TIGERS MAKE THEIR CASE, FERENTZ REALLY CHOKES, HEISMAN IS CAM'S TO LOSE & TEXAS FOLLOWS THE GATORS DOWN THE DRAIN
When I saw this weekend was going to be homecoming & the opponent was Oklahoma, I had my doubts, but as the date grew closer, I grew a little more confident. Tonight the Missouri Tigers made their case for not only a Big-12 North title, but the conference championship & a possible BCS bowl bid. They defeated previously unbeaten & #1 ranked(in the BCS Poll) Oklahoma 36-27. The Tigers really shone the the national spotlight, the entire offense played well despite some very frustrating play calling by offensive coordinator David Yost. OU coach Bob Stoops made a really bizarre 2-point conversion call that didn't work. But in the end, it was Mizzou's defense that made the victory possible. They pressured Landry Jones, shut down RB Demarco Murray & caused 3 turnovers, two in the redzone. This is easily the best Tiger defense of the Gary Pinkel era. Big-12 freshman of the year, DE Aldon Smith, returned to action after suffering a broken tibia a month ago. He wasn't at full strength, but he made an unbelievable play to intercept a Jones' pass & return it 58-yards, setting up a touchdown by RB De'Vion Moore. QB Blaine Gabbert played lights out, 30 of 42 for 308-yards, a touchdown & no turnovers. His receivers came up big, especially Jarelle Jackson, who caught 9-passes for 139-yards & a touchdown. The Missouri offensive line was awesome, the Tigers ran for 178-yards, Gabbert wasn't sacked, they pushed the OU front-7 around almost all night. MU out gained the Sooners 486 to 402 & dominated time of possession 38:26 to 21:34. Kick returner Gahn McGaffie returned the opening kickoff for a TD, LB Zavier Gooden made a diving interception & for the first time in school history, MU beat a #1 team. The Tigers have won 29-straight games in which they won the turnover battle. Placekicker Grant Ressel kicked three field goals, since replacing Jeff Wolford, the NCAA's highest percentage placekicker, Ressel is 39 of 41. The only bad news to come out of the game was Jr. defensive Tackle Dominique Hamilton sustained a broken ankle & will miss the remainder of the season. Here's the really good news Tiger fans, except for center Tim Barnes, everybody & I mean the other 10 starters, the top four rushers, top 5 receivers & kicker Ressel should be back next year, Barnes is the only senior. They will lose two of three starting linebackers & the entire starting secondary, but the whole line should return plus 5-star recruit Sheldon Richardson should be eligible after being in junior college for 16-months. He was the highest rated defensive lineman in the 2009 recruiting class. Many of our friends came as far as Las Vegas to be there not only for the game, but for ESPN's College Game Day. There were some 18,000 Tiger fans for Gameday, the largest crowd ESPN ever had for their broadcast. As great as this victory was, get over it by sundown tomorrow, next Saturday brings a trip to Nebraska for the Big-12 North title & a shot at the conference crown.
Some very suspicious characters at the College Gameday taping
Did you catch the end of the Wisconsin-Iowa game? If you didn't, you missed Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz's attempt to supplant LSU's Les Myles or Herm Edwards as the world's worst clock manager in crunch time. I'm not saying Iowa would've kicked the winning field goal in the closing seconds, but the way Ferentz burned thru his timeouts, they never got the chance, Wisconsin prevailed 31-30. It was awful for Hawkeye fans & I found it disturbing Ferentz did such a horrendous job of managing the last minute of the game. The missed extra point & point-blank field goal also figured predominantly in the Iowa loss.
