You knew that with November would come chaos, and sure enough this weekend brought it in spades.  Five unbeatens fell by the wayside (LSU, TCU, Michigan State, Memphis, and Toledo), leaving just six.  At most, only four can make it undefeated through the season (Clemson, Ohio State/Iowa, Oklahoma State/Baylor, and Houston).  Of those, Houston is the odd man out as the Group of Five team.  Most think their schedule won’t be enough to move them into the top four even with potential wins over Memphis, Navy, and Temple upcoming. There are still thirteen one-loss teams remaining, and ten are from Power Five conferences.  With four weeks remaining, there’s still no telling who might be the top four.

Of the Power Five unbeaten teams, the one with the least publicity has to be Oklahoma State.  The Cowboys had somewhat cruised through the easy part of their Big XII schedule before jumping onto the scene in a big way with a 49-29 win over TCU.  They are seventh in the country in points per game (44.6), which puts them a “pedestrian” fifth in the Big XII.  However, they are 46^th in the country in defense (23.8), which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that ranks them second overall in the Big XII behind Oklahoma, and unlike the Sooners, the Cowboys have already played one of the top four Big XII teams (the aforementioned TCU win).

Everyone seems to be quick to jump off the Leonard Fournette Heisman bandwagon.  Yes, he had a tough night against Alabama’s defense, gaining only 31 yards.  But consider these two things before dropping the LSU Tiger running back from your personal Heisman ballot: 1) He still leads the nation in rushing by more than fifty yards, despite having at least one fewer game played than any other back in the top seven, and 2) despite the low totals against Alabama, he is still on track to break the all-time SEC record for rushing yards per game (currently held by Herschel Walker with 171.9), at 172.9.  He’s a really good player who had one tough game.  Even Heisman winners sometimes take one on the chin.

In small-school news, if you can guess the remaining three undefeated FCS schools, you’re a bigger college football fan than I.  The answer: McNeese State, Harvard, and Dayton.  The odd man out in the bunch is Dayton; the Flyers are 9-0, but have won four games by five points or less, and only one by more than seventeen.  As a result, Dayton is currently unranked.  However, as the FCS championship playoffs includes all conference champions that wish to participate, the Flyers can get in due to winning the Pioneer Football League, which they can do by winning one of their last two games.  If they do, it will be their 12^th conference championship.

Congratulations to verntroyer, who wins week 10 with 234 points.  Tied for second were JustGuess and AUBrian, who each had 215 points.

Standings after 10 weeks (dropping two lowest weekly scores):

1st	JagRag	1659
2nd	AllySun	1657
3rd	Ralphie	1651
4th	AUBrian	1645
5th	Jeff4Bama	1644
6th	JagAL	1631
7th	Crimson White	1628
8th	Jhutto	1623
T-9th	JG Bama	1620
T-9th	bevo	1620
T-9th	Maestro	1620

As we turn for the homestretch, this weekend’s slate features rivalry games for bronze pigs (Minnesota – Iowa’s Floyd of Rosedale trophy), wooden turtles (Ohio State – Illinois’ Illibuck trophy), and golden boots (Arkansas – LSU’s, well, Golden Boot trophy).  For the first time in a while, however, it does not feature a weekday game.  The first games are Saturday, November 14 @ Noon ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

I was out of the office yesterday, and that combined with a quick turnaround on the week’s picks forces me to be brief.  Hopefully, we’ll be back to normal next week.

The week 9 winner is bamaken, with 151 points.  Congratulations!  In second place was Jeff4Bama, with 148 points, and rdl4bama was third with 147.

Standings after nine weeks (dropping two lowest weekly scores):

1st	JagRag	1450
2nd	AllySun	1445
3rd	Ralphie	1438
4th	JG Bama	1435
T-5th	Jeff4Bama	1430
T-5th	AUBrian	1430
7th	Jhutto	1427
8th	rocky tide	1425
T-9th	JagAL	1424
T-9th	bevo	1424

As I mentioned, we have a quick turnaround on the picks this week.  In fact, there is a game tonight!  It’s pretty rare for us to have to make a Tuesday pick, but thanks to Toledo’s continued unbeaten status, here we are.  Keep in mind that there are also two Thursday games and a Friday game this week, and 22 games overall, so every point will be important in the season standings!  The first game is Northern Illinois at Toledo, Tuesday, November 3 @ 8 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

In 1903, Fielding Yost was the best college football coach in the country.  He was also perhaps the most paranoid.

His Michigan Wolverines were winners of 28 straight games heading into their matchup with Minnesota in Minneapolis.  However, Yost feared that the Gopher fans might somehow contaminate the water supply the players would use during the game and give their home team an unfair advantage.  (Yes, worry about cheating existed back then as well).  So Yost told a student manager to buy something to carry water in that they could take to the game.  The manager bought a five-gallon jug for 30 cents.  The game was a titanic struggle, and Michigan led most of the way, but Minnesota scored a late touchdown and the game ended in a 6-6 tie.  The Wolverines and Yost walked off of the field and went home to Ann Arbor, leaving the jug behind.  Upon finding it, it was presented to the Minnesota AD and turned into a memento of the game for the Gophers.  They painted it brown and marked the score on it – Minnesota’s 6 in a much larger size than Michigan’s, of course.  The schools didn’t meet again for six years.  When they did, in 1909, Yost was still Michigan’s head coach, and Minnesota AD (also in the same position as in the 1903 game) presented him with an interesting proposition – how about they use the jug as a trophy of sorts for the winner of the game?  Yost agreed, and thus began the tradition of the Little Brown Jug – the most competed-for trophy in college football history.  (The Territorial Cup, given to the Arizona-Arizona State winner, is an older trophy, but because it was lost for decades it wasn’t used as a travelling trophy until 2001.)  Michigan has had the jug for all but four years since 1968, but Minnesota currently holds it due to a 30-14 win last year.  The teams meet on Saturday for the 102^nd time; it will be the 95^th time the Jug is awarded.

Everyone following college football who isn’t primarily an ACC fan probably knows more about the Atlantic Division.  That’s the division that includes Clemson and Florida State.  But the other division is shaping up to be really interesting!  There are not one, not two, but three teams in the ACC Coastal division that are still undefeated in conference play!  Pittsburgh, Duke, and North Carolina are a combined 10-0 in the ACC, and each is 6-1 overall.  A quick view of each:

• Pittsburgh’s lone loss was 27-24 to Iowa, who is still unbeaten.  They are Cardiac Cats: all of their games but one have been decided by eight points or less.
• Duke’s one loss was to Northwestern.  They have won low-scoring games (9-7 over Boston College) and high-scoring ones (45-43 in four OT against Virginia Tech last week). They have the 6^th-best scoring defense in the country.
• North Carolina has shaken off their season-opening loss to South Carolina to win six straight, putting up 38 points or more in all but one of those games.

These three play each other within the next three weeks, so the cream will rise to the top soon.

In small-school news, it’s time for the annual Mount Union report!  The Purple Raiders won their 100^th straight regular season game by beating Wilmington 69-0.  They haven’t lost a regular season game since 2005, when Ohio Northern beat them 21-14.  Since then, their average margin of victory in those 100 games is 43 points (49-6).  Exactly six of those games have been decided by single digits.  They’re 7-0 already this year, and it looks like there’s no stopping them at least until the Divison III playoffs.  One other thing: that single loss in 2005 is their only regular season loss since 1994’s sixth game against Baldwin-Wallace; since then, in the regular season, they’re 210-1!

Congratulations to Jhutto, who takes week 8 honors with 184 points!  In second place was Maestro, with 181 points, and bevo was third with 178.

