COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 12, WHAT I SAW
While last week was fairly uneventful, that wasn't the case with week 12. Beginning with Oklahoma State's loss Friday night, it got crazier as the day progressed & by the end of Cal-Stanford game, there were 4 top-10 teams in the BCS poll that had been upset. Here's what I saw:
The misery for the folks in Oklahoma continued on Saturday.
Linda & I had our hands full after dinner, so many close games that had so much riding on them. The OU-Baylor game was a perfect example. The Sooners had already seen their hopes of playing an undefeated Oklahoma State & using a victory there to vault into the BCS title game. OSU lost at Iowa State Friday night. I think the letdown from that loss & missing WR Ryan Broyles & RB Dominique Whaley was together, too much for them to overcome. Especially when facing RG3 in Waco. Robert Griffin III led Baylor to a 45-38 upset of the 5th ranked Sooners. RG3 threw for a school record 479-yards & 4 touchdowns, the game winner a 34-yard scramble & throw to Terrence Williams with 8-seconds left in the game. The Sooners got a lot of bad breaks, the worst being a pass from Griffin to WR Tevin Reese that caromed off his helmet some 15-yards downfield only to be caught right in stride by fellow wide receiver Kendall Wright who took it for a touchdown. OU suffered several injuries to starters & by game's end, they were running on fumes. Sooner QB Blake Bell scored 4 touchdowns in 5 carries. He's the Sooner version of Tim Tebow when he was at Florida,they call him the "Belldozer." Now the best Bob Stoops can hope for is the Fiesta Bowl with a victory in the "Bedlam" game at Okie State in two weeks. By the way, this was Baylor's first win over Oklahoma in 21 tries. Two more point on this game, whenever RG3 threw a TD pass, he'd drop to one knee & pray wherever he was on the field & the camera caught his image each time. Could it be people will start gunning for him like they do Tim Tebow? After the students had stormed the field & my girl Erin Andrews was trying to interview RG3, someone poured a bucket of Gatorade on both of them. Watch it guys, no more of that for Erin.
Think time of possession is an important stat?
Ask Texas A&M, they had the ball just 8:34 of the first half while the Kansas Jayhawks had it for 21:26. A&M led 44-0 at the half, enough said, except to say the Aggies won 61-7.
How Bill Snyder wins games with the talent on his team is simply amazing.
Kansas State won their 9th game, a 17-13 win over the Texas Longhorns in Austin. They didn't do anything well on offense, but they managed 17-points, which was enough to get the win. Wildcat QB Collin Klein didn't have his usual awesome stats but he ran for a touchdown & threw one. He was held to just 4-yards on 26 carries. The Horns shut him down. He only threw for 83-yards, but once again, coach Bill Snyder figured out how to keep Texas out of the endzone until late in the 3rd quarter & repelled multiple shots in the 4th to preserve the win. The Cats return to Manhattan to face Iowa State in 2 weeks in an attempt to win their 10th game of the season. If that happens, Snyder could be a favorite for coach of the year.
No Pinkel? No problem as Mizzou hangs on by their fingernails in last minute.
Suspended coach Gary Pinkel watched his Tigers scrap right to the very end & come away with a 31-27 win over Texas Tech on Senior Day in Columbia. MU took their only lead of the game when QB James Franklin scored from 9-yards out with just 2:22 left in the game. With 28-seconds left, Tech QB Seth Doege had the Red Raiders on the Mizzou 10-yardline. He threw a pass over the middle, it was tipped by senior nose tackle Dominique Hamilton & LB Michael Sam picked it off at the four. Three kneel-downs & Mizzou was bowl eligible. Franklin was superb, once he got going, completing 13 of 20 for 172-yards & 2 TD's plus another 152-yards on the ground, also with 2 TD's. Without the Big-12's leading rusher, Henry Josey, Mizzou still ran for 318-yards. They face Kansas in what could be the last "Border Showdown" for a long time, next Saturday in Arrowhead Stadium. If you don't mind sitting on the KU side of the building, upper deck tickets can be had for just $15. I'm hoping the Tigers, led by their reformed coach, hang about 60 on the Jayhawks as a parting gift.
Trojans win "Their Bowl Game" in Eugene.
The Ducks were also removed from any chance of playing in the BCS title game after they were beaten 38-35 by USC. The Trojans rode the hot hand of QB Matt Barkley, who threw 4 TD's, running out to a 38-14 lead with just over a minute left in the 3rd quarter. Then they hung on for dear life as the 4th ranked Ducks scored 21-unanswered points & lined up for a 37-yard field goal attempt with 5-seconds remaining in the game. Place kicker Alejandro Maldanado hooked it left & USC prevailed in what the Trojans were calling "Their Bowl Game" since they have a post season ban again this year from the NCAA. They would have run away with the PAC-12 South, but they're not eligible to play in the very first conference championship game thanks to Reggie Bush & his parents.
