Suggestions About Urban Meyer
No less than five unbeaten AP Top 25 teams lost their 1st game over the weekend, and 3 of them suffered major upsets as well. Seventh-ranked Florida, 9th-ranked Stanford, 11th-ranked Wisconsin, 18th-ranked Southern California (USC) and 23rd-ranked North Carolina State all lost.
No. In the battle of arguably the two greatest existing coaches in college football – Alabama’s Nick Saban and Florida’s Urban Meyer – Saban wins this time hands down.
(Editor’s Note: All rankings used in this post are from the AP Top 25 Poll and all team ratings utilized are from Sagarin, the gold normal among rating services.)
With an Alabama defense like a swarm of thirsty hornets — Courtney Upshaw had 4 tackles behind the line of scrimmage and C. J. Mosley returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown – the Gators committed 4 turnovers, and couldn’t even smell the Alabama end zone.
In the globe of college football there are actually pretenders and contenders. Nine of AP’s Top 25 teams and three of the top five were given a reality check over the weekend.
Was I shocked at this annual occurrence? Hardly. Reality has a way of revealing all of the wrinkles and weaknesses.
And do you bear in mind Florida’s 15-minute hero last week? You know, freshman Trey Burton who scored 6 touchdowns against Kentucky to break Tim Tebow’s record, he gained all of five yards on 4 carries.
For openers, you will discover the No.3 Oklahoma Sooners who lost a Big 12 Conference game 27-24 by a final second field aim in Colorado towards the Buffalos. Oklahoma dropped to No. 10 in the Top 25.
The Sooners got to their lofty No. 3 ranking by beating No. 58th rated Tulsa and No. Their offense ran up large scores on everybody, but their strength of schedule was only the 100th best within the country.
The Tide may well not have a great deal going on offensively, but the sheer running authority of Mark Ingram (who scored twice on brief runs) and Trent Richardson is enough to scare the bejesus out of any team.
Urban Meyer and his defending national champion Florida Gators fared no better. They lost 20-17 by a field aim at property to Auburn in a SEC Conference game. Florida was behind 17-3 going into the 4th quarter.
Alabama’s victory was the second-most lopsided loss of Urban Meyer’s 6 years of coaching at Florida, and it came before a red sea of 101,000+ fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium. What a night for the Crimson Tide faithful, who treat SEC games like Civil War battles against the Northern intruders.
The 4th-ranked Oregon Ducks, a team that seems to come alive right after they look like a cooked goose, rose from the dead after the 7th-ranked Stanford Cardinal flew into their stadium and took a very impressive, pretty speedy 21-3 lead in the 1st quarter of this first-time match-up of these two schools as nationally-ranked teams.
After spotting Oregon an opening field goal, the Ducks could only watch as Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck threw an 18-yard TD pass, ran for a 10-yard TD, after which passed for another 44-yard TD.
But it was a few Oregon sophomores who would win the day. QB Darron Thomas would go 20-for-29 (69%) for 238 yards and 2 touchdowns, and LaMichael James would acquire 257 yards on 31 carries (7.65 ypc) and score 3 occasions on runs of five and 3 yards prior to finishing Stanford off with a 76-yard burst inside the last minutes.
The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Gators who suffered their first property loss beneath Urban Meyer. Meyer’s team had won 18 in-a-row at home, 17 because Meyer took over in 2005.
The Gators got to their No. 4 ranking by acquiring the finest of No. 110 Western Kentucky, No. 32 Tennessee, an SEC opponent. Beating Tennessee is what vaulted Florida up in the rankings. Florida dropped to No.
No. five West Virginia ran smack into No. 18 South Florida in a Big East face-off in South Florida and lost 21-13. Coach Jim Leavitt and his South Florida Bulls are speedily becoming the team nobody desires to face, and THE story of the college football season.
It would seem that neither team, unlike Alabama, has a defense worth speaking about.
It was the 13th straight win for the Ducks at Autzen Stadium, and their 10th consecutive Pac-10 victory.
Stanford has not won a game while ranked inside the Top 10 given that 1970.
The 11th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers forced three early turnovers on the 24th-ranked Michigan State Spartans, but nonetheless went into the locker room at halftime on the brief finish of a 20-10 score.
West Virginia dropped from No. 5 to No. 13 in the rankings although South Florida moved up from No. 18 to No. 6.
West Virginia got to its No. 5 ranking by taking down No. 129 Marshall, No. 94 Western Michigan, No.
Head coach Mark Dantonio, who suffered a mild heart attack following his team’s last-second overtime win over Notre Dame, found himself back within the hospital for this game simply because of a blood clot in his leg. He had intended to be back within the coaching box.
Enter offensive coordinator Don Treadwell, who led the Spartans 45-7 win over AA Northern Colorado last week. On Michigan State’s essential drive late within the game, Treadwell called for a profitable attempt on a 4th-and-1 circumstance that ultimately led to the 34-24 upset win.
No. 7 Texas got genuinely identified out and embarrassed at dwelling against Kansas State in one more Big 12 game because the Wildcats dumped on the Longhorns, 41-21. I’ve been questioning Texas’ stature since the starting of the year, and now my suspicions have been validated.
The Spartans would convert three 3rd-downs on the drive prior to needing all 4 downs to score near the goal line on a 1-yard pass from Kirk Cousins to B. J. Cunningham to seal the victory.
Texas got to 4-0 by defeating No. 162 Rice, No. 100 Arkansas State, No. 54 TCU. Texas, who is rated No.
Last year at Husky Stadium, Erik Folk nailed a 22-yard field objective with three seconds left to upset then 3rd-ranked Southern Cal in what became a signature victory for first-year coach Steve Sarkisian and his Huskies.
No. 10 Rutgers, the darlings of the Big East, were upset at home by Maryland 34-24, and dropped to No. 21. I think Rutgers will soon drop out of the Top 25 as two 5-0 teams in the Big East-No. 20 Cincinnati and unranked Connecticut–are becoming overlooked.
Rutgers rose to No. 10 by whipping up on No. 208 AA Norfolk State, No. 142 Buffalo and No. 68 Navy. Good grief, speak about a lame schedule. They deserve what they get.
Sagarin rates Rutgers at No. 38; even that seems high to me at the moment.
No. 11 Oregon played host to No. 6 California in a Pac 10 matchup and led 14-10 going into the 4th quarter but the Bears scored 3 touchdowns inside the last 15 minutes to place them away, 31-24.
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White & Navy (Husky Remix).mov