#12 Virginia Tech (8-1) at Duke (3-5) played on 10/29/11

So this week I want to cover yet another unorthodox game, also with what could of ended up as an underdog victory. Oddly enough this game was very evenly played. This is odd because the home team isn't that very high caliber of a team as compared to the Virginia Tech Hokies. Virginia Tech is number 12 in the country and they came really close to losing this game. Their rank would of definitely shot to the bottom of the barrel, even with a record of 8-2 if they were to lose this game.
The first quarter was boring (I don't know why I always pick the games that are really boring to cover) there was only one scoring drive. Every other drive resulted in a punt or a turnover. There were many fumbles and interceptions in this game though. Two interceptions by Virginia Tech and three from Duke with one fumble. With that many turnovers a football fan would think that a team could capitalize on the other teams failures...I guess not. Anyway, the only scoring drive of the first quarter came from Virginia Tech and it was a two yard pass from quarterback Logan Thomas to receiver Eric Martin (this was his only catch). The rest of the quarter took its time and put the whole crowd to sleep, especially since their team isn't that good and was losing.

The second quarter gave the false illusion that the game was going to pick up. As we would learn...this illusion would be foiled five minutes into the quarter. Not even a minute into the quarter, Duke scored a touchdown from a run by Desmond Scott, tying the game at 7. Four minutes later, the Hokies shot back with another touchdown on a one yard run by Josh Oglesby putting the score at 14-7. The crowd was ready for a back and forth game after a slow start. I know I was waiting for this to happen. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. The rest of the second quarter was scoreless, boring and almost made me change the channel.
I guess I'll use the space for where the third quarter recap should be to give you some of my thoughts on this game. It sucked, the only factor that kept me watching was that Duke could of MAYBE come back and take Virginia Tech down (I'm a sucker for the comeback, underdog win) but that didn't come either. At the end of this game I felt like I had just wasted about four hours in front of my television instead of doing something productive. Although, this game does show that the "almighty" Virginia Tech Hokies aren't all that almight after all, almost being taken by the Blue Devils
Oh yeah, Duke kicked a field goal to come to the end of the game score 14-10. Great game guys...not. It looks like the Virginia Tech Hokies are slowing down at the beginning of the end of the season, which would be a very nice turning point for teams like Michigan and Michigan State that are struggling at the high teen area of the rankings. I also hope that Duke can keep showing that they aren't just some push over team, and shows these bigger teams that they are ready to play.

# 23 Illinois (6-2) at Purdue (4-3) played on 10/22/11

     I just want to start this weeks post off by saying that I purposely decided to not post last week because I wanted to do the Michigan v. Michigan State game, but I felt as if my bias would of come into play a little to much seeing as I do not like the Michigan Wolverines (check prior posts about them), but I do like the Michigan State Spartans, so that would of been a train wreck of a post. Anyway back to the game at hand.
     This game was an upset. Plain and simple. Illinois didn't play to their full potential and Purdue definitely took advantage of Illinois shortcomings and exploited them. As you can see, Purdue is generally a mediocre team when it comes to their record, winning a hand full and losing a handful. On the other side of the field is Illinois, a team that generally wins a majority of their games, plays in bowl games and wins. Illinois fans saw this game as an opportunity to move their team up in the rankings, but it didn't turn out that way. I personally am a fan of any kind of upset, underdog win, so this to me was a good game.
      Purdue took the lead early, with the only points scored in the first and second quarters. The first touchdown came with only three minutes left in the quarter, completed by a 6 yard pass from quarterback Caleb Terbush to Justin Siller. This put Purdue up 7-0. In the second quarter, a phenomenal run by halfback Raheem Mostert of the Purdue Boilermakers but 7 more on the board, with 12 minutes to still play in the quarter. He ran for 21 yards on that play and that was his only carry of the game. Fast forward four minutes and Purdue was looking to put the score, in their favor, up by three touchdowns. Quarterback Caleb Terbush completed a 4 yard pass to receiver Jared Crank. Terbush threw for 178 yards with 2 touchdown passes.
    The third quarter became a blur, as both teams did nothing but punt the ball making for horrible TV and also horrible football. I felt like I was watching a youth football game. It is good to note that even though the game went sour in the third quarter, the Purdue crowd was still on their feet ranting and raving for their team to complete this upset. Consequently, this crowd fell silent in the fourth quarter. This is why.
      Illinois decided that they finally wanted to play football. Purdue's hopes of an underdog victory started to become a meek dream. With eight minutes left in the game, Illinois's halfback Jason Ford grabbed the ball for a 16 yard run, which resulted in Illinois first touchdown of the game. putting the score at 21-7. Ford ran for 83 yards on 10 carries, basically being shut out by the Purdue defense. Illinois comeback once again flared with 54 seconds left in the game, when a 2 yard run by quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase put the game at 21-14. Illinois decided to go for the on-side kick, the drama was high, the crowd was loud and the kick was returned by Purdue. The crowd went even more insane. Purdue ran out the clock for probably their biggest win of the season, giving them some momentum to hold onto going into week 9 when they play rival (and once again my number one hated team) #18 Michigan, in the Big House. Don't count Illinois out of their own game though, every good team has a down game and loses as a consequence. Illinois who lost their ranking will step into #19 Penn States house, but I wouldn't count them out of that one just yet. I actually hope both Purdue and Illinois win their games this week. I just want to point out, also that Michigan State jumped to #11 in the rankings and are playing #14 Nebraska at Nebraska. This should be a great week of football.

