J.P. Giglio and Lorenzo Perez, Raleigh News & Observer: A look at the ups, downs and all-arounds from the past weekened. (registration).
Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: Texas A&M was all hat and no cattle in its 42-14 loss to Iowa State (subscription, so story is located in comments).
Chris Low, Nashville Tennessean: Now that Randy Sanders has stepped aside as Tennessee's offensive coordinator, expect David Cutcliffe to get a call.
Dave Reardon, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Hawaii officials are concerned after the Rainbows had their lowest attendance for a home game in nearly seven years.
Chris Dempsey, Denver Post: Texas is looking to Colorado for a boost in its quest to hold on to the No. 2 spot in the BCS standings.
Tom Luicci, Newark Star-Ledger: West Virginia might be young, but that's not all bad when you are trying to win the Big East.
Chad Hartley, Reno Gazette-Journal: They're taking out the trash at Boise State, where alleged remarks by Nevada players fired up the Broncos.
Craig Smith, Seattle Times: USC's bump and run tactics against Washington State coach Bill Doba might force the Pac-10 to change policy.
Bob Clark, Eugene Register-Guard: It's going to take some doing for the Pac-10 to fill its six bowl slots.
2 comments:
WHAT? THE HLIST
A look over the shoulder at the football weekend
Mike Hlas
Cedar Rapids Gazette
First downs
1. Clones Click: Texas A&M was all hat and no cattle in its 42-14 loss to Iowa State.
Never had ISU won before such a large crowd (86,172). Never had it come up bigger for a Big 12 road game.
Wrote Wann Smith of CollegeFootballGazette.com: ‘‘Dan McCarney put on a coaching clinic in College Station last weekend that should serve as a textbook example of how to win a big football game. Zero turnovers, a balanced attack and a determined defense equally effective against the run and the pass stood the Cyclones in good stead against (Dennis) Franchione’s stunned Aggies.’’
That seems to cover it.
2. Still Standing: Penn State Coach Joe Paterno was knocked off his feet during warm-ups before his Nittany Lions improved to 8-1 with their 33-15 win over Purdue.
Paterno, 78, was accidentally slammed into by Penn State defensive lineman Jim Shaw. Paterno fell and his glasses went flying. When Shaw offered his hand to help Paterno, the coach waved him off and lifted himself off the turf. Last year, when the Lions went 4-7, Paterno probably would have broken a hip.
3. Mob Scene: Rutgers’ best-known alumni is actor James Gandolfini, who portrays Tony Soprano. Now the New Jersey school has a new source of pride. A sellout crowd of 41,716 saw the Scarlet Knights beat Navy, 31-21, to improve to 6-2.
They’re almost sure to play in a bowl for the first time in 27 years. An Insight Bowl scout at the game was welcomed as warmly as if he was Jersey’s Bruce Springsteen.
When the game ended, thousands of fans stormed the field to celebrate. ‘‘It was kind of crazy,’’ Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart said. ‘‘I’m getting stepped on, people were grabbing me, it was pretty special. It was the best stepped-on feeling ever.’’
4. Furrey’s Fury: Like another ex-Northern Iowa player, Mike Furrey starred in the Arena Football League before signing with the St. Louis Rams. But the Rams never told Kurt Warner to switch from offense to defense.
Last offseason, Furrey was moved from wide receiver to safety. He returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown in the Rams’ 28-17 win over New Orleans last week. Sunday, he returned a pick 37 yards in the fourth quarter of the Rams’ 24-21 victory over Jacksonville. He also recovered a fumble.
‘‘He’s played wide receiver, safety in the Arena League and he’s a football player,’’ said St. Louis interim coach Joe Vitt.
‘‘I’m not so sure if we didn’t put him at tailback or fullback he wouldn’t look good there either.’’
Fumbles
1. Mizzou Misery: Missouri severely harmed its Big 12 North title hopes by losing at Kansas, 13-3. ‘‘I’ve played against them three years, and I’ve lost all three years,’’ Missouri junior safety David Overstreet said. ‘‘I can’t stand it. They’re out there talking. Those cats out there, it just burns me up, man. I hate ’em. I really do.’’
The Hlist is worried about how Overstreet must feel about his own team’s offense.
2. Rocky Times for Rocky Top:
Tennessee is 3-4. Tennessee doesn’t understand 3-4.
‘‘That is not what we expected,’’ Volunteers Coach Phillip Fulmer said after his team’s 16-15 loss to South Carolina. ‘‘What you saw out there was unacceptable.’’ Making matters worse to the Vols, South Carolina is coached by Steve Spurrier, 10-5 against the Vols.
Tennessee retired the uniform number of ex-Vols quarterback Peyton Manning at halftime. It picked the wrong game to do that. Tennessee was 0-4 against Spurrier’s Florida teams when Manning was a Vol.
3. Air Farce: It was a bad week for the once-proud Air Force football program.
Coach Fisher DeBerry made national headlines for saying ‘‘It’s very obvious (TCU) had a lot more Afro-American players than we did, and they ran a lot faster than we did. It just seems to me to be that way, that Afro-American players can run very, very well.’’
Interesting.
At the end of the week, the most offensive thing about DeBerry’s team was his defense. BYU piled up 684 yards in a 62-41 win over the Falcons. The defeat guaranteed consecutive losing seasons for Air Force for the first time in DeBerry’s 22 seasons there.
‘‘We should have been in the 70s, points-wise,’’ BYU quarterback John Beck said.
4. Take (Him) Away Day: Cincinnati Bengals fan Greg Gall ran onto the playing field of Paul Brown Stadium Sunday with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter. He snatched the football from Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.
Gall ran 50 yards before security guards tackled him. He was arrested and charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest and trespassing.
‘‘I wasn’t scared of him, believe me,’’ Favre said.
Maybe the Bengals’ five interceptions during Cincinnati’s 21-14 win made Gall think everyone in the stadium got to collect a Favre turnover.
Or maybe he is an idiot.
From the papers
‘‘Let’s just say if Saturday had been the British Open, the engraver would have been chiseling the ‘r’ in Stanford on the Claret Jug.’’ — Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times. UCLA rallied from a 24-3 hole midway through the fourth quarter to beat Stanford in overtime, 30-27.
Final word
‘‘We don’t need to do that. We’ve won this game three years in a row now. We have to act like we’ve been there before.’’ — Kansas Coach Mark Mangino as he watched fans carry Memorial Stadium goal posts toward Potter Lake in Lawrence following the Jayhawks’ 13-3 win over Missouri.
Since it was Kansas’ first Big 12 win in five games this season, maybe the coach should have joined the students in the celebration.
Mike.Hlas@gazettecommunications.com
Please give Gary Pinkel his walking papers--today.
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