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 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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Nightgames Quick Thoughts - Week 6

Michigan 42, Northwestern 24 – Denard Robinson is really good, but he makes some dumb throws that keeps the other team in the game on occasion. His 3 INTs had his team behind and allowed Northwestern to make a game of this when they had no business doing so.

Baylor 49, Iowa St. 26 – Iowa St. just doesn't have the overall firepower needed to compete in the Big 12 week-to-week, but if a team falls asleep (like Iowa did) there could be trouble. Baylor didn't go to sleep because they know they will lose anytime they go to sleep at all.

Houston 56, East Carolina 3 – I don't know what to do with Houston. Their only real test was a win over UCLA and the defense is still awful, no matter what the 3 points given up here says. It was only a week ago that UTEP got 42.

Alabama 34, Vanderbilt 0 – Ho hum. Vandy doesn't have the offensive talent but we knew that (see 77 yards of offense against South Carolina). The revelation was, for the first time this season, a downfield passing game from Alabama.

Louisiana-Lafayette 31, Troy 17 – UL-Lafayette has slayed defending champion FIU and conference overlord Troy. The road to a first conference title in school history is now clear.

Nevada 37, UNLV 0 – The score doesn't do this justice. Total yards: Nevada 699, UNLV 110. That's more like it.

Georgia 20, Tennessee 12 – Young Vols just can't run block to save their lives. -29 yards rushing in conference play so far in two games. And the next two are against LSU and Alabama. Meanwhile, the Georgia defense has found itself for the first time since Alabama took its manhood in the 2008 blackout game.

Texas A&M 45, Texas Tech 40 – A&M would have blown yet another lead if Tech was any good. The Red Raiders aren't that good though and A&M survived the second half this week to get its season restarted.

Stanford 48, Colorado 7 – Andrew Luck is really good. Colorado is really bad.

Arkansas 38, Auburn 14 – Ho hum offensive game for Arkansas. Auburn should really think about turning to Kiehl Frazier full time and building for next year. He is obviously going to be the guy over Trotter next season and Trotter looked Bausermanesque tonight.

Nebraska 34, Ohio St. 27 – Speaking of Bauserman, as soon as his defense coughed up the lead against Nebraska with starter Braxton Miller out, this game was over. Bauserman finished 1-0 with an INT in relief of the injured Miller.

UCLA 28, Washington St. 25 – This game was surprisingly well-played. That it was also shows the general lack of talent on these two squads. Also, the UCLA quarterback plague has claimed another victim (Richard Brehaut), putting Kevin Prince back under center.

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Afternoon Quick Thoughts – Week 6

Illinois 41, Indiana 20 – Kudos to Ron Zook for continuing to avoid toe-stubbing. No matter the process (often ugly), 6-0 is 6-0.

Clemson 36, Boston College 14 – The big news is Tajh Boyd's injury. Hopefully for both his team and his league that both need him for national title hopes, the injury isn't bad and Boyd can play next week. If he can't, at least Clemson will have an excuse for its annual stupid loss to Maryland.

Notre Dame 59, Air Force 33 – The Irish fixed the turnover machine and scored at will. If they start turning the ball over again though, the Navy game could be dangerous considering the defense had issues against the triple-option today.

LSU 41, Florida 11 – Gators had no chance with no Brantley. Given the way this played out, the Gators may not have had a chance with him. They were shoved around on the lines all game long (except for on the long touchdown pass to Dubose). Also of note, the LSU punter got a touchdown taken off the board for taunting. Of all the ways for that to happen for the first time, a punter was probably the least expected, bad call or not.

Oklahoma St. 70, Kansas 28 – Kansas scored on its first possession. They should have quit while they were ahead. Oklahoma St. had 56 by halftime and Brandon Weeden threw 5 touchdowns in less than a half of work.

Rutgers 34, Pittsburgh 10 – Pitt showing all the inconsistent signs of being under a first year coach (which they are). Rutgers is obviously improved and is a 2-point loss to North Carolina from being undefeated and near 2006 level at this point.

Oregon St. 37, Arizona 27 – Mike Stoops will be a good defensive coordinator somewhere next season. Oregon St. happily gets its first win of the season against the team against whom it all came unraveled last season with the James Rodgers injury.

Kansas St. 24, Missouri 17 – Kansas St. defense is really good. Bill Snyder has it rolling again and this team is the 3^rd best in the Big 12. As for Missouri, I don't know what to think. They obviously have talent, but something is missing and its not quarterback like the expectation was.

