40 Acres Sports

With a similar boost in Coaches & Harris polls, we may be #1 in BCS again.

2:54 pm

Did you see the finish in the Oklahoma at Texas Tech game? Man it sure seemed like some home-cooking by the referrees. It looked like Taurean Henderson probably got in on the final play, but the first down on the tipped ball was a horrible spot. Then the ref that tried to call that one play was a touchdown catch must’ve been drunk. Joel Filani never even came close to catching that ball, and the ref that vlew the call was right there to see it. I really don’t know who to root for in a game like that, I guess I hate OU more and I did pick Tech to win. I’m sure glad we don’t have to worry about the BCS or strength of schedule anymore.

2:54 pm

Is there a more overrated player in the country than Ted Ginn? He just disappears in big games. The only time I noticed him today against Michigan today was when he was dropping punts.

Notre Dame’s best win (Michigan) now has four losses on the season, and their second best win just lost to freaking Vanderbilt. Someone please explain to me how they’re the number 6 ranked team in the country? Charlie Weis looks like a heck of a coach and he’ll have them back soon, but they’re just not that good right now. Look at their rankings in all the computer polls, almost everyone of them has them in about the #13 – #15 range. Interesting to notice what happens when you take out the bonus points the media gives them just for being Notre Dame. What a joke.

3:21 pm

Alabama is getting rolled, down 21 in the first quarter. The SEC has four or five teams that no one would want to play, but I don’t think they have a single top five caliber team. LSU is at #4 now, but their inconsistency and lack of coaching keeps them from being truly elite.

3:44 pm

Auburn’s Devin Aromashodu may have the coolest last name in college football. Though OU’s Chijioke Onyenegecha, pronounced “I’m gonna getcha,” is a pretty great name for a defensive player.

4:26 pm

Wow, Baylor put up 44 points on Oklahoma State. Can’t really fault the Cowboys’s defense, their offense turned the ball over eight times.

6:10 pm

One of the hosts of ESPN’s College Gameday Scoreboard just said LSU’s JaMarcus Russell had “the same kind of skill level as Vince Young.” Wow. Vince Young and JaMarcus Russell have exactly one thing in common, their skin color.

Young is one of the nation’s most dynamic players at any position, Russell is becoming a pretty good quarterback. Young has passed for 400 more yards and 10 more TD’s. Young is lean and athletic, Russell is almost chunky. And most obviously… Vince has a good shot of rushing for 1,000 yards this season while JaMarcus goes into tonight’s game with a whopping -23 yards on the ground so far.

Yeah, they’re real similar.

10:24 pm

Georgia Tech just knocked off #3 Miami 14 to 10. Not really a fluke game or anything, Tech just played well and made the plays they had to to win the football game. Other than the Virginia Tech game, the Hurricanes hadn’t been too impressive all year long. With the Hurricanes out and USC trailing Fresno State 14 – 7 (despite the refs trying their best to help the Trojans), I have no clue who should be in the Rose Bowl with Texas. Looks like the BCS standings say it’ll be Penn State. That’s not nearly as exciting a game as Texas vs. USC, and I think the Horns match up well with them so I hope they pull it out.

Reggie Bush just ran for 10 yards, then got up and ran 4 more yards so he could trash talk and head butt an opponent. Reason #492 Vince Young deserves the Heisman, Reggie is a poor sport.

10:45 pm

Now Bush gets bottled up on a kick off return (Fresno St. 21, USC 10) and again tried to run down some guys to talk trash to. Dude, shut up and play football.

10:52 pm

Man these FSN announcers are USC homers. Less than a minute to go in the first half and it looked like USC might have fumbled the ball, the announcers made it sound like it was obviously not a fumble. It probably should have been an incomplete pass, but it was far from obviously anything.

The Trojans are at midfield with 40 seconds left and down by 11 and it almost seems like they’re just running out the clock. They’re running the ball and throwing short passes, not looking downfield at all. They better get points here, I don’t think their defense can consistently stop Fresno State’s offense.

