Saturday saw several upsets that were, in retrospect, perhaps not that unpredictable. After playing the 200th ranked schedule in the country, the Ole Miss Rebels welcomed an SEC team that was 100% ready, willing, and able to punch them in the mouth, make the game ugly, and force the Rebs into winning man-on-man battles: They came up short. Again. And the fact Kentucky won this game by going for it on 4th down has to make ‘Cats fans sick from the lingering what-ifs of the Georgia game.
We wondered how K State would respond to getting smoked by BYU. They absolutely demolished Oklahoma State, and were up 50-20 at one point. Could A&M get back on track against a fairly mediocre Arkansas team? They won…again. Barely…again. How would the Illini fare against the White Out in Beaver Stadium, and how would PSU respond in kind to a well-coached team for a change? It was the defensive battle we expected. What stupid coaching decisions would Hugh Freeze make to cost Auburn another home game — try benching their starting QB and RB to run the wildcat on 4th and goal and going RPO when needing to milk the clock! He truly has the best plays.
And, of course, how would DeBoer’s Crimson Tide fare in his first major SEC contest? And were the Dawgs still jinxed by all things Crimson?
Those questions and more were answered on Saturday. So, here’s where we stand.
As usual, follows are a few brief remarks. The criteria are nebulous, far-ranging, and capricious — strength of schedule, bad and good coaching, injuries, exigent circumstances, home/away results, defense or lack thereof, offense or lack thereof, line play, power poll-ishness, can you cover a spread (Vegas is pretty smart about how good a team is), head-to-head where possible or prudent, and my own lying eyeballs.
Let’s dive in:
I see absolutely no reason to upend the apple cart with Nos. 1 – 3. The Longhorns had a brief tussle against the worst Mississippi State team we’ve seen in 15 years. Methinks the step up in competition, when it comes, is going to be eye-opening. Alabama and Georgia are still 1 and 2 — and these are the two best teams in the nation. Period. Texas A&M was once again in a snuggle struggle with a badly overmatched opponent. That team is as close to 1-3 as it is 3-1. The degree of difficulty improves markedly the last 2/3rds of the season, though. LSU finally played a complete game against an FBS team, thrashing South Alabama. I still think that defense is in trouble though, and that offense is kind of screwed when they face the SEC’s better teams. Mizzou and Tennessee were off, which is probably for the best: Oklahoma-Auburn and Arkansas-Aggie was all the redneckery the SEC could handle in one week. Not everyone can be warrior-poets from Tuscaloosa, the Harvard of West Central Alabama.
Ohio State finally played a .500 FBS team on the road, and they want to hang a banner. Like Ole Miss and Texas, there’s not much there to judge. They look good getting there at least?
Penn State showed it can still win those ugly ground wars against quality teams. And for Illinois’s part on Saturday, they just got out-talented; the team is still pretty good. That was quality Big 10 football. Nebraska finally left the state, and pieced together a very mansome whooping of the Boilermakers. Notre Dame had its first major test since the A&M win, and they looked the part pantsing a good Louisville team. That Northern Illinois game is looking less excusable by the week. Indiana played its first decent-ish foe, and the Hoosier lit them up too. That passing game is so dangerous. And I remain 100% convinced that Oregon is secretly dog poo. Those soft lines are going to get atomized when they get to the heart of the B1G schedule.
In the Meth Belt, Utah played with fire one too many times — that is, played with backups, and they came up short against Arizona. That team misses Cam Rising badly. And for Arizona’s part, their defense was the real story of the game. Kudos. BYU is just a machine at the moment. We praised Utah to the moon, but the Cougars have been the star of the Beehive State. Kansas State was very upset about last week, and then took it out on Oklahoma State: the most experienced team in the country. Mike Gundy is stealing checks. We have to give a shoutout to Prime and the Buffs’. Colorado is a fundamentally much more sound team in Year Two, and if anyone could expose their weaknesses, it was UCF’s ground attack. CU did more than enough on both ends, and dominated that game to move to 4-1. Only a road loss to UNL keeps them from being undefeated.
Washington State’s godawful penalty problem and even worse rushing defense came back to bite them in the ass on the Smurf Turf. Ashton is easily on par to breeze Barry Sanders’ record. I’d hate to see it fall against a lot of G5 slop and two games against awful P5 rushing defenses, but the kid is special. He’s the sole reason Boise State is winning games.
I’m getting less convinced that the ACC is actually as decent as we thought they were. So, Miami at home is on par with Vandy? Is that our takeaway…well, besides the fact the ACC really had to have a team in the playoffs, and their stripes knew the assignment. That its other head of the class, Clemson, mustered a miserable field goal against Georgia? The first talented team Louisville faced, they bit the curb? Do we want to live in a world with 5-0 Duke and 3-1 Virginia? This isn’t March. Regression to the mean is real.
I do still like Boston College though.
James Madison is still a thresher maw that absolutely no one wants to play. I don’t know how this group lost their coaching staff and a ton of talent to Indiana, and somehow got better. But they did. Hats off to UNLV too — the toyed with their food, rallied around the post-Sulka team, and then smooshed Fresno State far more convincingly than Michigan did. With Memphis’s stumble last week against Navy, these two are the leaders for now for that G5 Playoff spot. Speaking of Navy, Air Force may be awful, but Army and Navy are both undefeated, which is fantastic. The sport is better when the service academies (not you, Chair Force…I mean the real ones) are good.
And, just outside the Top 25, we have somehow-still-undefeated Liberty, North Texas who can score on anyone and can’t stop a sneeze with Kevlar, Texas Tech who I need to win one quality game to justify ranking them (they have three decent wins though). For that matter, you can put San Jose State, Clemson, Iowa, and Iowa State in the same boat. Though, out of that lot, probably Iowa State and Michigan are the closest. Ole Miss is likely here too. But drubbing Mercer, Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee, and Wake Forest — and then losing to Kentucky — ain’t how to get into the Blog Poll, son. At least Oregon beat an FBS team with a winning record. Barely.
Alright. There is Week 5 in the books. Have a great one.
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