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College Football Week 11 - Southern Cal’s 7 Years of Excellence Ends, Stanford Wins, 55 - 21

September 5th, 2010 -- Posted in Apartment Hunting Tips | No Comments »

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

It’s over for Southern California. Coach Pete Carroll will be dining with some lesser light Hollywood celebrities in the near future.

Gone are the USC streaks of 7 straight BCS bowls, 7 straight 11-win seasons, and 7 straight top-4 AP poll finishes. Gone also is USC’s 7-year stranglehold on the Pac-10 Conference title.

After 60 excruciating minutes of watching Stanford’s Toby Gerhart—The Cardinal Battering Ram—run all over USC’s home field for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns, Pete Carroll and his Trojans were handed their second major trouncing in two weeks. There was no stopping Gerhart as 25th-ranked Stanford (7-3) did a number on the 11th-ranked and soon dropping USC (7-3) Trojans, 55-21. Adding insult to injury, it was USC’s 2009 homecoming game.

Just two weeks ago, USC was upset at Oregon 47-20. Saturday’s loss to Stanford was the Trojans’ worst since a 51-0 drubbing at home against Notre Dame in 1966, 43 years ago.

Pete Carroll had to be bummed out. He lost in November for the first time after 28 straight victories in the toughest month for every college football coach during the season. And for the second time in three weekends, Carroll endured the worst loss of his 9 seasons at USC. The perennial flower that bloomed at USC for 7 consecutive years has now faded.

After leading 28-21 after 3 quarters, Stanford piled it on with 4 touchdowns in the last quarter, just rubbing it in a little bit for past indiscretions by the Trojans. Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh’s 2007 team also upset then 2nd-ranked USC 24-23 on the Trojans’ same home field.

Harbaugh has made it quite clear that he is sick and tired of USC’s past dominance in the Pac-10. Virtually everyone thought that the California Bears would be the team to bring the Trojans down a peg or two, but it was Harbaugh’s Cardinal team that has gotten the job done.

Stanford’s victory over USC was only 1 of 5 upsets among ranked teams this week. The other 4 were recorded by unranked teams:

North Carolina (7-3), unranked and smarting, won 33-24 at home over No. 12 Miami of Florida (also 7-3) as Coach Butch Davis notched his 3rd consecutive victory over his former program, and made North Carolina bowl eligible for the 2nd straight season.

Central Florida (6-4) handed No. 13 Houston (8-2) its second loss 37-32, closing the door on Cougar quarterback Case Keenum, who had a couple of last-minute rallies in Houston’s last 5 wins. The Central Florida Knights rallied at home from a two-touchdown deficit to build a 17-point lead before Keenum threw two late TD passes to make the final score appear closer.

California (7-3) stuck a fork in No. 18 Arizona’s (6-3) hopes for a better season as the Bears finally roared again at home, beating the Wildcats 24-16. Rutgers (7-2) was hardly impressed with No. 23 South Florida (6-3) as the Scarlet Knights took the South Florida Bulls to school by shutting them out 31-0. Rutgers forced 4 turnovers, blocked a punt and recorded 7 sacks, and freshman quarterback Tom Savage threw for two touchdowns.

Stanford’s upset of Southern Cal was 1 of the 3 great games of the day. The other two involved No. 4 TCU and No. 10 Ohio State.

No. 4 TCU (10-0) remained unbeaten by really making 16th-ranked Utah (8-2) look bad in a 55-28 win. TCU leads the mid-level Mountain West Conference with a 6-0 record. Utah had been running around all season acting like the Utes were something special, and then they arrived at TCU and found out why they are not so special. As if to erase any doubt, TCU led 38-14 at the half.

No. 10 Ohio State (9-2) brought No. 15 Iowa (9-2) into its view as the Buckeyes welcomed the Hawkeyes into their 101,568-seat Horseshoe Stadium before taking the game into overtime and earning a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 13 years. Ohio State last visited the Rose Bowl in 1996 when the Buckeyes were ranked 2nd in the nation after beating Arizona State 20-17.

