Welcome to the meat of the schedule, kids. For the most part, the games versus rent-a-win teams are done (LSU – Towson notwithstanding). Conference games are starting up, and with it comes the first Big XII game for West Virginia. It is a home game against Baylor, which means the Bears get to travel around 1,300 miles to Morgantown. One of the big issues with conference realignment has been the extra distance between locations. It’s worth noting that Baylor already had to travel 1,015 miles to reach Ames, Iowa to play Iowa State…what’s a couple hundred more going to hurt, right?
Are there two rival teams that look any different from each other than Oregon and Oregon State? Oh, I don’t mean the uniforms (although Nike does its best, or worst, depending on your opinion)…I mean their style of play. Oregon is glitz and glamour: hurry-up offense, lots of points, national publicity. Oregon State? No one talks about them. Their offense is pretty good at moving the ball (currently 14th in passing yards), but not in scoring (18.5 points per game, 113th in the country). All they do is beat you. They’re currently 2-0, with both wins over teams that were top-25 at the time (Wisconsin, UCLA). This makes them one of only two schools currently ranked in the top 25 with two such wins. The other? Notre Dame (Michigan State, Michigan).
Other quick tidbits:
- How unusual was Boise State’s 7-6 win over BYU? Consider this: in the 39 home games since Chris Petersen became head coach, Boise State had averaged almost 44 points per game and had been held under 20 once (a 19-8 win over Oregon in 2009). The last time the Broncos had been held under 10 points in a game was all the way back in 2005 (a 27-7 loss to Fresno State).
- Cobi Hamilton had 303 receiving yards for Arkansas against Rutgers in a 35-26 loss, setting school and SEC records. Not counting Hamilton, only 40 players in the country have 303 receiving yards so far this season.
- Tavon Austin of West Virginia is listed as a running back. He has 84 rushing yards this season – and 345 receiving yards. Maybe the R in “RB” really stands for “receiving”…
- In 1-AA news, Taylor Heinicke of Old Dominion threw for 730 yards in his last game against New Hampshire. He needed them all – ODU won 64-61. For what it’s worth, Army is on pace to throw for 540 yards this entire season.
Congratulations to The Tradition, who won the week with 186 points. BritanniaTex was second with 184 points, and AUBrian third with 183.
Leaders after week 4 (Dropping “worst two” weeks):
| 1st | MarylandTwerp | 550 |
| 2nd | Rocky Tide | 544 |
| 3rd | gatorbamalover | 543 |
| T-4th | Allison | 542 |
| T-4th | Ralphie | 542 |
| 5th | maestro | 540 |
| 6th | AUBrian | 539 |
| 7th | Crimson Gator | 538 |
| T-8th | CUtigers | 537 |
| T-8th | jagrag | 537 |
| 10th | The Tradition | 536 |
This week’s games begin with Stanford at Washington, Thursday, September 27 @ 9 PM ET, so be sure to get your picks in by then!
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Brandon German
e-Systems.net, Inc.