WEEK TEN - Preview

With two top ten matchups (Texas at Texas Tech & Florida vs Georgia), one of the best traditional rivalries (Nebraska at Oklahoma), and perhaps the final Spurrier/Fulmer meeting on the docket this weekend it would be easy to overlook the rest of the schedule. But here are three games flying under the radar you should know about. One will be a good old fashioned smashmouth football game with a spotlight on running the football and playing defense; another features a future potential Faulk Trophy winner; and the other is going to be a shootout in which 40 points probably won’t be enough to get the win.

Temple (3-5) @ Navy (5-3)
(Saturday, 2:30 pm, CBS College Sports)
If you’re looking for a good old fashioned smashmouth football game this weekend, you should probably tune in to CBS College Sports at about 2:30 this weekend. Navy will roll out their triple option attack and try to penetrate the solid Temple defense. To give you an idea of how old fashioned this game could be, consider this: Navy didn’t thorw a single pass in their win over SMU a week ago. With quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada back in the fold, they’ll have at least the threat of a play action pass, but you can still bet on the ball staying on the ground more often than not. That is a direct challenge to a surprisingly stout Temple defense. The veteran Owls, led by Junior Galette, have been terrorizing MAC foes of late. In their five conference games they have limited opponents to 66 rushing yards (2.0 yards per carry!), and 16.2 points per game – not too shabby. But I don’t think Temple has enough offense to pull out a victory.
J.Pike’s Pick: Navy 17, Temple 10

UAB (2-6) @ Southern Miss (2-6)
(Saturday, 7 pm)
Sure, these two teams only have four wins between them this year. But there will be enough young talent on the field that you should pay attention anyway because both of these programs are capable of taking a big step forward in Conference USA next year. New Southern Miss head coach Larry Fedora has a good offensive mind, and he’s got some weapons at his disposal. Junior running back headlines the attack with 969 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. But freshman wide receiver DeAndre Brown is the player that has Golden Eagle fans excited. At 6-foot-5, Brown is piling up touchdowns at an alarming rate (9 so far) thanks to the mismatches he creates in the red zone. But the Blazers possess possibly the most exciting player you’ve never heard of in junior quarterback Joe Webb. Webb is an excellent athlete that is improving his passing every week. He has the numbers (1,726 yards, 8 td passing; 723 yards 7 td rushing) that will put him in the running for the Faulk Trophy next season if he gets a little more help around him. Look for this game to be close at halftime, but Southern Miss will pull away in the second half as UAB has consistently played poorly after halftime this season.
J.Pike’s Pick: Southern Miss 31, UAB 20

Rice (5-3) @ UTEP (3-4)
(Saturday, 8:05 pm)
I’m not sure why this game isn’t on television because it should be the highest scoring game of the weekend hands down. Rice won last year’s meeting despite giving up 48 points. This year both teams will be without top defensive players this week due to injury, so the Owls might need to score more than 56 this time around to secure the W. Oh yeah, I should also mention that Rice is allowing 36.5 points per game, and last week UTEP gave up 77 points and 791 yards to Tulsa! Each quarterback should have a field day Saturday night. Euless Trinity alum Trevor Vittatoe paces the Miners with his excellent 16-4 TD/INT ratio. Chase Clement is like a mini-Colt McCoy (2,360 yards, 24 td passing; 402 yards, 7 td rushing) and has positioned himself as a serious underdog candidate for the Faulk Trophy. I’ll give the slight edge to Rice here because although they don’t have as much talent as UTEP does on paper, they have played more consistently up to this point.
J.Pike’s Pick: Rice 63, UTEP 51

WEEK SIX - Preview

Now it’s time for our weekly look at the games that are flying under the national radar. The Commander In Chief Trophy is up for grabs in the Navy/Air Force game. The winner will have a leg up since Army doesn’t look to be a real threat. Conference USA is still wide open so UTEP and Southern Miss will battle to get in the race early. There are also key games in the second tier of the Mountain West and the MAC that could make the difference in who gets a bowl berth and who stays home in the post season.

