Upon further review
Mike Zierath | Staff writer
A week off for Kirk and the Hawks, but college football rolls on.
And then there were five.
This past weekend, seven of the nine undefeated teams were in action, and each of those seven were on the road. You just knew that someone was going down, no way did I ever envision that four of the seven would taste defeat for the first time.
It all started in the Big 12. I stated last week that the Big 12 Championship would got through West Virginia and it might all come down to the last week of the season when Baylor invaded Morgantown. I also mentioned that I didn’t think either team would be undefeated by the last game of the year. Week 9 took care of that, for both teams. Texas came from behind to score 9 points in the last 7:30 minutes to bring Baylor back to earth. About the same time, West Virginia, who had the best defense in the Big 12, was letting Okie State jump out to a 20-10 half time lead and the Cowboys never looked back.
The next biggest loser was Boise State. This group of five team from the Mountain West rolled in to Laramie thinking they could probably roll out with their eighth victory of the season, but it just wasn’t meant to be. A late sack, fumble and resulting safety, was the difference in this 30-28 game.
The big game of the day was in Mad City, where the Badgers were hosting the undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers. While I never believed that either team deserved their current ranking, the Badgers have proven to be the resilient one in the Big Ten West. Two turnovers, both interceptions, from the hand of Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong brought back memories of Turnover Tommy that we’ve all become accustomed to seeing. With Wisconsin’s schedule being front loaded, the rest of their season looks like a cake walk compared to the first three-quarters of the year.
Clemson snaked out another win on the road against FSU to avoid being the 5th victim on Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, Michigan won their rivalry game vs MSU and the Huskies dropped the Utes in Utah.
Prior to the College Football Playoff committee releasing their first poll of the season, I thought 1-7 would be Bama, Michigan, Washington, Clemson, Louisville, Texas A&M and OSU. When the poll came out Tuesday night from the Gaylord in Grapevine, it was Bama, Clemson, Michigan and Texas A&M in the top four, followed by Washington, OSU and Louisville. Obviously, same teams, just different order. I can’t really argue with the committee’s choices at this point, they have a lot more information than I do and really, this follows what I said at the beginning of the season: The Big 12 and Pac 12 would not be represented in the College Football Playoffs this year. I also might have pointed out that Texas A&M was going to be a dog that could hunt!
Remember this: College Football, where the unpredictable can, and will, happen! Lot of Football to be played, lot of changes to come.
There have been some pretty impressive individual performances this year in College Football from both quarterbacks and running backs. I’m not going to list a bunch, but has anyone noticed that there are more losers with 400 yard passers than there are with a 200 yard rushing performance? Managing the line of scrimmage, running the ball, controlling the clock and stopping the run is the equation to winning football games. Pretty simple really.
Of course, throwing for 734 like Patrick Mahomes did against Oklahoma in a 66-59 loss a couple weeks ago is a heck of a lot more fun to watch!
Haven’t talked about my Heisman list in a few weeks (No, I don’t have a vote). Right now, it’s down to four for me. Lamar Jackson is leading this list, and while his team hasn’t necessarily been spectacular every week, he has been. The rest, in no particular order, watch out for Dalvin Cook from FSU. He has taken that team on his back and they will ride him through the end of the season. DeShaun Watson continues to lead the Clemson Tigers in the world of the undefeated. Not that there haven’t been brushes with defeat, there has! But they have survived.
And quite possibly, the last Heisman candidate might be the most intriguing. Donnel Pumphrey, the lead pony for the San Diego State Aztecs. SDSU is 7-1 on the season. Pumphrey is averaging 183.6 yards per game and has 1469 yards on the year. If he continues on that pace through the last four games, he will have 2203 yards at the end of the year. At this pace, he will break Ron Dayne’s FBS career rushing record of 6,397 yards by nearly 100, settling in at 6,475 for his career.
I don’t care who you are or what team you play for, that is impressive and deserves more than a courtesy look when it comes to deciding the best player in the country and awarding the Heisman trophy. The other three had probably better be glancing over their shoulder a little.
We talked about parity in the preseason article and how it seems to be a prevailing sentiment across both college and pro football. There are exceptions. Alabama is one of those. I asked myself why that is, earlier this week, and this is what I came up with. It isn’t coaching, all teams have some pretty darn good representatives that have “Head Coach” behind their name. And while Nick Saban will likely be viewed as one of the greatest of all time when he is done, it still comes down to Attrition.
Good teams can handle attrition because they get a greater number of quality athletes. When they sign a bunch of four and five star kids out of high school, and lose 5, 6 or 10 because of a lack of playing time, their level of play doesn’t drop significantly because they still have their core group of high quality, athletic kids that many teams don’t. Kirk Ferentz has repeatedly told us that their margin of error is slim when it comes to talent. I think we are seeing that they have a deeper rotation along the offensive line this year, but only because they concentrated on recruiting that position a couple years back. It’s been important with the health issues they have had along that front this season. Keeping in mind that I truly believe that the four most important factors in recruiting are both lines, the QB and the play makers on the outside, Iowa still has some work to do. The good news: It appears they read my posts in the Lounge as they have added all the kids to the 2-deeps this week and appear ready to empty both barrels.
Here's hoping for a very solid November, Iowa could use one.
As a side note, I always try and write these articles a couple days out. It’s Tuesday night, and I’m sitting here watching the Cubs vs Cleveland in game 6 of the WS. If the Cubs can hold this lead, and force a game 7, well…………..guess we’ll know the outcome by the time this comes out on Thursday. Go Cubs!
