NCAA Football 2013: Week 5's Game of the Week

No. 23 Wisconsin @ No. 4 Ohio State

We know that both Louisiana State and Georgia are going to figure prominently in the hunt for an SEC title — and, by extension, the National Championship — but the same can’t be said for teams out of the Big Ten.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the real quality of the conference, preseason rankings aside, because the first month of the season has shown us little but the ability of a lot of supposedly-talented Big Ten teams beating up on the likes of Florida A&M, who is in nobody’s list of football superpowers.

That’s why the Game of the Week this week is out of the Big Ten:

Coverage: Sunday September 29, 10.00 a.m. on ESPN2 & ESPN2-HD.
 

There’s so much to learn out of this game. From the top: will Ohio State’s Heisman hopeful QB Braxton Miller reclaim his starting spot from backup Kenny Guiton, who has been playing out of his mind? Can the Buckeye defense, which really hasn’t been tested, stand up against the fleet of brilliant Wisconsin running backs?Can Wisconsin’s QB Joel Stave make enough big throws to keep OSU off balance defensively and perhaps exploit their weak secondary? Will either defense really have an impact on this game?

Ohio State’s Quarterback(s)

You’d assume that Miller will come back in as soon as he’s ready to go, because he’s a prodigious, game-changing talent, but on how short a leash he’ll be on now that Guiton’s proven to be red-hot, we don’t yet know. 

It must be nice for Urban Meyer to have such a wealth of talent at the key offensive position. Guiton’s been a major revelation, a veteran senior who has never started a game until this year. It seemed like Disaster Central when Miller went down, but it hasn’t been anywhere near as bad as we first thought. 

Wisconsin’s Running Back(s)

Wisconsin have perhaps the best one-two-three set of backs in the country, led by the brilliant Melvin Gordon. They are big, strong, agile, don’t seem to mind dragging defenders with them…and are going to be hard to stop. I think they can roll up yards against anyone in the Big Ten. That’s how good they are. 

One thing that doesn’t exactly work in their favour is the noted struggles that Wisconsin’s QB Joel Stave has been having. More on this below, but, suffice to say he’s not a major threat hurling the pigskin, so if Ohio State stack the box it’ll be tougher to get yards. Wisconsin might have to get creative: run the ball out to the boundaries; maybe a toss play or a pitch or something to try and get these guys in space. Watch out, if they find it.

Joel Stave

I’ve barely seen the Badger quarterback make a good throw all season, and he figures to be under a stack more pressure this week than he’s seen so far. He needs to be relied upon to make big throws at big times in games, and there’s not a wealth of evidence suggesting he can do so. 

Some of his attempts against Purdue were cringe-worthy bad. But Ohio State’s secondary seems vulnerable, and he might therefore be able to turn that to his advantage. A few good throws deep, some play action stuff, that’s all you need, just to try and make the defense respect both the run and the throw. If Stave can air it out with success, getting guys like WR Jared Abrederis into the game, the Buckeyes are going to have less personnel to deal with stopping the run.

Defense

Ohio State’s defense hasn’t had to do much of anything against their early opponents, which leaves us not knowing a lot about their capabilities. Friends of mine who are Ohio State fans are concerned about their secondary, which will be defending the deep ball against a quarterback in Stave who hasn’t shown much ability throwing it. Then there’s the run game to be combatted thirty or forty plays this game. 

And Wisconsin figure to have their hands full stopping an Ohio State offense that — granted, against inferior opposition — has been all sorts of unstoppable so far this year. Even so, Guiton or Miller is plenty good enough to make big plays against the best defense they’ll have seen in 2013. The duel threat factor is what weighs big in my opinion. Ohio State have it, Wisconsin don’t and it’s tough to stop.

In a game where defense will be at a premium, a turnover might be enormous.

Home Field Advantage

Never underestimate the home crowd’s ability to sway the game. One hundred thousand Buckeye fans are going to be falling out of their skins in this one. Ohio Stadium is one of the great college environments. Saturday night there’ll be an electric atmosphere under lights, with a national — international! — television audience watching on. It’s going to be tough on the Wisconsin offense when so many people are screaming their lungs out whenever they’re on the field. It matters.

Who Wins?

