Packing Up the Grill: Week 6

Wow! Three years ago, Week 6 yielded the first upset of a top team — Stanford over #2 USC as a 41-point underdog – and started bringing the woodwork tumbling down on the ladder. Could we be seeing another Autumn of Chaos to rival 2007? We certainly got an upset of incredible magnitude, the defending champion Alabama Crimson Tide tumbling in Columbia to the Gamecocks of South Carolina. A seemingly invincible powerhouse tumbling in a trap game? Seems like we’ve seen this script before. Are we doomed to see history repeat itself? And what could it possibly mean for the greater picture, as conferences both inside and outside the BCS structure jockey to position themselves for a shot at the biggest prize in the land.

But times certainly aren’t all the same. After all, this time around Stanford was the ranked team while the Trojans were the double-digit, unranked underdog on the road. USC couldn’t muster the magic of domination past, though, and the fall of Troy continued as the Cardinal rebounded from their Duck disaster. The game proves week after week its cyclical nature. The Tailgater crew is back once again to parse down all that Week 6 had to offer in college football — the statement wins, the upsets, the contenders and pretenders — and closes the book on a weekend that reshuffled the deck in college football, pulling the SEC off the top of the stack for the first time in years…

Week 6 featured a few key matchups, and all of them ended with upsets.  Michigan State toppled Michigan with a great effort on both sides of the ball.  Oregon State knocked off #9 Arizona.  LSU beat Florida in the Swamp, and Florida State thumped Miami in the Hurricanes’ backyard.  And of course, #1 fell…

Best Win:  South Carolina 35, Alabama 21

Some of the talking heads spent Saturday morning telling us why South Carolina had a good chance of pulling this upset.  While events proved them correct, I don’t believe for a second that many folks were putting money on the Gamecocks.  ‘Bama came into week 6 as an undisputed #1, and to fall by double-digits was surprising.  To say the least. 

A close game that went SC’s way in the end might have been predictable, but this was a far more dominating performance.  USC  didn’t overwhelm the Tide with yardage, though their total of 311 was the second-most allowed by Alabama this season.  It was more a matter of capitalizing on every opportunity—quarterback Stephen Garcia completed 17 of his 20 throws and tossed 3 touchdowns in the first half.  Tailback Marcus Lattimore took over late when the Gamecocks needed to maintain momentum.  And perhaps most impressively, the SC defense all but shut down the ‘Bama ground game.

Lattimore’s 93 yards were more than Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson had combined.

To say this was a signature win for Steve Spurrier is an understatement.  The victory was far and away the biggest that the Old Ball Coach has had since arriving in Columbia.  With Florida’s loss to LSU, 4-1 SC stands alone in first place in the SEC East.

Honorable Mention 1: Michigan State 34, Michigan 17

Michigan State appears as the top Honorable Mention for the second consecutive week, and both times the Spartans dropped 34 points on a dangerous opponent.  After topping the Badgers in week 5, MSU got coach Mark Dantonio back and dominated the Wolverines in Ann Arbor.  I thought that this game would be close, but with the way Michigan’s offense has been rolling, it was too much to bet against the home team.  The Spartans showed me that my faith was much misplaced; the defense corralled Denard Robinson and intercepted him 3 times.  The offense was a juggernaut both on the ground and through the air.  Michigan State has vaulted itself to the top of the Big Ten, and if the team keeps playing like this, they could be in the race all season long.

Honorable Mention 2: Oregon State 29, Arizona 27

My upset special came through for me this week and proved that there is some measure of justice in college football.  The Beavers were out-playing their Top 10 opponent throughout the first half, but a single play threatened to change the game and may end up changing OSU’s season.  Quarterback Ryan Katz found James Rodgers for what appeared to be a 56-yard touchdown in the second quarter.  The score was ultimately called back due to an ineligible downfield penalty, but that wasn’t the real heart-breaker for OSU.  Despite the fact that Rodgers was well into the endzone, Arizona defensive back Adam Hall latched on to the diminutive wideout.  As Hall swiped at the ball and dragged Rodgers down, the receiver’s foot caught the turf awkwardly and his knee hyperextended badly.  The team will know more on Sunday, but it appears to be a season-ending injury.  An injury caused by a tackle that never should have happened.  Hall was beaten and lashed out after the fact in what was a cheap shot.  Oregon State may have held on to win this game, but at what cost?  Still, it was a critical victory in a parity-ridden Pac 10.

