NEWS AND NOTES
At the start of the year, Phil Steele’s College Football Preview Magazine was the ONLY publication that did not predict UGA to finish 3rd in the SEC East and Tennessee to finish 1st. UT, of course, is not going to a bowl and could even finish 4-7 this year if they lose to Kentucky. UGA, meanwhile, wrapped up the SEC East with a convincing 45-13 rout of UK...
Vanderbilt beat Tennessee for the first time in 22 years and the first win at Neyland Stadium since 1975. Had VU not blown games vs. Middle Tenn and Kentucky when they were big favorites, they would have been off to their first bowl since 1982...
Army Coach Bobby Ross was saddled with the nation’s longest losing streak which they broke vs. Akron on Oct 22nd. The Cadets have not lost since reeling off 4 straight wins including a convincing 38-10 triumph over Arkansas St who probably looked ahead to their SBC game next week...
Utah St had a 200-145 yd edge in the 1H but trailed 14-3 as they had an 11 play drive result in a blocked 42 yd FG, had 15 play drive but settled for a 31 yd FG, a 10 play drive and missed a 47 yd FG. They went 63 yds in 10 plays and had a 1st & goal at the 6 but opted to go for it on 3rd & 1 with no time-outs left and were stopped on a run on the final play of the 1H...
Clemson’s Charlie Whitehurst became the first CU QB to go 4-0 vs. S Carolina. In the 1H SC had 251-84 yd and 12-5 FD edges but led just 6-3. SC did not take the lead until 5:58 was left on a 2 yd TD run by Davis and SC was int’d at midfield on their final drive...
Two plays late in each half cost Ball St vs. CM. They led 14-0 and gave up a FG with 1:49 left in the 1H. CM took over on their own 17 with :35 left and got a 29 yd Hail Mary pass on the final play of the half to pull within 14-10. BSU led 21-10 in the 3Q and was up by 4 late when CM blk’d a punt and rec’d for a TD with 1:51 left for their first lead of the game, 24-21. BSU drove for a 30 yd FG to tie but lost in OT as they were stopped on 4th & 1...
In USC’s games this season they generally start out slow then pummeled their opponents in the 2H. They trailed 21-13 at the half vs. Fresno and then 3 FSU TO’s helped USC roll to 3 TD’s and a 34-21 lead. FSU, however, did not collapse and in fact, after trailing 41-28 after 3Q’s, they got 2 TD’s in a :12 span to take a 42-41 lead with 9:47 left. USC drove 89 yds in 8 plays for a TD with 6:22 left and rec’d a fmbl and nailed a 26 yd FG for an 8 pt lead with 3:06 left but FSU went 45 yds getting to the USC 25 and were int’d in the EZ with 1:20 left and USC escaped...
Marshall wrapped up its first losing season since 1983 with a home loss to EC...
Who is the best team in CUSA? It might just be UAB. The Blazers, an underachieving team this year that had some hard luck losses like a Hail Mary pass from SMU that beat them and 3 blocked punts that helped Marshall to beat them as well as a mistake filled game vs. S Miss. In fact, their 5 losses have been by a combined 24 pts. Last week they went into UTEP who needed a win to wrap up the CUSA Western Div Title and UAB simply led from start to finish as it was 21-3 at the half and they rolled to a 35-23 win. UAB can become bowl eligible with a win over E Carolina this week but the season could have been much better...
Iowa was outrushed by Minny 337-6 in 2004 but proved much stronger at the line of scrimmage this year rolling up a season high 613 yds vs. the Gophers. Iowa led 38-7 at the half with Minny getting three 4Q TD’s in the 52-28 Hawkeye win...
N Carolina needed a TD with 1:38 left to pull out a victory over lowly Duke, 24-21. The stats saw it shouldn’t have been that close as NC had 26-11 FD and 401-244 yd edges...