Standings after eight weeks (dropping two lowest weekly totals):

1st	JagRag	1287
2nd	JG Bama	1283
3rd	AllySun	1279
4th	Ralphie	1277
5th	rocky tide	1273
6th	bevo	1269
T-7th	AUBrian	1266
T-7th	Jhutto	1266
T-9th	Jeff4Bama	1264
T-9th	Crimson White	1264

This week’s games don’t feature a lot of top-25 teams facing each other, but every game except two are conference games, so it’s still going to be a tricky week to navigate!  The first game is North Carolina versus Pittsburgh, Thursday, October 29^th at 7 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Legendary coach John Heisman once told one of his teams, “Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football.” While I do not agree to the point to that level, it is nevertheless a valid argument that turning the ball over will cause your team to lose, and sometimes badly.  To illustrate:

• Alabama had four interceptions against Texas A&M.  They returned three of them for touchdowns in a 41-23 win.  It was the first time in Alabama history that the Crimson Tide had three pick-sixes in a game.
• Utah State forced eight turnovers, including seven in the first half alone, in a 52-26 rout of Boise State.  It was the most turnovers by an FBS team in a single half in the last ten years, and the most Utah State had forced in a game since 2003.
• Michigan only had a single turnover, but it was a costly one, as their punter dropped a snap, then had the ball knocked out of his hands and directly into a Michigan State player’s and returned for a touchdown on the final play of the game to give the Spartans a most-improbable 27-23 win.

I know that I’ve already made a lot of mention of Baylor’s high-flying offense this year, but special mention has to go to Corey Coleman, a wide receiver on the Bears.  With three touchdown catches against West Virginia in last week’s 62-38 win, he is up to sixteen for the year.  Not only does that set a Baylor record for touchdown receptions in a season only halfway through the year, but it’s more than 111 of the other 126 FBS teams have as a whole.  Some truly incredible offensive numbers are being posted down in Waco.

It’s lost in the national hype over Ohio State and the craziness that was Michigan State-Michigan, but you might need to take a longer look at what the boys from Iowa City are doing.  With their 40-10 win over Northwestern, Iowa has placed themselves in the driver’s seat for the Big Ten West title.  The Hawkeyes are 7-0 and rank fourth nationally in rushing defense, twelfth in total defense, and tenth in scoring defense.  No one left on their schedule is ranked, meaning Iowa could easily be 12-0 going into the Big Ten Championship game, and if they pull the upset there, how could you leave them out of the playoff?

Pity the poor Boston College defense.  The Eagles might have the best defense in the country, according to statistics.  They’re first in rushing defense.  They’re fifth in passing yards allowed per game and in pass efficiency defense.  They’re third in opponents’ third-down conversion percentage.  They’re first in total defense.  They’re fourth in scoring defense.  They’re also 3-4 and winless in the ACC.  Take away games against FCS opponents, and they’ve scored 41 points in five games.

Other one-offs: with their 52-31 win over Oregon State, Washington State owns wins over both FBS teams from the state of Oregon, and a loss to the state’s only FCS school, Portland State…Georgia Southern is averaging one yard short of 400 in rushing offense, and still has not lost a Sun Belt Conference game since joining the conference last year (they’re currently 11-0)…the player with the most rushing yards in a game is not Leonard Fournette, Ezekiel Elliot, Derrick Henry, or Dalvin Cook, but Tyler Ervin of San Jose State, who had a 300-yard game against Fresno State…three teams from the American conference are now ranked, as Houston, Memphis, and Temple continue to enjoy undefeated seasons.

In small-school news, College Gameday, the big ESPN pregame show, makes its annual pilgrimage to a smaller school for one week.  This year, they have chosen Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of James Madison University, for their annual rivalry game against Richmond.  The 6-0 Dukes are an offensive juggernaut this year; they are first in FCS in total offense, third in rushing offense, and second in scoring offense.  Richmond is not a pushover, however, as they come into the game 5-1 with their only loss to Maryland.  The overall series is 17-15-1 in favor of Richmond, but James Madison has won the last two games.

Congratulations to rocky tide, who wins week seven in a tie-breaker over mayhall!  Each finished with 136 points.  With that win, rocky tide has back-to-back weekly wins!  Eric G was next with 135 points, and rdl4bama had 134.

