STANFORD, Calif. - One of a kind. That's how Andrew Luck's appreciative coach described him.
"There's no player in America like Andrew Luck,'' was the biased but hardly inaccurate phrase of David Shaw. "Forget about the stats."
In his last game at Stanford Stadium, Luck's stats were good but not great, maybe not the kind he needed to win that Heisman Trophy. But Saturday night they were the kind he needed to lead the Cardinal over Notre Dame 28-14.
The two latest games of the Pac-12 football weekend provided decidedly different results for the league.
Stanford kept Notre Dame at bay, winning 28-14 to claim its 11th victory of the season. That ought to be enough to get the Cardinal to the Fiesta Bowl, although one bowl official I spoke with awhile back voiced some concern that a 10-2 Michigan team with Denard Robinson could squeeze Stanford out on the basis of fan travel. Michigan is indeed an exciting team with Robinson, but it would be hard to pass on an 11-win team with the consensus No. 1 pick in the NFL draft (and very possibly, the Heisman Trophy winner) in Andrew Luck. Then there were the UCLA Bruins. What can you say about Rick Neuheisel's team, other than 50-0? Fifty to nothing against USC? Funny, but I remember covering the UCLA-USC game back in 2008, because Steve Sarkisian had been named coach at Washington, and this was his swan song at USC. The Bruins acquitted themselves well, losing 28-7, and really took the fight to USC at the Rose Bowl. You had the sense Neuheisel had the Bruins on the right track. And now this.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Ugly Big Ten football. On TV, maybe that's what Nebraska-Penn State looked like. From the floor of Beaver Stadium, pulsing with the spectrum of human emotion, it looked and felt just right.
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The first BCS standings of 2011 have been released, and the focus now shifts toward the future.
The questions are the same this season as they are every year. Where will my team be in a week, a month, at bowl selection time? What does my team need to do to earn a BCS berth? What are the chances my team moves up in the rankings?
The vast majority of college football's current top 50 teams are going to play this bowl season.
But where?
This list runs down the top 50 teams at this juncture in the season, as well as their best and worst case scenario for bowl games.
Keep in mind, this is a realistic attempt at gauging a certain team's prospects.
Written by Kris Brauner on 17 October 2011.
With the first release of the BCS rankings , it is a good time to review the BCS bowl game selection procedures. This should give us some insight as to what the match-ups may be in the BCS bowl games.
We will go through the motions of making the selections as if the season ended today, using the BCS rankings as a guide. The highest ranked team in each conference will be selected as the conference champion.
Sarah Glenn/Getty Images
The 4-2 (2-1) Texas A&M Aggies are ranked 17th in the initial BCS rankings. Tough losses to No. 4 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Arkansas set A&M back, but now with two solid conference wins under their belt, A&M can get back into the Big 12 Title race.
With the initial BCS rankings having been released on Sunday night, the bowl scenario for Notre Dame gained a bit of clarity.
At 4-2, an invitation to a BCS bowl game is still a possibility, but the Irish would have to win out in order to make that a reality.
If the Houston Cougars hope to reach a Bowl Championship Series game, the path they must travel has been set.
The Cougars debuted at No. 19 in the first BCS rankings of the 2011 season, which were released Sunday.
UH (6-0, 2-0 Conference USA) is one of 10 remaining undefeated teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Cougars are one of only two teams in the BCS top 25 that doesn't come from an automatic qualifying BCS conference. Boise State (6-0), at No. 5, is the other.
We have a new front-runner in the Legends Division. Does that also mean we have a new favorite to claim the Big Ten's second BCS spot?
Michigan State asserted itself as the team to beat in the Legends with a 28-14 victory over previously unbeaten Michigan on Saturday. That win lifted the Spartans up in our latest Big Ten bowl projections, as we now have them ticketed for a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl appearance. However, Michigan State has to play Wisconsin this week, and if it were to lose to the Badgers now and in the Big Ten title game but win out, that would mean a 10-3 final record. That might not be good enough for a BCS at-large bid, and it might crack the door open for another team -- like Nebraska, Penn State or even Michigan -- to grab the bid. If there is a second bid. Remember, teams that lose league title games are often shut out of BCS at-large berths.
