So Many Nots, So Little Time

There were about 10 more not-worthy teams this week, but not enough hots to balance them out!

Hot: Tiller’s Last Hurrah

Sure, sure. Neither Purdue nor Indiana has exactly a good record, but the Boilermakers pounded the Hoosiers by the biggest margin since 1893! Despite the disappointing season, Korey Sheets captured the school record for rushing touchdowns. And with the win, Purdue can once again proudly display the well-deserved Old Oaken Bucket!

Not: The Blasted Bye Week

Nothing screws up a team’s momentum like a bye week. Just ask Texas Tech! Their performance Saturday looked like, well, like The Citadel versus Florida! The Citadel, who isn’t even doing well in their FCS conference, lost to Florida 19 to 70. Instead of watching a exciting offensive battle, fans were instead given 3 turnovers, 45 rushing yards, barely 21 points, and the most points given up in school history.

Hot: Northwestern

Northwestern now has nine wins and is back in the rankings! This is only the fifth time in school history a Wildcat team has reached nine wins….the last time was when Coach Fitzgerald was a player. Go Cats Go!

Not: BYUTah

What good is a rivalry game if the underdog can’t win? Shame on you, Cougars! The Broncos were counting on you to pave the way for their second trip into the BCS party! It’s pretty hard to come up with a win when your quarterback throws the ball to the other team FIVE times….most of them in one quarter….isn’t it?

Hot: The New Ole Miss

The time of dismissing Ole Miss may have come to an end. Coming into the Florida game, the Rebels had lost 15 games to ranked teams. In just two month, they have beaten Florida and LSU, and barely lost to Alabama. The Rebel defense held LSU to just a little more then 200 yards.  

Not: The Orange Crush

Welcome loss #14 for Notre Dame in 2 seasons! Seems like without Eye Candy Quinn they can’t do much of anything. Sure, this season is better than last, but losing to Syracuse? The Fighting Irish might as well have taken a dive to WASHINGTON (the only completely defeated BCS team)! But with 8 losses this season, The Orange needed something good to happen!

W-I-N, Go for the Win!

NOT: Winners Winning

There needs to be some serious attitude adjustments this week. What happened to the little Davids believing that they could topple the giants? That happened to the cocky teams who are too good to try against pitiful opponents? Where has the upset gone?? If you winners and losers don’t get your minds right, we are in for a really boring finish to the season. What will commentators talk about? I imagine something like this: “Now to today’s college football highlights…..everyone in the top 25 won again. In other riveting news, my mother thinks I’m precious and kittens are cute…….” Do you really want to be responsible for that? Y’all better make a better effort this weekend! 

Hot: Northwestern

Every Wildcat looks forward to the Michigan game, but generally dreams of a win are just that. This weekend Northwestern likely strutted into (and out of) the Big House with the knowledge that this year they not only could, but would, realize that dream. And, while doing so, they ensured that Michigan would indeed end this season with their poorest record ever. On Senior Day no less. Nice work, Cats. High Five! 

Not: Stanford

The Cardinal started out the game with that underdog spirit fans love to see, but it fizzled out much too soon! Despite Stanford keeping the game tied up well into the third quarter, the Trojans managed to win by more than 20 points!  

Hot: Houston with a side of Rice

In a fantastic showing Saturday night, Houston racked up 70 points against Tulsa! And just when I bet that this was surely the most points Houston has ever scored, I learned that forty years ago, Houston had a 100-3 win over Tulsa, the record for most points scored by one team in a major college game. And it the win wasn’t exciting enough — Houston now shares the lead of Conference USA with Rice!

Not: LSU sans the 4th quarter

A round of applause for Troy, who came into the game with the appropriate level of “Yes WE Can”-ittude. They brought enough to make LSU fans boo and leave, and to get LSU’s quarterback benched. Unfortunately, they also gave up when they thought they had it won, leading to LSU’s biggest comeback in school history and a 30 point fourth quarter.  

Hot: Mr. Rodgers squared

Jaqcuizz and James Rodgers, in another outstanding peformance, have helped the Beavers turn a pathetic start to the season into a potential trip to the Rose Bowl. “Quiz” has had seven 100+ rushing games this season and scored 1 TD on Saturday….he’s gained more than 1000 yards and has 11 TDs on the season. James, the elder brother, has only 4 TDs on the season, but two of them came against the Bears. The Beavers definitely hit the jackpot when they recruited these two!   

