The Crier

The Rundown

Gearing up for another week in college football

Andy Griesbaum · Sport · Oct 05, 2007

I’ll be the first one to admit that my picks were sub-par last week, to say the least. I did call the Illinois over Penn St. upset, but I’m still not satisfied. Tim, on the other hand, proved that he is a sports machine and I expect scores of 17 or higher coming in from him regularly. Anything less is a disappointment. Way to set the bar so high buddy. Week 6 is shaping up to be just as exciting as Week 5. After all of the upsets in the top 10, teams like Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma actually have the rest of their seasons riding on their performances this weekend. There are seven match-ups between top 25 teams, and all of them are must-win situations for both sides. (One shocker I feel I have to briefly mention: Illinois is favored over number 5 Wisconsin by 2.5 points!) The odds-makers must know something about the rankings system that I don’t.

Three Games to Watch:

1) (9) Florida at (1) LSU - Apparently Michigan isn’t the only one getting into trouble and making headlines this week. Urban Meyer stripped Florida safety Tony Joiner of his captaincy after Joiner was charged early Tuesday morning for felony burglary. Joiner attempted to drive his girlfriend’s car away from an impound lot at 4:30 in the morning, but was arrested when a witness reported the suspicious activity. The owner of the impound lot says that the whole thing is a big misunderstanding and wants all the charges dropped, but the case could take days to work its way through the system. Florida needs Joiner for the game in Baton Rouge. Without the senior captain, Florida’s young defensive backfield is going to have its hands full with LSU quarterback Matt Flynn. Some good news for Gators fans is that LSU star receiver, Early Doucet, is still out with an injury and is unlikely to return for Saturday’s game. The Gator faithful will have to hope that their sophomore quarterbeast, Tim Tebow, can lead their offense against the nation’s most powerful defense, led by senior defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey. Both teams are coming off of bad weeks. Florida lost to Auburn at home and LSU didn’t come close to beating the spread against Tulane, one of the worst teams in college football. We’ll see how both teams handle the adversity and rebound.

2) (25) Nebraska at (17) Missouri - Rivals.com is saying this could be the most important game in the Big 12 this weekend. It will decide the winner of the Big 12 North, but that hardly matters when the Big 12 Conference winner is going to be decided by the Red River Shootout. (Good call Rivals.) However, this game is close to my heart. As a native Missourian, I have a small degree of loyalty to Mizzou, but more importantly a strong dislike for all things Nebraska. If Mizzou’s quarterback, Chase Daniel, plays like he has been, things should go well for the Tigers. In four games he’s thrown for 1311 yards and 13 touchdowns with only 4 interceptions. He also has Jeremy Maclin for backup, a receiver, runner, and return man who has erupted onto the Big 12 scene. The redshirt freshman is leading the country in all-purpose yards and has 3 receiving touchdowns, 2 return touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown. So far this season, Nebraska’s passing defense has proven itself inept, but Mizzou’s D isn’t anything to brag about either. Daniel and Nebraska quarterback, Sam Keller, should have a shootout in Columbia on Saturday night.

3) (15) Virginia Tech at (22) Clemson - Clemson is going into this game as the favorites, but in order to beat the Hokies, their running backs “Thunder and Lightning” are going to need to find their spark. James “Thunder” Davis and CJ “Lightning” Spiller have yet to produce the same way they did last year. The Clemson ground attack is averaging 70 yards less per game than they did last year, possibly because they lost four of their starting offensive linemen. They’ll need to turn that around for a win against the Hokies, who’s only loss is to #1 LSU. Freshman quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, is going to have to produce for the Hokies though. So far, he’s only completed 50.6 percent of his passes. Without a passing game, the Clemson D will be able to lock down on running back Branden Ore.

Upset of the Week:

Washington St. over (18) Arizona St. - The Arizona St. Sun Devils have had some success so far this season, but that’s going to change this week. The Sun Devils’ history of Pac-10 road games indicates a rough weekend. Last week, they won their first Pac-10 road game out of their last 15. The win came against Stanford, which is about the same as beating the JV squad in a scrimmage. Washington St. on the other hand is hot at home, scoring 45 points in both of their home games this year. Cougars by 3.

Top 5

1. LSU - While LSU’s performance against Tulane last week was lackluster at best, they still have a better defense than USC. Something tells me Les Miles did not make practice fun for the Tigers this week and the fruits of their labor should come into play this weekend.

2. Ohio State - It may make me sick, but there’s no denying that the Buckeyes play damn good football. They always have a solid defense and offense not great but solid. And they beat Washington 33-14 in Seattle whereas USC barely squeaked by with a 27-24 win in the same stadium.

3. USC - I might hate USC more than Ohio State, but again, they play good football. Until someone beats them, they’re one of the best teams in the nation — certainly the best in the Pac-10. USC has a defense and Pete Carroll, two things Cal is lacking. Unfortunately, this means that USC is probably going to go undefeated. I’ll still hold out for an Oregon upset though.

4. South Florida - They’ve beaten Auburn and West Virginia. Auburn beat Florida at the Swamp and West Virginia has Pat White and Steve Slaton. Enough said. The AP has Cal and Wisconsin ranked ahead of them, but Cal doesn’t have a defense and Wisconsin almost lost to Michigan State last week, not to mention that according to the odds-makers, they’re the underdogs to Illinois this week.

5. Boston College - I was going to give this slot to Kentucky because of Andre’ Woodson, but they just lost to South Carolina. Now it goes to BC by default, but they’ve got a pretty good quarterback too. Matt Ryan is leading the ACC in passing yards with 1545 total, averaging 60 yards more per game than the next highest QB.