But back to Saturday’s game, which will provide fodder for sports talk radio shows for months to come as neither Ohio State or Iowa would go for a last minute victory when they had the opportunity to do so. The game ended at 24-all after Marvin McNutt threw a 10-yard scoring pass to James Vandenberg.

The Buckeyes had blown a two-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter. The Hawkeyes had the ball at their 33 with 52 seconds and two timeouts left, but chose to run out the clock and send the game into overtime. Ohio State had the ball on its 18 with 2:37 left and multiple timeouts, and didn’t try to win it.

Both coaches—Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Jim Tressel of Ohio State—wanted overtime to get it settled because they did not trust their kickers; Iowa had missed a 22-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game, and Ohio State’s kicker had missed from 47 yards out.

When push came to shove, Tressel basically took three runs up the middle for all of 2 yards before letting replacement kicker Devin Barclay come up with the winning 39-yard FG to put the Buckeyes on top, 27-24. The Hawkeyes were unbeaten this year until losing 17-10 at home to Northwestern last week.

Barclay, a 26-year-old former pro soccer player and first-year, walk-on kicker, was forced into duty as a replacement three weeks ago when starter Aaron Pettrey injured his knee.

And now for the expected happenings of week 11. Here are another 8 ranked teams that won home games:

No. 5 Cincinnati (10-0) remained unbeaten by using a field goal advantage to beat a 7-3 West Virginia team 24-21. No. 6 Boise State (10-0) remained unbeaten by easily handling a 7-4 Idaho team 63-25. No. 8 Pittsburgh (9-1) led Notre Dame (6-4) 20-3 after 3 quarters and almost let things get out-of-hand before putting away the Fighting Irish 27-22.

No. 9 LSU (8-2) notched an unspectacular win over Louisiana Tech 24-16. No. 14 Oregon (8-2) ripped Arizona State 44-21. No. 17 Oklahoma State (8-2) was behind 10-7 at the half but beat Texas Tech 24-17. No. 19 Penn State beat Indiana 31-20 despite having 4 first-half turnovers. No. 21 Wisconsin (8-2) took apart a struggling Michigan team 45-24.

Here are another 7 ranked teams that won away games, always tougher than home victories:

No. 1 Florida (10-0) remained unbeaten at the expense of South Carolina, 24-14, as the Gators completed their first perfect (8-0) SEC East title in 13 years. No. 2 Texas (10-0) remained unbeaten by easily kicking around Baylor, 47-14, as Colt McCoy tied the NCAA record for career victories by a starting quarterback with 42 (take just a moment and think about how special the accomplishment was by Colt McCoy).

No. 3 Alabama (10-0) remained unbeaten by dominating Mississippi State, 31-3, and continues to lead the SEC West with a 7-0 mark. No. 7 Georgia Tech (10-1) stomped Duke, 49-10, to clinch a spot in the ACC Conference championship game. No. 20 Virginia Tech (7-3) beat Maryland 36-9. No. 22 BYU (8-2) could only muster a 24-19 victory over a hapless, inept, winless 0-10 New Mexico team. No. 24 Clemson (7-3) whipped North Carolina State 43-23.

Three other games among unranked teams were noteworthy. Temple (8-2) won its 8th consecutive game 56-17 over Akron; Central Michigan (8-2) picked up its 8th win 56-28 over Toledo; Navy (8-3) earned its 8th win by downing Delaware 35-18; and Mississippi (7-3) found a way to penetrate Tennessee’s (5-5) defense by scoring 42 points to win 42-17.

Four unranked teams finally became bowl eligible this week, the most surprising of which was the Southern Methodist (6-4) Mustangs, who outlasted UTEP 35-31.

June Jones was 1-11 in this first year coaching last year and now has a bowl-eligible team. People no longer laugh when you use SMU and football in the same sentence. Jones built a juggernaut at mid-level Hawaii using Mouse Davis’ run-and-shoot offense, going 75-41 over 9 years, and winning 4 of 6 bowl games. The bottom line on the likeable June Jones—more dangerous than his name would indicate.

