College Football Saturday Tracking

VANDY! Story of the year in college football, no question.

Evening Update: Wedding Anniversary dinner out cancelled. We're both too tired to bother. There's a preview for those of you without spouse or kid yet. Good news: The TV is on and we're flipping between all the good games. Looks like Vandy and Auburn will stay close to the finish -- Vandy will have problems scoring the 13 that Auburn has at the half.

Late-Afternoon Update: Does Alabama deserve to maintain their No. 1 spot on my BlogPoll ballot for a 17-14 escape (at home) over Kentucky? Where was the team that destroyed Georgia in Athens? Is Kentucky that good? Was UGA that overrated? Or is Bama simply more inconsistent than we had previously thought?

Meanwhile, how many first-place votes will Oklahoma pick up, simply from a big score and spread against Baylor, while Alabama was in a typical SEC grinder? Last week, the percent split was roughly 66/33 -- I'm betting it's at least 80/20 this week.

So much for Michigan's resurgence last week. Illinois went into Ann Arbor and throttled them. (Juice Williams: 431 yards of combined passing and rushing, including 121 rushing. Amazing. Maybe his best full-game performance of his career -- although his 4th quarter at Ohio State last season remains his single greatest performance.)

How does Ole Miss go into the Swamp and beat Florida, then go home to the Grove and lose to South Carolina? Seriously!

Does Virginia Tech deserve to be considered for the Top 25 again? Not yet. (How about Cal? Ditto.)

Wrong about Notre Dame again! (D'oh.)

Early Update: Well, today left me feeling a hell of a lot better than last weekend, but Florida's offense just doesn't seem that dynamic -- unlike other teams that consider themselves Top 10. They have some gamebreakers besides Harvin (Demps, Rainey), but that was against Arkansas, not - say - LSU next week. That said, Florida tends to play up against good comp. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I give Penn State a ton of credit for winning in West Lafayette -- even more for shutting down a very good Purdue offense. PSU isn't just the Spread HD -- it's D, too. The Top 5 is pretty crowded and Penn State was sitting at No. 6 on my ballot last week; who would I bump? (A loss in the Top 5 tonight would make things really easy for me.)

Here's a statement about the rising state of Duke football: I actually give Georgia Tech credit for its 27-0 win. A year ago, it would have been "Oh, who COULDN'T beat Duke like that? (Aside from Northwestern...yeah yeah, I know.)"

It's college football Saturday (thank god)...

It can't possibly be worse than last weekend, right? (Interesting: Would a loss at lowly Arkansas the week after a season-crushing loss to Ole Miss at home be worse than the original season-crushing loss at home to Ole Miss? Not. Even. Close.)

What I'm watching today:
12:30: Florida at Arkansas (GamePlan)
(Tabs on: Penn State at Purdue)
3:30: Kentucky at Alabama (CBS)
(Tabs on: TX Tech/K-State, Ill/Mich - ABC, both)
6: Auburn at Vandy (ESPN)
(Tabs on: Texas/Colorado at 7 - not on TV?)
8: Oregon at USC - ABC
(Tabs on: Ohio State at Wisconsin - ABC)
9: Mizzou at Nebraska - ESPN
(Tabs on: 4th quarter in LA and Madison)

Wait, wait: I'm taking my wife out for dinner tonight to celebrate our wedding anniversary!

Hmm, let's see: If we strategically eat at 7, I'll catch the end of the 3:30 games, but be back at home in time for the end of Auburn/Vandy and most of the second half of all of the 8 p.m. games.

And the reason why I'm so lucky to have married her: She's totally on board with the plan, specifically so she can watch the college football too. THIS is how you make a marriage work.

-- D.S.