Saturday, October 14, 2006

CFB Saturday Tailgate:
A. Peterson Done for Season!

(Be sure to read below for my particularly quick analysis of today's Top 5 most intriguing storylines.)

The first official BCS ranking is coming tomorrow, and speculation is raging that it will be Ohio State at No. 1, with USC edging out Florida for the coveted No. 2 spot. They have to play the games first, of cours. That's where you come in.

Use the Comments section for our weekly Tailgate of analysis: Pre-game, mid-game and post-game, let's talk about performances and dynamics that are shifting throughout the day that might impact how that first BCS ranking will look.

Have at it!

Update (4:41 p.m.): Adrian Peterson out for the rest of the season! Two things:

(1) In my list, he was THE top Heisman contender. (At least, he is/was the best college football player -- whether that wins him a Heisman or not is another thing. No matter how you define "best," Peterson was in your Top 3.) So now that's blown wide open.

(2) Considering that he would have been a guaranteed first-round pick (if not Top 10) in the NFL Draft... AFTER HIS FRESHMAN SEASON! *AND* he would have been a guaranteed Top 5 overall pick after his sophomore season...

He becomes Exhibit A about how the draft-eligibility restrictions are terrible for the top players and should be eliminated.

How can you deny that having to come back for this third year put him at risk -- a risk now turned reality -- of a career-harming injury, when he would have been a lock first-round pick in either of his first two years? Forcing him to return to school if both he and, as important, NFL talent evaluators agree he would have been ready after either of his first two years was/is in the worst interests of both the player and the NFL.

UPDATE (4 p.m.): I'm getting my first chance of the season to really watch Missouri -- beyond the highlight shows, really watching entire drives. And -- wow -- do they look good, especially on offense. They are legit. If they can hold off the hard-charging A&M (no gimme), I'm vaulting Mizzou into my Top 10 -- and QB Chase Daniel should be a Top 5 Heisman contender. He runs the spread offense as well as any QB I've ever seen, including WVA's Pat White or Florida's LeakBow combo. Worst. Jinx. Ever.

Meanwhile, I feel amazing for Vanderbilt, beating Georgia in Athens, but if you're an SEC fan, it's bittersweet: It makes Florida's game against UGA next week that much less impressive. It's certainly not the tough matchup it looked like it was even two weeks ago, let alone before the season started. (And, of course, it's no gimme that UF wins at Auburn tonight.) But how awesome for Vandy?

42 comments:

Trent said...

Navy just gained 10 yards because of a fumble Rutgers recovered.

Navy fumbles on their own 10, Rutgers recovers, Navy forces Rutgers to fumble and Navy recovers the ball in their own end zone. End result: 1st and 10 from the 20 for Navy.

Christian Thoma said...

It's not really worth discussing the BCS rankings until the games are played. West Virginia is letting Syracuse stick around, and that could cost them in the polls (even if they win), which could help Florida (if they win).

TJ said...

USF just scored to go up 27-10 on UNC. Doesnt seem like that big of a deal I know, but for a team only 10 years old--whose only losses so far are last-minute affairs at Kansas and vs. ranked Rutgers--being 2 wins away from a second straight bowl game is pretty huge.

The heroin sheik said...

Georgia is going down like a two dollar whore.

Steve said...

Wisconsin taking care of business in a big way again. Think you might actually rank them this week Dan? Seriously, they are better than Notre Dame. They only lost 27-13 at Michigan and they are going to go 11-1. I have them 9th and Notre Dame 11th.

Worldwide Reader said...

FLA will lose tonight @ AUB by 10, I say. The lucky streak has got to end sometime.

Michigan is the clear cut #2. USC will be exposed by either Cal or ND.

Of course, college football will ultimately always be a joke, seeing as there is no playoff.

So in a way, I am hoping for FLA/USC and either UM or OSU to all go undefeated, so the playoff-haters will finally (one would think) come to their senses and say: this sport needs an 8 team playoff!!

thistlewarrior said...

VANDY WINS!!!

thistlewarrior said...

Holy Shit! Indiana beat Iowa! Where's Lenny now?

MoL said...

Hey John L...time to start polishing up that resume

ToddTheJackass said...

With Adrian Peterson and Manningham out, I think the obvious candidate for the has to be Steve Apanavicius.

Christian Thoma said...

So are there any questions remaining about the OSU defense at this point?

AP won't drop as a draft pick. Collarbone is easy to come back from, and some NFL teams will actually appreciate the fact that he'll have played 5-6 fewer games in his college career (since the shelf life of top RBs is limited).

