Posted by Jerry Hinnen

Having a thinly veiled version of himself play a key role in the movie version of The Blind Side has only seemed to boost the career of Hugh Freeze, the new Ole Miss head man and the only FBS coach we can think of to have the details of his life turned into elements of a major motion picture. So maybe the folks at Washington State should be happy to hear the details revealed Tuesday regarding the planned Friday Night Lights movie.

FNL executive producer and director of the original Friday Night Lights film Peter Berg told MTV that the saga surrounding Mike Leach's controversial departure from Texas Tech would become the inspiration for one of the new movie's principal storylines. According to Berg: 

"[Screenwriter Jason Katims] has come up with a really great storyline that parallels what happened to Mike Leach, one of my heroes, a coach at Texas Tech who was unjustly fired and unjustly accused of mistreating a player with a concussion, which was proven to not have been the case. He's now at Washington State getting ready for what I think will be a great redemption story," Berg explained ... "The idea is to really revolve it around the coach."

While Leach's account of his treatment of Adam James and subsequent dismissal from Lubbock has not yet been "proven" in the legal sense, the drama over his battles with James (and ESPN analyst/senatorial candidate father Craig James) and the Texas Tech brass could provide fodder enough for an entire movie trilogy.

Of course, Berg may be fortunate just the get the one Leach-inspired movie made; while saying "We're not done with Friday Night Lights," he also admits that corralling all of his principal actors together for the film wouldn't be easy. (And star Taylor Kitsch sounded less than gung-ho about reprising his role as Tim Riggins, saying he'd "maybe do a cameo or something.")

So we wouldn't advise the Cougar public relations staff in Pullman to start work on their "Mike Leach: movie hero inspiration" promotional campaign just yet. But just ask Freeze: if Berg does get his Leach-centric script into production, it surely won't hurt Leach's already formidable reputation as one of the most fascinating characters in college football.

HT: Grantland 

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Posted by Adam Jacobi

Former Southern Methodist tailback Craig James will file for a spot in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in Texas, according to Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News.

His son Adam James is currently a wide receiver for Tommy Tuberville at Texas Tech.

James was one half of the famed "Pony Express" at SMU, joining fellow top RB recruit Eric Dickerson in the Mustang backfield and leading SMU to a combined 29-5-1 record from 1980-1982. In James' final game as a Mustang, SMU beat Pittsburgh 7-3 in the Cotton Bowl to preserve an unbeaten 11-0-1 record.

After graduating from SMU, James played for two seasons in the doomed USFL with the Washington Generals before spending five seasons with the New England Patriots, rushing for 2,469 career yards and 11 career touchdowns and making the 1986 Pro Bowl. 

James retired from the Patriots after the 1988 season.

Posted by Bryan Fischer

The latest college football polls are out and now it's time to rip them to shreds. Senior college basketball writer Gary Parrish has been calling out voters in the major hoops polls for thinking a little bit too far outside of the box when it comes to their AP ballots every week.

With the football season, I thought I'd steal take the baton on the idea from my colleague and keep all of the writers across the country who vote honest. I've come to know a good number of these people through time and twitter but relationships do not matter, bad votes do.

This is a special time of year however. The end of the regular season brings with it two things: stupid voters and full ballots in the Harris and Coaches Poll. Of course, this year things mattered more than usual with Oklahoma State trying to leap-frog Alabama and play in the national title game. Here are the polls.

AP Poll           Coaches Poll           Harris Poll           BCS

(Details of AP ballots courtesy of PollSpeak.com)

Now, this is a big job calling attention to all of the bad voters. Jerry Hinnen looked up and down the Harris Poll ballots and what he found was not good at all. Three voters ranked Oklahoma State 6th! 6th! 80-year-old and former Iowa sports information director George Wine's voting is particularly disgusting because he has Houston, coming off a 49-28 beat down to a team that lost to UAB, 5th. Read the whole post and enjoy. You can understand why some coaches like Boise State's Chris Petersen are speaking out very loudly against the BCS.

The Coaches Poll, another third of the formula that "determines" which team is better than another, is not much better. Chip Patterson investigated and it's pretty clear that not only did SIDs/football operations vote for a few of the coaches, but they didn't watch anything but a few highlights each week. Air Force coach Troy Calhoun has some explaining to do in particular. Here's all the details about the coaches (some of whom are fired, others just need to be fired from voting).

