Week 5 NCAA Football Roundup

Stephen Garcia suspended from starting lineup after throwing more interceptions:  South Carolina embarrassingly lost to Auburn this past weekend, and Stephen Garcia played a big part, throwing his eighth and ninth picks of the year.  He completed a mere 39.1% of his passes, although one was a 50 yard TD strike to Alshon Jeffery (it's about time).  Michael Dyer looked more like Marcus Lattimore though this weekend, as Dyer took an unbelievable 41 carries (albeit only for 3.5 yards per carry), but helped Auburn bleed the clock out.  Lattimore managed only 66 yards on 17 carries, while Stephen Garcia ran for 62 yards himself.

Auburn QB Barrett Trotter was arguably worse than Garcia, as he went 12/23, threw an identical 1 TD and 2 INTs, but managed only 4.9 yards per attempt to Garcia's 7.0 YPA.  Auburn's winning touchdown came on a Philip Lutzenkirchen (coming to a spelling bee near you soon) catch, putting an exclamation point on a 5+ minute drive ending with 1:38 left in the game.  South Carolina got to Auburn's 30 yard line with a 13 yard pass, but time expired before they could spike the ball.  The Ol' Ball Coach has already stated that backup QB Connor Shaw will start for the Gamecocks and play the whole game next week against Kentucky.  If you'll remember, Shaw started the season opener against ECU and was so much worse than Stephen Garcia that he got pulled by halftime.

Denard can pass again; Minnesota masquerades as actual football team: Michigan absolutely embarrassed the Golden Gophers 58-0, and it was never even a contest.  Michigan's defense is now second in the country in scoring defense (10.2 PPG), a far cry from their past three seasons under Rich Rod.  Is that a farce?  Absolutely, as the schedule to this point isn't exactly strong.  Regardless, this looks like a defense much more prepared for Big Ten conference play than in years past.  Michigan averaged 7.9 yards per play, and outgained Minnesota 580 yards to 177.  Denard began the game 11 for 11, and finished it 15 of 19 for 169 yards and 2 TDs.  He also added 51 yards on the ground, but that was far less necessary.  The Michigan story on offense was diminutive RB Vincent Smith, who ran for a touchdown, caught one, and even threw for a 17 yard score in the second quarter.  The Wolverines basically abandoned the pro style offense approach, which is comforting for me to see as a Michigan fan, because Denard just isn't made for it.  

Minnesota admittedly was missing QB Marquise Gray, who had a toe injury and couldn't plant or cut on it quickly enough to play, but they're also admittedly an awful team this year.  They've lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota State so far this year, and surprisingly enough by the names, only one is an FCS school.  Minnesota and coach Jerry Kill are in for a rough season, and Michigan has slight hopes to contend in their division and get the chance to lose to Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship.

Is there anything Andrew Luck can't do?  Andrew Luck and Stanford routed UCLA 45-19, and Luck had his typical near-perfect game (23/27, 227 yards, 3 TD).  But the surprising part of the game was Andrew Luck's tremendous reception during the game:

Easily in talks for one of the receptions of the year, and this only further showcases the elite athleticism Andrew Luck possesses for a pocket-passing style quarterback.  Luck has found a way to gain national prominence even while playing on the West Coast, as Sportscenter cut into a 0-0 game just to show Luck's catch.  Stanford remains a national story, and they played very well in their first game minus LB Shayne Skov, who is out for the season.  If they beat Oregon, the season may be an undefeated one for Stanford, and they'll get much talk for BCS title contention.

This is what Alabama's defense does to mere mortals:

Florida QB John Brantley being taken off the field.
(Sam Greenwood - Getty Images)

Alabama knocked John Brantley out of the game in the first half, and he took Florida's hopes of winning the game with him.  Brantley was the first QB to make Alabama's defense look human this year, throwing a 65-yard TD to WR Andre Debose on the game's opening play, and finishing the night 11/16 for 190 yards, the TD and 1 INT.  The INT unfortunately was returned for a touchdown by Alabama, but regardless, Brantley had Florida squarely in this game as I projected.  Poor freshman QB Jeff Driskel was thrown into the fire and led the Gators to a mere 64 total yards in the second half.  Now Driskel gets to face the other defense that's in debate for best in the country, LSU, as John Brantley is already ruled out for this week's game.

