Observations From Week 3 In College Football (9-17-05)

[Auercat]

Another great week of action is in the books. My comments on Arizona will be general in nature, seeing as how I did not see the Cats game due to the TV snafu. Now to the notes:

* Congratulations to Stanford for the worst loss in the history of Division 1-A football. I cannot think of a loss that comes even close to being as embarassing as this one. UC-Davis, in its first year as a 1-AA "Power", had already dropped games to Portland St and New Hampshire before going into Palo Alto and punking the Cardinal. The Aggies held the Cardinal to 185 yards of total offense and scored the winning TD with :36 left. Flat out, this loss made me feel better about even the embarassment of having had John Mackovic as a coach as at least even he never lost a game like this. There is just no way to spin this loss if you're Stanford. The Cardinal are going to have to live with this for a very long time.

* Despite Stanford's epic meltdown, the Pac Ten enjoyed another very good Saturday. The only other blemish was Oregon St's blowout loss at Louisville, but that one was expected. The Cardinals are a fine football team and showed why they'll likely cruise to a Big East Title behind the arm of Brian Brohm and the legs of Michael Bush. Oregon St on the other hand is clearly rebuilding despite a 2-1 start. The Beavers are vulnerable to the pass and can't run the ball on offense. Matt Moore is a nice stop-gap QB, but will never be a star in the Pac Ten. OSU will be lucky to win more than 2 games in Pac Ten play. Mark it down.

* UCLA finally scored a big time win under Karl Dorrell. The Bruins overcame a slow start to defeat an Oklahoma team that is clearly not what it once was, but still played its best game of the early season. Senior QB Drew Olson had another really nice game and was able to throw effectively despite having a less than stellar crop of wide receivers, especially with the season ending injury to SR Junior Taylor. Maurice Drew had another solid effort, even without busting any huge plays and Marcedes Lewis was a presence once again at TE. On defense, Justin London, Dennis Keyes and Jarrad Page all enjoyed outstanding afternoons and the Bruin D did a great job to hold Adrian Peterson to less than 70 yards. OU QB Rhett Bomar played well in the loss, but his gritty performance was not enough for an OU team that just seems to have never recovered from their Orange Bowl shellacking last season. Even with the OU decline, UCLA proved a ton last weekend and has a legitimate change to win 10 games this season. The Bruins miss Oregon and get ASU and Cal both at home in a very kind Pac Ten schedule for them.

* Oregon was another Pac Ten team who impressed on Saturday. The Ducks fell behind a very good Fresno St team 17-0 before rallying for a 37-34 victory in front of another rabid Autzen Stadium crowd. SR QB Kellen Clemens, SR RB Terrance Whitehead and SR WR Demetrius Williams all enjoyed standout performances in the Duck's win. The 3-0 Ducks are now ranked 24th and face #1 USC in a huge showdown in Eugene this week.

* USC's offense is awesome and IMHO has a chance to end up being the greatest offense in the history of college football. The Trojans scored TDs on 4 of their first 8 plays and had racked up over 200 yards of total offense while having the ball for only 1:36 of the first 17 minutes of the game. Their offense was so explosive that the play calling in the 2nd quarter had to be toned down to ground control in order to give the weary USC defense a breather. And they did this against a defensive minded SEC school! Before the game, Arkansas was whining that no SEC school should ever be a 28 point dog to a Pac Ten school. They were correct, they probably should have been closer to a 50 point dog as they took a beating that was one of the worst I've ever seen a major college team take in my 30 years of watching CF.

* Nice win for ASU over Northwestern. The Devils avoided a let down in the sandwich game (between LSU and the Pac Ten opener) to solidly defeat NU. ASU racked up 775 yards of total offense and Sam Keller continued his breakout season with another 400 yard effort. If ASU can avoid turnovers, stupid penalties and special teams errors, the Devils could present the biggest challenge to USC when the Men of Troy visit SDS on October 1.

* Speaking of USC vs ASU, ABC announced today that they will pick up this game for their 12:30 Pacific Time telecast on Oct 1. The TBS slot at 4:00 PDT has yet to be anounced and their is no FSN Pac Ten game that day. The only thing possibly holding Arizona-Cal back from being televised is a lack of stadium lighting in Berkeley. Hopefully something is worked out and even if UA-Cal is not the TBS game, lighting can be arranged for a regional FSN-Arizona telecast on that day.

* Best game of the day was a tie between Notre Dame-Michigan St and Miami-Clemson. The Spartans gamely withstood a furious Notre Dame rally to win in overtime. It marked MSU's 5th straight win at Notre Dame, something no other team has ever accomplished. Drew Stanton was the hero trhowing for over 300 yards and leading MSU to the win. Brady Quinn was superb for Notre Dame throwing for 488 yards, 5 TDs and showing why he's one of the best passers in college football right now.

