Sometimes the reason one team beats another is so thin, so blurred, that it’s hard to notice.
The reason LSU beat Florida 28-24 Saturday night is because Jacob Hester always gave the Tigers an extra yard or two when stopped in the hole.
Why is that so important?
First, with Early Doucet injured, the Tigers didn’t have any real big play receiver to attack the Gators deep, or even to break short receptions into big gainers.
That meant LSU’s scoring drives had to be methodical. And methodical drives don’t work if you’re getting stopped for one yard on first down.
Instead, Hester would get hit and fall forward for three or four. Same thing on second and third down.
And when the Gator defense would hold strong and force a fourth down, there was Hester getting stopped behind the line—but continuing to move his feet to pick up enough inches for the first down.
With one final two-yard surge from Hester with 1:09 on the clock, LSU had come from 10 points down to beat the Gators.
Five times LSU went for it on fourth down. Five times they were successful. The fact they went for it on five separate occasions shows considerable confidence by Les Miles in his players—a confidence that coaxes tremendous energy and effort out of them.
How can you not bring all you have for a coach who believes you can succeed in every tough situation?
What's more, the fact they converted all five tries shows the Tigers are a team that executes perfectly in do-or-die situations. These intangibles are the reasons why LSU is the No. 1 team in the land.
Of course, it didn’t hurt to get a recovery after a Kestahn Moore fumble, or a gift interception after a Tim Tebow pass attempt hit Cornelius Ingram in the head and bounced into the arms of Kirston Pittman.
In fact, until those two turnovers, the Gators actually controlled the game. Tebow dictated the tempo with his running and short passing. The Gator offensive line controlled the Tigers front four, especially with Florida's Jim Tartt locking up preseason All-American Glenn Dorsey.
A more experienced Gator team would have known how to finish the game off with a win.
But instead the Tigers were the ones making big plays in the second half, the Tigers were the ones playing with transcendent confidence, and the Tigers were the ones gaining the extra yards they needed to pull away with a victory.
Before this weekend, Tennessee was sitting at 2-2, with neither of their wins coming against a halfway decent team.
It could’ve been that Phillip Fulmer had lost his edge as a coach. Or maybe it was simply that Tennessee had faced two of the best teams in the country, both on the road.
After finally getting a lesser opponent at home, the Vols put on a vintage Tennessee beatdown at the expense of Georgia.
Whether it was Arian Foster and Montario Hardesty gashing through holes or LeMarcus Coker catching a 56-yard touchdown pass on a reverse option, it was clear right from the start that Tennessee was going to have a very varied offense.
In fact, it was surprising how easily the Vols ground out yards against a very stingy Georgia defense. Tennessee put on a nine-minute drive on their first possession, filled with nothing but runs and short passes.
12 plays later, the Vols had a 7-0 lead.
With Georgia forced to step up into the box, Fulmer called a reverse for Lucas Taylor—only it wasn’t a reverse. Taylor stopped and threw to LeMarcus Coker, who was running up the left sideline unguarded.
14-0, Tennessee.
A blocked punt on the next possession made it 21-0, and a 21-yard Arian Foster run on the following possession made it 28-0.
From there, the Vols could coast to a victory.
Tennessee's defense allowed only two first downs in the entire first half. With the Bulldogs unable to move the chains and reverse field position, it was easy for the Vols offense to dominate.
How did a 2-2 team make beating Georgia look so easy? Maybe Fulmer conjured up some magic from his past. Or maybe it’s simply the fact that facing Georgia at home is a tad bit easier than winning at California or Florida.
Missouri is easily the favorite to win the Big 12 North, but don’t forget how the Tigers have been prone to disappoint in the second half of the season.
Still, if the Tigers don’t lose to any team not named Oklahoma, they could end up in the BCS—especially if it comes down to a decision between Missouri and Illinois.
Remember that low-key Week One game where Missouri jumped out to a big lead and held on for the win against the Illini?
That game might determine the 10th BCS team.
After watching Illinois’ offense work against Wisconsin, maybe the Illini can punch their ticket to the BCS the old-fashioned way—by winning the Big Ten outright.
They only have two difficult games left: a home date with Michigan and a road game at Ohio State, which will probably be their undoing.
Still, a 10-2 record and second-place finish might be too much for the BCS bowls to ignore.
Ron Zook’s recruiting has brought a wealth of talent to Champaign. Unlike the coach's Florida squads, these young Illini aren’t collapsing against lesser teams or blowing huge leads in the fourth quarter.
Maybe it’s because the Illini have been the underdogs the last few years. Now that the country has taken notice, it will be interesting to see whether Zook again falls flat on his face.
Still, Illinois has been one of the season’s nicer surprises.
The nightmare continues for Louisville.
They only lost by nine to Utah, but the Utes dominated the game. If Ron Zook has been one of the season's positive coaching surprises, Steve Kragthorpe has been a shock in the other direction.
Except for their first few years in the Big East, the Cardinals have never had many elite defensive playmakers. Could it be that Bobby Petrino got lucky with a few defensive lineman like Amobi Okoye and Elvis Dumervill masking the Cardinals' defensive problems?
Utah has beaten Louisville on the road in a game that saw them up by 20 at one point. Utah has beaten UCLA at home by 38. Utah has lost on the road to a flaky Oregon State team by 17. Utah has been shut out on the road by UNLV 27-0. Utah has lost at home to Air Force by eight.
You try figuring this team out.
