Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category
Some people like sports with their own style and needs. Some people like sports because they like to play sport and sport is their games, but there are also some people who choose sports because they want to be healthy. There are many kinds of sports that people like to choose and have. All people like to have the great sports in their life because it gives them good guaranteed to have the great health. Some kinds of sports make people like to do it because it relates to the hobbies such as football.
If you really need to have the great football, you need to have the equipments that can support you in running you activity especially your sports. There are many kinds of sports that you can have it. There will be many kinds of products that you can observe. You can have the great collectible football helmets that you can use in playing helmets. There are many kinds of football helmets that you must be like and needs. It will support you to have the great helmet.
You do need to worry because there will be many kind of choices that you can observe. There will be many kinds of helmet according to your size or you colors. You can choose it. The helmet is the important equipments in football because it will make you play safe. There will be the helmets with quality and great ingredients that you can get.
If you like sport, you absolutely like to join tournament in order to be the winner and this is a proof that you have best skill. Regardless of what sports that you like, it is necessity to improve your skill all the time and you have to practice regularly. For sport event organizer, holding tournament is prime activity and they need to do certain things to make qualified tournament. In addition to looking for sponsorship, a sport even organizer also requires provide something like printer to make even scheduling. Since many kinds of printer are available out there, you have to make sure to find one that accommodates standards of qualified printing result.
In order that you have a chance to buy qualified printers that correspond to your necessity, just head over Inkcartridges.Com since it offers various printers with excellent ink cartridge of some top brands. Some of qualified brands available at this webpage are as follows: Canon, Epson, HP and Dell, just to mention a few. Those brands are qualified enabling you to get optimal printing result for sport needs. Once you are at this website, you certainly can buy brother printer ink with the best quality in the industry.
It is time to make everything related to your sport business run well. Of course, you need to design attractive tournament that may attract more people to get into any sport competition. Not to forget, it is important to provide high quality printer equipped with qualified ink cartridge. It seems that you should not wait any longer to check all the details of printer available at this website and then you can determine which is best for you. Finally, you should get into this printer provider to buy one that offers excellent printing result regardless of brand that you like.
If you want to know what Wii is, you need to imagine about the gadget to play the game in the 3D effect, where the player can move the joystick as the player move, and that is how Wii is working. Let say about the Wii Fit, this gadget will measure the player weight and in the exact number, you will ask for your birth date and height. This gadget for health will be able to tell you where is your weight position, whether in normal number, obesity or too skinny.
Wii Fit Plus with Wii Balance Board can be your health controller, because by the way you stand up, this console will recognize your standing position and how to do that in healthy and normally. Beside this health use, you can try the health sport that you probably not able to do in your country because of the geographical position, such as the skateboarding, not just the Wii game.
Wii Fit is the special feature that you cannot get at the same level console. Wii fit is the function that you will only get from Wii that using Nintendo platform. For product review, details, use, and stock you can go to the online game store of Gamestock.co.uk.
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There is no need to wait any longer when you want to have instant cash of payday loan as this site seriously provides online application form so you can make loan request. Many people managed to get instant cash to pay off any emergencies through payday loan. Therefore, you should take your time to understand all aspects of payday loan starting from application to fund transferring. Once you understand, just submit your loan request to get instant approval.
It is time to relieve your burden away by applying for payday loan online. When you have no more option to get rid of financial burden except borrowing a sum of money, you had better to leverage service of this site. Finally, please take your time to explore the entire content.
All of people in the world need to entertain themselves. Many ways can be done to entertain themselves. For examples are go vacation, watch movie, read favorite book, or others hobby that can loose their stress and tired. One of the favorite things that people like to do if they have spare time is watching New movies. There are many movies that offered by the producers and production house. From watching movies, we can feel enjoy, get new situation and entertain us of course. Movie has many genre, there are drama, comedy, thriller, horror, romance, documenter, animation, and many others genre of movies.
One of the movies genres is comedy. Comedy is the favorite of many people. Comedy movie can make us laugh and loose our stress, exhaustion. One of the movies that can make you laugh is Date Night. Date night is cast by Steve Carell and Tina Frey. This is a new movie from Hollywood has released on April 9th, 2010. This movie is telling about sexual and crude, violence, and drug. There is couple who fear about their relationship can be falling into a decrease level. So they make some plan to have a dinner but there any mistake in their identity when they reserved dinner which has been reserved by a thief. So, thieves want to kill them, they try to out from this problem and also want to break their marriage problem.
