Tidbits Around College Football - Week 10
by Rashad Baadqir
Well college football fans what
did we learn in week 10? Well, Iowa
sure is the team that we thought they were. After their home loss to
Northwestern the Hawkeyes pretty much assured themselves of no trip to Pasadena for the Rose
Bowl or BCS title game. With Ohio State up next this week, Iowa
will likely be traveling to Florida
for the holidays with two losses.
Oregon welcome back to college football
reality. After blistering the USC Trojans the previous week in a clash for the
Rose Bowl race, Oregon
got bludgeoned by Stanford 51-45. Oregon will
need to win its remaining three Pac 10 games (Arizona
St, Arizona, and Oregon State)
to secure it’s Rose Bowl hopes.
Cincinnati escaped a close call performance
with it’s back up quarterback Zach Callaros leading the way against UConn 47-45.
Cincy has two big games (West
Virginia and Pitt) still looming on its schedule and
it all starts with the Mountaineers this week.
Bama can thank their lucky stars
for Julio Jones, he went from goat to hero in taking a short screen pass and
streaking down the sidelines on his way for a game breaking score leading the
Tide to a win over league rival LSU for the SEC East crown and trip to Atlanta
to play No.1 ranked Florida for the SEC championship as well as a chance to go
to the BCS title game in Pasadena. More controversy did not escape a season of
officiating horrors for the SEC. In what appeared to be a fourth quarter
interception by LSU player Patrick Peterson defending Julio Jones which could
have given LSU one more chance to score and take the lead back against Alabama.
However, the play was ruled out of bounds as video replays seemed to show that
Peterson’s foot was in bounds, but the call on the field by the side judge said
he was out.
Comings and Goings:
Oregon reinstated running back LeGarrette Blount back to the
team after his season opening post game fight in the Boise State
loss. Blount, who was originally suspended for the reminder of this season saw
his suspension reduced after fulfilling some structured requirements mandated
upon any chance of a return to the playing field. Still this is a controversial
move that many fans and pundits think should not have happened. Arguing that
for such action, Blount should not be allowed to return to the team, instead
just keep him on scholarship, and let the team move on. Oregon went on a seven game win streak after
that seasoning opening lost, before losing to Stanford last Saturday.
Gators Make Easy Work of Vandy
On
a night in which its All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes decided to
self-impose a one game suspension on himself after the highly publicized and
fingers in face mask video on Georgia running back Washaun Ealey was seen
around the world, the Florida Gators handled a gamely Vanderbilt football team
by a score of 27-3. Much of the overflow crowd in The Swamp, seeing their
Gators back home for the first time in several weeks, expected the Florida
offense to pick up where it left off the previous week when it manhandled
Georgia in Jacksonville 41-17. However what occurred was a sometimes confused
and out of sync offensive unit that had trouble handling the Commodores blitz
and stunts leading to sacking Florida quarterback Tim Tebow four times on the
night.
The number
one ranked Gators who are now 9-0 on the season and one step closer to
repeating as SEC and National champions dominated this game defensively from
start to finish. Led by Jermaine Cunningham, Carlos Dunlap, and Ryan Stamper
who recorded his second career interception in as many weeks held the Commodore
offense to 199 total yards on the night. The Florida defense in absence of
Spikes continued to show the nationally telecast audience why it is one the
most dominate teams in the hunt for the BCS title. However, before Florida has
hopes of playing the BCS title game, it must handle its 3 remaining opponents
(South Carolina, FIU, and arch rival Florida State) in addition to the much
anticipated SEC title match up with third ranked Alabama. Florida has the key
to repeating its BCS title holders in its own hands.
Still,
there is much work needed to get this Florida offense back at its championship
level from a year ago, then again when you are missing NFL rookie stars in
Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy, who by the way were in attendance at the game,
its somewhat understandable. The biggest problems from the Vandy game seemed to
come from the ineffective pass protection that often left Tebow scrambling,
hurrying throws, or taking sacks from missed assignments and poor line play.
The Florida run game has been business as usual, but what is withholding this
offense from being lights out is the pass game. With no true elite wide out
Tebow has relied this season on his main stay pass catchers in Riley Cooper and
Aaron Hernandez, yet Tebow needs some of the other guys in the ranks to step up
when they face its title or bust opponent Alabama next month. Deonte Thompson
has been the point man, but he was non existent in the Vandy game only making
one catch on the night. One thing that head coach Urban Meyer has been
struggling with is finding some creating ways to get other playmakers in the
mix and scoring in the redzone. Players such as Brandon James, Chris Rainey,
Jeff Demps, and company have been looked at as those playmakers. Vandy didn’t
really expose anything new that the Florida offense hasn’t already seen or
tried to fix, but it did give them some more things to think about in spreading
the field and getting others involved. The red zone or dead zone has been
Florida’s worst trouble spot to score touchdowns this season, settling for
field goals is not getting it done and the team has tried changing its scheme
by adding the I-formation and option pitches to eliminate the one dimensional
running of Tebow who has taken a beating since he returned to action from
suffering a concussion in week 4 against Kentucky. One thing Florida fans have
to maybe understand is that this offense is what it is and nothing more.
Florida seems to be taking a win at keeping it simple approach and move on, not
trying to become a score happy team that could take the team out the flow and
create more mistakes. With a salty defense that is unrelenting scoring enough
which seems like getting as much17-20 points is enough to win. I think any
rational Gator will take that. Still Florida is 9-0 and posting the nation’s
longest win streak of 19 in a row. Florida is winning solidly, but not winning
exceptionally, and for a Florida fateful that has gotten spoiled these past few
years with title wins, the diet of success can become a bore if there is no
slaughter of your opponent.
Up next
for Florida is a rangy South Carolina team that will be playing in front of a
home crowd on national television and led by former Florida head coach Steve
Spurrier. The Ol Ball coach’s team is spurting after a great start to the
season, now having lost its last two games.
Rashad A. Baadqir is a contributing writer for TheGatorConnection.com and can be reached
at browningofeurope@yahoo.com