College Football Thanksgiving Weekend Primetime Quick Thoughts

Stanford 28, Notre Dame 14 – Andrew Luck may have won the Heisman with 4 touchdowns. Because as we all know, the best way to win the Heisman is to destroy Notre Dame late in the season (ask USC players of the last decade).

South Carolina 34, Clemson 13 – The Tigers peaked in October and it showed here. Also, they haven't played well since clinching division, just like two years ago. As for South Carolina, where was this performance against Arkansas a few weeks back?

Mississippi St. 31, Ole Miss 3 – A sign for how it bad it was doomed to be for Ole Miss: they had a touchdown overturned on replay with 10 seconds left.

Baylor 66, Texas Tech 42 – Robert Griffin III got hurt, but Texas Tech's pass defense is so bad that it doesn't matter as long as the receivers can still run, and run they did, free and unchecked.

Florida St. 21, Florida 7 – This game was all manners of ugly and miserable. Florida St. didn't get 100 yards of offense and was never in any danger of losing this game. As for Florida, the offense hasn't improved at all since the debacle at Auburn in October.

Louisiana Tech 44, New Mexico St. 0 – Sonny Dykes has himself a conference championship and maybe a chance to move to a better job.

Washington 38, Washington St. 21 – The blocked punt early set the tone and the Huskies played well after a few weeks of struggling. Wazzu finished much improved, but still not good enough.

USC 50, UCLA 0 – Matt Barkley was amazing and UCLA was not. If the game went longer, it could have been 100-0. For UCLA, they now have to get refocused. There is a conference championship to win. Seriously. Ok, we can all hope the Bruins don't get humiliated on Friday at Oregon and if they do, hopefully the humiliation is not as bad as last year's nationally televised debacle in Eugene.

College Football Thanksgiving Weekend Afternoon Game Quick Thoughts

Alabama 42, Auburn 14 – The Auburn offense with no quarterback and the still young and just rebuilt offensive line was never going to have a chance against the Alabama defense. Given that the young Auburn defense never really developed or improved through the season and the result was obvious (even with the defensive touchdown).

Oregon 49, Oregon St. 21 – Another no chance rivalry game. Some of these are looking like they are never going to turn as the college football landscape has changed in recent years. This is one of those. Oregon St. has had a huge talent drain and dropoff since the the winner take Rose Bowl in this series in 2009.

Virginia Tech 38, Virginia 0 – Ditto. Virginia just doesn't have the talent to compete here. The result is an 8^th loss in a row. Since Michael Vick got to the Virginia Tech campus in 1999, the only Virginia win was a Matt Schaub led win over a collapsing Hokies team in 2003. The Cavaliers somehow have to get more talent to compete.

Wisconsin 45, Penn St. 7 – The Nittany Lions were quite obviously spent and when things starting going wrong, there was no stopping the momentum. The combination of Montee Ball and Russell Wilson should get their revenge against Michigan St. next week and head back to the Rose Bowl.

North Carolina 37, Duke 21 – Everett Withers did a great job in a bad situation this season. If not at North Carolina, he may have earned himself a head coaching job somewhere for himself in the near future. Next year is the year for Duke. Most of the team is back. If they can't get to a bowl game in the ACC with what's coming back, maybe it can no longer be done.

Minnesota 27, Illinois 7 – The Ron Zook collapse is complete. 6-0 begot 6-6 with a loss to Minnesota to end the season. Polish the resume Zooker.

Purdue 33, Indiana 25 – Bowl eligibility. Yippee! As for Indiana, first year coach Kevin Wilson must be wondering why he took this job as his method of career suicide.

NC State 56, Maryland 41 – Maryland led 41-17 with under 6 minutes to go in the 3^rd. The rest of the game sums up the whole season. On the other side, Tom O'Brien might have found the only way to save his job: play schizo Clemson on a bad Clemson day and then Maryland.

Boise St. 36, Wyoming 14 – Boise clinches 2^nd in the Mountain West. Ho hum.

Vanderbilt 41, Wake Forest 7 – Vandy really might have something here as long as they keep coach James Franklin. All of a sudden, the dead to the world offense of early in the season has given way to competent offensive play.

Thanksgiving Weekend Morning Game Quick Thoughts

Michigan 40, Ohio St. 34 – Finally, Michigan got it done in this game, but not without a huge struggle If Michigan plays like this in the BCS (assuming one of the bowls takes them), they will get smashed though. As for Ohio st., Luke Fickell should enjoy his last few days as the Ohio St. coach an start getting the resume polished for a head coaching job in the MAC or Big East for more coaching experience.

Kentucky 10, Tennessee 7 – This game was abominable, but it was worse for Tennessee, who hadn't lost in this series since 1984. Now, what becomes of Derek Dooley. It's obvious he isn't the guy, but you can't fire him after two seasons with the talent drain that two coaching changes caused. Firing him would be four coaches in five seasons and the death of what little continuity remains.

Oklahoma 26, Iowa St. 6 – I think the injuries have finally slowed the Oklahoma offense, but the Iowa St. offense generally doesn't play well in consecutive weeks.

Georgia 31, Georgia Tech 17 – The triple option wasn't going to be good against Georgia's improved defense and it stalled as usual when forced to pass to make the needed comeback against the Georgia offense.

Cincinnati 30, Syracuse 13 – At least Louisville didn't already clinch the Orange Bowl berth, though I still don't trust Munchie to win next week and force a tiebreaker.

Michigan St. 31, Northwestern 17 – Nice job of not letting down by Michigan St. Sparty is playing well headed into the Big Ten Title Game.

