College Football's Week Eight Action: Regional Recaps

                                   FOOTBALL'S WEEK 10/18/08

Football's Week is a weekly series prepared by veteran observer Baby Tate.

THE EAST:

The Best: 1) Penn State 8–0, 2) Pittsburgh 5–1, 3) Boston College 5–1

Hopes were high among the record crowd of 37,970 at the Navy–Marine Corps Memorial  Stadium on the shores of Maryland this past Saturday. Why not? The Midshipmen had come back from early season losses to Duke and Ball State to string together victories over Rutgers, Wake Forest, and The Air Force.

The home crowd saw a BCS Bowl team alright but, it wasn't the Middies. Dave Wannstedt and his powerful Panthers stopped in for a visit and when the smoke had cleared, the men from Steel City left town with a 42–21 victory. The ground game of Pitt controlled the ball, as LeSean McCoy led the way with 156 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

First year Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo appeared grim afterwards when he said, " when you lose there is no time to mourn, we're hurting now but, we'll bounce back". It had better be quick. Next up for the Navy is the SMU "Bomb Squad" of Coach June Jones.

Much was made of Penn State's twelve year losing streak versus Big10 rival Michigan. The Nittany Lions may have been reading too much about the troubles in Ann Arbor as they fell behind quickly.

In the second half the vise–like defense of Joe Paterno began to tighten, the special teams stopped the Wolverine momentum, and 212 pound Evan Royster rushed for 174 yards to lead Penn State to a 46–17 win. At last the men from State College can focus on next week's opponent, Ohio State.

Rugged Boston College, loser only to Ga Tech by three points earlier in the season, made its case for ACC supremacy by grinding up Virginia Tech, 28–23. The Eagles are keyed by their top notch defense, which surrenders an average of only 250 total yards a game.

In other eastern action, Rutgers defeated the fading Connecticut, 12-10 while the Ivy League was full of surprises led by Harvard's 27–24 trimming of Lehigh and Yale's 12–10 loss to Fordham.

THE SOUTH

The Best: 1) Alabama 7–0, 2) Florida 5–1, 3) Georgia 6–1

Nick Saban's Crimson Tide continues to perplex the fan-base by racing to large first half leads and then basically running out the clock in the second half. The Red Elephants were up to their old tricks again on Saturday.

Taking a 24-3 lead into halftime against old rival Mississippi, the Tide had to hang on at the end for a 24–20 win behind quarterback John Parker Wilson's season high 219 passing yards.

Georgia is a squad that can go Alabama one better. The Bulldogs basically take off the entire ballgame each week and rely on superior talent to hustle up enough points against everyone to win. What happened against up and coming Vanderbilt left little doubt they wish to continue under the same manner.

Totally dwarfing the outclassed Commodores in talent and ability, Georgia looked like the big brother who plays hard enough to beat the little children without hurting anyone's feelings. After his Bulldogs disposed of Vandy, 24–14, Coach Mark Richt sighed, "I don't know, we'll go back to the drawing board".

There is no such worry in Bayou–land as LSU has one game plan: Crush the little people before they get out of the way. The latest victim? South Carolina. While the Gamecocks rode the super talent of redshirt freshman quarterback Stephen Garcia to a surprising halftime lead, the second half was a different story.

Closing down the Carolina rushing lanes and powering the ball on offense right up the middle of the vaunted Cock defense, the Tigers reminded everyone why they are the national champions by winning, 24–17.

It was Steve Spurrier's third loss of the season, all by seven points and all to SEC rivals. Afterwards, winning coach Les Miles paid a rare compliment to an opponent by describing Garcia as "that's a ballplayer". Spurrier lamented, "we've got to close the deal".

The Clemson Tigers, operating now under former Alabama wide receiver Dabo Swinney as head coach, could not handle Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets stung Clemson, 21–17.

Wake Forest continued to wander about the country losing when they should win, this time to the 5–2 Terps of Maryland, 26–0. Duke put 31 on Miami but still lost by 18. Up and down Kentucky beat Arkansas 21–20, while Virginia derailed UNC, 16-13.

Tennessee continued to confound the experts by battering Mississippi State 34–3. Fla State improved to 5–1 on the season by whipping lowly N.C. State, 26–17.

THE MIDWEST

The Best: 1) Texas 7–0, 2) Ohio State 7–1, 3) Oklahoma 6–1

Coach Jim Tressel of Ohio State was concerned about his Buckeyes before the game at Michigan State. He need not have bothered. Behind the all around play of quarterback Terrelle Pryor and the 140 yards of rushing from powerful Beanie Wells, the Buckeyes looked every bit the championship contender with a 45–7 rout of the Spartans.

Surprising Oklahoma State jumped on the Baylor Bears early and often, winning 34–6. Texas Tech looked sluggish once again in defeating hated Texas A&M, 43-25, while Oklahoma rebounded to mow down Kansas, 45–31.

Missouri, which hasn't won in Austin since two years before the Spanish–American War, continued their streak by being bombed by Texas, 56–31. Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy received the endorsement of current Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida as this year's most likely winner. "You've got to be smart" said Tebow.

Wisconsin offered little resistance to streaking Iowa, losing 38–16. Nebraska handled Iowa State, 35–7 while Illinois continued to display the brilliance of quarterback Juice Williams in a 35–13 pasting of Indiana. Tulsa continued to make the case as this year's BCS buster by destroying Mike Price's Miners of Texas El Paso, 77–35 improving to 7–0.

THE WEST

The Best: 1) Southern California 5–1, 2) Boise State 6–0, 3) Utah 8–0

Southern Cal went on the road and annihilated Washington State, 69–0. Even more frightening for upcoming foes of the Trojans, outside of the loss to Oregon State, the Men of Troy have surrendered only 20 points this season.

In other western action, Boise St defeated Hawaii, 27–7, Utah beat Colorado State, 49–16, Stanford fell to UCLA, 23–20, Oregon State hammered Washington by 21 and Nevada disposed of Utah State, 44–17.

The Desert Report: New Mexico attacked the weak Aztec line of San Diego State and found it wanting. The Lobos rolled, 70–7. New Mexico State wasn't so fortunate, losing to Dick Tomey's Spartans of San Jose State, 31–14. But it was the Wildcats of Tomey's former team, Arizona, that made the big news among the cactus and sand. Locked in a titanic struggle at halftime with 25th ranked California, quarterback Willie Tuitama led a furious second half surge to tame the Bears, 42–27.