Wow what a week we had this time! Ohio State and Stanford were both legitimately challenged by teams ranked in the mid-teens in Northwestern and Washington respectively (both of which, I think will end the season closer to the top of the teens than the bottom). The Buckeyes became the first team in the nation to become bowl eligible. In fairness though, they are one of the few top teams that haven’t yet taken a bye week (heck, Baylor has already had two of them). By my count, there are just seventeen undefeated teams left out of 124 in the FBS. If I told you before the season that after Week 6 that the SEC would have only two undefeated teams, would you have guessed Alabama and Missouri as being those two? I wouldn’t have, despite the fact that I thought the Tigers would be better now that quarterback James Franklin is healthy this season. We saw several controversial calls this weekend (see the Texas “fumble” and the Washington “catch”) and I actually understood the referees’ thinking on most of the decisions after review. As far as the rest of the Top 10, there weren’t very many headlines. Alabama beat a winless team transitioning to the FBS, Oregon beat a Colorado team that Oregon State beat by 27 last week, Clemson beat a Syracuse team whose biggest win thus far is against Tulane, Louisville beat a winless Temple team, Texas A&M had a bye, and LSU beat a Mississippi State team whose biggest win was against Troy. Therefore, we didn’t really learn anything about six of the Top 10. That’s okay though, we’re midway through the regular season and it’s about to get very exciting because it’s about this time when the upsets start happening and the giants start falling.

1. What a catch! After recovering a fumble on an attempted Georgia State kickoff return, Alabama is set up on the ten-yard line. The Tide are up 14-0 and McCarron drops back looking for a quick score. DeAndrew White is lined up at the top of the screen and the Panthers’ defense is playing him man-to-man. If you watch number 8 for GSU, you’ll see he plays solidly on this play. He’s careful not to interfere and he lifts his arms as soon as he sees White’s arms go up, just as he’s been taught to do. White elevates and reaches around the defender’s body and snags the ball with one-handed, left-handed. You’ll notice as he lands, he’s careful to ensure he has it tucked against his body so he won’t lose it. I’m not going to say it was the catch of the year, because I try not to overreact the way everyone seems to do now days. What I will say is that it will almost certainly be nominated for an ESPY unless there are some outrageously great plays that I’m either forgetting about from this year or that are still to come. Not bad for a guy whose name rarely comes up when naming receivers on Alabama’s roster, I’d say. If you haven’t seen it, watch it here! What do you think?

2. The conspiracy theorists everywhere! The Buckeyes score to take the lead 34-30 with 5:22 left in the game. The spread had TOSU favored by 7 points so all those picking TOSU not to cover are hoping the Buckeyes can hold on for the next few minutes. Their defense does a good job on Northwestern’s subsequent drive, stopping a fourth-and-one rush attempt by Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter and now the Buckeyes have the ball back with just 2:43 remaining. Buckeye Nation is just hoping that Braxton Miller can avoid another fumble and that he can get a couple of first downs to kill the clock. They actually grab three first downs, but Northwestern spent all three of their timeouts on this drive. After their third, and final, timeout, the Buckeyes have a third and five and it feels like if this third down is converted the game will be over. Instead, Miller loses three yards, and the Buckeyes punt the ball away. The Wildcats have the ball with a mere 21 seconds remaining on their own 16-yard line and the crowd in Evanston is getting anxious. On first down, Wildcats quarterback Trevor Siemian is sacked for 9 yards by Joey Bosa and with no timeouts, Northwestern rushes to get lined up. On the next play, Northwestern stops the clock with a spike. Now it’s 3rd and 19 at the Northwestern 7-yard line. It’s much too far for a Hail Mary, so they decided to try the hook-and-ladder play. It doesn’t work as planned as the ball is fumbled and eventually recovered by Joey Bosa in the end zone. Ohio State wins by 10 (they didn’t get the option to kick the extra point) and thereby covers the 7-point spread. Bookmakers across the world were angry and Twitter exploded with conspiracy theories. My favorite one was that the Wildcats called a hook-and-ladder knowing it couldn’t work and thus allowing a fumble to happen due to the riskiness of the play. What play were they supposed to run needing a touchdown and being on their own 7-yard line? Additionally, ask Oklahoma how well a hook-and-ladder can work at the end of a game (care of Boise State). I knew this would be a close game and I don’t care about the fluke touchdown at the end that made it a double-digit win. I’d have taken the four-point win or a one-point win. Go Buckeyes!

