COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 7, WHAT I SAW
Saturday featured a number of blowouts by the best teams, a precious few upsets & some amazing performances. One amazing performance I'd like to talk about right off the top is the one turned in by yours truly. Today, Sunday, is my birthday, I know, big whoop. But my loving wife Linda & sister Ann figured how to give me a special birthday without a party, which I didn't want. Linda & Ann worked all day cleaning, cooking, baking & preparing. They invited some very dear friends, the Nagels & Durhams, who came down from the city after Pop Warner Football & work. Ann & Ron provided a fabulous barbeque spread & coupled with 4 dips, cupcakes, cake, ice cream, a load of icy Bud Light & some great conversation, it was a memorable evening. I'm patting myself on the back since it's 2:30AM, everyone else has been in bed for two hours & I'm still coherent, pounding out my college football recap before I fall over, which could be at any time, literally. Here's what I saw today.
The top-6 ranked teams, the ones I said were significantly better than the rest, rolled to easy victories.
LSU 38-7, Alabama 52-7, Oklahoma 47-17, Wisconsin 59-7, Boise State 63-13 & Oklahoma State 38-26, all solidified there standing at the top of every poll in the land. Both of the major showdowns, LSU @ Bama(Nov 5) & OU @ Okie State(Dec 3) are still intact. Wisconsin's toughest test of the year will come next Saturday, October 22nd in East Lansing Michigan to play the Spartans. I think the Badgers are up to the test but Michigan State can't be taken lightly, they whipped up on Denard Robinson & the Michigan Wolverines Saturday.
Three unbeatens are no more.
Georgia Tech never really got it going at Virginia & the Cavaliers upset them 24-21.
Michigan's perfect season was spoiled by an aggressive Michigan State defensive line in a 28-14 loss.
The bogus Illini were humiliated at home by those struggling Ohio State Buckeyes. I thought Illinois was bogus, they were. Ohio State completed one pass in the entire game. let me say that again, the 17-yard touchdown pass thrown by Buckeye QB Braxton Miller was Ohio State's only pass completion of the game. It was in the 4th quarter. It was the Buckeye running game & defense that won the day. Another handicap for the Illini was their coach, Ron Zook, who fell asleep at the switch late in the game when his team still had a slim chance to win. Trailing 17-7 with 1:14 left, Illinois faced a 4th & 2 at the Buckeye 15-yard line. He went for it instead of attempting a field goal & then going for an onside kick recovery. You're going to need an onside kick recovery if you kick a field goal or score a touchdown, you're still down one score. Unbelievable!
This guy looks to be better than the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Same position, same school, but even a better running back. Alabama's Trent Richardson rushed for 183-yards & 4 touchdowns in the Tide's 52-7 win at Ole Miss. Compared to Mark Ingram's Heisman winning performance from last year, Richardson is bulkier, faster, stronger & shiftier. He scored Bama's first four touchdowns. On his last, a 76-yard thing of beauty, Richardson put the "move of the year" on an Ole Miss DB after running 60-yards. A collective "whoa" went up in our media room when we saw Richardson fool a Rebel defender so badly.
Kansas State continues to win, just how strong is Bill Snyder right now?
Really strong is the correct answer. Snyder's Wildcats downed the the statistical superior Texas Tech. Once again out manned by more talent, Snyder's crew trailed by over 250-yards in total offense but they repeated their formula for beating more talented teams. Milk the clock, use every second until you must snap the ball to avoid a penalty flag & take the ball away every chance you get. His defense created 4 turnovers, the first an interception run back for a score. Plus Tyler Lockett returned a kickoff for a touchdown. For the second week in a row, K-State quarterback Collin Klein scored on three touchdown runs while throw for a score. After beating knots on in-state rival Kansas next Saturday, the Wildcats face Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas & Texas Tech in succession. We'll see how far this amazing run goes. Bill Snyder looks like a freakin' genius at 6-0.
Mizzou's homecoming goes about as expected, whipping Iowa State 52-17.
Except for the turnovers, I can't say anything bad about Mizzou's easy win over Iowa State. Mizzou did commit 3 turnovers, but not a single penalty flag was thrown at the Tigers. Coach Gary Pinkel went back to handing the ball to Henry Josey, who in turn carried 19 times for 129-yards & a score. Another troublesome issue, placekicker Grant Ressel, made a field goal but he also missed a 46-yard attempt, making his season total stand at 8 of 15. Oklahoma State rolls into Columbia next Saturday, We need to see a similar effort to today's if the Tigers have any hopes of playing with the Cowboys.
