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.

Navy Beats Notre Dame
Yes, this wild and wacky season just got even more wild and wacky. Navy, previous owners of a 43 game losing streak against the Irish, returned that shit with no receipt. Winning in triple overtime to the tune of 46-44. Anchors Aweigh!

The New England Lovefest Suffers A Setback
As if hearing about the Red Sox and the Patriots every five minutes wasn't bad enough, we were also getting a healthy dose of Boston College and "Matty Heisman" talk. Well, ten days after barely escaping VaTech on the road the Eagles lost to Florida State at home. Yes, that Florida State. The same one that's been having quarterback "issues" all year, even starting a ticket office worker at one point(after paying Jeff that's all they could afford). "Matty Heisman" sealed the loss by throwing a pick-6 in the waning moments. So long undefeated season, and bye-bye Heisman. Hey, at least you still have the Pats and Celtics.

Fred Flintstone "Yabba Dabba Doo's" South Carolina
In case you missed it(and you call yourself a college football fan, ha!), Darren McFadden and teammate Felix Jones dressed up like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble for Halloween. On Saturday, Mr. Flintstone took the Gamecocks behind the stone quarry and fitted them with some concrete cleats. That's the only reasonable explanation after watching McFadden torch South Carolina for 323 yards rushing on 35 carries and a touchdown. Yes, that's 323 yards, and a 9.2 ypc average. He also threw a touchdown. Mr. Slate never would have let that happen at his quarry.

Hi, We're Kansas And We're Here To Crash Your BCS
Yes, Kansas is here to play some football and crash the BCS party. No, you're reading that correctly, it does say football. March Madness isn't for a few more months, but Jayhawks fans don't have to wait until then to rejoice in athletic success. Kansas beat the hell out of Nebraska on Saturday, 76-39, and put up 572 total yards. That's 218 on the ground and 354 through the air. Amazing offensive balance, and the defense continues to shine. They limited the Cornhuskers to 79 yards rushing, and amassed 7 sacks and 4 interceptions. Coach Mangino is playing for keeps, and the fancy meals that BCS bowl teams surely get.

Oregon Ruins ASU's Unbeaten Season
Oregon, one of the many one loss teams angling for a shot at the BCS title, did their part to spoil another team's season on Saturday. They got on Arizona State early and often, and before Dennis Erickson could finish his third mai tai the Sun Devils were already down 21-3. ASU did pull within five in the third quarter, but Oregon just turned it on again and ran the lead back to 19. Dennis Dixon looked like he was toying with the ASU defense for much of the game, and had he not strained his knee he probably would have added one or two more touchdowns to his stats.

The Big East Has Been Taken Over By Huskies
UConn cemented their position at the top of the Big East by beating Rutgers on Saturday. Donald Brown the Third(you've got a title, embrace it!) outrushed Ray Rice, and UConn's special teams came up big with a safety on a blocked punt and a 97 yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Ohio State Is Still #1 But Who's #2?
Ohio State pulled away late, they were tied 17-17 at the start of the fourth quarter, and beat Wisconsin 38-17. They remain #1, but who slid into B.C.'s vacated #2 spot? LSU had been ranked #3 going into the weekend, and seemed like the most logical choice after getting by a tenacious Alabama(Dick Satans) team. However, their struggle combined with Oregon's impressive victory seemed like it could be enough to vault the Ducks ahead of the Tigers. However, it turns out it wasn't, and LSU has moved up to #2 with Oregon, Kansas(yes, KU) and Oklahoma rounding out the top 5.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Well, to follow the mantra that winning cures everything I have to say that they did just about everything well. They played good defense, and got the ball into the hands of their most dynamic player, Percy Harvin. Seriously, it seems as if the only person that can tackle him in a semi-open field is himself. He gets going so fast that it's hard for his knees, ankles and feet to all stay together and he's always stumbling or tripping. However, once he gets going there are very few people on the field that will catch him, and most of them are probably on his team.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Penalties were still a little problem, though 7 for 33 yards isn't too bad. Some of the kickoffs were a bit short too, and gave the Commodores good field position to start a number of their drives.

Heismens!
Two of the early season hopefuls really stood out on Saturday.

Dennis Dixon, quarterback for Oregon, went 13-22 for 189 yards and 4 TD's. He also rushed 11 times for 57 yards.

Darren McFadden, running back/all around stud for Arkansas, compiled a sick statline with 35 rushes for 323 yards and 1 rush TD, and threw one pass for a 23 yard touchdown.

Tim Tebow, Florida's quarterback, also played well ending the day with 22-27 for 281 yards, 3 TD's and 1INT. He also rushed 6 times for 35 yards and 2 TD's.

Consider yourself debriefed!