11:31 pm

“There’s about two or three people who could make that move in the history of football.” The history of football? Give me a break. Talk about hyperbole.

Right now Red River Shootout is fifth and Texas/A&M is 9th.

It’s all tied up ladies and gentlemen. Last week Brian stopped getting lucky and the truth finally came out. I just dominated him, gaining 4 picks back in ONE week. This weekend is Rivarly Week in college football, and there are definitely some huge games out there.

Alabama faces Auburn, in basically a must win for each team. If Alabama wins, they are SEC West champs, otherwise Auburn has a chance to win the SEC West if LSU tanks. Ohio State/Michigan also tips off this weekend. If Penn State loses, one of these teams has a chance to get to the top of the Big 10. Should be a good game to watch with Ted Ginn Jr., Santonio Holmes, Steve Breaston, and Jason Avant all on the field.

Here’s our picks for this week:

Related Links

• Last week’s picks
• SI.com Top 25 Scoreboard

I can’t wait for that Ohio State/Michigan game.

Lots of props for the football, baseball, basketball, facilities, & DeLoss Dodds.

Will the fact that Vince is coming back hurt his chances for the Heisman?

Several future Horns including Eddie Jones, Sergio Kindle, and Emmanuel Moody.

Georgia Tech cornerback Reuben Houston (allegedly) conspired to possess and distribute about 100 pounds of marijuana, yet an Atlanta-area judge has ordered him back on the football team. Despite facing felony drug charges and not being on the team at all this season, coach Chan Gailey said he’d be on the team and playing this weekend against Miami.

(Judge M. Gino) Brogdon said Georgia Tech’s decision to expel Houston, then readmit him but exclude him from football “was arbitrary and strikingly dissimilar to the school’s treatment of other similarly situated athletes who have been accused of breaking the law.”

The most troublesome thing about the ruling are it’s possible future implications. What are you allowed to suspend a player for? If you can’t do anything about a guy trying to sell $60,000 worth of weed, can you sit a guy for missing class? Disrupting the team? Nearly killing a childhood friend in a bar fight? Coaches and universities have to have the ability to discipline their players.

Since when is it the courts’ decision on who gets to play college football? As the Georgia Tech A.D. Dave Braine said, playing college football is a privilege, not a right.

Our Thoughts

Brian – And then there were two. There was essentially no way Alabama was going to win out and even if they had there wasn’t much of a chance they’d have moved above the three spot in the BCS standings, but you still heard a giant sigh of relief coming from the Austin area Saturday when the Crimson Tide lost to Louisiana State. All year Texas and Southern Cal have proven themselves to be the nation’s top two teams and this weekend was no different. Texas took a respectable Kansas team and beat them like a rented mule. Record setting day for Vince Young and 52 points for the Horns by halftime. 152 unanswered points in a row is unreal. The Trojans easily defeated a once again overrated Cal team 35 to 10. It wasn’t a crushing victory but the game was certainly never in doubt. They’ve got two pretty tough games coming up, but as long as they don’t mail it in it looks like the marquee Rose Bowl matchup everyone wanted will happen.

Man, did Texas Tech ever blow a chance at national respectability this year. Even their offense has been just average since they started Big 12 play.

Matt – Just like I thought, Alabama lost to LSU and luckily we don’t have to hear anything about how the SEC will be getting screwed again in the BCS Championship game. I think Texas proved even more that they are the best team in the nation, putting up 52 at half-time on the nation’s 5th best defense. Auburn showed me a lot this weekend with that impressive win at Georgia. I would definitely hate to play Auburn right now, as it looks like they have everything moving in the right direction. TCU had yet another blowout win, and if it wasn’t for a dumb loss to SMU, TCU would probably be a Top 8 team in the BCS poll.

Related Links

• Last week’s rankings
• Harris Interactive Poll (PDF, 28 KB)
• Master Coaches Survey