Texas Tech got a questionable 2 yd TD run on the final play to beat Oklahoma 23-21. The drive was kept alive when on 4th & 3 the pass appeared to be int’d but both the WR and DB came down with the ball at the same time for a simultaneous catch at least one yard short of a FD. They got a ridiculous spot however, which gave them a FD at the OU 23. The announcers even called it short on the game winning TD plunge and it took the officials :10 before they raised their arms awarding him the TD. Sooner fans cannot be too pleased about the officiating of the game...
Syracuse lost their 8th straight game, its longest losing streak since 1973 and will get their first 10 loss season in school history when they lose to Louisville this week...
Miami, FL was blasted for a lewd rap song performed by a group including several current & former players during the week and AD Paul Dee had to apologize on behalf of the school. An excessive celebration pen on LB McIntosh helped GT escape a 3rd & 4 on the 2nd drive of the 3Q with them trailing 10-7. GT went on for a 16 yd TD run by Ball. Miami was SOD on 4th & 2 at the GT 15 with 7:16 left and then with 1:38 left and FD and plenty of time, Wright forced a pass at the 3 yd line which was int’d and UM lost its grip on the ACC Coastal Division...
Cal finally benched Joseph Ayoob who had a miserable season and Steve Levy, who was playing FB last year, hit 10 of 18 for 125 yds. Cal knocked out SU starting QB Trent Edwards with an injury and more than 1/2 of Stanford Stadium’s 71,743 were wearing blue & gold as Cal rolled to a 27-3 win...
Houston had a 392-241 yd edge vs. SMU but gave up a 49 yd FG with :03 left and SMU tacked on a safety on the final play to pull off the upset, 29-24. UH needs a win this week to become bowl eligbile...
Wash St had trouble with FG kicks all game and appeared in tough shape trailing UW by 3 with 1:35 left. Simply trying to get a FD they threw a screen pass to the sideline which was caught by Harvey and he took it the distance for a 39 yd TD to not only bail WSU out, but give them a 1 pt cover...
UCF had the biggest turnaround in the country record-wise going from 0-11 to 8-3 recovering from last year’s snake bit season. They did need an 18 yd TD pass with 1:25 left to get past Rice, 31-28 but will play either UTEP or Tulsa in the CUSA Title game...
Prior to last week’s Memphis/Tennessee game DeAngelo Williams said he didn’t feel quite 100% and thought he’d be better coming off the bench. That angered Coach West and he didn’t play Williams the entire game. Williams got back into West’s good graces and rushed for 123 yds in their upset win over S Miss...
Oregon got revenge for last year when OSU knocked them out of a bowl game in humiliating fashion. This time the Ducks repaid the favor with a 56-14 win and kept alive their hopes for a BCS bowl berth.
MISLEADING FINALS, FRONTDOOR AND BACKDOOR COVERS
One misleading final was partially due to a bad decision by Miami University. They opted to delay the game vs. BG due to a storm that was approaching. The storm never hit anywhere near the level expected, in fact, the worst weather happened in the 2Q and not during the 2 hour delay. What the delay did was take what would have been a packed house and turned it into 5,749 on hand making it look like a high school game. MU imploded with not only 7 TO’s but 4 botched punt snaps resulting in 3 safeties which tied an NCAA record. The 4th botched punt snap resulted in a 5 yd drive for a TD and BG had TD drives of 20 (after int), 47 (after free kick), 29 (after fumble), 4 (after bad snap) and 37 yds which came after MU went for it on 4th & 10 at their own 37 with 9:49 left. MU was shown having -64 yds rushing but had -88 yds on the botched punt snap so actually had +24 yds rushing and were only ougained 310-278 in reality but were beaten by 4 TD’s...
The Baylor/Oklahoma St game was strange as the stats showed OSU with a 473-318 yd edge and having turned the ball over 8 times. BU, however, led 38-0 at halftime and OSU had 4 long drives for TD’s in the 2H with the game out of reach. BU led 44-21 with 2:33 left and OSU gained 150 of their yds on their final 2 drives getting a TD with :50 left and rec’ing an onside kick and adding a 2nd garbage TD with :16 left...
