Great day. New Rankings

November 7, 2010

Now that I have semi-recovered from the Texas letdown, let me exclaim that today was a wonderful day of college football. What a great day.

Joe Paterno wins games No. 400, Michigan-Illinois play a triple-overtime shootout classic 67-65, Boise State and TCU both showcase their skills, Les Miles does it again, Iowa does it again over Indiana, Iowa State almost did it again over Nebraska, the ACC Atlantic becomes wide open, and the Big 12 South is Oklahoma State's to lose, etc.

It all started with the noon games, I watched seven of them and the theme was fumbles, dropped passes, and missed kicks. I counted 13 fumbles, 12 dropped passes, and 5 missed kicks.

But two of the guys that were dropping balls are their team's best receivers: Oklahoma State's Justin Blackmon and Michigan's Roy Roundtree. Both of them had huge days, how about Michigan-Illinois game? 67-65 in triple-overtime. And today I can say that I witnessed Okie State's Dan Bailey's first missed field goal. Along with witnessing Joe Paterno's 400th career win.

What a great game that was. Penn State with Matt McGloin at quarterback overcame a 21-0 deficit to win 35-21. Last week Evan Royster became Penn State's All-Time leading rusher, now Paterno gets 400. By the way, Penn State is now 15-0 when Royster runs for 100 yards or more. Festivities began immediately afterward.
Class postgame response on TV:
ESPN's Heather Cox: "Coach Paterno, what motivated you to get to this point?"
Joe Paterno: "Oh, gee, I don't know, uhhhh...Getting Paid."

Penn State was down 21-7 at halftime but I bet Joe Paterno's halftime speech went something like this: "HEY! I'm tryin to win 400 here. What the heck are you all doing?!" Who wouldn't respond to that and play their hearts out for Joe?

What else happened in the 3:30 games? LSU knocked off Alabama. Les Miles ran a fake punt and then on 4th down and 1 he ran a reverse. Classic. I love Les Miles. The Quotable Les Miles.
After that game:
CBS's Tracy Wolfson: "Enjoy the victory coach"
Les Miles: "Oh I promise you I will." A lot of sass from Miles haha.

What else happened in the 3:30 games?
Boise State and TCU both showcased who they are. Remember I kept saying I don't want to see these guys play each other again because we want to see them take down the big boys. Ha my analogy on ComRadio was "At the playground, TCU and Boise State have to play in the woodchips while the BCS schools play in the sand." I came up with that right on the spot haha. But yeah anyway, if both of these teams are worthy of playing for the national championship, then yes, let them play against each other -- for the national championship. But that's all I'll say about that situation.

TCU won for the first time in Salt Lake City, but you know what that proved? It did not prove that TCU is that good, it proved that Utah was a pretender. I've said all year that I was not a believer in the Utes. But look what Boise State did, they shut down a prolific Hawaii offense. Hawaii scores on everybody, except Boise. TCU shut down a Utah offense that is mediocre against good defenses. And it's just like the Oregon-Stanford matchup a while ago that it was a complete mismatch and Utah can't compete with TCU in terms of speed and athleticism. But we already know that the human pollsters whose decisions count that didn't watch these games will give the edge to TCU. I watched both of these games in their entirety, and I was more impressed with that Boise State did. Kellen Moore had 332 passing yards in the first half. He finished with 507 yards and he only played three quarters. Again, classic Chris Peterson pulling his starters for the 4th quarter when he easily could have kept them in for more "style points" to put up more points than TCU did. And Boise State's defense had four sacks in the third quarter alone. They held the nation's top passing team to under 200 yards. The road is now clear for TCU and for Boise, they still have to go through Reno, Nevada and Colin Kaepernick put on another show today.

Headed back to the national title picture, of course Oregon and Auburn control their own destiny, Alabama no longer does. All thanks to Les Miles. "Sweet Home Alabama" yeah they better go back home and stay there. Nick Saban can take a seat. He just outcoached by a guy that some people called incompetent, even though he is in fact, brilliant.

The Big 12's top team's all had trouble today. Texas lost. Oklahoma lost. Missouri lost. Baylor lost. Nebraska should have lost.

