HelmetNation Week 12 Top 25

Week 11 revealed much to us here at HelmetNation. We clearly believe that TCU is a Top 3 team with Florida and Alabama. Their speed was shockingly fast and we have seen both TCU and Texas play this year. Vegas may not agree with us, but we give the edge to TCU.

Frankly, we are hoping that an upset happens somewhere that allows TCU to play for the National Championship. They deserve it. And if they get that chance, they clearly need to thank the Utah Utes for paving the way for that opportunity.

Notre Dame and Iowa continued their fall back to mediocrity. Notre Dame should really join the Big 10. That whole league is about being mediocre. I would take the Mountain West head to head with the Big 10 anyday.

Georgia Tech and the triple option continue to roll. Stanford is looking more and more dangerous with Gerhard running roughshod and Luck playing well. USC is in real trouble and the luster is finally dulling just a tad on Pete Carroll. (Although I am sure Colin Cowherd can’t tell since his head is still stuck up Pete’s ass) Miami is average. Nebraska’s offense finally showed up and Rutgers and North Carolina are looking good right now.


HelmetNation Week 12 Top 25

1) Florida – Took down Spurrier and the pesky Gamecocks as they continued their march to the SEC Championship game. They could play their 3rd string and win with a blow out this weekend. Up next: vs. Florida International
2) Alabama – Hammered Mississippi State as they continued their march to the SEC Championship game. They could play their 3rd string and win with a blow out this weekend. Up next: vs. Chattanooga
3) TCU – After watching the Horned Frogs tear up the Utes, this team might be the best in the country. Their speed is insane and they love to hit. This team is badass! Up next: vs. @ Wyoming

4) Texas – Dismantled Baylor. However, after having watched this team play a couple of times and having seen TCU, I think the Horned Frogs are clearly a better team. I couldn’t go along with all the other talking heads and just pretend that because Texas is in the Big 12 that they are better. Up next: vs. Kansas
5) Boise St. – I think TCU ups its lead over the Broncos. I think head to head TCU is clearly several levels above the Broncos. Boise did crush Idaho this past weekend, however. Up next: @ Utah State
6) Georgia Tech – Stomped all over the Blue Devils. Year 2 running the Triple Option (not Spread option as the announcers kept calling it) and no one seems to be stopping it yet. I doubt they will. Up next: vs. Georgia Nov. 28th
7) Cincinnati – Okay, I am not even a Bearcat fan, but that was a touchdown. He had control as the ball crossed the plane. Once the ball crosses the plane and it is a touchdown the play is dead. How hard is this? That being said, I think the Bearcats have some weaknesses and they could be exploited by Pittsburgh down the road. Up next: vs. Illinois
8) Pittsburgh – Continued the Irish slide. The game wasn’t as close as the score as the Panthers dominated the trenches. Up next: @ West Virginia

9) Oregon – Tore up the Sun Devils in a nice rebound from losing to Stanford. Up next: @ Arizona
10) LSU – Struggled with Tech in a game they clearly were overlooking. But they did put them away. Up next: @ Mississippi
11) Oklahoma State – Safely put away an up and down Texas Tech team. Defense stepped up to keep the Red Raiders at bay. Up next: vs. Colorado
12) Stanford – This team is really coming together and Gerhard is an absolute BEAST! Trashed the Trojans for a 2nd straight time in the Coliseum. Up next: vs. California
13) Utah – I don’t think this loss was so much an indicator of Utah not being as good as thought, but just how good TCU really is. Wynn played well as a true freshman and the Utes will bounce back. Up next: vs. San Diego State
14) Virginia Tech – Jumped out early and often on the Terrapins and beat them up. Up next: vs. North Carolina State
15) Ohio State – Needed OT to beat Iowa and their redshirt freshman backup QB. If anything, this game symbolized the pathetic parity of the Big 10. Up next: @ Michigan
16) Oregon State – This team has been quietly good. They just annihilated a tiring Washington team. Up next: @ Washington State

