40 Acres Sports

Like most people, I have been waiting for this weekend for some time because we get to see two of the top teams in the nation square off during the regular season, #1 USC vs. #5 Ohio State. There is almost as much hype for this game as the National Championship. Unfortunately some of that excitement has diminished for me since it has been reported that Chris “Beanie” Wells will not play this Saturday against USC.

And now that we know Texas vs. Arkansas is postponed, we have to find something else to watch. Let’s see what is going on this weekend. (P.S. I went 2-0-1 last weekend with my picks)

Michigan at Notre Dame (+1) – 3:43 PM EST on NBC. Some of the luster of this game has worn off since both programs seem to be struggling. Even so, NBC’s broadcast of this game in HD looks great, and it will be good fun seeing Notre Dame get embarrassed at home. Notre Dame should have lost last weekend, and I just can’t see anyway they can pull off that same miracle against Michigan. I’m not a huge fan of Rich Rodriguez, but I seem them winning easily this weekend.

#3 Oklahoma at Washington (+20) – 7:45 PM EST on ESPN. I’m pretty curious to see how Washington responds to getting screwed last weekend against BYU. It will probably either be extremely good, or extremely bad. I am going to go with the latter. Oklahoma’s offense continues to improve and their young wide receivers are absolutely torching the opponents’ secondary. Oklahoma is averaging 55 points per game, Washington 19. You can do the math here. Expect Oklahoma to win by 30.

#5 Ohio State at #1 USC (-11) – 8:00 PM EST on ABC. Like I said, this game isn’t as exciting since Ohio State isn’t bringing all of their weapons, but this will still probably be the biggest game in college football this year. So far this year USC has been more impressive than we thought, and Ohio State has been not nearly been as good as we expected. Without Chris Wells I don’t see them able to get the running game going against USC’s strong defense, which in turn puts more pressure on QB Todd Boeckman and freshman QB Terrelle Pryor. Boeckman is coming off one of the worst games of his career. Things are probably only going to get worse. And Pryor will most likely be a big-time quarterback soon in college football, but now is not that time.

USC on the other hand has a “stable” of 6 running backs on their team, probably all of whom would start on most teams in the country. Does 6 sound like a little too many? Yeah, sure does, but 5 of the 6 scored touchdowns against Virginia in their season opener. Talk about depth. Bottomline, Ohio State has no shot in this game and will probably lose by 20. Take USC here.

The Big 12 and SEC dominate my Top 25, holding 8 of the top 10 spots. Ohio State continues their over-hyped season by barely beating Ohio at home. Oklahoma and Missouri are proving they have the offense to keep up with anyone. And East Carolina is probably the surprise of the season, jumping all the way up to #12.

Agree or disagree? Please let me know in the comments.

1. [tag]USC[/tag]

   

   I try not to give too much praise to USC, but they looked really impressive in their blowout win over Virginia. They truly look like the best team in the nation right now.

2. [tag]Oklahoma[/tag]

   

   Oklahoma’s offense looks unstoppable. They have already scored 109 points in 2 games, and haven’t trailed yet.

3. [tag]Florida[/tag]

   

   Tim Tebow and the Gators beat Miami for the first time in the last 25 years or so, and did it against a very athletic Miami defense.

4. [tag]Missouri[/tag]

   

   Talk about high powered offenses, Missouri looks like they can score at will. But the real question is if their defense can stop the other big-time teams.

5. [tag]LSU[/tag]

   

   Even with all the weather distractions, this team looked very impressive in its home opener. What will happen when their QB’s actually have to throw a pass longer than 10 yards?

6. [tag]Texas[/tag]

   

   Colt and the offense are on a serious roll right now. Their young secondary is struggling at times, but they should be able to pick it up.

7. [tag]Georgia[/tag]

   

   I feel this is one of the more over-hyped teams in the nation. But if they can make it through some of their tougher games I will have to move them up.

8. [tag]Alabama[/tag]

   

   Coach Nick Saban has things going well down in Alabama. They absolutely destroyed Clemson on national tv. I would not want to play against this defense.

9. [tag]Auburn[/tag]

   

   Auburn’s defense always seems to keep them in games. If they can just get someone who can play quarterback they might be able to do something this year.

10. [tag]Ohio State[/tag]

    

    Ohio State is probably the second most over-hyped team in the nation. Lucky for them, they play in the weak Big 10. Unlucky for them, they are about to get smoked by USC.

11. [tag]Kansas[/tag]

    

    Kansas is another tough team from the Big 12 North. Todd Reesing is one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12 and has their offense off to a hot start.