Not: Idaho’s First Play

For those of you who saw the score alert showing Idaho 7, Boise State 0, know that the Vandals were the beneficiaries of a fluke. Nothing shady…just a fluke. Nathan Enderlie’s first pass was good and the reciever was immediately wrapped up by BSU’s defense. Unfortunately, the reciever came down on top of the defender, never hitting the ground, and stood back up and ran the rest of the way to the end zone. But hey, the Vanadals need SOMETHING to cheer about so I suppose all is well that ends well.

Post-Halloween Thrillers

Hot: Utah State

The Aggies rarely have much to be excited about, but Saturday they solidly trounced Hawaii at home. The Aggies scored in every quarter to come out 16 points ahead of the Warriors. Interestingly, the Warriors had more yards and more first downs, but it wasn’t enough to win.

Not: NMU not being Utah

We cheered and cheered, but the Lobos just couldn’t get it done! New Mexico had the entire fourth quarter to take the lead, or even tie it up for OT. Instead, in true Lobo fashion, they settled for the loss, letting the Utes keep their BCS hopes alive.

Hot: Floridatastic

It isn’t often that Kirk Herbstreit and I see eye to eye, but I think he’s got it right when he says that Florida is the best team in college football…..home loss to Ole Miss or not.  The Gators gladly crushed Georgia Saturday night. From the first play, the trash talk and unportsmanlike conduct was blatant on both sides of the ball, but the Gators didn’t let it distract them. They held the Bulldogs to 3 measly points in the first half and only 7 more in the second. In fact, the Gators handed Georgia their worst loss under Mark Richt. Nicely done Gators.

Not: Quadruple Overtime

Despite three turnovers and four overtimes, Pitt managed to overcome Notre Dame and become bowl eligible for the first time since their Fiesta Bowl loss to Utah in 2004. But having to go through four overtimes to beat Notre Dame is not hot. In fact, this game marked ND’s ninth loss to teams with winning records in nearly 3 seasons. In fact, Notre Dame hasn’t beaten a ”quality” team since the second game in 2006 when they took down a #19 ranked Penn State.  

Hot: West Virginia is back on track

As Rich Rodriguez struggles at Michigan, Bill Stewart has his team back on track and bowl eligible. In fact, WVU is 3-0 in conference play after easily beating a 25-ranked UConn team on Saturday. And, high five for Pat White, who passed the 4000 rushing yards and 5000 passing yards marks.

Not: Fractured Freshmen

Houston wide reciever, Patrick Edwards, entered Tuesday night’s game against Marshall as 28th in terms of receiving yards per game at 86.3 YPG, second among freshmen. Unfortunately, when running for a pass, he ran out of the back of the end zone into a band equipment cart, suffering a compound fracture in his right leg.  Colorado, too, lost an outstanding freshman. Running back, Rodney Stewart, also broke his right leg this week. Stewart’s leg was broken in the second quarter during a horse-collar tackle by Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller.

Hot: Big finishes

What a weekend for fantastic, thrilling, nail-biting, game-winning plays!! Northwestern, looking to have given away the win to Minnesota, intercepted the ball for a touchdown with 12 seonds left. East Carolina intercepted a UCF pass in overtime, setting up a FG for the win. Michigan State managed a 44-yard FG with 7 seconds left to top Wisconsin. Kentucky blocked Mississippi State’s PAT to prevent OT and gain the win. Georgia Tech’s defense forced a fumble on Florida State’s final TD attempt, giving Tech their first win over FSU in ACC play.  And, of course, Texas Tech had an amazing last-second (literally) TD pass for the win.   

Not: Michigan

Not only did Michigan lose to a pitiful Purdue this weekend, they also managed to make it impossible to become bowl eligible this season. The last time the Wolverines were THIS bad was more than three decades ago.  AND Michigan will have its first losing season in FOUR decades. In fact, the last time Purdue managed a win against Michigan was 8 years ago in 2000. 

