My Saturday Opinions - Part II - October 27, 2007

Dennis Dixon looked every bit the Heisman in this match up between two top ten teams. He was near perfect in the first half. He didn’t throw a touchdown, which may hurt him in the voting, but he ran for one and executed when he needed to. Jonathan Stewart also made a case for him being the most outstanding player in college football. Stewart ran for 2 touchdowns, and made big plays to keep Oregon’s offense on the field. USC played well, but made too many mistakes, especially costly turnovers, including an interception during a possible game tying drive my USC in the fourth quarter. The Ducks are for real, and should be looked at as serious title contenders.
Georgia finally gets a bye week to prepare for Florida, rather than the other way around. It paid off. Matt Stafford and the Bulldog offense made some big plays, which they haven’t had a lot of this year. They kept letting Florida back into the game through penalties and mistakes, such as a Stafford interception for a touchdown. Tebow scored 2 rushing touchdowns and passed for a third, but didn’t will his team to victory. This should affect his Heisman status.
This was the Jamaal Charles show. He scored 3 fourth quarter touchdowns to bring the Longhorns back from a 17 - 9 deficit. He ended up with 289 yards rushing. Nebraska looked like they were going to pull off the upset and perhaps save Callahan’s job for another season, but Charles was too much in the fourth quarter. This Texas team shouldn’t have been in that situation, and aren’t the same team they were last year. This could have easily been their 3rd loss.
South Florida, what are you doing? You were the second ranked team in the country two weeks ago. Then you lose a prime time game to Rutgers. That’s understandable because you haven’t been in that situation before, but now to lose to University of Connecticut, I don’t know what to say. You were a media darling, and still had a great chance to play in a BCS game. Now, you are relegated to a smaller bowl and another year without a Big East Championship. UConn is now in the lead in the Big East. Their one loss is to an ACC team, and UConn has shown that they deserve to be ranked. The Big East may not be as good as previously expected, but they are a tough conference to win, and it looks like UConn can do it. Can you imagine the Huskies in a BCS bowl? Crazy!
Michigan was down 10-0 to start this game. It looked as though my prediction of Michigan winning the Big 10 might fade today, but then they came back and stomped the lowly Gophers of Minnesota. Michigan is rolling now, and the fans that were calling for Lloyd Carr’s job, should be rethinking their stance. That team could have given up after being embarrassed in their first two game, but he motivated them, and they are playing good football. I still think that they are going to win the Big 10. It will likely come down to their end of the year game with Ohio State. Can Carr get that monkey off his back?
Virginia was rolling through the ACC. Their sole loss was to Wyoming at the beginning of the year, and they come to their game against North Carolina State, who is struggling this year, and they are expected to win. But as they say, that’s why they play the games. Virginia could not keep their winning streak going and fall to a Wolfpack team that has been struggling to find an identity all year. This gives BC an inside track on the ACC title. Had Virginia won, they would have controlled their own destiny, but now they need help. Virginia did score 24 points, and in my opinion, 24 points should be enough to win any football game, but that is not always the case. Defensively, they gave up 29 points, and the game. Virginia did take the lead in the fourth quarter, but NC State scored a final touchdown to put the game away.