Standings after seven weeks (dropping two lowest weekly scores):

1st	JG Bama	1114
2nd	JagRag	1113
3rd	AllySun	1108
4th	rocky tide	1105
5th	Ralphie	1104
6th	AUsomeTiger	1099
7th	Crimson White	1096
T-8th	JagAL	1094
T-8th	Jeff4Bama	1094
10th	GatorBamaLover	1093

Another nineteen games are on the slate this week as we begin the second half of the season.  Again, note that there are three games before Saturday, so it’s important to pick early and make sure you set your points on the picks!  The first game is Temple at East Carolina, Thursday, October 22 @ 7 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

It hasn’t happened in almost twenty years: LSU’s Leonard Fournette rushed for 158 yards in the Tigers’ 45-24 win over South Carolina, and he wasn’t even their leading rusher on the day.  Derrius Guice ended up with 161 rushing yards.  It was only the second time in LSU history two rushers gained more than 150 yards on the ground.  The other time happened was in 1996, when Kevin Faulk and Rondell Mealey did it against Houston. Fournette is now the fastest LSU Tiger to ever reach the 1,000-yard mark in a season; his season total stands at 1,022.  That’s more than Washington State and Central Florida have as teams combined, with 305 yards to spare!

It hasn’t happened in thirty-five years: Michigan registered their third straight shutout in a dominating 38-0 win over Northwestern.  The Wolverines last pulled that off in 1980, when they beat Indiana (35-0), Wisconsin (24-0), and Purdue (26-0). The last FBS team to shut out three straight opponents was Kansas State in 1995, when they beat Akron (67-0), Northern Illinois (44-0), and Missouri (30-0).  Michigan also became the fifth team since 1936 to record two shutouts in wins by 28 points or more over ranked teams, a list that includes their own 1948 team.

It hasn’t happened since 1937: Baylor has 321 points after five games after their latest point-a-minute performance in a 66-7 win over Kansas.  Since major college football was classified in 1937, no such team has ever scored more than that after their first five games.  The major college record for scoring in a season was set by Florida State in 2013, with 723 points.  If Baylor went to the national championship game and kept scoring at their current average, they’d end up one point shy of 900. However, the best FBS defense they have played thus far belongs to Rice, who ranks 114^th out of 127 teams, so it remains to be seen if they can keep up that level of production.

It hasn’t happened, well…ever! Portland State, an FCS program, beat North Texas in their last game 66-7.  North Texas is an FBS program.  No FCS team has ever had a bigger win over an FBS team; the previous biggest win was McNeese State’s 53-21 victory over South Florida in 2013.  As you might recall from week 1, this isn’t Portland State’s first time beating a top-tier team; the Vikings also own a win over Washington State this year.

In small-school news, a big Division II rivalry game happens this weekend.  Northwest Missouri State faces Pittsburg State (Kansas) in a big matchup that pits teams that have eleven combined national championship appearances in the last 25 years.  The series is tied 24-24, and holds the record for the biggest crowd at a Division II football game.  It was set at the 2002 game, which was played at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Congratulations to rocky tide, who takes week 6 with 194 points!  Tied for second place were JagRag and AllySun, with 191, and one point behind at 190 was JagAL.

Standings after six weeks (dropping two lowest weekly scores):

1st	JG Bama	931
2nd	AUsomeTiger	926
3rd	JagRag	922
4th	Crimson White	919
T-5th	Jeff4Bama	917
T-5th	Ralphie	917
T-5th	GatorBamaLover	917
T-5th	AllySun	917
9th	Jhutto	916
10th	AUBrian	914

Several big games are in the week seven lineup, including rivalry games Michigan State-Michigan (for the Paul Bunyan trophy) and USC-Notre Dame (for the Jeweled Shillelagh), and no fewer than six matchups between top-25 teams!  Note that there are three games before Saturday, so remember to pick early!  The first game is UCLA at Stanford, Thursday, October 15 @ 10:30 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Welcome to October! After five weeks, there are twenty undefeated teams left in the FBS. A fun fact about each:

• #1 Ohio State has been playing with fire: two of their wins are by a single touchdown.
• #2 TCU’s Trevone Boykin broke Andy Dalton’s school record for passing TDs last week; he now has 74.
• #3 Baylor’s lowest scoring output this year is 56 points. They’re averaging a shade under 64 per game.
• #4 Michigan State hasn’t had to leave the state of Michigan yet; their first trip outside the Great Lakes State is this weekend against Rutgers.
• #5 Utah has perhaps one of the best non-conference wins in their season-opener 24-17 win over Michigan; the Utes are the only team to score more than seven points on the Wolverines.
• #6 Clemson has two wins against Power 5 schools by an average of 2.5 points, and two against non-Power 5 by an average of 35 points.
• #7 LSU’s Leonard Fournette became the first SEC running back to rush for over 200 yards in three straight games in their win over Eastern Michigan.
• #9 Texas A&M is the lowest-ranked team with a first-place vote; it helps that they have two wins over then top-25 competition.
• #10 Oklahoma has a win by single digits (31-24 over Tennessee), by 10-19 points (52-38 over Tulsa), by 20-29 (44-24 over West Virginia), and by 30+ (41-3 over Akron).
• #11 Florida has followed three wins by a touchdown or less over unranked teams with a 28-point win over the then-#3 team in the country.
• #12 Florida State has played both of its conference games on the road, and somewhat struggled; they’ve won by 14 and 8 points. They don’t play on the road again until the 24^th of October.
• #13 Northwestern had its first shutout of a Big Ten team in twenty years on Saturday in a 27-0 win over Minnesota.
• #21 Oklahoma State had their second straight game with a game winning field goal in the last minute in a 36-34 win over Kansas State.
• #22 Iowa is the only team in the country that has not given up a rushing touchdown.
• #23 California is off to its first 5-0 start since 2007. Hopefully it turns out better in the end; the Bears finished 7-6 that year.
• #24 Toledo owns two wins over Power 5 teams (Arkansas and Iowa State); they’re the only two Power 5 teams the Rockets will play.
• Houston has the #4 offense in the country; only Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech average more yards per game.
• Temple is off to its first 4-0 start since 1974; counting the previous year, that team at one point had a 14-game winning streak, the longest in school history.
• Memphis has the #4 scoring offense in the country; only (you guessed it) Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech score more points per game.
• Navy averages the third-most rushing yards per game in the country.

In small school news, Minnesota State beat Upper Iowa 38-10 on Saturday to improve to 5-0.  The Mavericks, currently ranked the #1 team in Division II, have won 38 straight conference games, and have not given up a point in the second half of any game thus far this year, outscoring opponents 129-0.  The Mavericks were the Division II runner-up last year to Colorado State-Pueblo; will this be the year they win their first football national championship?

Congratulations to AllySun, who wins week 5 with 171 points!  Tied for second were JG Bama and pachyderm, who each had 169 points.

Standings after five weeks (dropping two lowest weeks’ scores):

1st	JG Bama	735
2nd	AUsomeTiger	733
3rd	Jeff4Bama	731
4th	JagRag	728
5th	GatorBamaLover	727
T-6th	AllySun	726
T-6th	Ralphie	726
8th	AUBrian	725
9th	Crimson White	724
10th	JagAL	723

As the seasons change and the air gets cooler, the games get tougher!  The first game this week is Washington at USC, Thursday, October 8 @ 9 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Oregon has developed from a Johnny-come-lately in the 1990’s to a perennial power: they’ve had just one losing season in the last 20 years, won six conference championships during that time, and made it to two national title games. All of which made what Utah managed to do on Saturday all the more impressive. The Utes went into Eugene and beat Oregon 62-20 in a final score fans of the Ducks are used to seeing reversed. It was a new scoring record for an Oregon opponent in Autzen Stadium, Oregon’s worst loss since 1985, and it capped a wild weekend in the Pac-12. Five intra-conference games were played, and each one was won by the visitor, by an average of 24 points! So much for home-field advantage!

Sometimes games can do a number on your heart. TCU won against Texas Tech 55-52 by scoring a touchdown on a tipped pass on fourth down and 23 seconds to go in the game. Florida converted 4th-and-14 with a 63-yard touchdown pass, and then watched as Tennessee missed two attempts at a 55-yard field goal, the second by inches, to squeak by 28-27. Memphis survived giving up 752 yards, including 620 yards passing, by intercepting a late pass to preserve a 53-46 win. Illinois drilled a 51-yard field goal to take the lead, then exhaled as Middle Tennessee missed a 43-yarder of their own in a 27-25 win.

