The 10th week of college football gave the Ohio State Buckeyes a big reason to smile.
After No. 2 Boston College and No. 4 Arizona State fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday, there remain only three undefeated teams in Div. I football: Ohio State, the Kansas Jayhawks, and the Hawaii Warriors.
The problem with the BCS system has always been its capacity to accurately calculate the strength and ability of a team. Last year, the Boise State Broncos had the only other undefeated regular season besides the Buckeyes and believed they deserved a shot at the National Championship over teams like the Florida Gators, who had already lost a game.
The Broncos' dramatic victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl fueled more complaints about a BCS system that wouldn't allow an undefeated team - one which clearly had legitimate talent - to play for the National Championship.
The Warriors are looking to do what the Broncos couldn't: get to the championship game. But the Warriors, like the Broncos last season, have been hurt by the strength, or lack thereof, of their schedule.
Hawaii has played two Div. I-AA opponents and their Div. I-A opponents this season have a combined record of 13-38. In comparison, Boise State last season played one Div. I-AA opponent and their opponents compiled a 28-31 record.
The Warriors aren't just winning all of their games, but they're winning them emphatically. In only eight games, they have outscored their opponents 415 to 179, scoring at least 42 points in each. The Warriors are ranked first in the country in points per game, averaging 51.9, and second in the nation in passing yards with 3,676.
Quarterback Colt Brennan, one of the leading candidates in the Heisman Trophy race this season, leads the Warriors. Brennan has thrown for 2,820 yards, good for ninth in the country, but has done so in two to three fewer games than the first eight quarterbacks. But more importantly, he owns a passer rating of 160.3, which ranks him third in the nation.
For a program with only seven Bowl appearances and no national titles since its founding in 1909, this year could be a historic one. Coming off a bye week, the Warriors have four games left in the season. Their biggest challenge will be against the No. 21 Broncos on Nov. 23. Four more wins could mean a bid for the National Championship game, as well as a run at the Heisman for Brennan.
The Warriors are not the only team to come out of the woodwork this season. The No. 13 Connecticut Huskies, better known for their basketball programs, have never been ranked in the Top 25 in football. That is, until they broke through to the No. 23 spot after an impressive 22-15 win over the South Florida Bulls Oct. 27.
The Huskies, who are 8-1 on the season, continued their hot streak Saturday with a 38-19 victory over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. With the win, UConn will likely move up in the rankings - possibly into the top-10.
The Scarlet Knights beat the Huskies in just about every facet of the game. They had 511 yards of total offense to the Huskies' 396 and 29 first downs to the Huskies' 18.
But the Knights failed to capitalize in the red zone. In five trips inside the 20, the Knights notched only one touchdown and three field goals, while missing on another field goal try. But really, the Knights were doomed from the first minute of play when the Huskies blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a safety. The Huskies took the 2-0 lead and never looked back.
The Knights still had a chance early in the third quarter when a field goal narrowed the score to 25-19 in favor of UConn. But a 33-yard run from Huskies running back Donald Brown, who came off the bench and ran for 154 yards, was the nail in the coffin.
UConn ended the game on a 13-0 run - a run that gave the Scarlet Knights their fourth loss on the season to drop them to 5-4 and sixth in the Big East.
The Huskies, on the other hand, are now 4-0 and first in the Big East. Left in the schedule are three Big East rivals, including the Cincinnati Bearcats, Syracuse Orange and No. 7-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers, who are ranked second in the conference.
