The start of conference play often sees some upsets, but we had a plethora of them this week! It affected the Top 25, as we lost five teams. Let's see how it played out...
Top 25 [Last week's rank]
1. TEXAS LONGHORNS (4-0) [1] : Still on top
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (3-0) [2]
3. Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0) [3]
4. Tennessee Volunteers (4-0) [4] : Very impressive win over Oklahoma
5. Ole Miss Reels (4-0) [5]
6. Oklahoma Sooners (3-1) [6] : They were engineering an interesting comeback, they just ran out of time
7. Georgia Bulldogs (3-0) [7]
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-1) [11]
9. Miami Hurricanes (4-0) [14]
10. Missouri Tigers (4-0) [9]
11. Penn State Nittany Lions (3-0) [19]
12. Oregon Ducks (3-0) [13]
13. Utah Utes (4-0) [15]
14. USC Trojans (2-1) [8]
15. South Carolina Gamecocks (3-1) [29]
16. Louisville Cardinals (3-0) [23]
17. Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-1) [17]
18. BYU Cougars (4-0) [33] : HUGE victory over Kansas State!
19. Illinois Fighting Illini (4-0) [NR]
20. Arizona State Sun Devils (3-1) [10]
21. UNLV Running Rebels (3-0) [21]
22. Clemson Tigers (2-1) [25]
23. Nebraska Cornhuskers (3-1) [12]
24. Michigan Wolverines (3-1) [NR]
25. James Madison Dukes (4-0) [NR]
Dropped off: Kansas State Wildcats [#16], Syracuse Orange [#18], Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets [#20], North Carolina Tar Heels [#22], Coastal Carolina Chanticleers [#24]
On the Edge: UCF Golden Knights (3-0), Maryland Terrapins (3-1), Fresno State Bulldogs (3-1), Boise State Broncos (3-1), Cincinnati Bearcats (3-1), Washington Huskies (3-1), Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1), Kentucky Wildcats (2-2), LSU Tigers (3-1)
Upset Watch
We had plenty of upsets this week, and it started on Friday night. Stanford knocked off Syracuse to drop them from the ranks. San Jose State almost beat Washington State that night. Missouri needed two overtimes to prevent its own upset. Northern Illinois, who upset Notre Dame a couple of weeks ago, suffered their own upset to the Buffalo Bulls. We had another FCS upset this week, as Monmouth beat Florida International.
Our two biggest upsets also knocked off Top 25 teams. BYU completely dominated Kansas State, and James Madison destroyed the Tar Heels defense.
Big Ten Report
I'm amazed to find that the two leaders of the conference right now are Illinois and Indiana. Granted, the "real" top teams (Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon) have yet to play conference opponents,so that status won't last long, but it's still interesting to see. The conference has only six unbeaten teams at this time, and that won't last, as some of them play each other on Saturday. Four teams have two losses, which shows weaknesses.
Michigan and Iowa are both teams on the rise. Both already had strong defenses, and both are improving their offenses. They will become forces in this conference. On the other hand, Minnesota is fading, and Illinois may have exposed how to defeat the freshman phenom QB of Nebraska -- blitz him. They blitzed three times in overtime, and sacked (or nearly so) him each time. Nebraska may start to sink as they face other stiff defenses in the conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment