Post by rainman on Sept 30, 2007 8:14:05 GMT -5
'Great' teams turn to pumpkins well before Halloween
Sep. 30, 2007
By Dennis Dodd
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Dennis your opinion!
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- How crazy was it in the last 24 hours? By Saturday night Xavier Lee had upstaged Sam Bradford, Patrick White, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow.
In order, those four represent the nation's No. 2 passer (Oklahoma's Bradford), a Heisman candidate (West Virginia's White) the Big 12's offensive newcomer of the year in 2006 (Texas' McCoy) and Florida's Superman.
On this Saturday, Superman is ... Xavier Lee? (US Presswire)
Wait, who is Xavier Lee?
Exactly.
We'll worry about a career backup quarterback for an unranked former superpower later. For now, consider that five top 10 teams went down way before October, four of them before sunset on Saturday. No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 West Virginia, No. 7 Texas and No. 10 Rutgers couldn't make it out of September undefeated. Their national championship hopes dashed, for now.
That leads to only one logical one conclusion:
There are no great teams.
A few good teams, but certainly not any great ones. No. 1 USC played its closest game of the season, toughing out at 27-24 victory Washington. Les Miles of No. 2 LSU was making those terse, tense faces Les Miles tends to make when his Tigers aren't playing well. Which is to say he almost inhaled himself when LSU fell behind Tulane 9-7 in the first half before winning 34-9.
No. 6 Cal narrowly avoided an upset by No. 11 Oregon when a replay executed by Pac-10 officials in Autzen Stadium late in the game (sound familiar?) this time went against the Ducks.
No. 9 Wisconsin got to 5-0 after beating Michigan State by three. That after struggling with The Citadel and suddenly putrid Iowa.
We're left with the most surprising weekend of the season. At this time a year ago the top 10 remained unchanged after the games of Week 5. After five weekends this season, the top 10 will be shuffled more than a six-deck shoe in Vegas.
In the BCS it's better to lose early, but there are going to be some long, hard climbs back into contention.
Tebow's Superman campaign took a serious hit in a last-second loss to Auburn. So did Florida's chances of defending 1.) the SEC title and 2.) national championship.
Texas allowed its most points at home in 10 years losing 41-21 to Kansas State. McCoy, who threw 29 touchdown passes last season, threw four interceptions on Saturday.
The problem wasn't so much looking ahead to Oklahoma, it was looking at the back of K-State jerseys. In addition to those picks, the Wildcats ran back two kicks for touchdowns. Second-year K-State coach Ron Prince beat Mack Brown for the second consecutive year.
Bradford had led Oklahoma to its best start in history: four consecutive victories in which the Sooners averaged 61.5 points and almost 600 yards. Then Colorado staged the fourth-largest comeback in school history. Oklahoma blew a 24-7 lead, losing on a late field goal by Kevin Eberhart, who kicked his second game winner this season. The Buffs had been a team Florida State handled rather easily last week (16-6).
"You say, 'They must not be very good,'" Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden said. "Then they beat Oklahoma. I can't believe that. It makes you feel like you're better than you think."
OU and Texas can settle their differences next week in what is all of the sudden a greatly diminished Red River Shootout. Neither the Sooners nor Horns are even in the first place in the Big 12 South.
Rutgers removed itself from cuddly consideration this year by losing to Maryland. Maryland, a team that had just got done getting pounded by West Virginia, which lost to South Florida on Friday night.
Heisman campaigns were severely damaged if not ended for:
• Rutgers' Ray Rice who was held to 97 yards by the nation's 70th-ranked run defense.
• West Virginia's White and Steve Slaton. White was knocked out of the South Florida game with a thigh bruise. Slaton fumbled twice.
• Tebow? Who knows? Like the polls, he was good but not great.
So, who is Xavier Lee? More of the craziness. FSU's redshirt junior quarterback had won one career game as a starter, which is another way of saying he had been inconsistent. Summoned from the bench here at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium after Drew Weatherford started shaky, Lee led the 'Noles to a 21-14 victory over No. 22 Alabama.
It wasn't the kind of upset that shook the polls, but it did suggest that maybe, just maybe, Florida State is inching its way back to dominance.
"This felt like a big-time win and we're not even ranked," Bowden said.
The defense is top quality. The offense? It needed Lee, who has languished mostly on the bench because his tremendous high school talent hadn't developed in college. It took offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher to bring it out of him for the moment. Lee passed for 224 yards and two touchdowns, adding 59 yards rushing.
"He told me, 'Your time is going to come, be patient,'" Lee said. "At first I was like, 'You don't know what you're talking about.'"
Until Lee's pinch-hitting, it had not been a good week for the state of West Virginia this weekend. The Mountaineers and native son coach Rich Rodriguez lost Friday. Fellow West Virginian Nick Saban dropped to 3-2 at 'Bama. Fisher, the pride of Clarksburg, W.Va., should see FSU rise in the polls.