Arizona St. 35, Utah 14 – Arizona St. didn't play well. The 2004 and 2008 Utah teams would have dominated and the 2009 and 2010 Utah team would have won this game. This Utah team gave it away with three turnovers in seven plays after leading 14-13 in the 3^rd quarter.

Virginia Tech 38, Miami 35 – Best game of the day by far. Virginia Tech has major defensive issues though the offense seems to be fixed after the debacle against Clemson last week. Miami is missing that factor that gets the job done in close games at the end.

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Morning Quick Thoughts – Week 6

Oklahoma 55, Texas 17 – The Texas youngsters aren't ready yet causing this game to regress back to its 2000s state of blowouts for Oklahoma.

Georgia Tech 21, Maryland 16 – Somebody can stop Georgia Tech (good omen for Clemson). Maryland might be rounding into form (bad omen for Clemson considering the Maryland is responsible for a huge number of awe inspiringly dumb Clemson losses over the years and that game is next week).

Wake Forest 35, Florida St. 30 – Wake Forest's strategy of redshirting nearly everyone and taking some occasional bad years and beatings because they lack the overall talent of others works quite well. As for Florida St., can we stop giving them the benefit of the doubt in the preseason. This is not Bobby Bowden in the mid-90s and never will be again.

South Carolina 54, Kentucky 3 – Connor Shaw was good (adios Stephen Garcia) while bad Garcia would have been a huge upgrade for the Kentucky quarterbacks (4-26, 17 yards, 4 INTs). The South Carolina defensive line is just insane.

West Virginia 43, Connecticut 16 – West Virginia continued it's trend of starting slow and then blowing teams away in the second half. They might want to get that corrected before it costss them a game they really need in Big East play.

Purdue 45, Minnesota 17 – Purdue is awful. We already know that from the lucky escape against Middle Tennessee and the loss to Rice. So what does that make Minnesota other than the worst major conference team in the country (especially with awful Oregon St. blowing out Arizona as I write this).

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Vuelta a España Daily – Cobo finishes off his surprise Grand Tour win

Today's stage: 94 km into Madrid to complete this year's Vuelta a España

Who won today's stage? Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) got the better of the remaining sprinters to take his third stage win of the race.

What matters in the GC race? Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) finished in the front group to confirm his overall victory. Chris Froome (Team Sky) officially finishes second and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) completes the podium in third.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) finished ninth on the stage today to gain seven points, enough for him to overtake Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and steal the green jersey on the final day.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – No mountains today so Daivd Moncoutie (Cofidis) confirmed his victory here yesterday. All he had to do was finish, and he did.

White Jersey (Allround) – No more other people wearing the jersey. Cobo gets to take it home as the winner of this competition over Froome and Mollema.

Biggest surprise: Surprise? On the last stage of a Grand Tour? When it's not a time trial (as often happens at the Vuelta and the Giro)? No surprises. Bunch sprint, no major time gaps. The usual. Remember that it was much the same at the Tour de France (the Giro did have a time trial in the final stage).

Biggest disappointment: The break was allowed to get away, even for a small lead of under a minute, depriving us of more Rodriguez against Mollema showdowns at the intermediate sprint points. Of course that didn't matter as Rodriguez couldn't hang with the peloton's pace and got spit out the back, losing 30 seconds and allowing Mollema to steal the Green Jersey uncontested at the finish.

Other items of note: This is the first Grand Tour victory for Cobo who had an awful season riding for the Movistar Team last year... Cobo's Geox-TMC team also handily won the team classification (computing by taking the top 3 finishers on each team on each stage) with plenty of help from fifth overal Denis Menchov and 20^th overall Carlos Sastre... Cobo ultimately won the race because of time bonuses. Given in small amounts at intermediate sprint points and large amounts at the finish line, Cobo took 19 seconds in bonuses more than Froome, who was working the first two weeks for Wiggins and let Wiggins get those bonuses early. Under Tour de France rules with no time bonuses, Froome would have won the race... Defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) ultimately finished 7^th. He sits wondering where everything went wrong. Of course one only needs to look at this year's ridiculously hard Giro d'Italia where Nibali finished third. Other than him, only 10^th overall Mikel Nieve (Euskatel) and Menchov recovered enough from riding the Giro to place well here... We only had 31 retirements from the race this year, a low number for the Vuelta because many use it for World Championship prep and withdraw at a pre-determined point like Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) did after stage 16.

