Week 10 thoughts

[KevinBeane]

Don't look now but Ball State - Ball State! - has pulled to within a possession of Michigan in the 4th quarter (34-26).

[Dublin Mike]

UGA losing K Coutu for the season is killing them. Missed a few already this year, and has already missed 2 gimmes today, and just now had an XP attempt kicked so low it hit one of his linemen in the back. Ugh.

[Alex]

Penn State's offense is very bad. Maybe the rumblings bout Morelli being, um, not very smart, aren't so far off. It's far from being all his fault but he still isn't getting the job done.

More than the players, it is the coaching. Bradley and co. must get disheartened putting together solid defensive game plans week in and week out and watching the offense let them down.

I went to my high school's game on Friday night. Both teams' offenses looked like Penn State's. Penn State runs a high school, AT BEST, offense. Michael Robinson brought imagination to the offense. It's going nowhere with Morelli, at least this year. I have faith that next year will be much better with some more experienced OL's, Morelli back, third year starters at WR and Andrew Quarless, who is really coming into his own at TE. I just don't expect much for the rest of this year.

Sigh. At least with Iowa's loss to Northwestern, Penn State is all but assured of going to the Outback Bowl at this point. That was my adjusted goal for the season. Goal accomplished, I guess.

[Dublin Mike]

Sigh. At least with Iowa's loss to Northwestern, Penn State is all but assured of going to the Outback Bowl at this point. That was my adjusted goal for the season. Goal accomplished, I guess.

At least you have that Alex. With another loss today, this time to Kentucky, Richt shows how his "genius" works. 1st quarter, UGA runs it down UK's throat. Lumpkin had 74 yards on 9 carries in that quarter. Lumpkin touched the ball 6 more times in the entire game.

Defense again showed its ineptitude at stopping a teams last drive. The D.C. will be gone at years end, and I am hoping Richt is out as play caller (though i don't think he will take himself out of the play calling duties.)

[themush]

Gators got out of Vandy with a win that's all I care about. Hopefully with OSU and Michigan barely getting by the Gators won't get hurt in the polls.

[buckeyefan78]

I went to Ann Arbor and saw Michigan in action. Terrible. Bad play-calling, complete inability to sub in the packages they wanted on defense (esp. at the end with Ball State on the door), terrible secondary, and no ability to pass the ball downfield. Plus there wasn't even anyone at this game. 109,000 and some change? Disappointing.

Then I watched OSU at a sports bar up there so I guess that evened things out. Our offensive line is just horrid. The sub patterns are still terrible (though we get 'em in on time unlike Carr). Just too much to go on about. I'm tired of it all.

Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.

Now Wisconsin is the lowest ranked 1-loss team aside from Wake that plays in a BCS Conference. Did you guys know only 3 BCS teams have more wins than Wisconsin in the last 3 years (USC, Texas, Auburn)? No respect for the Badgers...the theme for 06 continues. Tennesse is still ahead of 'em...LOL...whatever.

EDIT: The QB from Hawaii has 39 touchdown passes with 4 games left!

[HibachiDG]

Anyone who doesn't have Tennessee ahead of Wisconsin should just give up the whole football watching experience.

[Dublin Mike]

I still don't understand why no one is giving Arkansas any love. If they win just one of their next 2 games, they are in the SEC Title game. Not Auburn, who for some reason everyone already has penciled in.

[Dublin Mike]

I have another question. If FSU or Miami were undefeated at this point, playing in a weakened ACC, that, imo, is weaker than the Big East, would anyone be talking of a 1 loss team jumping ahead of them? Complete BS.

[HibachiDG]

I still don't understand why no one is giving Arkansas any love. If they win just one of their next 2 games, they are in the SEC Title game. Not Auburn, who for some reason everyone already has penciled in.

Here's why I have 1 loss Auburn ahead of 1 loss, but undefeated in the SEC and having already defeated Auburn...

