College FB '13 Dread News - Week 8

Well, that wasn't much of a game. Was it? If you had asked me before Florida State played Clemson last Saturday, I would have told you that I thought FSU was the better team, but I still expected Clemson to win - because they were playing at home. But as it turned out, not even the home field advantage was enough to save the Tigers. Not only were the Seminoles the better team, they were an astonishing five touchdowns better. Losers on their last 5 trips to Clemson, the 'Noles ended that streak and had their fans enjoying themselves from start to finish as they put a 51-14 whipping on the Tigers - the most points Clemson has ever allowed in a home game.

I thought when Clemson struggled last week, scoring only 24 points in a 10-point home win over Boston College, that it was only because they were flat and that they would bounce back in a big way against FSU. Uh, no. The struggles didn't continue, they intensified. The Tigers were held to a season low 326 yards (their previous low was 415) and had 4 turnovers.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 7

One of the most disappointing games for Baylor during Robert Griffin III's Heisman Trophy winning 2011 season was the Week 5 road game against Kansas State in which the Bears, off to a hot start not too dissimilar from the way they've started this season, blew a 9-point lead in the 4th quarter and lost 36-35. The biggest disappointment for Kansas State in their Big 12 championship winning 2012 season came in Week 12, when the Wildcats, 10-0 and ranked #2 in the nation, made the trip to Waco and laid an egg, getting clobbered 52-24 by Baylor, which entered the game with a 4-5 record. So for this year's meeting between Baylor and K-State - back in Manhattan - you had the unusual case of both teams seeking redemption. It looked like the outcome was going to be a repeat of the 2011 game. But this time, after the Bears blew a 21-10 halftime lead, they regained momentum, regained the lead, and held on to win 35-25.

I try to never miss an LSU-Florida game, but Baylor against K-State was the game I most wanted to see this week - even if there weren't many players with dreads in uniform. It's just that I've become a really big fan of Tevin Reese (photo above), and also I wanted to see how the Bears' explosive offense would fare playing on the road for the first time.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 6

If you had told me before the start of the 2013 season that by the end of the first 6 weeks of the season Miami redshirt sophomore RB Dallas Crawford would score nearly 3 times as many touchdowns as his former HS teammate, Clemson junior WR Sammy Watkins, I probably would have been like Chief Lutz and asked you if you had "submitted yourself for drug testing yet?" But here we are approaching the middle of October, and it's a fact that Crawford has scored 8 TD so far for the Hurricanes, while Watkins has 3 TD for Clemson. Crawford used to throw passes to Watkins when they were at South Ft. Myers HS but also was a standout cornerback; so I figured when the 'Canes met the Tigers (if they ever meet them) we'd be seeing Crawford trying to cover Watkins, not trying to outscore him. But after playing on defense on the scout team while redshirting in 2011, Crawford switched to offense (RB, not QB) last season. And so far in 2013 he's been making quite a few house calls.

Crawford's 7th and 8th TD were scored last Saturday as Miami improved to 5-0, rallying from an early 17-7 deficit to defeat Georgia Tech 45-30.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 5

When I mentioned last week that Rutgers might be a threat to spoil Louisville's expected romp to the AAC title, you could almost hear the grumbling all the way from Orlando: What about UCF? I agree - what about UCF? Well, apparently I wasn't the only one curious to see if the Knights were for real after getting off to an impressive 3-0 start this season, because a sellout crowd of 47,605 was on hand (the second largest crowd since UCF opened their new stadium 6 years ago) last Saturday to see how they would fare against one of the better teams in the SEC. With Coach Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks on the opposing sideline, the Knights made their first ever appearance on ABC television. And although they did not pass the test, at least the day wasn't a total failure for UCF. The Knights led by 10 early, the Gamecocks went on a 28-0 run, and the Knights finished strong, with South Carolina hanging on for a 28-25 victory that left both teams at 3-1.

The game got off to a bad start for the Gamecocks, as starting QB Connor Shaw went down with an injury on their opening possession. They fell behind 10-0 and might have faced an even larger deficit at halftime if not for the 1st INT of the season by junior CB Victor Hampton, which ended a UCF drive that had reached FG range with 1:17 remaining in the half.