College Football Roundup (10-15-06)

It was an exciting week in the Big Ten once again (at least if you aren’t a Gopher fan). One of the two really big games in the nation in my opinion was Michigan at Penn State. The Wolverines, despite not having Mario Manningham, went into Happy Valley and came away with an impressive 17-10 win in a very tough environment. This game was likely Michigan’s toughest before the big showdown with Ohio State at the end of the year, so the fact they were able to win it without their most dangerous offensive weapons says a lot about their team. They’ve moved up to #2 in the newest poll.

The most shocking game in the Big Ten was obvious”¦ Indiana upsetting previous #15 Iowa. The Hawkeyes had no answer for Indiana wideout James Hardy (8 catches/104 yards/3 TD’s). The most surprising thing for me, and probably the biggest cause of concern for Iowa, is the way Indiana quarterback Kellen Lewis was able to pick apart the Hawkeye ‘D’. The freshman signal caller was 19/25 for 255 yards, 3 TD’s and 0 Int’s. If you haven’t seen Lewis yet, you’ll get the chance in three weeks when he comes to Minnesota. Maybe, just maybe, Lewis gives Indiana a glimmer of hope for the future, especially with James Hardy having two more years after this one.

Around the nation

Nationally the big news was Auburn rebounding and nipping previously unbeaten and #2 Florida 27-17 at Auburn. That Auburn victory really opens up the SEC and puts them right back in national title hunt. After giving up 17 first half points to Florida, the Tiger defense buckled down and gave up less than 100 second half yards, forcing several turnovers along the way. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video from the Miami – Florida International brawl. Thus far 31 players have been suspended for future games; 13 for Miami and 18 for FIU. Part of that brawl involved players using their helmets (and even crutches) to assault other players. It will be interesting to see whether there are criminal charges brought against any of these players, seeing how hockey players like Marty McSorely have been charged for similar incidents involving hockey sticks in the NHL. Two ranked teams suffered bad losses this week; Virginia Tech (22-3 @ Boston College) and Georgia at home against Vanderbilt. Georgia has had 4 very unimpressive performances in a row, and with their latest loss at home to a previously winless conference foe I’ve dropped them from my top 25. California had yet another easy win, this time a 21-3 victory over Washington State. Cal has won every game by at least 18 points (including 2 victories over ranked teams) since their opening week stumble at Tennessee.

Next weekend

Looking ahead to next Saturday, the game of the week is Texas at Nebraska (11:00 AM, ABC). Nebraska is 6-1 this year, but do not have a victory over a good team. They can prove they’re for real with a victory over the Longhorns. The battle for ACC supremacy (which may be an oxy-moron) takes place in South Carolina when Georgia Tech visits Clemson in a visit between division leaders in that conference. The only games of note in the Big Ten is #2 Michigan hosting #25 Iowa. This game had a lot more luster before Iowa lost to Indiana, but expect the Hawkeyes to put up a good fight none the less.

Top 25

I made some interesting moves in the top 25 this week. As you may notice, several teams have moved around for no apparent reason. Why? Well, when Auburn beat Florida it threw things out of whack a little bit. There is a chain of games that begins with USC beating Arkansas early in the year. Arkansas then handled Auburn last week. Auburn nipped Florida yesterday. Florida won at Tennessee earlier in the year. Tennessee whipped California to open the season. With the exception of undefeated USC, all have only one loss and you can follow that chain straight down the list. So if you ignore the perception you had of each team coming into the year and focus on these 5 important results, the picture should be clear. Now, is Arkansas really the #6 team in the nation? Probably not. They played out of their minds against Auburn, but really haven’t been terribly impressive in many of their other games (like in their blowout loss to USC in their first game). But in the game that counted Arkansas was impressive. So for now I’m going to rearrange things to follow that chain and we’ll see what happens in following weeks.

Dropped Out:
21. Virginia Tech (L at Boston College, 22-3)
22. Georgia (L vs. Vanderbilt, 24-22)

These rankings are GopherHole.com’s vote in the CollegeRivals.org Top 25 poll. Its voters are staff members from various independent college football websites just like GopherHole.com. Check back each week throughout the season to see the newest poll. Click Here to view the latest CollegeRivals.org Top 25. (This poll will be updated every Tuesday afternoon through out the sesaon.) Click Here to view last weeks top 25.