So how did you spend your Saturday afternoon without Sooner football? For me it was a pretty busy day that started out at the State Fair of Oklahoma then transitioned to the little league football fields to see my son's team thrash an opponent 42-0 and finally ended with a family dinner. I used just about every form of media accessible to me (BlackBerry, Radio, Laptop, Television) to keep up with the college games and as many upsets as there where I found myself being glad several times over that OU was off.
Shake Up In The Top 10
#1 Florida 41, Kentucky 7 - First and foremost our thoughts and prayers are with Tim Tebow. That was a nasty shot he took and regardless of how you feel about the Florida Gators or Tebow himself you don't ever want to see a player go down like that. The good news for the Gators is that they are off next week before traveling to Death Valley on October 3rd to take on Lester and the Tigers.
#2 Texas 64, UTEP 7 - I wonder how those Longhorn fans that live to criticize Bob Stoops for scoring 50+ points are going to live with themselves after this one. Colt McCoy had an interception (his 5th of the season) returned 50 yards for a score but everything else was total Texas dominance.
#3 Alabama 35, Arkansas 7 - Alabama got off to a slow start but after they got things going in the second quarter Greg McElroy tossed 3 touchdowns and, for the game, completed 70.8% of his passes for 290 yards.
#4 Mississippi 10, South Carolina 16 (Thursday) - Jevan Snead's stat line reads like this - 7/21, 107 yards, 1 touchdown. His Heisman hopes took a huge hit but after getting sacked four times in the game he's most likely used to huge hits.
#5 Penn State 10, Iowa 21 - The general consensus was that Penn State was a weak #5 and it turns out that they were right. Does the Big 10 have a title contender left?
#6 Cal 3, Oregon 42 - This was the biggest shocker to me. The Ducks held Jahvid Best to just 55 yards on 16 carries. Does the Pac 10 have a title contender left?
#7 LSU 30, Mississippi State 26 - A late goal line stand by the Tigers kept LSU from being the 5th Top 10 team from being upset.
#8 Boise State 49, Bowling Green 14 - What's going to happen when the Broncos are the only undefeated team in the country?
#9 Miami 7, #11 Virginia Tech 31 - The Hurricanes were the only Top 10 team to face a ranked opponent but they sure dropped a big egg. It will be interesting to see what their mentality is going to be when Oklahoma comes next week.
#10 Oklahoma - Idle
USC lost to unranked Washington last Saturday and three Top 10 teams followed that up by losing to unranked opponents this weekend. We'll get to Washington here in a minute but hopefully the Huskies getting handled by Stanford will keep voters from being too anxious to put these teams that pull the upsets in the Top 25. Put them on notice and pay attention to what they do the next week but don't automatically jump them in based on one game.
So what is the Top 10 going to look like when released on Sunday afternoon? Who really knows but here's my guess.
- Florida
- Texas
- Alabama
- Virginia Tech
- LSU
- Boise State
- Oklahoma
- USC
- Houston
- Ohio State
Other Top 25 Upsets
#18 Florida State 7, South Florida 17 - Oklahoma's loss to BYU got worse with this one. The Seminoles thrashed the Mormons in Provo last Saturday and then come home to get beat by a freshman quarterback making his first start.
#22 North Carolina 7, Georgia Tech 24 - Just 8 first downs on the day for the Tar Heels is all you need to know about this one.
#24 Washington 14, Stanford 34 - Can we now say that USC lost to a bad team? The Trojans join the Idaho Vandals as teams beaten by Washington in their last 16 games.
Houston Could Play In The Big 12
Let's give Kevin Sumlin and the Houston Cougars their due. Two fourth quarter comebacks have the Cougars 2-0 against Big 12 south opponents. If Mike Leach kicks a field goal from the one yard-line instead of trying to go for it and getting stuffed then the Red Raiders win. In both of Tech's losses there have been some questionable calls by the Mad Scientist.
Largest Crowd In Oklahoma State History Shows Up To Watch Grambling Band
Oklahoma State opened their season by hosting the then 13th ranked Georgia Bulldogs. They followed it up the following week with the upstart Houston Cougars and then the Rice Owls. However, it wasn't until the Grambling Tigers came to town that the OSU athletic department decided to discount tickets in an attempt to finally sellout their newly renovated stadium with an increased seating capacity of 60,000. The result was a crowd of 56,901 to watch the Cowboys pound the Tigers 56-6. That's about 3,800 more people than the Pokes had for the opener against Georgia. An absence of 3,800 empty seats sure would have looked better on national television than it did in a game that no one really cared about. At least they enjoyed the Grambling band.