ND's defense really hasn't been that bad. Their poor numbers are in large measure due to the fact they're on the field ALL GAME LONG. Offensively, there's at least some hope as the Irish finally found an identity last week... run the ball with 3 different backs and hope/pray the OL makes some holes.

The spread will be based on one thing. Does Purdue want to run the score up late or will they show some mercy like Michigan State did?

What's with the perception my Clemson Tigers melt down at the end of the year? Sure, last year the choking was at the end, but the year before we choked at the beginning, before finishing strong. As I recall, 2 years ago we choked in the middle of the season, or was that the season of inexplicable periodic losses to crappy teams?

I think ND's passing and rushing D splits are explainable as this: it is easy to run on them, their pass defense is OK, but no one throws on them in the second half because they're already nursing a lead. That, and think of what QBs they've seen. GaTech is a running team. PSU has the putrid Morelli. Michigan had a true freshman making his first start. MSU, another first year starter with two returning running backs.

So really, of course those teams were running the ball. Add to that the fact that ND wasn't stopping teams on the ground anyway, and there was no reason to be throwing it a lot, especially with a commanding lead.

#2:

Don't worry; you'll beat USC either way. ;)

Man the Big Ten is terrible this season. Ohio State gets props for looking good against a team that lost to Duke, all Ohio State has to do is recruit some athletes every season and they may never lose another Big Ten game again.

and I know Auburn is not Auburn....but no Florida-Auburn game?

Nick Saban for emperor did not take a hit yet, coming back to tie the game in the 4th quarter is enough for Alabama fans right now-especially if you lose because of a perfect pass in Overtime. Now the offense looking a little rusty again the next couple of weeks might make him lose the luster a little bit.

Just a couple of corrections on Alabama v. FSU...

This will actually be the fourth meeting between the two schools. They met in 1965 (21-0 'Bama), and then had two more games in 1967 and 1974. In 1967, it was a 37-37 tie, and in 1974 'Bama narrowly edged FSU 8-7 in Tuscaloosa, at a time when FSU had the longest losing streak in the country.

This will, however, be the first time that Bowden plays 'Bama, which is quite big. He grew up a 'Bama fan, and actually went to 'Bama as a QB before transferring to Howard College (now Samford) so he could get married. How we screwed up his hire after Perkins left to go to the Bucs, I'll never know. Still though, it's interesting how he talks about how he wants to, when he retires, go back to a game in Bryant-Denny. Interestingly enough, he says that he hopes that if he does, hopefully *we* won't be playing FSU.

And as for Wilson, he's looked terrible thus far. He had a big game against Arkansas, but also a lot of big turnovers that let them back in it. In the three conference games thus far (Vandy, Arky, and UGA), he has a completion percentage of only about 50%, averaging barely six yards per attempt, and has roughly a 1:1 touchdown to interception ratio. And all of that comes with a running game that has a RB Success Rate of over 60%, an offensive line that leads the SEC in Adjusted Sack Rate, and a great receiving corps.

Some people like at Wilson and see where he threw for 300+ yards against Arkansas and led a comeback and think, "Wow, great quarterback," but those who have followed the Tide much closer, sadly, know better.

All in all though, great article as usual guys.

Mason wasn't fired out of panic. He was fired because the relationship he had with in-state high school coaches had become so dysfuntional that it was becoming almost impossible for Minnesota to successfully compete for the best high school talent in Minnesota. This team is just another typical Gopher team, aggravated by having lost their two best defensive players, where they never have any depth, when they were arrested for sexual assault. The collapse to Texas Tech was merely the final straw. Mason had terrible recruiting on defense for the past couple years, so they can't stop anybody.

no, I refuse to believe that J.P. is not good....*sobs into beer glass*

But yes J.P.'s erratic play has been troubling-he seems to not know how to throw against the zone defense at all right now. He has 2 screen passes picked off, he has twice attempted to throw the ball away-but it stayed in bounds and floated towards the defenders. Alabama does have too much talent at WR to not be taking advantage of an actual run game.

