COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 3, WHAT I SAW
Approximately 15-minutes before kickoff Saturday morning I drove about a mile away to meet my old friend Kent & his son Danny so I could guide them to our home(if you've ever been to the Lake Of the Ozarks, you know how tough it can be to find anything). As I pulled into the parking lot of the local cineplex, a black SUV began driving straight at my truck with it's horn blaring. I was slightly shaken when the vehicle came to a stop two feet from mine. But my fear turned to joy when Mike emerged from the Suburban. He was best man in our wedding & a very close friend for more than 45-years. Kent had arranged it with Mike to surprise me for the weekend. With the help of my sweetheart of a wife, the weekend was so much fun, which was difficult considering we're all Chiefs & Mizzou fans. I can't recall a weekend when I laughed so much in a very long time. Anyway, it was great having them here & they enjoyed watching the wall-to-wall football with us. I hope they'll make it a regular thing & come every fall. Thanks guys!
LSU #1 in AP Poll, but let's not get carried away.
Yes LSU beat West Virginia 47-21. Yes WVU was ranked 16th, but I think the voters got a little ahead of themselves. With two 3rd quarter touchdowns, the Mountaineers pulled to within 27-21 & the momentum had clearly swung in their favor. But on the ensuing kickoff, LSU broke West Virginia's collective backs with a 99-yard return by Morris Claiborne. I have an issue with the voters jumping Oklahoma when LSU's supposed stifling defense surrendered 463-yards passing. Don't get me wrong, I think Les Miles' Bayou Bengals have been almost perfect so far this season, especially with the controversy surrounding former starting QB Jordan Jefferson, but vaulting over #1 Oklahoma seemed a little premature.
USC's Matt Barkley gives ASU bulletin board material & Sun Devils pay attention.
It's never smart to incite your opponent, especially when your opponent is Arizona State middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict. It's never smart to do your name-calling the week you travel to their field. But USC QB Matt Barkley decided calling Burfict "a dirty player" was a good idea & did so last Tuesday. He said it several times in a couple of different ways. I'll admit Burfict plays right on the edge of ultra-aggressive/dirty, but I wouldn't say that before I played against him. ASU demolished the Trojans 43-22 & in the third quarter, Burfict intercepted a Barkley pass & returned it 36-yards. He was tackled by Barkley who was helped to his feet by who else...Burfict.
Didn't see the game, but saw the screwing. Someone should lose their job.
Seriously, if you can't look at a high-definition TV screen & see a kicked football pass in front of a goal post, you ought to lose your job. I can almost excuse an on-field official blowing a call like this, but for the review official in the booth, there's simply no excuse. Syracuse scored a go-ahead touchdown vs. Toledo making the score 29-27, but clearing missed the PAT. You didn't even need slo-mo to see the ball pass in front of the upright, but after a 3-minute review, the booth reviewer agreed with the official on the field, PAT good. To their credit, Toledo moved to the Syracuse 3-yard line in the last 2-minutes of the game & tied it with a field goal to send the game into overtime. The Orangemen won it with a field goal but after narrowly losing to Ohio State & getting clobbered by Boise State, Toledo deserved to have this victory, not to have it stolen by 2 clueless officials. The Big East Conference apologized Saturday night for the obvious error, but the damage was done, Toledo flew home a loser again.
This week's "we got 'em right where we want 'em" award goes to Oklahoma State.
Down 20-3 at half to #8 Texas A&M on their field? No problem for Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State Cowboys as they outscored A&M 27-7 in the second half before taking an intentional safety, to win 30-29. All the hype we hear year after year about A&M was on display again Saturday. They couldn't close the deal, playing at home & with a 17-point lead, they were unable to finish off the #8 ranked Cowboys. OSU QB Brandon Weeden completed 47 passes & three receivers, Josh Cooper, Justin Blackmon & Hubert Anyiam caught 11, 11 & 10 passes respectively for 338-yards. Blackmon even threw away a sure touchdown with an untouched fumble at the 1-yardline. To quote Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were," A&M is bogus again.
Maryland beats Miami, Miami beats Ohio State & Temple crushes Maryland.