3. A couple of SEC games that were far too close for comfort. #6 Georgia and #13 South Carolina (AP rankings) had what should have been easy conference games this weekend, but that turned out not to be the case. The Bulldogs faced 3-2 Tennessee in Knoxville and needed overtime (and a Volunteers fumble in overtime) to hold off the Volunteers. Granted, the Bulldogs were without their top running back (Todd Gurley), and ended up losing their backup running back, Keith Marshall, in the first quarter. Marshall, by the way, has been deemed out for the year with a knee injury. However, it wasn’t the offense that held the Bulldogs back. They still ran for over 230 yards and Aaron Murray still threw three touchdown passes. The Bulldogs committed no turnovers and only had 41 yards worth of penalties. Their biggest problem was on defense. They could not stop Volunteers running back Rajion Neal, who rushed for nearly 150 yards and two touchdowns. In overtime, Tennessee had no trouble getting a first down and had a 2nd and Goal from the seven and it looked inevitable they’d go up 7 points and put the onus on the Bulldogs to get into the end zone. On third down, Alton Howard runs for 6 yards and fumbles as he is stretching for the end zone and the balls rolls through the end zone for a touchback. The Bulldogs just needed a field goal during their half of overtime, which is exactly what they did, winning with a 42-yard field goal. South Carolina, playing without JaDaveon Clowney who was nursing a rib injury, hosted the lowly Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday evening. The Gamecocks led 27-7 after three quarters and it appeared that the rout that was expected would come to fruition. Then Kentucky quarterback Jalen Whitlow exploded for 83 yards with two touchdowns passing, and 13 yards with a touchdown rushing in the fourth quarter! Keep in mind that Kentucky only has one win on the season, which came against Miami (OH). The RedHawks are 0-5 and fired their head coach, Don Treadwell, and offensive coordinator, John Klacik, on Sunday. A team ranked in the top 15 really struggled (merely winning by seven points) against a one-win team which especially troubling when one considers that the week before the Gamecocks beat a team from the “weak” American Athletic Conference by a mere three points (UCF)! I’m a big Spurrier fan, but he needs to right the ship, and quickly, because if they don’t, it’s possible they could go down next week when they face Arkansas.

4. What’s your big problem with the Rice choice? On Friday, some of the names that will make up the selection committee that will choose the teams to play in the playoff (that will start in the 2014 season) were leaked. Names like Archie Manning, Oliver Luck, Barry Alvarez, Jeff Long, Tom Osborne, and Pat Haden were generally accepted. However, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, sparked some controversy. Twitter exploded upon her name being reported and a lot of it wasn’t tweets of endorsement. David Pollack, during the College GameDay telecast clearly isn’t a fan of her selection. He originally wanted to refrain from commenting, which was an instinct he should have followed. After the rest of the panel voiced a surprise that the normally opinionated Pollack was going to remain quiet on the topic he proceeded to “put his foot in my mouth”. He started by simply saying that members of the selection committee need to be able to look at tape of a game and be able to break it down and “really know the game”. Kris Fowler responded, “It sounds like you’re saying no women should be on the committee.” Pollack nodded and said, “You said it, not me, but …” and followed it up by another nod. Rice being a woman is irrelevant to me. Furthermore, I don’t even have a big problem with the fact that she isn’t a former coach or an athletic director because I know she knows football. I also know that it is unlikely she’ll be biased towards one school or conference as she was born in Birmingham, AL (grew up an Alabama fan), she earned a Master’s Degree from Notre Dame, and has served as the Provost at Stanford. One has to remember that Rice once voiced a sincere desire to be the NFL Commissioner saying it was her “dream job” and I really believe she would have pursued the job when it was open in 2006 had she not been Secretary of State at the time (2005-2009). Calm down everyone. On a committee of what looks like it will have 12-16 people, I doubt Ms. Rice will have the negative impact on the committee selections as you obviously think she will have. I also suspect that she will be transparent with her selections and/or rankings.

5. What did we learn from the Florida State 63-0 win? Well, let’s take a quick look at the game. “Famous” Jameis Winston threw for 393 yards and 5 touchdowns against a defense that just held West Virginia two weeks prior to a mere 62 yards passing. One can’t blame the loss on traditional “mental” mistakes like penalties and turnovers as the Terrapins only committed one turnover (a fumble) and four penalties (for a mere 40 yards). The Seminoles also didn’t score on special teams. The longest return they had was a punt return for 28 yards. It was just pure domination on both sides of the ball. Defensively, the Seminoles only allowed Maryland to convert two out of fifteen third downs and held them to 33 total rushing yards (on 25 carries!). Offensively, Winston averaged 12.3 yards per attempt (9 incompletions) and three-headed running back monster Wilder, Green, and Williams averaged 4.4 yards per carry. Even backup quarterback Jacob Coker ran for a 24-yard touchdown. I can’t wait until Week 8 when the Seminoles travel to Memorial Stadium to face the Clemson Tigers, but what did we learn about this game against Maryland? We learned that Maryland shouldn’t have been ranked in the Top 25. I think pollsters saw their undefeated record and that coach Randy Edsell finally had a healthy quarterback and thought they were one of the 25 best teams in the nation. If they really are, then Florida State is severely under-ranked. We’ll see next week.

