Action Jackson Recap (College Football, Week 8)

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Sometimes the best way to get rid of negative feelings is to think outward. As in, looking at the rest of the grand college football landscape. Very exciting times outside of the Rose Bowl.

stewartoregon Pac-10: Oregon 55, Washington 34–If only Washington was more than Jake Locker. As it is, they put together valiant two to three quarter performances before completely falling apart.
Of worth noting: Ducks defense is about even with ours in terms of putridity. But Bellotti seems to have grasped that, and has no reservations about running up the score. It’s hard to lose games when you can rush for 460 yards on the ground, with Jonathan Stewart accounting for 254 and 2 TDs.

USC 38, Notre Dame 0–It meant nothing, it is nothing. It just makes our UCLA loss all the more ghastly and inexplicable. Moving on.

Stanford 21, Arizona 20–After watching two minutes of this game for therapy reasons, I turned it off for fear of going blind. Arizona outgained Stanford by 100 yards and made them punt seven times, forced four fumbles but only recovered one, had a turnover differential of +1, actually ran the ball…and somehow still lost. No matter how many Pac-10 teams he knocks out of the BCS race in November, start the death watch for Mike Stoops (fun note: he said a missed field goal in the 3rd quarter was pretty much “the game”, nice of you to throw your kicker way under the bus)–he is gonnne.

Off are OSU after beating us, ASU getting ready for a brutal four week stretch (Cal, at Oregon, at UCLA, USC), and Wazzu busy trying to lure Mike Price and his stripper back to Pullman.

mikeprice

“ROLL TIDE ROLL!”

Speaking of Tide…let’s move to the conference of football after the jump.


SEC: LSU 30, Auburn 24 in the Game of the Week. Look, Les Miles is an idiot. I’ll say it flat-out. And I may sound like a bitter Pac-10 loser (because I am), but for those morons who are saying that Miles does things right in comparison to Tedford…there is so much talent on this team (hell this is the most talented team on paper by far), and they keep on getting into scrums with youthful Florida, overmatched Kentucky, and Auburn (although to be fair, Tuberville would be plenty happy playing one of the top 5 teams in the country every week; they’d probably qualify for a BCS bowl every year). There have been so many questionable calls that a reasonable football coach would not have done, and they hold up.

It’s like continuously saying “Hit me” in blackjack. Eventually you’re going to end up dirt-broke with nothing left to stand. I wonder if Miles is doing this because he knows he’ll be in Michigan next year, and has nothing to lose. Although I’m not sure if Miles is aware of anything right now other than the size of his balls.

Nevertheless, compelling game, and a solid effort by Auburn (although there was a bush play in there that was pretty stupid). Lord knows what happens in Tuscaloosa in two weeks in the Saban Bowl.

lsuauburn

Kentucky had another strong effort this week, but unfortunately they were facing a coach who is clearly not out of his mind, and fell 45-37 to the Gators–the last TD was with no time left for Kentucky, who were playing catchup most of the game. Steady doses of Tim Tebow from Florida, who had 5 TDs and was ahead by 1 or 2 TDs for most of the game. Andre Woodson continues to build up his NFL pedigree in a losing cause (35-50, 415 yards, 5 TDs).

Tennessee proceeded to invalidate whatever our opening win might have meant by getting obliterated by hated ‘Bama 41-17. It was a close game for one half. Kinda like Florida-Tennessee. The second half was a demolition the moment Erik Ainge threw that interception. Feel sorry for Ainge; he literally has zero playmakers he can throw to. Arian Foster had 165 all-purpose yards, but the Vols were in permanent catchup mode against the John Wilson-DJ Hall machine.

The upset of the day was Vanderbilt (VANDERBILT?) taking down #6 South Carolina in a dominant defensive effort, 17-6. I didn’t watch a single moment of it (and am angry just thinking about it, since I passed picking them to placing my hopes on Iowa and Navy). Scary news: Steve Spurrier calls Vanderbilt a good team. The SEC East is still open to anyone who wants it–only a game separates everyone. Vanderbilt in the SEC Championship game? Stranger shit has happened this year.

The other two games involved the state of Mississippi getting reamed, and as usual, neither of them is worth mentioning.

Big 12: Kansas survives a tough road game at Boulder, beating Colorado 19-14, and Missouri blasts Mike Leach and Texas Tech 41-10. In spite of Missouri’s tough loss at Norman last week, I think these might be the two best teams in conference. I never thought I’d say “Kansas-Missouri” might be your game to watch in November, but it’s looking this way.

Oklahoma is now ranked #4. No, not in their conference, the nation. They were trailing putrid Iowa State 7-0 halftime before rallying to win 17-7. This is the number four team in the nation? Someone beat them already–the thought of Bob Stoops stinking up the BCS again is nauseating to ponder. In fact, I already have it lined up. Texas Tech, you cannot possibly lose at home, ever. Take them down.

Texas does its annual trashing of Baylor 31-10, Texas A&M nails the coffin for Bill Callahan at Nebraska 36-14, Mike Gundy yells Kansas State into submission 41-39.

michiganillinoisBig Ten: And nothing changes. Ohio State and Michigan will be battling for the Big Ten crown, again. The Buckeyes hold off Michigan State 24-17 after jumping out to a 24-0 lead; to be dominant (422-185 in yards, 229-59 on the ground, 22-9 in first downs) and only win by 7…well, let’s just say I’m not sold on them. A sterling performance in Happy Valley next week can go a long way.

Michigan survived a battle in Champaign, winning 27-17 at Illinois, largely in part due to special teams errors by Illinois (roughing into the kicker on a punt block formation, and a muffed punt that set up the go-ahead TD). These are the things that happen with Ron Zook coached teams. Never forget. I certainly won’t.

Elsewhere, Penn State survived a battle in Indiana 36-31 thanks to forcing four second-half turnovers, setting up the showdown with Ohio State next week. Everyone else stinks (Purdue, Wisconsin and Northwestern all beat cupcakes), so I’ll move on. What a pathetic conference this year. Put Cal here and we win 10 games every year. Dead certain about this.

leavittBig East: South Florida goes down 30-27 to the Scarlett Knights! No more crazy talk! Woooooo! Seriously though, this was a very suspect loss against Rutgers with some bizarre calls. If you believe in conspiracies, either the Gambinos threatened each and every one of the ref’s families, Tim Donaghy-style, or someone in the big conferences had phone calls placed.

With title chances gone (for now), South Florida must regroup and face off against UConn, who held on against Louisville 21-17, a team whose chances of even making a bowl game are in serious jeopardy. West Virginia still looks like the most solid of the bunch, winning handily against Miss. St. 38-13. A huge matchup with Rutgers looms next week.

ACC: I’m only interested in this conference until BC loses, in which case I can go back to ignoring it. Who would’ve thought adding the Screaming Douches, the prison squad Hurricanes and Virginia Tech would have been subtraction by addition. What an awful conference.

Quickly…Virginia beats Maryland 18-17 in a taut matchup that could best be described as *snore*. It is looking more and more like Virginia-Virginia Tech will decide the conference. I guess this means something. It might just be one of those “someone has to win” years.

The rest of these games…no one cares about. If you do, I wish you all the best, because I’d rather be golfing than subject myself to the ACC. Sorry guys.



Topics: College Football, Pac-10, Sports

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