College football, Week 10: FSU, Michigan State win prelude Saturday

I had a bad weekend, you guys, but I think when you can lead a post with this…

That doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but it’s included for truth.

Last Week: Bye

2013 Season: 144-for-255, 2,281 passing yards, 20 TDs, zero INTs; 511 rushing yards, nine TDs

Last Week: 21-for-29, 325 passing yards, one TD, two INTs; defeated Miami, 41-14

2013 Season: 149-for-212, 2,502 passing yards, 24 TDs, six INTs; 153 rushing yards, three TDs

Jameis Winston had an off week last week. He still threw for over 300 yards and a touchdown in a demolition of Miami. The most notable thing about his performance, apart from the two bad interceptions he threw, was the national spotlight being shown on his squinting as he attempted to receive play-calls from the sideline.

He’s also a true freshman, by the way.

Colorado drives with at least nine plays on Saturday. The Buffaloes lost to UCLA, 45-23, because their offense couldn’t close drives and their defense couldn’t hold up its end of the bargain (UCLA averaged 7.2 yards per play), but they came in with a plan and executed it. They held the Bruins to 57 plays and 24 minutes of clock time; Colorado’s Sefo Liufau completed 69 percent of his (mostly short) passes, and CU emphasized efficiency over all else.

The third BCS standings of the season were released on Sunday night, and the top continues to shake out. Alabama held strong at No. 1, but for the second time in three weeks, the Florida State Seminoles came in at No. 2 ahead of Oregon. The Ohio State Buckeyes remained fourth, while Stanford jumped Baylor at No. 5.

This upcoming week’s slate of games may have more impact on the BCS than any remaining on the calendar. Oregon heads to Stanford and Baylor hosts Oklahoma on Thursday night. Alabama welcomes in No. 13 LSU over the weekend.

• New BCS rankings: Noles reclaim No. 2 from Oregon

• At the scene of the SEC’s newest bitter rivalry

Michigan State and its big, mean defense pulled off one of the weekend’s two most impressive wins, flattening No. 21 Michigan, 29-6. But we’re only now learning the real story:

Yes, that’s a coach who’s traditionally so gargoyle-faced grim that his every smile is documented with shock by college football fans.

It gets boring repeating yourself. It’s a lot more fun to be surprised and have to change your mind.

But for Ohio State for most of the last 14 calendar months, I’ve had a single impression of Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes: good enough. Not elite, but good enough to consistently beat other non-elite teams. I’ve repeated that opinion basically every time I’ve discussed Ohio State, because I haven’t had a reason to change my opinion yet.

Last week: Lost 59-10 to Clemson

Record: 2-7 (0-5 ACC)

Years: 4

Overall record: 42-33

School record: 18-28

Three-year record: 14-20

Salary: $2,556,460

Three-year dollars per win: $547,813

Buyout: $8 million

Football ratio: 21.3%

Subsidy: 16.2%

Virginia picks up its seventh loss of the season, a seven-touchdown defeat at home before 15,000 empty seats. With the loss goes any hope of bowl eligibility, leaving the Cavaliers at home for the holidays for the third time in London’s four years in charge. All of these things cost the Virginia athletics department money -- the unused tickets for the Clemson game alone cost the university more than $700,000 -- and money is certainly an issue for a department drawing 16 percent of its budget from the state government. This comes a week after an embarrassing sequence at the end of the first half of a loss to Georgia Tech left the Cavaliers standing on the one-yard line, watching the clock expire.

Boyd was fantastic on the afternoon, piliing up 377 yards passing while completing 24-of-29 attempts. He has now accounted for 116 touchdowns in his career, which is an ACC record. Clemson’s defense was also solid, limiting Virginia to 277 total yards and just 13 first downs.

Clemson blog Shakin The Southland saw some things the Tigers need to clean up on that side of the ball, at least up front. But the team’s back seven played well in pass coverage:

In the fourth quarter, with Michigan’s offense still unable to get anything going, the Spartans put the icing on the cake with Cook’s one-yard touchdown run, making one Michigan State lineman very, very happy.

After years of Michigan having the upper hand in the rivalry, Chris Vannini of The Only Colors says the tables have turned in the Spartans’ favor.

If the season ended today, Florida State would play Alabama for the BCS National Championship. It doesn’t end today, though.

