Without a doubt, the best weekend of the 2011 season. So much to discuss and dissect as the BCS rankings seem destined to be all shook up!
You've gotta feel a little sorry for ousted Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops. He probably watched Arizona's game vs. UCLA last night and wondered where all the good stuff he saw in the 48-12 smashing had been for the first six games of the season. In interim head coach's Tim Kish's first game, everything clicked. Offense has never been a problem, but defense and special teams have. On this night, they all came to the party. UCLA just looked more hapless with every series as QB Nick Foles and WR Juron Criner tore them apart, with support from a rejuvenated running game.
You've gotta feel a little sorry for ousted Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops. He probably watched Arizona's game vs. UCLA last night and wondered where all the good stuff he saw in the 48-12 smashing had been for the first six games of the season. In interim head coach's Tim Kish's first game, everything clicked. Offense has never been a problem, but defense and special teams have. On this night, they all came to the party. UCLA just looked more hapless with every series as QB Nick Foles and WR Juron Criner tore them apart, with support from a rejuvenated running game.
There will be some hard questions asked of UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel after the embarrassing performance his Bruins turned in on national television on Thursday. There wasn't one good thing to be said of the game where they trailed 48-7 at the half, and rushed for a team total of 37 yards on 25 carries. Once again, the Bruins QBs were ineffective. As was their defense. And special teams. Everything, really. This loss dents the Bowl hopes of UCLA. It might just have signalled the death of the Neuheisel era in Westwood.
Friday night saw the two teams most people thought were the standard-setters in the Big East lose. First it was Rutgers, laying an egg - and turning the football over far too many times - against Louisville before, north in Syracuse, Orange QB Ryan Nassib had the game of his life, throwing for four TDs and rushing for another to beat West Virginia. So who's the best team in the Big East now? Maybe the 'Cuse...
It was a game of big plays and not much defense for long stretches, and Clemson, continually proving to their doubters that they are the real thing, came out on top of a highly entertaining contest against North Carolina in Death Valley. It's amazing to think that Tigers QB Tajh Boyd is a first-year starter. The scary thing is, he's only going to get better. Clemson haven't been to a BCS bowl before. That might change this year; now is the time to start talking conferfence favourites and there isn't a better team in the ACC than Clemson. Dabo Swinney's men were unstoppable on offense.
Michigan State seem to love the national television spotlight, and they seem, when under the bright lights, to have a penchant for a crazy, memorable ending. Last year it was a passing TD on a fake punt to beat the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and this year, after they had bled points and yards in the final quarter vs. Wisconsin, allowing the Badgers back into the game, it was Sparty QB Kirk Cousins launching a Hail Mary that would've made Doug Flutie proud. Somehow, in that mass of humanity, it was caught and now, with a fearsome D and a reasonable - and improving - offense, Michigan State might be Big Ten favourites.
The Badgers of Wisconsin might get their revenge on Sparty come Indianapolis the inaugural Big Ten championship game, but, with the loss on Saturday night, the Heisman campaign for QB Russell Wilson had probably come to an end. You wonder, though, what we might all have been saying had the Badgers come back to win that game. That's how fickle the Heisman Trophy race - and, indeed, college football itself - can be.
Speaking of Heisman candidates...the sign at GameDay in East Lansing, MI said it best: Keenum 4 Heisman. That's right, the Case Keenum bandwagon is filling up. #21 Houston beat Marshall's Thundering Herd 63-28 on Saturday afternoon. Keenum, who rode the bench for most of the final quarter, was an eye-popping 24-28 for 376 yards and 6 TDs. He also had two runs for a total of 16 yards. Insane numbers!!
Multiple NCAA records are falling or will soon fall, thanks to Case Keenum's video game numbers. The Houston QB became the Football Bowl Subdivision’s career leader in total offense on Saturday. He is close now to the major college football career records for passing yards and touchdown throws. He needs 802 passing yards to move ahead of Chang’s record (17,072) and five TD passes to eclipse the mark (134) set by Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell from 2005-08.
We've said it a thousand times. Notre Dame lose football games when they turn the football over. We saw it vs. Michigan and vs. South Florida. What happened Saturday night? A bungled snap right on the USC goal line, which was recovered by Jawanza Starling and taken the other way, back to the house for a Trojan defensive touchdown. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and a team that was touted as being highly talented and BCS-ready, has three losses now, with Stanford still on the schedule, and will be lucky to get a mid-range bowl.
As a USC fan, beating the Irish at home is one of the best things in football. I love it when they turn the football over. It certainly made up for standing in the LA Coliseum in a freak rainstorm last November, watching the Irish survive the deluge and win. The important thing to note here, people, is that USC have won 9 of the last 10 contests. UCLA also lost this weekend. For a USC fan, that's as perfect as perfect gets!
As exciting as MSU vs. Wisconsin was, the game of the night, delayed by a large storm front, was Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma, in which the Red Raiders, behind the aerial display put on by QB Seth Doege, knocked off the Sooners, the second-best team in the nation, according to the initial BCS rankings. Tech put up more than 500 yards of offense on a Sooners D that had been considered shaky pre-season, and had not really been tested before now. It was the first home loss for Oklahoma in 39 games.