Kickoff coverage isn't what it used to be.
I saw 5 kickoff return touchdowns today & there were probably more. A rarity, back-to-back 100-yard returns in the Okie State/Texas game was pretty amazing. With sophisticated spread offenses to plan & the defenses hoping to stop them, that doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare your coverage teams & it's showing.
Broyles tops the record with 13 receptions tonight.
Oklahoma's wide receiver Ryan Broyles broke the all-time NCAA record for career receptions with 13 catches tonight giving him 325 for his career. The former record was held by Purdue's Taylor Stubblefield at 316. With as many as 8 games remaining, Broyles could really blow up this record.
A&M leads at halftime & doesn't blow it.
The Aggies held tight this tie around beating Baylor & their quarterback Robert Griffin III. QB Ryan Tannehill threw 6 touchdown passes while running for an additional 55-yards on just 5 carries. WR Ryan Swope caught 11 passes for 206-yards & a touchdown.My man RGIII had a good day, but with the way his defense played, he needed a day like the one Tannehill had.
Once again, the Ducks win but they lose.
Already missing Heisman hopeful RB LaMichael James, Oregon couldn't affors any more bad news. But they lost starting quarterback Darron Thomas with a knee injury in the 3rd quarter. No word on the severity of the injury, but he did not return to action. If the Ducks are to handle #7 Stanford in Palo Alto November 12th they'll need both members of their starting backfield.
The top-6 ranked teams, the ones I said were significantly better than the rest, rolled to easy victories.
LSU 38-7, Alabama 52-7, Oklahoma 47-17, Wisconsin 59-7, Boise State 63-13 & Oklahoma State 38-26, all solidified there standing at the top of every poll in the land. Both of the major showdowns, LSU @ Bama(Nov 5) & OU @ Okie State(Dec 3) are still intact. Wisconsin's toughest test of the year will come next Saturday, October 22nd in East Lansing Michigan to play the Spartans. I think the Badgers are up to the test but Michigan State can't be taken lightly, they whipped up on Denard Robinson & the Michigan Wolverines Saturday.
Three unbeatens are no more.
Georgia Tech never really got it going at Virginia & the Cavaliers upset them 24-21.
Michigan's perfect season was spoiled by an aggressive Michigan State defensive line in a 28-14 loss.
The bogus Illini were humiliated at home by those struggling Ohio State Buckeyes. I thought Illinois was bogus, they were. Ohio State completed one pass in the entire game. let me say that again, the 17-yard touchdown pass thrown by Buckeye QB Braxton Miller was Ohio State's only pass completion of the game. It was in the 4th quarter. It was the Buckeye running game & defense that won the day. Another handicap for the Illini was their coach, Ron Zook, who fell asleep at the switch late in the game when his team still had a slim chance to win. Trailing 17-7 with 1:14 left, Illinois faced a 4th & 2 at the Buckeye 15-yard line. He went for it instead of attempting a field goal & then going for an onside kick recovery. You're going to need an onside kick recovery if you kick a field goal or score a touchdown, you're still down one score. Unbelievable!
This guy looks to be better than the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Same position, same school, but even a better running back. Alabama's Trent Richardson rushed for 183-yards & 4 touchdowns in the Tide's 52-7 win at Ole Miss. Compared to Mark Ingram's Heisman winning performance from last year, Richardson is bulkier, faster, stronger & shiftier. He scored Bama's first four touchdowns. On his last, a 76-yard thing of beauty, Richardson put the "move of the year" on an Ole Miss DB after running 60-yards. A collective "whoa" went up in our media room when we saw Richardson fool a Rebel defender so badly.
Kansas State continues to win, just how strong is Bill Snyder right now?
Really strong is the correct answer. Snyder's Wildcats downed the the statistical superior Texas Tech. Once again out manned by more talent, Snyder's crew trailed by over 250-yards in total offense but they repeated their formula for beating more talented teams. Milk the clock, use every second until you must snap the ball to avoid a penalty flag & take the ball away every chance you get. His defense created 4 turnovers, the first an interception run back for a score. Plus Tyler Lockett returned a kickoff for a touchdown. For the second week in a row, K-State quarterback Collin Klein scored on three touchdown runs while throw for a score. After beating knots on in-state rival Kansas next Saturday, the Wildcats face Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas & Texas Tech in succession. We'll see how far this amazing run goes. Bill Snyder looks like a freakin' genius at 6-0.
