Fourth and inches…(week of Oct. 18, 2008)

By Todd Erickson  |   Friday, October 17, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

College Football
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Another one bites the dust…say goodbye to those BCS dreams, BYU. The Cougars played flat and without any fire or emotion in getting their butts kicked Thursday night by the TCU Horned Frogs. How bad was it? Well, if you saw how Brigham Young completely dismantled UCLA earlier this season, that’s just about how bad it was for the Cougars.

All four turnovers were committed by former Heisman candidate Max Hall. Three of his turnovers directly resulted in scores by the opportunistic Horned Frogs, and the fourth giveaway led to a lost score by BYU when the Cougars were on the TCU 12-yard line and Hall was intercepted in the Frogs’ end zone.

Calling Jim McMahon…that’s what it would have taken the Cougars to launch a serious comeback against TCU. Some have tried to compare Hall to McMahon because of his confidence and swagger, but I don’t recall Jimmy Mac ever playing in a game where the Cougars didn’t have a chance to win. Hall didn’t give his teammates a chance to win last night.

Unfortunately for Hall, BYU quarterbacks have to play to a higher standard than almost anywhere else in college football. The only way he can redeem himself in the eyes of Cougar fans is to finish out this year with six straight wins. Yes, that includes a road win over Utah and a bowl game victory.

BCS Busters still standing: Utah, Boise State, Tulsa and Ball State. Easiest path to a BCS bowl belongs to Boise State. The Western Athletic Conference is pathetically weak and the Broncos get second-rate Fresno State at home on their puke-blue smurf turf at the end of the season. Utah still has to face TCU and its most bitter rival, BYU, to make it to a January bowl game.

Good boy/bad boy…The Good: Toledo Rockets wide receiver Nick Moore, little brother of the NFL’s Lance Moore, caught 20 passes for 162 yards to set a record against Michigan in the Big House last Saturday. The Bad: Moore was arrested outside a bar in Toledo that night on a charge of disorderly conduct. He was suspended by Toledo coach Tom Amstutz and will miss the Rockets game at Northern Illinois this weekend.

Heisman Thermometer: Hottest: Colt McCoy, Texas. One off game does not take away his heat; Chase Daniel, Missouri. Getting hotter every week: Javon Ringer, Michigan State. Still hot, but his team will need to win its conference title: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma. Mercury rising, but needs a couple more signature wins: Zak Robinson, Oklahoma State.

Conference Power Meter: 1. Big XII. 2. SEC. 3. Big Ten. 4. ACC. Tie: 5. Pac-10. 5. MWC. 7. Big East. 8. C-USA. 9. WAC. 10. Sun Belt.

Top games this weekend and why:
No. 21 Wake Forest at Maryland. The Terps are very difficult to beat at home. Ask Cal about that.
Georgia Tech at Clemson. Just to see how Clemson responds after Tommy Bowden’s dismissal.
No. 22 Vanderbilt at No. 10 Georgia. Unless Vandy has any magic left, this should be the final dagger in its dream of playing for anything more than a second-tier bowl game in December.
Michigan at No. 3 Penn State. This is the game where Penn State’s nine-game losing streak to the Wolverines ends.
Colorado State at No. 14 Utah. The Rams are a dangerous upset waiting for one of the MWC powers, whether it be the Utes or BYU in two weeks. TCU struggled to beat CSU 13-7 last week.
No. 12 Ohio State at No. 20 Michigan State. This game will reveal which team has the best shot at challenging Penn State for the Big Ten crown this year.
No. 13 LSU at South Carolina. You’d expect this to be a huge rebound game for the Tigers, but Spurrier’s boys have other plans.
No. 16 Kansas at No. 4 Oklahoma. The Sooners transition from last week’s shootout against Texas to this week’s duel with the dangerous Jayhawks.
**Game of the Week** No. 11 Missouri at No. 1 Texas. And you thought last week was a shootout? Longhorns are lucky to be playing this one at home.

Upset Specials: I was 1 for 3 last week, correctly picking Stanford over Arizona. I missed on Southern Miss over Boise State and Buffalo over Western Michigan. This week: Boston College over Virginia Tech, Michigan State over Ohio State, and Maryland over Wake Forest.

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About Todd Erickson

Todd Erickson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and pens the RealFootball365 Top 25 college football power rankings and "Fourth and inches..." weekly columns from August thru January. He is currently working on the second edition of Road to the Rose Bowl...
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