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.