17) Wisconsin – Just rolled Michigan. Whoop – di – do. The Big 10 is so sad right now. Up next: @ Northwestern
18) Rutgers – Absolutely crushed the roller-coaster South Florida Bulls. This team is fast and athletic and hasn’t even reached their potential. They just keep Choppin Wood! Up next: @ Syracuse

19) Nebraska – Offense picked up the defense this past week and put away Kansas in the 4th quarter. If they can put both of them together they could be truly dangerous. The game this Saturday is for all the Big 12 North marbles. Up next: vs. Kansas State

20) Clemson – Spiller and the Tigers ran past the Wolfpack. Are they peeking late? You never can tell with the consistently inconsistent Tigers. Up next: vs. Virginia
21) Brigham Young – How does this team even let New Mexico hang with them? This Cougar team is also as inconsistent as I have seen in a while. Taking on the option won’t be easy for them. Up next: vs. Air Force
22) North Carolina – Put a beat down on the Hurricanes of Miami. The Tar Heels can play a little football too! Up next: @ Boston College
23) USC – I am not even sure this Trojan team should still be ranked in the Top 25 at all. I am probably being way to kind leaving them here. Pete Carroll finally has some work to do. Up next: vs. UCLA
24) Penn State – Again, beating up on Big 10 weaklings does nothing to impress us. Up next: @ Michigan State
25) Miami – So much for all the early season National Championship hype. This team seems fairly pedestrian to us. Up next: vs. Duke

Let's See How Far We've Come

Want a good laugh? Here is the preseason AP poll released back on Aug 22, 2009.

1- Florida
2- Texas
3- Oklahoma (oops)
4- USC (oops)
5- Alabama
6- Ohio St
7- Virginia Tech

8- Mississippi (Honestly?)
9- Oklahoma St (Doh!)
10- Penn St (I know, Paterno has earned his right to suck)
11- LSU
12- California (worst. pick. ever.)
13- Georgia (Yikes)
14- Boise St.
15- Georgia Tech
16- Oregon
17- TCU (can you say under-rated?)
18- Florida St (can you say 'someone retired too late?')
19- Utah
20- BYU

21- North Carolina (someone thought this was the preseason basketball poll apparently)
22- Iowa
23- Notre Dame (those pesky Navy Midshipmen gotcha twice in a row, huh Weis? Ouch, that's gotta hurt.)
24- Nebraska
25- Kansas

Now here we are in week 11:

1- Florida (I think they've been #1 for 8,421 weeks straight now. At least it feels like it.)
2- Texas (still unproven if you ax me)
3- Alabama
4- TCU (deserves a shot at the big boys)

5- Cincinnati (good but not great)
6- Boise St (no idea how good this team is but if they end up playing TCU in a BCS bowl game I'm gonna vomit)
7- Georgia Tech
8- Pitt (WTF?)
9- LSU (I still don't know a single team that would want to play these guys)
10- Ohio St.
11- USC (I'm sorry, didn't USC beat Ohio St?)
12- Miami
13- Houston
14- Oregon
15- Iowa
16- Utah
17- Oklahoma St

18- Arizona (Let's get serious, voters)
19- Penn St (I just don't get the ongoing Paterno love-fest)
20- Virginia Tech (every year this team gives a few games away)
21- Wisconsin (Again...how does this happen? Did they threaten to curdle all the cheese if they weren't voted in?)
22- BYU
23- South Florida
24- Clemson (used to not be able to finish, now they start weak and finish strong)
25- Stanford (was Saturday an anomaly?)

Let's play the 'Who have you beat for me lately?" game...

Florida- Since Meyer got there? Just about everyone...
Texas- Barely beat the worst Oklahoma team in a decade and a sporadic at best OK St. team. Not impressed so far, and they won't get tested the rest of the way unless they face Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game.
Bama- Beat Virginia Tech, Ole Miss, South Carolina and LSU, to name a few
TCU- that win at Clemson earlier this year is looking better and better. Oh, and they held BYU to it's lowest point total of the year.
Cincinnati- Beat Oregon St. and South Florida. Hmmmm...not truly convinced. Yet.
Boise St.- Beat Oregon and, uh, er, well, How 'bout them Cubbies???

