Nintendo Stat, Week Two...

Nintendo Stat of Week Two:

Oregon rushers against Utah State (a 66-24 Duck win). All told, the Ducks rushed for over 400 yards and piled up nearly 700 (!). At some point, I bet even the waterboy got some carries and averaged about 7.5-a-pop. Some of these guys are receivers, I'm sure. But it makes you wonder how many RBs Oregon has and whether Utah State was even on the field at the time:

L. Blount
18 carries, 132 yards, 2 TDs, 36 yards longest.

A. Crenshaw
10 carries, 72 yards, 1 TD, 39 yards longest.

R. Alston Jr.
11 carries, 71 yards, 1 TD, 19 yards longest.

T. Scott
1 carry, 51 yards, 1 TD, 51 yards longest.

J. Johnson
1 carry, 37 yards, 37 yards longest.

J. Roper
5 carries, 35 yards, 1 TD, 15 yards longest.

C. Harper
4 carries, 25 yards, 1 TD, 12 yards longest.

From a slaughter to a mere blowout?

Reports are that Ohio State RB Beanie Wells will attempt to play Saturday against USC. I'm sure Wells's injury has healed fully and that he's not being pressured by, oh, his coach, teammates, fans, student body, boosters, his mom, ABC Sports, Brent Musberger's hairstylist and pretty much everyone affiliated with football. Good luck, Beanie. You're gonna need it.

Buy me, sell me...

A second weekend of football is in the books, so here's another edition of the stock market college football style.

Time to buy:

The resume of Skip Holtz, coach of East Carolina. Which soon to be coaching vacancy will he snag? The one at Washington? Bobby Petrino's perhaps, once the Pig Sooey coach starts getting his hat handed to him in SEC league play? How about at Louisville where Steve Crapthorpe, excuse me, Kragthorpe, is under fire because The 'Ville used to be good and is no longer?

Pac 10 Conference. West Coast football right now is as good as East Coast football is bad. Frankly, the Pac 10 is the only thing standing between the SEC and Dr. Evil-like domination.

Jimmy Clausen's new "mullet." I am all about the Notre Dame QB's attempts to capture the Joe Dirt demographic. Buy a million shares, I say.

Ohio State bashers. Your week in the sun is coming. It will feel like Christmas morning for Bucks Bashers Saturday night when OSU go to L.A. and lose their football virginity.

Jay Cutler and the Denver Broncos. Watching Jay manage the offense shows this team is ready to burst onto the scene in the post-Tom Brady era. Let's hope that the Bronco D, which is mediocre at best, can hold out.

Time to sell:

East Coast football. Contrast, if you will, the atmosphere of Saturday's Connecticut-Temple game with Texas-UTEP. For the Temple game in Philly, there were, literally, about 1,500 fans in the stands at kickoff. In El Paso, there were that many people at the hot dog stand and sitting atop that crazy-ass rock formation just behind the Sun Bowl. And UTEP is supposed to blow chunks this year. Point is, there is no contest. Rutgers and Syracuse and Boston College and Pittsburgh can pour as much money into their programs as they want to and they still won't draw like a 6-6 Texas A&M team. Call it karma, call it passion, call it people-on-the-East-Coast-have-lives-and-people-in-College-Station-don't. Call it whatever you want. I've finally made peace with the fact that East Coast teams, particularly Northeast teams, are the Kansas City Royals of college football. But, in a sense, that's the way it should be. Because every Connecticut-Temple game that is played makes those USC-Ohio State games that much more special.

Wake Forest. It's only a matter of time before Wake gets the smackdown from somebody. You can't live on misdirection, lucky calls and the two-minute drill forever.

Florida. They're good, there's no doubt, especially on defense. But from what I saw in their game with Miami, I sense the Gator offense may struggle this year, especially when Tim Tebow is forced to pass. Given the strength of the SEC this year, I see that scenario playing out multiple times.

Speaking of Florida's passing attack, let's also sell Tim Tebow's throwing motion. It ain't a javelin, Timmy. It's a football. Heisman winner? Sure. But boy does he have one awkward-ass throw.

Fantasy football owners who drafted Tom Brady high up. And then there's the guy in my league who drafted both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning back-to-back. We all thought he was a total loser at the time.