So, for the final time this year, the Poll Attacks will turn its eye on the AP voters who hopefully voted better than their counterparts in the Harris and Coaches Polls.

Hint: They didn't.

Rodney Dangerfield "No respect" team(s) of the week: Boise State

You remember that team, they play on the blue turf? They're kind of good. They beat the SEC East champ and played eight bowl-bound coaches. They have never trailed by more than seven points in four years. FOUR YEARS. Quarterback Kellen Moore is 49-3 as a starter. I get the "they didn't play anyone" arguments every critic uses but this is a good football team that probably could beat all but one or two on a neutral field.

In the coaches, Nick Saban voted the Broncos 11th, same as Steve Spurrier and James Franklin. S-E-C! They're not the worst though.

CRAIG JAMES VOTED BOISE STATE 23RD. Behind Houston, who was blown out at home. Boise beat Georgia. So yeah, don't think James will be calling any games on the blue turf in the future. Ray Fittipaldo also had the program ranked 17th. Sigh.

Overrated: Virginia Tech

  Hokies head coach (who happens to be the winningest active coach) Frank Beamer ranked his team 13th in his ballot. Now considering they were just throttled again by Clemson, it's hard to say that you can rank them above what Beamer did (and that is high considering they haven't beaten anybody). Somehow they're in the Sugar Bowl but that's an issue for another day. Anyway, John Werner, Mike DiRocco and Steve Conroy had VT 11th and Bob Asmussen, David Just, Doug Lesmerises, Jeremy Sampson, Matt McCoy, Mitch Vingle, Patrick Magee, Robert Cessna and Sal Interdonato had them 12th. Unranked is a little extreme though Desmond Conner. And an amazing seven voters had the Hokies ahead of the Tigers despite the two head-to-head wins and the ACC title.

California Craziness

A trio of voters from California (CSN Bay Area/CBSSports.com's Ray Ratto, San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner, LA Daily News' Scott Wolf) are an interesting voting block. Some would call them progressive, others would call them extreme and just about everybody else will call them crazy given their fluctuations in their ballots each week. All three are consistently in Pollspeak's group of "extreme voters" so we'll highlight the most baffling decision(s) out of each.

  One last time to put Wolf here before Parrish takes the baton back and puts his ballots in the basketball poll attacks. Wolf had Arkansas 4th, Georgia and South Carolina (at least in the right order) in the top 10 to make half of his top 10 from the SEC, Wisconsin the lowest out of anybody at 13th, Michigan State 20th and Virginia ranked despite being shut out by the aforementioned Virginia Tech. Not his worst ballot ever but not good.

Ratto also ranks Northern Illinois 24th and Arkansas State 25th. This is mostly an issue with NIU, Arkansas State deserves to be ranked in the 20's. Wilner cannot be serious with Michigan at 19th, lower than anybody and behind Southern Miss.

What were you thinking? Craig James, ESPN

  I just can't anymore, it's so bad.

Arkansas 4th (highest of anyone), Kansas State 6th (highest), Stanford 8th (lowest), Michigan 10th (highest), Penn State 17th (highest), Missouri 24th (highest) and West Virginia was unranked. That Big East champ who rolled up more yards on top ranked LSU, unranked.

AND BOISE STATE WAS 23RD. Sorry for yelling, had to get the point across.

Until next year.

Posted by Chip Patterson

Our very own Bryan Fischer has ruthlessly picked through the weekly ballots of Associated Press poll voters all season in the new college football edition of Poll Attacks. But the 59 coaches with votes in the USA Today Top 25 are able to escape the criticism of Mr. Fischer and college football fans everywhere as their ballots are not released to the public. The one exception is the annual release after the final regular season balloting.

USA Today published an infographic that breaks down their final Top 25 poll of the regular season - used as 1/3 of the BCS formula - showing where each coach ranked the 35 teams who received at least one vote on Sunday.

I encourage you to spend some time checking out where each coach ranked the top teams in the nation, but here are a few observations that jumped out - especially considering the way things played out in the BCS.

1. No shocker at the top: LSU is the top team in the nation. The Tigers not only wrapped up their perfect season with an impressive victory over Georgia in the title game, they were a unanimous decision from the coaches for the No. 1 spot. LSU was also a unanimous pick in the Associated Press and Harris Interactive polls in their final balloting.