San Jose (2-4) at Brigham Young University (4-2) played 10/8/11

This week I wanted to choose two teams that are within one point on the ranking scales, just to show that every game isn't boring like the last two games that I have covered. Unfortunately, as I was watching the games on Saturday and Sunday I noticed that not many of the top 25 teams played others that were also part of the top 25. My second choice was to cover a game that ended in an upset (where the worse team beats the better team), then I noticed that didn't happen either. So I said whatever, I will just cover Brigham Young again. Why not, so here we go:

The first points on the board game with a safety from San Jose, putting BYU up by 2 early in the game. BYU seemed to control the game as if San Jose didn't even matter, putting seven on the board with a 21 yard pass from quarterback Riley Nelson to receiver Richard Wilson, putting San Jose down by 9 with a lot of game to play in the first quarter. San Jose finally found some room to put a score on the board before the end of the first quarter, but the drive resulted in a twenty-four yard field goal by kicker Jens Alvernik.
The second quarter was once again dominated by the Cougars (BYU) who eventually went up twenty at the end of the quarter. Two scoring drives resulted in this large lead, first with a 1 yard pass from Nelson to receiver Bryan Kariya for 7 points, and an impressive 40 yard pass from Nelson to McKay Jacobson to put the Cougars ahead 23-3 with a lot of game to play. San Jose once again put themselves on the board with a fieldgoal in the diminishing seconds of the half from kicker Jens Alvernik from 40 yards. The score at the end of the half was 23-6.
The second half started off with what the commentators and myself to believe that San Jose would come back, seeing as BYU is known for their second half let-down losses. This started to become a reality when (in a San Jose dominated quarter) San Jose finally recorded their first touchdown, which put them within ten of the Cougars. The drive ended with a run from halfback Jason Simpson to put the score at an intimidating 23-12. BYU and San Jose basically flipped roles in the second half, at the end of the third quarter BYU sent on their kicking team to put three through the uprights from 42 yards by the Cougars most impressive kicker Justin Sorenson (Sorenson has kicked for 40 points in the season).
The fourth quarter turned out to be a let down by both teams, seeing as both teams only scored one field goal each. First, San Jose with a 43 yarder from kicker Alvernik. Then an impressive 45 yard kick from BYU kicker Sorenson. Ending the game with a score of 29-16
San Jose had a great chance to come back and maybe pull a win over the struggling BYU Cougars. Although, their offense and their defense let down the comeback. Not saying that BYU's offense and defense were performing at top notch. Although, until the fourth quarter this was a very entertaining game to watch.

