Gopher Football
What could be the Big Ten championship game took place on Saturday when Penn State topped Ohio State, 13-6. While the outcome did not surprise me, the amount that Penn State struggled on offense certainly did. Without taking any credit away from what the Buckeye’s did defensively, I thought the PSU offense was better than it is. Not surprisingly, the outcome of the game came down to which team made the biggest mistake, and unfortunately for Buckeye fans, it was made by true freshman Terrelle Pryor. His 4th quarter fumble allowed the Lions a short field, on which they converted a touchdown. They say that the road to the Big Ten title goes through Columbus, so now that Penn State has cleared that hurdle, the title is theirs for the taking. Watch out for the Iowa in two weeks though ““ Penn State will need to come into that game ready to play.
Northwestern, the Gophers next opponent, had a rough Saturday. Not only did the Wildcats lose to a previously winless Big Ten team, they lost their starting QB when C.J. Bacher went out with a hamstring injury late in the game. Bacher is key to the Northwestern offense, so if he can not go next week that would be a big advantage for the Gophers. It gets worse. Northwestern running back Tyrell Sutton is having surgery this week on his arm, and is likely out. If Sutton and Bacher both don’t play, the Gophers should be heavy favorites.
In other injury news, Wisconsin’s Travis Beckum saw his career come to and end when he broke his leg in Wisconsin’s victory over Illinois. Due to previous injuries, Beckum had not been much of a factor in the Badger offense this year, so I doubt this latest development will make the Wisconsin offense any worse than it already was this year.
Around the nation
I have to start out by giving some props to Texas Tech. I thought they had been a little overrated this year, mostly because their defense seemed to be giving up a lot of points, but I think they proved on Saturday that they deserve their ranking when they destroyed Kansas in Lawrence. The game was about as one-sided as can be, with the Red Raiders building a 63-14 lead a few minutes into the fourth quarter. Texas Tech out gained the Jayhawks 556 to 315, while Kansas turned the ball over 5 times.
Sticking with the Big 12, Texas had their closest call of the year, a 28-24 victory over #6 Oklahoma State. I didn’t see this game, but it appears that Colt McCoy will not lose any ground in the Heisman Trophy race. The outstanding QB threw 38/45 for 391 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 INT. Texas had a HUGE break in this game when a Colt McCoy interception was called back because of a roughing the passer penalty on Oklahoma State. Texas went on to score a touchdown on that possession, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.
One of the crazier games of the season so far took place in Manhattan, Kansas between Kansas State and Oklahoma. Oklahoma got out to a 28-7 lead. Kansas State responded, tying the game at 28-28. Oklahoma then scored 4 straight TD’s to pull out to a 55-28 lead. The crazy part here is that all of this was done in the first half! Strangely, each team only scored one time in the second half, which resulted in a 58-35 Oklahoma victory.
Washington lost to Notre Dame, 33-7. That leaves the two big Washington schools 0-14 this year. Even though Washington is bad, Washington State is probably worse. The Cougars have given up at least 63 points in 4 of their 7 games against FBS competition. UPDATE – Just after I posted this story, I saw that this afternoon, it was announced that Washington coach Tyrone Willingham is resigning at the end of the season. Based on Willingham’s comments, it looks like this was not his decision.
It was a nice run for Vanderbilt. After winning their first five games, the Commodores have now dropped 3 in a row after losing at home to Duke, 10-7.
Once again, Pittsburgh made a strong statement that they do not like being in the top 25. They dropped out (again) after losing 54-34 to a 2-5 Rutgers team, in Pittsburgh.
Big games next weekend
#1 Texas @ #7 Texas Tech (7:00 pm, ABC) “” This is the newest “œbiggest game of the year”. The top-ranked Longhorns travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech in the biggest game in history of the Red Raider program. Texas is coming off a game where they struggled a bit against Oklahoma State, while Tech looked in peak form in destroying Kansas in Lawrence. This game has high scoring shootout written all over it. Obviously Lubbock will be rocking, and while I think that emotions will play against Texas Tech early, they’ll recover and squeak out the win. Prediction: Texas Tech 42 ““ Texas 38
#8 Florida @ #7 Georgia (2:30 pm, CBS) “” This is a tough one to call. Both teams are coming off huge victories “” Georgia winning at LSU and Florida destroying Kentucky at home. The Gators actually have three really impressive wins in a row, while Georgia had struggled a bit up until this past Saturday. Normally I would go with the home team in a game like this, but Florida has played as well as anyone in the country since their upset loss at home, so I’ll go with the Gators in a close one. Prediction: Florida 31 “” Georgia 28
#18 Tulsa @ Arkansas (1:00 pm, ESPN360) “” So far this year Tulsa has waltzed through their schedule, building up an 8-0 record and rising to #18 in the BCS poll. The knock on Tulsa though is that they haven’t played any good teams yet. Looking through their schedule, the best team they have played could be Rice, and that isn’t saying much. That will change this week when the Golden Hurricane make a non-conference road trip to Arkansas. Even though the Razorbacks are having a bad year by their standards, a win for Tulsa would give them legitimacy, and would likely be the only game that could threaten a perfect regular season. A win would also boost Tulsa a few spots in the polls, and make them a serious contender in the BCS. Prediction: Tulsa 38 “” Arkansas 30
West Virginia @ UCONN (11:00 am, ESPN360) “” After starting off the year ranked high, West Virginia tumbled out of the polls in a big hurry after early losses to East Carolina (remember them?) and Colorado. Slowly but surely the Mountaineers have been making their way back into the mix, having won 4 games in a row now, including a 34-17 victory over struggling Auburn last weekend, behind Noel Devine’s 207 yards rushing. UCONN checks in at #25 in the polls this week after beating up on Cincinnati 40-16. The Big East is pretty jumpbled up right now and this game won’t solve anything, but it should be one of the better games of the year in that conference. Prediction: UCONN 34 ““ West Virginia 31
GopherHole.com Top 25
| Texas | ||||
| Alabama | ||||
| Penn State | ||||
| Oklahoma | ||||
| Oklahoma State | ||||
| Georgia | ||||
| Texas Tech | ||||
| USC | ||||
| Florida | ||||
| Missouri | ||||
| Ohio State | ||||
| TCU | ||||
| LSU | ||||
| Boise State | ||||
| Utah | ||||
| BYU | ||||
| Florida State | ||||
| South Florida | ||||
| Ball State | ||||
| Minnesota | ||||
| Tulsa | ||||
| Michigan State | ||||
| North Carolina | ||||
| Oregon | ||||
| Maryland |
Dropped Out:
17. Kansas (L vs. Texas Tech, 63-21)
18. Georgia Tech (L vs Virginia, 24-17)
20. Vanderbilt (L vs. Duke, 10-7)
21. Pitt (L vs. Rutgers, 54-34)
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.