Highlights Championship Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights Week 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights Week 12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights Countdown - Week 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights Week 10

10. New Mexico WINS – New Mexico beat Wyoming. Good job to Mike Locksley. You are still getting fired at the end of the season as one of the worst coaching hires of all-time, but congrats to your players who finally got a win.

9. Michigan on offense – Over 600 yards and 67 points (yes three overtimes were involved, it was still close to 600 and 45 points without OT). Quarterback gets hurt? No problem throw the backup in and start throwing every down instead of running. It doesn't really matter. This offense can be nearly unstoppable at times. Good thing too since I could take all of the consistent readers of this blog and five average linemen and cobble together an offense capable of scoring points on the Michigan defense.

8. Florida's quarterback rotation – Now we have three quarterbacks. Are we about to see a page taken from Florida history past (the Florida win over Florida St. in 1997) with quarterbacks being changed on every play for a big win at the Swamp? I think we are and it will be entertaining to say the least.

7. Never giving up at the end – Kansas was lowlight bad for three quarters against Colorado. Bad enough to advocate firing the coach after just one season. It was awful. Then the 4^th quarter started. 35 points and a win. Inconceivable, but it happened and now Dan Hawkins may not get through the season in Boulder (he was already most certainly toast at the end of the year).

6. 400 wins and counting – Joe Paterno picked up win number 400 with a come from behind win over Northwestern. How long will he go? My money is one more season after this one that would get him past Eddie Robinson for the Division 1 record. He currently only holds the FBS record.

5. Stanford offensive line – Stanford entered its game against Arizona and its top 10 defense that was 3^rd in the nation in sacks having given up only three sacks this season. They exited having given up only three sacks this season as well. That should tell you all you need to know about that game.

4. LSU on 4^th and 1 - 4^th and short is right where Les Miles want you. When there, he is capable of anything. When the play happened I told a friend that it was a great call because nobody expects a gadget play such as a tight end reverse on 4^th and 1 in that spot. The only risk was bad execution. Alabama was never going to stop that play if executed correctly.

3. Texas A&M – A&M got out to the lead and made it stick with strong special teams, timely big plays and three goal line stands, two in the 4^th quarter. The Aggies have turned into a pretty good team the last two weeks (coinciding with the benching of Jerrod Johnson at quarterback).

2. Nevada, Navy and Oklahoma St. offenses – The numbers are absurd for all of these offenses. Oklahoma St. had over 700 yards and 55 points. Navy scored over 70. Nevada managed three 100 yard rushers and a 300 yard passer on the way to over 800 yards of offense. The numbers in some of these games are above video game levels.

1. TCU in Mountain West play – Six conference games down and six teams in single digits. Not only that, nobody has held them under 30. With two games to go, TCU is playing for historical dominance within its league at this point.

Highlights Countdown Week 9

Highlights Countdown – Week 9

10. Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase's big game (good luck spelling that without help) – The Illini quarterback (I don't really want to type his name again, then realize he is a freshman and it is happening no matter what I want at some point in the next three season) had 315 total yards in an offense that isn't conducive to quarterbacks putting up huge numbers and four touchdowns against Purdue. With him, the Illini have a chance to win out to 9-3. Needless to say, Ron Zook has likely saved his job and Scheelhaase is the biggest reason why (the underrated defense being another reason).

9. Becoming Penn St.'s all-time leading rusher – Evan Royster has had a forgettable season so far except for this one huge game against the Michigan defense (admittedly not the unit it was went Royster first cracked the lineup as a freshman in a 13-9 loss in Ann Arbor). Royster ran for 150 yards and passed Curt Warner on the all-time Penn St. rushing list, quite a feat considering the running backs Penn St. has had over the years (most of whom were pro busts).