Georgia Tech- Beat NC and Virginia Tech.
Pitt- Beat South Florida and some small innocent, defenseless animals. Still has to play the Nati.
LSU- Georgia, Auburn
Ohio St.- Wisconsin, Penn St. and well, Navy, which is more than Charlie Weis can say.
USC- Ohio St, Cal (they don't count) and Notre Dame. They don't count, either, actually.
Miami- Florida St, Choklahoma and Georgia Tech
Houston- Oklahoma St, Texas Tech
Oregon- Utah, Cal, USC
Iowa- Beat Penn St., Wisconsin and your mom
Utah- Buehler? Buehler?
Oklahoma St- Georgia
Arizona- please stop wasting our time
Penn St.- Temple. Oh, wait. Buildings don't count.
Virginia Tech- Nebraska, Miami

Wisconsin- WTH is this team doing in the Top 25???
BYU- Oklahoma. Wow...this team had pretty high expectations, too.
South Florida- Florida St, West Virginia. Oh, and Wofford.
Clemson- Miami, Florida St
Stanford- Oregon

Well, there you have it. A lot of teams with not very good resume's. But there are a few great weeks left in the season and this week's match-ups is no exception. And I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but when did ESPN start scheduling college football every day of the week? Not that I'm complaining, mind you. But let's put some watchable games on if that's gonna be the case.


We may have to wait til Friday for the first good one. West Virginia will look to upset Cincinnati and it could be a tough test for the Bearcats. Can they keep the unbeaten streak alive? I think Cincy's defense will keep WV under 30 points, which is more than enough to win this one.

Indiana will beat Penn St- mark my words.


Iowa at Ohio St.
Right now the Hawkeyes are just beaten down. Ohio St will roll on and the Hawkeyes will roll right on outta the Top 25. For good.

Florida at South Carolina
If I'm a gator I'm a little worried about this one. Not sure why, but my gut says this could be an upset in the making. Look for an extremely low-scoring affair, but Spurrier plays his old team tough, and this time he's caught the Gators while they're struggling on offense. Florida 17 South Carolina 15


Idaho at Boise St.
A few weeks ago I saw this as a potential upset, but I really think the Broncos will be on fire against this somewhat-worthy opponent. BSU 54 Idaho 31


Stanford at USC
Who knows what will happen in this game. Stanford may be emotionally and physically drained after beating Oregon, but USC's offense looks terrible right now. They caught USC at a good time and Stanford will again unleash the sledgehammer that is Toby Gerhardt against a defense without much confidence. Taylor Mays vs. Gerhardt- can't wait to see that tackle. Stanford 31 USC 21


Utah at TCU
If Utah still had Brian Johnson this would be an epic game. But TCU is at home against a freshman QB who is going to taste the turf more than once on Saturday night. Too much speed on both sides of the ball for Utah, but it should'nt be a blowout. TCU 35 Utah 28

Texas Tech at OK St.
Not knowing who will start at QB for TTech makes this a hard one to call. Heck, it could be Leach's fat little girlfriend for all we know. I'm gonna have to say the Cowboy's pull out a squeaker: OSU 42 TTech 38

Notre Dame at Pitt
Crappy timing for Weis, great timing for Wannstedt. That being said, neither team has beaten a single worthy opponent and I don't see Pitt living with prosperity. ND's D line will actually show up for this one and Clausen will hang his golden helmet on one highly-overrated win for his whole career. ND 31 Pitt 24


Nebraska at Kansas
Kansas has melted down worse than a slab of butter on a desert highway. Both offenses are in disarray but I think Nebraska will use the 2 QB system the rest of the way, taking the pressure off both QB's and allowing them to just go play. And with NU's Blackshirt defense, Reesing's limbs may look like C3PO after he got stuffed into Chewie's backpack by the end of the game. Nebraska 27 Kansas 14

Thank you for your time. We hope you enjoyed your stay! Please come see us again soon.

