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The magic of No. 8 and other musings
Florida's Trey Burton swtiched his jersey number to 8 last week, and it paid big dividends.
Burton rushed for a school record six touchdowns and led the Gators to a romp over Kentucky. The young Florida team still seems overmatched going into Alabama this week, but it at least gave Nick Saban something to watch on film.
Previous No. 8s have done well at Florida as well. In the 2000 season, now-ESPN commentator Jesse Palmer and erstwhile NFL scrub Brock Berlin were locked in a classic quarterback controversy as the year starter. As both struggled, an unknown kid from Indiana took over at QB - Rex Grossman - and the Gators won the SEC title. Grossman went on to be runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and was the AP National Player of the Year in 2001.
(Yes, we know him today as Turnoversaurus Rex, but he was terrific in college. Well, almost all the time.)
Percy Harvin also wore No. 8 as a freshman, when he basically carried the Florida offense by himself on the way to the 2006 national title.
Florida-Alabama could be a classic battle of defenses, with turnovers making the difference. It's hard not to like the Tide to pull this one out, but I wouldn't rule out a rematch in the SEC title game.
OK, enough about Florida - for now.
* Stanford is playing some great football right now. I loved the Cardnial giving 4 1/2 points to Notre Dame and if I was a betting man (remember, my picks are for entertainment purposes), I would have gone digging for the old car title on that one.
Now they take on Oregon, a team I have been equally impressed with. I can't wait for this game, and it's a good thing I'm a night owl. It starts at 11:15 eastern time Saturday night.
*Michigan's Denard Robinson got injured last week, causing him to lose ground as the purported Heisman Trophy frontrunner. Right now, the race is led in my mind by a four-headed quarterback - Robinson, Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State, Kellen Moore of Boise State and Andrew Luck of Stanford - and the re-emerging Mark Ingram. I originally thought the two missed games would hurt him a lot in the race, but he has two big games since and he has Florida this week.
If Ingram has another big game in prime time, someone better get Archie Griffin on the phone after all.
Still, I like all the aforementioned quarterbacks as well. Luck has a big chance to make a name for himself at Oregon, while the other three will likely be piling up stats against nobodies, as the Big 10 and WAC are fairly weak.
If I end up voting for Luck when December rolls around, I'll be 2-for-2 in voting for Stanford players after I tapped runner-up Toby Gerhart last year.
* Just asking this, andit's probably a dumb question, but if Nevada beats Boise State and goes undefeated, do the Wolf Pack play for the national title?
They've beaten Brigham Young (on the road) and Cal so far, and those will have to stand for their non-conference quality wins. But are those any weaker than Virginia Tech and Oregon State right now? We'll see how the Beavers do in the Pac-10 when compared to Cal, but I guarantee there is no way on this Earth that Nevada plays for the BCS title.
Boise State might, though, sadly, but it has to get through Reno first.
* The Big East is a disgrace. I am not sure that comment requires any more analysis, but I'll give a little anyway.
Rutgers, even looking pretty mediocre as it as, actually is just as viable a contender as a handful of other teams in there right now. If the Knights can straighten out their offensive woes, who knows? It's wide open. Even Syracuse has BCS wishes and caviar dreams.
* I was 4-4 last week on my picks right after someone called me to tell me, using colorful metaphors, that I was not such a terrific handicapper. That be as it may, I am not ready to give up, even after I was again victimized by a cheap, meaningless touchdown that covered the spread late for my opponent. (Thank you, Northwestern.)
There are a lot of road favorites this week, and I do love teams at home with points, but most of them are terrible, hence the points. Touch choices all, but I will have some picks in a day or two.
Burton rushed for a school record six touchdowns and led the Gators to a romp over Kentucky. The young Florida team still seems overmatched going into Alabama this week, but it at least gave Nick Saban something to watch on film.
Previous No. 8s have done well at Florida as well. In the 2000 season, now-ESPN commentator Jesse Palmer and erstwhile NFL scrub Brock Berlin were locked in a classic quarterback controversy as the year starter. As both struggled, an unknown kid from Indiana took over at QB - Rex Grossman - and the Gators won the SEC title. Grossman went on to be runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and was the AP National Player of the Year in 2001.
(Yes, we know him today as Turnoversaurus Rex, but he was terrific in college. Well, almost all the time.)
Percy Harvin also wore No. 8 as a freshman, when he basically carried the Florida offense by himself on the way to the 2006 national title.
Florida-Alabama could be a classic battle of defenses, with turnovers making the difference. It's hard not to like the Tide to pull this one out, but I wouldn't rule out a rematch in the SEC title game.
OK, enough about Florida - for now.
* Stanford is playing some great football right now. I loved the Cardnial giving 4 1/2 points to Notre Dame and if I was a betting man (remember, my picks are for entertainment purposes), I would have gone digging for the old car title on that one.
Now they take on Oregon, a team I have been equally impressed with. I can't wait for this game, and it's a good thing I'm a night owl. It starts at 11:15 eastern time Saturday night.
*Michigan's Denard Robinson got injured last week, causing him to lose ground as the purported Heisman Trophy frontrunner. Right now, the race is led in my mind by a four-headed quarterback - Robinson, Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State, Kellen Moore of Boise State and Andrew Luck of Stanford - and the re-emerging Mark Ingram. I originally thought the two missed games would hurt him a lot in the race, but he has two big games since and he has Florida this week.
If Ingram has another big game in prime time, someone better get Archie Griffin on the phone after all.
Still, I like all the aforementioned quarterbacks as well. Luck has a big chance to make a name for himself at Oregon, while the other three will likely be piling up stats against nobodies, as the Big 10 and WAC are fairly weak.
If I end up voting for Luck when December rolls around, I'll be 2-for-2 in voting for Stanford players after I tapped runner-up Toby Gerhart last year.
* Just asking this, andit's probably a dumb question, but if Nevada beats Boise State and goes undefeated, do the Wolf Pack play for the national title?
They've beaten Brigham Young (on the road) and Cal so far, and those will have to stand for their non-conference quality wins. But are those any weaker than Virginia Tech and Oregon State right now? We'll see how the Beavers do in the Pac-10 when compared to Cal, but I guarantee there is no way on this Earth that Nevada plays for the BCS title.
Boise State might, though, sadly, but it has to get through Reno first.
* The Big East is a disgrace. I am not sure that comment requires any more analysis, but I'll give a little anyway.
Rutgers, even looking pretty mediocre as it as, actually is just as viable a contender as a handful of other teams in there right now. If the Knights can straighten out their offensive woes, who knows? It's wide open. Even Syracuse has BCS wishes and caviar dreams.
* I was 4-4 last week on my picks right after someone called me to tell me, using colorful metaphors, that I was not such a terrific handicapper. That be as it may, I am not ready to give up, even after I was again victimized by a cheap, meaningless touchdown that covered the spread late for my opponent. (Thank you, Northwestern.)
There are a lot of road favorites this week, and I do love teams at home with points, but most of them are terrible, hence the points. Touch choices all, but I will have some picks in a day or two.
posted by Matthew Osborne at
9:21 AM
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