SUNDAY MORNING HANGOVER FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL ...
* TCU coach Gary Patterson said after his team’s win against SMU it was like “Alabama-Auburn”. Do you think Alabama coach Nick Saban will say, “It was like TCU-SMU” after the Tide play the Tigers in November?
(OK, it’s a cheap shot, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t take it. It’s sports. Have fun, people.)
* A huge win for UNT coach Todd Dodge against Florida Atlantic. The Mean Green, who have been beset by injuries unlike no other team in Division I, are 1-3 and 1-0 in the Sun Belt.
Dodge was down to his third-string QB, Riley Dodge, who won all of those games for his dad when the pair were at Southlake Carroll High School. Riley completed 10-of-15 passes for 146 yards and a pair of touchdown passes. He also ran 11 times for 67 yards.
TD lives to coach another day.
* Texas State is 3-1 for the first time since 2005 after it defeated Southern Utah, 42-28. The Bobcats, ranked No. 23 in the I-AA poll, ran for 224 yards.
* Now that Houston is without QB Case Keenum for the season with an injury, the Coogs may be a running team. RB Bryce Beal ran for 123 yards and four touchdowns in UH’s 42-23 win against Tulane. The Coogs are starting a true frosh QB, Terrance Broadway.
* BYU’s last season in the MWC isn’t terribly memorable, mostly the Cougars aren’t very good. BYU lost at home against future MWC member, Nevada, 27-13. True frosh QB Jake Heaps made his first start for the Cougars, and was 24-of-45 for 229 yards.
* Boise State better watch out - Nevada can play. The Wolfies are 4-0, and host the Broncos on Nov. 26.
* Lamar returned to reality. The first-year program was blown out at Stephen F. Austin, 71-3. SR QB Jeremy Moses threw for 353 yards and four TDs, and went over the 10,000-yard mark for his career.
* I have no idea what to make of CUSA. I know no one cares, mostly because the conference has no top 25 team now that UH QB Case Keenem is out. But for the sake of TCU’s strength of schedule, it needs SMU to win that conference. Even if the Ponies win though, the voting masses won’t care anyone beat the CUSA champs’ because no one is clearly better than the other.
* Alabama is the best team in the nation, but I don’t like its chances of running the table again in the SEC. Alabama’s next two games are vs. No. 9 Florida, and at No. 12 South Carolina. On Nov. 6, the Tide play at No. 15 LSU. And, of course, the Tide finish with Auburn. The Tide have to lose eventually, right?
* How much money is being spent on the ad campaign for the new Wall Street movie? I'm seeing that ad in my sleep.
* We don’t know exactly how good Oregon is because it plays in the Pacific Time zone. It’s more proof how badly you need to be in the Central or Eastern time zone, or be Los Angeles, to really get noticed. That said, the Ducks are a serious threat to reach the BCS title game.
* UTEP’s win against Memphis gives the Miners a 3-1 start, their best since 2005. It’s just the sixth time in the last 46 seasons the Miners are won three of their first four games. Lots of tradition in El Paso. But it could save Mike Price’s job.
The game was won after the Miners drove the ball 95 yards in the final minutes to set up Dakota Warren’s 18-yard FG.
* After handling Rice in rain-filled game, Baylor is halfway to six wins to qualify for the What Else Is There To Do In This Town Bowl. Can the Bears get there?
* The Big East is awful. Period. It’s only ranked team, however, No. 22 West Virginia, actually showed itself quite nicely in a 20-14 loss at No. 15 LSU.
* Auburn QB Cameron Newton may be better than Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett. Not as a pro, but as a collegian.
* Did any athletic department stuff their bank account on the backs of its football team more than San Jose State? The Spartans traveled to play at Alabama, at Wisconsin and at Utah; they lost those three games by the combined score of 131-20. If they didn’t clear $2 million off those three losses something is wrong.
* Suspend the idea that the best RB at Alabama is backup Trent Richardson. He’s good, but JR and defending Heisman winner Mark Ingram is better.
* Texas A&M’s best chance to beat Arkansas in two weeks is to get pressure on Hogs QB Ryan Mallett and hope he throws picks the way he did against Alabama.
But the way the Tide ran on the Hogs should give Aggies hope that Christine Michael and Jerrod Johnson can score points.
* Texas’ big home loss to UCLA has to have the people in Lubbock worried. This was the same Texas defense that dominated the Red Raiders.
* Oklahoma had to be looking forward to next week’s game against Texas. The Sooners probably should have lost at Cincinnati on Saturday night, but they were the better team.
* I’ll keep saying this - Nebraska is going to win the Big 12 title game in its last season in the conference. And no one will be grinning any bigger than Tom Osborne.
* The Big 12 North is almost as bad as the Big East. In fact, the whole Big 12 is a bit down this year.
* What the Big 10 did this weekend was shameful. The conference finished a collective 8-2, all at home, against a schedule that was so weak and so lame that fans should have been admitted for free.
The opponents were: Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Northern Colorado, Ball State, Austin Peay, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Akron, Temple.
The eight teams that won did so by the combined score of 385-109. Two teams scored 70 points.
Lost in these stupid numbers is that two of schools from this “power” conference actually managed to lose. How?
Purdue should be kicked out of the conference after losing 31-20 to Toledo in West Lafayette. And Minnesota coach Tim Brewster all but signed his “fired” papers after the Gophers lost 34-23 to Northern Illinois.
* TCU needs more style points. Every margin needs to be at least 20 points.
- Mac Engel
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