Alabama's offense rolled in this one, behind the 29 carries for 181 yards by Trent Richardson.  QB A.J. McCarron looked very unimpressive (12/25, 140 yards), so if Brantley had stayed in the game, this would have been far more competitive.  The story was obviously the Alabama defense here, which held Florida to 222 yards (15 rushing!), and forced 4 fumbles, as well as accounting for a touchdown on LB Courtney Upshaw's INT return.  The only games left this season to challenge Alabama are their games against LSU, at Auburn, and the SEC championship.  Florida could still lose this week and get a rematch against LSU/Alabama in the SEC Championship, as South Carolina and Georgia aren't overly impressive teams, so the SEC East division race will be interesting to watch.

Ron Zook's job is safe, again.:  After three underwhelming seasons at Illinois, Zook's Illini have come up in the clutch for him again, and look to be a legitimate top 25 team.  QB Nathan Scheelhaase looks to have improved even further this season, as he threw for a career-high 392 yards and scored the game's final touchdown on a QB sneak with 13 seconds left in the game to top Northwestern 38-35.  WR A.J. Jenkins was Scheelhaase's main target, as he caught 12 of Scheelhaase's completions, all 3 of his TD passes, and accounted for 268 yards receiving.  Illinois struggled to run the ball, which is odd for them, but instead passed all over what looks to be a very weak Northwestern secondary.

Northwestern QB Dan Persa returned to the Wildcats in this game and played well, (10/14, 123 yards, 4 TD), although you could tell they were limiting his pass attempts to keep him safe.  Persa left in the fourth quarter anyways with a reaggravation of his Achilles, but is expected to play against Michigan this week.  Northwestern RB Mark Trumpy also was injured and has been ruled out for the rest of the season, although most Northwestern RBs seem to be fairly replaceable.

Texas A&M gets first taste of choking away an SEC win:  A&M once again, had their opponent down for the count, leading 35-17 at halftime, and found a way to choke it away.  Arkansas outscored A&M 25-3 in the second half to win 42-38 in A&M's second consecutive loss in a shootout.  Tyler Wilson threw for a school-record 510 yards and 5 TDs in the game to keep Arkansas' hopes afloat, and WR Jarius Wright had 281 yards of those.  A&M's approach was very different, as RBs Christine Michael and Cyrus Gray accounted for all five first-half touchdowns.  Ryan Tannehill finished with 247 yards and 1 INT.  A&M simply doesn't have the defense to close out games, and clearly doesn't possess the capacity to be a BCS team.  Arkansas isn't a great team either, but at least they can hold on to leads and surmount large deficits.

Good Effort!
- UTEP kept pace with Houston and QB Case Keenum putting up their sixth touchdown of the game with 6:54 left in the game to decrease Houston's lead to 49-42.  Unfortunately, they didn't score again.
- As Utah State is prone to doing, they choked away a late-game lead, letting BYU drive for a game-winning TD with 15 seconds left to win 27-24.
- Navy nearly beat Air Force, but lost 35-34 after missing an extra point in overtime.  Navy QB Kriss Proctor "taunted" Air Force and Navy missed the long extra point.
- Arizona's offense led by QB Nick Foles kept pace with USC's offense, but couldn't come out on top, losing 48-41 at USC.  Nick Foles should win an award for "Best Performance in a Loss" every week, as he again topped 400 yards passing with 4 TDs.
- SMU upset TCU in the "Battle for the Iron Skillet" rivalry game 40-33.

Participation Awards!
- Bowling Green took an early 10-3 lead over West Virginia.  Then Dana Holgorsen's offense beat them senseless, scoring 52 unanswered points.
- Oklahoma destroyed Ball State 62-6, allowing 0 rushing yards, and intercepting Ball State's QBs three times.
- Wisconsin absolutely dismantled Nebraska's one-dimensional offense and tore up their defense on the way to a 48-17 rout (fun fact: Nebraska's the first ranked team to appear in the Participation Awards, and no Bo Pelini, you shouldn't be proud).
- Notre Dame played Purdue for some reason, and beat them easily 38-10.
- It ain't 2010 anymore for Texas, as they avenged their loss to Iowa State last year, jumping out to a 34-0 lead in the first half, and winning by the final score 37-14.
- Bethune-Cookman led Miami (FL) 7-0 after the first quarter.  Then Miami started trying and outscored them 45-3 the rest of the game.