College Football Week 9: Hot, Not & Really?

 

After week 9 of College Football, I'm working on introducing a new segment called "Hot, Not & Really"; which rather speaks for itself.  Hopefully this can be a continuing theme as the season goes on.  Without further ado, let's get to it.


WHO'S HOT:


Case Keenum: The Cougars signal caller threw for 534 yards and 9 touchdowns (NINE!!) against city rival Rice.  Keenum is the NCAA's all time leader in TD passes, and should soon be the all time leader in passing yards as well.  More importantly, Houston stayed undefeated.


Oklahoma State's Defense: This unit may have surrendered a lot of yards, but lead the nation in turnover margin.  They've now forced 12 turnovers in their last 3 games; I'd have included the 4 against Kansas, but that wasn't much of a contest.


Oklahoma Sooners: It might seem too soon, but the turnaround is hard to overlook.  After getting embarrassed in a loss to Texas Tech, the Sooners bounced back to crush the previously unbeaten Kansas State; completely dominating both sides of the ball.  They've earned it.


Ohio State Buckeyes: After an off-season they would rather forget, the Buckeyes are making the most of this season.  They blew a 21-point lead in a loss to Nebraska, but responded by handing Illinois their first loss, then soiled any BCS hopes that Wisconsin had, courtesy of QB Braxton Miller's late game heroics.


Nebraska Cornhuskers: The Big Red machine are currently riding a 3 game winning streak, after receiving a rude awakening in their Big Ten opener against Wisconsin.  Their latest antics involved a dominant performance against Michigan State, leaving both teams tied for 1st place (along with Michigan) in their respective division.


Oregon Ducks: They've reeled off 7 straight wins in dominant fashion.  Doesn't matter what they wear, or how they wear it, they just wear opponents out.


WHO'S NOT:


Wisconsin Badgers: Playing within the confines of Camp Randall Stadium, the Badgers carved out a 6-0 start, and were in the running for a national title.  Then came the next 2 games out of state, and after a couple of "hail marys", they're all but out for not only the national title, but the conference title as well.


Texas A&M Aggies: A 38-31 loss to Mizzou marked the 3rd time that the Aggies held a double digit lead (they led 28-17), only to lose the game.  This was a team that most people thought would factor in the national title discussion.


Clemson Tigers: They started off their season by defeating 3 ranked opponents - including defending champ Auburn - and seemed to control their own destiny as far as the national title was concerned.  The Tigers were done in by their inability to stop Georgia Tech's "triple option" attack.


Kansas Jayhawks: They're riding a 6 game losing streak and easily boast the worst defense in all of college football.  In their last outing against Texas, the Jayhawks could only manage 46 total yards (!!!).  I could go on, but there's no fun in flogging a dead horse.


Colorado Buffaloes: They're 1-8 (0-5 in conference).  Can someone please remind me why they moved to the Pac-12?


REALLY?

Tommy Tuberville followed up a signature win
with an embarrassing loss.

Texas Tech Red Raiders: Coming off consecutive losses, the Red Raiders put on a clinic in an upset win over Oklahoma.  Just when you thought that they were finally on track, they lay an egg against Iowa State.  Did I mention that this game was in Lubbock?  In a weird twist of irony, they trailed 24-7 at the half, and conceded 41 total points; a complete reverse from the previous week when they led 24-7 at the interval, and scored 41 points.


Marquel Wade, Arkansas: The Razorback wide receiver delivered "The Cheap Shot Heard Around The World" while covering a punt that was about to be fielded by Vanderbilt's Jonathan Krause.  Wade arrived early and put a hit on Krause before he could even field the ball.  Wade was subsequently ejected from the game, and is suspended for the game against #9 South Carolina.  He has since issued an apology, and you can expect him to have learnt from this episode.

Asphyxiation & Meltdown (A&M)

It's been almost 10 years since Texas A&M kicked off with a preseason Top 10 ranking.  All it took was a fortnight for them to drop out of the Top 20, after yet another second half meltdown; this time at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks, a one time South West Conference rival.


One week after watching a 17 point half-time lead disappear against Oklahoma State, the Aggies seemed determined to put that performance behind them with 5 first half touchdowns (all rushing), racing to a 35-17 lead before the interval against their future SEC division foe.  Once again, they came out flat in the second period, getting outscored 25-3.