2. T. Boone Pickens' new enemies: After dismantling Oklahoma for their first Big 12 title in program history, Oklahoma State had the best argument of any non-SEC team for a spot in the National Championship Game. But the coach who hurt the Cowboys the most in the USA Today poll was Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun, ranking Oklahoma State behind Stanford (3) and Arkansas (4). Duke head coach David Cutcliffe and Syracuse's Doug Marrone both ranked Oklahoma State fourth, along with Nick Saban and Stanford head coach David Shaw - though those last two can easily be chalked up to self-interest.

3. About that Sugar Bowl...: When the BCS bowl pairings were released, arguably the biggest surprise came the Sugar Bowl selecting Virginia Tech and Michigan with their two at-large bids. The Hokies and Wolverines finished at No. 11 and No. 12, respectively, and were selected out of an available at-large pool that included Boise State, Kansas State, Baylor, and Oklahoma.

The Hokies were blasted 38-10 by Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. It was their second loss to the Tigers this season by 20 points or more, yet most coaches still ranked the Hokies ahead of the Tigers. Even head coach Frank Beamer put Clemson at No. 10 and his Hokies at No. 13. But enough coaches kept the Hokies high enough to allow them to finish in the top 14 and be eligible for that Sugar Bowl berth.

Michigan did not make the inaugural Big Ten title game after losing the division to Michigan State. Sparty played Wisconsin to a thrilling 42-39 loss in the Championship Game, but many of the voting coaches did feel they belonged near the magic Top 14 status needed to be eligible for a BCS at-large spot. Nineteen of the 59 voters placed Michigan State below No. 14, including three coaches (Baylor's Art Briles, Marshall's Doc Holliday, and Houston's Kevin Sumlin) who ranked the Spartans at No. 21.

4. Agree to Disagree: The one team that votes placing them all over the ballot was no-longer-undefeated Houston. The Cougars fell from their position in the Top 10 after a 49-28 blowout loss to Southern Miss in the Conference USA Championship Game. Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes and Califonia's Jeff Tedford both kept Houston in their Top 10, while James Franklin and Mark Hudspeth were among those who dropped the Cougars to the very fringe of the rankings at No. 23.

You can check out the interactive graphic breaking down the coaches' ballots at USAToday.com

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Posted by Bryan Fischer

The latest college football polls are out and now it's time to rip them to shreds. Senior college basketball writer Gary Parrish has been calling out voters in the major hoops polls for thinking a little bit too far outside of the box when it comes to their AP ballots every week.

With the football season starting, I thought I'd steal take the baton on the idea from my colleague and keep all of the writers across the country who vote honest. I've come to know a good number of these people through time and twitter but relationships do not matter, bad votes do.

AP Poll           Coaches Poll           Harris Poll           BCS

(Details of AP ballots courtesy of PollSpeak.com)

Rodney Dangerfield "No respect" team(s) of the week: Everyone not in the SEC

Yeah, I said it again. Especially this week. Also note that the Pac-12 has three teams in the top 10, just as many as the SEC. Wisconsin at 15th in the AP poll also is a "no respect" team.

Overrated: Florida State

  Beating a mediocre-at-best Florida team seems to have the same effect that beating a good Florida team did. The Seminoles started the season highly ranked but have struggled most of the season in, it should be noted, a weak ACC. Also keep in mind that they just lost at home to Virginia, a team that was throttled by Virginia Tech. Maybe if they win a bowl game they can be ranked in the top 25 (coaches have them 24th, AP 25th) but not now.

California Craziness

A trio of voters from California (CSN Bay Area/CBSSports.com's Ray Ratto, San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner, LA Daily News' Scott Wolf) are an interesting voting block. Some would call them progressive, others would call them extreme and just about everybody else will call them crazy given their fluctuations in their ballots each week. All three are consistently in Pollspeak's group of "extreme voters" so we'll highlight the most baffling decision(s) out of each.

  Going to miss putting Wolf in this spot once the final poll comes out. He has Arkansas 3rd and Georgia 7th on top of having Clemson ranked higher than anybody at 15 and Wisconsin lower than anybody at 21. The Badgers are just one spot ahead of Georgia Tech, which shouldn't be ranked on anybody's ballot. TCU is also three spots ahead of Baylor for an odd reason.

