1. On any given Saturday…apparently anyone can lose a game. In a week of shocking upsets, top 25 casualties included No. 12 Oklahoma losing to Texas, No. 7 Georgia losing to Missouri, No. 5 Stanford losing to Utah and No. 18 Michigan losing to Penn State in quadruple overtime. Expect a huge shakeup in the rankings and should set up a possible huge matchup between Miami and Florida State, who will both likely be in the top 10 together for the first time since 2005.
2. It wasn’t just upsets…some teams got some scares too. Johnny Football and the Texas A&M Aggies got past Ole Miss, Clemson survived against Boston College and Baylor took care of business against Kansas State.
3. Lame…I mean, Lane Kiffin admits mistakes. Former USC head coach Lane Kiffin admitted to ESPN’s Chris Fowler that he made some mistakes in his coaching career. There is your 2013 Understatement Of The Year.
4. Mack Brown might have saved himself from getting fired. And the best part of the whole thing might be Skip Bayless boldly predicting that his Oklahoma Sooners would win and hoped they didn’t cause the firing of Mack Brown. “Thanks to Mack, I no longer fear Texas” were his words on twitter. It was great to see Skip eat his words. Congrats to the Longhorns for keeping their season alive.
5. The Heisman race is heating up. Johnny Manziel has some competition in the Heisman voting this year with some other guys having stellar seasons like Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, FSU’s Jameis Winston and Ohio St’s Braxton Miller. Interestingly enough, there aren’t many candidates outside of the quarterback position. Georgia’s Todd Gurley has been injured and Alabama’s TJ Yeldon isn’t putting up the numbers that his predecessors (Mark Ingram and Eddie Lacy) had put up by this point in the season.
1. Lane Kiffin gets the boot. I’m not going to hide it. I’m not a big fan of Lane Kiffin. I think he’s cocky, he’s arrogant and worst of all, he’s done nothing to warrant that attitude. He stole Bryce Brown away from the University of Miami and barely used him. He basically stole money from the Oakland Raiders and he made himself a target at USC. That being said, I’m sure he’ll bounce back and find a job somewhere. Jack Del Rio, a former USC alum himself, is one of the favorites to get the Trojans head coaching job. USC already has the pieces for a pretty good defense so Del Rio would be a welcome change in the staff.
2. Notre Dame’s luck has run out. After several close calls this season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost to Oklahoma 35-21. Oklahoma finally got a win over the Irish for the first time in their last 8 tries. Quarterback Tommy Rees didn’t look very sharp against the Sooners defense early on. The Irish, who were previously ranked number 14, have now fallen out of the top 25.
3. Aaron Murray is making his case. Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Aaron Murray came into the season with the stigma that he wasn’t clutch and he couldn’t win the big game. After a win against South Carolina, Murray started to shed those thoughts. After Murray led the Bulldogs to a late win over LSU, Murray has definitely begun to silence the doubters and put himself in the conversation for top quarterback in April’s NFL Draft.
4. Hurricanes are 4-0 for the first time since 2004. The Miami Hurricanes are off to a great start after a blowout victory over USF. Once again, Stephen Morris started at quarterback and Ryan Williams finished. Morris had some choice words for South Florida, calling them a dirty team. If the Canes can maintain their winning ways, it’ll make for an epic matchup against FSU in Tallahassee.
5. No clear winner in players vs EA lawsuit. While the players did win their lawsuit against EA Sports, there didn’t seem to be a clear winner in the case. With the number of players suing EA Sports teetering around 200,000 and 300,000, the evenly distributed $40 million will amount to about $320 per plaintiff. EA Sports announced that they will not produce an NCAA Football game next season, which hurts the schools. EA Sports provides the most revenue from non-apparel entities. So, in the end, the schools don’t get that money from EA Sports, the players don’t really get a lot of money and EA loses the revenue they’d get from the game next year. Not to mention the millions of gamers that won’t get to play a new game next July.
1. If you give Nick Saban enough time to prepare, he will destroy you. Johnny Manziel and the Aggies got off to a really fast start but the Crimson Tide same roaring back and proved their number one ranking. It wouldn’t surprise me if Saban planned it that way like the taskmaster that he is. What better way to take the wind out of Texas A&M’s sails than to bait them into thinking they’d win like they did in Tuscaloosa…then rip it away in dramatic fashion?
2. Like I said last week, Mack Brown needs to go. After a second straight loss, this time to #25 Ole Miss, its time for Mack Brown to go. They already fired defensive coordinator Manny Diaz after their loss to BYU but its not enough. Under Greg Robinson, the Longhorns looked more aggressive this week but they still couldn’t stop the run. Rebels running back Jeff Scott racked up 164 yards rushing on 19 carries…most of which came on the same play. Mack Brown’s seat might be the hottest in the country.
3. Maybe its really the Big 1 and the Little 9. For a while, a lot of people suggested that Ohio St and Michigan were the two best teams in the Big 10 and no one else came close. Seeing the way Michigan has been playing the last two weeks, including a near loss to Akron, maybe Michigan really isn’t that good. While Kenny Guiton started at quarterback in place of Braxton Miller and led the Buckeyes to a 52-34 win over Cal, Devin Gardner was throwing three interceptions to the Akron Zips. At the end of the day, they’re 3-0 but its not a very impressive 3-0.
4. The luck of the Irish shows up once again. Last season, Notre Dame got more than its fair share of lucky breaks en route to the national championship game. It appears the #21 Fighting Irish have luck on their side again. Down 17-10 to Purdue, Tommy Rees and the offense managed to rattle off 21 straight points and won 31-24 and survived a late upset bid. Fans have to wonder how many times they’ll survive these close games.
5. Rutgers did a classy job today. The Scarlet Knights picked a good kid to make their first player ever to have his jersey retired. Eric Legrand has been an inspiration all around the country and I’m glad he was able to be honored the way he has. I wish him all the best and I’m glad Rutgers took the time to do something special for such a special person.
Here are Stan Talouis’ thoughts after an exciting week 2 of College Football…
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