Andrew

PS - Think about this, if Iowa beats Ohio St. and Arizona wins out we could see those two teams in the Rose Bowl. Sound exciting? Yeah, not to me, either.

What a week @ HelmetNation!

It has been a crazy busy week @ HelmetNation! We delivered 5 orders this past week! Here are the helmets we did!

The first was the San Jacinto Ravens a youth football team from Deer Park, Texas. We used a white Schutt Pro-Air II shell with navy blue facemask! I really like the use of the Baltimore Raven head with the dark and light blue colors. In addition, we put each player's number on the rear of the helmet in navy blue outline in columbia blue.




The next helmets we delivered were for the Christopher High School Bearcats out of Coello, Illinois. We did these helmets on a Kansas blue Schutt DNA shell with an orange facemask. I really like the blue and orange combination on this helmet. We also put each players number in orange on the rear of the helmet and BEARCATS in orange on a blue background on the front bumper.




Our third helmet that we delivered was for the Dowling Catholic High School Maroons in West Des Moines, Iowa. These helmets were done on white Schutt DNA shells with a maroon facemask. They have the letter D on the side of the helmets and a maroon stripe. The front bumper says MAROONS in maroon on a white background. On the rear of the helmet they had 2 decals. One was a black cross and the other had FFF 09 to honor Coach Ed Thomas of Aplington-Parkersburg High School in Iowa who was shot and killed this past year. In addition, we also put each players number in maroon on the rear of the helmet.




The fourth helmet we did was for the Amelia High School Barons of Amelia, Ohio. This helmet was also Kansas blue but we used the Schutt Pro-air II shell with a black facemask. They have a large A logo with a knights head over Amelia Barons. On the rear bumper we did Barons in Kansas blue with a white background.



The fifth and final helmet of the week that we delivered was for a youth team from Port Orchard, Washington. They are the South Kitsap C-Grey team. I was very excited to do this helmet as I lived for several years very close to Port Orchard and I love that area of the country. Now, we did the helmets on a white Schutt Pro-Air II shell with a gray facemask. However, I made one for my display on a Schutt DNA shell and mask and that is what is seen in the pictures. They had a maroon, interlocking SK with a gray outline as their logo. They had a gray stripe and the rear bumper decal says C-GREY in maroon on a white background. In addition, we did each player's number in maroon on the rear of the helmet.




We really enjoyed getting these orders done and think the players will love them for a long time! We have several orders that are in production now including at least one that will be delivered this weekend. If you want to do something exciting for your players, let us know! You can reach HelmetNation by email at customerservice@helmetnation.com or by phone at (800) 576-9706. We hope to hear from you soon!

HelmetNation Week 11 Top 25

Well, you heard it here first! We did not buy into all the hype surrounding Iowa. We told you that they would not be able to sustain winning if they continually played to the level of their opponent and played from behind. Northwestern was able to dump Iowa this week and look for them to lose again this coming weekend @ Ohio State.

Now, just because Ohio State only has one loss, does not mean they are an elite team. Their loss was at home to the weakest USC team we have seen in the Pete Carroll era. Their wins have come in the Big 10 and against other weak competition. Again, HelmetNation does not buy the hype surrounding Ohio State and the Big 10 and they will not be ranked higher than 15.


HelmetNation was also excited to see the Midshipmen of Navy beat Notre Dame. Why was Navy, who doesn’t have near the athletes, able to beat Notre Dame? Because they have heart and great coaching! Something Notre Dame lacks in both respects. When will Coach Nuimatalolo get the respect he deserves as one of the best coaches in the country? More importantly, when will the TV and BCS people stop kissing Notre Dame’s ass? Do you realize that if they had won out and only had 2 losses, they would very likely have been in a BCS bowl game? That is simply a travesty that should never occur! Thank goodness Navy put an end to that possible fiasco!


