Five things we learned Saturday
Posted: Sunday, October 05, 2008 11:02 AM
Here’s what was learned on another eventful Saturday around the college football landscape:
Vanderbilt is for real: The studious Commodores (5-0 overall, 3-0 in the SEC) continue to pass every test placed in front of them with flying colors. On Saturday against Auburn, the most unlikely hero for the most unlikely SEC East leader was backup quarterback Mackenzi Adams, who entered the game in the second quarter with Vandy down, 13-0. Unfazed, he tossed two touchdowns passes in the 14-13 victory, the Commodores’ first as a ranked team in more than half a century. Professor Bobby Johnson needs to keep his players focused next week at Mississippi State, with the big midterm looming at Georgia on Oct. 18.
A Big 12 quarterback will win the Heisman: We’ll likely have a winner-take-all scenario on Dec. 6, at the Big 12 Championship Game. The quarterback that lifts the conference trophy at Arrowhead Stadium on that day is your best bet to hoist the Heisman a week later. Missouri’s Chase Daniel currently has the best resume and his Tigers are the clear-cut favorites to take the North, but Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford is on pace to throw 48 touchdown passes and could end up being the second consecutive sophomore to win the Heisman. And then you’ve got Texas’ Colt McCoy, who has been playing so well that the debate has begun about him possibly putting together a season better than the one Vince Young had in 2005.
No shake up at the top this time: A week after the polls were reshuffled, form held true within the upper echelon in Week 6. The quintet of Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas should remain at the top. However, the increasingly impressive Missouri Tigers should rank higher than the LSU Tigers, who took the weekend off and will face their biggest test on Saturday at Florida, as the past two national champions collide. Missouri made life so miserable for Nebraska in a 52-17 shellacking in Lincoln that Bo Pelini had to offer an apology to the entire Cornhusker State. That’s got to be worth a few more first-place votes.
The Red River Rivalry will live up to the hype: In the last 10 years, the average margin of victory in the Texas-Oklahoma game has been more than 23 points. This time around, with both teams playing at optimum levels, the 103rd renewal of this classic rivalry figures to live up to the “Game of the Year” hype. The Sooners didn’t mess around at Baylor on Saturday, roughing the Bears up, 49-17. Later in the evening, the Longhorns dismantled Colorado, shutting out the Buffs for the first 41 minutes of the game. Oklahoma will be favored and has won six of the last eight, but Texas has a new swagger and doesn’t carry the weight of the top-ranking into the contest.
Terrelle Pryor is phenomenal: You just don’t waltz into Camp Randall Stadium and have your way with the Badgers, especially if you are a true freshman making your first start on the road. But after a shaky early showing, Pryor did just that in the closing minutes on Saturday, directing an 80-yard drive that ended Wisconsin’s 16-game winning streak in Madison. To think that this is just the beginning for Pryor really gets the imagination going. It also causes you to wonder what it would be like if Ohio State played USC now, with Chris “Beanie” Wells back in the lineup and Pryor playing so well as the full-timer. Oh well, there is that rematch in Columbus next year.