While others around him fall.
Sep. 30, 2007
By Dennis Dodd
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Dennis your opinion!
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- How crazy was it in the last 24 hours? By Saturday night Xavier Lee had upstaged Sam Bradford, Patrick White, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow.
In order, those four represent the nation's No. 2 passer (Oklahoma's Bradford), a Heisman candidate (West Virginia's White) the Big 12's offensive newcomer of the year in 2006 (Texas' McCoy) and Florida's Superman.
On this Saturday, Superman is ... Xavier Lee? (US Presswire)
Wait, who is Xavier Lee?
Exactly.
We'll worry about a career backup quarterback for an unranked former superpower later. For now, consider that five top 10 teams went down way before October, four of them before sunset on Saturday. No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 West Virginia, No. 7 Texas and No. 10 Rutgers couldn't make it out of September undefeated. Their national championship hopes dashed, for now.
That leads to only one logical one conclusion:
There are no great teams.
A few good teams, but certainly not any great ones. No. 1 USC played its closest game of the season, toughing out at 27-24 victory Washington. Les Miles of No. 2 LSU was making those terse, tense faces Les Miles tends to make when his Tigers aren't playing well. Which is to say he almost inhaled himself when LSU fell behind Tulane 9-7 in the first half before winning 34-9.
No. 6 Cal narrowly avoided an upset by No. 11 Oregon when a replay executed by Pac-10 officials in Autzen Stadium late in the game (sound familiar?) this time went against the Ducks.
No. 9 Wisconsin got to 5-0 after beating Michigan State by three. That after struggling with The Citadel and suddenly putrid Iowa.
We're left with the most surprising weekend of the season. At this time a year ago the top 10 remained unchanged after the games of Week 5. After five weekends this season, the top 10 will be shuffled more than a six-deck shoe in Vegas.
In the BCS it's better to lose early, but there are going to be some long, hard climbs back into contention.
Tebow's Superman campaign took a serious hit in a last-second loss to Auburn. So did Florida's chances of defending 1.) the SEC title and 2.) national championship.
Texas allowed its most points at home in 10 years losing 41-21 to Kansas State. McCoy, who threw 29 touchdown passes last season, threw four interceptions on Saturday.
The problem wasn't so much looking ahead to Oklahoma, it was looking at the back of K-State jerseys. In addition to those picks, the Wildcats ran back two kicks for touchdowns. Second-year K-State coach Ron Prince beat Mack Brown for the second consecutive year.
Bradford had led Oklahoma to its best start in history: four consecutive victories in which the Sooners averaged 61.5 points and almost 600 yards. Then Colorado staged the fourth-largest comeback in school history. Oklahoma blew a 24-7 lead, losing on a late field goal by Kevin Eberhart, who kicked his second game winner this season. The Buffs had been a team Florida State handled rather easily last week (16-6).
"You say, 'They must not be very good,'" Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden said. "Then they beat Oklahoma. I can't believe that. It makes you feel like you're better than you think."
OU and Texas can settle their differences next week in what is all of the sudden a greatly diminished Red River Shootout. Neither the Sooners nor Horns are even in the first place in the Big 12 South.
Rutgers removed itself from cuddly consideration this year by losing to Maryland. Maryland, a team that had just got done getting pounded by West Virginia, which lost to South Florida on Friday night.
Heisman campaigns were severely damaged if not ended for:
• Rutgers' Ray Rice who was held to 97 yards by the nation's 70th-ranked run defense.
• West Virginia's White and Steve Slaton. White was knocked out of the South Florida game with a thigh bruise. Slaton fumbled twice.
• Tebow? Who knows? Like the polls, he was good but not great.
So, who is Xavier Lee? More of the craziness. FSU's redshirt junior quarterback had won one career game as a starter, which is another way of saying he had been inconsistent. Summoned from the bench here at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium after Drew Weatherford started shaky, Lee led the 'Noles to a 21-14 victory over No. 22 Alabama.
It wasn't the kind of upset that shook the polls, but it did suggest that maybe, just maybe, Florida State is inching its way back to dominance.
"This felt like a big-time win and we're not even ranked," Bowden said.
The defense is top quality. The offense? It needed Lee, who has languished mostly on the bench because his tremendous high school talent hadn't developed in college. It took offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher to bring it out of him for the moment. Lee passed for 224 yards and two touchdowns, adding 59 yards rushing.
"He told me, 'Your time is going to come, be patient,'" Lee said. "At first I was like, 'You don't know what you're talking about.'"
Until Lee's pinch-hitting, it had not been a good week for the state of West Virginia this weekend. The Mountaineers and native son coach Rich Rodriguez lost Friday. Fellow West Virginian Nick Saban dropped to 3-2 at 'Bama. Fisher, the pride of Clarksburg, W.Va., should see FSU rise in the polls.
While others around him fall.
