Coach's Poll Collapsed #2

You don't believe this but coaches have done a masterful job to make the poll trash.

Penn State (3-1) No.13, Iowa (4-0) No.17 (Penn State lost to Iowa 21-10)

California (3-1) No.19, Oregon (3-1) No.25 (Cal lost to Oregon 42-3)

Oklahoma State (3-1) No.12, Houston (3-0) No.15 (Oklahoma State lost to Houston)

Oklahoma (2-1) No.8, BYU (3-1) No. 21 (Oklahoma lost to BYU)

Don't use Coach's poll to determine the national champion match-up. Simply, it's a joke.

Déjà vu in Southern California

Now, USC has lost to an unranked team in four consecutive seasons.

2006 vs. UCLA
The Trojans rebounded from a two-point loss at Oregon State to climb back into the national title picture, and only needed to defeat crosstown rival UCLA (6-5) to play for the national title. They lost, scoring nine points, 23 points below their average.

2007 vs. Stanford
As the top-ranked team in the coaches' poll (second in the AP poll), the Trojans lost at home to 41-point underdog Stanford, ending a 35-game home winning streak. Stanford finished 4-8 that season.

2008 vs. Oregon State
One game after a huge win over Ohio State, the top-ranked Trojans fell behind 21-0 in the first half to Oregon State in a six-point loss. The Beavers went on to a nine-win season, but the early loss in a down year for the Pac-10 sent 11-1 USC to the Rose Bowl, while one-loss Florida and one-loss Oklahoma played for the national title.

2009 vs. Washington
Washington went 0-12 this past season and lost to USC 56-0. The Huskies had not won a Pac-10 game since November 2007. The Trojans, again coming off a win over Ohio State, had won seven straight in the series, scoring at least 26 points in every game. Again, the Trojans lost to 3-touchdown underdog Huskies 16-13.

STATE TRIFECTA - week 3

Who's Hot:

State of Florida
- (1) Florida beat Tennessee 23-13
- (20) Miami beat (14) Georgia Tech 33-17
- Florida State beat (7) BYU 54-28

Who's Not:

State of Utah
- (7) BYU lost to Florida State 54-28
- (18) Utah lost to Oregon 31-24
- Utah State lost to Texas A&M 38-30

Coach's Poll Collapsed

Coaches are simply not qualified to rank the teams. BYU (2-1) lost to Florida State (2-1) at home 54-28. Still, BYU is ranked No.20 while FSU is ranked No.25 in the USA Today Coach's Poll. The game was not as close as the final score shows.

There are some other odd placement:
Oklahoma (2-1) No.9, BYU (2-1) No. 20 (Oklahoma lost to BYU)
USC (2-1) No.10, Washington (2-1) Unranked (USA lost to Washington)
Oklahoma State (2-1) No.16, Houston (2-0) No.23 (Oklahoma State lost to Houston)

Don't use Coach's poll to determine the national champion match-up.

Here is my top 25 ranking. At least better than coach's poll.
1. Florida 3-0
2. California 3-0
3. Alabama 3-0
4. Texas 3-0
5. LSU 3-0
6. Miami 2-0
7. Penn State 3-0
8. Cincinnati 3-0
9. Virginia Tech 2-1 (should be lower than Alabama)
10. Auburn 3-0
11. Ole Miss 2-0
12. Missouri 3-0
13. Boise State 3-0
14. Washington 2-1 (should be lower than LSU)
15. Florida State 2-1 (should be lower than Miami)
16. USC 2-1 (should be lower than Washington)
17. Houston 2-0
18. Ohio State 2-1 (should be lower than USC)
19. Nebraska 2-1 (should be lower than Virginia Tech)
20. Michigan 3-0
21. BYU 2-1 (should be lower than Florida State)
22. Oklahoma State 2-1 (should be lower than Houston)
23. Oklahoma 2-1 (should be lower than BYU)
24. Georgia 2-1 (should be lower than Oklahoma State)
25. Oregon 2-1 (should be lower than Boise State)

Flu spread among the Gators

Staying away from Tennessee offense is not a problem for the Gators, but staying away from flu is.

The Gators had three starters affected by the flu last week and in Saturday's game, and Florida is on high alert to contain a possible spread, UF coach Urban Meyer said Sunday.

"I would say this, it is a panic level of proportions I've never seen before. That's coming from me," Meyer said. "Wisconsin had 40 players miss, Ole Miss had 20.

Tailback Jeff Demps, tight end Aaron Hernandez and defensive end Jermaine Cunningham played despite being sick. All three clearly struggled Saturday.

"We suffered. We had guys miss time, three of our best players," Meyer said. "One shouldn't have played. If it's anybody else but Jeff Demps, they said he probably wouldn't be able to function, and Jeff didn't look right. Aaron Hernandez, we're watching the film, he didn't play like Aaron Hernandez, and Jermaine didn't play like Jermaine.