What is coming next, cycling wise here? World Road Race Championships. The Women's and Men's time trials and the Road Races. Festivities get under way in just nine days.

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Vuelta a España Daily – A surprise sprint rules the day

Today's stage: 185 km in the Basque Country with plenty of climbing but a long flat section at the end.

Who won today's stage? Daniele Bennati (Leopard-Trek) got over the mountains where many of the other sprinters did not and took the stage in a bunch sprint.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing. Barring catastrophe tomorrow, Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) is going to win over Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). Tomorrow's stage is a bunch sprint stage.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) both contested the sprint looking for points and are now tied going to the final stage. In the event of a tie, Rodriguez owns the tiebreaker by virtue of his two stage wins during week 1.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – David Moncoutie (Cofidis) locked the competition up as soon as Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale) failed to get into the breakaway. Moncoutie wins this for the 4^th year in a row and heads off to retirement with a happy and successful Vuelta with a stage win and the KoM.

White Jersey (Allround) – Same as it's been. Cobo leads, Froome wears the jersey, Mollema is 3^rd. Cobo will take this home tomorrow as long as he finishes the stage.

Biggest surprise: Bennati survived to contest the sprint. Most of the other sprinters have already left the Vuelta. In addition, the few remaining sprinters other than Bennati all ended up in the Grupetto 15 minutes behind because the final cat. 1 climb was too tough.

Biggest disappointment: Nobody in any of the other competitions got into the break. It would have made for a much more entertaining stage.

Other items of note: There are other races taking place all over the world as World Championship preparation gets into full swing. Yesterday, Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won again taking the GP Cycliste de Quebec. He goes for the Canadian double tomorrow in Montreal. Also, Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) took a bunch sprint to win Paris-Brussels... The Movistar Team virus claimed another victim. They have just four men left for the final stage and a couple of them are sick too.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprint stage to finish the Vuelta. I peg Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) as a big favorite with JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank-Sungard) and today's stage winner Bennati having a good chance as well.

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Vuelta a España Daily – Anton saves his (and his team's season)

Today's stage: 158 km with more mountains and a category 2 climb just 14 km from the finish

Who won today's stage? Igor Anton (Euskatel) saved his season by winning from the breakaway today. Anton had built his entire season around winning the overall competition in the Vuelta and his trials (especially during week 1) have been well-covered here. For Anton, this is the biggest victory of his career as it comes on the home stage for his Euskatel team in the first Grand Tour stage raced through the region in over 30 years. If the Vuelta was not to be won, this was, by far, the most important stage for Anton's Euskatel team.

What matters in the GC race? Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) was able to match the attacks of Chris Froome (Team Sky). With only one stage of any consequence left and that one flat for the final 50km, Cobo has likely locked up the overall victory.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – It is now a two man race between Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank). Just two points separate them with two stages to go. I give the edge to Rodriguez because of Mollema's overall standing. Rodriguez could get into the breakaway tomorrow while Mollema is close enough to Cobo and the Sky riders that the peloton will never let him go. Way on the fringe sits Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale). To win this, he likely needs to find the breakaway tomorrow, win the stage and then win the sprint on the final stage. Not likely, but still possible.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Tomorrow has the final mountains of the race to decide the competition between David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale). Montaguti is a long shot at best. Nobody of consequence gained any points on today's stage.

White Jersey (Allround) – Cobo has sthis all but locked up. Froome continues to wear the jersey as the second placed rider, but he is unlikely to catch Cobo even if he somehow overtakes and wins the overall.

Biggest surprise: Nobody was able to hang with the Euskatel riders. It was obvious with this being their home stage and it having not appeared for over 30 years Euskatel would do anything and everything to control the race and win it. They did exactly that in part because everyone else allowed them to without question.

Biggest disappointment: Where was this Anton earlier in the race? He won easily today and was with the top group on the Angliru stge on Sunday. Where was he before that? I still think the Giro took too much out of him as he pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth after winning the Zoncolan stage there.

Other items of note: Thankfully, the Basque region did not protest today. There have been delicate political issues enveloping the region for much of the last decade and there were fears that there would be a race disrupting protest that thankfully, never came to pass... Geox-TMC still leads the team competition by over 10 minutes over Leopard-Trek... Movistar Team is now riding with only five men with two of those sick after a virus hit the team. Hopefully next season is better for this snakebitten team.

