College Football Rankings

College football rankings are always raising some eyebrows. This week seemed to intrigue me more than usual though. As usual #1 Florida handled business in “The Swamp”, beating down an overmatched and less athletic Tennessee team. Texas, number two in the AP top 25, also maintained consistency by defeating rival school, Texas Tech, at home. Both of the top two teams have stability at the quarterback position. However, previously ranked third but currently ranked twelfth, Southern California, had an injury of star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley, and had to play inexperienced, yet highly recruited backup, Aaron Corp. Without the leadership of Barkley, USC fell to current #24 Washington. Washington was winless last year, at a very embarrassing 0-12 with an in-conference record of 0-9. The winless in-conference record is even more pathetic than the 0-12, considering that the Pac-10 is one of the weakest BCS conferences in the nation. Washington’s performance against USC was extremely impressive, but the fact that it came after a winless season makes it that much more amazing. However, the back-story of this game is the icing on the cake. Steve Sarkisian was USC’s ex-offensive coordinator. Unfortunately for USC he is now Washington’s new head coach. Previous #4 and current #3 Alabama defeated North Texas easily and also has an notable win vs. a fellow ranked team in Virginia Tech. Ole Miss is sitting at #4 currently after another solid performance by quarterback Jevan Snead. #5 Penn State defeated Temple, and is yet to be tested by a true powerhouse team. #6 California had some trouble with a tough opponent on the road in Minnesota but was carried by the amazing performance of their Heisman contending halfback, Jahvid Best. LSU and Boise State, at #7 and #8 respectively handled their week 3 opponents with easy. #9 Miami defeated Georgia Tech and jumped a ridiculous 11 poll spots. Miami beat Florida State in a close game and defeated Georgia Tech by multiple scores but a plus-11 week usually only occurs after top-5 win. If Miami wants to prove that they are worthy of a top 10 ranking then they need to beat a very skilled Virginia Tech on the road in an extremely hostile environment. Miami will need to establish a good passing game to beat Virginia Tech because of the absence of All-American corner Stephen Virgil. #10 Oklahoma re-established themselves as a team to beat by having freshman quarterback Landry Jones throw for 6 touchdowns against Tulsa. #11 Virginia Tech played in a thrilling game against Nebraska. Virginia Tech’s star quarterback Tyrod Taylor threw his the 2 most clutch passes of his career in the final 2 minutes of the game this week. The first was a broken play where Tyrod Taylor scrambled until he unleashed a miraculous strike to Danny Coale for an eighty one yard gain, putting Virginia Tech at Nebraska’s 3. The next play of Virginia Tech’s was a run by freshman running back Ryan Williams which was stopped short of the end zone. 2nd and goal was a play which many tech fans thought ended the game. Tyrod Taylor was sacked for a loss of 8 yards and the clock continued to run. 3rd and goal was the play that has defined Virginia Tech’s season to this point. Tyrod Taylor dropped back to pass and scrambled back and forth for ten seconds until he rolled right of the pocket and fired a laser-beam pass into the arms of wide receiver Dyrell Roberts, while being dragged to the ground by two Nebraska Cornhusker linemen. The play would later be reviewed and confirmed. The play turned out to be the game winner for the Hokies and led to the rushing of the field for the Virginia Tech faithful. #13 Ohio State beat Toledo convincingly, with the defense pitching a shutout. #14 Cincinnati and star quarterback Tony Pike rolled over an impressive Oregon State team. Texas Christian University, #15, and their high octane defense obliterated an outmatched Texas State team. #16 Oklahoma State rebounded after a gut wrenching loss to Houston, with a strong offensive performance against Rice. Houston continued dominance against subpar competition with another impressive showing by Case Keenum, a young Heisman dark horse. #18 Florida State pounded an overmatched #19 Brigham Young University and proved that they are a force to be reckoned with. The University of Kansas again showed that they are an outside chance to win the Big 12 title by destroying a rather pathetic Duke team. #21 Georgia beat Arkansas by exploiting a very fragile secondary with the speed and strength of A.J. Green a five star recruit out of high school. North Carolina remained undefeated by defeating East Carolina using the strength of running back Shawn Draughn. Michigan beat down Eastern Michigan by using a 91 yard run by Carlos Brown, their senior back-up running back. Why is he the back-up if he’s the man who’s running for 90 yards at a time? Brandon Minor may be a more typical every down back but the homerun threat presented by Brown is simply a weapon that deserves to be used. The run by Brown was the third longest in Michigan’s history. Georgia Tech fell from the rankings after losing to a very highly ranked opponent on the road in Miami and Utah lost to a undermanned Oregon team, who is currently missing their star junior college transfer running back LeGarrett Blount. Blount after a week one loss to Boise State on the road, punched a BSU player in the mouth knocking him clean out. He then proceeded to attack the crowd of Boise State and was restrained by players from his own team. The coach of Oregon decided that it was best for both the university and the team if LeGarrett Blount was suspended for the year. This week in college football was extremely crazy and it should be noted that every team in the top 25 was affected by both the pollsters (the people that vote on the college football rankings) and the players and coaches that participated in this week’s games. I was disappointed in many of the rankings but overall the week in college football was very fun to watch and it will for sure be a week that will be remembered for the rest of the college football season.