Connecticut 40, Rutgers 22 – Awful performance by Rutgers, but we shouldn't have been expecting anything better out of a Big East team that had the brass ring in front of them. As for UConn, as bad as it has been at times, the team is one win from bowl eligibility.

Thanksgiving Week Quick Thoughts, Thursday and Friday games

LSU 41, Arkansas 17 – Things Arkansas needed to do to win: run the football to keep pressure off Tyler Wilson (56 yards, fail); protect quarterback Tyler Wilson (4 sacks, fail); win the turnover battle (lost 3-2, fail); play even on special teams (gave up punt return touchdown, fail). Given all those failures, the one thing Arkansas did well (get off the fast start: up 14-0 early, pass) didn't mean a whole lot once the momentum turned. In addition, there was another failure for Arkansas: gave up 495 yards of offense, the most LSU has had in a game since the 2007 National Championship season.

Colorado 17, Utah 14 – Good for Colorado's seniors: first road win in their career. As for the game, Utah should be embarrassed. They played horribly and made dumb mistakes in the 4^th quarter, allowing their kicker to decide the game and this season, allowing your kicker to decide the game is not a good thing pretty much anywhere (except Texas, more on that later on). Because of this, UClA wins the Pac-12 South without having to beat USC. Well, that's the Pac-12 South this season.

Nebraska 20, Iowa 7 – The Blackshirts only play like the Blackshirts every so often. This was one of those times and poor Iowa had no chance against the Nebraska defense playing well (unlike last week's debacle at Michigan).

Louisville 34, South Florida 24 – Somehow, 7-5 Louisville is probably headed to the Orange Bowl. As usual, the Orange Bowl will cry and so will the people. Great coaching job by Charlie Strong but terrible job by the rest of the Big East to allow it.

Northern Illinois 18, Eastern Michigan 12 – Great job by Northern Illinois to find a way to win with the offense stopped. A trip to the MAC title game under a first year coach is a nice reward. As for Eastern Michigan, even with no bowl game (6-6 with two wins over FCS), this was a huge step forward after going 2-22 the last two years.

Houston 48, Tulsa 16 – Houston is playing with a ton of confidence. This was the toughest game so far this season (first decent road opponent) and the Cougars took them apart after a slow start.

Boston College 24, Miami 17 – Boston College finally improved a little at the end of the season, but Miami looked listless. The administration taking the bowl game carrot away really took the air out of this team in this game. When that happened and the fast start (14 first quarter points) wasn't sustained, it was only a question of if the awful Boston College offense could score enough to get back in it. The defense did.

Cal 47, Arizona St. 38 – Arizona St. was eliminated from contention in the Pac-12 South before kickoff and the defense played like it. With nothing to play for, they quit in a shameful effort that allowed Cal to go up and down the field all game long. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Dennis Erickson.

West Virginia 21, Pittsburgh 20 – Hopefully this wasn't the end of this rivalry, even if it has to move to September. That said, it was a good game because Pittsburgh's defense kept it that way. Once West Virginia figured out the Pitt offense, there was little Tino Sunseri could do (sacked 10 times).

Texas 27, Texas A&M 25 – A&M should be completely embarrassed they lost this game (and really for their season that should have been 10-2 at worst). At the same time, we know nothing more about Texas than we knew in the preseason. They have a good defense. They still have no offense (though some of that was running back injury related). That have a lot more heart and leadership than last season. This is still a rebuilding process and I think they need to go get some more players from outside Texas. They need some nastiness from guys that didn't grow up wanting to be Longhorns their whole lives. They need some mercenaries stopping over on the way to the pros. Texas really hasn't had a ton of those and it has hurt them in recent years, especially on the offensive line.

College Football Primetime Quick Thoughts

Oregon 53, Stanford 30 – The Cardinal's lack of overall talent finally caught up to them. They just don't have the elite speed and talent to win these type of games if they make any mistakes, and they made a lot of mistakes tonight.

UAB 41, Memphis 35 – UAB outscored Memphis 24-0 in the 4^th quarter. Only Memphis could manage something that bad.

Arkansas 49, Tennessee 7 – Tennessee is too injured to even attempt to compete at this point. If there is anything to take away, it is the highlight of Arkansas WR Joe Adams' punt return touchdown.

Utah 31, UCLA 6 – Just an awful game in the snow from UCLA. I guess they really don't want to win the South and Neuheisel is still fired.

Washington St. 37, Arizona St. 27 – Of course its not like Arizona St. really wants to win this thing either. Given what has occurred, could Utah even get back into this thing? Also, nice job by Wazzu, winning with the 3^rd team quarterback.

New Mexico 21, UNLV 14 – An eternal pox on you UNLV for managing to lose to this squad of losers.

Southern Miss 30, Central Florida 29 – A win is a win and with Boise St. losing, Southern Miss has a shot at the BCS if they win out (winning out would include a win over Houston in the Conference USA Championship Game most likely).

Alabama 24, Mississippi St. 7 – Looked and felt an awful lot like LSU's 19-6 win over Mississippi St. early in the season.

Louisiana Tech 27, Ole Miss 7 – That Ole Miss is not competitive in games like this is why Houston Nutt needed to go.

Notre Dame 45, Maryland 21 – No turnover machine and no loss. It really is simple for Notre Dame sometimes.

LSU 42, Western Kentucky 9 – Tigers slept through first half, not that it really mattered much.

College Football Afternoon Quick Thoughts Week 11

TCU 36, Boise St. 35 – The story of the loss here is not the Boise St. kicker. Nor is it that TCU scored a lot of points (some had done that, especially in the running game over the years). No, it is the big plays in the passing game that have been absent against Boise St. for years that were the issue. All game long, TCU was able to throw it deep and, once in a close game, the kicking game failed Boise St., much as it did Florida St. for so many years during the Seminoles rise to power. As for the BCS, Boise St. won't be going. They won't be an at-large and the top 12/16 provision only applies to conference champions from non-AQ leagues and TCU is going to win the league barring a meltdown.