* Charlie Whitehurst must be having nightmares of what should have been for Clemson right now. Whitehurst missed a wide open receiver in the end zone with the less than :30 to play which would have given the Tigers the go ahead and likely game winning TD vs. Miami. Instead, CU settled for a field goal and ended up losing in 3 OTs to the Canes. Great ACC game and it shows what a deep balanced league it truly is.

* Nice win for Florida St at Boston College. Once again, the Noles struggled at times on offense and relied on the defense to carry them. But it was a huge road win for FSU and a rude intro for the Eagles into the ACC. BC learned that the ACC is war every week unlike the cupcakes you get to play in the Big East.

* Florida won the first big game of the Urban Meyer era with a good home win against what in my opinion is a very overrated Tennessee team. The Gators did the little things to win, and while they were not overly impressive on offense, they did manage to score enough points to outlast the Vols. So far, so good for Meyer in Florida, but anyone who predicted Chris Leak as Heisman hopeful was a bit premature as he's still a long ways from grasping Meyer's spread attack.

* Other nice wins on the weekend came for West Virginia (on the road at Maryland), Alabama (on the road at South Carolina) and Wisconsin (on the road at North Carolina).

* Worst game of the day- easily was Pitt at Nebraska. Both of these teams are awful and poorly coached. The Huskers are by far the worst 3-0 team I've ever seen and deserve to be 0-3 like Pitt, except for th fact that NU's schedule is ridiculously dumbed down. Wannstedt and Callahan are both jokes.

* The Big 12 scheduling is simply horrible. Other than Texas and Iowa St, the rest of the league has decided to waste its time and build up meaningless victories over horrible teams. Look for Colorado (who actually plays a good schedule) to get whacked next week at Miami, but at least the Buffs have some pride, unlike OK St, K-State, Kansas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Nebraska and Mizzou who have all played cr*p all season long.

* Did I mention how terrible Stanford's loss was?

* Two very entertaining games were UTEP-Houston and TCU-Utah. The UTEP-Houston game featured 8 first half turnovers and a overtime thriller ending on a Miner pick. And itwas nice to see Utah's streak come to end vs. TCU. Will the real Frogs please stand up? Are you the team that beat OU and Utah or are you the team who lost to putrid SMU?

* Congrats to Ty Willingham for getting his first win at UW by beating overmatched Idaho. Now comes Notre Dame and I fully expect the Irish to be madder than a bunch of hornets and to beat the cr@p out of UW.

* Nice bounce back for the Big Ten. That is if you consider beating the likes of San Diego St, Northern Iowa and Eastern Michigan bouncing back. Michigan is particularly annoying to me as Chad Henne running up stats against a bad MAC team will immediately put him back into the awards chase, just because he's the QB at Michigan.

* Now on to the Cats- Another heartbreak. When will the UA break through? The progress is nice and the future looks outstanding, but the UA is still staring 1-4 in the face barring a major upset of either Cal or USC. I'll be truly encourage in the Cats enter the UCLA game at either 3-5 or 4-4, but until then I'll continue to be skeptical as to why the UA cannot seem to win a breakthrough game. The cycle of losing is a tough one to break. Unfortunately for the overscheduled Cats, there are no breaks to gain confidence, momentum and victories until the middle of October. Progress is being made. Patience is needed.

Now for the new Top 25:

1. USC- It's not even close.
2. Texas- A distant #2 with an excellent chance to run the table until A & M.
3. LSU- A visit from UT awaits the Tigers next.
4. Virginia Tech- The Hokies are still waiting to play someone.
5. Florida- Ranked here by default. Nice win, but I'm not sold yet.
6. Florida St- hasn't done much yet, but still managed 2 huge wins. Good coaching.
7. Michigan St- John L Williams' team could be the Big Ten sleeper
8. Georgia- South Carolina win not as impressive seeing as how Alabama rolled SC.
9. Ohio St- The Buckeyes are still shaking their head over losing to UT.
10. Purdue- Nice Win at Arizona. Favorable schedule now for Boilers.
11. Georgia Tech- A healthy Reggie Ball is the key to beating VA Tech this week.
12. Arizona St- The Devils offense is amazing. They need not look ahead to USC.
13. Louisville- Great win over Oregon St. Cardinals schedule makes them a threat
14. California- Credit where it is due. Tedford has the Bears rolling again.
15. Oregon- Beating a very good Fresno St team deserves mention and earns respect.
16. Minnesota - Gophers still rolling along under the radar
17. UCLA- The mighty Bruins roaring into the bye week and have one more tune-up before Cal.
18. Notre Dame- Echoes are now awake and Washington to be creamed next week.
19. Miami, Fla- HUGE win at Clemson for the Canes. Colorado comes in next.
20. Michigan- Romping over EMU does not move you up im my poll. Overrated as always.
21. Tennessee- Rocky Top next ventures to Death Valley, LSU style.
22. Alabama- Tide roll the old ball coach and becoming a force in the SEC West.
23. West Virginia- Clearly the 2nd best team in the Big East
24. Wisconsin- The Badgers impressed me with a gritty win at UNC.
25. Iowa St- Cylcones could be the Big 12 North favorites