"I think Hernandez is on the back half (of the flu). We're worried about Demps. He's on the front half. We have a separate dorm room, a separate hotel room. We put them on whatever the flu stuff is. Our team doctors are on it as fast as you can get on it."

Source: GatorSports

(3) USC 13, Washington 16

Southern California's Stafon Johnson stayed face down on the turf. Jubilant Washington players and fans stepped over him, on their way to a riotous purple party that stretched from goal line to goal line.

USC coach Pete Carroll was forced to watch it all, glumly waiting for Steve Sarkisian to emerge from the throng to congratulate his protege. The post-Ohio State funk Carroll began warning his guys about seven days earlier -- in the locker room in Columbus, Ohio -- leveled the Trojans again.

Jake Locker improvised his Huskies to a steely, 68-yard drive that ended on Erik Folk's 22-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining, and the Huskies' fired-up defense stymied fill-in quarterback Aaron Corp and No. 3 USC in a 16-13 victory Saturday.

USC has now lost to an unranked team each of the last four seasons.

Source: ESPN.com

Florida State 54, (7) Brigham Young 28

The Seminoles were too fast for the Cougars on Saturday, scoring every time they got inside the 20 and forcing five turnovers in a 54-28 win that crushed BYU's BCS hopes.

Christian Ponder threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, Ty Jones ran for 108 yards and a score and Greg Reid returned an interception 63 yards for a TD in a rout by the Seminoles.

"It shows us what we can do," said Ponder, who passed for 195 yards and ran for 77 more. "It's the first time in a while we played as a whole team. The defense played great. The offense played incredible."

The 54 points Florida State scored in Provo marked the Seminoles' sixth highest output in a true road game since joining the ACC in 1992.

Max Hall completed 20 of 31 passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns for BYU, but also threw three interceptions. Harvey Unga ran for 97 yards and a touchdown for the Cougars.

Source: ESPN.com

Mitch Mustain's Future

USC quarterback Mitch Mustain has had a tough time breaking into the Trojans lineup since transferring from Arkansas in 2007.

Now it looks like he might find his way onto the field with his leg rather than his arm.

According to the LA Times, Mustain piqued Coach Pete Carroll's interest when he bombed some punts during a Friday walkthrough at Ohio State last week. So Mustain worked at quarterback and punter during Wednesday's practice. It would be nice to see Mustain lined up in the ultimate shotgun formation on fourth down.

The question is "How do you like being a punter at Southern Cal, Mitch?" Mitch Mustain went 8-0 as a freshman starter last season for Arkansas in 2006 as a true freshman.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Mustain was a prized recruit after completing over 70 percent of his passes in 2005 for the undefeated state championship team at Springdale, Ark. He enrolled at Arkansas along with three of his high school teammates.

Mustain enrolled at Arkansas in large part because coach Houston Nutt hired Mustain's high school coach, Gus Malzahn, as offensive coordinator. But Arkansas didn't utilize Malzahn's no-huddle, spread offense and he left for Tulsa.

Mustain became eligible to play for the 2008 season, with three years of eligibility remaining. Mustain was expected to compete well for the starting quarterback position in 2008 with Mark Sanchez but Mustain was placed third in the quarter back order behind Sanchez and Aaron Corp.

At the end of the 2008 season, Sanchez opted to forgo his final season and enter the NFL Draft, leaving the competition for the starting position in the 2009 season open between Mustain, Corp, and in-coming true freshman Matt Barkley. By the end of spring practices, Mustain was placed third in the order again behind Corp and Barkley.

A 8-0 SEC quarterback becomes a Pac 10 punter?

Only Money can Save Dan Hawkins

Dan Hawkins might keep his job as head football coach at Colorado regardless of how bad things get this season because the athletic department cannot afford the buyout if it fired him, let alone any additional expenses in hiring a replacement.

Hawkins' contract contains a clause limiting the school's liability to $850,000 per contract year if it should terminate him without cause. Hawkins would have more than three years remaining if he was fired at any point this season. His contract runs through Jan. 31, 2013.

The school's total liability could approach $3 million under the terms of the deal if any partial year was prorated in a buyout. If the buyout was limited to three years, it would cost CU no more than $2,550,000.

The Buffs started this season 0-2 with losses to Colorado State and Toledo, two games many believed would be wins on the Colorado ledger when the season started.

Hawkins presumably thought the same thing when he repeatedly said before the season started that his team was capable of 10 wins.

If CU athletic director Mike Bohn and Chancellor Phil DiStefano decided a change needed to be made, Hawkins would have the option of filing a claim for damages not to exceed the $850,000 per contract year.

