The Crier

The Lowdown

The year of huge college upsets continues.

Tim Shields · Sport · Oct 12, 2007

First it was that small North Carolina school beating that big time Michigan school (I still can’t say it), then it was 35 point underdog Syracuse over Louisville, and this past weekend it was 40 point underdog Stanford with a last minute win over the Trojans of USC. The absence of dominant teams (besides ones coached by guys named Les Miles) is further evidence for college football to implement a playoff system to determine the national champion. In a season where Hawaii could be the only team to go undefeated, college football may face the biggest BCS controversy yet this winter. What happens if there is a one loss SEC, Big 12, PAC 10 and Big 10 champion and an undefeated Cincinnati or South Florida team at the end of the season? Who goes to the title game and who simply has to settle for the 12 million dollar payout of one of the other BCS bowls? I don’t think we should have to settle for that outcome. With the growing parity in college football today, there needs to be a playoff system to determine the champion. Now that I’ve finished my rant, let’s move on to the Lowdown.

Three Games to Watch:

1) Purdue at Michigan (Noon, Big Ten Network)

While this may not be a big game for the rest of the country, it should have major implications in the Big Ten title picture, and especially for our Michigan Wolverines. Against the two teams that have been good at running a spread offense (and no Northwestern doesn’t count), Michigan had a hard time. The big difference here is Purdue relies heavily on the pass to set up the run and not visa versa. Curtis Painter is the most polished quarterback in the Big Ten, except for Chad Henne, and that could cause problems for the Michigan defense. The good news is our secondary has been looking better with every passing week — no pun intended. Donovan Warren is maturing into a top-notch corner, and Morgan Trent is trying to make everyone forget about how he played last year. Luckily for Michigan, Purdue’s defense is not as good as its offense and arguably their best player, defensive end Cliff Avril, will be out for the game. Look for Mike Hart to continue his 100 yard games streak and Henne to have time to throw to his open receivers. I may jinx us, but I’ll still pick Michigan to pull it out in the end. Prediction: Michigan 31 Purdue 23

2) LSU at Kentucky (3:30, CBS)

Number one ranked LSU, fresh off surviving a Florida upset bid, takes on a Kentucky team fresh off their first loss of the season. If Kentucky wants to have any chance at pulling an upset, they need to protect the ball better than they did last week. After setting an NCAA record for most consecutive pass attempts without an interception, Kentucky’s quarterback, Andre’ Woodson, threw an interception and lost two fumbles for touchdowns in a disappointing loss. LSU has the type of defense that will take advantage of someone not protecting the ball. Nevertheless, Woodson and wide receiver Keenan Burton make up a potent one two combination on offense. LSU is still trying to find its stride on offense and went with a platoon quarterback system, very similar to Florida’s of last year. Since this is at Kentucky and it is hard to win on the road, especially in the SEC, look for Kentucky to keep it close but for LSU to narrowly avoid another upset bid. Prediction: LSU 27 Kentucky 24

3) Louisville at Cincinnati (7:00, ESPN U)

I know Louisville is struggling and Cincinnati is undefeated, but I just can’t believe that Louisville is as bad as they have played the first half of the season. Louisville’s big problem is that they don’t play defense. Brian Brohm could be the best quarterback in the country, but he can’t help the defense to stop giving up so many points. This does not bode well for the Cardinals as Cincinnati has averaged 41 points per game under new head coach Brian Kelly, who has started off 7-0 with the program. The Bearcats seemed to legitimize their standing with a big win at a ranked Rutgers team last week, but I am still wary of the strength of the Big East. I am excited for there start though because Brian Kelly is looking more and more appealing every week as a future Michigan head coach (behind Les Miles and maybe Jeff Tedford in my opinion). If Cincinnati can pull of a win here, they will cement their place high in the standings at least until they meet South Florida. This game should be wild and high scoring, but look for Louisville to make a statement and try to salvage their season. Prediction: Louisville 45 Cincinnati 41

Upset of the Week:

Okay, so I was way off with my upset pick last week, but if Bowling Green’s quarterback hadn’t thrown a million interceptions, they would have been in the game. This week I will try to pick something a little better. I’m still not sold on Boston College as a top ten team and they should be wary of a Notre Dame team with nothing to lose. That being said, Notre Dame still sucks and BC should be able to take care of them even though it is in South Bend. The other top 25 team that should be on upset alert is South Carolina. North Carolina showed some life last week in their upset of Miami (FL) and should have no trouble getting up for this rivalry game. Still I think the other USC and the ‘ole ball coach pull that one out. No, my upset of the week is Iowa over Illinois at Iowa. Iowa may not have much of an offense, but they have proved they still have a defense. Illinois could be flying too high off their upset last week over an imperious #5 Wisconsin team and/or could be looking ahead to next week’s match up with Michigan. Iowa has underachieved all season and has the chance to put a big damper on Illinois’ Big Ten title aspirations.
Prediction: Iowa 23 Illinois 21

Top 5

1) LSU - The only preseason top 5 team not to get tripped up yet. Les Miles made the gutsy decisions that had to be made in order to beat Florida last week. Right now they are the clear front runners for the national championship.

2) Ohio State - They made a statement of their own last week by crushing Purdue in West Lafayette. This defense could be better than last years and maybe even better than their championship one in 2002.

3) Cal - They’ll be in the top three until they lose. They were impressive against Oregon but still have big conference games against USC and Arizona State.

4) South Florida- Just like Cal, they’ll be in the top 5 until they lose. Who called this at the beginning of the season?

5) Missouri’s Chase Daniel has the Tiger’s offense rolling, as they absolutely destroyed Nebraska last week 41 to 6. They could fall against Oklahoma this wee though.