The Colts blew a 24 to 14 lead to the Kansas City Chiefs. The team that gets the #1 overall pick will likely get Andrew Luck.
There were 2 once in a generation quarterback prospects prior to Andrew Luck. Those signal callers were John Elway and Peyton Manning.
The Colts traded Elway hoping for a King’s Ransom in return because Elway did not want to play for the Colts. That didn’t work out and the Baltimore Colts ended up relocating to Indianapolis. This may have influenced the original Cleveland Browns to relocate becoming the Baltimore Ravens.
For better or worse, and mostly worse recently, I've been a fan of UCLA football. It's not an easy thing to be. From the 2000 season on, the Bruins have had just five winning seasons. They have won just three bowl games, over noted powerhouses New Mexico, Northwestern, and Temple. UCLA has just one win over USC in that time.
DALLAS — The Longhorns had more than just the eyes of Texas watching them.
But against Oklahoma before a national television audience, with ESPN College GameDay on hand and 94,000 fans packed into the Cotton Bowl, UT wilted in a 55-17 blowout.
And it wasn’t pretty. Everything that could go wrong did.
The Longhorns turned the ball over five times, including three fumbles and two interceptions. OU made the most of Texas’ mistakes, returning two fumbles and an interception for touchdowns.
PHOENIX - The fall season is upon us, and with that comes football. And you can't mention football in the Grand Canyon State without thinking of the Fiesta Bowl.
Every year hundreds of young women from across the state enter for the chance to become a member of the Fiesta Bowl Court.
As members of the court, these women will act as official spokespersons for the Fiesta Bowl events, attending the game, and parade as well as other festivities.
Arizona State once had some of the most-bland helmets in college football – at least, when you consider them in relation to the school’s distinct nickname.
The Sun Devils weren’t really represented on ASU’s lids until 1975, when the program attempted to bounce back from a disappointing 7-5 campaign. And it did bounce back, posting an undefeated 12-0 season, capped by a win in the Fiesta Bowl over Nebraska and a No. 2 ranking in the final AP poll.
Tell Dennis your opinion!
Consider these unintended consequences of conference realignment...
The Big East is owed a huge one: The embattled conference is teetering on the brink of death and it deserves better.
It will probably survive as a major conference through this current BCS cycle (through the 2014 bowls). After that, there is uncertainty. A BCS official told me Sunday that the Big East's membership going forward will essentially be decided by the major bowls and the networks that televise them.
University of UtahUtah (2-3, 0-3 Pac-12) vs. Pittsburgh (3-3, 1-1 Big East)
Pittsburgh, Pa.
> Utah (2-3, 0-3 Pac-12) travels to Pittsburgh, Pa., for a Saturday, Oct. 15 against Pitt (3-3, 1-1 Big East). Kickoff is at noon ET (10 a.m. MT) on Heinz Field. The game will be televised on ESPNU. Radio is ESPN700 AM (espn700sports.com).
By DAVID JONES, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
Penn State linebacker Gerald Hodges (6) pressures Iowa quarterback James Vanderberg (16) during the second quarter in State College, Pa. Saturday. Penn State's defense play led to a 13-3 win over Iowa.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen pulled no punches last week in trying to get his team off to a fast start.
"I had the best starter in boxing come here and talk to them about how you start fast, Roy Jones Jr.," Holgorsen said. "All he talked about was get in there, start fast and beat them to the punch."
Mike Tuck's Top Twelve College Football Rankings (10-10-2011) Just two BCS busters remain
It is not the topic of conversation yet, but it will come into play by the time October ends: Who will bust up the BCS?
Unusually, only 2 teams remain in the conversation. Over the last 5 years, more and more teams attempted to create the double-bust scenario. In 2008, Boise State and Utah each went unbeaten (Ball State was 12-0 before being upset by Buffalo in the MAC Title game), but only Utah busted the BCS, and then Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Boise State was sent to the Poinsettia Bowl, where the lost a 17-16 game to TCU. In 2009 however, Boise State and TCU pulled it off, and upset many by being paired against one-another in the Fiesta Bowl, a game won by the Broncos.
