Top 25

rank / team / prior

1 Alabama 1

2 Notre Dame 6

3 Ohio St. 15

4 S Carolina 11

5 Oregon 13

6 W Virginia 7

7 Florida 14

8 Oregon St. 4

9 Kansas St. 3

10 Stanford 9

11 La. Tech –

12 Texas 18

13 Iowa St. –

14 TX Tech –

15 Cincinnati 12

16 Georgia 10

17 Rutgers –

18 Miss. St. 19

19 Louisville –

20 LSU 2

21 Boise St. –

22 Florida St. 5

23 TX A&M –

24 Toledo –

25 Duke –

Out of rankings: (8 ) Washington, (16) UCLA, (17) Nebraska, (20) Clemson,

(21) Mich St., (22) Arizona, (23) Missouri, (24) Wisconsin, (25) Baylor

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Full post including commentary

Well this week, I guess we have to start with Big-12 battle of no defense...Going into Saturday's game, the over was 82...#9 West Virginia and Baylor blew that out of the water, as these two high-powered offenses duked it out in a pass happy game...



West Virginia's QB Geno Smith passed for 656 yards and 8 TD's while leading his team to a 70-63 win...Baylor's Nick Florence did his best, throwing for 581 yards and 5 TD's...The Bears WR, Terrance Williams set a Big-12 record with 314 yards receiving, to go with his 2 TD's...Tough break for WV's WR Stedman Bailey, who had set the record earlier in the game, with 303 yards...He added 5 TD's...

Quite a switch from the defensive battle we saw last week with Kansas State and Oklahoma...#12 Texas and Oklahoma State tried to do their best to keep up with both their QB's putting up 300 yards each, and while putting up big points, they couldn't match WV and Baylor's output...

After Oklahoma State took 36-34 lead with two and a half minutes left in the game, Texas QB David Ash drove the Longhorns on a 75 yard game winning drive, capped off with a Joe Bergeron 2 yard TD run, with less than 30 seconds left...Texas wins 41-36...What a tough loss for Oke State....

Then there is the biggest full of shit team in College Football...# LSU...This week they took on another powerhouse in Towson...To no one's surprise, LSU won...But to their own disgrace, they didn't look like the dominating team that their fans think they are, as the final was 38-22...The great and mighty LSU Tigers gave up 22 points to Towson...22 points...22 fucking points to Towson!

Can we please drop LSU out of the top 10 already...This team is a fraud! I don't care that they play in the SEC...Their non-conference schedule is weak...Only 3 of their SEC opponents on their schedule this year should be a concern based on how grossly over-hyped this team is...

This week's big SEC game was between Tennessee and #5 Georgia...This was another offensive battle as Georgia put up 560 yards of offense while Tennessee put up 478...Yes, the trend of no defense continues as Georgia had to battle to win 51-44...

Ohio State fans are thrilled that their team has racked up a 5-0 record, after beating Michigan State 17-16 Saturday...But they shouldn't be that thrilled considering the other 4 teams they beat were Miami (Ohio), UCF, Cal (who gave them a scare), and UAB...

Then there was the Big-Ten prime-time game...A rivalry that the Big-Ten seems to be trying to force...#22 Nebraska and Wisconsin...Wisconsin and Montee Ball were suppose to be a running team, but while Ball had 90 yards on the ground, the team finished with a total of 56 yards rushing...Instead it was Nebraska that was running the ball, with Taylor Martinez getting 107 yards on the ground, and Rex Burkhead with 86...Martinez also passed for 181 yards and 2 TD's to go with his one rushing TD...

Wisconsin was up 20-10 at Halftime, and then came right out in the second half and went up 27-10...After that, it was all Nebraska fighting back, to tie the game at 27 at the end of the third quarter...With just over 9 minutes left in the game, the Cornhuskers kicked the go-ahead filed goal, and then kept playing hard-nosed defense to hold on to the 30-27 win...

It what was premiere match up in the CAA, New Hampshire looked to bounce back from their tough 64-61 loss to Old Dominion, as undefeated Delaware came to visit the Wildcats...

After being down 7-0 at Halftime, UNH Quarterback, Andy Vailas got the wildcats on track, passing for 315 yards and 2 TD's, while also rushing for another TD and 36 yards, leading UNH 34-14 victory...
 

Good too see these guys come back strong after last week...

In case you missed it...ESPN once again put Penn State on the air...All 5 of Penn State's games have been televised on ESPN/ABC...And none of these games were against "Big Time" opponents...They opened against Ohio U. with all the post Sandusky/Paterno scandal and punishment hanging over the campus...ESPN hyped it for days...It bothered me, but didn't surprise me...The best part wast the Bobcats winning 24-14...

Then they went to Virginia and lost 17-16 because their kicker couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fucking boat...Then they got their first win against Navy...That was disappointing...Then they beat Temple...I would hope so...And Saturday they beat Illinois...Illinois, which is one of the Big-Ten's embarrassments to football...The others being Indiana, and Minnesota...

I'm sorry, but clearly ESPN signed a hush-hush deal to try and keep PSU Football in the public eye, hoping that when their penalties are over and done with, that they won't be completely irrelevant...(this is just my theory, backed up by nothing but my hatred of ESPN and Penn State...

And finally, the late game that should have been on major network...A big PAC-12 battle between Arizona, and Pac-12 surprise team, #18 Oregon State...Yet again, we had another big offense game...The Beavers put up 612 yards of total offense, while Arizona put up 545, in a back and forth battle that was finally settled when the Beavers went 75 yards in 10 plays to score the game winning TD with just over a minute left...Then iced it with a interception, winning 38-35...