Heartstoppers on every screen tonight.
Florida State & Virginia didn't really get me too excited & frankly the game was pretty boring, until the last two minutes. UVA scored a touchdown with 1:16 left to go ahead of the Seminoles 14-13. The last 30-seconds of the game literally took 20-minutes of real time. FSU gets out to midfield with less than 30-seconds left, 4th down, QB gets sacked, game over. Not so fast, facemask on the defense, 15-yards, ball on UVA's 35 & a fresh set of downs. Run for 5-yards & timeout with 20-seconds left. Incomplete pass, completed pass for 5-yards, but receiver caught in bounds & FSU can't stop the clock, game over before they get a field goal attempt off. Not so fast, review the reception, the ball hit the ground, no completion, clock stops at 5-seconds. FSU attempts a 47-yard field goal, whistle blows, false start, game over. Not so fast, UVA was penalized for simulating a snap count causing FSU to jump, 5-yard penalty, field goal attempt from the 42. I thought UVA coach Mike London was going to stroke out, he was so upset. He calls timeout to freeze the kicker, time in, kick goes left......barely & UVA hangs on for the win. Whew!
Not so exciting.
LSU all over Ole Miss 52-3 in Houston Nutt's last home game as the Rebels' coach. His team looked like they had never played the game before, it was humiliating. Boise State roared out to a 42-7 halftime lead at San Diego State & then hung on in the 4th quarter as the Aztecs never quit, but couldn't get it done, losing 52-35. Houston ran their record to 11-0 handling SMU 37-7. Michigan pounded large knots on Nebraska earlier today 45-17 & Michigan State sewed up the BIG TEN's Legends Division(how lame are these names?) with a 55-3 spanking of the Indiana Hoosiers.
Dabo Swiney is probably asking "what the hell just happened?"
The coach of the 7th ranked Clemson Tigers was feeling pretty good early on in their game at 5-5 North Carolina State, leading 3-0 at the end of one quarter. Then the Wolfpack ran off 30-unanswered points & poof, there went Clemson's top-10 ranking, losing 37-13. Try again next year Dabo.
Once again the Big East is dreadful & soon they'll be stinking up the BCS.
That this pitiful conference has an automatic BCS bowl bid is shameful. The fight for the conference lead is a real barn-burner, a 5-way tie of mediocrity. Not a one of these teams is ranked in the BCS top-25 for a second year in a row. One them will be handed an engraved invitation to play in the Orange Bowl while 20-teams that could whip them on any given Saturday, will be sent to the Meneke Car Care Bowl or the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl. This has been a joke for 3-4 years now & people squawk about Boise State. At least they actually win bowl games.
Nick Montana, yeah that Montana, so how'd he do?
Not so hot, threw two short touchdowns in the 1st half but never got going, finishing with just 79-yards against the 2-8 Oregon State Beavers. Was replaced by starter Keith Price in the second half.
Conference Championship games....how are they shaping up?
SEC--Georgia clinched the East Division today, they're one-half of the championship game. The other half will be the winner of the LSU-Arkansas game next Friday at 1:30PM CT on CBS.
BIG TEN--Michigan State is in, their opponent will be the winner of the Penn State-Wisconsin game next Saturday at 2:30PM CT on ESPN.
BIG-12--Providing Oklahoma gets by Iowa State next Saturday at 11AM on FX, they'll play Oklahoma State on Saturday, December 3rd at 7PM on ABC for the conference title. The BIG-12 has no championship game any more.
PAC-12--If Oregon can beat Oregon State next Saturday at 2:30PM on ABC, they'll play the winner of the South Division for the conference crown. If they should lose, Stanford wins the North. The South is a mess, Arizona State's collapse should ensure coach Dennis Erickson's departure in December. There's a 3-way tie between ASU, UCLA & Utah & no one has the tie-breaker on the other two. So this should be interesting.
ACC--Clemson will play Virginia Tech & the winner will go to the Orange Bowl to face the finest the Big east can send. Clemson beat Tech back in October, 23-3.
BIG EAST--since there are about 613 different scenarios for this conference to crown it's champion, I'm not going to bother. The only good news regarding the BIG EAST is they don't have a conference championship game. Woo-hoo!
Conference-USA--Unbeaten Houston will face Southern Miss is the Cougars can defeat Tulsa next Saturday at 11AM on CBSSportsHD. Both have 7-0 records in the Western Division.
Mountain West--TCU essentially won the MWC today by beating Colorado State. They face UNLV in two weeks while Boise State has gimme's with Wyoming & New Mexico. Because TCU won their head-to-head matchup, they win the conference.