Baylor 31, Kansas 30 (OT) – The Jayhawks have a pulse but stupidly threw a fade into double coverage on a 2-point attempt in overtime. You have to have a better play call than that in overtime.

Georgia 45, Auburn 7 – Everything that anyone thought about Auburn on the negative side was on display today against an opponent that has noticeably improved as the season has progressed. This was a dominant performance and probably Georgia's best overall game since the 2007 season ending winning streak (also marked by smashing a decent but flawed Auburn team at home after beating Florida).

Virginia 31, Duke 21 – Only notable for Virginia keeping its divisional title hopes alive. Next week will be a much stiffer test.

Florida St. 23, Miami 19 – Speaking of that test for Virginia, Florida St. will probably enjoy their trip to Charlottesville more than they enjoyed this game, even though they won today. The Seminoles were lucky that bad Jacory Harris made an appearance.

Arkansas St. 30, UL-Lafayette 21 – Hugh Freeze is going to get a lot of better offers, soon, possibly from Ole Miss. And it will be well-deserved after the job he has done this season to deliver a probable conference title. This Arkansas St. team might be the best in the Sun Belt's short history.

Utah St. 34, San Jose St. 33 – Only notable for Utah St. finally managing to win a game in the 4^th quarter. It only took the whole season.

Colorado 48, Arizona 29 – The extra emotion from the coaching change was only going to last so long for Arizona. As for Colorado, good for the Buffs who won't go winless in their first season in their new home.

Kansas St 53, Texas A&M 50 (4OT) – Yes, A&M managed to blow another 2^nd half lead. That's not the headline. It's Kansas St. figuring out a way to win, again, this time on a day when they didn't play all that well.

Michigan 31, Illinois 14 – Denard Robinson was bad in this game (at least in the redzone). Michigan was better at finishing drives without him. As for Illinois, the wheels have come off.

Wisconsin 42, Minnesota 13 – And Minnesota, after two weeks of competance, returns to normal. Russell Wilson was 16/17 passing as he continued his stellar play.

USC 40, Washington 17 – The Trojans are improving rapidly. Too bad next week's game is at the house of Trojans horrors of recent years (Eugene, Oregon)

College Football Morning Game Quick Thoughts – Week 11

Nebraska 17, Penn St. 14 – For all the hoopla, circumstance and scandal surrounding this game, it played out exactly as many would have expected had there been no scandal. Penn St.'s offense didn;t do anything really until the Nebraska defense softened as it usually does in the 2^nd half. The question was whether Penn St. would score to win or not. They didn't.

Oklahoma St. 66, Texas Tech 6 – This would be the definition of hanging a number to send a message to the pollsters. Brandon Weeden was still throwing deep up 49-6 in the 3^rd quarter. Sadly, this is necessary in the BCS. As for Texas Tech, they got up 31-7 against sleeping Oklahoma and have since shown themselves to be an insult to anything you can think of the describe bad. Since the 31-7 lead, the Red Raiders have been outscored 190-43 in 3.5 games. The win over Oklahoma looks like one of the flukiest wins of all-time and certainly the most befuddling since the rash of upsets in 2007.

Vanderbilt 38, Kentucky 8 – The Commodores are going to be really good in a few years, if they can keep James Franklin. Kentucky is an abomination, but given the win over Ole Miss last week, at least they aren't the worst one in their conference.

Boston College 14, NC State 10 – Tom O'Brien, good luck saving your job now. You probably need a a bowl game and a bowl game for you means seven wins because of the two FCS games. Meaning you now have to beat Clemson next week. As for Spaziani, this means nothing for your job security. When you win and the first reaction of opposing fans is to want their coach fired for it, your seat is still flaming.

Clemson 31, Wake Forest 28 – Speaking of Clemson, they tried to be Old Clemson and did a very good job of it, especially for the first 12 minutes of the 3^rd quarter. Then they remembered they are healed and Wake had no chance after that. Also, Clemson clinched the ACC Atlantic.

Purdue 26, Ohio St. 23 (OT) – What was Ohio St. doing in this game? There's no excuse to lose to Purdue, even on the road. Now the Big Ten Championship that looked possible (and even likely with Penn St.'s loss to Nebraska) is gone, never to be seen against this season.

West Virginia 24, Cincinnati 21 – Cincinnati had to play Munchie Legaux with Zach Collaros injured. This was a big problem. Even still, the Mountaineers nearly blew this game. Instead, we have more chaos. Big Least indeed. LOL.

Missouri 17, Texas 5 – More proof that the Texas offense isn't there yet. And because of that and Missouri's obvious offensive limitations once Henry Josey went out injured, this game was a bore the likes of which the Big 12 usually doesn't see.

Tulsa 59, Marshall 17 – The Tulsa offense looks ready for its showdown with Houston in a couple of weeks.

Pittsburgh 21, Louisville 14 – Would somebody in this league just do something that isn't the epitome of average or mediocre.

Michigan St. 37, Iowa 21 – Sparty has control of the division now after Iowa laid an egg that the score doesn't indicate. This game was 31-7 at the half as Michigan St. showed some of the maturity that was missing in getting plowed in Iowa City last year.

South Carolina 17, Florida 12 – Ugh, do I have to go over this thing. Welcome to the hedgemony of Georgia in the SEC East over the next few seasons if this game was any indication where these teams are going.

Midweek Game Thoughts

Toledo 66, Western Michigan 63 – Toledo's offensive coordinator is polishing his resume for a future promotion after scoring 126 points the last two weeks. That the team went 1-1 while giving up 126 points in those games means the defensive coordinator is also polishing the resume for much different and much less positive reasons.

