Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Jason Eck, New Mexico
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Desperately seeking … anything: Tony Elliott, Virginia
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Wake Forest (defeated Virginia 51-7)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Indiana (defeated Minnesota 23-16 (OT)) Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: FIU (lost to Liberty 49-10)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Kennesaw State (defeated MTSU 44-28)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Duke (defeated BC 47-2)
Dang, they’re good: Georgia Dang, they’re bad: Boston College
Can’t Stand Prosperity: SMU
Did the season start? Ohio State Can the season end? UTEP
Can the season never end? Utah
GAMES Play this again: Iowa State 51, No. 24 Oklahoma State 49
Play this again, too: No. 1 Miami 38, North Carolina 35
Never play this again: No. 14 Wake Forest 51, Virginia 7
What? Iowa 30, No. 25 Wisconsin 0
Come again? Iowa State 51, No. 24 Oklahoma State 49
Huh? Oregon 34, No. 20 Northwestern 26
Double-Huh?? Syracuse 30, No. 19 SMU 27
Are you kidding me?? South Carolina 42, Oklahoma 25
Oh – my – God: USC 30, No. 2 Ohio State 18
NEXT WEEK
rankings are current AP (week 10) Ticket to die for: No. 7 BYU @ No. 3 Utah
Also: No. 1 Miami @ No. 4 Notre Dame
Best non-Power Four vs. Power Four matchup: None
Best non-Power Four matchup: Buffalo @ Miami (OH) (Tuesday)
Upset alert: No. 5 UCLA @ Minnesota
Must win: No. 8 Kentucky @ No. 16 Tennessee
Offensive explosion: West Virginia @ No. 14 Texas Tech
Defensive struggle: Michigan State @ Michigan
Great game no one is talking about: Air Force @ Army
Intriguing coaching matchup: Kalen DeBoer of Alabama vs Lane Kiffin of LSU
Who’s bringing the body bags? Merrimack @ No. 14 Wake Forest
Why are they playing? (see above)
Plenty of good seats remaining: Hawaii @ UTEP
Plenty of good seats remaining, B1G edition: Maryland @ Purdue
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? North Carolina @ UConn
Week 9 Thoughts:
Some major and some minor upsets occurred this week. Let us address the 900-lb gorilla in the room with USC upsetting Ohio State, 30-18. If both teams were intact, this outcome would be most unlikely, even with the Buckeyes having to venture out to the west coast to play. But Ohio State’s victory at Indiana last week proved to be more Pyrrhic than first considered. The loss of QB1 Julian Sayin was a major hit to the Buckeyes’ offense, which was left sputtering at times and unable to put the ball into the end zone at other times. The rain certainly did not help things for true freshman backup Luke Fahey, either. Still, the Buckeyes dominated time of possession, and they were decent on 3rd down, on the road. One possible takeaway is that OSU can learn from this, even build upon this, and recover further as the season further progresses.
Other interesting surprises included Iowa whipping Wisconsin, 30-0. So much for this week’s defensive struggle, at least as far as the Iowa side of the equation was concerned.
Oregon’s upset over Northwestern sounds oxymoronic on a number of levels, but the immediate context makes the categorization of an upset technically correct. After all, Northwestern came into Eugene ranked. The Ducks, ranked in the top-10 at the season’s start, have suffered enough losses to be currently out of the rankings altogether. Perhaps Oregon’s win is a sign that Dan Lanning might be righting the ship for the season after all.
As for the most entertaining upset of the week, that clearly goes to South Carolina defeating Oklahoma, on the road, no less. The high-scoring affair could also consider itself an explosion of offense of sorts, what with the Gamecocks scoring 42 points compared to the home team’s 25. The Cocks’ triumph should remind the rest of the conference to take Shane Beamer’s team lightly at their own peril.
One of the most engaging games was the low-scoring affair in Bloomington, Ind., between defending national champ Indiana and scrappy Minnesota. Fun fact: this was the first game in B1G history (which spans 130 years) wherein two 60-yard field goals were kicked, and that’s not even the whole it. Both teams kicked theirs within the last two minutes of the game.
Another near-upset occurred with North Carolina plays top-ranked Miami closely throughout, making this week’s intriguing coaching matchup even more interesting to observe as the game unfolded.
Offensive Explosion Review:
For once, my predicted offensive explosion actually came to pass. North Texas triumphed over Florida Atlantic in a rather thrilling finish, with high scoring throughout the game. Interestingly, that was not the only offensive explosion worth noting. Texas State almost upset No. 20 Boise State, with a second-half near-comeback mounted in the second half (the Bobcats outscored the Broncos 22-0 alone in the 3rd quarter), but the Broncos managed to hold off the challengers in the end, barely, 46-45.
Looking Ahead
Two potentially legendary games await us next week, what with a fitting replay of the “Catholics vs Convicts” as No. 1 Miami ventures up to South Bend, Ind., to play No. 4 Notre Dame, with obvious playoff implications abounding. At the same time, No. 7 BYU plays No. 3 Utah in what could be the most legendary, definitely most high-stakes “Holy War” ever staged.
Elsewhere, other intriguing matchups abound. Kentucky plays Tennessee: the fact that the Wildcats currently outrank the Volunteers merits us to queue the “Twilight Zone” theme music.
While UCLA currently sits at the No. 5 ranking, they now venture up to the Twin Cities to play Minnesota, a team that almost upset IU on the road. Can the Bruins handle the frozen tundra of Huntington Bank Stadium?
