Kerkhoff’s college football roundup: Havoc in conference play
Checking out conference standings today, we find Southern California seventh in the Pacific-10, Wisconsin tied for seventh in the Big Ten and Vanderbilt leading the SEC East over Georgia and Florida.
League play has started everywhere but the Big 12, and something about taking on the familiar released the upset beast, starting with the Trojans’ loss to Oregon State on Thursday. By the weekend’s conclusion, three of the top four and six of the top 20 had fallen.
Taking advantage is the Big 12, where Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Texas Tech give the conference four in the top seven of The Associated Press poll.
Big 12
•RISING: Oklahoma schools turned back opponents who had delivered shocking blows in recent years. Oklahoma smacked Texas Christian, the program that handed coach Bob Stoops one of his two home losses in 10 years, 35-10 behind a school-record 206 receiving yards from Manuel Johnson. A Sooners concern: Against an eight-man TCU front, Oklahoma averaged less than 1 yard per attempt.
A year ago, Troy embarrassed Oklahoma State. Not this time. In the 55-24 victory, the Cowboys racked up 612 total yards against a team that was allowing only 238 per game.
•FALLING: Colorado couldn’t build on its victory over West Virginia and fell to Florida State in Jacksonville. The Seminoles harassed quarterback Cody Hawkins all afternoon, sacking him four times. And when do victories feel like defeats? When Kansas State allows 509 yards of total offense to Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas A&M escapes Army.
•THIS WEEK: Conference play, finally. On the first weekend, the top four ranked teams hit the road: Oklahoma is at Baylor, Missouri at Nebraska, Texas at Colorado and Texas Tech at Kansas State.
Southeastern
•RISING: Mississippi took full advantage of what Florida offered. Busted coverage led to the Rebels’ long touchdown pass for the go-ahead score. When Florida cut it to one with an answer touchdown, Ole Miss blocked the extra point. The Gators’ defense couldn’t contain the “Wild Rebel” formation, a direct snap to tailback Dexter McCluster. If the formation sounds familiar, Mississippi coach Houston Nutt ran the same thing at Arkansas last year with Darren McFadden. It was Nutt’s first big statement as the Rebels’ coach.
•FALLING: Call off the Dawgs. And chuck the gimmick fashion statement while you’re at it. Blackout? This was a punchout by Alabama over Georgia, which appropriately looked as if it were dressed for its own funeral. The Bulldogs didn’t measure up on the offensive line, dominated by Bama’s defense. Penalties and turnovers wrecked Georgia, which has one of the nation’s most difficult schedules remaining.
•THIS WEEK: A somewhat quiet weekend, but an opportunity for undefeated Vanderbilt to make its biggest statement of the year as Auburn visits.
Big Ten
•RISING: That really was just Penn State’s second victory in its last nine conference openers? Wow. The big gun in the triumph over Illinois was wide receiver Derrick Williams, who became the first player in coach Joe Paterno’s 43 seasons to score a touchdown by rushing, receiving and on a kickoff return.
•FALLING: Iowa committed five turnovers, which helped Northwestern erase a 17-3 deficit. The Wildcats, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1962, started three drives from the Hawkeyes’ 29, 33 and 19. “That’s what turnovers will do to you,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.
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