ITS's Top 25: Week 9

The third number 1 fell Saturday, to an undefeated Missouri that suddenly has caught the eyes of the nation. Auburn's Cam Newton is unstoppable, vying for the Heisman and a national championship berth.

#1 Oregon (-) - A crushing 60-13 win over UCLA surprised some experts that predicted a much closer finish, so now the Ducks have themselves sitting pretty, but have a tough road test against USC.

#2 Auburn (4) - A 24-17 win over an undefeated LSU wasn't as close as the score implies, because Cameron Newton was all over the Top 10 defense in the country, rushing for over 200 yards. Oh, and a Heisman Moment.

#3 Boise State (-) - BYE

#4 Michigan State (7) - A very close win over Northwestern keeps the Spartans undefeated, much thanks to Persa's failed attempts at winning a close game over a ranked team. Ugh.

#5 TCU (6) - TCU got a good win over an impressive Air Force team that almost upset Oklahoma. The Horned Frogs are starting to gain my personal respect, but they have a couple more key games to take care of.

#6 Alabama (8) - An unexpected 41-10 drubbing of Tennessee helps the Rolling Tide get that much closer to those top 5 spots. Don't be surprised if you see an Alabama team in the National Championship race once more.

#7 Missouri (15) - ITS welcomes the Tigers into the Top 10 for the first time this season, as they made work of Oklahoma's defense. This really doesn't have very many big names like Chase Daniel and Jeramey Maclin.

#8 Wisconsin (9) - A game winning drive led by Scott Tolzien led the Badgers to continue their win streak, and continue to have a share at the Big Ten Championship so far. Iowa tried their best to come back, but dumb calls and decisions by Stanzi and Ferentz were their ruin.

#9 Ohio State (10) - The crushing was met with welcome hearts as Evil Tressel let the players play for the revenge game for last year. The Buckeyes have Iowa coming up after the Gophers.

#10 Utah (11) - The Utes keep on piling on points and yardage, but get no love. They do get in the Top 10, but an undefeated team is below 3 defeated ones, which will only inspire more from this team.

ITS's Top 25 Week 8

So, the Buckeyes won't retain the #1 spot, and Nebraska also suffered an unexpected loss to Texas. Things are starting to shape up even weirder than we thought.

#1 Oregon (2) - BYE (Lucky Ducks)

#2 Oklahoma (5) - 52-0 smashing of Iowa State just makes the Sooners look even better as they continue their quest towards the crystal.

#3 Boise State (4) - More cupcakes..there are blueberry, chocolate, beating San Jose State 48-0, just all delicious choices for the Broncos.

#4 Auburn (7) - Boy, the more I watch Cam Newton, I just have to think about Pryor in a spread formation in a run-first spread attack. Sound familiar? Yes, I'm talking about you RichRod.

#5 LSU (8) - A closer than expected win over Mcnesse State, 32-10 has fans worried, but the Tigers are slowly looking a bit like the 2002 Buckeye squad.

#6 TCU (-) - Staying where they are, the Horned Frogs would love a chance at the BCS title game, especially if they faced Boise State. Fun fact: Boise and TCU have played the last 2 times against each other in a bowl game, including last year's Fiesta Bowl.

#7 Michigan State (10) - That win over Wisconsin is looking better and better, but the Spartans have to avoid the media bug, as they started out of the gates slow against Illinois.

#8 Alabama (11) - Already moving back into the BCS picture, the Crimson Tide had difficulty putting Ole Miss and Jeremiah Masoli away, but coming through 23-10.

#9 Wisconsin (16) - A win over Ohio State isn't easy. A large lead makes it even better. The Badgers move into the BCS picture for the upset, jumping from 16th.

#10 Ohio State (1) - Ohio State got rocked Saturday, and it showed. Camp Randall was rocking, but the more I think about how Pryor performed, the more I think that the rest of the season can go fairly easily. Now the attention of the coaches needs to go on the defense to overcome injuries and lapses of focus.