With the Sooners poised to fall from the upper echelons of the BCS rankings, it's their cross-state rivals, Oklahoma State, who seem well placed to benefit most from the remarkable game in Norman yesterday. That Cowboy offense just keeps rolling on, and they found something solid on the ground vs. Missouri. The running game makes them even more difficult. We all saw what Tech did to Oklahoma's shaky defense. Imagine what QB Brandon Weeden and WR Justin Blackmon might do?
Stanford showed the nation that they don't need Andrew Luck to throw for 300+ yards and 3 scores every week to be dangerous. Luck had a solid day vs. Washington, throwing for 169 yards and 2 TDs, but it was the running game that did the damage. Stepfan Taylor ran ten times for 138 yards and 2 TDs, Tyler Gaffney 9 times for 113 and 1 TD and Anthony Wilkerson 14 times for 93 yards and 3 scores. Pretty scary, huh?
Friday night saw the two teams most people thought were the standard-setters in the Big East lose. First it was Rutgers, laying an egg - and turning the football over far too many times - against Louisville before, north in Syracuse, Orange QB Ryan Nassib had the game of his life, throwing for four TDs and rushing for another to beat West Virginia. So who's the best team in the Big East now? Maybe the 'Cuse...
It was a game of big plays and not much defense for long stretches, and Clemson, continually proving to their doubters that they are the real thing, came out on top of a highly entertaining contest against North Carolina in Death Valley. It's amazing to think that Tigers QB Tajh Boyd is a first-year starter. The scary thing is, he's only going to get better. Clemson haven't been to a BCS bowl before. That might change this year; now is the time to start talking conferfence favourites and there isn't a better team in the ACC than Clemson. Dabo Swinney's men were unstoppable on offense.
Michigan State seem to love the national television spotlight, and they seem, when under the bright lights, to have a penchant for a crazy, memorable ending. Last year it was a passing TD on a fake punt to beat the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and this year, after they had bled points and yards in the final quarter vs. Wisconsin, allowing the Badgers back into the game, it was Sparty QB Kirk Cousins launching a Hail Mary that would've made Doug Flutie proud. Somehow, in that mass of humanity, it was caught and now, with a fearsome D and a reasonable - and improving - offense, Michigan State might be Big Ten favourites.
The Badgers of Wisconsin might get their revenge on Sparty come Indianapolis the inaugural Big Ten championship game, but, with the loss on Saturday night, the Heisman campaign for QB Russell Wilson had probably come to an end. You wonder, though, what we might all have been saying had the Badgers come back to win that game. That's how fickle the Heisman Trophy race - and, indeed, college football itself - can be.
Speaking of Heisman candidates...the sign at GameDay in East Lansing, MI said it best: Keenum 4 Heisman. That's right, the Case Keenum bandwagon is filling up. #21 Houston beat Marshall's Thundering Herd 63-28 on Saturday afternoon. Keenum, who rode the bench for most of the final quarter, was an eye-popping 24-28 for 376 yards and 6 TDs. He also had two runs for a total of 16 yards. Insane numbers!!
Multiple NCAA records are falling or will soon fall, thanks to Case Keenum's video game numbers. The Houston QB became the Football Bowl Subdivision’s career leader in total offense on Saturday. He is close now to the major college football career records for passing yards and touchdown throws. He needs 802 passing yards to move ahead of Chang’s record (17,072) and five TD passes to eclipse the mark (134) set by Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell from 2005-08.
We've said it a thousand times. Notre Dame lose football games when they turn the football over. We saw it vs. Michigan and vs. South Florida. What happened Saturday night? A bungled snap right on the USC goal line, which was recovered by Jawanza Starling and taken the other way, back to the house for a Trojan defensive touchdown. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and a team that was touted as being highly talented and BCS-ready, has three losses now, with Stanford still on the schedule, and will be lucky to get a mid-range bowl.
As a USC fan, beating the Irish at home is one of the best things in football. I love it when they turn the football over. It certainly made up for standing in the LA Coliseum in a freak rainstorm last November, watching the Irish survive the deluge and win. The important thing to note here, people, is that USC have won 9 of the last 10 contests. UCLA also lost this weekend. For a USC fan, that's as perfect as perfect gets!
As exciting as MSU vs. Wisconsin was, the game of the night, delayed by a large storm front, was Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma, in which the Red Raiders, behind the aerial display put on by QB Seth Doege, knocked off the Sooners, the second-best team in the nation, according to the initial BCS rankings. Tech put up more than 500 yards of offense on a Sooners D that had been considered shaky pre-season, and had not really been tested before now. It was the first home loss for Oklahoma in 39 games.
With the Sooners poised to fall from the upper echelons of the BCS rankings, it's their cross-state rivals, Oklahoma State, who seem well placed to benefit most from the remarkable game in Norman yesterday. That Cowboy offense just keeps rolling on, and they found something solid on the ground vs. Missouri. The running game makes them even more difficult. We all saw what Tech did to Oklahoma's shaky defense. Imagine what QB Brandon Weeden and WR Justin Blackmon might do?
Stanford showed the nation that they don't need Andrew Luck to throw for 300+ yards and 3 scores every week to be dangerous. Luck had a solid day vs. Washington, throwing for 169 yards and 2 TDs, but it was the running game that did the damage. Stepfan Taylor ran ten times for 138 yards and 2 TDs, Tyler Gaffney 9 times for 113 and 1 TD and Anthony Wilkerson 14 times for 93 yards and 3 scores. Pretty scary, huh?
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