The three other teams joining SMU as bowl eligible were Oklahoma, Arkansas and Michigan State. Some people wondered if Oklahoma (6-4) was going to make it this year, but the Sooners finally got the job done by easily beating Texas A&M, 65-10. Arkansas (6-4) took care of a 7-3 Troy team, 56-20; and Michigan State (6-5) was 11 points down to Purdue but won 40-37 on Brett Swenson’s 4th field goal with 1:51 left.

College Football - in Just Two Years Nick Saban Has the Crimson Tide No. 1 in the Nation

August 8th, 2010 -- Posted in Apartment Hunting Tips | No Comments »

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Goodbye Texas. Hello Alabama. It is now the Crimson Tide that have become the No. 1 coveted target in the nation for big-time college football programs in America.

The Texas Longhorns, who were No. 1, took on their 4th top-ranked team in consecutive weeks and came up short on the road Saturday (11-1-08) in Lubbock to No. 6 Texas Tech 39-33 on a scoring play that never should have happened with 1 second left.

In a Texas-style shootout, the Longhorns trailed 19-0 and rallied to take a 33-32 lead on Vondrell McGee’s 4-yard touchdown run with only 1:29 to play. That gave just a little too much time left for the Red Raiders’ Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, two gifted athletes on a mission few others would dare to take.

With virtually no time left and 28 yards from pay dirt, Harrell found himself surrounded by nasty Longhorns and out of time with Crabtree in double coverage and no room to even turn around. So what does a great quarterback do? He throws high into double coverage, hoping his All-American wide receiver is as great as Harrell thinks he is.

Michael Crabtree does not disappoint either his teammates or himself. He rises to the challenge, grabs the rock with sure hands, breaks the wannabe arm tackle of a sophomore cover back trying to strip the ball, and takes a couple of steps into the end zone and the game clock shows 1 second left.

Amazingly, Crabtree stays in bounds as thousands and thousands of screaming, delirious fans pour onto the field of play. It is sheer bedlam as fans begin to rip down the goal post at one end of the field, and the officials on the field try to restore order for the extra-point attempt and final kickoff to Texas to eliminate the one second left on the clock.

This is college football in America on a Saturday afternoon. A major university with thousands of fans who have suffered through the dominance of Texas and Oklahoma teams for too many years. This is their moment of glory and they will not be denied. It is the competitive spirit of America in its finest hour, their years of hardship and agony are over and their 15 minutes of fame and glory have arrived.

All of the Texas Tech fans, players and coaches need to party down big-time because Texas Tech’s season is not over. The Red Raiders will now run a gauntlet somewhat similar to the one that the Longhorns faced as 8-1 Oklahoma State and 8-1 Oklahoma lie ahead and a lesser-light Baylor team lurks in the background.

The drama of this game could not have been higher. Texas Tech only needed a field goal to win the game, but could not rely on its kicker to convert from some 40 yards out. Not only was Harrell’s pass into double coverage over the top, and even though Crabtree made a great catch, had he been tackled short of the end zone or gone out of bounds, it is unlikely in the moment that the Red Raiders could have called a time out and still had enough time to set up for a game-winning field goal try.

“All we needed was a field goal, but a touchdown’s even sweeter,” said Raider quarterback Graham Harrell after the game. “If you’re a quarterback and don’t want to be in that situation, you should change positions.” Harrell finished with 474 yards passing and 2 touchdowns while completing 36 of 53 attempts.

Was this really THAT big of a win for Texas Tech? Yes it was. The Red Raider win over Texas was the biggest win in Texas Tech history and its first win against a No. 1-ranked team. The victory gave them command of the Big 12 South and put them smack in the middle of the race for a spot in the national championship game.

And just how close was Texas to winning? How about 1 second among 60 minutes of play? Or the fact that on the play prior to Crabtree’s winning 28-yard TD catch, freshman safety Blake Gideon dropped what would have been a game-ending interception on a tipped pass. That single drop meant Harrell could make the dangerous decision to throw into double coverage to Crabtree. The rest is now history.