The misery for the folks in Oklahoma continued on Saturday.
Linda & I had our hands full after dinner, so many close games that had so much riding on them. The OU-Baylor game was a perfect example. The Sooners had already seen their hopes of playing an undefeated Oklahoma State & using a victory there to vault into the BCS title game. OSU lost at Iowa State Friday night. I think the letdown from that loss & missing WR Ryan Broyles & RB Dominique Whaley was together, too much for them to overcome. Especially when facing RG3 in Waco. Robert Griffin III led Baylor to a 45-38 upset of the 5th ranked Sooners. RG3 threw for a school record 479-yards & 4 touchdowns, the game winner a 34-yard scramble & throw to Terrence Williams with 8-seconds left in the game. The Sooners got a lot of bad breaks, the worst being a pass from Griffin to WR Tevin Reese that caromed off his helmet some 15-yards downfield only to be caught right in stride by fellow wide receiver Kendall Wright who took it for a touchdown. OU suffered several injuries to starters & by game's end, they were running on fumes. Sooner QB Blake Bell scored 4 touchdowns in 5 carries. He's the Sooner version of Tim Tebow when he was at Florida,they call him the "Belldozer." Now the best Bob Stoops can hope for is the Fiesta Bowl with a victory in the "Bedlam" game at Okie State in two weeks. By the way, this was Baylor's first win over Oklahoma in 21 tries. Two more point on this game, whenever RG3 threw a TD pass, he'd drop to one knee & pray wherever he was on the field & the camera caught his image each time. Could it be people will start gunning for him like they do Tim Tebow? After the students had stormed the field & my girl Erin Andrews was trying to interview RG3, someone poured a bucket of Gatorade on both of them. Watch it guys, no more of that for Erin.
Think time of possession is an important stat?
Ask Texas A&M, they had the ball just 8:34 of the first half while the Kansas Jayhawks had it for 21:26. A&M led 44-0 at the half, enough said, except to say the Aggies won 61-7.
How Bill Snyder wins games with the talent on his team is simply amazing.
Kansas State won their 9th game, a 17-13 win over the Texas Longhorns in Austin. They didn't do anything well on offense, but they managed 17-points, which was enough to get the win. Wildcat QB Collin Klein didn't have his usual awesome stats but he ran for a touchdown & threw one. He was held to just 4-yards on 26 carries. The Horns shut him down. He only threw for 83-yards, but once again, coach Bill Snyder figured out how to keep Texas out of the endzone until late in the 3rd quarter & repelled multiple shots in the 4th to preserve the win. The Cats return to Manhattan to face Iowa State in 2 weeks in an attempt to win their 10th game of the season. If that happens, Snyder could be a favorite for coach of the year.
No Pinkel? No problem as Mizzou hangs on by their fingernails in last minute.
Suspended coach Gary Pinkel watched his Tigers scrap right to the very end & come away with a 31-27 win over Texas Tech on Senior Day in Columbia. MU took their only lead of the game when QB James Franklin scored from 9-yards out with just 2:22 left in the game. With 28-seconds left, Tech QB Seth Doege had the Red Raiders on the Mizzou 10-yardline. He threw a pass over the middle, it was tipped by senior nose tackle Dominique Hamilton & LB Michael Sam picked it off at the four. Three kneel-downs & Mizzou was bowl eligible. Franklin was superb, once he got going, completing 13 of 20 for 172-yards & 2 TD's plus another 152-yards on the ground, also with 2 TD's. Without the Big-12's leading rusher, Henry Josey, Mizzou still ran for 318-yards. They face Kansas in what could be the last "Border Showdown" for a long time, next Saturday in Arrowhead Stadium. If you don't mind sitting on the KU side of the building, upper deck tickets can be had for just $15. I'm hoping the Tigers, led by their reformed coach, hang about 60 on the Jayhawks as a parting gift.
Trojans win "Their Bowl Game" in Eugene.
The Ducks were also removed from any chance of playing in the BCS title game after they were beaten 38-35 by USC. The Trojans rode the hot hand of QB Matt Barkley, who threw 4 TD's, running out to a 38-14 lead with just over a minute left in the 3rd quarter. Then they hung on for dear life as the 4th ranked Ducks scored 21-unanswered points & lined up for a 37-yard field goal attempt with 5-seconds remaining in the game. Place kicker Alejandro Maldanado hooked it left & USC prevailed in what the Trojans were calling "Their Bowl Game" since they have a post season ban again this year from the NCAA. They would have run away with the PAC-12 South, but they're not eligible to play in the very first conference championship game thanks to Reggie Bush & his parents.
Heartstoppers on every screen tonight.
