During the sixth weekend of college football, we witnessed great things: some blowouts, some nail biters, and three of the top eight teams having their hopes for undefeated seasons go down the drain.
TOP 25 BREAKDOWN: 22 of the top 25 played this weekend, with five of those teams succumbing to their opponents. The number two Oklahoma Sooners spanked the Texas Tech Red Raiders by a count of 28-13. Jason White, Oklahoma's quarterback and last year's Heisman Trophy winner, tossed his 54th career touchdown pass, surpassing Josh Heupel as the Sooners' all-time leader in that category.
The third-ranked Georgia Bulldogs mutilated the number thirteen LSU Tigers 45-16. LSU, last year's national co-champion, has already lost two games this year and is out of contention for any of the big three BCS bowl games at the end of the season. The fourth-ranked Miami Hurricanes defeated Georgia Tech 27-3 and the number five Texas Longhorns had the Baylor Bears' number, outscoring Baylor 44-14.
Surprisingly, numbers six through eight were all upset this weekend by teams in their respective conferences. The sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes bowed in overtime to unranked Northwestern by a score of 33-27. The Virginia Tech Hokies, without Michael Vick's younger brother Marcus at the helm, held off the seventh-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers 19-13.
The most eye-popping game was the eight versus nine match-up of the Tennessee Volunteers against the Auburn Tigers. For the past few years, Auburn fans have constantly criticized QB Jason Campbell, believing he was the one preventing the Tigers from a chance at a serious run at a national title. This year, Volunteer fans thought that their freshmen QB tandem of Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer would lead them to greatness. Wrong and wrong.
Jason Campbell showed his critics up on Saturday, completing 16 of 23 pass attempts for 252 yards and two TDs while Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer didn't live up to the hype during the Tigers 34-10 stomping of the Vols in Knoxville. Ainge got his first start for the Vols, going 17 of 35 with four interceptions, while Schaeffer didn't have much success as a reliever, going just one of five with one interception.
Tiger Junior Rosegreen set an Auburn record and tied an SEC record with four interceptions while Auburn running back sensation Carnell "Cadillac" Williams continued on his season tear with 95 yards rushing and a TD.
No. 10 California knocked off Oregon State 49-7, No. 11 FSU defeated UNC by a score of 38-16, No. 14 Utah beat New Mexico 28-7, the fifteenth-ranked Purdue Boilermakers, behind their Heisman Trophy hopeful QB Kyle Orton, posted a convincing victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 41-16, and the sixteenth-ranked Florida Gators held off a late comeback by the Arkansas Razorbacks, winning by a count of 45-30.
The only other top 25 team to lose this weekend was No. 17 Fresno State. The Bulldogs fell victim to Louisiana Tech and the nation's fifth leading rusher, Ryan Moats. Moats read the Bulldogs' D like a children's book, carrying the ball 34 times for 236 yards and four TDs.
The rest of the top 25 was a breeze with each team posting a solid victory over its unranked opponent. No. 18 Michigan, number nineteen Minnesota, the twentieth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers, number twenty-one Boise State, the twenty-second ranked Louisville Cardinals, No. 24 Oklahoma State, and No. 25 Arizona State all won by anywhere between nine and fifty-two points.
In other big name programs, Iowa stomped Michigan State 38-16, Missouri beat Colorado 17-9, Stanford beat Washington 27-13, and Nebraska defeated Kansas by a score of 14-8. Also, the Boston College Eagles took it to the UMass Minutemen, winning by a count of 29-7.
SCORING LIKE NEVER BEFORE: At one point in the match-up between the San Jose State Spartans and the Rice Owls, San Jose State found itself down 21-7. But the Spartans didn't fret. It was only the end of the first quarter.
By the end of the game, the Spartans had won 70-63 and the two teams had set a Div. 1-A regulation record, combining for 19 TDs and 133 points. The 133 points was just one shy of the all-time Div. 1-A record (regulation and overtime) set by Arkansas and Kentucky last year, with Arkansas prevailing in seven overtimes.
Amazingly enough, San Jose State did all of its scoring while controlling the football for less than 18 minutes of the game: The 211 kick-return yards the Spartans amassed repeatedly set up perfect scoring opportunities. What's more amazing is that the Spartans had only 83 total rushing yards, nothing compared to Rice's 570. But the Spartans moved the ball well in the air, totaling 372 passing yards and finding ten ways to get into the end zone to finally prevail.
PLATINUM PLAYAS OF THE WEEK: There were plenty of great performances during weekend number six, but here are the best of the best.
Offense: The Rice Owls running game. In a losing effort, the Rice running game went crazy, totaling 570 yards and eight TDs. Three guys set the tone on the ground: Marcus Rucker ran for 201 yards and two TDs, Greg Henderson picked up 156 yards and three TDs, and Joel Armstrong ran for 120 yards and a TD. Pure craziness.
Defense: Junior Rosegreen. This is a no-brainer. Rosegreen set an Auburn record and tied an SEC record with four, count them four, interceptions in the Tigers whooping of Tennessee in Knoxville.
