10. First win ever – Western Kentucky moved up to the FBS a few years ago. Last season was their first as an official member. They went winless and continued to lose until Saturday when they blitzed Louisiana Lafayette. Congrats to the Hilltoppers and mascot Big Red on their first FBS victory.
9. Baylor is ranked – Baylor has been downtrodden for a long time. Since the beginning of the Big 12, they have no been in a bowl game or won more than five games until now. Not only is Baylor going to a bowl game with six wins, they are in the top 25. Raise your hand if you predicted this. Now all liars with their hands up please put your hands back down and sit in a corner.
8. Cal at home – Cal has been awful sometimes and has been in the lowlights countdown quite a few times, even once in a win because it was attributed to the incompetence of their opponent. No more. Cal is 4-0 with a victory margin of over 35 a game at home while being 0-3 with two blowout losses on the road. Oregon should be very afraid to have to play these guys next month. Arizona St. was the victim this week.
7. Utah stats – Utah is in the top five in both scoring and offense and scoring defense. Good luck beating that without a ton of talent, something most of the Mountain West lacks.
6. Road wins as a favorite over ranked teams – Congrats to Nebraska and Wisconsin for pulling off what nobody else has managed to be able to do much of this season: beat top teams on the road. Over the past few weeks, highly ranked teams from Oklahoma, Ohio St., Alabama and others have failed at the task put before Nebraska and Wisconsin, but both those teams prevailed in close games played more like their opponents would want them played.
5. Matt Scott – Scott is the backup quarterback for Arizona and a guy who I ripped last week. He made me look foolish by completing 18 of 22 passes and adding a running element to the Arizona offense While I still don't think he is a great quarterback (the Washington defense isn't exactly a good unit), he should be able to keep things going until Nick Foles can get back from his injury.
4. Syracuse might really be on the way back – Last week, Syracuse got smashed at home by Pittsburgh and it looked like same old Syracuse, especially considering South Florida, the Orange's conquest the week before was held without a touchdown by West Virginia. Then South Florida won on Friday at Cincinnati making that win look much better and Syracuse followed it up by winning at West Virginia. That result shows the Orange are getting back to their level of past times. The Big East should be very afraid of this team in the coming years.
3. TCU defense – Air Force finally scored a touchdown, the first for a Mountain West team against TCU this season. Too bad for the Falcons that the touchdown was the only thing they got in another blowout loss.
2. Oregon's turbocharged offense – Only Arizona St. has come close to stopping the Oregon offense and that was at home. Considering the home-field, only teams Oregon must travel to play have any chance to beat these guys this season. That narrows it down to USC, Cal and Oregon St. Even they must deal with an offense that runs really fast and can score quickly in bursts and feeds off momentum like no other team in college football.
1. Cam Newton and the Auburn running game – Newton was amazing but that has been written about in other corners of the internet ad naseum. The real story here is that the running backs (Michael Dyer, Ontario McCalebb and Mario Fannin) combined for an additional 200 yards to allow Auburn to control the clock and run up and down the field.
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