Sunday, September 28, 2008

College Football: Some Of The Mighty Fall

Could you keep up with all the stunning upsets and unexpected outcomes in college football Saturday? The SEC alone had some games that no one saw coming.
First Ole Miss going into the Swamp and defeating Florida 31-30 with Kentrell Lockett blocking the extra point late in the 4th quarter to preserve the Rebel win. If you a student of Ole Miss football history then you know the Swamp is not as intimadating to the Rebels. This is the 2nd straight win for Ole Miss in Gainesville and all-time, Ole Miss is 6-3-1 at the Swamp.

This is a signature win for 1st year head coach Houston Nutt

"I asked the guys to believe in ourselves and to believe that we have a good team. We’ve always played hard, but we finished this game today. We can build on this. . ” Nutt said.

Watch out for the Rebels from here on out.

Dog Roll Over For Tide

OK, Maybe Jolly Ole St. Nick is worth millions. The Alabama Crimson Tide went into Athens, Georgia and beat the heck out of the Georgia Bulldogs between the hedges. Nick Saban has put together a Crimson Tide team that doesn't do anything spectuacular than just line up and try to beat the hell out of you. Next thing you know, your down 31 points. The Tide did that to Clemson to open the season and followed that script against Georgia. Alabama is a lot better than we thought.

"I’m very proud of how we played. Georgia is a fine team." Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban said. "We made a lot of plays in the first half. It’s a great team win. If you lose your intensity in a game like this at halftime and you let Georgia get back in it, there are lessons to learn. I’m looking at what we need to do to become better. If you don’t come every week to play with intensity, the other team will beat you. We got beat in the second half 30-10. I hope we learn from this: what did I learn from when we played well and from when we didn’t. This is a big and great win for us. Georgia has a lot of good players and they are coached very well."

Even in the glow of a great win, Jolly Ole St. Nick is still keepin' it real.

Paws And Reflect, What's Up At Clemson

The Clemson Tigers were the overwhelming favorite to capture the ACC Championship. After a humilating loss to Alabama to open the season some eyebrows were raised as to maybe Clemson was over rated. Now the 20-17 loss to Maryland at Death Valley has you scratching you head. What has happened to Clemson.

"We self-imploded today." Head Coach Tommy Bowden said. "We had critical points in the game where we made mistakes, especially with penalties and fumbles. We didn't play sharp today and that was the reason we lost."

Bowden added "They made plays when they needed to in the second half, and we didn't. They came out of the locker room with defensive adjustments and they capitalized on that."

Clemson must regroup because Wake Forest is next and the Demon Deacons were also a victum of an upset. The Deacs were dumped by Navy 24-17. Wake committed 6 turnovers while quarterback Riley Skinner threw a career high 4 interceptions.

"I missed some throws, over throwing people and I tried to force some throws." Skinner said. "I just really hurt our team tonight which I feel bad about because our defense played well in the second half. They gave us chances to score and we didn't come away with the points we needed."

East Carolina Falls Back To Earth

After shocking the college football world twice to open the season, the Pirates have walked the plank twice as reality has set in. East Carolina fell to Conference USA rival Houston 41-24 as the Cougars racked up 621 yards of total offense. It's the second loss of the year for ECU and their BCS dreams are over.

The Pirate offense was so ineffective that head coach Skip Holtz pulled starting quarterback Patrick Pinckney at halftime for backup Rob Kass.
It was Houston's first road win over a ranked opponant since 1984.

Hail To The Victors

Don't think I forgot you Big 10 fans. Michigan got its first signiture win in the Rich Rodriquez era with a come from behinder over Wisconsin 27-25. The Wolverines came back from 19 points down scoring 27 straight points in the 500th game played at the Big House.

"I'd like to tell you things looked okay at halftime but they didn't. Wow -- there was no panic." Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriquez said. "We were just trying to make some corrections, but if there was a hole to crawl into, I'm sure a bunch of us, including myself, would have liked to crawl into it. But we didn't. We hung in there with the guys and they did a tremendous job on defense to keep us in it."

So as we absorb this past Saturday of college football the conclusion drawn is that Southern California is not invinceable, Georgia's got some issues, Clemson has much bigger issues, Alabama is pretty damn good, Florida has to rely on Tim Tebow and Michigan still has its mystic.

Ole Miss/Florida Photos Courtesy: AP Photo-The Gainesville Sun, Brandon K
Tommy Bowden Photo Courtesy: Bart Boatwright/The Greenville News

Here's your recap of the Michigan game from WXYZ-TV in Detroit...

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