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.

Chaos Reigns Supreme!
Hope you enjoyed your stay at #2 South Florida. Your weeklong rental is up, now get the hell out! South Carolina, your #6 ranking has been repoed. Kentucky, the week of celebrating is over and #8 is no more. Cal, you had it all for a fleeting second but now even #10 is too high. Auburn, it was nice that you battled back to #18 but that's done now. Tennessee, your blowout loss means no more #20. Texas Tech, the hiccups by your "high powered" offense cost you #22. Cincy, you had played back up to #23 but threw it all away. K-State, you had moved back to being ranked but your defeat shredded that progress.

Just a quick recap of the ranked teams that lost this past week(end). Of those losses, seven of them were to teams either unranked or with lower rankings.

Ohio State Survives Their First Week
The way this season has been going, it's not how much you win by just that you win. The Buckeyes built a 17-0 lead by halftime, but had to withstand two Michigan State defensive touchdowns to pull out their win. This week they face Penn State at Beaver Stadium. Their rental of the #1 spot could end as early as this Saturday.

There's A First Time For Everything
As if you needed more proof of this season's craziness, Vandy beat Steve Spurrier for the first time this past Saturday. Going into the game, Spurrier was 14-0 against Vandy but lost 17-6. With that, South Carolina fell from #6 to #16.

More Thursday Night Entertainment
Once again we've been blessed with a great Thursday night game. This week, the #2 Boston College Eagles travel to Blacksburg to face the #8 Virginia Tech Hokies. VaTech will be B.C.'s first big test of the season(please, G.T. and Wake aren't tough), and it will be a good stage for quarterback Matt Ryan to showcase his skills for the Heisman voters. If past Thursday nights, and the season as a whole, are any indication you might want to get a sick day ready for Friday.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
On Saturday, the Gators defended the rush pretty well. They held Kentucky to just 97 yards rushing with an average of 2.8 yards per carry. Not bad against a team that had been averaging 180+ yards per game.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Defend the pass. When you shut down the run, your opponent will naturally tend to pass more. Kentucky definitely did that, to the tune of 38 completions on 50 attempts for 415 yards, 5 TD's and 0 INT's. Florida was able to sack Woodson six times which was great to see because they haven't put much pressure on quarterbacks this season. However, there were still a number of breakdowns and poor tackling on pass plays.

Heismans!
This year it's wide open. "Experts" are talking about Tim Tebow as a frontrunner, and it seems that there are quite a few players who could take home the trophy.

UCF's Kevin Smith ran for 170yds and 4 TD's last week, and Rutgers' Ray Rice had 181 yards rushing.

Other than that, most of the usual stat producers had a bye or a down week.

Consider yourself debriefed!