Making Tuesday Late Wednesday Fun Since 2006!
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A "weekly must-read"
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--- ESPN's Bruce Feldman names the 10 most difficult playes to game plan for.  Nice list.

Also: Friday Mail Bag, opinions on upsets and upstarts

From Desi in Chicago: Which of these three men is the last man standing at his current school: Karl Dorrell, Dennis Franchione or Bill Callahan?

Feldman: My hunch is Callahan is the first to go, then Fran and then Dorrell. UCLA is also the least likely of those three to be throwing around money.

--- ESPN's Ivan Maisel returns for another round of The I-Formation

--- ESPN's Pat Forde returns with another round of The Dash

Also: Florida's win blows SEC East race wide open

Watching Tebow and Woodson operate is an opportunity to watch two totally different guys excel at the same position. 

Woodson is all poise and precision in the pocket. His 415 passing yards and five touchdowns, in the face of a prodigious pass rush, were impressive.

Tebow was even more impressive. He's all blood and guts, running over tacklers and running away from tacklers and making throws from all angles.

"He almost wills things to happen out there," offensive coordinator Dan Mullen said. "They have him in the pocket, and he just stays alive."

And, at game's end, he killed Kentucky.

After a poor Wildcats kickoff was returned to near midfield by the Gators' Brandon James, you figured Florida would try to run out the clock nursing a seven-point lead. Instead, Meyer told Mullen on the headset, "Let's take a shot here."

On first down, Tebow play-faked and looked deep, only to find the coverage in place. So he dumped to the outside to Kestahn Moore for 9 yards. Three plays later, the Gators went for the big play again, and Tebow rifled a 40-yard strike to Percy Harvin.  Tebow plowed in from the 2 to put the game away.

"Our game plan against him was good," Wildcats defensive end Dominic Lewis said. "We had guys in the right spots. He just made better plays."

--- ESPN's Mark Schlabach returns for another round of On (and off) the Mark

Also: Todd Reesing sparks Jayhawks revival, USF won't get second chance to crash party

Reesing, a sophomore from Austin, Texas, was written off as a college quarterback long ago. He is listed at 5-foot-10 but might be an inch or two shorter. His height was the main reason college coaches didn't flock to Austin to recruit him; he threw for more than 6,500 yards with 70 touchdowns and only 13 interceptions in high school. His only major scholarship offers came from Kansas and Kansas State. Nearly all the Texas schools ignored him.

"It was kind of the story of my recruiting process," Reesing said. "I was kind of written off by people because of my height. Even though I put up huge numbers in high school, I wasn't recruited by a lot of schools. Listed next to my name was that height and people wouldn't take a look at me."

Opponents are always looking for Reesing now. He ranks 14th in the country in pass efficiency, completing 57 percent of his passes for 1,652 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions.

--- Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel returns with another round of The Mailbag

Also: Rutgers' upset deals blow to USF and Big East

Also: The Mandel Blog 

--- Sports Illustrated's Austin Murphy profiles swashbuckling Texas Tech coach Mike Leach

--- Sports Illustrated's Arash Markazi says the aura that surrounded USC during its amazing run is gone

--- Sports Illustrated's Cory McCartney checks in with another edition of the All-Out Blitz

Also: Dennis Erickson is working his magic again at ASU

--- CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd says Pete Carroll's Trojans face a huge test against Oregon in Eugene

Also: Sunday 7, LSU avoids questions and upset with incredible finish, Weekend Watch List, battered Buckeyes tackle their demons

These aren't the defense and field-position Bucks of 2002. In some ways they're even more swashbuckling than the '06 team that seemingly had sprinter's speed at every position. Boeckman, a faceless junior from St. Henry, Ohio, has thrown downfield more than the Heisman Trophy winner in becoming the Big Ten's top-rated passer.

Complementary receivers last year, Brian Robiskie, Ray Small and Brian Hartline are producing at a rate similar to Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez. Ohio State pass catchers are averaging 2.41 touchdowns per game compared to 2.38 for last year's group.

There's always the pounding running game. Budding star Chris "Beanie" Wells is on pace to run for 1,200 yards. The offense as a whole is outscoring the '06 team through seven games 35.7-33.5 points per game.

The defense was the strength from the beginning. In a season when it seems no one is playing it, the Buckeyes are No. 1 this season in points and yards allowed. Linebacker Jim Laurinaitis has done nothing to diminish his Nagurski Award in 2006 (best defensive player).

It's almost sickening now to suggest these Buckeyes are underdogs. They have won 26 of their last 27 games. The school plays tag with Texas for the label of richest athletic department. But after the superstar team of last season, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Ohio State was generally picked third to fifth in the Big Ten.

But what else are you going to call them? And who else are you going to put up there at No. 1?

--- CBS Sports' Spencer Tillman says a new kind of motivation is required for today's student-athletes

Once again Tillman's got something interesting to say.