Auburn (4-1) at #10 South Carolina (4-1) played 10/1/11 (PT1/2)

This week I decided that I wanted to finally do a blog post on my favorite team in the whole league, which happens to be the Auburn Tigers. At the beginning of week 5, Auburn was not ranked at all, even though they were heading into the bout with three wins and no losses. Their opponent for week five was undefeated South Carolina, with four wins and no losses. They were also ranked 10 going into the game. I was personally excited for this game because, being an Auburn fan I know that they are good enough to beat a top 10 team in the league, this is because they won the NCAA National Championship last year (being between the number one and two team in the nation).
The first quarter started off uneasy for Auburn when they failed to get the ball down the field twice before they finally reached field goal position, and kicker Cody Parkey was able to put it through for 3 points. Auburn held that three point lead for about three minutes when South Carolina received a touchdown from an impressive 50 yard pass from quarterback Stephan Garcia to receiver Alshon Jeffrey. Good turned to bad for the South Carolina offense though, because Auburn proceeded to block the extra point attempt, epically limiting them to 6 points instead of season, keeping Auburn in field goal range. The rest of the quarter ended without the scoreboard changing.
The second quarter was fairly quiet, the first and only points that went on the board came nine minutes into the quarter after a fierce drive down the field by Auburn offense. A touchdown was finally put in with a run by halfback Michael Dyer in the third quarter. Ironically, Auburn missed their extra point, almost exactly a quarter after blocking a South Carolina extra point conversion.
As the game was winding down and us Auburn fans were getting very worried that the game would end in a loss, Auburn got their stuff together and made a final drive down the field, resulting in a 9 yard pass from Barrett Trotter to Philip Lutzenkirchen for 7 points, the extra point was actually converted this time, putting Auburn up by 3 with one minute and twenty-eight seconds left in the game. Auburn's defense was very clutch in this situation and shit down South Carolina's offensive drive, ending the game with an Auburn victory, solidifying the thought that Auburn does not need star NFL rookie quarterback Cam Newton, and also promising hope for the rest of the season after a shaky start.
Because of the win over a top ten team, Auburn jumped to number 15 in the nation heading into week 6.

Notre Dame (2-2) at Pittsburgh (2-2) played 9/24/11 (PT2/2)

This game unfortunately was between two teams that were not ranked on September 24th. Although, after Notre Dame has won their last two games they are gaining points in the rankings. They started the year off as number 16 in the nation. Pittsburgh wasn't ranked at the beginning of the season, but they had gotten some considerable coverage by the poll-masters, receiving points before even playing a game. Pittsburgh ended up losing a game, and with their already damaged rank, it didn't help.
I decided that since this game was very boring that I am going to cover the season that Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees is having so far. Tommy Rees is a sophomore that started to see starts as early as halfway through his freshman year. In his freshman year Rees played his first game against Navy on October 15th 2010, although a loss he fought back through the season, winning the rest of the games in that season and also leading his team to play in the Hyundai Sun Bowl and beating Miami Florida for his first championship as a collegiate athlete. Fast forward to 2011, Tommy Rees and his team has lost 2 and won 2 games. In 2010 he threw for 1106 yards, with 12 touchdown and 8 interceptions. In 2011 Tommy Rees has shown that he can step up as a leader for his team, having thrown 988 yards, 7 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. Mind you, this is in only 4 games and there is still 11 weeks of the season left. By his Senior year he will be a top notch NCAA quarterback.

Notre Dame (2-2) at Pittsburgh (2-2) played 9/24/11 (PT1/2)

     I have previously covered a game that Notre Dame has played in (being Notre Dame at Michigan) where Michigan came back to beat Notre Dame in the final seconds of the game. Notre Dame went on to win their next game in week three against Michigan State in an upset victory. Now onto week 4.