Northern Illinois 45, Bowling Green 14 – Huskies offense just unstoppable in MAC play. Bowling Green has collapsed after a 4-1 start.

Temple 24, Miami (OH) 21 – Temple is ACC level schizophrenic this season. Average Temple showed up and got a win in the process this week.

Ohio 43, Central Michigan 28 – Frank Solich has done a good job in obscurity at Ohio. As for CMU, Dan LeFevour is not walking through that door again.

Virginia Tech 37, Georgia Tech 26 – Yellow Jackets need to find a defense. Given that the offense is going to sore and chew clock, holding opponents below 24 should be a priority as it will win most games.

Houston 73, Tulane 17 – Cougars decided to use the running game this week, just because they could. Enjoy College Gameday next week (yes, Gameday is going to Houston).

South Florida 37, Syracuse 17 – Not even Joe Tessitore and Rod Gimore can save some games. Anything in the Big East season is among those that are unsaveable.

LSU 9, Alabama 6 (OT) Game Thoughts

This was a great game to watch, even with the lack of offense in part because it wasn't a lack of offense, it was great defense. These are two good, but not great offenses that ran up against all-timer level defenses in this game.

Everybody way overshot the score in the various prediction pieces even though this scoreline was a whole lot more likely than the low 20s everyone seemed to be predicting. The reason, we value offense as entertainment and a 9-6 score doesn't feel very epic, especially when predicting it pregame.

The Alabama roster and coaching staff are going to be killing themselves over the result of this game. Rarely does a team that looks like the better team throughout the game playing at home lose, but Alabama made the critical mistakes time after time after time. The list

• Four missed field goals including a long one in overtime
• An interception thrown by a wide receiver off a Wildcat formation (the ball should have been thrown a half second earlier)
• Countless misfires from AJ McCarron, especially in the 3^rd quarter culminating in his interception
• An insanely dumb 12 men in the huddle penalty in overtime
• An even dumber sack taken to really move the team out of field goal range in overtime
• A lack of execution on offense on the LSU side of the field, stalling repeatedly despite numerous chances

LSU has a full blown quarterback controversy coming its way. Jordan Jefferson was far better than Jarrett Lee in this game and made a case he should be the starter moving forward even though Lee was the most efficient passer in the SEC at kickoff. As for Lee, he reverted to 2008 form, throwing two interceptions to triple his season total from one to three.

The front sevens on these teams are very good, but the secondaries really make them go. It's near impossible to throw successfully on either team and that frees up linebackers and defensive backs for blitzes and run defense. The systems are nearly perfect for both teams.

There should not be a rematch of this in the National Championship game. While this was good, another team should get a shot with the small sample size of games we have in college football.

The no rematch talk also goes for Oregon if they win next week against Stanford. Ducks, you had your shot at LSU on a neutral field and got blown out. Next.

College Football Primetime QuickThoughts Week 10

Oklahoma St. 52, Kansas St. 45 – Wildly entertaining shootout that reopens questions about the Oklahoma St. defense. The offense is humming right along still as Brandon Weeden matched Landry Jones' 502 yards passing against K-St. Last week with 502 of his own.

Arkansas 44, South Carolina 28 – Gamecocks manufactured some points off of defense and turnovers, but they just don't have enough firepower without Lattimore to win games like this, especially on the road.

Cincinnati 26, Pittsburgh 23 – It appears Cincinnati has figured out what was wrong last season and has returned to its place as the Big East overlord. 11-1 looks like a possibility and a record like that would actually be deserving of the BCS (Tennessee loss notwithstanding).

Baylor 42, Missouri 39 – Missouri left it for the 4^th quarter again, just like last week. This week it was further to come and they didn't quite make it.

UCLA 29, Arizona St. 28 – Proof Arizona St. is still Clemson west and also proof that UCLA is improving rapidly. For the Bruins, win out and play for the Pac-12 Championship.

Utah 34, Arizona 21 – For those quickly piling on about Utah not being able to take the week after week pounding in the Pac-12, they exactly like a totally rebuilding roster with little experience that had a front loaded conference schedule. They'll be fine in the Pac-12 and will be a threat to win the South along with USC next year.

San Diego St. 35, New Mexico 7 – At least the Lobos managed to score this week. Next week is the last, best and only chance for a win: home vs UNLV.

Notre Dame 24, Wake Forest 17 – The Turnover Machine was working, but not in overdrive (only 2 Irish Tos) meaning the Irish got a decent road win.

Oregon 34, Washington 17 – Given one more year and Huskies will be able to win these games at home. The defense was surprisingly competent and the offense will be fine despite an off night tonight. Oregon was Oregon, ho humming along to next week's showdown at Stanford.

Boise St. 48, UNLV 21 – This game really hurts the Boise St. national title hopes as anyone searching for a late night game after the LSU-Alabama and Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. games finished saw this game was on and tied 14-14 in the 2^nd quarter.

Houston 56, UAB 13 – Keenum breaks NCAA TD pass record. Ho hum.

College Football Afternoon QuickThoughts Week 10

Northwestern 28, Nebraska 25 – Nebraska was out toughed and out executed by Northwestern. The fans there should be upset at the effort and the lack of anything that their team showed. Northwestern now has a decent chance of getting to the 6 wins needed for a bowl game.

Oklahoma 41, Texas A&M 25 – Sad for Ryan Broyles (out for the season, ACL injury) and the Oklahoma passing game. As for A&M, they were in it, then the 3^rd quarter started and they weren't in it anymore. A different way to stink in the 2^nd half after blowing leads, but stinking in the 2^nd half it was.