Yup, that's how crazy college football can be. The juggernaut that is Temple football rolled into College Park Maryland to play the Terps & went back to Philadelphia with a crushing 38-7 win. New coach Randy Edsall will soon feel the heat after replacing the fired, but extremely popular, Ralph Friedgen. Temple RB Bernard Pierce ran for 149-yards & 5 touchdowns in the Owl's win.
Maybe I should've stayed in the hospital.
Minnesota coach Jerry Kill scared everyone watching their loss two weeks ago to New Mexico State when he collapsed on the sidelines & went into convulsions. Kill was cleared to return to his team's sideline & did so yesterday after coaching from the press box last week. Unfortunately for Kill, the mighty, mighty Bison of North Dakota were very nasty visitors, besting the Gophers 37-24. Kill said on his TV show Sunday morning he decided to re-enter the hospital & undergo more tests in an effort to properly diagnose his condition. Maybe he should have checked in last Friday.
The UNLV 40-20 win over Hawaii even more suspicious now after weird loss.
So 20-point underdog UNLV gets bet down to a 17-point dog & wins the game straight up, 40-20, which was strange on it's own. Vegas gamblers betting UNLV on the money line, no points, the Rebels had to win the game straight up, which they did. Just one week later, UNLV, playing at home, gets crushed by Southern Utah, a Division 1-AA school with an enrollment of less than 6,500 students. The final score was 41-16, UNLV scoring their last TD with 25-seconds to play. Southern Utah plays such powerhouses as South Dakota State, North Dakota, Sacramento State, South Dakota & U.C. Davis. UNLV is the only FBS team on their schedule, they only play other Division 1-AA schools. There's some strange sh*t going on out in home of 20-years.
Hawaii loses to UNLV, so what did they do versus U.C. Davis?
Exactly what they were supposed to do to a Division 1-AA opponent, buried them 56-14. Rainbow quarterback Bryant Moniz completed 30 of 40 passes for 424-yards & 7 touchdowns. Moniz didn't even take the field in the 2nd half, now that's ugly.
RG3 continues to amaze me, Part II
I mentioned Baylor's Robert Griffin II last week after the quarterback completed 20 of 22 passes & 3 touchdowns, giving him as many touchdown passes as incompletions on the season. That stat is pretty amazing, but it was only two games. Yesterday RG3 completed 29 of 33 for 338-yards & 5 more touchdowns. For the season, Griffin has 12 incompletions & 13 touchdowns. Folks even for just 3 games, that's amazing. The Bears play Kansas State in Manhattan next Saturday in what should be an excellent matchup.
Speaking of which, how 'bout them Kansas State Wildcats?
Going on the road is never easy, especially with an unproven quarterback playing in front of a hostile crowd. But the Kansas State Wildcats pulled off a major upset in Miami, besting the Hurricanes 28-24. Diminutive sophomore running back John Hubert scored the winning touchdown with 10-minutes remaining in the game & then repelled the Hurricanes with a heart-stopping goal line stand in the closing minutes. What was called the go-ahead touchdown on the field was over ruled by the replay official on a 4th down run by Miami QB Jacory Harris when it could be clearly seen his knee was down before reaching the endzone. Hubert ran for 166-yards on just 18 carries & QB Collin Klein added 93-yards on the ground & a pair of TD passes, one caught by true freshman Tyler Lockett, son of former Wildcat & Chiefs wide receiver. Huge win for Bill Snyder's young team.
Did Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel freezing his kicker at ASU have lingering effects?