I liked Kentucky as a Top 15 team, but didn’t like them as a Top 10 team.
Their big wins were more ordinary than people wanted to admit, and their defense was one of the worst in the SEC. South Carolina only had 342 yards of total offense against them but was able to control the game, moving the sticks by going 6/13 on third downs.
Tennessee, Florida, and LSU still play at Kentucky, and the Wildcats have road dates remaining at Vanderbilt and Georgia. The 'Cats will definitely win one, probably two of those games, but they won't sniff the Top 10 for a while.
Maybe the Miami Hurricanes aren't really back. Maybe Texas A&M is just a really mediocre program right now.
Staying with Florida teams, the Florida State Seminoles have played really well this season, save for a bad first half against Clemson. Their defense is still stifling, and QB Xavier Lee has given the offense a nice shot in the arm.
The game I’m most excited to watch next season?
Forget LSU-Florida, USC-Cal, Ohio State-Michigan, and Texas-Oklahoma—I want to watch Northwestern and Michigan State!
I don’t think the two teams have ever played a boring game against each other.
The ACC is like a giant whirlpool. On one side of the pool you have success, on the other side you have disappointment, and in the middle you have a violent maelstrom, sucking teams into mediocrity.
Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, and Miami are right back in the middle of the pool, NC State and Duke are drowning in their end, while Maryland, Florida State, and Virginia are trying to break out.
If I had to pick one team to make it out of the ACC, it would be Virginia Tech. They’re the most consistent swimmers.
Temple got a 39-yard Jake Brownell field goal with nine seconds left to lift the Owls over Northern Illinois. Congratulations, Northern Illinois: You now might be the worst team in the country!
Sam Bradford had another ultra-efficient game, leading the Oklahoma Sooners to a win over Texas. If he was a senior, he’d be getting considerable Heisman attention, especially since nobody else wants to take the award and run away with it.
Virginia needed a 34-yard field goal with eight seconds left to escape Middle Tennessee State with a win. Virginia has an easier go of it against ACC teams than they do against Mountain West and Sun Belt teams.
Texas A&M has used smoke and mirrors to jump out to their 5-1 start. They now have a home date against Kansas sandwiched between trips to Nebraska, Texas Tech, Missouri, and Oklahoma, and they finish up facing Texas.
That 5-1 start might end up 5-7 in a hurry.
We gave too much credit to Rutgers based on one magical season.
The Scarlet Knights just haven’t been tough this year, and QB Mike Teel hasn’t taken the next step forward. He threw three picks in Rutgers’ loss to Cincinnati. The Bearcats also held Ray Rice to 94 yards on 34 carries.
Don’t look now, but that Cincinnati-South Florida game on November 3rd might be for the Big East title.
Purdue isn’t bad by any stretch, but when was the last time they were able to put up points against a good defense? The Boilermakers always get off to good starts by scheduling patsy nonconference teams...and then get smacked down by the "Big Boys" in the Big Ten.
People tricked themselves into saying Purdue would put up points against Ohio State because Ohio State hadn’t faced a good offense so far. That had some merit to it, but Washington and Northwestern aren’t terrible offensive clubs.
Plus, Ohio State had experience relying on their defense to make plays, because the Buckeyes were locked in tough battles with Akron and Washington. Purdue, meanwhile, was jumping out early against bad teams and calling their own shots.
If Ohio State’s defense had shown some chinks in it, like Wisconsin’s defense had, I would've had no problems with people picking Purdue to beat the Buckeyes. But Ohio State has now allowed more than seven points in only one of six games.
Until the Buckeyes face an elite offense, I’m going to keep trusting that defense to win games.
They got all the gifts in the world and still couldn’t do much with them, but at least Notre Dame won't be winless this year.
The defense was opportunistic in forcing seven turnovers against UCLA—and while the offense was still hideous, they didn’t commit a single turnover.
Baby steps for Notre Dame, but they face Boston College and USC next.
Jim Harbaugh has accomplished two things this season: With his “insult” of Michigan's academic standards and his sarcastic declaration that USC is “the best college football team ever,” he forced the nation to pay attention to Stanford.
Now, with his win over USC, he’s accomplished one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
I mean, he beat USC in Los Angeles. Nobody does that.
Harbaugh’s shown personality, he’s shown guts, and now he’s shown results. He’ll piss everyone off along the way, but he might be the next big college football personality.
Someone predicted USC would lose to Stanford. That person was (thinks)...umm, it was (takes out huge textbook and flips through it)...ummm, it was (puts on a monocle and keeps looking)...hold on a sec (takes out a second huge textbook and leafs through it)...(closes textbook).
Nobody, absolutely nobody, predicted Stanford would beat USC.
Wow. I guess that upset really did come out of nowhere.
Unlike Stanford’s upset win, my Top 25 picks don’t come out of nowhere—they’re very thoughtfully and meticulously crafted after careful research.
Jim Harbaugh would be proud to know that I don’t lower my standards for any team, and he wouldn’t be sarcastic if he declared it “the greatest college football poll, ever.”
My Top 25:
1) LSU
2) Cal
3) Ohio State
4) USF
5) Oregon
6) Oklahoma
7) Arizona State
8) West Virginia
9) Boston College
10) South Carolina
11) Florida
12) Missouri
13) Cincinnati
14) Virginia Tech
15) Illinois
16) Auburn
17) USC
18) Wisconsin
19) Kentucky
20) Kansas
21) Tennessee
22) Purdue
23) Hawaii
24) Georgia
25) Florida State