Stanford 38, Oregon St. 13 – Stanford deserved to win and was the better team, but this game changed on an awful holding call on Oregon St. in a 17-13 game that negated a big gain into Stanford territory. Stanford immediately smoked the Beavers after that.

Kentucky 30, Ole Miss 13 – Joker Phillips cooled the heat a little bit. Houston Nutt should be fired and never allowed to coach again after running this program totally into the ground.

Wisconsin 62, Purdue 17 – When Ohio St. and Michigan St. completed their bombs to beat the Badgers this game was destined to be ugly and it was, in every sense. Also, Purdue's extreme long shot Big 10 Championship hopes were extinguished.

Air Force 24, Army 14 – The spirit of the Notre Dame Turnover Machine infested Army today. Sloppy game that the Black Knights should have won.

UL-Lafayette 36, UL-Monroe 35, Western Kentucky 10, Florida International 9, Arkansas St. 39, Florida Atlantic 21 – This has turned into one of the best conference races in the country. Arkansas St. in undefeated in Sun Belt play and both UL-Lafayette and Western Kentucky 1 loss.

Southern Miss 48, East Carolina 28 – How did Southern Miss lose to Marshall? Also, the procession to a big time Conference USA Championship Game has possibly begun.

Morning Game QuickThoughts Week 10

Iowa 24, Michigan 16 – We knew little about the Wolverines before this game and we know not much more other than Iowa is even more of a Jekyll and Hyde team in their home/road split. I suspect that Michigan really isn't that good, but the problem is the offense, specifically the square peg round hole problem the coaching staff has with Denard Robinson.

Louisville 38, West Virginia 35 – Mountaineer defense has completed its collapse giving Dana Holgerson the opportunity and reason to bring his own guy in (instead of the inherited Jeff Casteel). For Louisville, who knew that the only thing the offense needed was to fire coordinator Mike Sanford (other than the 7 UNLV fans in the world).

Ohio St. 34, Indiana 20 – Nice moral victory for awful Indiana team, but where is the Ohio St. defense at? Despite winning lately, this defense hasn't been up to normal standards and that side of the ball has been affected much less by suspensions and Tresselgate.

Michigan St. 31, Minnesota 24 – Jerry Kill has the Gophers obviously improving. Michigan St. seems to be headed towards its November doldrums again, but once again the teams they are bad enough that it doesn't matter.

Connecticut 28, Syracuse 21 – Big East LOL.

Florida 26, Vanderbilt 21 – SEC Least continues to play close games when matched together at least. And Florida is going to be bowl eligible.

Iowa St. 13, Kansas 10 – Turner Gill finally got the defense to bother showing up, only to see the offense show little improvement.

NC State 13, North Carolina 0 – What was that Carolina. NC State had seemingly mailed in the season last week only to wake up and beat you again. Are you losing just for the sake of keeping Tom O'Brien employed?

Virginia 31, Maryland 13 – The wheels are totally off for Maryland. The Edsall tenure is already toxic and he will be fired at the first reasonable opportunity. As for Virginia, kudos to Mike London for getting this team bowl eligible for the first time in four years.

TCU 31, Wyoming 20 – The TCU defense still has issues, but rolling up 617 yards of offense is just ridiculous and covers a lot of other problems.

Texas 52, Texas Tech 20 – Three thoughts here: 1, Texas has gotten to the point where they can blow up teams with lesser talent again. 2, the Texas Tech defense is truly awful, shocking for Tommy Tuberville. 3, the Texas Tech win at Oklahoma will be the single most befuddling result of the entire season.

College Football Night Game QuickThoughts - Week 9

Stanford 56, USC 48 (3OT) – A good game with plays being made all over, but not the classic many are saying it is postgame as I write. Andrew Luck is good, Matt Barkley is close to as good, and the running games were equal. Ultimately, games between even teams are decided by the big mistake and USC made 2 of them to Stanford's 1.

Auburn 41, Ole Miss 23 – The Auburn defense is still terrible, but that didn't matter because Ole Miss is miserable in the 3^rd quarter. A sign of bad coaching and yet another reason Houston Nutt needs to go from Oxford.

Ohio St. 33, Wisconsin 29 – What on Earth was the Wisconsin secondary doing on the final play? That said, win or lose, the Badgers are not the same team away from Madison. As for Ohio St., they are certainly maturing and the Big Ten might want to consider actually beating them. All they need is one Penn St. loss to someone else and Ohio St. controls its destiny in that league. Ugh.

Georgia Tech 31, Clemson 17 – Clemson wasn't necessarily bad Clemson here. Georgia Tech got caught looking ahead for the last two weeks and Clemson didn't have an extra week to prep for the triple option like so many teams to beat the Yellow Jackets have had. If there is an ACC Championship game rematch (as there was two years ago), I expect Clemson to win.

Iowa St. 41, Texas Tech 7 – Will the real Texas Tech please stand up? This was a terrible performance coming off of the best game this program has played under Tommy Tuberville. Yet, Tuberville is the common denominator. His Auburn teams were known for playing to the level of their opposition (2004 undefeated team exempted) and they occasionally laid an egg like this (see 2006 loss to Georgia and numerous losses to average at best Arkansas teams).

South Carolina 14, Tennessee 3 – Ugly, ugly game. Tennessee without Tyler Bray is just lost on the field offensively. South Carolina without Marcus Lattimore and with Connor Shaw in the game was nearly as lost but at least has some depth and talent.

Texas 43, Kansas 0 – Can we just move on from Turner Gill and get on with whoever is next in Kansas already? This obviously isn't working. Texas isn't good enough to be holding any team to 40 yards of offense right now.