     Both teams came into the game with mediocre records, Notre Dame at 1 win, 2 losses and Pittsburgh at 2 wins, 1 loss. The broadcast team kept reminding the audience that Notre Dame needed to win this game to keep their morale up and keep them off the brink of total defeat. I couldn't agree more.
    The first quarter started off very bland with barely any forced turnovers, both teams just couldn't seem to get down the field to get some points on the board. Finally, with two minutes left in the quarter Pittsburgh kicker put 3 points on the board with a 45 yard field goal. Notre Dame answered back almost immediately. Two minutes into the quarter Notre Dame halfback Jonas Gray rushed for 79 of his total 84 yards for seven points, putting Notre Dame up. Five minutes later Pittsburgh fought their way down field to conclude in a 23 yard field goal by Harper. This made the score 7-6 in favor of Notre Dame. The rest of the quarter was quiet, with no points being scored.
     After the half, the game seemed to ease back into its theme of quiet plays and unrelenting drives down the field, until Pittsburgh finally took their offense to the end zone for seven with a pass from Quarterback Tino Sunseri to receiver Hubie Graham. This put Pittsburgh up 12-7 and gave them the lead for the first time since the end of the first quarter. As the picture shows, Pittsburgh spectators believed they had a really good chance of taking the game and they had a good time with the lead.
That is until the fourth quarter began. With 6 minutes in the game a pass from Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees to Tyler Eifert, and then the same for the two point conversion to put Notre Dame up by 3, Pittsburgh could still tie it up with a field goal and force the game into overtime. Pittsburgh never got into prime field position to kick the field goal.
Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees went 24 completions with 41 attempts with 216 passing yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Pittsburgh quarterback Tino Sunseri went 22 completions for 30 attempts with 165 yards and 1 touchdown.

#22 Arizona State (2-1) at Illinois (3-0) played on 9/17/11 (PT 1/2)

     This week I wanted to cover a game that was really close in the final score and really meant something important to the teams involved in the game. Arizona State and Illinois was an obvious choice for this blog for week three with the final score being 17-14 in favor of the home team, being Illinois, pulling off an upset over #22 ranked Arizona State University.
     The game started off explosive as Illinois put the first points on the board with a 1 yard run by halfback Jason Ford to put Illinois up by 7. Although, three minutes later in the game Arizona State answered back with a 21 yard pass from quarterback Brock Osweiler to receiver Gerell Robinson for 7 points of their own. The rest of the first quarter resulted in punts and turnovers until an Illinois field goal went through the up-rights with 3 minutes left in the quarter to give Illinois a lead of 10-7.
     The second and third quarter seemed to be the longest quarters of football this week had to offer. Both teams made crucial errors that turned the ball over numerous times, but the other team couldn't capitalize on the mistakes made. The second and third quarters both went scoreless, resulting in missed field goals, fumbles, interceptions and punt.
    The next scoring drive came in the fourth quarter when Arizona State put seven more points on the board with a 14 yard rushing touchdown by Brock Osweiler putting Arizona State up by 4, and giving them the lead for the first time in the game. The last scoring drive of the game came from Illinois in form of a pass from Nathan Scheelhaase to A.J. Jenkins for 16 yards and a touchdown, after the extra point soared through through the field goal posts Illinois only had to defend for twelve minutes to solidify their upset of the Arizona State football team. Arizona State had some quality drives but both led to a punt and a turnover on downs, giving Illinois the ball with one minute left. Illinois ran down the clock and in the meantime, took down Arizona State with a final score of 17-14 in a well played, hard fought game.
     There wasn't many standout players in the game, but Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase threw for 135 yards, 1 touchdown (winning touchdown) and finished completing 11 passes out of 15 attempts. Arizona State quarterback, Brock Osweiler played significantly under-par, throwing for 256 yards, with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions, completing 25 of 45 attempts through the air.
     Illinois takes down Arizona State propelling them to an undefeated record through week three and also handing Arizona State their first loss of the season.

Notre Dame (0-2) at University of Michigan (2-0), played on 9/10/11, (PT 2/2)

     To recap any changes that are a direct correlation to the outcome of this game (Michigan- 35, Notre Dame-31) we have to go back to week one where Notre Dame suffered a defeat at the hands of South Florida by a score of 23-2 and the University of Michigan was triumphant over the Western Michigan Broncos by a score of 34-10. The game between Michigan and Notre Dame was truly a game of huge proportions for the both teams. Michigan, was ready to prove that under their new head coach, Brady Hoke, they could take on a worthy opponent (ranked higher than Western Michigan). Notre Dame was ready to redeem themselves from a tragic loss against against a team they should of beaten. Notre Dame's plans for redemption was ran short by the University of Michigan just a week later. After week one, Michigan was not ranked and did not gain any points in the polls, and before their week one showdown with South Florida, Notre Dame was ranked 16 in the nation, after that loss Notre Dame was dropped from all ranking.
     Now to the game between Notre Dame and Michigan, at this point in the week both teams are not ranked, so the games are important to both of the teams. Although, after the games epic conclusion (35-31) Notre Dame fell even more through the rankings dropping to a record of zero wins, two losses; both after taking early leads in the game and losing the game in late game situations After this game, and Michigan's out of nowhere come back and victory propelling them to a record of two wins, zero losses. Michigan then received one hundred points in the polls (which is a very large amount to be awarded) but did not break into the Top 25 teams in NCAA college football.Michigan and Notre Dame both have difficult schedules through-out the year, so I may cover another game by either team in the future.


