"Steveo's Salvos" - October, 2007 Edition

"Salvos" is presented as the editorial content of CollegeFootballFan.com focusing on current issues surrounding college football and news about some of the teams on the CFF schedule this year.  Originally from a newsletter, this web site, CollegeFootballFan.com, has evolved. 

Can we pick 'em or what? - RU beat #2 South Florida and we were there!  We didn't qualify for Rutgers season ticket this year despite buying RU tickets to game in the Meadowlands and games at the Birthplace when nobody else was in attendance, but Rutgers did come up with a policy offering those left out in the cold with a choice of "any game besides West Virginia". Well, that game is on October 27 and we weren't interested any way since it is the day of our Grand Finale in Reno when we see our #118 Idaho visit our #119 Nevada to reach The Goal!  When we made our choice for a Rutgers game, our answer was automatic - "South Florida!"  Who could ever imagine that we'd  be seeing the number two team in the nation come into New Brunswick this Thursday evening!  Consider this interesting angle  - we saw a #2 team from a school that's still in its  football infancy as it started in the year 2000 (remember Y2K?).  The host team started playing back in November 1869 and has never been ranked #2.  Incentive?

And would you believe... - We almost attended the record-setting game on Oct 14 when Boise beat Nevada in four OTs on their Blue Turf, 69-67.  The teams tied the NCAA mark for most combined points in a game.  When all schedules first came out, two games between four remaining teams were slated the same day- Oct. 27! We figured we'd try to see Oklahoma at Oklahoma State for our Grand Finale, so we planned a trip to Idaho on the weekend of Oct. 13 as Fresno visited Idaho on Saturday and Nevada visited Boise on Sunday night.  We booked our flight with frequent flier miles!  Well. OU vs. OSU changed to Thanksgiving weekend.  Airfares go up and family traditions went out the window.  Luckily, OU and OSU schedule a weekend double-header as we re-booked our flight to Tulsa on September 21 to see OU visit Tulsa that night and OSU host Texas Tech the next day!  We rescheduled out Grand Finale in Reno for this upcoming weekend.  We've been lucky with our scheduling to get this Goal so quickly, but what luck it would have been to see that game!

Apologies to Hampton - In our Review following the Hampton 48-27 victory over Princeton, we referred to the Pirates as Buccaneers!  We pictured their mascot at the game and kept thinking "Bucs"  a supposed to Pirates.  Thanks to their fans for pointing that out.  The Pirates and their band , The Force, were both fun to watch!

One bright spot - If 1-7 Idaho has any chance to make our Grand Finale special, it will have to come on the legs of the Vandals' Freshman RB Deonte Jackson.  Ranked #11 in the nation in rushing, he averages 5.6 yards per carry to get 929 yards.  He's only been in the end zone 5 times this season, but the IU offense has been putting some points on the board.  The Vandal defense is going to have to stop RB Luke Lippincott with his 792 yards for a 5.9 yard average and 8 TDS.  His rushing yards are 22nd best in the former 1A.

The Upsets Continue! -October 20.  USF, South Carolina , and Kentucky all tumbled.   It's Ohio State's turn this week at a "White-out" in Happy Valley.  BC could fall to VA Tech Thursday night. Other conference teams start to mix it up with the meat of their schedules. We're sure there a few more coming!

And then there were 3, but now back to 5, and now a different 5 - A reshuffling of the Top 25 brought back some previous members that fell from the rankings but are now on the upswing!  USF fell from #2 to #11.  Oklahoma stayed a #4 despite a difficult win over one-win Iowa State.  Auburn fell to #23 on a last-play loss to LSU, 30-24, at home.   Two other Big 12 teams we saw this year fell out of favor as Texas Tech got hammered by Mizzou, 41-10, and Kansas State got toppled by Oklahoma State, 41-39.   Penn State is back with a 36-31 win over improving Indiana at #24.Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and upcoming Purdue all got at least one vote.  Oh, and our #118 to be seen this week, Idaho, is close to that ranking as ESPN.com has them rated at #6 - in their Bottom 10!

Get a load of this! - Cousin and OT Robert Keyes at The College of New Jersey (6-1, 4-0) and his team jumped up to #18 from #22 in D-III with a 42-21  win over Western Connecticut this weekend. Big wins over perennial NJAC powers Montclair and Rowan on consecutive weekends got them into polls. Now follow this closely.  Muhlenburg (7-0) defeated TCNJ in the opener for both teams.  TCNJ (5-1) defeats Montclair State (5-2) after MSU defeated the #7 team in D-III the week before, Wesley (7-1).  You still figure the the pecking order is easy - Muhlenburg, TCNJ, Montclair and Wesley - right?  Wrong!  Muhlenburg is #20, TCNJ is #18, Montclair is gone, and Wesley is #10.  Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it.  Won't matter much when you read "Juggernaut' below though!  However, this week looms big for TCNJ as they meet #25 Cortland State (6-1,5-0) with whom they share the NJAC lead.  This could be for the automatic play-off spot!  Stay tuned!

