New Rankings. Sep. 26

September 26, 2010


Glad this day is over. The Oregon-Arizona State game just finished up. A lot more scoring than expected, we know Oregon's defense is bad, but I didn't think Arizona State's offense was that good. Steven Threet shredded the secondary (as all teams can) but four interceptions took away the upset. He threw for over 380 yards and the Sun Devils racked up almost 600 yards of total offense. That's what Oregon's supposed to do, right? Arizona State did a great job of limiting the Oregon run plays, and only let LaMichael James break through once. They forced Oregon into passing situations Darron Thomas hasn't been asked to pass that much all season and the Ducks were terrible converting third downs. Nonetheless, they come away with a 42-31 win thanks to seven Arizona State turnovers.

But now we can all move on. Arizona in another late west-coast game squeaked by upset-minded California. Arizona won 10-9 on a Juron Criner touchdown in the final minute after trailing 9-3 the entire game. Not a lot of offense in that one, but Arizona's defense was good enough to keep them in the game.

A defense that was not good enough to keep the team in the game today was that of my Texas Longhorns. Garrett Gilbert got no help from his receivers, the officials, or his defense. But that's all I have to say about the Texas game. We can move on to the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma next Saturday. Of course, if you're Texas, you already moved on to the Oklahoma game before the UCLA game even started. I let out one of my calmer rants earlier today after the loss. If you'd like to take notice of it here it is in this link.

Texas did not play well, (did not play well is the euphony) and neither did Oklahoma. Neither team usually plays great the week before they play each other. If not for a costly botched punt by Cincinnati's DJ Woods, Oklahoma would have gone down in Cincinnati. That would have been a beautiful scene with Oklahoma walking out of Paul Brown Stadium with their heads hung low in misery. Oklahoma's defense got run all over and thrown all over by Cincinnati. When's the real Oklahoma going to show up? Preferably, it'll be after the Red River Rivalry because we all know, well I do at least, what this Oklahoma team is capable of. So many weapons and so many studs on that defense, there's no excuse for the close games they've played so far this year. They're going to want to come out next week and blow the doors of Texas and if Texas doesn't come out the same way, it's going to happen; Oklahoma will blow us out in the most intense rivalry game in all of sports. Don't try to talk to me after that game, or during it either.

I don't know what went wrong with Nebraska today. I had a field day today by the way. It was better than being at home (where I don't have access to espn3.com). At home I would have to change the channel to the next game during every commercial, and would miss chunks of some games when there was a lot of good ones on at the same time. But here at Penn State, I have two laptops both with espn3.com and two TV's in the room so I had a great day, watching four games a time and I was alternating the other TV between Alabama-Arkansas and North Carolina-Rutgers too.
Anyway, Nebraska took care of business against South Dakota State, but what a shocker on that scoreboard. Nebraska won 17-3. They only scored 17? Minnesota scored more than that. I couldn't watch this game, so I have no idea what went wrong for Nebraska. But as you'll see in the rankings, they still move up and really after the top 5, all the other teams in America don't play defense well enough to be in the BCS. There's going to be a lot of parody from teams ranked 6 and down throughout the year.

Arkansas and Alabama was a tough game. It was quite public that I picked Arkansas to win over Alabama and for a long three quarters it looked like it was going to happen before Alabama overcame the 13-point deficit and Ryan Mallett came apart in the fourth quarter.
Temple looked pretty good at the start of the Penn State matchup before Bernard Pierce left the game with an injury. Pierce is Temple's offense. He's the rusher and he sets up the pass. Without Pierce in there, Temple got nothing and Penn State got a lot of turnovers.

I want to touch on the Boise State-Oregon State game real quick. Like I said in my Week 4 Preview that the scoreboard would not completely represent the game. That was a sure thing as the scoreboard suggests the game was closer, even though Oregon State tried to make it interesting late in the third quarter into the fourth. But once again, Boise State shut down a good running game of Jacquizz Rodgers and Oregon State couldn't stop the Boise State rushers and Kellen Moore put on another passing clinic. Boise suffered a few breakdowns on special teams that will be corrected.

On to my new rankings. Yes, I really don't know where to put my Texas Longhorns. You could say they should be out of the rankings, or you can say that 19 is too low. The way I see it is that Texas can beat Arizona, Utah, and Stanford, but not South Carolina, USC, and Auburn. You'll see what I mean.

My College Football Rankings after Week 4.
(x) = previous ranking 
1. Alabama (1)
Beat Arkansas 24-20
Next: vs. Florida
2. Ohio State (2)
Beat Eastern Michigan 73-20
Next: at Illinois
3. Boise State (3)
Beat Oregon State 37-24
Next: at New Mexico State
4. TCU (4)
Beat SMU 41-24
Next: at Colorado State
5. Nebraska (6)
Beat South Dakota State 17-3
6. Oregon (7)
Beat Arizona State 42-31
Next: vs. Stanford
7. Oklahoma (8)
Beat Cincinnati 31-29
Next: vs. TEXAS
8. Florida (9)
Beat Kentucky 48-14
Next: at Alabama
9. Wisconsin (10)
Beat Austin Peay 70-3
Next: at Michigan State
10. Arkansas (11)
Lost to Alabama 20-24
11. Auburn (16)
Beat South Carolina 35-27
Next: vs. Louisiana-Monroe
12. Arizona (12)
Beat California 10-9
13. Iowa (15)
Beat Ball State 45-0
Next: vs. Penn State
14. Utah (18)
Beat San Jose State 56-3
15. Stanford (20)
Beat Notre Dame 37-14
Next: at Oregon
16. LSU (14)
Beat West Virginia 20-14
Next: vs. Tennessee
17. South Carolina (13)
Lost to Auburn 27-35
18. USC (17)
Beat Washington State 50-16
Next: vs. Washington
19. TEXAS (5)
Lost to UCLA 12-34
Next: vs. Oklahoma
20. Miami (NR)
Beat Pittsburgh 31-3
Next: at Clemson
21. Missouri (21)
Beat Miami (OH) 51-13
22. Michigan (22)
Beat Bowling Green 65-21
Next: at Indiana
23. Penn State (24)
Beat Temple 22-13
Next: at Iowa
24. North Carolina State (NR)
Beat Georgia Tech 45-28
Next: vs. Virginia Tech
25. Nevada (25)
Beat BYU 27-13
Next: at UNLV
On the Bubble: Michigan State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Temple, Southern Miss, North Carolina, SMU, Texas A&M, Mississippi State
Bubble Bursted: Rutgers, Georgia