Another big slate of games this weekend and plenty of compelling storylines to dig into. Here are the top five:
1. Georgia heads West: Some of the Bulldogs' parents weren't even born the last time UGA headed this far west for a regular-season game. Host ASU is now looking to do more than just defend Pac-10 honor. The Sun Devils are trying to rally from a stunning upset against UNLV. Hard to call any September non-conference game a "must-win" but it is for ASU. A loss here, especially a bad one, and the Sun Devils could might just be staring at a 2-5 start with their next games being at Cal, at USC and then against Oregon.
This game got a lot of hype in the off-season because it was expected to provide debate fodder for West Coast football fans who constantly feel like their schools don't get the respect they deserve. Truth be told, a lot of that charge went out the window when the Pac-10 went 0-4 last week against the Mountain West. Still, this road test is a good one for a UGA team hoping to impress pollsters. Georgia head coach Mark Richt said he had hoped ASU would've won last week because they might've come into the game with a different mindset: "I wish they would have won it so maybe they would be flying a little higher and not have a chip on their shoulder," Richt said. I'm sure he also would've liked to played a team that didn't just get shrunk down. Now thumping ASU doesn't look so impressive, because, after all UNLV just beat the Sun Devils.
The Bulldogs' travel plans also will get a lot of play. According to this Savannah Morning News story, Georgia linebacker Dannell Ellerbe was hoping the Bulldogs would depart on Thursday for its trip to ASU. Instead, the Bulldogs are sticking close to their regular travel routine despite taking the longest regular season road trip in decades. "Oh, man, that's going to be hard," Ellerbe said. "We're going to go over there and be three hours behind. I would just like to get over there on Thursday and have a little Thursday practice and get caught up on Friday, have a day under our belt. We've just got to go out there and play. It doesn't matter what day we leave."
"We're doing it like the pro teams do it," said UGA director of football operations Steve Greer, who will arrive in Arizona at least a day before the team to make final arrangements. The team is staying at the Phoenix Marriott Airport, where it will have a meal and meetings after arriving. Coach Mark Richt made the decision to leave Friday after director of sports medicine Ron Courson spoke to representatives from other schools that played in Arizona and determined there wasn't a benefit of going an extra day early. "Ron felt like everybody he talked to didn't feel like another day there would acclimatize the team to the type of temperature and humidity level," Richt said. "I didn't want to bring the team there an extra day too early just to get too anxious and just to get bored out of their minds. Plus, we would have had to miss class."
2. SEC West Grudge Match: Expect a lot of big hits and probably not too many points when LSU visits Auburn. The winner of this matchup has represented the SEC West in six of the past eight conference title games. Home field means almost everything of late in the rivalry with the host team have won eight straight in the series. Auburn's big game rep also bodes well for the Tommy Tuberville's team. His Tigers have won nine of their last 12 games against Top 10 teams. Then again, two of those three losses were against LSU.
Auburn's new spread attack doesn't exactly come into this game sizzling. AU managed a 3-2 win over Miss. State last week, although Les Miles suspects that Auburn's new OC Tony Franklin may have been keeping a few things up his sleeve for the LSU game, according to Charles Goldberg:
"I think he held down some of the options that he had," the LSU coach said Monday.
3. Tebow to sing Rocky Top? Don't get your hopes up too much Vol fans. The only way the Gator folk hero is belting out the Tennessee tune (as part of a little bet he made with UT fan Kenny Chesney) is if the Vols offense can make huge strides this weekend. Fourth-year junior QB Jonathan Crompton has been shaky as the new UT leader, barely completing 50 percent of his passes while throwing 3 INTs and just 2 TDs. Crompton has really struggled to get into a rhythm and the hunch here is that UT tries to lean heavily on their ground game. Then again that's what Miami tried to do for its young QB against Florida and that didn't light up the scoreboard.
After the UCLA debacle, new UT OC Dave Clawson did have Crompton roll out more and had him throwing on the run, which worked fairly well against an undermanned UAB team.
Crompton's more celebrated counterpart says he's pumped for the game in Knoxville: "I love playing at 'The Swamp,' but it is better playing on the road for me," said Tebow. "When you are playing at Neyland Stadium or at LSU or those stadiums, that gets your blood going and that gets you excited and ready to play. The two probably loudest and most hostile are probably Tennessee and LSU."
Brandon Spikes provided a hefty bit of trash talk by saying that the Vols quit last year.
"They kind of gave up," Spikes said. "Our whole program is about, backed up against the wall, you've got to keep fighting. We saw them give up ... They quit playing. I know they are going to be pretty jacked up (this time)."
Let's see if the Vols can do something Saturday to answer that.
Key stat of this series: The winning team in 16 of the last 18 Florida-Tennessee has been the one with the highest rushing total.
4. A big game in the ACC? FSU finally begins the season against a 1-A opponent and they get the closest thing the ACC has to in a heavyweight in Wake Forest. The Noles also regain a bunch of their players who had been suspended for one reason or another. The juxtaposition between these two programs is fascinating as Andrew Carter details. "Years ago, ACC teams once measured themselves against Florida State. But now Florida State will measure itself against Wake, one of the smallest schools in Division I-A."
