Just some stuff that crossed my mind this weekend and over the past few days.
Down Go the Tide
I did not see this one coming…at all.
Everything about this win was impressive by South Carolina and I really didn’t think they had it in them to beat as good of a team as Alabama.
Especially with Stephen Garcia at quarterback, who finished 17 of 20 with 201 yards and three touchdowns. Last year he couldn’t even play that well against someone like Citadel, now he’s put together the performance of a lifetime in the biggest of moments.
Kudos to the Gamecock defense (a unit I thought looked more ACC-ish than SEC-ish this year) for holding Alabama running backs Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram to a combined 64 yards.
No that is not a misprint.
The AP Poll Strikes Again
You may have noticed that South Carolina is not ranked ahead of Alabama in the latest AP Poll. The Tide fell seven spots to No. 8 while South Carolina jumped nine spots to No. 10 in the country.
I don’t see any reason why Alabama shouldn’t have fallen nine spots and be placed directly behind South Carolina.
Both teams have one loss now and it’s not like South Carolina lost to some average team either. The Gamecocks lost on the road to current No. 7 Auburn and now deserve to be ahead of the team they just beat.
Alabama will have plenty of opportunities to move up in the polls with games against the rest of the SEC, including matchups with LSU and Auburn still on the horizon.
It just doesn’t feel right that they are still ahead of South Carolina.
Ohio State as the New No.1!
That is the most sarcastic exclamation point you’ll ever see.
Is anyone outside of Columbus even remotely excited that Ohio State is the No. 1 team in the country right now?
We’ve just completed half of a college football season and the Buckeyes have one decent win to their name, a 12 point victory over Miami (who just got destroyed by Florida State) gift wrapped by Jacory Harris’ four interceptions.
Talk about living off of last year’s success, there is no way anybody could objectively have Ohio State as the No. 1 team in the land. You just can’t do it.
Urban Meyer
I loved watching the LSU-Florida game Saturday as it was one of the most entertaining we’ve seen all year.
Before that game I have to admit that I didn’t harbor any ill-will towards Urban Meyer, especially considering that a large portion of the Notre Dame fan base despises him.
I understood why a lot of people didn’t like him though because of the arrests in his time in Gainesville, his "snubbing" of Notre Dame, and all of the winning too.
After watching him on Saturday though I know now why people feel like that.
The first time it occurred to me was at some point in the second half when a break didn’t go Florida’s way and boy did Urban and his coaching staff not look happy. But it wasn’t so much the look you see from most coaches; it was more of a "someone is going to pay for this" kind of look.
Not that big of a deal really, but I had thoughts of Meyer and a bunch of goons cornering a helpless SEC official after the game. Hey, it got me wondering and kind of put that explosion Meyer had on that reporter (the one who covered a story on one of the Gator receivers saying he was happy Brantley was more of a natural passer than Tebow) during the spring in a fresh context.
The second moment was with his halftime speech with the ESPN sideline reporter as he was walking into the locker room.
The reporter asked if John Brantley was injured and what pain he was playing through. Meyer first gave the female reporter the look of death (how dare you ask that question, do you want to be cornered after the game too!) and dismissively replied that Brantley was not hurt.
Most times I’m fine with a coach saying his player isn’t hurt, but Meyer just comes across as the biggest A-hole in the world.
Plus, after the game we found out that Brantley was indeed hurt. Or maybe he wasn’t, heck who knows.
The third moment was during his post-game press conference when he was acting like an A-hole once again and treating a reporter like garbage due to a question about LSU’s fake field goal attempt that led to the game-winning score.
He didn’t believe the call was right (covering up his simmering anger like he hadn’t seen the replay), and continued to beret the reporter all because Urban Meyer couldn’t take the fact that his team lost.
It was the perfect trifecta on how to really make your university and football team look bad and I lost almost all respect for Urban Meyer after this episode.
I couldn’t imagine him ever being able to deal with the pressures at Notre Dame, nor would I want him as a coach.
Geaux Tigers
I know it sounds silly to a lot of people, but isn’t LSU a legit national championship contender?
Sure their offense is unreliable, but it’s not like they are void of playmakers on that side of the ball. It’s easy to make fun of Les Miles too…but he just keeps on winning and he deserves a lot of credit for beating Florida this past weekend.
I just find it odd that an undefeated SEC team is "only" ranked No. 9 in the country, especially with the difficult schedule LSU has faced in the first half of the season.
Sharing the same frustration as South Carolina, the Tigers have proved it on the field and remain undefeated yet are still behind Alabama. It should be a good one when the Tide finally meet LSU later in the season.
