Weekend Musings for Week 5

I'm finally home from Lexington from watching Alabama vs. Kentucky this weekend.  Great trip, long drive, and no computer to update twitter or the blog though.  Will have some more posts up this week, but for now just a few random thoughts from the weekend.


1.  Referees:

I am the biggest referee apologist of all time.  I referee youth hockey and know how hard it is and hate to blame them for losses.  And of course, one play or one call does not determine the outcome of any game --- you had 59 other minutes in the game to get more points/make one more stop/whatever needed to be done.  But that call towards the end of the Georgia/LSU game was HORRIBLE and likely cost Georgia the win.  If you didn't see it, here is the scenario:

With 2:53 left in the game, Charles Scott of LSU scored to put the Tigers up 12-7.  LSU missed the 2-point conversion, so all Georgia had to do was score a touchdown to win.  And they did that just over a minute later with a FANTASTIC catch by superstar receiver A.J. Green.  Green was then inconceivably  flagged for a phantom excessive celebration call.  That pushed the ensuing kickoff back 15 yards.  On the kick, Georgia lined up with too few players on one side, and was forced back another five yards.  With a minute to go, LSU was already in position to kick a game winning field goal.  They didn't need it and scored a touchdown, but the fact that they were already in position was demoralizing for an already beat up defense.  Now, they also got an excessive celebration penalty that was absolute crap (though probably just a make up call for the botched Georgia call), but the effect from it was nothing compared.

The referee blew the call....plain and simple.  You are down a touchdown very late in the game and score what could be a winning touchdown!  Don't take it away from the kids.  I get it, they don't want anyone taking out a pen to sign the football (side note:  I cannot find that play on youtube anywhere), no cell phone out of the goalpost, nothing like that.  I get it, but that WAS NOT EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION!!!  What they want to get rid of is TAUNTING.  Not celebrating with your team and fans!

While we are on referees, did you see that horrible roughing the kicker call late in the Miami/Oklahoma game?????  What CRAP!  The guy rolled into the kicker having left his feet before the kick.  I get it, running into the kicker, five yard penalty, whatever.  But it was NOT a fifteen yard roughing penalty!

I know referees will miss calls.  I miss PLENTY calling hockey games.  But there are some beyond terrible calls that have been made this weekend, and something has to be done.  All we ask for is consistency.  If you are going to call it in the Georgia/LSU game, call it against Notre Dame late in their victory against Washington.  Hell, by comparison, their celebration should have been a 45 yard penalty!

2.  BCS Busters losing:

Normally, I hate non-BCS teams.  They just don't play schedules deserving of going to a national title game.  Last season Utah was as great story, but did not deserve to be in the national title game.  Maybe in a playoff system they could have won, but we will never know.  But Houston I thought might be different.  They have three "Big Six" conference teams on their schedule this year and had already beaten two of them.  And with the third Mississippi State, you have to assume they would have run through that part of the schedule.  But the Cougars slipped up this weekend losing to UTEP?  UTEP?!?!?!?!?!?!  Just goes to show you can NEVER truly understand how a football season is gonna shake out.  Get a trap game like that in between a couple of bigger games and anything can happen.  Only two BCS buster teams remain:  Boise State and TCU.  Boise should run the rest of the their schedule.  They nearly tripped up this weekend against UC Davis, but if they can win out impressively the rest of the way, they would possibly deserve a shot to go over anyone other than a major undefeated or a one loss SEC or Big-12 team.  TCU would have a strong case as well if they can manage to beat BYU and Utah after already beating Virginia and Clemson this season.  I still think Boise's resume will be slightly better, but it will be interesting if both teams win out.

3.  Top five teams

This season, there are really only three teams I see that are great teams:  Florida, Texas, and Alabama.  After that, I see major weaknesses with all the top teams.  LSU's offense is pretty anemic.  They nearly lost to Mississippi State and really should have.  Boise good story, but not a real top 5 team.  Virginia Tech got dominated by Bama even if the score didn't completely indicate it and nearly lost to Nebraska and probably should have.  Oklahoma is out with two losses now.  Don't sleep on USC either, they are looking good after their loss to Washington.  But if I had a ballot, I would see if they would let me skip positions 4-7 and just start back up with number 8.

4. Big East Busters

I realize the Big East gets an automatic bid into the BCS, but I never thought they deserved it given the teams within  their conference.  But this season, the top of the conference looks very tough.  #8 Cincinnati I'm afraid to say looks to be for real this season.  They did nearly get beat by Fresno State last weekend.  But other than that, they are playing some fantastic football and beating everyone they are supposed to by a lot.  And QB Tony Pike may well be the top Heisman candidate this season if you base it on play this year and not on previous seasons and preseason hype.  #23 South Florida may be as well.  Their schedule hasn't been the greatest this season, but they did beat FSU on the road and to be fair are killing their weaker opponents.  They lost QB Matt Grothe for the season, but B.J. Daniels seems to be stepping in just fine.