Arkansas' toughest games lie ahead of them. Outside of Auburn, they have only played Vanderbilt, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina in the SEC. Not the most difficult slate of games for them, with Tennessee and LSU looming. The victory over Auburn certainly gives them a lot of merit and I don't want to penalize them too much for the USC loss, because, well, they're a completely different team.

Arkansas has one impressive win, the win over Auburn. Auburn has two impressive wins, in that they've defeated LSU and Florida. That, coupled with Arkansas having difficult games still ahead of them is why I put Auburn ahead of them. Auburn's being able to bounce back from the Arkansas loss to defeat Florida is huge in my mind.

Until Arkansas shows the consistency, that game against Auburn is still in upset territory. If both teams won out in the regular season, I'd likely continually move Arkansas up and they'd wind up naturally even or ahead of Auburn in my mind.

I have another question. If FSU or Miami were undefeated at this point, playing in a weakened ACC, that, imo, is weaker than the Big East, would anyone be talking of a 1 loss team jumping ahead of them? Complete BS.

Well, if FSU or Miami were undefeated right now, how weak would the ACC be compared to the Big East? The Conferences would probably look fairly similar. I agree that the Big East is probably better than the ACC this season (as an aside, the ACC is just so hard to judge where they would fall into things because they have no one REALLY good, but probably six teams that would be ahead of PSU or South Florida...the 4th place teams in the Big East and Big Ten), but at the same time, Rutgers has to be tested. I don't know if anyone would make the argument that a 1 loss team would be ahead of Rutgers if Rutgers runs the table undefeated. Putting Rutgers ahead of 1 loss SEC teams right now seems like it would be rather impatient.

[Alex]

I still don't understand why no one is giving Arkansas any love. If they win just one of their next 2 games, they are in the SEC Title game. Not Auburn, who for some reason everyone already has penciled in.

I have Arkansas at #5. I've been impressed with them. Closest call they've had since the Vandy game was at South Carolina this weekend, 26-20. Tennessee had trouble with the Gamecocks last week (31-24) so it's hard to slight them for that.

I think the Hawgs beat Tennessee because the game is at home and the Vols are reeling, especially if Ainge is still hurt. LSU is another story. The Tigers are by far the best two-loss team right now and probably better than a lot of the one-loss teams. However, Arkansas has won three of the last four against LSU in Little Rock.

I had Auburn #1 before their loss to Arkansas. The problem I have with the Tigers is that they fell asleep against Arkansas and let the Hawgs run all over them at home. It's not like Auburn really even had a chance in that one, Arkansas beat them like a drum. I don't think a team that loses by 17 at home to a supposedly "inferior" opponent deserves to be ranked ahead of them.

I think Florida wins the SEC title game if Arkansas loses to LSU or Tennessee. If Arkansas runs the table, it wouldn't surprise me to see them take out the Gators.

[doublee]

I have Arkansas at #5. I've been impressed with them. Closest call they've had since the Vandy game was at South Carolina this weekend, 26-20. Tennessee had trouble with the Gamecocks last week (31-24) so it's hard to slight them for that.


Not to mention SC also gave Auburn all it could handle a few weeks back as well.

[buckeyefan78]

I still don't understand why no one is giving Arkansas any love. If they win just one of their next 2 games, they are in the SEC Title game. Not Auburn, who for some reason everyone already has penciled in.

I have Arkansas as my best SEC team Mike. I just don't have any SEC team in my top ten.

[Marc]

Kentucky wins! Kentucky wins! Kentucky wins! OMG! :eek:

The goal posts came down. This is a signature victory for Rich Brooks and a job-saver. We've been waiting 10 years for this. We almost had Tennessee last season, and that LSU miracle loss still hurts. We cherish this. Sorry, Mike, but your 2005 SEC championship should comfort you. We're coming off 4 wins in two years and have the possibility of 7 or, miracle-willing, 8 wins if we beat Tennessee in the last game. Bowls, here we come! :D