Between The Hashes - Week 9

Between The Hashes

Welcome back SportzFanz to yet another week, Between The Hashes. In each issue we take a look at the College Football landscape and report on the state of all things Grid Iron. On this Halloween Weekend, more than just a few teams got quite a scare: Georgia fighting some demons masquerading as Gators; Texas spotting the Cowboys 30 minutes …again, UCLA uncorking the magic genie …yes, again; Phil Fulmer and the Volunteers getting whacked by The Visor (I’m sure they thought it was just another bad dream), and Northwestern being blown to bits by Michigan –yes, that was a Wolverine that saying ‘Boo’, you can come out now. With so much to talk about and discuss, lets just get right down to the action…


What This Week Will Be Remembered For
The is No Defense Against Da Vince. I’ve been on the fence for a while now, trying to decide who should bring home the Heisman Hardware this year. The top three candidates are obvious, deciding among them who gets the nod is not –at least until this weekend. Reggie Bush, don’t let him get his hands on the ball –he can juke you silly and beat you stupid with his speed. Matt Leinart, you can’t let him sit back in the pocket –he’ll pick you apart with short, crisp throws and then bomb away on your secondary like a battleship shelling the beach. But Vince, ah well, what do you do about Vince Young? No, really: what do you about him, myself and the rest of the defenses in the country would like to know.

You can blitz him and flush him from the pocket, but he’ll evade even your best tacklers, making them look like Pee Wee players stuck in molasses. You can play ‘contain’ and let him sit in the pocket for as long as he likes, but he’ll just pick you apart through the air with his speedy receiver corps and stable of tight ends and running backs. You can even try bringing a mixture of both and to keep him off balance, but if it’s one thing we’ve learned about playing against this young man it’s that the defense is the one kept off balance.

I’ve watched this kid play almost every single game of his young career at Texas. I’ve seen him make silly, stupid mistakes that make you swear and curse, but I’ve also seen him fight with the kind of fire that’s reserved for the rarest of rare athletes –elite’s like Michael Jordon and Tiger Woods. Such was the case on Saturday night against Oklahoma State. Sure, he threw a bad pick –even over threw his receivers repeatedly in the first half, and yes, he fumbled the ball away during the opening fifteen. But do you know what else he did? He reached down into depths of talent, drive, and motivation that everyone stands in awe of: when the chips go down and the rubber hits the road, that’s when #10 picks up his game and goes all in.

Young set career marks on Saturday with 267 yards rushing and 506 yards of total offense. He also set a school mark for longest scramble by a Texas quarterback: 80 yards on the third play of the second half –and he did it by using a pump fake to get a Cowboy DB three feet in the air while he glided past him towards the end zone. Anyone hanging around long enough to watch this one on TBS had to be in awe of the Texas Thoroughbred: Just when you thought ‘maybe Texas really is still, just Texas,’ Vince kicked it into a new gear, a new level. How many levels and how many gears he has is anyone’s guess –I bet he doesn’t even know. But that’s what separates the great from the unbelievable, and Vince Young is truly unbelievable.


Today’s Topic
What’s up with the Big Bad Ten? For a conference that traditionally pride’s itself on power run games and stalwart defenses, this season is certainly a curveball –well, maybe a split finger fastball is more apropos. Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State and Northwestern have all gone the way of the Spread/West Coast Offense, pulling the Big Ten into levels of offensive excitement and flair that they’ve never seen. Of course the down side to all that excitement is that, seemingly, just about every team in this blue collar conference has forgotten how to play a little thing called DEFENSE.

Aside from Ohio State’s 3rd ranked run defense, there isn’t another top 10 rating out there in the Big Ten –in any of the major statistical defensive categories. But what is more worrisome for the conference isn’t that they no longer have stellar, top notch defenses: it’s that they have porous, shaky and increasingly horrible defenses. For example: which conference owns the nation’s two worst rated defenses? If you said the Sun Belt, WAC, Mountain West, C-USA, or even the PAC-10 you’re wrong. The answer is the Big 10 with Northwestern sitting at the bottom (117th) and Purdue right on top of them (116th). In fact, they also got the nations 97th (Wisconsin) and 111th (Illinois) overall defenses. Against the run, they’ve got numbers 114, 102, 96, 90, and 80; against the pass it’s 114, 106, 100, 90, and 80.

To put it a different way, the Big Ten doesn’t have a single squad ranked in the Top 10 in the nation on defense. Ohio State at 13 and Penn State at 14 are the two top defenses in the nation. The next best is Michigan’s at 51st. That’s right, the Big Ten has only two defenses among the FIFTY best in the nation. Isn’t that insane.


Your Instant Impact Quotes of the Week Are:

1. “When you try and tackle Tyrone Moss, you better bring some of your homies.” Andre Ware, part of the ESPN crew during the Miami, Fla.-UNC game. Apparently, the Tar Heels didn’t bring quite enough homies –they gave up195 yards on the ground to Tyrone Moss on Saturday.

2. "Plan on being behind, plan on getting yourself in trouble." Texas Coach Mack Brown, talking to his team right before their game on Saturday. Talk about spooky. Mack hit it right on the head as Texas once more spotted the Cowboys a half, only to come storming back and retake the game at the intermission.

3. "I'm getting stepped on, people were grabbing me, it was pretty special. It was the best stepped-on feeling ever." Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart, after becoming bowl eligible by beating Navy Saturday.

4. "If you're listening out there Ted Ginn Sr., I love ya ... send me some of your players,” Minnesota Head Coach Glenn Mason, after the Cleveland Glenville coach, whose son and former quarterback (Troy Smith), accounted for four touchdowns against the Golden Gophers. Just goes to show: if you can’t beat’em, join’em.

5. "They just didn't have enough at the end, and the other team made the plays we didn't make," Nebraska head coach, Bill Callahan. So let me get this straight: it’s the players fault that Nebraska has lost two straight home games for the first time since 1968, and not the Coaches? Boy, that’s one heck of a coach you Nebraska faithful have there. Yep, one heck of a coach. Tell me this: what has he done to deserve that post, aside from caretaking a John Gruden team to the Super Bowl of course?

6. "He'd tell his little corny jokes, we'd tell ours. Fans laugh, no big deal. But you tell one about Tennessee they think it's insulting or something," Steve Spurrier prior to the South Carolina-Tennessee game this week. I wonder if Peyton –or even the whole Manning family –feel the same way?

7. “If you went into the kitchen for an adult beverage or something, we’ve scored 21 points in the first half of the first quarter.” The beginning of the Michigan-Northwestern game. I would’ve caught who said it, but I really was in the kitchen getting an adult beverage.

8. “That was one of those Apollo Creed plays” Craig Sagan covering the Texas-Oklahoma State game and describing how OSU turned a busted play into a big gain for Oklahoma State. For those of you not wisened into the mental thought process of Mr. Sagan, Apollo Creed was known as the Master of Disaster.

9. “And Secretariat gallops for Roses.” Craig Sagan, calling Vince Young’s 80 yard touchdown scramble on the third play in the second half.

10. “I love Halloween, I don’t need a facemask.” Lou Holtz in the ESPN Studio. Ah, an oldie but a goodie Lou. The only thing better was watching you zing Mark May for his picks last week.

11. “Nate Swift could not have been more wide open if he’d been out in a cornfield.” Gary Thorne as the Nebraska wide receiver created his own zip code inside the Red Zone for a touchdown. How does a receiver find himself in the end zone when there isn’t a defensive back even inside the twenty?

12. "It was the greatest show on turf!" linebacker Bobby Carpenter after Ohio State prevailed in the Thunder Dome for the ninth straight time. Ohio State and Minnesota combined for 76 points, 1,027 yards, 45 first downs, and 10 touchdowns, but surprisingly enough only one turnover.


And this week’s Instant IQ award goes to…
“When it’s breezy, swing it easy.” Ed Cunningham.
“Yo, Yo! Write that one down!” Gary Thorne.


This week’s Super-Stud Awards go to…

1. Vince “The Program” Young, QB Texas – Obviously, Vince makes this list. He joins Missouri’s Brad Smith as the only other player to rush and pass for over 230 yards in a game. Vince finished with a NCAA high 267 yards on the ground and 239 through the air, to go with his 4 touchdowns.

2. Kalvin’n’Hobbs McRae, RB Ohio – Frank Solich’s sophomore is quickly closing in on 1,000 yards for the season. This week he netted 224 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries as Ohio cruised past Buffalo.

3. Steven “Which” Wichman, QB Idaho – Wichman led the Vandals past the New Mexico State Lobo’s this weekend, throwing the little pigskin for 489 yards –ouch!

4. Daniel Smith, WR Idaho – Helping Wichman pick up the victory, Mr. Smith snagged 11 catches for 269 yards and 2 touchdowns.

5. Michael “I’m fast, but I’m not that fast” Johnson, DB Arizona – He was fast enough on Saturday, converting one of his school record three picks into the pig house as Arizona surprised Oregon State.

6. Chub “B.” Small, RB Marshall – With a name like that, Mr. Small deserves this list just for making it out of middle school. On Saturday, the freshman returned 4 kicks for 160 yards and a touchdown, helping the Herd Thunder past the Green Wave, 27-26.

7. Ted “e-Bear” Ginn Jr., WR Ohio State – I think this is the first time Mr. Ginn has made our list all season. Against Minnesota, lucky #7 ran back a 100 yard kick off for a touchdown in less time than it takes most college guys to pound a beer –now, that’s fast.

8. The USC Trojan Offense – In what was widely expected to be a down week for the Trojans, they exploded right out of the gate to pick up their 30th consecutive victory and reclaim the BCS #1 slot. When the dust cleared and the Cougars were picked up off the turf, the Trojans had compiled 745 yards of total offense.

9. Todd “Don’t Be” Blythe, WR Iowa State – In torching the Aggie DBs, he caught eight passes for 214 yards and four touchdowns. To boot, he set the school mark for most receiving touchdowns in a game.

10. Brian “Boom Boom” Calhoun, RB Wisconsin – The Badger’s Back lowered the boom on the Illini for 197 yards and five touchdowns in Wisconsin’s 41-24 win. In so doing, ‘Boom Boom’ tied a school record for most touchdowns in a single game –that’s the second time he’s tied that particular record this season.


Riding the Bench This Week is…
1. Nebraska’s Offensive Line – Minus Two yards rushing last weekend, sixteen yards rushing this weekend –that’s pitiful, ridiculously pitiful for a storied program like Nebraska. To make matters worse, the offensive line gave up a school record 9 sacks against the Sooners on Saturday.

2. Gary Pinkel, Head Coach Missouri – Last week, he had the game plan to make QB Brad Smith the first Division I-A player with better than 230 yards in a single game through the air and on the ground. This week, not only did he forget to bring a game plan, but he forget how to make half time adjustments. The Kansas defense smothered Brad Smith for just 179 yards of total offense, 38 with his feet.


Random Hits and Misses
My moments of clarity and confusion from the weekend are:

1. Notre Dame announced on Saturday that first year head coach Charlie Weis has been rewarded with a 10-year contract extension to ‘ward off’ speculation that the coach may move to the NFL. The contract is believed to be the richest for any coach in the NCAA (somewhere between $30 and $40 million) and runs through the 2015 season. While that all sounds nice and wonderful, I can’t help but have a sense of Déjà vu here: Tyrone Willingham was rewarded in much the same way after starting off his tenure with eight straight victories and, well, we all know how that ended. At 5-2, Charlie is hardly a godsend –yet. True, he’s done magnificent things with this year’s Golden Domer squad, but Ty did the same in his first season so just don’t go counting your chickens before they’re hatched.

2. As happy as the Irish are with their head coach, the Aggies of College Station are increasingly and increasingly less so with theirs. Dennis Franchione was stolen away from Alabama to replace long time Aggie man R. C. Slocum (what is he up to these days, anyway?). Now in his third season, ‘French’ione is just 11-13 overall and 5 -3 this season, and owns the nation’s third worst pass defense and worst overall defense in the Big 12. Was this the kind of success the Aggies expected? The only coach in the Big12 more on the hot seat than Dennis is Husker’s Bill Callahan.

3. This past week saw a new ‘all-divisions’ NCAA scoring mark set: most points scored in the shortest amount of time. The honor goes to the Division II Central Washington Wildcats who put 27 unanswered points up on the board in 70 seconds. How’d they do that, you ask? By scoring putting together a nice offensive scoring drive and then following it up with three quick strike defensive touchdowns, two pick sixes and a fumble return. The previous record was held by Division III Mont Union, who had scored 21 points in 33 seconds in 1996. The Division I record is held, not by Texas Tech, but by Colorado State. In 1997 and against San Jose State, the Rams scored 20 points in 55 seconds.

4. If I hear one more time about how Mack Brown decided to ‘lighten it up’ and download 2,000 songs onto his I-Pod, I’m gonna seriously lose it. How many times can they report the exact same thing? Ok, we get it, enough already: Mack “Daddy” Brown is a player’s coach. Great, now let’s move on…

5. Kudos to Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne. During the OU-Nebraska game, they told it like it is. When asked whether their power run game would be able to compete and win against the Spread Offense, they wasted no time in making one thing very, very clear: Yes, their playbooks will still win national championships, but nobody wants to use them because high scoring, dynamic offenses are all the rage. I would submit, too, that those offenses make it easier to lure in top athletes from around the country, but some places still need to play to their strengths (and I think Mr. Osborne would agree).

6. The Hard Luck Bears continued their odyssey through woe and sorrow on Saturday. This week it was at home against the Red Raiders. Up until the 4th quarter, the Bears largely kept the Air Raid attack in check, trailing just 6-0. In fact, they had several chances to actually take the lead in this one (a touchdown called back and a missed fourth and goal opportunity, proving the most devastating). In the end though, they could only contain these Raiders for so long, finally succumbing to the prick-and-poke Tech attack, 28-0.

7. How in the world have we allowed ourselves to be so fooled? With their 4th loss of the season, the Volunteers have now dropped out of the Top 25. They began the season at #3 in the pre-season, and now join Michigan, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisville, and Purdue as teams that were ranked in the Top 15 nationally, only to crash and burn once the pigskin started flying.

8. It’s official: Rutgers is the feel good story of the season. It’s been 26 long years since the Scarlet Knights have played in the post season, and now that drought is over. Is this just an aberration for a Big East in flux, or the start of something new? Quirky stat of the week: The last time Rutgers made themselves bowl eligible was in 1982 (although they did not go bowling that year) with a win against, you guessed it, Navy 31-21.

9. Texas Tech’s Taurean Henderson is just 75 yards short of becoming the first player in NCAA history to reach 2,000 yards rushing and 2,000 yards receiving. With the Aggies coming for a visit out on the Tumbleweed Plains, do you think there’s even the slightest chance he won’t grab that record?

10. I think this may be the funniest thing I’ve read in a long, long time, straight from a wire article : Casey Dick, a freshman quarterback who's seen no action in Razorback games this year because he's been redshirted, will start for the Hogs against the Gamecocks on Saturday, coach Houston Nutt said. "He has a strong arm and good instincts. It's hard to explain. He just has 'it.'”


If I Could Be Anyone This Week It’d Be…
A South Carolina Gamecock. Not only did they manage to beat Tennessee on a field goal with under three minutes to go, but they did at Rocky Top –something the South Carolina program has never done before. Equally nice, at 5-3 they are in good shape for a bowl bid with Arkansas, Florida, and Clemson still on the docket. What might even be more delicious (if you’re a Gamecock fan): the last Tennessee coach that lost to the Gamecocks (Johnny Majors in 1992) ‘left the program’ six days later.


Next Week’s Quick Peeks

Pittsburgh @ Louisville –After a two week hiatus, the BEast is finally back on the tube, this time in a Thursday night showdown. Louisville will try to recapture some pre-season magic and climb back up the conference standings. Meanwhile, off-the-radar Pittsburgh has begun playing a little ball: three straight victories over Cincinnati, South Florida, and Syracuse. Can they make it four in a row?

Iowa @ Northwestern – Both teams ride into this one having dropped their last game (and both to the Wolverines, oddly enough). Will the week off for the Hawkeyes prove the difference here, or will Tyrell Sutton and Brett Basanez prove too much for the Iowa defense?

Tennessee @ Notre Dame – The pre-season #3 Tennessee Volunteers travel to South Bend for a tussle with the Fighting Irish. Early on in the year, this one was circled by just about everyone. Now, it’s an after thought, penciled in mainly by those Volunteer faithful hoping that Fulmer can somehow pull a miracle out of his hat and muster back some respect for the downtrodden program. On the other side of the hashes, Charlie Weiss will be looking to jump some more poll slots to finish no lower than 12th in the nation, and so ensure Notre Dame’s return to the BCS.

Wisconsin @ Penn State – It’s THE Big 10 showdown as the Badgers from Camp Randall ship out to Happy Valley to find out who takes control of the race for the conference crown. With Wisconsin’s defense playing worse than I’ve ever seen them, this one may not be the battle that everyone’s predicting –especially with that young, electric offense Joe Pa’s got brewing up in Beaver Stadium. Even so, the Badgers should get a couple of key personnel back on defense and keep this one tight (remember: Barry’s Boys love a good fight).

Army @ Air Force – Over on The Classic, the Commander-In-Chief trophy goes up for grabs: 1-6 Army can still claim the trophy by sweeping Air Force this week and Navy the first week of December. In order to do so, the Army Grunts will have to have their game of the season against the nation’s 8th ranked ground assault and much underrated QB Shaun Carney.

UCLA @ Arizona – Will the Bruins Cinderella comeback run continue this week? ‘Zona and the Stoops Boys says no, but perhaps it’s the Drew Boys who will have the final say on the matter. Maurice Drew and Drew Olson are the one-two punch that drive this Bruin team to heights well beyond what could have been considered normal in the preseason. The Wildcats, meanwhile, have inserted Freshman QB Willie Tuitama into the starting lineup and got an outstanding 13 of 22 for 335 yard passing day out of him against Oregon State last week. Can he do the same against the PAC10’s best pass defense?

Miami, Fla @ VA Tech – The Hokies finally get their headliner game this week. Texas had Ohio State, USC had Notre Dame, the Hokies get the Hurricanes. On Saturday night on ESPN, if you’re even the least bit of a college football fan, you’d better tune in for this one. Marcus Vick and the versatile Hokie offense host Larry Coker’s Hurricanes in Blacksburg. Miami is brining their nation leading defense to the table –one that allowed just 4 yards of offense to NC State during a 29 minute span in the second half. Are the Hokies for ready for that kind of smash mouth?

Stanford @ USC – Despite last week’s loss in double overtime to UCLA, Walt Harris has this Cardinal team on a role. Can they put a stop to the nation’s longest win streak, or will the Trojan offense rip apart another lesser team?

The Wrap Up
Well, that about wraps it up for yet another week Between the Hashes, SportzFanz. As always, it’s been both a privilege and a pleasure. Look for our Weekly Run Down of the games on in your area to hit the shelves in a couple of days. Until then...

The Week 9 Run Down

And Welcome to Week Number Nine SportzFanz! Last week saw Texas do the unthinkable and overtake the Trojans in the BCS poll while the Hurricanes of Miami, without even suiting up, leapfrogged the Tigers of LSU. There was also Michigan’s undoing of the Hawkeye’s 22-game home streak (due, in large part I’m sure, to those pink lockers in Kinnick Stadium), the Northwestern Wildcats throttling the Spartans in front of millions, Auburn failing to find the uprights (or the win) against the Bayou Bengals, and the Golden Bears running down the Washington State Cougars in a come from behind victory.

With so much wackiness and intrigue each and every week, what in the world will happen in the slate of games on this weekend? Will BC make Thursday Night a monumental one for the 2005 season? Will the Wolverines defense relapse and wilt in the face of the mighty Wildcat’s spread offense? Or, maybe it’ll be a Tar Trap down in Miami for the Hurricanes? Who knows, but one thing is for certain: something wicked, this way will come in Week Number Nine (and it won’t be just the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party). To help pick out which pigskin you plan on kicking back with, we’ve got another edition of the College Pigskin Schedule. Now, let’s get down to business…


The Week 9 TV Schedule


Oct. 27 Thu Boston College @ VA Tech 6:30P ESPN

Oct. 28 Fri Colorado State @ New Mexico 7:00P ESPN2

Oct. 29 Sat Ohio State @ Minnesota 11:00A ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Oklahoma @ Nebraska 11:00A ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Wisconsin @ Illinois 11:00A ESPN
Oct. 29 Sat Clemson @ GA Tech 11:00A ESPN2
Oct. 29 Sat Texas Tech @ Baylor 11:30A FSN

Oct. 29 Sat Purdue @ Penn State 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Wash St @ USC 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Maryland @ Florida State 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Iowa State @ Texas A&M 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat North Carolina @ Miami 2:30P ESPN
Oct. 29 Sat Georgia vs. Florida (Jax, Fla) 2:30P CBS

Oct. 29 Sat UTEP @ Rice 5:00P PAX
Oct. 29 Sat UCLA @ Stanford 5:30P FSN
Oct. 29 Sat Fresno State @ Hawaii 6:00P ABC*
Oct. 29 Sat Michigan @ Northwestern 6:00P ESPN
Oct. 29 Sat Texas @ Oklahoma State 6:00P TBS
Oct. 29 Sat South Carolina @ Tennessee 6:45P ESPN2


*Denotes Regional Action
NOTE: All times are CST.


