College Football Wrap (November 30)

This weekend in college football showed us inability of the ACC's best teams to defeat their in-state rivals, Toby Gerhart is a beast, Mark Ingram is out of the Heisman race, and Championship Weekend will determine the BCS.
The inability of Georgia Tech and Clemson do defeat their in-state rivals, Georgia and South Carolina, proved that the ACC is still a weak conference. By losing to 2 average SEC teams, the ACC's reputation was bruised. The rushing attack of both teams was supposed to be superior but that failed to occur and now both teams head to Tampa coming off a loss.
Toby Gerhart's 205 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground plus a passing touchdown in the fourth quarter made him the frontrunner for the Heisman. Unfortuneately, Gerhart plays for Stanford, a team that at best will finish 3rd in the Pac-10 and Gerhart will not get the votes he would have gotten if Stanford was in the top 10. But fortuneatly for Gerhart, Mark Ingram had a slip-up in Alabama's game at Auburn.
Ingram ran for only 30 yards and was sidelined with an injury in the Tide's 28-20 victory over their in-state rival. This performance late in the year took a big hit at Ingram's Heisman chances. Ingram needs to have more than a career day to overcome Gerhart, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow to win the biggest award in college football.
Ingram and the Tide will be playing in the most meaningful SEC Championship possibly in the history of the SEC. #1 Florida and #2 Alabama will be playing for a spot in the BCS National Championship Game, the loser will most likely get an at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl. But that will not be the only meaningful title game affecting the BCS this coming weekend. Starting Thursday with the Civil War between Oregon State and Oregon at Autzen Stadium for the PAC-10 title, the SEC, Big 12, ACC, and Big East will name their champions in the last week of the season.
THIS WEEK'S AWARDS:

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Georgia RBs Washaun Ealey and Caleb King
Against the best rushing team in the nation, Georgia Tech, Ealey and King posted their own impressive numbers combining for 349 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns leading the Bulldogs to a 30-24 upset over (7) Georgia Tech and eliminating the Yellow Jackets from any national title hopes.
BLOWOUT OF THE WEEK:
(23) Houston over Rice 73-14
The Cougars unleashed all their offensive weapons on Rice at home Saturday night. Case Keenum threw for 323 yards and 2 touchdowns and only played a half. In total, 3 Cougar QB's threw for 463 yards and to 14 different receivers. With the win, Houston secured a spot in the C-USA title game by winning the West division.
COMEBACK OF THE WEEK:
Stanford over Notre Dame 45-38
The performance of Gerhart along with a gutsy coaching decision made by Jim Harbaugh in the fourth quarter on fourth down having Gerhart throw the ball to Ryan Whalen in the endzone for a touchdown gave the Cardinal all the motivation they needed to to get past the Irish, in what probably will be Charlie Weis' last game as coach. Down 31-30 with 13 minutes to go, the Cardinal propelled by the Gerhart pass went for 2 and made it, then drove down the field after a defensive stop and with 59 seconds left, Gerhart appropriately scored the winning touchdown.
GAME OF THE WEEK:
West Virginia over (9) Pitt 19-16
In the 2009 version of the Backyard Brawl on Friday night in Morgantown, West Virginia kicker Tyler Bitancourt became a name that will resinate in Backyard Brawl history forever. Bitancourt kicked the game-winning field goal for the Mountaineers as time expired and gave the whole state of West Virginia as reason to party that night. The game lived up to the nickname of the rivalry, it was a defensive brawl with 2 big plays as the game only 2 touchdowns, Noel Devine had a 88-yard run for West Virginia and Bill Stull connected with Jonathan Baldwin on a 50-yard pass for the Panthers' only endzone visit. Mixed in to the defensive struggle were 4 field goals by Bitancourt and 3 by Dan Hutchins of Pitt. The Mountaineers got the ball last and Bitancourt connected on a 43-yarder and gave coach Bill Stewart his first signature win in 2 years as head coach.

Look Ahead to Next Week:
Champions will be decided in the Pac-10, MAC, C-USA, Big East, Big 12, SEC and ACC and give fans a clearer view of the BCS picture when all the dust has settled.

College Football Week 12 Review

With two weeks left in the college football season there are still many questions to be answered and fortuneately for fans most of them will be answered.
QUESTIONS
1. Who will win the SEC?
Right now both Florida and Alabama look strong as they have all year but both can not afford to overlook Florida State and Auburn in rivalry games this week. The team that has the most momentum going into the game should win. Florida's thumping of FIU gave the Gators confidence especially in Tim Tebow's passing game, Tebow threw for 215 and 2 TD in the game. Alabama looked as impressive in a win over Chattanooga. Right now it is a toss-up but we might know a little bit more by how the two teams perform this weekend in rivalry games.
2. Who will the Heisman?
This year's Heisman race is wide open with many players having spectacular seasons. The frontrunners right now are Tebow, Alabama RB Mark Ingram, Stanford RB Toby Gerhart, Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh, Houston QB Case Keenum, and Colt McCoy of Texas.
Of these 6, McCoy should win the award, but don't be surprised if the winner of SEC gets the Heisman winner, both Tebow and Ingram have carried their offenses this season. Gerhart has rolled over Pac-10 defenses this season but with a Stanford loss this past weekend to Cal, his chances went down. If Nebraska somehow pulls off an upset of Texas in the Big 12 Championship, Suh should get a lot of attention. Suh has single handedly improved Nebraska's defense by drawing attention and making the players around him better. Keenum, has put up eye-popping numbers for the Cougars but with the team out of the BCS conversation and barely in the Top 25, Keenum's chances are slim. If this season ended today, McCoy should win the trophy with Tebow, Ingram, and Suh getting invites to New York.
3. Which non-BCS team has the best chance of getting to the BCS National Championship?
TCU. The Horned Frogs are better than Boise State by leaps and bounds. Not only does TCU play in a tougher conference but they have blownout the 2 other ranked teams in the Mountain West, Utah and BYU. On the other hand, the Broncos have had some slip-ups with wins over Tulsa, Fresno State, and UC Davis. Boise's schedule is much easier but they have made it seem like it is tougher, while TCU has played the stronger schedule and dominated their strong opponents.
4. Which undefeated team will lose this week?
None of the 6 undefeateds should lose but if there was one team that could be upset it would be Boise State. The Broncos host Nevada's high-powered offense led by Colin Kaepernick. Nevada is 7-0 in the WAC and could win the conference with a win on the blue turf. The Wolfpack offense has not scored under 30 points in a conference game this season and with Boise's tendency to keep games close, watch out for the Wolf Pack on Friday night.

WEEKLY AWARDS
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Shane Vereen, RB, Cal
Vereen took advantage of the opportunity he had after Jahvid Best's concussion two weeks ago and ran for 193 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Big Game against Stanford. Vereen outshined Cardinal RB Toby Gerhary with his performance and boosted the Bears to 8-3, 5-3 in the Pac-10.
COMEBACK OF THE WEEK:
Temple over Kent State 47-13
The score might not reflect a comeback but the Owls were down 10-9 at the half. Then, in the second half the Owls erupted by scoring 38 unanswered points. With the win, Al Golden's team are 9-2 overall and 7-0 in the MAC with a MAC East showdown with Ohio on Friday and the winner goes to the MAC Championship Game against Central Michigan.
UPSET OF THE WEEK:
UConn over Notre Dame 33-30 (2OT)
The Huskies did the unthinkable at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, beat Notre Dame. The biggest win in school history comes after an emotional season for the Huskies that included the death of CB Jasper Howard. This was the first win for the Huskies since Howard's death and they deserved it. After Dave Teggart missed a game-winning field goal at the end of the 4th quarter, the Huskies could hung their heads and gave up, but they did the complete opposite. They kept fighting and in the second overtime after Notre Dame kicked a field goal on their possession, Andre Dixon ran into the endzone from 4 yards out and gave UConn the win.

With all the rivalry and championship games coming up, the next 2 weeks will be the most exciting of a season that needs answers.

Top Men's Hoops Teams Facing Early Challenges

As the college basketball season began, many fans would only expect maybe one or two big upsets but in the past week, 3 of the top 5 teams in the AP poll almost lost.
Monday night, #4 Kentucky needed a John Wall jumper at the buzzer to beat Miami,OH. Then, on Tuesday night #2 Michigan State barely escaped a loss against Gonzaga at the Breslin Center 75-71 and later that night in St. Louis, preseason #1 and heavily favored to win the title, Kansas survived a scare from a rebuilding Memphis squad by 2 points winning 57-55.
These tough games in the early season show fans and coaches what their teams are made of. But so far only those 3 teams in the AP Poll have suffered a threat to their ranking. You would expect these teams to get better, which they will, but with these unlikely scares at the beginning of the year who knows what the rest of the Top 25 will face in the coming weeks.

Top Title Contenders All Boast Potential Heisman Winners

Going into the last 3 weeks of the college football season, there are still 6 undefeated teams contending for a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. But, almost a month before the National Championship is given out, the Heisman Trophy will be handed to the nation's best player and all 6 of these teams have a Heisman contender.
1. FLORIDA
Obviously, Florida's Heisman candidate wears #15. Tim Tebow has not been as dominant this year and the award that was his to lose in the preseason is up for grabs with 3 weeks left.
STATS: 64%completion, 1730 pass yards, 22 total touchdowns
WHAT'S LEFT: v. FIU, v. Florida State, SEC title game
2. ALABAMA
RB Mark Ingram has been Alabama's key to winning all season long because of the struggles of QB Greg McElroy. Ingram's running will be one of the things that has to succeed for the Tide to win the SEC title game.
STATS: 1297 rush yds, 13 total TD
WHAT'S LEFT: v. Chattanooga, @ Auburn, SEC title game
3. TEXAS
QB Colt McCoy is looking for his Heisman after playing second-fiddle to good friend Sam Bradford and Tebow. In every game this season, Texas has looked unstoppable thanks mostly to McCoy and his roommate WR Jordan Shipley.
STATS: 72.4completion %, 2628 pass yards, 19 TD, 9 INT
WHAT'S LEFT: vs. Kansas, @ Texas A&M
4. TCU
Quarterback Andy Dalton is considered by many a long shot to win the Heisman, but that is because he does get as much attention as the other players. After leading the Horned Frogs to big wins over Mountain West rivals, BYU and Utah, TCU is on their way to the BCS.
STATS: 2088 pass yards, 17 TD, 4 INT
WHAT'S LEFT: @Wyoming, v. New Mexico
5. CINCINNATI
The Bearcats have emerged as the power program in the Big East thanks to their quarterback tandem of Tony Pike and Zach Collaros. Pike has the better shot at the Heisman since he has played more games, while Collaros has put up the better stats through 3 games.
STATS: Pike, 1649 pass yards, 17 TD. Collaros: 1434 yards, 10 TD
WHAT'S LEFT: v. Illinois, @Pittsburgh
6. BOISE STATE
QB Kellen Moore has lit the stat sheet on fire while going 10-0 this season with the Broncos. The left-handed Moore has led the Broncos to blowouts in almost every game in the weak WAC.
STATS: 2558 pass yards, 32 TD, 3 INT
WHAT'S LEFT: @Utah State, v. Nevada, v. New Mexico State.

PREDICTION
These 7 players may be joined by an outsider like Toby Gerhart of Stanford or Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska, but it is highly likely that an undefeated team will boast the Heisman winner this season.
Heisman Winner: Colt McCoy, Texas
Runner-up: Tim Tebow, Florida
Texas is basically a shoe-in for the BCS National Championship Game and McCoy has been unstoppable.