Week 9 Postlude

If you'll excuse a bit of poesy before we get to the weekend wrap-up, I found myself expanding upon an old saying:

There are rules to remember
In predictions we render
For the games contested in fall:

September's for pretenders,
November's for contenders,
And October makes fools of us all.

With that out of the way, it was a pretty quiet weekend in college football. Most of the excitement was generated by things that could have happened, but didn't. Come to think of it, all of October was pretty much like that. Anyway, it was mostly unremarkable, as only one game really made a decisive statement about the shape of the year. That changes starting next week. But let's wrap up this week before we worry about that.

North Carolina over Virginia Tech

You know, I know the rule, and I break it anyway. In fact, I even pointed out the rule and said that I was breaking it. That's the most ridiculous part of it. I mean, aside from just the result of the game on its own.

South Florida over West Virginia

It appears as though I spoke too soon about West Virginia's ability to figure out the Bulls' defense. Or their offense. Or how to beat South Florida.

Illinois over Michigan

Fortunately, Illinois was there to make me look good. I turned on the game just at the time that Illinois player whose name I forget saved a touchdown on a very long run and, for as annoying as it was to hear about the rest of the game, Illinois was on fire after that. After that play, Illinois looked every bit as good as they did when they beat #1 Ohio State in 2007. It's probably too late to salvage the season with a bowl game, but I do have a soft spot for the oft-maligned Juice Williams and the Zooker. Michigan, meanwhile, needs to pull themselves together. Fast.

Oregon over USC

Now this was some very big news out of the Pac-10: USC was actually beaten in a big game. As much as they didn't seem to have the same firepower this year as they have in other years, this was still a landmark win for Oregon. They are clearly in the driver's seat for the Pac-10 title and USC has to hope for some serious help if they want to even get a share of the crown. Admittedly, there is still a lot of football left to be played, but Oregon has shown that they are decidedly a force to be reckoned with this season. There are still some obstacles that must be cleared before the Ducks can book their train fare to Pasadena, but they cleared the biggest one so far in a big way.

Texas over Oklahoma State

Florida over Georgia

Nothing surprising here. Neither underdog was exactly hitting their stride at any point of this season, much less leading up to these games. Neither favorite was exactly hitting their strides coming into this game either, but they are more than talented enough to make up for their occasional lapses in execution. So hit the snooze button for another week, it was another dull one for the BCS favorites.

Iowa over Indiana

Penn State over Northwestern

These games were really nothing that surprising either. Both teams started slow, but pulled out the wins. Admittedly, Iowa made it more interesting than it should have been; I was expecting some sloppiness them in the early going, just not that much of it. What I was not expecting was Iowa's ability to score so fast once they got going: two touchdowns on two consecutive passes—this team has some explosiveness when they need it. Penn State, meanwhile, looked a little sluggish at the start, but pulled it together for an easy win at the end. Again, that was to be expected; you can't blame them (much) for looking ahead.

Tennessee over South Carolina

Is it really an upset when pretty much everybody was picking Tennesee to pull the upset? Including Vegas, I might add, thus making Tennessee the favorite. So I guess it wasn't an upset at all. Except in South Carolina, where I assume they were pretty upset at this result.

Auburn over Mississippi

I'm starting to feel the same way about the SEC West as I do about the ACC.