The Week 9 Run Down


Thu Boston College @ VA Tech 6:30P ESPN
On paper, we’ve got another gem of a match up on Thursday night. In practice though, the past couple of Thursday night games haven’t turned out that way –will the mold to be broken this week? Marcus Vick leads the charge for the Hokies as they look to make a statement about the latest batch of BCS rankings (where did all that silicon love go?). BC, while 6-1 and looking dang good in their games this season, has been lackluster on offense and forced to rely on their #4 ranked run and #34 ranked pass defenses. Will that be enough to slow down these Hopping Mad Hokies in Blacksburg?
Va Tech –and the ‘puters shall love thee once more.


Fri Colorado State @ New Mexico 7:00P ESPN2
Hey, what’s that Ram wearing, a Brass Boot? Yep, it sure is. Fresh off their see-saw victory over Wyoming last week, the Rams travel down to Albuquerque for a meet and greet with the Lobo’s. With a new found ground game to control the clock and tempo, CSU should have no trouble dictating the game on Friday night. Even so, be on the look out for Lobo RB DonTrell Moore, he’s the Mountain West’s most explosive back with 968 yards on 203 carries.
CSU, Rams its way past the Lobos.


Sat Ohio State @ Minnesota 11:00A ABC
Now that the Bucks have jump started their offense against Indiana, they get to try it out against the Gophers in the Thunder Dome. The marquee match up in this game is the Golden Gopher’s Galloping Ground Game (best in the country) against that Beautiful, Bludgeoning Buckeye Beast of a Defense (also best in the country). If Minnesota’s lineman can’t account for A.J. Hawk & Co., the Gophers are in deep trouble as they won’t be able to win in a high scoring affair. However, if Tressle pulls another Houdini act with Tedd Ginn’s touches, this one won’t be a high scoring affair –and that means the possibility of an upset special. Here’s one thought though: what happens if Antonio Pittman’s big rushing day last week was just the tip of the ice berg?
Buckeyes – they find out their O-line really does knows how to run block.


Sat Oklahoma @ Nebraska 11:00A ABC
After last week’s debacle in Columbia, the Cornhuskers return home to face a struggling Oklahoma squad. I say struggling because up until this season it simply would have been sacrilege to think the Baylor Bears could hang with the Sooners, much less push them to double overtime. Of course, it would have also been sacrilege to think that Big Red could be held to negative rushing yardage –against Missouri. While this certainly won’t have the magnitude of a 1971 showdown classic, it will feature teams that are evenly matched –and therefore it should be a whale of a game. Look for the Sooners to pound the ball with Adrian Peterson (if he’s back) while the Huskers continue to forego history and relegate the run game to about as much importance in their attack as in the Air Raiders.
Sooners –Why? Baylor’s Defense is better than Nebraska’s (ah, the sacrilege).


Sat Wisconsin @ Illinois 11:00A ESPN
Now comes the tough part for the Badgers –closing out a marvelous season by playing 3 of 4 on the road. Fortunately, they start this stint with lowly Illinois before having to travel down to Happy Valley. Unfortunately, their defense probably won’t be able to keep even the Illini off the board. What is it with Big10 Defenses this season anyway? Purdue’s sucks. Northwestern’s is even worse (at least statistically, although I think that’s probably more because their offense forces teams to play catch up from the opening bell), Illinois’ ain’t much better, Michigan State’s is ranked 94th in the nation, and even the Badgers typically stodgy D is ranked 90th. In fact, the Big10 only has 2 teams ranked in the top 40 in total defense (Ohio State’s at #3 and Penn State‘s at #16). But I digress, with Wisconsin tallying the 7th ranked scoring offense, this one shouldn’t be much more than a tune up against Illinois’ 115th ranked rush defense –unless of course the Badger Boogie man shows up on Saturday.
Badgers.


Sat Clemson @ GA Tech 11:00A ESPN2
I’m calling this one The Most Painful Game You’ll Want To Watch On Saturday. Why? How else can you describe watching two ACC teams that can’t seem to decide how good they want to be? More to the point, how else can you describe sitting down to watch three and a half hours of Reggie Ball and Charlie Whitehurst? If you’re a logic chain believer, then this one should be easy: Clemson beat NC State 31-10 two weeks ago and NC State beat Georgia Tech 17-14 three weeks ago; therefore, Clemson should win this one in a 24 point cake walk. Me, I’m not big on logic when it comes to College Football.
Yellow Jackets.


Sat Texas Tech @ Baylor 11:00A FSN
To be certain, the Baylor Bears are to be commended for getting off to a 4-3 start (and losing those three games by a combined 19 points –one in overtime and another in double overtime). Even so, it’s way too early to say if this change is the beginning of something new down in Waco, or an aberration that will quickly evaporate come next season. Personally, I’d like to think that Baylor has turned the corner, but I have my doubts. In any event, we should find out a bit more about this Bear team on Saturday when they draw the unenviable task of taking on the Texas Air Raid. Last week, Tech managed to compile 468 yards of total offense, but where held to their lowest point total of the season (17). Can Baylor muster the same type of fast, hard smacking defense that Texas used to harass Cody Hodges and keep the Air Raid from bombing away? If not, then this one will be a long day and result in the most lopsided loss of the season for Da’Bears.
Red Raiders – their back, their bad, and they wanna be Nation Wide.


Sat Purdue @ Penn State 2:30P ABC
This one shouldn’t be good –not even close. The way the Nittany Lion offense has been playing, they ought to light up the Boilermakers like a Christmas tree –especially given that Purdue’s defense is ranked 115th in the nation overall (117th at defending the pass). On top of that, the PSU-D should more than manhandle this Purdue offense of Kirsch, Void, and Bryant. So why both watching? Because if history tells us anything, it’s that this type of game is never, ever that simple. Penn State’s pass defense is their weak link –the Wildcats almost exploited it for the win back in September, and the Boilermakers might be able to do the same here.
The Nittany Lions roar their way back to the top of the Big Ten.


Sat Wash St @ USC 2:30P ABC
While there has been much talk of late about the Cougar’s QB Alex Brink, RB Jerome Harrison, and WR Jason Hill, the fact of the matter is that Washington State hasn’t been able to buy a win in conference play, much less run away with one. Call it underachieving. Call it bad timing. Heck, just call it bad luck, I don’t care. The bottom line is that these Cougars aren’t going to stand a chance against USC if they don’t (A) play perfect and (B) catch the mighty Trojans napping for about 59 and a half minutes.
Southern Cal.


Sat Maryland @ Florida State 2:30P ABC
The Terrapins where steamrolled by Virginia Tech at home last Thursday. Now, they travel out to Tallahassee for a fight with Bobby Bowden and his Seminoles. While its true that the Terps boast the ACC’s worst run defense, it is also true that the Noles own the ACC’s worst run game –and I wouldn’t expect FSU to suddenly find a powerful run game here if they couldn’t do it against the likes of Duke. No, the key in this one will be how well the nation’s 6th ranked pass defense can keep Drew Weatherford and his boys under wraps. The margin for error by Maryland will be small –very, very small.
Seminoles – and they might even get a 100 yard rusher!


Sat Iowa State @ Texas A&M 2:30P ABC
I love that everyone’s talking about how the Texas Longhorns have nobody left on their schedule but patsies –it’s just the kind of talk that gets the dander up on these Aggies and pushes them that little bit extra into the ‘seriously insane’ zone. While much has been made about the backwards steps A&M has taken this year, people are overlooking just how well this Aggie team has been playing at home. Of course, speaking of taking a step backwards, this was again supposed to be the year that the Cyclones took control of the Big12 North (be honest: how many of you non-Red Bird fans thought that too after the Iowa State game?). Instead, the Tornadic Birds struggled against Army, got beaten by Nebraska –and Baylor, and then struggled for the first 30 minutes against the worst team in the conference: Oklahoma State. If there’s one thing the Cyclones have to do to win this game, it’s play suffocating defense. When Reggie gets knocked around, but more importantly frustrated, the Aggie offense goes in the tank and the whole team suffers. If ISU can’t do that, then it won’t matter how well QB Bret Meyer throws the ball.
The Aggies – righteous indignation at being a patsy, especially Texas’s patsy, always brings out the best in them.


Sat North Carolina @ Miami 2:30P ESPN
Who can figure out the Tar Heels? They lose to Georgia Tech and Wisconsin, bounce back against a solid NC State team (when they were playing fantastic defense), get blown out by Louisville, and then beat Virginia in a wacky 7-5 game. Meanwhile, since losing the opener against the Seminoles and getting pushed to triple overtime against Clemson, the Canes have torn through their slate, outscoring opponents 136-20. Ah, but now the intriguing part: those blowouts where against Colorado, South Florida, Duke, and Temple. Hmmm. Against defenses with a pulse, Miami’s QB Kyle Wright has tossed just as many picks as touchdowns: three. If the North Carolina secondary shows up, this one could get real interesting.
Canes – they’ve just got too many weapons for the Tar Heels to keep bottled up forever.


Sat Georgia vs. Florida (Jax, Fla) 2:30P CBS
It’s the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party and you’re invited (and I dare you to find me a larger Indoor Cocktail Party as well). Bulldogs and Gators from all walks of life will descend upon Jacksonville this weekend for their annual grudge match. To make things a wee bit more interesting this season, the Bulldogs are struggling to keep their undefeated season and national championship dreams alive while Florida is, well just plain struggling. Without QB D.J. Shockley, the Dawgs attack figures to be a whole lot more plain vanilla than in previous weeks, but that may be just what the doctor ordered as Georgia’s offensive line will get to focus on run blocking and not covering the dynamic Shockley on one of his scrambles. For the Gators, its all about plugging the Leak, as in Chris Leak. Over the past four weekends, Leak has thrown for just 538 yards, 1 touchdown, and 4 interceptions on 45 of 100 passing –great numbers for a wishbone offense, but horrid numbers for Myer’s spread. If Leak can’t catch fire in this one, expect the Dawgie D to feast on a whole heck of a lot of gator meat.
Dawgs.


Sat UTEP @ Rice 5:00P PAX
Over on PAX, they pick up the CSTV feed on Saturday evening to bring us the Miner-Owl game. On the season, the Rice Owls have looked simply abysmal and now find themselves in the midst of the nation’s longest losing streak (an even dozen). The Miners from El Paso, on the other hand, are just biding their time until next weekend’s showdown with Tulsa –that game should decide bragging rights within C-USA. If the Miners look to far past this Owls team though, they could find themselves struggling to pick up the pieces of a shattered season.
Dem Axe Wieldin’ Miners.


Sat UCLA @ Stanford 5:30P FSN
UCLA is undefeated and the 8th ranked team in the nation. Stanford lost to UC-Davis back in week two, begging the question: should this one even be close –or broadcast? Well, in a word: yes. The Cardinal are still atrocious on defense (which should mean a field day for the Drew boys, Maurice and Olsen); however, Walt Harris finally appears to have this team figured out and playing like they should have been all season long. In consecutive weeks, they’ve edged out the pesky Cougars in Pullman, survived a trip to the desert with Arizona, and blown up a devilish Arizona State team at home. While the Bruins should be able to do just about anything they want on offense, don’t be surprised if the Cardinal can do likewise.
UCLA – but everyone begins to take note of their porous D.


Sat Fresno State @ Hawaii 6:00P ABC
Life after Timmy Chang isn’t so bad for the Warriors as it turns out. That’s because they’ve got another gunslinger by the name of Colt Brennen sitting under center. With him leading this offense, the Warriors have climbed the rungs all the way to #2 in passing offense in the nation (but that comes at the expense of their run game: 115th in the nation). Colt himself is quickly rising to the cream of the crop on the quarterback charts (11th in the nation by last count). He has thrown for 2,450 yards and 21 touchdowns off of an amazing 204-of-292 pass attempts. With Hawaii about as one dimensional as it gets, it’ll come down to Colt and his gun of an arm –and he’ll have to do it against the WAC’s top rated pass defense. Now ordinarily, when a team travels to the Big Island, it’s the offense that rules the day. This time though, I just can’t get that 46-14 Warrior blow out at the hands of Louisiana Tech out of my head.
Bulldogs.


Sat Michigan @ Northwestern 6:00P ESPN
This one ought to be the most entertaining game of the weekend. Michigan already has three losses on the season and travels into Evanston to face a Wildcat team that’s been running wild all over Big10 defenses. In order for Michigan to get the win, they’ll have to prove that their defense has indeed come of age and can stop a spread attack. In order for Northwestern to claim the dubbya, they’ll have to depend on their 117th ranked defense to get a stop on the Wolverines in the 4th quarter. Either way, this should be one heck of a football game. Be on the lookout for Northwestern’s Brett Basanez and Tyrell Sutton –they will be the top two guys the Wolverine Defense tries to tag on every down.
Go Blue – but only because I think their defense is more capable than NW’s of making the crucial stop necessary to win in this one.


Sat Texas @ Oklahoma State 6:00P TBS
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: boredom is the Longhorns fiercest enemy until Thanksgiving. After dusting the mighty Red Raiders last weekend in Austin and managing to claim the top spot in the BCS poll, the Horns travel up to Stillwater for a quickie with the Cowboys. If Texas has its headgear screwed on straight, this one shouldn’t even be interesting (in fact, one would have to even wonder why this game would even get any airtime). Oklahoma State has earned the Big12’s ‘Most Disappointing Team’ award for the first half of the season, getting dusted by their conference brethren 171-64 over a four game stretch (and they haven’t even played Texas or Texas Tech yet). The fact that they are 4-3 is ONLY because of the weakest non-conference schedule in the nation (outside of Lubbock, that is): Montana State, Florida Atlantic, and Arkansas State. As the Cowboys rank either last or next to last in 10 out of the 14 major statistical categories, the most interesting thing happening in this one is seeing how the announcers keep people from turning the channel.
Longhorns.


Sat South Carolina @ Tennessee 6:45P ESPN2
It’s official: Tennessee’s season is dead. When you’re at the tail end of October and you’re behind Vanderbilt in the standings, what more is there to say? Will the Volunteers be able to dust themselves off the matt and show the grit and resolve Michigan did when staring at 3-3? The Gamecocks will be bringing The Visor and his pass attack right at these Volunteers on Saturday. With Tennessee’s offense stuck in quick sand and the weakness of their defense matched up against the strength of S-C, anything could (and probably will) happen in Neyland stadium.
Volunteers – simply because they hate that Visor Guy so much.

Between The Hashes - Week 8

Between The Hashes

Welcome back SportzFanz to yet another week, Between The Hashes. In each issue we take a look at the College Football landscape and report on the state of all things Grid Iron. With so many quality games unfolding this weekend, I’m afraid it’s gonna take us until Saturday to get through it all, so lets just get right down to the action…


What This Week Will Be Remembered For
The shattering of school records being broken and, quite possibly, the night the lights went out in Georgia. In Saturday’s Georgia-Arkansas battle, Dawgs’ QB D.J. Shockley left the game with a sprained left knee after getting twisted around something fierce on a third down scramble up the middle. While he isn’t believed to knee surgery to repair it, he is listed as doubtful for the World’s Largest Cocktail Party this weekend, and that ain’t a good thing as the Bulldogs lacked a noticeable punch without Shockley in the line up.

But how about all those school records that came tumbling down this weekend: The Penn State offense set a record for most points scored in a half with 56. The previous mark of 55 was set on October 11th, 1947 against Fordham (I believe Joe Pa was coaching that one too). The Irish’ Brady Quinn set a trio of passing marks as the Golden Domers pasted BYU for their first home victory of the season. He set marks for most touchdowns in a single game (6), most passing touchdowns in a season (20), and most 400-yard passing games in a season (3). Brad Smith of Missouri set a school record for most total yardage in a game with 480 yards, including an unbelievable 246 yards on the ground against the much ballyhooed Blackshirts of Nebraska. But the cou’de gra of record setters is Auburn’s John Claude-Vaughn-Damn! He set himself up in the school record books as the only kicker to miss 5 field goals in a single game.


Today’s Topic –
I’m not saying that I’m for the idea of a Division 1-A playoff, but I think it is simply a matter of time before the powers that be force it upon us. Fortunately though, Jon Saraceno of USA Today points out a fabulous silver lining about life with a NCAA playoff: Imagine what Winter Madness would be like. In fact, imagine what Winter Madness would do to the NFL. Nowadays, the playoffs are really the only time the NFL adrenaline gets pumping –and that’s usually only when the game is played outdoors in near freezing weather. Whatsmore, when was the last time the Super Bowl was more about the play on the field than the commercials off it?

So I ask you: Would you rather watch the best 8 or even 16 college teams in the country going head to head, hopefully in their own stadiums, for a playoff, or would you rather watch a mostly tired and staid National Football League playoff where some of the teams even have to compete under the guise of something called a ‘wild card’?

In the college format, you’ve got 18-22 year’s flying all over the field on adrenaline and energy, sucked straight from the raucous home crowd that’s boiling over into the ‘freaking nuts’ zone replete with cannon blasts and the marching band belting out the old fight song. Meanwhile in the pro’s, you’ve got neatly formatted 3 hour games with their picture perfect timing of when to cut to commercial and when not to, their canned audio system celebrations and ‘be loud’ scrolling marquees, and let us not forget their oh so blasé ‘sudden death’ overtime format where the only ones hoping for sudden death are those watching.

So I ask you, which would you rather watch if, or when, the NCAA formally requests a Division I-A playoff system: Winter Madness or the NFL Playoffs?


Your Instant Impact Quotes of the Week Are:

1. "I thought it was a good lesson for my son." Charlie Weiss, explaining to the media why he went over to the USC locker room after the game and congratulated them on their come from behind victory.

2. “Hodges' accuracy is so uncanny he can throw it in a trash can from 50 yards." Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder on the Air Raider’s Cody Hodges. Well, that certainly may be true, but if you could actually put a little pressure on him, he might only be able to throw it into a trash can from five yards out.

3. “He gets kissed a little bit –and I don’t mean that, ya know, favorably.” Dave Lapham, trying to find a reason that he said the word ‘kissed’ on camera and during a football game. To his credit, he was trying to explain how Husker QB Zac Taylor got knocked down by a seething, sweaty, 300 pound defensive lineman… but I digress.

4. “It’s turned into a turnover party” Dave Lapham. Good golly, really? What’s next, Dave, a pajama party? ..sorry folks, I must still be a little wierded out by that whole kissing the quarterback thing.

5. “Troy Smith with the ball. Still on his feet… oh, he puts it on spin cycle!” Mark Jones, doing the play-by-play as Troy Smith puts together an amazing scramble for the endzone in Ohio State’s destruction of Indiana. Meanwhile, Rece Davis pounds his fist in shock and disappointment: now he has to come up with another catch phrase for the ESPN Game Break..

6. “That’s one big dude.” Brent Musburger, sizing up Texas’ ‘Big Henry’ Melton, a 6 foot 3 inch, 276 ‘plus’ pound full back. He’s 7% body fat folks –yep, he’s one big dude.

7. “This is where, as a player, you play your guts out all afternoon and then it just comes down to a kick.” Mike Tirico, right before Iowa sent it into overtime with a field goal on the final play in regulation. You know, you’d be one helluva a motivational speaker Mike.

8. “Here’s a naked… Bomar, going ….in the end zone.” DrewGoodman, calling the play as Oklahoma QB Rhett Bomar takes a bootleg to the end zone for the Sooners. Guys, guys, guys. We went through this last season: never leave something like that just hanging out there. That’s just as bad as talking about one player being ‘kissed’ by another out on the field!

9. “Don’t get behind.” One of Bob Davie’s three keys to the game for Auburn. That brought a big ‘well, duh’ from, oh I don’t know, maybe the 2.4 million people watching the game! …and if you listened very carefully you, you could just make out the laughter of Rece Davis and Lou Holtz in the ESPN studio.

10. “Ass-trick” Bob Davie, trying to pronounce the word ‘asterisk’ during the Auburn-LSU game. Yeah, that one pretty much speaks for itself. The only thing worse is that Bob repeated it about six times over the next five minutes.

11. “Damn it Scotty, I need more power!” Bob Davie. Oh, wait, you mean he didn’t say that? Damn. Well, at least Franklin made sure to correct him each time he improperly said the word “ass-trick”.

12. “You gotta lookout for getting ear-holed and watching for his legs on the punt coverage –I hate that!” Craig James in the studio, watching a replay of Reggie Bush’s marvelous punt return for a touchdown. Yeah, but if I were you, I’d watch out for getting ear-holed by John Saunders or Aaron Taylor.

13. “You’ve heard of the long jump, well how about the … head first, jumping through the air for about five yards or so …jump?” Gary Reasons, trying to, find a new Olympic event?, and explain how Rhett Bomar ‘jumped’ along the sideline for a first down.

And this week’s Instant IQ award goes to…
“Mad” Mike Leach for his insightful interview going into halftime against Texas:
Jack Arute, “Will you make any changes [in the second half]?”
Mad Mike, “Well, ….Aaghhh! We need to figure out how to punt the ball.”


This week’s Super-Stud Awards go to…

1. Brad “Mmm, I like Corn” Smith, QB Missouri – What is it about Nebraska that gets him so pumped up? This time, he set a single game school record with 480 yards of total offense, including an unbelievable 246 yards on 28 carries.

2. Brady “Bunch” Quinn, QB Notre Dame – Would the Irish answer the starting bell after that unspeakable atrocity in Notre Dame Stadium last week? Um, let me see: Brady Quinn threw for a school record 6 touchdowns and 467 yards on 32 of 41 passing.