12. [tag]East Carolina[/tag]

    

    ECU has been one of the big surprises so far this season beating Virginia Tech and destroying #8 West Viriginia. I don’t think anyone will overlook this team anymore.

13. [tag]Texas Tech[/tag]

    

    If Texas Tech actually played anyone in their non-conference schedule they might actually be ranked a little bit higher.

14. [tag]Arizona State[/tag]

    

    ASU always seems to be that overlooked team in the Pac-10. Coach Dennis Erickson has a solid football team here.

15. [tag]Wisconsin[/tag]

    

    Wisconsin is one of those boring teams that always has a solid season. If they weren’t in the weak Big 10 they would probably barely crack the top 25.

16. [tag]Oregon[/tag]

    

    Another high powered offense from the Pac-10. Their dual quarterback play seems to be working well. And Jeremiah Johnson has a ridiculous 10.1 yards per carry.

17. [tag]BYU[/tag]

    

    BYU squeaked by Washington thanks to the refs ruining the game. UCLA should be a tougher match-up.

18. [tag]Wake Forest[/tag]

    

    Wake Forest needed a last second field goal to beat an average Ole Miss team. Now they open their ACC season against Florida State.

19. [tag]South Florida[/tag]

    

    I was not happy with team since they delayed the coverage of the Texas/UTEP game. They are probably the best team in the Big East right now.

20. [tag]California[/tag]

    

    Cal is averaging 7.8 yards per carry as a team, including two touchdowns of over 80 yards. Their defense also held Washington State to only 3 points.

21. [tag]Penn State[/tag]

    

    Penn State has started off strong with an impressive running attack. I’m curious to see how they play on the road.

22. [tag]Fresno State[/tag]

    

    Fresno State has another solid team that dismantled Rutgers on their own field. Their real test of the season comes this weekend when they play Wisconsin.

23. [tag]Vanderbilt[/tag]

    

    Vanderbilt is slowing building their program into a tough match-up in the SEC. Georgia and Florida better not overlook this team.

24. [tag]UCLA[/tag]

    

    UCLA had an impressive second half comeback in week 1 against Tennessee. Who knew you could throw 4 interceptions and still be a hero. Their tough schedule probably won’t keep them here long.

25. [tag]Utah[/tag]

    

    Utah is a tough team to put a handle on. Their offense is usually stellar, but they really don’t play anyone. Their win against Michigan might look impressive if Michigan wasn’t so awful.

Ohio State will wear new Nike jerseys next week with a LeBron James logo. James has no OSU affiliation.

With Leather has the story of a great office prank played on an (assuredly) obnoxious Ohio State fan. When the guy returned from his trip to Arizona to watch the game he found his cubicle wallpapered with the Sports Illustrated cover of the thrashing. I definitely like their idea of adding a hidden live alligator to the mix, but I guess there’s always next year for that.

Shockingly I didn’t see Ohio State fans lighting anything on fire after their loss, but you can’t really blame them for their normal behavior considering how boring life in Ohio must be. But even without cars or couches on fire around Columbus, it still really sucks to be from Ohio.

Was it just me or was [tag]Ohio State[/tag]’s band just playing “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic during the halftime show of the national title game? That may be more embarrassing than being down by 20 points at the half in a game you were favored to win big.

It’s probably equally embarrassing that I immediately recognized the song.

The hype surrounding this game was unreal. The atmosphere in Austin before the game was incredible. The tailgating was off the charts (more pictures and details of that to come later). Too bad the game let us down. Texas looked like they came out with the same lack of effort as they did against North Texas. The only guy on the team that looked like he was working hard was Selvin Young.

And I still don’t understand why we stopped running the ball? We were absolutely killing them on the run, yet I don’t know how many times we threw a pass on first down or some little weak screen. Why not run the ball until they prove they can stop it? All in all, we definitely got outplayed and had poor execution of game plan (if there was one). [tag]Ohio State[/tag] doesn’t look unbeatable, but they were the far better team this past Saturday.

