Turnovers were the key for W Michigan as it was 10-7 at the half when CM went 44 yds in 10 plays after a fumble, and 26 yds in 3 plays after an int for TD’s. WM fmbl’d at the CM 40 and also was SOD at the CM 44 on 2 of their final 4 drives...

Miami had an 18-6 FD edge vs Maryland but the Terps got 2 big plays on 65 and 96 yd TD passes to Heyward-Bey and the Canes only had a 320-258 yd edge. Miami missed a 50 yd FG and settled for FG’s of 32 and 25 yds after 12 and 19 play drives as Maryland moved to 8-2...

Houston wrapped up a berth in the CUSA Title game with their 37-27 win over SMU. UH scored the first 14 points of the game but SMU scored the next 24. UH had a 504?343 yd edge and converted WR Anthony Alridge rushed for a career high 225 yds...

Florida St was shutout at home for the first time in Bobby Bowden’s 31 seasons and Wake Forest improved to 9-1 for the first time in school history ending a 22 year losing streak to FSU. FSU had a streak of 232 games without being shutout snapped...

Big plays were the key in Troy’s win over Fla Atl. They had 70, 67 and 54 yd TD passes. FA was driving for the tying TD but was int’d in the EZ with 2:46 left...

Joe Paterno was not on the sidelines vs Temple but the Lions D held Temple to just 2 FD’s in a 47-0 shutout win...

New Mexico is becoming the comeback king as they had double digit deficits vs UNLV, Utah and Colorado St in the previous 3 games and rallied to win all 3. Thanks in part to TO’s (like a fmbl on the 2nd play which was ret’d 12 yds for a TD), they trailed TCU 24-0 at the half. NM rallied once again and TCU needed an int at the 9 yd line with :22 left to hold on for a 6 point win. NM QB Porterie was sk’d 5 times and injured in the 3Q and the late comeback was led by backup QB Chris Nelson. TCU was held to 192 yds offense...

Boise St actually faced their first halftime deficit of the year trailing San Jose St 7-6 and needed a 37 yd FG on the game’s final play in their 23-20 win which kept alive their undefeated season and BCS bowl hopes...

Darren McFadden proved to be a legitimate Heisman candidate rushing for 181 yards and tossing a 12 yd TD pass while being used at QB and RB. Arkansas rolled up 259 yds rushing (5.8) vs a tough Tennessee D and led 31-7 before allowing a TD with just :31 left. McFadden set a school record by surpassing 180 yds rushing for the 5th time in his career...

Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, who has done a lot of campaigning for a playoff system and complaining about the BCS, saw his team lose again and they were dominated by Georgia being outFD’d 20-9 and outgained 446-171. They trailed 30-7 at the half and were never really in the game. UGA Fr QB Matthew Stafford threw for 219 yds and rushed for 83...NC State trailed by 3 and they had a tipped pass int’d with 2:54 left and CU added a FG with 1:10 left. NCSt drove to the CU 29 and had a pass caught near the EZ pylon ruled incomplete with :25 and on 4th & 2 they were sk’d with :23 left...

Bryan Cupito became Minnesota’s all-time career leading passer on a 37 yd TD pass which put the Gophers up 24-12. UM rallied from a 9-0 deficit in a 31-18 win at Mich St...

Rice Coach Todd Graham deserves merit as the possible Coach of the Year for the outstanding job he’s done at Rice. This clearly looked like a rebuilding season but the Owls knocked off Tulsa and are now 4-2 in CUSA play. Graham was Tulsa’s DC the past 3 years and Rice led the game 20-7 after 3Q’s before TU got three 4Q TD’s to force OT. Rice won it in 2 OT’s...

Hawaii was w/o starting RB Nate Ilaoa vs LA Tech but in the battle with the #1 ranked offense vs the #119 D it hardly mattered. UH rolled up 618 yds offense in the 61-17 romp...

Pitt led Conn by 14 in the 4Q. UC got a TD with 7:53 left and then a 1 yd TD pass with :03 left to force OT. In the 2nd OT, although he did not have to go for 2, UC Coach Edsall did and they got the 2 pt conversion on a Hernandez run for a 46-45 2-OT win over the Panthers...

UCF/Memphis combined for 34 pts in the 1H and it could have been more but UCF settled for a 20 yd FG. Amazingly, in the 2H, UCF went ultraconservative on offense, despite the fact that Moffett hit 19 of 28 for 319 yds. On their game winning drive they ran the ball between the tackles 10 of 14 plays on a 71 yd drive that ate up 7:39. On 4th & goal from the footline they let the clock run down and took a time-out and kicked an 18 yd FG for a non-covering 26-24 win.