8. Duke quarterback Sean Renfree – Renfree played the single best passing game by a quarterback this season (including running, Cam Newton, Taylor Martinez and Denard Robinson have had better overall games) against Navy. The numbers speak for themselves: 28-30, 314 yards and an upset win over the Midshipmen. It will be hard for anyone to top that this season and we only see one or two games like this in the top levels of college football each year, usually from big school quarterbacks against overmatched opponents, not relatively untalented road underdogs.

7. Florida and Georgia's effort – Florida and Georgia entered their annual game with both unranked for the first time since 1978. The first half backed that claim up, then both teams seemingly became the units they were supposed to be all season, at least on offense in a great effort that had a classic finish over the final few minutes and overtime. Now both of these teams need to bottle these efforts with the tests to come in two weeks (Florida hosts South Carolina in the SEC Title Game while Georgia goes to Auburn to attempt to ruin the Tigers' dream season).

6. All-time single game rushing record at Nebraska – 321 yards rushing including 193 yards on three touchdown runs. That was Roy Helu Jr's day against Missouri. No Nebraska runner has ever had a better day. Not Crouch, not Green, not Phillips, not Rozier, not Frazier. Nobody. That is impressive. To think he did this to a defense that largely stopped Oklahoma cold in the running game a week ago.

5. Baylor as a Big 12 South contender – Robert Griffin III deserves to be in the Heisman trophy race. He is the quarterback of a top 10 offensive attack and he has Baylor in the thick of the Big 12 South race. Despite a shootout loss to Texas Tech, the Bears control their own destiny in the Big 12 after beating Texas with another huge effort from Griffin. If they win the Big 12 (don't laugh, it could happen), Griffin might actually deserve the Heisman more than Cam Newton, LaMichael James, Kellen Moore or anyone else. That said, he won't win it barring a collapse by multiple players in the current top three. He started way too far off the radar and the TCU defense suffocated him (the only ones to stop these guys all season).

4. More defense from TCU – Speaking of TCU, they held UNLV to six points meaning Mountain West opponents have scored a grand total of 16 on the Horned Frogs so far this season. That is amazing no matter the competition. With the exception of Oregon St. in the opener and SMU in a weirdly played Friday game, nobody has done anything all season against the Frogs and that includes Baylor and its top-10 offensive attack. I don't expect anything different this Saturday from Utah (though the Frogs may have trouble scoring themselves.

3. Andrew Luck as a runner – Luck scored on a 51 yard run on the first drive of the game and didn't look back on the way a career high 92 yards as a runner. Combine that with no mistakes in the passing game and Luck continued to solidify himself as a possible number one pick in the NFL Draft.

2. Auburn blowing up without Newton running – Newton only had 42 yards rushing against an Ole Miss defense completely devoted to stopping him. Too bad they couldn't stop him as a receiver and they couldn't stop Michael Dyer at all as Auburn had its usual 500+ yards of offense and scored 51 points.

1. Oregon's offense milking the clock – Normally, Oregon scores so quick nobody understands how. In the second half against USC, the Ducks put together three 4+ minute scoring drives and killed the clock in the process beating USC 53-32. An Oregon that actually succeeds in bleeding the clock when it needs to is a scary thought.

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Highlights Countdown Week 8

10. First win ever – Western Kentucky moved up to the FBS a few years ago. Last season was their first as an official member. They went winless and continued to lose until Saturday when they blitzed Louisiana Lafayette. Congrats to the Hilltoppers and mascot Big Red on their first FBS victory.

9. Baylor is ranked – Baylor has been downtrodden for a long time. Since the beginning of the Big 12, they have no been in a bowl game or won more than five games until now. Not only is Baylor going to a bowl game with six wins, they are in the top 25. Raise your hand if you predicted this. Now all liars with their hands up please put your hands back down and sit in a corner.

8. Cal at home – Cal has been awful sometimes and has been in the lowlights countdown quite a few times, even once in a win because it was attributed to the incompetence of their opponent. No more. Cal is 4-0 with a victory margin of over 35 a game at home while being 0-3 with two blowout losses on the road. Oregon should be very afraid to have to play these guys next month. Arizona St. was the victim this week.