This movie has a good response from the audience, because bring another atmosphere of the marriage life. That marriage should be kept and the couple has to struggle to safe it. Another film that released in a recent time is Perfect Game, a drama movie. The movie is taken from the real story. This film is cast by Clifton Collins Jr. and has story about baseball player which comes from Mexico and he encounter racism and hostility in the process of getting his success.
ght © 2009 Ed Bagley
(Editor’s Note: The rankings in this article are from the AP Top 25 Poll of sportswriters and sportscasters, and any ratings are from Jeff Sagarin.)
No win in College Football’s 4th week of action was any bigger than unranked Iowa’s 21-10 upset victory on-the-road over 5th-ranked Penn State in Happy Valley. Iowa is now unbeaten at 4-0.
The Hawkeyes ruined the Nittany Lions perfect 9-0 season last year with a 24-23 victory at home, and proved it was no fluke this year on Penn State’s turf. If there are any doubters left in Happy Valley this year, they have to be homers in blinders. The Penn State Nittany Lions are always overrated in the polls because they only play a couple of good teams a year, and Iowa happens to be one of them.
Not far behind for upset-game-of-the-week honors were the unranked South Florida Bulls, who took down 18th-ranked Florida State on-the-road, 17-7, pushing the Bulls’ record to 4-0. The third best upset of the week was 11th-ranked Virginia Tech’s home victory over 9th-ranked Hurricanes of Miami (FL), 31-7.
Two other not unexpected upsets came at the expense of the 4th-ranked Mississippi Rebels, who were beaten 16-10 at unranked South Carolina, and the 6th-ranked California Bears, who were beaten 42-3 at unranked Oregon. Please stop all of the pre-season hype about Mississippi this and California that; Mississippi remains not that good at the moment, and California always folds, the Bears just may be starting to fold early this year because 42-3, even in an away game, is some whipping.
The last 2 of 7 upsets of AP Top 25 teams this week came with unranked Georgia Tech’s 24-7 home victory over 22nd-ranked North Carolina, and unranked Stanford’s 34-14 home win over 24th-ranked Washington. The Huskies dropped right out of the Top 25 Poll and Stanford (3-1) never made it in.
So who else among unranked teams is acting like they belong in the Top 25? How about these three 4-0 teams: Missouri beat Nevada 31-21 on-the-road, Auburn beat Ball State 54-30 at home, and Wisconsin beat Michigan State 38-30 at home. Or perhaps the 3-0 Texas A&M Aggies, who beat UAB 56-19 at home.
Eight ranked teams kept moving right on, pushing their records to 4-0. They included 1st-ranked Florida on-the-road over Kentucky 41-7; 2nd-ranked Texas at home over UTEP 64-7; 3rd ranked Alabama at home over Arkansas 35-7; 7th-ranked LSU on-the-road over Mississippi State 30-26; 8th-ranked Boise State on-the-road over Bowling Green 49-14; 14th-ranked Cincinnati at home over Fresno State 28-20; 20th-ranked Kansas at home over Southern Mississippi 35-28; and 23rd-ranked Michigan at home over Indiana 36-33.
Two other ranked teams pushed their record to 3-0 as 15th-ranked TCU won at Clemson 14-10, and 17th-ranked Houston won at home over Texas Tech, 29-28.
Among the 10 ranked teams still with unbeaten records, 5 notched victories by a touchdown or less—Kansas by 7, LSU and TCU by 4, Michigan by 3 and Houston by 1. Compare that to the other 5 who won by 8 or more—Texas by 57, Boise State by 35, Florida by 34, Alabama by 28 and Cincinnati by 8. Now you know who is more focused and who is less focused when it comes to execution.
Five other ranked teams who have already been beaten once continued to stay noticed by winning again. They included 13th-ranked Ohio State at home giving Illinois a lesson in how to score a shutout 30-0; 19-ranked BYU at home over Colorado State, 42-23; 21st-ranked Georgia at home over Arizona State 20-17; 16th-ranked Oklahoma State at home over 1-AA Grambling State 56-6; and 12th-ranked Southern California at home over Washington State 27-6.
There were 5 notable wins that have nothing to do with ranked teams or upsets. They included Boston College at home over Wake Forest 27-24 in overtime; Tulsa on-the-road over 1-AA Houston State 56-3, a score the Golden Hurricane had after 3 quarters; Idaho on-the-road over Northern Illinois 34-31, even though Idaho was outscored 15-6 in the last quarter; Central Michigan at home over Akron 48-21 as the Chippewas scored at least a touchdown in every quarter; Utah at home over Louisville 30-14; and Notre Dame on-the-road over Purdue 24-21.
