Smooth Pancakes' Coaching Carousel Career

[SmoothPancakes]

A look at the national scene. In the Top 25, what an ending. #1 Wisconsin improves to 7-0 as they escape 5-3 North Carolina, 24-17. UNC was winning 17-10 in the early fourth quarter, before the Badgers scored with 9:11 left to play to tie it up, and then with 2:51 left in the game, they returned a fumble 20 yards to score the game winning touchdown. That would have been a great one to watch. Elsewhere, #2 Alabama (8-0) outscores Tennessee (4-4) 17-7 in the second half to win 37-21. #3 Penn State improves to 7-0 for the year, breaking open a 13-13 tie in the late 3rd quarter to beat #25 Nebraska (4-3), 20-16.

In the game of the week, #4 Mississippi State (7-0) shellacks #7 LSU (5-2), 33-0. #6 Ohio State (7-0) scores 13 points in the fourth quarter to pull away from Purdue (1-6) for a 43-28 win. #8 Boise State moves to 5-1 for the season, beating #15 Connecticut (4-2), 35-21. #9 TCU (6-2) destroyed #10 Baylor (4-4), 52-13. #22 Illinois (5-1) whoops #12 Iowa (5-2), 55-24. Miami (FL) (6-1) upsets #21 Georgia Tech (4-3), 34-28. #23 Clemson (5-2) escapes Wake Forest (3-5) 36-34 after a 2-point try by Wake Forest with 3:28 left to play fails. San Diego State (3-3) knocks off #24 USF (3-3), 35-21.

For our readers, Mors, would you look at that, West Virginia gets their second win of the year to improve to 2-7, defeating an 0-8 Syracuse team on the road 25-12. Jaymo, unfortunately it's more bad news, as Arizona State drops to 1-7 (1-4 in the Pac-12) with a 38-17 loss to 5-2 Oregon State. Looking ahead in the schedule, both teams have bye weeks next week. Arizona State's next game is in week 11 at home against 4-3 UCLA (who still has a game yet with Cal before ASU). West Virginia's off for two weeks, as their next game isn't until week 12, when they face a currently 1-5 Cincinnati (who still has games against Boise State and at Louisville). Based on that, Cincinnati will be either 2-6 or 1-7 going into the West Virginia game.

And Mors, I see now why West Virginia sucks so bad. Their defense is worse than MINE! West Virginia ranks #119 in Total Defense, #120 in Rush Defense and #117 in Pass Defense. They have a good offense, #8 Total Offense, #52 Rush Offense and #21 Pass Offense. It's just their defense is pretty much the worst in the entire NCAA. Arizona State is nearly as bad, ranking #115 in Total Defense, #114 in Rush Defense and #114 in Pass Defense. ASU's offense is ranked #29 in Total Offense, #25 in Rush Offense and #69 in Pass Offense.

Meanwhile, it's going to get very interesting in these coming weeks. Wisconsin #1, Penn State #4, Ohio State #5, all 7-0. Alabama #3 and 8-0, Mississippi State (who jumped Penn State and Alabama after week 9) #2 and 7-0. Some great games about to happen. Looking at the schedules, Wisconsin and Ohio State have a showdown in Wisconsin in week 10, Wisconsin plays at Penn State in week 12, Penn State plays at Ohio State in week 11. Alabama plays at #11 LSU in week 10 and at #2 Mississippi State in week 11. Mississippi State follows up Alabama at #9 Arkansas the next week. Add in Oklahoma at #6 (6-0) with games at #7 TCU in week 12, and at #13 Oklahoma State in week 15, this is going to be an exciting 6 weeks.