So there was not much to this week in college football because we lacked a wide variety of big time matchups other than #1 at #13, the battle of the Techs in the ACC, and most anything in the SEC. There is always some interesting anyway here is some of it.
Last week with 5:50 to go in the third quarter Michigan State goes up 37-21 on Notre Dame at home. There is absolutely no way to clock the speed at which the Spartans fell from that point to today's 23-20 loss to Illinois. ILLINOIS!!! The Illini may be the worst team in Division I-A. They had not won a Big 10 game since 2004. How can you go from being up 16 on Notre Dame at home to losing to the conference doormat. I'd say John L. Smith is in trouble. And that guy on Detroit sports radio who ranted so long he lost his voice following the game last week? I imagine this week he will be taking his own life on the air.
Speaking of Notre Dame, they won again today though the defense gave up almost 500 yards of total offense to Purdue. Brady Quinn had a nice day with 318 yards of passing two touchdowns prompting Mark Maye at ESPN to make the following comment:
"Notre Dame should win the rest of the games on their schedule prior to the USC game by at least two touchdowns. This will provide a nice opportunity for Brady Quinn to pad his stats and build his Heisman candidacy"
Well that answers that question. They do not test for illegal drug use at ESPN. What part of the Michigan game did Maye not watch? And if the Downtown Club hands Quinn the Heisman because for a six game stretch on the schedule where he ripped apart a slate of weak defenses while showing nothing against legitimate teams such as Michigan then I would surmise that the process is rigged. I mean they are playing Stanford, Air Force, and Army. UCLA might be decent, Navy is average, and we all know how bad the UNC defense has been at this point. So, pardon me if I think that the next six games leading up to USC is hardly the kind of competition that proves Quinn is college football's best player. Of course ABC needs to be able to call Quinn a Heisman candidate when they promo the USC-ND game in late November so should we really be surprised?
Ohio State is the real deal and if Troy Smith is not the odds on Heisman favorite than I will really be convinced the process is rigged.
Instant replay is still very questionable in my opinion. The "indisputable" standard pretty much negates any real chance something will be reversed because you have so many instances where the ball is obscured by the angle or another player blocking a clean look at the crucial point of action. It strikes me that if you have replay then it should be 99% accurate. If it is not then you have a serious problem and college football has just that.
How does Ole Miss lose 27-3 to Wake Forest but play Georgia down to the wire? Does it speak well of Wake Forest or badly of Georgia? Or both?
I think USC got the benefit of some very favorable officiating in their 28-22 win over Washington State. Things like generous ball spots and the lack of replay on certain crucial plays benfitted the Trojans to some extent.
Why is it every time I see a "Upset Alert" on the ESPN.com scoreboard the favored team immediately comes back and wins the game fairly handily? That thing is like an immediate death knell for any upset bid.
Rutgers Ray Rice ran for 200 yards again this time against South Florida. I am so glad to see someone besides UNC was completely unable to stop him. By the way South Florida plays UNC on October 14th in the meeting of Ray Rice's favorite defense to run on.
Lee Corso has struck me as somewhat sane lately though I think Mark Maye is a bit off and at one point this evening Kirk Herbstreit asked Bob Davie to explain something about Iowa playing the gaps Ohio State was opening up for the run and Davie went completely silent like he was either unwilling or unable to answer the question. After a few seconds of awkward silence Brent Musberger picked up the call on a completely different line of thought. Nice way to hang you broadcast partner out to dry there Bob. No wonder Notre Dame showed you the door, your probably did not understand the question.