One of college football’s fun little features is the name game. It seems like every team has one or two guys on it with really interesting or unusual names. This week, one such player truly stood out. In Army’s 58-36 win over Eastern Michigan, wide receiver Edgar Allan Poe scored a touchdown on a 10-yard catch. Yes, that is his name. He’s named after his father, not the writer. (Historical note: the more famous Poe also attended West Point, but intentionally got himself expelled.) He’s caught two passes this year, both going for touchdowns, so as to when he will catch another, the answer might not be “nevermore”. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

In small-school news, one of the biggest rivalries in all of Division III was played on Saturday. In Collegeville, Minnesota, St. Thomas upended St. John’s 35-14 in the 94th playing of the series. The Johnnies may have lost the game, but they still lead the series against the Tommies (and yes, those are the names of the two teams) 51-32-1. The crowd was announced at 17,327; it marked a record for a Division III football game. You might know St. John’s football due to John Gagliardi, their coach for 60 years. With 489 victories, he retired as the winningest coach in college football history.

Congratulations to Maestro, who wins week 4 with a nice even 200 points! In second place, one point back, was Jhutto with 199, and Bamarock was third with 198.

Standings after four weeks (dropping lowest two weeks’ scores):

1st	JagAL	538
2nd	JG Bama	536
3rd	AUBrian	534
T-4th	Jeff4Bama	533
T-4th	pachyderm	533
T-4th	JagRag	533
T-7th	AUsomeTiger	532
T-7th	AllySun	532
9th	Ralphie	531
10th	bevo	529

Now things get really interesting. The conference games are beginning in earnest, and with five games between top-25 teams, it’s going to be a tough week of picks! The first games are Saturday, October 3 @ Noon ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Dogs and cats living together; mass hysteria: In their storied histories, Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, and Southern California have won a total of 3,434 football games. Saturday, each of them lost, and they’re a combined 6-6 on the year so far. Indiana, Northwestern, Wake Forest, and Kansas State have lost a combined 2,566 games. Not only did each of them win on Saturday, but those four teams are a combined 11-1 at the start of the year. Sometimes, up is down in the college football universe.

When almost perfect can still be really really good: Georgia’s Grayson Lambert had one such day Saturday. In the Bulldogs 52-20 win over South Carolina, Lambert completed his first four pass attempts. His fifth was an overthrow out of the end zone in the first quarter. He didn’t miss again, completing his last twenty throws to finish at 24-for-25, good for a 96% completion rate. That is an FBS record for completion percentage in a game with at least 20 attempts. He also broke the school record for most consecutive completions in a game.

The Mid-Major no one wants to play: how about Toledo? After having their tune-up game against Stony Brook cancelled due to inclement weather, the first two games of the year for the MAC school have been against an SEC opponent (Arkansas) and a Big XII opponent (Iowa State). The Rockets won both, including a 2-OT game against Iowa State this past Saturday. Toledo has one more non-conference game against Arkansas State before starting MAC play.

Salty Defense: last week, I mentioned Boston College among one of the teams that had really impressive defensive numbers due in part to inferior competition. The Eagles stepped up against Florida State this past Friday, and while they lost 14-0, it was not due to defensive performance. They allowed one defensive touchdown (the other coming on a fumble recovery), and 217 total yards. I don’t know how many games BC will win this year, but that defense will keep them in a lot of them.

An incredible streak: Florida was able to nip Kentucky Saturday night, 14-9. It marks the 29th straight time the Gators have beaten the Wildcats, the longest current streak in the nation and the longest in-conference streak in SEC history. The Gators have a long way to go to break the record, however, which is held by Notre Dame, with 43 straight wins over Navy. The longest streak between major conference teams is Nebraska’s 36-win streak over Kansas between 1969 and 2004 while both teams played in the Big 8/12.

There’s always someone better; there’s always someone worse: Valparaiso had lost their first two games against Eastern Kentucky 52-10 and against Sacred Heart 56-3; their last game saw them beat College of Faith (Arkansas) 86-0.