POINTSPREAD PLAYS OF THE GAME -

Utah was either an 11 or 12 pt favorite vs Colorado St. CSU took over with 2:07 left in the game and went 90 yds in six plays and got a 7 yd TD pass with :41 left. They went for 2 and were stopped and could not get the backdoor cover.

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GAME OF THE CENTURY HAS A NICE SETUP -

Ohio St/Michigan came in ranked #1 and #2 and undefeated for the first time in series history and both rolled over their opponents leaving no doubt that this week’s game is probably THE National Title Game. OSU only had a 229-225 yd edge at the half but took advantage of 4 TO’s and a blk’d punt which they turned into TD’s for a 33-10 halftime lead. They did dominate the 2H as NU had just 85 yds and the stands were colored more in Buckeyes Scarlet than Purple in their 54-10 rout of N’western...

Michigan allowed just 131 yds to Indiana and rolled to a dominating 34-3 win. At the end of the game there were more Michigan fans in the stands than Indiana fans. Mario Manningham had 2 catches for 11 yds in his 2nd game back from injury and should be close to 100% for next week’s big battle.

NATIONAL TITLE CONTENDERS GO BY THE WAYSIDE -

Heading into the week it looked like there could be as many as 12 one loss teams at the end of the year battling for the right to play in the National Title game. Those numbers were thinned considerably this past week. Arizona beat a Top 25 team for the 2nd straight week rallying from a 17-3 deficit to knock off #8 ranked Cal, a team that was posturing for the National Championship Game. One key has been the return of Willie Tuitama as he hit 17 of 34 for 202 yds vs the tough Cal D...

Louisville led Rutgers 25-7 in the 2Q but could not hold on. RU did hold the potent Cards offense to 266 yds...Florida and Boise St also survived near scares...

Colt McCoy was one of the top QB’s in the country statistically heading into the Kansas St game and right out of the box hit 4 of 4 for 51 yds. UT, which came in ranked #5 in the BCS standings was dealt a severe blow when McCoy got a 1 yd TD run on a QB sneak for a 7-0 lead with 6:53 left in the 1Q. McCoy was just 2 shy of the NCAA frosh record for TD passes and hurt his right shoulder on the play and would not return. Backup QB Jevan Snead hit just 13 of 30 passes and KSU stunned Texas, 45-42.

TURNOVERS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE -

Baylor turned the ball over 6 times vs Oklahoma St. In the 1H four TO’s led to 4 OSU TD’s including an int with :36 left in the half that led to a 2 play, 18 yd TD for the Cowboys. To open the 3Q OSU got a 23 yd IR TD and a 57 yd fmbl ret for a TD, 52-3. They did have a 510-355 yd edge...

New Mexico St had 22-14 FD and 376-263 yd edges vs Fresno St. They fmbl’d the ball 4 times and the Bulldogs converted 4 TO’s into 17 points. FSU, which had not won since the opening game of the season, scored a TD with 7:09 left but then NMSt drove to the Bulldogs 14 yd line on their final poss but lost 16 yds when a shotgun snap sailed over the QB’s head and could not score...

Florida Int’l had 3 TO’s result in 21 ULM points including a 26 yd IR for a TD. FIU was dogged by the fact that susp from the Miami game were not announced until gametime and some of the susp’d players practiced during the week and it was tough to gain any continuity. FIU had just 9 FD’s and got its first shutout loss in its home stadium while ULM got its first shutout win since 1999...

The Vanderbilt/Kentucky game was amazing on a couple of grounds. We had a 4? on the Over and VU would have a 621-597 yd edge combining for 1,218 yds. Amazingly, the game did not go Over the total until 3:31 remained b/c VU had 4 TO’s almost all inside the UK 10 yd line and there was also 3 missed FG’s. UK became bowl eligible and Andre Woodson threw for 450 yds in the win.

FAREWELL TOURS -

Generally when a HC is fired or announces his resignation, the team rallies around him in the final few weeks. Such was the case last week at N Texas. Amazingly, after guiding NT to 4 consecutive SBC Titles and 4 bowls in 5 years heading into the season and just a couple weeks after suffering a heart attack, Darrell Dickey was fired prior to the ULL game showing some strange shortsightedness. NT will probably never again have a six year stretch with 4 conf titles and 4 bowls. NT’s D rallied for the outgoing coach and held ULL to 13 FD’s and just 208 yds in their 16?7 upset win...

N Carolina has not won a game SU since John Bunting was fired but they have covered all 3 and vs #19 Georgia Tech, only lost 7-0. It was the first time NC had been shutout twice in the season since 1989 but NC’s D did hold the Yellow Jackets to just 221 yds.

INJURIES OF NOTE -

Kent St was playing w/o QB Edelman and Michael Machen threw for just 98 yds. KSU’s D held Virg Tech to just 214 total yards offense and VT needed a fmbl ret for a TD in the 4Q to win by 23 laying 30’...

