Angles
Awwww-BURNed:
Is
anyone still confused how Arkansas was able to go on the
road and beat Auburn? I knew the Razorbacks would be able
to pull off a few upsets, but holy cow! The final was
27-10, but the game was surely in the hands of the Hogs with
seven minutes left in the third quarter. It was then that
Coach Houston Nutt unveiled an offensive formation that
resembled a modified rugby “scrum.” The ball was snapped
directly to one of the RBs who, on a delayed move, ran away
from the formation and towards the opposite sideline for a
pickup of 20 yards. With the perfect execution of that
play, it was clear there was an upset in the making.
It
wasn’t just that one play that made the difference in this
game. Auburn racked up 153 fewer total yards, had 15 more
penalty yards (which wasn’t that much) and held the ball for
close to four fewer minutes. The more impressive stat,
however, was Arkansas production per play: 8.7 yards per
pass, compared to 5.3 for Auburn, and 6.2 yards per rush,
compared to 1.9 for Auburn!
What was
bad for the Tigers was obviously great for the Razaorbacks,
who, are now in the lead of the SEC West. The Razorbacks
have five remaining conference games, two of which are quite
winnable (Mississippi and Mississippi State, a combined 3-9)
and three to end the season, which could all be tight (at
South Carolina, home against Tennessee, and in Little Rock
against LSU). Right now you have to like Arkansas to win
the SEC West.
Conference Play Heats Up
Around
the other conferences, the Pac-10 seems to be a race between
California and Southern Cal. After losing in the first
week, Cal has found some offensive rhythm and is putting up
incredible point scores while Southern Cal seems to be doing
the exact opposite. The Big 12 seems to be locked up by
Texas in the South division and a toss-up between Missouri
and Nebraska in the North. In the Big 10, the season finale
between Ohio State and Michigan will determine a Rose Bowl
participant and a national title contender. The ACC is a
complete mess with no team going unbeaten this season.
And that
brings us to the Big East. This weekend finally
opens up the conference battles we’ve all been waiting for
(insert sarcasm). Yes, West Virginia and Louisville are both
ranked in the Top 10 in both polls, Rutgers is undefeated
and in the Top 25 and Pittsburgh is showing life. But out
of the two marquee names in the Big East, we don’t know
anything about either football team. West Virginia has
played pretty much no one; the teams the Mountaineers
defeated have gone a combined 8-20 and only one of the
teams, Maryland, has a winning record. Louisville, on the
other hand, has played teams with a combined record of
13-15, with all the teams sans one, Temple, has a winning
record, yet Louisville is ranked lower in the polls
than West Virginia. What does this all mean? Louisville
has proved, up to this point, they can play against good
teams and succeed this season; West Virginia, has proved
nothing. When the two teams meet on Nov. 2 in the Pizza
Palace (aka, Papa John’s Stadium), regardless of rankings,
Louisville should be the favorite to win. With that
victory, Louisville should win the Big East this season and
play in a BCS bowl game.
Last
week I was able to accurately predict three out of four
games. Let’s double that number and see how I do with these
match-ups involving AP Poll Top 25 teams:
Temple
at Clemson: Temple should continue securing its perfect
record as the Owls move from an 0-6 record to 0-7.
Virginia
Tech at Boston College: Virginia Tech has never lost an ACC
road game since joining the conference in 2004 and has only
lost one Thursday night game broadcast on ESPN.
Coincidentally, that one loss came at the hands of Boston
College at the start of the 1995 season. Virginia Tech has
a good passing attack that should provide many problems for
the undersized BC secondary. Hokies over the Eagles by 10
points.
ASU at
USC: In another close game, the Trojans are able to add
another “W” to Pete Carroll’s impressive record. Arizona
State, at least on paper, looked good this off-season. Now,
the Sun Devils look to be done, having lost their last two
games by a combined score of 97-34.
Michigan
at Penn State: Chad Henne will throw for three touchdowns
and Mike Hart will have a 100+ yards and two TD performance
on their way to victory against the Nittany Lions.
Cincy at
Louisville: This game might be interesting if it were played
in Cincinnati, but seeing as it’s in Louisville, to borrow a
line from Lee Corso, “Forgetaboutit.” Louisville wins by
four touchdowns.
California at Washington State: USC had trouble playing in
Pullman a few weeks ago and Cal’s offense is steamrolling
opposing defenses. Look for Cal to put up another 40-plus
points while Washington State amasses only 21.
Missouri
at Texas A&M: As much as I’d like the Aggies to win this
one, momentum is definitely on the side of the Tigers.
Missouri knows it has only two hard conference games left on
the schedule after the Aggies (against Oklahoma and at
Nebraska), so winning this game is imperative if they want
to win the Big 12 North. The Aggies on the other hand,
having already lost one conference game, really need this
victory and to win out in Big 12 play, to get to the Fiesta
Bowl come January. I just don’t see it happening. Missouri
should win a close one.
Rutgers
at Navy: Normally this game would be an afterthought. In
seasons past, the newspapers on Sunday morning would just
print the final score and move on to the next game. This is
such a different season, one in which we find Rutgers
sitting atop the Big East standings and in the Top 25 with a
5-0 record and one in which Navy is one point away from a
perfect season. So yeah, this game actually means
something. This is really hard game to predict as neither
team has played anyone of note this season, but both teams
have very good records. Based on average point totals
alone, Rutgers is going to win a close one, perhaps in
overtime, by the score of 28-27.
Dangles
If you
read my column last week, you know I predicted Cal to win by
17 over Oregon, Notre Dame to beat up on Stanford,
Washington to lose to USC, and Oklahoma to … well … actually
I never officially predicted that game but said it would be
a great victory for the Sooners if they could beat Texas. I
was thinking that Oklahoma could win that game but never
quite said so. Going forward I’ll try and remember to
actually make a prediction on a game instead of beating
around the bush.
Auburn
losing this past weekend also messed up my preseason
prediction for who’s going to meet for the national title
game. In that prediction I stated that Iowa and Auburn
would play, with Auburn bringing home the title. I guess
the Razorbacks got ticked off someone could even suggest
such a thing and decided to throw a spanner in the works and
make this an even more interesting football season.
Perks
Even
though Nate Longshore leaves two tickets to every home game
for Jessica Simpson instead of me, the dude definitely makes
anyone’s Top 10 list of hottest players in college
football. On top of looking good, the boy is articulate and
has a great smile. Could you ask for anything more?
Unfortunately finding good pictures of this stud is next to
impossible. You’ll need to watch a Golden Bears game
and hope that Longshore gives the sideline reporter an
interview!
Related:
Week
5 recap
Week
4 recap
Week
3 recap
Week
2 recap
Week
1 recap
Our Top 25
Burning questions and hot players