Christian Thoma said...

Oh how precious, MSU scored a garbage-time TD. That will save John L. Smith's job.

Unless they get the onside kick, MSU will finish with less than 200 yards of offense.

Christian Thoma said...

Baylor 10, Texas 7 ... eep!

Brian in Oxford said...

Broken collarbones hurt like hell! But they can be overcome in less than a month!

Plus....who says a company or league or whoever has to hire people under 21 if they don't want to?

I think the NFL can use its contracts with alcohol companies to hide behind a reason to allow 20-year-olds in as employees. Adrian Peterson can not be put in a place as a spokesperson for Coors Light as a 20-year-old.

Ingrid and Jim said...

USC is finally showing some dominance. I think Pete Carroll knows they need to destory ASU to maintain their spot in the rankings.

Rutgers!!!!! Louisville looks vulnerable. How about this... undefeated Rutgers vs. undefeated West Virginia for a BCS bowl spot in the last week of the season!

Steve said...

College players get paid anyway via scholarships and boosters. Plus they get to be BMOC and hit all that college girls gone wild action. So color me not sympathetic. The system is what it is because the majority of people must like it that way.

FreKy J said...

OH MY GOD! How do the officials go back and REVIEW the play and STILL say that Chris Leak fumbled a FORWARD PASS!?!?!

FreKy J said...

I've seen 3 different Auburn games THIS YEAR with an egregiously bad call from the ref's in their favor. All 3 calls were reviewed and upheld, despite being hideous calls.

Matt Berg said...

Looks like Florida might be done.

FreKy J said...

Forget what I said before.. Florida blew the game bigtime. Officials or not.

Matt Berg said...

So seriously, now that Florida lost and USC is having trouble putting Arizona State away, can we finally put Michigan at number two? (I mean, they've deserved it all season. Their defense has been fantastic and dominated Penn State tonight - seven sacks and counting - and their offense is unstoppable when Mario Manningham is in the game.)

And the question of the week: if Michigan and OSU are 1-2 in November and there are no other unbeaten teams, do they meet again in the BCS Championship if that game ends up close?

Christian Thoma said...

WVA fans must be ecstatic right now. Florida losing, USC in a tight game ... I wish ABC would switch away from UM-PoSU.

Christian Thoma said...

@matt berg:

Possibly. For it to happen, though, I think tOSU would have to lose to UM. If Texas is sitting with 1 loss, it'd be a lot harder for the pollsters to put UT over the Buckeyes ... although I'm sure they would.

BTW, good day for Troy Smith's Heisman hopes. AP out for the season, Wolfe with 25 yards rushing today. I bet some writers are feeling pretty stupid jumping on the Wolfe bandwagon right about now.

Hmmm...PoSU is trtying to make it interesting...

TJ said...

Too crushed to rationally discuss the Gator game yet, but I just had a thought: it says something about how far Miami has fallen when they're having heated, bench-clearing brawls with FIU.

Christian Thoma said...

How can anyone of reasonable intelligence think UM could beat OSU at this point? A lot may change over the next month, but holding MSU to under 200 yards in Lansing is pretty dang impressive for OSU's "question mark" defense. OSU is too complete right now for any team to challenge them, let alone beat them.

Matt Berg said...

@ChrTh:

Did you watch the Michigan-PSU game? And have you watched them at all this season?

It'll be close. Real close. Always is.

TJ said...

Fuck rationality. Now the replay officials are saying they wanted to keep the game moving so they didn't really look at all the angles? I realize UF did plenty on their own to lose this one, but Gainesville is still really sensitive to referee screw-ups--this is not going to go over well over the next... while. It'll also be interesting to see if Dan plays this one the same as he played the OU-OU game. If he doesn't--THEN you know this has become a UF fanblog.

Christian Thoma said...

@matt berg,

Yep. Watched both several times, including both games today. And if UM took the field against OSU today, they would've lost by 24. Easily.

Like I said, a lot can change between now and then. And yes, they always play each other close. But seeing how the two teams have performed this season--especially the last couple weeks-- my money goes on OSU.

Christian Thoma said...

Looks like UM and USC are both going to finish with 7-point victories. Since pollsters are notorious for not paying attention to anything but the final score, my guess is that WVA moves up to #2 this week.

Ingrid and Jim said...

USC is soooo going down soon. It's been a good run, guys. Now I can finally start rooting for my undergrad alma mater, instead -

GO RUTGERS!