What were you thinking? Craig James, ESPN

  I understand why the hashtag #FireCraigJames is so popular on Twitter when looking at his AP ballot: Arkansas 3rd, Kansas State 8th (ahead of Oregon), Stanford 10th, Penn State 18th (higher than anybody), Missouri 21st, Texas 22nd, Notre Dame 23rd and BOISE STATE 24TH. 

Posted by Bryan Fischer

The latest college football polls are out and now it's time to rip them to shreds. Senior college basketball writer Gary Parrish has been calling out voters in the major hoops polls for thinking a little bit too far outside of the box when it comes to their AP ballots every week.

With the football season starting, I thought I'd steal take the baton on the idea from my colleague and keep all of the writers across the country who vote honest. I've come to know a good number of these people through time and twitter but relationships do not matter, bad votes do.

AP Poll           Coaches Poll           Harris Poll           BCS

(Details of AP ballots courtesy of PollSpeak.com)

Poll reactions: ACC, Big East, Big 12, Pac-12

Rodney Dangerfield "No respect" team(s) of the week: USC, Wisconsin

  Two teams find themselves in this spot this week, which is very hard to do considering the majority of teams outside of the top 10 could be considered overrated. The Trojans have a legitimate gripe about being 18th, the lowest they've been in the polls at 8-2 in the school's illustrious history. Throttling a previously ranked Washington team did nothing to impress anybody it seems, holding the Huskies powerful offense to 17 points and running back Chris Polk to just 36 yards on the ground. The offense with Matt Barkley and Robert Woods is humming and the defense is finally looking solid. Though the Big Ten as a whole is a mess this year, Wisconsin is getting no love as the 15th ranked team. They're two hail mary's from being undefeated and destroyed a ranked Nebraska team earlier in the season. The offense is among the most balanced in the country and the defense has been superb outside of the last play of the game.

Overrated: Florida State

  The bottom of the top 25 has so many teams to put in this spot it's hard to pick just one. But we'll settle on the Seminoles who are ranked thanks to a win over a mediocre Miami team on Saturday. Two of their seven wins are against non-BCS teams, four are against ACC teams in the bottom half of the conference in total defense and the other one is against a just plain terrible N.C. State team. It's not an impressive resume and like, say Notre Dame, they should wait to be ranked.

California Craziness

A trio of voters from California (CSN Bay Area/CBSSports.com's Ray Ratto, San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner, LA Daily News' Scott Wolf) are an interesting voting block. Some would call them progressive, others would call them extreme and just about everybody else will call them crazy given their fluctuations in their ballots each week. All three are consistently in Pollspeak's group of "extreme voters" so we'll highlight the most baffling decision(s) out of each.

  Had a chance to talk to both Ratto and Wilner this weekend at Stanford and had a pleasant conversation with them both (no hard feelings from anybody but don't think we didn't notice you put FCS team Georgia Southern 25th Ray). Either way, Wolf takes the honor in this spot this week after being the only person to put Boise State number one last week. He moved the Broncos down to 9th after their loss which is ok but having Cincinnati 18th, Georgia Tech 20th, Auburn ranked at all, TCU unranked and Houston 16th are not ok.

What were you thinking? Tom Murphy, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  The Coaches put Virginia Tech ahead of Clemson, even though the Tigers own the head-to-head win, for the third week in a row so there's that. But Mr. Murphy fins himself in this spot heading into week 12. Arkansas is the highest ranked one-loss team which is fine but what isn't is Georgia 8th and Stanford 11th. The Cardinal was ranked in the top four last week and yet fall behind a two-loss Bulldogs team that hasn't played anybody good as they've built their win streak up? Undefeated Houston is down at 18th, Florida State is 20th (see above), he has Virginia ranked higher than anyone and Penn State isn't even ranked while Notre Dame and Georgia Tech occupy the bottom two spots of Murphy's ballot. Also, Craig James voted Boise State 25th so there's that.

Posted by Bryan Fischer

The latest college football polls are out and now it's time to rip them to shreds. Senior college basketball writer Gary Parrish has been calling out voters in the major hoops polls for thinking a little bit too far outside of the box when it comes to their AP ballots every week.

With the football season starting, I thought I'd steal take the baton on the idea from my colleague and keep all of the writers across the country who vote honest. I've come to know a good number of these people through time and twitter but relationships do not matter, bad votes do.