There was also one notable loss that had nothing to do with ranked teams or upsets—Pittsburgh lost on-the-road to North Carolina State, 38-31, as NC State outscored Pitt 14-0 in the last quarter. In other words, the Pitt defense collapsed and the Panthers lost for the first time this year.
That’s it, that’s all, Johnny, put a wrapper on it, we’re going for a cold brewski.
ght © 2009 Ed Bagley
Just when you thought some sense of stability might have returned to college football during the halfway point of the season, any semblance belies the truth that at least four more teams have become frauds in the national title chase—Kansas, Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Nebraska.
Kansas had raced to a perfect 5-0 start. Virginia Tech lost its opener, Ohio State lost its second game, and Nebraska lost its third game. All three had lost a game and won the rest to enter the sixth week with only a loss.
All four of these teams have now been drop-kicked out of the race for the national title, and the worst of the bunch is the Kansas Jayhawks who were not only drop-kicked but body slammed by an unranked, 1-4 Colorado team 34-30.
How could the Jayhawks, who were touted as one of the best offensive teams in the country, get beaten by Colorado when Kansas ranked 4th nationally in scoring offense?
The truth is that Kansas built its 5-0 record and statistics on a sand castle that got washed away on a trip to Boulder. The Jayhawks amassed their perfect mark with wins against 195th’ranked, 1-AA Northern Colorado (1-5), 116th-ranked UTEP (2-4), 64th-ranked Duke (3-3), 76th-ranked Southern Mississippi (3-3), and 80th-ranked Iowa State (3-3).
Kansas came into the game ranked 17th in the AP Top 25 Poll, but 29th by Sagarin and with a strength of schedule rated 129th among only 120 Division 1-A teams, meaning that Kansas’ 5 victories came against teams that amounted to 1-AA competition. No wonder they were 5-0. Colorado came in with a strength of schedule (SOS) rating of 33rd among the 120 1-A teams.
Kansas plummeted to 24th in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll and really should not be in any top 25 poll. After being exposed for what they are, the Jayhawks do not merit the honor. It would make about as much sense at putting Colorado in the top 25 for beating them. The message is: neither team is that good.
Second worst on this week’s list of frauds is the 7th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, who seem to be over-rated and under-performed. The Buckeyes traveled to Purdue and lost 26-18 to a 2-5 Boilermaker team. Again, Purdue’s SOS was 23rd and Ohio State’s was 37th. No. 4-ranked Virginia Tech got beat by 19th-ranked Georgia Tech 28-23 on-the-road. These were two pretty good teams in a dogfight and the Yellow Jackets stung the Hoakies. Georgia Tech is now 6-1 and Virginia Tech 5-2.
No. 15 Nebraska got swamped at home by unranked Texas Tech 31-10. The Cornhuskers dropped to 4-2, and Red Raiders one-upped them by going to 5-2. If any of these four losers this week have not figured it out, here is a big clue—no national title game in your future. Concentrate on trying to win your conference championship because it is the only one you are going to see.
So if some teams are now dropping in the top 25, who is on the move upward? Here are five unranked winning teams that are possibilities:
Pittsburgh (6-1) on-the-road over Rutgers 24-7, Central Michigan (6-1) on-the-road over Western Michigan 34-23, West Virginia (5-1) at home over Marshall 24-7, Idaho (6-1) over Hawaii 35-23, and Michigan State (4-3) at home over Northwestern 24-14. No matter how crummy you think these five teams may be, if they keep winning, each will end up in the top 25 before the season is out—you can go to the bank on it.
In the meantime, eight ranked teams won away games this week; topping the list was Cincinnati.
No. 8 Cincinnati (6-0) handed No. 21 South Florida its first loss of the season, 34-17. Cincinnati scored in each quarter, leaving South Florida to wonder what was happening.
No. 6 Southern California powered up and powered over No. 25 Notre Dame 34-27. No. 24 Utah ripped UNLV 35-15, No. 9 Miami (FL) won against in-state rival Central Florida 27-7, and Brigham Young outlasted San Diego State, 38-28, in a game in which each team scored at least a touchdown in all four quarters. And, oh ya, No. 6 Boise State (6-0) won another lame victory, this time over Tulsa 28-21.
No. 11 Iowa (7-0) was tied 10-10 against Wisconsin after three quarters and then won 20-10. No. 23 Houston was back on the offensive. After leading hapless Tulane 9-6 at the half, the Cougars exploded for 35 points in the second half to win 44-16.