Hot: Boise State is looking great

The Broncos looked excellent against New Mexico State on Saturday. The Aggies, on the other hand, did not have much to celebrate in this homecoming game. In fact, on 39 rushing attempts, the Aggies only managed 37 yards….less than one yard on average! Boise State still had a lot of penalties, but did limit it to two during punt returns, which is a major improvement.

Not: State of Washington

Once again, the State of Washington was poorly represented in Pac 10 play this weekend. Neither team scored at all. Washington’s performance is arguably the least embarrassing, considering they had to travel to USC. Washinston State, however, let Stanford score 58 points in their biggest win in 59 years.

Behold the Great and Powerful Oz

Hot: David (the giant crusher) X2

Oregon State and Ole Miss did the unthinkable this week. As commentators were proudly proclaiming USC the greatest team ever, the Beavers were preparing to repeat history. Not only did the Beavers triumph over the Trojans at home two years ago, eons ago they toppled the giant when they sat at #1….just as they did Thursday night. Ole Miss, too, repeated history, now having beaten Florida 3 of the last 4 times the teams have met.  

Not: Being declared hot

Last week, I declared USC and Florida the best teams in the country and invited them to the National Championship game. My bad! These teams may yet make it to the big game, but I just made it a lot harder for them. Little did you know that I held so much power! Ignore the lady behind curtain! I’m the great and powerful Oz!

Hot: Game Changing Performance

Despite losing starting QB TJ Yates last week, North Carolina refused to roll over for Miami. On the final drive, Tar Heels 28/Miami 24, it looked certain that the Hurricanes would succesfully put the ball in the end zone and hand North Carolina another painful loss. Instead, on the final play, Robert Marve passed to Kayne Farquharson, a pass certain to clinch the win, and watched in horror as the ball slipped out of Kayne’s hands right into the hands of UNC’s Goddard. The deflated Hurricane fans watched gloomily on as victory was snatched so quickly away. 

Not: Destruction between the Hedges

Georgia’s ability to acrue penalties finally paid off….sort of. The Bulldogs, who are the most penalized team in the SEC, made mistakes at the absolute worst times throughout their home matchup with Alabama. In all, they had 10 penalties to the Crimson Tide’s 2. Despite gaining only ten less yards than Alabama, Georgia was down 31 points at the half and really didn’t have much more to give in the second. And the ever outstanding Knowshon Moreno gained a measly 37 yards. To their credit, though, the Bulldogs are taking the loss like men and remain hopeful for the rest of the season.   

Hot: Not being in the Bottom 10

After winning last week’s pillow fight against Idaho, Utah State managed to jump out of the Bottom 10! This is more rare than a jewel of the calibur of The Heart of the Ocean (think Titanic)! Always remember Aggies, this week you were better than Tennessee (who actually was in the Bottom 10). It doesn’t get much better than that! 

Not: Attacking your program

Sure the Bruins stink, but they couldn’t have felt much worse than when they discovered that the UCLA marketing department published an ad in the Fresno Bee to entice more Bulldog fans to the Rose Bowl for Saturday’s matchup. Selling tickets is cool and having a full statium is great, but selling out your own team to achieve it? That’s not so good. The ad read, “So you can say ‘I was there’,” obviously indicating that the marketing department had little, if any, faith in the Bruins. They might as well have put out an ad reading, “Our team sucks and you’re going to want to see your team prove it.” Ouch!

Hot: Super Smarties

Northwestern: 5-0; Vanderbilt: 4-0; Duke: 3-1, with its first ACC win in 26 tries. Smarties seeing success: priceless. As great as it see to see these teams off to a positive start to the season, it’s definitely NOT hot that Northwestern is not in the rankings. Give the smarties some love!

Not: Fresnobsession

Let’s recap YET AGAIN……Fresno beat a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad Rutgers team; lost to an over-rated Wisconsin AT HOME; barely beat Toledo, who is now 1-3 and lost to FIU; AND scraped by, as their own marketing department will tell you, an awful UCLA who is completely defenseless. And this deserves a ranking why? It’s getting old, voters, it really is.  