AP Poll           Coaches Poll           Harris Poll           BCS

(Details of AP ballots courtesy of PollSpeak.com)

Poll reactions: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC

Rodney Dangerfield "No respect" team of the week: Michigan State

  Smash-mouth, hard-hitting defense and a solid (but certainly not spectacular) offense but Sparty just can't get much respect. They beat Michigan and held Denard Robinson and his explosive offense to just 250 total yards and 14 points. Edwin Baker, the touchdown maker, ran for 167 yards against an improved Wolverines defense too. We'll really see what they're made of this week but they should be higher than 15th in the AP and Harris Polls after their performance last week. They've proven more than Nebraska or South Carolina and probably should be in the 11-13 range.

Overrated: South Carolina

  The Gamecocks are ranked 14th in the AP, 12th in the Coaches and 13th in the Harris Poll. First off, let's say that they lost their quarterback, top offensive player and running back Marcus Lattimore and struggled to beat Mississippi State 14-12. They really haven't beaten anybody convincingly outside of Kentucky before the injuries so it's safe to assume they're probably going to struggle in the near future. Is this a one-loss top 25 team? Sure. Top 15? Ehh...

California Craziness

A trio of voters from California (CSN Bay Area/CBSSports.com's Ray Ratto, San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner, LA Daily News' Scott Wolf) are an interesting voting block. Some would call them progressive, others would call them extreme and just about everybody else will call them crazy given their fluctuations in their ballots each week. All three are consistently in Pollspeak's group of "extreme voters" so we'll highlight the most baffling decision(s) out of each.

  Welcome back Jon, it's been a while since you found yourself in this space. We've got several issues with the ballot you turned in, starting with putting Clemson 3rd. In case you didn't watch (and you probably didn't), the Tigers needed a late 4th quarter rally from 18 down to beat Maryland. The Terps also rolled up 468 yards and 45 points on the defense, not exactly top three caliber. It's also concerning to see Stanford ranked behind Oregon and Arkansas at 10th, two spots ahead of a way to highly ranked Auburn team. Wilner doesn't respect Kansas State much either, putting them 20th behind 11 teams with at least one loss. Oh yeah, Texas is still ranked too, as is USC.

What were you thinking? Craig James

  Is there a more maligned broadcaster than James? Judging by Twitter, I'd say no. Either way, he's also an AP voter despite the issue of having an active lawsuit against him by a former coach. Perhaps that was what was weighing on his mind when he turned in his AP ballot this week. It's not terrible but there are a few interesting choices. Of course he has SMU ranked 25th but that looks good considering he put Wake Forest 23rd overall. Yes, the Demon Deacons have had a nice season but they lost to Virginia Tech 38-17 this weekend and their other loss is to Syracuse. Not a top 25 resume at all. James also has Oregon 7th, higher than anybody and higher than undefeated Wisconsin.

Posted by Bryan Fischer

A longtime Floridian told me Friday he couldn't remember the last time the state was the center of college football like it was this past weekend. Sure there have been big games and plenty of teams in championship contention, but it's hard to think of a time when each corner of the state had a big primetime match up. Equally surprising, he said, was that traditional rivalry Florida-Tennessee was only the third most interesting game on the docket.

The spotlight was indeed on the Sunshine State and things couldn't have gone better for the most part. At the northern end, number one Oklahoma rolled into Tallahassee to play Florida State and there were moments when you genuinely stopped and said, "FSU's back." A loss is a loss but the way the Noles played was encouraging.

The storyline coming out the game seems to be all about Big Game Bob Stoops' team getting their first non-conference road victory over a top-five team in over three decades. The Sooners were gritty, responding to scores like a top-ranked and championship team should. Quarterback Landry Jones had several clutch throws and it seemed like linebacker Tom Wort was making every other play on defense. Oklahoma looked the part and survived with a victory.

The key word being survived. Yes their road woes are well documented but the reason the game was close - closer than most thought - was that Florida State looked the part of a top five team as well. For three quarters at least, it was a knockdown, drag out fight between two high profile head coaches. After FSU freshman Rashad Greene caught a beautiful 56 yard touchdown pass to tie the game, Doak Campbell was rocking. As more than one writer said on Twitter, it was partying like it was 1999.

One wonders what might have been had quarterback E.J. Manuel not gotten hurt. Could he have pulled off the upset? Who knows? But the biggest take away was the defense held an explosive, veteran-laden OU offense to just 23 points and showed they are close to having the athletes at every position like they used too when things were rolling. They were kids last year in Norman and it took less than a year for them to grow up into men. The offense still needs some work - especially along the line - but the defense should help carry the Seminoles through ACC play.

