Week 8 Top 10

This week's Top 10 includes more teams getting picked off and some new ones moving in.

1. Boise State - They get a national showcase game this Tuesday night against Louisiana Tech.  As for why they're #1, see last week's rankings.
2. Oregon - Predicted last week that they would take out their frustration at being #2 in the BCS on UCLA and did they ever.  The Ducks had the Bruins' defense on their heels all game.  Oregon's offense is so fast paced and so explosive, it would be fun to see them play Boise State.
3. Auburn - I'm putting them here, but I have some reservations.  I know everyone jumps on the SEC band wagon because it's "the best conference in college football" and they have the last four National Champions.  But the Tigers have played some very sketchy games, much like Oklahoma who I didn't buy last week and had at #8, predicting they would lose to Missouri.  Auburn has beaten Mississippi State by 3, Clemson by 3, South Carolina by 8 (when the Gamecock quarterbacks couldn't keep the ball), Kentucky by 3 and LSU by 7.  I have questions about their defense and think Ole Miss has the opportunity to knock them out next week and think either Georgia or Alabama will give them another loss before the season is over.  Cam Newton is still the Heisman front runner.
4. TCU - The defense of the Horned Frogs is just nasty right now.  They've allowed 10 total points in their last four games and Air Force is the only team in that stretch who got over 200 yards of total offense.
5. Utah - Moves up a spot after ringing up a 59-6 win over Colorado State.  The Utes offense might be as deadly as Oregon's but nobody gets to see it.
6. Missouri - Big win for Missouri and they pushed the Sooners around on the offensive and defensive lines.  Now they get to go to Lincoln and try and survive the "Big Win Hangover".
7. Michigan State - A nice comeback for the Spartans against Northwestern, but a top team should have put away the less talented Wildcats much earlier and shouldn't have had to rally from 17 down.  One last test next week against Iowa.
8. Wisconsin - Followed up their home win against Ohio State with an impressive win at Iowa.  They're schedule has nothing of note on it the rest of the way, but the Badgers seem to always find a way to drop one of those kind of games.
9. Alabama - They again were sluggish in the first half against Tennessee but still beat them by 31.  They get a week off and then go to LSU for a night game.  Think Death Valley will be fueled up for that one?
10. Vacant

On the outside looking in:

• Stanford - Had their chance and then let Washington State stay within 10.  Andrew Luck was efficient but not stellar against a bad Cougar team.
• Arizona - With their backup quarterback, hey destroyed Washington on Saturday night with their backup quarterback and they do have the win against Iowa. The schedule sets them up to move up the ladder or crash and burn, with Stanford, USC and Oregon all in a row.
• Nebraska - The offense returned but where'd the defense go?  They'll be back in if they can handle Missouri this weekend.

Other thoughts on this past weekend:
Armon Binns' touchdown catch against South Florida on Friday night might be the catch of the year.

Congratulations on becoming bowl eligible, Baylor.  And you may want to save a copy of those current Big 12 standings.  I'll bet no one predicted that with four weeks to go.

As mentioned above, Oregon looked incredible against UCLA last Thursday night.  Now they get to travel to Southern California and take on the bowl-ineligble USC Trojans.  If USC plays like it did against Cal, this will be the best game of the day.  If USC plays like they did against Washington, Oregon is going to obliterate them again.  Do you realize that USC is 7 seconds away from being undefeated (last second field goals to Stanford and Washington)?

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz pulled a Les Miles against Wisconsin this weekend and may have cost the Hawkeyes a BCS bid.  They need to pull it together this weekend when Michigan State comes to town.

Can Notre Dame fans finally admit that their team is not very good?  Navy has now beaten you three of the last four years and this time they did it by throwing a grand total of TWO times.  And Coach Kelly, don't tell me going in at halftime that "Navy is running the veer offense and they haven't shown that this year.  We'll have to adjust to that in the second half."  Ummm, Coach?  You do know that Navy tends to run the ball a lot?  You really shouldn't be surprised by a wishbone, a veer, a T-formation or any other formation they run with no wide receivers.  And awesome job making those second half adjustments and only losing the second half 14-7 after losing the first half 21-10.

Is the Big East going to do the right thing and forfeit their automatic BCS berth?  Is there anyone who honestly thinks the Big East's best is better than Boise State, TCU or Utah?  Pitt at 4-3 and Syracuse at 5-2.  I'm sure the Orange Bowl is jumping up and down hoping for one of those quality teams to be in it's game and have another non-sellout.  One of the problems with America right now is no one has a sense of shame and they're all too happy to take the money even though they don't deserve it.  Looking right at you, Big East.

Congratulations to Western Kentucky on snapping their 26 game losing streak.  Louisiana Lafayette came in as 6-point favorites (and one of my picks of the week) and got knocked around 54-21.


ESPN Analyst, Craig James

 Craig James is a douche bag.  His unabashed disdain for non-automatic qualifier teams, laughing like a mental patient when Boise, TCU or Utah are even mentioned as possible title contenders, and his reasoning for why they shouldn't be included is weak.  Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler seem to be the only ones at ESPN who are willing to look at the team and not just what they have done in the past or what conference they're in and try to judge them fairly.  And James was a douche bag last year with the whole Texas Tech/Mike Leach fiasco.

Kansas has problems.  How did this team beat Georgia Tech in week two?  What's the over/under on their last three games of the season against Nebraksa, Oklahoma State and Missouri?  I'll go conservative and say Cornhuskers put up 47, Oklahoma State goes over 60 and Missouri does a 45.  152.

If the SEC is so tough, how come UAB has now taken two SEC schools (Tennessee and Mississippi State) to the wire?  That would be the 2-5 Blazers from Conference USA giving SEC schools all they can handle.

Early game prediction:  Boise State covers the 37.5 vs. Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night.  The Broncos have no choice at this point; they need to continue running up the score on these teams and numbers like 50, 60 and 70 aren't supposed to influence the voters, but we all know they do.

One last tribute to the Baylor Bears, who probably won't have a season like this anytime soon.  Good luck against Texas this weekend.  Hope you get the Longhorn team that showed up against UCLA and Iowa State and not the one against Nebraska.  I love to see Mack Brown cry.