Consider that Texas heads up to Missouri. Can the Longhorns’ defense contain the Tigers’ offense while Arch Manning continues to find his own offensive footing, including achieving further growth in playing to his strengths (he clearly takes after his grandfather more than he does his uncles).
In another must-win scenario, Oregon, which seems to have stabilized, now plays Ohio State on the road, just as the Buckeyes continue to scramble to revive their offense, assuming such a thing is possible in the first place.
Also, No. 2 Georgia plays No. 12 Ole Miss: can the Rebels’ Trinidad Chambliss overcome the Bulldogs’ potentially stifling defense? Conversely, can the Dawgs effectively contain Chambliss and thus put themselves into the driver’s seat in the whole SEC? We’ll find out this and more this Saturday. Buckle up, Buckaroos.
(Note: All rankings are current AP [week 4] unless otherwise noted.)
COACHES Wish I were him: David Shaw, Stanford
Glad I’m not him: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
Lucky guy: Tim DeRuyter, Fresno State Poor guy: Bronco Mendenhall, BYU
Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Brady Hoke, Michigan Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Kyle Flood, Rutgers
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Dana Holgersen, West Virginia
Desperately seeking … anything: P.J. Fleck, Western Michigan
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: No. 7 Louisville (defeated FIU 72-0) Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: No. 11 Michigan (defeated UConn 24-21) Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Troy (lost to Mississippi State 62-7)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Colorado State* (lost to No. 1 Alabama 31-6)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Iowa (defeated Western Michigan 59-3)
Dang, they’re good: Stanford Dang, they’re bad: Western Michigan Can’t Stand Prosperity: Arkansas
Did the season start? Michigan State Can the season end? Central Michigan Can the season never end? UCLA
GAMES Play this again: Fresno State 41, Boise State 40
Play this again, too: Pittsburgh 58, Duke 55 Never play this again: No. 4 Ohio State 76, Florida A&M 0
What? Iowa 59, Western Michigan 3
Huh? Fresno State 41, Boise State 40
Are you kidding me? Texas 31, Kansas State 21 Oh – my – God: Maryland 37, West Virginia 0
NEXT WEEK
(rankings are current AP (post-week 3, pre-week 4) Ticket to die for: No. 6 LSU @ No. 9 Georgia
Best non-Big Six vs. Big Six matchup: Northern Illinois @ Purdue
Best non-Big Six matchup: Navy @ Western Kentucky (honorable mention: Akron @ Bowling Green)
Upset alert: No. 23 Wisconsin @ No. 4 Ohio State, or, No. 12 South Carolina @ Central Florida
Must win: No. 10 Texas A&M @ Arkansas
Offensive explosion: Arizona @ No. 16 Washington
Defensive struggle: MTSU @ BYU Great game no one is talking about: Virginia Tech @ Georgia Tech (Thurs.)
Intriguing coaching matchup: Ken Niumatalolo of Navy vs. Bobby Petrino of Western Kentucky
Who’s bringing the body bags? South Florida @ No. 15 Miami
Why are they playing? South Alabama @ Tennessee
Plenty of good seats remaining: Kent State @ Western Michigan
They shoot horses, don’t they? Troy @ Duke
Week 4 in Review:
*: This was the “body bag” game that did not quite turn out to be one. On paper, Colorado State was to be the lamb being led to the slaughter. After all, the fortunes of the Rams have been nothing like the halcyon days under former head coach Sonny Lubick. Moreover, in a week where every other game seemed to be a body bag game, this one should have been no different. Consider an under-performing Mountain West Conference team journeying over a thousand miles from Fort Collins, Colo., to Tuscaloosa, Ala., only to go into one of the most hostile places in the land in which to play football, with none other than Nick Saban, arguably the best coach in the business, to be the pitiless executioner.
All things considered, the 31-6 loss could have been much worse. The Rams actually did a good job of gaining yardage against the Crimson Tide. The only problem was, the bulk of that yardage was between the 20 yard-lines. Once Colorado State made it into the red zone, Alabama started to show more of its true defensive colors, as the score attests. Still, head coach Jim McElwain – coincidentally, the former offensive coordinator at Alabama – came in with a sound game plan, and that was to keep his team’s offense on the field for as long as possible, and conversely, to keep Alabama’s offense off the field as long as possible. They took plenty of risks – including lots of screen passes – in order to try to make that happen. One thing that was particularly telling of some degree of success in the overall game plan, despite the loss, was that Saban kept his headset on and kept coaching his team literally as the final second of the fourth quarter ticked off the clock. One normally does not see that sort of behavior from a coach – no matter how skilled they are in the business – during a so-called “body bag” game.
But this game aside, even some of the better matches on paper (say, Tennessee at Florida, or Michigan State at Notre Dame) turned out to be exercises in ineptitude on both sides of the ball. Even Purdue, who acquitted themselves well against Notre Dame last week, came out flat against Wisconsin this week.
Speaking of “body bag” games, though, this weekend was lousy with them. Records have become so important in terms of one’s BCS standings, that teams have largely become risk-averse, and since most conferences do not mandate that at least nine conference games be scheduled (notwithstanding the Big XII and Pac-12), we the fans had to suffer through lots of garbage matchups (hello, Florida A&M @ Ohio State) this past week. Next week will thankfully be different, though, as most teams have some sort of conference game, and even those that do not still [mostly] have some interesting opponent to play (e.g., Northern Illinois at Purdue, South Carolina at an up-and-coming UCF, Oklahoma at Notre Dame, and Navy at Western Kentucky). The bottom line is, let us blot this past week out of our memories, and just look forward to that which is immediately ahead.