In other small-school news: #StillUndefeated is the Twitter hashtag used by fans of Kennesaw State regarding their season thus far. There’s a reason for that: the Owls are 3-0 this year, their inaugural season playing football. Thus far, the Atlanta-based school has beaten East Tennessee State, Edward Waters, and Shorter College, but things look to get tougher going forward as they play Dayton and start a Big South conference schedule that includes two nationally ranked FCS programs.

Congratulations to Corn, who takes the week 3 glory with 203 points! GatorBamaLover was second with 202 points, and there was a three-way tie for third between Crimson White, AUsomeTiger, and JustGuess with 201 points.

Standings after 3 weeks (having dropped two lowest weeks):

T-1st	JagAL	297
T-1st	JagRag	297
T-3rd	JG Bama	296
T-3rd	pachyderm	296
T-5th	AUBrian	295
T-5th	Ralphie	295
7th	AllySun	294
T-8th	bevo	292
T-8th	BritanniaTex	292
T-8th	AUsomeTiger	292
T-8th	rocky tide	292
T-8th	mayhall	292

This week sees the end of the non-conference schedule for most teams for a while, and the picks get trickier as conference rivals collide! The first game this week is Stanford at Oregon State, Friday, September 25 at 10 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

In a world full of spread offenses, it’s fun to see teams like Georgia Tech doing things “the old-fashioned way”. The Yellow Jackets’ triple-option offense has always put up huge numbers, and this past weekend against Tulane was no exception, as they rushed 56 times for 439 yards in a 65-10 win. Over the first two games of the year, they are averaging 457.5 yards rushing per game, the top mark in the country. Things stand to get a little more difficult for them this week, however, as they face Notre Dame in South Bend. The Irish have allowed less than 100 yards per game on the ground in their wins over Texas and Virginia.

Speaking of incredible offensive numbers, what Ole Miss has done over two games is literally unprecedented. The Rebels have scored 76 and 73 points in their first two games, marking the first time in school history that the team has scored more than 70 points in two straight games. Their 74.5 points per game easily leads the nation after two games. Again, it will be tougher sledding for them this week, as they take a trip to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama’s defense. My guess is that they will not score 70+ against Alabama; the Crimson Tide has only allowed over 70 points in a game once in their history, a 78-0 loss to Vanderbilt in 1906.

Okay, that’s enough about offense for now – but we’ll get back to it shortly. How about good defensive performances? So far, there are three teams in the country that have allowed a single field goal over two games: Boston College, Illinois, and Kansas State. All three have been extremely impressive statistically defensively, but special mention goes to Boston College, which is currently giving up just 51 yards per game and seven rushing yards per game. However, their six opponents thus far have been Maine, Howard, Kent State, Western Illinois, South Dakota, and Texas-San Antonio respectively, so take those defensive figures with six grains of salt. Again, sometimes it’s really easy to look impressive in the college football non-conference season. Boston College plays Florida State this weekend, Illinois plays North Carolina, and Kansas State plays a Louisiana Tech team currently averaging 50 points per game, so we’ll see if these three defenses can remain as stingy as they have been to this point.

In “small-school” news…well, it’s not college football, but I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a certain Pennsylvania high school game that occurred this past Friday. DuBois played Meadville. DuBois’ quarterback, Matt Miller, threw for 741 yards in the game (with 10 touchdown passes). That’s a Pennsylvania high school record, and 23 yards short of the national record for passing yards in a game. DuBois scored 90 points. Oh, by the way…they lost. Because Meadville scored 107 points. That’s right; a regulation high school football game ended with a final score of 107-90. Meadville’s running back, Journey Brown, ran for 722 yards (also a Pennsylvania high school record, and 32 yards away from the national record in a game), and scored ten touchdowns of his own. The teams finished just shy of 2,000 combined offensive yards. The scoreboard at the end read 90-07 because it didn’t have room for a third digit. I think that the fans got their $5 worth of entertainment from that game, don’t you? Incidentally, this means that in the past calendar year, we’ve had a high school football game with 197 points, and a high school basketball game that ended with a final score of 2-0 (and it happened in Alabama!). You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

