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Maybe the most remarkable thing about Tim Tebow at UF? He was keeping Cam
Newton on the bench.
Cameron Newton played Saturday -- and that was the story of the day. The
fact that Newton was brilliant -- running for 151 yards and two TDs while
throwing for 148 more and two other TDs against the Georgia Bulldogs after
one of the most drama-filled weeks any college player can have -- actually
isn't surprising at all.
Newton is a fantastic talent. We all know that by now. Oh, maybe the
realization that he's a better passer than most of us thought two months ago
is relevant, but his playmaking ability is something very special.
In fact, despite all of the commotion around him, he looked like the one
Tiger who was the most ready to play Saturday afternoon. His teammates
committed a bunch of mental mistakes, especially early on, but you can't
blame them after what the previous week must've seemed like internally for
Auburn football. Meanwhile, their star QB opens up 9-of-11, with those two
incompletions coming on a drop by Emory Blake that ended up as a Georgia INT
and a drop by Mario Fannin.
I have no idea what is going to happen next for Newton or Auburn or the SEC.
But I know it's going to be messy. The Tigers have almost two weeks until
their game at archrival Alabama. It's a game I had long expected them to
lose -- mostly because I thought the Crimson Tide was just that good. And I
still think Bama's very talented, but at this point, I won't believe someone
can stop Newton until I see it.
Last season, Tim Tebow led the country in passing efficiency at 164.17,
followed by Kellen Moore at 161.65. The guy who led the nation the year
before, Heisman winner Sam Bradford, was at 180.84. After 11 games, Newton,
the guy everyone knew as this marvelous running QB, is at 183.58, trailing
only Moore's 191.15 against much weaker competition.
You'd think defenses would come up with some answers to at least slow him
down, only he keeps playing better. In Auburn's last five games, he's
completed over 72 percent of his passes with a 9-1 TD-INT mark and that lone
pick came on a dropped pass by his wideout Saturday.
It's funny to think of all the Bill Brasky/Chuck Norris one-liners about
Tebow. Perhaps the best one would be the one rooted in reality: "Tim Tebow
used to keep Cam Newton from playing."
The Tigers' opponent in the SEC title game will be the South Carolina
Gamecocks, who blasted host Florida on Saturday. The Gators have been
sputtering all season, right from their opener. They had looked in the past
few weeks like they'd settled down, but against a Gamecocks team that had
just lost by three TDs at home to Arkansas, UF bottomed out. They looked
overmatched and unprepared.
Steve Spurrier came back to the Swamp and ran it down his alma mater's
throats with his prized recruit, freshman RB Marcus Lattimore, who carried
the ball 40 times for a season-best 212 yards. Lattimore, who has been
banged up at times this season, outgained Urban Meyer's team by himself, 243
-226 in one of the shocking stats of the season. As outstanding as WR Alshon
Jeffery is, it's Lattimore who has enabled Spurrier's team to finally turn
the corner in the SEC.
I said the other day that if Spurrier was ever going to win the SEC East at
South Carolina, this had to be the season. UF won't be this, um, average in
Meyer's tenure in Gainesville again. Georgia's down. Tennessee is way down.
This is it, and the Gamecocks responded in a huge way.
Meanwhile, the calls for Meyer to make some staff changes will grow. He had
lost only two games in the Swamp in his first five seasons and now has lost
three this year. The three-headed QB failed miserably as UF barely moved the
ball Saturday night when the game mattered. John Brantley, the QB who many
had penciled in as a star, looks deflated. Florida is 84th in total offense
and 92nd in passing efficiency. In 2008, they were 26th and ninth.
The depths of all of this: UF has been held to 14 points or less in three of
their last six games. In Meyer's five previous seasons at Florida, they'd
been held to only 14 or less four times.
Cal contains -- somewhat -- Oregon
The California Golden Bears did something no one else has been able to do in
a very long time: slow down the Oregon offense. The Bears held Oregon to
only one offensive touchdown. That is stunning for a defense that had
surrendered 35 points or more three times this season. Cal limited them to
40 points under the Ducks' season scoring average and 250 yards below their
norm, although Oregon also limited Cal to its season low of 193 yards in the
15-13 Ducks win thanks to a penalty that wiped out a short Giorgio
Tavecchio field goal.
The Bears, who do have some talented athletes throughout their defense, were
able to bottle up Oregon, which is obviously easier said than done. They
limited the Ducks' big plays, which was their focus. Of course, lots of
other teams have aspired to take away the Ducks' big plays, too.
In the first quarter, Oregon didn't have a play longer than 11 yards. For
the game, Oregon only had four plays of 10 yards or more and the only one
that went beyond 20 was a 22-yard TD pass from Darron Thomas to Jeff Maehl.
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Darron Thomas saw some looks Saturday night he wasn't familiar with.