Northwestern/Illinois was an even game in the 1H with NU getting a 19 yd FG and UI missing a 47 yd FG, 24-21. NU scored a TD on a fake FG for a 28 yd TD run and got ahead of the spread for the 1st time with 6:50 left in the game on an 8 yd TD run by Basanez. UI got to the NU 22 but were SOD with 2:47 left on 4th & 6...
N Texas almost had a backdoor cover vs. ULM as trailing 24-13 they drove for a TD with 4:37 left. They went for 2 pts which would have given them the cover but it failed and ULM held on for the ATS win.
INJURIES OF NOTE
New Mexico’s starting QB Kole McKamey was in street clothes to start the game vs. Air Force due to injury. NM trailed 21-10 in the 3Q when 2nd string QB Nelson was inj’d and McKamey went into the lockerroom and suited up but did not play. Third string Bryan Clampitt finished off the game. It was AF’s offense that cost the Lobos the loss as AF piled up 464 yds...
While the injury probably did not have as big an impact as it seems, Ole Miss was without leading rusher McSwain vs. LSU. The Rebels rushed for just 7 yds and their leading rusher was WR Mario Hill who had 9 yds on 1 carry. Ole Miss had 2 FD’s and 36 total yds at the half and only avoided the shutout getting a TD with 2:28 left. It was their worst loss in Oxford in 56 years as they crossed midfield only once vs. LSU’s defensive starters in their 40-7 defeat. LSU only needs to beat Arkansas to get to the SEC Title game vs. Georgia...
Utah lost starting QB Johnson and were not given much of a chance at beating BYU last week. Backup QB Brett Ratliff, however, threw for 4 TD’s in his first start hitting 17 of 32 for 240 yds and Utah won their 4th in a row vs. BYU, their best streak since 1968-1971 and became bowl eligible with a 41-34 OT win.
BAD QB DECISIONS
Fans always clamor for the backup QB figuring things would be better with somebody different. Coaches should not have the same inclination but Baylor’s Guy Morriss and Sylvester Croom of Miss St are both guilty of such an error. Morriss basically threw away his season when he went to Terrance Parks as the QB in their game vs.Texas Tech where they trailed just 7-0. Almost all of Parks’ drives in that game, and in his two starts produced 3 & outs and BU would lose some crucial winnable games. At MSU, Croom decided to bench Omar Conner and last week moved Conner to WR. Backup QB Henig was responsible for 7 Bama points with an ill-advised pass the previous week and starting vs.
Arkansas, only hit 11 of 27 passes for 77 yds with 1 int and is not the answer at QB but Conner was officially moved to receiver and had 5 grabs for 47 yds. By strengthening the WR position, he has weakened the QB spot and MSU was not even competitive vs. Arkansas trailing 41-3 at the half.
A NICE TRIBUTE TO A GREAT COACH
KSU was playing in its final home game for Bill Snyder who did, arguably, the greatest rebuilding job in the history of the NCAA taking a K-St team that was maybe the worst college football team and turning them into a National Title contender. Snyder, in his career, had just 1 less win than all of the previous head coaches of KSU and they got the cover in his final game vs. Missouri, 36-28 sending him out on a solid note. Snyder had to be disappointed not getting to a bowl this year as KSU had 2 pt losses to A&M and Nebraska and a 3 pt loss to Colorado.
FOURTEEN POINT TURNAROUNDS
A kiss of death in football is generally the 14 pt turnaround and that happened to Maryland vs. BC. The Terps were trailing 7-0 and had the ball 3rd & goal at the 5 looking to tie the score when they fmbl’d and it was picked up and returned 94 yds for a TD and instead of 7-7 they trailed 14-0. The Terps still battled back but were int’d in the EZ on 2nd & goal from the 8 and settled for a 28 yd FG after having a FD at the 11. Trailing 24-16 in the 4Q it was sealed with another defensive return for a TD, this one 35 yds on an int and MD was also SOD at the BC 11 yd line.