Maybe it did, it might have cost the Tigers a chance to push Oklahoma right to the brink last night in Norman. Place kicker Grant Ressel has missed 4 field goals this season, including 2 last night in Mizzou's 38-28 loss to #1 OU. That's more missed field goals than Ressel has in the past two seasons combined. That's a real problem, one I think Gary Pinkel helped to create when he froze Ressel at the end of regulation in the 37-30 overtime loss at Arizona State. I'm not suggesting the two misses by Ressel cost Mizzou the game, but it might have been an more interesting 4th quarter. Quarterback James Franklin started off hot completing his first 5 attempts leading the Tigers to a 14-3 1st quarter advantage. But he missed on 15 of the next 19 creating way too many 3 & outs. I didn't understand why offensive coordinator David Yost didn't call more plays for red-hot running back Henry Josey. He had another productive night totaling 133-yards on just 14 carries, giving him 533-yards on just 43 attempts, a gaudy 12.4 yards per carry average. Use this kid, he's the hottest thing wearing black & gold right now. I do like the way Franklin throws downfield more than Blaine Gabbert did last season. What I don't like is the poor cornerback play the Tigers are receiving this season. It's not that receivers are wide open on a regular basis, but the corners need to look for the ball once & a while. It's frustrating watching the Kenny Still-less Sooners pass for 448-yards, 154-yards of it going to All-American Ryan Broyles on 13-catches. Broyles caught all three Landry Jones touchdown passes. The second one wasn't a touchdown, but it was called so on the field & the replay official upheld the call. The Tigers have a week off to regroup before traveling to K-State, Pinkel better find a way to get better play out of his corners & find some confidence for placekicker Grant Ressel.
PAC-12 is full of hot seats.
I've already spoken my peace about UCLA's Rick Neuheisal, I don't care for his coaching style & he just doesn't produce enough wins wherever he goes. Arizona's Mike Stoops is too busy having one meltdown after another to build the Wildcat program into anything other than also-ran. But the conference has a new coach on the hot seat, Oregon State's Mike Riley. The Beavers are off to a very surprising 0-3 start after losing 27-19 in Corvallis to Neuheisal's Bruins. Oregon State lost opening day to Division 1-AA Sacramento State then were smoked 35-0 at Wisconsin. Riley has a lot of good karma built up with alums & administration after a number of big wins in the past few years. He has openly stated, after a flirtation with the NFL for four seasons, he returned to the Beaver program. He needs to get things going in the other direction soon but it doesn't get any easier with a road game against the 25th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils.
Your seat's gonna get hot if you don't win this weekend.
Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt is about to feel the heat when his 1-3 Rebels travel west to play Fresno State. He needs to win this game because next up are the SEC three A's, Alabama, Arkansas & Auburn. Nutt doesn't want to be 1-4 facing what could be three more losses.
This Saturday's hot matchups:
#8 Nebraska at #7 Wisconsin
#3 Alabama at #12 Florida
#13 Clemson at #11 Virginia Tech
#15 Baylor at Kansas State
LSU #1 in AP Poll, but let's not get carried away.
Yes LSU beat West Virginia 47-21. Yes WVU was ranked 16th, but I think the voters got a little ahead of themselves. With two 3rd quarter touchdowns, the Mountaineers pulled to within 27-21 & the momentum had clearly swung in their favor. But on the ensuing kickoff, LSU broke West Virginia's collective backs with a 99-yard return by Morris Claiborne. I have an issue with the voters jumping Oklahoma when LSU's supposed stifling defense surrendered 463-yards passing. Don't get me wrong, I think Les Miles' Bayou Bengals have been almost perfect so far this season, especially with the controversy surrounding former starting QB Jordan Jefferson, but vaulting over #1 Oklahoma seemed a little premature.
USC's Matt Barkley gives ASU bulletin board material & Sun Devils pay attention.
It's never smart to incite your opponent, especially when your opponent is Arizona State middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict. It's never smart to do your name-calling the week you travel to their field. But USC QB Matt Barkley decided calling Burfict "a dirty player" was a good idea & did so last Tuesday. He said it several times in a couple of different ways. I'll admit Burfict plays right on the edge of ultra-aggressive/dirty, but I wouldn't say that before I played against him. ASU demolished the Trojans 43-22 & in the third quarter, Burfict intercepted a Barkley pass & returned it 36-yards. He was tackled by Barkley who was helped to his feet by who else...Burfict.
Didn't see the game, but saw the screwing. Someone should lose their job.
