I would like to thank LSU and Wisconsin for failing to show up for their games this weekend which allowed me to focus my time Saturday night on the Oklahoma State vs. Missouri game and a real exciting game from Conway, AR featuring the Bears of the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) vs. the Sam Houston State Bearkats and Rhett Bomar.  I don’t usually talk about teams from the Football Championship Subdivision, but it was fun to watch UCA and Sam Houston go at it until the end.  Most people know about Rhett Bomar, but UCA’s QB is Nathan Brown and he is setting records in Arkansas.

Whoo Pig Sooie. . . . I don’t really get to talk about Arkansas unless their relevant, and this year, they’re not.  However, they put an exclamation mark on the end of the Auburn week.  The Hogs upset the Tigers, and fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was probably sitting at home laughing.  The Hogs out-did everything statistically and survived their turnovers to pull out the win for the second time in a row on “The Plains.”  Coach Bobby Petrino’s team looks like they might be improving.

BCS Busted. . . . . Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about East Carolina as a possible BCS Buster team.  They had won two in a row over ranked teams including Virginia Tech.  After a 3-0 start, the Pirates have now lost 3 in a row including Saturday’s loss to Virginia.  Yes, the same Virginia who loss at home to USC 52-7, but now has won back-to-back games.

Lions and Gators and Horns, Oh MY! . . . . . . By far the most impressive teams this weekend were the Texas Longhorns, who are now ranked number 1, the Florida Gators, and the Penn State Nittany Lions.  Texas beat Oklahoma, who looked unbeatable thus far, 45-35 in Dallas.  The Gators found their offense and ripped LSU in “the Swamp” 51-21, and Penn State made it look easy at Camp Randall beating Wisconsin 48-7.

Sic’em Bears. . . . . . . Congrats to Baylor for winning their first conference game in two years.  Coach Art Briles has his team playing well, and they may win more than one game this year.  If you haven’t had a chance, take a chance to watch Freshman QB Robert Griffin play.  Griffin has 9 TD passes on the year with 0 INT’s.   Next up for Baylor, the best team in Oklahoma (?).

To be honest, I didn’t see a whole lot of games yesterday as I spent several hours at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, TX to watch the TCU Horned Frogs play the San Diego State Aztecs from the press box.  I did a write up on the game for Pegasus News which you can see here.  I did catch some games and scores before and after the game.  I will forgo my Looking Ahead segment to be included in the Wednesday Preview as my Games to Watch.

Terrelle Pryor
As Ohio State was giving Wisconsin all they could handle in Camp Randall, it looked as if Senior QB Allan Evridge had saved the day for the Badgers.  The sideline reporter for ABC was even remarking about the difference of leadership on the sidelines between the two QB’s.  It seems that Evridge was being a vocal leader and getting his team pumped up while Pryor sat on the sideline quietly isolated from his team because he was too young to command respect from his team.  After a late TD by Wisconsin to put the Badgers up 17-13, Pryor calmly stepped on the field with 6:31 left in the game and marched his team down the field on 12 plays for 80 yards completing throw after throw to keep the drive alive until the Buckeyes got in the endzone on a Vince Young like TD by Pryor.  Next, with 1:08 to go, Evridge began the drive for Wisconsin before throwing an interception with 53 seconds left.  If his team didn’t respect him before, the Buckeys have no excuse not to respect him now.  Pryor looked like the Senior.

Dandy Vandy
The Commodores are 5-0 and in charge in the SEC East.  Can they win their division and plan a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game?  That remains to be seen, but Vandy is getting turnovers and playing great defense.  Some have made a lot out of Vandy’s lack of productivity, but the only stats that count are the offensive and defensive scoring.

Yellow Jacket Balance
All people could talk about when Paul Johnson took over at Georgia Tech was the triple option and a stellar ground game.  Could the Jackets compete in a BCS Conference running an “ancient” offense?  The box score shows that Georgia Tech was balanced this week against Duke.  They ran the ball for 224 yards and they passed the ball for 230 yards.  That’s right, Georgia Tech passed the ball for 230 yards on 9 passes.  To the same guy!  That’s balance.

Offensive Oklahoma
No, I am not offended by Oklahoma, necessarily.  But you just might find the best offenses in the country in the Sooner state.  Oklahoma, the Sooners that is, average 49.6 points per game, Oklahoma State averages 52.6 points per game and Tulsa averages 56.4 points per game.  That is an average of 52.866 points per game for the three teams.  There are more points scored in Oklahoma games than in a Presidential Debate.

Top Ten
This is the completion of week 6 which means my top ten will be updated within a couple days.  There should be some significant changes, but I guess Oklahoma will become number one though there is a real good argument for Alabama to be number one.

