TDs against was Division 1-AA Western Illinois. After their performance on Saturday, it looks like their defense needs some help too, though they weren't helped by the turnovers deep in their own territory. Bill Callahan, good luck.
- The Wyatt Sexton experiment continues at MRI #12, Florida State. Since I didn't post two weeks ago, you missed me finally getting my wish. Chris Rix went down with a sprained ankle in the Florida State game against Clemson and has yet to return. That is because a young man by the name of Wyatt Sexton has stepped in and taken charge of a struggling offense. Sexton, a sophomore, played in two games last season, mostly as mop up work for Chris Rix in blow outs against Duke and North Carolina. This year, Sexton has been impressive. He stepped into the game against Clemson and led the offense beautifully to a win. It wasn't so much that he put up big stats in the game. It was more that his passes were accurate, with a completion percentage over 65%, and his receivers were given a chance to catch them and do something with them. This trend continued against North Carolina last week and Sexton put 3 TD passes up on the board. While the game against Syracuse was not as impressive, Sexton still proved he has what it takes to lead the team the rest of the year. Despite throwing no touchdowns and an interception against the Orange, Sexton held his ground in the Dome, a place that no one wants to go play. The hostile crowd berated him the entire game, yet with only one miscue on his part, you can hardly attack the young QB. Bobby Bowden has found his quarterback. If he doesn't stick with Sexton the rest of the season, it should only be due to injury.
- I paid $20 this weekend to get the ESPN GamePlan football package. Because of this, I got to see the second straight overtime victory for Northwestern, putting them to 2-1 in Big Ten and actually in the hunt for the conference title. I also watched Virginia Tech hold off Wake Forest on their final drive to win for the second week in a row and capture their first ACC road win. The real reason for the purchase, was to see two Top Ten MRI teams, duke it out. USC and Cal at the Coliseum was a great game which saw USC pull ahead only to have Cal keep coming back. Lost in the great game was the fact that Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback from Cal, tied an NCAA record by completing 23 passes in a row. That performance was almost enough to lead the Bears to their second straight victory over the Trojans, yet it was not enough. Rodgers had even led the Bears down to the 9 yard line late in the game with a chance to move ahead on the scoreboard. However, a sack and three incomplete passes left the Bears just short of dropping USC again. The performance by Cal was enough though to move the Bears ahead of USC in the MRI. USC lost some ground, in part because of losses by BYU and Stanford. Both teams dropped in the MRI standings leaving Cal at #10, from #8, and USC at #11, from #6. If you think this is the first time that has happened in the MRI where a winning team would actually lose MRI points while the losing team gains, you don't have to look any further back than Friday when Houston and Southern Mississippi played. Houston dominated every facet of the game but on the scoreboard. Southern Mississippi dropped 10 spots in the MRI from 26 to 36, despite the fact that they remained undefeated.
- The biggest game of the week was not the one I just finished talking about. It was the game between Texas and Oklahoma which began the day. This was a defensive player's dream game. Neither team was at home, as the game was at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and the crowd was split 50/50 right along the mid field line. It was raining and windy through most of the game, which severely limited the ability for either team to complete anything through the air. Once again, Oklahoma had the defensive answer to Texas's ground game. Cedric Benson, the star back for the Longhorns was held to under 100 yards, and without him to carry the team, the Texas offense struggled. Quarterback Vince Young could not get anything done through the air and twice, on runs, lost the ball, including one deep in Oklahoma territory after a fumble by Oklahoma gave Texas great field position. It looked like Texas was going to take the momentum lead in the game after that recovery, but Young's miscue once again turned the tide back to the Sooners. Oklahoma rode the back of Adrian Peterson, who ran for 225 yards against Texas, even though he failed to score a touchdown. Despite not scoring, he helped to set up all three of Oklahoma's scores with impressive running. And not to scare anyone in the Big 12, but this guy is still a freshman. Texas has now lost five games in a row against Oklahoma and it looks like they will have to wait until next year to try and be the big dog in the Big 12. The MRI had predicted a win for Texas by a small amount. Oklahoma was able to prove it wrong. Oklahoma moved up to #5 in the MRI with the win while dropping Texas to #13.
Finally, I thought I would make one comment on Auburn. The Tigers took over the
top spot in the MRI this week with their big win over Louisiana Tech. Yes, Auburn has the 83rd ranked schedule in the league as calculated by the MRI, with games so far against Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi State, and the Citadel. Their schedule doesn't get very much more difficult either, as they have already played two of their tough games against LSU and Tennessee. Their remaining big matchups are with Alabama, which every year can go either way, Georgia, after a bye week, and Arkansas, who has yet to show whether or not they should be feared. Auburn should be able to handle Alabama and Arkansas, but Georgia is really the wild card right now. After their disappointing loss against a Tennessee team which Auburn easily handled the week before, Georgia needs to regroup in a hurry. Auburn does lead the MRI right now, but they have also played one more game than most of the other leaders, and the race remains close. Any slips by the Tigers, or a great game by any of the other teams, could drop them from the lead spot and that could come at any time. Good luck Auburn, you will need it.
I hope you all enjoyed week 6. I know I did.
B
