ShareThisAll college football, all the time, for a Monday morning quarterback:
-- The college game has become a beauty contest in the eyes of human pollsters and computers alike. But why should that be the case? Shouldn't grinding out a tough win be just as meaningful as piling up numbers?
Florida flip-flopped with Alabama back to the No. 1 slot in this week's AP poll after the Tide needed a blocked field goal attempt on the last play of the game to beat visiting Tennessee 12-10 on Saturday. Alabama's defense and special teams continue to play above an offense that has produced 11 field goals and just two touchdowns in the last three games.
But Florida was again far from sharp in a 29-19 win at Mississippi State. Southern Cal struggled to escape Oregon State, 42-36. Iowa needed a thrilling touchdown pass on the game's final play to slip past Michigan State 15-13.
Winning ugly, even in emotional conference games and often against above-average opponents, just isn't rewarded.
-- That's the way it is and that's fine with Cincinnati as the Bearcats continue to nudge closer to BCS title game range. They romped past Louisville 41-10 Saturday despite Tony Pike, the Heisman Trophy-candidate quarterback, being on the sideline in street clothes. His backup, Zach Collaros, threw only two incomplete passes while producing 252 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Last year, the Bearcats won the Big East title and a school-record 11 games despite injuries forcing coach Brian Kelly to play five different quarterbacks. UC still ranked in the top 25 nationally in passing offense.
So is it the quarterbacks or is it the coach and his system that has turned the Bearcats into a national power? Regardless, some school is going to hand Kelly, 29-6 in his third season, a blank check to leave Cincy in the very near future.
-- Iowa, meanwhile, deserves more respect for an 8-0 start that includes four road wins over teams that own a combined 21-9 record. The Hawkeyes may be paying the price for a low national opinion of the Big Ten and its recent struggles in high-profile games.
-- The MidAmerican Conference produced some interesting numbers on Saturday. Kent handed Ohio its first defeat in league play by posting seven sacks and 15 tackles-for-loss while holding the Bobcats to minus-9 rushing yards. Ground-hugging Ball State won at Eastern Michigan despite completing just two passes for a net one yard. That's not a misprint, and neither was the attendance in Ypsilanti for the game between two previously winless teams. The crowd was announced as 1,535. The word pathetic comes to mind.
-- Here's why they play the games. Two weeks ago, Texas Tech pounded Kansas State 66-14. A week later, Kansas State creamed Texas A&M 62-14. So Texas Tech figured to be about 100 points better than the Aggies, right? Saturday's score was A&M 52, Texas Tech 30.
-- Houston Nutt coached at Arkansas for 10 years before a very messy divorce after the 2007 season. He was unemployed for about 24 hours before being hired at Mississippi. In two meetings since, Ole Miss is 2-0 against the Razorbacks and Nutt's successor, Bobby Petrino.
(Contact Blade Dave Hackenberg at:dhack(at)theblade.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit the Toledo Blade
