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Just doing my part.
Primetime was good to us this week. All four games—Florida/LSU, Texas/Colorado, Iowa/Michigan and Georgia Tech/FSU—provided some suspense and intrigue. Tim Tebow came back from injury to lead the Gators to their 15th straight win, while the Longhorns lost their top two running backs with Oklahoma next up on the docket. Iowa squeaked out a victory over conference rival Michigan, quelling any doubters who were still hanging around after a rough start against Northern Iowa and Iowa State. Georgia Tech played well against FSU, but the Seminoles continue to show us that this is just not their year.
Recapping the day in 500 words or less, this is what Saturday taught us about the season:
- Tennessee is on the verge. It won't be long before the Volunteers return to national prominence. It probably won't happen this season, but the Volunteers have a solid, youthful core to build around going forward. The victory over Georgia proved that Tennessee isn't as bad as their critics, and some of their own fans, have said. If they can pull it together on a weekly basis like they did on Saturday, the SEC better take notice of the boys in orange and white.
- Does anybody have an argument for why the SEC is not the best conference in the nation? If you do, I'd love to hear it. Of the six ranked SEC teams, half lost this weekend…to other SEC teams.
- Florida may have been an uncalled Riley Cooper tug of the jersey away from going into the half tied with, or up three on LSU. The touchdown gave the Gators enough separation and momentum to hang onto the lead. Give credit to the Florida defense for holding LSU to only three points.
- Mississippi impressed by holding Alabama out of the red zone on several occasions on Saturday. They just couldn’t manage more than 3 points against the 'Bama defense. At this point, a Florida/Alabama SEC Championship looks eminent. Whoever wins that game, wins the National Championship.
- It wasn't just that Auburn looked bad against Arkansas (besides the 5 minutes in which they scored 3 touchdowns), the Razorbacks looked really good. Ryan Mallett completed 65% of his passes, threw for 274 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Michael Smith rushed for 145 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown for Arkansas. Ben Tate was the star of the Auburn effort, rushing 22 times for 184 yards, including a 60 yarder, and 2 touchdowns. The Tigers will be fine if they can avoid slipping into the dark place they were in last year when they won only 5 games.
- Once Texas went up 17-14 on Colorado early in the second half, forget about it. The Buffalos played like they wanted it in the first half, while the Longhorns played like they were scrimmaging to get ready for the Sooners next weekend. Coming out of the half, it was a whole different story. The early scare may prove to be a positive for Texas moving forward, as good teams rarely make the same mistake twice.
- Is there any question that the Virginia Tech Hokies deserve a top 5 ranking and recognition as the best one-loss team in the nation? They're now ranked 4th and sure played like it on Saturday against Boston College. Dave Shinskie, the Boston College quarterback completed one pass in the game, which didn't come until the second half. Backup Mike Marscovetra fared better, but the Eagles weren't on the board until the fourth quarter when Virginia Tech had wrapped up the win. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's Ryan Williams showed that he deserves to be mentioned among the game's elite running backs.
As they stand now, it looks like the BCS National Championship in Pasadena will be played between the winner of the Florida Tebows and Alabama Crimson Tide SEC title game and the Texas Longhorns, provided Texas can get through Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Kansas—all ranked teams at this juncture of the season—and the Big Twelve Championship. The Tebows are facing no cakewalk on their road to the National Championship, either. They must take on a gauntlet of SEC rivals and an in-state rival—Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State—before they can get to the SEC Championship game. Alabama takes on South Carolina, LSU and Auburn in the regular season. So of course, anything could happen.
This week, Jonathan Crompton Proved He's Worth The Hype bestowed upon him after a 63-7 shellacking of Western Kentucky to start the season. He's still got a long way to go before he can permanently quiet his critics, but he showed some flashes of what got so many Volunteers fans excited in the beginning of the season. Saturday versus Georgia, Crompton was 20 for 27 for 310 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was finding the open man on almost every play, throwing only one pick in the contest.
I'm calling Pittsburgh running back Dion Lewis this week's New Household Name on a week he scored no touchdowns. The freshman has rushed for 738 yards this season, the third highest total in the nation and only 8 yards behind the nation's leading rusher Toby Gerhart of Stanford. On Saturday, he ran for 158 yards against the Connecticut defense, one of the best in the nation. He averaged 6.6 yards per carry on Saturday and averages 5.6 on the season. Keep an eye on this guy throughout what is shaping up to be a great career as he works toward becoming the next great Pitt running back since Tony Dorsett's tenure in the 70's and Craig Heyward's in the 80's.
Next week's big games include a Thursday matchup between a highly ranked Cincinnati team and Big East rival South Florida. On Saturday, Arkansas takes on Florida, Oklahoma takes on Texas, Minnesota travels to Penn State, Texas Tech and their explosive offense visits Nebraska and Virginia Tech takes on Georgia Tech in a battle of ranked ACC teams. The primetime headliners include South Carolina's trip to Alabama and a Missouri/Oklahoma State matchup in the nightcap. - Danny Hobrock
Danny Hobrock is a sports journalist who primarily covers college football and professional baseball. He is a contributor for several sports related blogs and is the former editor of a political and current events website.----------
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