Worst Win: Auburn 37, Kentucky 34 

After needing a missed field goal to survive Clemson and a fistful of turnovers to survive South Carolina, Auburn came close to losing yet again in week 6, topping Kentucky by a scant 3 points on a last-second field goal.  And it wasn’t as though the Tigers were struggling.  Auburn built leads of 21-7 and 31-14 and should never have permitted UK to come back on them. 

No offense to Kentucky—Joker Phillips is certainly a solid coach and will no doubt keep the Wildcats competitive in the SEC.  But Auburn is, allegedly, a Top 10 team, both in the AP and Coaches Polls, and in our own Tailgater FBS Top 10.  Top 10 teams don’t typically need last-second field goals to eke out wins, especially when they have their opponents down by as much as 17 points.

What should have War Eagles everywhere particularly concerned is the way the team vanished in the third quarter.  An interception and two 3-and-outs were all the Tigers could muster as Kentucky scored 14 points to get back into the thick of things.  It’s one thing for an offense to hit a rough patch, but the defense needs to step up to compensate.  Or vice versa.  For both units to falter at the same time doesn’t bode well for Auburn’s future.  Especially when you consider the remaining schedule:  Arkansas and LSU in the next 2 weeks, and of course the Iron Bowl at season’s end…

Honorable Mention 1: Notre Dame 23, Pitt 17

It’s not that beating Pitt should be considered easy in any way.  What made this win ugly for the Irish was the way they tried again and again to beat themselves.  With 60 yards worth of penalties and a maddening inability to finish drives, Notre Dame turned what should have been a fairly comfortable win into a nailbiter, relying on field goals to hang on for the 6-point victory.  After two early TDs, the offense simply could not find a way into the endzone, and had the Panthers been playing a little bit better, this one might have turned out very differently. 

Honorable Mention 2: Arkansas 24, Texas A&M 17

Arkansas is a tough team to figure out.  The Razorbacks are dominating Georgia one minute, and allowing the Dawgs to take over the game the next.  They’re school Alabama in the first half, and choking the upset win away in the second.  Yet again, the team did a disappearing act as the game wore on and ended up needing a late-game interception to preserve the 7-point victory.  Ryan Mallet had 238 of his 310 passing yards before halftime as an opposing defense once again seemed to figure out Bobby Petrino’s offense after the break. 

After the early part of the season saw the rise of the Mountain West and the WAC amongst the big boys of college football, we’ve seen the top four BCS conferences (Pac-10, SEC, Big Ten and Big XII) all overtake them in the conference quality tabulations. But that hardly means that either is a pushover when compared to the BCS. Both remain amongst the top six conferences in the country halfway through the season, still playing meaningful games and looking at the potential of having their respective conference champions both busting into the BCS yet again.

One thing that is unmistakable is the fact that both the WAC and Mountain West seem far worthier of BCS automatic qualification than either the Atlantic Coast or Big East conferences at this point. While the Atlantic Coast has steadied itself, it still has played just two more meaningful games than the WAC — and won one fewer to boot. And it is all about quality contests in this quotient.

Another thing of note. If we were in 2011, just look at how the Mountain West would fit into the standings. Keep in mind that they lose Utah to the Pac-10, and BYU to independence, but in the process they gain three legitimate contenders in Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State. How would this configuration of schools be doing if they were all together this season instead of next?… READ MORE HERE

We all knew this day would come. We were just hoping that Alabama could continue to delay it for as long as possible and maybe add another National Championship to the old trophy case.

It had been three years since the last time Alabama lost a regular season game and they hadn’t lost a game period since the 2009 Sugar Bowl against Utah.

Truthfully, it was unrealistic to think that Alabama could run the table with the brutal schedule bestowed upon them by the SEC. A three game gauntlet that features Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina would be tough on anybody and even tougher when the final game of that gauntlet is on the road against a team coming off a bye week.

Especially since that team was still reeling from their loss to Auburn two weeks prior and knew that back-to-back losses would put really hurt their chances in the SEC East race.