Darren McFadden. Maybe it was first-game jitters. But compared to teammate Justin Fargas, McFadden, the Oakland first rounder and former Pig Sooey He-Man, looked stuck in the mud. The Raiders even installed a version of the Wild Hog Formation, but McFadden looked tentative in it. It's too early to reach any conclusions, but might it be that Matt Forte of Chicago, Felix Jones of Dallas, Chris Johnson of Tennessee and Steve Slaton of Houston all have better pro careers than Mr. McFadden? Call it the I-rode-the-LSU-game-to-the-Xbox-360-cover curse.

Rankings Review, Sept. 8...

New AP and coaches rankings keep USC No. 1 and set up a titanic (and probably over by the first half of the first quarter) clash with No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday, but some movement in the trenches deserves commentary.

The biggest change is East Carolina up to No. 14, a ranking sure to fall once they grow overconfident and lose to some random team in Conference USA later on in the season. (Note the disparity between the writers and coaches... The coaches have East Carolina at No. 20, a nod to the fact that, on a good day and with a couple of breaks, you and your buddies could knock off this team.) West Virginia, meanwhile, dropped Clemson-style as they should.

Notes from the other votes: Rice, barely 2-0, gets a vote in the AP poll. Why that is? We're talking about the school in Houston, right? Along the same lines, Notre Dame, who is lucky to be 1-0 following a barely-win against football juggernaut San Diego State, gets three votes in the coaches poll. That said, I do like QB Jimmy Clausen's new quasi-Joe-Dirt-mullet haircut. You should see it in high def. Might as well wheel your double-wide onto the 50 yard line, Jimbo.

Teams most likely to keep moving up because they are playing cupcakes: Oregon, Kansas, Fresno State.

Teams most likely to drop because their schedules are hard as crap: Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama.

New Colts Stadium Thoughts: Not so much, to be honest. I don't like the diagonal layout. All of Indianapolis is on a grid, except for this huge stadium. If I were God, I'd take my giant hands and straighten that sucker up so that it's parallel with nearby West and Illinois streets. Also, that field turf they put in there... It looks ratty already. You've got an open roof, Indy. For the love of lawncare, spend some extra money to put in a fescue-ryegrass mix.

Key to stopping Peyton Manning: The Chicago Bears figured it out last night. It's pretty simple. Wait until Peyton has off-season knee surgery, then blitz him relentlessly during the very first game he's back when he hasn't thrown a football in nine months. You just might be able to hold him to 258 yards and one touchdown and win the game by scoring a fluke defensive touchdown and a safety. Lovie Smith, heck of a game plan (The padawan learner has become the teacher, Master Jedi Dungy. Hwang. Hwang. Whoosh. Kerplunk.)

Who should the Patriots bring in to replace Tom Brady? My first choice would be a cyborg Tom Brady or God. But if they aren't in the cards, I would say either black-suit Spiderman, Peyton Manning circa 2005, Matt Ryan in about four years, Jet Li with superpowers like in The Mummy 3 or Tiger Woods if he threw a football and didn't have a gimpy knee. Man, the Pats are screwed.

Ted's first takes...

Let's pause for a moment here to recognize one of the worst football weekends in the history of Ted Kim. Boston College loses to a bad-ass Georgia Tech team (And when I say "bad-ass," I mean bad). That is then followed up with His Holiness, Tom Brady, (sniff) going down for the season.

I know I can't complain: Four Super Bowls in seven years; 18-0 last season; 50 touchdown passes. But, alas! Oh cruel fate: Take my knee instead!

Fantasy Football Bright Spot: Aren't you glad, Ted, you drafted Michael Turner when everyone else said, "Bad idea"? PS --- Carson Palmer, you're killing me. How much is it to ask to break 100 yards passing, man?

Play some pitch-and-catch in the yard moment: Can you believe how casual (and well protected) Tony Romo was in the Dallas Cowboys' whuppin' of Cleveland? It's like he was scanning the defense and the crowd for hot chicks at the same time. That guy is amazing.

Totally unnecessary "woodshed job": Back to college football... Florida State 69, Western Carolina 0. You can win by 200, Bobby, and it still won't look that impressive.

Overrated: Ohio State, Texas Tech, East Carolina, BYU, Pittsburgh Steelers

Underrated: California, Oregon, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Buffalo Bills

Fine Nine: USC, Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon

Pac-10 potpourri, Week 2

Let's say you're Jake Locker, Washington's 20-year-old sophomore quarterback. Your team is down by 7 to BYU with just a few minutes left in the game. You engineer an epic, 18-play drive and plunge into the end zone with two seconds left for what seems to be a game-tying touchdown. In a moment of relief and sheer exhilaration, you spring to your feet, toss the ball into the air over your shoulder and celebrate with your teammates. Then comes the ultimate buzzkill: the refs flag you for excessive celebration, pushing the PAT back an extra 15 yards. The kick is blocked, and your team loses by a point.


