Week 10 Lowlights Countdown

Editor's note: The Penn St. situation is saddening on many level and not something to be poked at in a piece like this.

10 Weekly piledriving of New Mexico – The embarrassment continues for New Mexico. At least the Lobos scored this week, but that's about the only thing I can say about this pathetic sad sack of a team. Given their current effort level, I'm not sure if the members of this team haven't decided to make a run at worst team ever (they will never make it considering some of the past history of teams like Kansas St., Oregon St and Northwestern).

9 The firing line – Houston Nutt. You're fired. And you're fired not for losing to the the top of the SEC West. Come on. Your Ole Miss. You pretty much always lose to the top of the SEC West. Your fired for losing to the bottom of the weaker SEC East. Blowout losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt in the same season are, at best shameful, even for a bad SEC roster.

8 Losing to your rival as a favorite, five straight years – North Carolina obviously has talent. Many weeks they even use that talent well. Never during NC State week though. For the 5^th straight year (also known as the entire NC State tenure of hotseat sitter Tom O'Brien), the Tar Heels lost a s a favorite to rival NC State. For the 3^rd straight year, it appears as though the Tar Heels have single-handedly kept Tom O'Brien employed as the NC State head coach. For North Carolina fans, I'm sorry you keep losing to your main rival (let's be honest here, Duke is so bad they can't be your rival in football). For NC State fans, I'm sorry you are stuck with O'Brien and his ridiculous forms of roster mismanagement for another year.

7 The offensive ineptitude is staggering – Iowa St. 13, Kansas 10. Believe me, this was not LSU-Alabama. This was a display of crap, nothing more. Kansas is incapable of dong anything right on defense and they are even worse on defense. That they only gave up 13 points is an indictment of the other offense, no matter what it has done to this point or will do after this point.

6 The defensive ineptitude is staggering (but a lot more fun to watch) – Northern Illinois 63, Toledo 60. Much more fun to watch was this game, played by teams that evidently have arms made of Play Dough. Yes, the tackling was that bad. It wasn't quite air but it was close. Oh yeah, and Toledo stupidly trusted its defense to win the game in the last two minutes. DID THE COACHING STAFF LOOK AT THE SCORE before making that very unwise decision?

5 Who the heck scheduled last Saturday – 5PM kickoff – Game of the Century Alabama vs LSU. No problem. 5PM kickoff - 2^nd best game of the day Oklahoma St. vs Kansas St. Ugh, annoying. 4:15PM kickoff – Other SEC Top Ten matchup Arkansas vs South Carolina. What the Hell are the tv executives thinking scheduling all of these big games at the same time. 9AM kickoff – Best Game Iowa vs Michigan. We couldn't get a halfway decent game moved into this timeslot somehow? 12:30PM kickoff – Best Game Oklahoma vs Texas A&M. Why oh why tv executives? The Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. game should have kicked off in the 12:30 slot (where it would have fit nicely in the schedule, switching with Oklahoma-Texas A&M). The Arkansas-South Carolina game should have kicked off at 9AM (a timeslot the SEC rarely uses on ESPN, but that they do have access to a couple of times per season). And the Game of the Century should have kicked off at the same time with Kirk Herbstreit in the radio booth for ESPN Radio. This also would have saved us from this...

4 Crying in the stands – As an Auburn alum and fan, I take a particular glee in throwing this thing to you.

3 SEC cupcakery – When did we reach September? Why are we traveling backwards in time? These are the questions I have for SEC teams playing out of conference games last week. The shameful opponent list: New Mexico St. (lost 63-16 to Georgia), Middle Tennessee St. (lost 24-0 to Tennessee) and Tennessee-Martin (lost 55-17 to Mississippi St.). Pathetic.

2 The fighting spirit of Texas Tech – Not long ago, Texas Tech was being praised after beating Oklahoma on the road to move into the top 25. Now, it appears as though the Sooners played their worst game in the Bob Stoops era. How else could anyone explain Oklahoma losing to this sad sack bunch that has been destroyed by a combined 93-27 by Iowa St. and Texas since? Worse yet, it appears Tommy Tuberville's bunch may not even make a bowl game. Awful.

1 Pulling the kicker off the couch – This one is improbable. And shockingly, considering we are talking about Lowlight favorite Tennessee (7-3-3 defense, Opportunity is Nowhere, losing because the opponent had 18 men on the field for the final play, Derek Dooley's Orange Pants and having LaMichael James break most of the teams tackles last year on one play), it actually worked. What happened? Tennessee pulled a kicker off the couch of a frat house 45 minutes before kickoff. Seriously. They even gave him a breathalyzer to ensure he wasn't drunk when he got to the stadium. I'll let him explain the rest.

College Football Lowlights Countdown Week 9

10 This is no longer a prayer for New Mexico – I've given up on the prayer for New Mexico. The Lobos have quit. And it's pathetic. This week they lost 42-0 to Air Force's backup quarterback, a week after losing 69-0 to TCU. I never thought Locksley could have possibly been a positive for this team, but at least they seemed to try, even if they were never particularly good at anything at all under him.

9 Last week was a big high, this one a big low – Texas Tech pulled off a gigantic road upset at Oklahoma last week (Tommy Tuberville special). This week they completed the Tommy Tuberville combo by getting blown out at home by an inferior opponent. I can't tell you how many times I watched that happen in one form or another when Tuberville was at Auburn. 2002: obliterated at home against Arkansas, win against top 10 LSU two weeks later. 2006: obliterated at home by Arkansas, beat eventual national champion Florida the next week. 2007: lose to South Florida and Mississippi St., beat Tim Tebow Florida on the road. 2001: beat Rex Grossman Florida at home, need overtime to beat Louisiana Tech the next week and then get blown out by Arkansas (sensing a common theme here). And so on...

8 You do realize you were losing don't you? - BYU got blown out by TCU last Friday (the score ended up a lot closer than the game really was. That didn't stop BYU QB Riley Nelson from celebrating a bit after scoring. Of course, who knew the celebration would be with the referee?

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7 A truly shameful offensive effort – Kansas managed a grand total of 43 yards of offense against Texas. Pathetic. One first down that wasn't on the final drive or penalty aided. Deplorable. Anyone else have any other words to describe how bad it was? I doubt it since anyone reading only saw the boxscore, like me since the game was televised by the Longhorn Network. I wonder if there were more viewers or Kansas yards?

6 Clemson forgot to take it's meds – All season long, bloggers, pundits, fans and many others wondered when the other shoe would drop and Clemson would lose a game. Basically because they're Clemson and they invent cruel new ways to torment their fanbase pretty much every season. This year, they have Sammy Watkins and he had been the medicine to avoid the Clemson screwup. Of course Clemson can't use the Watkins medicine when he's not on the field and Georgia Tech held the ball 39:00 meaning there wasn't enough time for the double dose of Watkins meds needed for Clemson to win this.

5 I guess Iowa dislikes pork – The Floyd of Rosedale. An enduring trophy that should pretty much always be held in the great state of Iowa. A nice bronzed pig it is. And all Iowa has to do is beat awful Minnesota each year to gain or retain it. Guess they need help with that one. Iowa somehow wasn't in possession of the Floyd this season entering the game (I have no idea how they lost last year). This season, they still aren't in possession of it. Reason: They lost to MINNESOTA. Shameful, truly shameful.

4 Losing to UNLV – But not as bad as losing to UNLV. Colorado St. managed that one despite having a late lead. I have little else to say, but any UNLV win will put a team in this space.

3 Texas A&M after the half – Oklahoma St. Arkansas. The collapses are well-chronicled. That said those teams are ranked in the top 10 and they are there for a reason. Missouri? That team was overrated to start the season. Now. A&M has egg on its face again after losing to Missouri. I have to ask the question: is the SEC really taking both of these teams and their Clemsonesque tendencies?

2 Offensive Penn St. - Those familiar with this blog should be familiar with section. It's the weekly section where I make offensive offense jokes about Penn St.'s offensive offense and cry tears of pain from having watched their quarterbacks fail miserably at the game of football. Even so, nothing could have prepared America for what was coming next in Happy Valley...

