College Football Random Thoughts From Around the Country: Week 4

If you love college football, last Saturday was a feast for the eyes. After two weeks of the big boys pushing cupcakes around, we finally got some meaningful games.

Before we begin our stroll around the country, let me say that going into Saturday I was a bit surprised to see that Clemson was ranked and Mississippi State was not. If you have been watching these two teams, you are probably perplexed by this as well. But that's why they play the games...

Mississippi State 34 LSU 29

We all knew MSU QB Dak Prescott was good and now so does the rest of the nation. He had 286 yards passing with 2 TDs and 105 on the ground and another score. The Bulldogs defense did the rest holding LSU to 89 yards rushing. Their front seven are for real.

Yet again, LSU QB Anthony Jennings looked terrible but freshman Brandon Harris showed promise throwing two late scoring passes to bring the Tigers back to 34-29. He might be the starter by the time Bama travels to Baton Rouge on November 8 - maybe sooner.

The final score makes it look a lot closer than it really was after a few back-ups screwed up a 34-10 fourth quarter lead. However, it would have been kinda funny if LSU had won because the stadium was practically empty at the end. So much for that off-season stadium expansion.

~~~~~

Florida State 23 Clemson 17 (OT)

There is a new verb making the rounds of the college football vernacular called "Clemsoning". I am sure you can guess its meaning. The Washington Post has an article entitled "Against Florida State, Clemson’s ‘Clemsoning’ was the most ‘Clemsoning’ Clemson ever Clemsoned". I couldn't have put it better myself.

The Seminoles did everything in their power to give the game to Clemson and the Tigers generously gave it right back. There are too many mistakes to list in just a couple of paragraphs but safe to say, FSU did not "win" this game. Clemson "lost" it. Or more aptly, Clemson "Clemsoned" it.

As for the most annoying player in college football, despite being suspended for the entire game, FSU QB Jameis Winston ran onto the field before the game in full pads, much to the exasperated dismay of his head coach Jimbo Fisher (see above) who sent Winston back to the locker room to change.

~~~~~

Huh? (Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

Indiana 31 Missouri 27

What the BLEEP happened here. A week ago, the doormat of the Big-Ten could not put together a win against Bowling Green. THis week, they upset a strong Mizzou team in Columbia and looked good doing it. The Tigers came in listless and could never get a rhythm going. Hand it to Indy because they played a solid game with no turnovers and only 5 penalties to Mizzou's 10. The odd stat of the day is that the Hoosiers were 1 for 13 on 3rd down conversions with 8 punts and still won.

~~~~~

GRAB BAG

Georgia Tech 27, Virginia Tech 24 - A second straight loss for the Hokies after beating Ohio State puts the Buckeyes further behind the eight-ball.
East Carolina 70, North Carolina 41 - The Pirates (3-1) are making some noise. They could/should easily run the table, but don't expect them to break into the playoff.
BYU 41, Virginia 33 - You are going to start hearing some media talk about BYU (4-0) crashing the CFB Playoff party. But are you impressed with a win over UVa? How about the win over a bad Texas team?
Utah 26, Michigan 10 - UM coach Brady Hoke is good as gone. Some folks think former Wolverines QB and current 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh is the obvious choice to replace him. The man is 37–13–1 at San Fran.
Oregon 38, Washington State 31 - The Ducks struggled with the 1-3 Cougars. Suddenly, Nike U. looks quite beatable.
Auburn 20, Kansas State 14 - same as above. K-State exposed the Auburn run game holding them to 128 rushing yards.
Arkansas 52, Northern Illinois 14 - Congrats to the Razorbacks on their 3-1 record. Oh by the way, your next three opponents are Texas A&M, Alabama, and Georgia.

~~~~~

BAMA STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

Oklahoma 45 West Virginia 33 - Well, if you are going to lose, it might as well be to a highly ranked team.
Southern Miss 21 Appalachian St 20 - the Eagles (2-2) blocked an extra-point attempt with 6 seconds remaining to secure the win.
Wyoming 20 FAU 19 - The Owls (1-3) were not as lucky. Up 19-17 late in the game, FAU QB fumbles on his own 11 yard line and the Cowboys kicked a chip shot field goal to win it.

~~~~~

ELIMINATED:

The ACC added 7 teams to the elimination list.*

CAL
CLEMSON *
MIAMI (FL)*
PITT*
SYRACUSE*
UNC*
VIRGINIA*
VIRGINIA TECH*
WEST VIRGINIA
Boston College
Colorado
Indiana
Iowa State
Michigan
Navy
Northwestern
Purdue
Texas
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
Washington State