Lastly, we just want to salute the Nebraska Cornhusker defense! The Husker offense is seriously troubled right now and just can’t produce. But the Blackshirt defense is a magical one to behold. They almost single-handedly beat the Sooners with 5 interceptions. Despite continual decent field position for OU, the Blackshirts were able to hold the Sooners out of the end zone despite OU running 87 plays.

After a great weekend of football here is the Week 11 HelmetNation Top 25.

1) Florida – The SEC East is all sewn up and the Gators have punched their ticket to the SEC Championship game against Alabama. All us will be details. Up next: @ South Carolina
2) Alabama – The SEC West is all sewn up and the Crimson Tide have punched their ticket to the SEC Championship game against Florida. All else will be details. Up next: @ Mississippi State
3) Texas – Longhorns are sitting pretty for the National Championship game. One of the SEC teams will be out and the Longhorns in after the SEC Championship game. Smoked UCF. Up next: @ Baylor
4) TCU – The BCS finally caught up with HelmetNation and now has TCU #4 as well. They obliterated SDSU on the way to matching up with Utah, their only loss from last season. The game will be in Fort Worth and well worth watching. Up next: vs. #8 Utah
5) Boise St. – The Broncos needed late scores to top Louisiana Tech. Interesting matchup this weekend. Up next: vs. Idaho
6) Georgia Tech – The YellowJackets had to rally to avoid the upset by beating Wake Forest in OT. Still the best team in the ACC. Up next: @ Duke
7) Cincinnati – Took Connecticut’s best shot and avoided the upset by 2 points. Pike and Collaros equal QB controversy on an undefeated team. Not out of the woods yet as they have two tough teams in the last 3 games of the season including this week. Up next: vs. West Virginia

8) Utah – Freshman QB Jordan Wynn looked great against possibly the worst team in the nation in New Mexico. He better grow up fast cause the #4 Horned Frogs are next. Up next: @ #4 TCU
9) Pittsburgh – Lit up Syracuse and has quietly put together a great season. Look for them to continue Notre Dame’s slide and speed up the Irish search for a new coach. Up next: vs. Notre Dame
10) Oregon – Duck players just couldn’t handle the success of ripping USC and lost a shootout to solid Stanford squad. Up next: vs. Arizona State

11) LSU – Just couldn’t make enough plays to pull off the victory at Alabama. Losing Jefferson @ QB didn’t help. Up next: Louisiana Tech
12) Houston – Winning crazy shootouts seems to be Houston’s thing. Their defense certainly isn’t winning games for them. Up next: @ UCF
13) USC – Clearly, this is not the typical dominant Trojan squad we are used to. We said it last week and are saying it again this week. Pulled out 14-9 squeaker over the Sun Devils with only 1 offensive TD. Up next: vs. Stanford
14) Miami – Crushed a weak Virginia squad. Remaining schedule seems manageable. Up next: @ North Carolina
15) Arizona – The Wildcats dismantled a pitiful Washington State team. Will now take on Cal who will be without RB Jahvid Best. Up next: @ California
16) Ohio State – Terelle Pryor is a better QB than he is getting credit for. Tressel, let the kid play! You are shackling him! Beat Penn State in Happy Valley further reinforcing the Big 10’s mediocrity in our opinion. Look for them to pound the Hawkeyes. Up next: vs. Iowa
17) Oklahoma State – Did what they should do to Iowa State in crushing them. This Cowboy team is hard to put your finger on. Up next: vs. #22 Texas Tech
18) Wisconsin – Held off feisty Indiana team by running out the clock with four minutes remaining. Up next: vs. Michigan