I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies to MOTSAG readers for missing Week 5. It was an exciting week of games, and the aftermath was just as intriguing. Connecticut head coach Paul Pasqualoni was fired after his 28th game leading the Huskies (with a mere 35% winning percentage). This season the Huskies are 0-4 that includes losses to an FCS school, albeit a top ten one (Towson), and Buffalo. It’s a tough school at which to succeed in football and that only got tougher with the expansion of their conference from eight teams to ten, and soon to be fourteen teams. USC head coach Lane Kiffin was fired during a late-night discussion at the airport following the loss to Arizona State in which the Sun Devils put 62 points on the scoreboard against the Trojans. AD Pat Haden, who has been adamant about Kiffin’s job security all season, apparently couldn’t bear it anymore. The one thing the Trojans were doing well this season was play defense and perhaps when he saw that 62 in lights, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back (Hump Day!) for Haden. The worst thing that happened to Kiffin at USC was winning 10 games in his second season despite the NCAA sanctions that came down on the program six months after he was hired because of the Reggie Bush fiasco. That made it look like he could be successful regardless of these scholarship sanctions when in fact, he had a roster still filled with talent, so they hadn’t really hit him yet. Against the Sun Devils, the Trojans only had 56 scholarship players, and while that’s not an excuse, it’s not a cause for comfort either. The Kiffin-haters loved this dismissal just as much as they’ll hate it the next time he’s hired somewhere.

Texas’ Athletic Director announced this week that he’s retiring effective August of 2014. His name, DeLoss Dodds, has never seemed as appropriate to me as it has this season. It’s a season filled with turmoil and demands for Mack Brown’s dismissal due to the Longhorns’ underachieving thus far. What is it about his name that seems appropriate? If you say his name real fast, it kind of sounds like “The Lost Odds”, doesn’t it? That phrase sums up the storyline perfectly so far, I think. I don’t think Mack Brown will be back next season, as I don’t think the Longhorns can win the Big 12 or even survive it with a winning conference record. If you missed last night’s game against Iowa State, a game Texas barely won, you missed an action-packed game. Additionally, I think Kiffin’s early-season firing was predicated on the idea of getting a head start on the Longhorns in terms of a search for a replacement. When’s the last time two programs of this caliber had coaching vacancies? I can’t remember it happening in my time as a football fan. The season is heating up both on and off the field, so let’s go ahead and jump into Week 6!

1. #25 Maryland at #8 Florida State (11am CST ESPN): The Terrapins, despite their taste in helmet decor, are looking good so far this season. They’re undefeated and have already won as many games as they did last season. If you’ll remember, Randy Edsell’s team finished the season last year having to start a linebacker (Shawn Petty) at quarterback due to the injuries that piled up at the position. Petty didn’t have a chance anyway as the Terrapins finished their season against Georgia Tech, at Clemson, Florida State, and at North Carolina. This season there is some stability behind center as C.J. Brown is completing 67% of his passes, averaging 10.5 yards per attempt, and has thrown seven touchdowns versus only one interception. They’re coming off a bye week after beating West Virginia (did you see the Mountaineers against Oklahoma State?) 37-0. Florida State, led by freshman phenom “Famous” Jameis Winston at quarterback, hasn’t really been tested yet this season although I was surprised that Boston College was able to put 34 points on the board against them last week. The Seminoles are third in the nation in points scored per game (51.3), behind Baylor (69.7) and Oregon (59.8), but will they be able to put up those kind of numbers against the Terrapins? They will certainly be tested given that Maryland is third in the nation in points allowed per game (10.3). Tallahassee is a tough place to play and I don’t know if Randy Edsell’s team is ready. The Terrapins are only allowing 98.5 yards rushing per game but they haven’t faced a backfield this deep. Wilder Jr., Devonta Green, recently converted safety Karlos Williams, and of course, the aforementioned Winston will be tough for the Terrapins to handle for 60 minutes. I think this game might start out close as they feel each other out, but I think as the game progresses FSU’s athleticism will be too much and they’ll pull away. FSU wins handily.