No. 10 LSU and No. 16 Oregon were idle this week.
Six ranked teams once again discovered why there is no place like home to win again.
No. 3 Texas (6-0) used a 4th quarter field goal to get by No. 20 Oklahoma 16-13, No. 1 Florida (6-0) used a last second field goal to dispense with Arkansas 23-20, No. 14 Penn State shut out Minnesota 20-zip, No. 12 TCU (6-0) trashed Colorado State 44-6, No. 16 Oklahoma State topped Missouri 33-17, and No. 2 Alabama (7-0) eased by No. 22 South Carolina 20-6.
It was a good week to be Florida, Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, Boise State, Iowa and TCU—all won, and all are the only unbeaten major teams left in the nation.
(Editor’s Note: The rankings in this article are from the AP Top 25 Poll of sportswriters and sportscasters, and any ratings are from Jeff Sagarin.)
Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley
ght © 2009 Ed Bagley
College football’s sixth week of competition was full of surprises for the four teams which lost their unbeaten status, and for the rest of the major college teams that learned why Florida started the season on top of the polls and remains on top after the sixth week of play.
Here are this week’s picks for Ed Bagley’s Top 25 Poll:
1) Florida – Traveled to No. 4 LSU and its mighty defense and lukewarm offense and won 13-3. Now you know why the Gators are No. 1 and LSU will be sliding in this poll.
2) Alabama – Traveled to No. 20 Mississippi to meet “the golden arm” Jevan Snead, who threw 4 interceptions as the Crimson Tide won 22-3. Here again, gone again. I am kicking Ole Miss out of my poll.
3) Virginia Tech – I thought Iowa was lame and now Texas is worse. The Hokies look more serious than Iowa and Texas put together.
4) Oregon – Lost its season opener and then got religion. Beat Utah, beat California 42-3, beat Washington State 52-6 and now ripped UCLA on-the-road 24-10.
5) Ohio State – Beat undefeated Wisconsin 31-13. Have limited their last 4 opponents to 27 points combined.
Things get really murky from here on in the poll. So many of the following teams have such weak victories over weak teams it is too difficult to see who else is a contender or a pretender.
6) Texas – Probably has more talent than Boise State, but could only beat a 1-5 Colorado team by 2 points while giving away 28 points. How can Texas be really good? Can’t rank the Longhorns higher than 6th, and that is a gift they should earn.
7) Boise State – Idle this week, travel to Tulsa next.
Southern California – Idle this week, travel to Notre Dame next.
9) Cincinnati – Idle this week, travel to South Florida next.
10) Iowa – Got by Michigan but not by much. Travel to Wisconsin next.
11) LSU – Have a week to recover before facing Auburn.
12) South Florida – Unbeaten and just as deserving as TCU or Kansas. Host Cincinnati next, a big deal for the Bulls and coach Jim Leavitt.
13) Nebraska – Starting to act like a better team than TCU or Kansas.
14) TCU – Another lame win, this time over Air Force by 3.
15) Kansas – Another insanely lame win over by 5 over Iowa State while giving up 36 points. How long can Kansas stay undefeated? My guess? Not long. They face a pathetic Colorado team next and then get Oklahoma.
16) Miami (FL) – Beat a 1-AA team. Schedule gets easier than pie.
17) Oklahoma State – Won by 5 over Texas A&M while giving up 31 points.
18) Brigham Young – Goes to 5-1 by crushing UNLV 59-21.
19) Georgia Tech – Goes to 5-1 by outlasting Florida State 49-44. Hosts Virginia Tech next, good luck and God speed.
20) Pittsburgh – Now 5-1 after beating Connecticut 24-21. Hardly a big deal but there are some pretty unimpressive teams in anybody’s Top 25 these days.
21) Notre Dame – Idle this week. Host Southern Cal next.
22) South Carolina – Goes to 5-1 by slipping past Kentucky 28-26. Travels to Alabama next. Yikes! Could easily arrive back home at 5-2.
23) Central Michigan – Now 5-1 after ripping the worse major team in the nation—Eastern Michigan—56-8. You tell me a better 5-1 team in the country. Nah, not Penn State; I am not sure they can beat Central Michigan. Penn State likes to play really pansy teams.
24) Idaho – Now 5-1 by playing the 62nd toughest schedule in the nation. The Vandals are no longer a doormat with coach Robb Akey. Idaho was 2-10 last year and has been traditionally one of the weakest teams in the nation. They don’t really play a decent team until Boise State down the road, but at least I reward genuine effort and progress.