UCLA 31, Cal 14 – Don't write the tombstone for Rick Neuheisel's coaching career yet. He is still on a flaming hot seat though. Jeff Tedford may have joined him after this shameful performance.

UNLV 38, Colorado St. 35 – UNLV shouldn't beat anyone except New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, they aren't likely the beat the version of the Rebels that showed up to this game.

College Football Afternoon Game QuickThoughts Week 9

Oklahoma 58, Kansas St. 17 – This game was a lot like the 2008 game. Oklahoma jumped up early. Then Kansas St. made a comeback before halftime. Then Oklahoma blew the Wildcats away after halftime. As expected. Any chance of a Kansas st. upset ended last week when Texas Tech beat Oklahoma. That ensured a focused performance from the Sooners.

Penn St. 10, Illinois 7 – Nasty, ugly, terrible game to watch. Illinois' offense has had the wheels come off and it allowed Penn St. to do what Penn St. has done all season.

Tulsa 38, SMU 7 – Two weeks ago, SMU looked like Houston's main challenger in C-USA West. Now they are toast and Tulsa is that challenger.

Oklahoma St. 59, Baylor 24 – This game wasn't even that close. Cowboys totally destroyed Baylor in this game. Most of the points from the Bears came during garbage time.

West Virginia 41, Rutgers 31 – West Virginia defensive collapse last week not a mirage. Still have firepower to win against most in Big East though.

North Carolina 49, Wake Forest 24 – Competition getting stronger for Wake Forest. Florida St. win looks like more of an anomaly than most games right now.

Minnesota 22, Iowa 21 – What was that Iowa? No excuse. For a coach on the hotseat, this would be the nail in the coffin. For the seemingly untouchable Kirk Ferentz, it's nothing.

Notre Dame 56, Navy 14 – Nice easy win for the Irish. When they don't fire up the turnover machine, they are really good.

Oregon 43, Washington St. 28 – Wazzu not the pushover they once were, but outcome was never really in doubt.

Georgia 24, Florida 20 – Georgia made numerous errors on special teams and tried to give this game away, just like always. Richt made crazy play calls to get Georgia the needed points and the Florida offense was once again miserable meaning they couldn't take advantage of the mistakes as they customarily do.

Boston College 28, Maryland 17 – Randy Edsall did one of the best coaching jobs in the country last season as the head coach at UConn. This season, he has done the absolute worst and one of the worst of all time. He took a team with a returning quarterback and 14 other starters that won 9 games and turned them into the worst team in the ACC. Shameful job by him and his staff, especially the offensive staff.

Morning Game QuickThoughts Week 9

Arkansas 31, Vanderbilt 28 – Arkansas is the 3^rd best team in the SEC, but there is a huge gulf between the top 2 and them. Vanderbilt is most certainly moving in the right direction under new coach James Franklin.

Virginia Tech 14, Duke 10 – The Hokies are way overrated. The only good team they played blew them out (Clemson) and the Hokies regularly struggle against perceived inferior opponents (see struggle against East Carolina). As for Duke, they are Duke. Did anyone believe they had a chance when they had the ball with under 2 minutes to go and a chance to drive for the win?

Missouri 38, Texas A&M 31 (OT) – Maybe we were too early in proclaiming the end of A&M's 2^nd half struggles... As for Missouri, they are much better than they have shown this season and were due to win one of these games eventually.

Nebraska 24, Michigan St. 3 – Sparty was spent after running Ohio St.-Michigan-Wisconsin gauntlet and Nebraska finally played a complete game to make them pay for it.

Louisville 27, Syracuse 10 – I refuse to acknowledge that there is any logic to results in the Big East.

Florida St. 34, NC State 0 – Shameful performance by NC State. Florida St. is likely to run through the ACC for the rest of the season, not that it matters.

Michigan 36, Purdue 14 – Michigan defense continues to play well. Offense blows up average defenses like Purdue's.

Air Force 42, New Mexico 0 – Never thought it would get worse post-Locksley, but it had. New Mexico has quit.

Midweek Games

Florida International 23, Troy 20 (OT) – This game looked a lot bigger when it was scheduled. Instead it was just a another decent Sun Belt game.

Pittsburgh 35, Connecticut 20 – Panthers are screwed without Ray Graham for rest of the season. That said, UConn secondary is so miserable nearly anyone could throw against it.

Houston 73, Rice 34 – 9 TOUCHDOWNs!?! OK we get it Houston. It still won't help you.

Virginia 28, Miami 21 – Hurricanes showing all signs of being under first year coach: have talent but totally inconsistent. Virginia looks like they are going to a bowl game and they are actually in the ACC race. Nice job by Mike London there.

TCU 38, BYU 28 – Both teams had played weak schedules. This was a measuring stick. TCU passes while BYU's revival seems to be more of a schedule aided mirage.

College Football Night Game QuickThoughts Week 8

The nighttime slate of games more than made up for the eye gougingly bad set of games we got in the afternoon.

Michigan St. 37, Wisconsin 31 – The Hail Mary was a textbook example of how not to defend a Hail Mary. Of course with 31 points on the board, Wisconsin shouldn't have been in position to lose this game anyway. The defense screwed this up well before the Hail Mary.

Texas Tech 41, Oklahoma 38 – Auburn fans will recognize this result from the early days of Tommy Tuberville there. There was a reason that every top 10 team dreaded seeing Auburn on the schedule when he was there (and a reason why everyone else pretty much didn't care). Games like this are the reason why. In huge games, he often gets his teams to play well above their ceilings.

Nevada 45, Fresno St. 38 – Wolfpack appear to own the WAC this season. Pat Hill probably just lost his best chance at a conference championship to cap his career.