2. TCU at #11 Oklahoma (6pm CST Fox): Last week Oklahoma was finally tested and they took down Notre Dame by a couple of touchdowns. Blake Bell showed that he could throw the ball, which is something about which I think we were all dubious. I’m interested to see how the Sooners do against a pretty strong defense, especially against the run The Horned Frogs are only allowing 115 yards per game while Oklahoma has the 17th-best rushing attack in the country at 257 yards per game. The Sooners are averaging 48 rushing plays per game so these two forces are bound to battle and I think it could come down to Bell’s passing skills. TCU is tied for fifth in the country in interceptions gained, with nine in just four games played, so I don’t know how that will affect Bell’s comfort level in the pocket. On the other side of the ball, TCU is 65th in the nation in scoring offense and Oklahoma is only allowing 12 points per game. The Horned Frogs are a shocking 106th in the nation in third down conversions (31.48%) and Oklahoma is tied for 15th in the nation defending third downs (allowing only 28.57% to be converted). If they are going to struggle that much on third down this Saturday, and give the Sooners extra possessions, they’re going to need to cause some turnovers and excel in the return game. TCU is excellent at returning kickoffs as they are fifth in the nation in returns of at least 30+ yards and there’s a chance they may get several opportunities to improve upon that number with Oklahoma getting extra possessions. I actually think TCU has a chance to keep this game close if they can get their running game going and convert a few third downs. I also think that this may be a classic trap game for Oklahoma as they may very well be looking ahead at the Red River Rivalry (against Texas) in Week 7. Oklahoma still wins.

3. #4 Ohio State at #16 Northwestern (7pm CST ABC): College GameDay is in Evanston this week and this is probably the biggest game Northwestern’s played in since 1995 when the Wildcats won the Big Ten title and went to Rose Bowl (where they lost to USC). Current head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who will surely be a highly considered candidate for the USC and Texas openings, was a linebacker on that squad. The Wildcats are coming off a bye week that was perfectly placed in their schedule. Not only are they fresh and get to play a Buckeyes team that just came off a brutal game against the Badgers, but it allowed a little more time for their star running back, Venric Mark, to become healthy enough to play. Mark was hurt during the Wildcats’ Week 1 game against California and hasn’t played since. His replacement, Treyvon Green, hasn’t exactly played poorly in his place though. Green is averaging 6.85 yards per carry and over 100 yards per game since he’s taken over, so just because Mark is back, don’t expect Green to disappear from the game plan. What causes a lot of teams problems, and I’m sure this week will be no different, is the Wildcats’ quarterback duo of Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian. They’re both good passers and good runners. Colter can do a little bit of everything. In 2012, he caught 16 passes as a receiver, and in 2011, he caught 43 of them. They are often on the field at the same time, which, this year, usually means either a running play or some kind of play-action. However, don’t be surprised if Colter resurrects his times lining up as a wideout in attempt to throw off the defense a little. The Buckeyes lost their defensive leader, Christian Bryant, for the season last week on the second-to-last play against Wisconsin. Urban Meyer has stressed all week what an integral part Bryant played for the defense and that someone will need to step up and fill that role. In addition to his leadership role, Bryant was third on the team in tackles. This is the second real test for the Buckeyes and this time they don’t get the luxury of playing in front of their home crowd. I think the key will be the running game for the Buckeyes. Northwestern is only allowing 119 yards rushing, but they haven’t really played a run-heavy team so that number may be a little misleading. I don’t like applying the transitive property to football projections but the only team Northwestern and Ohio State have in common is California. NU beat them by 14 and TOSU beat them by 18. That could mean that these two teams are somewhat evenly matched (at least against high-powered offenses with weak defenses) and then the home team generally gets three points. That puts TOSU winning by one. It’s not exactly scientific, but this fan will take it. The only thing that gives me a little pause, and I’m not usually superstitious, is that my favorite athlete of all time is Michael Jordan, and his statue outside the United Center in Chicago was photographed wearing a Northwestern jersey this week. Buckeyes win, Buckeyes win, but I’ll be nervous until the clock strikes triple zero.

4. West Virginia at #17 Baylor (7pm CST Fox Sports 1): Do you remember that 70-63 battle between these two teams last year during which West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith threw for 8 touchdowns and a mere 6 incomplete passes? Yeah, well don’t expect that to happen this time around. Last week was the first time we’ve seen life out of the Mountaineers. They beat William & Mary by a mere 7 points to start the season and then were shutout and beat by 37 by Maryland. Yet last week, they held Oklahoma State to 21 points and walked away victors. Dana Holgerson finally decided to start Clint Trickett, the transfer from Florida State who was stuck behind EJ Manual (and left because of the emergence of the aforementioned phenom in Tallahassee), at quarterback and suddenly the Mountaineers looked respectable. He didn’t blow up the stat sheet as he only completed 48% of his passes and threw just one touchdown versus two interceptions, but he seemed to inspire confidence in his team and had them believing they could win that game. Baylor, on the other hand, is blowing up stat sheet after stat sheet. The Bears are averaging an astonishing 751 yards per game and 9.84 yards per play. Consider this for a second: Baylor has only played in three games (they’ve already had two bye weeks) and only 19 teams in the country have more total yards than the Bears. Granted, they haven’t really played anyone worth mentioning yet, as the best team they’ve played is probably a toss-up between Wofford (the #17 team in FCS) and Louisiana-Monroe. What we can say is that just like last year when everyone thought coach Art Briles was going to miss RGIII and he ended up being fine as Nick Florence outgaining him in total yards, it doesn’t look like Briles won’t miss Florence much either with the emergence of Bryce Petty. Petty hasn’t run as often as RGIII and Florence did, but then, he hasn’t had to either. Petty already has 1001 yards passing and only has 17 incomplete passes thrown. I’ll be honest, last week I thought Oklahoma State might put 70 points on West Virginia and that didn’t happen at all. I’m not going to say Baylor will put up 70 on the Mountaineers this week (even though they are averaging 69.7 points), but I feel comfortable saying they’ll put 50 on them and I don’t see West Virginia being able to do that even if Trickett is finished shaking off his rust. Baylor wins.