--- The Sporting News' Matt Hayes looks at third-year college football coaches

Also: Winners and losers, Inside Dish, Hayes' Top 25, ten things to watch this weekend, Heisman Watch

--- The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart says rumors still swirl about North Carolina coach Butch Davis

Also: Blog Fog, despite lapses Sooners are among nation's best, Saturday Dreaming, Week 8 Awards

--- Yahoo! Sports' Terry Bowden says it's all about the QB's

Like a good point guard in the NBA, a la Steve Nash, he also has to be able to manage the offense. I know manage is probably the most overused word in the American Football Dictionary, but it has never been more true. With so much of the offense being changed at the line of scrimmage these days (in my first year at Auburn in 1993 we went undefeated and never checked off one time at the line of scrimmage), it is up to the QB to get the offense in the correct play. Before he does that, he must call the defensive front based on where the middle linebacker is and the secondary coverage based on where the safeties line up. After all of that, he must have the physical and intellectual ability to distribute the ball to the correct receiver or ballcarrier whether it be read one, read two or read three.

Also: Sweet 16

--- CSTV's Brian Curtis tells us what stories we aren't hearing about

And one more thing...the BCS will work itself out. Enough about the calls for a playoff because this year has been crazy. This is a playoff! Every weekend is elimination. More on this next week.

--- CSTV's Trev Alberts answers another round of mail

--- CSTV's Adam Caparell says the USC Trojans are in unfamiliar territory

Also: a profile of USC Heisman Trophy winner Charles White

Also: some positive changes to next year's NFL draft

--- CSTV's Jerry Palm says LSU is still No. 2

--- CSTV's Carter Blackburn warms up college football's hot seats

--- Be sure to check out all the latest from the Rivals.com team of Olin Buchanan, David Fox, Steve Megargee and Mike Huguenin

--- Sun Sports TV's Whit Watson says thanks for watching to some of his more loyal viewers and briefly revisits the playoff proposal one loyal viewer sent his way before heading off to military missions unknown in the Middle East

--- USA Today's Kelly Whiteside says the Penn State players' off-the-field behavior is under scrutiny

Also: college football's upset bug bites USF, Pooch Kicks

--- The New York Times' Pete Thamel says LSU returns to a familiar path after a chaotic detour

Also: Easy win over Notre Dame does little for USC Trojans, on road to title Ohio State must dodge critics

Also: The Quad Blog

--- The New York Times' Thayer Evans says coach Mike Gundy's tirade is a boon for Oklahoma State

Also: Kansas star Aqib Talib swaggers on both sides of the ball

--- The Dallas/Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Wendell Barnhouse says No. 2 Boston College isn't even ranked second in its hometown

Also: Still more Bowl Championship Shame?, struggling Aggies might benefit from a trip to Tuberville

--- Be sure to visit the Mr. College Football blog by Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Tony Barnhart

--- The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianci says sadly, it's time for Bobby Bowden to retire

--- The New York Post's Lenn Robbins is calling Thursday night's Boston College game against Virginia Tech the school's acid test

--- The Tuscaloosa News' Cecil Hurt says that when adversity looms, Alabama now has Nick Saban

--- The Mobile Press-Register's Neal McCready says the Heisman Trophy is Tim Tebow's to lose

--- The Birmingham News' Kevin Scarbinsky says the Super Bowl's big, but it's no Saban Bowl

It started with a writer from New Orleans. Next came an LSU official, followed by a writer from Baton Rouge and a writer from Lake Charles.

One by one, the Louisiana scribes gathered around after midnight Saturday in the lounge area of the LSU press box.

They didn't want to talk about the instant classic we'd all just witnessed, about the latest edition of the most physical, competitive and unpredictable rivalry in major college football, about LSU 30, Auburn 24. 

They wanted to talk about the coming of Armageddon, about the end of the world as we know it, about the biggest game in the history of college football, the history of games, the history of the world.

They wanted to talk about LSU at Alabama.

You know.

The Saban Bowl.

It's so big, both teams need the extra week to prepare for it, and the press corps from each state needs the extra week to hype it.

Like a Super Bowl.

One of the Louisiana writers said he plans to spend an entire week in Tuscaloosa leading up to the Nov. 3 kickoff. He probably won't be alone.

--- The Birmingham News' Ray Melick says don't harass the Harris Poll voter

Sunday morning, as I put together my Harris Poll after all the upsets of the previous day, I looked at all the teams out there - the undefeated teams as well as those with one loss - to carefully fill out my ballot.

 Because all teams don't play each other and all schedules are anything but equal, the predicament becomes deciding whether to vote for the team you really think is the best team in the country, or voting for the team that has played its schedule the most successfully.

Or - and here is where I tend to fall - try to find some meaningful balance between the two, including strength of schedule, performance, significant wins, and, to be honest, eye appeal.

So when I finally plugged in my No.1 and 2 votes, I voted for Ohio State as No.1, and LSU No.2.

Why? Because Ohio State has history. Ohio State has the Big Ten. Ohio State is a "safe" vote.

And maybe because, deep down, I think Ohio State is going to lose before the season is over, so what does it hurt to make them No.1 for now?

I voted LSU No.2 because I really think, despite the overtime loss at Kentucky, the Tigers are still the best team in the country (although Auburn could change my mind about that this weekend).

That, my friends, is one confused ballot.  The solution is more informed and consistent voters, not rallying for a playoff that ultimately settles nothing.

--- The Mobile Press-Register's Paul Finebaum says this college football season doesn't add up

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