The Noles have taken back the No. 2 spot from Oregon, one week after giving it up, thanks to a bump in the human polls and Seminole computer dominance. FSU’s 41-14 smashing of former No. 7 Miami on national television couldn’t have come at a better time, as Oregon was on a bye this weekend.

Michigan was absolutely manhandled by Michigan State Saturday afternoon, as the Spartans defeated the visiting Wolverines 29-6 in one of the best defensive performances of the college football season. Michigan was held to -48 yards rushing, and the Wolverine offensive line was unable to contain the Spartan front seven.

Lewan was caught on camera repeatedly grabbing the facemask of Michigan State defenders -- once even twisting the helmet of a defender who was on the ground.

Here’s a photo of the tweet, via our own Tomahawk Nation:

640 Sports is investigating the incident.

Three of the top five teams had bye weeks, and they all stay put. Alabama holds onto the top spot with Oregon right behind, as Baylor doesn’t move from their fifth spot.

In the Coaches Poll, the first of the day to be released and one of the two that count toward the BCS standings (which will be released around 8:40 p.m. ET Sunday), Florida State snags three first-place votes, one from Oregon and two from Alabama. FSU needs to pick off as many as possible -- with a likely No. 1 ranking in the computers, the Noles have ground to make up in the polls.

What question do you ask yourself when trying to decide whether one team is better than another?

Here’s what I fall back on: if the two played each other 10 times, either on a neutral field or as a home-and-home, which one wins more games? It’s a helpful exercise because it forces you to overlook some ifs -- if the ball bounces a certain way, if this team gets an early lead, if that quarterback gets rattled, and so on. The fewer ifs, the better, when we’re taking the long view.

Adam Jacobi also contributed to this story.

RECAP

Updates:

The normally raucous 12th Man crowd in Kyle Field was absolutely silent as trainers attended to Carson and got him boarded up to be carted off on a stretcher.

It did however, appear briefly as if Arkansas might get back in it when they converted a fourth down on a swinging gate play to end the third quarter. That particular play was the subject of some controversy in the week leading up to this game.

Rankings Ramifications: Auburn came into the game ranked 11th. Barring any major upsets in Saturday night’s games, they should stay put, possibly moving up one spot over Miami, should the Hurricanes get blown out by FSU.

He’s doing this between every play, and the cameras are doing a fine job of showing it again and again. Twitter’s having an excellent time with ABC’s closeups, and the night is still young.

Also, expect FSU’s next loss or close win to be blamed entirely on Winston’s contacts, as if we are all his parents.

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

Perhaps the inspiration, WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan:

Update: Bret Bielema says Allen suffered a “deep gash”.

Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen was carted off the field with an apparent leg injury during the first quarter of the Razorbacks’ game against Auburn. Allen appeared to injure his ankle on a quarterback scramble, but the specifics are still unknown outside of it being a right leg injury. It’s unclear how long Allen will be out, but backup quarterback A.J. Derby will take over for now.

One of the unique aspects of Notre Dame’s coverage on NBC is that the individual units are introduced by one of their players, who then gets to say whatever he wants in the few seconds his face is on the screen. Sort of like the NFL’s lineups saying their name and school, but with a little more room for creativity or what have you.

You know that movie “Revenge of the Nerds,” where Ogre is the most constant tormenter of the Nerds, but then he becomes a Nerd himself, and he fits right in, just in his own weird way? You remember that? Dan Fox is if Ogre figured all that out before he went to college and embraced it. As one ought to.

Calls to mind:

Earlier: Ohio State fans completely took over Purdue’s stadium.

People have said the noon slate of college football games today is horrendous.

Those people just don’t appreciate the finer things in life, like Mississippi State trying to throw a pass to their right tackle, Dillon Day, the ball bouncing off of him, and getting intercepted by South Carolina.

On Saturday, UCLA will have a chance to get back on track against Colorado. The Buffaloes are showing signs of improvement from last year, but this is a team with a long ways to go before they’re competing regularly in the Pac-12 South.

Rankings and records: UCLA comes in ranked 20th in the latest BCS standings. Now one game back of Arizona State in the Pac-12 South, the Bruins really need to get back to doing what they do best if they’re going to win the division for the second year in a row.