NCAA College Football 2013: What We Learned - Week 10

Florida State Are Very Good: It’s not all about the Seminoles’ electric freshman QB Jameis Winston. Top to bottom, Jimbo Fisher’s squad is amongst the best in the country – I believe they deserve to be ranked behind only Alabama in the BCS rankings, but that’s another story for another day.

The ‘Noles proved as much against an undefeated Miami-FL outfit on Saturday night. Tested early by a Hurricanes team who came out of the box with a lot of energy, and put on the back foot by a couple of early interceptions by Winston, proving that he is something less than superhuman, FSU showed their mettle. 

You learn a lot about the makeup of a team when they’re in a pressure situation and Florida State came through with flying colours. They clawed and fought against a plucky Miami unit in the tight first half, and came out after the break, making big plays, offensively and defensively, en route to an impressive victory.

More than any other game this season, even the beat-down of Clemson in Death Valley, the victory over Miami was a signature one, and a statement – because the pressure was higher than it’s been for years in Tallahassee – of how well prepared this football team is. On current form, they will be tough to keep out of that BCS National Championship game.

Notre Dame Are Not That Good: As a USC fan, it pleases me to see Notre Dame having a subpar season. Was last year’s undefeated regular season run to the BCS National Championship Game a mirage? Maybe. Certainly, the Irish have suffered at quarterback, with Everett Golson suspended for the season, and backup Tommy Rees has thrown a bunch of ill-timed interceptions at crucial times in games. Defensively, the rock at linebacker that Manti T’eo had become is missing, and Notre Dame just hasn’t looked the same.

Their inability, for the most part, to deal with Navy’s triple-option offense says a lot about the way the season’s going for Brian Kelly’s team. They’ve squeaked past a few opponents this year in ugly fashion (as they did last year), but the difference between now and then is the lack of a big scalp or two, which the Irish delivered, usually on national television. Last season, Notre Dame won ugly against Pitt and Stanford and others, but blew out Oklahoma on the road and harassed Michigan into multiple turnovers.

This year, they beat USC, but that doesn’t mean much at the moment. Oklahoma returned the favour, routing the Irish in South Bend, by way of some Blake Bell magic, and Michigan’s on-off signal caller, Devin Gardner, made the Irish defense look flimsy – this game featured the rarely-glimpsed ‘Good’ Devin – under lights in Ann Arbor. That the Wolverines have done little since reflects poorly on Notre Dame. Their 7-2 record is rather flattering.

Things Are Looking Up At USC: Interim head coach Ed Orgeron said he wanted to bring back the fun and energy to the Trojans. Well, I’d say he’s done a pretty good job. Thus far, despite a blemish in South Bend, the raging Cajun has the Men of Troy rolling along, amassing a 3-0 Pac-12 record under his watch. Last week’s victory against Oregon State in Corvallis – where they haven’t won since the high-flying Reggie Bush/Matt Leinart days of 2004 – was their most impressive of the season, and a sign that USC might yet make noise in the Pac-12 race down the stretch.

The sudden turnaround has come thanks to some good defense, which the Trojans admittedly had under Lane Kiffin this year, but mostly by way of vastly improved offense. Gone are the obsessions with receiver screens and passes to the fullback, and in vogue under new play caller Clay Helton are deep shots. All American/Biletnikoff Award winner WR Marqise Lee, healthy again, has become the weapon we all knew he could be. TE Randal Telfer has been a revelation under Helton’s play-calling watch as has WR Nelson Agohlor.

It’s been rough for those of us who bleed cardinal and gold, but, finally, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Orgeron’s ferocious energy reminds me of Pete Carroll’s, and it’s good to see guys in the Trojan uniform walking around with the swagger we all remember from the glory days, when Bush was electric, when Cushing and Clay Matthews were beating guys up. Whoever the new coach is next year, not retaining Orgeron on staff would be a huge mistake.

Johnny Manziel Can Win Another Heisman: The popular theory is that Johnny Manziel won’t win back-to-back Heisman Trophies, and I have a problem with that. The award for college football’s Most Outstanding Player should go to Manziel because there is no more electric a player at full flight than the Texas A&M quarterback.

Saturday night on ESPN’s telecast, Brock Huard brought up a quote from a scout who said that when Manziel was up is up and about he ‘glides’ across the field. That’s true: witness his 49-yard touchdown run, in which he knifed through a bunch of would-be UTEP tacklers. It was breathtaking stuff. I know he’s lost two games, but Manziel can’t help that the A&M defense is ridiculously porous. That they haven’t lost more than two this year is testament to Manziel’s ridiculous ability.

Oregon’s Marcus Mariota is good. Florida State’s Jameis Winston is good. Baylor’s Lache Seastrunk is good. But none of those players, for all their undeniable talent, comes close to possessing the freakish ability that Manziel has. You hold your breath when he takes a snap., because there’s a chance on every single play that something magic happens.

Johnny Football is a once-in-a-generation player, whose numbers are trending upwards in comparison to last season, and is by far the most exciting – and, admittedly, polarising – player in America at the moment. He makes the sort of plays no one else can or does. He deserves a second Heisman. And let me remind you of one thing: Baylor’s Robert Griffin III won the Heisman in 2011 during a multi-loss season

Ohio State Are Good – But Not Good Enough: The Achilles heel of the Buckeyes, undefeated for the best part of two years now, is their conference. The Big Ten, aside from underrated Wisconsin and defensive-laden Michigan State is bad. No, perhaps ‘bad’ isn’t the right word. In 2013, the Big Ten is horrendously woeful. Michigan have fallen away, Northwestern have fallen away, Nebraska barely got started, Indiana isn’t ever going to be a national football power and Purdue aren’t much better.

The weak conference suggests that the Buckeyes, even if, as expected, they win their final three games – including the annual showdown with Michigan, this year at the Big House – will be left out in the cold as far as a shot at a National Championship. The Rose Bowl Game on New Year’s Day isn’t a bad fallback, but the Buckeyes will be wanting more, and likely be disappointed in not going to the Rose Bowl a week later for the National Championship Game.

Worse, they’ll be rueing last year. If they hadn’t self-assessed a postseason ban in Luke Fickell’s interim season after Jim Tressel was fired, the Buckeyes might have played in the BCS National Championship last yea, because they went undefeated and because the Big Ten was pretty good. Instead, they were levied a year’s postseason ban by the NCAA and their undefeated season was for naught.

The slim chance of Ohio State making the BCS National Championship Game this year depend on a rash of upsets to the teams above them in the BCS rankings, as well as an improved showing by Michigan heading into their showdown on November 30, and a tough battle from Michigan State, OSU’s projected opponent in the Big Ten Championship Game. I doubt it will all happen, so the Buckeyes, like Auburn in 2003, will miss out on a chance to play for all the marbles.