3. Kalvin “n’Hobbes” McRae, RB Ohio – Frank Solich has found his one man wrecking crew. Kalvin took over the top slot for single game rushing day with his 29 carry, 264 yard performance. With all those yards though, one has to ask: how did he only manage to put the pig in the house one time on Saturday?

4. Kenny ‘Nine’ Irons, RB Auburn – It’s not your fault your place kicker missed 5 field goals. Mr. Irons thrashed the vaunted Tiger D for 218 yards on 27 carries. Wow, maybe the ole’ War Eagle should’ve given it to him a bit more often.

5. Jason “King of the” Hill, WR Washington State – The Cougar’s upset bid of Cal came ever so short, but Jason did his part, making the most of his six grabs: 240 yards and three touchdowns.

6. The Missouri Tiger Defense – While your offense, especially Mr. Smith, lit up the Cornhuskers, your defense pitched a whale of a game: holding Nebraska to -2 rushing yards on the day. When did you ever think you’d see Big Red held to negative rushing yardage?


Riding the Bench This Week is…
1. CanesVision, the company that runs the JumboTron for NC State. During the NC State-Clemson game, they flashed images on the crowd with various captions like “Kissing Cam” and “Fan Cam”. All in all, nobody would’ve said a thing about the crowd shots except that they showed one of their own employees up on the big screen with the caption “Mexi-Cam”. While the employee wasn’t offended, it was enough to get the other 60,000 in attendance to stop booing the home team and boo the JumboTron.

2. Referees and play calls. In the Husker-Tiger game, Nebraska battled back to 21-20 but when the Refs missed a call on a big 2nd and 15 for Missouri, the momentum turned back in favor of Missouri. The referee credited the Tigers with a completion despite the fact that the receiver had stepped out of bounds just prior to making the play. Okay, I can believe the referee might have missed the call (he didn’t have a great angle), but the replay was absolutely in your face (despite the fact that Lapham and Land were going on about something completely un-related). Where was the replay official, in the little boys room?

3. Arian Foster, WR Tennessee – Fumbling the ball in the red zone is bad enough. Fumbling the ball in a tight, 3-3 game is worse. Fumbling the ball into and out of the back of the end zone in such a game earns you a spot on this list. Of course, RB Gerald Riggs Jr. also lost a fumble inside the Tide ten yard line and probably should be on this list too…

4. The LSU Receivers – Two easy drops in the end zone would have made mincemeat out of Auburn on Saturday night. Instead, the Bayou Bengals prevailed simply because of the play on Auburn’s special teams.

5. John “Claude” Vaughn “Damn”, PK Auburn – He missed five field goals as the War Eagle’s title run got snuffed out by the Bayou Bengals in overtime 20-17. Quite a change from last season’s nail biter, where Vaughn initially missed a PAT but was granted a second chance due to a LSU penalty. Vaughn nailed it, spring boarding Auburn to an undefeated season with their 10-9 victory over LSU.

6. Referees and play calls – Part II. In the Baylor-OU game, Sooner Rhett Bomar lunged out of bounds trying to make the sticks for a first down. The referee gave him the choice spot, but replay clearly showed that he was at least a yard short of the marker. Why didn’t the ref up in the booth review this play? In the Big12, the booth can review ball spots on the field –as they did during the Texas Tech-Texas game to give the Red Raiders a first down after the ball was spotted short of the sticks. Why didn’t they intervene here?!?

7. The guy in the stands wearing the shirt that read “LSU Twinkies” during the Tiger vs. Tiger game. Yeah, I know your girlfriend was standing right next to you wearing an exact copy, but that still isn’t any reason to embarrass yourself like that. Whomever the ‘Friends Of Twinkie’ are (and I’m sure you know who you are), had better give him grief to no end.


Random Hits and Misses
My moments of clarity and confusion from the weekend are:

1. In good hands with All State, huh? I hope everyone out there has heard that the State of Texas has had to force All State to pay off claims from policy holders who were under mandatory evacuation from Hurricane Rita and then subsequently not allowed to return home for several days. By state law, when such a condition arises the homes in the affected area are automatically deemed ‘uninhabitable’. When a home is ‘uninhabitable’, according to home owner policies, that means you are entitled to re-imbursement from your insurance company for expenses related to being forced from your home. All State, however, saw it differently and refused to pay out those claims. The State of Texas intervened and TWO state courts have now ordered All State to begin making good on the policies that their customers signed. If you’re considering switching to All State (FYI: I am not a policy holder with them), I strongly encourage you to check out this story. In good hands, indeed...

2. Just when you thought the Big East couldn’t be shafted any further by the ‘Majors’: Each and every Big10 game was on TV this week (either nationally or on ABC’s regional telecast). The Big East: the golden goose egg, and it’s not because the WVa-South Florida game was postponed. Can there be any clearer of a message sent to the conference formerly known as the BEast: you aren’t keeping your automatic big boy punch ticket.

3. Which way gets you shnockered faster: drinking every time Musburger says “Jack’a’root” or “pard’ner”, or drinking every time Bob Davie uses a ‘dramatic’ pause to think about what he’s going to say? Discuss.

4. This just in: Texas to win a share of the national title via the old geezer poll. Well, with the number of polls out there, it’s hardly any surprise that you can find ONE that has the Longhorns leaping in front of the Trojans. The Master’s Coaches Survey (yeah, we’ve talked about them before), ranked UT ahead of USC last week and figures to do so again this week with Texas’ trouncing of the Red Raiders. The question that comes to my mind is: how do votes from 16 former college football coaches tally up to 394 points for Texas, but only 389 for USC?

5. The most over-thrown flag this season: By far, it’s the ‘illegal formation’ flag for not having enough men on the line of scrimmage. The most under-thrown flag: The ‘delay of game’ when the play clock reaches zero. At least half a dozen times in each of the past two weeks, I’ve seen this one either missed or ignored entirely. What’s up with that Zebra’s?

6. Ok, I know the Wildcats dusted Michigan State but do you think those two missed field goals and 3 first half turnovers by the Sparties in the red zone helped? I do –I think it made all the difference in the world.

7. Newsflash: Baylor has just been upgraded from the Bad News Bears to the Hard Luck Bears. Despite pushing the Sooners to double overtime IN Norman, they still came up a sandwich short of a full picnic, losing 37-30.

8. The nation’s longest win streak (and no I’m not talking about the Trojans) came to a halt on Saturday as the Mount Union Purple Raiders fell to the Ohio Northern Polar Bears, 21-14. The loss snapped their miraculous 110-game win streak, dating back all the way to October of 1994 (that’s over a decade!). Word has it the Mount Union faithful are so distraught by this turn of events that they’re thinking of firing the whole coaching staff!?!

9. Calculate this one in your computers, Mr. Sagarin: Virginia cast down Florida State last weekend but then stumbled and fell to lowly North Carolina 7-5 this week. They managed just 199 total yards and not a single play of more than 13 as the Tar Heels smothered the Cavs all game long. Yeah, I’m sure your computer system saw that one coming…

10. Title this one under ‘wierdest setting for a football game’: In New York, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle moved their game to Friday morning from Saturday afternoon and barred fans from being in attendance. The only people allowed to watch? About two dozen police officers and a handful of media types. Now I know what you’re thinking: this must’ve been a prison league game, but it wasn’t. The precautions were taken after a Mount Vernon resident was found murdered in New Rochelle last month. In case you were wondering, New Rochelle won the game in convincing fashion, 40-16, and the police have no leads in the case.

11. Louisville won this year’s Keg of Nails trophy with their 46-22 victory over Cincinnati. While an actual Keg of Nails is supposed to weigh 100 pounds, this one is a wee-bit lighter as it’s empty and a replica of the original Keg which was lost about thirty years ago during restorations at the Louisville campus. The other trophy game of the week, The Brass Boot, goes home with the Colorado State Rams, 39-31 victors over the Wyoming Cowboys. The win evened the Border War series at 19 apiece, setting up one heck of a showdown for next year.


Next Week’s Quick Peeks

Boston College @ VA Tech – Yet again on Thursday we have the prospect for an Instant Classic. While the games haven’t worked out that way the past two weeks, don’t expect that to hold here. The Eagles will be loaded for Hokie this week as Virginia Tech looks to remain among the ranks of the unbeaten and pound its chest for some BCS #2 love. If this one were up in Chestnut Hill, I’d give it to BC but down in Blacksburg this one will easily be the roughest game of the season for the Eagles –are they physical enough to handle a 60 minute pounding?

Ohio State @ Minnesota – With two weeks to get over the blocked punt that cost them Paul Bunyan’s Axe against Wisconsin, the Gophers should be well rested for these Buckeye’s. After stumbling for a second time this season against the Nittany Lions, the Bucks have had two impressive victories in a row over Michigan State and Indiana. If they can get their offense going, it should prove the difference as the nation’s #1 ground attack runs head first into the nation’s #1 run stoppers.

Oklahoma @ Nebraska – Getting routed in Columbia this past week, Huskernation is seeing Red all over again. This week they get a strengthening Oklahoma squad that should boast the return of all-world back Adrian Peterson. It could be a throwback classic up in Lincoln if the Sooner ground game can push around the Blackshirts (they didn’t do so well against the Bears’ stingy defense). What’s even more pressing is whether the OU secondary can handle the onslaught Bill Callahan and his CornCoast Offense will attempt to throw at them.

Clemson @ GA Tech – In a match up of two schools that can’t decide if they’d rather rise to the top or float to the bottom, the Tigers pay a visit to the Rambling Wreck. With two weeks off to prepare, will the Yellow Jacket’s Reggie Ball be ready to finally take over a game or will Tommy Bowden’s boys find a way to contain him and take the sting out of these Jackets?

Maryland @ Florida State – Thanks to Virginia, the Atlantic Division in the ACC is wide open once more. A victory by the visiting Terrapins would almost certainly knock the Seminoles out of the race for the division title. But FSU knows this and, after their tune up match against Duke, will be ready to rip/roar their way through the ACC’s worst rushing defense.

Georgia vs. Florida – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party kicks off this Saturday in Jacksonville. For the Gators, it’s all about the rivalry and removing the Bulldogs from a national title shot. For the Dawgs, it’s all about survival. With DJ Shockley likely out of commission, don’t expect Georgia to bully it’s way past Florida on offense –they weren’t exactly lighting the world on fire when Shockley was in the line up and without him, well… On defense, the Dawgs are just as solid as ever, so that means it should come down to the play of Florida QB Chris Leak: can he or can’t he lead this team?

Michigan @ Northwestern – Northwestern roasted the Spartans this week (although I still contend MSU did it to themselves in the first quarter, thereby keeping us from having a good measuring stick for the Wildcats). Michigan went into Kinnick Stadium and stopped the Hawkeyes home game win streak at 22 (don’t underestimate the importance of that victory, which was incidentally Llyod Carr’s 100th with Big Blue). Will the Wolverines defense be overwhelmed against the spread offense or will they dominate them the way they should have dominated Notre Dame.


The Wrap Up
Well, that about wraps it up for yet another week Between the Hashes, SportzFanz. As always, it’s been both a privilege and a pleasure. Look for our Weekly Run Down of the games on in your area to hit the shelves in a couple of days. Until then...


Rex Frazier is a college football staff writer for football.com. You can reach him at: rexfrazier@earthlink.net

The Week 8 Run Down

Ah, it’s Week 8 SportzFanz and there’s a load of action coming your way, so just sit back, pop open a cold one, and relax as we lead you through the weekly College Pigskin Schedule…


The Week 8 TV Schedule

Oct. 20 Thu VA Tech @ Maryland 6:45P ESPN

Oct. 21 Fri Southern Miss @ UAB 7:00P ESPN

Oct. 22 Sat GA Tech @ Miami, Fla 11:00A ABC*
Oct. 22 Sat Michigan @ Iowa 11:00A ABC*
Oct. 22 Sat Ohio State @ Indiana 11:00A ESPN Oct. 22 Sat Northwestern @ Michigan State 11:00A ESPN2
Oct. 22 Sat Nebraska @ Missouri 11:30A FSN

Oct. 22 Sat BYU @ Notre Dame 1:30P NBC
Oct. 22 Sat Wyoming @ Colorado State 2:00P ESPN Cl
Oct. 22 Sat Purdue @ Wisconsin 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 22 Sat Texas Tech @ Texas 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 22 Sat USC @ Washington 2:30P ABC*
Oct. 22 Sat Tennessee @ Alabama 2:30P CBS

Oct. 22 Sat Utah @ UNLV 6:00P ABC
Oct. 22 Sat Penn State @ Illinois 6:00P ESPN2 Oct. 22 Sat Oregon State @ UCLA 6:00P TBS
Oct. 22 Sat Baylor @ Oklahoma 6:00P FSN
Oct. 22 Sat Auburn @ LSU 6:45P ESPN

Oct. 22 Sat Washington State @ Cal 9:15P FSN

*Denotes Regional Action
NOTE: All times are CST.


The Week 8 Run Down


Thu VA Tech @ Maryland 6:45P ESPN
This Thursday we get a gem of a game with the Hokies dropping by College Park for a little Turtle Soup. While the Terrapins started off the season in rough fashion, they’ve finally caught a gear and ripped off three solid victories against Wake Forest, Virginia, and Temple. On top of that, Maryland has been fuming for 365 days now, just itching to get another shot at these Hokies after last year’s 55-6 pasting. Of course, Va Tech managed to put up that score even without super-QB Marcus Vick. If the home crowd can keep these Terps fired up and in the game and RB Lance Ball can run like he did against Virginia two week ago (163 yards and two touchdowns), then the Hokies should have their hands full all the way down to the final gun. But if the Hokie speed and defense is for real, or their special teams takes the home crowd out of it, this one could turn ugly real fast.
Hokies.


Fri Southern Miss @ UAB 7:00P ESPN
After playing lights out against Tennessee in the opener, UAB went AWOL, dropping their last two games to become 3-3. If they can get their offense figured out, they’ve still got a chance to get back in the hunt for a C-USA title as their defense has been playing great and keeping them in the game. On the other side of the hashes, the Golden Eagles have followed a similar path this season. They played Alabama tough in week one before faltering and struggling through the last four to wind up 3-2. With wins over East Carolina and UCF, however, Southern Miss has the inside track on the East Division crown. The key to this one will be getting a solid outing out of Eagle QB Dustin Almond. Two weeks ago against Tulsa he was terrible, completing just 12 of 29 passes for 132 yards and 4 interceptions. Seven days later, he caught fire against UCF, going 23 of 37 for 277 yards and 5 touchdowns. Which Dustin Almond will show up?
Rebels.


Sat GA Tech @ Miami, Fla 11:00A ABC
As the weekend approaches it becomes less certain that this game will even get played. At last check, Hurricane Wilma exploded into a Category 5 and was eyeing the lower Florida Coast. If things work out right and these two get a chance to play this weekend, expect the Canes to give their best Cat 5 impersonation against the Yellow Jackets. The nation’s top ranked defensive unit should have zero trouble manhandling the Rambling Wreck’s O. Does anyone realize that over the last four weeks, Miami has outscored its opponents 136-20? Okay, okay, so those numbers are a little skewed with them playing Colorado, South Florida, Duke, and Temple over that stretch, but still –Miami’s got that swagger back and that definitely isn’t a good thing for anybody that saddles up on the other side of the ball from them.
Canes.


Sat Michigan @ Iowa 11:00A ABC
After hosting the red hot Nittany Lions and vanquishing them from the ranks of the unbeaten, Big Blue travels to the land of the pink showers to face off against a rejuvenated Hawkeye team. After opening their Big10 slate with a loss to the Buckeyes, Iowa has strung together three impressive victories. The only problem with that is that those victories have come against Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana, begging the question: just how ‘improved’ are the Hawkeyes? With RB Michael Hart ready to sled, the Wolverines offense has had a noticeable punch (boy he really takes the heat off QB Chad Henne, don’t he?). For the Hawkeyes to be successful in this one, they’ll have to make the Wolverines one dimensional by shutting down the ground game. On top of that, Hawkeye QB Drew Tate will have to avoid having a ‘State’ game (as in Iowa State and Ohio State). In those games, he went 27 of 50 for just 203 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions. So who out there thinks he’ll be able to avoid that kind of let down against an 18th ranked Michigan defense who has, incidentally, already played against the likes of Brady Quinn, Drew Stanton, and Michael Robinson?
Wolverines.


Sat Ohio State @ Indiana 11:00A ESPN
After enduring that painful loss to Penn State two weeks ago, the Buckeye’s salvaged their Big10 title hopes by tearing down the Spartans, 35-24. This week should be nothing more than a tune up for the Buckeye O -and believe me, they need the work. While the Hoosiers are no pushovers on defense, don’t expect their offense to muster much of a threat as the OSU defense should have absolutely no problem manhandling them for 60 full minutes.
OSU.


Sat Northwestern @ Michigan State 11:00A ESPN2
If stats mean anything, this should be the Big10’s most exciting game of the week (how DID it end up on the Deuce?). Northwestern’s spread attack has come out of nowhere this season to storm the Big10 (their 5 point loss to Penn State is looking too shabby now, isn’t it?). But even more impressive than the Wildcat offense has been the Spartan offense led by QB Drew Stanton –tops in the Big10 and 3rd in the nation. What makes this game super-interesting though, is taking into consideration that we aren’t just talking about two very potent offensive attacks, but we’re also talking about two of the nation’s worst pass defenses: the Spartans at 109th and the Wildcats at 115th. With such high octane attacks lined up against such wiffle-ball defenses, this one has a 1,000 yards and a 100 over-under written all over it.
Spartans, in a dizzying assault on the Big10 record books.


Sat Nebraska @ Missouri 11:30A FSN
With Nebraska, Colorado, and Missouri in a dead heat for the North Division, this one should help separate the pretenders from the contenders. While the Tigers have managed to get to 2-1 in conference play, they’ve done so by squeaking past an emotionally challenged Iowa State Redhawk squad and scraping by suddenly apathetic Oklahoma State. And while the Tiger’s mediocrity doesn’t all rest on the shoulders of QB Brad Smith (or his arms and legs for that matter), the same can’t be said of the Black’n’Gold’s Defense, ranked 11th in the conference in rushing defense and dead last in scoring defense. Standing opposite them is a Big Red squad that snuck out of Waco with a victory after getting bushwhacked by the Red Raiders in the prior week. With a steadily improving passing game and a killer Blackshirt Defense though, don’t expect Mizzou to pull this one out even if they come out fast and furious in the first half.
Cornhuskers.


Sat BYU @ Notre Dame 1:30P NBC
Can the Irish pick their hearts up off the turf of Notre Dame Stadium in time for this one? While the Irish are easily one of the ten best teams in the nation, they are also one of the very, very few to have a goose egg in their own Yard. The good news for Irish fans is that they should finally pick up that elusive dubbya this week. The bad news is that it might be a bit closer than everyone is expecting as BYU’s passing game, behind QB John Beck and WRs Curtis Brown and Jonny Harline, is really clicking and the number one weakness on this Trojan team (by far) is its secondary. The difference here though is that the Cougar receivers will look dirt slow to the Irish defenders in comparison to USC’s thoroughbreds.
Golden Domers.


Sat Wyoming @ Colorado State 2:00P ESPN Cl
At the beginning of the season, the Cowboys were looking to wrestle control of the Mountain West away from Utah. Very early on though, that dream quickly evaporated as Wyoming is now a 4-3 squad and riding a two game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Rams have suddenly found themselves sitting right behind TCU in the conference standings and dreaming of taking that Mountain West crown all for themselves. In this one, watch the play of QB Justin Holland. He’s the best the M-West has to offer, and with a trio of able receivers in David Anderson, Johnny Walker, and Kory Sperry, figures to have a big day. Of course, Colorado State and the Mountain West’s top ranked pass defense might have a little something to say about that. If this one were an away game for CSU, I’d give it to the Cowboys in a heartbeat (CSU is abysmal away from the ole Fort, a perfect goose egg on the season at 0-3). Since the Cowboys are riding all the way into town for this one though, the home crowd ought to be able to juice up the Rams’ 99th ranked defense and help them make that game wining stop to seal the game.
Rams.


Sat Purdue @ Wisconsin 2:30P ABC
How far can one team slide in a single season? Everyone’s favorite Big10 dark horse, the Purdue Boilermakers, is now 2-4 and 0-3 in conference play. You could say that losing all everything QB Kyle Orton to the NFL draft was a serious blow to this team, but you’d only be partially right. His replacement, Brandon Kirsch, hasn’t been all warts this season, completing 60% of his passes for 1,625 yards. Nope, the real problem has been on defense where last year’s entire starting unit returned for this campaign and hasn’t played even close to expectations (115th in the nation overall and 117th in pass defense). While Wisconsin is more of a run first team, they certainly aren’t afraid to put it up in the air when the opportunity presents itself –and it will. Even worse for the Boilers, the Badgers appear to have already put their clunker game of the season out there against Northwestern. If the Purdue D can’t tighten up and lure Stocco into making a BUNCH of mistakes, the Badgers offense ought to pull this one out at home in Camp Randall even if their defense isn’t up to the task.
Badgers.


