T3R WEEK 2

Sorry for the delay on the rankings this week, I’m still trying to add up all the rushing yards for Oregon last week against the mighty USC defense.

#1 TEXAS LONGHORNS (8-0, 5-0)
LAST WEEK: 41-14 win @ Oklahoma State
NEXT GAME: Sat vs UCF
Last weeks performance did nothing but reassure myself that I made the right choice by putting Texas at #1 over Florida and Alabama in the initial rankings this season. Oklahoma State is not a bad team, and UT absolutely dominated that game in every way. With Central Florida, Baylor, Kansas and A&M on their schedule before a cupcake Big XII North foe in the conference championship game the Longhorns look like they will maintain the top spot and get to Pasadena for the National Championship game.

#2 FLORIDA GATORS (8-0, 6-0)
LAST WEEK: 41-17 win vs Georgia
NEXT GAME: Sat vs Vanderbilt
That was the performance most people around the nation where waiting for all season out of the Gators, right up until the eye-gauging incident. Wow was that thing blown out of proportion? Yes Urban Meyer looked like an idiot for only suspending Brandon Spikes for 1 half of Saturday’s games against 2-7 Vanderbilt, but didn’t we all know this about him already? Let’s get on to the bigger issue, Tim Tebow breaking Herschel Walker’s SEC TD record. Okay, first of all Walker played three seasons. In those seasons they played 11 games. There were no SEC title games. There were no 12th games on the schedules. Bowl games didn’t count in stats. Did I mention he did this in 3 seasons, 33 games? Tim Tebow after 33 games had 33 touchdowns!

#3 OREGON DUCKS (7-1, 5-0)
LAST WEEK: 47-20 win vs Southern Cal
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Stanford
How is 391 yards rushing against a USC defense that came into the game 5th in the nation allowing just over 78 ypg on the ground? That is impressive. How about 613 yards of offense on a Pete Carroll led defense? That is the most all-time against Pete Carroll. The Ducks may actually be playing better football than anyone in the nation right now.

#4 ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE (8-0, 5-0)
LAST WEEK: OFF WEEK
NEXT GAME: Sat vs #9 LSU
See what happens this year in college football, you have a bye week and you drop 2 spots in this world of WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?! Bama has a big game at home against a tough LSU team that seems to be starting move in the right direction. Alabama’s win in this series last season snapped a five game win streak for LSU. Bama hasn’t won at home in this series since 1999.

#5 CINCINNATI BEARCATS (8-0, 4-0)
LAST WEEK: 28-7 win @ Syracuse
NEXT GAME: Sat vs UCONN
Things are certainly setting up nice for the Bearcats. Cincinnati played in Syracuse last week and won’t have to leave home again until the season finale in Pittsburgh December 5th. They play 3 straight in the comforts of Nippert Stadium. The toughest of the three is WVU which is sandwiched between two possible trap games if the Bearcats are not careful. UCONN this week and a non-conference match-up with Illinois Nov 27th.

#6 TCU HORNED FROGS (8-0, 4-0)
LAST WEEK: 41-0 win vs UNLV
NEXT GAME: Sat @ San Diego State
Life is tough for the small conference guys in the T3R just like the BCS. Win a game 41-0 and drop two spots from the week before. Not that TCU wasn’t very impressive in their win, but they just have to do so much to make up for their lack of opponents that it will be difficult to with the remaining schedule for the Horned Frogs. Hosting Utah in 2 next weekend will help, but they need to really impress in that game as well.

#7 GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS (8-1, 5-1)
LAST WEEK: 56-31 win @ Vanderbilt
NEXT GAME: Sat vs Wake Forest
The Yellow Jackets have the ACC Coastal division all but wrapped up and we still have a month to go in conference play. The GT offense is really starting to roll in its second year under Paul Johnson running the Triple Option. Johnson had success running the ball at Navy with undersized players, now he is running the same system with bigger and stronger athletes. This offenses full potential is scary.

#8 IOWA HAWKEYES (9-0, 5-0)
LAST WEEK: 42-24 win @ Indiana
BOWL GAME: Sat vs Northwestern
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Iowa will not win the Big Ten this season. The Hawkeyes could not possibly keep up this lucky streak they have had all season. First of all, the refs owe Indiana an apology for some of the calls made in that game last week. Indiana completely outplayed Iowa, but once again Iowa snuck away with a victory. I just don’t see them being able to continue to the magical run. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Northwestern beats the Hawkeyes this week, and I fully expect Ohio State to beat them in Columbus the following week.

#9 LSU TIGERS (7-1, 4-1)
LAST WEEK: 42-0 win vs Tulane
NEXT GAME: Sat @ #4 Alabama
I said it last week and I will say it again this week, who is this LSU team? Sure they have some nice wins (on the road versus Washington, and Georgia and a dominant win at home versus Auburn) but I still know nothing about them. They have won the games they were expected to, and lost the one game they were expected to lose (Florida). The stretch run will be very interesting for Les Miles and company. They have 3 SEC games remaining and I could see them losing all 3 or winning all three. Most likely it will be somewhere in the middle though. First things first though, beating Alabama this week.

