College Football Week 8 Recap

Michigan/Penn State
Mike: My one worry about this game going in was that we make lots of mistakes in the 1st quarter of games. Fumbles, dropped passes, and a defense that is slow to wake up. All those things happened against Michigan. As we were falling behind my worries grew. Maybe they just have our number. Maybe Rich-Rod is a decent coach after all and it just took him this long to figure out how to motivate this team. Maybe we aren’t that good. I kept my calm. We can score in bunches. Our defense usually adjusts. Their QB is banged up. Turned out they used all their energy to get out to that early lead and then had nothing left. With Ohio State’s big win against Michigan State they look dangerous next week.
Ahad: The first quarter mistakes didn’t come back to hurt them this week, but it might against Ohio State. The spread was effective which is cause for concern. Michigan doesn’t have the talent that OSU does, and is better at running the spread. After the first quarter, the offense played great, especially Royster. I maintain my stance that Josh Hull needs to be benched.
Matt: Josh Hull did have a rough game, but at this point, who would we replace him with? I think he is doing as well as he can for a walk-on. The game had me nervous there for a while, and I kept repeating to myself, Michigan’s offense is awful … how are they doing this to our defense? I am glad we got it worked out. The offense finally came to life, and we must avoid the slow starts, especially this week. We also need to take better care of the ball. Clark even covered up so he wouldn’t fumble, and he still fumbled! It should be a great game this week.

Ohio State/Michigan State
Ahad: The score was a little bit deceiving in this game. OSU benefited from turnovers by MSU. They had a lot of short scoring drives. I am not sure that the offense for OSU is capable of putting together consistent drives.
Matt: I only watched the first quarter or so when Ohio State go out to a 21-0 lead. There were better games to watch at that time. And how awful is Wisconsin? Iowa looks pretty good, so we better watch out for them too in 2 weeks.

BCS
Mike: The most interesting thing about the early BCS polls is the bias in the human polls. Penn State is #7 on the computers (#3 human polls), USC #10 (#4 Harris/ #5 USA Today), and the largest gap, South Florida #23 (#14). In reverse, Boise State and Utah are ranked 4 spots better by the computers. Oklahoma State and Ohio State are 5 spots better on the computers and Georgia Tech is 5.5 spots better. Northwestern isn’t getting a lot of respect either (#26 Harris/ #24 USA Today) but is tied for 19 in the computer polls. Are 2 human polls really necessary? They seem to just copy each other, there is not much of a difference between the two. 1 poll and the computers could get the job done. How many people even know the Harris Poll exists?
As for the teams … Penn State/Ohio State should level the dispartity between the humans and computers no matter the outcome. USC always seems to be propped up by the humans. It only makes sense if they are looking ahead and asuming they will win out, but they aren’t, so it doesn’t make sense. The 2nd tier conference teams (Boise State and Utah) rarely get any respect along with the programs in major conferences that aren’t traditional powers (Oklahoma State and Northwestern).
Matt: I saw one guy saying that Wazzu may be the worst team of the BCS era. I think he might be right.
Evan: Looking ahead, I don’t think a Big 12 team gets through the schedule without a loss. I think the only BCS team that has a shot of being unblemished is Penn State. There will then be the inevitable logjam of 1 loss teams vying to get in to the natl championship game. You guys know more about the BCS formula than I do. But how will it sort out if you have a 1 loss USC team that runs the table, any 1 loss Big 12 champ, and a 1 loss SEC Champ? – Which are 3 very likely possibilities. I don’t think the BYU’s of the world have any shot at getting into the title game.