25) Penn State – My disdain for the Nittany Lions knows no bounds. Jo Pa would have them playing their opponents’ grandmothers if they could get away with it. Paterno would play college JV teams at home just to pile up another “big” victory for Happy Valley.
Who have I left out? Whoever it is, let them do something so I can notice. It doesn’t take any talent to blow smoke, and it doesn’t take any talent to lose. Win and win big and I will put your team in my poll, until then, let the AP Poll and the Coaches’ Poll reward lame teams in a popularity contest, I just call some teams for what they are—lame in victory, filled with excuses in defeat.
ght © 2009 Ed Bagley
It’s over for Southern California. Coach Pete Carroll will be dining with some lesser light Hollywood celebrities in the near future.
Gone are the USC streaks of 7 straight BCS bowls, 7 straight 11-win seasons, and 7 straight top-4 AP poll finishes. Gone also is USC’s 7-year stranglehold on the Pac-10 Conference title.
After 60 excruciating minutes of watching Stanford’s Toby Gerhart—The Cardinal Battering Ram—run all over USC’s home field for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns, Pete Carroll and his Trojans were handed their second major trouncing in two weeks. There was no stopping Gerhart as 25th-ranked Stanford (7-3) did a number on the 11th-ranked and soon dropping USC (7-3) Trojans, 55-21. Adding insult to injury, it was USC’s 2009 homecoming game.
Just two weeks ago, USC was upset at Oregon 47-20. Saturday’s loss to Stanford was the Trojans’ worst since a 51-0 drubbing at home against Notre Dame in 1966, 43 years ago.
Pete Carroll had to be bummed out. He lost in November for the first time after 28 straight victories in the toughest month for every college football coach during the season. And for the second time in three weekends, Carroll endured the worst loss of his 9 seasons at USC. The perennial flower that bloomed at USC for 7 consecutive years has now faded.
After leading 28-21 after 3 quarters, Stanford piled it on with 4 touchdowns in the last quarter, just rubbing it in a little bit for past indiscretions by the Trojans. Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh’s 2007 team also upset then 2nd-ranked USC 24-23 on the Trojans’ same home field.
Harbaugh has made it quite clear that he is sick and tired of USC’s past dominance in the Pac-10. Virtually everyone thought that the California Bears would be the team to bring the Trojans down a peg or two, but it was Harbaugh’s Cardinal team that has gotten the job done.
Stanford’s victory over USC was only 1 of 5 upsets among ranked teams this week. The other 4 were recorded by unranked teams:
North Carolina (7-3), unranked and smarting, won 33-24 at home over No. 12 Miami of Florida (also 7-3) as Coach Butch Davis notched his 3rd consecutive victory over his former program, and made North Carolina bowl eligible for the 2nd straight season.
Central Florida (6-4) handed No. 13 Houston (8-2) its second loss 37-32, closing the door on Cougar quarterback Case Keenum, who had a couple of last-minute rallies in Houston’s last 5 wins. The Central Florida Knights rallied at home from a two-touchdown deficit to build a 17-point lead before Keenum threw two late TD passes to make the final score appear closer.
California (7-3) stuck a fork in No. 18 Arizona’s (6-3) hopes for a better season as the Bears finally roared again at home, beating the Wildcats 24-16. Rutgers (7-2) was hardly impressed with No. 23 South Florida (6-3) as the Scarlet Knights took the South Florida Bulls to school by shutting them out 31-0. Rutgers forced 4 turnovers, blocked a punt and recorded 7 sacks, and freshman quarterback Tom Savage threw for two touchdowns.
Stanford’s upset of Southern Cal was 1 of the 3 great games of the day. The other two involved No. 4 TCU and No. 10 Ohio State.
No. 4 TCU (10-0) remained unbeaten by really making 16th-ranked Utah (8-2) look bad in a 55-28 win. TCU leads the mid-level Mountain West Conference with a 6-0 record. Utah had been running around all season acting like the Utes were something special, and then they arrived at TCU and found out why they are not so special. As if to erase any doubt, TCU led 38-14 at the half.
No. 10 Ohio State (9-2) brought No. 15 Iowa (9-2) into its view as the Buckeyes welcomed the Hawkeyes into their 101,568-seat Horseshoe Stadium before taking the game into overtime and earning a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 13 years. Ohio State last visited the Rose Bowl in 1996 when the Buckeyes were ranked 2nd in the nation after beating Arizona State 20-17.