Hehe I live about 100ft from the Macalester campus, I can see the field from my desk. My cousins boyfriend also plays there, didn't know Lewin was from thee, interesting.

eek 1000 not 100

"You may know Dave [Lewin] from his college quarterback projection system, the Lewin career forecast. Gil Brandt certainly does."

ROTFL.

I was attending college down the road at Concordia when Macalester broke its 50-game losing streak. A guy who lived down the hall from me attended the game. He claimed the winning field goal actually missed. The picture in the paper the next morning was, ummm, inconclusive...

I went to Carleton. Go Knights. Screw you Dave :) We're much much better at ultimate frisbee than football, however. But hey, there aren't a lot of sports where you can see a tiny school like Carleton beat the living crap out of a large state university.

MIAC forever!

Thanks for the positive comments about Rutgers. Covering a 19 point spread is a little worrisome. This Maryland team has a lot of talent, but you don't know how they will respond to a tough road loss. Rutgers had a similar disappointment a few years ago vs. Illinois, but managed to pull it together. QB seems to have been a problem for Maryland so far as well.

I do wish you refrained from speculating about Schiano's future so frequently. He's been clear about this at every point - including on the Boomer Esiason show on Wednesday. As long as the school doesn't suddenly get cold feet about expanding the stadium, he won't be going anywhere.

Could Rutgers maintain success without Schiano? A few years ago people were calling for his head. He was the youngest coach in I-A for several years and went through a steep learning curve. There's been too much institutional improvement to ever fall into the abyss again. In fact, RU's late 90s struggles were largely a function of the ineptness of Terry Shea. New Jersey is very provincial, and the #1 factor for being successful in the area is to have local recruiting ties. That's where Greg's true strength really lies.

Yes, this is now the set-up MSU has found itself in the past several years: start strong (against mediocre teams), beat ND (one and the same this year), then play a good team that is not playing as well and have that team find its legs against them, then said team rides that wave of glory to a marquee bowl while MSU tailspins. This was always made worse by MSU looking stronger than it was from playing lowlies, and the other team looking weaker than it was from some early-season fine-tuning.

That this game is at Camp Randall makes it all the worse. Those people are insanely loud, I think even the basketball hate carries over to MSU. MSU is playing competently with inferior talent, and this "playing/coached competently" is new to all the guys on the team, so I won't be surprised by any mishaps in this or any future game. Judging by MSU's makeup, I don't even think they have to win to prove the program is turning around (can't expect this team to go undefeated just yet, can we?).

Re: 15 Clearly the MIAC is the SEC of D III

Hehe I was a ringer on a few frisbee teams at Carleton when I went to the U of MN.

Watching Mike Ford play right away for South Florida makes me upset. Dude could not qualify to play at Alabama, but is able to go to another BSC conference school, qualify, and play right away.

Jamar Taylor as well!!! Well he qualified and was an early signee at Alabama, but had a kid back in Florida and transfered to South Florida over the summer....

Anyone else watching USF-WVA? Just a brutally ugly game, with 5 combined turnovers before the end of the first quarter. Fittingly, USF's D just scored. It looks like they've got WVA's offense completely figured out.

I am watching it.

Is it that hard to figure out West Virginia's offense...I saw Marshall do it for a half as well. But this game is sloppy as hell.

At the least for those without a rooting interest, they have a camera in the replay booth to get an "inside look" at how replay works. I thought it sounded rather gimmacky at first, but so far it's been sort of interesting.

I do have a rooting interest though, so I'm really enjoying the game so far.

Of the past five games they've played, West Virginia hasn't really turned it on until the second half in three of them (not saying that's a good thing). I'm hopeful to see some adjustments, but can't talk too much smack about South Florida at this point.

My Top 25:

1. LSU
2. Oklahoma
3. Southern Cal
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Cal
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Boston College
10. Texas
11. Clemson
12. Wisconsin
13. Kentucky
14. Arizona State
15. South Carolina
16. Missouri
17. South Florida
18. Virginia Tech
19. Georgia
20. Rutgers
21. Alabama
22. Penn State
23. Cincinnati
24. Michigan State
25. Miami

Top Ten Coaches Most Likely to be Fired / Resign

1. Mike Stoops, Arizona.
2. Houston Nutt, Arkansas
3. Mark Snyder, Marshall. After the UNH loss, “We Are…Fired�.
4. Ed Orgeron, Ole Miss
5. Tommy West, Memphis
6. Lloyd Carr, Michigan: the Penn State win helps, but I think he’s quitting.
7. Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State
8. Greg Robinson, Syracuse: down from #1 after the Louisville win.
9. Phil Fulmer, Tennessee: Phil’s fate might be decided within a month- if he beats Georgia and Alabama, he’ll get another year. If he loses to both, he’s gone.
10. Ted Roof, Duke: Could anyone win at Duke? Spurrier did OK there…back in the 80’s, when I was fashionable in a mullet and acid-washed jeans.

My guess is that more than ten coaches will be fired after 2007, thus no Bill Doba or Phil Bennett.

Pick of the week: Colorado +22 1/2 over Oklahoma. The Sooners have looked phenomenal so far, but the thin mountain air and the possible look-ahead with Texas next week makes me think CU can keep it close. I'm 3 - 1 so far this year.

Wow 8 turnovers in one half...

Oh my God. Two more plays, two more turnovers. I hope the 'eers can pull out an ugly win, because that's the best case scenario at this point.

Pat White now down, bad news for WVA.

I think Croom saved his job after beating Auburn-if they play tight games over the season he keeps his job. And the Mississippi St. job was probably one of the worst jobs to go to after Sherril left-I hope State people understand that.

Oregeron is in a weird position-I think he stays as well, he can recruit (well if they qualify) and this year the defense is terrible but the offense is not bad as opposed to the opposite the first 2 season of his job.

I agree with Fulmer and Nutt. Arkansas will understand what they had when they get rid of Nutt and see the team become mediocre, but Nutt looks like he burned too many bridges this past offseason. Fulmer has not done anything recently and Tennessee might be the 5th best team in the SEC East this year-maybe Cutliffe is pulling his own Fulmer right now.

Dennis Franchione needs to be on that list. I think he might be part of the bonfire.

Mississippi State is actually 3-1 now. Croom's not going anywhere. They have a real shot at beating a Jasper Brinkley-less South Carolina club IMO.

And cue yet another terrible snap by WVA that will limit them to a FG attempt. They just look awful. Even if they somehow win this one I'd drop them. No way are they a top 5 team. The top 4 would eat the Mountaneers alive.

ESPN Gamecast says WV just had a "team rush for -17 yards", followed by a *South Florida* timeout.

What?

Why did USF call that TO when the WVU team was rushing that FGA

Also, although they've 'only' lost 3, 80% of the shotgun snaps have been poor. It wouldn't suprise me if WVU came out with another center in the second half

Wow. USF comes out with their opening drive of the second half and rams it down WVA's throat for a TD. Yup, the Mountaneers are definitely dropping, maybe even out of the top 10.

WVU's defense really knows how to make a stand when their team needs one. Or not.

Before the game, I thought WVU would come out and slaughter USF. I may have been wrong.

#36: Slaughter? Now I had no idea they'd play this badly but no way were they going to "slaughter" a team on the road that beat them last year and appears to be at least as good this year.

#37- I said slaughter because I expected WVU to come out looking for payback, and it seemed like too many people were talking about USF. WVU destroyed ECU last week, and looked like they were pretty focused for today. I also thought USF might have the whole "happy to be here" thing going on for the game. Plus, if WVU wants to win a title, they pretty much need to hammer quality teams when they play on national television (especially since UL won't be the quality win WVU was hoping for). I didn't expect WVU to be this sloppy on offense.

FINALLY WVA seems to be getting something going on offesne. But they absolutely must score a TD here.

Or they could throw an INT and further doom themselves. Yikes...

thats game-USF wins this one.

Hold everything, WVA *finally* gets into the end zone and is now only down 8. If the Bulls go three and out I'm calling another Mountaneer TD, the USF D is gassed.

42- You're assuming that WVU won't commit yet another dumb turnover. WVU's backup QB threw what should have been the game clinching INT but it was dropped.

Here we go, USF has to stop WVA from going 75 yards in 2:41 if they want to win. The Bulls offense really let them down after scoring that TD to open the half.

