Another great weekend in the books. Below are 10 takeaways from week 9 as well as some other bits of knowledge picked up this weekend. 1- Those who say there is nothing sweeter then revenge don’t know what they are talking about. Michigan State pulled away from Michigan late to spank the Wolverines 35-21. Michigan falls to 2-6 on the season, so Rich Rodriguez felt the pressure to finally sign his lucrative contract as the Wolverines crash and burn to a bowless and embarrassing year. Last year in another hotly tested contested game, Michigan players made some very disparaging comments about Michigan State. Below is Michigan State’s coach getting all hot and bothered about those comments. He must of enjoyed Saturday’s revenge win. Put me down as saying, that if Jim Tressel was to ever go anywhere, that I would have Dantonio on the top of my list as a replacement. The guy hates Michigan and has Buckeye roots…nuff said.
2- The way the ACC and the Big East are playing, its plausible that one conference or even both could finish the year with no teams ranked. Currently the Big East has USF ranked at 23 with Uconn, West Virginia, Pitt and Louisville lurking. Most of those “top” tier Big East teams still have to play each other. Those games and a bad bowl season could cripple the conference’s national perception. For the ACC, FSU seems to be the only team immune to losing in the Top 25 as Georgia Tech follow Virginia Tech, Wake Forrest on their way out of the top 25. I think its still a long-shot this conference has no top 25 teams at the end of the year but with FSU taking on Florida and a tough docket for Maryland and Georgia Tech coming up, this could be another pretty tough year for the conference. The fact that Miami vs. FSU has sunken to where it is now coupled with the fact that Virginia Tech seems to be slipping into medicocrity has set the tone for the short term outlook of the ACC. 3- Penn State is legit. OSU played them for 50 minutes dead even, but in the end the team who made less mistakes came away with the victory. OSU has a bright future with 2 great back to back recruiting classes but you got to feel that James Lauirinitis, Malcolm Jenkins, and Marcus Freeman and other Seniors are pretty bummed they couldn’t leave OSU with a national championship considering the team has been in the top 10 pretty much their entire careers. OSU being a true contender in 09 really boils down to if Chris Wells will stay in 2009. Without him, I see the Bucks being a top 10 team but not a top 5 team.
4- Oklahoma State put up more of a fight then I thought they would against Texas. Got my first extensive look at the Cowboys Kendall Hunter who looked pretty darn good to me. Undersized for sure, but in the right NFL system he could be a beast. I am thoroughly enjoying the high scoring showdowns of the Big 12 South between the Big 4 of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. Told you that Big 12 was going to be awesome this year. 5- With Missouri rounding back into form, I wouldn’t put it past them to throw the BCS a huge curveball by knocking off the Big 12 south winner in the conference championship game. The game will be in their back yard too.
Also don’t think that the party is over with the Big 12 after this year. Zach Robinson, Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, and Todd Reesing all return next year. I also think June Jones is really grooming Robert Griffin (freshmen qb 9td’s no picks) to be next great one in the Big 12. Is there any doubt this conference is just going to roll over teams come bowl season? 6- How about Tim Brewster for coach of the year? The Gophers are ranked at 7-1 and may find themselves in the top 15 going into bowl season. Quite the turnaround for a team that was 1-11 last year including losses to Bowling Green, Florida Atlantic, and North Dakota State. Quite an impressive turnaround. 7- Speaking of the Big 10, the conference is really in somewhat in a era of disarray. Have Michigan and Wisconsin ever been this bad? Joe Tiller is gone next year and IMO I think you’ll see Joe Paterno move on next year. The fact he wasn’t even in the locker room at halftime really symbolizes how far along the assistant coaches have come at that program. Nobody really knows what Zook has going at Illinois and who knows how look Farentz can tread water at Iowa.
With that in mind, you seem to have the Dantonio era taking root in East Lansing, Brewster building up respectability in Minnesota, and some progress being made at Northwestern. With a lot of national media attention on program consistency, it may be awhile before the Big Ten really settles into a state of balance. 8- Sheesh things are really ugly in Washington. The Sonics have left, the Mariners are one of the worst run teams in baseball, the Seahawks are imploding and do not have an optimistic future with the current talent in place, and then there are their 2 college teams. The Huskies are 0-7 this year and seem to be getting worse as the year goes on. I got even money if Tyrone even makes it to the end of the year.
On the other side of the state Washington State is 1-7, but that win was not against a D1 team. The Cougars have given 63+ points an amazing 4 times. The most amazing stat would be in their 7 losses their closest game was a 28-3 loss to UCLA. …. I feel like my JV team could have a chance against these guys. 9- Two games under the radar that intrigue me are Cal vs. Oregon and Notre Dame vs. Pitt. Both games are somewhat default Top 25 play in games. All 4 of these programs are somewhat in transitional modes so it will be interesting to see if any of these teams can make a loud statement of things to come. 10- Finally a look at the BCS picture.
IMO only 9 teams have a legitimate shot at the BCS. You can pretty much now write Alabama in pen in the SEC Championship game agaisnt the winner of Georgia va Florida. We’ll see this list cut down next week to at least 8 with either Georgia or Florida losing. Texas is now 1/2 way their gauntlet of a schedule.
Texas Tech is now the only other undefeated Big 12 team (besides Texas) but has their work cut out as Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State now loom on the schedule. They have to win two out of three of those games including a win against Texas to really have any shot. A Texas win next week pretty much makes Oklahoma State and Texas Tech last year’s Kansas. One of those teams may finish with one loss (not if the Sooners have anything to say about it), but they just don’t have the pedigree and traction with voters to leapfrog any other 1 loss teams.
Penn State at this point although number 3 in the country, probably is the most likely to make it to the title game. Shananaginz seem likely to occur for either Texas or Bama or maybe even both.
The Sooners to me are just a roadblock and buffer to keep out USC of the title game who really doesn’t belong to be there. The Sooners if they win out are more deserving.
Man if there was a playoff system with the teams above….. I would just be totally enthralled.
Other weekend notes
– Johnny Drama is a cock block. Poor Turtle.
– Mila Kunis is a babe (never knew she was the voice of Meg on Family guy). Her stock is way up after watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Mila Koo would not a great name too.