But back to Saturday’s game, which will provide fodder for sports talk radio shows for months to come as neither Ohio State or Iowa would go for a last minute victory when they had the opportunity to do so. The game ended at 24-all after Marvin McNutt threw a 10-yard scoring pass to James Vandenberg.
The Buckeyes had blown a two-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter. The Hawkeyes had the ball at their 33 with 52 seconds and two timeouts left, but chose to run out the clock and send the game into overtime. Ohio State had the ball on its 18 with 2:37 left and multiple timeouts, and didn’t try to win it.
Both coaches—Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Jim Tressel of Ohio State—wanted overtime to get it settled because they did not trust their kickers; Iowa had missed a 22-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game, and Ohio State’s kicker had missed from 47 yards out.
When push came to shove, Tressel basically took three runs up the middle for all of 2 yards before letting replacement kicker Devin Barclay come up with the winning 39-yard FG to put the Buckeyes on top, 27-24. The Hawkeyes were unbeaten this year until losing 17-10 at home to Northwestern last week.
Barclay, a 26-year-old former pro soccer player and first-year, walk-on kicker, was forced into duty as a replacement three weeks ago when starter Aaron Pettrey injured his knee.
And now for the expected happenings of week 11. Here are another 8 ranked teams that won home games:
No. 5 Cincinnati (10-0) remained unbeaten by using a field goal advantage to beat a 7-3 West Virginia team 24-21. No. 6 Boise State (10-0) remained unbeaten by easily handling a 7-4 Idaho team 63-25. No. 8 Pittsburgh (9-1) led Notre Dame (6-4) 20-3 after 3 quarters and almost let things get out-of-hand before putting away the Fighting Irish 27-22.
No. 9 LSU (8-2) notched an unspectacular win over Louisiana Tech 24-16. No. 14 Oregon (8-2) ripped Arizona State 44-21. No. 17 Oklahoma State (8-2) was behind 10-7 at the half but beat Texas Tech 24-17. No. 19 Penn State beat Indiana 31-20 despite having 4 first-half turnovers. No. 21 Wisconsin (8-2) took apart a struggling Michigan team 45-24.
Here are another 7 ranked teams that won away games, always tougher than home victories:
No. 1 Florida (10-0) remained unbeaten at the expense of South Carolina, 24-14, as the Gators completed their first perfect (8-0) SEC East title in 13 years. No. 2 Texas (10-0) remained unbeaten by easily kicking around Baylor, 47-14, as Colt McCoy tied the NCAA record for career victories by a starting quarterback with 42 (take just a moment and think about how special the accomplishment was by Colt McCoy).
No. 3 Alabama (10-0) remained unbeaten by dominating Mississippi State, 31-3, and continues to lead the SEC West with a 7-0 mark. No. 7 Georgia Tech (10-1) stomped Duke, 49-10, to clinch a spot in the ACC Conference championship game. No. 20 Virginia Tech (7-3) beat Maryland 36-9. No. 22 BYU (8-2) could only muster a 24-19 victory over a hapless, inept, winless 0-10 New Mexico team. No. 24 Clemson (7-3) whipped North Carolina State 43-23.
Three other games among unranked teams were noteworthy. Temple (8-2) won its 8th consecutive game 56-17 over Akron; Central Michigan (8-2) picked up its 8th win 56-28 over Toledo; Navy (8-3) earned its 8th win by downing Delaware 35-18; and Mississippi (7-3) found a way to penetrate Tennessee’s (5-5) defense by scoring 42 points to win 42-17.
Four unranked teams finally became bowl eligible this week, the most surprising of which was the Southern Methodist (6-4) Mustangs, who outlasted UTEP 35-31.
June Jones was 1-11 in this first year coaching last year and now has a bowl-eligible team. People no longer laugh when you use SMU and football in the same sentence. Jones built a juggernaut at mid-level Hawaii using Mouse Davis’ run-and-shoot offense, going 75-41 over 9 years, and winning 4 of 6 bowl games. The bottom line on the likeable June Jones—more dangerous than his name would indicate.
The three other teams joining SMU as bowl eligible were Oklahoma, Arkansas and Michigan State. Some people wondered if Oklahoma (6-4) was going to make it this year, but the Sooners finally got the job done by easily beating Texas A&M, 65-10. Arkansas (6-4) took care of a 7-3 Troy team, 56-20; and Michigan State (6-5) was 11 points down to Purdue but won 40-37 on Brett Swenson’s 4th field goal with 1:51 left.