The win vaulted No. 6 Texas Tech past Penn State, Florida and Oklahoma into the No. 2 spot in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll. For Texas Tech fans around the world, this rise to prominence came none too soon.

The reason Alabama vaulted from No. 2 in the AP rankings to the top spot is because the Crimson Tide shut out Arkansas State Saturday 35-0, scoring in every quarter and looking every bit as if they should be No. 1.

Coach Nick Saban has quickly become better than the gold standard in Alabama. Saban has taken the Crimson Tide to the No. 1 ranking in the nation in only his second year at Tuscaloosa.

Saban is the highest paid coach in college football ($32 million for 8 years). Many fans and boosters at Alabama believe Saban is worth every penny of it and now you know why.

Saban turned around Michigan State’s program in one year and went to 3 bowl games in his first 3 years. He turned around Louisiana State’s program in one year, won or shared 3 SEC titles, went to bowl games all 5 years and won the National Championship in 2003. He turned around Alabama in his first season last year and went to a bowl game. Now his Crimson Tide players are 9-0 and in the hunt for a spot in this year’s national championship game.

No. 5 Florida recorded a huge win on the road at No. 8 Georgia, putting some major hurt on the Bulldogs, 49-10. Since their unexpected lack of focus and 31-30 loss to Mississippi, Coach Urban Meyer’s Gators have gone ballistic croc hunting, ripping apart Arkansas 38-7, LSU 51-21 and Kentucky 63-5 before hosting Georgia.

Apparently the Gators have become so savage that they will rip apart their victims but also drink their blood in their quest to get into the national championship game.

Both Texas and Georgia lost to top-ranked teams. Texas Tech, Alabama and Florida were among 13 of the 20 AP Poll teams to win this week, 7 others—including Texas and Georgia which played top-ranked teams–lost and 5 teams were idle. No. 3 Penn State, No. 13 Ohio State, No. 18 Ball State, No. 21 North Carolina and No. 25 Maryland were all idle.

The other ranked teams which won big and made a statement included:

No. 4 Oklahoma at home in a waltz over Nebraska 62-28 (the Sooners led 62-21 after 3 quarters), No. 7 Southern Cal on the road shut out Washington 56-0 (the Huskies are dead and waiting for fired head coach Tyrone Willingham to get on down the road), No. 9 Oklahoma State at home over Iowa State 59-17 (the Cowboys scored in every quarter), No. 11 Boise State at home shut out New Mexico State 49-0 (the Broncos scored in every quarter against what we think is a team in the southwest), No. 12 TCU on the road over UNLV 44-14, and No. 15 LSU at home over Tulane 35-10.

Four other ranked teams won but were hardly impressive. They included:

No. 10 Utah on the road over weak, unranked New Mexico 13-10 (the 9-0 unbeaten Utah Utes are overrated big-time and may find that out this week when they clash with 9-1 TCU), No. 14 Missouri on the road over unranked Baylor 31-28 (the now toothless Tigers take down a 3-win Baylor team), No. 17 BYU on the road over weak, unranked Colorado State 45-42 (the Cougars are hardly ferocious, they gave up 32 points to TCU, 35 to UNLV and now 42 to Colorado State after beating a winless 0-8 Washington team 28-27 earlier in the season), and No. 22 Michigan State at home over Wisconsin 25-24 (it’s true that Wisconsin may well be the best 4-5 team in the country, but the Spartans should have won by two touchdowns).

Five other ranked teams committed the unpardonable sin of losing to an unranked team. They included:

No. 16 Florida State lost on the road to Georgia Tech 31-28, No. 19 and unbeaten Tulsa lost on the road to Arkansas 30-23, No. 20 Minnesota lost at home to Northwestern 24-17, No. 23 Oregon lost on the road to California 26-16, and No. 24 South Florida lost on the road to Cincinnati 24-10.