NCAA Football Week 7 Thoughts and Opinions: Thoughts and Prayers to Eric LeGrand

Lots to talk about but let’s keep things in perspective, this is just a game.

Rutgers Eric LeGrand

In a game where big hits have gotten bigger and the biggest hits are typically celebrated, there are many times those hits come along with some cringing from fans. Sometimes hits don’t seem too violent but when you see a player laying motionless on the field, everything changes.

Last weekend I saw Oregon running back Kenjon Barner get hit, go down and eventually get back up with a little help but mostly under his own power.

I didn’t see the game with Army and Rutgers, and obviously I didn’t see the hit Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand made. From what I read, he appears to have lowered his head as he made a tackle on kickoff coverage.

Early reports are that he is now paralyzed from the neck down and he will remain hospitalized for the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen if he will ever walk again.

Let’s keep Eric, his family, friends and the whole Rutgers football community in our thoughts and prayers.

New No. 1

As of now, Oregon is No. 1 in the AP and Coaches Poll but I don’t expect them to be No. 1 in the first BCS rankings being released later today.

In the last two weeks, two different No. 1's have gone down.

This is the first time Oregon has achieved a No. 1 ranking.

With changes, people will argue who is truly the best team in the nation. For every pro argument there is for a team, there are those against them as well. As soon as Ohio State lost, there were already posts on message boards everywhere about how Oregon isn’t deserving. But at the same time, arguments against Boise State, Oklahoma, LSU, TCU and anyone else that is in the polls were being made too.

Upsets Everywhere

No. 1 Ohio State wasn’t the only team to go down this weekend, although there might not have been a more watched upset as the one in Wisconsin.

No. 5 Nebraska fell to an unranked Texas.

No. 10 South Carolina, fresh off their upset of previous No. 1 Alabama, lost to unranked Kentucky.

No. 19 Nevada couldn’t survive their trip to Hawaii.

No. 22 Florida has now dropped three in a row. The first two were to highly ranked teams but this time to an unranked Mississippi State.

No. 23 Air Force was edged out by San Diego State

No. 24 Oregon State gambled in overtime with Washington and lost.

Let the Carousel Begin

The first coach has been given his walking papers. I made a list to start the season and I left Tim Brewster of Minnesota off of it. This is a coach who had taken Minnesota to bowls in the last two years, even though he didn’t win either.

Needless to say, starting the season with a 1-6 record wasn’t the way he needed to go to save his job.

SEC Least

The champion of the SEC East is going to have at least two conference losses this season. Unless South Carolina wins it, they will have more overall losses than that.

The SEC has six teams ranked and five of them are from the SEC West, although I don’t expect Mississippi State to hang on to their ranking for very long.

Defeated, Undefeated, Bowls, No Bowl

The lists have changed again as two more undefeated teams took losses, leaving us with 10 undefeated teams. Next week we are guaranteed at least two less as Missouri and Oklahoma meet in the Big 12 and LSU and Auburn tangle in the SEC.

The teams with no wins also changed as Eastern Michigan broke an 18-game losing streak to beat Ball State. There are still three teams without a win

One of those teams is Akron, who is now the first official team out of bowl contention.

As for who is bowl eligible, we have 14 teams out of the 72 that are needed for the year.

My personal list of teams I have not yet seen play stays at two out of 120.