… I'm sure you realize what this meant. Ugly, painful, boring, style-point free Penn St. football that even biased observers had to be thinking about turning off. (Just as a note, the snow here wasn't as bad by gametime and you could actually see the field, unlike at the Rutgers-West Virginia game)

1 Shameful stupidity – No snark here. Just heinous crime. I hope this guy is suspended, especially considering his unshown celebration and attitude while in the locker room after his ejection (that video is just shameful).

College Football Lowlights Countdown Week 7

10 Prayer for New Mexico – At least they scored. With 10 minutes left, that didn't look likely. Needless to say, I still blame Locksley. The final score of the beating the Lobos took against Nevada was 49-7 and the previously competent passing game was reduced to ashes (11-29, 89 yards). The pain never really ends in Albuquerque.

9 Festival of turnovers – Hawaii and San Jose St. put on an exciting Friday night game. Of course it was exciting. It was a festival of turnovers. Hawaii turned it over on four straight possessions. Of course, San Jose St. had to top that. They turned it over on five straight possessions later, and still managed to win the game because they won the turnover battle 7-5. Pathetic.

8 SEC Least – Somehow, the SEC East is even worse than it was last season. In fact, it is near reaching Big 12 North futility levels at this point. The scorecard: 0 wins over non-Mississippi teams and struggles by division favorites South Carolina and Georgia against Mississippi St. At this point, there is a decent chance the East division winner will be unranked come SEC Championship time, something that has never happened before in SEC history.

7 1 yard punt – What is it about Wisconsin and inducing bad punts. This one wasn't as bad as the Oregon St. negative punt in week two, but it was still bad. To the video...

6 Penn St. offensive futility report – Somehow Penn St. continues to win game despite a passing attack that often couldn't get a first down against air. This week Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin were 10-23 for 185 yards and 1INT. That was a significant improvement over normal (the standards aren't very high) and Penn St. won again, 23-18 over Purdue. And the only team that has managed to kill these sad sacks is Alabama. Wow.

5 UNLV misery report – At this point it has gotten that bad. UNLV was down 20-0 before anyone blinked against Wyoming. Then gave their fans hope by actually scoring this week, then snatched that hope back with another scoreless second half and a 41-14 defeat. The New Mexico game can't get here quick enough for this, but heaven help the Rebels if they manage to lose that one.

4 Todd Grantham vs James Franklin – Let's just say it was heated discussion weekend in football. This one went under the radar compared to the Jim Harbaugh-Jim Schwartz blowup in the pros, but it had the potential to be a whole lot worse. Of course we go to the picture for the evidence.

3 Utah-Pitt – Utah scored only 26 points on 3.3 yards per play. They were completely dominant. That is how bad of a fail the Pitt offense was in this game. If it was a higher profile matchup, this would rank even higher on this list. That said, Pitt had 70 yards of offense... at home... against a team getting clubbed in the Pac-12. Only because of a kickoff return touchdown and punt return touchdown was this game close, which of course made the offensive numbers worse because Utah had to keep the starting defense in.

2 1 pass to victory, and another Zookian blunder – The Ohio St.-Illinois game had its own brand of offensive offense. For one thing, the score was a lousy 17-7. For another, Ohio St. won the game while completing only one pass (they only tried four). Remember that Ohio St. is not an option team like others who have managed this feat over the last few season. They are supposed to be somewhat balanced maybe skewing a bit towards the running game, but not like this. Of course they managed to pull this off because Ron Zook's Illini finally put together a Ron Zook performance (in truth they had a few already against teams much too bad to manage an upset). The capper to this Zookian masterpiece of crap was Zook himself going for it on 4^th and 2 in the opposing redzone down 17-7 with a minute to go. At that point, KICK THE FRIGGIN FIELD GOAL. You need two scores. Illinois failed and the game was over.

1 Everything Florida-Auburn – Just trust me here. This game was an abomination. After having seen some terrible passing attacks (see last weeks Lowlights Countdown), nobody would begrudge announcers Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge from drinking in the booth after this miserable display. The grisliness: including Wildcat, seven players took a snap a quarterback for one of the teams in this game. None were due to injury. Only Auburn backup Clint Moseley (now the starter just in time to die against the LSU defense) was remotely close to effective (and he was merely average). The Florida punt return team fumbled five punts, losing two including the last chance to tie the game in the 4^th quarter allowing Auburn to get the score to a respectable (but still bad) 17 points. And Florida's punter had a special kind of fail pictured below.

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College Football Lowlights Countdown Week 5

10 This week's prayer for New Mexico (sans Locksley) – Locksley might be gone, but his awful team he left behind remains. And we were once again reminded of how awful they are: Trailed woebegone New Mexico St. 21-0 at home after one quarter. Later trailed 35-7. Gave up 538 yards to one of the worst offensive teams in college football. Best (only???) hope for a win: November 12 vs UNLV, one of only two home games remaining.

9 Brett Favre, college football broadcaster – It's a combination of um, John Madden and shameless self promotion. Exactly what you would expect and just as bad too.

8 Dylan Favre, lamb led to the slaughter – Favre's nephew actually got in the game for Mississippi St. against Georgia. He promptly got sacked on his first play as his team continued to redefine offensive ineptitude after a hot start (it would appear the Mississippi St. offense is still lying bloodied and twitching down the river in the burlap sack LSU stuffed them into after beating them senseless).

7 ESPN Deportes choice of college football games – If I wanted to promote college footbal to a new audience, there are any number of good games I could have chosen from last weekend. So why on earth was ESPN Depotes showing the Ole Miss-Fresno St. game (I only know because in a brief channel change to check the score, I heard announcers yelling in Spanish on a look-in on the ESPN2 broadcast).

6 “An embarrassment to the WAC” - Those are the words of WAC commisssioner Karl Benson. So what happened? Another raid from the Mountain West sending the league further into oblivion? Boise St. is coming back to embarrass everyone else even more? Half our schools lost to FCS teams? The Sun Belt is better than us? No. None of that. How about a 22 minute replay review. Even though I have the video, I am not posting it. 22 minutes of nothing is just excruciating. Trust me. I watched it. And it is an embarrassment to the WAC, for whatever remains to embarrass.

5 The many atrocities of Penn St. and Indiana – Yes, it was bad. But I'm sure you already knew that given the awful Penn St. quarterbacking this season and Indiana in general. Just go check out this tweet from SI.com's Holly Anderson.

4 Another Tajh Boyd interception (no video this time though) – So you get a description of the only bad thing Clemson did in its destruction of Virginia Tech. In the 2^nd quarter, Boyd dropped back to pass. He threw a simple stop route. Problem was, his receiver ran a go route. Bigger problem, the VT cornerback saw immediately what was happening and ran a wide receiver stop route. The ball was then thrown right to him for an interception. When playing any of the NCAA video games, this is when you yell at your game for not throwing the ball where you wanted it. But evidently, it happens in real life too.

3 Knee to the Groin

Admittedly, this is not one of those funny groin shots. It is a malicious attempt to steal some poor smart guy's manhood. This cannot be tolerated (and evidently won't be since the offending linebacker has been suspended one game).

2 Ohio St. vs Michigan St. - All you need to know is that the most similar game yardage wise to this one I have seen is the immortal 3-2 Auburn-Mississippi St. game from 2008. Between that, the awful interceptions that Spartan QB Kirk Cousins continues to throw and Ohio St. passing game that hasn't improved since the Miami debacle (one of the single worst team passing days of the last 20 years, at least by a non-option team), this game was unwatchable. Heck, this game didn't even have entertaining trainwreck qualities to it like those involved in the final game on this list this week, in part because the expectations were for sheer awful terror going into this.

1 Stephen Garcia – 12/23, 112 yards, 1TD, 2INTs. Those are not Stephen Garcia's numbers. Those are the numbers of Auburn QB Barrett Trotter who somehow managed to win. Garcia was even worse: 9/23, 160 yards (50 of those on a badly thrown jump ball where Alshon Jeffery made a spectacular play to score), 1TD (the aforementioned Jeffery play) and 2INTs. Remember that Garcia was playing against the Auburn arson squad (that would be defense) that color analyst Steve Beuerlein compared unfavorably to air in the first quarter. To describe how bad Garcia was in this game, only one thing needs to be said: Connor Shaw is starting again this week. Remember that Connor Shaw has only played four drives this season in meaningful action and those four drives landed him on this list opening week.