HOTerable mentions: Michigan, Houston, Navy, Maryland, Rice, Oregon, Tulsa, Penn State, Oklahoma

NOTerable mentions: Wisconsin, Purdue, Wyoming, the State of Washington, Idaho, Hawaii

Who’s Celebrating Now?

Hot: BYU’s Drama-free Demolition

It sure was exciting when UCLA attained a come-from-behind victory over Tennessee! UCLA’s matchup with BYU Saturday was somewhat less thrilling. Max Hall complete 7 touchdown passes to lead the Cougars to the nation’s longest win streak (at 13).  

Not: Friday Night Birthday Celebrations

Remember Friday night when Kansas traveled down to Florida to take on the Bulls? Remember how the Jayhawks dominated the first half only to face a focused, determined South Florida team who came out in the second half to claim the lead for their own? Remember how just when you thought Kansas had given up they tied things up? Yeah, me too. Only with 1:30 left in the game I had to turn off the game and go meet the friends who gathered to celebrate my birthday. So thanks to my darn birthday, I missed the Bulls’ freshmen kicker Maikon Bonani’s 47-yard field goal sail through the uprights as time expired!

Hot: Putting Them Through the Ringer

Michigan State racked up 347 yards against Florida Atlantic Saturday…..Javon Ringer is responsible for 282 of them. With the rain and muddy field, the Spartans had little choice but to stick with run. Luckily, Ringer was up for the challenge, carrying the ball 43 times in all and scoring 14 of Michigan State’s 17 points.  

Not: SMU

It’s tough for any team to keep up with Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree, but he was the least of SMU’s problems. The Mustangs had as many interceptions as Tech had touchdowns and 500 yards less total offense. Even June can’t deny the facts: “We weren’t good enough to win on the road tonight and if we play that way next week, we won’t be good enough to win at home,” he said, according to ESPN.  

Hot: …………………………..

Here is where I would have talked about how great North Carolina was in the national spotlight Thursday night. I would have talked about how this was their first out-of-state victory in five years…..about how they made Rutgers question why they like football….about how they may actually have a winning season……but a certain someone (you know who you are!) was a little too sure that I would talk up the Tar Heels this week. So instead, I’m not saying anything. So there!

Not: Pac 10

This far this season, the Pac 10 is even at 14 wins and 14 losses. However, if you take the only good teams (USC and Oregon) out, the Pac sits at 9 wins and 14 losses. And this weekend, SEVEN of the 10 teams lost: only USC, Oregon (barely), and (amazingly) Oregon State managed to win. So you’re not making much an argument for the strength of your conference Pac 10. Better step it up! The west coast is counting on you! 

Hot: Beating them with their Brains

Northwestern is off to 3-0 start to the season! Sure they’ve faced the stiff competition of Syracuse, Duke, and Southern Illinois, but 3 wins are 3 wins. In fact, they are tied for first in the Big 10 standings….along with 4 other teams. Maybe this year is the year the smarties will actually win the conference! Probably not likely, but maybe!

Not: Not Making the Highlight Reel

LAST week Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno made an Olympic-vault style leap over a defender to gain some extra yards for the Bulldogs. Too bad no one saw it. The broadcasters dropped the ball (no pun intended) and failed to include it in their highlight reels. The leap was nearly perfect, although the judges did deduct 3 tenths for face-planting the landing. But, hey! If they Chinese gymnasts can fall on their faces and medal, then we can surely celebrate the high start value of this football move! Check out the moves here: http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1144&CID=848305

Hot: Buffalo’s Big Finish

Temple fans had already changed the channel and toasted their victory when Buffalo’s Drew Willy tossed up a crazy hail mary, into the midst of more than a handful of defenders, right into the hands of Namaan Roosevelt as if the play were designed to happen that way. Turns out it was.  Buffalo makes a habit of practicing the hail mary, just in case, and it worked! Phew! 

Not: Baseball Scores

Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2…..No, not in baseball. In what must have been one of the most-boring football games of all time. In fact, (and I NEVER say this) a baseball probably would have been more interesting! Maybe if it were part of a drinking game? Like, every time Mississippi State fails to convert on 3rd or 4th down, take a shot (17 total). Or drink after every punt. Or chug a beer every time the yellow hanky hits the ground (16 in all). At least that way none of the fans would remember how lame the game really was!