Now for the breakdown of I how I graded the positions:

Quarterback – Overall Grade: C

[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] came back down to reality this week in the first big game of his career. You shouldn’t expect too much from a freshman quarterback playing his second game in college against the #1 team in the nation, and he proved why. Colt never really made a big mistake (except for that interception), but he never did anything good either. And I know this isn’t really his fault, but the amount of screens and 5 yard passes he threw just got ridiculous. Can we please see a 30 yard pass? The one positive thing I have to say about Colt though, is that everytime he was hit (and he got hit hard) he bounced right back up and didn’t let it affect him.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: A-

You definitely can’t blame the running backs for this loss. Texas rushed for 172 yards and averaged 6 yards per carry. [tag]Selvin Young[/tag] continues to show that he worked hard over the summer and ran for 94 yards for an impressive 8.5 yards per carry. Jamaal had a pretty good night as well, going for 70 yards. The only problem was out of their control, they simply did not get the ball enough. When you are averaging 6 yards per carry, you don’t throw the ball 32 times. Make Ohio State stop the running attack, then throw the ball down-field.

Wide Receivers – Overall Grade: C-

I think the receivers saw a lot more action than they were expecting. Most of the time you would think they would like that. However I doubt they really enjoyed catching a screen or 5 yard pass and then getting nailed by the defense. Ohio State really concentrated their efforts on Sweed and had some extra coverage on him most of the night, although when he was actually able to break away he did make some good plays. But with a play-maker like that you need to figure out a way to get him the ball.

Pittman’s fumble came about as bad a time as possible. Texas was pounding the ball down the Buckeyes throat, about to score, and Pittman fumbles the ball at the 2. Imagine how pumped the crowd would be scoring first, instead Ohio State is scoring 5 plays later. And where is Jermichael Finley? He needs to figure out a way to get the ball more and make the catch when it finally does come to him.

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It is true what they say, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” I always like to read what the opposition is saying about our team in order to get a better perspective on the match-up. Here is a list of [tag]Ohio State[/tag] sports blogs that you may want to check out:

• Buckeye Commentary
• The 614 (my interview is here)
• Pfef’s Sports Blog
• Around the Oval
• Men of the Scarlet and Gray

That’s certainly not breaking news, but Skippy has outdone himself this time. In his latest article on ESPN.com writes that there’s no way Texas should be number one in the country and that we wouldn’t stand a chance head-to-head against USC. It’s one thing to have that opinion (though I think it’s completely wrong), it’s another to then not back it up with rational argument. Hmmm… I wonder why he’d have such an irrational hatred of Texas?

He attempts to bash our schedule so far, despite it being better than both USC and Virginia Tech’s no matter how you look at it. Our opponents have a better combined record. We’ve beaten just as many (or more) top 25 teams. We beat a top 5 team on the road and demolished a top 10 team at home, USC and Va. Tech have done neither. Yes our schedule gets weaker from here on out, but just because we played our toughest games early doesn’t make them any less difficult, in fact it makes upsets even more likely.

He then claims that USC has to take every team’s best shot each week. Um, Skip, do you think the Horns are sneaking up on people? As Walter Cronkite says, “We’re Texas.” No matter what our ranking is, everyone wants to take us down. Factor in our national title aspirations and there’s nothing in the world our opponents would rather do than knock us down. They took “Arizona State’s best shot at Arizona State.” Whoop-dee-freaking-do! They’re 1-3 in Pac 10 play, they’re terrible.

My favorite part of the article is when he states Ohio State would give the Trojans a better game than we would. Wait a second… Didn’t we beat the Buckeyes? At their place? At night*? That doesn’t count Skip says, we didn’t win that one Jim Tressel lost it:

“Ohio State coach Jim Tressel blew that game more than Texas won it. Tressel appeared to be channeling Bevo by starting and finishing with quarterback Justin Zwick, even though Troy Smith led the Buckeyes on five scoring drives and built a 22-16 lead through three quarters. Zwick’s late fumble clinched a 25-22 Texas win.”

His basis for that argument? “Smith led the Buckeyes on five scoring drives.” Wow, five scoring drives? They must have been really rolling with him at quarterback. Oh wait, they weren’t. Not even close. Ohio State had one good drive and it ended with Smith’s best play of the night, a 36 yard pass from Smith to Santonio Holmes for a touchdown, but the rest of the night they did next to nothing with or without Smith at the helm. Those other 4 scoring drives? 5 plays for 8 yards. 9 plays for 22 yards. 6 plays for 11 yards. And finally, 4 plays for a whopping -1 yards. Look out Peyton Manning! Playing Smith the whole game would not have changed the final score.

A valid argument could definitely be made that the Trojans should be number one, but Texas has just as strong of a case. I think most people believe they’re clearly the top two teams in the country. I don’t understand the outrage over this week’s BCS rankings from the national media. The Trojans probably have the nation’s best offense, while Texas’ defense is second to none. Texas has played better against tougher opponents so far, but if USC plays well over their next difficult stretch they’ll likely jump back into the first spot anyways. Both teams deserve to be where they are and the exact order doesn’t mean much. After all, whether you’re number one or two in October doesn’t really matter, as long as both teams win out we’ll find out on January 4th in Pasadena who the better team is.