If things go to plan, Ohio State – though only just, I think. For mine, it comes down to what Wisconsin can (and, also, can’t) do offensively. I don’t trust Stave to make enough big plays at the business end of the game. Therefore, Ohio State can lock down on the Badger running backs, and snuff Wisconsin out that way. As for the Buckeyes when they have the ball, I figure Guiton or Miller is going to move the football enough to eek out a win. 

Buckeyes by seven.

NCAA Football 2013: Week 5 Australian TV Guide

After a lackluster week of games, both on and off TV, Week Five gives us a couple of interesting Big Ten match-ups and another glimpse at Alabama, who take on Mississippi in one of two games between ranked opponents on Australian TV. Thank God for this slate of games, because last week was forgettable. Hard to believe we're more than a month into the season - conference play really kicks into high gear now!

All times AEST

Friday 27 September

College Football Live (9.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech (9.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Saturday 28 September

College Football Live (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Utah State vs. San Jose State (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Sunday 29 September

College GameDay - Athens, GA (12.01am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 11 Oklahoma State vs. West Virginia (2.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
South Carolina vs. Central Florida (2.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 8 Florida State vs. Boston College (5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Iowa vs. Minnesota (5.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 21 Mississippi vs. No. 1 Alabama (8.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 23 Wisconsin vs. No. 4 Ohio State (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 5 Stanford vs. Washington State (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Final (9.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

NCAA Football 2013: Week Four Review

Everything you need to know about some of the big games from Week 4 of the 2013 NCAA Football season… 

Arkansas at Rutgers 

Last week, in the aftermath of the crazy end to the Wisconsin/Arizona State game in Tempe, the wife of Wisconsin-turned-Arkansas Head Coach Brett Jen Bielema wrote the following Tweet: #Karma. As though the Badgers had done something wrong. When, in actual fact, it was Bielema who upped and left Madison for the Razorbacks and the SEC. So, that came from nowhere, right out of the Book of Classless.

Fast forward seven days, and Arkansas went into Rutgers and were beaten 28-24, after leading the Scarlet Knights rather comfortably, 24-7 midway through the third and 24-14 with ten minutes to play in the final quarter. Rutgers had turned the football over three times to that point, and didn’t look particularly potent offensively – their best drives were in the first quarter, ending with turnovers instead of points – with their possibly-concussed QB Gary Nova not the same quarterback that we’ve seen recently.

Then, out of nowhere, Rutgers became the team who put up 50 points (albeit in a loss) to Fresno State in the first game of the season. Nova came alive, sparking the Scarlet Knights to a pretty impressive 28-24 victory, long after a good portion of the crowd on the banks of the Raritan had gone home. Nova connected with WR Leonte Carroo for two touchdowns in the fourth, a 33-yard bomb to the corner and a short 4-uard completion, and Arkansas couldn’t move the football against a suddenly-stout Rutgers defense.

Karma, anyone? 

Auburn at Louisiana State 

The SEC West battle of two undefeated teams with the same mascot wasn’t that much of a battle. More of a rout when it mattered. On a windy and rainy night in Death Valley, LSU continued on their merry way, teaching Auburn a football lesson on their way into a pretty giant showdown against Georgia next week. 

It was total domination by the Bayou Bengals in the first half, thanks largely to RB Jeremy Hill, who scored twice in the first quarter, one from a long way out (49 yards) and the other from inside the red zone (210 yards), and once more in the third, easing the workload of QB Zach Mettenberger, who has been a standout to start the season under new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron. There was a late comeback attempt by Auburn, but it fell short, with LSU outlasting and winning 35-21. 

Purdue at Wisconsin 

Mostly behind the double-punch ground threat of Melvin Gordon (147 yards and 3 touchdowns) and the active FBS leader in rushing yards at over three thousand, James White (145 yards and one score), Wisconsin opened their Big Ten account with a handy win against the Boilermakers who pushed Notre Dame all the way last week in West Lafayette.

Gordon seemed unstoppable at times, running around and trampling over Purdue defenders, who exhibited some of the worst attempted tackling that I’ve seen in some time, and with White coming in to carry some of the load – both backs had sixteen carries – the Badgers, under new coach Gary Andersen, don’t seem to have lost an offensive step after Bret Bielema left for Arkansas.

It’s been a quiet start for Badgers quarterback, Joel Stave, who hasn’t been asked to do much of anything, really, this season – I mean, other than hand the ball off thirty or more times a game to his brilliant backs, but against better defenses down the road who will stack the box against White and Gordon, the pressure will mount, and he’ll be asked to make some big plays. Whether he can, is the real question.