For my money, I think LSU beats Ohio State right now.
Take that as a ringing endorsement of LSU or a lack of confidence in the Buckeyes, but I know LSU would man-handle the Ohio State offensive line and OSU would have a hard time running the ball at all.
The Tigers still have a tough schedule ahead (@ Auburn, Alabama, @ Arkansas) but I’ll be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon that doesn’t seem to exist right now.
Spartans Lead the Big Ten
…Or at least they are tied with Ohio State for the lead.
The Spartans have beat Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Michigan in three out of the past four weeks and we’ve already gone over Ohio State’s vaunted schedule. We can go ahead and say that Michigan State is leading the conference.
The best part of all this?
Michigan State and Ohio State do not play each other this year.
You can just smell the rank odor of Michigan State taking care of business down the stretch (winnable games against Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue, Penn State) and gutting out a tough victory on the road at Iowa, and never even sniffing the national title game.
That is, unless Wisconsin beats Ohio State this weekend.
Is Nebraska Back?
Quite the display the Huskers put on last Thursday in a pounding of Kansas State. Nebraska freshman QB Taylor Martinez has taken this team from average/poor to very good offensively in a matter of a month and a half.
It just goes to show what a mobile quarterback can do at the college level as they are the most dangerous players on the field and half of the time damn near unstoppable (can Crist run the ball just a little more on option reads please!).
I know Texas has fallen to pieces this year, but I am very excited to see how Nebraska does against their first true big opponent.
I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that Texas is going to pull the upset.
Don’t Forget About Utah
The Utes were losing to Iowa State after the first quarter last weekend but ended up pouring 31 points in the second quarter on the way to a 68-27 romp.
I caught a highlight of the game during Saturday, but otherwise didn’t see anything from this contest.
What did raise some eyebrows for me in the stat box was that Iowa State did not covert a single third down (0-11), yet still scored 27 points.
Trojans at 1-2 in the Pac-10
Stanford’s late game-winning field goal against USC left me with some mixed feelings, which isn’t unusual seeing as how I felt that way with the Trojans sanctions and the like.
My initial thought as I clicked on the ESPN Gamecast to see how the end of the game went down was, "Crap, USC is going to beat a Stanford team that had their way with Notre Dame."
I was excited to see Stanford come back and win it (it will never get old watching Kiffin walk off the field as a loser), but I still had two problems, if you want to call them that.
1. Even though they lost, USC played Stanford tighter than we did. I would make the point that the Irish might have the better defense this year (when was the last time you could say that??) but the Trojans still have a pretty good offense that is going to give us fits.
2. It’s like a catch-22 situation right now, as I still think USC is very good and may still have a nice season, but they’ll likely limp into their matchup with Notre Dame with four or maybe even five losses.
Sure, it will be nice to end "the streak" but beating a 6-4 USC team feels a lot less rewarding.
FSU 1-0 vs. Miami without Bowden
Jacory Harris completed seven more passes than Christian Ponder in this game, although he threw 26 more balls to begin with. Harris now has 44 touchdowns and 33 interceptions in his career…pretty average I’d say.
In my weekly picks I said Florida State had an advantage in their ground game and they proved me right with authority notching 298 yards on just 41 carries.
Florida State is pretty good and no, I haven’t the slightest idea what happened in Norman a few weeks ago.
Michigan’s Perfect Conference Record is Gone
Quite an interesting game the UM-MSU rivalry was last weekend. Denard Robinson looked human by finally turning the ball over through the air and not being a menace on the ground. Still, his "bad" game notched him 300 more total yards.
Is he still the Heisman favorite?
Where does Michigan go from here?
Is a (likely) 8-4 season with one of the worst defenses in the nation good enough for the Ann Arbor faithful?
Is a three year stretch of 7-17 in the Big Ten good enough even with Denard Robinson and a talented offense coming back?
I don’t know, but I would guess that Rich Rodriguez stays at Michigan at least until Robinson leaves school.
Rapid Fire!
What are the odds Florida wears orange jerseys again this year?
When is the next time we’ll see North Carolina in a bowl game?
I’m setting the over/under for Boston College’s ACC wins at two.
Sad to see Oregon State’s James Rodgers done for the season.
Ditto for Kyle Rudolph…damn it.
Back to Oregon State for a second, doesn’t it seem like they’re always at No. 24 in the polls?
This is Joe Paterno’s last season at Penn State right?
Chas Todd looked pretty good as Rutgers new quarterback last Friday.
Navy got off to a very disappointing start this year but defeated Wake Forest (again) this past weekend. Look for the Middies to heat up as they prepare to face Notre Dame in a couple weeks.
That is all...