The Nebraska-Oklahoma State game was entertaining for three quarters before the Cowboys ran out of gas, especially on defense. Nebraska's Taylor Martinez was brilliant throwing the ball, 323-yards & 5 touchdowns. The vaunted Nebraska Blackshirt defense was torched again, Kendall Hunter ran for 201-yards & 2 TD's. The matchup I told you about between OSU WR Justin Blackmon & Nebraska CB Prince Amukumara was won by Blackmon. He totaled 157-yards on just 5 receptions & he had two touchdowns. Amukumara was also flagged twice for pass interference. There was one very disturbing incident in the game, freshman Joe Okafor, covering the opening kickoff for OSU, was blasted by Justin Blatchford with a shot to the head. As Okafor lay motionless for over 10-minutes his teammates knelt in prayer. All the while, Blatchford was laughing, pointing & high-fiving on the Cornhusker bench. Nice kid. A similar thing happened in the Mizzou game when Sooner CB Quinton Carter launched himself head first at MU WR Wes Kemp. He was flagged for the foul, but he wanted no part of an responsibility, talking smack to game officials & the Tigers. Later in the game he hit TE Michael Egnew head first & this time he got the worst of it & had to be taken to the locker room. What goes around comes around.
As great as Auburn QB Cam Newton has been & today he really went off, 217-yards rushing & 2 touchdowns, the guy who really impressed me was Auburn DT Nick Fairley. He was a one-man wrecking crew. LSU surrendered 440-yards rushing, the worst total in school history & their offense was as hapless as I thought they would be. Right now, the Heisman Trophy is Newton's to lose. The day after Thanksgiving Alabama meets Auburn for the SEC West title. Yeah, the winner will still have to play the SEC East winner, but that's really just a formality, the East isn't that competitive. The winner of the Iron Bowl, Bama-Auburn, could very well earn a trip to the BCS title game.
Michigan State spotted Northwestern 17 first-half points before they rallied to win 35-27. Sparty needed two touchdowns in the last two minutes of the 4th quarter to remain undefeated. They travel to Iowa City next week & a win will just about clinch the Big Ten.
Sparty's still undefeated
Baylor won their 6th game tonight beating Kansas State 47-42 thereby making themselves bowl eligible for the first time in 16-years. Congrats to Art Briles & his program. QB Robert Griffin was sensational again, passing for 404-yards & 4 touchdowns.RB Jay Finley ran for 250-yards & 2 scores for the Bears. K-State allowed 683-yards of total offense, tough to win on the road surrendering that kind of real estate.
Texas A&M abused Kansas 45-10 but speaking of abuse, you just can't ignore the home loss by the Texas Longhorns to Iowa State. Iowa State???? The Iowa State that lost to Oklahoma last week 52-0 & 68-27 by Utah two weeks ago? A few weeks back, the Horns were smoked in Austin by lowly UCLA. Texas won the BCS title in 2006 & just played for the championship last January. The Florida Gators are in the same boat, winning 2 of the last 4 national championships. They've lost 3 straight games & I don't see anything goos happening for either program the remainder of this season. When you're successful like these programs, other schools will poach from your staff. Add a few key injuries & maybe a disappointing recruiting class & you're Texas or Florida, circa 2010. Yes, it's just that easy.
Though Air Force was thumped by #5 TCU, the armed forces were kept afloat by the Midshipmen from the Naval Academy as they whipped Notre Dame for the 3rd time in 4 years 35-17. They gashed the Irish defense for 367-yards rushing & didn't commit a penalty. Anchors away indeed.
For you non-believers, ESPN's lead college football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, said tonight "the three BCS-Busters, Boise State, TCU & Utah can play with anyone in the country, especially Boise State." He's absolutely right & added "just because you think they don't play anyone, which is ridiculous, doesn't mean they're not very good teams."
On the horizon we have some excellent matchups to look forward to, once again some top-rated teams going on the road like Oregon playing at USC, Mizzou at Nebraska, Michigan State at Iowa & Auburn at Ole Miss.
Some very suspicious characters at the College Gameday taping
Did you catch the end of the Wisconsin-Iowa game? If you didn't, you missed Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz's attempt to supplant LSU's Les Myles or Herm Edwards as the world's worst clock manager in crunch time. I'm not saying Iowa would've kicked the winning field goal in the closing seconds, but the way Ferentz burned thru his timeouts, they never got the chance, Wisconsin prevailed 31-30. It was awful for Hawkeye fans & I found it disturbing Ferentz did such a horrendous job of managing the last minute of the game. The missed extra point & point-blank field goal also figured predominantly in the Iowa loss.