This was Wisconsin’s fifth straight win in a Big Ten opener, but, it’s fair to say that Purdue aren’t exactly A-grade completion. The first real test for the Badgers comes in seven days’ time, when they head to Ohio Stadium to take on Urban Meyer’s undefeated Ohio State team. 

Arizona State at Stanford 

Stanford keep on keeping on, and The Cardinal jumped out of the box in a big way, smacked Arizona State square in the mouth, took their starters out of the game early on, and withstood a frenzied comeback attempt by the Sun Devils and remain undefeated heading into the season’s fifth week. Stanford were up 29-0 at half time, thanks to four offensive touchdowns and a safety.

Arizona State looked a shell-shocked unit heading off the field for the break. On national television, the first thirty minutes of football were a major statement by Stanford. The Sun Devils found the going easier in the fourth quarter, but the cue was in the rack by then, with David Shaw electing to rest QB Kevin Hogan (11-17 for 152 yards and two scores) and RB Tyler Gaffney (95 yards on nineteen carries).

The way things are going, Oregon vs. Stanford’s Thursday night clash (November 7) might decide supremacy in the Pac-12 conference.

Kansas State at Texas 

It’s been a hugely tumultuous week in Austin, where rumours of Alabama coach Nick Saban being approached (back in January) to possibly replace Mack Brown at UT sent people into a frenzy, on the back of a loss, which came, in part, to another bad defensive performance, particularly when it came to stopping the run, against Ole Miss last week.

Fast forward seven days, and the crowd at Austin’s Memorial Stadium, the Longhorns got a much better defensive effort – albeit it against a somewhat choppy K-State offense, who fumbled the football three times in this one, and had so much trouble getting anything going on the ground – en route to an incredibly important 31-21 victory that will, for seven short days at least, quell some of the anger that appears to be poised to overflow after last week’s loss.

Mack Brown, who has received something of a stay of execution, will doubtless be relieved, for his defense held K-State to just 112 rushing yards, which is by far their best performance of the season. QB David Ash, who really hasn’t been the problem this year, had another solid game, going 14-25 166 yards and a score, but it was RB Jonathan Gray to led the ‘Horns tonight, notching 142 yards and two touchdowns as Texas withstood a late K-State comeback effort.

Swans Review: Preliminary Final vs Fremantle (2 September 2013) #AFLFinals

Dockers far too good for the Swans in Perth, and into their first Grand Final

FREMANTLE 2.9 7.11 11.12 14.15 (99) SYDNEY 2.1 2.2 5.5 11.8 (74) Goals: Fremantle: M Walters 3 M Pavlich 2 N Fyfe 2 N Suban 2 H Ballantyne L Neale M Barlow P Duffield R Crowley. Sydney: G Rohan 2 H Cunningham 2 B McGlynn D Hannebery J Bolton J McVeigh L Jetta L Parker M Pyke.
Best: Fremantle: D Mundy N Fyfe P Duffield R Crowley M Johnson A Sandilands M Walters M Barlow. Sydney: J McVeigh G Rohan B McGlynn. Umpires: Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith, Shane McInerney. Official Crowd: 43,249 at Subiaco.

It is the inevitability of football after (or even during) the first week of finals. When you lose, it's the end of the season, and there is naught by the long summer slog, pre-season and trials, before a Sherrin is kicked again in anger. On a raucous night in front of a rabid Purple Haze of Fremantle fans at Patersons Stadium, and under the pump from an impressively relentless football team - who showed a bit of a rabid streak themselves - the Swans have reached that moment. 2013 is no more. They will not make a second successive trip to the last Saturday in September and the AFL Grand Final. The season is over, the dog days of summer are just around the corner, and a chance for atonement seems a long way off now.

Yet, the Swans should not be discouraged. It is true that they were beaten by a far superior team tonight, and the 25-point final margin hugely flattered the men in the red and white, but it has been an uphill battle since before the first bounce against GWS back in April, but it has ended in a Preliminary Final, which not many expected. Not with how the injury list kept growing in Sydney.

There was not one occasion this year where the team that took the field in the Grand Final of 2012 were on the field together, as a cohesive unit. Alex Johnson didn't see action at all, Rhyce Shaw was a long time on the sidelines, joined by Lewis Roberts-Tompson, Lewis Jetta, Martin Mattner, Adam Goodes and, later, 2013 revelations, Tom Mitchell and Kurt Tippett. With that many good, veteran players out, it's a wonder the Swans made the finals, let alone survived a tough encounter against Hawthorn in the first week, rebounded resiliently against Carlton last week at home and made the long trip across to the west coast to face the Dockers.