Recap: Ohio State 18, Wisconsin 31

That didn't last for very long... just six days to be exact. Ohio St. lost it's lofty #1 ranking when they were ambushed by the Badgers in Madison by a score of 31-18. By the way they looked on Saturday night, it will be hard to achieve that status again anytime soon.

Before I had a chance to even crack my first Miller Lite, David Gilreath returned the opening kickoff untouched for 97 yards to make the score 7-0. After an uninspiring drive by Pryor and the offense, Wisconsin marched right back down the field on the legs of John Clay and hit paydirt once again pushing the lead to 14-0. Uh-oh. I knew we were in trouble at this point. The defensive line was getting pushed around by the massive front 5 of Wisconsin and the corners were letting flash screens to the outside go for 10 yards or more with alraming regularity. The Badgers weren't done with their potent rushing attack by a long shot.

After another short OSU drive and punt, UW would embark on one of the most demoralizing and impressive drives I have ever seen. Down 14 only seven minutes into the game, the Buckeyes needed a quick stop by the defense. What they got was a drive encompassing 19 plays, 89 yards and more than 10 minutes of game clock. John Clay would cap off the drive with his second touchdown of the game giving Wisconsin a 21 point lead that would never seriously be challenged the rest of the way.

OSU would finally start to move the ball on it's next drive only to suffer another red zone melt down. Pryor maneuvered the offense down to the UW 3 yard line with a first and goal but would fail to move the ball another inch on the following 3 downs. If there were any time to show faith in your offense and go for it on fourth down, I thought this was it. Down 21 on the road the Buckeyes needed a touchdown in the worst way and I thought kicking the field goal didn't make much sense. However, Barclay trotted out on the field (like we all knew he would) and stopped the bleeding momentarily making the score 21-3.

The following drive, Sweat would make one of the few defensive plays of the night when he picked off Tolzien and set up OSU around midfield. After a couple of first downs, Pryor would be sacked on a third and long bringing out Barclay for another field goal attempt. For only the second time this year, he missed and the Buckeyes had nothing to show for the turnover going into halftime.

Ohio St. was outgained by more than 100 yards in the first half but would finally show signs of life early in the third quarter. They put together two long scoring drives both of which were capped off by Herron touchdowns. After the second score, Tressel went for two and got it on a beautiful throw by Pryor to Fragel. It inched the score to 21-18 which is as close as it would get for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, the defense could not get a stop when they needed it the most. Wisconsin would answer on the following drive with more power running and some great runs by freshman James White. It was White who would score the game-clinching touchdown and put it out of reach. Wisconsin added another fg late in the fourth quarter and the UW defense would pick off a desperation throw by Pryor to ice it.

John Clay finished with 104 yards which was the first 100 yard rusher against a Buckeye defense in 29 games. Larimore put it best when he said "They kept running and running and running and running, and we didn't seem to have an answer for it."

Up next is Purdue. I wouldn't want to be on the Boilermaker offensive line this week... that is for sure.

ITS's Top 25 Week 5

It was cupcake week for some, and for others, they still had much to prove on the big stage. They got rewarded for showing up to play.

#1 Alabama (-) - Securing another win against a very tough opponent in Arkansas, the Crimson Tide continue to prove why they were ranked the top spot at the beginning of the season.

#2 Ohio State (-) - While the 73 points were very good, giving up 20 to a horrible offense isn't great. We shouldn't be too worried about this, but the Buckeyes move into Big Ten play, and anything can happen.

#3 Oregon (-) - The Ducks also had a tough game against Arizona State, the best defense they have faced, and still scored over 40. Although they looked shaky in that ASU game, and Threet intercepted them to Victory 4, so we need to see a little more down the road from Oregon.

#4 Nebraska (-) - The Huskers got off to a very slow start, but managed to win the game and hold down this spot, thanks to the two and only touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. Nebraska is an easy contender, but they have a lot of tough games coming up.

#5 Boise State (6) - Moving up a spot after a decent performance against Oregon State, the Broncos had to overcome their own mistakes, at home, to come out on top. OSU put up a good fight, but the defense really stepped up when they needed to.

