Week #5 - NCAA Ruminations

You can't spell "DEFENSE" without SEC. See? There's an "S", and an "E" and a...wait a minute

OK - in Tuscaloosa, they may have righted the ship, defensively speaking, having posted a shutout over #21 Ole Miss and Florida is still hanging it's minuscule hopes of anything on a defense that is about the only positive on the team but the rest of the league looks positively charitable. South Carlolina gave up 25 to Central Florida. Tennessee gave 24 to South Alabama?!? LSU 44 to Georgia and Georgia 41 to LSU. Texas A&M gives 33 to Arkansas which gave 45 to the Aggies. Mizzou gave lowly Arkansas St 19 and Vandy gave UAB 24. That's a lot of points for a league that made its bed on stout defenses during its existing 7 year title run.

Lane Kiffin Watch

Mainly because I'm fascinated by the story. The Lane Kiffin led USC Trojans lost to Arizona State by the score of 62 to 41. This is noteworthy not only because it puts the Trojans in an 0-2 hole in the PAC12 standings but also because it now stands as a game tied for the single most points given up by USC in the school's illustrious history. I still wonder if he'll make it through the season. Of course, if he doesn't and knowing his luck, he'll land another NFL gig - Dan Snyder - I'm looking your direction.

Editor's note: The preceding paragraph was drafted at 6:30 in the morning Sunday, about an hour before the news came out about Lane Kiffin's termination.

OK, so he got the boot. Reportedly, this was decided in the 3rd quarter and the news delivered after the plane landed in Los Angeles. I imagine the conversation started like this, "Hey Lane, remember how you left Tennessee in the middle of the night? Well, this is really kinda funny when you think about it..."

Ed Orgeron, architect of the defensive line that just got plowed for 62 points, is the interim head coach - I'm sure that will work out just fine.

Ranking the Rankings

There are eight one loss teams in the top 25. The rest of the bunch is undefeated. Of the eight one loss teams, six are SEC teams, five of whom sit at 18 or or higher and three of whom sit in the top 10. It is hard to really say much is wrong this early in the season but, history would suggest, that with any other league, a loss early on is more damaging. Georgia is sitting at six, just three spots behind Clemson, to whom the Dawgs lost in the season opener. Texas A&M and LSU, who lost to the #1 and #6 team, respectively, sit at 9 and 10, ahead of, among others, Oklahoma, UCLA, and Miami. Again, none of those rankings are criminal but they are evidence of the skew provided by preseason rankings.

The real odd one is Baylor. The Bears have only played three games to date, while most have played four and many have played five. Based on the considerable strength of victories over, in order, Wofford, Buffalo, and LA Monroe, they merit a #17 ranking. Mmmmkay.

Odds and Ends

There are 11 winless teams through Week #5. Six of them reside in equals amounts between the American Athletic Conference (home of Louisville) the Mid American (home of no one of consequence.) 

The Legends division of the Big 10 doesn't have a single team with worse than a one loss record.

Oregon has not scored less than 55 all year - which they scored yesterday against Cal, after clearly letting off the gas. Colorado is on the Ducks schedule for next week. Colorado gave up 24 to Central Arkansas and 44 to Oregon State = oh boy.

Virginia Tech donned these beauties Thursday night against GT...

I don't think this had the impact the designer hoped for

Here's a headline I bet you never thought you'd see: "Miami QB Morris: USF dirty team"