CFB Wrap Up: Alabama Rolls Florida, Oregon Comeback Moves the Ducks to No. 3

Two Top-10 matchups, several other Top 25 matchups, a couple shifts in the AP Poll… Let’s get to this week in college football!

No. 1 Alabama 31, No. 7 Florida 6 – The Crimson Tide took this second consecutive matchup of Top 10 opponents as an opportunity to cement their No. 1 ranking. Florida looked completely overmatched, and the Tide forced 4 turnovers, including a pick-6 in the 3^rd quarter that iced the game.

Mark Ingram didn’t have a big game (12 carries, 47 yards, 2 TDs), but given the Gators’ ineptitude on offense, he did just enough, even if he didn’t put himself higher on the Heisman list. The performance was enough to drop Florida out of the top 10 to 14 in this week’s AP Poll.

Next up for ‘Bama is No. 20 South Carolina next week on the road, a game I’ll cover below.

No. 4 Oregon 52, No. 9 Stanford 31 – Okay, so I had the way the game would go right yesterday, but I had the teams reversed. Oregon looked extremely impressive after spotting the Cardinal a 21-3 lead in the 1^st quarter. They kept chipping away at the lead, and ended up outscoring Stanford 49-10 the rest of the game.

The win was enough to push the Ducks to the No. 3 spot in the rankings this week, jumping ahead of Boise State, who dropped to No. 4. LaMichael James led the way for the Ducks, rushing 31 times for a career-high 257 yards and 3 scores. Stanford after the loss dropped to No. 16.

The victory sets up a potential top-10 matchup for the Pac-10 title on Nov. 26, when current No. 9 Arizona comes to Eugene.

No. 8 Oklahoma 28, No. 21 Texas 20 – The Sooners survived a sloppy finish, including a fumble by QB Landry Jones that bounced out of bounds at the Oklahoma 6, and Texas let a golden opportunity to get a bounceback win after last week’s stomping by UCLA when Aaron Williams fumbled a punt with 1:49 left in the game.

Oklahoma moved up two spots to No. 6 in the poll, while Texas fell out of the Top 25 for the first time in 162 weeks. The last time the Longhorns were unranked was Oct. 15, 2000.

The rest of Oklahoma’s schedule sets up for a Top-10 matchup in the Big 12 Championship with No. 7 Nebraska.

No. 17 Iowa 24, No. 22 Penn State 3 – This was your typical Big 10 slugfest – not a lot of offense (especially for Penn State), but enough for Iowa to knock off the Nittany Lions in impressive fashion.

Iowa continues to be kryptonite for Penn State, winning 8 of their last 9 against the Nittany Lions. Next up for the Hawkeyes: a bye week before back-to-back matchups with No. 18 Michigan and No. 20 Wisconsin in consecutive weeks.

Quick hitters from the rest of the weekend in college football

-No. 2 Ohio State survived a Terrelle Pryor injury and held on to beat Illinois, 24-13. Considering the loss of the Heisman candidate for a good portion of the game, solid win to survive by the Buckeyes.

-Performance of the week belongs to Michigan QB Denard Robinson, who had 495 total yards of offense and 5 TDs. His first big test in the Big 10 comes next week, against No. 18 Michigan State, who looked really good against No. 11 Wisconsin.

-Gaffe of the year nearly happened to two teams on the last play of the LSU-Tennessee game. The Tigers nearly blew a chance to win the game in the closing seconds when they tried to change personnel with the clock running and the ball was snapped past QB Jordan Jefferson to seemingly end the game. However, a penalty was called on the Vols for too many men on the field – 13 men lined up on defense for Tennessee – and on an untimed down, LSU RB Stevan Ridley pushed in for the game-winning TD.

-Even though Boise State dropped to No. 4 after Oregon’s whipping of Stanford, the weekend went well otherwise for the Broncos, with their blowout victory over New Mexico State, Nevada’s win taking them to No. 21, and Virginia Tech coming back to win against No. 23 North Carolina State. The season still sets up for Boise State to be in the conversation for the national title at the end of the year.

Big Games for Next Weekend

No. 1 Alabama at No. 19 South Carolina – You can give the Gamecocks a fighting chance in this game, as they are coming off a bye and nearly knocked off now-No. 8 Auburn at home. However, Auburn ran all over South Carolina two weekends ago, and I can’t imagine anything different from the Crimson Tide.

No. 18 Michigan State at No. 17 Michigan – Let’s see if Denard Robinson can continue his run towards the Heisman Trophy against their in-state rivals, who will probably still be without their head coach for another week.

No. 23 Florida State at No. 13 Miami – Big rivalry game for two teams looking to get back into the national conversation. While both programs are probably a year or so away, a win here moves them up the ladder in the ACC for a chance at a BCS bowl.

Great weekend of action, and should be another great one next weekend! See you all then!

Alabama-Florida, Stanford-Oregon cap weekend of big matchups in Top 25

Another big weekend for the Top 25, as we have the No. 1 team in the nation facing the No.7, as well as another Top 10 matchup and several other games within the Top 25. Let’s get started and see how the matchups are looking!

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 7 Florida – While Alabama might not have looked the greatest in surviving a scare at Arkansas last week, Florida got a chance to get their offense in gear for the first time this season. Trey Burton had a huge week, with 6 all-purpose touchdowns for the Gators in their blowout win over Kentucky. However, the key matchup for this game will be Florida’s defense vs. Alabama’s running game. Mark Ingram was the deciding force down the stretch last week, and slowing the Crimson Tide’s running game will be key in any upset attempt.In  this instance, the young Gators still need some seasoning, and in what figures to be a low-scoring game, you have to give the edge to Alabama, who spent last week – not to mention all of last season in the SEC – playing exactly that type of game.