For a while, the Aggies seemed to be in control of the game, running the ball at will against an Arkansas defense that couldn't stop the run even if they tried.  As a team, A&M totaled 381 yards on the ground; Christine Michael ran for 230 yards and 3 TDs on 32 carries, Cyrus Gray had 95 yards and 2 TDs on 17 carries, while QB Ryan Tannehill pitched in with 56 yards on 5 carries.  On any day, if you passed those stats onto someone, they'd probably tell you that the Aggies won.  However, despite getting gushed for all those yards, Arkansas came up big when it mattered the most, stopping Michael for no gain on a rush attempt on 4th & 2 late in the game.


A&M had been faced with "4th & short" situations during the 3rd quarter.  With the Razorbacks still reeling, A&M opted to punt rather than go for the kill.  The decision to punt on both occasions gave Arkansas some confidence that they could stop the Aggies, which is what they eventually did.  The momentum started to swing in their favor and next thing you know, Arkansas comes out on top.

Weeden (l) and Wilson both combined to torch the
Aggies for 948 yards through the air.

The running theme during these two losses has been the porosity of the Aggies pass defense.  Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden passed for 438 yards, while Arkansas' Tyler Wilson went bananas, passing for 510 yards.  Along with the 900+ yards, both QBs combined for 5 touchdowns and no interceptions.  You'd figure that maybe the Aggies would make the necessary adjustments, seeing that there was nothing unpredictable about what Arkansas or Oklahoma State was doing, but whatever they did probably didn't work.  With a lot of "pass happy" schools on the Aggies remaining schedule, you can be sure that those teams will be taking notes and studying some film.


It has been 16 years since Texas A&M beat a team from the SEC, but with them moving on to that conference, they may not have to wait any longer.

Sugar coated truth.

Celebrating ill gotten gains.

Ohio State finally ended their 9 game losing streak in bowl games against SEC teams.  They can thank the NCAA, who allowed their five "suspended" players to particpate.  

The NCAA couldn't "contain" him, neither could Arkansas

Terrelle Pryor, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas were allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl, after they "promised" coach Jim Tressel that they would all return next season to serve their 5 game punishment that was levied by the NCAA.  I don't know about you, but that just doesn't sound right to me.  So as the story goes, Tressel asked whether he should punish them now, or punish them later.  If you were any of these players, what would you do?

So not only did they play, but they all impacted the outcome of the game.  Check this out;
Terrelle Pryor: 221 passing yards, 2 TDs and 115 rushing yards.
Dan Herron:  87 rushing yards, 1TD
DeVier Posey:  3 catches for 70 yards, 1TD
Solomon Thomas: The lesser known of the five, his interception won the game for the Buckeyes.

Solomon Thomas' game winning play

Granted, Arkansas still had to go there and play the game, but I would love for anyone to tell me that Ohio State would have won without their players.  We can't deny that they benefited from the preferential treatment handed to them by the NCAA and their head coach.  It's been said a thousand times before and I'll be happy to say it again; these guys should have never even made the trip to New Orleans.  So if there was anyone who really got punished, it was Arkansas.



Mallett couldn't catch a break all night long.

That being said, this was one of the better BCS games so far; we'll still have to wait and see how the Auburn-Oregon game turns out.  When Ohio State went up 28-7, I was tempted to write off any hopes Arkansas had of winning the game.  Football however is a game of 2 halves and the Razorbacks made a game of it and almost pulled off the win. 

They had more than enough chances to do so, but the Buckeyes played well defensively; constantly harassing Ryan Mallett.  Whenever his offensive line managed to hold up, his receivers didn't help him out at all.  I lost count on how many passes they dropped.  They couldn't have picked a bigger game or stage in which not to show up.  Mallett constantly hit them on the numbers but they couldn't come through. 

Probably the biggest mental error of the game, was when Colton Miles-Nash blocked a Buckeye punt and Julian Horton fell on the ball to recover it, when it seemed a lot easier to pick it up and run it in for the score that would have probably won the game for Arkansas.  Two plays later, Solomon Thomas picked off Mallett to clinch an epic victory for Ohio State.



Cameron Heyward had an MVP type performance

My personal MVP for the game was Ohio State defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.  He gave the Arkansas Offensive line fits.  I don't think either of the offensive linemen or Ryan Mallett will be forgetting him anytime soon.  Heyward was disruptive on just about every snap and I'm sure the pro scouts anticipate that he'll be doing the same at the next level; he will certainly be a first round pick, probably in the top ten.

After the game, the story turned to whether any of the "suspended" Ohio State players intended to honor their vow and return next season.  While they all acknowledged that they'll be back, I won't be surprised if "circumstances" change, "forcing" them to leave for the NFL.  Everybody plays the fool sometimes.