Projections for all 32 Bowl Games:

Randall projects a college football apacolypse, while Erick plays it safe.

Games To Watch: Week No. 14

#7 LSU versus #14 Tennessee
4:40 PM ET on CBS
There’s a lot of talk around the nation about LSU, but that talk is not about the Tigers getting in the BCS and, if both Mizzou and West Virginia lose, quite possibly playing for the national title. The talk is more about Les Miles bouncing to Michigan and Bo Pelini sending his laundry to Nebraska. If you don’t think that this can be a distraction to a team going into a big game, you’re crazy. And this is a big game, and it’s against one of the most underrated quarterbacks in college football today, Erik Ainge, and his Tennessee Volunteers who come off a confidence-building 4-OT win over Kentucky—who, back in October, just happened to beat LSU.
Picks—Randall: Tennessee Erick: LSU




#9 Oklahoma versus #1 Missouri
8:00 PM ET on ABC

Picks—Randall: Oklahoma Erick: Oklahoma




Pitt versus #2 West Virginia
7:45 PM ET on ESPN

Picks—Randall: Pitt Erick: WV




#6 Virginia Tech versus #11 Boston College
1:00 PM ET on ABC
Virginia Tech couldn’t stop Matt Ryan and Boston College back in October, and to no one’s surprise they get a shot at revenge in this Saturday’s ACC title game. The Hokies have been playing well as of late, while the Eagles managed two losses since the last meeting. Play for all four quarters, and Virginia Tech will playing in the Orange Bowl. But, if they give Boston College any breathing room whatsoever those watching this game live in Jacksonville and on television will almost certainly experience déjà vu.
Picks—Randall: Boston College Erick: VT




UCLA versus #8 USC
4:30 PM ET on ABC

Picks—Randall: USC Erick: USC

CFU Week No. 11—“Rock Bottom”

At the rock bottom of this season you’ll see teams that you may expect to be there: Minnesota, Southern Methodist, Utah State, and Florida International.

They’re a combined 2-24.

When eyes focus on a couple of other names at the rock bottom this season, you may think you’re mind’s playing tricks on you.

But it's not.

Nebraska and Bill Callahan don’t seem to mix. 2004, his first season, gave the Cornhuskers their first losing season since 1961. The following two seasons did see improvement, but Callahan’s emphasis on passing never really saw great success at Nebraska, a program that traditionally relied on a strong running game.

That is no more obvious than this season.

Last year, Nebraska went all the way to the Big XII Title game. Cornhusker faithful expected them to make it at least that far this season. But instead, the Cornhuskers managed the first five-game losing streak in 49 years. Then, the Cornhuskers went to Lawrence, Kansas where the Jayhawks obliterated what Nebraska calls defense, putting up 76 points. That’s second only to the 70 points they gave Texas Tech in Callahan’s first year. Only a lack of team cohesiveness and chemistry can explain this, and because Callahan has lost his team, Nebraska has all but lost its football program.

Callahan won’t be back next season.

600 miles away, there’s another storied program in even more trouble.

Notre Dame is an astonishing 1-8. That doesn’t suggest much fight in the Irish. One more loss and this team will be the most embarrassing team to ever sport the gold helmets,a program with a 119-year history. When Charlie Weis came to South Bend, the Irish knew he’d make history but not this kind.

But, unlike Callahan, Weis isn’t going anywhere.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you of how Notre Dame fired Tyrone Willingham who, of course, is black after only his third season when the Irish have traditionally given coaches five years to settle in. In his third season, Weis is, again, 1-8. Willingham finished his third season 6-5, beating Michigan who was ranked No. 8, Tennessee who was ranked No. 9, Michigan State, and he even continued the traditional beating of Navy—something that Weis failed to do this season, ending the 43-game winning streak.

In his first two seasons Weis took the Irish to BCS games on the back of Willingham’s recruits, Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija. And, as far as how their first 34 games compare, Willingham was 21-13, Weis is 20-14.

What many call racial undertones surrounding Willingham’s dismissal quickly turn into racial overtones when you look at those facts. From where I stand, Weis should be fired if not for his subpar performance and if not for the humiliation he’s caused the program, then at least so that Notre Dame doesn’t look like a bunch of racists.

On that note, you have to wonder how much of this is karma. Frank Solich, Callahan’s predecessor, was fired after a 10-3 season. Perhaps these two programs got too greedy and are now paying for it.

Notre Dame’s circumstance, however, stands apart from Nebraska’s. When facts glare as those do something ought to be done. And, if not, then rock bottom isn’t only where Notre Dame should be it is where they should stay.

