Ferringo College Football Report: Miami, FSU not Only Florida Teams in Trouble

Well, I had my College Game of the Month going thislater Pete Carroll and Co. were ambushed in Corvallis.
weekend and was treated to three-plus hours ofGreat call.- Florida State is just 7-9 over the course of
frustration, angst and general feelings of dread. I tookits last 16 games. They have the same problem as
Missouri laying just a couple of points at home againstMiami - too many head cases and pure athletes and
a ho-hum Oklahoma team. The Tigers proceeded tonot enough refined players. Throw in the fact that
lay a fantastic egg, losing 26-10 in front of 60,000they've both whiffed on their quarterback signings over
disappointed fans.This game definitely doesn't count asthe past five years and you have two mediocre
a bad beat, but I still feel like I was on the right side onprograms.- This one is courtesy of Stuart Mandel, and
this one. Yes, I may be delusional. But I'm taking pills andit explains why Notre Dame may be the most
whiskey for that. However, there were four separateoverrated team in football:"In 2005, Notre Dame
sequences that doomed us. And if one of these hadfinished 10th nationally in total offense. This year it's
gone the other way things likely would've been34th. The Irish have gone from eighth in scoring
different:1) Missouri's first drive, Chase Daniel hit Gregoffense to 37th. Quinn, the nation's seventh-rated
Bracey up the left sideline for 46 yards. Bracey barelypasser last season, has slipped to 34th. Walker, who
stepped out of bounds at the 26-yard line and Mizzouaveraged 99.7 yards per game and 4.7 yards per
had to settle for a field goal. A touchdown on thecarry in '05, is averaging 82.7 and 4.1 in '06."Notre
opening drive may have opened the floodgates.2)Dame has improved on defense, allowing 64 fewer
After a three-and-out on OU's first drive, Missouri tookyards per game than it did last year (332.7, down from
the ball and then suffered the blunder that changed the396.9), but its ranking has only gone up from 75th to
game. Tight end Chase Coffman dropped - and when61st. In terms of scoring defense, the Irish have actually
I say dropped think Robin Williams in "The Best ofgone down, from 53rd to 65th."- You can't say enough
Times" - what would have been a sure touchdown.about how completely dominant Michigan's defense is.-
That score would've made it 10-0 and would haveIf Ohio State had to travel to Austin to face Texas
opened the floodgates.3) Trailing 16-3 at halftime, theright now I think the result might be a bit different than
Tigers scored in under two minutes the first time theywhat it was in September. The main reason: the
got the ball in the third quarter. It's now 16-10 andmaturation of Colt McCoy. The young colt has the
Missouri's defense forced another three-and-out. Thebenefit of playing on a veteran squad, but he's still two
Sooners punted and the kick was fielded at midfield.touchdowns away from tying the school record for
The Tigers would have had the ball in OU territory withtouchdown passes (24).- Boston College held Buffalo
all the momentum. But an atrocious roughing-the-kickerto -12 rushing yards. The Bulls top runner had just one
penalty occurred when the punter landed on an idioticyard on nine carries. I also protest that B.C. may be the
Missouri rusher. Oklahoma scored on the extendedACC's best team.- Flip a coin to determine the best
drive to go up 23-10 and things were looking bleak.4)team in the MAC.- I didn't have a strong feeling either
However, even after that disheartening drive theway about last week's Clemson-Virginia Tech game.
Tigers marched down to the Oklahoma 1-yard line.But after taking one look at the crowd about five
However, four terrible play calls (why keep going tominutes before their primetime match-up, I ran to my
the short side of the field?) the Tigers were stuffedcomputer and made a wager on the Hokies. Clemson
and the game was essentially over.Again, a loss is areally never stood a chance in that game, and
loss and I do apologize. However, I'm trying to look at itBlacksburg is still intimidating.- You know those
like that was a game that should have went our wayelements and that wind that dominated the Western
but didn't. That means that the Gambling Gods haveMichigan-Eastern Michigan game, holding it to 3-3 at
something big in store for us down the road, andhalftime and sending it easily under the projected
hopefully we may end up winning a game that we42-point total? I expected that to be the situation
shouldn't.But I'll still kick Chase Coffman in the nuts if Ithroughout the Great Lakes states this weekend, but it
ever see him on the street.Anyway, here are somewasn't so.The weather clearly was a factor this
random, scattered thoughts for a bittersweetweekend, as the total posted just a 22-29 mark.-
weekend of college football:- Two things are going toWhere did Washington State come from?
keep Florida from playing for a national championshipQuarterback Alex Brink is having an outstanding
or winning their major bowl game. No. 1: they takeseason and has the Cougars at No. 25 in the AP poll
waaaaaaaaaay too many penalties. Bettors need toand No. 23 in the BCS standings. They are raking it at
always beware the sloppy team. No. 2: their kicker is6-3 ATS, and have only lost SU to powerhouses
horrendous. Chris Hetland is just 1-for-7 on the season,Auburn, USC and Cal.- Bad beat for Baylor backers.
and may lose his job.- The number of wide receiversThey were down 24-21 and Texas A&M seemed
averaging more than 100 yards per game has droppedperfectly content to run out the clock before Mike
from 34 in 2005 to 17 in 2006. The number of runningGoodson broke a 64-yard touchdown run with just
backs averaging 100 yards has also been cut in half,two minutes to play.- Kudos to San Jose State. The
from 12 last year to six this year.- I'm calling it right now:Spartans have benefited from a kindergarten schedule
neither Louisville nor West Virginia are going to run the(five home games to two away games) en route to a
table in the Big East. Clearly one of them will lose on5-2 SU start. However, the schedule is going to beef
Thursday. But both also have to travel to Pittsburghup over the next three weeks and we'll see how they
and neither has faced Rutgers yet, either. Toss inhandle three Tecmo Bowl offenses in New Mexico
tricky games against teams like Cincinnati and SouthState, Boise State and Hawaii.- Speaking of the
Florida and I think both WVU and Louisville will lose andRainbow Warriors, Hawaii is the new Boise State. The
one of them will have two losses.- There were 21Warriors are just dominating people, posting a 5-1-1
games last week where a favorite was posted at sixATS mark in the meantime. The Broncos, on the other
points or less. The underdogs went an outstandinghand, are 8-0 and looking to crash the BCS party but
11-10 straight up in those games. On the whole,they are just 3-4 ATS.- I would say that Texas
underdogs were just 26-25 ATS.- USC had beenChristian's 26-3 demolition of Wyoming was one of the
flashing all the signs of a fading team for weeks. Withmore impressive performances of the weekend. TCU
six-point wins over Washington State and Washington,is 5-2, but are just sixth in the Mountain West. With a
and a seven-point victory over Arizona State, thefavorable schedule in November, look for these Horny
Trojans were stumbling like Drago right before he gotFrogs to get hot.Questions or comments for Robert?
knocked down by Rocky.And how about Doc's SportsE-mail him at Check Doc's Sports site for daily sports
own Jordan Adams? On Wednesday Adamsbetting articles, NFL Schedules, NFL Odds, and
proclaimed the Trojans as the most overrated team inOffshore Betting information.
all of football - college or pro. Just three short days