Erick Blasco's College Huddle: Week 5

The much ballyhooed spread offense has gotten a lot of love the last few years, but the Auburn Tigers found the perfect way to stop it in their 20-17 win at Florida.

Josh Thompson and Pat Sims in the middle were stout in taking away the dive/draw plays that Florida had used so well early this season. Tim Tebow found some running lanes in the fourth quarter, but overall the Tiger run defense was admirable.

And since Auburn didn’t have to stack the middle to stop the run, they could play blanket coverage and swarm to receivers.

That leads to the next key point: While Brandon Cox and the Tiger offense have struggled this year, there's no questioning the speed and tackling on the defensive side of the ball.

The Tigers gang-tackled from sideline to sideline to stop the ball, forcing the Gators to grind out yards instead of taking them in chunks. A spread offense often struggles when asked to grind out yards, which was the case this weekend.

And what can you say about Cox? In a statement game, he was poised in the pocket and improvised when necessary. Running backs Ben Tate and Mario Fannin had some success on the ground, and Cox was efficient finding holes in the Gator zones for seven yards at a time.

It helps that the Gator defensive line aside from Derrick Harvey is very young and soft right now—but Cox stepped up as a leader should.

While the Miss State loss was a pretty bad one, the Bulldogs are better than they’ve been in years. What's more, Auburn’s loss to South Florida doesn’t look so bad with the Bulls beating everyone they play.

With the victory at Florida, it isn’t too late for the Tigers to turn their season around.

For the Gators, it was exactly the kind of game young teams lose. Brandon Cox’s senior leadership over the Gator defense’s inexperience was a huge asset for the Tigers.

This taste of mortality for Florida may do them some good in the long run.



The USC Trojans faced a very inspired team on the road in a hostile environment—and came out with a close victory.

USC committed 16 penalties, turned the ball over three times, missed a field goal, and had a punt blocked...but still found a way to win on a day when ranked teams were falling all across the country.

John David Booty was decent, throwing for 236 yards and a touchdown against two picks, but the backs saved the day for “Running Back U.”

Stafon Johnson ran the ball 14 times for 122 yards and a TD. Chauncey Washington had 20 carries for 106 more yards and another score.

The Trojan defense wasn’t bad either, allowing a paltry 190 yards of total offense by the Huskies. Though he ran for a pair of scores, Jake Locker showed his inexperience, as he was limited to 87 yards, an interception, and a sub-50 percent completion percentage.

To their credit, the Huskies did capitalize on USC's mistakes—most of their 24 points were the result of USC turnovers. That sort of opportunistic play will help them immensely down the line.

As it stands, though, the Trojan ground attack, defense, and big-game swagger are the best in the nation. It’s why they’re the class of the Pac-10...by far.




There were six “upsets” that took place this weekend—but that doesn’t mean that all of them were completely unexpected.

Rutgers and Texas had each looked unimpressive over the early part of the season, with Texas struggling to beat lesser teams and Rutgers playing a joke of a schedule.

With each team facing real competition for the first time, it isn’t much of a surprise that they both went down.

I rarely drop teams too far if they continue to win, but I wouldn’t have been the least bit upset if some poll voters had Texas and Rutgers in the upper teens instead of the Top 10. After this weekend, it's hard to justify Texas as a Top 20 team, and I have Rutgers out of my poll completely.

Texas at least has a decent win over TCU, and Kansas State’s only loss was at Auburn. Rutgers’ best win is vs. Navy. That’s not good enough to justify a ranking.

Clemson had floated into the top eight of some people’s polls, but the Tigers have a history of inconsistency. The fact is that Clemson had wins over a Florida State team that was still breaking in an offensive line (and dominated the second half of the game)...and a bunch of scrubs.

Losing on the road to teams that are good but not great has been Clemson’s M.O the last few years. I refused to move them up past No. 16 until they showed they could beat Georgia Tech, which they failed to do.

West Virginia wasn’t really favored to win on the road against a very talented South Florida team. I picked West Virginia because I thought they had learned from their loss last season against the Bulls. 

Maybe not.

The Mountaineers dink-and-dunk passing game allowed South Florida to stack the box.  Apparently, West Virginia still hasn't learn that fast defenses that can tackle can shut down its conservative offense.

That said, I’m not going to punish West Virginia too severely for losing on the road to a very good Bulls team.

Florida’s loss was a true upset—but even that loss didn’t come completely out of the blue. Like USF, Auburn has the speed, the defensive line, and the tackling ability needed to stop the spread.

Tommy Tuberville knows how to beat Florida, and knows how to win on the road against elite teams. With Brandon Cox coming around, Auburn is back to being Auburn again. Florida still takes a hit in the polls for losing at home to a team that lost to Miss State.

I still have no idea where the hell that Oklahoma loss to Colorado came from, given how dominating the Sooners had been up to Saturday afternoon.

It may be the strangest result we’ve had in the season so far, and the more I try to explain why it happened, the more my head hurts.

Colorado was playing at home and showed tremendous resolve after falling behind early. The loss is probably a fluke, but it shows that Dan Hawkins is starting to turn things around in Boulder.

Purdue’s season starts next week vs. Ohio State in one of the more under-the-radar big games of Week Six.

Ron Zook’s kids at Illinois finally have a little bit of experience. They showed last year that they had athleticism, but they had no idea what to do with it. Now they’re turning into playmakers—and in the topsy-turvy Big 10, the Illini have a fighting shot at winning the conference.

Nice to see Indiana off to a good start after the death of head coach Terry Hoeppner before the season. The Hoosiers overcame a lot of adversity last year while Hoeppner was trying to recover from brain surgery, and are continuing to show that fighting spirit this year.

After a win at Iowa, the Hoosiers are 1-1 in the Big 10 and get Minnesota next. With a win over the Gophers, the Hoosiers would have five wins overall and would only need one more to become bowl eligible. And what a wonderful tribute a bowl game would be to Coach Hoeppner’s memory.

Speaking of bowl eligibility, Vanderbilt is three wins away. They go to Auburn next, where the Tigers have already lost twice this season...but they did just beat Florida.

As usual, Oregon beat themselves in a big game. Four turnovers and a costly fumble at the end is what we’ve come to expect from the Ducks.

Still, their defense held strong for most of the game, they have talent all over the roster, and losing to Cal isn’t a death sentence.

In fact, with so many teams at the top of my poll losing, I actually moved Oregon up.

Colt Brennan threw five picks against Idaho, dropping him far in my Heisman rankings. Hawaii hasn’t beaten anybody this year, so why are they ranked so high?

Florida State’s defense is back, and their offensive line is getting less inept by the week. They have a long way to go, but the Seminoles made a statement against Alabama.

Sign of the times: South Florida is the highest ranked Florida team right now.

Oregon State’s special teams and quarterback situation are a mess. They’re starting to master the art of the collapse.

Nice job big, bad Texas Tech. Look how mighty you are, putting up 75 points against Northwestern State.

Maybe if you could, you know, beat teams like Oklahoma State, or score 75 points against teams like Texas, or maybe Oklahoma, people would accept you as the potent, state-of-the-art offensive machine you strive to be...instead of the run-of-the-mill neighborhood bully you really are.

Virginia is really playing well. They blasted Pitt 44-14, and that early-season loss to Wyoming is looking a lot smaller in the rear-view mirror.

Somebody predicted Auburn would beat Florida this weekend. That was (hangs head despondently), that was Mark May, proving why he’s a smarter man than all of us, and why we should never disagree with his opinions.

You know what else is pretty smart? My Top 25!

Top 25:

1) USC
2) LSU
3) Cal
4) Ohio State
5) USF
6) Wisconsin
7) Oregon
8) Arizona State
9) West Virginia
10) Oklahoma
11) Florida
12) Boston College
13) Georgia
14) Kentucky
15) South Carolina
16) Purdue
17) Missouri
18) Cincinnati
19) Nebraska
20) Virginia Tech
21) Texas
22) Virginia
23) Georgia Tech
24) Clemson
25) Hawaii