UTEP @ Southern Miss
UTEP stumbled out of the gate this season, but coming off a big 58-13 win over Central Florida they look like they have finally found themselves. Quarterback Trevor Vittatoe and running back Terrell Jackson are underrated offensive weapons in Conference USA, and Southern Miss doesn’t play the same brand of fiery defense they played under the previous coaching staff. The Eagles have offensive weapons too, but UTEP has the better quarterback. The Miners are a team gaining momentum and they’ll pull off the upset.
J.Pike’s Pick: UTEP 32, Southern Miss 27

UNLV @ Colorado State
In 50 mph winds last season, these two teams paired up to produce a combined 1,049 yards of offense. Colorado State was able to capitalize on 5 UNLV turnovers to win 48-23, despite giving up 559 yards. The weather won’t be the same again this year, but the UNLV offense essentially is. Omar Clayton is back at quarterback and executing Mike Sanford’s offense better than anybody in Sanford’s four years as head coach. On the other side of the field, new CSU head coach Steve Fairchild has struggled to fully implement his new offense. In the early going the Rams are scoring only 18.8 points per game, so look for UNLV to take better care of the ball and break their five game losing streak in this series.
J.Pike’s Pick: UNLV 30, Colorado State 26

Ball State @ Toledo
Toledo might have been suffering from a little bit of the old “look-ahead” when they lost to Florida International a week ago. Ball State is on top of the MAC right now with a 5-0 record, but they will play this game without one of their top players, Dante Love. Love suffered a spine injury a couple weeks ago and may never play football again. Quarterback Nate Davis is still around though, so don’t expect too much of a drop-off offensively. Home field advantage has been important in this series over the last decade or so (the home team is 11-3-1 since ’93), and I think Toledo will show up ready to play. I like Ball State, but this game has “upset” written all over it.
J.Pike’s Pick: Toledo 36, Ball State 31

Navy @ Air Force
You might be able to count the number of pass attempts in this game on one hand. Air Force (ironically) avoids the air at all cost while taking advantage of opponents’ mistakes better than anybody else in the country. Navy plays a similar style of football, but quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada Nahasapeemapetilon and running back Shun White have more big play ability than anybody on the Air Force offense. That will be the difference in the game, so go ahead and give Navy the Commander In Chief Trophy.
J.Pike’s Pick: Navy 27, Air Force 19

Gameday Commentary - Night Games

Alabama 20, Tulane 6
This is more like the Alabama I was expecting to see this year. Bama needed a punt return for touchdown and a blocked punt returned for touchdown to win the game. The offense was anemic all day, compiling only 172 total yards. Youch.

Florida 26, Miami 3
Miami hung around in the first half, but couldn't generate enough offense to make a game of it. Florida held the Canes to 140 total yards and Tim Tebow fought off a barrage of blitzes to lead three scoring drives and ice the game in the second half.
J.Pike's Thoughts:
*Miami has an impressive collection of freshmen. Linebacker Sean Spence is going to be a player. He's fast and physical. Quarterback Robert Marve struggled in the second half, but he has a strong arm and came out with great poise early in the game. Miami will win some games in the ACC this year.
*Florida has quite an impressive collection of athletes. There was so much speed an athleticism wearing blue tonight that it almost doesn't matter what schemes you teach them. Florida started slow but got better as the night went along. By the end of the game the Gators looked like a top five team with national title aspirations.
*The defensive game plan called by Bill Young of Miami was impressive. The continuous pressure they put on Tim Tebow, particularly with constant blitzes off the edge, really disrupted Tebow and the offense. Tebow adjusted in the second half, but his accuracy was clearly diminished with all the pressure in the first half.

Texas 42, UTEP 13
After a slow start, the Longhorns put it together and ran away with a big win in El Paso. It was sort of a ho-hum game, but Texas proved their superiority in the trenches, and Colt McCoy played another excellent game.
J.Pike's Thoughts:
*Quan Cosby is a super solid receiver. He and McCoy seem to be on the same page which will come in handy in those third down situations against Missouri and Oklahoma in a few weeks. The young receivers are also showing more and more promise every week. For some reason I'm not sure about Dan Buckner yet - he doesn't seem to play as big as he is - but Malcolm Williams and Brandon Collins are going to be good.
*By the end of the game the Texas defense was pressuring UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe on every snap. Vittatoe hung in there pretty well for the most part, but you can't expect him to win a game when he's under that kind of pressure.
*Overall it was a spotty performance by the Longhorns, but the good spots were really good. The defense is still a work in progress, but they are definitely coming along. At the end of the day it's hard to complain too much when the strength of the team is on both lines.

It's been a long, glorious day of college football. Good night now!