10. Wins by Big East and ACC against BCS leagues – West Virginia and NC State finally got these two leagues in the win column against other BCS leagues. Great news for those conferences after horrendous starts. Of course this would be higher if the wins hadn't been against the opposite league with West Virginia beating ACC member Maryland and NC State beating Big East member Cincinnati.
9. Florida and Texas on defense – Playing against these guys seems to be like playing against a brick wall. They may give up more points than others, but that is mostly because of the awfulness we have seen on offense from these two putting their incredible defenses in bad positions.
8. Nevada and Nebraska running games – Both attacks put up over 300 yards rushing in big victories against Pac-10 schools. Nevada had two 100-yard rushers on its way to 52 points against Cal and Nebraska had three 100-yard rushers on its way to 56 points against Washington
7. Oregon, everything about them – While most of the competition has been awful and this will not remain (unless Oregon is the best team ever this year), the Ducks are currently number one in the country in scoring and total offense AND defense. They lead every category. I can't ever remember seeing anything like that.
6. Oklahoma St. offense – 65 points and 722 yards of total offense. Those look like Oregon numbers until you look closer and see 574 yards passing. All of that and Tulsa, while not good is not an FCS opponent or a slight step above like two of Oregon's opponents have been.
5. LSU secondary – Patrick Peterson is the best cornerback in college football and the rest of his defensive backfield mates are pretty good too. The five interceptions grabbed by LSU were the difference between as easy LSU win and a struggle against Mississippi St. as the offense struggled again.
4. Real life effort and guts from UCLA – Where did that performance come from? UCLA looked like a completely different team this week against Houston than they had against Kansas St. and Stanford. With the way things have gone so far, I wonder if those games were not so much an indictment of UCLA, but an indication that both Stanford and Kansas St. are a whole lot better than expected.
3. Carnage on the field – Auburn and Clemson played an overtime thriller that doubled as the most physical game of the season so far. Players on both sides were in pain and playing through a variety of injuries suffered during the game, none more than Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker who seemed like he wasn't even going to be able to walk at many points during the second half. For Auburn, it was a great win to carry some momentum into next week's big SEC clash with South Carolina. Despite the loss, Clemson might have emerged as the favorite in the ACC.
2. Arizona's resilience – Given its history of losing big games and having not been on the big stage, when Iowa returned Nick Foles errant pass for a touchdown to tie the game at 27, you could have been forgiven for turning the TV off. Iowa wins these type of game and Arizona doesn't. Until Saturday night. Foles got himself off the mat and led the game-winning touchdown drive and the Arizona defensive line suddenly became line eating wolves on the final drive after a solid but largely unspectacular game. A great win for both Arizona and the Pac-10.
1. Fake field goal for the win – What else was this going to be? Calling that play is equal parts gutsy and foolhardy, but it worked and so Michigan St. gets the praise. One overlooked thing here: the Michigan St. kicker is young, shaky and inexperienced. Lou Holtz actually said it best on College Football Final. I could call that play too if I didn't have a kicker.
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