There were some pretty good games today without really too many surprises. Perhaps the biggest shocker of the day was the Rockets nearly taking down the Buckeyes. Toledo looks to be a pretty good MAC ball club and Ohio State is likely pretty suspect. Don't think they will hang with Wisconsin, Nebraska or perhaps even Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, and PSU. Of course the Cornhuskers didn't have an easy go of it when the bulldogs of Fresno State came calling. Not at all. Pat Hill's "play anyone, anywhere" attitude will always cost him some losses but it gives his team some big time game experience for a run in the WAC. Iowa lost their rivalry game to Iowa State which is somewhat of a rarity. Anything can happen in one of those emotionally charged games.
Speaking of the WAC; Nevada just did not show up against the Ducks. The Oregon squad likely had something to prove and took it out on the Wolfpack. I would have expected the Nevada team to at least keep it close and even thought they might pull one out of the hat. Didn't happen. Oregon rolled with ease. Louisiana Tech had a pretty tough one and had to escape with an OT win over the Bears of UCA. I knew the Bears were a good team and they may yet make a bit of noise in the IAA Southland.
Texas may not have a team to remember but they did squeak one out over a pretty decent BYU squad. If Mack hopes to compete with the Cowboys, Aggies, Bears and Sooners he better get his boys to step it up a bit. There were a lot of folks off this week in the Big 12. Oklahoma State looks to be a good ball club and Mizzou will probably end up with some kind of bowl game.
It was a fairly good week for Sun Belt ball. If one of them team beats a BCS conference team, even a relatively weak one, then that qualifies for a good week. FIU took Louisville to the woodshed. WKU was at least competitive against the Midshipmen (for a while), and Arkansas State and Louisiana Lafayette were victors against Division One competition. FAU was blown out by a pretty fair Spartan squad but that was expected.
South Carolina again escaped with a close victory over a decent competition. ECU last week and Georgia this. I don't think that any of the teams in the SEC East will be a serious challenger to take the conference crown but the South Carolina and Florida appear to be the teams to beat over there. Auburn is living on borrowed time. They are very very lucky to be 2-0 at this point. Mississippi State is probably the better team at this juncture but they did not show it today.
Alabama beat Paterno's squad but that was pretty predictable. PSU is a pretty good Big Ten team likely but just not ready to take on the elite of the SEC. Arkansas has not been tested and Tennessee proved to be the better team than their competition today.
The local Houston teams made a decent showing today with the Coogs taking care of North Texas, although not in real convincing fashion, and Rice beating Purdue at home. Purdue almost had that one but a blocked field goal in the last seconds put Rice in the win column here.
I am a bit surprised that USC did not get taken care of today by the UTES. After last week's showing against a very weak Gopher team, (the Gophers lost to New Mexico State today), I did not think the Trojans had much. Probably Utah is the better team and will likely have a better record and better bowl before all is said and done. Oh wait. USC does not get to go bowling do they? There is a cost to having a rogue program. As of this writing UCLA and the lowly SJSU Spartans are tied. It would be nice to see the Spartans upset the Bruins. Probably won't happen, but one can hope.
This week I am again 15-5 for a grand total of 30-10 on the season. Not too shabby but not near the 80 percent that I am shooting for.
I will have the week three predictions up as soon as I get around to it.
Have a good week
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