7. Utah stats – Utah is in the top five in both scoring and offense and scoring defense. Good luck beating that without a ton of talent, something most of the Mountain West lacks.

6. Road wins as a favorite over ranked teams – Congrats to Nebraska and Wisconsin for pulling off what nobody else has managed to be able to do much of this season: beat top teams on the road. Over the past few weeks, highly ranked teams from Oklahoma, Ohio St., Alabama and others have failed at the task put before Nebraska and Wisconsin, but both those teams prevailed in close games played more like their opponents would want them played.

5. Matt Scott – Scott is the backup quarterback for Arizona and a guy who I ripped last week. He made me look foolish by completing 18 of 22 passes and adding a running element to the Arizona offense While I still don't think he is a great quarterback (the Washington defense isn't exactly a good unit), he should be able to keep things going until Nick Foles can get back from his injury.

4. Syracuse might really be on the way back – Last week, Syracuse got smashed at home by Pittsburgh and it looked like same old Syracuse, especially considering South Florida, the Orange's conquest the week before was held without a touchdown by West Virginia. Then South Florida won on Friday at Cincinnati making that win look much better and Syracuse followed it up by winning at West Virginia. That result shows the Orange are getting back to their level of past times. The Big East should be very afraid of this team in the coming years.

3. TCU defense – Air Force finally scored a touchdown, the first for a Mountain West team against TCU this season. Too bad for the Falcons that the touchdown was the only thing they got in another blowout loss.

2. Oregon's turbocharged offense – Only Arizona St. has come close to stopping the Oregon offense and that was at home. Considering the home-field, only teams Oregon must travel to play have any chance to beat these guys this season. That narrows it down to USC, Cal and Oregon St. Even they must deal with an offense that runs really fast and can score quickly in bursts and feeds off momentum like no other team in college football.

1. Cam Newton and the Auburn running game – Newton was amazing but that has been written about in other corners of the internet ad naseum. The real story here is that the running backs (Michael Dyer, Ontario McCalebb and Mario Fannin) combined for an additional 200 yards to allow Auburn to control the clock and run up and down the field.

Highlights Week 7

10. Sunflower beat down – Kansas St. never beat Kansas as bad as they did last Thursday even in the heyday of the Bill Snyder era from 1998-2003. 59-7 is just an amazing performance. The Wildcats really might be good again. We know the Jayhawks are awful though.

9. Talent rises to the top – The Big East has had an awful season thus far. That said, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are, along with West Virginia, the most talented teams in that league and it showed last week. Pitt smoked Syracuse while Cincy got a tough win over Louisville. Both teams showed quite well on offense and positioned themselves as the leading contenders to overwhelming favorite West Virginia.

8. Surviving adversity in the ACC – Many of the ACC's better teams had tough games against teams thought to not pose much of a threat. Miami's offense didn't do much against Duke but the Hurricane's won easily in part because of seven turnovers. Florida St. also didn't play well but got a late touchdown on an end around to survive Boston College. These are the types of games the top of the ACC has been losing over the last few years to make the conference even more irrelevant on the national scene.

7. No touchdowns allowed – TCU's shutout streak finally ended against BYU. Of course it was only a field goal and the TCU defense still has not allowed a touchdown in its last three games.

6. USC in the first half – 42-0 at halftime against a competent opponent. That gets a mention here even if that opposing team (Cal) showed up in the lowlights countdown.

5. Coming off the bench and playing great – Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson deserved better for his effort. He came off the bench and the Arkansas offense didn't miss a beat with Wilson in the game. Over 300 yards passing and four touchdowns for the backup, but no win because of the defense that didn't stop Auburn all game long.

4. Matchups matter – After the loss to UCLA, I said that while the Texas offense was awful, the defense getting shredded was because of a bad matchup and the Longhorns would be fine against spread offenses. Well, against the Nebraska spread running game, the Longhorn defense was stellar and Texas pulled the upset with just enough offense to get the job done.