I knew it would be tough going against Fremantle. After all, they are the best team in the league as far as defensive numbers go, and they were rested, having earned a week off after - amazingly and courageously - beating Geelong in Geelong two weeks ago. They had a giant home crowd behind them, and didn't disappoint. The Dockers were magnificent, putting the squeeze on the Swans in every way possible in that first half. It was one of the great sustained pressure moments that I can recall. 

Had it not been for some wayward kicking, the home side would likely have held a ten-goal lead at the half. As much as it pained me to realise, the Swans had nothing. They had been outplayed comprehensively, and how often can you say that about this team? I would imagine that the Hawthorn players watching the game tonight would have started getting nervous sometime about five minutes into the contest, when the Dockers really ratcheted up the pressure. It was a clinical effort, inspired by their midfield, which shut Sydney's star-studded one down. It was a tough night for Hannebery, Jack, Kennedy, McVeigh, all of them under constant pressure, with no room in which to move. It can't have been easy.

Fremantle are a very good chance of going to Melbourne and knocking off the Hawks next week. They are the best in the AFL in defence, and the Hawks the best in attack. It will be a colossal contest, if this weekend's games are anything to go by. The Hawks have broken the Kennett Curse, but might find themselves cursing the Purple Haze by this time next Saturday. After all, when attack and defence meet head-on, defence always wins. The Swans showed that last year against Hawthorn. The Dockers will be up and about. Ross Lyon's boys just might do it. Imagine the media narrative in Melbourne if Hawthorn lose two Grand Finals in a row that they were expected/favoured to win. Wow.

The Swans, unfortunately, will not. Perhaps, the less we dwell on that fact, the better, for there really wasn't much good to be taken from the contest today, except that they were able to kick a bunch of goals late to make the scoreboard look a little better, and you would imagine that their Young Brigade of Rampe, Cunningham, Rohan et al, will be better for having been exposed to that sort of contest and that sort of atmosphere. They will come back better for the experience. As will the entire team.

Saddest of all tonight is the farwell of a club legend. Jude Bolton played his heart out tonight as he has for every game of his glittering career. The guy that looks like Jane and plays like Tarzan knew no other way but head-on, one hundred percent at every contest. He realised that he probably wasn't the most talented player on the field, but he made up for it with courage and toughness. In a clutch situation, there would be no one you'd want to have the footy than #24. 

In the greatest, most meaningful way, Jude Bolton was a Bloods warrior and the team won't be the same without him. For that matter, nor will the AFL, and you could tell during the post-game celebrations that the Fremantle players respected him, for they all went up and shook his hand. Classy and an indication of the esteem in which Bolton his held - not just by Swans players and fans, but by players and fans across the entire country. It's a sad night for the League, and a tough one for the Swans, made tougher by the fact that Jude Bolton went out in an aberration of a game that was so unlike what the Bloods culture, which he helped cultivate, was all about. Everyone has their bad nights, of course.

Farewell, Jude, we'll miss you. But we won't forget you.

Enjoy the summer - thanks for reading my Swans recaps in 2013, it's much appreciated. See you in 2014! Go Swans!!

Movie Review: Elysium

 

Starring: Matt Damon and Jodie Foster

Director: Neill Blomkamp

In a few words...: Whilst the poor people of the world languish on earth, destined to a slow death, the rich and influential live on an artificial world in the earth's orbit, called Elysium, where everything is perfect, where there is no pollution or political troubles, and where there are machines that cure every illness known to man in just one second.
 
Rating: 6/10

Beware: SPOILERS AHEAD 

Max Da Costa (Damon) is not lucky enough to know someone or have enough money to be able to live in endless health above earth on Elysium. He's also a convicted felon, and comes under the watchful eye of the robotic police department whilst working on the assembly line for the Armadyne Corp., the company that built Elysium. In the midst of the overpopulated, devastated earth, Da Costa is lucky to have a job, and everything's going well until he's exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, poisoning him so badly that he's given just five days to live.