#6 Wisconsin (9) - Really jumping up are the Badgers, who had a field day along with Ohio State, as they simply overpowered Austin Peay 70-3. The defense was dominant, but the true freshman White was running all day long for the offense.

#7 Oklahoma (8) - The Sooners had a very close game against the Bearcats of Cincinnati, and barely held on for the the win. Still, a win is a win, and they did it their way.

#8 TCU (7) - A quiet win over SMU was good, but the first quarter was plenty enough to expose some of that Horned Frog defense, and could cause trouble in the future against better opponents. 

#9 Stanford (15) - Making an appearance in the Top 10 for the first time, the Cardinals took care of business in South Bend without another glance. This team is scary good, and the match up with Oregon next will tell it all for both teams.

#10 Florida (11) - The Gators are starting to gain some more momentum as they move to 4-0, and the offense becomes better with every game. An undefeated Kentucky came in and got smacked in the mouth, with style.

#11. Auburn (19) - A huge win against South Carolina has helped them in the long run, and in the current polls. The Tigers have they're own Pryor in Cameron Newton who threw for 2 TD's and ran for 3, as the Tigers came out victorious.

#12 LSU (16) - Although it was close, LSU had control for most of the game, and continued fighting until the final whistle. The offense still concerns me, but the team as a whole is getting there.

#13 Arizona (-) - Not dropping, but not moving up, the Wildcats may not be that team in the Pac 10, at least, not yet. A late TD score gave them the 10-9 victory, but how long can they go on like that?

#14 Utah (-) - An easy win over San Jose State proved to help the Utes on the way to another undefeated season, but the road is long, and they still need an identity.

#15 Arkansas (10) - The writers felt some sympathy, and know how good the Razorbacks still are. Only dropping 5 spots, Arkansas gave everything they have in the very close loss to Alabama. They are only going to get better from here, so watch out.

#16 Miami (18) - An impressive (and a bit surprising IMO) win over the Pitt Panthers have exposed Pitt as a big bust for this season. JaFOURy Harris and co. came to play to win 31-3.

#17 Iowa (-) - The Hawkeyes were a part of the Big Ten Massacre, with the win over Ball State. The defense had some chip on they're shoulder as they shut Ball State down 45-0. Kirk Ferentz will get the squad back on track, and the trip to Kinnick in November is still daunting to Buckeye fans.

#18 South Carolina (12) - A great game has to have a loser, and the undefeated Gamecocks dreams ended for an undefeated season. There is still plenty to earn, and a BCS bowl game isn't out of the question just yet, but there is a lot of football left to be played.

#19 Michigan (20) - The Wolverines are in trouble. While they are undefeated and easily took care of the Eagles Falcons, they also lost Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier. Devin Gardner is forced into action, and while not as quick as Denard, he does have the better arm. We shall see where this takes the Blue as they head to Big Ten action.

#20 Michigan State (21) - Staying on Michigan's tail, the Spartans are really starting to raise some eyebrows. A quick 4-0 start is great for momentum, and they have to take advantage of it for Big Ten season.

#21 NC State (24) - Shocking the Yellow Jackets, and maybe some College Football fans, the Wolfpack can be considered, to a point, back. They shut down and shut up the Georgia Tech team 45-28. If the defense can step it up more, this is a team that could go deep.

#22 Texas (5) - Wow. Just...wow. UCLA had 1 win coming into the game AT Texas, and only allowed 1 touchdown. The Bruins came out inspired, and the Longhorns had no answer for the offense. Mack Brown has some tinkering to do with this team.

#23 Penn State (-) - The Nittany Lions got a good scare from the Temple Owls, winning 22-13. PSU is one of those teams that starts getting upset, and wins, and you're still laughing. Bolden needs to get himself ready to take on real opponents (sans Bama)

#24 Nevada (NR) - Option offense FTW. They are 4-0 thanks to a win against BYU.

#25 Missouri (-) - A thrashing of Miami (OH) got them to 4-0, but we don't know enough about this team to rank them higher. We'll keep a close eye on them.

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