#44:

Assuming that WV makes the 2-point conversion, of course.

Holy guacamole, how times on 4th and 10 or more have the Mountaneers converted?! USF should be ashamed.

INCOMPLETE PASS!!! Game OVAH!

I was rooting for USF all along. They sure do know how to win ugly, I'll say that for them.

Bye bye Slaton and White, nice knowing you.

Game over. USF pulls it off, Pat White and Slaton both gone from the Heisman race.

Here's the deal, USF is for real.

It's not a "West Virginia and / or the Big East" is overrated thing.

USF is for real.

Whew, for a moment I thought Grothe might pull a Pisarcik, the way this game was going.

Anyone else catch Rodriguez about to burst a blood vessel in his brain right before WVA's final offensive play? The man was going absolutely BONKERS over on the sideline.

So do Slaton and White come back for their senior year? I think White does as he is not a NFL QB, but Slaton could be a wild card-he is not a top 10 pick, but could be a 1st rounder if he left early.

USF in a BCS bowl game?

It will be interesting to see how good USF is next year-they return their skill position players on offense, but they lose a lot of talent on defense (Moffitt, both corners, Selvie)

#49: USF might be for real, but this year the Big East really is overrated. I wouldn't be surprised to see Maryland either take Rutgers to the limit or pull the outright upset. You read it here first.

53- I've stated on several threads here that I feel Rutgers is overrated. :)

Therefore, I feel USF is in the driver's sear for the Big East championship- and a possible undefeated season.

USF is for real.

This USF team has as much talent as anyone. You just worry about their overall lack of discipline, lots of sloppy plays tonight. They will give my Scarlet Knights a scare for sure. I'm not sleeping on Cincy, but they're still behind WVU right now.

Purdue wins-game over.

Notre Dame just failed on a 4th and 1 at midfield - the Purdue D-line just manhandled the Notre Dame offensive line.

ND's defense then gets Purdue in a 3rd and 29, and Perdue converts it.

Purdue is currently up 10-0.

That's karma.

Notre Dame fumbles, it looks like Purdue may have recovered, but a ND player ends up with the ball. Purdue calls a timeout to allow a replay, yet the replay official doesn't call for a replay.

Next play, Clausen is picked off.

So is Michigan still shocked by the spread offense? How is Northwestern scoring points?

Purdue, 20-0 over ND in the 2nd quarter. Notre Dame is godawful.

LSU is big time looking ahead. Only up 7-0 with about 7 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. All the LSU fans saw this as a "practice" game-so I hope its close the whole game.

and a safety by Tulane. 7-2 LSU with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. LSU is too good to keep it this close, but I am loving this so far.

sidenote: I go to LSU law school, but I am an Alabama fan...

Blocked field goal by Purdue. I cannot imagine Notre Dame keeping that #1 recruiting class and Weis is losing players as well from other classes....

Touchdown Tulane. They're up on LSU, albeit probably temporarily.

Potential Big Ten upsets at halftime:

Northwestern 16, Michigan 7.
Illinois 21, Penn State 17.

I haven't seen much to like from Clausen the first few games of his career, but he just threw a beautiful touchdown pass on 4th and goal from the 5.

....aaaaand ND misses the extra point.

Clausen is injured. Sharpley was also hit hard...and Jones is now gone.

cognet.catch22.org for IRC football chat

Notre Dame is back in this, 19-26.

Notre Dame is now back out of it.

Boston College 17
UMass 14

with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd Quarter.

Illinois might be undefeated if Juice was not hurt in the Mizzou game.

Purdue with a strange touchdown. The announcers are sure there will be a review...but no. The review official seems to have been out to lunch today - the only real review has been when Weis used a challenge.

Game over, 33-19.

Is the Purdue QB drunk? Why does he keep falling down?

too many Boilermakers.

Michigan pulls out the win.

Penn State needs JoePa to step down or something-they had a nice season 2 years ago and have done nothing to build from it.

South Carolina is going to pull this one out, same with Georgia.

Kansas State just drives down the field on Texas. I think the game is at Texas-its dead silent there.