Western Kentucky 42, UL-Lafayette 23 – The Hilltoppers were blown out by FCS Indiana St. earlier this year, but they now are amazingly in control of the Sun Belt.

Cal 34, Utah 10 – It would help if you bothered in conference play Utes.

Houston 63, Marshall 28 – Case Keenum is now the NCAA Title Offense career leader. He is going to put up enough yards that it will never be caught.

Penn St. 34, Northwestern 24 – The margin of victory is right, but I'm still not sure how this happened. Where did all the points come from in this game? The second half (7-0 Penn St.) was more of a return to form.

Alabama 37, Tennessee 6 – Play a lethargic first half like this in two weeks Alabama, and you will get beat badly.

USC 31, Notre Dame 17 – The Notre Dame turnover machine got revved up again and this was the result. And Dayne Crist should just be happy he got his education since he will never see the field again.

Southern Miss 27, SMU 3 – It appears the Golden Eagles finally have a defense to go with its high flying offense of the last couple of years.

Oregon St. 44, Washington St. 21 – Beavers seem to have found their mojo again. Too late to save this season with both Stanford and Oregon remaining on the schedule though.

College Football Afternoon QuickThoughts Week 8

Let me say before I start going through the games that this was the single worst segment of games I think I have ever seen. Blowouts abound all over the place.

Boise St. 37, Air Force 26 – This was the one exception to the blowout festival, and it will kill Boise St. in the polls. With all the other games blowouts, voters were hunting for a close game and this was it, just in time to ding Boise St. in the polls.

Nebraska 41, Minnesota 14 – Why on Earth did I in Los Angeles have this game on my ABC affiliate? As for the game, Minnesota successfully continued its quest to be the worst Big Ten team in the era of scholarship limits.

Virginia Tech 30, Boston College 14 – Hokies started slow, but Boston College lacks the offensive talent to take advantage of anyone starting slow against them.

TCU 69, New Mexico 0 – This is obviously still Locksley's fault.

LSU 45, Auburn 10 – Auburn got penalized, LSU scored and the game got away. Oddly, Auburn didn't play all that badly nor LSU all that well in the first half (21-3 LSU lead). Then the deluge came and it looked really bad.

Florida St. 41, Maryland 16 – New coach Randy Edsall's inability to run any semblance of passing offense has destroyed his previously good young quarterbacks and likely his team for the foreseeable future Remember that his UConn teams were just as abysmal at the quarterback position.

Oregon 45, Colorado 2 – Ducks took it easy in the 2^nd half. Meanwhile, is it more embarrassing to get shut out or score 2 points.

Miami 24, Georgia Tech 7 – The wheels have come off the Ramblin' Wreck the last two weeks. Not a good sign with the Clemson wrecking machine coming to town next week.

East Carolina 38, Navy 35 – Normally a game between two 2-4 teams wouldn't get a mention here, but when one quarterback (ECU's Dominique Davis) completes his first 26 passes and the game ends in controversy (Navy appeared to have won the game but the catch was overruled on replay, dubiously on the Calvin Johnson rule) with a tying field goal off the upright to end the game, it at least deserves a mention.

Texas A&M 33, Iowa St. 17 – Ho hum from Texas A&M. Looks like they are over their 2^nd half yips.

College Football Morning QuickThoughts Week 8

Wake Forest 24, Duke 23 – So which is the real Wake? The one that whipped Florida St. or the one that played this game and last week against Virginia Tech?

Eastern Michigan 14, Western Michigan 10 – Let it be noted that a recovery from 2-22 in the first two years is possible. Ron English has his team at 5 wins for the first time in a long time.

Purdue 21, Illinois 14 – Ron Zook strikes again.

Arkansas 29, Ole Miss 24 – Arkansas was sleeping and Houston Nutt pulled his annual upset... Oh, what? Houston Nutt's team still lost in the annual upset game. He's doomed...

Kansas St. 59, Kansas 21 – There is room for only one good team in the state of Kansas. Not enough talent to support two teams at a high level there. Note that Kansas st. is good, meaning Kansas can't possibly be good at the same time.

Oklahoma St. 45, Missouri 24 – Tigers shot themselves in the foot over and over and over again. They really might be the new Clemson. Those traits will really get them killed in the SEC.

Clemson 59, North Carolina 38 – It appears the Clemson offense is completely unstoppable. Too bad they play in the ACC, putting them at the end of the pecking order for the National Championship game and sending them to the Orange Bowl to play the Big East's annual piece of garbage.

Cincinnati 37, South Florida 34 – Speaking of the annual Big East piece of garbage, it now appears that Cincinnati is the front runner for that honor. Remember that they were blown out by the 8^th best team in the SEC.

Weeknight Games

Arizona 48, UCLA 12 – Neuheisel is lucky that he gets to coach next week after this. I believe he now needs to win out to overcome the embarrassment of this debacle. And that won't be happening with the suspensions. As for Arizona, nice effort after the head coach got fired.

UAB 26, UCF 24 – Didn't see the game, but that doesn't matter. Losing to UAB is just awful for UCF. How long until the crazies down there start trying to fire George O'Leary again?

Syracuse 49, West Virginia 23 – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? What the heck was that West Virginia? Getting shut down by Syracuse is not terrible. Giving up 49 points to them is .

Louisville 16, Rutgers 14 – And we have more evidence that the Big East is headed for another champion like UConn last year.

College Football Primetime QuickThoughts Week 7

BYU 38, Oregon St. 28 – Beavers are obviously improved, but there will be no miracle run to a bowl game. This one was needed. As for BYU, the spotlight for the season is away and like last year, they are playing well without it.

Western Kentucky 20, Florida Atlantic 0 – Whoever takes over for senile old Schnellenberger has one heck of a rebuilding job, even in the Sun Belt.

Boise St. 63, Colorado St. 13 – Ho hum. The back of the Mountain West is going to get treated exaclty like their WAC counterparts were.

Alabama 52, Ole Miss 7 – Rebels never had a chance, especially with Richardson on his game.

Clemson 56, Maryland 45 – This game proves its not same old Clemson. Heck, Rece Davis led off College Football Final talking about Clemson looking like they were going to have a 'That's Why Your Clemson Moment' only to have Sammy Watkins save them. He is immune to whatever annually kills Clemson.

Virginia Tech 38, Wake Forest 17 – Hokies had their annual ugly loss in the first real test. Too bad for them they won't be beating Clemson in a rematch either.

Georgia 33, Vanderbilt 28 – What was that Georgia? Vandy hasn't moved against any defense with a pulse other than you.

Kansas St. 41, Texas Tech 34 – The importance of swing points and taking advantage of opportunities was illustrated here. Kansas St. was outgained 580-339, but they ran a kickoff back for ta touchdown and forced four turnovers without committing one of their own.

Stanford 44, Washington St. 14 – The 3^rd quarter against Stanford is just unfair. They kill everyone there. And Washington St. was no exception. This game was actually close (10-7) at halftime.

Oklahoma 47, Kansas 17 – Oklahoma obviously wasn't focused against a terrible team. And it was never going to matter.

Oregon 41, Arizona St. 27 – The injuries are continuing to mount at Oregon. The Ducks are lucky this game was at Autzen and not in Tempe.

College Football Afternoon QuickThoughts Week 7

Connecticut 16, South Florida 10 – Overwhelming proof that South Florida's win over Notre Dame was a turnover and weather aided fluke.

Miami 30, North Carolina 24 – Miami lacks killer instinct to finish teams off, but North Carolina was too far behind and made just enough mistakes to sabotage themselves. Remember that this game was 27-3 at one point.

Missouri 52, Iowa St. 17 – Missouri has underachieved thus far relative to its talent level. This game was not underachievement. Iowa St.'s 3-0 start has now been completely confirmed as a mirage by Texas, Baylor and now Missouri.

Virginia 24, Georgia Tech 21 – The Yellow Jackets still have issues throwing the football, especially against opponents with time to prepare. Also, the Virginia offense doesn't have a high ceiling, but they seem to be pretty consistently average. That's enough to win when the defense is really good.

Washington 52, Colorado 24 – Keith Price is really, really good. Colorado is not so good.

Ohio St. 17, Illinois 7 – Ron Zook is a moron. He lost at home to a team that completed one pass (and isn't an option based offense) and he went for it on 4^th and 2 in field goal range down 10 points with a minute to go. He failed and that was the game.

SMU 38, UCF 17 – SMU is on the way to a major showdown with Houston in November for the Conference USA West title. UCF has been aimless since blowing the lead to BYU a few weeks ago.

LSU 38, Tennessee 7 – With Matt Simms and not Tyler Bray, Tennessee had no chance. That said, it wouldn't have mattered considering the 38 points LSU put on the board.

Oklahoma St. 38, Texas 26 – Cowboys didn't look great, but they got the win. That may not be enough to get to the national title game though, especially if Oklahoma loses to someone else and Wisconsin and Stanford remain undefeated. As for Texas, they are obviously improving, but the young talent just isn't ready to beat top ten teams right now.

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College Football Morning QuickThoughts Week 7

Michigan St. 28, Michigan 14 – The Michigan St. defense is one of the five best in all of college football, but the offensive play calling is uninspired this season after Don Treadwell left to take the head coaching job at Miami (OH). It didn't hurt them here, but it could be a big problem against Wisconsin next week. As for Michigan, still a work in progress, but they won't collapse after this loss like they did the last two seasons. The defense is noticeably better and the offense still put up great numbers last season after being squashed by Sparty.

Utah 26, Pittsburgh 14 – See Utes, don't turn the ball over, win the game. Utah has the talent to win in Pac-12, just young and turnover prone. Next season could be very god if they get decent quarterback play. As for Pittsburgh, they show all the hallmarks of a talented but inconsistent team that many talented teams show under first year coaches changing the entire system.

Texas A&M 55, Baylor 28 – A&M offense is going to blow bad defenses like Baylor up, allowing them to survive their awful pass defense. Against the better teams like Oklahoma, this will be a big problem. As for Baylor, the overall defensive talent just can't keep Griffin in some games unless he's perfect.

South Carolina 14, Mississippi St. 12 – This was an ugly football game. The Mississippi St. offense is still floating in the river after what LSU did to it a month ago. And the South Carolina offense seems to be doomed to maddening inconsistency, even without Garcia. The other news here: Lattimore is hurt. Good thing Gamecocks have a bye next week.

Cincinnati 25, Louisville 16 – The Louisville offense is still awful, no matter the coordinator. It's so bad that it allowed Cincinnati to win with a B- level game.

Penn St. 23, Purdue 18 – Nittany Lions continue to win and continue to be totally unwatchable. Nothing more.

Wisconsin 59, Indiana 7 – Ho hum. Especially considering Wisconsin scored 80 in this game last season.

Thursday and Friday game thoughts

USC 30, Cal 9 – Somebody has to be a turnover machine each week this season. Cal was one of those teams and it killed them in a game they could have won despite the lopsided score.

San Diego St 41, Air Force 27 – Ronnie Hillman is better than any of Air Force's players.

San Jose St. 28, Hawaii 27 – This was a terrible game to watch. Hawaii is awful (even moreso than normal) away from the islands this season. San Jose St. is a bad football team, but they are improving just in time to contend in a watered down conference next season.

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