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College Football Lowlights Countdown Week 3

10 Weekly New Mexico Fail Report – The opponent was Texas Tech, but at least at home. That didn't much matter. Mr. Locksley's boys continued to find new forms of ineptitude. This time by allowing a NCAA record for completion percentage with over 40 attempts. Oh yeah and the final score was 59-13. At least there is a FCS team on the schedule next week (the way Memphis got its win on Saturday).

9 Holy War, more like Holy Massacre - BYU and Utah were thought to be pretty even this season. Evidently not. BYU turned it over SEVEN times in the process of getting blown out 54-10. That whole independence thing isn't really working so far. A blowout loss to Utah. A loss to Texas when Gilbert still played. And a win over Ole Miss by one point in a game where the offense did nothing. And Ole Miss is coming next on this list. Methinks Bronco Mendenhall might need a hug.

8 Being blown out by Vandy is the surest way to lose your job (heck even losing to them can do that can't it Mr. Tuberville) – Houston Nutt is cooked. Done. Goodnight. Might not last the season, except for one of the worst buyouts in the entire country. Losing to Vanderbilt when already on the hotseat will do that. Of course Nutt has now lost to three different Vandy coaches (unpardonable sin in SEC land) and handed Vandy is easiest conference victory in 40 years. And he's done it while epically botching yet another quarterback situation. As an aside, the guy can coach everywhere but the quarterback quite well. As for the most important position on the field, he is the worst to ever do it, without question. He takes talented quarterbacks and makes them awful. And it doesn't matter what kind of system he is running so its not just a square peg/round hole type situation. And of course we have our obligatory embarrassing gif at well:

7 Aren't the kickoff returners supposed to have good hands – Words cannot describe how comically bad this play was for Washington. It also ended any slim upset hopes that were remaining.

6 Should it really have been played? - Oklahoma St. and Tulsa started their game after midnight local time because of lightning. They finished after 3 am. There has to be another way.

5 You were blown out by UNLV... WHAT? - Hawaii come on down to lowlights. You normally don't take up residence here, but losing badly to UNLV will do that. Remember that UNLV was obliterated by over 50 points by Washington St. last week.

4 600 yards of offense, you have to be kidding me – The Auburn defense could use some tackling practice this week. OK and maybe every week for all eternity. And that will just get them to average. The tackling was bad enough I felt the need to throw the defense under the bus on my facebook. Normally things like that are reserved for twitter.

3 600 yards rushing and over 40 yards per completion, I guess the defense really was air – I'll just post the box score and let you digest the awfulness that was the Kansas defense. Considering Kansas is coached by former Tom Osborne option quarterback Turner Gill, you would think they would be a little better prepared for Georgia Tech's triple option offense.

2 It's only that its Western Kentucky that this isn't later on this list... - You were blown out by FCS Indiana St. that was winless three years ago and won one game two years ago. I rest my case.

1 All four Boston College fans in existence are still crying. 0-3 with a loss to Duke at home on the resume now. Here are the highlights (or the lowlights given where I put this)

Lowlights Countdown Week 2

10 Weekly New Mexico Fail Update – Of course Coach Locksley and his Lobos were going to lose. Everybody expected that this week. They were playing at Arkansas. Of course getting outgained by over 300 yards and beaten to a pulp (52-3) was not expected. Arkansas is not exactly known as a defensivve juggernaut. Heck, they are supposed to be winning their game like Auburn does (all offense, no 'D' and just enough special teams. Of course Locksley and his Lobos had to go and make them look like world beters because that is what Locksley and his merry band of Lobos does.

9 Somebody Might have actually been a worse coaching hire than Locksley (I didn't think it was possible) – Mike Locksley, meet Larry Porter. Mike Locksley, be glad you met Larry Porter, the new front runner for coaching futility (of course nobody will match the Locksley off field rap sheet). Porter was 1-11 in his first season last year, only beating Middle Tennessee St. in a game where MTSU's quarterback was suspended. This year, it looks worse. Of course Memphis lost badly to Mississippi St. That doesn't matter. Losing 47-3 to Arkansas St. though. Ugh. That's another situation entirely. I know Arkansas St. might be good, but they are still a Sun Belt team being coached by a guy who was a high school coach not that long ago. How do you lose to them 47-3 (Of course the answer is by being miserable)? Now, Memphis must beat Austin Peay or will likely go winless. This is not a gimme despite Austin Peay's 72-10 loss to Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago.

8 Penn St. QB Play – Rob Bolden was awful for Penn St. against Alabama. He should start and never come off the field. When the alternative is a former walk-on who went 1-10 passing and has shown interception machine tendencies, you should never come off the field. Of course, Penn st. really needs to get both of them off the field and find someone else before Joe Paterno wastes his last few years in quarterback purgatory.

7 Mascots Flying into Windows is a bad thing – I'm an Auburn alum. I love my eagle flying around the stadium before the game. I'm still going to make fun of it if something goes wrong, just like I would if Bevo, Ralphie or Uga did something crazy. And Spirit, Auburn's eagle, definitely did something crazy Saturday. He flew into the window. Ouch. Not good. Not good at all. At least he is OK. That said, what the heck happened? How does the eagle fly into a window like a garden variety bird that's never seen a window before? What was it thinking? Did it forget its training?

6 The Rest of the Big Ten – At least Penn St. lost to a quality opponent (Alabama). The rest of the Big Ten (Wisconsin, Michigan St. and Michigan exempted) either played FCS schools, lost, or played very badly in closer than expected wins as heavy favorite. The carnage list: Minnesota lost to New Mexico St. (and this would have happened anyway despite the seizure suffered by their coach Jerry Kill, it was 4^th and 10 for the ball game when it happened), Purdue lost on a blocked field goal at Rice (also, why on Earth was Purdue playing Rice on the road in front of 27 people and their friends), Iowa lost to Iowa St. again (this happens every so often and it never should) and Indiana lost to Virginia (passable given Indiana's state but still...). Also, Ohio St. probably should have lost to Toledo and Nebraska went sleepwalking through their game and nearly lost to Fresno St. Terrible.

5 Garrett Gilbert – Put your transfer papers in now and start looking for a school son, at least if you want to ever see the field again. Gilbert was awful against BYU (2-8, 2INTs). His relief combined (Case McCoy and David Ash) to go 9-11 and can add a running threat that Gilbert does not. Looks to me like Gilbert is done and his drop to third on the depth chart this week says he most certainly is.

4 It was Washington St., how did you manage that – OK I get that Washington St. and Oregon St. seem to have switched places. That means Wazzu is probably average. Still, they are starting a backup QB. How, UNLV, did you manage to get clubbed by them worse than you did against Wisconsin? What bizarre manner of awful did you create to pull that one off?

3 Negative Yardage Punting, and that was the high point – Oregon St.'s punter had quite the miserable start Saturday. First quarter and he punted in a 0-0 game. Nothing abnormal here until you see he kicked it -4 yards. Yes, that's negative four. No it wasn't blocked and there was also no wind. If that was all that was needed for a college scholarship, I shouldn't be paying student loans off right now.

2 Icing Your Own Kicker... Twice – The Arizona St.-Missouri game could have its own Lowlights countdown entry. Believe me, it was the epitome of stupid football, all game long (though surprisingly no interceptions). To cap all of the stupid I witnessed Friday night, I saw Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel ice his own kicker before the game winning kick, twice. WHAT/ Yes, he iced his own kicker from over 45 yards away twice. Of course the kicker missed and Arizona St. won in overtime despite blowing a two touchdown lead in the 4^th in part because of a muffed punt (this game had all manner of idiot except interceptions).

1 One First Down – It would be tough to top icing your own kicker twice, especially when you are a Sun Belt sacrifice to a Big Ten school. Of course, Florida Atlantic is not your normal team this season. They just played a game against Michigan St. where they got 1 first down. 1. That's it. I think me and 5 friends along with a Sun Belt offensive line could manage 2. 1 first down. Unbelievable. Here is the single most depressing drive chart I have ever seen, at least as it relates to offense: FAU - Michigan St. Drive Chart

Week 1 College Football Lowlights Countdown

The combination of Holiday and games on that holiday has made this a little late. That said, it's never too late to skewer some teams for their incompetence.

