College Football Saturday In 500 Words Or Less

A recap of what went down and what you should take away from Saturday's college football games.

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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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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.

College Football Saturday In 500 Words Or Less

A recap of what went down and what you should take away from Saturday's college football games.

This week taught us a lot about the college season; more so than the previous two weeks. It taught us that reputation might play into the polls more than we'd like to think. It revealed which players we should follow as the season progresses. It showed us how important a quarterback is to a team's success and that continuity at the position is a good thing. Week 3 also taught us a few things we already knew or weren't too surprised to see confirmed.

Recapping the day in 500 words or less, here's what Saturday taught us about the season:

- Where to start? Oh! Washington beat USC with three seconds remaining! It really makes you think: How important is the quarterback position!? Matt Barkley, whose ascent to the top of the depth chart was questioned by many, sat out with a shoulder injury. Aaron Corp, whose snubbing at the beginning of the season was questioned by some, got the start. Barkley hasn't been All-World or anything in his two starts, but he's led a couple of two minute drills to close the half and win the game against Ohio State. If Barkley plays, does he let the Trojans lose?

- On the other side of the ball, how big is Jake Locker's return? Washington was 0-12 without him a year ago. With Locker back under center, the Huskies are 2-1 and took down the mighty Trojans. Who would have thought that next week's Washington/Stanford matchup would determine the early leader in the Pac-10?

- Tyrod Taylor is going to have to become more of a passing threat if Virginia Tech hopes to compete for the ACC Championship. I was, however, impressed with his final drive on Saturday to beat Nebraska. His throw to Danny Coale was near perfect and his scramble on third and goal bought him enough time to hit Dyrell Roberts in the end zone to win the game. He'll have to be more consistent with his passing if Virginia Tech hopes to beat Miami next week.

- Eric Decker is tough. In the process of catching his first of two touchdown receptions, Sean Cattouse dealt a crushing blow to Decker's face. Decker was knocked unconscious momentarily, his mouth was bleeding and he couldn't breathe for a moment. The hit was legal, by the way. It was Decker's second catch of the game. He finished with eight.

- Is there any doubt that Jahvid Best is the best back in the nation? I think not.

- Michael Floyd underwent surgery following an attempted touchdown reception that left him with a broken collar bone. Huge blow to Notre Dame, as Armando Allen and Jimmy Clausen must now carry the Irish offense. Equally as crushing was Arizona's loss of Rob Gronkowski for the season. Gronkowski missed the Wildcats' first three games with a strained back and will have season ending surgery this week.

- Was I the only one who noticed the ridiculous amount of instant replays used to confirm or overturn receptions, ball spots, touchdowns, etc.? The NCAA Board of Whatever Panel Commission will soon vote on whether to use instant replay to make sure that players have tied their shoes correctly. I miss the days when a catch was a catch and a touchdown a touchdown.

- Thirty point underdogs, I can't decide if Tennessee should take a partial win out of Gainesville. No, they shouldn't, but at least they didn't give Urban Meyer the chance to run up the score. And Tebow didn't look too hot through the air against Eric Berry and the Volunteers secondary.

The polls have just been released following an interesting week in college football. USC dropped to 12 in the AP and 10 in the Coaches', while Washington climbed to #24 in the AP and remains unranked in the Coaches'. Miami was the week's biggest riser (9th in AP, 13th in Coaches') following another impressive showing.

This week, Jahvid Best Proved He's Worth The Hype. He's had an impressive start to the season, but Saturday's five touchdowns showed why he's considered the best running back, or football player, in the country. Saturday's five scores was roughly one third of his entire scoring production from last season (16 touchdowns). Scary.

The New Household Name for this week is Eric Decker. Decker caught 8 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns. He became Minnesota's all-time leader in receptions in the process. He even threw a touchdown pass to boot. This all coming on a day where he was knocked out, required stitches and left the game only when he sprained his ankle on Minnesota's final drive.