Sat Texas Tech @ Texas 2:30P ABC
Sure, Tech can hang half a hundred on some Division I-AA schools. And sure, Tech can go into Lincoln after last season’s 70-10 blowout victory and still walk away with the dubbya. And yeah, sure, they can prove it wasn’t a fluke by roasting some Wildcat in Lubbock. But can they shock the nation and tame these Longhorns? Their offense will get its yards, that much is certain, but will they get the points? Will they break free from this speedy secondary and gouge them for the really big gains? In order for it to be a Red Raider day, they’ll have to do just that. But even more than simply putting points on the board, if Tech wants to keep this one competitive, RaiderBack Dwayne Slay had better have a career and wreak havoc on Vince Young and the Longhorn’s running backs –if he can catch them. If Tech can’t do that, then this one could very easily be another lopsided victory –although the safe money says it’s much closer than the Orangebloods would like.
Texas shoots down the Air Raid.


Sat USC @ Washington 2:30P ABC
After playing three come-from-behind games in a row with each one closer than the last, the Trojans finally get a breather this week. While the Huskies have begun to show some signs of life on offense, their defense is still abysmal and will have to match up against the nation’s premier offense. Don’t be surprised though if these Huskies manage to put quite a few points on the board against the boys from Southern Cal as the Trojans will absolutely be looking past this one.
SC.


Sat Tennessee @ Alabama 2:30P CBS
Is the Tide for real or isn’t it? After destroying Florida one week and then eaking past Ole Miss the next, it’s anybody’s guess as to just exactly how good this Red Elephant team is. While one would expect the Tide’s defense (tops in the SEC) to carry the day, I wouldn’t bet on it. The Vols have had two weeks to prepare and will probably end up using both Ainge and Clausen in this one (something which, oddly enough, seems work best for this offense). Plus, Tennessee is incredibly good on the road in big games (remember LSU this season –and Georgia last year?). With Bama losing a playmaker a game, I’m having trouble seeing how they’ll maintain their continuity on offense, especially if they can’t run the ball –which they shouldn’t be able to do against a UT line that has yet to give up the century mark this year.
Vols.


Sat Utah @ UNLV 6:00P ABC
How this game makes it onto ABC is anybody’s guess as both squads are bringing up the rear in the Mountain West. With the departure of Urban Meyer, the Ute’s world has been turned upside down. They’re riding a three game losing streak and can’t seem to find any kind of rhythm on either side of the ball. Fortunately for them, they ‘run’ straight into a Rebels squad that has been even worse. With the Utah offense struggling to get a big game out of RB Quinton Ganther, QB Brian Johnson, and WR John Madsen all season, does anyone else out there think this is the week that the Ute’s finally breakout?
Utah ‘runs’ away in this one.


Sat Penn State @ Illinois 6:00P ESPN2
Penn State’s perfect season came to a grinding halt last week in the Big House when Chad Henne found his freshman receiver in the end zone for the game winning score as time expired. This week, the Nittany Lions travel over to Champaign for a confidence builder against the Fighting Illini. With the Big10’s worst rushing offense, scoring offense, rushing defense, scoring defense, and special teams unit, I think it’s safe to say Joe Pa’s youngsters will think this game is easier than practice. But hey, even though Illinois is also the Big10’s second worst team in total offense, pass efficiency defense, turnover margin, and offensive pass efficiency, don’t underestimate them: they’re tops in the conference with kickoff returns (although that may just be because they get scored on so much …I dunno, it’s just a theory).
PSU.


Sat Oregon State @ UCLA 6:00P TBS
See, I told you the Beavers were the best Jeckyl’n’Hyde team in the country. Last week, they ripped the heart out of the Golden Bears on the road, improving to 2-1 in conference play. Meanwhile, UCLA continued it’s perfect season by squeaking past Washington State in overtime. Front and center in the Bruins rise up the Top 25 charts is QB Drew Olson and RB Maurice Drew. While they haven’t posted eye popping numbers on a weekly basis, they have been electrifying over the past two – combing for 12 touchdowns and 1,213 all purpose yards. This week, that dynamic duo gets to cut its teeth against the nation’s third worst pass defense and 106th ranked unit overall. Of course, the bright side for the Beavers is that they’ve got the nation’s most dangerous receiver, Mike Hass, playing pitch and catch with QB Matt Moore. Will the PAC-10’s best pass defense be able to keep him away from the ball? The answer, just like last week, comes down to which OSU team shows up: the kick-your-ass-on-the-road Beavers or the get-their-ass-kicked-on-the-road Beavers. Last week it was the former, this week it’ll be the latter unless QB Matt Moore can improve his game (he’s tossed 5 picks and only 1 touchdown in the past two contests).
Bruins –they’ll remain undefeated until ASU and then shock the nation the following week.


Sat Baylor @ Oklahoma 6:00P FSN
Despite that tough home loss to Nebraska last week, the Bears are still on the hunt to go bowling. In order to do it though, they’ll need to surprise a Sooner squad that continues to improve on offense by leaps and bounds. While last week’s numbers against the Jayhawks may not have shown it, Sooner QB Rhett Bomar is developing quickly and really beginning to ‘get’ this offense. That said, don’t underestimate the Baylor Defense. After facing Reggie McNeal, Bret Meyer, and Zac Taylor the Bears boast the nation’s 6th rank pass efficiency defense –and 20th overall defense. With RB Adrian Peterson and WR Travis Wilson likely out yet again, it’s looking to be another difficult day offensively for the Boomer Schooner. In this one, it comes down to mistakes and special teams plays. Baylor has one of the nation’s best return men that you’ve never heard of in Terrence Nunn (2nd in the nation at 28 yards/return), but OU’s defense should more than make up for any disadvantage its offense or kicking game can dish out.
Sooners.


Sat Auburn @ LSU 6:45P ESPN
This one earns the honor of Most Intriguing Game of the Week. For this one, 5-1 Auburn make’s the trip to the Land of the Big Red Stick to tame the Bayou Bengals. After that opening week loss to Georgia Tech, the War Eagle was all but left for death on the national scene. Fast forward five weeks and Auburn has found itself a backfield and tuned up its defense. The obvious question that comes to mind then is: are they improved enough to hang with the Big Boys? We’ll find out this week. LSU figures to have there hands full and simply must focus for all four quarters in this one. They’ve coughed up the ball 15 times this season and clearly haven’t played up to the level of their talent. Are, as some are saying, these LSU Tigers primed and over due for an offensive explosion? Me, I’m thinking that Auburn Defense is mighty good and those LSU fans are mighty fickle (at least they have been this season).
The War Eagle circles above Death Valley.


Sat Washington State @ Cal 9:15P FSN
Your desert game this week features the Cougars from Pullman, 44-41 losers in overtime against UCLA, going up against the Golden Bears of Berkeley, 47-40 losers in a down-to-the-wire game against UCLA. With both teams losing tight, high scoring affairs in overtime one would assume that Wash State and Cal would match up quiet well, but that just isn’t the case. In this one, it’s the PAC10’s top defensive unit, Cal, bumping uglies with the nation’s 7th ranked offense. Will the Golden Bear line be able to throw back RB Jerome Harrison, their conference’s top sled dog? If so, then Cal should pull out an easy victory as their tandem of QB Joe Ayoob and RB Justin Forsett are definitely the most underrated tandem in the conference.
Cal begins a new regular season game win streak.

Between the Hashes - Week 7

Welcome back SportzFanz to yet another week, Between The Hashes. In each issue we take a look at the College Football landscape and report on the state of all things Grid Iron. This weekend was packed with so much cardiac arrest action, I nearly keeled over dead watching the final 92 seconds of the USC-Notre Dame game. Before I break down into fits of rage over the ridiculousness that ensued in South Bend, we better get down to the action…


What This Week Will Be Remembered For
Last second heroics. Of course, this one might only be remembered for that Instant Classic up in South Bend, but in truth it should be remembered for the last minute heroics of USC, Alabama, Boston College, Wisconsin, West Virginia, UCLA and Michigan. Now if the only thing that you can remember is that last second fiasco in Indiana, here’s a run down on each of those miraculous victories:

USC’s Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart stole a victory away from the Irish on Saturday Night. With 92 seconds remaining on the clock, the Trojans embarked on the impossible and did it: scoring on the last play of the game to nab the victory. Of course, it helped that the officials miss-spotted the ball on the final play (it should have been closer to the 2 yard line, not the goal line). Oh, and yeah, it also helped that the officials didn’t throw a flag on the Trojans’ Reggie Bush for illegally pushing a stopped Matt Leinart into the endzone.

On a rain soaked night, Boston College’s WR Kevin Challenger hauled in the game winning catch with 1:18 left on the clock as the Eagles squeaked by the Demon Deacons, 35-30. The victory finally came after BC rallied for a second time: once from 17 down in the first half and then finally, trailing 30-21 with 3:27 left on the clock. The game ball goes to Eagle back up QB Matt Ryan who replaced a largely ineffectual Quinton Porter under center on the game’s final two drives.

Alabama struggled all afternoon against the Rebels, losing yet another wide receiver to injury. This time it was DJ Hall early in the first half. Fortunately for the Tide though, Brodie Croyle was able to calmly lead them down the field on the final drive to set up PK Jamie Christensen’s game winning 31-yard field goal as time expired.

The Badgers rallied from ten down with only 3:27 left on the clock to lay claim to the Axe. Wisconsin QB John Stocco calmly led his team 71 yards down the field to cut the lead to three with two minutes remaining. On Minnesota’s ensuing possession, the Gophers were unable to gain a first down (despite having rushed for 411 yards on the day) and were forced to punt from their own 11 with just 30 ticks. Punter Justin Kucek partially muffed the snap, allowing Jonathon Casillas to race in for the block and fellow Badger Ben Strickland to pounce on the ball in the endzone for the game winning score.

West Virginia overcame a 24-7 3rd quarter deficit by scoring on each of their final 5 drives, including one to tie the game at 24 with a minute left on the clock. With the game in overtime, WVU and Louisville traded punches all the way into a third overtime. On the game’s final play with West Virginia leading 46-44, Mountaineer defensive tackle Eric Wicks sacked QB Brian Brohm during Louisville’s 2-point attempt to seal the victory and light something like fifty thousand mattresses in the state of West Virginia (cause that’s just what they do when they win a big one).

UCLA rallied from 21 down to force overtime against Washington State, snatching their first victory in four tries against these Cougars, and their first one in a dozen years up in Pullman.

Penn State’s Michael Robinson scored from 3 yards out with 53 seconds left in the game to give the Nittany Lions a 25-21 lead, but Wolverine WR Steve Breaston returned the kickoff to midfield and Michigan’s Chad Henne marshaled his team down the field to the Nits ten yard line. With a single second left on the clock, Henne took the snap from under center and found freshman WR Mario Manningham in the end zone to send all 111,249 maniacal fans in the Big House into a frenzy. Side note: Penn State scored 15 points over a 17 second stretch –a rushing touchdown, a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and a 2-point conversion—giving them an 18-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.


Today’s Topic – The Rant
It’s official: I know loathe the Trojans more than any of the other 118 teams in Division 1-A. I can’t explain it really, but when I see them on TV, hear someone talking about them, or even see images of SC in my head I get downright nauseous and have the sudden urge to kick something –and kick it hard. Maybe it’s because I can’t help but think of each one of the SC players as nothing but candy asses. No, mainly, it’s because of their knack for pulling out the win in games they ought to lose (see any of the past three weeks of action). Especially though, it’s how they won that game in South Bend this weekend, but more to the point it’s how they bragged about winning it.

Ok, ok, I know: everyone pushes the running back forward in a goal line situation. But you know what? A), I’ve never seen it be used that blatantly. B), I’ve never seen it done to decide a game like that. And C), I’ve never heard someone so proud of flagrantly breaking the rules to win the game (see the Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush quote down below for more on that one). It’s just sickening, it really is. To make matters worse now there will be no end to the talk of a three-peat when SC hasn’t even won back-to-back BCS titles! Well at least people don’t consider Saragin, Dunkel or Matthews to be mainstream polls, otherwise all those Trojanites out their would be pounding their chest about FOUR straight titles!


Today’s Topic – The Rant, Part Two
Texas did in fact come out as #2 in the BCS this week; however, all the scuttlebutt prior to this weekend put them at #3 with Virginia Tech in the two slot. That was ‘supposed’ to happen despite Texas being the consensus #2 pick in all of the human polls since preseason and despite knocking off Michigan in the Rose, Ohio State in the Horseshoe, and Oklahoma in Dallas over a six game stretch.

So how could Texas have been anything other than #2? Well, because the BCS relies so heavily on computer polls. The 5 computer polls used in the BCS ranking scheme apparently had Virginia Tech in the 6 slot and Texas in the 7 (prior to this week). And if you think that’s crazy, consider this: Penn State was #1 in the computer polls and Florida State #2 –yes, that’s right, both teams that lost this past weekend were the computer poll’s #1 and #2 teams. And what of USC? Well, they were sitting pretty at three. Ludicrous, simply ludicrous.

You see the problem with using computer rankings, right? They don’t take into account the intangibles of college football. The home crowd whipping the defense up into a frenzy, the arch-rivalries, the streakiness of 18 year olds when put under stress and adversity, the turn of a game on one simple play –even if the ref got the call wrong. Heck, they don’t even take into account that Texas scored 42 points in the first three quarters, pulled all of its starters, and then took a knee inside the Colorado 10 to end the game. And what about that USC-ND game? From that game, can a computer accurately record and ‘calculate’ the relative strength of Notre Dame and Southern Cal to the rest of the country? Hell no.

How can you quantify all that makes college football, college football into a set of hashed out statistics and reasonably say that that should be the basis for determining who the best teams in college football are? It’s equal parts insanity and stupidity –just as much, I fear, as the bloated $100 Million BCS itself.


Your Instant Impact Quotes of the Week Are:
This week’s Instant IQs are:

1. "Thanks for tossing that one under the bus there Erin," Kirk Herbstreit in the booth thanking sideline reporter Erin for trying to keep people interested during the Clemson-NC State blowout. She spent three minutes telling a story about how one of the coaches had to, crinch, take time away from preparing for a game to pick his daughter up from school.

2. "Is that the guy that beat your butt at playstation?", the play-by-play man in the booth, talking to Kirk as the Tigers scored another one on the Wolfpack. His reply was a very despondent ‘yeah’. In fact, he was so distressed about the whole thing he proceeded to explain that having triplets at home meant he just doesn’t have enough time to practice and get ‘really good’.

3. “Eric Petermen, who will go down the field in his urban sombrero.” Rece Davis in the studio, showing a Northwestern touchdown highlight. Good one, Rece. Who writes your stuff, Elaine Benice?

4. “Evridge’s wobble but they don’t fall down.” The color man, watching K-State QB Allen Evridge pick himself up off the turf after being knocked down by Tech’s Slay for the umpteenth time: No they sure don’t, but Wildcats do, and I don’t think they’ll figure out until at least Tuesday exactly what it was that hit them in the second half.

5. “Some days you just get your butt handed to you.” Ed Cunningham, covering the Colorado-Texas game. Yep, but if you’re real lucky, you get it handed to you with a side of butt-whip.

6. “That’s a helmet that came off, not a fumble.” Gary Thorne, clarifying the situation out on the field. Thanks Gary, I was getting awfully worried about that for a second there.

7. "That's a dang coaching mistake. The kids are playing their tail off and the coaches are screwing it up." Michigan State head coach John L Smith on losing to Ohio State. Hey, keep your chin up there John and remember: Just admitting that you have a problem is half the battle.

8. "He's like, 'Your welcome man. I pushed your back,’ I was like, 'Thanks dude.'" Matt Leinart, recalling his conversation with Reggie Bush after the final play of the game against the Irish. I was like, so disgusted man, I don’t even have to gag myself with a spoon -my innards are projectiling themselves all over the kitchen wall.

9. These next three are just an interesting look inside the mind of three star head coaches, all of whom ironically lost this weekend. You’ve got the two coaches with the most victories in D1-A all-time, and one of the supposedly hottest commodities in all of football:
Urban Meyer: “You'll never hear me say I'm proud of the team, because I'm not when they lose.” That’s not very PC, but hey that’s not what they pay him for.
Joe Paterno: "It was a great football game. Our kids hung in there, I'm proud of them." Yeah, that’s old school talk for, ‘Nice job, I’m kicking your butt next year.’
Tommy Bowden: "I don't have a lot to say. All I want to say, you can't print." Well, at least he’s honest and polite.

And this week’s Instant IQ award goes to…
The crew covering the Texas Tech-Kansas State game. I jumped right into the middle of this one and let me tell you, it was several minutes before I could bring pen and paper to record it:
“I gotta tell you my marbles are better looking than yours.”
“I can’t argue that.”
“Yeah, I know you can’t.”


This week’s Super-Stud Awards go to…

1. Cody “I’m finally a senior” Hodges, QB Texas Tech – Talk about sick: he takes the cake for single game yardage this season with 643 through the air and 5 touchdowns on 44 of 65 attempts against Kansas State. He now has 2,461 yards passing and 22 piggy scores thru six games. In just one day, he threw for more yardage than North Texas, Duke, and Rice have all season. In fact, if he were a team he’d be the 39th ranked offense all on his lonesome!

2. Colt ‘45’ Brennan, QB Hawaii – He thought he had single game honors all but locked up this week, that is until Mr. Hodges riddled the Wildcat secondary. Colt blew away New Mexico State for 515 yards through the air and SEVEN touchdowns as the Warriors stormed past the Aggies, 49-28.

3. Joel ‘Feeling-a-’ Filani, WR Texas Tech – With 10 catches for 255 yards and a touchdown, he gets the Big12 all-time record for single-game receiving yardage. Tech’s own Donnie Hart had owned that one with 241 yards back in 1996.

4. Taurean ‘Delorean’ Henderson, RB Texas Tech –He nabbed 10 catches for 117 yards and five touchdowns on the day, but what really gets him on this list is that he set the NCAA all-time record for most receptions by a running back (241 and counting…).

5. In-Vince-able Young, QB Texas – In his best game of the season, Young scored 5 times (two of them with his legs) as Texas routed Colorado 42-17. Young did most of his damage the air, throwing for 336 yards on stellar 25 of 29 passing. Side note: You know you’ve got something special when the opposing coach admits that he isn’t even sure if he has the athletes to compete with your team.

6. Laurence ‘My’ Maroney, RB Minnesota – It wasn’t this Heisman worthy sled dog’s fault the Gophers lost the Axe Saturday. He rushed for a career-high 258 yards against the Badgers, including a 93-yarder early in the third quarter. With that effort, Maroney joins Michigan State's Sedrick Irvin and Wisconsin's Ron Dayne as the only backs in Big Ten history to net 1,000-yard rushing seasons in each of their first three years.

7. The Bludgeoning Buckeye Defense – Anybody who didn’t think they were all that and a side of butt-whip, check this stat out: they sacked the Spartans Drew Stanton a school record 12 TIMES. TWELVE TIMES.

8. Steve Slaton, RB West Virginia – Mountaineer Head Coach Rich Rodriguez opted out of his 4 back rotation this week, instead handing the rock to Slaton again, and again, and again. He responded with 188 yards on 31 carries and SIX touchdowns. Gee, ya think he earned that starting spot or what?

9. Dwayne ‘Spay’Em, don’t Slay’Em’, DB Texas Tech – While Slay only recorded ten official tackles (seven solo), he forced two turnovers, knocked down the Wildcat QB about a dozen times, and totally destroyed one of the Wildcat receivers. If he doesn’t deserve the title RaiderBack, I don’t know who does.

10. Conner ‘I’m not a Duck’ Hughes, PK Virginia – He nailed 4 of 4 field goals this weekend, helping the Cavaliers defeat the Seminoles, 26-21, for the first time in a decade. He has now made ten in a row and is 58 of 70 as a Cavalier.


Riding the Bench This Week is…

1. The Bumbling Buckeye Offense. In a week in which you should have lit up one of the worst pass defenses in the land, you didn’t even run a play in their half of the field until the final five minutes of the game. To make matters worse, you fumbled the ball six times and lost four of them. No wonder the home crowd of 105,112 booed you so zealously. Note to Tressle: Nobody cares that your wretched offense leads the Big10 in time of possession.

2. The Florida State front line – Booker and Washington are both more than just ‘able’ backs. Your lack of blocking (or rather, holding the block) resulted in the Cavaliers keeping FSU’s Thunder and Lightning from being any part of a possible come from behind victory. The FSU backfield managed just 20 yards on 28 carries –now that just ain’t right.


Random Hits and Misses
My moments of clarity and confusion this weekend are:

1. How upset do you think Pete Carroll would have been if USC hadn’t converted on that 4th down and ended up losing due to a bad call out on the field that couldn’t be overturned because he refused to allow instant replay in the game? Brady Quinn rushed for the go ahead touchdown with about two minutes remaining, but a closer look on replay showed his knee down prior to him stretching the ball across the stripe. Of course, the fact that SC ended up winning because there was no replay to overturn Reggie Bush blatantly pushing Matt Leinhart into the endzone probably doesn’t bother Carroll as much as it does me.

2. VaTech who? Texas destroyed Colorado over the weekend. Anyone that has the Hokies ahead of the Longhorns is nuts. Maybe they’ll deserve to be there later in the season (like after the ACC title game), but right now you are freaking nuts if you think the Hokies should be ranked ahead of the Longhorns.

