The Color & Pageantry Top 25

College Football

Top 25

1.     Stanford, 4-0, 1
2.     Alabama, 4-0, 2
3.     Oregon, 4-0, 3
4.     Clemson, 4-0, 4
5.     Ohio State, 5-0, 6
6.     Florida State, 4-0, 5
7.     Louisville, 4-0, 7
8.     Georgia, 3-1, 8
9.     Texas A&M, 4-1, 9
10.   UCLA, 3-0, 11
11.   Louisiana State, 4-1, 10
12.   South Carolina, 3-1, 12
13.   Miami, 4-0, 14
14.   Oklahoma, 4-0, 15
15.   Northwestern, 4-0, 16
16.   Washington, 4-0, 17
17.   Baylor, 3-0, 20
18.   Florida, 3-1, 18
19.   Michigan, 4-0, 23
20.   Ole Miss, 3-1, 19
21.   Nebraska, 3-1, 25
22.   Texas Tech, 4-0, NR
23.   Arizona State, 3-1, NR
24.   Wisconsin, 3-2, 21
25.   Northern Illinois, 4-0, NR

OUT:  Oklahoma State (13), Notre Dame (24) and Georgia Tech (21)

VOTES:  UCF, Virginia Tech, Fresno State, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Missouri, Maryland and Iowa.

It seemed obvious USC Coach Lane Kiffin was living on borrowed time, seemingly cemented with the home loss to Washington State a few weeks back.  But after a 62-41 loss at Arizona State last night, Kiffin was terminated, in an earlier than expected move. Reminiscent of President Obama, Kiffin operates with a puzzling arrogance considering his actual accomplishments are limited and the results of his efforts have had negative impacts, with one huge exception; Kiffin has been exposed and fired. The vacancy at USC opens up a coaching search that will canvas both the NCAA but the NFL as well, as USC is among the most coveted coaching jobs that exists in the game.  Steve Sarkasian at Washington seems a favorite, but his Huskies are beginning to hit on stride and may be on the verge of big things, so he may not be interested.

It was a bad night for USC, but sadly, hidden behind Kiffins firing, was the potentially serious injury to star wide receiver Marquise Lee.  Lee is the best receiver in college football, without a top level quarterback to get him the ball.  In retrospect, given the debacle at USC, he should have gone pro.  In the loss at ASU last night, it appears Lee has significantly injured his knee.  Our prayers are extended for this young man and we hope for a full and speedy recovery.


UCF QB Blake Bortles/Photo Yahoo

Georgia Tech was abysmal at home versus Virginia Tech, with numerous mind boggling false start penalties,which was surprising considering the Jackets are a veteran squad....North Carolina go blasted at home by East Carolina, which is simply stunning as the Heels were thought to perhaps be a sleeper team nationally by many.....Iowa, after dropping the opener to No. Illinois, has won four straight games....OU handles Notre Dame in South Bend, and while it is still difficult to actually gauge the Sooners, this was a big win....Miami soundly defeated USF, and then called them a dirty team, which I agree with although this seems a carryover from the previous staffs and not what Willie Taggart is hoping to project.... Ohio State got by Wisconsin, but the Buckeyes still look vulnerable to me with deficiencies on both sides of the ball....Washington and Stanford both won impressively, as did Oregon in a driving rain storm....Alabama swarmed Ole Miss, who I thought had a chance before learning Rebel QB Bo Wallace made comments disrespecting the Tide, which is never a good idea as the Rebels hopefully learned the hard way having been shutout 25-0....The Texas Aggies outlasted Arkansas, who fought hard in another game highly impacted by rain, and yes, Mazziel was brilliant once again....Florida, despite losing their best player on each side of the ball to season ending injury, smothered Kentucky and looks no worse for the wear.....UCF played strong in a nationally televised showcase game at home in Orlando versus South Carolina, who barely won the ball game despite trailing 10-0 at the half.... Georgia hosting LSU was epic, with the Dawgs squeaking 44-41 between the hedges.....Illinois in looking much better than expected.....West Virgina was off to a bad start after not settling on a quarterback, but going with FSU transfer Clint Trickett, which they should have done from the start, helped get them a home victory over #11 Oklahoma State, who also has no idea who their quarterback is and is paying for that lack of decisions making  (hint: Clint Chelf is the guy)......It was finally great to have an afternoon and evening of some good contests, which has been lacking in recent weeks.

For those who may be new readers, we offer game analysis of the two teams we have allegiance with; Florida State and Nebraska, in the order their games were played over any given weekend.

On a sun splattered day in Chestnut Hill at Boston College, the youth of the Florida State Seminoles was highlighted as the Seminoles outlasted an upstart, but vastly inferior, Boston College team, winning 48-34.  On one hand, the FSU faithful should be happy, because in recent years this likely would have been a loss.  But, after starting very slow, and in a 3-17 hole, the team did not panic and got going to take a 24-17 halftime lead.  FSU seemed to coast from there, but give the Eagles credit as they continued to battle to the very end.  The BC staff did a great job off a bye week to keep the youthful and mistake prone Seminoles off balance, particularly on the defensive side.  While the play of QB Jamies Winston was once again stellar, the run game was weak, which is concerning.  There were many youngsters out on defense, and it showed by missed assignments and blown coverages.  However, some of these young guys played well, most notably DB's Nate Andrews and Jalen Ramsey. The kick coverage teams were awful, and it led directly to 14 BC points.  There is time for FSU to clean this stuff up, but if not, the track meet at Clemson will likely not go the way of those with face paint.  The Seminoles welcome what appears to be a much improved, and undefeated, Maryland team to DOAK on Saturday, where sleepwalking once again could lead to a hair raising afternoon off an anticipated 3:30 kick.  I am on notice, and therefore, the staff should be as well.