What is coming tomorrow? Exiting the Basque country and one last major climb. It comes too far from the finish to really remake anything though. I think the points battle between Rodriguez and Mollema and the KoM battle between Moncoutie and Montaguti take center stage tomorrow. I also expect Rodriguez, Montaguti and Moncoutie to all be in the breakaway or attempt to get into the daily breakaway searching for points.

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Vuelta a España Daily – It's Transitional Breakaway Day

Today's stage: Every Grand Tour (except this year's Giro) has one of these: a 174 km mountain stage with a long flat at the end built for breakaway artists

Who won today's stage? Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD) took a two man sprint over Kristof Vandewalle (QuickStep) after riding in the breakaway all day.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing at all. The peloton largely took the day off, coming home well over 7 minutes behind the breakaway. Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) continues to lead Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 13 seconds

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) showed some fight after his crash injuries and got in the breakaway toady. He took both intermediate sprints and moved back into the points lead over Bauke Mollema (Rabobank).

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – David Moncoutie (Cofidis) retains his lead, but it is much smaller now after Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale) got into the breakaway and took points on most of the climbs. Montaguti is now in striking distance of Moncoutie with just stages to go.

White Jersey (Allround) – This competition often closely follows the order of the GC standings and that's no exception here. Cobo leads. Froome wears the jersey in second. Mollema is third because of his high standing in the points competition.

Biggest surprise: Montaguti was allowed into the break by the Cofidis team. I would have thought Cofidis would chase him down as the only way Moncoutie was going to be losing the King of the Mountains fight was for Montaguti to get in a breakaway and take a bunch of points. That is exactly what happened and there is still a battle to be fought.

Biggest disappointment: Froome's Team Sky didn't try to keep the peloton together to get Froome some bonus seconds at one of the intermediate sprint points. Those points are the only way he will be catching Cobo in the overall standings, so not making the effort to go after them was a mistake.

Other items of note: Tomorrow's stage visits the Basque country of Spain for the first time in over 30 years. Tensions will be high and there is a possibility of protests. Also, Euskatel will work very hard for a stage win given it's their home region... The lack of a finishing time trial really detracts from the race this year. We are three days from the end in a close race that is already pretty much decided barring something insane happening

What is coming tomorrow? The Basque country and the final chance for Froome as the Cat. 2 Alto El Vivero is climbed just 14km from the summit. Remember that in the Tour de France, Andy Schleck lost nearly a minute on a similar descent finish into Gap and earlier in this race, Liquigas-Cannondale had four of the top five finishers and took time on everyone on a similar finish. Should be interesting, especially with desperate Euskatel riders hunting for the home stage win.

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Vuelta a España Daily – Froome gives it the old college try... and gets his stage win

Today's stage: 211 km marathon stage with the final summit finish of this year's Vuelta

Who won today's stage? Chris Froome (Team Sky) beat overall leader Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) to the line after dropping everyone else on the final climb.

What matters in the GC race? Froome pulled within 13” of Cobo with his time bons while his teammate Bradley Wiggins surrendered his chance at overall victory. He still is likely for the podium, currently sitting in 3^rd, 24” ahead of Bauke Mollema.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Mollema took the lead in this competition from the injured Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). Cobo is now second.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – David Moncoutie's (Cofidis) lead remains nearly insurmountable. Cobo is now 2^nd.

White Jersey (Allround) – Cobo is the leader here, but Froome has passed Mollema for 2^nd and will wear the jersey tomorrow as Cobo will be in the leaders Red jersey.

Biggest surprise: Team Sky finally worked for Froome. For this whole race, Team Sky had been working for Wiggins. Even when Froome was the leader. It likely cost them the overall victory in this race.

Biggest disappointment: Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) finished his implosion from being in contention for the victory to irrelevant. He lost over 17 minutes today and he now is in 30^th overall, over 40 minustes behind Cobo.

Other items of note: We had six retirements today. Notable among them Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) who didn't take the start to prep for the World Championship Time Trial and stage 14 winner Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) who has been ill and abandoned... Geox-TMC has locked up the team competition now There are no more summit finishes and Geox has a 10 minute lead. Only two Leopard-Trek riders surviving a breakaway could possibly reel in Geox.

What is coming tomorrow? A medium mountain stage with the final cat. 3 summiting 40km from the finish. I expect no changes in the GC and a breakaway to own the day.

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