At the same time, a group of Earth residents attempt to illegally gain access to Elysium, and Elysium's Secretary of Defense, Jessica Delacourt (Foster), ordered one of her agents, on earth, a vicious man called Kruger, to shoot down their shuttle. It's a move that earns the ire of Elysium's president, and Delacourt, deciding that she's had enough of being ordered around, recruits the president of Armadyne Corp., John Carlyle (the always-excellent William Fichtner) to stage a coup that would end with her being installed as president. Carlyle writes a program that can override Elysium's central computer, allowing Delacourt to do just that, and uploads the data to his brain for safe keeping.

Da Costa, increasingly desperate to use one of the Med-Bays, uses the knowledge of a close friend to find a smuggler named Spider, who supervises installation of a powered exoskeleton apparatus that's drilled into his body to combat the increasing reach of the radiation poisoning over his body. He is also given a chip, into which data, like what Carlyle has in his mind, can be stored.

Abducting Carlyle, Da Costa transmits the information to his own mind, and has to escape Kruger and his group who are after the knowledge Carlyle has, working for Delacourt. In the ensuring battle, Da Costa is the only one who survives, and he takes shelter in the house of an old friend, Frey (Alice Braga), whose daughter is dying of leukemia, and is equally desperate to access the Med-Bays on Elysium to cure her. When the information is extracted from Da Costa's head, he bargains with Kruger for a ride to up to Elysium, but doesn't know that the mercenary has Frey and her daughter hostage.

And so, of course, Elysium is breached. Kruger has his own ideas. He kills Delacourt and tries to steal the data in Da Costa's head to become.  president of Elysium himself. Spider and his men have snuck aboard Elysium in the midst of the action. A showdown between Kruger and Da Costa later, and Carlyle's program is used to ensure that everyone is a citizen of Elysium, which means that Frey's daughter can be cured in a Med-Bay.

This film didn't reach out and grab me, which is a surprise, because I normally love a good science fiction film. I must confess that Elysium wasn't my choice of film, but I went anyway, because my companion was keen to watch. I found it dragged at times, and I spent a lot of time checking Twitter's reaction to the film. That's rare for me. I almost never do that.

Also, the story line was confused, muddled between a poor-versus-rich squabble and a guy fighting for a girl (and her girl). Because of the premise, I went in with high hopes, and I came away disappointed. Damon just didn't fit the part of a brutal ex-con. I wasn't nearly as excited by proceedings on the screen as my companion was. I guess it had something to do with the fact that she loves Matt Damon in anything, and I was more interested in keeping an eye out for a possible Ben Affleck cameo.

There are some bright spots, like the spectacular visuals and the interesting depiction of a ravaged earth. Jodie Foster is good, too, but it felt like her storyline was pushed to the sideline for the most part, the director instead focusing on Damon's character. And we didn't see nearly enough of one of my favourites, William Fichtner. It was a wasted opportunity. Sort of like this film, altogether.

NCAA College Football 2013: Week Four Australian TV Guide

Hard to believe it's already the fourth week of the season. Big Ten action starts in earnest this weekend, and (although not on Australian TV) the Florida-Tennessee rivalry writes another chapter. For the second week in this young season, there's no Thursday night game due to WNBA playoffs and Boise State appear for a second straight Friday, this time on the road against Fresno State. Sunday's games aren't that great for mine - with clear winners for each contest. The only interest in K-State and Texas might be to see whether the Longhorns defense regresses any further.

All times AEST
 
Saturday September 21

College Football Live (10.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Boise State vs. Fresno State (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Sunday September 22

College GameDay - Fargo, North Dakota (12.01am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech (2.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
San Jose State vs. Minnesota (2.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Arkansas vs. Rutgers (5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 24 Wisconsin vs. Purdue (5.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Auburn vs. No. 6 Louisiana State (9.45am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Kansas State vs. Texas (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Final (4.30pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD

Movie Review: Riddick

Starring: Vin Diesel, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Molla & Matthew Nable.

Director: David Twohy

In a few words...: Riddick is back, betrayed again, and left to die on a desolate planet, until two sets of bounty hunters turn up, after his head.
 
Rating: 8/10

Beware: SPOILERS AHEAD

Coolness. That's what Vin Diesel oozes as Richard B. Riddick, the titular escaped convict around which now a trilogy of sci-fi films have been based. Violent coolness, even. As much blood and guts as there is, and as much as you get the feeling that Riddick is a bad man, probably far beyond any real redemption, it's impossible not to be really impressed when he commits another act of violence.

