COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEKEND OBSERVATIONS

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

Maybe we are all wrong about this. Maybe those annoying west-coast homers are right after all. Maybe the SEC just isn't really that good.

LSU is good. We know that. But who else has been consistently good in that conference? I thought Florida was good, but they just got housed by a mediocre Georgia team. I have been making as many excuses for the Gators as anyone, but this is now a three-loss team. When they were winning, their offense was "quirky." Now that they have lost a few games, it just looks gimmicky, and at times very predictable.

I thought South Carolina could be good, but this is now a three-loss team also, having lost two games in a row to average-at-best teams. A couple of weeks ago this team looked like a good bet to get into the SEC championship game. Now with Florida and Clemson still on the schedule, a 7-5 record, and barely being bowl-eligible is a very real possibility.

I thought Kentucky had a chance to be good, but good teams don't lose home games by 17 points to Mississippi State. UK is now 2-3 in conference, and the loss to MSU, in the context of the blow-out loss to South Carolina (who, as I just outlined, isn't that good) makes the Cats look very ordinary.

As it stands now, Tennessee, who has been blown out 45-21, 59-20, and 41-17, and looked utterly horrible for much of the season, is likely to win the SEC east and meet LSU in the Championship game.

Maybe this conference just really isn't as good as everyone (myself included) says it is.

Other thoughts:
- Speaking of Tennessee, if you followed the #1 rule of college football gambling, then you made money on that game.

- What the hell is Mark Richt doing? Two weeks ago he chastised his team for celebrating on the field after a win at Vandy, now he's sending the entire team onto the field to celebrate a first-quarter touchdown?

- Remember how I said that the Ohio State-Penn State game would be a defensive battle with lots of punting? Not so much. The Penn State defense did not force a single punt on Saturday night and allowed OSU to convert nine of their first ten third downs.

- Maybe West Virginia is not as overrated as I thought. They certainly did not look overrated in pistol-whipping Rutgers 31-3 in Jersey on Saturday.

- Staying in the Big East, is South Florida a complete fraud, or is UConn for real? Both?

- The USC dynasty is dead. Its dead not because they lost, its dead because they lost and no one is really surprised. Saturday was the first time in six years that the Trojans were an underdog in a conference game, and they will likely be an underdog in at least one (at Arizona State) and possibly two (at Cal) more Pac-10 games. Still not convinced? Take a look at the latest AP poll. If you are a Trojan fan, you might want to sit down for this: USC is ranked behind Hawaii.

- The game of the week is once again in the Pac-10 next week as Arizona State travels to Eugene to take on Oregon. The winner has a very good shot to play for the National Title.

- Well the other shoe finally dropped on Virginia. I knew they would lose eventually, but I certainly didn't expect that loss to come at the hands of a brutally bad NC State team.

- As wide-open as the BCS National Title race is, the Heisman race is even crazier. Ask five people who their front-runner is, and you're likely to get five different answers. Not only that, but the race seems to change weekly. As of right now, I think Matt Ryan and Dennis Dixon have to be at the top, but I may have a completely different list next week.
photo:AP