THE BUBBLE BURSTS THEORY
When a team has high expectations heading into the season or has expectations grow during the season and suffers a tough loss, many times it is tough for the team to recover. There were numerous teams which were effected by inflated expectations this year. Purdue was expected to go unbeaten and have a shot at the Big 10 Title and National Championship but vs. Minnesota, they led by 8 with under 2:00 left and gave up a TD and 2 pt conversion. In the 1st OT they gave up a 4th & 8 TD pass and ended up losing. Walking off the field after the game, QB Brandon Kirsch said that basically their season was over as they had expected to go unbeaten. PU did not recover from that loss dropping the next 5 games, many of which they had shots at winning in the 3Q. They finally rebounded to win their last 3 but are not going to a bowl this season...
Wyoming opened the season 4-1 and actually had a 10 game spread win streak heading into their game vs. TCU. Prior to TCU they had been 4-1 with wins over Air Force and Mississippi on the road and were thinking MWC Title. QB Corey Bramlet imploded with 7 TO’s vs. the Frogs and WY lost at home. The Cowboys never recovered from that defeat, in fact, lost their last 6 games of the season both SU and ATS to finish the year 4-7. Bramlet had 3 more int’s vs. San Diego St including 2 in the 4Q and the Aztecs rolled 34-21 at home...
Alabama was thinking of an undefeated season and National Title and with their offense putting them in peril in the 1Q amazingly their defense gave up 21 pts to Auburn in the first 11:59 of the game! Bama’s D woke up and only allowed 7 pts the rest of the game holding Auburn to 13 FD’s and 257 total yds but Bama was SOD on 4th & 5 at the Auburn 8 and their offense did not hold up their end of the bargain with just 188 total yds in the 10 pt loss...
Michigan St was in the Top 15, having rolled over their first 4 foes including ND and were favored by 6 at home over Michigan on their way to a possible Big 10 Title and possibly even an appearance in the National Title game. They lost to Michigan at home and had a botched FG attempt before the half which put Ohio St back in the game. They finished an amazing 5-6 and not even in a bowl and John L. Smith, who was being toasted earlier in the season, is now on the hot seat as they never recovered from their tough losses to Michigan and Ohio St.
SMALL COLLEGE HAVE SOME STRANGE COVERS
There were 2 games in the smaller colleges (MAC & SBC) this past week that really had some surprising final scores. Buffalo, in Jim Hofher’s final game as a HC, had 441 yds offense. EM had just 316. UB was a home dog and had a 24-17 FD edge so naturally the Bulls sent out their HC a winner, right? Unfortunately, that was not the case as there was 5 int’s by the Bull QB’s and EM not only won SU, they won by 24 pts getting the cover, 38-14...
Boise St was -32’ at home vs. Idaho. If we would have told you prior to the game that QB Zabransky would hit just 4 of 15 passes with 2 int’s and be pulled in the 3Q and Taylor Tharp, who finished the rest of the game hit just 4 of 8 for 75 yds and the score would be tied at 21 in the 3Q when Zabransky was pulled with IU having a 24-19 FD edge for the game, we’re sure you would have put your money on the Vandals plus almost 5 full TD’s. Unfortunately for IU, a 73 yd PR for a TD, 39 yd fmbl return for a TD and 50 yd IR return for a TD aided Boise. They got the miracle frontdoor cover after IU was int’d and ret’d 65 yds to its 21 with 3:50 left. After IU was int’d at the Boise 21 with 3:50 left, BSU was running out the clock and on 3rd & 13 got a 35 yd pass down to the 3 and a 3 yd TD run with :49 left for the miracle cover...
Middle Tennessee St was almost a 3 TD dog to NC State and had 18-8 FD and 278-238 yd edges. You think that means an easy spread win, right? NCSt blocked a punt setting up a TD and had a 50 yd IR for a TD which put them ahead of the spread and somehow managed a 24-3 ATS win. MTSU’s first 2 drives were 16 and 12 plays but they settled for short FG’s on each and after the punt block, NCSt needed just 10 yds for a TD. MTSU got to the NCSt 20, 18 and 15 on their final 3 drives but were SOD on each!