#10 PITT PANTHERS (7-1, 4-0)
LAST WEEK: OFF WEEK
NEXT GAME: Sat vs Syracuse
Everything is setting up perfectly for Pitt this season. They have four games remaining, three of which are at Heinz Field. 3 of the 4 are Big East games and if they win those 3 they will find themselves playing in a BCS bowl. Oddly enough, the Notre Dame game next week is perceived to be a huge game for the Panthers, but in reality it means absolutely nothing in the big picture of things. Beating Notre Dame would be great for the image of the school, but losing to them doesn’t hurt the teams long term goal of winning the Big East at all.

#11 SOUTHERN CAL TROJANS (6-2, 3-2)
LAST WEEK: 47-20 loss @ Oregon
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Arizona State
To put in perspective how bad of a loss last Saturday was to Oregon how about these numbers, in the last 8 losses for USC (which dates back to Sept. 27, 2003) the Trojans lost by a TOTAL of 29 points. On Saturday Oregon beat USC by 27. Boy do I feel bad for Arizona State this week!

#12 PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS (8-1, 4-1)
LAST WEEK: 34-13 win @ Northwestern
NEXT GAME: Sat vs #15 Ohio State
I really had a tough time saying that USC was better than Penn State this week, but all I could picture was Matt Sanchez throwing another TD against the Lions defense in the Rose Bowl last year. This Penn State team has been a real disappointment to me so far. They have the talent to be very good, but they haven’t put a full game together (minus maybe the Michigan game) all season. They did it again last week as they went into the 4th quarter tied with a very average Northwestern team. Please make this a statement game on Saturday. Either win by 20 (like you probably should do) or don’t win at all, that would make it much easier for everyone that is trying to follow you.

#13 BOISE STATE BRONCOS (8-0, 3-0)
LAST WEEK: 45-7 win vs San Jose State
NEXT GAME: Fri @ Louisiana Tech
Boise State should get credit for beating the same Oregon team that just handed it to USC, but that is the same Oregon team in name only. If those two teams played again this week Oregon would win by 20, easily. Boise State will roll again this week against yet another patsy from the WAC. The Broncos have only 2 games remaining against teams with a winning record, Idaho and Nevada and both of those games are on the Smurf Turf in Boise.

#14 ARIZONA WILDCATS (5-2, 3-1)
LAST WEEK: OFF WEEK
NEXT GAME: Sat vs Washington State
Quick after USC lost to Oregon last week, tell me who is in second place in the PAC-10? Yep you guessed it, the Wildcats of Arizona! Arizona has never won an out-right Pac-10 title and have never played in the Rose Bowl. All of that is possible this season. Oregon goes to the desert for their match-up and the Wildcats finish the season in LA to face USC. If they win both of those games they could be making a return trip to LA for the Rose Bowl in early January.

#15 the OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BUCKEYES (7-2, 4-1)
LAST WEEK: 45-0 win vs New Mexico State
NEXT GAME: Sat @ #12 Penn State
When Terrell Pryor runs for 50+ yards this season the Buckeyes are 5-0, when he doesn’t they are 2-2. Let the kid run! It amazes me how misused Pryor is in the Ohio State offense. I expect a big game for him in his first trip back to his home state of Pennsylvania, and a win.

#16 CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS (6-2, 3-2)
LAST WEEK: 23-21 win @ Arizona State
NEXT GAME: Sat vs Oregon State
To say Cal hit a bump in the road earlier this season may be they understatement of the year, they lost to Oregon and USC in back-to-back weeks by a total score of 72-6, but they have got back on the right road and been impressive doing it. Cal has its toughest part of the schedule behind it and could win out if they can beat Arizona at home in two weeks.

#17 WISCONSIN BADGERS (6-2, 3-2)
LAST WEEK: 37-0 win vs Purdue
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Indiana
Wisconsin lost back-to-back games against Iowa and Ohio State in October, but those are the only blemishes on their schedule. The Badgers are quietly lurking in the Big Ten race. Unfortunately for them even if the teams ahead of them lose, they probably won’t pass them in the standings due to the head to head results.

#18 OKLAHOMA SOONERS (5-3, 3-1)
LAST WEEK: 42-30 @ Kansas State
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Nebraska
Oklahoma has 3 losses this season. Those losses are by 1 to BYU, 1 @ Miami and 3 to #1 Texas, and all of them came with the back-up QB playing due to Sam Bradford’s re-occurring shoulder injury.

#19 OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS (6-2, 3-1)
LAST WEEK: 41-14 loss vs Texas
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Iowa State
What better way for a team to get back into play after a beating like the Cowboys took last week then to play a team from the Big XII North? The Cowboys hopefully answered some questions about themselves this week and will get back to playing the same quality style of football that we have come to expect from them down the stretch. The remaining schedule has Iowa State and Colorado from the North (easy wins) and Texas Tech and Oklahoma.


#20 HOUSTON COUGARS (7-1, 3-1)
LAST WEEK: 50-43 win vs Southern Miss
NEXT GAME: Sat @ Tulsa
As exciting as that game was last week, it didn’t help Houston at all nationally. You have to get style points if you are a non-BCS conference playing a bunch of cupcakes. Yes throwing for 559 yards is impressive; scoring 50 points is impressive, giving up a 14 point fourth quarter lead with under six minutes to play, not so much. Giving up 43 points and over 600 yards of offense, not so impressive.

By the way, it was 391 yards that Oregon rushed for against USC last week!