Jimbo Fisher has Florida State making waves on the recruiting trail and there are plenty of signs that the on the field product is coming along as well. The next step is winning games like the one on Saturday but, by all indications, that's coming. Party like it's 1999 indeed.

A couple hours down the road in Gainesville, two teams showed they still need work if they're to take the next step. It looked like Florida was going to run away with the game up 30-7 late in the third but the defense seemed to take the foot off the accelerator. For the most part though, the defensive line was active and did a great job of shutting down the Vols' running game. Completely. Florida's defense held Tennessee to just -9 yards on the ground, the third best mark in the country so far. The offense took a hit once receiver Justin Hunter went down but it was the young offensive line that just couldn't handle the pressure Florida was generating.

All-purpose threat Chris Rainey was everywhere Saturday for the Gators' offense. He had 233 all-purpose yards and recorded his fifth career blocked punt. The Gators are still adjusting to Charlie Weis' offense and Will Muschamp's defense but Rainey is a constant playmaker that the team will have to lean on as they get into the thick of the SEC schedule. Is this team in the same class as Alabama or LSU? Not even close. But there's enough there on both sides of the ball to put up a fight with Georgia and South Carolina for the East title.

Further South, some observers would have had no issue with vacating the Ineligibowl. It just wasn't a pretty game. Ohio State was a step slow all night and Miami struggled on offense outside of their scoring drives to open and close the game. Both teams got back several players from NCAA suspension and Miami's certainly made the difference in the game: Jacory Harris was efficient outside of two boneheaded interceptions and linebacker Sean Spence truly transformed the defense into a much stouter unit that was able to apply pressure on nearly every snap.

Sophomore running back Lamar Miller set the tone early with a big run on the first play of the game en his way to a career night that made him the fourth leading rusher in the country at 151.5 yards per game. There's plenty of talent on this team to get nine or so wins but there's still moments when the Hurricanes revert to last year's form and make a boneheaded mistake. It will be curious to see how they use this game as a momentum builder going forward. At full strength and with some confidence, the Hurricanes have a little bit of swagger back.

On the other side, Ohio State is lacking an identity and has to figure out their quarterback position and do so soon. The Buckeyes have no clue about what kind of team they want to be and there could be some doubt amongst the players about head coach Luke Fickell if post game comments are to be believed.

"I felt like me and Jordan (Hall) were doing a great job in the run game, so I felt we should have just come out and ran at them," tailback Carlos Hyde told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We should have manned up and ran straight at them, see if they could stop us."

Also, don't overlook the other game in Miami on Saturday: FIU following up it's big win over Louisville with a solid victory over in-state foe UCF to start 3-0 on the season. Many had pegged the Knights as a possible BCS buster at the beginning of the season so for FIU to knock them off does wonders for a program that was the definition of a rebuilding job just a few years ago. Yes it's a Sun Belt team but with the schedule like it is, don't be surprised if FIU keeps things rolling. The defense recorded six sacks against UCF and did a great job the week before against the Cardinals. Plus they did everything without all-everything star T.Y. Hilton, who missed most of the game with a hamstring injury. Take note, the program in the state with the most upside is the one that's not in a BCS conference.

The state of Florida won't be the center of the college football universe like it was this past weekend for some time. But while it was, it delivered.

Stat of the week

Auburn's win streak was snapped at 17 games by Clemson on Saturday, which was the longest in the nation. It was the 10th longest streak in the past decade and amazingly, 10 of the 17 games were decided by eight points or less. Stanford now has the longest win streak in the country with 11, just two seasons removed from a losing record and five seasons away from the school's 1-11 mark.

Biggest reason why the Tigers' streak ended? They're 117th in total defense, 100th in pass defense, 116th in rush defense, 107th in scoring defense and dead last in the country in third down stops. Yikes.

Other stats of note

- Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege broke the NCAA record for highest completion percentage for 40 or more completions in a game. He completed 40 of 44 against New Mexico for a healthy 90.1 percent clip. He also hit 15 passes in a row at one point, tying a school record on his way to a 401 yard and five touchdown day.

- Kellen Moore's 457 yards of offense against Toledo was third most in the country this year and he averaged nearly 10.39 yards a play. His completion percentage on the season is at a remarkable 78.9 percent.