—R. Cooper

Games To Watch: Week No. 11

Illinois versus #1 Ohio State
Saturday @ 3:30 on ABC
It wasn’t long ago that the Illini were making some noise in the Big Ten. That noise has since been hushed, and all the attention from that conference goes to the No. 1 ranked Buckeyes. Ohio State beat Illinois by only a touchdown last year. Last year, Illinois finished 2-10. At 7-3, something says that this year’s contest will be just as close—maybe even closer. Behind Rashard Mendenhall, the Illini are 6th in the nation when it comes to the ground game. Mendenhall, however, is only one of the playmakers on Zook’s offense, and if the Juice gets loose, the Buckeyes may be in trouble.
Picks—Randall: Illinois Erick: Ohio State Chris: Ohio State

#18 Auburn versus #10 Georgia
Saturday @ 3:30 on CBS
Auburn held stud Darren McFadden to 43 yards, so it’s easy to see that the Tigers’ defense won’t make it easy for Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno who became only the second freshman to rush for 1,000 yards. Behind Moreno, Georgia is rolling, probably still high from the win over Florida a couple of weeks ago. Auburn also beat Florida and scared the bejesus out of LSU, but if Moreno’s feet get to churning, it’s hard to see the Tigers stopping the Dawgs.
Picks—Randall: Georgia Erick: Auburn Chris: Georgia

Florida State versus #11 Virginia Tech
Saturday @ 3:30 on ABC
These two haven’t met since 2005’s ACC Title Match, and coming off of last week’s win over No. 2 Boston College where they did what the Hokies couldn’t do, the Seminoles look to build from that momentum. But to stop Sean Glennon, the Seminoles’ defense will need to play as well as they did against Boston College. The Noles may have beaten the Hokies each of the last twelve meetings, but this one is hardly a freebie. With wins over Alabama and Boston College, though, it’s clear that Bowden’s squad is capable of whooping VT. But their inconsistency each week makes you wonder if they will.
Picks—Randall: Florida State Erick: Virginia Tech Chris: Virginia Tech

#15 Florida versus South Carolina
With Florida’s young and suspect defense, Spurrier may get to do the two things he likes most: pass the ball and run up the score. But if Tebow is healthy, the Gamecocks will need to rely on that struggling defense to keep up with the Gators who average about fourteen more points per game than South Carolina. The Gamecocks’ defense started out on fire this season, but have been disappointing as of late. A loss knocks the Gators out of contention for the SEC East.
Picks—Randall: Florida Erick: Florida Chris: Florida

#4 Kansas versus Oklahoma State
Saturday @ 8:00 on ABC
They may need to change, or even add, some light bulbs to the scoreboard for this one. With Kansas averaging 46 points per game and Oklahoma State racking up 35, both of these squads sit amongst the top ten in the nation in that category. It’ll almost certainly be a shootout. And in these types of matchups the game usually comes down to which team can get that one good defensive stand, but because Kansas, in a winning effort, gave up 484 yards to Nebraska last week while Oklahoma State, in a losing effort, gave up 584 to the Longhorns, the winner of this one will be the last to score.
Picks—Randall: Oklahoma State Erick: Oklahoma State Chris: Oklahoma State

#17 Southern California versus Cal
It was once thought that this game would have national title implications. Not anymore. As far as averages go, it’s a pretty close match-up and will be close throughout. You wonder, though, just how Cal will manage to mess this one up. And with the Trojans being 21-0 in November under Pete Carroll, the Bears don’t have any room to mess up.
Picks—Randall: USC Erick: USC Chris: Cal

RIDICULOUSLY RIDICULOUS: Bama Folds in Fourth, LSU Escapes Again

It’s just getting ridiculous.

In a ridiculously big game with ridiculously heated emotions and ridiculously high stakes, the LSU Tigers once again won a game they had no business winning.

But what can you say? They’ve been doing it all year.

LSU jumped out to a quick 17-3 first half against the Crimson Tide, and then overconfidence set in. In every game this season, LSU has played with the notion that because they’re LSU the other team will wither and wilt. Only Florida, Kentucky, and Auburn—heck, even Tulane—gave the Tigers their best punches, leaving LSU scrambling at the end.

And with their heads inflating, LSU started making dumb mistakes.

They broke out needlessly complicated formations which confused themselves more than it confused Alabama. Their reliance on gimmick plays backfired when they were whistled for an illegal snap situation midway through the fourth quarter. Matt Flynn tried throwing the football through pinhole sized windows which ended up getting intercepted.

On defense, their belief that they could squad every route yet still have the talent to recover deep got exploited with a number of double move deep routes.

17-3 LSU morphed into 27-17 Alabama.

