The Hangover Cure: Week 5

Great games need not involve great teams. Miami beat Oklahoma in a well-played game that was close throughout. LSU topped Georgia in a game that went from a popgun duel to an offensive explosion at its conclusion. Notre Dame edged Washington, and Michigan State recovered from a Michigan rally to beat back the Wolverines. All of these were compelling games (as were the Minnesota-Wisconsin and Boston College-Florida State tilts), but none featured a team worth tabbing a BCS contender. Even Miami, which escaped what most tabbed an early season death march, is only 3-1 by virtue of some goal line problems by Florida State and a number of injuries to Oklahoma.

These are not the best teams in college football, but they shouldn’t be expected to be. Understanding that they’re hunting for moments of immortality every weekend instead of making every weekend part of a greater immortal moment will make their fans much happier.

But, of course, it’s college football, and that could never happen.

Delirious. Hyping Tim Tebow at every turn is bad, but ESPN’s relentless promotion of Monday Night Football during a college football Saturday is nearly inexcusable. Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit joked about the number of promos they would do about Brett Favre’s first game against the Packers at the beginning of Miami-Oklahoma; Herbie guessed eight and both broadcasters laughed. There is no person who has turned on ESPN in the last week and is not aware of the Monday night matchup. ESPN knows it overdoses on Favre, and should make sure games in other sports are Favre-free zones.

All that “Notre Dame/FSU/Michigan is back” hype seems absurdly premature at this point. Notre Dame has no defense, FSU has no consistency on even a series-to-series basis, and Michigan has no proven track record outside of both the Big House and the state of Michigan. Let the echoes rest a while longer, overly zealous fans; if they’re meant to be stirred, they will be in due time.

Tremendous. The Orlando Sentinel’s Tim Stephens, a must-follow on Twitter when it comes to college football, alerted me to this stat: UTEP had “58 yards” last week against Texas, then exploded for 58 points against Houston. That would be bad enough, but it’s actually worse than that: UTEP only had 53 yards against the ‘Horns. Houston’s defense was not their strong suit, obviously, but UTEP’s balance is what makes (305 rushing yards, 276 passing yards) is what that box score is every defensive coordinator’s nightmare, and their unforeseen explosion knocked Houston out of the pack of potential BCS busters.

As for individual statistical standouts, Golden Tate and Noel Devine lived up to their lofty names. Tate had nine catches for 244 yards against Washington, and Devine ran for 220 yards and a touchdown against Colorado. Completing the Rick Neuheisel trifecta, Stanford’s Toby Gerhart got in gear against what was one of the better rush defenses in the country, pounding out 137 yards and three scores on the ground.

Blacked Out. The block at 0:10 of this video is delivered by a helmetless TCU player. I swear, football players are insane.

Washington State mustered just five first downs against Oregon, which is fewer than the six points they scored. The Cougars were so bad that ESPN’s drive chart doesn’t even think they scored.

Syracuse came into its game against South Florida hoping to catch the Bulls on a high and bring them down to earth. Instead, the Orange buried themselves with seven turnovers, including five Greg Paulus picks.

Impaired Judgment. Washington didn’t exactly die by their choices to go for it and then kick a field goal on two separate fourth quarter drives to the Notre Dame goal line. But the Huskies didn’t do themselves any favors by running quarterback sneaks both times. Jake Locker can move around, and Washington has some receivers: Why not spread out at the line and run a draw?

The officials in the Georgia-LSU deserve a little bit of scorn for throwing disruptive, game-altering unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on A.J. Green and Charles Scott after go-ahead touchdowns, but the problem isn’t enforcement, but the rule. If the intent of the rule is to prevent taunting, write that out explicitly; if players are not supposed to incite the crowd, be clear about it. But don’t make players just hand the ball to the official or risk a penalty: They should be allowed to celebrate within reason, and have a clear definition of what “within reason” is.

Potent Quotables. Les Miles on LSU’s, uh, heart: “Our football team, if you turn your back on them, they will beat you up.”

Bobby Bowden, searching for answers: “What would I gain by stepping down? What would you do, fire everyone and bring in an entire coaching staff? What would you gain by that? I’ll evaluate myself.”

Jim Harbaugh on his surging Stanford team: “I think there’s been a thing around the country with coaches and players, where Stanford is maybe not the preferred BCS-type football school that they think of. I think our guys have proven different.”

Proof. Jacory Harris is still young, still up-and-down, and still not quite ready to be the sort of quarterback Miami fans bragged about. But instead of staggering after interceptions on his first two drives, he kept his calm, recovered to throw three TDs, and went back to being the nation’s most composed sophomore quarterback. Miami still needs help to get to a BCS bowl this year, but Harris is the sort of player that will help them win BCS games in years to come.

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