10 Mike Locksley loserdom update – Locksley's career record slid to 2-23 after a surprisingly competitive 14-10 loss to Colorado St. Heck, the Lobos outgained the Rams so progress was made. Still, Locksley is one of the worst coaching hires ever for reasons I have discussed over and over again over the last two seasons as New Mexico went into the tank.

9 It appears the Auburn defense is even worse than last season. They were luckily playing Utah St., so Barrett Trotter's passing was good enough to work in the Cam Newton role. Getting run off the line of scrimmage against a bad WAC team is not an encouraging sign though. And believe me, the warning signs of disaster were not supposed to show up until this week.

8 Maryland's uniforms were sickening. I'm glad I was gaming with friends and not watching the Terps parade the state flag around their helmets. Heck, the Terps even made Georgia's awful tradition breaking metallic helmets look good. If this is what I have to look for all season, I'm rooting for whoever plays Maryland, just to lower the chances of them appearing on my tv again.

7 I think Washington has a very big problem. Of course, that is obvious if you look at the box score. They just gave up 473 yards passing to an FCS school and needed an interception in the endzone to win the game. I don't care if they were playing the defending champions with a former SMU starting quarterback. BCS conference schools can't be playing games like that against FCS schools. Period.

6 I bring you the Brian Kelly RAGE FACE.

That is all.

5 Steve Spurrier, just to let you know, but Shane Mathews, Danny Wuerffel, or Rex Grossman are not walking through the door. Stick with Stephen Garcia. Is he great? Heck no. Does he give your team the best chance to win? Absolutely. Don't screw this up. You have the most talented South Carolina team ever and most likely a one-year window before Florida is back at full-strength. Start Garcia and confine Connor Shaw to the bench. Please.

4 The carcass of the Big 12 North – Nebraska and Colorado are gone. Missouri and Kansas look at least semi-desireable in the conference realignment shuffle. Kansas St. and Iowa St... not so much. This week showed why. Both needed 4^th quarter comebacks to win against FCS opponents. Kansas St. to win over Eastern Kentucky 10-7 (pathetic) and Iowa St. to win over Northern Iowa 20-19 (not as pathetic but still awful. Luckily for these two, they both play Kansas and each other so one very well might get to 3 wins this season.

3 It appeared this game had everything locked up after Thursday night. Of course I am referring to the Western Kentucky-Kentucky travesty that for some stupid reason was played in Tennessee. Believe me, any Tennessee fans who were there know they will be extending their winning streak over Kentucky for yet another year after seeing this. And, of course, one play has come to symbolize this whole wretched affair.

2 It appears Oregon St. has regressed back to its pre-2000 level. At least that is what losing to Sacramento St. appears to confirm to me. And for those of you who don't know or remember Oregon St.'s pre-2000 level, it's in the realm of Duke, Baylor, and Indiana and I might be being nice.

1 Normally it would take a Herculean feat for Duke to get number 1 here over Oregon St. losing to an FCS school. But it happened. Duke lost to Richmond 23-21. OK. Garden variety loss to FCS school. What's the big deal? First, Duke has now lost to the same FCS school 3 times in the last 6 seasons. Let me repeat that: DUKE HAS LOST TO THE SAME FCS SCHOOL 3 TIMES IN 6 SEASONS. Not Vanderbilt or Indiana or Northwestern in their losing heyday or Baylor or Kansas St. in their losing heyday ever managed that one. It is nearly impossible to conceive of this happening. But it gets worse. This year, Richmond is playing under a new coach, because the last one resigned after a DUI arrest, 10 DAYS AGO. Duke, you have shamed even your own bad football legacy this time. And Steve Spurrier, you are still a saint and a coaching god. You won a conference title at this school.

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Ranking the Bowls from Worst to First

Category by category rankings of the bowl games, starting with the losers.

By Watching these you are contributing to the problem of too many bowl games because anyone will watch. Run away from these games like the plague. They are disgraceful matchups at best.

35. Motor City Bowl (Little Caesars Bowl) – Toledo vs Florida International

This is going to be awful. If there are going to be bad matchups, at least give me the potential for a fun shootout. Florida International plays decent defense but has no offensive talent that can even standup to Toledo's meager MAC level offensive talent. The only way this is close is if the game is some sort of unwatchable defensive war.

34. New Orleans Bowl – Troy vs Ohio

File this under the same as the above game, except the other way. The Sun Belt team has the offense and Ohio has shown little all season. Also, the nightmare of last season's Ohio-Marshall game is still fresh in my memory.

33. New Mexico Bowl – UTEP vs BYU

Only a good game for those nostalgic about old WAC rivalries that don't mean anything. BYU was awful at the beginning of the season while UTEP took advantage of the worst schedule in the country including both New Mexico schools, Memphis (who might have somehow been worse than the New Mexico schools) and FCS Arkansas-Pine Bluff to get bowl eligible.

32. GoDaddy.com Bowl – Miami (OH) vs Middle Tennessee

Poor Miami. They won their league and get rewarded with this stinker. Middle Tennessee managed to lose to Minnesota before Tim Brewster got fired. As they were the only team to do so, shouldn't that eliminate the Raiders from bowl consideration?

31. Holiday Bowl – Nebraska vs Washington

It's a needless rematch. Needless rematches should never happen in bowl games. Boo.

BY watching these you are merely wasting time while also contributing to the bowl glut. Hardcore football fans will enjoy and checking the score is allowable to see if its close.

30. BBVA Compass Bowl – Kentucky vs Pittsburgh

Two players keep this from the scrap heap of the lower category: Randall Cobb of Kentucky (one of the best all-purpose offensive players in recent memory despite his low profile) and Dion Lewis (who had an awful season until his explosion in the snow against Cincinnati in the season finale). Other than those tow, look away as these teams are awful power conference teams with no other redeeming value to watch.

29. Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl – Louisville vs Southern Miss

A bad matchup, but at least there is an intriguing matchup. The Southern Miss offense has been very good against suspect competition since getting disemboweled in their opener by South Carolina. At the same time, Louisville has built a decent defensive resume against the offense challenged Big East. One of these will show its for real. On the other side of the ball, the less said about the Louisville offense and Southern Miss defense, the better.

28. Military Bowl – Maryland vs East Carolina

Maryland does nothing appreciably well until its finale, but they will happily bomb away against East Carolina with what might be the worst secondary to ever reach a bowl game. At this point, the Pirates might as well start four freshmen back there next season no matter what's coming back. Nothing could possibly be any worse than this tear was. Also, the East Carolina version of the Texas Tech Air Raid has put up stellar numbers all season long. Average to bad teams, but has some entertainment value until you get sick of seeing receivers 30 yards open in the secondary.

27. Pinstripe Bowl – Syracuse vs Kansas St.

This would be higher except that the Syracuse offense is awful and the defense is very good. This means the Orange will suck all life out of the stadium and your television too.

26. Meineke Car Care Bowl – Clemson vs South Florida

Only to see Clemson pass rushing stud Da'Quan Bowers before he is off the the NFL. Avoid the other side of the ball if possible. South Florida has a decent defense and Clemson's offense has been MIA since Kyle Parker took that hit to the back in the Auburn game in September.

25. TicketCity Bowl – Texas Tech vs Northwestern

Would have been much higher considering how entertaining Northwestern normally is but for dan Persa's injury. Robbed of him the Wildcats won't be much resistance to the Red Raiders.

Worth tuning in for at least for a few minutes. These games aren't total disgraces for the most part and should at least be decent, entertaining and close for much of the way (with one glaring exception)

24. Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – Nevada vs Boston College

The Nevada offense has been amazing on the ground for a few years now. They put everything together this season with the best team in school history. Now, the great ground game meets Boston College and the top-ranked run defense in college football. Nevada should win because Boston College can't score, but the matchup of the Nevada offense and the BC defense is well worth tuning in for.

23. Fiesta Bowl – Connecticut vs Oklahoma

Here is the glaring exception to close games, but its tough to move a BCS game much lower than this no matter how underserving one of the teams is. The only way this remains close is if Oklahoma fails to show up and its BCS yips from recent seasons show up again.

22. Music City Bowl – Tennessee vs North Carolina

North Carolina's players have shown a ton of heart this season overcoming the whole suspension fiasco to reach a bowl game while Tennessee has found a spark with a four game winning streak to close the season behind freshman quarterback Tyler Bray. The Vols could take the next step back towards SEC contention here, or North Carolina will have one last hurrah before the NCAA lowers the boom in the offseason.

21. Armed Forces Bowl – SMU vs Army

Just for the contrast in styles. The Army option game and the SMU run 'n' shoot should produce a highly entertaining game.

20. Poinsettia Bowl – San Diego St. vs Navy

Same here though San Diego St. is a bit more balanced than SMU and both teams are a bit better here.

19. Humanitarian Bowl – Fresno St. vs Northern Illinois

As long as Fresno St. doesn't start hemorrhaging when they see the Blue Turf again (see 51-0 loss at Boise St.), this game should be highly entertaining (also contingent on Northern Illinois wanting to be there after seeing coach Jerry Kill leave for Minnesota this week). The Fresno offense has been very good this season (with one glaring exception) while Northern Illinois was great all season through the MAC except for the championship game.

18. Liberty Bowl – Central Florida vs Georgia

The Golden Knights get one last shot at a BCS team this season after losing to NC State and Kansas St. They have a top 25 scoring offense and a top 15 scoring defense. Meanwhile, Georgia recovered from its horrible start behind a very good offense that helped the Bulldogs to a 5-2 finish. I'm interested in seeing quarterback Aaron Murray continue his development.

17. Texas Bowl – Baylor vs Illinois

Two very good offenses and suspect defenses? Sign me up for this. Robert Griffin will likely have his way with the Illinois defense. Meanwhile, the Baylor run defense will need to show up or Mikail LeShore and Nathan Scheelhaase are going to go crazy for the Illini.

16. Insight Bowl – Missouri vs Iowa

After taking most of the last month of the season off, the question here is if Iowa will bother showing up. If they do, we will have a closer than expected defensive duel between a Tigers team with an underrated defense and overrated offense and a Hawkeye team that has one of the best defensive lines in the country when motivated to play.

15. Alamo Bowl – Oklahoma St. vs Arizona

Arizona collapsed down the stretch, but its passing game is good enough to turn this into an entertaining shootout with Oklahoma St., the best offense in the country not playing in the National Title Game.

Good-Solid Matchups. These games are worth watching and maybe even going a little out of the way to see. Each has some quirk or hook that differentiates it from the games in the previous category.

14. Outback Bowl – Florida vs Penn St.

Two big brand name programs that have a few weeks to get the offense fixed after disappointing seasons. Both were 7-5 that felt much worse. The winner here heads into the offseason with their heads held high and a preseason top 25 rankings next season. The loser has a lot of questions to answer.

13. Sun Bowl – Miami vs Notre Dame

Brian Kelly lucked out with this matchup. There aren't a ton of 7-5 power conference teams his Fighting Irish could beat, but Miami is one of them. Notre Dame could be one win away from an underserved spot in the preseason top 25 next season. For Miami, will they have a coach by this time and what will the mental state of the team be after seeing coach Randy Shannon fired?

12. Hawaii Bowl – Hawaii vs Tulsa

I expect 100 points and 1000 yards of offense. Anything else would be a disappointment. These two teams have it in them though.

11. Independence Bowl – Georgia Tech vs Air Force

I enjoy watching option football. It is entertaining and keeps the game moving. Watching two option teams will be a treat. For those who don't like option football, downgrade this game two categories despite its competitiveness. Georgia Tech stinks.

10. Tangerine Bowl (Champs Sports Bowl) – West Virginia vs NC State

NC State has no defense and West Virginia has no offense. Meanwhile, NC State has a great offense and West Virginia has a great defense. Will be fun to see which teams weakness steps up to win this game.

9. Gator Bowl – Mississippi St. vs Michigan

Bulldogs curtailed Cam Newton better than anyone else all season. Now they get to try and handle Denard Robinson. At the same time, the Michigan defense will try to stop someone, anyone. Of the SEC teams possible for this game, Mississippi St. gives them the best shot. Also, will Rich Rodriguez have a job after the game if his team loses.

8. Peach Bowl (Chick-fil-a Bowl) – South Carolina vs Florida St.

Steve Spurrier against Florida St. Right there makes this appointment television. On top of that, both teams are trying to bounce back from conference title game losses and salvage their seasons here. Should be a good game

Appointment television. Figure out a way to watch these games. They are the cream of the bowl season and each should be a competitive, close game with superior athletes making plays down the stretch. In other words, everything we love about college football.

7. Las Vegas Bowl – Boise St. vs Utah

Utah was way overrated at number five and then stayed dead from the TCU game for another game and a half. Other than that though, the Utes have been solid all season. On the other side, Boise St. has been incredible all season except for one half of football in Reno. In this game, the Utes will try to keep the offense balanced and score with Boise St., especially now that Nevada has shown that the Boise St. defense can be beaten.

6. Citrus Bowl (Capital One Bowl) – Michigan St. vs Alabama

Nick Saban faces off with his former team for the the first time. His team now has holes that have been exposed numerous times this season, but Michigan St. may not be well equipped to exploit them in their first tradition January bowl game since Saban led them to this game in 1999 (and bolted for LSU before the game was played).

5. Cotton Bowl – Texas A&M vs LSU

This game has everything. We have the Les Miles crazy factor. We have whatever LSU is going to try and pass off as a passing game. We have the best team in the Big 12 with its incredibly hot quarterback who led them to wins over Oklahoma and Nebraska in the second half of the season. We also have the beginning of next season now. The winner here will likely be in the top 10 of the preseason polls next years and might crack the top five.

4. Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs Stanford

Both of these teams are among the hottest in the country. Virginia Tech has looked like a top five team since they realized the season started during the 2^nd quarter of the East Carolina game (game three) while Stanford has played one bad half of football all season (too bad for the Cardinal it was at Oregon at the same time the Ducks were loading the gun up for the second half slaughter). The teams look even as the Virginia Tech defense has improved each week since the debacle against James Madison and the offense has been the best since Michael Vick was the quarterback. At Stanford, Andrew Luck is the best pocket passing quarterback we have seen at this level since Peyton Manning. He will be amazing in the NFL and it will be quick. His march to the top pick in the draft begins here.

3. Sugar Bowl – Arkansas vs Ohio St.

Ohio St. vs the SEC. Sign me up. The Buckeyes have never beaten the SEC in a bowl game (0-9 all-time). Now they get another chance against Arkansas and its explosive offense. The question is the Arkansas defense. They gave up 31 points to Mississippi St. and its average offense and 23 to LSU and its average. Since this winning streak began, the Razorbacks have been average on defense. Can Pryor and the Buckeyes take advantage and get ready for another run at the BCS Title Game next season?

2. Rose Bowl – TCU vs Wisconsin

Wisconsin mauls opponents on offense. TCU does the same on defense. That battle will be the best of the bowl season. The other side with TCUs underrated offense taking on the best defense it has seen all season should be entertaining as well.

1. BCS National Championship Game – Auburn vs Oregon

Get ready for a track meet (since most of the damage will be done on the ground, track meet is a better description than shootout for this game). The Tigers and Ducks are going to run it up and down the field on each other. The only potential flaw is if one of these two gets a big first half lead (entirely possible since neither has bothered to show up until halftime multiple times this season), the game might be over considering the dominant second halves both of these teams have played this season.

Highlights Championship Saturday

10. Heisman Trophy organizers invite right players – No controversy this season at least with the invites. Kellen Moore, Cam Newton, LaMichael James and Andrew Luck are among the best players in the country. They are certainly the best in the traditional winning positions of quarterback and running back. They also all play for top teams and in fact all would be in the top five right now if Boise St.'s kicker made the winning kick at Nevada.

9. Pitt RB Dion Lewis in the snow against Cincinnati – Last season, Lewis had a huge game in awful snowy conditions against Cincinnati running for over 200 yards. This season, in even worse snowy conditions, Lewis had over 40 carries and nearly 300 yards rushing, an amazing game to close out a disappointing season.

8. Miami (OH) has risen from the dead – Two seasons ago Miami (OH) went 2-10 and got coach Shane Montgomery fired. Last season, Mike Haywood was even worse going 1-11 and getting shut out in the first two games. This season, things changed immediately. The Redhawks were competitive in their opener at Florida (though this was more an indictment of the Gators this season than a complement to Miami), then won close game after close game to sneak there way into the MAC Title Game where they made the big plays needed down the stretch to win the league for the first time since Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback in 2003.

7. Oregon wins and we're bored – Oregon scored 37 points and won easily on the road against a rival with College Gameday on hand. Ho hum. That is a complement to how good the Ducks have been this season. Oregon heads to the title game with one of the best offenses ever in college football.

6. Thomas Weber – Weber has had a truly awful season after being a finalist for the Lou Groza award as best placekicker last season. He redeemed himself (at least in the kicking game, see lowlight #4 for his awful punting) with five field goals including a 52 yarder and two successful extra points that proved to be the difference in a game decided by two blocked extra points.

5. Washington is bowl eligible – The Huskies have not been to a bowl game since the 2002 Sun Bowl. Congrats to the Huskies on taking the next step back towards their rightful place in the Pac-10.

4. No let downs in the WAC – Conference tri-champions Hawaii, Nevada and Boise St. all played overmatched opponents and all won easily. Hawaii smoked UNLV, Boise St. went back to hanging 50 in obscurity against Utah St. and Nevada came out sleeping, but woke up in time to get an easy road win against Louisiana Tech.

3. Evidently there are some teams with defenses in Conference USA – The title game in Conference USA, home of scores like 56-50 and 65-41 over the last few weeks was the last one I expected to have a 17-7 championship game. Nice job by the defenses at Central Florida and SMU to get ready and hold their opponents to almost nothing, especially by C-USA standards.

2. 52 yard field goal for the win – Dave Teggart probably won't kick a bigger field goal in his life than the one he kicked to send UConn to the Fiesta Bowl as the Big East Champion. Whatever your opinion of the Huskies being in the BCS, Teggart's kick to win the conference with under 30 seconds to play was a heck of a kick.

1. Cam Newton and the Auburn passing game – In the run up to the SEC Title Game, South Carolina's coaches said they thought Cam Newton was more of a thrower than a runner as they prepared for the first matchup between the two teams in September when Newton really kick started his Heisman campaign with a five touchdown outburst. They probably should have kept that game plan. It worked better than the one that said stop Newton as a runner and make him beat you throwing. The overlooked Auburn receivers (who had a great season without as much of a running game and a noodle armed quarterback last season) had an incredible game and found themselves open all over the place, especially Darvin Adams who, if not for a couple of drops, could have had 300 yards receiving by halftime. Cam Newton did a great job of finding these receivers and the Auburn passing game torched the beleaguered South Carolina secondary.

Lowlights Championship Saturday

Never thought this week would have the best set of contenders for the number one slot since the LSU-Tennessee debacle. Let's get on with it.

10. Weekly New Mexico fail update – I know New Mexico didn't play. That doesn't matter here. Mike Locksley who has done everything in his power to go down as the worst head coach in college football history is returning for a 3^rd season. Nice knowing you Lobos. I am certainly happy to have Locksley and his brand of awful football back next season. It ensures I have something to put in this number 10 spot pretty much every week next season. Now that I think of it, maybe this is really a highlight, as least for me and this blog.

9. Bowl Game rematch – Poor Holiday Bowl. The Alamo Bowl bought their previous picks in the bowl pecking order, then the Pac-10 mid section collapsed leaving them with 6-6 Washington and no other options this season. Then the Big 12 got involved and ensured Nebraska the worst matchup they could have possibly for the trip out of the conference: a rematch against a team the Cornhuskers already demolished by five touchdowns on the road.

8. The mascot got ejected – for throwing snowballs. This is just funny. If I had the video of him throwing snowballs and not just the tame and boring arrest video circulating around the net I would post it. To the cops: lighten up and let the kid have some fun. Nobody is getting hurt, it is snowing and his team stinks this season.

7. A very bad week for Northern Illinois – Friday night, Northern Illinois was heavily favored to win the MAC Title and laid an egg. They led late because of some dumb decisions made by Miami (OH) coach Mike Haywood. Nonetheless, all they had to do was stop 4^th and 20 to win. They failed on a bad tip drill play to lose. Then the week got worse when coach Jerry Kill (the best name in coaching by the way) left to take the head coaching job at Minnesota.

6. What was that Stephen Garcia? Just take the sack – The play I'm referring to is of course the pick six that Garcia threw down 35-14 in the 3^rd quarter against Auburn. That play was doomed from the start and Garcia made it worse by trying to throw it away and failing by throwing it right to Tasharvin Bell who walked into the end zone with a nice present.

5. Nebraska's offensive regression – Last season, Nebraska scored no offensive touchdowns in losing the Big 12 Title to Texas 13-12. This season, it looked like things had changed. The Cornhuskers smoked Washington and Kansas St. and then did the same to Oklahoma St. after a one week malaise against Texas. Heck, the Nebraska offense was better against Missouri than anyone else all season. Then they went in the tank. Yes, injuries played a role, but that doesn't excuse the six point showing against Texas A&M lost month or the awful performance offensively against Oklahoma, especially in the second half. If coach Bo Pelini doesn't get this fixed, he is going to have a long first year in the Big Ten next season.

4. Using kickers as punters – Both Arizona schools have good kickers. They also use those kickers as punters. That is a bad idea. Thomas Weber of Arizona St. launched an immortally bad 8-yard punt in no wind. Just to make it worse, Arizona's Alex Zendajas had a 0-yard punt on the ensuing possession. Remember that there were no blocks, tips or wind in these cases. Nearly anyone reading this blog could better. For Weber, the night would get better (see Highlights). For Zendejas, it got worse, much worse (see #1 below).

3. Whenever a Hail Mary is caught, it is always the defenses fault – South Carolina obviously didn't get the memo that on a Hail Mary, the worst thing you can possibly do is pop the ball up in the air. At that point it becomes a free-for-all and anyone can catch it which is exactly what Darvin Adams did at the end of the first half to kill any remaining South Carolina chances at victory.

2. UCLA offense – The Bruins played another punchless game of nonsense against USC.. Nothing better describes the nonsense than a play late in the game. The Bruins, driving for a garbage time touchdown (that they did eventually get) dropped back to pass. Richard Brehaut was running for his life under pressure (a recurring theme in this game) and tried to throw the ball. Of course, he tried to throw it to his offensive lineman who tipped the ball and then caught it illegally. He then fumbled it setting off a mad scramble where multiple different UCLA players recovered the ball and were stripped of it before the Bruins recovered. That play, right there, is UCLA's season on offense except for the games against teams from Texas.

1. Blocked PATs to lose – Remember a few spots ago when I said the night got much worse for Alex Zendejas? Here it is. Arizona scored to tie the game with under a minute to play against Arizona St. All they needed to win was to make the extra point. It was blocked. Overtime. Then, it happened again in the second overtime. Game over, Arizona St. wins. Ironically, the Sun Devils are not going to a bowl game this season because of their own inability to keep teams from blocking extra points with the difference in the Wisconsin game being a blocked extra point and USC scoring the winning points on a blocked extra point being returned for a two point conversion.

Highlights Week 13

10. Nobody is going winless – Akron beat Buffalo 22-14 to earn its only victory in its last game of the season. Congrats to the Zips on the win and congrats to everyone for winning at least one game this season.

9. We have enough teams – There are now 35 bowl games. To fill the slots, we needed 70 teams to get bowl-eligible. With Georgia's win over Georgia Tech, we have 70 and could actually end up with a few more. Washington in particular has a very good chance.

8. Oklahoma has regained its road mojo, at least on offense – Last week against Baylor, Oklahoma finally exploded on the road for the first time this season. This week, they kept it up scoring 47 points (the Sooners needed them all) to win the Big 12 South over Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M. Finally relearning how to win on the road should bode well for next season for Oklahoma.

7. Utah-BYU down to the last play... again – This series has gone to the wire a lot in recent years. Nice job by Utah blocking the game winning field goal on the final play to complete its comeback from the dead (and a 13-0 deficit).

6. Giving credit where its due – I don't like Notre Dame. I'll admit that, but Brian Kelly did a heck of a job rallying Notre Dame from the low of the Tulsa loss. Beating Utah, Army and USC will give the program plenty of momentum for next season no matter the result in the bowl game.

5. West Virginia has an offense, finally – West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith played his best game of the season (in fact the best by any quarterback this season if the pass efficiency ratings are to be believed considering his 300+ rating) and the West Virginia offense looked as good as it has since the last time Smith really played well (way back in September against Maryland). The quarterback really does make the offense in some places.

4. Florida St. really might be on the way back – For the first time since Ron Zook was still the coach, Florida St. has beaten Florida. The blowout win shows Florida St. might finally have things headed in the right direction after a decade in the wilderness. Meanwhile, many bowl projections have Florida headed to its namesake Gator Bowl to face Zook and his Illinois squad.

3. Big Ten Title contenders take care of business – Only Michigan St. was really pushed out of the three contenders as the Spartans beat Penn St. 28-22 while Ohio St. and Wisconsin took Michigan and Northwestern behind the woodshed to administer savage beatings in the quest to win the Big Ten.

2. The largest comeback in school history – Auburn had never erased a deficit as large as 24 points in school history until Friday against Alabama. The comeback was amazing and showed the Tigers as one of the most mentally tough teams we have seen in college football in a long time (or at least since the 2002 Ohio St. team that won close game after close game).

1. The biggest win in school history – Nevada had every reason to fold up shop and go away against Boise St. They were down 24-7 at halftime to the overlords of their league. What the Wolfpack did in the 2^nd half was amazing as they ran all over the Broncos en route to a shocking upset and a probable share of the WAC title.

Lowlights Week 13

10. It wasn't bad, but another failure nonetheless – Of course I am talking about New Mexico and its weekly failure though the Lobos actually put a good effort in against TCU staying within two touchdowns at halftime. That said, it finished 66-17, another score indicative of how Mike Locksley's entire coaching tenure has gone.

9. What the heck was that Florida? - The Gators were terrible against rival Florida St. While I said in my preview that Florida St. was better, I thought it was a small gap. The gap that was there Saturday says this is going to be a multi-year process, at least on offense, for Florida to be anywhere Florida St.

8. First to 14 wins – The Big East had more games. As usual, there was no offense involved (with the exception of West Virginia who has seemingly found its offense late in the season and opponents of defenseless Rutgers and Cincinnati). Loser Pitt scored 10. Loser Rutgers got 13. Loser Syracuse didn't get 25 points in its last three games combined. How did all of these inept offenses end up in the same league? Even winners generally don't score any points in this league this season (23 in overtime win for South Florida is a good example).

7. NC State's defensive collapse – Maryland has won a bunch of games by not really doing anything at an outstanding level until Saturday when the NC State defense collapsed allowing the Terps to throw for over 400 yards. The result is a blown division title for NC State.

6. Will any of us be alive when Kentucky figures out how to beat Tennessee – Death, taxes and Kentucky losing to Tennessee. If the Wildcats couldn't manage it in 2005 when Tennessee was awful, 2006-7 when Kentucky had its best teams in recent memory or 2008-10 when Tennessee was as awful as they were in 2005 and Kentucky was decent, when is it going to happen. It has been since 1984 and with true freshman quarterback Tyler Bray carving up the Wildcat defense for over 300 yards, it appears Tennessee will continue its dominance for a few more years.

5. An effort would have been nice guys – UNLV and Eastern Michigan just played like they had already checked out. UNLV didn't show up in losing 48-14 to San Diego St., but that performance was grand compared to Eastern Michigan who lost 71-3 to Northern Illinois at home. I know these teams have had rough seasons, but they could have at least tried in their final games under young coaches trying to get the ship turned around at these perennial losers.

4. Losing to awful teams with everything on the line – All Ohio had to do to win the MAC East was beat a 4-7 Kent St. team. Instead they were blown out 28-6. Considering how bad the Kent St. offense has been (97^th nationally out of 120 in points per game), giving up 28 points to them with everything on the line is just terrible.

3. Leaving points on the field – Alabama had Auburn beat, easily. With a 21-0 lead, the Tide should have been able to cruise home, but everything went wrong in the second quarter. In that fateful quarter, the Tide had two redzone turnovers and a drop that led to a field goal instead of a touchdown. That's 18 points right there. Get those three plays right and Alabama leads Auburn 42-7 at the half and the game is over. Not even Auburn and Cam Newton could come back from that.

2. The Boise St. collapse – Yes, the kicker missed. Yes Boise should have won on the kick. That said, what happened to the Broncos in the second half? They couldn't get off the field against the Nevada running game and except for two big plays (Doug Martin's long touchdown on a screen and the bomb from Kellen Moore to Titus Young), the offense that had been incredible all season was ground to a halt. Where was the dominant team from every other game this season.

1. ESPN's attempted hatchet job on TCU – The BCS Countdown show has been a good show for much of the season. Rece Davis is a strong host and the analysts have been good (with the exception of Craig James who should be fired for a multitude of things). This week, except for Davis and Chris Fowler, everything went off the rails in a hatchet job on TCU. All of sudden, TCU is no longer worthy of anything? Where was this all season? For that matter, where were pro-TCU analysts Jesse Palmer and Robert Smith, regular contributors to the show all season, but nowhere to be found this week, replaced by Rod Gilmore (who ridiculously has TCU ranked six) and Chris Spielman. I can't believe the conflict of interest here. ESPN is televising the title game, but this seemed to be an attempt to either create more controversy to drive ratings or keep TCU out of the title game, something that will help ratings.

Highlights Week 12

10. 51-0, now there's your style points – It's tough to find any fault with Boise St.'s 51-0 win over Fresno St. The Broncos scored whenever and however they wanted after a sluggish first quarter and pitched the first shutout against Fresno St. since 1998. They also did it wearing orange uniforms on the blue turf instead of the blue. Just one more notch in the argument that Boise really is that good.

9. Forcing Cal into a Bad Cal game at Cal – Cal has had odd Jekyll and Hyde tendencies all season long. At home, the Bears had been world beaters with four blowouts wins and a close loss to Oregon that is the Ducks only close game of the season. On the road, Cal had been awful with just one win over terrible Washington St. and a series of ugly blowouts. Playing at home, many though Cal would at least keep it close against Stanford. Then the game started and Stanford hit Cal in the mouth. Cal suddenly forgot where they where and bad Cal appeared on the way to an ugly blowout. Well Done Stanford.

8. 31 points in the first quarter – Central Florida was a heavy favorite against Tulane, but nobody could have foreseen the anger the Golden Knights would play with after losing to Southern Miss. Poor Tulane was in the way of a 31-0 outburst to start the game and the outcome was never in doubt after that. Central Florida would score 61 in the game.

7. Oklahoma finally showing up for a road game – The Sooners had not been good in road games, even in victory. There were the losses to Texas A&M and Missouri and the close call at Cincinnati. This problem had persisted for two seasons. Then the Sooners got to play the Baylor defense on the road and the attack finally worked the way its supposed to away from home. Just in time for the big road trip to Stillwater to play Oklahoma St.

6. A rare shutout – Missouri's surge onto the national scene the last few seasons has been fueled by offense and creatively winning a wide variety of shootouts behind a quick strike spread passing game. Now, as the offense slips a little, the defense has finally reached a level near where the offenses of 2007-8 were. The road shutout of Iowa St. over the weekend was just the largest benchmark yet of Missouri's defensive turnaround.

5. First 10 win season – Nevada had never won 10-games in an FBS season (they did so in the FCS, then 1-AA, ranks). That is they hadn't until Saturday when the Wolfpack got its 10^th win this season. Now its one game against Boise St. with everything on the line.

4. Leshore – Mikail Leshore of Illinois is now the Big Ten leader in rushing after setting a school record with 330 yards rushing against Northwestern. It was a stunning performance on a major stage and his team is now bowl eligible for the first time since 2007.

3. Not giving up on the season – Colorado had every reason to pack it in two weeks ago. They were 3-6 with the coach fired and his second choice quarterback and son leading the team. Things looked dire headed to play a .500 Iowa St. team, a decent Kansas St. team and Nebraska. Improbably, the Buffaloes have gotten it together and sit one more upset from bowl eligibility. Good job Colorado for continuing to fight.

2. The Spurrier of old – All of a sudden, Steve Spurrier has South Carolina looking like his old Florida teams. For the first time under Spurrier, South Carolina went out and hung a number on offense against an over matched foe. 69 points is impressive no matter the opponent (ok the opposition needs to have 11 warm bodies at least).

1. Wisconsin offense – The Wisconsin offense is humming on all cylinders. In fact, over the last couple of weeks, it looks like it is on the same level as the attacks at Auburn and Oregon. They might do it differently, but the Badgers can score with anyone now. Anyone who questions that can ask Michigan, whose run defense hasn't been awful, just drug down by the infirmary known as the secondary this season.

Lowlights Week 12

10. New Mexico's return to abject failure – New Mexico had a pretty good couple of weeks. They managed to win a game and they didn't get clubbed against Air Force. Then came BYU and now that the Cougars have gotten their season turned, it looked like we all expected BYU-New Mexico would before the Cougars took the first half of the season off. 40-7 and Mike Locksley likely has one solitary game left in his tenure. With it comes a chance to bookend the season opening 72-0 loss to Oregon with something nearly as bad or worse: TCU with a need to run the score up.

9. Playground rules – At least the game was entertaining (and the spectacle was too). Even both teams going one way was entertaining, but Northwestern's thought to do this again should only remain a thought. Wrigley Field isn't big enough for football and shouldn't be used again.

8. LSU defense – The LSU defense took a rare day off (only other time against Auburn and still held the other Tigers to 24 points despite being gouged repeatedly on the ground) against Ole Miss. The coverage was just flat out awful and the run defense wasn't its normal self. Good thing the Ole Miss defense also took the day off and when that happens anyone can hang a large crooked number on the scoreboard.

7. Big East offenses (except Cincinnati and whoever is playing them) – The three non-Cincinnati games in the Big East last week: 83 points among six teams in three games. All of the defenses aren't that good (Syracuse and West Virginia are, but are flanked by terrible offenses and not just the bad that pervades this league). Where did the offense go. Where are the old Louisville crooked numbers? (Arkansas). Where is the high powered spread running game from West Virginia that was good even before Pat White got there? (Michigan) What happened to the powerful Pitt running game of recent years? (Never underestimate Wannstedt's ability to screw up, especially on offense) The only thing on offense in this league that approximates anything that was good in recent years is Cincinnati and that team's defense has gone where everyone else's offense have gone (but with no real discernible reason).

6. USC in the state of Oregon – The struggles are well-chronicled now. Of course that doesn't make Trojan fans feel any better. Maybe not having to go the the state every year anymore in the new Pac-10 divisional alignment will make USC fans feel better.

5. What happened to the Rutgers defense? - Remember what I said earlier about the Big East defenses taking over and a lack of offense. Evidently Rutgers didn't get the memo. Yes they were playing Cincinnati (the one competent offense in the league) and they did put up 38 points in a rare feat in the Big East, but the Scarlet Knights gave up 69. How the heck does anyone give up 69 points in a game that was thought to be even at kickoff. What has happened at Rutgers? Just four seasons ago, Rutgers was one of the final three undefeated teams. Now, they are back to their previous familiar perch at the bottom of the Big East.

4. Iowa in the last four minutes – ESPN's Sportscenter graphic said it well. Iowa has been tied of leading the the final four minutes of every game they have lost this season only to watch its stellar defense capitulate at the end and leave the offense in a near hopeless situation (the only exception being the early loss at Arizona where the offense had plenty of time and the line got run over). Despite statistically being a better team than any Iowa outfit since to 2002-2004 run that won 10 games each season, the Hawkeyes are 7-4 and look headed to a worse finish than the overachievers of two years ago.

3. Western Kentucky in the 4^th quarter – With the exception of the two wins this season, Western Kentucky has only two scripts since moving to the FBS level last season. Either they get waxed and aren't in the game in the 4^th quarter or they blow a lead at the end. It seems this happens nearly every week for the Hilltoppers and it did again against Middle Tennessee. Outscore 14-0 in the 4^th to lose 27-26. Ouch (and the reaction would be more than that if it hadn't already happened a few times this season to go along with the last three games of last year).

2. Scheduling FCS teams in November – Alabama, Texas Tech, Georgia, Kentucky, Auburn, Mississippi St., and Florida please come on down for your shaming. I hate the games against FCS team anyway, but scheduling them in November to get a virtual bye in the heat of the season is just awful. All of these schools should be ashamed. If you have that week in November to schedule a game like that, at least make it one that is an FBC cupcake. Move the FCS games to the beginning where they belong if you must insist on playing them.

1. 44-0? Against Wyoming? How bad do you have to be? - Wyoming was beaten the last two weeks by New Mexico and UNLV (combined wins against teams not names Wyoming or each other: 0). SO what the heck happened for the Cowboys to beat rival Colorado St. 44-0. Results this bad are tough to make fun of. The scoreline does it for me.

Highlights Countdown - Week 11

10. The Sun Belt title chase – It's not great football (or even good really), but the Sun Belt race is really entertaining. Games are coming down to the wire every week with two one point games this week and there is good offense and defense being played by these schools (though usually not both by any one single school) It has been entertaining where the Big East in a similar situation has not been because nobody expects Sun Belt games to be good. When they are, you pleasantly watch and be happy Troy isn't running away with everything again.

9. Northwestern vs Iowa – Northwestern is a good team, until they play Iowa. Then they become a great team for that short period of time for some reason. This time, the mojo didn't kick in until the 4^th quarter, but what a 4^th quarter it was. The Wildcats came from 17-7 down with two touchdowns and they also intercepted normal Iowa 4^th quarter hero Ricky Stanzi (who they knocked out last year) on the five yard line early in the quarter. Well done Wildcats.

8. Syracuse is alive and bowl eligible – The only positive story in the Big East this season is the continued revival of Syracuse. This program, much more so than the recent contenders at West Virginia, South Florida, Louisville and Pittsburgh is the one that the Big East needs to reassert itself on the national stage for the league to be respected again as this is the one program in the league that carried lots of respect even when the results didn't match that reputation (see most of the late 90s when Syracuse was a contender and was routinely overrated in the preseason on the way to a nice 8-4 or 9-3 season). The Big East has no program like that now and it needs one.

7. Michigan holds someone under 20 – The Wolverine defense is still awful, but anyone can max out once, as the Michigan defense showed against injured Purdue. Considering Denard Robinson didn't play very well and Michigan only scored 27 points, getting an easy win because of the defense had to feel good for Wolverine fans.

6. The Texas pass defense had still been fine until... - they met Brandon Weeden. Nobody had a really huge day throwing the ball that was well outside the ordinary against the Texas defense until Oklahoma St. came to town. Weeden threw for over 400 yards against the beleaguered Longhorn defense and led Oklahoma St. to the win in Austin, a place that has been a house of horrors for the Cowboys, especially in the second half.

5. Running out the clock in the Pac-10 – Oregon turned the blur off the offense at the end running nearly 10 minutes of clock off to end the game against Cal. Stanford ran the clock out by going down inside the ten yard line instead of scoring in the final minute knowing the kneel down was a surer way to win rather than scoring and giving Arizona St. the ball back in a two score game.

4. Ohio St. after halftime – The Buckeyes trailed 14-3 at halftime and looked bad enough to be headed to the other countdown that can be found on this blog. Then the Buckeyes came to life and before anyone blinked it was over as Penn St. was buried under a 35-0 second half deluge.

3. How long was that field goal? - Florida St. played without quarterback Christian Ponder and looked ugly doing it. That said, the game was against Clemson who seems incapable of doing anything the easy way even when its given to them. Ultimately though, the game belongs to Florida St. kicker Dustin Hopkins who redeemed himself for blowing the winning kick from 40 yards against North Carolina last week. His kick as time expired was good from 55 yards. Not many college kickers have a prayer of making that kind of kick.

2. Boise St. continues to incinerate everyone – Another week and Boise St. is over 50 points and their opponent is under 20 again. It's clockwork in the WAC for the Broncos.

1. South Carolina finally won something – The Gamecocks have been mostly average to bad since joining the SEC. Congrats to them on winning the SEC East for the first time and congrats to Marcus Lattimore who had 40 carries in the win over Florida. The South Carolina offense has been very good when he has played well. The only game they lost with a full strength Lattimore in the lineup was at Auburn (who oddly bottled him completely up, something they haven't done to anyone else all season).