College Football Wrap-Up Week 6 – Florida Stays No. 1, Beats LSU, 4 More Teams Suffer Their 1st Loss
ght © 2009 Ed Bagley
Florida started the season as the No. 1 pick in the AP Top 25 Poll and will remain No. 1 for the 7th straight week after beating the No. 4 Louisiana State Tigers in Baton Rouge, 13-3, in this season’s biggest match-up featuring two Top 5 teams.
The Gators’ swarming defense silenced the Tiger crowd to win their 15th consecutive game, the longest current win streak among major schools, and LSU had its 32-game winning streak in Saturday night games snapped. LSU, ranked last in the SEC in total offense coming into the game, never got untracked and could muster only 162 yards.
Tim Tebow, the heart of Florida’s offense and former Heisman Trophy winner, returned after suffering a concussion two weeks ago. Tebow’s presence helped assure the Gators that they would remain on top with a top effort. LSU started the game with a perfect 5-0 mark and ended it with a 5-1 record. Florida remains unbeaten at an overall 5-0 and sits on top of the SEC’s East Division.
Three other Top 25 teams lost their first game this week—Auburn, Missouri and Wisconsin.
Unranked Arkansas hosted and upset 17th-ranked Auburn, 44-23, as Michael Smith rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown, and the Razorbacks raced to a 34-3 lead before sticking a fork in the Tigers. Now it can be confirmed that Auburn was a really suspect Top 25 choice since its first 5 victories came against teams with a combined 9-14 record.
Arkansas is now 3-2 and full of spit and vinegar; the Razorbacks other two wins have come against 149th-ranked, 1-AA Missouri State and 63rd-ranked Texas A&M. Big deal? I think not. Arkansas is not that good and neither is Auburn.
No. 21 Nebraska hit the road and took the measure of No. 24 Missouri, 27-12, handing the Tigers their first defeat. It was simply not a good week for Tiger teams as LSU, Auburn and Missouri all lost for the first time in College Football’s Week 6. Missouri, which had a 12-0 shutout after 3 quarters, quit too early and celebrated as Nebraska won the 4th quarter 27-0, and the game.
Should Missouri have been in the Top 25? As the Hertz rental ad says, not exactly. The Tigers built their 4-0 record on teams with a combined 6-12 record, and that includes 1-AA Furman, that raging powerhouse from South Carolina.
No. 9 Ohio State hosted Wisconsin and cost the Badgers their first loss, 31-13, before sending them back to Wisconsin. The Badgers were at least unranked, even with a 5-0 record coming into the always screaming, always sold-out 101,000-plus-seat horseshoe stadium in Columbus.
A much more significant victory came from No. 3 Alabama as the Crimson Tide took its record to 6-0 with an away victory over 20th-ranked Mississippi, 22-3. The Tide led 19-zip after 3 quarters. Can we now stop all of the preseason publicity about Mississippi this and Mississippi that? The Rebels’ hot shot quarterback—Jevan Snead—continued his mission to greatness by throwing 4 interceptions.
Ole Miss is now 3-2 and one croak away from sliding into a swamp. Should Mississippi even be in the Top 25? Nah, the Rebels have some real proving to do.
Other ranked teams with away victories this week included:
No. 10 TCU over Air Force 20-17. Without a 4th quarter field goal, TCU would have gone into overtime. No. 13 Oregon continued its momentum by beating UCLA 24-10. No. 15 Oklahoma State outlasted Texas A&M to win again with another lame performance, 36-31. If Oklahoma State keeps giving up 31 points a game, they are not going to keep winning for long.
No. 18 Brigham Young topped UNLV 59-21. No. 22 Georgia Tech just made it by Florida State 49-44 in a shootout. BYU is now 5-1 and Florida State 4-2; one could easily argue that Georgia Tech is better than BYU, and may well prove so before the season is over.
Ranked teams with home victories included:
No. 2 Texas over Colorado 30-28 after Colorado led 14-10 at the half. Colorado is now 1-5 with their only win over Wyoming. Texas has played no one so far this season. After Oklahoma next, the Longhorns play no one really significant through the end of the season. Texas should win a lot of games and there will be no evidence to show that they should play in the National Championship Game this year.
No. 5 Virginia Tech beat up Boston College 48-14. No. 11 Miami (FL) stomped 1-AA Florida State 48-16. Big whoop. No. 12 Iowa had an unimpressive 30-28 win over Michigan. Another big whoop; Iowa should have won by at least 2 touchdowns at home, nonetheless, Iowa’s 5-0 mark is the Hawkeyes best start since 1985. No. 14 Penn State kicked around 152nd-ranked, 1-AA Eastern Illinois; boy, those tough Nittany Lions really know how to charm some cream puffs.