Yet again, poor old Riddick has been betrayed, and stuck on a sunny, dry planet that, he discovered just soon enough to remain alive, he shares with a bunch of scorpion-type creatures that are pretty poisionous, too. After battling a few, he makes it to an abandoned outpost, and triggers the emergency beacon there, which, of course, identifies him as being worth a lot of money to bounty hunters.

Not surprisingly, two separate groups soon descended, hunting the prize. The first group, led by Santana (Molla) is there simply for the money, and Riddick is worth more to them if they take his head home in a box. But he outwits them pretty quickly, and turns the tables, placing them under siege...at about the same time as the second almost-military group arrive. Their commander (Nable) is a hard-nosed man called Boss Johns and his off-sider is the maybe-lesbian Dahl (Sackhoff). Johns has personal history with Riddick. 

It turns out that Johns has some personal history with Riddick. His son played a major role in the events of Pitch Black, the film that really launched Diesel's career. And Johns is out for revenge, in the form of collecting Riddick's head. As Riddick outwits and outlasts, a storm arrives, which turns the dry, dusty landscape into a muddy bog. Normally, not a huge problem, except that the mud unburies quite the horde of the scorpion-like creatures, who set about trying to kill the interlopers. 

You know where this film is going  by now: after losing a few men, Riddick and the bounty hunters join forces to get off the planet, and there's plenty that's awesomely spectacular ahead, in a pulse-pounding and, at times, very tense finale - even though you know what's going to happen: Riddick will survive, some of the others will not be so lucky. The dark and stormy night during which the alien attack comes really ratchets up the claustrophobic mood that encroaches over proceedings.

You know what you're going to get out of a Riddick film. There's violence, monsters, bad guys, Vin Diesel growling occasionally, or else just staring vengefully off into the distance between bouts of taking out sinister alien creatures. It's a tried and true format, but that doesn't stop it from being hugely entertaining. Twohy has done a good job taking advantage of the sinister landscape, and there's more than enough excitement to carry through a film that's largely dialogue-free, and with a plot that never gets in the way of Riddick doing his thing.

NCAA College Football 2013: Week Three's Heroes and Villains

Heroes

UCLA: At the end of an emotional week in which WR Nick Pasquale was killed whilst walking through his home town, Jim Mora’s team showed incredible resilience and fight to come back from eighteen down at the half, stunning the record crowd of 91,471 in scoring 31 unanswered points to win 42-21, in the biggest comeback a Memorial Stadium in nearly a century. Mora’s done amazing things with a cellar-dwelling program, but this win ranks as his finest. It was gutsy, it was brave and it was great to watch. 

Joe Southwick: The moustachioed senior quarterback broke the school record previously held by Jared Zabransky during Boise State’s 42-20 victory against Air Force to open their Mountain West Conference account. Southwick was absolutely surgical from the opening snap (aside from one tipped interception in the end zone), and finished the game 27-29 for 287 yards and two touchdowns. 

Johnny Manziel: Say what you will – and I’ve said plenty – about the personality and attitude of the Texas A&M starting quarterback, but you can’t help but be continually amazed and impressed by his ability on the football field. Right now, he’s the most electrifying player in the nation and we saw plenty of that on Saturday when he shredded Alabama’s defense for 562 yards, including 279 through to the air to his go-to receiver Mike Evans. Just a mesmerising performance. Alas, it wasn’t quite enough for the Aggies, who lost 49-42. 

Kenny Guiton: The senior started for the first time in his career in relief of quarterback phenom Braxton Miller at quarterback for Ohio State on the road in Berkeley against Cal, and looked damn good in doing so. He finished the game 21-32 for 276 yards and four touchdowns (three in the first quarter alone) and a handy 92 yards rushing, as well. Must be nice for Urban Meyer to know that if Miller should happen to miss any further playing time, he has a pretty good replacement ready to plug in and get started. 

Eric LeGrand: The inspirational story of the Rutgers played, paralysed on a play at MetLife Stadium in October 2010 continues to be written, and Saturday featured it’s most impressive chapter. The Scarlet Knights retired LeGrand’s #52 jersey at half time of their eventual 28-10 win over Eastern Michigan, marking the first time in the school’s storied gridiron history – nearly one hundred and fifty years’ worth – that such an honour has been bestowed. If anyone deserves it, it’s LeGrand, who continues to be a shining example of someone who doesn’t give up. Classy move, Rutgers. 