The Top 25 going into week 3 of games:

1-Oklahoma
2-Alabama
3-LSU
4-Boise State
5-Florida State
6-Stanford
7-Wisconsin
8-Oklahoma State
9-Texas A&M
10-South Carolina
11-Nebraska
12-Oregon
13-Virginia Tech
14-Arkansas
15-Michigan State
16-Florida
17-Ohio State
18-West Virginia
19-Baylor
20-South Florida
21-Auburn
22-Arizona State
23-TCU&Texas (Tied for 23rd)
24-None due to tie at 23
25-Mississippi State

Notre Dame (0-2) at University of Michigan (2-0), played on 9/10/11, (PT 1/2)

     A football game between Notre Dame and the University of Michigan is always going to be a quality confrontation (seeing as they're rivals), this game especially was going to be great before the opening kick-off. This game was the first ever night game to be played in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan's Big House stadium. With a record crowd in attendance the game was set to begin. The Fighting Irish started the game off strong with two drives in the first quarter to put them up by fourteen. These drives were led by Fighting Irish quarter back Tommy Rees, who looked strong in the first half of the contest. Finally, the Michigan Wolverines would inch their way back as with a forty-three yard pass from Wolverine football savior Denard Robinson, to lead wide receiver Ernest Hemingway, making the score 14-7. The Irish responded with a lackluster drive that ended in a field goal kicked by kicker David Ruffer to end the half with a score of 17-7. At halftime the game seemed close, but overall the Irish were outplaying, out hustling and out thinking the Wolverines. The third quarter seemed to have the same feel, the Irish put another score on the board; this time with a pass from Tommy Rees to wide receiver T.J. Jones. The rest of the quarter went without a score by both teams putting the Irish ahead 24-7 three-fourths through the game. Between the third and fourth quarter though something ticked within the U of M offense, and that "tick" was star quarterback Denard Robinson. U of M scored with three consecutive drives that brought the game back out of the clenches that the Irish had. The first drive concluded with a one yard rush from Robinson after a fumble to bring the game to a score of 24-14. The second drive ended with Robinson connecting with receiver Jeremy Gallon for 7 more points, putting the game back into reach at 24-21. The Wolverines took their first lead of the night after scoring once again with a pass from Robinson to receiver Vincent Smith to take their first lead of the night at 24-28. Tommy Rees responded, showing his leadership and composure in a stressful situation by leading his team down the field and finally finding receiver Theo Riddick to capture the lead once again, but this was short lived. Denard Robinson once again took control of the game by adding seven more points to the board, going through the air and connecting with receiver Roy Roundtree,with two seconds left in the game, to take the lead for the second time in the game, at 35-31 and consequently win the rivalry game with a hard-fought comeback that was rewarded the Wolverines with another "W" in the win column.
     After the first half of this game though it obviously became "The Denard Robinson" show, like many Michigan games have in the past year. Robinson threw for 338 yards with 4 touchdown passes, rushed for 108 yards (as a quarterback) and had 3 interceptions. All in all, the game was not held up for Michigan to win, it was held up for Notre Dame to lose. The Irish offense and defense both "shut down" after the first half, basically handing the game over to Michigan (most notably Michigan wonder-boy Denard Robinson). We cannot discredit Notre Dame's leader and quarterback Tommy Rees. Rees passed for 315 yards with 3 touchdown passes, and didn't run the ball (like quarterbacks should) and had 2 interceptions. In conclusion, this game was a classic contest between Notre Dame and Michigan, it will be forever talked about as the game "Robinson saved".