5. #15 Washington at #5 Stanford (9:30pm CST ESPN): I encourage everyone to stay up and watch this game. Going into the season the common thinking was that Stanford wouldn’t be tested until Week 10 when it hosts the Oregon Ducks, but that is not the case. Washington finally appears to be what a lot of us were expecting them to be two years ago behind quarterback Keith Price. They started the season off with a big win over Boise State without their star tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins. They are undefeated and have won every game by at least 18 points. They held Arizona, a team averaging over 40 points per game going into their game, to just 13 points (despite the Wildcats running 86 plays). I’ve liked Price for a few years now and it’s taken awhile but he’s finally starting to look like the quarterback I thought he’d be. Almost more impressive is running back Bishop Sankey who is leading the nation in yards per game. He’s not a threat as a receiver out of the backfield (he only has four receptions on the year), which could be valuable against an attacking front four like Stanford’s, but he’s an excellent blocker. The Cardinal has no one who can defend Sefarian-Jenkins one on one so expect him to get chipped coming off the line to slow him down a bit. In the Huskies passing game, keep an eye out for junior wide receiver Kasen Williams, as I expect him to lead them in receiving this weekend. He’s a good route runner and is excellent at finding the soft spot in a zone. The problem for the Huskies lies on the defensive side of the ball, however. The Cardinal probably have the best offensive line in the country and offensively they’re so diverse that game planning is very difficult. Would you believe me if I told you that Stanford isn’t in the top 30 nationally in either passing or rushing yards per game? It’s true. However, the Cardinal convert 57% of their third downs, only commit 4.8 penalties per game, and have only turned the ball over 5 times in four games. They can run it with Tyler Gaffney and Anthony Wilkerson and then in the passing game, they’ve gone away what we’ve grown accustomed to these last few years. Tight ends have only caught three passes this season while wide receivers Ty Montgomery and Devon Cajuste have over half of the Cardinal receptions. To be fair, Cajuste is built like a tight end and was recruited to play as one. However, when they saw this kid run and his vertical jump, they agreed to his request to play outside the seams. Washington is on the rise, and I definitely have Stanford on upset alert Saturday night because I think the Huskies will make it much closer than people think, but will they pull off a win? Not quite, the Cardinal win.

We haven’t done one of these in a while, but here’s an open thread to chat about the football played up until the game of the century of the week.

You can refer to Jason’s TV Guide, but here’s a smattering of today’s football spread:

Saturday
Noon – Maryland at Florida State
3:30pm – Georgia Tech at Miami (FL)
8:00pm -Ohio State at Northwestern
10:30pm – Washington at Stanford

MotSaG Top 25 1. Alabama 2. Clemson 3. Ohio State 4. Oregon 5. Georgia 6. Stanford 7. Louisville 8. Oklahoma 9. Florida State 10. Northwestern 11. LSU 12. Miami 13. UCLA 14. Texas A&M 15. South Carolina 16. Baylor 17. Washington 18. Texas Tech 19. Florida 20. Fresno State 21. Michigan 22. Arizona State 23. Wisconsin 24. Oklahoma State 25. Maryland

Jeremiah is out sick on his deathbed, so I will be taking over Top 25 duties this week. You probably noticed that these rankings make much more sense this week. Now you know why.

I have argued with Jeremiah that ‘Bama gets top billing until someone knocks them off. I know Clemson has looked good, but ‘Bama blanking the Ole Miss Rebels is not something to scoff at. They looked dominant throughout that game, and even though I don’t buy the SEC superiority argument any more than you do, shutting out a previously ranked team is impressive.

Clemson, Oregon and Ohio State took care of business. Clemson should have demolished Wake Forest, which they did.

Oregon and Ohio State now share a common opponent, which they performed more-or-less equally. The only difference being that Oregon had their starting QB at their disposal while Ohio State did not. Oregon has yet to play a ranked team, as well. For those two reasons, I give Ohio State the slight edge in the rankings.

The Stanford vs. Georgia match-up gave me pause. Yes, Georgia has a loss, but it is to a team I have ranked #2. Stanford has looked dominant through four games, but their marque win right now is only ranked 22. Advantage: Georgia.

Rounding out the top ten, Louisville is there because of legacy 2013 bowl season performance and taking care of business thus far. Oklahoma, Florida State and Northwestern remain unbeaten and that counts for something in my book. I don’t know if any of those four teams could be LSU or Texas A&M, but until I see them lose (sorry, Northwestern, that’s next week for you) I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

The rest is big old jumble of good, maybe good and maybe not good teams. We’ll let the season roll on to sort those out.

Speaking of “maybe not good teams”, Michigan fans better be worried. By the simple transitive property (which I think went out of fashion a few years ago, but bear with me), you have Michigan team that struggled mightily to beat a UConn team that got manhandled by Buffalo, 41-12. That was the same Buffalo team that Ohio State manhandled 40-20. If you take those three outcomes, carry the three and solve for X, you realize that Michigan could be in for a lot of pain come November 30th.

Week 4 was a difficult set of games to wrap my head around. Ten teams scored at least 55 points and four of those scored at least 70. If we look at the AP Top Ten (Oregon had a bye) going into the games, did any of those teams in that group really impress in their wins? I’d say the only game that really impressed me was Stanford’s handling of Arizona State. They held that high-powered offense scoreless in the first half while opening up a 29-point lead. Outside of that, there were several blowouts, none of which should have been surprising. Ohio State put 76 on an FCS team (Florida A&M) that won 4 games last season and the only reason it wasn’t worse is because the Buckeyes didn’t throw a pass in the second half (Kenny G threw for 6 TDs in the first half). Louisville put 72 on 0-3 Florida International in a game that saw FIU possess the ball for 32 minutes and only run 43 plays. The two Florida teams in those games combined for just two converted third downs. Florida State beat an FCS team, Bethune-Cookman, by 48 and that did nothing but illustrate how unfair the Louisville/FIU game was because Bethune-Cookman beat FIU 21 last week. Alabama did not play well offensively against a Colorado State team coming off a 4-win season and that has only beaten FCS’ Cal Poly. Clemson struggled against an NC State team that barely beat Richmond the week before but always seems to play up against better teams. Georgia was tied with North Texas at 21 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter, keeping in mind that the Mean Green lost to an Ohio team that Louisville beat by 42 earlier in the season. Texas A&M beat SMU by 29 but let Garrett Gilbert (remember him from Texas?) throw for 310 yards against them to demonstrate that defense is still struggling. LSU, while they looked good at times, only outgained Auburn by 19 total yards and had twice as many penalties as Auburn in a “dreaded” night game in Death Valley. The Top Ten will all have decent tests in Week 5 (with the exceptions of Clemson and Florida State who face Wake Forest and Boston College respectively).

1. Who is the best team in the country? If there were no preseason polls and you had a vote, which would you vote as the number one team in the nation after four weeks? Keep in mind, only take into account what we’ve seen this season, not what we’ve seen in years past. It’s tough right? Let’s look at the current “number one” team in Alabama. In Week 1, they rushed for less than hundred yards and completed less than half their passes for a little over 100 yards against a Virginia Tech team that just allowed 228 yards passing and 133 yards rushing to Marshall in a triple overtime win. Week 2, the Tide defense allowed more yards than it ever had in its storied history to Johnny Football and company. Then Saturday they didn’t convert a third down until near the end of third quarter against a team, Colorado State, whose only win is against FCS’ Cal Poly. Oregon looks great but what have they really done? Yes, they’ve scored at least 59 points in each of their three games, but one of those was against lowly FCS team Nicholls State. The Virginia win gets a few cool points only because the Cavaliers beat the BYU team that would go on to beat Texas down. Then the Ducks beat Tennessee by 45, but the Volunteers only beat Western Kentucky because the Hilltoppers committed five turnovers in a six-play span and only put 17 against Florida because they got a pick six on a play during which Gators quarterback Jeff Driskel broke his fibula. The point is that if we look at this season (and this season alone) thus far, there isn’t any team that stands out as the best team in the country. The good news is that conference play is about to get ramped up around the country and we’ll start to learn a little bit more about everyone, because they’ll get away from the “gimme games” and actually get challenged. My Buckeyes are ranked in the top five but the only thing they’ve really accomplished is playing well against inferior opponents despite doing so without their star quarterback and while I don’t know if many other FBS teams could do that well with a backup QB, it doesn’t really make the “w” any more valuable.

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Week 4 doesn’t have a whole lot of intriguing matchups as the only team in the Top 10 that plays someone that could challenge them was #5 Clemson. That ended up happening, by the way, last night as they faced N.C. State. Remember that the Wolfpack ruined Florida State’s run at a national title last season, so they’re known for getting up for big games. Wolfpack fans will focus on the 83-yard touchdown run that was called back to the 47 because the official ruled he stepped out (and depending on the replay angle it was tough to definitively say either way), but what they should focus on was their team’s terrible play on third down. They were a terrible 3-16 for the night and one of those was the late-game touchdown run. My Buckeyes play Florida A&M this weekend and the only comment worth making on that one is that I hope Urban Meyer rests Braxton Miller one more week in preparation for Wisconsin and let smooth Kenny G take care of business. So let’s go ahead and dive in!