3. The most humorous moment of the weekend had nothing at all to do with College Football. While ‘channeling up’ from CBS to ABC, I crossed our local NBC station that was covering some LPGA action down in South Africa, I believe. Grace Park, in her first tour event (she turned 16 like a day ago), was trying to figure out how to chip a lie that was surrounded by rock and scrub brush 20 feet up the side of a desert hill and onto the green at the 8th hole. She practice swung for like EVER, before taking her real stroke ….a swing, and a miss! Oh, it was more than a little embarrassing for Miss Park (of course, I shouldn’t talk, I once missed the whole ball while still on the tee box!). For her next shot, she pulled a few rocks out of the ground around her lie (which I didn’t know was actually allowed) and then swung again. This time she connected, but was only able to advance the ball about five feet into the middle of a thorny bush. Apparently, the rules allow you to move rocks but not bushes as she ended up having to drop her ball 30 yards down the hill and across a small ravine over on the 7th fairway (she had to drop it in a straight line with the current lie and the flag, but not any closer to the flag than the current lie). Her next shot, from the fairway on Seven, was a beauty, landing right in the middle of the green on 8 –nice shot Grace.

4. Is it really legal for linebackers to have clubs instead of hands? In the Alabama-Ole Miss game, Rebel linebacker, #49 Patrick Wilis had a cast on his hand that was wrapped in bubble wrap, then wrapped in another cast, AND THEN wrapped in athletic tape. It was like he was carrying around a 5 foot long q-tip –and I swear I saw him smacking the offensive linemen with it on his way to knocking down Tide QB Brodie Croyle.

5. Reason #437 that nobody should have been watching the Texas-Colorado game in the 4th quarter while that other game over on the Peacock was going on: Gary Thorne and Ed Cunningham held a five minute dissertation on how rap music, while horrible to listen too, is a window into the hearts and minds of the young kids who have had to overcome adversity to make it big in sports. Oh, and lest I forget, they also made quite a comparison between 40’s love songs and today’s rap songs. I guess I just didn’t realize that Gary and Ed are about 80 years old.

6. Reason #765 that nobody should have been watching the end of the Texas-Colorado game: Ed and Gary discussed and, apparently decided, that there is no difference between being a marine and being a football player. The only thing more painful than listening to this conversation was hearing them tick off all of the ‘war terms’ that are used in college football. Oh, and if you were wondering, I TIVO’s the UT game and only watched this painful broadcasting effort after the Trojans kidnapped a leprechaun and rubbed him all over Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart.

7. Is it just me or is this the WORST IDEA EVER: FOX has a new channel called Fox Reality and their tagline is, ”All Reality, All the Time, because you just can’t get enough.” Oh, I’ve sooo had enough.

8. Note to Cal Golden Bears fans: you now have a two game losing streak. If you’d prefer, I can call it a two game regular season losing streak.

9. Must be something in the water: I’ve never seen so many guys have 2 picks in a game on the same weekend: California, La.-Monroe, TCU, Bowling Green, Syracuse, Kansas, and Eastern Michigan all had guys grab two picks. Not to be outdone though, the East Carolina Pirates had two manly men grab a pair of picks each: Delirious Demetrius Hodges and Pierre ‘Don’t call me Peter’ Parker.

10. I’ve heard crews are now starting to plan how to restore the Superdome in New Orleans. Instead of leveling it and starting anew, it looks like they are just going to try to put it back together again as quickly as possible in an effort to keep football in New Orleans. One official was quoted as saying that unless the repairs/restoration was going to cost more than 51 percent of the estimated $270 million cost to replace the dome, they would simply restore it. You know, sometimes saving a few bucks (or even a few million), just isn’t the right thing to do. I mean, who in their right mind would want to step back inside that place after what happened in the aftermath of Katrina? Plus, if they tear it down and re-build it they should be able to put together a world class facility that people will be fighting to get inside –not outside- of.


Next Week’s Quick Peeks

Virginia Tech @ Maryland – In a wonderful little matchup on Thursday night, the Hokies travel to College Park for some Turtle Soup. While Maryland started off the season a little slow, they’ve come on strong in the past few weeks, knocking off Wake Forest, Virginia, and Temple. And while Terp QB Sam Hollenbach isn’t nearly as flashy as Uber-Hokie Marcus Vick, he is the ACC’s leader in total offense. Expect a great defensive battle in this one as the Terrapins own the 5th ranked pass defense and the Hokies field the 2nd best overall defense in the nation. Can Maryland find a way to get penetration on the Hokie offensive line without Vick burning them for a ton of yardage?

Georgia Tech @ Miami – Despite starting off the season with a bang, the Yellow Jackets have wilted under the pressure of their ACC schedule. This week they travel down to the Orange Bowl for a game against the Hurricanes. While the Canes are still a shell of their former selves on offense, they remain as potent as ever on defense with the nation’s top ranked unit, allowing just 227 yards per contest and 10 point a game. Can the Jackets’ Reggie Ball finally put together a masterful performance and carry the Rambling Wreck to victory over the 6th ranked team in the land?

Michigan @ Iowa – With the Big10 race as confusing as I’ve ever seen it, Michigan hits the road for the pink showers of Kinnick Stadium. Last week, the Wolverine’s bowed up and came out on top of Penn State thanks to a little last second heroics on the part of QB Chad Henne. Meanwhile, Iowa seems to have recovered nicely from that CyHawk debacle and subsequent Buckeye Bushwacking. Drew Tate has been on fire the past two weeks, but will he be able to throw against the teeth of this Big Blue D (best in the Big10 versus the pass).

Nebraska @ Missouri -- Despite taking different roads to get here, Nebraska and Missouri sit tied atop the Big12 North standings with Colorado. The Back’n’Gold are the perennial underachievers, looking to take control of the North Division and that subsequent invite to Reliant Center come December. Can the Huskers light up one of the weakest defenses in the conference and perty-up their passing stats, or will the Tigers finally drop the hammer?

Purdue @ Wisconsin – Now that the Badgers have that one loss behind them, the talk of them storming the conference table has subsided (it shouldn’t though as this one’s wide open). While Purdue is riding a 4 game losing streak, don’t think this one is a gimme for Barry’s Boys. The spread attack has given Wisconsin nothing but trouble this season, and don’t expect it to be any different here –even at Camp Randall. Fortunately for the Wisconsin faithful, the Boilermakers field the conference’s worst pass defense and 115th overall defense in the country. In other words: expect a wild shootout in this one, much like in the season opener with Bowling Green.

Texas Tech @ Texas – It’s good to see that the Big12 South won’t have to go the year without a Top 10 showdown. The Red Raiders bring their aerial fireworks into the confines of Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday to try and put an end to the Longhorns’ Rosy dreams. With them they bring the nation’s top rated pass attack, averaging 472 yards per game and 53 points per contest. Lining up on the other side of the ball is the Texas D: a fast, hard hitting unit that ranks 3rd in the nation in total defense, but more importantly 6th in the land and best in conference at defending the pass. This one should be a gem as the onus will be all on the speedy Texas DBs to keep pace with the Air Raiders streaking receivers.

Tennessee @ Alabama – In the other key matchup of the week, the Tide play host to a reeling Volunteer squad. After being pummeled by the Bulldogs, Tennessee took the week off to prepare for the SEC’s other undefeated team (I still say the scheduling gods hate Tennessee). Will Bama’s Brodie Croyle be able to get it done without his top two receivers? Fortunately, he may not have to as the SEC’s top ranked defense should be able to keep the Vols attack under wraps.

Auburn @ LSU – This is it, this is the game. The one that decides who wins the SEC-West. Yes, I know Bama is actually sitting atop the conference right now, but I just ain’t believing the Tide has rolled in just yet. The War Eagle has steadily improved their game since that opening week loss to Georgia Tech, and are now quietly back in the center of the SEC championship race. For the Bayou Bengals, a loss here and their dreams of an SEC championship are all but gone. Look for them to leave it all hanging out as it’s do or die time down in the land of the Red Stick.


The Wrap Up
Well, that about wraps it up for yet another week Between the Hashes, SportzFanz. As always, it’s been both a privilege and a pleasure. Look for our Weekly Run Down of the games on in your area to hit the shelves in a couple of days. Until then, do me a favor and send me your best/worst thoughts of the weekend, and we’ll see how the rest of you feel about that photo finish out in South Bend.

The Week 7 Run Down

Hot off the press is another edition of the Weekly Run Down. It’s Week 7 and the action couldn’t get any better as Clemson and NC State square on Thursday Nite over on ESPN, Ohio State looks to salvage its Big10 season against the Spartans, Texas tries to keep perfect against a herd of wild Buffalo, Michigan tries to avoid the unthinkable against the picture perfect Nittany Lions, and Florida seeks atonement against the Bayou Bengals down in Death Valley. Oh, and there’s also that little tussle over in South Bend that might catch your eye as well. So without any further ado, let’s get right on down to the games on in your area for this, the seventh weekend of College Pigskin Action.


The Week 7 TV Schedule


Oct. 13 Thu. Clemson @ NC State 6:30 P ESPN

Oct. 14 Fri. UTEP @ Tulane 7:00 P ESPN

Oct. 15 Sat. Michigan State @ Ohio State 11:00 A ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Kansas State @ Texas Tech 11:00 A ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Alabama @ Ole Miss 11:00 A CBS
Oct. 15 Sat. Wisconsin @ Minnesota 11:00 A ESPN
Oct. 15 Sat. Northwestern @ Purdue 11:00 A ESPN2
Oct. 15 Sat. Miami, Fla @ Temple 12:00 P FSN

Oct. 15 Sat. USC @ Notre Dame 2:30 P NBC
Oct. 15 Sat. Louisville @ West Virginia 2:30 P ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Penn State @ Michigan 2:30 P ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Colorado @ Texas 2:30 P ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Oregon State @ Cal 2:30 P ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Florida @ LSU 2:30 P CBS

Oct. 15 Sat. UCLA @ Washington State 5:00 P FSN
Oct. 15 Sat. San Diego State @ Utah 6:00 P ABC*
Oct. 15 Sat. Oklahoma @ Kansas (Arrowhead) 6:00 P TBS
Oct. 15 Sat. Georgia @ Vanderbilt 6:15 P ESPN2
Oct. 15 Sat. Florida State @ Virginia 6:45 P ESPN

*Denotes Regional Action


The Week 7 Run Down


Oct. 13 Thu. Clemson @ NC State 6:30 P ESPN
Last week, Chuck Amato’s Wolfpack surprised the Yellow Jackets to earn their first conference victory of the season. While the victory was a godsend for NC State, the truth is they are two very easy missed field goals and one heck of an interception in the end zone at the end of the game away from having lost that one (meaning: they won, but were outplayed yet again). For Clemson, they’ve been in a downward spiral ever since that Miami game. Last week’s loss to the Demon Deacons extended the skid to three straight and this week doesn’t look to be any different if they can’t get better production out of QB Charlie Whitehurst and an underachieving defense. While he has cut down on the number of interceptions, Whitehurst has connected for just 4 touchdowns on the season –not nearly good enough to keep this team afloat. For the Wolfpack, their defense is playing solid, but even though they were the #1 unit in the nation last year they still missed the post season (a similar theme could very easy unravel this year). QB Jay Davis is the key to N.C. State’s post season and this game. He’s playing better than last year and has shown improvement each and every week (he’s currently the #2 rated quarterback in the ACC behind Marcus Vick). If Davis can maintain his level of play, look for the Wolfpack to munch on some Tiger meat this week.
NC State.


Oct. 14 Fri. UTEP @ Tulane 7:00 P ESPN
The Miners’ season got dealt a severe blow last week, losing to Memphis 27-20 (side note: The Tiger’s DeAngelo Williams definitely deserves Heisman consideration at this point in the season). But despite that setback, don’t expect this Mike Price coached team to pack it in and fold up the tent –especially against a Green Wave club which ranks 98th in total offense.
Dem Axe Throwing Miners.


Oct. 15 Sat. Michigan State @ Ohio State 11:00 A ABC*
The very strange odyssey that is the Buckeye’s 2005 campaign continues this week as they play host to the traveling Spartans. At 3-2, Ohio State has found itself outside the realm of possible National Championship competition and even outside looking in at the Big10 title race. Despite their current ranking though (#15 in the AP), this is still one of the best teams in America. Their defense is rock solid and should hold up well against the Spartans while their highly touted offense should open it up and have a field day with the nation’s 106th ranked pass defense.
The Buckeyes earn back some Big10 respect.


Oct. 15 Sat. Kansas State @ Texas Tech 11:00 A ABC*
Last week’s victory over the Cornhuskers is just the type of win a team like Tech needs –a nail biter in hostile country where character building takes on more importance than simply running crisp routes and flinging the ball a hundred times. Returning back to their friendly confines in Lubbock, the Air Raid welcomes the K-State Wildcats. The Wildcats, after starting off their season quickly, stumbled against Oklahoma and struggled to get past Kansas. If the Bugeaters gave up 21 quick points to Tech at the start of their game (and they were damn ready to make up for that 70-10 loss last season), what do you think will happen during the first 15 minutes out in tumbleweed territory?
Air Raid.


Oct. 15 Sat. Alabama @ Ole Miss 11:00 A CBS
Since they had the week off to cool their jets after that Gatorfest to kick off October, the Tide shouldn’t be looking past these Rebels –and that’s a very bad thing for Ole Miss fans. Tide QB Brodie Croyle has been nothing short of sensational so far this season. Expect him to quickly develop an outstanding repore with WRs Keith Brown and DJ Hall to deflect some of that lost production from Tyrone Prothro’s season ending injury.
Tide.


Oct. 15 Sat. Wisconsin @ Minnesota 11:00 A ESPN
Other than that clunker to Penn State, the Golden Gophers have played stellar football this season. RB Laurence Maroney leads the Big10’s most potent attack while their defense has done just enough to net them the victory in games against Purdue and Michigan. If Wisconsin can keep their offensive machinery humming, then they should be able to keep pace and notch a victory even if this one becomes a shoot out. The main problem for the Badger’s will be finding a way to shut down another high powered offensive attack. The good news is that while ‘Sota definitely can put up yards and points, they don’t sport the same spread offense attack that has given the Badgers trouble this season (Bowling Green and Northwestern). For the Gophers to win, they’re going to have to get a fabulous game out of Cupito and about 200 yards on the ground from Maroney. If Wisconsin can just take one of those guys out of their game, then even with the ThunderDome rocking, look for Barry’s Boys to bring that Axe back home to Camp Randall.
Badgers.


Oct. 15 Sat. Northwestern @ Purdue 11:00 A ESPN2
Hot off their upset victory over Wisconsin, the Wildcats aim to make it two in a row this week. The Boilermakers, as seems to have been their way the past few years, are riding a three game losing streak (why is it that they always seem poised for bigger and brighter things only to have the rug pulled out for under them?). In order to stand a chance at a post season berth, the Boilermaker Defense will have to come up big. For a unit that returned all of its starters from last season, Purdue is ranked 114th in the nation in total defense. NW Freshman RB Tyrell Sutton is #2 in the rushing title race with 772 yards on the season. If last week was any indication, expect one or both of these teams to hang half a hundred before the final bell.
Purdue –it’s got to be their turn, right?


Oct. 15 Sat. Miami, Fla @ Temple 12:00 P FSN
Miami takes the week off, going up against one time Big East foe, Temple on Saturday. Out of the four independents in the nation (Notre Dame, Navy, Army, and Temple), the Owls rank dead last in 11 out of the 14 major NCAA statistical categories. Miami, meanwhile, ranks 3rd nationally in defense and should get in a few reps for its erstwhile mediocre offense (ranked 54th in the country).
Canes.


Oct. 15 Sat. USC @ Notre Dame 2:30 P NBC
In the showdown event of the season, the surprising Fighting Irish host the Trojans of Southern Cal. While the Irish are the fashionable choice in this one, a look at the numbers behind the game yields a troubling prospective. Everyone knows about USC’s high octane offense, and (at least now) everyone knows that the SC Defense is the weak point of this outfit –so much so that it certainly isn’t a foregone conclusion that SC can stop these Golden Domers from lighting up the score board. However, the other piece to the puzzle that bears mentioning here is the Irish pass defense: 114th in the nation. If they don’t play their best game of the season, then don’t expect the upset of the century to occur underneath the gaze of Touchdown Jesus. Of course, with a week off to prepare, Charlie Weiss and his defensive coordinator should be able to come up with a few good wrinkles to throw Southern Cal off kilter –at least for a while. Stat of the Week: Over the past three seasons, the Irish have been outscored 130-37 by the Trojans –is this team really that much improved this season or is it just the coaching?
Irish –although I’m more hoping this than believing it.


Oct. 15 Sat. Louisville @ West Virginia 2:30 P ABC*
You know, if you take that USF clunker out, the Cardinals have been very impressive this year, thrice putting better than 60 on the board. QB Brian Brohm is the nation’s 2nd rated passer and has fellow Big East rushing leader Michael Bush by his side to keep the defenses from cracking down on him. Defensively though, the Mountaineers could give them some trouble as their rushing triumvirate of Pat White, Pernell Williams, and Jason Gwaltney sled behind a rock solid offensive wall. When the ball isn’t in the hands of the Mountaineers, it’ll be equally as interesting to see how WVa’s physical defense matches up against the Louisville spread offense. In a battle of the Big East titans, it typically comes down to defense and emotion. If this one was a night game, the Mountaineers would all but be guaranteed a victory as Morgantown is a wicked place to play when the home crowd gets whipped into a frenzy. As it stands, expect a physical battle that goes all they way down to the final drive.
Louisville.


Oct. 15 Sat. Penn State @ Michigan 2:30 P ABC*
Penn State sits alone atop the Big10 for the first time in a very, very long time. In order for them to stay there though, they’re going to have to go into the Big House and hand the Maize-n-Blue their fourth loss of the season. While the Michigan D has had its share of problems this season, they are still a very capable unit –especially with their pride on the line. The question mark in this one is the Wolverine ground game. Will they have Michael Hart back? If not, can the offensive line open up big enough holes in this nasty Nittany D for Kevin Grady and Max Martin to truck through? If the answer is no to both those questions, I don’t think even the great Chad Henne-Jason Avant connection will save them.
Wolverines in a nasty, physical game Big Blue didn’t know it had in it.


Oct. 15 Sat. Colorado @ Texas 2:30 P ABC*
Fresh off a big day up in Big D, the Longhorns return home for a battle with the Buffalos. Colorado has been tearing up the Big12 this year, picking on Oklahoma State and A&M in successive weeks for a combined 75-20. QB Joel Klatt hasn’t been spectacular under center, but he has been reliable –throwing for 1,246 yards on 107 of 163 passing. If the Buffs have any intention of upsetting the 2nd seeded Horns, they are going to have to play lights out on defense, taking away the ground game with their 6th ranked rush defense and relying on their 55th rank secondary to keep Texas from cashing in on any one play touchdown drives. For Texas, it’s all about taking the game seriously. After last week’s showdown victory, they must focus here and do the things that have earned them the nation’s second longest win streak: tough, tenacious defense and a patient but attacking offense.
Longhorns.


Oct. 15 Sat. Oregon State @ Cal 2:30 P ABC*
The Golden Bears return home after having their 5 game win streak stopped cold by the Bruins last week. They’ll play host to a dangerous Beaver squad that knows how to play Jekyll and Hyde better than anyone in the country. OSU QB Matt Moore leads the nation’s 5th best pass attack while Head Coach Mike Riley hopes to find something positive in his run game (they’re ranked 105th in the nation, averaging less than a 100 yards on the ground per contest). To make matters worse, the Beavers boast the nation’s worst pass defense and will be facing a ticked off Jeff Tedford club after last week’s shoot out loss. If the great-road-team-Beavers show up, this one could be one of the best games of the week.
Golden Bears.


Oct. 15 Sat. Florida @ LSU 2:30 P CBS
The Tigers return home on Saturday after finally discarding tenacious Vanderbilt in the 4th quarter. The last time LSU was in front of the home crowd, Tennessee stole their big red stick and ruined their national title dreams, 30-27 in overtime. For this game, don’t expect the Bayou Bengals to make the same mistake –they will be playing very physical football in this one. Two weeks ago, the Gators were exposed on national TV against Alabama. Now, they hit the road again to play in Death Valley and in front of a hostile, jacked up crowd. If Florida loses this one, the SEC East is all but gift wrapped for the Bulldogs. I’m betting Urban Meyer has his team well aware of this fact, so sit back and enjoy this one because it should be a helluva fight.
Tigers.


Oct. 15 Sat. UCLA @ Washington State 5:00 P FSN
Hot off their exciting victory last week over Cal, the Bruins travel up the road to Pullman. The Cougars haven’t been playing necessarily bad this season, it’s just that they’ve been shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers every chance they get. Against this opportunistic UCLA squad, the fewer chances the Cougs give them, the better off they’ll be. But even if they are able to hold onto the football, RB Maurice Drew and QB Drew Olson should still get enough minutes with the rock to outscore Washington State in front of the home crowd.
Bruins.


Oct. 15 Sat. San Diego State @ Utah 6:00 P ABC*
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Last year’s BCS darling, Utah, is now riding a two game skid and stands at just 3-3 overall (1-2 in Mountain West play). This week, they get to stay home in Rice-Eccles Stadium to host the Dick Tomey led Aztecs. While this one could go either way (remember, San Diego State only lost to the Buckeyes 27-6), Utah hasn’t yet lost its home team mojo. They are still undefeated in Rice-Eccles, having beaten Arizona, Utah State, and Air Force. Look for Ute RB Quinton Ganther to have a big day with the rock, rushing as well as receiving.
Utes.


