College Football Week 7 Awards October 13, 2013

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 7] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES
Wish I were him: Gary Pinkel, Missouri

Glad I’m not him: Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

Lucky guy: Bill O’Brien, Penn State

Poor guy: Mark Richt, Georgia

Desperately seeking a clue: Dan Mullen, Mississippi State
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Kyle Whittingham, Utah

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Bret Bielema, Arkansas

Desperately seeking … anything:  Ron English, Eastern Michigan

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Arizona State (defeated Colorado 54-13)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Clemson (defeated Boston College 24-14)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Purdue (lost to Nebraska 44-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Texas (defeated No. 12 Oklahoma 36-20)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  South Carolina (defeated Arkansas 52-7)

Dang, they’re good: Oregon

Dang, they’re bad:  Purdue
Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Georgia

Did the season start?  Utah State
Can the season end?  UConn

Can the season never end?  Missouri

GAMES
Play this again:  Penn State 43, No. 16 Michigan 40, 3 OT

Play this again, too:  No. 9 Texas A&M 41, Ole Miss 38

Never play this again: Auburn 62, Western Carolina 3

What? Wisconsin 35, No. 19 Northwestern 6

Huh?  Texas 36, No. 12 Oklahoma 20

Are you kidding me?  No. 25 Missouri 41, No. 7 Georgia 26
Oh – my – God:  Utah 27, No. 5 Stanford 21

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 7, pre-week 8)
Ticket to die for:  No. 5 Florida State @ No. 3 Clemson

Best non-Big Six vs. Big Six matchup: BYU @ Houston

Best non-Big Six matchup: Kent State @ South Alabama

Upset alert: No. 11 South Carolina @ Tennessee

Must win: No. 9 UCLA @ No. 13 Stanford

Offensive explosion: No. 16 Texas Tech @ West Virginia

Defensive struggle: Navy @ Toledo
Great game no one is talking about: Utah @ Arizona

Intriguing coaching matchup: Gary Pinkel of Missouri vs. Will Muschamp of Florida

Who’s bringing the body bags? Iowa State @ No. 15 Baylor

Why are they playing? Old Dominion @ Pittsburgh

Plenty of good seats remaining: Akron @ Miami (OH)

They shoot horses, don’t they?  Charleston Southern @ Colorado

Week 7 in Review:

A day of upsets and near-upsets:  that is how one could characterize Week Seven.  True, many favored teams survived the week unscathed.  For example, Louisville convincingly beat an underrated Rutgers team to maintain their top-ten ranking.  Texas Tech at No. 20 survived a surprise onslaught from Iowa State and beat the Cyclones by a touchdown.  Then there is No. 14 South Carolina, who obliterated Arkansas, 52-7.  No. 11 UCLA had little trouble against Cal, and No. 15 Baylor beat Kansas State by 10 points – unimpressive compared to previous victories this year, but a “w” nonetheless.  No. 9 Texas A&M managed to survive a 4th quarter scare on the road against Ole Miss.  Meanwhile, No. 1 Alabama keeps rolling along, and No. 2 Oregon handily beat a strong No. 16 Washington team, 45-24.

With all of that said, all the upsets practically turned the rankings – under the top four, at least – upside down.  To wit:  No. 25 Mizzou took out No. 7 Georgia between the hedges.  Apparently, beating LSU at home then being giving another strong contest the following week at Tennessee made those two past wins Pyrrhic, in hindsight.  Speaking of games taking more than usual out of a team, losing to Ohio State at home most have done that to Northwestern, for even at No. 19 – despite last week’s loss – they laid an egg on the road to unranked Wisconsin, 35-6.  Michigan, hitherto at the 18^th ranking, allowed for unranked Penn State to squeak by them in triple overtime.  Need we rehash the Red River Shootout?  Everybody, yours truly included, had given Texas up for dead.  Yet the Longhorns came out swinging against the No. 14 Sooners, delivering a power rushing attack between the tackles, and doing so effectively.  Usually, over the course of a decade, it was Oklahoma who always had a runningback to ruin Texas’ day.  This time, it was oddly the other way around.  Never before has crow tasted so good.  To cap things off, unranked Utah upset No. 5 Stanford 27-21.