They tell you all of this and they tell your opponent nothing. Your opponent is just another walk through game. You are flying at 4-0, you are Southern California, the team that has enjoyed 5 straight seasons of national top-4 finishes, BCS bowl appearances and Pac 10 Conference titles.
You are playing a 6-touchdown underdog, a team that lost 41-3 last week, a team that you beat 42-0 last year, a team that finished with a lousy 1-11 record.
So No. 2-ranked Southern California loses Saturday (10-6-07) to Stanford 24-23. Don't ya just love college football? The excitement of college football makes pro football look boring.
I am not surprised that USC lost a game. The Trojans were lucky to get by Washington a week earlier, winning by a field goal, 27-24, while making a ton of penalties and turnovers. I am surprised that it was Stanford that did it.
A team that is loaded with talent like USC will win every time unless the talent is "at" the game but not "in" the game. Talent simply has to show up every week or even a powerhouse like USC gets embarrassed.
The Trojans are now the new No. 10-ranked team in the AP Top 25 Poll.
Louisiana State remained No. 1 by scoring 14 points in the final quarter to hold off No. 9-ranked Florida, last year's national champion, 28-24. Florida led at the half 17-7. LSU is 6-0.
Unbeaten and No. 5-ranked Wisconsin, a team I have said all year was overrated, finally proved it by losing to unranked Illinois 31-26 on the road.
Unbeaten and No. 8-ranked Kentucky, another team I have said is overrated, proved it by losing to No. 11 South Carolina, 38-23.
Unbeaten and No. 23-ranked Purdue, another team I have said is overrated, proved it by losing to No. 4-ranked Ohio State, 23-7.
Unbeaten and No. 6-ranked South Florida had more than its hands full in getting by Florida Atlantic 35-23.
Unbeaten and No. 17-ranked Missouri put a major butt-whipping on No. 25-ranked Nebraska, 41-6. I have been dumping on Nebraska as unworthy of any ranking for weeks and finally the Cornhuskers have been booted out of the Top 25 Poll. Amen.
Unbeaten and unranked Kansas upended No.24-ranked Kansas State 30-24 and the Jayhawks are now ranked No. 20. Kansas is off to its first 5-0 start in 29 years.
No. 22-ranked Clemson lost to No. 15-ranked Virginia Tech 41-23 and fell out of the poll.
Unbeaten and No. 16-ranked Hawaii ripped over winless and hapless Utah State 52-37. Utah State is 0-6; Hawaii is 6-0.
Unbeaten and No. 20-ranked Cincinnati upset No. 21 Rutgers on the road, 28-23. Cincinnati is now 6-0 but faces a much tougher schedule as it travels to Pittsburgh and South Florida and faces Connecticut and West Virginia at home.
Three teams that I wished well and hoped would do well have now dropped in my estimation.
One is Alabama with new Coach Nick Saban. Alabama went to 4-2 by getting by Houston, 30-24, but that is not saying much. Apparently Saban does not have much talent in Crimson Tide country. It will take him two more seasons to put real winners in place.
Another is Michigan State with new Coach Mark Dantonio. The Spartans lost at home to Northwestern, 48-41, in overtime. Not a good sign for Dantonio. MSU lost last weekend at Wisconsin to an overrated bunch of Badgers 37-34.
Spartan players are going to have to learn how to win, and that is not easy when you have a culture of choking and losing to even mediocre teams. Dantonio, a great defensive coach, can score points but apparently has very little defense when it matters. You cannot win in the Big 10 without great defense.
A third disappointment is Arizona State, and the Sun Devils with new first-year Coach Dennis Erickson are still unbeaten at 6-0. Ranked at No. 18, the Sun Devils just managed to get by Washington State, 23-20, not a good showing given that the Cougars—a team Erickson use to coach—have lost 4 of 6 games. The Cougars missed a 46-yard field goal with 12 seconds left that would have sent the game into overtime.
Granted Arizona State was on the road, but it needed to beat Washington State by at least three touchdowns to be impressive and could not.
Games like Texas-Oklahoma, Boston College-Bowling Green and Georgia-Tennessee fail to interest me. Thank goodness for my bottom feeders—Buffalo, Wyoming and UTEP.
God Bless the Buffalo Bulls who polished off the Ohio Bobcats 31-10 for a homecoming victory. Go Bulls! I would like to see Buffalo knock off Toledo at home this weekend. Buffalo has been one of the lowest rated teams in college football in recent years, and I am happy to see the Bulls have some real success.
Get excited, Buffalo fans, the Bulls actually have an offense! James Starks ran for a career-best 183 yards against Ohio. Maybe we should call him James "Scamper" Starks. Hello, University of Buffalo, is anybody home?
Another team I like is Wyoming because the Cowboys win at home. TCU found that out again this week when the Cowboys rode them to a 24-21 victory. Wyoming defensive end Mitch Unrein was tabbed as Mountain West Conference's Defensive Player of the Week.
I am convinced that if some ranked team came into Cowboy country they just might leave a loser. Heck, Wyoming is now 4-1 on the season. Go Cowboys!
Mike Price's Texas-El Paso team edged by Tulsa in a typical high-scoring game, 48-47. UTEP climbed to 4-2 and the Miners have just as good a chance as any team to win the Conference USA title.
UTEP's redshirt freshman quarterback Trevor Vittatoe was named Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for 319 yards and 3 touchdowns against Tulsa.
Mike Price turned around UTEP football in a hurry. Football is not just conversation in Texas, football is serious business in Texas. Everything is large in Texas, including the UTEP victories. Go Miners!
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley