Musings from the Coast

Another weekend, another few “unthinkable” upsets. Ho Hum.

We now know the theme to this season is expect the unexpected. Texas Tech and Missouri played defense, Ok, sure, at least Missouri played defense. Every talking head out there said take the over on a 75 point target. Let’s hope they put their money where their mouths are. South Carolina spit the bit at home, against Vanderbilt! USF traveled to Rutgers to get their first loss of the season. Iowa State, sporting a 1-7 record, had Oklahoma on the ropes for 3.5 quarters. UCLA, thumped soundly by a bad Utah team earlier this year, beats Cal. LSU wins on a last second pass over the same Auburn team beaten by USF. The list goes on…

OSU Opponent Watch

Youngstown State (5-3) – Played Illinois State at home, lost 22-27. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss.
Akron (3-4) – Bye week.
Washington (2-5) – Played Oregon at home, lost 34-55. Conclusion: Expected Loss.
Northwestern (5-3) – Played Eastern Michigan on the road, won 26-14. Conclusion: Expected Win
Minnesota (1-7) – Played North Dakota State at home, lost 21-27. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
Purdue (6-2) – Played Iowa at home, won 31-6. Conclusion: Expected Win
Kent State (3-5) – Played Bowling Green home, lost 20-31. Conclusion: Expected Loss
Michigan State (5-3) – Played Ohio State on the road, lost 17-24. Conclusion: Expected Loss
Penn State (6-2) – Played Indiana on the road, won 36-31. Conclusion: Expected Win
Wisconsin (6-2) – Played Northern Illinois at home, won 44-3. Conclusion: Expected Win
Illinois (5-3) – Played Michigan at home, lost 17-27. Conclusion: Expected Loss
Michigan (6-2) – Played Illinois on the road, won 27-17. Conclusion: Expected Win

Buckeye opponent’s records after the 8th week, 53-42. After 5 weeks of conference play, Ohio State and Michigan have no losses and are in contention for the Big 10 championship. Illinois gave away the game against Michigan with penalties and poor special teams play – this was the chance to get them with RB Hart out. There’s still alot of football to be played, but it looks like it’s going to come down to the November 17th game in Ann Arbor, again….

Quick Hits from Around College Football

And then there were five… These are the undefeated survivors; give them credit for standing tall when others are losing games they should win: Arizona State, Boston College, Ohio State, Kansas, and Hawaii. An interesting aside, the SEC was an incomplete pass from being eliminated from national championship game consideration when LSU pulled out the win. The SEC is down this year, its purported strength is all self-referential. The conference champion will be lucky to not have 3 losses.

Projected BCS Top 5: Ohio State, Boston College, LSU, Oklahoma, and Arizona State.

Game of the week? LSU came from behind to beat Auburn 30-24 with 1 second left in the game. Runner-up: Penn State beat Indiana 36-31, with 27 combined points in the fourth quarter.

Mismatch of the week? Clemson annihilated Central Michigan 70-14.

My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.)

Ohio State – Got a tougher than expected test from Michigan State.
Boston College – Bye week.
Arizona State – Bye Week.
Kansas – Ground out a win over Colorado.
Oregon – Scored 24 in the last stanza to hold off Washington.
West Virginia – Nuked a bad Mississippi State team.
Oklahoma – Nearly stumbled at Iowa State.
LSU – Hung on to beat Auburn in dramatic fashion. Note: talking heads in the media, this doesn’t mean LSU is the best team in the nation…
Missouri – Dominated Texas Tech.
Virginia Tech – Bye week.
USC – Stomped on Notre Dame.
Hawaii – Bye week.

My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA) Colorado State got a win this week and leaves the Bottom 5, for now.

Notre Dame – 1-7 this season. On the bright side, USC looked better this week than they have in a month.
Florida International – 0-7 this season. Lost to Louisiana Monroe.
Utah State – 0-7 this season. Lost to Nevada.
Marshall – 0-6 this season. Plays Sunday night, Oct 21.
Minnesota – 1-6 this season. Lost to I-AA North Dakota State.

In the coming week I’ll post an Penn State/OSU preview, a game review of Penn State/OSU, and a Weekend Update Sports edition.