Saturday Spotlight Week 5
by Eric Loomis
An exciting week of college football is in the books with a number of great games and shocking upsets. Eric Loomis returns with The Saturday Spotlight to break down the best and worst of week 5.
It’s that special time of year, when the cupcake games are over and the hitting starts to get harder. It’s time for conference play, and with conference play comes plenty of bitter rivalries, shocking upsets and new break out stars. Let’s take a look some of the best story lines from this week in the Quick Hits.
Quick Hits:
The biggest matchup of the week will be the first stop here. Alabama has been able to do some remarkable things pretty quickly so far under Nick Saban, but surely there was no way they could walk into Georgia’s house and pull out a win, right? Wrong. Saban and his boys dismantled the #3 Bulldogs in front of their own fans. After seeing how quickly Saban has turned the Crimson Tide around, fans are left wondering if he has them in contention for a championship already.
This week saw the evolution of Terrelle Pryor from a guy who would be used occasionally to the true offensive leader of the team. The important thing to focus on now is how Pryor deals with being The Man under the college spotlights. Hopefully he has progressed from some of his problems in high school, because his game has grown by leaps and bounds already. The sky is the limit here.
In a game that saw a classic rivalry renewed, Arkansas traveled to Austin to take on Texas. While this was a matchup of two storied programs, this game was all one team. Texas jumped the Hogs from the opening whistle and never let up. Is this what Bobby Petrino had in mind when he ran back to the college game?
Big cheers this week for the Duke Blue Devils and new head coach David Cutcliffe as they were able to snap a 25 game ACC losing streak, downing the Virginia Cavaliers by a stunning 31-3 margin. Duke has been the perenial laughing stock of the ACC and all of college football for as long as most fans can remember, but this season Cutcliffe has the kids believing and they looking like a team who can play the game. Keep an eye on this team the rest of the season and in seasons to come.
Upset alert:
What a week it was in the upset departement. Six ranked teams were taken down by unranked foes and as mentioned above #3 Georgia also went down hard.
The upset train started rolling Thursday night as #1 USC was stunned by Oregon State. The Beavers were not intimidated by the mighty Trojan machine as they stood toe to toe and jumped a sleep walking Southern Cal team to open a huge early lead. They managed to hold on until the end and never relented. Just a great showing in Corvalis by a hungry team.
Clemson continues to disapoint this season, as the #20 ranked Tigers dropped a close game to Maryland on Saturday. A pre-season top 10, Clemson continues to sputter despite having a ton of big name talent. Tommy Bowden has some serious questions to answer and this was another big win for Maryland as they knock off another ranked team.
Ole Miss provided perhaps the biggest shock on Saturday when they walked into the swamp and held of the mighty Gators 31-30. Jevan Sneed went toe to toe with Tim Tebow and The Rebels were able to block a late extra point and stuff a Tebow run on 4th and short to preserve the win. This was a huge win for Ole Miss and new coach Houston Nutt who if it were not for a few bad breaks could easily be undefeated this season.
Michigan finally seemed to put it together in the second half this week as they stormed back to take down the #9 Wisconsin Badgers. A 20 point 4th quarter rally gave Rich Rodriquez his first big win with the Wolverine program and gives the fans something to look forward to. This was a huge step in the right direction.
The shine seems to have come off East Carolina and coach Skip Holtz for this season as the Pirates have now lost two in a row as they went down to Houston by a score of 41-24. A huge loss like this at home means the Pirates are probably gonna fall from their #23 ranking and out of the top 25. That season opener win over Virginia Tech seems like it was light years ago.
Saturday brought a huge win for the Midshippmen of Navy as they were able to take down the #16 ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons 24-17. The triple option attack was in effect all day as the Middies frustrated and beat down Wake slowly and methodically for the win. Wake Forest now joins the ranks of just about every other ACC, scuffling and looking for answers.
Spotlight Game of the Week:
This week’s best match up saw the UNC Tarheels travel to Miami and take on the and coming Hurricanes. This game featured two young and up and coming teams looking to make their mark. It also brought Butch Davis’ return to Miami, the school where he made his name. The game went back forth all day and came down to a last second throw which looked to be good for 6 until Tramaine Godard ripped it away for an interception and secured the win for UNC. This is a potentially growing rivalry and it will be a fun one to watch as both these programs rise back to the top of the ACC.
Spotlight MVP:
The Spotlight MVP this week is Oregon State runningback Jacquizz Rodgers. The diminutive Rodgers rushed for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns in helping his team take down the #1 team in the land. Not bad for a freshman.
Spotlight LVP:
The LVP award this week is not going to a player, or even a coach…No it’s going to an entire coaching staff. The USC Trojans always have the best talent in the country. They play well just about every week and are always in the national title contention, but every season something is missing. At least once a season the Trojans will come out flat and drop a game like this. There is no excuse for this to happen with the frequency it does especially when there is so much talent. The coaches have got to keep this team focused and work to avoid the complacency. Right now they may be guilty of buying into their own hype and it just cost them a perfect season.
That will be all for the Spotlight this week. If you have any comments or questions send them to ericloomis@newerascouting.com and your comments may be used in a future edition of the Spot Light.