Blair Kerkhoff’s college football conference call
Halfway home in a college football season means the marching band takes the field and we spotlight the biggest surprises (pleasant), disappointments and toughest to figure by conference of the first half.
One program, East Carolina, met all of those conditions in a matter of weeks.
It’s been a wild ride in the first half. Texas has become the fourth No.1-ranked team of the season, and it’s the first time since 1984 the Longhorns have held the top spot during the regular season.
Even the Heisman race got scrambled on Saturday. Missouri’s Chase Daniel looked like the front-runner, until his three interceptions in the loss to Oklahoma State doomed the Tigers. Hand the baton to Texas quarterback Colt McCoy. Daniel and McCoy square off this Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Ten teams remain undefeated, and only Washington and North Texas are winless. There’s been a revenge of the nerds with brainiac programs such as Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke and Stanford posting winning records.
Want to try and guess at a BCS national-championship game matchup? It would be Texas-Alabama today. Next week it could be Penn State-Florida because change has been a constant in the season’s first half.
ACC
•SURPRISE: Six teams have one loss, but nobody should feel better about itself than Duke, 3-2. The Blue Devils ended a 25-game conference losing streak when they beat Virginia. The world will seem upside down if Duke can hold serve against Miami at home this weekend.
•DISAPPOINTMENT: Wins for Miami this season are Charleston Southern, Texas A&M and Central Florida, and the Hurricanes and North Carolina State are the only ACC programs without conference triumphs. The defense is better, but the offense and quarterback play are struggling.
•TOUGHEST TO FIGURE: Virginia was on life support two weeks ago but since has throttled Maryland and East Carolina.
Big East
•SURPRISE: After dropping its opening game to Bowling Green — and the moaning growing louder over coach Dave Wannstedt — Pittsburgh ran off four straight victories, the latest an unexpected triumph at South Florida.
•DISAPPOINTMENT: At 1-5, Rutgers is off to its worst start since 2002 and the bad old days. Was it only two years ago the Scarlet Knights started 9-0 and finished 11-2?
•TOUGHEST TO FIGURE: Against Division I-A competition, Louisville wins one, then loses one. And home and road doesn’t seem to make a difference.
Big 10
•SURPRISE: Penn State might be the call, but until Saturday’s victory at Wisconsin, which game on the front end of the schedule looked like a loss? No, the choice in Minnesota. At 6-1, the Gophers are bowl eligible and have their toughest league test — at Ohio State — out of the way. This from a program that went 1-11 last season in coach Tim Brewster’s debut.
•DISAPPOINTMENT: Michigan, 2-4, is off to its worst start in 41 years. The coaching transition to Rich Rodriguez was going to be difficult, but nobody counted on a loss to Toledo. The program’s 33-year run of consecutive bowls is in peril as the Wolverines might not be favored to win another game. Special mention to Wisconsin, which went from national-title contender to last place in the conference in twoweeks.
•TOUGHEST TO FIGURE: Say this for Iowa, when the Hawkeyes win, they leave no doubt. But three straight losses by a combined nine points put a hole in the record. A decent bowl game isn’t out of the question.
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