It’s all about upsets in week five of college football.  It all started on Thursday night in Corvallis, OR where the unranked Beavers of Oregon State shocked the world again as they beat the number one ranked USC Trojans.  Not to be outdone, unranked Ole Miss upset 4th ranked Florida in Gainesville at the Swamp.  And on it goes.  The Houston Cougars upset 23rd ranked East Carolina.  The Michigan Wolverines made a valiant come-back to upset 9th ranked Wisconsin.  Navy beat 16th ranked Wake Forest, Maryland got 20th ranked Clemson, and the Alabama Crimson Tide (9th ranked) upended the 3rd ranked Georgia Bulldogs.  Is that enough for us?  There will probably be more to come this year.  Few teams look unbeatable.  Most have stumbled and played sloppy.  Teams can’t do that anymore as the parody is prominent.

I did watch the Oklahoma-TCU game and I was very impressed with the Sooners.  The Horned Frogs held OU to 25 yard rushing, therefore, Sam Bradford dropped back and threw the ball over the coverage for a total of 411 yards passing.  Broken plays cost TCU along with penalties.  TCU was able to do what no other team has been able to do against OU this year and that was slow down the attack.  They held Oklahoma to almost 20 points below their average, but TCU’s offense just wasn’t explosive enough to stay with OU.  As they Sooners get into Big 12 Conference play, they will face far more explosive offenses.  They will need that ground game to keep offenses of teams like Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State’s off the field.  Otherwise, they might be in for several shootouts.  Nevertheless, I now put Sam Bradford at the top of my Heisman Trophy list.  He was just plain impressive.  He was knocked down, sacked and hurried all day, but he delivered.

Looking Ahead

Oregon State vs. Utah
Fresh off their upset victory over USC, the Beavers travel to Salt Lake City to face the Utes.  Utah is undefeated, but less impressive than I expected at this point.  Can the Beavers parlay their win over USC into a successful season?

Oregon vs. USC
Oregon is is 4-1 with its only loss coming to Boise State.  USC is coming off of their upset loss to Oregon State.  Oregon State showed that a shifty, small back can help keep the chains and the clock moving against USC.  Can the Ducks follow that recipe to a win in LA?  Or does upset simply refer to what the Trojans will be when they step on the field?

Auburn vs. Vanderbilt
The Commodores, yes Vanderbilt, is on top of the SEC East standings.  They play an Auburn team that has shown very little on offense in their transition to a spread by new Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin.  Well, Vanderbilt does it pretty well, and maybe they can give the Tigers a few tips, after the game.  Vandy averages a full touchdown more a game than Auburn, and they are gunning for an historic year.  Oh, and the game is in Nashville, and both teams are ranked.

Missouri vs. Nebraska
The Cornhuskers had a chance to be ranked this week.  All they had to do was beat an improving Virginia Tech at home on national TV, run their record to 4-0, and await their showdown with Mizzou.  Well, it didn’t work out as planned.  Tyrod Taylor gave Nebraska fits, and Tech got the quality win on the road.  Now Mizzou comes to town, and I am sure Chase Daniel was watching that game.

We will preview week three of college football

Games to Watch

USC vs. Ohio State, 8:00 PM ET
Before the year started I would have predicted Ohio State to win this game, but they looked awfully shaky against the Ohio University last week minus “Beanie” Wells.  The big question I have is, “Was Ohio State playing opossum?”  That seems like a silly question, but I suppose it could be legit.  More than anything, “Was Ohio State trying to as little as possible to in the game?”  There is something to be said for not wanting to show USC everything.  It seemed that the problem was offensively.  Certainly, Ohio State is better with “Beanie” Wells in the game, but what about Senior QB Todd Boeckman?  He looked pretty good against LSU last year in the BCS game when his team trailed and they put him in the shotgun.  I expect that Ohio State was trying to win without doing too much.  Does that mean they’ll beat USC?  Not necessarily.  Also, how good is USC?  We don’t really know.

Kansas vs. South Florida, Friday, 8:00 PM ET
Todd Ressing has been great for Kansas thus far this year.  South Florida has struggled.  This is the first chance for Kansas to show that last year was no fluke.  Will South Florida help redeem the reputation of the Big East, or will Kansas carry the Big 12 banner?

Wisconsin vs. Fresno State, Saturday, 10:30 PM ET
A lot of people were talking about this game before the year started because it has a legitimate BCS team in Wisconsin traveling to California to play at Fresno.  Give Wisconsin credit for answering the bell.  Last year Wisconsin almost got upset at UNLV, but they are willing to go wherever.  Fresno has already created a stir by beating Rutgers in Piscataway.

Ike is Coming

Ike is doing some interesting stuff with college football this week.  Hurricane Ike that is.  Ike appears to be headed for the Texas coast.  The Texas vs. Arkansas game in Austin (2:30 PM CT) appears to be in jeopardy with officials exploring the option of postponing or moving the game.  TCU has already announced that it is moving its game with Stanford in Fort Worth to 12:00 PM CT in stead of the scheduled start of 6:00 PM CT.

LSU seems to be intent with playing its game in Baton Rouge with North Texas on Saturday (7:00 PM CT).  There is also no word from Waco about a change in the Baylor game (11:30 AM CT).  The Houston Cougars are moving their game with Air Force to SMU’s Ford Stadium at 2:30 PM ET.  It will be a windy, wet mess throughout Southern, Central and North Texas.