Maybe Vince Young can sneak into the game-he was at the game....

why the hell do the Spartans punt on 4th and 6 on the 36? like everyone didn't know that ball was going into the end zone, solid 16 yards of field position.
You think maybe getting a first down in opposition territory is worth the shot?

Don't look now, but OU and Colorado are tied late in the 4th. Looks like the Sooners are finally getting tested for a change. Looking ahead to Texas? Yeah, I think so.

and what happens after that punt? 4 plays and 6 points the other way

Experts like usual are wrong. Colorado wins, bye Oklahoma.

Top 5 will be interesting next week.

It's nice to see that Oklahoma lost. That should mean that we won't be seeing an overrated Sooners team running up the score and riding a soft schedule to a National Championship Game appearance at the expense of a more deserving squad yet again.

#82: Hear hear! Preach it brutha! I was rooting like hell against OU. Notice I didn't say for Colorado, who I view as an institute of pure evil. But at this point I'd have rooted for the Al Quaeda All Stars if they'd played the Sooners.

And it looks like Texas might lose as well to make a complete mockery of those teams's "showdown" next week and a mockery of the Big 12 in general. Life is very good for 316 right now :-)

Yeah too bad we might have to see Ohio State do it instead this year.

the top 10 might look really different next week.

Also I must say the media so far has been shockingly quiet about this except for ESPNews. You'd think everyone else would be all over this, the #3 team just got beat by an unranked opponent, that's all.

It's turning into a pretty crazy season so far. Oklahoma blew out their first couple opponents and so everyone had them as a top national title contender and they go out and lose to a Colorado team that's played pretty poorly so far this year.
I only caught the last few minutes of the game but looking at the stats it seems like Colorado was pretty dominant. Colorado had 7 more first downs than Oklahoma (19 vs 12), held the ball almost twice as long (39 min vs 21 min), had 150 more yards of offense (380 vs 230), and won the turnover battle (2 vs 3).

Just checked the espn.com college football page. No mention of it. It's like they're pretending if they don't talk about the OU upset loss, then that means it didn;t happen.

Oh well, at least Stoops has that 2000 title to fall back on.

Seriously, you have no idea how happy this has made me.

Its on there-give it time and watch College football wrap tonight and it will show you everything you want to know.

I call for an end to any back-up QB coming into run the ball as a Tebow play. Or mention Tebow in a non-Florida game.

Maryland leading Rutgers in the fourth...this season has been a trip, and it's still only Sepember.

Defensive holding by the Spartans against the Badgers in the end zone. Penalty: Half the distance to the goal, repeat third down. Badgers stuffed on third and goal and kick field goal to go up 37-34. I thought defensive holding resulted in an automatic first down. I'm having trouble finding the official rule.

Kentucky might be a top 7 team next week....Kentucky...

92- I was just thinking that there could be some ODD teams in the Top 10 this week. South Florida for sure, and maybe Kentucky and Arizona State.

Could anybody who's watching the Cal-Oregon comment about whether the refs made the right call on the Oregon's last fumble?

(I'm listening to the game on the radio.)

#94 - It was pretty close, but only from one angle did it look like it might have been a TD, and that was from the sidelines looking toward the end zone.

ABC announcers kept calling it conclusively a fumble and touchback after viewing that replay.

But you never know with the officials in Oregon :p....

Great redemption for the D player on the play (who made a mistake in the 1st half which lead to a Ducks TD). He hit the arm of the receiver which immediately jarred the ball lose. Otherwise, it very well could have been 6.

F

Now can we call the Big East overrated? It's hard to believe that many people were calling West Virginia, Louisville, and Rutgers potential national title contenders. Its not like the teams that Louisville and Rutgers lost to were even good teams. Syracuse is terrible and Maryland looks like a .500 team at best.

Although USC and LSU may still have something to say about it, it looks like otherwise, parity has just arrived. I, for one, welcome our upset-minded overlords.

7-0 Florida State over Alabama in the 4th quarter, and the Alabama QB fumbles on his own 2-yard line. Florida State recovers, touchdown on the next play, 14-0.

The way the offenses are playing this game (offensively, heh), that pretty much prevents this week's Saban coronation.

