Another week of the 2012 college football season is in the books and, as usual this time of year, the cream is rising to the top. I might add that controversy abounds also. We will get to that in a minute. This week I went a less than stellar 5-5 but still running 62-19 for the season. I wonder how one gets a job as a college football analyst. Is that even a real job? Probably not........
The biggest surprise probably would be the rout that was the Gator/Gamecock contest. In an earlier post I mentioned that Florida and LSU were the same team in different uniforms. I think I may retract that statement. At this time Florida could very well be the number one squad in the country. They showed the ability to work with both the passing and running game along with a very stingy defense. South Carolina has been a bit of a disappointment of late. They probably should have beaten LSU but did not even belong on the same field as the Gators.
Speaking of LSU, they had some trouble with a mistake prone Aggie squad. The Aggies jumped out early but turnovers and a lack of quality defense cost them the win. LSU can run on below par defense, but with that one dimensional offense they will lose at least two more before all is said and done. The Aggies have proven in year one that they can play SEC ball. There is really not that much real difference between Big Twelve and SEC anyway. More top to bottom good teams in the SEC usually. Now if the Aggies came out the the Big East or WAC then it would be a real topic of conversation.
The Tide win again. No surprise their. They have not been seriously challenged this season. Of course they have been lucky in the scheduling dept. They have faced very little in the way of power to this point. They may be the best team in the country but others have won games over quality competition and the argument can be made............
My fear is that Notre Dame will somehow find a way to run the table and be considered a legitimate candidate for the "big game at the end." They are in no way at that level but it seems that the NCAA/television mafia want to push the Irish down our throats every chance they get. This year they have real opportunity to do just that.
Notre Dame is a good team sure. Much better than in the recent past, but a lackluster win over a very very average BYU team along with a controversial (to say the least) call that may have saved them from a Stanford comeback in OT 2 weeks back is just not top 10.
I am sure my fear is groundless. They do have to play an Oklahoma squad team that is not out of the national picture quite yet. It would be surprising if the Irish can hang long......
KSU is perhaps the surprise of the season. The utter beat down they dealt out was pretty surprising. The KSU passing game was also a surprise. WVU has a poor defense but it has now been shown that the offense can do little against a team with a tough defense. Two weeks in a row. At one time I though that WVU was a top ten squad. I am not so sure they are top 25 right about now. Not sure at all.
If the Wildcats do indeed prove to have a balanced attack they are a team that can play with anybody. Their defense is Florida/LSU good and and their offense may be able to hang with Bama, Florida and Oregon. A legitimate national challenger the Wildcats. They meet a tougher than expected Texas Tech squad next week and will need to be on their "A" game. A loss by KSU will automatically disqualify them for a shot at the "title" game. However I would expect that a one loss Oklahoma would still "qualify." We already know that a one (or two) loss SEC team can qualify. The politics of the game..........
Is there any other football worth talking about? Certainly not in the Big Ten. The PAC 12 (or whatever) perhaps? Oregon destroyed the Sun Devils last Thursday. One has to feel for the ASU athletes but it was nice to see Todd Graham humiliated a bit. Does a heart good. If Oregon did not call off the dogs in the second half they could possibly have scored 80 points or more.
Oregon State is right there with a nice, but not real convincing, win over a rather pitiful Utah team. If Riley expects to keep his team in the national conversation then they need to issue beat downs. Unsportsman like to be sure, but in today's BCS environment, it is the only way for a "dark horse" to stay in the conversation. That is just the way it is.
Clemson had a nice win over Beamer's group. Those particular Tigers can play pretty good when it suits them. FSU let Miami hang around way too long before finally making it a semi rout. Al Golden migh wish he had stayed at Temple before all is said and done. It was also nice to see Duke "upset" NC. My good will only extends to the Duke football program BTW....
The MAC made another statement with the Toledo win over Cincinnati. Well maybe not. Cincinnati may have been over rated and Toledo under. Typical of the pollsters (and BCS) to over rate a Big East squad and discount a MAC team.
Tulsa had a scare from Rice (of all teams) but came out on top. Tulsa is probably the only team in CUSA that is any good at all. Well UCF will make some noise in conference yet, but they are not what I would consider a good team.
ULM is in the driver seat in the still up for grabs SBC. They "hold their destiny in their hands" as the television honks love to say......
Rutgers and Lousville keep plodding along. One of these two teams is a top 25 pretender. Probably Louisville. Their QB puts up some good numbers but their close wins over very low quality competition........
About enough for one sitting. Look for the week 9 predictions at some point in the next day or two along with an updated Bartender Cabbie Rankings. Can you guess who won't be in the number one spot?........
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