19) Stanford – Toby Gerhardt is a BEAST and the Cardinal is starting to round into shape. Can they handle last weekend’s success and go on the road to beat USC? Up next: @ #13 USC
20) Virginia Tech – Ryan Williams ran roughshod over the Pirates of East Carolina to the tune of 179 yards. Up next: @ Maryland
21) South Florida – DNP. Don’t look now but the Bulls roller coaster continues. One week you expect them to win and they lose. The next week the opposite happens. Which USF team will show this week? Up next: @ Rutgers
22) Texas Tech – DNP. Who will start at QB for the Red Raiders? Will it matter? Can they hang with the Cowboys in Stillwater? Up next: @ #17 Oklahoma State
23) Brigham Young – Lit up Wyoming for 52 while not allowing the Pokes from Laramie to score. Lucky for them their next opponent sucks too! Up next: @ New Mexico
24) Penn State – Lost at home to Ohio State. I bet the Nittany Lions think Pryor is a pretty good QB. Up next: vs. Indiana

25) Iowa – We told you didn’t we? We have said all along that Iowa is a paper tiger! Look for the Hawkeyes to get run by Ohio State and remove any doubt whatsoever. Up next: @ #16 Ohio State

Fit to be Tide

This week Alabama finally gets to show the entire country just how devastating they can be on defense. Only problem is...their QB has taken a nosedive production-wise since week 5 when they put 35 on Kentucky. Since then they've scored 22, 20 and 12 points. I don't think that will quite be enough against this LSU team, but who knows? The LSU-Florida game was one of the hardest hitting games I've seen this year, and I expect this one to be no different.

This could be the most exciting 10-7 game you'll ever see. These are basically NFL teams in college uniforms- with all-american talent everywhere you look. If this game was in Baton Rouge I'd pick LSU but as it is I am gonna say Terrence Cody by a cheeseburger over the Tigers 17-16.

Somebody in the Top 10 WILL get upset this week, and I think that dubious honor will go to the hawkeyes- who should beware of Northwestern.

This team can't come from behind every week without faltering at some point, can they? Not to mention how will they react to the growing pressure from week to week? Teenagers can be fickle and sometimes it takes a while to get used to success. Iowa going undefeated is just not in the cards so I'm gonna call Northwestern over Iowa in a major upset 37-31.

Also, watch Stanford put some points on Oregon this week. As crazy good as they looked last week against USC, who knows how this team will react to success?

Stanford is very talented offensively and they love to creep up on big-time opponents who have just heard all week about how great they are. This one will be closer than expected: Oregon 42 Stanford 40

The only other game of interest (yes, I'm aware that Ohio St. plays Penn St.) would be Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. Both teams come limping into this one starting their back-up quarterback. The defenses are the stars of this game but how will Nebraska stop the speed and deal with the size of Oklahoma's receivers? Even without Gresham they are just loaded with offensive NFL talent, even though they are extremely young on that side of the ball. Nebraska must do 2 things to stay in this game: sack Jones and disrupt the passing game and Nebraska must be able to run the ball.

If they can bust a big play or two on offense, this game should stay close, which would be a first in as long as I can remember.

The BCS (& Big 10) Joke

Anyone who watched the Iowa-Indiana game saw the problem with officiating. Clearly having a replay official did them absolutely no good. I am not much of a conspiracy guy, but if I was, it would be easy to think that the officials had been told that any call that would be considered close should go the way of the Hawkeyes to keep the Big 10's only real shot at the BCS title game in that spot. As a coach myself I would be remiss if I didn't say that I do think Indiana has to overcome bad calls to hold on to that lead. But another part of me realizes how hard it is for young men to overcome losing 3 major bad calls that would have taken your lead up to 2 scores late in the third quarter. Now, why would I rant about this game? Well, for the simple fact that the Big 10 conference is a joke. On any given Saturday I could name at least 15 teams that I think would beat the Hawkeyes. For that matter, you could put Northern Iowa on that list because if it wasn't for some questionable calls in that game, they would have beaten the Hawkeyes in Week 1 and all of this would be a moot point. I simply cannot understand how pollsters and computers are in love with any Big 10 team. I just pray that the Top 3 keep winning because a Florida/Alabama vs Texas game will actually be a good and worthy Championship game. If Iowa sneaks in somehow due to some late season upsets, then it will be a travesty of justice. With that in mind...

