With college football only halfway over the BCS is once again looking like a tossup. Forty percent is only four of ten. That’s how many teams from the preseason top 10 rankings are still holding spots. All of them have a loss and the top three teams this week were ranked No.11 (Texas), No.24 (Alabama) and No.22 (Penn State) respectively at the beginning of the season. There seems to be a trend in college football the last few years, which on any given Saturday any team can saddle up and make the upset happen. Goliaths are no longer a safe bet (When Toledo beats Michigan you know something’s up). Again, the season is half in the books and we have only yet to see a few contenders emerge. Let’s bring it up to speed on how we got here.
Georgia, who was the undisputed pre-season No. 1 was embarrassed in week five 41-30 when they “blacked” out their home turf and then got beat all over the ball by Alabama. The score wasn’t even really as close as the final shows. The offensive and defensive lines for the Crimson Tide looked like they were playing on a tilt the whole night. Running Back Knowshon Moreno had only 34 yards on 9 carries. For a power back who had over 1,300 rushing yards in 2007 you could say the game was a total disappointment. Not all is lost for the Bulldogs as they lost semi-early and to a team who is now ranked No.2. They round out top ten with the No. 10 ranking. We shall know very soon however if Georgia is the real deal. In the next three weeks they face all ranked opponents in No. 22 Vanderbilt, then at No. 13 LSU and have to come back home the next week to host No. 5 Florida. Bulldogs, good luck I say to you.
USC who was ranked at a preseason No. 3 were in many people’s eyes the most legitimate team taking the field this season. They brought back all types of experience (something like 17 starters), a rotating backfield where their third and fourth string would be a feature back anywhere else and arguably the nation’s best coach and recruiter, Pete Carroll. In week three in the loan Thursday night game the Trojans played a fired up Oregon State team who were flogged by Penn State 45-14 two weeks prior. I watched in disbelief as the Beavers controlled the whole game. Growing up in Bergen County, NJ, I watched Brian Cushing as he just annihilated people at Bergen Catholic in high school. I knew he was the real deal the first time I saw him and have watched in awe of him since he signed with USC. So when freshman running back Jaquizz Rodgers got up in the massive linebackers face after one play to talk some trash in the second quarter, I truly feared for his life. He should have too, sort of. The next play Cushing penetrated the backfield and actually hit Rodgers so hard and wrapped him so tight he took the kids helmet off. Rodgers got the last laugh though, as he scored two touchdowns and racked up 167 yards on 37 carries as the Beavers shocked the world winning 27-21. USC is lucky though, they lost super early and the only ranked opponent they have on their schedule is California in the second week in November. They sit at No. 6 in the rankings and will not falter again, assuming to move up one spot at a time as more teams get knocked off. They will be at a BCS game this winter.
Oklahoma started out the preseason No. 4 and were being led by the nation’s top passer Sam Bradford who just looks the part. Another year older, another year smarter; they can lean on this kid. They rolled scoring 49 or more points in four of their first five games leading them into the Red River Shootout with Texas, Hosted at a Neutral site in Dallas, TX. The Sooners took over the No. 1 spot two weeks ago and had the lead going into the fourth quarter but just couldn’t hold on, eventually losing 45-35. This was a game that lived up to the hype and showed how better numbers don’t always mean victories. Take Bradford was 28-39 with 387 yards, 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions against Texas’s quarterback Colt McCoy’s 28-35 for 277 yards, 1 touchdown 0 interceptions. Where they differed was in the running game. The Longhorns had 161 yards compared to the Sooners 48 on the ground. Texas wound up jumping Idle Alabama this week for the No. 1 spot so it doesn’t put Oklahoma in the worst position, moving them back to the No. 4 spot. No need to fret if you are a Sooner faithful, they should be around come BCS bid time. Their hardest contest comes on November 22nd against a No. 7 Texas Tech squad who has one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Mark the date.
Florida, who has only been in one actual contest that was decided by less than five touchdowns were on the wrong side of a blocked PAT in their shocking loss to Old Miss 31-30. The Gators uncharacteristically turned the ball over three times and 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow got stuffed on a fourth and one late in the fourth quarter on a play he makes look easy nine out of ten times. He came to the podium after the game and gave the most mature speech I have ever seen a college kid give. “I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry,” he said. “We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida’s never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this. He then proceeded to tell us how there will be no team and no player who will play as hard as him and the Gators for the rest of the season. Crazy thing is I believe him. With upcoming games against Georgia and Vanderbilt in the next three weeks, Tebows prophecy will quickly be put to the test, but after last week’s smack down of LSU 51-21 I think it’s safe to say the Gators are for real.
So like I said this is all a big mix up that’s probably going to get shaken up some more this week. Texas’s next three games are against No. 11 Missouri, No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Texas Tech. Good luck with that. Alabama takes on Old Miss, Tennessee and No. 13 LSU two weeks later. Penn State, although they had a convincing win against Wisconsin last week 48-7 have Michigan (which doesn’t mean much anymore), No. 12 Ohio State and a decent 4-3 Iowa Hawkeye team. Each week will bring us closer to the crown; stay tuned into Sports Journey for weekly updates.