Villains

Texas: A week after giving up more than five hundred rushing yards to BYU, the Longhorns were in up 23-17 at half time at home against Ole Miss, and inexplicably collapsed from there, allowing the Rebels to score twenty-seven unanswered points, and leave Austin with a commanding 44-23 win, that featured 272 yards on the ground. Their defense was like a sieve in the second half, after turning in a pretty good effort in the first. It’s gotten downright ugly at Texas now, and the fans are fed up. The Longhorns have Kansas State next Saturday – a nationally-televised game on ABC – and if they don’t win that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised in the school pulls the plug on Mack Brown as head coach. It’s been quite the decline for the man who delivered Texas a National Championship not all that long ago. 

Kansas: Hands down, the most embarrassing FBS program in existence at the moment. The Jayhawks lost 23-14 to Rice on Saturday, extending the most ignominious streak in the nation. The last time KU won a game against a FBS opponent was November 6 2010 when they beat an equally-bad Colorado. It’s been more than four years since they won a road game, too. On Saturday, KU's offense averaged just 4.2 yards per play and an even measlier 2.9 yards per rush. It’s a wonder that team doesn’t play to a completely empty stadium! 

Defense in the Alabama-A&M Game: There was little to speak of, outside of Alabama’s Vinnie Sunseri taking an intercepted Johnny Manziel in the third quarter. Instead, the story of the day was both offenses rolling up and down the field just about at will. Such a circumstance is rare in the SEC, where 49-42 shootouts are about as common as the Cleveland Browns having a winning season. For Alabama coach Nick Saban, a noted defensive guru, watching from the sideline must’ve made him want to pull his hair out. 

Michigan: A week after looking like world-beaters under lights at the Big House in beating Notre Dame, the Wolverines did everything they could to cough up their steadily-building momentum. It was Appalachian State-like on Saturday, with the Wolverine defense needing a desperate last-minute stand in the shadows of their own end zone to avoid losing to a pesky Akron team. QB Devin Gardner, the hero of the Notre Dame victory, had three interceptions and one fumble. As the old saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than good, and Michigan certainly were on Saturday. 

Matt Millen: The worst colour analyst in the world of college football seems to keep getting plumb gigs, and I can’t work out why. When he’s not stating the painfully obvious, he’s trying to be funny and foster chemistry with play-by-play man Joe Tessitore – hint: there’s no chemistry at all – and it’s horribly awkward to watch. I don’t understand what ESPN see in Millen. Worse than putting him on (mostly) primetime games is pairing him with the excellent Tessitore, who deserves much more than this.

NCAA Football 2013: Week Three Review

What caught my eye in Week 3 of the 2013 season! 

Who would have thought that the sequel would be better than the original? Alabama and Texas A&M played themselves to standstill on Saturday at College Station in Texas, with the defending National Champions getting over the team featuring the defending Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel, 49-42 in a game completely unlike what we’re used to seeing out of the SEC.

Neither defense was particularly good. Alabama allowed Manziel, alone, to account for 562 yards (279 of those to WR Mike Evans) whilst the Aggies, as a whole, slammed the Tide defense for 628 yards. That’s a school record for A&M and a state line – actually, a whole bunch of stat lines – that Nick Saban, a defensive guru at his core, could not be happy about.

What helped Saban on Saturday was having a very good offense matched against a very bad defense. I’ve forecast this for the last two weeks. The Aggies let Sam Houston State and Rice both roll up big scores against them, which had me worried, because there’s a massive chasm between those two schools and Alabama in terms of offensive capability. A&M’s defensive ineptitude was on display for all to see. But, on the other side of the football, Manziel simply could not be stopped. Say what you will about the reigning Heisman Trophy’s off field issues, but the kid is a superstar. It was a pleasure to watch.

Ironically, it was a defensive touchdown for the beleaguered Crimson Tide that proved to be the difference on the scoreboard between the two teams. Early in the third. Manziel delivered a football right to Alabama S Vinnie Sunseri who took it back to the house, thus recording about the only notable defensive play of the entire sixty minutes at Kyle Field. But wow, was that a football game or what? More of that, please!

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USC’s first play of their game against Boston College on Saturday at the Coliseum in Los Angeles was a throw over the middle. It was incomplete, but that didn’t stop the frustrated Trojan fans from cheering as loudly for the play call as they might have this time last year for a big play that actually connected. It’s a sign of the hard times at Southern California.

