College Football Live Thread - Weekend Nine

Sportsline.com Scoreboard ^ | Thursday 26th of October to Sunday 29th of October 2006

[MikefromOhio]

Weekend Eight was the weekend of near-misses and close calls. Texas, Cal and Notre Dame all escaped their games with wins. Texas won on a last second field goal in Lincoln against Nebraska, while ND drove 80 yards for a winning TD pass from Brady Quinn. Cal, however, had to go to overtime to defeat a steadily improving Washington team. It was business as usual for most of the top 5, with West Virginia, Auburn, Michigan and Ohio State all rolling to relatively easy wins. Unfortunately ND’s narrow win and subsequent drop in the polls prompted whining from Charlie Weis, which is rebutted by ESPN columnist DJ Gallo here. Needless to say, putting Florida and Tennessee aren’t the biggest transgressions this past weekend. Having to come back against a mid-tier Pac10 team, with their backup Quarterback at the helm, at home, late in the 4th quarter, IS a problem for ND.

This week’s match up of the week pits Georgia and Florida in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”. This is a fun game every year to watch.

Saturday, October 28th, 2006 – 3:30 PM on CBS

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Georgia at (9) Florida (-13.5)

The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party pits Georgia against Florida. Generally this game is played in Jacksonville. Florida has all of the advantages on paper, but more than one good team on either side has been upset here before. Georgia could get back into SEC contention with a win here while Florida needs a win to hold serve to get to the SEC championship game. In the end, I think Georgia’s lack of offense will hold them back from winning this game. They will need points on every possession and the Florida defense is too good to allow that.

Florida 24 – Georgia 14

Thursday October 26th, 2006 (ESPN Thursday Night Game)

(10) Clemson (-4.5) at Virginia Tech

Clemson has a chance to take absolute and total control of the ACC with a win. This has been the type of game that Clemson has lost in the past. After winning a game that many thought they wouldn’t, they have a history of laying an egg the next week. Not this year.

Clemson 32 – Virginia Tech 24

Friday October 27th, 2006 (ESPN2 Friday Night Game)

UTEP at Tulsa (-14)

Tulsa has played one decent team (BYU) and lost. Look for Tulsa to roll over UTEP, although this game should be interesting for a while.

Tulsa 42 – UTEP 24

Saturday October 21st 2006 (in ranking order)

Minnesota at (1) Ohio State (-27)

Ohio State 38 – Minnesota 3

Northwestern at (2) Michigan (-30)

Michigan 45 – Northwestern 10

(3) USC (-10.5) at Oregon State

USC 37 – Oregon St. 13

(4) West Virginia BYE

(5) Texas (-10.5) at Texas Tech

Texas 34 – Texas Tech 20

(6) Louisville BYE

(7) Auburn (-19) at Mississippi

Auburn 38 – Mississippi 13

(8) Tennessee (-3.5) at South Carolina

Tennessee 28 – South Carolina 20

(11) Notre Dame (-13) at Navy

ND 38 – Navy 17

(12) Cal BYE

Louisiana Monroe at (13) Arkansas (NL)

Arkansas 49 – LA Monroe 6

(14) LSU BYE

(15) Boise St BYE

Illinois at (17) Wisconsin (-21.5)

Wisconsin 52 – Illinois 13

Buffalo at (18) Boston College (-35)

BC 48 – Buffalo 0

(19) Oklahoma at (23) Missouri (-2)

Mizzou 24 – Oklahoma 17

Oklahoma St. at (20) Nebraska (-5.5)

Oklahoma St. 28 – Nebraska 27

Miami (FL) at (21) Georgia Tech (-5)

Georgia Tech 32 – Miami 16

Baylor at (22) Texas A&M (-4.5)

Baylor 37 – Texas A&M 24

(24) Wake Forest (-8.5) at North Carolina

Wake 34 – North Carolina 10

Portland St. at (25) Oregon (NL)

BY REQUEST (FReepmail me to have your team included)

New Mexico at Colorado St. (-6.5) – Saturday, October 28th (Mountain West Conference)

Every time I pick against New Mexico, they win, and every time I pick them, they lose. I don’t know anymore.