3. Georgia Lives! - Two weeks back in SEC East play and two blowouts. Other than the Colorado loss (What was that?), a case can be made that Georgia is right where they should be considering that Mississippi St. is every bit the equal of any of the teams in the SEC East and that loss was on the road.

2. Physical Manhandling – Wisconsin played physical challenge your manhood style football against Ohio St. after being helped by a kick return touchdown to start the game. It worked as Ohio St. wilted under the pressure and never really got going in the game.

1. Cam Newton for Heisman – What more needs to be said. As long as Auburn remains undefeated and Newton remains healthy, he will be no worse than 3^rd in the Heisman Trophy race and he is the likely winner.

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Highlights Countdown - Week 6

10. Quarterbacks can hit hard too – Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck blew up USC DB Shareece Wright after Wright recovered a fumble.

Wright was ok after the play and teams have a new filmclip to show for form tackling given to them by a quarterback of all things. The only thing moreimprobable would be a hit like that from a kicker.

9. Winning with a team of backups – Kudos to Purdue and North Carolina for winning with backups. Of course the backups were in for very different reasons. North Carolina for its well documented agent issues (more on that in this week's Off-field Issues on Thursday) and Purdue because all of its top skill position players are injured and out for the year. North Carolina beat Clemson (are they ever going to get their heads screwed on straight) and Purdue beat Northwestern.

8. Boise St.'s strength of schedule – Virginia Tech looks like one of the better teams in the ACC and has played well once they got things going against East Carolina in week 3. Oregon St. just beat a top 10 team on the road. Nevada continues to win and Hawaii looks like they could win 9 games. Other than the Virginia Tech loss to James Madison, everything seems to be going perfectly for the Broncos so far.

7. Florida St. power football – Florida St. has been running over teams since the debacle at Oklahoma and Miami was no exception. All of a sudden, Florida St. has a powerful running game and the defense is killing opposing quarterbacks. Maybe Jimbo Fisher really knows what he's doing in Tallahassee.

6. Back-to-back shutouts – TCU completed consectuive shutouts of Colorado St. and Wyoming over the weekend. It is impressive as that happens only every few years. The last to do it was USC in 2008.

5. Bottling up Denard – Michigan St. held Denard Robinson in check (he still had over 300 yards of total offense) and interceptied him three times, then went to work on offense to ensure no Denard-led comeback. Great win for Sparty who are now on the fringe of the national title cahse.

4. Taylor Martinez is still running – and running and running and running and running. Kansas St. just couldn't catch Martinez on Thursday night and paid for it dearly in a blowout defeat. The Wildcat run defense needs some work. Luckily for them the Big 12 isn't much of a running league anymore.

3. 19 plays and close to eight minutes of the clock – Auburn shouldn't have needed a huge drive to beat Kentucky, but there they were with the ball in a tie game and close to eight minutes left. What followed was one of the best drives of the season. 19 plays, 86 yards, gamewinning field goal on the last play and Auburn heads back home happy. To think that offensive coordinator and his play fast offensive system could get into a rhythm for a drive like that and kill the clock and the game is impressive.

2. Alshon Jeffrey is a beast – Jeffrey is the best wide receiver not named A.J. Green in college football and the likely Biletnikoff award winner because of Green's suspension. He mad two incredible catches in the South Carolina upset of Alabama, one for a touchdown early where it looked like the ball would be intercepted and a one handed catch on the final drive to help seal the game. Amazing.

1. Fake field goal for the win – What else could be number one? Even if Auburn loses to Arkansas this week, the presence of Miles and his insanity combined with the recent history of the Auburn-LSU series makes that game must see tv (and that recent history even predates Miles).

