Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Jason Candle, Toledo
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Rocky Long, San Diego State
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Tom Herman, Texas
Desperately seeking … anything: Walt Bell, UMass
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: BYU (defeated Idaho State 42-10)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Florida (defeated Missouri 23-6)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Rutgers (lost to No. 2 Ohio State 56-21)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Syracuse (defeated Duke 49-6)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: USC (defeated Cal 41-17)
Dang, they’re good: Clemson
Dang, they’re bad: Texas State
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Minnesota
Did the season start? Texas
Can the season end? Georgia Tech
Can the season never end? Ohio State
GAMES Play this again: No. 10 Oklahoma 34, No. 13 Baylor 31
Never play this again: No. 3 Clemson 52, Wake Forest 3
What? Oregon State 35, Arizona State 34
Huh? West Virginia 24, No. 24 Kansas State 20
Are you kidding me?? No. 20 Iowa 23, No. 8 Minnesota 19
Oh – my – God: Iowa State 23, No. 19 Texas 21
NEXT WEEK
(rankings are current AP (post-week 12, pre-week 13) Ticket to die for: No. 9 Penn State @ No. 2 Ohio State
Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five matchup: Liberty @ Virginia
Best non-Power Five matchup: SMU @ Navy (hon. mention: SDSU @ Hawaii)
Upset alert: Syracuse @ Louisville
Must win: Texas @ No. 13 Baylor
Offensive explosion: (inconclusive)
Defensive struggle: Tennessee @ Missouri
Great game no one is talking about: Pittsburgh @ Virginia Tech
Intriguing coaching matchup: Mario Cristobal of Oregon vs Herm Edwards of Arizona State
Who’s bringing the body bags? Samford @ No. 16 Auburn
Why are they playing? Western Carolina @ No. 5 Alabama
Plenty of good seats remaining: Old Dominion @ Middle Tennessee
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? BYU @ UMass
Week 12 Thoughts:
Iowa vs Minnesota
This had to have been one of the biggest face-offs for the Floyd of Rosedale trophy in recent memory. Funny things happen in rivalry games such as this, and a few small errors ended up making the difference in the Hawkeyes’ favor. The Golden Gophers have an easy outing against Northwestern. Such should be a tune-up game for the following week, when Wisconsin comes calling and the berth for representing the Western Division in the B1G title game hangs in the balance.
Iowa State vs Texas
Despite the Longhorns’ offense inexplicably sputtering most of the game, Texas could have won the game after Iowa State missed a field goal with two minutes left in the game. Instead, Texas got an offsides penalty at the worst possible time. It allowed for the Cyclones to get further downfield, kill the clock, and kick the game-winning field goal at the buzzer. No excuses, Tom Herman. Do better.
Looking ahead:
Shoutouts to Texas A&M, Georgia, Missouri, and Tennessee: they are the only SEC teams who had the guts to play real games this upcoming week. While the rest of their fellow SEC members are wasting everybody’s time with pointless body bag games (e.g., Western Carolina @ Bama; Abilene Christian @ Mississippi State), The Aggies, the Georgia Bulldogs, the Mizzou Tigers, and the Volunteers will give us real games this week. Technically, the same should go for LSU and Arkansas. While on paper it’s a glorified body bag game, at least those two teams are keeping it in-conference. To the rest of you in the SEC: get it together. Step up and play real games.
(Note: All rankings are current AP [week 4] unless otherwise noted.)
COACHES Wish I were him: Gary Patterson, TCU
Glad I’m not him: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Lucky guy: James Franklin, Penn State
Poor guy: Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Will Muschamp, South Carolina
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Jimbo Fisher, Florida State
Desperately seeking … anything: Barry Odom, Missouri
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Ohio State (defeated UNLV 54-21)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Tennessee (defeated UMass 17-13)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Kent State (lost to No. 9 Louisville 42-3)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Louisiana Tech (lost to South Carolina 17-16)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Utah State (defeated San Jose State 61-10)
Dang, they’re good: Michigan
Dang, they’re bad: San Jose State
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Michigan State
Did the season start? Florida State
Can the season end? UTEP
Can the season never end? Georgia
GAMES Play this again: Texas A&M 50, Arkansas 43, OT
Play this again, too: No. 4 Penn State 21, Iowa 19
Never play this again: Utah State 61, San Jose State 10
What? Miami (OH) 31, Central Michigan 14
Huh? Arizona State 37, No. 24 Oregon 35
Are you kidding me?? No. 16 TCU 44, No. 6 Oklahoma State 31
Oh – my – God: NC State 27, No. 12 Florida State 21
NEXT WEEK
(rankings are current AP (post-week 4, pre-week 5) Ticket to die for: No. 2 Clemson @ No. 13 Virginia Tech
Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five matchup: Eastern Michigan @ Kentucky
Best non-Power Five matchup: Memphis @ UCF
Upset alert: Vanderbilt @ No. 21 Florida
Must win: No. 11 Georgia @ Tennessee
Offensive explosion: No 5 USC @ No. 16 Washington State
Defensive struggle: No. 24 Mississippi State @ No. 13 Auburn
Great game no one is talking about: No. 14 Miami @ Duke
Intriguing coaching matchup: Todd Graham of Arizona State vs David Shaw of Stanford
Who’s bringing the body bags? No. 11 Ohio State @ Rutgers
Why are they playing? Troy @ No. 25 LSU
Plenty of good seats remaining: San Jose State @ UNLV
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? New Mexico State @ Arkansas
Week 4 Take-aways:
One conclusion after today: Michigan is good, and while Purdue is both exciting and improving, they are still not strong or far along enough in Coach Jeff Brohm’s turnaround campaign for the Boilermakers to be able to effectively take down the heavyweights of the conference. Purdue was continually outmanned on both sides of the line of scrimmage due to the Wolverines’ obviously superior talent. That said, at this rate, Purdue will eventually get to the point where they can upset if not defeat Michigan and the like. Just not today.
This week has been characterized not so much by surprises or upsets as it has by narrow escapes. That is to say, teams that were favored almost getting upset by underdogs, only to narrowly escape in the end. To wit: Tennessee only managed to eke out a 17-13 win over lowly UMass, at home. South Carolina defeated struggling Louisiana Tech by only one point, 17-16. After a dismal start to the season, under-performing Baylor briefly led No. 3 Oklahoma in the second half before eventually losing by only eight points, 49-41.
Oh, but it gets better. No. 4 Penn State had to score a touchdown in literally the last second of the game to triumph over Iowa, 21-19. Then, unranked Kentucky was leading No. 20 Florida throughout a good chunk of the game, but gradually gave up the lead to the Gators in the 4th quarter, allowing the Gators to win, 28-27. Let’s face it: if you’re Kentucky, you blow 4th quarter leads to Florida. It’s what you do.
Last note: how on Earth did Stanford lose to San Diego State last week? Yes, SDSU is currently ranked No. 22, but Stanford would have been ranked higher than that had they not allowed that notch in the “L” column. Did losing to USC take that much out of the Cardinal? Speaking of SDSU and narrow escapes, the Aztecs did beat unranked Air Force today, but only by four points. But that might be more of a commentary on the Falcon’s ball-control, option-oriented offense and less on possible consistencies on the part of the former team.
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