But of course, that’s when LSU started getting ridiculous. Matt Flynn put his three first half interceptions, his receivers’ outbreak of “drop-itis,” and all the dumb penalties—14 in all—behind him to throw for 353 yards and 2 scores.

The LSU defense which had been getting burned on blitzes all game long brought even more blitzes, and Alabama’s offense couldn’t pick them up.

No LSU game is complete without some kind of crazy 4th down conversion for a game tying touchdown. And guess what, on 4th and 4 from the Bama 32, Flynn hit Early Doucet with a short crossing route. Doucet shimmied and shook the rest of the distance for a game tying touchdown score.

On the next possession, Chad Jones wailed on John Parker Wilson on a safety blitz forcing a fumble which Curtis Taylor recovered at the Alabama 3.

And it had happened again.
Another extraordinary comeback for LSU; this time shutting-up the Crimson Tide Nick Saban supporters and keeping the Tiger National Championship hopes alive.

Tiger fans got their wish to humiliate Nick Saban with a fourth quarter collapse and see their Tigers’ continue their march towards the BCS Championship Game.

The atmosphere in Baton Rouge matches LSU’s season so far: ridiculous.

—E. Blasco

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: No. 2 Ranked BC Falls to Florida State

The Florida State fight song blared from the band Saturday, but it may as well have played Freddie Mercury's famous ballad as yet another No. 2 lost and another team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten on a wet, windy night in Boston.

Da-Da-Da...another one bites the dust!

Florida State QB Drew Weatherford had a career day, completing 29 passes for 354 yards and two scores. Weatherford outplayed his Heisman counterpart, Boston College QB Matt Ryan, as the Seminoles upset the Eagles 27-17.
The air had the feeling of an upset early on.

Florida State had a second quarter touchdown to put numbers on the board first and an early field goal in the second half to go up 10-0.

But never count out the Eagles, who trailed by the same score against Virginia Tech.

They ended up winning that game where the Eagles had two minutes and eleven seconds to comeback. This time Ryan and Boston College had a whole quarter.

Ryan soon found Brandon Robinson for a 30 yard score to cut the lead to 3. After Gary Cismesia and Steve Aponavicius both hit triples for their respective clubs, Weatherford found De'Cody Fagg for a score. Ryan threw another TD to cut the score to 20-17 and the BC defense buckeled down, forcing a punt with 3 minutes left to set up the potential winning score.
Sound familar?

This time, though, Matt Ryan became the goat as a pick six by Geno Hayes ended the Eagles’ rally.

And another one bit the dust, or, in this case, the mud. While 400+ yards and two scores would be impressive any other day, Ryan's stat that was most important was his three interceptions, especially that last one. And while this was the Seminoles’ biggest win by far this season, the loss drops the Eagles quite a few spots in the BCS standings and behind other quality one-loss teams such as LSU, Oklahoma and West Virginia to name a few, a loss this late for the Eagles means that they'll need a little bit more help to make it back into the national title picture .

They’ll need it fast.

—C. Nierman

DUCK HUNT: Oregon Shows It’s the Best in the Pac-10, Hunts Title

There’s a lot of talk about Ohio State and LSU in the National Championship Game, and there’s also a lot of talk about Matt Ryan and Tim Tebow for the Heisman.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Oregon Ducks and Dennis Dixon.

Oregon knocked off undefeated Arizona State and continues to climb up the BCS rankings, and until this point Ducks QB Dennis Dixon had somewhat been flying under the radar amongst Heisman talks.

Now he’s right at the top.

Dixon completed 13 of 22 for 189 yards for four touchdowns, despite playing only three quarters as a result of a knee injury that is, however, not believed to be serious. On the season, Dixon has over 2,500 yards and 28 touchdowns, and he picked apart the Sun Devils defense like he’d done to others all season long.

But when Dixon went out, the nation saw that the Oregon is more than just Dennis Dixon. RB Jonathan Stewart took up the slack , grinding it out on the ground. He finished with 99 yards and a touchdown.

Oregon isn’t known for their defense, but on Saturday that defense sought to make a name for itself, sacking Arizona State QB Rudy Carpenter (22-of-36, 379 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) nine times and forcing two late turnovers.

The Ducks played on both sides of the ball.

And with 400 total yards that famous offense was as balanced as it could get, producing 200 passing yards and 200 more on the ground.

The excitement in Eugene didn’t end there; fans all around Eugene closely watched the BC-FSU scoreboard, and when the Seminoles knocked off No. 2 the Ducks found themselves ranked even higher BCS.

And, for us, that means that the national championship game may see more Ducks besides the one seen during the Aflac Trivia Question segment.

—R. Cooper