Florida State & Virginia didn't really get me too excited & frankly the game was pretty boring, until the last two minutes. UVA scored a touchdown with 1:16 left to go ahead of the Seminoles 14-13. The last 30-seconds of the game literally took 20-minutes of real time. FSU gets out to midfield with less than 30-seconds left, 4th down, QB gets sacked, game over. Not so fast, facemask on the defense, 15-yards, ball on UVA's 35 & a fresh set of downs. Run for 5-yards & timeout with 20-seconds left. Incomplete pass, completed pass for 5-yards, but receiver caught in bounds & FSU can't stop the clock, game over before they get a field goal attempt off. Not so fast, review the reception, the ball hit the ground, no completion, clock stops at 5-seconds. FSU attempts a 47-yard field goal, whistle blows, false start, game over. Not so fast, UVA was penalized for simulating a snap count causing FSU to jump, 5-yard penalty, field goal attempt from the 42. I thought UVA coach Mike London was going to stroke out, he was so upset. He calls timeout to freeze the kicker, time in, kick goes left......barely & UVA hangs on for the win. Whew!
Not so exciting.
LSU all over Ole Miss 52-3 in Houston Nutt's last home game as the Rebels' coach. His team looked like they had never played the game before, it was humiliating. Boise State roared out to a 42-7 halftime lead at San Diego State & then hung on in the 4th quarter as the Aztecs never quit, but couldn't get it done, losing 52-35. Houston ran their record to 11-0 handling SMU 37-7. Michigan pounded large knots on Nebraska earlier today 45-17 & Michigan State sewed up the BIG TEN's Legends Division(how lame are these names?) with a 55-3 spanking of the Indiana Hoosiers.
Dabo Swiney is probably asking "what the hell just happened?"
The coach of the 7th ranked Clemson Tigers was feeling pretty good early on in their game at 5-5 North Carolina State, leading 3-0 at the end of one quarter. Then the Wolfpack ran off 30-unanswered points & poof, there went Clemson's top-10 ranking, losing 37-13. Try again next year Dabo.
Once again the Big East is dreadful & soon they'll be stinking up the BCS.
That this pitiful conference has an automatic BCS bowl bid is shameful. The fight for the conference lead is a real barn-burner, a 5-way tie of mediocrity. Not a one of these teams is ranked in the BCS top-25 for a second year in a row. One them will be handed an engraved invitation to play in the Orange Bowl while 20-teams that could whip them on any given Saturday, will be sent to the Meneke Car Care Bowl or the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl. This has been a joke for 3-4 years now & people squawk about Boise State. At least they actually win bowl games.
Nick Montana, yeah that Montana, so how'd he do?
Not so hot, threw two short touchdowns in the 1st half but never got going, finishing with just 79-yards against the 2-8 Oregon State Beavers. Was replaced by starter Keith Price in the second half.
Conference Championship games....how are they shaping up?
SEC--Georgia clinched the East Division today, they're one-half of the championship game. The other half will be the winner of the LSU-Arkansas game next Friday at 1:30PM CT on CBS.
BIG TEN--Michigan State is in, their opponent will be the winner of the Penn State-Wisconsin game next Saturday at 2:30PM CT on ESPN.
BIG-12--Providing Oklahoma gets by Iowa State next Saturday at 11AM on FX, they'll play Oklahoma State on Saturday, December 3rd at 7PM on ABC for the conference title. The BIG-12 has no championship game any more.
PAC-12--If Oregon can beat Oregon State next Saturday at 2:30PM on ABC, they'll play the winner of the South Division for the conference crown. If they should lose, Stanford wins the North. The South is a mess, Arizona State's collapse should ensure coach Dennis Erickson's departure in December. There's a 3-way tie between ASU, UCLA & Utah & no one has the tie-breaker on the other two. So this should be interesting.
ACC--Clemson will play Virginia Tech & the winner will go to the Orange Bowl to face the finest the Big east can send. Clemson beat Tech back in October, 23-3.
BIG EAST--since there are about 613 different scenarios for this conference to crown it's champion, I'm not going to bother. The only good news regarding the BIG EAST is they don't have a conference championship game. Woo-hoo!
Conference-USA--Unbeaten Houston will face Southern Miss is the Cougars can defeat Tulsa next Saturday at 11AM on CBSSportsHD. Both have 7-0 records in the Western Division.
Mountain West--TCU essentially won the MWC today by beating Colorado State. They face UNLV in two weeks while Boise State has gimme's with Wyoming & New Mexico. Because TCU won their head-to-head matchup, they win the conference.
Was in my usual seat for the Tigers-Tech game yesterday. It was the most exciting finish to a home game in many, many years.
Your right, Franklin needs to get started sooner, they play catch up too often because he starts so damn slowly.
Final Border War game, maybe forever? Mizzou 65 Kansas 6
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