10. Washington St. Wins! - I normally wouldn't celebrate a win over an FCS school, especially one of the 23-22 variety but Washington St. is a special breed of bad and coming from down 22-7 to win what is likely its only game of the season (maybe they can beat UCLA to win a second) should be celebrated. Nobody except rivals likes to see a team go winless through a whole season.
9. Auburn defense – The maligned Auburn defense came through in a big way against Mississippi St. on Thursday night. Nick Fairley had a huge game from his defensive tackle position leading Auburn to stuff the Bulldogs. Mississippi St.'s only two scores were coming right out of the half and early on after the Auburn special teams gave up the bad at their own 20 yard line. Impressive work.
8. Air Force running game – Nine different rushers (four over 50 yards and one over 100 yards), 409 rushing yards and a 35-14 win for the Falcons first win over BYU since 2003.
7. Notre Dame offense with Dayne Crist – If only Crist hadn't missed most of the first half with an eye injury. He led Notre Dame right down the field for a touchdown to start the game and threw for 277 yards despite missing 40% of the game. With Crist, Notre Dame likely would have won this game, even with Denard Robinson and his heroics on the other sideline (more on him later).
6. West Virginia the the 4th quarter and overtime – It was ugly for West Virginia until the very end Friday night against in-state rival Marshall (who quite obviously sandbagged last week knowing they weren't going to beat Ohio St. no matter what they did). Then the offense awakened and pulled the team even (with a little bit of luck) and won it in overtime. A great comeback for the Mountaineers who are one of two remaining undefeated Big East teams (and the other, Rutgers, will be leaving those ranks as soon as they play a real team, any real team)
5. FCS winners – Most know about James Madison over Virginia Tech and South Dakota over Minnesota, but there were two other FCS wins over FBS opponents. Liberty knocked off Ball St. 27-23 (the second year in a row that Ball St. has been victimized by an FCS squad) and Gardner-Webb who beat Akron 38-37 after blocking an extra point in overtime. Well done to the winners.
4. Marcus Lattimore – 37 carries for 182 yards. That is a manly performance by the freshman running back against Georgia. Not much more to be said there.
3. Stanford – Is Stanford really this good? They certainly looked the part against UCLA in a 35-0 beating. There are two questions now. Is Stanford a Rose Bowl contender? Is UCLA really that bad and could they even lose to Washington St.?
2. Miami return game – The Miami return game kept the Hurricanes in the game at Ohio St. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns tend to do that. It would be the entire special teams except the 'Canes did get a field goal blocked in the 3rd quarter.
1. Denard Robinson – 502 yards of offense. Winning touchdown in the last minute. What else could he have done. Michigan is back in the national rankings because of this guy. If he gets hurt, Michigan goes down with him, especially after watching the rest of the team game 30 yards without him in the win over Notre Dame.
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