The athletic department remains in deeply in debt with the majority of an $8 million loan from the campus and the CU system in 2006 still to be paid off. Part of that debt was caused by the last coaching change when Bohn fired Gary Barnett at the end of the 2005 season and hired Hawkins.

CU was heavily criticized for having to pay Barnett approximately $4 million when it fired him. The terms of Barnett's contract, negotiated by former athletic director Dick Tharp, required the settlement, and that led to CU trying to limit its obligations in Hawkins' contract.

The department would have to borrow money to buyout Hawkins and it would be hard-pressed to do so in the current economic climate in which state funding is being significantly trimmed and some CU employees have already lost their jobs.

Paying a coach millions of dollars not to coach might be hard to justify, maybe even more so than living with the results he is producing on the field.

The sour start this season is already having repercussions in recruiting.

Zack Craig, a cornerback prospect from Texas had committed to Colorado before the season opener, but he chose to change his commitment to Oklahoma State when the Cowboys offered him on opening weekend.

Littleton High School running back Mister Jones committed to CU in June, but he said Saturday he has decided to make official visits to other programs because he is concerned about the state of things in Boulder.

"I mean, it's obvious," Jones said when asked why he has decided to schedule visits. "They lost to like Toledo and Colorado State the last couple weeks. The CU program isn't doing too good right now."

Source: DailyCamera

(3) USC 18, (8) Ohio State 15

Two games into his college football career, 19-year-old quarterback Matt Barkley already has a place in Southern California lore. Three seasons into his USC career, Joe McKnight can now claim a spot with the great runners at Tailback U.

Matt Barkley wasn't perfect in USC's 18-15 win over Ohio State. But in leading the Trojans on a last-minute, come-from-behind drive, USC's freshman QB proved he has what it takes to be great.

The official stats will call it a 14-play, 86-yard drive, but it really started with USC at its own 5, facing a second-and-19 with 6:09 left in the game.

First McKnight darted for 11 yards. Then it was Barkley to McKnight, who weaved for 21 more on third-and-8.

When Barkley threw a strike over the middle to Anthony McCoy for 26 to get USC to the Ohio State 37, the record crowd of more than 106,000 at Ohio Stadium started to grow uneasy.

Barkley converted a fourth-and-short with a sneak. McKnight, so often compared to USC Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, ran three times, showing some power to go with all those moves and got USC inside the 10. Another sneak by Barkley got it to first-and-goal.

Then Johnson swept around right end, going in untouched, pointing toward the USC section as he crossed the goal line. It was the only part of the huge crowd cheering. The rest?

"When we punched it in there it was good to hear the silence," Barkley said.

Barkley and McKnight hooked up one more time, appropriately, for a 2-point conversion that meant an Ohio State field goal would only force overtime. But with no timeouts left, Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeyes' offense went nowhere with their last chance.

Source: ESPN.com

UCLA 19, Tennessee 15

UCLA stopped Tennessee's Montario Hardesty on fourth-and-2 in the closing minutes, and the Bruins made it two in a row against the Volunteers with a 19-15 victory Saturday.

Trailing by 6, the Vols (1-1) had a chance to take the lead after driving 52 yards, but UCLA (2-0) held fast and Lane Kiffin lost for the first time as Tennessee coach.

For the Bruins, the win in Neyland Stadium in front of 102,239 fans was a big step toward recovering from last year's 4-8 finish.

The Pac-10 conference is 11-8 against SEC teams since 2000. USC and UCLA are a combined 8-0.

Source: ESPN.com

Miami (FL) 38, (18) Florida State 34

Ailing arm and all, Jacory Harris threw for 386 yards -- including a 40-yard pass over double coverage to Travis Benjamin that set up Graig Cooper's 3-yard touchdown run with 1:53 left -- and led the Hurricanes past No. 18 Florida State 38-34 in a wild, back-and-forth game on Monday night.

It went down to the very last play, a pass that Florida State's Jarmon Fortson nearly scooped off the garnet-colored grass in the end zone as time expired. Fortson argued to no avail, replay officials confirmed that he didn't have the ball, and Miami flooded the field that bears Bobby Bowden's name in celebration.

Miami and Florida State dueled like it was the 1980s or '90s all over again. Miami won the thriller, but college football is the ultimate beneficiary if both powers prove to be relevant again.

Source: ESPN.com

(20) Brigham Young 14, (3) Oklahoma 13

One jarring hit might've changed everything for the Sooners -- and BYU.

Bradford sprained his throwing shoulder in the closing seconds of the first half. A mediocre performance by his backup, a questionable decision by coach Bob Stoops and a late meltdown by OU's defense let Max Hall and the 20th-ranked Cougars pull out a 14-13 victory Saturday night in the first college football game at Cowboys Stadium.

Source: ESPN.com

Here we go Gators!