Top 25

College Football

Top 25

1. Alabama 12-0, 1
2. Oklahoma 11-1, 2
3. Texas 11-1, 3
4. Florida 11-1, 4
5. Southern Cal 10-1, 5
6. Utah 12-0, 6
7. Texas Tech 11-1, 7
8. Penn State 11-1, 8
9. Boise State 12-0, 9
10. Ohio State 10-2, 13
11. Oklahoma State 9-3, 10
12. Ball State 12-0, 14
13. Texas Christian 10-2, 15
14. Cincinnati 10-2, 16
15. Georgia Tech 9-3, 17
16. Georgia 9-3, 12
17. Boston College 9-3, 18
18. Brigham Young 10-2, 20
19. Missouri 9-3, 11
20. Virginia Tech 8-4, 21
21. Mississippi 8-4, 23
22. Oregon 9-3, NR
23. Pittsburgh 8-3, NR
24. Nebraska 8-4, 24
25. Florida State 8-4 19

OUT: Northwestern and Oregon State.
VOTES: Northwestern, Oregon State, LSU, West Virginia, Michigan State, Iowa, Western Michigan, North Carolina, North Carolina State, California and Kansas.

At Neyland Staduim last night, Tennessee defeated Kentucky in "The All Cheerleader Bowl" while a grand celebration took place honoring Coach Phil Fulmer's last game as the Volunteers coach. Of course, it was the Tennessee brass that ousted Fulmer in the first place, so it seemed less than heartfelt. They did this to Johnny Majors to usher in Fulmer, and now it appears Lane Kiffin is the new Vol coach fresh from being fired by the Oakland Raiders. Kiffin may be great but it is indeed a gamble, as was the last Raiders castoff diving into a top program as Nebraska found out with Bill Callahan. Things are rough all around at Rocky Top these days, as evidenced by the following story via The Wiz of Odds and GoVolsXtra.

Sylvester Croom is out at Mississippi State, fresh of a 0-45 pounding at the hands of rival Ole Miss. Perhaps this move needed to take place, but certainly Croom deserves credit for running his program the right way, and his devotion to his players was admirably noticeable. Could this be the place Terry Bowden re-emerges?.....Bill Snyder has returned to the helm at Kansas State, and although Snyder is a great coach who turned the Mildcats into the Wildcats, it will be real interesting so see if he can do it again.
FSU WIDEOUT BERT REED SLIPS TO THE TURF/PHOTO TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

Obviously, the Florida Gators are a championship calibur team and it appeared equally as obvious they had too much for Florida State to contend with. But, FSU continued to display a lack of ability to execute offensively and adjust to gaps defensively. Worse yet, wide open receivers were dropping the ball while Florida receivers were wide open. This can only lead to a whippin, and that is what us in the Garnet and Gold got. Everyone is quick to suggest the game has passed Bowden by, but he is not coordinating the offense or defense. Both Ponder and Richardson tossed interceptions to the same position defender on the same play that they did back against Wake Forest in week 3, another loss. I would have hoped we could at a minimum correct these particular plays, but apparently not. There has been improvement scoring in the red zone over the season, but unfortunately we have also improved in jumping offsides at critical times, and it will and can get you beat. I don't know if ole Mickey Andrews or the Seminole defenders ever even saw the Gator tight end, who walked open for two touchdowns. Plenty visible through the rain drops from section 29. Not to impressive.

Kansas, behind a great effort by signal caller Todd Reesing, upended Missouri in Columbia. Tiger Coach Gary Pinkel just signed a contract extension, but I do not know who underachieved more this year, Missouri or Georgia, who took it on the chin in Athens as the Ramblin Wreck unleashed a rushing arsenal rarely seen of late....Speaking of underachieving, we cannot leave out Auburn, who got shoutout 36-0 in the Iron Bowl by powerful Alabama and LSU, who dropped one to a weak Arkansas team....Gator fans were chanting SEC, SEC in the stands versus FSU but they should just focus on their fine team because the ACC went 3-1 against the SEC over the weekend, with Clemson, Wake Forest and Ga. Tech winning while FSU lost....Oklahoma continued to put up 60 points per game against quality opponents, this week smashing a very sound Oklahoma State team in Stillwater....Boise State hung 61 on Fresno State, flexing some muscle....Could there be an opening in South Bend? The Irish got manhandled by Southern Cal barely posting a handful of first downs. It was quite a spectacle....Oregon scored at will and ruined Oregon State's dream of playing in the Rose Bowl, who no doubt were thrilled....All eyes will be on Florida vs. Alabama next week. I would be surprised if the Gators don't win easily. Alabama has met Florida every single time the Tide has played in the SEC title game....Baylor scared Texas Tech behind frosh signal caller Robert Griffith III. Baylor may be a problem for some teams in 2009, so take any points you can get with the Bears behind Griffith....Very early to look at 2009 but if Tebow stays, it will be Florida at preseason number 1....Congratulations to Turner Gill, who has done the unthinkable and put Buffalo in the MAC title game and a bowl game. Gill could claim coach of the year honors, but one would have to strongly consider Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech.

The spread offense is really intriguing. Scores of games are way up as defenses are having a great deal of trouble stopping these offenses. If you don't dominate the line of scrimmage with your defensive line or have a lock down corner or two on defense, you better have a standout offense, cause you cannot win otherwise. The dropback Dan Marino quarterbacks are gone, replaced by hybrid signal callers with equal running and passing skills, like Tim Tebow, for example. The Big XII is full of them, and it seems to be the fad at least for now. The defensive mind who figures out how to stop this will write his own ticket.