What we saw Saturday

A theme for the weekend began Friday night with the SMU-TCU battle through late last night when Oregon outlasted Arizona State. And that theme is, while there are some good teams in college football this season there are no great teams. Now do not misunderstand me. I love a competitive season and hate that three to four teams have a stranglehold on the BCS title game. But many of the usual suspects--like Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and USC--have multiple flaws and the teams bunched at the top of the polls--that would be Alabama, Ohio State, Boise State and TCU--all have a weak spot or two.

What should also be intriguing are the conference races. In the Big Ten, Ohio State has looked very good this year but still has road games at Wisconsin and at Iowa. In the SEC, Alabama needed to rally to pass their first test yesterday in Arkansas. Up next? Florida on Saturday. Meanwhile Auburn won another barn burner yesterday, nipping a game South Carolina (and for the first time in my life I actually felt bad for Steve Spurrier). With their favorable schedule--they play both Arkansas and LSU at home--the Tigers just need to keep on chugging to become a top ten team. The SEC East may be decided on November 13 when the Gamecocks travel to Gainesville. Nebraska has now become the team to beat in the Big 12 with the winner of the Texas-Oklahoma game next weekend needing to make some improvements before being up to the task of handling the Cornhuskers defense. Miami may be the class of the ACC but that does not mean that they will win it. Oregon and Stanford have played the best of the Pac 10 squads with Arizona and USC also looking capable. UCLA is suddenly surging thanks to beatings administered to two old Southwest Conference teams Houston and Texas. TCU, and to a lesser extent, Utah have dominated the news out of the MWC but look out for both Air Force and my San Diego State Aztecs. Conference USA and the Big East are both wide open while Nevada is doing its best to become a challenger to Boise State in the WAC.

Got it? Enjoy.

Conference Tour Part 1

Big East
While the Big East focus the past few weeks has been, rightfully, on South Florida and Cincinnati, who will square off next week, the conference has other schools lurking in the shadows. Two such programs, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, meet Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field. The Panthers have compiled a 4-1 record while showcasing a new star in frosh RB Dion Lewis. Lewis is 5th in FBS rushing with 580y and has 7 rushing TDs with 1 receiving. The 3-1 Huskies counter with some youth of their own as soph QB Cody Endres starts at QB with Zach Frazer still not 100%, soph RB Jordan Todman leads the team in rushing with 396y and frosh WR Isiah Moore is the top receiver with 11 catches for 145y. Endres played well in the road upset of Baylor and will need to exploit the Panthers suspect pass D.

ACC
Ahh, the ACC. Fans of baseball wildcard races much really love a conference loaded with multi-loss teams knocking each other off on a weekly basis. Reader Jim J. points out that only three teams are left unbeaten in conference play: Virginia Tech (no surprise), Maryland (Huh?) and Virginia (Huh?). The Terps should bite the dust this weekend on the road against Wake Forest, but who can be sure with this collection of misfit teams? Virginia Tech hosts Boston College in an interesting match-up. The Hokies have won fairly easily against their former Big East foes in the past two conference championships, but have dropped three straight regular season games. That should change here, but the Eagles will stick around because they play sound D and have received good leadership from Dave Shinskie, their 25-year-old frosh QB. Shinskie is 2-0 as a starter and has thrown five TD passes total in wins over Wake Forest and Florida State.

SEC
Well the SEC now acknowledges that the celebration penalty called against Georgia near the end of their loss to LSU should not have happened. Will the conference now apologize for somehow bothering Georgia’s kick coverage on the ensuing kickoff, brought back by RB Trindon Holliday for 40y? Will the conference please apologize for not allowing the Bulldogs D to tackle RB Charles Scott on the winning 33y TD run two plays later? And why did the conference make Georgia QB Joe Cox throw that pick to LB Perry Riley to end the game moments later? They have a lot of explaining to do.

With that win the SEC West won round one in their battle with the East with a 4-0 record. Of course East standard bearer Florida took the weekend off. The Gators are back in the fray this Saturday with much more than division pride on the line against an LSU team that continues to win in less than pretty fashion. For the Tigers to pull off the upset they will need to protect QB Jordan Jefferson better, after allowing six sacks against Georgia, and will need to get to the Florida QB, whether it be Tim Tebow or back-up John Brantley. Remember, the Gators have lost to at least one SEC West opponent every year since 1999.