Oct. 15 Sat. Oklahoma @ Kansas (Arrowhead) 6:00 P TBS
With Adrian Peterson ready to go again, the Sooners offense should have a noticeable kick to it this week –and that’s exactly the thing that they need in order to get Rhett Bomar into a rhythm with the passing game. For Kansas, they’ve dropped two straight and now have their backs against the wall in the Big12 North race. If they can pull off the upset in the great outdoors of Arrowhead Stadium, they’ll be right back in the thick of things. To do so, they’ll need much better play out of Senior QB Brian Luke who is currently completely only 50% of his passes and has 5 touchdowns and picks on the season. If there is any good news for this Jayhawk team, it’s that their defense is ranked 3rd nationally against the run –if they can keep a gimpy Peterson from being much of a factor, they’ve got a seriously good shot at notching the upset.
Sooners.


Oct. 15 Sat. Georgia @ Vanderbilt 6:15 P ESPN2
The Bulldogs muscled their way past Tennessee last week and are now looking to put an iron clad grip on the SEC East. Meanwhile, the Commodore’s had a very impressive outing against LSU (at least through 3 quarters), but will need to play even better and more determined for a full 4 quarters if they want to notch the wicked upset dubbya here. Why doesn’t Vandy stand a chance? They have rushed for just 127 total yards in their past two contests against Middle Tenn State and LSU. Why might they stand a chance? QB Jay Cutler – he is one of the SEC’s best kept secrets. If Vanderbilt can get some semblance of a run game established and keep Cutler from getting mauled by the Dawgs, this one could be very interesting indeed.
Georgia.


Oct. 15 Sat. Florida State @ Virginia 6:45 P ESPN
The Cavaliers chances of winning the Coastal Division and playing in the ACC title game are now on life support after back-to-back loses to Maryland and Boston College. This week, they host the hard charging Seminoles who are looking to not only win the Atlantic Division and ACC title game, but are also looking to party crash the BCS and lay claim to that coveted two slot in the Rose. In order for them to do that, they’ll have to increase the production that they are getting out of RBs Lorenzo Booker and Leon Washington –together, they are responsible for just the 89th ranked ground attack in the country (10th in the ACC). On the bright side, Sophomore QB Drew Weatherford has really come on since that ragged opener against Miami. He is 87 of 132 for 1,168 yards, 10 touchdowns and 3 interceptions since that season opener. For the Cavs, QB Margues Hagans will need to have his best game yet while the ACC’s next-to-worst defense plays like a team possessed.
Seminoles – but it’ll be closer than the FSU faithful would like.

Between The Hashes - Week 6

Between The Hashes

Welcome back SportzFanz to yet another week, Between The Hashes. Each week, we’ll take a look at the College Football landscape and report on the state of all things Grid Iron. This weekend was chock full of so much action, my DVR nearly overheated and chunked its bloated hard drive halfway across the room. Before it gives out entirely, lets get down to the action…


What This Week Will Be Remembered For
The first official NCAA college football doubleheader, Texas finally claiming victory over the arch-rival Sooners, and last but by no means least, the Nittany Lions taking control of the Big10 up in Happy Valley.

A little Division III school named Northwestern College up in St. Paul pulled off the first officially recognized double header game in the NCAA this weekend. After beating Trinity Bible College, 59-0, the Eagles took a two hour break before jumping on the bus for a 6 ½ mile road trip to Macalester College. Against Macalester, they took a 33-0 lead at half time, coasting to an easy 47-14 victory.

Why the double header? Northwestern was having trouble lining up a 10th opponent for the season that wouldn’t bankrupt the small school’s travel budget, and this date was the only one available on Macalester’s schedule. Side note: many of the players uniforms didn’t even have enough time to dry out between games –fortunately, since the second game was an ‘away’ one they were able to shed their black jerseys for white. Double side note: Trinity Bible College only brought 22 players to the game and is the subject of a book entitled “Keeping the Faith: In the Trenches with College Football’s Worst Team”. I haven’t read the book yet, but I plan to…

On a sunny Sunday afternoon and under ice-blue skies, the Texas Longhorns finally overcame their arch-nemesis to claim the Golden Hat. While it was a foregone conclusion on paper, no one would believe these Horns worthy of that #2 ranking until they finally got Bob Stoops’ and his Sooner Staff off their back. Fortunately for the Horns, they were able to overcome three early fumbles (each of which they recovered) to build a 24-6 halftime lead en rout to a 45-12 drubbing of Oklahoma in their 100th meeting. That 33 difference tied the largest victory margin ever for a Longhorn team over the Sooners.

Meanwhile over in Happy Valley, the Penn State Nittany Lions pounded away on the Ohio State Buckeyes, claiming not just the victory but also control of the Big10. At 6-0 overall and 3-0 in conference play, the Nits are the only remaining unbeaten in the conference. While their road to the promised land is anything but clear (teams like USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, Georgia, and Florida State are all unbeaten as well), if they take care of business as the season progresses (Michigan this week, and Purdue, Wisconsin, and Michigan State to end the year), things should work themselves out.


Today’s Topic – The Big East’s BCS Berth
Yes, that’s right. It’s time to talk about the Big Bad BEast and its chances of retaining that automatic punch ticket to the Big Boy Table. The BCS system guarantees a slot to one of its Big Dances for each conference champion from the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, and PAC10, but how many of you know about the ‘hidden’ BCS rules? You know, the ones that are never talked about or mentioned? The ones like that little clause that allows the Orange to effectively buy the 3rd overall pick once in a four year cycle? Well prepare to be enlightened, SportzFanz, as we shed some light on one of those ‘hidden’ rules.

Some of you may have already heard a bit about this as one announcer this week finally touched on this verboden subject: As a part of the rulebook for the Bowl Coalition System, any one of the ‘major’ conferences can have their automatic berth revoked if their conference champion doesn’t average 12th or better in the final BCS standings over any four year period.

That means the Big East, who had Miami finish #1 in the final BCS rankings in 2001 and 2002, is on the cusp of potentially having its automatic BCS berth revoked. In 2003, the conference champion finished 9th and, last year, Pittsburgh finished 21st. For the four year span coming into this season then, the Big East’s conference champion is averaging an 8th place finish, BUT this year and next those #1 rankings for Miami get dropped off the roll and that is where it starts getting interesting.

In order for the Big East to retain its automatic berth for next season, their conference champion will have to finish no lower than 17th this year (17+21+9+1=48, which over a four year period, comes out to an average ranking of 12th). Right now, Louisville is the only squad in the Big East ranked in the Top 25. They are ranked 22nd and 23rd respectively in the Coaches and Harris Poll (not counting this weekend’s action).

But even if the conference formerly known as the BEast escapes the chopping block this season, next year will get even tougher. If they have a squad finish at 17th this season, they’ll have to have a team finish #1 in the BCS balloting next year in order to average even a #12 ranking. The bottom line: if the Big East doesn’t average 9th in the BCS over this year and next, the rest of the BCS conferences will have the right to boot them out.

Why might this happen? Well, that’s the easy part. Giving the Big East the boot would allow them to open up another precious slot for an at large selection. Despite the fact that the ‘mid-major’ schools might not draw as well as one of the big power schools, this option is very enticing to the BCS guru’s as they seek to desperately retain power within the halls of the NCAA and college football community (remember that little tiff the US Congress began picking with them last year?).

Oh, and lest we mention it, you might wanna think on this one as well: If is a BCS conference champion does not finish within the top 16 and a non-BCS team is ranked in the top 12, then the non-BCS team is given the BCS team’s slot. So while it may still be very doubtful, it is entirely possible that the Big East won’t get to partake in the BCS this season or any season –at least as an automatic qualifier.


Your Instant Impact Quotes of the Week Are:
This week’s most memorable College Football Related quotes are:

Okay, this one isn’t exactly a quote, but I can’t resist mentioning it so we’ll just get it out of the way first: The best TV graphic of the week, hands down, was entitled “Good News for Big Uglies”. It was a list of Texas and OU lineman that had been drafted into the NFL over the pass few seasons, and boy was it quite a list.

“It’s a hat trick of flagatation -I thought he [the referee] was going to have to start throwing sweatbands and whistles.” – Overheard during the NC State-Georgia Tech game when NC State and Georgia Tech combined for 4 different penalties on a single punt. Their were 2 blocks in the back, a hold, and a personal foul prior to the snap.

“It’s inconclusively inconclusive, so they have to over turn it.” The color analyst during the Syracuse-UConn game, trying to explain why a called fumble during a quarterback sack should be overturned. Apparently, the replay official agreed with you, as the call was overturned and Connecticut got to keep the ball. Gee, and I thought play calls were only supposed to be overturned by some kind of ‘conclusive video evidence’!

“What do you do as an offensive lineman? You don’t have hamstrings.” The color analyst during the Syracuse-UConn game, trying to figure out how players kept their hamstrings warmed up during a 6:26 break to review a play call. Ok, but if they just look back at the ball, can they start using all of their appendages as hands?

``I haven't been around for much winning, but it's definitely a highlight of my career,'' Penn State QB Michael Robinson, a fifth-year senior, talking to reporters after the Battle of the States Saturday night. You’re right Michael, you haven’t been around for much winning, but I think you’ll see a good bit more of it before you’re through.

“And they’re rejoicing in Halleluiah land.” Keith Jackson, after Texas’ Big Ugly Rod Wright scooped up a Rhett Bomar fumble and rumbled for 60 yards into the House of the Pigskin. Not only that Keith, they’re dancing in my living room too.

“If you wanna see who’s winning, you look at the big plays and dumb penalties.” Lou Holtz in the studio. I just about had my own witty comeback ready when Rece Davis stepped in with a marvelous one: “I thought you just looked at the score, Lou.” A slightly shaken Holtz simply managed to reply, “I never thought of that” before they cut away to the next highlight.

“Some of the biggest plays were Texas recovering their own fumbles.” Dan Fouts, countering his mentor Keith Jackson on the biggest plays in the Texas-OU game. You know what Dan? I think that may have been the most insightful statement I’ve ever heard you say. Well done, and DO come back next year for the Triple-R. For those of you who don’t know, Texas fumbled the ball three times in the first quarter, twice deep in their own territory, but managed to hang onto all three of them.

“The first thing, Michael Robinson lost 15 pounds so you can see his speed.” Bob Davie, covering the Ohio State-Penn State game. Okay: first thing, how did Bob Davie get such a cherry of a game to call? Second thing, ….well, since Bob didn’t supply you with one, I’m not gonna either –you can make up your own jokes, this one’s too easy..

“I don’t know, maybe it’s the altitude –yeah, could be the altitude cause A&M is lower than dirt.” Rece Davis, showing a highlight of the Aggie-Buffalo game as Colorado went up 31-6 in the 2nd quarter. Ouch Rece! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you call out a team like that.

“Listen to the quietness.” Overheard during the Texas Tech-Nebraska game, immediately following the Red Raiders go ahead touchdown with 12 seconds left on the clock.

"Moses was in high school the last time these guys lost on homecoming." Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach, during his post game interview. I don’t know about Moses, but I know I haven’t ever seen the Bugeaters lose on homecoming day.

"Just run fast. Just run fast. They can't catch you. Just run fast.” Texas QB Vince Young talking to Jamaal Charles in the huddle prior to him ripping off an 80-yard touchdown against OU. What I think he really meant to say was ‘Run fast, then spin, then run fast again.’

"I had three things to do: be physical the whole game, win the game, put on the Hat." Texas’ Big Ugly, Jonathon Scott, who checked off all three items on Saturday up in Dallas.

And this week’s Instant IQ award goes to… Ed Cunningham and Gary Thorne calling the Texas A&M-Colorado game, for their brief but oh-so enlightening exchange on what’s important in a football game:
“It’s not winning, it’s winning with a lot of butt-whip.” – Ed Cunningham
“I’m not touching that!” – Gary Thorne, for some reason suddenly very excitable.
“Available at your local dairy.” – Ed continues, without missing a beat.


This week’s Super-Stud Awards go to…
For those weekend warriors who leave it all out on the turf, we salute you:

1. Tyrell Sutton, RB Northwestern – This freshman phenom took it to the heart of the Badger Defense for 244 yards on 29 carries. That’s good enough to put him atop the freshman rushing list and 2nd in the nation overall behind DeAngelo Williams of Memphis.

2. Brian Brohm, QB Louisville – In carving up the Tar Heels secondary, Brohm went 17-of-22 for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns, vaulting him all the way up to the #2 slot in the nation behind Drew Stanton.

3. Greg Jennings, WR Western Michigan – It isn’t often that a directional school can get up on this list, but with 4 touchdowns and 244 yards receiving on 11 catches, Greg takes the overall top spot for best receiving day this season.

4. Maurice Drew, RB UCLA – In their showdown with the Cal Bears, Drew scored 5 times (3 on the ground, one through the air, and one on a punt return), piling up 299 all purpose yards as UCLA defeated Cal 47-40 in easily the most entertaining shoot out of the year.

5. Steve Breaston, WR Michigan – This kid netted 185 yards and a touchdown on 5 kick offs as Minnesota upended the Wolverines in front of the home crowd, 23-20. Steve, baby, it’s not your fault that every one of those marvelous kick off returns meant Minnesota had just scored on your Maize’n’Blue.

6. Jamaal Charles, RB Texas – That 80 yard rush for the goalposts in the first half of the Texas-OU game set a record in this 100 year old series for longest score from scrimmage. Kudos, Jammin Jamaal, Kudos.

7. The USC Offense – Despite having so much to be thankful for from that desert game a week ago, and so much to look forward to out in South Bend this week, S.C. managed to toast Arizona U for 724 total yards of offense this week. Wow, now that I am impressed with.

8. The Offensive Fireworks in Wisconsin-Northwestern – Not only did these two teams combine for 99 points this weekend, they also combined for 1,403 all-purpose yardage. That outdistances even the Cal-UCLA game in which 87 points were put on the board to go along with 1,124 all-purpose yards.

9. The Baylor Bear Football Club – Congrats Bears on your first ever Big12 road victory (sure, it took 10 years, but at least you got it). PK Ryan Havens was one of the heroes of the day for Baylor, booting 3 field goals to help the Bears defeat Iowa State 23-13. Just for the record, Baylor is now 1-37 in conference road games.

10. Paul Posluszny, LB Penn State – The Nittany Lions’ stud junior linebacker was credited with 14 tackles and one sack in Saturday’s game against Ohio State. Personally, I think the stat monkeys have got to have that one wrong, he was flying around, terrorizing the Buckeyes so much I thought they were gonna call Homeland Security out on him. Heck, I was even seeing Poslusnzy in my nightmares last night, and that was after some heavy rejoicing after my Longhorns finally stuck it to the Sooners.


Riding the Bench This Week is…
Our weekly awards for the worst performances, bone-headed play calls, or anything else that smacks of ridiculousness or stupidity:

1. ABC’s weekend coverage. For five minutes during the Longhorns second drive of the game, ABC lost the video feed from Dallas. For the first couple of minutes, they at least played the audio but then they cut away entirely to another game explaining that they were ‘having technical difficulties’. WTF, ABC? I almost expect this type of thing to occur over on FSN during their coverage, but on your station –and for such a high profile game?

2. ABC’s weekend coverage – part two.To add insult to injury, the ABC geniuses screwed up again when they went away to commercial, only to return on a 2nd down for the Longhorns. It was a quick three and out series for Texas –at which time ABC promptly went back into commercial break. You’re riding the doghouse now –Fox Sports Net are intellectual giants compared to you, even with their ruddy touchdown tote board.

3. The Texas Aggie Defense, formally known as the Wrecking Crew – Continuing along their path of mediocrity, the Aggie D gave up 398 yards through the air to Colorado QB Joel Klatt –that’s the highest total Klatt has amassed since his 2003 game against Kansas. A&M now ranks 113th out of 117 in pass defense.

4. Travis Bell, PK Georgia Tech – He missed two short field goals this week against NC State. The first was a 27-yarder early on in the game, while the second was a 24 yarder in the fourth quarter. Both misses were wide right and both were the shortest misses of his career. On the season, Bell has now missed five straight. Georgia Tech lost to NC State this week, 17-14.

5. The Harris Poll and the BCS. – Okay, so both are idiotic and both are stupid, but what they really do is make the rest of us look the greater the fool for ever putting one iota of belief in a flawed system and a nearly corrupt poll. Barely two weeks into the mighty life of the Harris Poll, those good people at Harris Interactive are looking to ‘re-arrange’ their formula. This time, they are looking at what they term ‘trimming’. Trimming, loosely defined, is adding votes for a team that did not appear in one voter’s poll, based on the overwhelming votes on other ballots (meaning, if Virginia Tech didn’t get a vote on someone’s ballot, they would be ‘given’ an extra vote). They are also looking at removing members from the poll who do not submit votes (as has actually happened). They would also seek to remove people who do not make themselves ‘available’ for what are called “follow-up inquisitions” after casting their ballot. Of course, none of these proposed changes will have any impact on the guy who voted for the same team twice in week one. Come on football fans, lets end this insanity and insult to our intelligence!


Random Hits and Misses
My moments of clarity and confusion this weekend are:

1. In the preseason, if you thought the world would end before Michigan lost three games, what do you think would’ve happened before Michigan failed to make the post season? While unlikely, that scenario is entirely feasible as Michigan sits at 3-3 with games against Penn State, Iowa, Northwestern, Indiana, and Ohio State still to go.

2. I’ve got it, I’ve finally got it: everyone, and I mean everyone, is out to destroy the BCS. Well, I can’t say that I’m unhappy about that, but look: The AP is still polling along and will even declare their own national champ, replete with hardware, this season. ESPN has recused itself from any involvement with the BCS –other than reporting on it and sniping at it. The Harris Poll is being sniped at and picked apart every five minutes in the national media, although I must say they are making it really easy for everyone to do that. And, the new Master Coaches Survey is even getting some pub (it can be found online at www.mcspoll.com). With all this polling coming out of the woodwork, it looks like we’re going to get back to the days when the NCAA had to officially record 4 or 5 different national championship polls –talk about a dagger in the heart of the BCS.

3. Does Joe Pa wear a sweat towel wrapped around his neck because:
a. it’s a fashion statement,
b. he sweats that much, or
c. he doesn’t have the stamina to hold his neck up for 3+ hours?

4. Nothing phases the Red Raider offense or their head coach Mike Leach –and that is a very scary thing. Faced with 4th and 18 early in the second quarter, the Air Raid decided to go for it, but a 5-yard penalty for illegal motion pushed them back to a 4th and 23. So what did they do? They went for it. Now, they didn’t get it but they sure didn’t act like they even knew it was 4th down, much less 4th down against the Huskers, much less 4th down against the Huskers IN Lincoln. Oh and then, at the end of the game, trailing by four with just seconds remaining, Tech and its Coach were a picture of calm serenity amid a rocking, raucous Sea of Red. And once Tech scored the winning touchdown, do you think Coach Leach cracked a smile, pumped the air with his fist, or yelled out in excitement? Heck no, he didn’t even crack enough of a smile to reveal his pearly whites –talk about scary.

5. With Jamaal Charles’ 80 yard touchdown scamper against the Sooners, Texas now has 5 one-play touchdown drives on the season. While they still haven’t earned the rock solid reputation that the Trojans have, they are definitely as explosive and capable, plus they boast a better defense than USC. So what really separates these two teams? Attitude and mental toughness. Texas has improved on both of these by orders of magnitude over the past dozen games, but they still can’t touch USC, their nation’s longest win streak, and their drive for a three-peat.

6. Minnesota defeated Michigan for the first time since 1986 on Saturday, reclaiming the oldest trophy in all of football: the Little Brown Jug. The Jug dates back to 1903 when one of Michigan’s famed “point-a-minute” teams came a calling to Minneapolis. Twenty thousand fans turned out for the game, largely remaining civil until the Gophers tied the game in the second half, 6-6. At that point, fans stormed the field and refused to get off, causing the game to be called with two minutes left on the clock. After all the carnage was cleared and Michigan left town, a Minnesota custodian by the name of Oscar Munson found the jug and brought it to Minnesota’s L. J. Cooke. Still giddy from the game, LJ kept the jug and painted “Michigan jug – Captured by Oscar, October 31, 1903.” Later, Michigan’s Fielding Yost asked Minnesota to return the jug to its rightful owner, but all he ever received in response was, “If you want it, you’ll have to win it.”

7. When you’re good, you’re good. According to Longhorn Jonathon Scott the following exchange took place in the huddle right before a big play: "Somebody in the huddle said, 'They know our play. We looked around, Vince, out of the blue, said, 'So'? All the offensive line was like, 'All right, let's make it happen.’” That next play was the 64-yard touchdown strike Young threw just before the end of the first half. Of course, you know guys, there is such a thing as being too cocky.

8. Okay, today there’s all these headlines talking about how Cal has lost their ’12-game regular season win streak’. What the hell? When did people start keeping track of win streaks like that? If I recall rightly (and I do recall rightly), this Cal Golden Bear squad did a god awful amount of whining, bitching, moaning, and even belittling of Texas’ Coach Mack Brown at the end of last year when they got snubbed in favor of Texas in the Rose Bowl. And what did they do for an encore? They got their butt’s handed to them on a silver platter by the Texas Air Raid during the Holiday Bowl –one of the all time worst wood sheddings in both Cal and Holiday Bowl history. Come on, people, its time to let a little of that West Coast Bias go. Cal lost their five game win streak on Saturday –no more, no less.