Outrageous, right? Your coach will undoubtedly come to your defense, ripping the refs for making a petty, ticky-tack call that decided the game. Not Ty Willingham, UW's stoic, mild-mannered top Dawg. As my former colleague Steve Kelley put it his Seattle Times column, Willingham was "remarkably composed" in the post-game press conference: "It really should be a no-call. But it's one that they have to call when they see it."



Show a little spine, Ty. Seattle fans like to see a coach stand up for his team. Lou Piniella's heartfelt tirades won the hearts and minds of players and fans alike during Lou's legendary run with the M's. And his emotional fire rubbed off on his players -- at least during the regular season (the 2001 M's racked up a record 116 wins). Dispassionate obsequience to refs who make stupid calls isn't exactly going to fire up the troops.


More Pac-10 musings:

Cal looks scary good. Putting up 66 points on the road in the Pac-10 is no easy feat, even against this year's league doormat, Washington State.

SC will annihilate Ohio State on Saturday. The Buckeyes made Ohio QB Boo Jackson look like Bo Jackson for three quarters on Saturday before finally waking up to edge past an inferior opponent at home. There's no room for error against the Trojans in LA.

Root for UCLA to knock off BYU in Provo to spare the world of another Hawaii-esque BCS bid. BYU just might run the table in the Mountain West, so the Bruins may be the only team that can prevent another Sugar Bowl slaughter.

ASU's offense is clicking. The return of tailback Keegan Herring alongside Euless Trinity alum Dmitri Nance gives the Devils a one-two backfield punch that will help open up the passing game for Rudy Carpenter. A legit running game is absolutely essential for the Devils to compete with Moreno and Co. in two weeks.

What I learned by watching television...

What I Learned by Watching Television:

We reflect on a busy week of college football that saw Jake's team (Arizona State) romp, Ian's team (SMU) rebound and my team (Boston College) reveal itself as not having a very good offense.

Georgia RB Knowshown Moreno is an absolute beast and, in my eyes, the new kid to beat in the Heisman race. In a drubbing of Central Michigan, he locomotived his way to an almost casual 168 yards and three scores. Georgia is so very good (as is the rest of the SEC). The College GameDay guys should buy a time-share in the southeastern U.S. because that's where the action is this year.

Miami, Fla. is going to be scary good... in three years. They may not be anything special now, especially after their pounding at the hands of Florida. But this team, stacked full of freshmen and sophomores, offers hope for the 'Canes. Against Florida, they showed poise and athleticism. Make no mistake: Miami is on the rise.

The Pac-10 is clearly the nation's second best conference: A half-dozen teams in the conference could hang with anyone from the SEC: USC, Arizona State, Oregon, Arizona, California, UCLA. Yes, USC is the jewel in the tiara, but all those other teams are wickedly good, too.

Let's spot Ohio State four touchdowns now. The Big Ten is not very good, comparatively, and I'm afraid it's going to show on Saturday when Ohio State travels to USC. If Beanie Wells doesn't play for the Buckeyes, they have no shot against the Trojans. None.

What's up with East Carolina? Talk about random success. Who on earth might have predicted the success of this team early on in the season? It's equal parts a nice story and a commentary on the sad state of East Coast football.

Reflections:

The Crystal Ball has a Sixth Sense:

"Washington gives BYU a run for its money, but loses."

"Wake Forest, its misdirection plays neutralized by SEC speed, nevertheless squeaks one out at home against Ole Miss."

The Crystal Ball was kind of right:

"Cincinnati keeps it close against Oklahoma... in the first half."

"Florida absolutely crushes Miami in the Swamp, sinking the ACC even lower than it already is. Gator Percy Harvin runs buck wild."

"Texas Tech plays a closer than expected one at Nevada."

The Crystal Ball was kind of wrong:

"Stanford keeps things competitive but ultimately loses against Jake's boys from Arizona State."

"Ian's gang SMU rebounds and runs up the score June Jones-style against Texas State."

The Crystal Ball was sniffing glue:

"Bowling Green beats Minnesota and skirts the Top 25."