College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

Syracuse and Miami Are Who We Thought They Were!
Well, maybe not exactly, but Louisville and Texas A&M fans have to be residing in the same deep, dark hole right now. The Aggies traveled to the Orange Bowl for the final Thursday night game in the antiquated stadium(it's a trap!), and the 'Canes beat them down like it was 1987 and TAMU had shown up wearing Oklahoma uniforms. If Coach Fran thought his seat was hot before, he better have a fire extinguisher, a few thousand buckets of water and a flame retardant suit because it's on fiyah(!) now. I'm sure TAMU fans had to be happy seeing their bruising tail/half/elephantback Jorvorskie Lane rumble for 2 yards on 2 carries. Awesome!

And Louisville? They lost to one of the worst teams in Div.-1 football(screw the FBS, we're adverse to change!), Syracuse. They even lost in Papa John's Stadium where the only thing the Cardinals had been losing were notches on their belts because of that delicious pizza complimented by your choice of garlic or cheese dipping sauce.

The Top 5 Rolled On...For The Most Part
USC hung 47 points and 500+ total yards on Washington State. LSU struggled a bit with South Carolina by only putting up 28 points and 360 yards. Oklahoma took Tulsa behind the woodshed and did unspeakable things en route to 62 points and 550+ yards. Florida(rose colored glasses alert!) never seemed to hit on all cylinders against Mississippi as they posted up 30 points and 500 yards. And West Virginia blew out East Carolina to the tune of 48 points and almost 600 yards. Of course the two SEC teams struggled a bit because it's the toughest conference on this planet, and all of the other ones too!

Don't Look Now, But Michigan is 1-0 In The Conference
After App. State and Oregon, Michigan was getting written off by a lot of people. However, they showed on Saturday that at the very least they're interested in winning the Big 10, and hopefully screwing up someone else's season(Ohio State you're on notice!). Lloyd Carr rode Mike Hart just about until the wheels fell off(44 carries, 153yds, 1TD) as the Wolverines welcomed the Nittany Lions into their (getting) Big(ger) House, and then sent them off to do the walk of shame after getting freaky.

SEC Football Really Is Great(Homerism Warning)
Of course I'm a fan of SEC football. Who isn't? Oh you're not? Well, I'll have to report you to Homeland Security as being un-American. Seriously, the Georgia at Alabama game was one of the best this season. 'Bama scored 10 fourth quarter points to tie the game at 20, and force overtime. Then in OT Georgia holds them to a field goal, and on UGA's first OT possession Coach Richt lets Matt Stafford unleash his precision keg throwing skills for the winning TD. It was awesome, especially because I hate Dick Satan, and his gray suit. The South Carolina at LSU, and Florida at Mississippi games were closer than expected, but that just made for a better day of football(and increased pepto intake). Plus we had Kentucky scoring 21 unanswered points to beat Arkansas 42-29. After the Woodson safety, and Felix Jones kickoff immediately afterwards it looked like the Wildcats were doomed, but they battled back and won. And Andre Woodson played well again.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
They avoided a letdown loss after a big win against Tennessee the week before. Thanks to the announcers I now have seared into my brain the fact that there were 18 players on the Florida team making their first roadtrip. It was nice to see them grind out a closer than should have been win against an SEC opponent on the road. It should prepare them somewhat for heading to LSU in two weeks, and by some I mean about .0001%.

My (insert respective team Didn't Do This Well
Score, avoid penalties, cover the deep pass. Tebow put the team on his shoulders, and scored through the air and on the ground. However, the Gators racked up another 14 penalties for 127 yards, and they gave up 310 yards passing. Including a 77 yarder that brought Mississippi within 3 points of tying the game. I can still remember imploring Meyer through the picture box to put in Major Wright, and take out Kyle Jackson at least for a few plays. Of course, what happens? I get to see Joe Haden and Major Wright trying to catch Mike Wallace as he runs past them and to the end zone. Is Reggie Nelson available on Saturdays?

Heismens!
Like passing? How about these QB's? Graham Harrell's wonderful performance(46-67[67!], 646yds, 5TD, 0INT) resulted in a loss, but now he leads the nation in passing yards(1,963) and TD's(19). Curtis Painter has quietly put up almost 1330 passing yards and is second behind Harrell with 16 TD's. Brian Brohm was another losing QB this weekend, but like Harrell it's not because he couldn't help the offense put up points. Brohm went 45-65, 555yds, 4TD's and 2INT's. He's second to Harrell in passing yards with almost 1,700.

How about running? With his performance this past Saturday Mike Hart has started to distance himself from the rest of the pack. He leads the country with 655 yards, though Steve Slaton did add to his totals with 110 yards and 1TD against ECU.

Friday Night Lights!
Another week, another great weekday game. This week we get to see West Virginia travel to Tampa to take on USF. Both are undefeated, with identical 2-0 conference records, and WVU will be looking to avenge their 24-19 loss last year that knocked them out of BCS title contention. Raymond James will be rocking, and USF will be eager to add another win to their impressive list over the past few years.

Consider yourself debriefed!