Out of rampant curiosity, what is the most number of top 25 teams to lose in one weekend? By my count, 7 Top 25 teams have lost this weekend, with Alabama looking like a likely 8th team. Only two of the losses have been to other top 25 teams.

Kickoff is here...giggity giggity

D.J. Hall is the best WR in football no one knows about

oh and drives like this makes me so mad-we gave up on the run on the fumble drive and Florida State smelled blood.

what happened to Lionell Mitchell....for Christ sake this Alabama team was probably an 8 win team, but this stuff pisses me off.

Can we please stop with "What conference is better" nonsense. The answer is We have no freaking clue-no one does so stop asking.

Nasty late hit on the QB by USC there. Glad Lockhart wasn't hurt.

I think there should be five, maybe six teams in the top ten next week.

Should probably not answer questions after seeing the game slip away....but really the question is beginning to make me upset...there is no way to know-Florida State scrapped by Colorado-that was suppose to be a negative-then Colorado beats Oklahoma everyone's favorite for the national championship.

Russ- I have plenty of mental pictures.

The florida D secondary is going to make for a long nervous night.

How come Notre Dame gets to play twice in one day?

USC looks really out of sync so far. Lots of penalties, a couple of bad snaps, and an interception. Of course, Washington hasn't been able to take advantage.

USC's starting center went out injured, the backup has led to two fumbles, one which was called off because of a miraculous pre-snap penalty, the other recovered by Washington inside the 15 yard line.

The replacement needs to spend halftime practicing the snap.

Washington touchdown - 7-0 Washington over USC early in the 2nd quarter.

USC is really out of sync.

Locker runs it in, putting Washington up 7-0. Be interesting to see if this wakes up USC, which really hasn't come to play so far.

And USC marches down the field to tie it up. Now that USC is done fooling around, I predict this game will turn into a blowout soon.

What the heck is going on with Florida-Auburn? Auburn is up 14-0 and Brandon Cox is 10 of 12 for 152 yards.

Hey Urban, feel free to call something other than a Tebow dive up the middle

Re: 104

Spoken like a true SEC-hater! jk ;)

Florida's defense has been exposed- no pass rush and a very inexperienced secondary equals trouble

USC called for a personal foul on an incomplete pass - late hit on the receiver after he dropped the pass.

I think it's the right call given the way things are generally enforced these days, but I always hate calls on plays that would have been legal had the ball been caught. If the receiver had caught the ball, it would have been a fine hit. The fact that the ball was dropped when the player was barreling at warp speed toward the receiver shouldn't turn it into a penalty.

I'm pulling out a "told you so" here. I said after the Navy game that I was worried about Rutgers' run defense, and was told that you can't judge against the option. They weren't running any option today, it was just good old-fashioned poor tackling.

But to be fair, the defense was on the field forever, due to turnovers and an inexplicably quiet day by Ray Rice. (Even on their scoring drives, he wasn't used much.) Rutgers really needed a couple of clock-eating drives of their own and never got them.

Bottom line, if the defense is really as soft as they looked today, Rutgers is probably looking at something like an 8-4 season. Hopefully, it'll turn out to be a learning experience.

(BTW, I wonder what odds you could have gotten that there would be 3 undefeated Big East teams at the end of September[pending Cincy tonight], and West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville would be none of them. Not that UConn should count anyway.)

123-

My problem with that call is that the receiver was acting as if the pass was a lateral and was trying to pick the ball up off the ground. It seems wrong to penalize a defensive player for continuing to play when the offensive player hasn't stopped playing.

An incredibly ticky-tack roughing the passer call against Washington gives USC a first down at the 8, touchdown one play later.

The first thing that came to mind was "This is such a make-up call for the late hit call on USC." The announcers immediately echo the same sentiment.

When even Herbstreit thinks it's a bad roughing call, it's a bad roughing call.

Wow, USC receiver bobbles a pass, intercepted by Washington, returned for a touchdown. Tie game right before halftime.

Nice job by the Washington defense to hold them to a field goal there. That could've been a real momentum killer for Washington if USC had gotten a touchdown.

