Upsets are fun to watch but are absolutely brutal on my college football picks and subsequent winning percentage. There were some upsets that surprised me over the weekend (Auburn, Iowa) and some that didn’t (Kentucky, UCLA). A little bit on UCLA before the notes. Why was this team ranked in the top 15 to begin with? Make no mistake, the Bruins appearance towards the top of the polls was undeserved and based solely on their win against a sleeping USC team in the last week of the regular season. I, like everyone, was surprised that Utah came out and had the offense day they had after they struggled to score points against Oregon State and Air Force. UCLA still has the potential to be a dangerous team but their loss to the Utes in Salt Lake City shouldn’t have been all that surprising.
Game of the Week - Tennessee at Florida
No big plays. When I think about this game and why Tennessee lost, in deciding fashion, to the Gators in 2007, those three words will ultimately come to mind. I’ve watched the Vols play twice this year and twice they’ve lost for the same reason. Against a team with superior speed and athleticism on defense, they’ve tried to quick slant, bubble screen and 5-yard comeback route their way to victory. And twice they’ve gotten absolutely destroyed. In the first half Tennessee was plagued by a chronic inability to finish drives and put points on the board. On one such drive with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, Florida countered with two touchdown drives of their own. Finally, the UT offense showed a sense of urgency, like they emerged from their coma and realized that they were down 28-6 and were able to punch in a score at the end of the first half. The second half began promising enough for the Vols after true freshman Eric Berry picked off a pass and took it to the house for six. I’ll say this about Tim Tebow, he’s a heck of an athlete but a terrible open field tackler. He just totally whiffed on Berry. And then there
was the fumble. I wonder at what point you have to sit Erik Ainge because he can’t make the exchange to the team’s tailbacks. You can’t have a quarterback that can’t hand the ball off. It’s really that simple. To have Ainge backhanding exchanges is unacceptable and in this case, costs Tennessee the game. I think there is a growing fissure on the Volunteers between the offense and the defense. After Ainge throws that ball into Arian Foster’s chest, the defense appeared to be just demoralized and realized that no matter what they did unless Eric Berry picked the ball off and took it the distance four more times, there was nothing they could if the offense wasn’t going to put up points. But the story of the game for me was Florida’s ability to make big plays. Just to paint the picture for you, Florida was average more than 8 yards per offensive play and more than 21 yards per reception. I am not yet ready to put Florida in the top 3 with Oklahoma, LSU and USC but the Oct. 3 matchup between the Gators and Tigers in Baton Rouge promises to be epic but I think the development of Riley Cooper and Louis Murphy as legitimate scoring threats alongside Tebow and Percy Harvin is a scary proposition for the SEC and the rest of college football. For Tennessee, there were just too many blown opportunities and missed chances. The real low point in an otherwise pretty entertaining game for me was the mind-numbing interview with that balding midget Kenny Chesney and his cheesy, fratty faded Red Sox hat. A die hard Red Sox fan from Tennessee? Take a trip to Southie and see how that works out. And while we’re on the subject, can we vote to do away, once and for all, with the celebrity fan interview and cameo and the girlfriend/father/mother/brother/cousin cam?
Overrated win of the week: Alabama
For the true Alabama football fan, not the starved-for-recognition-and-for-God’s-sake-a-win-against-Auburn Alabama football fan, you have to know that you didn’t deserve that one. If you need two questionable pass interference calls on the final drive at the end of a game at home to win, that win has to feel a little hollow. Let’s be honest for a second Tide fans. Well if we’re really being honest, those Houndstooth baseball caps are just horrifyingly tacky and secondly, if this game were being played in Fayetteville instead of Tuscaloosa, you probably don’t get one 
or both of those calls. At the beginning of that game, there was a lot to feel good about if you’re an Alabama fan. The defense created turnovers, the normally deer-in-headlights John Parker Wilson looked good in the pocket and picked apart a ghastly Arkansas secondary. But then there’s that second half. You know, the whole blowing a 21-point-lead in the second half at home thing. Against a better team, a team who’s best player (who also happens to be a Heisman Trophy candidate) isn’t on the sideline cramping, you get beat and beat soundly when you give up that kind of a lead. No doubt the win against Arkansas is the first significant win of the Saban-era Tide but this isn’t the signature win this program needs to return to its former glory. My hats off to Houston Nutt and the Razorbacks for not giving up when everyone, myself included, thought they were destined for a blowout.