1. Michigan State at #22 Notre Dame (2:30pm CST NBC): To be honest, I have not been impressed with the Fighting Irish yet this season. I realize they’re 2-1 and their loss is to a team they probably should have lost to in TTUN (although Akron may have something to say about that), but what have they done that is all that impressive? Outside of not completely imploding after losing Everett Golson to academic issues in the offseason … nothing. Tommy Rees only having two interceptions thus far is admittedly surprising. Last week, they squeaked past a Purdue team that lost by 35 to Cincinnati in the season opener (keep in mind that the Bearcats subsequently lost to Illinois by 28). I realize that the transitive property doesn’t always translate to sports, but it sure doesn’t make Notre Dame look any more impressive. On the other side of the coin, Michigan State, as usual, looks strong defensively. They haven’t played anyone really (Western Michigan, South Florida, and Youngstown State), but they’ve only allowed three offensive touchdowns and have allowed only a 16% success rate on third down conversions. It appears, with a small sample size in mind, that the Spartans may finally have their starting quarterback in third-year sophomore Connor Cook as he threw four touchdown passes last week which is something a Spartans quarterback hasn’t done since 2007 (Brian Hoyer). I think if the Spartans defense can contain wide receivers DeVaris Daniels and TJ Jones who have more than half of the Irish’s total receptions; they have a great chance at pulling out a win. Cook needs to just take care of the ball and let the Spartans defense do what they do. I think this game will be relatively low scoring in that neither team may break 20 points and that is certainly in the Spartans’ favor. Michigan State wins in a game in which I think we’ll see the return of the Tommy Rees we all know.

2. Utah State at USC (2:30pm CST ESPN2): Kiffin, coaching from a seat that is warming up, is matched up in a game that probably doesn’t look like much to the average onlooker. However, keep in mind that Utah State lost just two games last season, by a combined 5 points (Wisconsin by 2 and BYU by 3), and beat Utah, San Jose St., and high-scoring Louisiana Tech. In addition, if you haven’t heard of him yet, you will soon; Aggies quarterback Chuckie Keaton is a beast. Luckily, for Kiffin and Co., defense is just about the only thing the Trojans are playing well right now. They’re 4th in the nation in total defense allowing just 212 yards per game (to put that in perspective, Michigan State, Virginia Tech, and Florida are ahead of them). Where the problem lies is that USC’s offense has struggled while Kiffin has decided who his quarterback is (he finally decided on Cody Kessler who played well against a weak Boston College team last week) and is ranked 85th in the nation in total offense. If that weren’t bad enough, Utah State’s defense is ranked 13th in total defense, so Kessler has his work cut out for him. The Trojans need to get the running game going. They’ve had more than 40 carries in each of their three games and have only broken 200 yards in the one against Boston College. They need to do better this week to keep Keaton off the field and so that they can set up the play-action game and utilize the best player in the country, Marqise Lee. What should comfort Kiffin and Kessler is that Utah State is one of just 12 FBS teams that has not yet recorded an interception. Additionally, the Aggies have only recorded three sacks. I look for Kiffin to use Lee and wide receiver Nelson Agholor on the same side of the field and have one run a deep route and one an intermediate route (what he should have done with Lee and Woods last year!) because that will cause defensive nightmares for the Aggies nearly regardless of the defensive scheme. I think Kiffin wins a close one this week and can sit a little more comfortably… for a bit.

3. #23 Arizona State at #5 Stanford (6pm CST Fox): The battle of two teams who had Week 1 byes ensues. Furthermore, it’s a battle of two very different offensive philosophies and the only one that pits two ranked teams against each other this week. Arizona State is a spread-option team that has a quarterback that very few are familiar with, but should be, in Taylor Kelly. He’s a threat with his arm and his legs. Don’t let them fool you though, they can run it up the gut with senior running back Marion Grice as well. Stanford is a smash-mouth, drop-back quarterback, west coast offense that also enjoys playing defense. They also may possibly have the best offensive line in the country this season. People thought they’d lose a lot when Stepfan Taylor took his 1530 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to the NFL, but the Cardinal got a surprise in the offseason when Tyler Gaffney returned to the team after playing in the minors in 2012 for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Gaffney is averaging 5.9 yards a carry and doesn’t seem to have lost a step at all. The biggest difference you’ll see in the Cardinal offense this year is in the passing game. We were all introduced to quarterback Kevin Hogan last season after he took over for Josh Nunes midway through the season, but we’ve become accustomed to the offense being dependent on the tight ends in the passing game, which isn’t the case this year. Watch receiver Ty Montgomery, who has a third of the Cardinal’s receptions this season, and you’ll see that the offense is more wide open than it has been in recent years. In fact, there has only been two balls caught by Cardinal tight ends thus far. Are they keeping in reserve for Pac-12 play? We’ll see, but it seems unlikely given that’s what teams came into the season expecting. These two teams have combined for just five penalties and five turnovers lost in their first two games, so it doesn’t look like they’ll be shooting themselves in the foot a whole lot in this game. Arizona State did a good job against the inside runs against Wisconsin last week, but did horrible on the edge, so I look for Stanford to use quick passes and wide receiver screens to loosen up the edges (they don’t have a quick back like Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon) so that Tyler Gaffney can do his work inside. Stanford wins but Arizona State will show the nation that they’re not a team that should be easily dismissed.

