College Football Week 6 Awards October 6, 2013

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 6] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES
Wish I were him: Urban Meyer, Ohio State

Glad I’m not him: James Franklin, Vanderbilt

Lucky guy: Mark Richt, Georgia, and also Mack Brown, Texas

Poor guy: Butch Jones, Tennessee, and also Paul Rhoads, Iowa State

Desperately seeking a clue: Mack Brown, Texas
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Gary Pinkel, Missouri

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Dave Doeren, NC State

Desperately seeking … anything:  Larry Fedora, North Carolina

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: No. 20 Texas Tech (defeated Kansas 54-16)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: South Carolina (defeated Kentucky 35-28)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Colorado (lost to Oregon 57-16)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Troy (lost to Duke 38-31)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Ohio U (defeated Akron 43-3)

Dang, they’re good: Florida State

Dang, they’re bad:  Akron
Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Arizona State

The Fix is in:  Texas

Did the season start?  Cincinnati
Can the season end?  Western Michigan
Can the season never end?  Baylor

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 6 Georgia 34, Tennessee 31

Play this again, too:  Rutgers 55, SMU 53, 3OT

Never play this again: No. 8 Florida State 63, No. 25 Maryland 0

What? Ball State 48, Virginia 27

Huh?  Missouri 51, Vanderbilt 28

Are you kidding me?  South Florida 26, Cincinnati 20
Oh – my – God:  Indiana 44 Penn State 24

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 6, pre-week 7)
Ticket to die for:  Texas vs. No. 12 Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout (Dallas)

Best non-Big Six vs. Big Six matchup: Georgia Tech @ BYU

Best non-Big Six matchup: Boise State @ Utah State

Upset alert: No. 14 South Carolina @ Arkansas

Must win: No. 9 Texas A&M @ Ole Miss

Offensive explosion: No. 2 Oregon @ No. 15 Washington

Defensive struggle: Miami (Ohio) @ UMass
Great game no one is talking about: Pittsburgh @ No. 24 Virginia Tech, or, No. 19 Northwestern @ Wisconsin.

Intriguing coaching matchup: Steve Spurrier of South Carolina vs. Bret Bielema of Arkansas

Who’s bringing the body bags? No. 3 Clemson @ Boston College

Why are they playing? Western Carolina @ Auburn

Plenty of good seats remaining: Eastern Michigan @ Army

They shoot horses, don’t they?  Temple @ Cincinnati

Week 6 in Review:

There are times when in hindsight you know that you should have trusted your instincts instead of trying to out-think the room (which, let us be honest, can never end well.  Just ask the NFL when they decided to put the upcoming Super Bowl in frigid New Jersey).  Case in point:  last week, yours truly tried to out-think the room – against my own better judgement – in prediciting that this week’s “offensive explosion” would be Ohio State @ Northwestern.  Yes, it was a good game, worthy of a Musburger-Herbstreit broadcast tandem.  And yes, the overall score was not exactly paltry at 40-30 (in favor of the Buckeyes, naturally).  But then there was Baylor vs. West Virginia, whose score was so high, we needed our collective oxygen tank (final score:  73-42).  What was my main reticence in following my instincts and selecting this game for a more accurate prognostication?  The fact that West Virginia has been wildly inconsistent this year.  One week they embarrass themselves against Maryland, the next week, they upset Oklahoma State.  Right now, we the fans do not know what team we are getting week-to-week with the Mountaineers.

All Good Games at Night?

Aside from the satisfying SEC slugfest between Georgia and Tennessee in the 3:30 time slot, and the 3-OT shootout between Rutgers and SMU, all the good games this past week were in the evening.  LSU vs. Mississippi State (3 out of 4 quarters, at least), South Florida vs. Cincinnati (surprisingly), Ole Miss vs. Auburn, TCU vs. Oklahoma, Kentucky vs. South Carolina (the Gamecocks allowed for it to be a good game, regrettably), Notre Dame vs. Arizona State, Ohio State vs. Northwestern, Washington vs. Stanford, even Louisiana Tech vs. UTEP (!) all turned out to be competitive, engaging matchups.  It was one of those nights where you wished you had four or five flatscreens, all right next to each other, so as to enjoy as much simultaneous action as possible.

A Tale of Two Rivals.

Oklahoma did it the right way.  They played a highly respected TCU bunch in a close, hard-fought game, and triumphed in the end, 20-17.  There is a school of thought, not one without merit, that states that this is the perfect approach before throwing down the following week with a bitter rival.  To follow this line of logic, the Sooners are well-prepared for the Red River Shootout this upcoming week.

On the other side of the coin is Texas, who thought that they could beat up on Big XII lightweight Iowa State as a  tune-up.  As things turned out, they needed not one, but two scandalous calls by the referees to get their behinds out of some seriously hot water (basically, two “gift” calls of not recognizing fumbles as actual fumbles).  Let that sink in for a moment.