"Their defense came out and showed us a lot of different looks that we hadn'
t really seen," Thomas said. "So we had to adjust some things on the fly.
But I'll give it up to their defense. They did a good job."
That 3-3-5 defensive look that so many Michigan fans hate? It was something
Cal used quite a bit Saturday night, employing man coverage in the secondary
and utilizing 6-foot-3, 212-pound strong safety Chris Conte to spy Thomas.
"All the rest of the Pac-10 can take notes right now," Conte told
BearTerritory.net. "We played zero-coverage the whole game. I was
responsible for the quarterback. They do all that zone-read stuff, and my
sole job was to be on the quarterback, and then, if I can help out late on
pass, then help out. Everybody just accounted for a man. That was the key to
success, right there. I had no doubt that we were going to win this game,
and I knew that our defense would come out and execute the game plan. We had
a great week of practice, everyone was really fired up, and it was ripe for
the upset. We all knew that, if we came out here and executed, this team
was very beatable. They had big plays against other teams, and, in watching
films, you could see that people were making mistakes, and they exploit
those mistakes."
We'll see how the Ducks respond. They have two weeks to get ready for an
Arizona team that had the Pac-10's best defense, but now has lost two in a
row, giving up 66 points.
'Almost Saturday,' Part III
The No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs barely beat an improved San Diego State Aztecs
team. The problem for Gary Patterson: If you're Auburn or Oregon, you can
afford scares. If you're not, it's trouble. The Boise State Broncos jumped
them in the AP poll on Sunday; they flipped spots at No. 3 (BSU) and No. 4 (
TCU).
The Horned Frogs' D held the Aztecs to one first down for nearly the game's
first three quarters and still almost got beat despite scoring 40 points.
That's almost unthinkable.
The Aztecs fall to 7-3 with losses at Mizzou, at BYU and now at TCU. Those
three road losses have been by a combined 11 points. Coach Brady Hoke, who
put together a very good staff when he got the job, is positioning himself
very well for other jobs should he look to an opening at an AQ conference
school. He took over a team that had just gone 2-10.
Another problem for TCU: The Utah Utes got blown out by an injury-ravaged
Notre Dame Fighting Irish team that had lost two in a row. That's not good
for the résumé. With a win over Army next week, the Irish can lock up a
bowl bid, which may not sound like much, but for a program that has truly
had a nightmarish year, it's something to build on. The Irish had lost their
previous 11 games to ranked opponents before Utah came to town.
Cougs win! Cougs win!
I'm not sure if Washington State Cougars coach Paul Wulff got himself off
the hot seat with the Cougars' win at Oregon State, but I think he should
have. Ask anyone who has faced this team and you'll hear about how much this
bunch has improved from last year. The win over the Beavers was WSU's first
Pac-10 win since beating winless Washington in 2008. The Cougars have some
good young players to build around. I don't think they're going to be
contending for a Rose Bowl spot anytime soon, but you have to get "decent"
before you become "good" and they're starting to look like they're on track
for decent.
Tyler Bray and the Vols
The best recruiting decision Lane Kiffin may have made at Tennessee was
moving on under-the-radar QB Tyler Bray, a lanky Californian, who at the
time was committed to San Diego State. Back then, Bray's recruiting stock
was percolating some. He competed at USC's summer camp, battling for the one
QB offers the Trojans' staff was going to extend. It went to Jesse
Scroggins.
Ironically, if USC had offered Bray, Scroggins might be at Tennessee now and
Bray would be the one redshirting at USC.
Bray had impressed the Elite 11 staff at a regional workout he had in Las
Vegas and that earned him a spot at a big Elite 11 camp in Southern
California, where the kid shined. As I wrote back then, Bray's stock was
really going up.
Kiffin, who already had been intrigued by the late bloomer's film, had
called Bob Johnson. The veteran QBs coach, who helps run the Elite 11 camps
drills, filled Kiffin in on just how sharp Bray had been as compared to the
other top QB prospects around the country. The Vols moved on Bray, who may
not have looked great when he first arrived in Knoxville, but right now
Derek Dooley has to be thrilled by what his young QB is doing.
Bray and the Vols were fortunate early against Ole Miss that a pass went off
Rebel LB Jonathan Cornell right to UT speedster Justin Hunter for an 80-
yard TD. After that, Bray really got cranked up. He became the first QB to
pass for 300 yards in his first two career starts.
Assorted Saturday thoughts
• I'm not sure which member of the Oklahoma State Cowboys should be in
my Heisman top five -- whether it's Justin Blackmon, Kendall Hunter or QB
Brandon Weeden. But I don't think you'd be wrong with any of them. The
strong-armed Weeden carved up a Texas pass defense that came into the game
ranked No. 2 in the country. Weeden torched them for 409 yards, his second
400-yard passing game in a row.