9. Could the scheduling gods have been any meaner to Tennessee? First they make them play road games against Top 10 foes, Florida and LSU. Then, just when they think they’re getting a home game against another Top 10 rival in Georgia, the Bulldogs show up chanting “Our House, Our House”. And you know what? It really is their house –the Dawgs have defeated the Vols three straight times now in Neyland Stadium. In the end, I think the Vols players were a little too pre-occupied with ‘protecting the T’ at midfield to focus on this one. Before the final tick had even tocked, several players scrambled out to midfield and stood at attention all around the T, lest some pesky Dawg come up and maul it like they did in 2001.

10. How quickly things change. Last year, the Big12 North couldn’t buy a win against the South (excluding DI-AA wannabe Baylor). This season, Colorado has mercilessly pasted its Southern Brethren, OSU can’t steal a victory much less win one, and Baylor has finally woken up and started playing some ball! Heck, even Texas has managed to take over the big boy reigns from the Sooners. One very intriguing game to me this week features Nebraska taking on Baylor down in Waco. If the Huskers had to go to double overtime to beat ISU by 7 and Baylor was able to beat those same Cyclones in regulation by 10, does that mean Baylor will take down Big Red by 3?


If I could be anyone from this past week, it’d be…
Me – A Texas Longhorn. It’s been five long years since the Horns were able to hoist that gilded Golden Hat high over their shoulders. So long, in fact, that some players thought the Hat was just an urban legend: something spoken of but rarely, if ever, seen. Well now they know it’s for real –just as we now all know this Texas team is for real. The test for Texas now, will be to escape the letdown and boredom that follows the a wicked 6-game run they’ve been on, defeating Michigan in the Rose, Ohio State in the Horseshoe, and finally getting past Oklahoma up in Big D. This week, the Horns return home to face an up and coming Colorado squad (I think Barnett is still upset that he didn’t get the Texas job back in ‘99). Also on their slate, the Horns will host the Texas Air Raid before squaring off against those suddenly downtrodden Aggies over in College Station Thanksgiving Week. It’s not a cruise control schedule, but if they stay focused they should make it back to the Rose come January.

One small bit of trivia: at 56-39-5, Texas is the only school in the Big12 to boast a winning record against Oklahoma.


Next Week’s Quick Peeks
Man, I’m so drained from this weekend I can hardly even begin to think about next week. If I had to focus on just a couple of matchups to get the blood pumping though, it’d be…

Clemson @ NC State – On Thursday, the Tigers travel over to Raleigh for an ACC East showdown. This one is a tale of two programs, each heading in opposite directions. Last week, the Wolfpack surprised the Yellow Jackets to earn their first conference victory of the season, while the Tigers lost to the Demon Deacons, extending their conference losing streak to three. At 2-3, Clemson needs to pick up this victory if they plan on even joining the post season parade –not to mention keeping Bowden from becoming a pariah once again. The trouble is, the Tigers opening victory over A&M is now just about completely debunked, and QB Charlie Whitehurst has thrown just 4 touchdowns on the year –definitely not a good sign. For the Wolfpack, their Defense is playing solid, but QB Jay Davis is playing even better –currently the 2nd best rated quarterback in the ACC behind Marcus Vick. If he can maintain that level of play, look for the Wolfpack to munch on some Tiger meat this week.

Michigan State @ Ohio State – With two weeks to prepare, how will the Spartans respond in the Horseshoe? Heck, how will the Buckeyes respond after dropping their second game of the season in Happy Valley? While nobody will mistake the Spartan defense for the Nittany Lion D, MSU does boast a much more high profile attack –really, much more akin to the Longhorns attack than anything else. They are #1 in conference passing, scoring, and #2 on the ground as QB Drew Stanton inherited the nation’s #1 passer rating this week (despite not even playing). Ohio State will have to find a way to stop this prolific passer who opens things up by moving around outside the pocket and biding time until a receiver gets free. Look for the Buckeye’s D to have renewed vigor this week at home, while the Offense struggles to come to terms with its inability to move the ball (or get it in the hands of Ted Ginn) despite all the talent that it possesses.

Wisconsin @ Minnesota – Will the Badgers spiral out of control after their loss to Northwestern? Can the Golden Gophers win back the Axe after finding that winning groove against the Wolverines this week? If the Badgers are going to answer the bell, then they’ll have to step it up on defense (they were very noticeably absent this week, even with all of the injuries). Of course, with Barry’s Boys you really needn’t ever worry about getting routed –his kids always know how to play hard and hang tough—and what with this one being a Trophy Game and all, expect a gem to unfold up in The Thunderdome.

USC @ Notre Dame – In the show down of the week (perhaps even of the regular season), the Trojans travel out of their friendly Southern Cal confines to South Bend for what looks to be a game of the ages. With Touchdown Jesus looking on, can Weiss and his over achieving Fighting Irish do the unthinkable (at least unthinkable in the pre-season)? The Irish have all the weapons to win in a shoot out –especially with a defense that can stop the Trojans far more reliably than anyone they’ve faced to date this year. If the USC defense doesn’t show up and play their best game of the season, look for the Luck of the Irish to keep them in it all the way down to the bitter end.

Louisville @ West Virginia – With the BEast in shambles, the last thing they need is for their top two teams to square off against one another. Since losing to South Florida, the Cardinals have rediscovered their offense, pasting Florida Atlantic and North Carolina, 130-24. Of course, now they’ll have to go down to Morgantown where the Mountaineers have got their mattresses out and matches ready to go (yes that’s right, the Mountaineer faithful light up their own bedroom furniture when they win a big one). Despite being rather easily handled by Virginia Tech, this Mountaineer D is still 9th in the nation and will provide Louisville with their toughest test of the season. While I definitely believe the USF game was an aberration of overconfidence, Louisville is in for a rude awakening when they take the field this weekend in Morgantown. That is NOT an easy place to play.

Penn State @ Michigan – The odyssey that is Paternoville hits the road this weekend for a date at the Big House. Michigan, who proclaimed themselves most unworthy of a three loss season heading into Minnesota this past week, is staring at the distinct possibility of a four or five lose season. If they want to turn the tide back in their favor, they will have to play a statement game this weekend against the Nits. If the Wolverines want to derail PSU’s 8-game win streak, they’ll have to get better production out of the run game while taking it to the next level on defense. On the other side of the hashes, Penn State simply needs to keep doing what they’ve been doing: play rock solid, smash mouth defense, and let their young talent work the ball downfield, moving the sticks and eating up the clock.

Colorado @ Texas – Fresh off their victory in the Triple-R, the Horns travel back down the I to Austin for a tussle with the Buffaloes. Since losing to the Hurricanes, the Buffs have leveled the Big12 South, defeating Oklahoma State and Texas A&M by a combined 75-20 (with 14 of those 20 coming in junk time for the Aggies). For the Longhorns, they really have the talent to take home the big hardware at the end of the season, but they have to avoid the let down that is the remainder of their conference slate –especially this week. The battle within the battle here is Colorado QB Joel Klatt against the Terrible Texas D. If he can withstand the rush and move around the pocket to find the open receiver, this one will be a nail biter.

Florida @ LSU – LSU finally found the afterburners this week, pulling away from Vandy 34-6 (with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, the score was just 9-6). If they have that same type of lethargic performance against these Gators, they’ll be in a heap of trouble this weekend. Of course, with the Gators traveling down to the Big Red Stick, don’t expect them to play their best ball (although they’ll need to). In their two away contests this season, Florida has been pasted by Bama, 31-3, and ‘handled’ Kentucky, 49-28. If they expect to net the dubbya here, they’ll have to get brilliant games from Leak and the offensive line to compensate for a ground attack that is definitely the biggest chink in the Gator armor. On defense, the Gators will also have to find a way to keep the Tiger O under wraps. LSU has been slow out of the gate this year on offense, but are due for an ‘awakening’.

Florida State @ Virginia – The Seminoles are a perfect 5-0, finally pushing past Wake Forest in the final period this week. QB Drew Weatherford continues to mature with each and every game, this week throwing for 351 yards and three touchdowns as WRs Chris Davis and De’Cody Fagg continue to emerge as scoring threats on each and every play. The Cavaliers ride a two game losing streak into this one, having dropped two on the road to Maryland and Boston College. While certainly underrated, QB Michael Hagans has been erratic at best this season, posting only one solid outing against Duke back in week two. For the Cavs to be successful, he will have to play mistake free and their defense will have to come through in a big way. The Cav D is currently ranked 11th in the conference.


The Wrap Up
Well, that about wraps it up for yet another week Between the Hashes SportzFanz. As always, it’s been both a privilege and a pleasure. Look for our Weekly Run Down of the games on TV to hit the shelves in a couple of days. Until then, why don’t you go give that water cooler some company.

The Week 6 Schedule

Congratulations, you’ve made it to Week 6 SportzFanz! Last week was one for the ages as three old school programs reasserted themselves on the national stage: Nebraska, Alabama, and Penn State. This week, we’ll find out if two of them are for real as the Texas Tech Air Raiders travel up to Omaha for a passing clinic with the Huskers and the Ohio State Buckeye’s travel to Happy Valley to find out what all the hub-bub is about. And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got Minnesota-Michigan, Georgia-Tennessee,
Iowa-Purdue, Cal-UCLA and Texas-OU heading our way!

So fire up the pit, throw a couple of dogs out on it, and sit back SportzFanz –this is one weekend of pigskin you don’t want to miss.


The Week 6 TV Schedule

Oct. 6 Thu NC State @ GA Tech 6:30P ESPN

Oct. 7 Fri Syracuse @ UConn 7:00P ESPN2

Oct. 8 Sat Wisconsin @ Northwestern 11:00A ESPN/2
Oct. 8 Sat Marshall @ Virginia Tech 11:00A ESPN/2
Oct. 8 Sat Kansas @ Kansas State 11:00A FSN*
Oct. 8 Sat Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas) 12:00P ABC*
Oct. 8 Sat Minnesota @ Michigan 12:00P ABC*
Oct. 8 Sat Virginia @ Boston College 12:00P ABC*
Oct. 8 Sat Central Michigan @ Army 12:00P ESPN Cl

Oct. 8 Sat Georgia @ Tennessee 2:30P CBS
Oct. 8 Sat Arizona @ Southern California 2:30P FSN
Oct. 8 Sat Texas Tech @ Nebraska 3:00P TBS
Oct. 8 Sat Iowa @ Purdue 3:30P ESPN

Oct. 8 Sat LSU @ Vanderbilt 6:00P ESPN2
Oct. 8 Sat Texas A&M @ Colorado 6:00P FSN
Oct. 8 Sat Cal @ UCLA 6:30P TBS
Oct. 8 Sat Ohio State @ Penn State 6:45P ESPN

Oct. 8 Sat Oregon @ Arizona State 9:15P FSN

*Denotes Regional Action


The Week 6 Run Down

Oct. 6 Thu NC State @ GA Tech 6:30P ESPN
Of all the teams on Virginia Tech’s schedule, NC State has come closest to defeating them (20-16 back in Week 1). Was that just a fluke of Vick getting some game time behind center or are the Wolfpack really that capable? In the Yellow Jackets much ballyhooed game with the Hokies, they laid a royal egg, to the tune of 51-7. They’ve had a week off to think that one over and get ready for this game. Will Reggie Ball be able to atone for his 11 of 27 passing day against the nation’s 12th ranked pass defense? If he’s going to do it, expect him to do it with the ACC’s top receiver: Calvin Johnson –even in a losing effort against the Hokies, he snagged 5 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. For the Wolfpack, it’s all about the performance of QB Jay Davis. If he can have a good day and force the Rambling Wreck to respect the pass, then NC State’s defense should be able to carry the day. If not, then the Yellow Jackets should come out of this one just fine.
GA Tech.


Oct. 7 Fri Syracuse @ UConn 7:00P ESPN2
The Huskies host the Orange in a BEast of a game. While Syracuse sports a 1-3 record on the year, don’t be surprised if they have a breakout game and look really good here (they played WVa tight and nearly knocked off Virginia). However, the Orange boast the nation’s 109th ranked offensive unit and are going into this one against the nation’s #1 overall defense. That’s right UConn has the nation’s stingiest defense right now, giving up just 82 yards on the ground and 135 through the air. On offense, the Huskies are led by RBs Terry Caulley and Cornell Brockington, each capable of ripping off 150 yard days against the Cuse D. If Syracuse can withstand the first quarter against Randy Edsall’s squad they should stand a fighting chance once the 4th quarter rolls around.
Huskies, at home and under the lights.


Oct. 8 Sat Wisconsin @ Northwestern 11:00A ESPN/2
Hot off last week’s victory over Indiana, the Badgers are starting to make some noise about winning the Big10 title. The Wildcats, meanwhile, will be looking to put up their first victory after narrowly missing against Penn State two weeks ago, 29-34. In this one, watch NW QB Brett Basanez, he’s a maverick under center that could give the Badgers defense all kinds of match up problems. For Wisconsin, the name of the game here is to escape out of Evanston without anymore injuries while resting key personnel. Now why should you watch this one? Well, cause the Badgers are always good for a miserable let down game at some point in the season and this one could be it.
Badgers.


Oct. 8 Sat Marshall @ Virginia Tech 11:00A ESPN/2
The Herd thunders into Blacksburg looking to upset the nation’s #3 team this weekend. But the question that has to be on everyone’s mind is: can a team that lost to UCF even keep it competitive against these Hokies?
Hokies, and those magical numbers 45 and 0 keep coming to mind.


Oct. 8 Sat Kansas @ Kansas State 11:00A FSN*
The Wildcats return home after getting whooped up on by an unexpectedly strong Sooner squad last week. Back in front of the home crowd, expect the defense to play a whole lot stingier, the special teams to be a whole lot more special, and QB Allen Webb to be, well more of the same I should think. Webb isn’t the typical KState QB and certainly is more of a stopgap measure into some exciting new, young talent can step in next year to lead the team. For the Jayhawks, they faired much better than everyone expected last week against the Red Raiders (17-30); however, the atmosphere up in Little Manhattan won’t provide them any respite. The key to this one will be how well the Jayhawk front line can penetrate the Wildcats backfield and knock around Mr. Webb. If they can rattle him, they should be able to keep K-State under wraps and get the dubbya.
Kansas.


Oct. 8 Sat Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas) 12:00P ABC*
It’s Big Tex time once again as the Sooner and Longhorn Nations converge on the Metroplex for the 100th meeting between these two arch rivals. In one corner, you’ve got an 0-5 Mack Brown bringing his #2 ranked Longhorns into Dallas while OU’s Bob Stoops is 5-1 against these Horns and bringing an unranked, 2-2 Sooner team for a little meet and great. While on paper and considering the emotion of the Longhorns (5 years is a boatload of frustration to vent out), it would appear that Texas should win this one in a route, don’t expect that to happen. One, this is Texas-OU. Two, OU has turned the corner and will be better than Texas expects them to be. Three, Oklahoma knows how to play against these Longhorns. Four, Texas knows how to lose to these Sooners. And, last but not least, Texas rarely uses its young talent at crucial points in the game –points during which a speedy, super talented freshman can break the game wide open (read that as Texas fans had better hope that Jamaal Charles gets the starting nod instead of Selvin Young). Either way you slice it, this would should be a doozy of a a game!
Longhorns in yet another come from behind victory.


Oct. 8 Sat Minnesota @ Michigan 12:00P ABC*
Will the Gophers have flashbacks to last week as they go on the road and play in front of another hostile crowd of 100,000+? The Wolverines are returning home to friendly confines of the Big House after beating Michigan State in overtime (again). It was after the Spartan game last year that Henne and Hart took off on a tear through the Big10 conference. While Hart probably won’t be able to replicate his success last season, look for RBs Martin and Grady to pick up the slack while QB Henne plays a little pitch and catch with WR Jason Avant –who is quickly developing into the Big10’s most feared receiver (sorry Buckeye fans but Ted Ginn just doesn’t get the ball enough to be scary anymore). Look for ‘Sota to bring the lumber this week and get RB Laurence Maroney back on track after last week’s abysmal effort against Penn State. Even so, this Michigan D is solid against the run and hasn’t been getting enough credit the past couple of weeks.
Wolverines.


Oct. 8 Sat Virginia @ Boston College 12:00P ABC*
While it took BC overtime to get past Clemson, I’m okay with that –they were still recovering from that Florida State game AND they were playing in Death Valley, definitely not friendly confines. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, were beginning to think ACC title when the Terps reached up and bit them last week. This week, watch and see how big of a day QB Marques Hagans has –he went 17 of 35 for 270 yards and no picks in a losing effort against Maryland last week (ie, he looks like he’s settled in). BC, though, should be able to keep containment on the Cav offense –especially at home. The Eagles boast the ACC’s best run defense and are 4th in the nation in total defense.
Eagles.


Oct. 8 Sat Central Michigan @ Army 12:00P ESPN Cl
At 0-5 and riding a 9 game losing streak, the Cadets are looking to end the pain this weekend against a directional Michigan school. And while this one may be a home game for Army, I just don’t think they’ll be able to contain the Chippewas’ Ontario Sneed and Damian Linson.
Chippewas.


Oct. 8 Sat Georgia @ Tennessee 2:30P CBS
The Vols finally get a showdown game at home this season (they played both LSU and Florida out on the road). While I’m a big fan of the Bulldogs this season, a perusal of their resume shows them to be a might be more mediocre than their 4-0 record would suggest. Aside from Boise State, they simply haven’t looked dominating playing against South Carolina, La-Monroe, and Mississippi State. The Vols, on the other hand, have gone toe-to-toe with both LSU an Florida (last week’s Florida-Bama game not withstanding). Their 4th ranked rushing defense should be able to keep the Dawgs Thomas Brown and Danny Ware under wraps. The wildcard here is the play of the quarterback position. DJ Shockley has been a little up and down this season while the Vols have yet to really feel settled at that position with Rick Clausen and Erik Ainge each getting nods for the starting slot this season. If Tennessee can figure out their quarterback situation and get descent production out of it, they should be able to pull away with the victory; otherwise, the SEC’s best pass defense will rule the roost and kick Tenn out of SEC title contention.
Bulldogs.


Oct. 8 Sat Arizona @ Southern California 2:30P FSN
If the Zona team from week 1 could show up for this one, we might have the biggest upset of the year on our hands. USC will be basking in the afterglow of their come from behind victory over Arizona State last week while also looking ahead to the Irish in a couple of weeks. With that kind of recipe, the Stoops brothers could do the unthinkable and get an upset if the Trojans would just daydream for a little longer than 3 quarters.
Trojans.


Oct. 8 Sat Texas Tech @ Nebraska 3:00P TBS
This one could be great. The Air Raid travels up to Omaha to show the Huskers just how to run a pass attack, while the Blackshirts are smacking their lips and thinking: If the Jayhawks can drill Tech QB Cody Hodges time and time again, we ought to be able to rip body parts off of him. If Tech can’t protect their QB any better than last week, don’t be surprised if Nebraska pulls off the upset; however, if Tech can ‘be Tech’, they’ll make these Blackshirts look dang foolish –just like they did to California in last year’s Holiday Bowl. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Texas Tech actually boats the nation’s 19th ranked pass defense?
Air Raid.


Oct. 8 Sat Iowa @ Purdue 3:30P ESPN
Can the Boilermakers play Defense? I ask this because over the past two weeks, they really haven’t shown any indication that their defensive unit boasting all returning starters from last year’s squad has grasped the concept. Okay, so maybe that’s being a bit harsh, but seriously: Purdue’s defense is 110th in the nation overall and 116th at defending the pass! Iowa would be well served to take note of this fact and have QB Drew Tate take his game to the air instead of trying to grind this one out on the ground. While the stats say Iowa should be able to pull this one out with relative ease, I’m going with the Train guys.
Biolermakers in a make or break the post season game.


Oct. 8 Sat LSU @ Vanderbilt 6:00P ESPN2
If Vandy had only one their game last weekend to stay undefeated, we might have been able to delude ourselves into thinking that they could win this one.
Bayou Bengals.


Oct. 8 Sat Texas A&M @ Colorado 6:00P FSN
The Gagg’n Aggies take their game up to Boulder to square off against Barnett’s Buffaloes. If last weekend is any indication, the Aggies should expect to get their doors blown off –it took overtime for them to finally put away the Baylor Bears 16-13 while Colorado obliterated Oklahoma State 34-0 in Stillwater. If the Aggies can get off to a quick start they might just be okay, but if not then it will be a long day for them as they’ll be relying on their Big12 Cellar Defense to keep them in it until the offense finally catches a gear. While I’m not terribly impressed with QB Joel Klatt, he has been very workman like this season, completing 79 of 127 passes and keeping defenses honest enough to get Sophomore RB Hugh Charles some running room. If the Aggie’s 101st ranked pass defense can’t shut Klatt down, this one will either be a shoot out or an embarrassment for The 12th Man.
Aggies –they finally prove something.


Oct. 8 Sat Cal @ UCLA 6:30P TBS
This one’s a pecking order game in the PAC10. With USC head and shoulders above the rest, bragging rights right now are for the two slot –and both of these Top 25 ranked squads will be looking to cement their status this weekend. With QB Ayoob and RB Forsett, the Golden Bears should be able to bring more than enough to overwhelm the Bruin defenders. On UCLA’s side of the ball though, they’ve got RB Maurice Drew and QB Drew Olson to offset that Cal prowess. Now while some may point to last week’s Washington game (a 21-17 nail biter) as an indication that UCLA isn’t all that great, consider this: UCLA was still enjoying their destruction of OU from the previous week while looking forward to this week’s game. On national TV and in front of the home crowd, the key to this one will be which defense can make a stand.
Golden Bears.


