Oregon St., Ole Miss in college football spotlight
Dick Harmon
THUMBS UP: Mississippi, Michigan and Oregon State for delivering Goliath knockouts last week. The Ole Miss upset of Florida in Gainesville was the school's first upset of a top-five team since 1977 (Notre Dame and Joe Montana).
THUMBS DOWN: The Wyoming Cowboys have scored five offensive touchdowns while throwing 10 interceptions this season.
Butter-Fingers Awards go to the nation's top turnover-margin teams: No. 1 Wake Forest, which had six turnovers in a loss to Navy; and No. 3 TCU, which had three turnovers in a setback to Oklahoma.
THEY SAID IT: Florida State coach Bobby Bowden about last week: "Anybody can be had." And Oregon State coach Mike Riley, after his 5-foot-7 freshman Jacquizz Rogers dissected top-ranked Southern Cal: "I guess they have about five first-round picks in their front seven, but our guys blocked them OK tonight."
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Air Force and BYU rank second and tied for third, respectively, in fumble recoveries in the latest NCAA stats. The Falcons have nine fumble recoveries, while the Cougars have eight. Akron leads the country with 10. ... BYU has won 14 consecutive games and currently holds the longest active win streak in the country. Utah has won six games in a row and is tied for the second-longest streak nationally with Alabama, Penn State, LSU and Texas Tech. Utah (5-0) and BYU (4-0) are among the 18 teams in the FBS that remain undefeated.
MY MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: SDSU quarterback Ryan Lindley, who completed 24-of-38 passes for 433 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-17 win over Idaho.
UNSUNG HERO: Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who watched his team upset Wake Forest, the first win over a ranked opponent by the Academy in 23 years.
YEAH, BUT: How big is Thursday's Utah game with the Beavers? The MWC has posted a 7-5 mark in games against BCS conference opponents this season (which includes Notre Dame), with five teams chalking up victories. TCU is 11-3 and Utah is 10-3 in the last 14 and 13 games, respectively, against automatic-qualifying BCS teams.
TREND SETTERS: Oregon State comes to Salt Lake City for a showdown with No. 15 Utah, carrying the pride card for the Pac-10, a league that is 1-5 against the Mountain West. And although they splayed the Trojans, the Beavers are 10 1/2-point underdogs to the No. 15 Utes. The Mountain West Conference is currently 21-10 in nonconference action in 2008. The MWC is 15-9 (.625) against nonconference FBS opponents entering the week, which is the fourth-best mark among the 11 conferences.
Recent comments
In the "BOTTOM LINE" paragraph you wrote:
The Big 12 is coming…T McGaffin | Oct. 1, 2008 at 8:15 p.m.
Dick,
Your stats are funny. I guess it makes sense since you cover…
where do you get your stats? | Oct. 1, 2008 at 7:39 p.m.
To 'Smart Cougar Fan':
I join you in your lament that the new…Texas Cougar | Oct. 1, 2008 at 11:01 a.m.