We now have a resolution of the issue of the first week’s LSU-McNeese State game. As we asked, everyone will be credited with a win and the points that they placed on the game, so now that this has been cleared up, the first week’s winner can be announced: JagAL! JagAL scored 297 points and won in a tie-breaker over JagRag (good week for Jags in picking games, right?) JG Bama and pachyderm were one point behind, with 296 points. In week two, our winner is Jeff4Bama, who scored 243 points! In second place, there was a tie between rdl4bama and verntroyer, each with 242 points. Congratulations to all of our weekly winners thus far!

This year, we are dropping each player’s lowest two weekly scores in determining the overall winner. Therefore, there won’t be overall standings until next week, when we’ll have three weeks of picks.

Week three sees a step up in competition for several teams, as the conference season kicks off for many. There are twenty games, including four matchups between top-25 teams, so the going gets tougher for them and for us! The first game is Clemson at Louisville, Thursday, September 17 @ 7:30 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Rumors of the SEC’s demise were apparently greatly exaggerated. After what could only be described as a subpar showing in the 2014 bowl season, many wondered if other Power 5 conferences had caught up and possibly even surpassed the SEC. Fast-forward to the first weekend of 2015, and the SEC seems to be as strong as ever. SEC teams rang up a 4-0 mark in inter-conference matchups, including two of the three wins this weekend over ranked opponents. Perhaps the best of these wins was the 38-17 victory Texas A&M posted over formerly 15th-ranked Arizona State, a team many experts tabbed as the best team in the Pac-12 South. If the conference was down at the end of the year, it didn’t stay down for long.

Two amazing streaks were broken on this opening weekend. Nebraska lost their first season opener in 30 years on a last-second Hail Mary, 33-28 to BYU. The Cornhuskers hadn’t lost an opener since dropping a 17-13 game to Florida State in 1985. The streak was the longest in the country; with their 61-13 win over New Mexico State, Florida now holds the longest streak at 26 straight season openers won. Also, Temple broke streaks of 74 years and 39 games without a win against Penn State by beating the Nittany Lions, 27-10. The Owls, who had managed only a single tie during that drought, scored the final 27 points of the game and registered ten sacks.

Past pool players know I love finding interesting statistical nuggets in the games, and this weekend provided some fun ones, particularly regarding interceptions in the state of West Virginia. Karl Joseph from West Virginia had three interceptions in their opener. While that in and of itself is impressive, consider that the Mountaineers’ opponent was Georgia Southern, a team that historically runs the triple-option. The Eagles only attempted 13 passes on the night – and Joseph intercepted three of them; West Virginia won 44-0. Meanwhile, Tiquan Lang of Marshall (located in Huntingdon, West Virginia) intercepted two passes of his own against Purdue – and returned both for touchdowns, in a 41-31 win. The first pick-six was on Purdue’s first play from scrimmage; the second happened with 1:20 left in the game. It was the first time in Marshall football history that a player had two interception returns for touchdowns in the same game.

In small-school news, break up the Big Sky! The FCS conference scored not just one, but two wins over FBS opponents. Portland State pulled off a big upset over Washington State, 24-17. It was the first win ever for the Vikings against a Pac-12 team in 15 tries. Portland State even picked up a $525,000 guarantee check as part of the deal! Meanwhile, North Dakota took a 24-13 win over Wyoming, their first win in 8 games against an FBS team.

For those of you who might have checked the scores and wondered, “What about the LSU-McNeese State game?”, we have contacted the Pooltracker administrators and asked what might be done; specifically, we’ve requested that each player be credited with the point amount they placed on the game, regardless of who they chose to win (none of you actually picked McNeese State, did you?). We are currently waiting on their reply, so we won’t announce weekly winners until that matter is cleared up.

And with that, we’re off and running! The first game this weekend is a rivalry game between Utah and Utah State, “The Battle of the Brothers”. The 112th playing of the game will be on Friday, September 11 @ 9 ET, so be sure to get your picks in by then!