College Football Round-Up, Week 5

Wake-Up Call

It happens every year, teams build an undefeated record going into conference play only to be put in their place when competition steps up.

The Oklahoma State Cowboys did it. They beat Montana State, Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State only to be annihilated by Colorado 34-0 when conference play started.

Kansas did it. Their non-conference schedule included Florida Atlantic, Appalachian State and Louisiana Tech. Then came conference play and a trip to Texas Tech. The Jayhawks lost 30-17.

Kansas State did it as well. The Wildcats scheduled Florida International, Marshall and North Texas and then were demolished by Oklahoma 43-21.

It’s a hard dose of reality for these teams as they realize that cupcakes for non-conference games only build up false hope amongst players and fans. When reality sets in later both are left questioning what happened.

Of course for some teams you could see blow-outs coming. The Oklahoma State Cowboys struggled against the weak non-conference opponents. Watching them go into this game against Colorado this week was like watching a horrible automobile accident. You know what is about to happen is going to be nasty but you can’t help but watch.

Trojan Horse?
Are the USC Trojans that bored with college football that they have to spot opposing teams the first quarter? Last week against Oregon the Trojans were down 13-0 before deciding to play football, this week is was Arizona State who built a big lead before seeing USC come sprinting back in the second half.

This is a dangerous game the Trojans are playing. If not careful they will find themselves down to an opponent and not able to mount a comeback. The Trojans travel to Notre Dame a week from Saturday.

Roll Tide
Alabama just might be the best team in the SEC. The Florida Gators had the best defense against the pass in the SEC and Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle threw for three TDs, including an 87-yarder to Tyrone Prothro and a 65-yarder to Keith Brown in route to a 31 to 3 victory.


``We are a man-coverage team and we were exposed,'' Gator coach Urban Meyer said. ``We lost a lot of one-on-one battles. They are a very fast team. They looked a lot faster than we did today.''

No doubt Bama will move into the Top 10 this week and deservedly so. ``This is exactly where we thought we'd be,'' Croyle said.

Conference Power-Rankings
Here is a look at the conferences ranked from strongest to weakest, through the first five weeks.
ACC
SEC
Big 12
PAC 10
Big 10
Big East