Week 9 Top 10 and Thoughts

A few more undefeated teams go down to shake up the Top 10.

1. Oregon - Boise State and Oregon are running 1 and 1A for me and for this week, the Ducks get the nod.  Their victory over USC was utterly devastating and they have now put up 100 points in the last two meetings with the Trojans.
2. Boise State - You must be a pretty decent team when you win a game by 29 points, score 49 points and have the opponent down 49-13 late in the game and people say your win wasn't impressive enough.  I continue to lobby for the Broncos to leave he starters in and keep the throttle wide open and put a 70 or an 80 on someone.  The voters will notice.
3. Auburn - A nice road win against Ole Miss.  I thought the Rebels would make it a game and they did for about a quarter, than they went back to their old ways of playing defense like a sieve and the Tigers rolled.
4. TCU - Another dominating defensive performance by the Horned Frogs as they get ready for the showdown against the Utes next week.  The offense picked the right time to start working against as they head to the de facto Mountain West Championship at Utah.
5. Utah - A close win over Air Force and they may have been looking ahead to their showdown next week with TCU, but undefeated is undefeated, and if was so easy, there would be more than five teams without a loss at this point in the season.
6. Wisconsin - Sorting out the Big Ten at the end of the year is going to be a mess, but they beat Ohio State and Iowa, so I'm putting them on top.
7. Alabama - Got their week of rest to prepare for LSU.
8. Nebraska - Took Missouri out of the game in the first quarter and right when it looked like the Tigers might get back in it, Roy Helu Jr. broke off another long touchdown run to put them out of their misery.
9. Stanford - That was a mauling of Washington on Saturday and may have set the Huskies back a couple years in their plans to return to prominence.
10. Oklahoma - Who have they really beaten?  Texas apparently isn't any good, they struggled to beat Utah State, Cincinnati and Air Force and lost to Missouri.  I'm putting them here because when they show up, they can dominate, but Texas A&M may give them problems next weekend.

On the outside looking in:

• Arizona - Their second week here.  Rolling up almost 600 yards against UCLA and their backup quarterback should result in more than a 6-point win.  Now they get the gauntlet of Stanford, USC and Oregon.  Run that and they may be going to the Rose Bowl.
• Ohio State - Who have they really played?  They beat an apparently overrated Miami team and their next best win is over 5-3 Illinois?  Their challenge is in three weeks when they travel to Iowa.
• Michigan State and Missouri - I'm leaving them both here for now, but both look shaky.

Thoughts on games this past weekend:

• Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly needs to be taking far more heat than he has for the terrible call at the end of the game with Tulsa.  On second and eight, with 46 seconds left, on the Tulsa 19-yard line, trailing 28-27, the correct call is to run it up the middle and bleed the clock down to almost nothing before sending out your field goal kicker (who hasn't missed a kick) for the almost-gimme of a kick inside 36 yards.  The wrong call, and the one Coach Kelly made, was to get greedy and throw for the end zone, which resulted in an interception and the Golden Hurricanes winning the game.  Why would he do that?  More importantly, why isn't the same media that hammered Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis for their play calling not all over this terrible decision?  Is it because Kelly is Catholic and has an Irish name?  One of the dumbest calls outside of Baton Rouge I've seen.
• Maybe the question people should be asking is "Can the SEC keep up with the speed of Oregon?"  I'd have to say that right now, no one in the SEC could keep up with the Ducks tempo and speed.
• Miami losing to Virginia, North Carolina barely getting by William & Mary, Boston College beating Clemson and Florida State losing to North Carolina State...once again, the ACC doesn't have those standout teams and once again, the Orange Bowl is going to have empty seats and low viewership.
• Can the Big East just dissolve away?  Let the Big Ten, ACC and Conference USA pick up the pieces.
• That Heisman trophy might not be Cam Newton's just yet.  LaMichael James made a prime time statement against USC on Saturday night.




Washington State Cheerleaders
(A perfect distraction from the product on the field)


• You know your team is not very good when your coach points to the fact you lost by 20 points or less to Oregon, Arizona and Stanford...before getting crushed by Arizona State 42-0.  Can the Pac-10 trade Washington State for Boise State?
• How does a team with so many 5-star recruits and the pick of any talent out of the football hotbed of Texas have losses at home to UCLA, Iowa State and Baylor?  The Longhorns aren't very good right now and we get to see if Mack Brown really can coach or he won because his players were so talented.  This cute Texas fan from the UCLA debacle sums up their season perfectly and also shows what is right with Texas football.
• Very poor showing by the USC Trojans' fan for Gameday on Saturday morning.  Lots of empty space.  Yes, it's early in the morning out here on the west coast, but Boise State showed up and Oregon showed up and I'll bet Utah will show up next week.
• The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party delivered an entertaining game even if the participants are a little down this year.  And the Gators continue to just own Georgia in this series.
• Texas Tech is now 4-4.  I wonder where they'd be if Mike Leach was still the coach?  And I wonder if those rumors about him going to Minnesota are true.  That would make for some very interesting football in the Big Ten.
• Is Rich Rodriguez back on the hot seat after losing to Penn State?