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.

And You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Crazier
What's that? This season was already crazy enough? You had already seen everything wacky that could happen? Wrong! This weekend we got to see both #1 and #2 go down, and as a result the current BCS title game would be Missouri vs. West Virginia. LSU controlled their own fate heading into Friday's game against Arkansas, but Darren McFadden put on a one man show, and smashed the Tigers' BCS title dreams into tiny pieces that he'll fuel his fly whip with for years to come. Kansas tried to come back against Mizzou, but the hole they dug themselves into for the first three quarters proved to be too deep and their BCS title hopes were subsequently buried.

But Wait A Sec, The Craziness Might Not Be Over Yet
Both Mizzou and West Virginia, the new #1 and #2 respectively, have games left. Missouri's is against a tough Oklahoma team, the only team to beat Mizzou this season, in the Big 12 title game. Right now, they control their own destiny like another Tigers' team did this past weekend. Will they endure a similar fate? West Virginia gets a relatively easy game against Pittsburgh, and the only question should be, how many points are Slaton & White going to score? If either one loses, though Ohio State will be right back in the mix.

Yes, You're Undefeated. No, You Can't Be Ranked In The Top 2
With Kansas's loss, Hawaii became the only undefeated team left. The Warriors play Washington this Saturday, and should be able to push their record to 12-0. Unfortunately, their schedule isn't extremely tough, and they don't seem to play very well off of the island. They should finish the season with a perfect record and ranked in the top 10, and that's pretty impressive for Coach Jones and his squad.

The Best SEC Team Isn't Even Playing For The Championship
Something happened in Athens, GA after the Bulldogs returned home from a 14-35 beatdown at the hands of Tennessee. Since then, they've won 6 straight(including 3 wins against ranked teams), and have looked more impressive than LSU or Tennessee. They've also moved up to #4 in the BCS. Someone must have questioned Matt Stafford's keg tossing abilities and really fired him up.

Overtime Games Dominate The Holiday Weekend
Combined, there were 12 periods of overtime this week. Seven of them occured in two SEC games(Arkansas vs LSU, Tennessee vs UK). And the one thing they all proved was that the college version of overtime is far and away better than the crappy pro version.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Caught passes from, and laid down blocks for Tim Tebow. The Mayor of Gainesville looked unstoppable on Saturday, and his receivers, backs, linemen, etc. were all a huge part of that. They overwhelmed the Seminoles on every inch of turf in "The Swamp", and had fun doing it. Tebow's broken right hand wasn't even an issue because of his teammate's efforts and production.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
11 penalties for 90 yards? In the last game of the season? At home? I understand that it's a rivalry game, and that things can get heated but that's still no excuse. Plus, how often is Brandon James going to have a return for touchdown nullified by a stupid penalty? It seems to happen every few games.

Heismens!
Tim Tebow deserves the Heisman. His passing and rushing stats are off the charts, and he's the reason that the Gators only have three losses. Here is his statline for the FSU game: 19-28, 262yds, 67.9%, 3TD, 0INT; 13 rushes, 89yds, 6.8ypc, 2TD. And he amassed most of that after suffering a broken right hand on his first touchdown of the game. Incredible.

Darren McFadden did his best to keep his Heisman campaign rolling. His stats for the LSU game were: 32 rushes, 206yds, 6.4avg, 3TD; 3-6, 34yds, 1 pass TD. Yes, he can run and pass, and eventhough Arkansas is fairly one dimensional(Jones is a good back as well, though), McFadden put the team on his back and ran wild over LSU.

Possibly fueled by his Doak Walker snub, Kevin Smith ran strong against UTEP and went over 2,000 rushing yards for the season on Saturday. His statline from the game: 46 rushes, 219yds, 4.8avg, 1TD; 3 receptions, 30yds. It's a shame that he wasn't a finalist for the Doak Walker award because his numbers on the season rival, at the very least, Mike Hart and possibly Ray Rice.

Consider yourself debriefed!