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College Football Highlights Countdown - Week 5

10. Jake Locker vs USC – Jake Locker is, in my opinion, a thoroughly average quarterback who is going to make some NFL team very mad as one of the great NFL Draft busts of the next decade if he stays in the first round of the draft. He is not a polished passer even after four years of college football and he lacks intangibles, unless playing USC. When Locker faces the Trojans, he becomes a world beater with great games the last two seasons in upset victories including the best game of his career in the 32-31 upset win at USC over the weekend. A great win for Washington and Locker, but even more so for Steve Sarkisian who has had the overrated Locker ready to play in this game against his former school the last two seasons.

9. TCU/Boise defense – Both posted shutouts against over matched competition. Exactly what they were supposed to do.

8. Utah St. gets feel good win – Utah St. hadn't beaten BYU since 1993. For them, any win over the Cougars is gigantic, even a win over a terrible BYU team, especially since the Aggies failed to beat BYU during the last Cougar down cycle in the first half of the 2000s.

7. Michigan St.'s wins a big game against someone other than Notre Dame – Michigan St. has been fairly good over the years, at least talent wise. They have also had a ten-cent head that blows game after game that should be in the bag or just doesn't show up for some games. The only exception to this had been Notre Dame and an occasional Michigan game. The Spartans finally got the job done against Wisconsin Saturday night. Now its Michigan on Saturday.

6. A.J. Green's incredible catch – A.J. Green couldn't save Georgia against Colorado and his team is headed into the tank. It's not his fault though. He had a great game with one of the most incredible catches of the season.

5. Tennessee's effort – Lost in the Tennessee loss to LSU is that Tennessee is so far down right now that their talent shouldn't even be sharing the same field with LSU. The Vols had no business even being in the game and came up with a gutsy effort to even get into position win the game.

4. Denard Robinson, again – This is getting repetitive, just like New Mexico on the lowlights countdown. Robinson had his second 200-200 game of the season against Indiana, and just like every other game, his team needed all of it. If he keeps producing like this, he will win the Heisman Trophy via overwhelming stats that nobody has ever seen before.

3. Oklahoma early – Oklahoma has had trouble closing out games, but they have been racing out to leads in the first quarter. Utah St. and Cincinnati both rallied in the second half to make games of it against the Sooners and Florida St. and Texas were plowed over early with the outcomes of either game never really in doubt.

2. Oregon in the second half – The Oregon coaching staff has been making killer halftime adjustments, particularly on defense where the Ducks have given up only one second half touchdown all season despite being had quite a few times early in games and trailing by double digits against Tennessee, Arizona St. and Stanford before pulling away.

1. Alabama killing a game – Once Alabama gets a lead, the game is pretty much over. Between the coaching of Nick Saban and his defensive staff and the strength of the Alabama running game, if the Crimson Tide gets up by two scores, the game is pretty much over. Not a comforting thought for upcoming opponents.

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10. September is finally over – Now the real games can being. For the most part, we are done with cupcakes (except in the SEC where the front loaded conference schedule means a couple of easy wins each week in the league)

9. Michigan backup quarterbacks – Denard Robinson went down early in the game against Bowling Green and while I wouldn't like Michigan's chances if he went down long-term, Tate Forcier and Devin Gardner are more than good enough to keep the offense rolling in short absences and they proved it against Bowling Green

8. Stanford everything – Give Stanford some different colored jerseys and a different name (like say USC, Michigan, etc.) and they would be ranked in the three in the country. They have looked that good so far this season and have done so against good opposition (UCLA, Wake Forest and Notre Dame aren't great, but none are awful)

7. Arizona resilience – One week after nearly blowing a big lead against Iowa, Arizona came down to the wire again needing a late drive to avoid an upset against Cal. They got it courtesy of Nick Foles and Juron Criner who connected for the only big play Arizona got all game from the offense (a 50-yarder) and then got the touchdown for a 10-9 win on a night when Arizona was obviously sleeping.