Prediction – Alabama 24, Florida 17

No. 4 Oregon vs. No 9 Stanford – The Cardinals have been an early surprise, jumping into the Top 10 after pounding Notre Dame in South Bend last week. Andrew Luck didn’t have a great game vs The Fighting Irish, but has been in the early conversation for the Heisman this year. Oregon is no slouch either, as both teams feature Top 5 offenses in the nation. However, Oregon’s defense did just give up almost 600 yards to Arizona State last week, while Notre Dame’s offense couldn’t really get on track all last week against Stanford’s D. In a battle of offensive powerhouses, expect Stanford to come through with enough key stops to turn back the Ducks.

Prediction – Stanford 33, Oregon 24

No. 17 Iowa vs. No. 22 Penn State – This is a bad matchup for the Nittany Lions, as they have had problems on the offensive line, and they face one of the strongest defensive fronts in all of college football, with Adrian Clayborn looking to have his breakout game under the big lights on Saturday night. Penn State is going to need freshman quarterback Rob Bolden to step up in a big way, but I don’t see it happening this week. Expect Ricky Stanzi to make enough big plays in the passing game to bump up the score just enough.

Prediction – Iowa 24, Penn State 10

Some other games that will have an effect on the hunt for the National Title include:

No. 8 Oklahoma vs. No. 21 Texas – Texas got exposed as a team that is built to lose to power running teams. Oklahoma’s not that team, but they’ve looked better so far, and should take this round of the Red River Rivalry.

Oklahoma wins it, 34-21.

No. 11 Wisconsin vs. No. 24 Michigan State – The Spartans have played strong this season, even in the absence of coach Mark Dantonio. Wisconsin looks like they will be revisiting the days of Ron Dayne and the pounding run game. This is the week that Michigan State comes back to earth a little. 

Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 24

Virginia Tech vs. No. 23 North Carolina State and No 25. Nevada vs. UNLV – These games are more important in how they affect Boise State’s futures than the teams playing. Anyone rooting for Boise State needs to see VA Tech run the table, and Nevada to enter their November matchup with Boise unbeaten and in the top 15.

See you all tomorrow with the recap of all the Top 25 action!

Quick Hits From D1 – Alabama Survives, Boise State Takes Care of Business, Texas Gets Stomped

- #1 Alabama survived a huge scare on the road with its 13-point come-from-behind victory over Arkansas. The Crimson Tide took advantage of three Ryan Mallett interceptions, and the running game pounded out 227 yards on the ground for 5.7 yards per carry, and went exclusively to Heisman winner Mark Ingram for the winning score after Mallett’s second interception.

Next up in the buzzsaw that is SEC conference play: #9 Florida comes to Tuscaloosa in another battle of Top 10 teams.

- Boise State got the national spotlight on ABC, and certainly had the aerial assault to fit the billing. But if you could look sloppy in winning 37-24, they did so against Oregon State. Between some dumb penalties, late hits that weren’t called, and bad special teams play, this game was a lot closer than it had any right being. But the Beavers couldn’t get anything going on offense, and Boise State did what they needed to do in their last non-conference test of the season before the bowls.

Boise State now has entered the “Win and Pray” portion of their schedule, where they have to win out to attempt to keep their #3 ranking, hope that Ohio State or Alabama gets knocked off in conference play, and that Virginia Tech, Oregon State, Nevada and Fresno State all win a lot to help their strength of schedule. VA Tech especially came up huge in showing that their loss to James Madison might have been a fluke, and they could potentially run the table in the ACC.

- The Big Ten certainly got a ton of style points for most of their Top-25 teams. Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa all blew out the candles on their cupcake matchups, and a couple Heisman hopefuls got some gaudy numbers out of it (Terrelle Pryor,  Denard Robinson). Penn State survived a scare from Temple and made the comeback to stay in the thick of things, and Northwestern held off a late rally to win 30-25 over Central Michigan to stay perfect on the season at 4-0.

Next week the tests start coming in conference play, as OSU goes to Illinois, Michigan goes to Indiana who is 3-0, and you have Penn State-Iowa/Wisconsin-Michigan State in Top-25 matchups next week.

- The SEC had its big week this week, as LSU held off a late surge by West Virginia to win 20-14, Auburn ran all over South Carolina in a 35-27 comeback win, and Florida aced its warmup for Alabama by stomping Kentucky.

Overall a good week for the SEC, as their two in-conference Top 25 matchups were tight games, and their two Top 10 teams held serve for another big matchup next week.

- Big winners this week have to include: Boise State (not only got the W but VA Tech got a big win in conference play and Nevada continued to stay unbeaten for a potential Top 25 matchup down the road) and Stanford (passed a huge test for the program in going to South Bend and whooping on the Fighting Irish before their matchup with #5 Oregon next week).

But the biggest winner has to be UCLA, who absolutely curb-stomped a sloppy Texas team 34-12, forcing seven turnovers in that game and winning a huge matchup on the road. No rest for the weary either as Texas gets #8 Oklahoma next week in a huge rivalry game that will probably determine which team is the Big 12 frontrunner for the rest of the year.

- Biggest losers, besides the Big Ten’s cupcakes, have to be: Arkansas (lost a huge opportunity to make a lot of noise nationally), Notre Dame (rebuilding year anyone? Also some defense please?), and the Big 12 (Texas losing right before the marquee game with Oklahoma, Nebraska looking sloppy in its win).

Another big weekend next weekend, and you’ll hear from me then!

~ David