4. Auburn at #6 LSU (6:45pm CST ESPN): Death Valley is a hard place to play at night for anyone. Since 2005, LSU is 36-2 in such games, the only two losses being to Alabama in 2012 and to Florida in 2009. How will this affect Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall in his fourth career FBS start? We’ll have to wait and see but recent history doesn’t bode well for him as the starters who led to those two LSU losses were AJ McCarron and Tim Tebow, both of whom were coming off a national championship run. I’ve been impressed with Marshall thus far especially knowing that he’s still learning the quarterback position having been a former defensive back at Georgia. Does Marshall have that same ability to will his team to victory that a certain other quarterback of recent Auburn lore who played under Gus Malzahn (as an offensive coordinator) had? I don’t know, but he and the rest of his team did a great job of pulling off two close wins against teams that legitimately played well enough to win. Unfortunately, for Marshall, Malzahn, and company, they haven’t yet faced a defense as athletic, strong, and fast as LSU will put on the field on Saturday. Also, unfortunately for M&M, is that quarterback Zach Mettenberger’s progression, which finally showed itself against Alabama last season, has been hastened under the tutelage of new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron. A former member of the Georgia Bulldogs himself, Mettenberger is finally looking like the player everyone expected him to be when he signed at LSU. What is in Auburn’s favor, however, is that LSU has not yet faced an offense as fast-paced (and Malzahn is convinced it will get faster as the season progresses) as theirs. Can they wear down that defense as the game progresses? That’s the plan. Malzahn’s squad is only averaging about 64 plays per games right now and his goal is to reach the 80-85 range. I can’t pick Auburn in this game, but I think this will be a great measuring stick to find out exactly where they are, particularly defensively. However, keep in mind, that LSU only beat Auburn, a team that won three games (and none in the SEC) last season by merely 2 points last year. Mettenberger is much improved however. LSU wins by about 10.

5. Kansas State at Texas (7pm CST ESPN): If anyone ever needed a losing streak to end, it’s Mack Brown. I’m not even talking about the two-game skid they’re currently on. Kansas State has beaten the Longhorns six consecutive times and letting it get to seven will get the fans, the media, and everyone else in an uproar. Especially after KSU started the season with a loss to an FCS team (albeit the two-time defending FCS national champions). Led by quarterback Jake Waters, KSU is 2-1, and as they head into Austin, they have to be feeling confident. Waters, a JUCO transfer that won the junior college national championship last season (one of three current starters in the FBS to have won one; who are the other two? Answer below.), has struggled with interceptions having already thrown five (against four touchdowns). Both he and quarterback Daniel Sams are rushing threats (which has to scare Longhorns fans as they have flashbacks of BYU’s Taysom Hill), but when Sams is on the field it’s a pretty sure bet that he’s running as he’s only attempted 4 passes this season. For the Longhorns, I haven’t heard whether David Ash is returning for this game or whether Case McCoy will play. However, if I’m Mack Brown and Ash can’t play — and maybe even if he can — I might start Tyrone Swoopes. The Longhorns clearly need a spark and have they had a real spark since Colt McCoy or Vince Young lined up behind center? Why not put a dual-threat guy back there and see if he can light a fire under this offense that clearly has the talent to be explosive? It can only open up lanes for Gray, Bergeron, and Brown because KSU won’t be able to put seven or eight in the box and dare the quarterback to throw because he can take off … or buy enough time for a receiver to be open. Going into the week I didn’t think Texas had a chance of losing this game, but the more I think about it, the more I think maybe Mack has lost this team and they are not inspired to follow him right now. That’s why I think maybe putting Swoopes out there will give the team someone to rally around because playing to save Mack’s job doesn’t seem like enough right now. I still have Texas winning just because of KSU’s tendency to turn over the football, but I’ll admit I don’t feel great about it. Longhorns win and ugly one.

Answer: LSU’s Zach Mettenberger and Ole Miss’ Bo Wallace.