A week after an embarrassing loss to Washington State, and with QB Cody Kessler firmly Lane Kiffin’s starter, the Trojans recorded an easy 35-7 victory against the Eagles, in which the offense ran up 521 yards, and really started to resemble something that we’re more used to seeing out of USC. RB Tre Madden had his third consecutive one hundred-yard game to start the season (the first to do that at USC in thirty-two years, if you don’t mind).

To the distinct approval of more than 62,000 fans, Kessler passed for 237 yards and two touchdowns, and a lot of people – especially Lane Kiffin – were breathing a lot easier by the end of sixty minutes, in which the Eagles weren’t ever a serious threat. Still, encouraging signs at USC. There were no ‘Fire Kiffin’ chants this week, which would have pleased the man on the Hot Seat no end.

Most surprising of all, pleasantly so, is the defense. It hasn’t really been that grat under the tutelage of Monte Kiffin, but the arrival of Clancy Pendergast in Los Angeles has done wonders. On Saturday, the Trojans gave up just 184 yards and 7 points. It’s been an impressive start defensively for USC, and their fans are hoping that the offense catches up fairly quickly. 

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If Lane Kiffin’s seat at USC is a touch cooler this week, the opposite must be the case for Mack Brown, whose shaky perch as head coach of the Texas Longhorns might just have become an inferno. If there were strong whispers last week, there’ll be shouts of consternation in Austin this week.

After a promising first half at home, which UT led 23-17 at half time and were poleaxed in the second, held to just one hundred total yards in the second frame, and run over for 27 unanswered points, Ole Miss wining 44-23. RB Jeff Scott ran for 164 yards and two touchdowns, and the Rebel special teams returned a punt late in the third to capture momentum, consigning the Longhorns to another bitter loss, this one played out to a slow death in front of an increasingly-hostile home crowd.

A week after being gashed left, right and centre by BYU, the Longhorns gave up 272 rushing yards to Ole Miss – clearly sacked Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz wasn’t the real problem. It was sweet revenge for the Rebels, who were embarrassed at home by Texas one year ago, when the Longhorns – then believed to be on the way up – smacked them all over the field, recording a 66-31 win.

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The long-held record of Boise State’s 2003 Fiesta Bowl hero QB Jared Zabransky fell on Friday night to senior starting QB Joe Southwick, who completed all but two of his pass attempts in the Bronco’s Mountain West opener against the Air Force Academy. BSU won handily 42-20, dominating the second half after the Falcons showed lots of fight in the first. Southwick went 27-29 for 287 yards and two touchdowns. After a bad loss to Washington on Opening Weekend, the Broncos are 2-1 and looking like series MWC contenders. They face Fresno State on the road next Friday night.

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Passed over for the starting job in favour of Trevor Knight, Oklahoma’s wrecking ball of a signal caller, Blake Bell, got the nod this week vs. Tulsa after Knight was injured, and he made the most of it. OU looked like the squad we’ve come to know as perennial Big XII contenders, and it was thanks to the man they call the Bell Dozer. Featured in recent seasons as a short-yardage runner, Bell proved that he can sling the rock, too: 27-37 for 413 yards and two touchdowns in the 51-20 victory that comes just in time for a showdown with Notre Dame. 

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For mine, the surprise of the weekend was the UCF Knights beating Penn State 34-31 in State College, PA, and it was because of QB Blake Bortles, who pretty much had the game of his life, throwing for 288 yards and three touchdowns in a game that, surprisingly, the Knights never trailed in. Good win for Central Florida, who are a better team than most people give them credit for.

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Nothing seems likely to slow Oregon down. At least not anytime soon, if their effort against Tennessee on Saturday afternoon is anything to go by. Chip Kelly out, Mark Helfrich in, and it’s business as usual in Eugene. The Ducks embarrassed Butch Jones’ SEC squad 59-14. QB Marcus Mariota had his first 400-yard (456 in total) passing game with two scores before being relieved midway through the third. Tennessee actually took an early lead in this one, before being completely overrun.

Oregon ran up a whopping 687 yards of offense to Tennessee’s comparatively-meagre 316. No doubt, it was a powerful message to send to the rest of the college football world, but the fans who occupied themselves towards the end of the game by chanting “We want ‘Bama” over and over again should be careful what they wish for. Can you imagine, though, what a National Championship Game between the Tide and the Ducks would look like!