College Football: Week 13 Wrap-Up

#5 Cincinnati def. Illinois 49-36
Can't say I learned too much here. As expected, Cincinnati has a fantastic offense (that misdirection shovel pass was sweet!), but unfortunately has the kind of defense that allows a team like Illinois to drop 36 points. Illinois has a great talent in Arrelious Benn (how in the world did Ron Zook get him to Champaign?!?), but Juice, despite some improvement, is basically still the same inaccurate quarterback we kept having to watch three years ago. The Illini made a decent show of it, but just couldn't keep up with Pike and the Bearcats in the end.

West Virginia def. #9 Pittsburgh 19-16
Wow, terrible (and pretty boring) showing for Dave Wannstedt and the Panthers. My mom thinks that I might be the jinx for Pitt QB Bill Stull (didn't I do this to Auburn's Chris Todd as well?) and whatever the cause, he looked only marginally better than his bowl performance last year (i.e. the worst performance ever by a quarterback) and did essentially nothing of note until he finally managed to hit Baldwin for the game tying touchdown. Unfortunately, Pitt's defense hadn't gotten it done all night against a relatively one note (Noel Devine) Mountaineer offense and they didn't fare any better at the end. Nice little season saver for West Virginia, but Pitt really should have rethought letting this one get away.

#6 Boise State def. Nevada 44-33
I have to give credit to Nevada for showing some life after being down 20-0 in what seemed like about 30 seconds. Unfortunately, it was all they could do to keep it respectable. Boise State actually didn't pass particularly well (and might have tossed Kellen Moore's invite to the Heisman ceremony down the drain), but their running game more than made up for it.

South Carolina def. #18 Clemson 34-17
I thought this game was a very interesting lesson in momentum. We already know that South Carolina is capable of some good things, but has serious trouble with inconsistency, especially on offense. I hadn't seen Clemson play before this game, but most accounts seem to suggest that they're a pretty good team. Knowing all of this, you have to look at Clemson's two fumbles, one at the outset of each half. Both killed successful drives, one with Clemson already up 7-0 and the other with Clemson down 17-7. What changes if the score becomes 14-0 in the first quarter or 17-14 in the third? Clemson had a few nice pass plays to TE Michael Palmer and redshirt freshman QB Kyle Parker looks like he might be the real deal, but overall, the day belonged to the Gamecocks. Nice win for Mr. Spurrier at home.

#17 Miami def. South Florida 31-10
Wow. I did say Miami would win because of its speed, but I didn't expect this. The Hurricanes dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and quickly flattened both the crowd and the Bulls. Kudos to the Bulls for waking up a little in the second half (hopefully, that's the preview of leadership to come from B.J. Daniels in the future), but this was steamroller just about all the way.

#15 LSU def. Arkansas 33-30 (OT)
Though I really want to hate the SEC, I have to admit that you can almost always count on these games for some entertainment. My goodness does Trindon Holliday have an impact on games. Whether he's speeding by on kick returns, slashing from the running back position, or yes, muffing punts to keep Arkansas in the game, you never forget he's on the field. Impressive for a guy of that size, though it's hard to tell if we're looking at the next Darren Sproles or just a nice cog in LSU's gimmicky offense. Arkansas had some serious problems, most notably lack of pass protection and Ryan Mallett's throws sailing, but found some success in the running game in the second half. That killer Jordan Jefferson interception (LSU leading 17-6 and in Arkansas territory) helped too. The fall: Arkansas' terrible prevent defense on LSU's tying drive and of course, the missed field goal in OT. Just when you thought SEC kickers were getting it together!

Stanford def. Notre Dame
I was actually pretty disappointed by this game. Neither team showed any defense whatsoever and I thought the coaching was suspect for both sides. Notre Dame called a quarterback sneak on 3rd and 2 in the second quarter (your QB already has a black eye!) and had to give the ball back to Stanford for the winning drive because it chose a running play on 3rd and 2 at midfield when its passing game hadn't been stopped at all. On the other side, well, I admit I've watched quite a bit of Notre Dame "film", but Harbaugh and his staff presumably did too, which is why I'm baffled as to how they possibly could have been fooled by Jimmy Clausen lining up at wideout for the Wild Leprechaun then jogging into the backfield and throwing a touchdown pass to a wide open Michael Floyd. Mr. Harbaugh, the Irish have run that exact play before and your safeties should have been prepared or at least watching the second of the two people who is playing out of position in the formation. Anyhow though, the game went pretty much as predicted - Toby Gerhart was next to unstoppable on the ground, Jimmy Clausen was next to unstoppable through the air and Stanford had the ball last. I will say that Stanford QB Andrew Luck looked polished. I wonder if there's any chance that Gerhart will stick around for another year in Palo Alto.

This Week's 'Yell at the TV' Moment: On Stanford's final drive, a fantastic Gerhart run brought the ball down to the Notre Dame 3 yard line, where the Irish called their second timeout with 1:03 to go. If I'm Mr. Harbaugh, I'm thinking "hmm, we've been ripped apart on defense all night and I'd rather not give Clausen the chance to tie it. Wait, I don't have to! I can kneel three times and let my Notre Dame-transfer kicker boot the game winning field goal. Or, if I don't want to leave it to one snap, I can kneel once or twice to be sure Notre Dame calls its final timeout and maybe eat a little time and then let Gerhart bash his way in." Charlie Weis realized it and the Irish did not try to stop Gerhart from scoring on first down. So the Irish got the ball back with 59 seconds and one timeout. Only the monumental collapse of the Notre Dame offensive line (bad time for the only two sacks given up!) saved the Cardinal from this blowing up in their faces. And even so, the Irish had a last second shot at the end zone. Is there some kind of etiquette I don't know about here?

In other news: Boise State, if you want to know why you're not being taken seriously, it might be things like a failed two point conversion in the first quarter that injures your #1 receiver.....Friday's ESPN coverage was generally hilarious - did you catch the Now/Ahead/Later teasers for topics the commentators would ignore the game to discuss? How about the 'Jared the Galleria of Jewelry Score Alert'?.....It seems to me that defensive offsides and intentional grounding should not be offsetting penalties. If the defender wasn't offsides, the quarterback probably wouldn't have had to ground the ball.....Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett looks much more polished than at the beginning of the year, but still moves really awkwardly, like his feet are too big - wonder if this is a puppy thing that will go away as he matures or if he's always going to move poorly.....Um, why is Toby Gerhart so incredibly exhausted all the time? I realize he has a bruising style, but he's not the only one. Does he need to be in better shape? Is it just because he's a big guy? I can't imagine NFL teams love to see that.....Stanford fullback Owen Marecic is also their backup middle linebacker. A couple weeks ago, starter Clinton Snyder was unable to go, and Marecic started both ways!