• Hats off to Northwestern Wildcats QB Dan Persa. I remember at Big
Ten media day NU coach Pat Fitzgerald was gushing about the guy and Persa
backed up every word this season right down to leading the Cats to a pair of
fourth-quarter scoring drives against the tough Iowa D. Unfortunately, he
ruptured his Achilles on the TD and is done for the year.
• Purdue lost at home in sloppy conditions to Michigan, but you can't
fault DE Ryan Kerrigan, who once again was superb. The agile DE had 10
tackles, five TFLs, four sacks and two forced fumbles. The Boilers' D also
held Denard Robinson to 68 rushing yards and forced five turnovers.
• Boom Herron went for 190 yards as Ohio State rallied to throttle
Penn State. The Nittany Lions' run defense is ninth in the Big Ten. PSU was
second in run defense through Week 11 in 2009 and it led the league through
Week 11 of 2008.
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It's been tough sledding on D for JoePa and his team.
• Most underrated player in the country: Right now my vote goes to BC
tackling machine Luke Kuechly. He plays next to Mark Herzlich, one of the
best stories in college sports and on a team that is average in an middling
BCS conference, but the under-recruited sophomore linebacker is special. The
nation's leading tackler had 21 stops Saturday against Duke and had eight
solos in the first half alone; only two players in the country average eight
per game. "The guy just plays so incredibly fast," raved a Duke assistant.
• Nice bounce-back for young FSU kicker Dustin Hopkins. One week after
he missed a late field goal in the loss to UNC, he drilled a game-winning
55-yarder on the game's final play to give the Noles a 16-13 win over
Clemson. And that kick looked like it would've been good from 65.
• In what has been a disappointing season for the Miami Hurricanes,
true freshman Stephen Morris may be the biggest bright spot. He has rallied
a program that needed a jolt of energy. Morris, who was being ticketed for a
redshirt season until Jacory Harris and A.J. Highsmith got injured, again,
looked very sharp for Miami, who has had back-to-back 500-yard games in his
two starts.
Morris is a capable runner and can really put some zip on his passes. The
Canes' inconsistent wideouts have had fewer drops with him in the lineup.
But coach Randy Shannon has said Jacory Harris will return as the starter
when he's ready to come back from his concussion. Next week, Va. Tech comes
to down; it hasn't lost yet in the ACC. The Hokies' D embarrassed Miami in
the slop last year at Lane Stadium.
Tech's defense is coming off a terrific performance, where it picked off
four passes and blanketed UNC standout Dwight Jones, who had averaged seven
catches for 153 yards in his previous four games. Against the Hokies, Jones
managed one catch for yards. Can they do something similar to Miami WR
Leonard Hankerson, the Canes' best receiver since Andre Johnson?
• Stat of the Day: From ESPN research: Wisconsin men's basketball team
scored more than 80 in a Big Ten game once last season. It was against
Indiana. Interesting considering Bret Bielema's Badgers scored 83 on the IU
football team.
• Two scores made me do a double-take when I saw them. The Wisconsin
one and the third-quarter score of the FIU-Troy game. I clicked on ESPN3 to
watch some of the Golden Panthers' biggest win in school history, taking
down the four-time defending conference champs at home, 52-35.
I know people dismiss the Sun Belt Conference as the bottom of the FBS, but
considering how far this FIU program has come, it's clear it deserves a lot
of credit. Just four years ago, FIU was winless. It had once lost 23 games
in a row. It withstood hefty scholarship hits. I'm not sure any coach at the
FBS level inherited a worse situation than what Mario Cristobal got when he
took this job. It had to absorb almost 30 lost scholarships in three and a
half years. The program was in complete disarray when he arrived.
As I wrote a while back, Cristobal is as tough as there is in the coaching
world. His team now reflects that. He's always been a dogged recruiter and
all of that is finally paying off. They began the season 0-4, losing to four
programs from AQ conferences. Only one of those games was a rout. Since
then, they've won four of five, punctuated by the big win against Troy,
where FIU set school records for total offense and rushing yards, rolling
for 668 and 448. Three Panthers eclipsed the 100-yard mark against the Sun
Belt's best run defense.
"Maybe they'll stop picking us for homecoming from now on,'' FIU running
back Darriet Perry, who had a game-high 186 yards, told the Miami Herald. "I
don't think anything else is better than [silencing the crowd], and letting
them know we're here to play our game.''
I traded some texts with Cristobal on Sunday morning, who was fired up about
the direction of his program. He said his team has been grinding away and
the staff has figured out what they do best. The last thing he wrote: "Must
stay HUNGRY!!!"
• Tweet of the Day: From Ohio State beat writer Doug Lesmerises:
@PDBuckeyes Florida and Texas No. 3 and No. 4 in preseason coaches poll, now
combined 10-10. |
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