Here is the Week 10 HelmetNation Top 25.

1) Florida – I really enjoyed Georgia’s black helmets. It was too bad they didn’t help them stand up to the Gators at all in their 41-17 beatdown. Up next: vs. Vanderbilt
2) Alabama – DNP. I am not going to move them down just because they didn’t play and Texas looked good. Huge showdown this weekend! Up next: vs. #7 LSU
3) Texas – Longhorns are really starting to heat up and remaining schedule is easily manageable so they can make the National Championship game. Up next: vs. Central Florida

4) TCU – The Horned Frogs looked almost bored against the Rebels and won 41-0. They can look ahead to Utah and still win this week. Up next: @ San Diego State
5) Oregon – Chip Kelly has done a masterful job getting this team back on track after Game 1 loss to Boise State. Thoroughly dismantled USC. Up next: @ Stanford
6) Boise St. – The Broncos continue to roll through their weak schedule with thrashing of San Jose State. Up next: @ Louisiana Tech
7) LSU – Took apart Tulane. Nice job not looking ahead to this weekend. Up next: @ #2 Alabama

8) Georgia Tech – The YellowJackets ran roughshod over the Commodores. Clearly the best team in the ACC despite loss earlier to Miami. Up next: vs Wake Forest
9) Cincinnati – Syracuse gave the Bearcats a fight. I am less sure of them now than I was previously but Pike is getting closer to returning. Up next: vs. Connecticut
10) Utah – Freshman QB Jordan Wynn rallied the Utes to a late game win over Wyoming. QB controversy anyone? Up next: vs. New Mexico

11) Pittsburgh – DNP. I am not sold on this team as the 11th best team in the country but I do believe they would beat Iowa. Up next: vs. Syracuse
12) Houston – Won a wild shootout with a solid Southern Miss squad. More shootouts on the way this weekend! Up next: @ Tulsa
13) USC – Clearly, this is not the typical dominant Trojan squad we are used to. They were absolutely hammered by the Ducks. Up next: @ Arizona State
14) Miami – Late rally allowed the Hurricanes to escape Wake Forest. Up next: vs. Virginia
15) Iowa – Rallied to beat Indiana in a game where the officiating made a number of bad replay decisions that really hurt the Hoosiers. It is an embarrassment how much the BCS is in love with this team. It seems clear that despite all evidence to the contrary, there is still some kind of pro-Big 10 bias in the computer formulas, etc. Up next: vs. Northwestern
16) Arizona – DNP. Should easily win this coming weekend. Up next: vs. Washington State
17) Penn State – Beat an average Big 10 Northwestern team. Whoop-dee-do. Up next: vs. #18 Ohio State
18) Ohio State – Went out of conference to face and thrash another weakling in New Mexico State. Up next: @ #17 Penn State
19) Oklahoma State – Whooped up on by Texas team catching fire. Up next: @ Iowa State
20) Oklahoma – Topped feisty Kansas State. However, the Big 12 South is clearly the dominant division yet again. Landry Jones is starting to make this team his own. Up next: @ Nebraska

21) California – Slid by in close game with the Sun Devils. Up next: Oregon State
22) Wisconsin – Hammered Purdue in 37-0 shutout. Up next: @ Indiana
23) Virginia Tech – Confusingly underachieving in 2nd loss in a row. It doesn’t really get any easier. Up next: @ East Carolina Thurs. Nov. 5th
24) South Florida – Came back from ugly loss to Pitt by beating West Virginia. Up next: Rutgers Thurs. Nov. 12
25) Texas Tech – Dismantled Big 12 North foe Kansas. Once again, the South beats the North. Up next: @ #19 Oklahoma State Nov. 14