Just missed- Texas TEch, Washington St, Vanderbilt, Colorado, Iowa

Updated Conference Rankings:
1. Pac Ten (minus Temple, errrr Stanford)
2. ACC
3. SEC
4. Big 10
5. Big 12
6. Big East
7. Mountain West
8. WAC
9. Conference USA
10. MAC
11. Sun Belt

Heisman Watch-
1. Matt Leinart, QB, USC
2. Reggie Bush, RB, USC
3. Vince Young, QB, Texas
4. Maurice Drew, RB, UCLA
5. Drew Stanton, QB, Michigan St.
6. Brady Quinn, QB, Notre Dame
7. Laurence Mulroney, RB, Minnesota
8. Sam Keller, QB, Arizona St.
9. Brian Brohm, QB, Louisville
10. D'Wayne Jarrett, WR, USC

Bearing Down on USC at Oregon Being The Game of The Week For Week 4

Auercat

[SoCalCat]

I'm still laughing about Stanford's loss to UC Davis.

Want to know what the funny thing is? A buddy of mine from Davis seriously thinks that his Aggies are good now.

[Itamicbomb]

Why the hatred towards Chad Henne? He played one half and didn't exactly pile it on (13/19/134/3), and I don't think anyone is putting him back up on the Heisman/O'Brien pedestal after the debacle vs. Notre Dame.

The loss to Notre Dame was an aberration (as in, the one game Michigan loses every year that it shouldn't) and I expect them to roll a Wisconsin team that didn't look very good offensively against a very mediocre North Carolina squad.

Michigan State is the sixth best team in the Big 10.

[ZONACAT]

You must really hate Texas.

[Auercat]

Contrary ZC. My mom grew up in Houston and my uncle went to UT. I'm just not convinced that the Horns are NC material. They should cruise into A & M and then it will be a good game with the Aggies. No hatred here only my opinions.

Bearing Down on UT Having An Excellent Chance To Play For The Right To Get Creamed in The Rose Bowl,

Auercat

[Morgan]

It's Laurence Maroney...the RB at Minnesota.

Probably just a typo. Nice work Auer.

[desertdave]

Originally Posted by Auercat

* Congratulations to Stanford for the worst loss in the history of Division 1-A football. I cannot think of a loss that comes even close to being as embarassing as this one. UC-Davis, in its first year as a 1-AA "Power", had already dropped games to Portland St and New Hampshire before going into Palo Alto and punking the Cardinal. The Aggies held the Cardinal to 185 yards of total offense and scored the winning TD with :36 left. Flat out, this loss made me feel better about even the embarassment of having had John Mackovic as a coach as at least even he never lost a game like this. There is just no way to spin this loss if you're Stanford. The Cardinal are going to have to live with this for a very long time.

Auercat

I never made it past the above commentary.

I saw the score updates blink across the bottom of my TV screen several times, but thought, "Yeah... no biggie. The Trees shall prevail....." I thought Stanford had won the game until Auercat's post. Even then, I was suspicious and checked out the final game scores/summaries at ESPN.

Holy #@$%! UC Davis ACTUALLY did beat Stanford AT Stanford!!!

To make matters even worse, Stanford never scored an offensive TD!

OK. I'll shut up now. Back to my meds......

Dave

[Jason Scheer]

Seriously Dave can lose every game this season but the loss to Ohio looks like losing to SC after Walt lost to Davis

[phenom5]

The TBS slot at 4:00 PDT has yet to be anounced and their is no FSN Pac Ten game that day. The only thing possibly holding Arizona-Cal back from being televised is a lack of stadium lighting in Berkeley. Hopefully something is worked out and even if UA-Cal is not the TBS game, lighting can be arranged for a regional FSN-Arizona telecast on that day.

according to TBS their picking up the UA/ Cal game...
TBS schedule

[Jason Scheer]

It was but after Auer posted that

[phenom5]

oh...

[illcat]

What is USC going to do to Stanford on Nov.5?? Things could get ugly real fast!!

[BibbysTowelDude]

If football wasnt such a game of momentum and I didnt have Heisman Canidates Leinart and Bush, I'd bench my starters for the game and play my 2nd and just for a half, so when its 56-3 I could put my 3rd and 4th string in to play the final two quarters.

[catgrad97]

Looks like there'll be plenty of Booty time at the SC/Stanford game, then...

[SCCat]

Originally Posted by illcat

What is USC going to do to Stanford on Nov.5?? Things could get ugly real fast!!

That's interesting. I wonder what the biggest spread on an inter PAC 10 game was. And I wonder if you could end up seeing a 50 point spread on the USC/Furd game.