Rankings after Week 13

November 29, 2009

The college football season is winding down to an end, but there's plenty of meaningful games still to be played. This past week of Rivalry Week reiterated again that anything can happen in college football.

The top six undefeated teams in the country remained that way, but four of them had to stave off upset attempts. Cincinnati held off a late comeback from Illinois behind Tony Pike's 399 yards and 6 touchdown performance. Boise State needed everything offensively to beat its WAC rival Nevada as former linebacker Dan Paul had three touchdown receptions from sneaking out of the flat.

Texas was taken to the extreme limits by their in state rival Texas A&M on Thanksgiving Night. There is that curse that every ranked team loses on Thursday night and Texas has been the only team to fight off that curse the past two years. A&M exposed the great defense of Texas though while others will argue "It's a Rivalry Game." Offensively, Texas could not be stopped and they got a lot of help from special teams after Marquise Goodwin took a kickoff to the house for Texas's nation-leading 11th non-offensive touchdown. It's good for Goodwin to step up after original kick returner DJ Monroe was suspended indefinitely following a DWI arrest. Last year Texas beat A&M 49-9 on Thanksgiving Night. If you said Texas had 49 points again, you would've thought it to be the same, but A&M has a special player in quarterback Jerrod Johnson. Texas will play Nebraska for the Big 12 Conference Championship December 5 8pm on ABC. Every game is a must win, but this win will put them in the national championship game.

Alabama was also taken to the final minute against its arch rival Auburn. Auburn came out passionately and jumped to a 14-0 lead as they threw everything they had in their offensive playbook. Then, they had nothing left for the rest of the game. They didn't score again until Alabama blew coverage in the 3rd quarter and allowed a long touchdown pass. Auburn took a 21-20 lead into the final five minutes, and after shutting down Heisman contender Mark Ingram all game long, Auburn thought it was over, but Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy came out of his shell and led the Crimson Tide down the field and threw a touchdown to Roy Upchurch with 1:24 left. Auburn had a chance at the end, but bad clock management will get you every time. Alabama survived 26-21.

But it's about time that these two top ten teams lost: Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh. Pitt was looking ahead to the de facto Big East Championship game against Cincinnati next week and wasn't ready for West Virginia's defense. Bill Stull, who had been so good all year, threw two interceptions and that was the difference: turnovers. West Virginia's freshman kicker Tyler Bitancourt won it with his last second field goal to win the Backyard Brawl.

Georgia got on top of Georgia Tech early and that's the key to beating them. Once they got behind by two scores, Georgia Tech panicked and got away from their triple-option game and tried to throw the ball to get back into it and that's not their offense. In the mean time, Georgia had career days from freshman tailback Washun Ealey and Caleb King as Ealey ran for 183 and King for 166 and both averaged 9.2 yards per carry against the very soft Georgia Tech defense.

Another key upset and I don't understand why people want to call it that, an upset, because it wasn't so, but so many people were surprised that Oklahoma shut out Oklahoma State 27-0. Did anyone really think Oklahoma would lose the Bedlam game to Oklahoma State at home? That's ridiculous. I don't even know how Oklahoma State was a 78% favorite in the game. Oklahoma's defense did their thing after getting humiliated by Texas Tech last week, they sorted things out and absolutely dominated Oklahoma State. On the offensive side, I expected more scoring from Oklahoma, but credit to Oklahoma State's defense and coordinator Bill Young who has done a great job in Stillwater. Nonetheless, Oklahoma is still the better team, should have been the favorite in the game, and I'm not surprised at the outcome of this game at all. Oklahoma is still one of the best teams in the country. It especially makes me happy that Oklahoma did the college football world a favor and knocked Oklahoma State out of any BCS bowl contention opening the door for Boise State to almost certainly now get a deserving BCS bid either to the Fiesta Bowl or the Sugar Bowl.


I'll get to next weekend's big games some other time, but it'll be Thursday night really soon and everyone should tune in to ESPN at 9pm to see the Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State in the de facto Pac-10 championship game. A spot in the Rose Bowl is on the line.

My Top 25
1. Florida 12-0 (1)
Beat Florida State 37-10
Next: Alabama in the SEC Championship Game
2. Alabama 12-0 (3)
Beat Auburn 26-21
Next: Florida in the SEC Championship Game
3. Texas 12-0 (2)
Beat Texas A&M 49-39
Next: Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game
4. TCU 12-0 (4)
Beat New Mexico 51-10
5. Cincinnati 11-0 (6)
Beat Illinois 49-36
Next: Pittsburgh for the Big East Championship
6. Boise State 12-0 (5)
Beat Nevada 44-33
Next: New Mexico State
7. Ohio State 10-2 (8)
8. Oregon 9-2 (10)
Next: Oregon State for the Pac-10 Championship
9. Virginia Tech 9-3 (11)
Beat Virginia 42-13
10. Penn State 10-2 (12)
11. Iowa 10-2 (15)
12. LSU 9-3 (17)
Beat Arkansas 33-30 in overtime
13. Georgia Tech 10-2 (7)
Lost 30-24 to Georgia
Next: Clemson in the ACC Championship Game
14. Pittsburgh 9-2 (9)
Lost 19-16 to West Virginia
Next: Cincinnati for the Big East Championship
15. Brigham Young 10-2 (16)
Beat Utah 26-23 in overtime
16. Miami 9-3 (20)
Beat South Florida 31-10
17. USC 8-3 (18)
Beat UCLA 28-7
Next: Arizona
18. Oregon State 9-3 (19)
Next: Oregon for the Pac-10 Championship
19. Houston 10-2 (21)
Beat Rice 73-14
20. California 8-3 (23)
Next: Washington
21. Stanford 8-4 (NR)
Beat Notre Dame 45-38
22. Oklahoma State 9-3 (13)
Lost 27-0 to Oklahoma
23. Clemson 8-4 (14)
Lost 34-17 to South Carolina
Next: Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game
24. Nebraska 9-3 (NR)
Beat Colorado 28-20
Next: Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game
25. Oklahoma 7-5 (NR)
Beat Oklahoma State 27-0
Dropped from the Rankings:
Utah
North Carolina
Ole Miss
On the Bubble: Utah, West Virginia, Central Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona

BCS National Championship Game
January 7, 2010 in the Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA
(Texas is undefeated in Pasadena)

Heisman Trophy Watch
My Leaderboard
1. Toby Gerhart, RB, Stanford
2. Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
3. Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
4. Jimmy Clausen, QB, Notre Dame
5. Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama
6. CJ Spiller, RB, Clemson
7. Case Keenum, QB, Houston
8. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise STate
9. Jordan Shipley, WR, Texas
10. Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska