College Football Questions and Answers: Week 10

I’m a little hungry- time for some humble pie. Here’s a recap of what mattered this weekend in college football.

1.) I’m not ready to drink the Red Raider-ade yet, but I have to give credit to Texas Tech for beating # 1 Texas. Their defense played better than I expected and their offense took advantage of what they were given. They were able to do three things that were critical to their win.

First and most importantly, Texas Tech was able to score early and make the Longhorns play catchup. After playing three difficult games in a row, Texas was expected to come out flat and Texas Tech took advantage of that. Scoring early also kept the Red Raider fans active throughout the entire game and that’s what home teams need to do.

Second, Texas Tech was able to expose the Longhorn weakness on offense- lack of a real running threat. Texas doesn’t have a single rusher over 500 yards and the leading rusher is QB Colt McCoy. When Texas needed yards on the ground Saturday night, they didn’t get it. The best rushing D left on the schedule is Kansas at 30th so the final three games should allow the Longhorns to work out some kinks.

Third, they didn’t make many mistakes. And more importantly, the biggest mistake they made didn’t materialize because the defensive player dropped the ball. With 15 seconds left and down by 1 point, Graham Harrell misfired with the pass getting tipped. What should have been a surefire interception and game-ender was dropped by Texas freshman safety Blake Gideon. Texas Tech scored a touchdown on the next play and the rest is history.

I wrote on Friday that the key to the game would be Texas’ ability to get pressure on Graham Harrell. Such pressure did not happen. Texas was only able to get two sacks and one of those came in the 4th quarter. More importantly, Harrell was able to do nearly anything he wanted to in the passing game. With trouble in the secondary, Texas needed to blitz early and often. They did not and Texas Tech made them pay, time and time again.

For Texas, they made it through the gauntlet 3-1 with their conference and BCS championship hopes damaged but still alive. They lost a tight but sloppy game and should be able to refocus and come back strong next week.

For Texas Tech, they’re 2-0 through two of four of their gauntlet games. The Red Raider story is a good one, but I wouldn’t pack your bags for Miami just yet. Oklahoma State this week at home and then a road game at Oklahoma in three weeks should prove slightly more difficult than the first leg. If that’s not enough, Texas Tech has upstart Baylor at home in the final week of the regular season.

I still maintain Texas Tech will not be on top of the Big XII at the end of the season but it’s a great story so far.

2.) As I predicted, Florida exacted revenge on the Georgia Bulldogs, but I was still surprised at the ass-kicking Florida was able to drop. As it has often this season for Florida, turnovers cleared the way for a Gator victory. Florida finished the game +4 in turnovers forcing Georgia QB Matthew Stafford into throwing three interceptions (plus a fumble). The Florida defense bent, actually giving the offensive yardage advantage to Georgia, but the turnovers made the difference and Florida served notice that they’re not out of the race for the national championship.

For Georgia, the pre-season # 1, not only is a shot at a national championship likely out of the picture, but the SEC Championship is a longshot now too.

3.) Utah did beat New Mexico to survive their only real test so far (in as much as a win over a 4-6 team on the road can be considered a test). It finally gets interesting in the Mountain West this year when TCU comes into town. Either Utah or TCU will be losing their glass slippers and will fade into the non-BCS ether. Good luck.

4.) The Spartans finally beat the late-season Sparty curse, and you could see the relief on coach Mark Dantonio’s face. They were forgivably flat after beating arch-rival Michigan last week. Add to that the fact that Javon Ringer was held to only 54 yards on 21 carries and you would have expected a sure loss for Michigan State. Not this year.

As I predicted, the Spartans needed QB Brian Hoyer to make some plays. Hoyer was a horrific 19-44 for the game missing several times on what would have been touchdowns. Still, in the final drive Hoyer went 3 for 6 getting the Spartans into field goal range where Brett Swenson nailed the winning kick with 12-seconds to go.

You’re welcome.