Colorado St. 28 – New Mexico 17

Baylor at (22) Texas A&M (-4.5)

A&M needs to play better defense against Baylor than they did against OK St. Baylor can score in bunches. If it can ever figure out the defense thing, they could be a dangerous team.

Baylor 37 – Texas A&M 24

Sunday October 29th, 2006 (ESPN Sunday Night Game) UCONN at (19) Rutgers (-19)

As UCONN proved last week against West Virginia, it has a problem stopping the run. Ray Rice should get close to 200 yards in this one.

Rutgers 35 – UCONN 10

[MikefromOhio]

Upset WatchL

Rutgers 17

UCONN 14

Start of the 4th Quarter

[Man50D]

I'm watching. UConn's gaining momentum! Brown has 203 yards rushing so far.

[MikefromOhio]

Rutgers is a good team, but they just aren't on the level of WVU or Louisville YET....

another year or two then probably....

[MikefromOhio]

wow, just when Rutgers starts to look a bit vulnerable, they knuckledown and play some great defense....

Rutgers 24

UCONN 13

[Man50D]

wow, just when Rutgers starts to look a bit vulnerable, they knuckledown and play some great defense....

Yep. The only way UConn is going to improve is by beating ranked teams.

[Biggirl]

They did another touchdown, but Rutgers won out in the end. At least UConn is learning once again from its losses.

[lepton]

Indiana? I thought they were in the Big Ten for basketball and academics?

I told ya Indiana's a better football team than their record showed. :)

[lepton]

Also

Oklahoma State 27

Nebraska 23

Miami 16

Georgia Tech 13

How's that work? If OK State runs out of bounds on the left, is it a first down for Miami? :P

[lepton]

I hate ESPN/ABC They don't bother to even look at that game.

Speaking of not looking at the game...I just watched that hit on Hall just before halftime in the Minn v OSU game, and there's no way that wasn't a serious personal foul. The announcers are trying to explain it away, but it's direct helmet to helmet, and the receiver did NOT drop his head into it.

[MikefromOhio]

I know they are :)

I was just messing with ya :)

[MikefromOhio]

if you look, contact was initiated on the top of the shoulder pad and with the runner's attempt to slow to switch directions, he was all lined up for a bad hit.

It wasn't intentional.

[lepton]

He was certainly all lined up. I'll look again to see about the "top of the shoulder pads part", but slowing down does not cause that.

[MikefromOhio]

slowing down and trying to change directions does....his body shifted and lowered when he did so....

The tackler lead with his head no doubt, but the crown of his helmet briefly impacts on the shoulder pads before getting up near the helmet....

[dfwgator]

and Louisville has shown no staying power either.

Well until Mama Brohm stops popping out quarterbacks.

[MikefromOhio]

Unless they find the reincarnation of Michael Bush out there somewhere...

They've been completely different since he was injured. They've won, but they look vulnerable from time to time.

[dfwgator]

It would be interesting to see how Louisville would be if totally healthy, but I don't see them beating WVU.

[MikefromOhio]

yeah....

WVU hasn't had a bad performance yet though. I wonder if they are due for one....

[lepton]

O.K. After a nap, I've looke again in slow motion. I know the announcers said that bit about slowing down, but it really isn't so...and the defender starts low and comes up and puts his helmet into the facemask. If it hit the shoulderpads, it did so only in the sense of the shoulderpads tie in the middle just below the throat, and even then only glancing and incidental. That was a hit directed at the centerline of the head, with the receiver making no significant lateral motions. Even if it had hit the chest first, it'd be darn close to spearing, which is illegal.

A lot of helmet-to-helmet gets called on glancing blows with the guy with the ball ducking or twisting into it. That was a direct hit, that came over a long distance.

The announcers are full of it. :)

[lepton]

not to beat a dead horse, but I wanted to clarify something: Yes, the runner does lean backwards a bit trying to slow, and his head drops a few inches. The drop is small though, and if Small had been standing up fully, the hit, instead of being planted in his facemask, would have merely been into his chin.

[dread78645]

Final
UAB 9
SMU 22