Oct. 8 Sat Ohio State @ Penn State 6:45P ESPN
New week, new titanic Big10 game –boy is this conference loaded. The Nitanny Lions shocked the pigskin loving world last week by feasting on some Gopher last week (yeah, we knew they were ‘good’ –we had no idea they were that good). Was it all a fluke against Minnesota or are these guys for real? We’ll find out this weekend as the dreaded Ohio State Linebacking Crew comes a calling in Happy Valley. While there hasn’t been much pub about the Buckeyes in recent weeks, everyone out there should remember that Texas-Ohio State game from a few weeks back –and they should know that OSU is already a much better team than the one that played the Longhorns on Sept. 10th.
Buckeyes in either a route or an Instant Classic –remember, these Nits are young.


Oct. 8 Sat Oregon @ Arizona State 9:15P FSN
Can the Sun Devils resurrect themselves after last week’s near miss against USC? Derek Hagans’ has to be itching to get back on the field after that game changing drop (right into the hands of a Trojan DB), while QB Sam Keller is probably still having nightmares about his 5 pick performance. This game is a gut check for ASU to determine if they’ll ride the #2 slot in the conference or begin a slide down the long, slippery slope of the PAC10. The Ducks have a playmaker in RB Terrance Whitehead and QB Kellen Clemens, but once you’ve faced Leinhart in Company, can anybody else in the nation really scare you?
Sun Devils in a struggle against their own demons.

Between the Hashes - Week 5

Welcome back SportzFanz for yet another edition of Between The Hashes. Each week, we’ll take a look at the College Football landscape and report on the state of all things Grid Iron. I think this one may be headed into overtime, so let’s just jump right on in.


What This Week Will Be Remembered For
Former Powers playing statement games. Nebraska flexed its new found offensive muscle for a school record 431 yards passing as the Corn Coast Offense finally took flight up in Omaha. Penn State crushed a solid Minnesota squad, holding the nation’s number one rock sledder to just 48 yards while the Freshman duo of Hunt and Williams thrashed the Golden Gophers nearly every time they touched the ball. Over in Tuscaloosa, the Tide came rolling in, stampeding all over the Gators to beat a Top 5 ranked team for the first time ever at Bryant-Denny Stadium. While it certainly can’t be said that each of these teams have reclaimed the limelight, they did show flashes of what they are capable of and it was magnificent. Despite the fact that I’d root against each of these teams on any given Saturday, I for one am glad to have these teams heading back to the upper echelons of the pigskin universe (well, actually, I had hoped Callahan would fail miserably and get fired before Nebraska would become ‘Nebraska’ once again –but whatchya going to do?)


Your Instant Impact Quotes of the Week Are:
The major networks really need to publish transcripts of their games as there are just too many juicy coverage teams out there to try and cover the full spread. At any rate, here’s this week’s list of the most memorable sports quotes:

“He's got 8 seconds to throw! He sat back there, he could have made a sandwich, ate it, dropped half of it, picked it up, ate it and then thrown the ball.” Sam I Am talking about QB Matt Leinhart in the huddle, leading up to this weekend’s showdown between ASU and USC.

“Did I just see the University of Florida get out athleted?” The ABC halftime crew, while reviewing highlights from the Florida-Alabama route. Yes, yes you did, and I just heard Webster get out dictionaried.

“Texas gets great formation.” Ed Cunningham, covering the Texas-Missouri game. Um, that’d be field position, Ed, field position.

“It’s only 1st and goal from the 20 –not too bad.” Ed and Gary, covering the Texas-Missouri game. You know what, you’re right, that isn’t too bad. Maybe that’s why Texas committed yet ANTOHER penalty to make it a 1st and goal from the 25.

“I feel like I should tether myself so I don’t fall out of the booth.” –the ABC crew (Ed and Gary), covering the Texas-Missouri game. I know there were a lot of fumbles and penalties going on, but that’s no reason to get weak kneed and woozy, Ed.

“I’m tucking my shirt in so I don’t trip on it!” – once again, Ed and Gary covering the Texas-Missouri game. Okay, I’m not even going to ask why your dress shirt wasn’t tucked in, in this first place.

“It’s never a good time to study –uh, wait, no my fault, my fault. It’s always a good time to study –there, that’s right.” --Ed Cunningham commenting on a Missouri student studying at a park bench. Well, at least they didn’t get into why Ed didn’t make it into Harvard.

“He flew so far, his contact lense fell out.” – Ed Cunningham with yet another fabulous observation after Texas’ Romance Taylor SportsCenter highlight touchdown leap.

“You’re not supposed to have your finger over the barrel on a gun –fun safety man.” One of the announcers, chastising the Mountaineer Man as he looked on during the Wva-VaTech game.

“That’s gonna be incompleted for a first down.” –Overheard during one of the games Saturday. And exactly how does that work?

“Brandon Williams, probably going to have to start paying real estate taxes, as much time as he’s spending in the end zone.” – Rece Davis with the GameDay crew, watching the highlights of the Indiana-Wisconsin game.

"We don't ever lose three games a year. If we lost three, what would that make us look like? We knew it was a must-win." – Michigan’s Michael Hart explaining why the Wolverine’s refused to lose against the Spartans. I wonder if we’ll find out what they makes Michigan after they play Ohio State?


This week’s Super-Stud Awards go to…
For those weekend warriors who leave it all out on the turf, we salute you:

Alex Brink, QB Washington State – This unsung stud put up 531 yards of offense against Oregon State (the highest single game total this season). Too bad he tossed 4 picks and didn’t find the end zone on Saturday –gee, you think maybe that had something to do with why the Cougars lost to OSU?

Brady Quinn, QB Notre Dame – In front of the Boilermaker home crowd, Quinn lit up the airwaves with his best day yet, going a remarkable 29 of 36 for 440 yards and 3 touchdowns. He has now thrown for 14 touches and only 3 picks on the season.

Michael Hart, RB Michigan – It’s about time you made it back on this list Mr. Hart. He sledded with rock 36 times on Saturday, gouging the Spartan defense for 220 yards and a touchdown. Welcome Back.

Brodie Croyle, QB Alabama – Sure, he threw for only had 283 yards, but he did it on 14 of 17 completions. Oh, and did I mention he had 3 touchdowns out of those 14 completions? Talk about efficiency!

Darius Butler, DB Connecticut -- He eye spied the Cadets’ Zac Dahman all day long, snaking 3 picks for 122 yards and a touchdown as the Huskies routed Army.

Romance Taylor, WR Texas -- Leaping Longhorns, this kid is lightning in a bottle. He got a ‘naked’ screen (if you believe the announcers), raced downfield thirty yards and leapt seven yards through the air and out of bounds, snaking the ball just inside the pylon. An absolutely amazing, athletic play.

Steve Slaton, Freshman RB West Virginia -- This Mountaineer shredded the Hokie defense for 90 yards on 11 carries, including one of the best runs of the season, bull rushing for 44 yards on one carry while breaking 4 tackles and dragging three Hokies with them.

The USC Backfield -- Lendale White and Reggie Bush combined for 255 yards on 36 carries to vault the Trojans over the Sun Devils on Saturday. As a team, USC outrushed Arizona State 373 yards to 68.

Last week’s Honorary Winners - Jason Carter, WR Texas A&M for his 8 catches for 219 yards and 1 touchdown, to take the lead nationally for single game high most receiving yards. Cory Rodgers, TCU and Leodis McKelvin, Troy for each taking the opening kick off in Week 4 100 yards to the big house. The Ohio State Defense: they held Iowa to -9 yards rushing and just 137 total yards for the day.


Riding the Bench This Week is…
Our weekly awards for the worst performances, bone-headed play calls, or anything else that smacks of ridiculousness or stupidity:

Dan Kelly, K Hawaii -- Down 42-35 with time running out in the 4th quarter against Boise State, Warriors QB Colt Brennan hit his fourth touchdown pass of the game. All Dan Kelly needed to do was nail the PAT to force overtime; instead, the kick was blocked and Boise State ran it all the way back to the end zone to when the game 44-41.

Mike Shula, Head Coach Alabama – Did you learn nothing from last season? Last year, Shula kept his first stringers in during a 52-0 route of Western Carolina when QB Brodie Croyle went down with a season ending ACL injury. This season, when the game was already out of reach, Shula kept WR Tyrone Protho in the end game only to see this unbelievable young talent go down to a season ending, and possibly career ending, broken leg with nine minutes left in a still young season. To make matters worse, Gator’s Coach Urban Meyer even tweaked Shula this past week before the game about the whole thing, pointing out that he pulled his players early on in last week’s victory over Kentucky because he wanted to avoid a needless season-ending injury to one of his starters. Well Mike, I hope you’ve at least learned your lesson this time.

Wanny and the Pitts – Just when it appeared Pitt was getting back on track, the bottom fell right back out from underneath them. This time it was in New Jersey against the Scarlet Knights. In the first half, Pitt spotted Rutgers a 27-0 lead before battling back and making a game of it. Even so, at 1-4 and with a fan base that was expecting to be right in the thick of things for a BCS berth, don’t be too surprised if the cat calls start a coming for Davy boy as it’ll take a near-miracle for the Panthers to finish above five hundred.

Sam Keller, QB Arizona State -- I’m sorry to do this to you Sam I Am, but your 5 pick performance against the Trojans this week leaves me no choice. Given that ASU was in it and trading punches with USC all the way up until the final few minutes, I don’t think it’s crazy in the least to say that the Sun Devils would’ve done the unthinkable and beaten these Trojans if Derek Hagan hadn’t batted Keller’s fourth pick right into the arms of a Trojan DB late in the 4th quarter.

Tommy Bowden, Head Coach Clemson -- The Tigers finally get off on the right foot to start the season for once, only to have the wheels fall off the cart, losing to both Miami and Boston College in overtime and then to Wake Forest with 33 seconds remaining in the game. While it definitely isn’t all Bowden’s fault, when things go bad around Clemson he’s always public enemy number one.

Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN GameDay -- Kirk, I love ya man. I think you’re usually on the mark and almost always know what you’re talking about (at least in relation to Lee Corso), but that mangling of the old adage “Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me” was hideous –although not without humor as I think it was the first time I’ve seen you flub a line that badly.


Random Hits and Misses
My moments of clarity and confusion for the past two weekends are:

1. Wisconsin beat Michigan for just the 2nd time since 1994, but they handed the Wolverines their first conference opener loss since 1981. Yep, you guessed, in 81 another Wisconsin Badger team beat them. After the Michigan game, the Badgers tied a ‘modern day’ record of 9 consecutive home wins –after Indiana they broke it. (The modern day having begun in the 60’s, at least according to Wisconsin Badger aficionados).

2. After Week 4, not a single school in the WAC or Sun Belt had a winning record and only Toledo and Akron in the MAC had a winning record. In the Big10, not a single team had a losing record. After Week 5, not a single Big12 team has a losing record and only Illinois in the Big10 is below .500. Out the 50 teams that make up the WAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West, MAC, and C*USA, only 12 teams have a winning record and another 11 are sitting at break even.

3. Not to be out done by CBS Sportsline, http://www.bcsfootball.org/ has created their own countdown clock to the BCS championship game: 94 days, 7 hours, 44 minutes, and 9 seconds to go until we have yet another split national championship.

4. After Week 4, Nebraska’s defense had more touchdowns (four) than their offense (three). This week against Iowa State, they set a school record for passing yardage with 431 through the air as the Husker O put up 3 touchdowns in the game. Do you think the offense got the wake up call?

5. Despite the final result in the Husker game though, I have a sneaky suspicion that, had Stevie Hicks played, the game would have never made it to overtime and Husker nation would be crestfallen yet again.

6. Wisconsin hasn’t given up a point in the 3rd quarter all season. With that kind of play and a favorable schedule there isn’t a reason in the world to think these Badgers won’t send Barry Alvarez off with a third Big10 Trophy.

7. The Leaping Longhorns scored three touchdowns on one play drives. Has anyone else noticed that this team has as many playmakers on offense as USC?

8. I’m sure going to miss those West Virginia-Virginia Tech matchups. With the Hokies moving to the ACC, these teams don’t have a play date together for at least the next 10 years –so much for the annual Black Diamond Trophy.

9. Penn State QB Michael Robinson’s lick on Gopher strong safety Brandon Owens didn’t just knock Owens out of the game, it sent shock waves all across the College Pigskin Loving Nation: Penn State is for real and they’re hungry.

10. With that amazing game out in the dessert under their belt, what are the odds the Trojans will lay a rotten egg against the Stoops Brothers and hapless Arizona? Yeah, nill. That’s what I thought too, but a man can still dream, can’t he?

11. How bizarre of a week did Howard Schnellenberger have? He was inducted into Louisville’s hall of fame and even got the Louisville Football complex named after him prior to having his Florida Atlantic squad waxed by the Cardinals 61-10. Does that mean we have to start calling it Pappa John’s Field at Schnellenberger Stadium?

12. With an offense that has yet to be smothered and two weeks to prepare for the Trojans, who out there honestly thinks USC-Notre Dame won’t be a bigger game than Texas-Ohio State?

13. Does anyone else out there agree that Iowa should keep its visiting football locker rooms and showers pink? I think its hilarious and an example of classic gridiron grudgery.


If I could be anyone from this past week, it’d be…
Actually, I’d be either a big Red Elephant named Al, a member of the Thin Red Line, a member of the Crimson White, or a member of the Crimson Tide. Yep, this week it’s all about Bama and their route of the Florida Gators. They didn’t just announce their presence at the BCS big boy table, they pounded their chests, trumpeted their horns, and ate a whole heck of a lotta Gator en route to their 31-3 victory. Coach Shula and the Crimson Tide handed Urban Meyer his most lopsided loss ever and harassed Chris Leak to the tune of 16 of 37 passing for just 187 yards, 2 picks and 4 sacks, but before we get all teary eyed for Shula, let’s not forget he’s in our doghouse as well.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, as I was, about just how an Elephant has anything to do with ‘Tide’, here’s a bit of history on the ole U of A: In early accounts of Alabama football, the team was simply called the "Crimson White" after their school colors. The first nickname to become popular for the Alabama football team is the "Thin Red Line" and can be traced all the way back to newspaper accounts from 1906. The name "Crimson Tide" is believed to have first been used by Hugh Roberts, a sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald. He coined the term "Crimson Tide" to describe the Bama football team during a particularly nasty Alabama-Auburn game in 1907 that was played in a sea of red mud in which heavily favored Auburn was stymied into a 6-6 tie. In 1930, Coach Wallace Wade assembled one of the greatest football teams of all time. In October of that year, Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal recounted the Alabama-Mississippi game writing “At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming.'” Strupper and other writers continued to refer to the Alabama linemen as "Red Elephants," the color referring to the crimson jerseys.


Conference Corner

ACC - The big, bad new kid on the block is flexing more and more muscle each and every week. While Virginia Tech and Florida State certainly have the chops to infringe on the BCS national championship, the rest of the conference hasn’t quite cemented itself into the upper echelons of college football. Sure, Miami will rip you a new one on just about every Saturday, but Virginia, Maryland, BC, and Georgia Tech hardly put the fear of god in other BCS conferences.

Big10 - Ok, before anyone starts getting any stupid ideas: this is still the best conference in the nation, bar none. Yes, I know, Michigan was tossed from the Top 25 last week and both Iowa and Purdue already have two losses, but you know what? That’s okay. The top half of this conference could clobber anybody else’s top half –ACC included.

Big12 - The Big12 completed its pre-season DI-AA schedule and started conference play this week. Texas sleep walked through Mizzou in the first half while A&M struggled to put away all mighty Baylor in overtime. Colorado thumped the Cowboys, in their own backyard. Oklahoma came alive, finally, and the Nebraska engine finally clunked into gear against Iowa State. All in all, a great week of football for the conference, and hopefully a look at things to come with Nebraska and Oklahoma finally finding some solid success.

PAC10 - I’ve sensed a seismic shift over the last couple of seasons. There used to be this perceived ‘East Coast Bias’ in the media, but I think that’s a load of bull. In fact, I think it’s such a load of bull that only the media types who reported on believed in it, and acted on it. Why else would Oregon, California, and UCLA be so highly rated? Personally, I think this is the most overrated conference out there –what’s their non-con record against the other big conferences? And when are they going to travel out of their sunny confines to play the bruisers of the Big10, Big12, and SEC?

SEC - It’s another wide open affair in the SEC this season as Bama burned Florida this week, cementing themselves as a team to beat in the West alongside LSU. In that division, don’t count out Auburn who has found their rhythm and will make some serious noise before all is said and done. Over in the East, Week 6’s Georgia-Tenn showdown will go a long way to ironing out the divisional race. Poor Vandy lost this past week and no longer sports that perfect record –but take heart Commodore’s you can still reach the post season.

Big East - The BEast is on life support. Supposed stalwart Louisville can’t seem to find a rhythm anymore while Pittsburgh took a nose dive u-turn in the wrong direction. South Florida and UConn are looking like the saviors of this down trodden conference as West Virgnia is the only team that can seem to hold the banner without completely folding. Does anyone out there realize how precarious the BEast’s guaranteed BCS slot is becoming? I bet not –stay tuned for next week and I’ll provide you some most illuminating commentary to the fact.


Next Week’s Quick Peeks
Next week’s slate of games promises to be even better than this week! Just take a look at some of the hotter action that will be out on that Grid Iron…

Oklahoma vs. Texas - It’s the first full week of October, so it must be time again for the Red River Shootout at the Texas State Fair. The Sooners appear to have bottomed out, throttling K-State last week while Texas sleep walked their way through the first half against Missouri. Can VY and all those talented skill positions finally get the Sooner Schooner off their back or will Stoops, AP, and that Sooner D corral the Horns for yet another season?

Minnesota @ Michigan - Both teams are hanging on for dear life in this wild and wacky Big10. Michigan found it’s Hart last week against the Spartans while the Gophers got pancaked in front of 106,000 in Happy Valley last week. Will the Wolverine’s defensive line hold up against Maroney and his Golden blockers, or will Hart, Henne, and Avante have a field day in front of 110,000 much like Michael Robinson, Tony Hunt, and Deon Butler of Penn State did?

Virginia @ Boston College - The road only gets tougher for the Cavs after losing to Maryland this week. They’ll travel against to face a fired up BC squad this weekend and then return home for a dance with the Seminoles. In a showdown to determine who is runner up in the pecking order of the new ACC, this one should go down to the wire.

Air Force @ Navy - The service academies hook up this weekend over in Annapolis. The Midshipman are coming off a hard fought victory over Duke while the Falcons are looking to end a three game skid. As academy games go, this one should be a classic with two mediocre, but rather evenly matched teams.

Georgia @ Tennessee - In a battle that could well determine the SEC East winner, the Bulldogs travel up to Knoxville for a brawl with the Volunteers. After having to go out on the road to face both Florida and LSU, the Vols are just happy to get this marquee matchup at home. Meanwhile, DJ Shockley and the Bulldog faithful are figuring to capture the SEC East lead this weekend, and kick off a determined run for the SEC to get screwed out of yet another BCS National Championship game.

Texas Tech @ Nebraska - With the Corn Coast Offense finally taking off this weekend, the Texas Air Raid wings into town to show them a thing or two. While Tech’s offense can light up anybody at any given time, don’t expect these Blackshirts to back down. On the other of the hashes, the Raider D will have to show that they know how to stop a pass oriented offense (after all, they face one in practice each and every day). Of course, if Tech couldn’t keep the Jayhawks from knocking QB Cody Hodges around, what chance do they have of doing that against these Blackshirts?

Iowa @ Purdue - In a game that pits yet more Big10 teams on life support, the Hawkeyes travel into East Lafayette to take on a down and out Boilermaker squad. Purdue rides a two game skid into this one, having been blow out by the Irish last week. The Hawkeyes manhandled Illinois this past week, but will find that Purdue is a might bit more challenging. While the Boilermaker Defense finally show up or will Drew Tate steal the show and lead the Hawkeyes back into the Big10 hunt?

Texas A&M @ Colorado - The Aggies have yet to play four full quarters this season, narrowly escaping a determined Baylor Bear team this weekend. Colorado, meantime, annihilated the Oklahoma State Cowboys, in Stillwater. Can Reggie McNeal get his team fired up to start the first quarter or will this be another dismal first half outing for the Aggies? Regardless, Barnett has his Buffalos geeked up and playing some of the best ball I’ve seen come out of the state of Colorado in some time.

Cal @ UCLA - In a dogfight to determine prime runner up to USC in the PAC, the Bruins host the Golden Bears. California is coming off a big victory over Arizona (they didn’t just win, they dominated) while UCLA is licking its wounds after just barely escaping the wrath of Ty and the Washington Huskies. Whichever team wins will be the lightning bearer for throwing off USC’s three-peat dreams.

Ohio State @ Penn State - Don’t look now, but JoPa has got himself a heck of a team. He’s finally given in and is playing a remarkable set of youngsters (read that as freshman) in his starting line up. The result? Penn State hasn’t looked this good since the 80’s. OSU comes to Happy Valley, out to prove people should be talking about them and not PSU, MSU, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, or Purdue –and with that fabulous Buckeye D and Sensational Smith leading the offense, who would argue? The only thing that could make this game better would be snow –lots and lots of snow.


The Wrap Up
Well, that does it for yet another week Between the Hashes SportzFanz. As always, it’s been both a privilege and a pleasure.