~~~~~

Heisman Hype

• Desmond Howard was the last wide receiver to win the Heisman back in 1991. If the voters can open their hearts up to underclassmen, maybe they can see the greatness that is Amari Cooper. With 10 more receptions for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns, Coop continues to lead the nation in receiving with 655 yards, 163.8 ypg, 43 catches, and 10.8 rpg. It was his sixth straight 100-yard receiving game breaking a school record. He now owns the school record for career TDs (20) and is just 532 yards behind DJ Hall (2,923) for career yardage.
• UGA running back Todd Gurley played sparingly in a 66-0 rout of Troy. He had 6 rushes for 73 yards and no scores.
• Oregon's Marcus Mariota threw for 329 yards and five touchdowns in Oregon's 38-31 win over Washington State. Too bad nobody east of the Pecos saw the game.
• Jameis Winston may have killed any chance he had at repeating. (Jim Rome called him Ignoramus" Jameis.)

~~~~~

Extra Points

• Two weeks ago, I mentioned the lack of referees calling the celebration penalty. Well, I finally saw one this past weekend against none other than Vanderbilt of all teams. After Darrius Sims returned his second kickoff for a touchdown, he did a little dance no worse than the one Todd Gurley did against Clemson. The lesson here is that high-profile players like Gurley or Leonard Fournette can get away with it but not a player on a woeful team like Vandy trying to upset South Carolina.
  
• Homewood, Alabama native Ameer Abdullah became the career rushing leader at Nebraska, passing 1972 Heisman winner Johnny Rodgers. Coming out of high school in 2011 at 5-9 and 179 lbs., he had many offers but not from Alabama or Auburn.
• The SEC has suspended Mississippi State starting center Dillon Day for the Texas A&M game. On two occasions, he stepped on downed LSU players. If you watch the video, you might think they were accidents. However, Day has done this sort of thing before. MSU back-up center Archie Muniz played two downs against LSU with his second snap from center flying over Dak Prescott's head. The ball was recovered by the Bengal Tigers and converted into a touchdown.

~~~~~

Krazy Kristi's "SHUT UP!" of the Week goes to Ignoramus" Jameis. Will you please just go pro or go play baseball or something?

~~~~~

• The bye week could not come at a better time for Alabama as they need some time to heal up some nagging injuries. Wide receiver DeAndrew White was limited in practice this week and will be re-evaluated next week. A few other Alabama players were limited as a precaution. These include wide receivers Amari Cooper and Christion Jones, and quarterback Blake Sims (shoulder). Cornerback Eddie Jackson (quadriceps) and safety Jarrick Williams (foot) were back at full speed. Williams hasn't played since the season opener against West Virginia while Jackson missed the Florida game after being injured in the Southern Miss game. Reserve running back Tyren Jones also will be limited this week.
• Former Texas starting quarterback Davis Ash has called it a career after one too many concussions. If only Mack Brown had recruited some offensive lineman...
• Florida State starting defensive tackle Nile Lawrence-Stample suffered a torn pectoral in the win against Clemson and will miss the remainder of the season.

~~~~~

Only one game pits ranked teams against each other this week and that game is on Thursday. However, there are a few other interesting games to keep an eye on. Below are the highlights:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25:

UCLA at Arizona State 9:00 PM CT / 10:00 PM ET ESPN

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20:

SEC

Vanderbilt @ Kentucky 11:00 AM CT / 12:00 PM ET SEC Network- Battle for the bottom.
Tennessee @ Georgia 11:00 AM CT / 12:00 PM ET ESPN- Vols could give UGA problems.
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M 02:30 PM CT / 03:30 PM ET CBS - Game played at Jerry World. GAME OF THE WEEK
Louisiana Tech @ Auburn 03:00 PM CT / 04:00 PM ET SEC Network- The Fightin' Terry Bradshaws!
Missouri @  South Carolina 06:00 PM CT / 07:00 PM ET ESPN
New Mexico State @ LSU 06:30 PM CT / 07:30 PM ET SEC Network- Brandon Harris should get plenty of snaps.
Memphis @ Ole Miss 06:30 PM CT / 07:30 PM ET ESPN3- Scout the Rebs.

NATIONAL

Colorado State at Boston College 11:30 AM CT / 12:30 PM ET ESPN3– Dee Hart & Jim McElwain
Army at Yale 12:00 PM CT / 1:00 PM ET - Wow, now this is a throwback to the early days of CFB but NO TV!
Florida State at North Carolina State 2:30 PM CT / 3:30 PM ET ABC– If NCSU was not so lame, I would wonder about a letdown for FSU.
UTSA at FAU 4:00 PM CT / 5:00 PM ET – Bad game. I just wanted to say FAU!
Cincinnati at Ohio State 5:00 PM CT / 6:00 PM ET BTN – This one could get interesting. Tubby vs. Urban.
Notre Dame vs. Syracuse 7:00 PM CT / 8:00 PM ET ABC- East Rutherford, N.J.

Nothing else really worth mentioning, except...

(Photo by CB969)

#ALABAMA

Alabama has a bye but the October 4th game vs. Ole Miss will be at 2:30 PM CT / 3:30 PM ET CBS - quite possibly the most important game on the schedule for the Crimson Tide.

ROLL TIDE!