Of course it was finally time for Baylor to take a step back, Oklahoma State made quick work of them in a rout. I only watched that entire game because I like Baylor's uniforms and seeing Justin Blackmon put on a show.
But now with Oklahoma being upset by Texas A&M on the road, College Station one of the toughest places in the country to play, things are interesting in the Big 12 South, but really not as interesting as it looks. Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M all sit with two losses while Oklahoma State has one. Oklahoma State and Oklahoma will play in Bedlam at the end of the year. The winner of that game still wins the division, regardless and the reasoning is this: If Oklahoma State wins, they win 1st place, if Oklahoma wins, it will be a four-team tie (reminiscent of the three-way tie in 2008 where Texas got screwed), and as we learned from 2008, the Big 12 tiebreaker is the highest ranked BCS team, which no matter what will be Oklahoma if they win. There is no such thing as head-to-head matchups when the tie is between more than two teams, as know from 2008 when Texas beat Oklahoma, but Oklahoma still won the tie-breaker by .008%. I will never forget that.

Nebraska pulled out a one-point overtime victory over Iowa State after Paul Rhoads decided to go for a two-point conversion. The fake extra point was a good gutsy call, but the execution was poor and the pass was interception. If Eric Cook, the holder, would have put more velocity on the ball instead of lofting it up or simply led the receiver a few feet, it would have been good and Nebraska would have been upset. But Nebraska is still without a doubt the best team in the Big 12 Conference.

Anyway, the ACC Atlantic is up for grabs after North Carolina knocked off Florida State. Maryland and NC State both lost today also so all three sit tied with two conference losses. Hypothetically, the Maryland Terrapins control their own destiny because they still play both Florida State and NC State to end the regular season.

And speaking of controlling own destiny in their divisions, who will play in the SEC Championship Game? If Auburn beats Georgia, then regardless whether they lose to Alabama or not, they're in. In the East Division it all comes down to South Carolina at Florida next week. South Carolina lost to Arkansas while Florida was up 41-0 at halftime over Vanderbilt. Florida has reinvented itself and can still win the SEC. The South Carolina loss really doesn't affect anything because either way, with all tiebreakers factored in, it all comes down to this huge matchup next week, even if Carolina would have won today.

Anyway, a lot of changes. Look who's back in the rankings near the bottom.

My College Football Rankings heading into Week 11
Last Week's Rankings
(x) = my previous ranking
* = game to watch
And for more of the Boise State - TCU argument that I'm tired of. All last year I said TCU was not only better than Boise State, but the best team in the country. I advocated them so much last year and they let me down.
1. Boise State 8-0 (1)
Beat Hawaii 42-7
Next: at Idaho
2. Oregon 9-0 (2)
Beat Washington 53-16
Next: at California
3. TCU 10-0 (5)
Beat Utah 47-7
Next: vs. San Diego State
4. Auburn 10-0 (3)
Beat Chattanooga 62-24
Next: vs. Georgia
5. Nebraska 8-1 (7)
Beat Iowa State 31-30
Next: vs. Kansas
6. LSU 8-1 (9)
Beat Alabama 24-21
Next: vs. Louisiana-Monroe
7. Stanford 8-1 (12)
Beat Arizona 42-17
Next: at Arizona State*
8. Wisconsin 8-1 (10)
Beat Purdue 34-13
Next: vs. Indiana
9. Alabama 7-2 (4)
Lost to LSU
Next: vs. Mississippi State*
10. Ohio State 8-1 (11)
Next: vs. Penn State*
11. Arkansas 7-2 (18)
Beat South Carolina 41-20
Next: vs. UTEP
12. Iowa 7-2 (13)
Beat Indiana 18-13
Next: at Northwestern*
13. Michigan State 8-2 (15)
Beat Minnesota 31-8
14. Oklahoma 7-2 (8)
Lost to Texas A&M 33-19
Next: vs. Texas Tech*
15. Utah 8-1 (6)
Lost to TCU 47-7
Next: at Notre Dame
16. Oklahoma State 8-1 (20)
Beat Baylor 55-28
Next: at Texas*
17. Virginia Tech 7-2 (19)
Beat Georgia Tech 28-21
Next: at North Carolina*
18. Mississippi State 7-2 (21)
Next: at Alabama*
19. Missouri 7-2 (17)
Lost to Texas Tech 24-17
Next: vs. Kansas State
20. Arizona 7-2 (16)
Lost to Stanford 42-17
Next: vs. USC*
21. South Carolina 6-3 (14)
Lost to Arkansas 41-20
Next: at Florida*
22. Florida 6-3 (NR)
Beat Vanderbilt 55-14
Next: vs. South Carolina*
23. Nevada 8-1 (25)
Beat Idaho 63-17
Next: at Fresno State*
24. Pittsburgh 5-3 (24)
Next: at Connecticut*
25. Texas A&M 6-3 (NR)
Beat Oklahoma 33-19
Next: at Baylor*
Bubble: Central Florida (7-2), Penn State (6-3), Temple (8-2), San Diego State (6-2), Florida State (6-3), Miami (6-3), Navy (6-3), Air Force (6-4)