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College Football Grab Bag

USC Loses game and possible chance at the national title in Corvallis

Somebody tell me, because I am really not sure, but did USC lose this weekend? Of course I am being sarcastic. I have seen headlines such as “Leave it to Beavers” (ESPN) and other witty headlines all weekend. They lost and really did anyone not see this coming? Of course losing to Oregon State nobody could have predicted, but you knew this team was going to lose a game.
I was hoping the Cal-USC game was going to be the battle for the Pac-10 and it very well may be if Cal slips up. I watched the game and Oregon State didn’t impress me as much as how badly USC played. Every time they tried to get back into it they turned the ball over or made some kind of mistake. I don’t care who you are playing if you turn the ball over four times there is a very good chance you are going to lose.

It pains me to say this, but kudos go to Pete Carroll and the rest of the USC coaching staff for not letting their team bury their heads in the sand. They nearly forced this game into overtime after being down 23 points going into the fourth quarter. I thought Mike Reily was playing too conservative with his lead and that he should have gone for the jugular. But who am I to criticize him, Oregon State did something no other team has done in 38 games.  

Michigan vying for Big Ten, National Title

November 18th is two and a half weeks away and every college football fan is eagerly awaiting possibly the biggest game in the Big 10 in a long time. Michigan has Ball State and Indiana left on their schedule before they make the road trip to their hated rivals the Ohio State Buckeyes. While Ohio State has clearly separated themselves as the cream of the college football crop, Michigan looks to be playing with a tremendous amount of confidence.

This confidence is mostly due to a tremendous defense. Lamarr Woodley and crew have established themselves as a physical, no quit, fast defense. Which makes me ask this question, do they have enough speed to contain Troy Smith, Ted Ginn and the rest of the Ohio State offense?

Michigan head coach Lyod Carr is 1-4 against Jim Tressell, but you know he wants this game. You know how bad he wanted the Notre Dame game and look what happened there. The problem is Ohio State has a better defense and I think a better offense with Troy Smith. I can’t wait for this game; to be honest I have no idea which way this game is going to go. At home and with the way Tressell has owned Carr you have to believe that OSU will pull this one out. At the very least it will be a fun game to watch.

Scarlet Fever

Being from New York I can admit that the one thing the New York City area has missed out on is a major college football team to root for. Syracuse and Uconn are too far away and Hofstra isn’t big enough. Well, I think we have all found our team and that team hails from the State University of New Jersey Rutgers.

Rutgers becoming a good college football team has become quite the story. When you think back 5 to 10 years ago this team was Temple-esque. They were the doormat of the Big East. If a team needed a win, Rutgers was their slump-buster. Then they hired Greg Schiano.

Not only has Schiano brought in great talent, but he has also brought in a winning attitude. Coming from Miami Schiano was used to a lot of that, but winning was something that most Scarlet Knight fans felt no more than 3 times in a season. Now they are ranked 15th in the nation and will be heavily tested by West Virginia and Louisville in the coming weeks. Louisville plays West Virginia Thursday night and just think the winner of that will have to hold off Rutgers for the Big East crown and possibly a National Championship birth.

Now you have to ask yourself, if Rutgers does the unthinkable and beats both Louisville and West Virginia, and remains undefeated do they deserve to play for the national title? I can’t put them in over Florida, Tennessee, or Auburn if they have only one loss. The reason being Rutgers didn’t play anybody outside of their conference and their conference is not exactly the power conference it once was.

Big East Champion or not, Rutgers and Greg Schiano should be proud of the job they have done. This will be a good team for as long as Schiano decides to stay there (Isn’t there going to be a job opening in  Miami?).    

The Rest…

Overall I think this season has been a let down compared to last year. I don’ t really know why that is considering that besides Ohio State, the field seems so even. Of course when you lose players like Matt Leinart, Vince Young, and Reggie Bush things don’t really seem the same. It also makes you appreciate just how talented those guys were. As good as Slaton, Smith, and Brady Quinn are can you really say that they captivate you as much as the three guys the preceded them as the best players in college football?

Its looking like it is going to be a tight race down to the finish of this college football season. I am hoping for a Ohio State-Florida National Title game. I don’t know why, but I really like Florida. What ever happens I am sure college football will provide us all with some great games and performances.

2 replies on “College Football Grab Bag”

right now I think Michigan is the only team that can challenge Ohio State. Even as a Florida fan, I think they’d get run off the field by the Buckeyes.

Oh.. I didn’t say they would beat them, just that I think they deserve to be in the title game with 1 loss. Overall I think Florida is the 2nd best team in the nation, but like I said OSU has separated themselves much like USC did.

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