The Top 25 - Week 5
2 comments so far
October 3, 2006 by
Iowa had a fairly soft landing after their three touchdown loss at home to Ohio State, dropping from 13 to 19 in the AP Poll. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's 11-point home loss to Georgia Tech dropped the Hokies from 11th to 21st place in the AP Poll. Otherwise, most teams remained in about the same spot. Georgia Tech did get a nice boost (but not nice enough to displace Florida State, who must have impressed AP voters with its bye on Saturday).
Nebraska fell one spot (due to the Georgia Tech promotion) Saturday to 22nd in the AP Poll but fell further (and behind Boise State), to fifteenth in the Sagarin predictor ratings. Sagarin's rating would make the Huskers a 13-point favorite in Ames (while the current line is only 7, betting opportunity?).
This week's slate of games will likely shake the rankings up a bit. Ninth-ranked LSU travels to #5 Florida, thirteenth ranked Tennessee heads to #10 Georgia, and eleventh ranked Oregon will play at #16 California. In the Big XII, seventh ranked Texas takes on #14 Oklahoma (coming off a bye) in the Red River Shootout and twenty-third ranked Missouri heads to Texas Tech (which is ranked #24 in the Coaches' poll).
With all this head-to-head competition, do I smell a branding opportunity for ESPN? I have a suggestion -- Overrated Saturday.
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jeremy Oct 03 06
sweet espn burn.
i don't like espn so much that i'm a little upset a lot of them picked my twinks to win the world series
jeremy
minneapolis
Josh Marshall Oct 03 06
Thought I’d give my opinion on what I see as to the keys to winning the Iowa State game this weekend:
1) We have to weather the “Barney Cotton Storm.” The “Barney Cotton Storm” is a new term that I made up based on Barney’s offensive games plans at ISU. Barney always seems to have solid offensive schemes and game plans. For example, he had both Iowa and Texas on their heels for good portions of those games. There were many times, especially in the Texas game, where ISU was moving the ball at will. Barney does a good job of keeping defenses off balance. We cannot let ISU get an early 10-14 point lead. It’s too bad that Frank didn’t completely relinquish the offensive duties to Barney when Barney was at NU. Until the Michigan State game – at the end of the 2003 season, we never completely saw Barney’s true and complete abilities as an offensive coordinator.
2) Ball control. We have to win the time of possession statistical category. And, we have to win it by a decent margin – 8 minutes plus. Meyer, Blythe, and Flynn have historically had good days against NU. We have to keep them off the field. We have to establish those 12-15 play drives that burn 7-9 minutes off the clock each drive. We can accomplish this with a strong run game and the “dink & dunk” passes. Some argue that Blythe has a tendency to disappear in some games. Don’t look for that to happen this weekend. He’ll show up to play. Who wouldn’t, after licking their chops for a match-up with Grixby?
3) Prepare for ISU to blitz, and blitz often. ISU has a suspect defense. But, I look for them to blitz 50-60% of the time on Saturday. They will try to stop the NU offense before it gets going. They have nothing to lose defensively. Our O-line and RB’s must give Taylor time to throw.
4) Do not run the 3-4 defense. Darren knows how I feel about this defense. Cosgrove – and I do blame him completely – lost the Missouri game last year because of that defense. It’s worthless, and has no place in college football. The pro’s can run it because they have the talent, speed, and dominant nose guards. If you can’t tell, I’m still not sold on Cosgrove. And no, this has nothing to do with me thinking Bo Pelini could do a better job. Cosgrove has failed time and time again that he cannot make adequate adjustments during games.
5) Pound Stevie Hicks. Hicks, in my opinion, is soft if you pound him and gang tackle him from the get-go. If you let him get off to a good start, his confidence will build and he’ll get stronger as the game goes on. However, in the past when opponents have pounded him, he folds.
Josh