Seriously, if you can't look at a high-definition TV screen & see a kicked football pass in front of a goal post, you ought to lose your job. I can almost excuse an on-field official blowing a call like this, but for the review official in the booth, there's simply no excuse. Syracuse scored a go-ahead touchdown vs. Toledo making the score 29-27, but clearing missed the PAT. You didn't even need slo-mo to see the ball pass in front of the upright, but after a 3-minute review, the booth reviewer agreed with the official on the field, PAT good. To their credit, Toledo moved to the Syracuse 3-yard line in the last 2-minutes of the game & tied it with a field goal to send the game into overtime. The Orangemen won it with a field goal but after narrowly losing to Ohio State & getting clobbered by Boise State, Toledo deserved to have this victory, not to have it stolen by 2 clueless officials. The Big East Conference apologized Saturday night for the obvious error, but the damage was done, Toledo flew home a loser again.
This week's "we got 'em right where we want 'em" award goes to Oklahoma State.
Down 20-3 at half to #8 Texas A&M on their field? No problem for Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State Cowboys as they outscored A&M 27-7 in the second half before taking an intentional safety, to win 30-29. All the hype we hear year after year about A&M was on display again Saturday. They couldn't close the deal, playing at home & with a 17-point lead, they were unable to finish off the #8 ranked Cowboys. OSU QB Brandon Weeden completed 47 passes & three receivers, Josh Cooper, Justin Blackmon & Hubert Anyiam caught 11, 11 & 10 passes respectively for 338-yards. Blackmon even threw away a sure touchdown with an untouched fumble at the 1-yardline. To quote Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were," A&M is bogus again.
Maryland beats Miami, Miami beats Ohio State & Temple crushes Maryland.
Yup, that's how crazy college football can be. The juggernaut that is Temple football rolled into College Park Maryland to play the Terps & went back to Philadelphia with a crushing 38-7 win. New coach Randy Edsall will soon feel the heat after replacing the fired, but extremely popular, Ralph Friedgen. Temple RB Bernard Pierce ran for 149-yards & 5 touchdowns in the Owl's win.
Maybe I should've stayed in the hospital.
Minnesota coach Jerry Kill scared everyone watching their loss two weeks ago to New Mexico State when he collapsed on the sidelines & went into convulsions. Kill was cleared to return to his team's sideline & did so yesterday after coaching from the press box last week. Unfortunately for Kill, the mighty, mighty Bison of North Dakota were very nasty visitors, besting the Gophers 37-24. Kill said on his TV show Sunday morning he decided to re-enter the hospital & undergo more tests in an effort to properly diagnose his condition. Maybe he should have checked in last Friday.
The UNLV 40-20 win over Hawaii even more suspicious now after weird loss.
So 20-point underdog UNLV gets bet down to a 17-point dog & wins the game straight up, 40-20, which was strange on it's own. Vegas gamblers betting UNLV on the money line, no points, the Rebels had to win the game straight up, which they did. Just one week later, UNLV, playing at home, gets crushed by Southern Utah, a Division 1-AA school with an enrollment of less than 6,500 students. The final score was 41-16, UNLV scoring their last TD with 25-seconds to play. Southern Utah plays such powerhouses as South Dakota State, North Dakota, Sacramento State, South Dakota & U.C. Davis. UNLV is the only FBS team on their schedule, they only play other Division 1-AA schools. There's some strange sh*t going on out in home of 20-years.
Hawaii loses to UNLV, so what did they do versus U.C. Davis?
Exactly what they were supposed to do to a Division 1-AA opponent, buried them 56-14. Rainbow quarterback Bryant Moniz completed 30 of 40 passes for 424-yards & 7 touchdowns. Moniz didn't even take the field in the 2nd half, now that's ugly.
RG3 continues to amaze me, Part II
I mentioned Baylor's Robert Griffin II last week after the quarterback completed 20 of 22 passes & 3 touchdowns, giving him as many touchdown passes as incompletions on the season. That stat is pretty amazing, but it was only two games. Yesterday RG3 completed 29 of 33 for 338-yards & 5 more touchdowns. For the season, Griffin has 12 incompletions & 13 touchdowns. Folks even for just 3 games, that's amazing. The Bears play Kansas State in Manhattan next Saturday in what should be an excellent matchup.
Speaking of which, how 'bout them Kansas State Wildcats?
Going on the road is never easy, especially with an unproven quarterback playing in front of a hostile crowd. But the Kansas State Wildcats pulled off a major upset in Miami, besting the Hurricanes 28-24. Diminutive sophomore running back John Hubert scored the winning touchdown with 10-minutes remaining in the game & then repelled the Hurricanes with a heart-stopping goal line stand in the closing minutes. What was called the go-ahead touchdown on the field was over ruled by the replay official on a 4th down run by Miami QB Jacory Harris when it could be clearly seen his knee was down before reaching the endzone. Hubert ran for 166-yards on just 18 carries & QB Collin Klein added 93-yards on the ground & a pair of TD passes, one caught by true freshman Tyler Lockett, son of former Wildcat & Chiefs wide receiver. Huge win for Bill Snyder's young team.
Did Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel freezing his kicker at ASU have lingering effects?
Maybe it did, it might have cost the Tigers a chance to push Oklahoma right to the brink last night in Norman. Place kicker Grant Ressel has missed 4 field goals this season, including 2 last night in Mizzou's 38-28 loss to #1 OU. That's more missed field goals than Ressel has in the past two seasons combined. That's a real problem, one I think Gary Pinkel helped to create when he froze Ressel at the end of regulation in the 37-30 overtime loss at Arizona State. I'm not suggesting the two misses by Ressel cost Mizzou the game, but it might have been an more interesting 4th quarter. Quarterback James Franklin started off hot completing his first 5 attempts leading the Tigers to a 14-3 1st quarter advantage. But he missed on 15 of the next 19 creating way too many 3 & outs. I didn't understand why offensive coordinator David Yost didn't call more plays for red-hot running back Henry Josey. He had another productive night totaling 133-yards on just 14 carries, giving him 533-yards on just 43 attempts, a gaudy 12.4 yards per carry average. Use this kid, he's the hottest thing wearing black & gold right now. I do like the way Franklin throws downfield more than Blaine Gabbert did last season. What I don't like is the poor cornerback play the Tigers are receiving this season. It's not that receivers are wide open on a regular basis, but the corners need to look for the ball once & a while. It's frustrating watching the Kenny Still-less Sooners pass for 448-yards, 154-yards of it going to All-American Ryan Broyles on 13-catches. Broyles caught all three Landry Jones touchdown passes. The second one wasn't a touchdown, but it was called so on the field & the replay official upheld the call. The Tigers have a week off to regroup before traveling to K-State, Pinkel better find a way to get better play out of his corners & find some confidence for placekicker Grant Ressel.
PAC-12 is full of hot seats.
I've already spoken my peace about UCLA's Rick Neuheisal, I don't care for his coaching style & he just doesn't produce enough wins wherever he goes. Arizona's Mike Stoops is too busy having one meltdown after another to build the Wildcat program into anything other than also-ran. But the conference has a new coach on the hot seat, Oregon State's Mike Riley. The Beavers are off to a very surprising 0-3 start after losing 27-19 in Corvallis to Neuheisal's Bruins. Oregon State lost opening day to Division 1-AA Sacramento State then were smoked 35-0 at Wisconsin. Riley has a lot of good karma built up with alums & administration after a number of big wins in the past few years. He has openly stated, after a flirtation with the NFL for four seasons, he returned to the Beaver program. He needs to get things going in the other direction soon but it doesn't get any easier with a road game against the 25th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils.
Your seat's gonna get hot if you don't win this weekend.
Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt is about to feel the heat when his 1-3 Rebels travel west to play Fresno State. He needs to win this game because next up are the SEC three A's, Alabama, Arkansas & Auburn. Nutt doesn't want to be 1-4 facing what could be three more losses.
This Saturday's hot matchups:
#8 Nebraska at #7 Wisconsin
#3 Alabama at #12 Florida
#13 Clemson at #11 Virginia Tech
#15 Baylor at Kansas State
With a staggering 17.7 yards per carry average, why isn't Henry Josey getting more touches? Is it because the injuries to other tailbacks? They need another home run hitter. K-State coming next, all hands on deck!
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Tony,
I agree completely. Josey should get 18-22 carries per game, he can be a game changer.
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