No. 16 Kansas took all afternoon to finally beat Iowa State 41-36. Kansas gave up 36 points to a team that is 3-3. You have to ask yourself, even at 5-0, why should they be ranked so high? The Jayhawks compiled their unbeaten record against teams with a combined 8-12 record, including the 187th-ranked, 1-AA Northern Colorado powerhouse (1-4) from the Rockies. Kansas may be unbeaten, but they are hardly good.
No. 19 Oklahoma beat Baylor 33-7. No. 25 South Carolina just nudged by Kentucky 28-26, a team that Florida beat 41-7; that’s why Florida is No. 1 and South Carolina No. 25. At least the Gamecocks scored a touchdown in each quarter against Kentucky.
Three 5-1 teams that are still looking for recognition and respect won again. Central Michigan whipped Eastern Michigan 56-8; Central Michigan is the worst 1-A team in the nation, currently ranked 164th by Sagarin (there are only 120 teams in 1-A football). Idaho on-the-road (yes, Idaho, don’t laugh) beat San Jose State 29-25.
Pittsburgh, behind 21-13 after 3 quarters at home, won the 4th quarter 11-0 to beat Connecticut, 24-21.
There were at least 3 other notable wins. After 3 straight losses to Central Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin by a combined 13 points, Michigan State evened its record at 3-3 by beating Illinois 24-14 on-the-road.
At 4-1, Stanford looked like the second best team in the Pac 10 behind USC, but Oregon State reminded them of why it is tough to beat the Beavers at home, upsetting The Cardinal 38-28. All bets in the Pac 10 race are now off as Oregon is 3-0, Stanford 3-1 and 3 teams are 2-1—Southern Cal, Oregon State and Washington (yes, the same Washington that was 0-12 last year).
Speaking of Huskies, Washington let Arizona into the red zone at least 8 times and was behind 33-21 at home with 4:22 left. Jake Locker engineered a drive with a 25-yard TD strike to Kavario Middleton with 2:55 left and then a miracle happened.
On the ensuing play after the kickoff, Arizona’s Nick Foles threw another bubble screen pass to Delashaun Dean that was short and behind the receiver. The ball bounced off of his foot and into the air, was promptly intercepted by Husky linebacker Mason Foster and he turned around and rambled 37 yards into the end zone to put Washington ahead, 34-33 with 2:37 remaining.
Jake Locker then completed a 2-point conversion to Jermaine Kearse to make it 36-33. The Husky defense, which had given up 461 yards to Arizona, then suddenly got ugly. Daniel Te’o-Nesheim sacked Nick Foles for a 6-yard loss, and true freshman cornerback Desmond Trufant intercepted Foles’ 4th down attempt to put the Wildcats away.
Washington, twice a dog at home against Southern Cal and Arizona, has shown it is all about playing hard for 60 minutes, finding a way to win, finishing off an opponent and having fun doing it.
Washington’s miracle play brought back great memories of “The Immaculate Reception” during a 1972 playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders. Late in the game a Pittsburgh receiver was hit hard as he tried to make a catch, the ball was deflected and just before it hit the ground, it was caught by Franco Harris, who picked it out of the air and then ran it in for the touchdown that won the game for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh had struggled for 4 decades to win a playoff game, and The Immaculate Reception—called by NFL films as the greatest play of all time—led to the Steelers eventually winning 4 Super Bowls before the end of the decade.
Could something special be happening at the Montlake Campus of the University of Washington Huskies? Count on it, miracles do not happen often, especially on football fields. Washington, you will recall, upset then No. 3-ranked Southern Cal 16-13 earlier in the season.
Six bottom feeders remained winless by losing this week—Ball State, Miami (OH), Eastern Michigan, Rice, New Mexico and Western Kentucky. Florida International got the money off of its back by beating Western Kentucky 37-20—go Golden Panthers (that’s the nickname of FIU, which few would know except those folks who live east of the Mississippi River).
Top 25 teams that were idle this week included No. 6 Boise State, No. 7 Southern Cal, No. 10 Cincinnati and No. 24 South Florida.
That’s it, that’s all, Smokey, put a wrap on it.
(Editor’s Note: The rankings in this article are from the AP Top 25 Poll of sportswriters and sportscasters, and any ratings are from Jeff Sagarin.)