Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap

Michigan wins easily over an overmatched Delaware State team; N.C. State gets dismantled by Boston College; Ohio State and Virginia Tech lose.

Michigan 63, Delaware State 6. Yeah, 63-6. Delaware State made half a million dollars to get corn-holed on national television. Oh yeah, and they also had to forfeit a conference game to get this game on their schedule. I hope it was worth it, guys.

For Michigan, it was essentially a scrimmage against a bunch of guys who wouldn't even make Michigan's scout team. Michigan rolled up a ridiculous 727 yards of offense, including 461 yards rushing. They led 49-3 at the half, and spent the second half inserting second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-string players. Yes, not only did Nick Sheridan see a bunch of time at quarterback, but David Cone played, and even walk-on Jack Kennedy came in at the end.

It's pointless rating the team for this game, but it's worth taking a look at the play of Denard Robinson, who played most of the first half. He ran the ball well as he usually does, but he also completed a few long passes. Both times, it looked like Michigan's equivalent of a play-action pass, where Denard fakes the sweep, then finds the backside tight end or slot receiver on a seam route. Twice, a receiver was wide open on the play, and Denard found him. But both times, the receiver had to adjust to the ball. Denard still lacks accuracy on long passes, and that has led to interceptions in previous games. He really, really needs to work on that.

N.C. State 20, Boston College 52. This looked like a shootout early, but then B.C. started to pull away and it got ugly. I'm not exactly sure what happened to the defensive line Saturday, but it absolutely disintegrated as B.C. gained 293 yards rushing. That's four times State's season rush defense average.

And oh yeah, three turnovers aren't helpful, either.

State has elements of a good team, but there are still lots of holes as far as personnel. It'll take a few years of good recruiting to turn that around.

Big Ten

(#7) OSU 18, Purdue 26. Purdue entered this game 1-5, but there losses to Oregon and Notre Dame were very close, so I expected this to be a competitive game. But geez, Ohio State didn't look like a top ten team in this game; Terrell Pryor was particularly bad, fumbling twice, throwing two interceptions, and making poor decisions all day. Judging from this Ohio State blog comment thread, the OSU fan base is becoming somewhat disenchanted with Pryor... and with coach Jim Tressel, believe it or not. Interesting.

(#11) Iowa 20, Wisconsin 10. Iowa remains unbeaten and on-track for a BCS bowl, but they face Michigan State next week, and Ohio State on November 14th.

Michigan State 24, Northwestern 14. Michigan State now has a winning record and is riding a three-game win streak into next week's game at home against Iowa. Should be a good game to watch.

(#14) Penn State 20, Minnesota 0. Minnesota is still bad, new stadium or not.

Indiana 27, Illinois 14. It's hard to blame Illinois coach Ron Zook for Illinois' three turnovers on Saturday, but still, a 1-5 record is a 1-5 record. Let the Zook death watch officially begin.

Top 25

Lots of quality games Saturday.

(#1) Florida 23, Arkansas 20. Florida needed a last-second field goal, and a lot of help from questionable penalty calls by the officials, to eke out a win over Arkansas. It should be noted that (#2) Alabama demolished Arkansas 35-7 earlier in the year; that should make voters question who's really #1.

(#2) Alabama 20, (#22) South Carolina 6. Alabama solidifies its case for the national title hunt.

(#3) Texas 16, (#20) Oklahoma 13. I didn't think Oklahoma would keep it this close, actually. And if Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford hadn't re-injured his throwing shoulder, maybe Oklahoma could have won this game. But Texas hung on and will stay in the chase for the title, and Oklahoma will probably finally fall from the rankings.

(#19) Georgia Tech 28, (#4) Virginia Tech 23. Georgia Tech is a scary opponent, with their unusual spread-option offense... if defenses aren't properly prepared, they're in for a long day. VT is all but gone from the title race. Unfortunately, this probably means that Boise State (who beat Tulsa Wednesday) will move up to #4, despite the fact that their only non-cupcake win was against Oregon. The combined record of their other opponents is 13-19. Boise State DOES NOT DESERVE to be in a national title game.

(#6) USC 34, (#25) Notre Dame 27. Charlie Weis, pwned again. ND might well win out and earn a BCS bid, but compared to their expectations, this has to be another disappointing year for Notre Dame. Will Jimmy Clausen return next year to give it another shot?

Texas Tech 31, (#15) Nebraska 10. I'm not really sure what Nebraska had done to earn a #15 ranking, anyway.

Colorado 34, (#17) Kansas 30. Kansas was undefeated coming into the game, but hadn't played any ranked opponents. We might have seen this one coming.

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: sports

Comments

Comment #1 from Phil (marsosudiro)
2009 Oct 18 - 10:57 am : #

" Alabama solidifies its case for the national title hunt."

And I'm wondering -- is South Carolina going to continue spending big bucks on its head coaches?

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