The Nebraska-Oklahoma State game was entertaining for three quarters before the Cowboys ran out of gas, especially on defense. Nebraska's Taylor Martinez was brilliant throwing the ball, 323-yards & 5 touchdowns. The vaunted Nebraska Blackshirt defense was torched again, Kendall Hunter ran for 201-yards & 2 TD's. The matchup I told you about between OSU WR Justin Blackmon & Nebraska CB Prince Amukumara was won by Blackmon. He totaled 157-yards on just 5 receptions & he had two touchdowns. Amukumara was also flagged twice for pass interference. There was one very disturbing incident in the game, freshman Joe Okafor, covering the opening kickoff for OSU, was blasted by Justin Blatchford with a shot to the head. As Okafor lay motionless for over 10-minutes his teammates knelt in prayer. All the while, Blatchford was laughing, pointing & high-fiving on the Cornhusker bench. Nice kid. A similar thing happened in the Mizzou game when Sooner CB Quinton Carter launched himself head first at MU WR Wes Kemp. He was flagged for the foul, but he wanted no part of an responsibility, talking smack to game officials & the Tigers. Later in the game he hit TE Michael Egnew head first & this time he got the worst of it & had to be taken to the locker room. What goes around comes around.
As great as Auburn QB Cam Newton has been & today he really went off, 217-yards rushing & 2 touchdowns, the guy who really impressed me was Auburn DT Nick Fairley. He was a one-man wrecking crew. LSU surrendered 440-yards rushing, the worst total in school history & their offense was as hapless as I thought they would be. Right now, the Heisman Trophy is Newton's to lose. The day after Thanksgiving Alabama meets Auburn for the SEC West title. Yeah, the winner will still have to play the SEC East winner, but that's really just a formality, the East isn't that competitive. The winner of the Iron Bowl, Bama-Auburn, could very well earn a trip to the BCS title game.
Michigan State spotted Northwestern 17 first-half points before they rallied to win 35-27. Sparty needed two touchdowns in the last two minutes of the 4th quarter to remain undefeated. They travel to Iowa City next week & a win will just about clinch the Big Ten.
Sparty's still undefeated
Baylor won their 6th game tonight beating Kansas State 47-42 thereby making themselves bowl eligible for the first time in 16-years. Congrats to Art Briles & his program. QB Robert Griffin was sensational again, passing for 404-yards & 4 touchdowns.RB Jay Finley ran for 250-yards & 2 scores for the Bears. K-State allowed 683-yards of total offense, tough to win on the road surrendering that kind of real estate.
Texas A&M abused Kansas 45-10 but speaking of abuse, you just can't ignore the home loss by the Texas Longhorns to Iowa State. Iowa State???? The Iowa State that lost to Oklahoma last week 52-0 & 68-27 by Utah two weeks ago? A few weeks back, the Horns were smoked in Austin by lowly UCLA. Texas won the BCS title in 2006 & just played for the championship last January. The Florida Gators are in the same boat, winning 2 of the last 4 national championships. They've lost 3 straight games & I don't see anything goos happening for either program the remainder of this season. When you're successful like these programs, other schools will poach from your staff. Add a few key injuries & maybe a disappointing recruiting class & you're Texas or Florida, circa 2010. Yes, it's just that easy.
Though Air Force was thumped by #5 TCU, the armed forces were kept afloat by the Midshipmen from the Naval Academy as they whipped Notre Dame for the 3rd time in 4 years 35-17. They gashed the Irish defense for 367-yards rushing & didn't commit a penalty. Anchors away indeed.
For you non-believers, ESPN's lead college football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, said tonight "the three BCS-Busters, Boise State, TCU & Utah can play with anyone in the country, especially Boise State." He's absolutely right & added "just because you think they don't play anyone, which is ridiculous, doesn't mean they're not very good teams."
On the horizon we have some excellent matchups to look forward to, once again some top-rated teams going on the road like Oregon playing at USC, Mizzou at Nebraska, Michigan State at Iowa & Auburn at Ole Miss.
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