Follow me on Twitter @mike_zierath
Mike Zierath | Staff writer
A week off for Kirk and the Hawks, but college football rolls on.
And then there were five.
This past weekend, seven of the nine undefeated teams were in action, and each of those seven were on the road. You just knew that someone was going down, no way did I ever envision that four of the seven would taste defeat for the first time.
It all started in the Big 12. I stated last week that the Big 12 Championship would got through West Virginia and it might all come down to the last week of the season when Baylor invaded Morgantown. I also mentioned that I didn’t think either team would be undefeated by the last game of the year. Week 9 took care of that, for both teams. Texas came from behind to score 9 points in the last 7:30 minutes to bring Baylor back to earth. About the same time, West Virginia, who had the best defense in the Big 12, was letting Okie State jump out to a 20-10 half time lead and the Cowboys never looked back.
The next biggest loser was Boise State. This group of five team from the Mountain West rolled in to Laramie thinking they could probably roll out with their eighth victory of the season, but it just wasn’t meant to be. A late sack, fumble and resulting safety, was the difference in this 30-28 game.
The big game of the day was in Mad City, where the Badgers were hosting the undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers. While I never believed that either team deserved their current ranking, the Badgers have proven to be the resilient one in the Big Ten West. Two turnovers, both interceptions, from the hand of Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong brought back memories of Turnover Tommy that we’ve all become accustomed to seeing. With Wisconsin’s schedule being front loaded, the rest of their season looks like a cake walk compared to the first three-quarters of the year.
Clemson snaked out another win on the road against FSU to avoid being the 5th victim on Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, Michigan won their rivalry game vs MSU and the Huskies dropped the Utes in Utah.
Prior to the College Football Playoff committee releasing their first poll of the season, I thought 1-7 would be Bama, Michigan, Washington, Clemson, Louisville, Texas A&M and OSU. When the poll came out Tuesday night from the Gaylord in Grapevine, it was Bama, Clemson, Michigan and Texas A&M in the top four, followed by Washington, OSU and Louisville. Obviously, same teams, just different order. I can’t really argue with the committee’s choices at this point, they have a lot more information than I do and really, this follows what I said at the beginning of the season: The Big 12 and Pac 12 would not be represented in the College Football Playoffs this year. I also might have pointed out that Texas A&M was going to be a dog that could hunt!
Remember this: College Football, where the unpredictable can, and will, happen! Lot of Football to be played, lot of changes to come.
There have been some pretty impressive individual performances this year in College Football from both quarterbacks and running backs. I’m not going to list a bunch, but has anyone noticed that there are more losers with 400 yard passers than there are with a 200 yard rushing performance? Managing the line of scrimmage, running the ball, controlling the clock and stopping the run is the equation to winning football games. Pretty simple really.
Of course, throwing for 734 like Patrick Mahomes did against Oklahoma in a 66-59 loss a couple weeks ago is a heck of a lot more fun to watch!
Haven’t talked about my Heisman list in a few weeks (No, I don’t have a vote). Right now, it’s down to four for me. Lamar Jackson is leading this list, and while his team hasn’t necessarily been spectacular every week, he has been. The rest, in no particular order, watch out for Dalvin Cook from FSU. He has taken that team on his back and they will ride him through the end of the season. DeShaun Watson continues to lead the Clemson Tigers in the world of the undefeated. Not that there haven’t been brushes with defeat, there has! But they have survived.
And quite possibly, the last Heisman candidate might be the most intriguing. Donnel Pumphrey, the lead pony for the San Diego State Aztecs. SDSU is 7-1 on the season. Pumphrey is averaging 183.6 yards per game and has 1469 yards on the year. If he continues on that pace through the last four games, he will have 2203 yards at the end of the year. At this pace, he will break Ron Dayne’s FBS career rushing record of 6,397 yards by nearly 100, settling in at 6,475 for his career.
I don’t care who you are or what team you play for, that is impressive and deserves more than a courtesy look when it comes to deciding the best player in the country and awarding the Heisman trophy. The other three had probably better be glancing over their shoulder a little.
We talked about parity in the preseason article and how it seems to be a prevailing sentiment across both college and pro football. There are exceptions. Alabama is one of those. I asked myself why that is, earlier this week, and this is what I came up with. It isn’t coaching, all teams have some pretty darn good representatives that have “Head Coach” behind their name. And while Nick Saban will likely be viewed as one of the greatest of all time when he is done, it still comes down to Attrition.
Good teams can handle attrition because they get a greater number of quality athletes. When they sign a bunch of four and five star kids out of high school, and lose 5, 6 or 10 because of a lack of playing time, their level of play doesn’t drop significantly because they still have their core group of high quality, athletic kids that many teams don’t. Kirk Ferentz has repeatedly told us that their margin of error is slim when it comes to talent. I think we are seeing that they have a deeper rotation along the offensive line this year, but only because they concentrated on recruiting that position a couple years back. It’s been important with the health issues they have had along that front this season. Keeping in mind that I truly believe that the four most important factors in recruiting are both lines, the QB and the play makers on the outside, Iowa still has some work to do. The good news: It appears they read my posts in the Lounge as they have added all the kids to the 2-deeps this week and appear ready to empty both barrels.
Here's hoping for a very solid November, Iowa could use one.
As a side note, I always try and write these articles a couple days out. It’s Tuesday night, and I’m sitting here watching the Cubs vs Cleveland in game 6 of the WS. If the Cubs can hold this lead, and force a game 7, well…………..guess we’ll know the outcome by the time this comes out on Thursday. Go Cubs!
Follow me on Twitter @mike_zierath
