Oct 25th, 2009
We’re making a U turn, or at least a turn toward the letter U, as we look at college football across the nation.
UNLIKELY SITUATION – If Oregon beats USC in Eugene on Halloween – and Oregon should be favored, but isn’t – the Ducks would nearly assure themselves a Rose Bowl berth. The Ducks would own a two-game lead on every team except Arizona, and even if the Ducks lost two of their final four games after beating the Trojans, they would win most of the tie-breakers to earn the Rose Bowl berth.
Less than a month ago Oregon embarrassed itself on national TV with a 19-8 loss to Boise State, with QB Jeremiah Masoli doing virtually nothing and touted running back LeGarrette Blount, gaining negative-5 yards then getting suspended for hitting a Boise State player. The season was declared a lost cause.
Oddly enough, it has been Blount’s replacement, redshirt freshman LaMichael James, who has been the instigator of Oregon’s resurgence. If you discard the first two games, before James had claimed the No. 1 running-back spot, he would be leading the conference in rushing now. If he continues to produce big plays, the Pac-10 offensive player of the year could be a freshman running back from Texas for the second straight year.
UNUSUAL ROUTE TO STARDOM – Freddie Barnes of Bowling Green and Kerry Meier of Kansas have something in common besides ranking first and second in the nation in receptions. Both were starting quarterbacks as redshirt freshman.
Freddie Barnes (7) may set record -- Photo by Andrew Weber
Meier started eight games at quarterback in 2006, before Todd Reesing came along, causing Meier to change positions and catch 62 of Reesing’s passes this season. Barnes was the Falcons’ starting quarterback in the 2006 opener, and her had a big game, completing 12 of 19 passes and running for 158 yards against Wisconsin. But now he leads the nation by a wide margin in receptions, with 99, and is on pace to break the single-season record of 142 set in 1989 by Houston’s Manny Hazard, who, incidentally, went to Oceana High School in Pacifica and City College of San Francisco.
UNFAIR – Texas Christian and Boise State both easily could finish unbeaten and ranked in the top five of the final BCS standings. But one would likely get left out of the five BCS games, and will no doubt be the Broncos.
Only one non-BCS team is guaranteed a BCS berth, and although a second non-BCS team could be among the teams eligible for one of the four at-large berths, TCU or Boise State might be passed over. Neither would attract as big a television audience as the other eligible at-large teams. If the selections were today, the second non-BCS qualifier would be competing against Penn State, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Virginia Tech for one of the four remaining spots.
Even though Boise State is ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, ahead of TCU, the Horned Frogs have already jumped ahead of Boise State in the BCS standings, thanks to the computers, and the gap between them will only get bigger as Boise plays out its weak Western Athletic Conference schedule.
Certainly, TCU’s lopsided road win against BYU gives the Horned Frogs top-10 credentials, but Boise State’s dominanting win over Oregon (No. 10 in this week’s BCS standings) way back in the opener seems to have been forgotten.
UNACCEPTABLE – You have to wonder what Nebraska athletic director was thinking after Nebraska turned the ball over eight times on Saturday in a 9-7 loss to Iowa State — at home, no less.
A few noteworthy aspects of those eight turnovers:
Wally Butts coached Georgia in 1951 -- Photo GeorgiaEncyclopedia.com
• It was not even close to the record of 13 turnovers committed by Georgia against Georgia Tech in 1951. In fact, a team once won a game despite committing 11 turnovers.
• Nebraska had committed only seven turnovers all season before Saturday and was among the nation’s leaders before its outbreak of the clumsies.
• Cincinnati has committed only four turnovers the entire season.
• Nebraska had a chance to win the game, losing by just two. Evidently the Huskers’ defense couldn’t come up with the safety when it was needed.