6. LSU defense and special teams, again – The LSU offense stinks. That can't be said enough. The defense and special teams led by Patrick Peterson might be the best in all of college football. Nobody knows what that will mean in the teeth of the SEC schedule, but it has the Tigers 4-0 with no cupcake wins thus far (North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Mississippi St and West Virginia)

5. Florida has found an offense – Trey Burton has assumed the Tebow position, cerca 2006. Notice that all of a sudden, the struggling Florida offense came to life as soon as a quarterback who could run was found. May this be a signal to Urban Meyer: don't bother recruiting pro-style, immobile quarterback. They don't really work well in your system. You are stuck with John Brantley for now just like you were stuck with Chris Leak when you got to Gainesville and I expect wins, but no more after this.

4. UCLA running game – Maybe all UCLA needed to do was fully commit to Nevada's pistol offense. They ran it sporadically in the first two games and got whopped. In the last two games running it almost exclusively, the Bruins have run for over 260 yards each game and blown out ranked foes from the state of Texas.

3. The ACC lives – Virginia Tech and Florida St. at the top of the league pitched shutouts. Miami destroyed Pittsburgh. North Carolina, still suspended, managed to get past Rutgers and none of the teams playing out of league games suffered an embarrassing loss except Duke and that is generally expected. Well done to this league getting off the mat for now.

2. Alabama offense when a drive is needed – Last year against Auburn and Texas and now this season against Arkansas, Alabama has needed a drive to either preserve or win a close game. They have succeeded all three times. Seeing that, the way to beat this team may be to have the ball last and do it that way (though Tennessee tried that and failed last season too)

1. Auburn QB Cam Newton – Well over 300 yards of offense and 5 touchdowns. All in a days work in another close, hard fought Auburn win. Enjoy the virtual bye against Louisiana-Monroe next week Cam. You and your team have earned it.

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10. Wins by Big East and ACC against BCS leagues – West Virginia and NC State finally got these two leagues in the win column against other BCS leagues. Great news for those conferences after horrendous starts. Of course this would be higher if the wins hadn't been against the opposite league with West Virginia beating ACC member Maryland and NC State beating Big East member Cincinnati.

9. Florida and Texas on defense – Playing against these guys seems to be like playing against a brick wall. They may give up more points than others, but that is mostly because of the awfulness we have seen on offense from these two putting their incredible defenses in bad positions.

8. Nevada and Nebraska running games – Both attacks put up over 300 yards rushing in big victories against Pac-10 schools. Nevada had two 100-yard rushers on its way to 52 points against Cal and Nebraska had three 100-yard rushers on its way to 56 points against Washington

7. Oregon, everything about them – While most of the competition has been awful and this will not remain (unless Oregon is the best team ever this year), the Ducks are currently number one in the country in scoring and total offense AND defense. They lead every category. I can't ever remember seeing anything like that.

6. Oklahoma St. offense – 65 points and 722 yards of total offense. Those look like Oregon numbers until you look closer and see 574 yards passing. All of that and Tulsa, while not good is not an FCS opponent or a slight step above like two of Oregon's opponents have been.

5. LSU secondary – Patrick Peterson is the best cornerback in college football and the rest of his defensive backfield mates are pretty good too. The five interceptions grabbed by LSU were the difference between as easy LSU win and a struggle against Mississippi St. as the offense struggled again.

4. Real life effort and guts from UCLA – Where did that performance come from? UCLA looked like a completely different team this week against Houston than they had against Kansas St. and Stanford. With the way things have gone so far, I wonder if those games were not so much an indictment of UCLA, but an indication that both Stanford and Kansas St. are a whole lot better than expected.

3. Carnage on the field – Auburn and Clemson played an overtime thriller that doubled as the most physical game of the season so far. Players on both sides were in pain and playing through a variety of injuries suffered during the game, none more than Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker who seemed like he wasn't even going to be able to walk at many points during the second half. For Auburn, it was a great win to carry some momentum into next week's big SEC clash with South Carolina. Despite the loss, Clemson might have emerged as the favorite in the ACC.