"This is our ACC Championship Game," FSU LB Derek Nicholson, a North Carolina native, said about the game against the Demon Deacons.
Wow. Of course, losing to an under-the-radar program by a combined score of 54-21 the past two years can do that. So how exactly did a little program like Wake, which rarely lands a "three-star" recruit much less a bunch of "five-stars" surpass FSU? There are a host of reasons, but then there is also both teams' Pahokee Connection as evidence. Redshirt senior cornerback Alphonso Smith, for instance, didn't receive as much attention out of Pahokee High as one of his teammates -- Florida State running back Antone Smith -- but Alphonso is the one who's turned into an all-conference player in college.
5. So who exactly are the "mid-majors?" After the SEC and the Big 12, there is chaos amongst the conferences. The Big Ten and the Pac-10 seemed to be solidly behind the top two and in front of the ACC and the Big East, who were expected to be in front of the mid-majors. Only that hasn't really proved to be the case with the Pac-10 coming off an 0-4 week against the MWC and watching Cal lose to a middling Maryland team. And there is the potential for more chaos if ASU beats Georgia; Boise State wins at Oregon; Louisville beats K-State; WVU wins at Colorado; UConn thumps Baylor; NC State upsets No. 15 ECU; Ga. Tech beats Miss. State; Pitt beats Iowa; Miami wins at Texas A&M and if Ball State beats Indiana.
RANDOM STUFF
•Did a dirty play sideline one of Oklahoma's best defenders? According to Jake Trotter, Bob Stoops said it's too early to determine when junior defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger will be able to return to the lineup. The Sooners are off this week before taking on TCU on Sept. 27. Granger injured the foot at the end of the first half while being tripled teamed by Washington's offensive line.
•Mizzou's best defender William Moore is still battling a bad foot and probably should rest it till the Tigers visit Nebraska Oct. 4.
Coach Gary Pinkel says he will leave it up to medical director Rex Sharp as to whether Moore plays Saturday, reports Mike DeArmond:
The smart thing would be for Moore to sit out the Buffalo game. His family has told him as much, talking to him about staying healthy so as not to jeopardize a future playing pro ball. "I don't care about the future," Moore spat out. "I'm in college right now."
Moore confesses, again, that if the decision were left up to him alone, he would try. However, he added: "You can't ride in a car without wheels."
•Sometimes the best disguise is hiding something in plain sight. That seemed to be the case for Texas Tech the other night against SMU. Stephen Hamby, Tech's senior center, explained to RedRaiders.com, that QB Graham Harrell didn't even tried to fake out the Mustang D on one TD pass:
"I think the funniest play out there - nobody noticed it - Graham comes up to check with 5 seconds left (on the play clock)," Hamby said. "I'm like, 'What are you doing?' Because we're about to get a delay of game.
"He looks over at Crab and says, 'Just run a vertical! Just run a vertical!' I look up and the defensive backs are thinking he's lying. Crab. Vertical. Touchdown. I looked at Graham and said, 'Real mature. Real cool.'
"He was like, 'Did you like that?'"
•Justin Roper, who suffered a knee injury during the first overtime period of Oregon's 32-26 win at Purdue, may return in two weeks, coach Mike Bellotti said Monday. "He's off the crutches, he's walking around with a brace,'' Bellotti said. "He has a partial tear of his (medial collateral ligament). They ruled him out this week and only questionable for next week and probable for the following week.''
Roper's return time is big. The Ducks host Boise State this weekend and then have a road game against Washington State, the Pac-10's worst team. However on Oct. 4, the Ducks could use Roper when they visit USC. His arm and experience especially starting in big games would be a huge plus against the Trojans' nasty D.
•A USC beat writer tries to defend his AP vote having the Trojans ranked third, which is coincidentally the lowest spot amongst all AP voters.
•Can West Virginia get its vaunted ground game cranked up again, Mickey Furfari asks.
West Virginia, noted for its running attack in recent years, averaged only 164 yards rushing per game in its first two football games of 2008.
•Macho Harris is going to get more action on offense this weekend against North Carolina, according to the Roanoke Times:
"Harris drew his first college start on offense and played nine snaps last Saturday against Georgia Tech. He caught a screen pass from Tyrod Taylor on Tech's first play, but he had no place to run and was tackled for a 1-yard loss. Taylor missed him on another pass play on the first play of Tech's fourth-quarter drive that resulted in Dustin Keys' 21-yard field goal that gave the Hokies a 20-17 victory."
"I think [Harris] needs to play more series, not just plays," said Frank Beamer, whose passing offense ranks 116th out of 119 Division I-A teams, averaging a putrid 85 yards per game. "I think its gets too hard to call it just plays. He needs to be able to play a series, a couple series, three series, four series, whatever. We're going to try to have a good plan for that."
Bruce Feldman