If USC (tied) and Florida (down 14) lose...heck, if even one of them lose...

Florida on the board with a field goal. Auburn wasn't able to move the ball at all on their first drive of the second half, let's see how they do now.

Oregon State was up 14-0 on UCLA, and 14-3 at halftime. UCLA is now leading 40-14.

Oregon State has fumbled three kickoffs. Two were lost, and the third was fumbled out of bounds. Oregon State, even late in the 3rd quarter, was up 14-6...and just fell apart. Fumbles galore, and meanwhile the defense decided to take the rest of the night off.

Was Auburn sandbagging everyone the last few weeks? They were incompetent offensively to start the season.

Okay...I know Mike Leach is a popular round these parts, but it's time to stop running it up on a D 1-AA team.

Why does Auburn play like world beaters against Florida, but high schoolers against everyone else? Florida just scored to make it 17-10, but I'm not feeling real confident.

An Auburn fumble and Florida recovery leads to a Florida touchdown. It's now 17-10, Auburn has the ball early in the 4th. Lots of time left for Florida to score if need be.

Touchdown for USC, they're up 24-14 on Washington late in the 3rd quarter. Washington just had a 20-yard run though.

Re: 134

That's because the SEC isn't any good after Florida and LSU! After all, the rest of the teams have beatpaths down to Little Sisters of the poor...

Oh, wait.

No, in all seriousness, I think that the Auburn coaches build a team that fits well against Florida. Just ask Tennessee about that with Florida, pre- and post-Zook.

There should be some sort of regulation as to how quickly a fair catch must be called in order for a penalty to be called.

USC punts, the Washington punt returner stands there waiting for the ball, then calls fair catch when the gunners are running full speed at him from about 2-3 yards away. They inevitably plow into him, and it's a 15 yard penalty for fair catch interference.

The announcers are correct that it's an "obvious call", but much like the late hit on the receiver call earlier in this game, and the odd roughing call earlier, it's an obvious call that just seems off.

Re: 137

I thought there was such a rule. Perhaps it's just in the NFL.

Re: 138

There is such a rule, but to my knowledge, referees almost never enforce it.

It's sort of like the "uncatchable pass" rule for pass interference - the referee is supposed to wave off the flag if the pass wouldn't have been caught had the interference not happened - but it isn't unusual to see a ball that is 5 yards over the receiver's head still lead to an interference call.

Yeah, a lot of calls seem to fall under the "now, that wasn't nice" doctrine.

That was a terrible call in the Florida/Auburn game for kick catch interference.

College football used to have a "halo rule" which forced the kicking team to give a punt returner a 2 yard window to catch the ball. However, that rule no longer applies - if a player wants the ability to catch the ball freely, they must call for a fair catch.

If no fair catch call is made, then the returner can be tackled instantly. Seems to me like the referees were confusing the fair catch interference rule with the old 2-yard halo rule.

And then the referees call Tuberville for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for complaining about the call. Wow.

USC is coming apart in this game. 15 penalties so far for over 150 yards.

Many false starts, three personal fouls, and a number of pass interference calls.

And, right as I say that, USC punts, and they force a fumble on the punt return, recovered by USC. Can they capitalize? We shall see.

And for once, the "call timeout immediately as the kick goes off" strategy doesn't work, as Meyer calls timeout right as Auburn makes the winning field goal, forcing them to try again.

And the retry goes through. Florida loses, 20-17.

USC receiver falls down in the end zone and a pass is picked off - Washington ball, a few minutes to go, down 7.

But wait! It gets reviewed, and is ruled an incomplete pass. USC lines up for a field goal, and...it's good! 27-17 USC, three minutes to go.

Florida beats LSU next week.

I have no rooting interest in the Florida-Auburn game at all, but I'm delighted to see the "call time out just as the ball is snapped" tactic fail. I recognize that it is a legitimate tactic, but it seems really bush league to me and it's nice to see it fail. Would have been even sweeter if the Auburn kid had missed the first one, though! (That's going to happen eventually, and won't it be fun.)

Florida didn't deserve to win. Kudos to auburn, they outplayed the Gators, especially in the 1st half when Florida couldn't figure out the auburn D. If Tuberville could coach every Saturday as he does against Florida, Auburn would never lose.