The Tulane/S Miss game was a strange one as TU was w/o RB Forte due to a knee injury and then benched record setting QB Lester Ricard after 3 incompletions and an int. His backup, Scott Elliott, hit just 3 of 8 for 30 yds. SM did have a 393-85 yd edge but only led 10-3 in the 4Q. They got a 50 yd fmbl return for a TD and then got 46 and 65 yd drives for TD’s, the latter with :46 left to extend the margin to 31-3...

Washington St played w/o their top 2 WR’s in Bumpus and Hill after losing both to injuries in the 2H vs Arizona and for the entire game vs Arizona St. WSU dropped from the Top 25 and is off 2 straight losses. Without their 2 stud WR’s, they managed just 292 yds as ASU piled up 562 in a 47-14 rout. ASU scored on all 6 poss in the 1H...

Washington QB Carl Bonnell was inj’d late in the 1Q with a right thigh bruise. Backup QB Johnny DuRocher threw an int which was ret’d 49 yds for a TD. SU also had a screen pass go 74 yds for a TD. DuRocher was knocked out with a concussion after hitting 1 of 9 passes with 2 int’s and Bonnell was forced to return. Those circumstances led to a Washington 20-3 loss despite SU having just 7 FD’s. It was the 6th straight loss for UW and clinched a losing season...

Wisconsin played w/o starting QB Stocco but Tyler Donovan hit 17 of 24 for 228 yds and rushed for 61. Bret Bielema became the first Big 10 coach to win 10 games in his first year and UW, after they knock off Buffalo this week, will record their first 11 win regular season with their only loss coming to #2 ranked Michigan.

MISLEADING FINALS, FRONTDOOR AND BACKDOOR COVERS -

Buffalo trailed Akron 21-10 with just 2:37 left. The Zips got off a 5 yd punt setting up UB at the 46. Five plays later UB, with 1:30 left, got a TD for the backdoor cover...

A misleading final was UTEP/UAB. UAB had an option pitch go for a TD but it was called back on an illegal forward pass which would have put them up 14-3. In the 2H 2 screen passes went 80 and 79 yds for UTEP, the 2nd of which happened when they led just 22-17 with 7:51 left. UTEP’s final score came after an int for a misleading 19 point win...

Cincinnati needed a frontdoor push vs W Virginia despite having a 20-13 FD edge. WV got big plays with a 63 yd TD on a long run by Slaton which was fmbl’d but picked up by WV WR Bolden who took it the final 5 yds for the TD. They also got a 65 yd TD run by Slaton and after an int, got a 10 yd drive for a TD to lead 42-10 after 3Q’s. UC was int’d at the WV 22 but drove 79 and 58 yds for a pair of TD’s, the latter with 5:34 left for the backdoor push...

USF did have a 514-250 yd edge vs Syracuse. Delbert Alvarado kicked a Big East record 56 yd FG for USF. Two key plays helped USF cover. On 3rd & 9 they got a 79 yd TD pass with 2:09 left in the 3Q and then with 7:46 left, rec’d a fmbl at the USF 3 and on the next play got a TD for the frontdoor cover, 27-10. SU’s last 2 drives ended in an int at the USF 26 and a fmbl at the SU 44...

Oklahoma was playing without their top 2 TB’s but Fr Chris Brown (PS#35) rushed for 84 yds on 6 carries. Texas Tech led 24-17 at the half and trailed 27-24 when they missed a 40 mid-4Q. The Sooners went on an 80 yd, 14 play drive and got a TD with 2:13 left for the frontdoor cover.

KICKING WOES -

Kicking woes hurt the Gamecocks. S Carolina had a 55 yd FG taken off the board for a delay of game penalty and then had a 47 yd FG blk’d in the 3Q. After scoring a TD, SC had the xp blk’d with 2:13 left and only led 16-10 and then a 48 yd FG was blk’d on the final play of the game and the Gators escaped with a 17-16 home win...

UNLV missed 41 and 37 yd FG’s in the 2Q and with :22 left in the 1H had a 52 yarder bounce off the crossbar. In the 3Q they had a 53 yd FG come up just short and a 28 yd FG was blocked. SDSt also scored on a 59 yd IR for a TD so their 21-7 win over UNLV was not as comfortable as the score indicated as they only had a 277-250 yd edge...

It was not just missed FG’s for Alabama, but also 2 TO’s, but they had 4 trips in the redzone result in zero points vs LSU. The Tide had a 23-20 FD edge but after a sk missed a 40 yd FG they missed a 49 yd FG with :19 left in the half, they fmbl’d inside the LSU 10 and also had a tipped pass int’d at the LSU 12, as the Tide lost by 14 but still covered.