That's it for this week...See ya Monday

The Beeze.

 

Intro and more on ASU (2005)

I wanted to write blogs on two separate occasions, but my work week did not allow me that.

If you want to see my top 25, please click here.

I’m not one of those “homer” types who likes to dwell on how great my team is, but I am impressed with the fact that LSU hasn’t lost a regular-season non-conference game since opening the 2002 season with a road loss to Virginia Tech (then ranked #16). The streak of 40 wins in such games broke the mark completed by Kansas St. in 2003.

Although there are certainly more daunting non-conference schedules around, LSU has put forth a serious effort to have at least one non-conference opponent that at appears to be formidable on paper every year.

The other record is more of a “personal best” as LSU has won 20 consecutive home games since the 13-3 loss to Tim Tebow’s #1 Gators in 2009. This is the only time in its history that LSU has won so many consecutive home games.

I wanted to go through them and talk in detail about some of the close calls and big games (some of which were not so close) during the longer streak.

This piece at “Nola.com” covers several of them, but I’ll mention a few more...

Full post

Top 25:

rank / team / prior

1 Alabama 3

2 Oklahoma 11

3 LSU 1

4 USC 13

5 Georgia 20

6 S Carolina 7

7 Oregon 8

8 Michigan 6

9 Arkansas 9

10 W. Virginia 22

11 Florida St. –

12 Mich St. 17

13 TCU 12

14 Kansas St. 15

15 Nebraska 23

16 Clemson 21

17 Texas –

18 Okie St. 2

19 Va. Tech 16

20 Stanford 10

21 Ohio St. –

22 Florida –

23 Wisconsin 18

24 Notre Dame –

25 Cincinnati 25

Out of rankings: (4) Boise St., (5) Houston, (14) Baylor, (19) So. Miss., (24) Penn St.

Previews

1. Alabama – I don’t put the defending champions #1 as a general rule, but I couldn’t really see any strong arguments against. I’ll get to Oklahoma in a moment, but LSU, who was (rightly I think) #1 in some of the computers based on beating a more impressive list of teams last year, has some more obvious adjustments that need to be made. The Tide will have to travel to Baton Rouge, but this is a series where the road team has traditionally done better, so that’s not really instructive. The fact that a lot of the same players showed up for a championship game the way they did makes a difference.

2. Oklahoma – I don’t think we’re going to see two teams from the same conference playing for the national championship again, and I don’t think Oklahoma has what it takes to pull off winning such a game, but looking at last year’s talent combined with returning starters, and Oklahoma is a natural pick for #2. I considered the Sooners for #1, but I’ve done that a few times since their 2000 national championship team, and we have yet to see a team like that, with the possible exceptions of 2004 and 2008. Notice the 4-year increments? The Sooners return 8 starters on offense, 7 on defense, and both kickers. This was a team that looked like it had a good road to the national-championship game last year at one point, so the experience could make the difference.

3. LSU – I was already inclined not to make LSU #1 before the Honey Badger news came out. That’s going to hurt on a defense that nominally returns 4 starters, although with the depth, that’s misleading. We haven’t even gotten a meaningful preview of new QB Zach Mettenberger. At least we had gotten one of Matt Flynn before the 2007 season, and don’t forget that team lost two games, so I don’ t put this team in the same category as either last year or 2007, both years I ranked LSU in the top 2 to start out. That said, I am cautiously optimistic. It’s hard to rate your own team, but I think you can tell by my description of the other nearby teams why LSU is here.

4. USC – I continue to find it ridiculous how people acted like USC had won a conference championship and bowl game just because it was idle for both “playing weeks”. Since I use a measure that only gives you points if you play, the Trojans finished 13th in my rankings. It also didn’t help that they lost to Arizona St. I punish bad losses more than some other rankings do. Anyway, there was definitely some talent and it did gel more as the season went on, so I’m fine with including this team in the top 4. Even with a much lower starting point, that wouldn’t rule out success. In 2003, LSU was coming off of an (unranked) 8-5 season and won the BCS championship. Neither the (undefeated) 2004 nor the (BCS champion) 2010 Auburn teams were very highly-rated going in either. Auburn finished in the “others receiving votes” category in both prior years. I’m sure there were some others in the recent past who performed similarly.

5. Georgia – Three SEC teams finished in the top 5 last season, so I’m putting three in the top 5 right now. I didn’t say, “Where’s another SEC team,” but I’m skeptical of Oregon, #5 in both major polls, and I think we just got a bit of a preview of this year during the Dawgs’ 10-game winning streak last season. Whoever wins the West can expect the SEC Championship game to be very interesting. I have been a Murray believer for a while, we’ll see if he has the great year that he has the potential for this season.

Full post

I guess I’ll just give people a minute to get outraged and then explain.  Also, feel free to let me know what's going on with college basketball.

Top 25:
rank / team / prior

1 LSU 1
2 Oklahoma St. 2
3 Alabama 3
4 Boise St. 5
5 Houston 4
6 Michigan 8
7 South Carolina 10
8 Oregon 12
9 Arkansas 13
10 Stanford 6
11 Oklahoma 11
12 TCU 19
13 USC 9
14 Baylor 22
15 Kansas St. 15
16 Virginia Tech 7
17 Michigan St. 16
18 Wisconsin 18
19 Southern Mississippi –
20 Georgia 14
21 Clemson 20
22 West Virginia 25
23 Nebraska 17
24 Penn St. 21
25 Cincinnati –

Out of rankings: (23) Ark. St., (24) Notre Dame

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