Frankly, I would have no problem if the leagues (NFL and/or college) removed the ability for coaches to call timeout, and returned it to the players, which would put it back to the way it once was - sure, one could ice the kicker, but at least the opposing team would know because they would see someone calling time.

Locker, the Washington QB, is a yard past the line of scrimmage on 4th down when he throws, illegal forward pass, loss of down, turnover on downs to USC. That's his second pass beyond the line of scrimmage in the game, both of them were crushing.

USC is running out the clock, but manages almost nothing, and has to punt it back to Washington, and will do so with about 1 minute left.

And on the punt, it goes over the punter's head, he gets it, tries to kick, blocked, Washington recovers on the 6.

Wow.

Washington touchdown, 34 seconds to go. Onside kick time.

Aaaaaaaaaaand...it's recovered by USC. That's the ballgame, but wow. What an ending.

Move South Florida way up.

151- What do we do with Auburn? They beat Florida, they beat Kansas State, and KSU beat Texas...the Mississipi State loss was bad but it turns out the USF loss wasn't.

Russell, you and I put 100x times thought into our rankings than those whose votes count do.

Tarrant - 137 - but you still can't nail the punt returner prior to him catching the ball if he calls a fair catch or not. And the players from SC nailed Russo before the ball even came down.

Wisconsin gave up 321 yards on 8 plays vs. Michigan State. Good grief.

WI offense was good though Donovan CONTINUES to stare down receivers resulting in another INT. It's also clear that he and the coaching staff get twitchy late in games as the passing games gets shut down except for the most basic roll outs or swing passes.

The word is that Kyle Jefferson, WI wide receiver, is ok after that vicious hit. I hope so. That looked like helmet to helmet but no flag. Maybe that silly roughing the qb call on the 4th qtr was a makeup. Donovan was barely touched.

Good special teams today. 3 made field goals, good kick coverage and several long returns for WI.

Not surprised by the Iowa/Indy score. Hawkeyes left it all on the field against WI last week and Indy can move the ball. Somewhat surprised by NW putting up a fight even with a spread offense. And Morelki "comes through" for me again. PSU folks tell me he is the team's best option, but I have watched his entire career and the guy needs everything "just so" to make plays. And that happens, um, almost never.

WI vs. Illinois, battle of unbeaten Big 10 teams. Crazy times.

This makes the USF win over Auburn look really bib. And after beating WV they should be in the top 10.

Sadly, it was classic MSU with plenty of dumb penalties. Hoyer just doesn't have much pocket awareness. There were a couple times he was sacked from the blind-side and his little "the pocket can only last so long" alarm should have been telling him to get rid of the ball.

My Meaningless Top 25:

1. LSU
2. California
3. Southern Cal
4. Ohio State
5. South Florida
6. Wisconsin
7. Arizona State
8. Boston College
9. Oregon
10. Kentucky
11. West Virginia
12. Missouri
13. South Carolina
14. Virginia Tech
15. Auburn
16. Florida
17. Oklahoma
18. Georgia
19. Michigan State
20. Kansas State
21. Miami
22. Cincinnati
23. Texas
24. Clemson
25. Illinois

-I'm serious about Cal, and they have a strong argument to be #1. Cal has beaten Tennessee and Oregon, and USC has beaten...who?

-I'm serious about South Florida. Can you make a real case that anyone below them should be ranked above them? Heck, they could be ranked higer.

-On Friday I was talking about what a HUGE college football Saturday was coming up on October 6. With Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida all losing, not so much.

Kevin11 - my top 10 looks very similar to yours. Yes, I do think USF deserves a #5 ranking right now. I do think Wisconsin is going to stumble at some point. They have way too many close wins.

Argh!

MSU 3rd and 2 on Wisconsin's side of the fifty, 1:20 left, down by 3, runs two pass plays and turns in over on downs. Jehuu Caulcrick stands on the sidelines.

With that time you run to get the first and then spike or just run a play quick.

Damn it!

Yeah, I'm not sure why they went all "John L. Smith" on that 3rd and 4th and 2.