Best Win of the Week: Kentucky
This upset really wasn’t a surprise to anyone who knows anything about college football.
Rich Brooks has this program on the way up and given that Andre Woodson, the SEC’s best quarterback, has an array of weapons including Jacob Tamme, Rafael Little and Keenan Burton to throw to, you knew the Cardinals were in for it at Commonwealth Stadium Saturday night in Lexington. In addition to proving that last year’s 8-4 record wasn’t a fluke for Brooks and Kentucky, the win against the number 9-ranked Cards proves that the Big East really is a laughably weak football conference. When your best (or second best, let’s not split hairs) team is getting beat by the 6th or 7th best team in the SEC, you have no claim to the national championship as a conference. The Big East is continuing its tradition as a second-rate Thursday night football conference.
Win of Affirmation: USC
Saturday night confirmed what many of us already knew: USC is a pretty good football team. There were moments during Saturday’s game in Lincoln against the Huskers that USC looked a little sloppy, played a little undisciplined and John David Booty proved that he is not the Heisman trophy winner, playing more like a game manager than a game changer. But USC is still really good. Nothing that Nebraska tried on offense was
the least bit successful and there was nothing the Blackshirts could do to prevent Stefon Johnson (who looked like LenDale White only skinnier and faster) and C.J. Gable from running all over them. You’re not going to beat too many Div. 1-A teams giving up 313 yards on the ground and over 8 yards a carry. Nebraska, meanwhile, will likely win the Big 12 North by default but will get absolutely annihilated by Oklahoma, who has one of college football’s most exciting young tailbacks in Demarco Murray, in the Big 12 Championship. I will say that Sam Keller’s demeanor during the game was impressive to me. He never seemed to get too up or too down but I don’t think he ever recovered from the first interception he threw. I am not convinced that during the course of a game Keller can keep things from going from bad to worse. Many across the country, particularly in the South, were looking for a reason to vault LSU up to that top spot but the Trojans proved that they were worthy of all the preseason hype by beating Nebraska in convincing fashion.
Team I will never pick against for the rest of the season: Boston College
Make that three ACC wins in three consecutive weeks to open the season for Boston College. Matt Ryan, to put it simply, is the truth. Ryan carved up the much-hyped
Georgia Tech defense to the tune of 435 yards on 30 of 44 completions for a touchdown and no interceptions in Atlanta. He seems to be right at home in new head coach Jeff Jagodzinski’s offense and any Heisman conversation that doesn’t include Matt Ryan isn’t a serious one. The Eagle defense stepped up Saturday night as well and held Georgia Tech running back Tashard Choice, who ran all over Notre Dame and Samford, to just 31 yards on 15 carries. Though the game finished 24-10, BC had a 21-0 lead going into the fourth quarter. At this point in the year, Jagodzinski is my pick for coach of the year and his Eagles have to be the favorite to win the watered-down ACC. The rest of the Eagles schedule reads like a Who’s Who of teams that were supposed to be great but for one reason or another are just average after three weeks of play. The Eagles still have to travel to Virginia Tech, to Maryland and to Clemson and must host the Miami and Florida State. I don’t think this time will run the table and go undefeated, there is at least one landmine in there somewhere but winning Saturday in Atlanta against Georgia Tech is a big win for this football team.
Most Disappointing: Auburn
Everyone knew how good USF was and anyone who was surprised that Matt Grothe, Jim Leavitt and the Bulls traveled up to Auburn and beat the Tigers hasn’t been paying
attention to the recent rise of that program. But to get beat by the Fighting Crooms the following week at home is unbelievable. Lest we forget that this was a Mississippi State team that tallied a grand total of 41 yards through the air and just over 170 on the ground. How did this happen? Well quarterback play. Or in the case of Auburn bad quarterback play. Brandon Cox got the hook after his first two passes were picked off and his replacement, freshman Kodi Burns, didn’t fair much better and threw an interception of his own. Many believed that this team would only go as far as Brandon Cox could take them and we have found out just how far that is. You can’t turn the ball over 5 times and expect to beat anyone in college football and if Auburn doesn’t learn how to take care of the ball, they could easily fall short of six wins and be home come December. One could argue that this is a Auburn team that could still feasibly upset someone later on in the year but given their turnover problem and now there are issues at quarterback, I just don’t see that happening. This could be the year that Alabama finally bests Auburn.
