By Terry Bowden, Yahoo! Sports
October 22, 2007
After another weekend in which four teams in the top 10 lost, you have to begin to wonder if anyone is going to be able to remain undefeated when the regular season is all over.
At present, five teams remain perfect and NONE were on anybody's list of preseason favorites to play for the national championship. Only Ohio State, which played – and that's a loosely applied term – in the national championship game last season, would be considered one of the usual suspects to make it to the big dance. Boston College, Arizona State, Kansas, and Hawaii would all fall into the deep, deep sleeper role for a BCS championship slot. Each remains in the hunt for the final matchup, with the probable exception of Hawaii. The Warriors' strength of schedule will likely exclude them from the Sugar Bowl even if they win out.
So which is most likely to remain unbeaten? To be honest, although nothing would surprise me this year, I'm not betting on any of them running the table. Leaving Hawaii out of the discussion for BCS purposes, each one of these teams have extremely difficult schedules. Ohio State (Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan), Boston College (Virginia Tech, Florida State, Maryland, Clemson, Miami), Arizona State (California, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Arizona), and Kansas (Texas A&M, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Missouri) not only will have a difficult time running the table, but could very well lose all or most of their remaining games. I’m not saying they will, but just that they could.
If we're now considering one-loss teams for the championship, that would add about nine more possibilities. But when you look at their schedules, I don't see any of them winning out either. So, does this mean a two-loss team will finally make it to the BCS championship game? Don't get me headed down that road, because then I'll start throwing out that P-word again.
My preseason selection for the national championship game was Southern California and West Virginia. And, with the way things are going, I still may be right.
Who knows?
Now, some of my observations of the weekend …
Ohio State held on to the No. 1 spot for the second week in a row by hanging on for a 24-17 victory over Michigan State. You know why some teams never complain when the ball doesn't bounce their way? It's because they play such great defense that when it happens, it doesn't impact the outcome of the game. The Buckeyes turned the ball over twice late in the third quarter, both resulting in Spartan touchdowns. They almost lost another fumble deep in their own territory on the next play, but because of a 17-0 cushion built in the first half, they held on for their eighth straight victory.
Florida is without a doubt the best two-loss team in the country. Sophomore sensation Tim Tebow upstaged Kentucky's Andre' Woodson – but not by much – in one of the best quarterback duels of the year. If Woodson is going to garner a trip to New York City and a chance to win the Heisman Trophy, he better get in line behind Tebow. In a classic 45-37 shootout where Woodson threw five touchdown passes, Tebow ran for one and threw for four more himself, including his signature jump pass from the goal line. Adolph Rupp would surely have been proud.
Oregon keeps right on rolling through the Pac-10 with an impressive 55-34 manhandling of Washington. Nobody runs the spread option on the West Coast, and maybe the entire country, better than the Ducks; and it is their unrelenting rushing attack that now makes them a clear contender to win the conference title. Against the Husky defense, Oregon rushed for a whopping 465 yards, including 251 from tailback Jonathan Stewart. It was the second best rushing effort in school history.
Virginia, which struggled through a 5-7 season in 2006, might be the biggest turnaround story of the year, as it scored with 16 seconds left to come from behind and defeat Maryland, 18-17. After opening the season with an embarrassing loss to Wyoming, the Cavaliers have reeled off seven straight victories to go 7-1 and remain undefeated in the ACC. Nobody wins the close ones better than Virginia this season as five of their seven wins have been by five points or less. Its last three victories have come by a total of four points.
West Virginia (7-1) which had risen to as high as second in the polls before losing a turnover-plagued game to South Florida, has slowly climbed back into contention for the national championship game with an easy 38-13 drubbing of Mississippi State. Also, with each victory, quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton climb back into the Heisman race.
Kansas beat Colorado 19-14 to remain the only unbeaten team in the Big 12. They have a whole lot of winning to do if they are going to think about playing for all the marbles in New Orleans, but as it looks now, only Missouri stands between the Jayhawks and the Big 12 championship game.
And finally, LSU.
The Tigers from Baton Rouge won another nail biter 30-24 against the Tigers from Auburn. On yet another unbelievable call by coach Les Miles on the last play of the game, he decided to forgo the winning field goal from the 22-yard line and throw a pass into the back of the end zone with eight seconds left. Although the pass was caught with one second showing on the clock, there is a good chance time would have run out if the ball had been dropped or deflected and LSU would have been unable to utilize its last timeout. I nicknamed Coach Miles, "Sparky" after his gutsy fourth-down calls against Florida two weeks ago. But there was nothing gutsy about this one at all. It was just a bad call gone good.
Terry Bowden is Yahoo! Sports' college football analyst. For more information about Terry, visit his official web site.
Send Terry a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast. Updated on Monday, Oct 22, 2007 8:27 am, EDT Email to a Friend | View Popular
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