Thursday October 15th is likely to determine the Big East season when Cinci and USF play @ USF.  Cincinnati will only have West Virginia and Pitt as what I feel are good teams remaining on their schedule.  USF will still have those teams as well as a HUGE test against Miami Thanksgiving weekend.  If either team can survive and remain undefeated, It will be very hard to keep them out of the title game even over a one loss team from the SEC or Big-12.  Still a lot of football to be played.

Week 5 Picks of the Week

Not off to a great start to my prognostication season, but looking for a rebound this weekend:

Last Week:  2-3  Season 4-6

1.  South Florida (-6.5) @ Syracuse 11:00 AM CDT espn360.com

The Bulls are a little big of a question mark at this point in the season.  True, they are 4-0 but three of those wins are against Wofford, Western Kentucky, and Charleston Southern.  However, they did destroy all three of those teams.  Now last weekend, a 17-7 win over Florida State sort of legitimized this squad.  And that was with QB Matt Grothe out.  Grothe will be out for the rest of the season, so its up to B.J. Daniels to lead the Bulls.  He doesn't have the biggest stats, but Junior running back Mike Ford is starting to see some snaps.  The Former 5 star recruit has all the talent in the world and will be a dominate back this season. In one start, along with some mop up duty, Daniels is 20 of 36 for 394 with 4 TD and 2 INT.  Daniels also leads the team in rushing with 259 yards.  Syracuse is actually starting to turn their season around some with wins over Northwestern and a big win over Maine last weekend.  South Florida is just too strong and too fast, I like the Bulls 34-17.

2.  East Carolina (-2.5) @ Marshall 11:00 AM CBS College Sports

The Pirates are 2-2 on the season winning the games they are supposed to win, and losing the ones they are supposed to lose.  Senior QB Patrick Pinkney hasn't had the best season to this point, but has some big wins to his credit in his career.  Marshall is a surprising 3-1 on the season with their only loss @ Virginia Tech and with wins over Southern Illinios, Bowling Green, and surprisingly @ Memphis last weekend.  Memphis kept it close for a while against Ole Miss, but that might not be nearly as surprising as once thought at this point.  Darius Marshall is a clear number 1 running back, and QB Brian Anderson is playing very well.  I like the Pirates to win this one, though not as big as I was originally thinking 24-17.

3.  Virginia Tech (-16.5) @ Duke 11:00 AM espn360.com

Virginia Tech is coming off of a BIG win over Miami last weekend in one of the surprise games of the weekend.  They had to survive against Nebraska the week before and looked pretty awful against Alabama in week 1.  QB Tyrod Taylor hasn't looked all that impressive so far this season, but at least he isn't turning the ball over all that much with a 4-1 TD/INT ratio.  Ryan Williams at running back has been the surprise of the season for the Hokies to this point and he looks to be rolling just fine with 3 100 yard or more games in a row.  Duke is pretty terrible, although they did beat North Carolina Central pretty handily last weekend.  But an opening weekend loss to Richmond doesn't look very good.  I like Virginia Tech 38-6.

4.  Penn State (-7) @ Illinois 2:30 PM ABC

I realize Joe Paterno hates to talk about revenge in college football, but his team will want it after their game last weekend.  Penn State NEEDS to win and win big for the rest of the season if they want a chance to stay in the national title picture.  They are likely out, but anything is possible.  The weather can't possibly be any worse than it was last weekend, so Daryl Clark should do better from the QB spot.  Illinois is pretty bad this season, but they probably shouldn't be.  Other than a big win over Illinois State, the Illini has given up 67 points and scored just 9 in their two other games vs. Missouri and @ Ohio State.  Juice Williams has been horrible with no touchdowns yet this season, and Arrelious Benn has just five catches on the season.  Those two have all  the talent in the world and will get better, but not this weekend.  Penn State wins 24-7.

5.  Arkansas (+1) vs Texas A&M (Neutral Site @ Jerry World) 6:30 PM ESPN

Other than getting dominated at Alabama, the Razorbacks have looked good this season.  Domination against Missouri State was not unexpected, but playing well against Georgia putting up 41 points was a little unexpected.  QB Ryan Mallet will put up some big numbers against the less talented Aggie defense, and running back Michael Smith will gash holes in the porous Aggie defensive line.  A&M is 3-0 on the season, but those wins are against New Mexico, Utah STate, and UAB.  Arkansas is already very battle tested.  The Aggies are led by Jenior QB Jerrod Johnson how is 2nd, but just barely, on the team in rushing.  Texas A&M wants a big win to finally get recognized on the national stage, but I don't think it will happen.  I actually look for a pretty big Arkansas victory in this game, 24-13.