LaziestMovieCriticofAllTime said...

ASU punts the ball on fourth down when they will have no chance to get the ball back. WHAT THE FUNGUS?

How could anyone as a player respect a coach that can't even manage the game correctly? This guy might be coaching the Oakland Raiders in the near future.

Trayton Otto said...

OSU-UM is lining up as the Big Ten Championship two weeks earlier.

Teams in the other 5 conferences (sorry Boise St.) will have one or two games to jump the loser of the OSU-UM game. No way the loser can not drop and hold on to #2.

Unless UM wins in a nail-biter and OSU holds on to #2 like Oklahoma did after bombing the Big XII Champ against KSU in 2001 (year right?).

Anonymous said...

I like to think I am on the higher end of the curve in terms of intelligence, and I am very afraid of Michigan's defense.

That said, poor Florida. So much for all that disrespect eh? Seems as though OSU @ 1 and Mich @ 2 is still the right play, for now.

USC holds off 3 craptastic teams at the buzzer at home. They better not be #2 come tomorrow.

Wisconsin, glad we dodge them after seeing them play.

Georgia, way to lose to Vandy and thus make Tenn's win last week look average.

Wolfe gets 25 yds, AP is out for the year. I guess the Heisman goes to Troy or Brady, since CJ won't get near enough of a pub push.

Trayton Otto said...

Calvin Johnson has a chance for a huge PR night next week against Clemson on ESPN. Oh, what about ABC's Saturday game? Nope. Just the World Series Game 1 in Detroit.

With games against UGA over Thanksgiving weekend and a potential ACC Championship (beat Miami and they can lose one game and still win the division), Calvin will have 2 nationally televised games AFTER Troy's season is done.

(And I'm not worried about Quinn. The Powers That Be will make sure USC pulls off the win in LA.)

The heroin sheik said...

Granted they gave up too many opportunities and had penalties at inoportune times, but the refs in that florida game sucked. That horse collar tackle right in front of the ref wasn't even called in the 4th quarter let alone leak's fumbled pass. If this were the NFl am I correct to assume it would fall under the tuck rule? I know it is sour grapes but after the last few UF/FSU games and now this one it makes a fan wonder what we did to offend the football gods to never seem to get a call to go our way.

Regardless the gators get penalized too much. If that holding in the end zone hadn't been called most likely the ensuing fg wouldn't have been made either and that would have been the game. I can only hope that we dont fall out of the top ten and pray rutgers runs the table and ND stomps on WVU. Maybe we could get back in the running then.

Got to give props to OSU and UM for keeping their eyes on the prize. However I think that neither of them will be able to stop WVU in the title game.

Anonymous said...

how does ND stomp on WVU? they don't play...

Christian Thoma said...

@maher: I think he means in the Orange Bowl.

The heroin sheik said...

actually i mean usc get stomped by ND. been in the hospital with my mom all week so havent had much sleep sorry. I think what i meant to say was if rutgers runs the table and usc somehow loses to ND then if the gators run the table with the loser of UM OSU dropping we might have a shot at being back in the title hunt. Very convoluted. But then again look at the time i was posting.

Unknown said...

The last team WVU wants to play in any kind of bowl is Ohio State or Michigan. Those two teams are always built to stop the run. WVU would have no chance.

Now..WVU v USC...interesting.

Ingrid and Jim said...

Dear Michigan Fans,

Take a hint from Florida fans who were griping about USC being #2. Worry about your upcoming opponents, not USC -if USC runs the table, they deserve to be #2. If you run the table, you will be #1.

Regards,
Trojan Fan

john (east lansing, mi) said...

I don't think USC will win even 2 out of 3 against Cal, Oregon, and ND, but still:

I think Michigan might actually want a rematch with USC this year. Last time we met (I drove to California... what a long drive home), USC was a much better team (especially since Braylon couldn't have caught a cold that day). This time around, the story is different. It wouldn't be bad for a Big Ten team to run over the Pac-10's best and demonstrate our 2006 superiority.

EPorvaznik said...

Incredibly late to the party (just re-found ya, Dan), but since I didn't see it mentioned, why has no one wondered what the hell Adrian Peterson was still doing in that game anyway?

As someone who has also fractured a collarbone -- with a hell of a lot less to lose than Peterson to boot -- I obviously have some sympathy, but I have none whatsoever for what in my opinion was nothing but statistical padding for ego's sake.

Godspeed, AP, but maybe put on your thinking tooque instead of a helment next time.