It was unrealistic to think that Alabama could run the table in the regular season for a third straight year with such a green defense that returned only two defensive starters from a year ago and had an extremely young secondary that had little game experience coming into the season…. READ MORE HERE

Florida State 45, Miami 17—I said I’ve been waiting for an ACC team to step up and claim supremacy. Did we witness that very thing in week 6? I thought Miami would eke out a narrow victory at home, but instead the Seminoles absolutely dismantled the ‘Canes. If you look at the stats and see how close things were on paper, the final score will be a mystery. FSU outgained Miami, but only 471-424. The difference was that FSU finished its possessions in the endzone. As a side note, Miami allowed a school-record 90-yard touchdown run by FSU’s Chris Thompson.

Utah 68, Iowa State 27—It used to be that beating the Cyclones was worth little more than a footnote. But after ISU dropped Texas Tech in week 5, it became clear that Paul Rhoads is making dramatic improvements in Ames. That’s why it was somewhat surprising to see the Utes roll into town and come away with a 41-point win. Utah was clearly the better team, but a blowout of this magnitude was still a shocker.

Nebraska 48, Kansas State 13—For a battle of unbeatens, this certainly was lopsided. Kansas State is plenty beaten now, having been thoroughly abused by Taylor Martinez and the Husker offense. Things started off okay for K-State; the Wildcats were feeding off of their home crowd’s energy and hanging with Nebraska early on, but they simply didn’t have the firepower to stay in it.

NC State 44, Boston College 17—NC State had the game against Virginia Tech under control before giving it away late. But after a week 6 romp, that remains the Wolfpack’s only mistake on the season. This is still a very dangerous team in the weak ACC. Russell Wilson threw for 328 yards as the NCSU offense did whatever it wanted to against a BC defense that had no answers.

Georgia 41, Tennessee 14—Where the hack has this Georgia team been? The Dawgs get A.J. Greene back and drop 41 on the poor Vols. Tennessee suffers the indignity of a blowout only a week after its hard luck loss against LSU in which a substitution violation cost the team a win on the game’s final play. At least in week 6, no one can blame a bad penalty.

Cal 35, UCLA 7—I give up trying to understand UCLA. How does a team go out and smother Texas only to be completely decimated by a mediocre California team? It’s that kind of inconsistency that drives fans nuts.

We’ve known all along that the only way a BCS Buster could possibly find itself playing for the national championship is if some chaos erupted in the power conferences. With just three teams ahead of them, Boise State and TCU have been hovering in the top five all season long — playing out as tough a schedule as they can get and waiting for the big boys ahead of them to succumb to conference cannibalism. At least two of the three would have to take conference losses in games they were expected to win for the underdogs to climb the ladder…

We got the first monumental upset of the season with the king of the mountain, defending champion Alabama, falling on the road to South Carolina. The Tide dropped to eighth, and everyone underneath them in the polls were the beneficiary. Boise State is back up to third, TCU to fourth, and Utah is right behind with solid position in the top ten.

We could realistically call the Mountain West the fifth-best conference in the nation. The WAC has held its own as well, every bit the rival of the ACC and Big East. If you look at how three of these four BCS Buster candidates will be joining forces in the Mountain West next season, the conference will be right there alongside the Big XII and Big Ten as an elite power conference on the national stage. The only difference? They’ll still have to scrap for qualification into the BCS bowls. But should one of the remaining four go undefeated and force their way into the title game, it will be one more blow that renders it all the harder in the future to shut them out of the show… READ MORE HERE

It was a good weekend for Buckeye fans in general, and especially for those who want to see Terrelle Pryor take home some hardware this season.  Not only did Heisman frontrunner Denard Robinson struggle in a loss to Michigan State, Pryor re-established himself as a leading candidate for the award with a monster passing day.

From the opening whistle it was clear that Buckeyes intended to focus on throwing the ball.  Pryor rarely looked to scramble and the running game was used only as a foil.  The plan worked to near perfection as Pryor finished with 334 yards and 3 touchdowns on 24 of 30 passing.  The yards, completions, and attempts were all season highs.  The yardage was also Pryor’s career best.

The stellar performance was a shot in the arm after last week’s difficult win at Illinois.  In that contest Pryor was held to 76 yards through the air, and Ohio State was forced to rely on his running ability to keep drives alive.  It was evident that Jim Tressel and the coaching staff were disturbed by the lack of rhythm; honing the air attack was the offense’s primary objective in week 6….   READ MORE HERE

Coaches that are likely to lose their job are becoming clearer and clearer with every given week. Some teams that got off to good starts and cooled their coaches’ seat have seen conference play be none to kind to them and have reheated the seats of their coaches. The final half of the regular season will see numerous coaches fighting for their jobs and a number of other coaches that aren’t on the heat seat right now could find their seats warming up with a rough second half.