- With the loss to LSU on Thursday, Dan Mullen fell to 2-10 versus the SEC West as head coach at Mississippi State. Both wins are over rival Ole Miss. While the Bulldogs have been much more competitive under Mullen, they still haven't quite gotten over the hump just yet. He was 8-6 against the West while an assistant at Florida.

- There are beat downs and there's what Missouri did against Western Illinois. The Tigers defense allowed just one first down and 44 total yards on the day while the offense rolled up 744 total yards to set a school record that had been set just after World War II. Tailback Henry Josey ran for 263 yards and three touchdowns, the most in a game this season. The mark was also good enough to move him into sixth place on the national rushing list.

- Of the five players to top 200 yards rushing in a game so far this year, three did so on Saturday (Josey, Marcus Lattimore and LaMichael James).

- Georgia Tech's game against Kansas was pretty amazing to take a look at after the fact. The game delivered the longest run from scrimmage of the season (Orwin Smith went 95 yards for a touchdown), featured two 100 yard rushers and had five players with over 70 yards on the ground. The Yellow Jackets also piled up a school-record 768 total yards, 604 of them via the running game. The 12.1 yards per rush also set an NCAA record for highest in a game.

- Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly has games with 18, 17 and 23 tackles to lead the nation in that category. His 58 total tackles are 19 more than the next player.

- Jeff Fuller became Texas A&M's all-time receptions leader against Idaho while Cyrus Gray topped the 100 yard mark rushing for the ninth time in a row.

- Via senior writer Bruce Feldman, Baylor's Robert Griffin III has eight touchdowns and just eight incompletions.

Yard-by-yard

- Impressive, impressive comeback by Iowa from down 24-3 in the 3rd quarter to Pitt. James Vanderberg has been a little underrated early in the season in the face of replacing a longtime starter and doing so with plenty of fresh faces around him. The junior quarterback is 31st in the country in passing efficiency and 25th in total offense after Saturday's game in which he had several impressive throws in the second half in route to a 399 yard and three touchdown day. The lack of a running game has to be concerning if you're Kirk Ferentz, especially as the begin Big Ten play in two weeks with a trip to Penn State. A heck of a comeback but it's apparent there's plenty of flaws in the Hawkeyes.

- Why hello there Sammy Watkins. While it has taken some time for the Clemson offense to adjust to Chad Morris' new system, Watkins has been an explosive playmaker for the Tigers they really haven't had since C.J. Spiller left for the NFL. Yes it was against a porous Auburn defense, but this week was Watkins' coming out party to the nation with 10 catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He shows an explosiveness you just can't teach whenever he gets the ball in his hands and was the spark that allowed Clemson to turn things around. A former five-star recruit, he was ranked behind fellow Tiger frosh Charone Peake coming out of high school by Maxpreps which should give you some indication what kind of young nucleus Dabo Swinney has assembled when you add in running back Mike Bellamy and quarterback Tajh Boyd. Speaking of Swinney, he channeled his inner-Howard Dean in his post game remarks on television.

- Al Golden didn't leave the cupboard bare at Temple as the Owls almost beat Penn State for the first time since Joe Paterno started coaching in Happy Valley. Despite giving up the lead late, Steve Addazio's club showed they can play with bigger and stronger team and should have no problem contending for a MAC championship this year.

- Kudos to James Franklin and what he's been able to do with Vanderbilt. After a close, 4th quarter win against defending Big East champ UConn, the Commodores embarrassed Ole Miss on Saturday 30-7. Franklin has really gotten the team and the rest of the community to buy into what he's building there and it's starting to pay off with the team's 3-0 start. Quarterback Larry Smith isn't sharp enough in the passing game yet but the offense is moving the chains on the ground and playing good defense - they're currently 10th in the country in total D. Things will get much tougher as they head on the road to face South Carolina and Alabama but with home games against Army and Kentucky and a date with Wake Forest, bowl eligibility is possible in Franklin's first year.    
 
- It looked like West Virginia finally started to get their rushing attack going against Maryland this weekend. Geno Smith is putting up great numbers from the quarterback position but head coach Dana Holgorsen knows that if the team wants to win the Big East - or beat LSU this week - they're going to have to be able to run the ball. Whether the answer at tailback is Vernard Roberts or Andrew Buie still remains to be seen but it can't just be all Smith, all the time. Tavon Austin is a dynamic threat who adds a few wrinkles but there still needs to be a consistent rushing attack so the defense can't play nickel the entire game. The Mountaineers did have an impressive three players top the 100 yard receiving mark last Saturday though.

