What We Learned Saturday

Once again, Saturday was an excellent day of football and to be honest not enough was said about it.  One of the many hurdles facing college football is that Sunday belongs to the pros.  And so a great day of action, from Missouri's near upset of Florida at noon to San Diego State's win on the blue field over Boise that kept me up until the wee hours of the morning, was largely pushed to the back burner once coverage of the NFL began.  I bet if you asked 100 random college football fans if they even knew Boise State lost less than half would truthfully say yes.  Another problem is that we now focus a huge percentage of cfb coverage on the race to the two spots in the BCS championship game and with all of the top four undefeated squads playing meaningful games there was not room on the coverage plate for great and meaningful games like, say, Nebraska versus Michigan State.
But let's not focus on problems.  The sport is too wonderful for that.  It was fascinating to watch the Alabama win over LSU and Oregon's win over USC at roughly the same time in that the two games were stunningly different.  One game featured defense versus defense, the other offense versus offense.  Not surprisingly the D game was the one that went down to the wire with the better offense pulling out the late win.  While both Alabama and Oregon stamped themselves as favorites for the title game--even with Oregon still third in the current BCS--they both displayed vulnerabilities.  Of course you may need LSU's front seven to hang with Bama and USC's wideouts to hang with the Ducks, but they both can be beaten.
Ditto Kansas State and Notre Dame.  The biggest problem facing these two squads is that being in the BCS race in November is new territory for the players.  Heck neither was considered top ten material in August.  Look at KSU's next game, this Saturday against TCU.  The Wildcats and Horned Frogs are not that far apart in terms of talent, especially with the game being played at TCU and with some question over the health of KSU QB Collin Klein.  The biggest equalizer for the home team is that all of the pressure is on the visitors.  All of it, and for a program that has never played in a national championship game, that pressure is immense.  We have seen plenty of teams lose in similar circumstances, like Oklahoma State lose to Iowa State last November, and coach Bill Snyder needs no reminder than his own 1998 squad that lost on the last day of the season to tumble from a possible BCS title game berth.  Both Notre Dame and Kansas State must prove that they can stay focused and continue to bring a top effort for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile there are plenty of key games that have little effect on the BCS standings.  I'll break down the conferences during the week.