College Football Roundup (10/1/06)

Ohio State once again proved that they are the easy choice as #1 team in the nation after an impressive 38-17 road win at previously ranked #12 Iowa. Ohio State appears to be a team without a major weakness and could be headed to a final week showdown with Michigan for the Big Ten title.

Speaking of Michigan, I was very impressed with what I saw on Saturday night at the Metrodome. The Wolverines ran the ball much better than I thought they would, and if they can keep that up there might not be a Big Ten defense that can stop them. As the Gophers proved, if you can’t stop the Michigan running game you’re going to have to bring a safety up to cheat against the run. But once you do that you’re taking your chances on getting burned deep by the good Michigan passing game. It’s a bit early, but it’s looking as if both Michigan and Ohio State could run the table in the Big Ten leading up to that Nov. 18th game. If that happens it will be the biggest game in the Big Ten in several years, and my pick would be Ohio State. The one weakness I see on Michigan’s team is their secondary. They have a great front 7 (maybe as good as anyone in college football), but considering the strengh of that front the secondary isn’t playing that great. I think that Ohio State has the arial weapons to exploit that and barring an upset I think Ohio State will be 12-0 and in the national championship game.

Elsewhere around the conference, barring a major turnaround I (and most others) will be shocked if John L. Smith is still the coach of Michigan State next year. After the Spartans Minnesota-like collapse against Notre Dame last week, the “bad” Michigan State team showed up on Saturday and lost to Illinois 23-20, giving Illinois just its second Big Ten win in the last 3 years. Penn State, the next Gophers opponent, took care of business against Northwestern and sets up what should be a good, close game against the Gophers on Saturday. If Gopher fans think their defense is bad, they should watch Indiana’s next game. The Hoosiers looked pathetic in giving up 52 points to Wisconsin, but in fairness they’re obviously in a tough spot with the health of their coach weighing on their minds.

Nationally ….

After Ohio State I don’t think there is a clear #2 team. Both Auburn and USC sputtered a little bit, and even though West Virginia is a dangerous team offensively I don’t think they have the defense to rise any higher than they are right now. I still like Auburn’s chances in the long run though because of their favorable schedule (the same reason they were my #1 preseason pick). They already have 2 of their 4 road games out of way, and the remaining two are at unranked Mississippi and Alabama. In a conference with top 20 teams all over the place, they caught a lucky break and for that reason could run the table. The biggest move I made in the polls this week was moving Oregon and California up several spots. This week it was Oregon’s turn to whip up on Arizona State, and Califoria had another hugely impressive offensive performance (their 4th in a row) in their win against Oregon State. After struggling in their first game against Tennessee, Cal has found their grove and are playing like the preseason top 10 team they were billed as.

Moving On …

There are several great matchups on tap next weekend. The biggest is #8 Florida hosting #5 LSU. This game is the next HUGE contest in what seems like a weekly occurance in the SEC. The next biggest game in my mind is Oregon playing at California. This game will determine who will challenge USC for the Pac Ten title. In the Big 12, Texas plays at Oklahoma in what should determine the winner of the Big 12 South, and back in the SEC Tennessee travels to Georgia in another pair of top 20 teams. My pickS: Florida (close game, big homefield advantage), California pulls away in the 2nd half, Oklahoma in a close game and Tennesse upsets Georgia. Here is this weeks GopherHole.com top 25:

Dropped Out:
20. Miami (W vs. Houston, 14-13)
21. TCU (L vs. BYU, 31-17)

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.