2. Arizona's resilience – Given its history of losing big games and having not been on the big stage, when Iowa returned Nick Foles errant pass for a touchdown to tie the game at 27, you could have been forgiven for turning the TV off. Iowa wins these type of game and Arizona doesn't. Until Saturday night. Foles got himself off the mat and led the game-winning touchdown drive and the Arizona defensive line suddenly became line eating wolves on the final drive after a solid but largely unspectacular game. A great win for both Arizona and the Pac-10.

1. Fake field goal for the win – What else was this going to be? Calling that play is equal parts gutsy and foolhardy, but it worked and so Michigan St. gets the praise. One overlooked thing here: the Michigan St. kicker is young, shaky and inexperienced. Lou Holtz actually said it best on College Football Final. I could call that play too if I didn't have a kicker.

College Football Highlights Countdown - Week 2

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 4^th 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 3^rd 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.

Highlights of the week – 10 best things about the college football weekend

10. The off season is over – We have football again and for that we can all celebrate.

9. Whoever has the ball last – East Carolina vs Tulsa was an entertaining display of whoever has the ball last – literally. Both teams scored touchdowns on every possession from the middle of the 3rd quarter and East Carolina won on a Hail mary on the final play. Sounds like a fun shootout to me to kick off play in the defenseless Conference USA.

8. Auburn, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina offenses against (semi)legitimate opponents – By legitimate I mean at least the school they player were FBS opponent and the offenses for these team did exactly what they were supposed to do against over matched opponents: Blow them up.

7. The Air Raid lives – All off season, pundits and Texas Tech bemoaned the demise of the Air Raid offense at Texas Tech. It's only one game, but “Not so fast my friends” as Lee Corso would say. Texas Tech threw more than any other other team in the country in week one and couldn't run the ball. The Air Raid may die in the future as Tommy Tuberville gets his own recruits into Lubbock, but credit Tuberville for playing to the strengths of his team and airing it out to get a win.

6. Big 12 running backs – All the dominant quarterbacks in this league are gone. So its back to the running game. Kendall Hunter at Oklahoma St., Daniel Thomas at UCLA and DeMarco Murray at Oklahoma all went over 200 yards in impressive opening week performances.

5. Fresno St. defense – Nine sacks of Zach Collaros in the late night take down of Cincinnati is pretty impressive. No points after the midway point of the 1^st quarter is more impressive

4. Top of the Mountain West – BYU, Utah and TCU all took out BCS conference foes of varying hype to further their reputations. For BYU, new, inexperienced quarterbacks and a stout defense got the job done against Jake Locker's hyped Washington squad. Utah needed overtime but overcame Big East preseason favorite Pittsburgh by stonewalling conference player of the year Dion Lewis and TCU knocked off preseason top 25 and Pac-10 second choice Oregon St. in Dallas. For the Horned Frogs, the win moved them to 14-3 in their last 17 games against BCS leagues.

3. Oregon offense – The 72 points and 506 pushups were already covered in the New Mexico entry of the low lights section. The impressive thing is that starting running back LaMichael James was out suspended, projected starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was playing second fiddle to a huge upset at Ole Miss and it didn't matter. More impressive than the 72 points may have been the 720 yards with over 300 yards both running and passing.

2. Denard Robinson – Tate Forcier might as well save himself the trouble and transfer now. Denard Robinson is the starting quarterback at Michigan. Over 185 yards both rushing and passing against a UConn team thought to be pretty good before this game is hopefully a sign of things to come for Michigan fans.

1. Neutral-site openers – The schedule was admittedly pretty barren on the opening weekend except for the big neutral site openers. Though the LSU-North Carolina game was submarined by the suspension at North Carolina, it was still entertaining. The TCU-Oregon St. gave everyone a nice alternative if the UNC-LSU game turned out to be a blowout (and it certainly looked that way at halftime). Finally, tonight we have the big Virginia Tech-Boise St. game. Everyone is looking forward to this one.