Look who's in the lead - Still about the same. Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech, a true freshman, still leads the nation in scoring (102 points) and receiving yards (1,320) though Missouri put the clamps on him.    Sam Bradford of OU is #2 in QB ratings and Graham Harrell is now ranked #3 in QB rankings and has 3,548 passing yards while TTU is #4 in scoring average followed by Oklahoma who were held to 10 and 17 points respectively last weekend.  TTU leads the nation in passing yards per game with 487.5.    Rutgers' Rice is now tied for fourth in scoring with 84 points.    Navy still leads the nation in rushing , but their defense has to be near the bottom in total defense!    Paul Smith and Tulsa fill the #4 spots in passing yards .  Jordy Nelson of Kansas State is now #3 in the nation in receiving yards with 903.

We haven't said anything, but... - We attended that exciting Oklahoma State - Texas Tech 49-45 shoot-out two weeks ago, and of course, like every one else, we've seen the replays of what transpired after the game in the locker room between Head Coach Mike Gundy and Daily Oklahoman reporter Judy Carlson.  What we'd like to see is film of Bobby Reid's mother hand-feeding him chicken!  Did she hold out a drumstick for him to gnaw on, or did she hold sliced chicken out in a flat hand?  Did he wear a bib , or did she wipe his mouth with a napkin?  This is hard to envision, but stranger things have happened.  We note that Zac Robinson still did the bulk of the work at QB  for the Cowboys this weekend in their 39-3 win over Sam Houston State.  He had 279 yards passing and 2 TD passes and ran for 49 yards.  Reid completed one pass for eight yards and ran twice for fifteen. Zac Robinson continues to start at QB for the Cowboys.

Navy vs. Wake - high scoring omen -  If Roger Staubach attended this year's Navy Homecoming on Oct. 27, it would have been a high-scoring ball game.  Roger was at the Oklahoma State win over Texas Tech, 49-45, as a guest of T. Boone Pickens, which we also attended, and was an honorary captain for Navy at Heinz Field last week at Heinz Field against PItt which we also attended as the Mids won a thrilling double overtime game, 48-45.  We were at Annapolis that Saturday, and  Roger wasn't.  QB Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada got hurt late in the second period with the score tied, 17-17.  The Mids scored one more TD and fumbled three time to let Wake score to go on to a 44-24 win.

Triple option needs two weeks - We always read that navy opponents fear the teams triple-option offense as it's such a rarity to find in college football any more.  There is some merit to that as Navy leads the nation in rushing for the third consecutive year which would be a first for any team.  Pre-season stories included Rutgers Greg Schiano defending against the offense in the pre-season before his team opened against Buffalo only to face Navy six days later.  A check of navy's scheduled show that six of the last seven teams to face Navy do not play a game the Saturday before facing the Mids.  Pitt and Wake played a weekday night instead of the Saturday, but Delaware, Notre Dame, North Texas, and Army, of course, all get two weeks to prep for the high-powered triple option.

Pride Bowl -    The Pride Bowl has been played annually for the last four years between "Sprint Football" teams of Army and Navy in Newark, NJ.  Sprint Football is a league of intercollegiate teams who play against one another with a 172-lb. weight limit.  The Bowl is played to raise funds for college scholarships for the children of Newark, NJ and is the sole fundraiser for Project Pride.  The turnout wasn't as good as we had expected, but in light of the Jets playing the Giants in the Meadowlands and the fact that it was not a renewal of the Army-Navy rivalry, the committee seemed pretty pleased despite a lackluster game won by the Mids over Cornell, 35-14.  We suggest that for Pride Bowl XXX that the committee do something a little extra special and see if they can get Princeton, with their high standards of Ivy League education, to host Delaware State, a good MEAC football program from where three Newark students were killed this past summer in Newark.  The game would be good.  The venue is tremendous.  The DSU band, "The Approaching Storm", can be as entertaining as was Hampton's "The Force", this past weekend.  PU could raise the price of this game to $20, the same as this year's Pride Bowl, and you'd probably get a pretty good turn-out for the Charities involved.  We would think PU and DSU and some non-conference opponents would have some flexibility to work this out in their schedule for next year.

Arizona State Watch - We still predict that ASU will play the spoiler roll with the upset of USC this year, but will it still be considered and upset?  The Sun Devils, now 7-0 and ranked #7,  are not only ahead of the 9-10th ranked Trojans, but they also now have one first place vote,a nd are #4 in the BCS! .  Don't forget, you heard about the "upset" here first, and at the beginning of the season.  Dennis Erickson will have his team ready no matter what the records!  Before the Trojans, Cal, Oregon, and UCLA lie in wait.