Mizzou's homecoming goes about as expected, whipping Iowa State 52-17.
Except for the turnovers, I can't say anything bad about Mizzou's easy win over Iowa State. Mizzou did commit 3 turnovers, but not a single penalty flag was thrown at the Tigers. Coach Gary Pinkel went back to handing the ball to Henry Josey, who in turn carried 19 times for 129-yards & a score. Another troublesome issue, placekicker Grant Ressel, made a field goal but he also missed a 46-yard attempt, making his season total stand at 8 of 15. Oklahoma State rolls into Columbia next Saturday, We need to see a similar effort to today's if the Tigers have any hopes of playing with the Cowboys.
Kickoff coverage isn't what it used to be.
I saw 5 kickoff return touchdowns today & there were probably more. A rarity, back-to-back 100-yard returns in the Okie State/Texas game was pretty amazing. With sophisticated spread offenses to plan & the defenses hoping to stop them, that doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare your coverage teams & it's showing.
Broyles tops the record with 13 receptions tonight.
Oklahoma's wide receiver Ryan Broyles broke the all-time NCAA record for career receptions with 13 catches tonight giving him 325 for his career. The former record was held by Purdue's Taylor Stubblefield at 316. With as many as 8 games remaining, Broyles could really blow up this record.
A&M leads at halftime & doesn't blow it.
The Aggies held tight this tie around beating Baylor & their quarterback Robert Griffin III. QB Ryan Tannehill threw 6 touchdown passes while running for an additional 55-yards on just 5 carries. WR Ryan Swope caught 11 passes for 206-yards & a touchdown.My man RGIII had a good day, but with the way his defense played, he needed a day like the one Tannehill had.
Once again, the Ducks win but they lose.
Already missing Heisman hopeful RB LaMichael James, Oregon couldn't affors any more bad news. But they lost starting quarterback Darron Thomas with a knee injury in the 3rd quarter. No word on the severity of the injury, but he did not return to action. If the Ducks are to handle #7 Stanford in Palo Alto November 12th they'll need both members of their starting backfield.
Happy birthday Rich! I love reading your posts, so let's hope you have many, many more birthdays. (OK, not because of your posts, although your analysis and commentary are the best, but I hope you're around for a long, long time, even if you quit your blog.) Keep up the great work!
Also, I had to say that I had a great laugh when I read your college football summary today. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but you started off talking about all the Bud Lights, and you hoped you'd be able to pound it out "before I fall over, which could be at any time". Then I read the last two sentences of your post.
I'm assuming all the partying and Bud Lights got the best of you, and you fell over?
Again, keep up the great work, happy birthday, and here's to many more!
Sam, Logan IA
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Ok, my apologies. I should've read your post here too. The one to which I was referring was the one I got in my email. It ended like this:
"Once again, the Ducks win but they lose.
Already missing Heisman hopeful RB LaMichael James, Oregon couldn't affors any more bad news. But they lost starting quarterback Darron Thomas with a knee injury in the 3rd quarter. If the Ducks are to handle #7 Stanford in Palo Alto November 12th."
Hopefully that makes MY comment make more sense now.
Happy birthday young man
Sam
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Sam,
I ALWAYS proof read my posts before publishing them. Very early this morning I was literally falling over asleep & I didn't proof read it & just went to bed. Early this morning I realized I hadn't proof read it & scrambled into the office to see what I had done. I was horrified at all the mistakes, which I corrected immediately. Sorry for that. My Saturdays, Sundays & Mondays are a delicate balance of wall-to-wall football & very little sleep. When we add 7 house guests to the mix, the sleep is sacrificed even more & the results aren't good. But I wouldn't trade this past weekend for anything, it was a lot of fun, but now I have to go to bed so I can get up & write Monday's post before you & others go looking for it. Then it's prep time for the radio show the rest of the day. Thanks for reading & I hope you'l call in some Monday evening. Take care.
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Didn't know it was your birthday, hope it was a good one. How old grand poohbah?
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