College Football Week 10 Thoughts

Joe Pa Takes One for the Team
I’ll admit that I am not in any way a Joe Paterno. I think that, like Bobby Bowden, his best coaching days are far behind him and he is holding the Penn State football program hostage. However, whenever a 79 year old guy takes a tumble like this, has surgery the next day and still plans on being on the sideline this weekend you have to give him due credit.



Paterno’s injuries were a broken shin bone and torn knee ligaments.

Mountain Climbers
I’ve been on the West Virginia band wagon since last season. I picked them to play Ohio State in the BCS Championship game but Louisville brought all of that to a screeching halt Thursday night with their 44-34 win over the Mountaineers.

Now the question is are the Cardinals deserving of a title shot if they run the table. Louisville has a firm grip on the number three spot in the BCS. The loser of Ohio State/Michigan will not make it to the championship game regardless of what some people say. There will be a handful of one loss teams who feel that they deserve to be in Glendale instead of a Louisville but it looks like perfection is what will be required for the dance. If you don’t like it then don’t lose.

Tennessee in Position for a Possible Penal League Championship
Between the months of January and July of 2005 eight players on the Tennessee Volunteers football team were arrested. This summer the Vols had four players arrested. Saturday night after Tennessee’s last second loss to LSU the three more UT players were arrested and disorderly conduct and under age drinking.

Among the players arrested was starting running back Arian Foster who ran for 44 yards on 10 carries in the loss. Not only did they lose to a Les Miles coached team but their loss also put rival Florida in the SEC championship game.

I don’t know what the competition is like in the county jail but the Vols have put enough talent there to run the table.

Bone Head of the Week

The award goes to Texas A&M’s Dennis Franchione. With the game on the line Coach Fran decided to go with a roll-out pass on third and goal from the three instead of giving the ball to fullback Jorvorskie Lane who was averaging 4.8 yards per carry. The pass was incomplete and the Aggies settled for a field goal on fourth down. Texas A&M lost 17-16.


Fright Night
Halloween was Tuesday but Saturday a few high ranked teams were trembling with fear against unranked opponents.

Number 1 Ohio State was held to just 17 points and only beat Illinois by a touchdown.
Number 2 Michigan held off Ball State for a 34-26 win.
Number 7 Florida survived Vanderbilt 25-19

It could be that this time of the year these teams are starting to look ahead to the big games left on their schedule thus over looking the smaller opponents.

Forget the Trophy Who Gets to Go to New York?
To me it’s a no brainer that Troy Smith is your 2006 Heisman Trophy winner. The bigger race is who gets an invite to New York for the ceremony? I don’t think there will be five people invite to New York this year but just for argument sake here is my Top 5 candidates.

1. Troy Smith – Quarterback, Ohio State
2. Brady Quinn – Quarterback, Notre Dame
3. Steve Slaton – Running back, West Virginia
4. Mike Hart – Running back, Michigan
5. Ray Rice – Running back, Rutgers

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