College Football Recaps- Weeks 6 and 7
Well, I’ve been awfully busy lately and haven’t had time to update this blog much. In the meantime, the 2007 college football season has completely lost its mind. Who could have ever in their wildest dreams imagined that when the first BCS rankings were revealed that it would look like this?
1. Ohio State (how are they scoring so many points anyway?)
2. South Florida (is that a typo? Don’t you mean Florida? Miami? Florida State? Eh?)
3. Boston College (didn’t Doug Flutie graduate in 1985?)
I’m still not giving South Florida the credit that they probably deserve as I have them just outside the top five still despite their undefeated record and road victories at Auburn and West Virginia. Honestly, has a team ever skyrocketed up the polls as quickly as the Bulls have? I suppose they’re worthy, but can’t justify placing them ahead of either LSU or Oklahoma just yet. LSU lost a heartbreaker in triple overtime against a very game Kentucky squad on the road, and Oklahoma continues to roll on after losing their focus and losing narrowly to Colorado two weeks ago.
As far as Boston College and Ohio State go, I still see them losing this year at least once, especially in the case of the former, who still has to visit Virginia Tech and then win the ACC championship game. Ohio State has an easier road, but going into Ann Arbor to finish the season won’t be easy with the way Michigan has suddenly turned things around. And how much would the Wolverines love to spoil the Buckeye’s chances at earning another trip to the national championship? Actually, it might mean even more than that for the Wolverines; it could mean a trip to the Rose Bowl in what would be one of college football’s greatest season turnarounds ever.
But honestly, let’s not make the initial shock of this particular top three into that big of a deal. What is surprising isn’t that any of those three teams are undefeated, but rather that several other teams that were supposed to be ahead of them lost a lot earlier than anyone expected. If we still had an undefeated contingent of LSU, USC and Oklahoma like everyone thought we would going into week 8, no one would be nearly as surprised to see Ohio State, South Florida and Boston College at #s 4, 5 and 6. And as a sidenote, we’ve still got undefeated Hawaii, Arizona State and Kansas hiding underneath the top 10. (Yes, Kansas). The way this season is going so far, crazier things have happened.
That’s why they play the games I guess. Did I mention there are more games to play?
GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK:
#6 South Florida at Rutgers, 6:30 CST Thursday, ESPN: Okay, so the Bulls aren’t very happy with me for keeping them at #6. Rutgers has a virtual must-win game on its hands. Remember what they did last year against an undefeated title contender in Thursday night action? South Florida’s defense has been stout, but Ray Rice and crew will be a handfull at home, and I’m expecting Rutgers to pull the upset here and get back in the mix.
#19 Tennessee at #23 Alabama, 11:30 AM: Aside from being a great SEC rivalry matchup of storied programs, this game is intriguing based on the current state of each team. Both at 4-2 and trying to rebuild, the winner takes a big step forward. The Tide will benefit from the homefield advantage, but I still think the Vols have too much firepower.
#8 Florida at #12 Kentucky, 2:30 PM, CBS: The Cats are still riding high off of arguably the biggest win in the history of the program last week against LSU. Can they possibly knock off the SEC’s two biggest foes in back to back weeks? If they do, they’ll have a strong case at a BCS bowl game and maybe even the national championship. I’m still betting that Florida will find a way to win, but can’t believe that Kentucky is a 7 point dog at home.
Texas Tech at #18 Missouri, 2:30 PM, ABC: Missouri didn’t lose any respect from anyone last week as they played Oklahoma pretty much to the wire on the road. Texas Tech is starting to look pretty sick offensively, and are a triple overtime loss to Oklahoma State away from being undefeated themselves. This is a great matchup of star quarterbacks in Graham Harrell and Chase Daniel. Expect to see some points.
#9 USC at Notre Dame, 2:30, NBC: This is worth mentioning only because of the history involved. Wow, this game sure has lost a lot of luster. I can’t imagine it will be very close, as USC has a lot to prove if they want to get back into the title hunt, and we all know how much they love beating up on the Irish.
#21 Michigan at Illinois, 7:00, ABC: The Wolverines can officially get back on track if they can pull out a victory on the road against a pesky Illini squad that has already upset Penn State and Wisconsin. Mike Hart leads the nation in rushing and is expected to play despite being injured in the first half last week against Purdue. Illinois’ loss at Iowa last week proved that they’re still, well, Illinois, and they’ll have their hands full here with a a team that might end up being as good as they were supposed to be by season’s end.
#16 Auburn at #3 LSU, 8:00 PM, ESPN: Another LSU night game? Sign me up! This should be one of the day’s best games, as two stellar defenses collide in one of college football’s greatest settings. Auburn was incredibly impressive last week in holding the two-headed monster of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones to only 83 yards rushing, and actually are starting to look a lot better on paper if South Florida is really the 2nd best team in America. On the other hand, LSU is still very good and is going to be very angry. I wouldn’t want to be in Auburn’s shoes for this one.
TOP 25 OF THE MATTY
- Ohio State (7-0)
- Boston College (7-0)
- LSU (6-1)
- Oklahoma (5-1)
- Virginia Tech (6-1)
- South Florida (6-0)
- California (5-1)
- Florida (4-2)
- USC (5-1)
- Hawaii (6-0)
- South Carolina (6-1)
- Kentucky (6-1)
- West Virginia (5-1)
- Oregon (5-1)
- Arizona State (7-0)
- Auburn (5-2)
- Kansas (6-0)
- Missouri (5-1)
- Tennessee (4-2)
- Georgia (5-2)
- Michigan (5-2)
- Maryland (4-2)
- Alabama (5-2)
- Kansas State (4-2)
- Cincinnati (6-1)
HEISMAN RACE
- Andre Woodson, Kentucky
- Mike Hart, Michigan
- Matt Ryan, Boston College
- Tim Tebow, Florida
- Darren McFadden, Arkansas
ENTHUSIAST OF ALL 