Caution: Highly Flammable

• Tim Brewster (Minnesota) – A loss to Wisconsin on the road was expected for Minnesota and the loss drops them 1-5 on the season and things don’t appear to be getting any better for Brewster’s Gophers. They actually have a pair of winnable games coming up, but they have to go to Purdue next week and then get a surprisingly weak Penn State team at home the following weekend. After that, Minnesota finishes the season with Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, and Iowa. Even the most optimistic Minnesota fans can’t be expecting over three wins for this team. That honestly feels like the ceiling for this team and that should signal the end of Tim Brewster’s tenure in Minnesota.
• Paul Wulff (Washington State) – Washington State actually didn’t lose by as many as I expected them to in Pullman against Oregon on Saturday. A 43-23 loss isn’t impressive by any means, but they played better than expected. The Cougars are 1-5 and realistically they could go 1-11 and nobody would be surprised with a brutal schedule down the stretch that will see them play games against Arizona, Stanford, Arizona State, California, Oregon State, and Washington. Does anybody see a win left on their schedule? Yeah, neither do I. They should feel quite fortunate to even have one win after having to battle back to beat Montana State by one point in the second week of the season. This will likely be the last year Wulff is walking the sideline in Pullman.
• Mike Sherman (Texas A&M) – The Aggies had an opportunity to get some pressure of their head coach if they could win a neutral site game with Arkansas on Saturday. But, they fell 24-17 and dropped to 3-2 on the season and their dreams of making some noise in the Big XII race are starting to fade away. They have tough games left against Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas. They won’t be favored in any of those. Swing games against Kansas, Texas Tech, and Baylor will decide if Texas A&M will gain bowl eligibility this season. But, even if they do, is that enough for Mike Sherman to keep his job? Wasn’t a lot more expected from this team under his guidance?

Heating Up

• Dave Wannstedt (Pittsburgh) – Pittsburgh fans are getting tired of waiting for Dave Wannstedt to lead them atop the Big East. Fortunately for Wanndstedt, even after a 2-3 start, Pittsburgh hasn’t lost any ground in the Big East race. They have yet to play a conference game and once that starts it’s anybody’s guess as to who will win the conference this season with how subpar every team in the conference has looked so far. The Panthers have looked unimpressive with losses to Utah, Miami, and Notre Dame, but the heat that is on the ‘Stache right now will cool off if the Panthers are able to win the Big East. That is still the goal and the three losses haven’t affected those chances at all. They can still win the Big East and get an automatic bid into the BCS, even though they wouldn’t be worthy of it.

Uncomfortably Warm

• Dan Hawkins (Colorado) – Dan Hawkins’ seat significantly cooled after the Buffaloes knocked off Georgia at home last Saturday. But, they went on the road on Saturday and lost 26-0 to Missouri. I really can’t get a read on this team. They have been incredibly inconsistent this year. They have played much better at home, with wins over Colorado State, Hawaii, and Georgia, than they have on the road with two ugly losses to California (52-7) and Missouri (26-0). A bowl game for Hawkins would help to cool down his seat and would likely buy him one more year as Colorado moves into the Pac 10. Swing games with Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas, Iowa State, and Kansas State will decide the Buffaloes fate this season.
• Mark Richt (Georgia) – I don’t think a 44-17 win over Tennessee does much to cool down Mark Richt’s seat, although he really shouldn’t be on there anyway. The win over Tennessee brings Georgia to 2-4 on the season and earned them their first SEC win of the season. They have games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky looming, which should help them get to 4-4 heading into a crucial game against Florida. The Bulldogs still have a chance at getting to a bowl game if they win games they should against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Idaho State. That would give them five wins and they would need one win against Florida, Auburn, or Georgia Tech. I think they can get there.
• Mike Locksley (New Mexico) – Will Mike Locksley even make it to the end of the season with the Lobos continued losing? They are now 0-6 and 0-12 is starting to seem more and more like a reality for this team. Their best chance for a win was no Saturday against New Mexico State and they dropped a 16-14 decision over their rivals. If I was a betting man and had to put money down on which coach would get fired first this season, he would be the guy. Not that I am a betting man or anything, but it happens by Mid-November, I’ll be fifty-bucks richer…

AND THE GAME BALLS GO TO…