Some big games await us next weekend. Fourth ranked Ole Miss looks to continue to prove they belong in the top 5 when they take on South Carolina on Thursday night. In Saturday's early games, never-say-die Fresno State takes on 17th ranked Cincinnati and 22nd ranked North Carolina takes on a Georgia Tech team on the rebound. ABC will air a trio of games in the 3:30 P.M. ET slot: #6 Cal at Oregon, #9 Miami at #11 Virginia Tech and Illinois at #13 Ohio State. Top ranked Florida travels to Kentucky at 6 P.M. ET and Arizona State visits 21st ranked Georgia at 7 P.M. ET. Iowa travels to #5 Penn State in the primetime headliner. - 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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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

College Football Saturday In 500 Words Or Less

A recap of what went down and what you should take away from Saturday's college football games.

After months of anticipation, and now that we've had our fill of football, beer and chicken wings, the 2009 college football landscape begins to take shape. There were few outrageous upsets, and the one top five team that did go down, did so against another very good football team and with their Heisman-winning quarterback watching from the sidelines with his arm in a sling. The first Saturday of the season was less of a day for upsets and more of a day for 'almosts', 'what-ifs' and missed opportunities.

Recapping the day in 500 words or less, here's what Saturday taught us about the season:

- Tennessee's freshman class is good. Everybody's talking about Jonathan Crompton, but it was freshman running back Bryce Brown who steamrolled a few Hilltoppers on his way to the end zone and looked good on almost every carry. Miami and Oregon must be kicking themselves for letting this guy slip through their fingers. Freshman receiver Marsalis Teague was the team's leading receiver, while Nu'Keese Richardson looked pretty good as both a punt returner and as a wide receiver. Anybody who says Tennessee's 63-7 shellacking on Saturday is downplayed because it came against Western Kentucky in their first game as members of the FBS is sorely mistaken. UCLA and Florida are next.

- Navy blew it. Who was Ricky Dobbs throwing to in the end zone? An exceptional running play to put the Midshipmen within two overshadowed and forgotten after a terribly blunderous two-point conversion attempt.

- Iowa can't keep relying on their field goal-blocking unit to win them games. It's only the first week and they've done it twice. Iowa is scratching their heads.... Good teams get over the head scratching. Let's see if Iowa is a good team.

- I'm glad Joe Cox wore a cup. Dez Bryant put his money where his mouth is. Despite the loss, the Bulldogs defense looked pretty good. I'd also like to throw out a nickname for Perrish Cox after watching his 74 yard kick return: Crazy Legs Cox.

- With Notre Dame's 35-0 win over Nevada, Lou Holtz has not yet been proven a crazy person. But we know it's coming. Joking aside, Jimmy Clausen looked really good, as did the entire Notre Dame offense. The defense wasn't too bad either. It was against a less-than-stellar Nevada team, but Touchdown Jesus had to have been pleased.

- It took Tennessee an entire quarter to get on the board against Western Kentucky. It took USC a quarter to score against San Jose State. Why was I more worried about USC's slow start? Was it because I expected a jailbreak from the get-go? Or did I think it had something to do with true freshman Matt Barkley getting the start? USC would eventually get their stuff together, winning 56-3 as Barkley threw for 233 yards on 15 for 19 passing. Also notice how nobody can credit Barkley's winning the starting job to his offseason performance. It's always that something is wrong with Aaron Corp or Pete Carroll was rooting for Barkley. I have another theory.

- BYU looked very good. Even before Sam Bradford went down. I wonder if the Sooners will fall further with Bradford out a few weeks. Unlikely. Idaho State and Tulsa are next. They'll have to run the table to be in the discussion for the National Championship, though.

- Cal's Jahvid Best is the best running back in college football. Alabama's Mark Ingram showed that he's not too far behind.

- Florida begins their regular season on September 19 against Tennessee.

Saturday's over, but Sunday and Monday have a few more games to hold us over until Thursday when the NFL kicks off its regular season. Miami and Florida State are both looking to reclaim their spot in college football relevance, while Ole Miss begins their quest to prove they can hang with the big boys of the SEC. - 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.