In what is probably the biggest game of the year, Texas finally proved that they can win the big game. They went into [tag]Ohio State[/tag], didn’t really play their best game, and still found a way to pull out the win. The path is now set to the Rose Bowl, lets just hope we can beat OU.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A-

Vince really scared me in this game. I know he is good, and I know he knows he is good, but can he please tuck the ball when he is about to get tackled? With that and his two picks, I really wanted to move him to a B+, but since he made that incredible touchdown pass, I had to give him a A-. Man was it nice to see him pass for 270 yards though.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B-

The running game was really not there this game. But it is hard to tell if it was just playing against the best linebackers in the nation, or the running backs took a step backward. We are definitely going to need more production out of the running game though, because I don’t want to have to rely on Vince’s arm all season. Also, it looks like Jamaal Charles will be starting this week against Rice.

Receivers / Tight End – Overall Grade: A

Wow, the receivers came through huge in this game. Pittman was definitely the go to guy in this game, with 5 catches for 130 yards. And I don’t really need to comment much on that awesome catch by Sweed to win the game. Overall, just a great performance.

Offensive Line – Overall Grade: B-

Again, I think their performance was probably more of a result of how good the Ohio State defense is. They opened some decent holes every once in a while, but it is hard to block those linebackers.

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Holy cow. I hope the team and coaching staff are looser than I am, because I’m nervous as hell. They seemed pretty loose in practice this week, hopefully it carries over to a relaxed, focused, and prepared team tonight against [tag]Ohio State[/tag].

Probably won’t be posting as much as last week, I’ll be focusing all my positive energies on the game. That and I’ll probably be pacing around the house.

First Quarter

• Why isn’t ABC showing this or any other games in high definition? They’ve had plenty of absolutely crappy games on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD.
• Someone tell Jack Arute to listen when he asks a question so he doesn’t ask something someone answered for him 3 seconds ago.
• Surprised Pino is kicking off, I’m guessing to keep it away from Ginn. Worked terribly.
• That was really close to a lateral.
• Huge three and out.
• I like the empty backfield, something we haven’t shown much of.
• Vince Young is pissed. I love it. Big time facemask, I’d be pissed too.
• Man the OSU linebackers are fugly. Looks like AJ Hawk is on human growth hormone.
• Big time run! Vince is definitely looking good running the ball. Much quicker than anyone the Buckeyes have.
• Pittman was wide open and he fell down. Damnit. Good call and pass.
• Sloppy play by VY and Selvin Young, almost turned the ball over on an option. It looks like they ruled it an incomplete pass. Kind of screwed up that opportunity. Ramonce Taylor is not the man to be throwing the jump ball to in the end zone.
• I love David Pino, 42 yard field goal is good.

Texas 3, OSU 0

• Our kickoff coverage is terrible. Angle that sucker, don’t just kick it right down the middle. Good depth though.
• Looks like Def. Coordinator didn’t show anything last week. Nice late shift by the defensive line causes a delay of game.
• Rashad Bobino needs to break down and make that tackle on the swing pass.
• Zone blitz by the Horns on 3rd and 6 forces Zwick to scramble and he ends up short. Rod Wright dropped off into the flats for coverage. I’m loving Coach Chizik.
• Aaron Ross has to catch the dang punt. Get up there and fair catch it so that it’s not bouncing all over the place and costiing us yards.
• Woooo! Love to see Jamaal Charles already in there and a wide open Billy Pittman running down the middle of the field. Nice throw and catch.
• Are we running some no huddle? Man we are treating this big game like it’s a big game and pulling out all the tricks. Note: The announcers of course didn’t notice.
• Great catch from David Thomas. Saved Vince’s butt.
• Our offensive line looks a little tired (Justin Blalock in particular just now), it’ll be interesting to see what kind of condition both teams are in.
• Jamaal Charles has skills. Little shifty sucker. I love to see the tail back screen, we don’t do that too often.
• First Henry Melton sighting. First down, we may have gotten a generous spot there.
• HOLY COW! We just threw on first and goal from the 5 yard line. Touchdown Billy Pittman. Wide open again after a play fake.

Texas 10, OSU 0

• My God, our kickoff coverage is an embarassment. We’re up now, but if we start on our ten every time and they’re starting on their fifty we may need to score 100.

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