- It was not pretty at the Rose Bowl as critics briefly turned their attention from overrating Texas to remarking on how hot UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel's seat is. He's an alum who probably cares more about the program winning than anyone there yet there's been hardly any progress to show for it. The defense was supposed to be much better this year and strength of the team but it was anything but in the blowout loss to the Longhorns. Case McCoy (with a little David Ash mixed in) appears to be the answer for UT at quarterback and freshman tailback Malcolm Brown showed flashes on his way to a 110 yard day.

- I am not a believer in Nebraska's defense after playing Washington last week but they'll still do just enough to make it to the title game in their first year in the Big Ten. Still, the effort against the Huskies had a lot to be desired of a top 10 team.

- After returning from Sun Life Stadium late in the Miami night, I was surprised to find out there was not one, but two football games on and I managed to stay up for Oklahoma State-Tulsa late, late, late into the night. I couldn't believe they kicked off after midnight local time, much less that Brandon Weeden was still throwing to Justin Blackmon late in the fourth quarter - and well past 3 AM Central - with the game well in hand. Mike Gundy is not only a man, he's all in on this Cowboys team it appears. All or nothing, this is the most talented squad since Barry Sanders was in Stillwater and everybody is onboard. Why Gundy still had his stars on the field that late in the game for a blowout continues to baffle me however.

- I thought Navy's offense in the middle of the season always spelled trouble for teams that weren't ready for it - especially those coming off an emotional victory like South Carolina. The Midshipmen had a chance late but ultimately the Gamecocks ended up winning 24-21 thanks to a last minute interception. As one head coach told me, you schedule option offenses early or play them in a bowl game or else you'll end up upset. South Carolina wasn't upset but they nearly were with the way they played.

- I couldn't believe the score when I first saw it but here it was, Utah 54, BYU 10. A week ago in the Coliseum, I saw the dejected faces on the Utes sideline as their rally came up short against USC. I thought it would be another tough battle in the Holy War but the Utes smacked everybody around Saturday. Don't count out Utah as representing the Pac-12 South with USC ineligible for the title game and Arizona State still Arizona State.

- Kudos also go out to Wyoming, who blocked Bowling Green's extra point to win 28-27. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat…

Quote of the week

Craig James during LSU-Mississippi State: "You play four quarters in the SEC."

Tweet of the week

Myself following the second ESPN account to feature the word Genocide in place of West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith. Not a bad nickname if he keeps putting up passing numbers in Dana Holgorsen's offense however.

"Company-wide memo about Geno & autocorrect on Monday. RT @McShay13: WVU QB Genocide Smith off to a fast start."

More on College Football

Analysis

Dennis Dodd Know an honorbale man running college sports? Give him a minute. Read >> Brett McMurphy My AP ballot: Top five fixed, but four out, four in down below. Read >> Gregg Doyel Boise is something obvious, depending on your point of view. Read >>

Related links

Feldman: The Big Picture: OU's defense McMurphy: FSU loss reaffirms ACC weakness Jacobi: What I Learned from the Big Ten Hinnen: What I Learned from the SEC Fornelli: What I Learned from the Big 12 Patterson: What I Learned from the ACC

Video

Rainey, Muschamp on win over Tennessee

Fisch's Finest

My top 10 after week 2:

1. Oklahoma

2. LSU

3. Alabama

4. Boise State

5. Stanford

6. Wisconsin

7. Texas A&M

8. Oklahoma State

9. Florida State

10. Oregon

Where we'll be this week

Tony Barnhart will be at the big Arkansas-Alabama game, Dennis Dodd will be in College Station for the top 10 matchup between Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. Brett McMurphy gets another great game this weekend, showing up at LSU-West Virginia Saturday night.

Leaning this way

Arkansas-Alabama: The secondary for Alabama will be flying around and turnovers will doom an explosive Arkansas offense.

Oklahoma State-Texas A&M: The Aggies defense is underrated but this game will still be a shootout. The home crowd will give them the edge in a close one.

LSU vs. West Virginia: LSU's defense is just too much late in the game for Dana Holgorsen's offense to break through.

Across the goal line

I was going to write about conference expansion in this space but figured things would change by the time I finished writing the final paragraph.