Monday, November 8, 2010

Monday Musings: Air Force Wins the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy

It was another great week of college football. It is weeks like these that make November the best month of the season. Everything is at stake and everything is possible.

1. Claiming the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Air Force beat Army 42-22 to win their first Commander-in-Chief's trophy since 2002. Navy had won the last 7. Air Force beat Navy 14-6 back on October 2.

2. Bad day to be a two loss team. Two loss Florida State, Northwestern, Syracuse, Maryland, and North Carolina State all lost to teams with a worse record. Baylor was crushed by Oklahoma State. Iowa struggled to beat Indiana. Hawaii was overwhelmed by Boise State, and Fresno State was challenged by Louisiana Tech.

3. Mirror image. Cam Newton and Denard Robinson took the dual threat QB label to a different level this year. On Saturday, they posted very similar stats with their similar style of play. Newton attempted 21 passes and averaged 15.1 yards per attempt. Robinson attempted 20 passes and averaged 15.3 yards per attempt. Newton averaged 3.0 yards per rush, and Robinson averaged 3.3 yards. They both left their respective games early, however, Robinson left early due to injury, while Newton went to the bench with a commanding lead.

4. New life in Ames, Iowa. Since the Utah and Oklahoma games that ended 68-27 and 52-0 respectively, Iowa State has been a much improved team. They are 2-1 since those two losses, which includes beating Texas in Austin. The loss was a heart breaker to Nebraska in overtime.

5. Make Room for the Non-AQs. Boise State and TCU deserve serious consideration for the BCS national championship game. These two teams have played so well the last three years it is an injustice to not give them a chance on the biggest stage.

6. Lucky Number 55. Three traditionally strong programs that are having down years all posted big wins by scoring 55 points. Florida beat Vanderbilt 55-14, Georgia beat Idaho State 55-7, and BYU beat UNLV 55-7.

7. Moore than you can handle. Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore gave Hawaii more than they could handle. He reinserted himself in Heisman talk with a 30-37, 507 yards, and 3 TD performance against a good Hawaii team. Hawaii gave USC a competitive game (49-36) early this year, but Moore and company had the Warriors retreating all game long in a 42-7 blowout.

8. I am glad we're not in Kansas anymore. The Colorado Buffaloes saw a 28 point lead whisked away by a Kansas tornado. The Jayhawks scored 35 fourth quarter points to send the Buffaloes back to Colorado and helped blow them out of the Big 12.

9. Michigan needs a makeover. The mood in Michigan has been very gloomy the last two weeks. Rich Rodriguez was on the hot seat and no one thought the team was going in the right direction. By beating Illinois this week, the Wolverines are 6-3 on the season and will probably move to 7-3 with Purdue up next. They will go bowling and have a very good chance of finishing two, maybe three games improved from a year ago. There is only one problem in Ann Arbor: the defense. Fix that this offseason and Michigan can contend for the Big Ten title.

10. Wild, wild, East. The Big East Conference race is still wide open. While Pitt is 3-0 in the conference, no team has a conference record worse than 1-2. With so many conference games left to be played and all eight teams still in the running, things could get wild in the last month of the season.

Other recent posts on COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAVEN:
Poll Results: Will Michgian win 6 games to be bowl eligible?
College Football Haven Top 25, Week 10, 2010
Game of the Week: TCU Horned Frogs at Utah Utes
Game Predictions, Week 10, 2010
Weekly Trivia: Georgia Bulldogs Starting 4-5
Heisman Hopefuls: Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley Eliminated

No comments:

Post a Comment