Sunday Morning: 1st & 10

Ten things from yesterday's college football games:

1. Yesterday, we did a feature on the Big Names who would be on the sidelines for the USC - Ohio State game. We questioned how safe it was for Greg Oden to be on the field. We wrote: "If we're Portland G.M. Kevin Pritchard, we don't want Gee Oh anywhere near the sideline. How many times have we seen a play go out of bounds and some clueless civilian with a press pass gets taken out at the legs and ends up sprawled out on the ground? Is that really what Portland wants?!?" Well, did you all see Uncle Charlie go down in the Notre Dame - Michigan game? Now, do you see what we were talking about?!?

2. After coaching the six-year olds to a 6-4 season opening day win, we hustled home with The Playmaker to watch College GameDay, followed by the noon time games. We started with the NC State at Clemson match-up. Nothing like some high quality ACC football to start off the afternoon, right?!? Let' see: On the first play of the game, Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper threw a pass directly into the hands of Maryland linebacker Nate Iriving, who took the pick all the way into the end zone. On the next play, the extra point was blocked by Clemson. The third play resulted in an off-sides penalty by the Wolfpack. Ahh...the beauty of ACC Football.

3. Buffalo came back to beat Temple on a Doug-Flutie-Last-Pass-of-the-Game-Play. Poor Temple. How much worse can it get?!?

4. The 3:30 games came on and here's what was offered: Michigan at Notre Dame (NBC), Georgia at South Carolina (CBS) and...wait for it...Penn State at Syracuse (ABC). What?!? Ex-squeeze me?!? Why in the name of Dick McPherson is Syracuse on TV?!? Ever?!? Why?!? For the foreseeable future (certainly long after Greg Robinson gets fired next month), there is NO LOGICAL REASON WHY A SYRACUSE FOOTBALL GAME SHOULD BE ON ABC AT 3:30 IN THE AFTERNOON.

5. We were not the least bit impressed with the Dawgs of Georgia. In fact, if the Head Ball Coach had a decent QB and/or a running back who did not try to leap into the end zone from the 3-yard line, South Carolina would have given Georgia an L on its resume. There is no way that team is making it to the National Championship Game.

6. Fresno State coach Pat Hill is a great football coach. A real tough guy who teaches his kids to play tough. But he made a huge mistake pumping up the magnitude of the Bulldogs' game against tenth ranked Wisconsin. Hill went so far as to call the game the biggest in the history of Fresno State football. Maybe if he had downplayed the pressure a bit, rookie kicker Kevin Goessling would not have missed three field goals, including a late 35 yarder, in a 13-10 loss to the Badgers.

7. Ninth ranked Auburn completely blew out Mississippi State, 3-2 (3-2!). Wasn't new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin supposed to be the barefooted kicker for the Philadelphia Eages The Savior? Genius Head Coach Tommy Tubberville's post game thoughts? "It was a true defensive game." Seriously, he said that. We did not make that up.

8. USC 35 Ohio State 3...Um, don't say we didn't warn you. In fact, we damn near hit the score on the head. (Remember reading last Sunday's 1st & 10?!?) And spare us with all the "Beanie Wells didn't play" junk. You want to know a dirty little secret? Coach Pete has two tailbacks (Joe McKnight and Stafon Johnson) who are better than ole Beanie. If one of them missed the game, the result would have been the same. Hell, if SC's top five tailbacks missed the game, nothing would have changed. Thankfully, we now no longer have to worry about having to watch the Buckeyes get smoked in the championship for a third straight year.

9. In the battle of My Conference Sucks Less Than Yours, UConn from the Little Big East pistol-whipped Virginia of the ACC, 45-10. Ouch.

10. And finally, we got our first live look at Your Oklahoma Sooners. They rolled up on Washington, hanging half a hundred (55, actually) on the Huskies. ESPN's Todd Blackledge could not stop foaming at the mouth over OU's new no-huddle offense. (We love Todd, by the way.) And he astutely pointed out that most (all?) spread/no huddle offenses only do one thing well -- usually passing. And for sure, Sam Bradford can pick you apart all game long, slinging darts to Juaquin "To all the Girls I've Loved" Iglesias, Jermaine Gresham and Ryan "Fill it with unleaded" Broyles. However, OU can also stick the ball in the belly of future All-American running back DeMarco Murray, who can run through you or by you. And then they hit you with back-up Chris Brown. He merely averaged 8.2 yards per carry, Bogarting 107 yards on just 13 carries. Defensively, they still have some pass coverage breakdowns -- but it is dang near impossible to run the ball on them. You will not find a faster defensive unit in The World.

We're just saying...