College Football's Final Stretch: Who's Hot and Who's Not

With the 2008 college football season heading down the final home stretch, teams are jockeying for position, coaches are pushing their players to the limit, and conferences are counting up their bowl eligible teams. 

This is the most entertaining time in the college football season.  Let's take a closer look at those teams, players, and conferences who are hot and those who are not.

WHO'S HOT

Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow

Last season's Heisman winner has looked unstoppable of late.  In his last three outings, Tebow has accounted for 14 touchdowns (seven passing and seven rushing), his passer rating is 214.5 (which leads the nation), and he hasn't thrown a fourth quarter incompletion in six weeks.   

Though the field may be too talented this season for Tebow to win his second straight Heisman, the prize the quarterback wants most of all, a national championship, is in sight.

Texas Tech Quarterback Graham Harrell and Receiver Michael Crabtree

Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree have become the deadliest combo in all of college football.  They have hooked up for 1,010 yards and 18 touchdowns.  Just ask Mack Brown and Mike Gundy how fierce this combo is.   

Next on the dynamic duo's schedule are Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners.  A win in Norman, and the Red Raiders will be a lock for the Big 12 title game.

College Football's Mid-Majors

The way this football season is shaping up, there is a real possibility that the only undefeated teams at the end of the season will be teams from non-BCS schools.  Utah, Boise State, and Ball State are all undefeated and have a real chance of finishing the season that way. 

Add one-loss non-BCS teams TCU, BYU, and Tulsa, and 2008 could end up being a record year for the mid-majors of college football.

Big Ten Running Backs 

Michigan State's Javon Ringer (1,548 yards, 20 touchdowns), Iowa's Shonn Greene (1,374, 13), Penn State's Evan Royster (1,060, 11), Purdue's Kory Sheets (1,017, 13), Wisconsin's P.J. Hill (845, 9), Ohio State's Chris "Beanie" Wells (814, 6), Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton (776, 6), Wisconsin's John Clay (703, 6), Minnesota's DeLeon Eskridge (615, 7), Illinois's Daniel Dufrene (575, 0), Indiana's Marcus Thigpen (506, 6).

WHO'S NOT

Les Miles' Gambling Mentality

Last season, nearly every gamble Les Miles made paid huge dividends.  Whether he was lucky or his players were more skilled to make those situations happen seems less of a question now.   

Miles' latest gamble was letting his interception-prone quarterback throw deep in overtime against Alabama.  The latest in a series of questionable calls resulted in yet another interception for Jarrett Lee and cost the LSU the win over the No. 1 team in the country and that Tiger traitor Nick Saban.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Gophers started 2008 with a hot streak, building a 7-1 record after finishing 2007 1-11.  But the last two games have been anything but golden for the Gophers.   

First, an uncharacteristic interception by Adam Weber cost the Gophers the game against Northwestern.  Then the Gophers looked like the 2007 team in a blowout loss to floundering Michigan.

Pac-10 Quarterbacks

In every season since 2002, at least four Pac-10 quarterbacks have averaged more than 245 yards per game.  This season, no Pac-10 quarterback has reached that standard. 

Even the most die-hard college football fan would be hard pressed to name even half of the starting quarterbacks in the conference.  What has happened to the "conference of quarterbacks"?   

The conference that produced NFL starting quarterbacks Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Anderson, and Trent Edwards looks mighty thin this season.

Preseason Rankings

The preseason AP top 10 was Georgia (current rank: 13), Ohio State (10), USC (6), Oklahoma (5), Florida (3), Missouri (12), LSU (19), West Virginia (33), Clemson (NR), and Auburn (NR).

The current AP top 10 is Alabama (preseason rank: 24), Texas Tech (12), Florida (5), Texas (11), Oklahoma (4), USC (3), Penn State (22), Utah (29), Boise State (36), Ohio State (2).

The preseason poll completely misjudged several teams outside the top 10 as well, including Wisconsin (preseason rank: 13, current rank: NR), Kansas (14, NR), Arizona State (18, NR), Tennessee (18, NR), and Illinois (20, NR).