College Football Week 3: Come quickly, conference play
The Big 12 had its share of games in the national spotlight on opening week. OSU-Georgia and OU-Brigham Young. Last Saturday, Nebraska-Virginia Tech and Texas Tech-Texas were great matchups (and games).
Next week, OU-Miami ranks with USC-Cal as the games of the day.
But in Week 2 and Week 4, the Big 12 offered up nary a game worthy of ABC to telecast.
In Week 2, Houston-OSU turned into a wild showdown, but no one saw it coming. In Week 4, Houston again offers the marquee game for the Big 12 – hosting Texas Tech in a game that will be televised by ESPN2.
There’s a dearth of legitimate September games in the sport, and the Big 12 is as much to blame as any league. Texas plays no marquee non-conference games. Nebraska plays only Virginia Tech. Missouri played only Illinois. Texas A&M plays only Arkansas. Kansas’ best foe is Southern Mississippi. Tech’s is Houston.
The league is top heavy with mismatches. Conference play can’t get here fast enough.
TEN BIGGEST WINNERS OF THE WEEK
10. Florida State quarterbacking: The Seminoles’ decade-long slump can be traced to lack of solid quarterbacking. But Christian Ponder, a junior from the Dallas suburb of Colleyville, is changing that. Ponder completed 21 of 26 passes for 195 yards and two TDs, plus ran 11 times for 77 yards and a touchdown, as the ‘Noles routed Brigham Young 54-32.
9. Florida-Tennessee rivalry: The coaches are sniping and the Volunteers didn’t go down without a fight, losing 23-13. Maybe this rivalry isn’t dead after all.
8. Ryan Mathews: This is what Friday night football does. Elevates unknown players to star status. Fresno State lost 51-34 to Boise State, but college football fans were introduced to this Fresno State junior tailback, who raced to touchdown runs of 69, 60 and 68 yards and now leads the nation in rushing with 149 yards per game.
7. Joe Cox: Remember way back, oh, two weeks ago, when everyone thought Cox couldn’t quarterback? Now he’s led Georgia to 93 points the last two weeks, including a 52-41 victory over Arkansas in which Cox completed 18 of 26 for 375 yards, one interception and five TDs. His two-game total, counting a 41-37 win over South Carolina: 35 of 50 for 576 yards, seven TDs and two interceptions, after a mediocre opener at Oklahoma State.
6. Miami: Halfway home to what would be perhaps the greatest 4-0 start in college football history. The Hurricanes vanquished Georgia Tech 33-17, their second straight ranked victim, and now get Virginia Tech and OU back-to-back.
5. Bravery: You’re a mid-major. On the road against a Big Ten school. You lead by seven with 3:44 left in the game and face 4th-and-2 at your own 16-yard line. What do you do? If you’re Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill, you go into punt formation, snap the ball to the up man and watch Justin Anderson ramble 11 yards for a first down. By the time Northern Illinois punted, Purdue had 25 seconds left and 80 yards to go. Final score: Northern Illinois 28, Purdue 21. Jerry Kill is my new favorite coach.
4. Jahvid Best: The California star has staked his claim as America’s best tailback, with five touchdown runs and 131 yards in a 35-21 win at Minnesota. With all the star quarterbacks either injured or playing so-so, Best could make a Heisman dash.
3. Cincinnati: Don’t look now, but the Bearcats could be headed for Pasadena. They’ve already won at Rutgers and Oregon State (28-18 last Saturday); their remaining road games are at Miami-Ohio, South Florida, Syracuse and Pitt.
2. Steve Sarkisian: Few coaches with a 2-1 career record have been hotter than this former BYU quarterback and USC offensive coordinator. Washington had won two of its previous 23 games going into 2009, but the Huskies are 2-1 after that 16-13 upset of Southern Cal.
1. Boise State: The Broncos not only get a big win at Fresno State, but Brigham Young’s loss to Florida State means Boise State has clear sailing to a BCS bowl.
REALITY RANKINGS
1. Miami
2. Cincinnati
3. Alabama
4. Boise State
5. Southern Cal
6. Houston
7. LSU
8. Georgia
9. Washington
10. North Carolina
TEN BIGGEST LOSERS OF THE WEEK
10. Baylor: The Bears seemed primed for a bowl run, having won at Wake Forest in Week 1. But Baylor lost 30-22 at home to Connecticut and now figure to be 3-1 going into Big 12 play. That means the Bears must go 3-5 in the conference to be bowl eligible.
Even giving Baylor wins at Texas A&M and Iowa State, the Bears will have to win in Arlington against Texas Tech or in Waco against OSU, Nebraska or Texas.
9. Option football: Georgia Tech was stuffed by Miami (33-17), gaining 95 yards on 39 runs. Then Navy lost to Pitt 27-14, gaining just 129 yards on 46 runs.
8. 400-yard passers: Five quarterbacks threw for at least 400 yards in Week 3. Four lost. In fact, six of the top seven passing leaders of the week lost: Hawaii’s Greg Alexander (477 yards in a 34-33 loss to UNLV), SMU’s Bo Levi Mitchell (424 in a 30-27 overtime loss to Washington State), Texas Tech’s Taylor Potts (420 in a 34-24 loss to Texas), Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett (408 in a 52-41 loss to Georgia), Northwestern’s Mike Kafka (390 in a 37-34 loss to Syracuse) and Bowling Green’s Tyler Sheehan (383 in a 17-10 loss to Marshall). Only Troy’s Levi Brown (413 yards in a 27-14 win over Alabama-Birmingham) matched such huge numbers with victory.
7. Kid Nichol: Nichol transferred from OU after Sam Bradford’s emergence to find playing time. Alas, at Michigan State, Nichol has found fellow sophomore Kirk Cousin. After sharing time early, Cousin has taken the QB reins; he threw for 302 yards in a 33-30 loss to Notre Dame. Nichol threw four times, completing two.
6. Helmet enforcement: Flags flood football fields these days for helmet-to-helmet penalties, even if helmet doesn’t meet helmet. But when a helmet did meet a helmet – Texas’ Sergio Kindle knocking the block off of Tech quarterback Taylor Potts – there was no flag. Just a fumble that helped the Longhorns seal the game. I swear, you almost believed Potts’ head was still in the helmet as it bounced away from Potts’ body.
5. Ralph Fridgen: The Maryland coach was 31-8 his first three years, 2001-03, including an Orange Bowl berth. But the Terrapins are 34-30 since, including a 1-2 start this year. Maryland lost to Middle Tennessee State 32-31 a week after needing overtime to beat I-AA James Madison 38-35.
4. Nebraska revival: In Bo Pelini’s second year, the Huskers seemed on the verge of jump-starting the long rebuilding process. They led Virginia Tech 15-10 late in the game and had the Hokies backed up. Then Tyrod Taylor and Danny Coale teamed on an 80-yard completion to the Nebraska 3-yard line with 1:11 left in the game. V -Tech won 16-15, and the Cornhuskers’ return to college football’s inner sanctum will have to wait.
3. Steve Kragthorpe: No coach in America needed a victory more than did Kragthorpe, who was 12-13 in two-plus seasons at Louisville, which had gone 41-9 under Bobby Petrino. Kragthorpe was 0-2 vs. arch-rival Kentucky; make that 0-3, after a 31-27 loss at Lexington.
2. Aaron Corp: The Southern Cal junior already had been beaten out by a true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley, who proceeded to engineer an epic victory at Ohio State. Then when given the reins in Barkley’s absence, Corp and the Trojans fall flat at Washington, losing 16-13, with Corp throwing for just 110 yards and no touchdowns.
1. State of Utah: Two mighty entities died Saturday. Utah’s 16-game losing streak and Brigham Young’s national-championship dream. The Utes lost at Oregon 31-24, while BYU was routed at home by Florida State 54-32. Utah was still emboldened by its Sugar Bowl upset of Alabama. BYU was buoyed by its upset of OU on Sept. 5. The Nov. 28 BYU-Utah game looked like it might be a national semifinal. Now, at best, it will be the Mountain West title game.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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