Who's Hot & Who's Not ... Week Two

WAC RBs, Big East LBs, Erik Ainge, Navy's passing, Florida State's running in the latest Who's Hot & Not

Past Hot and Not: Week 1 

Who’s Hot …

WAC Running Backs
Boise State sophomore Ian Johnson is currently second in the country, behind Garrett Wolfe of Northern Illinois, with 329 yards averaging 9.4 yards per carry with a nation-leading seven scores after blowing up Oregon State for 240 yards and five touchdowns in the 42-14 win. He ran for 89 yards and two touchdowns in the opener against Sacramento State. Fresno State's Dwayne Wright is third in the nation with 312 yards after righting for 154 against Oregon and 158 against Nevada. San Jose State' Yonus Davis has 217 yards after tearing off a career-high 184 in the 35-34 win over Stanford.

Syracuse LB Kelvin Smith and Pitt LB H.B. Blades
The Big East has two linebackers in Pitt's H.B. Blades and Syracuse's Kelvin Smith who are among the nation's leading tackles and are playing up to their All-America potential. Smith started off the season with 16 stops against Wake Forest and made 13 on Saturday in the loss to Iowa. Blades started off the year with 13 tackles against Virginia and made 14, ten solo, in the 33-15 win over Cincinnati.

The Sun Belt
Even though the league only came up with one win, the traditional doormat for college football's rich and powerful showed that it's not just a league of cupcakes after, arguably, its best week ever. UL Lafayette got destroyed by Texas A&M 51-7 and Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic were crushed, but North Texas beat SMU 24-6, UL Monroe pushed Kansas in a 21-19 loss, FIU couldn't hang on late against South Florida losing 21-20, Middle Tennessee pushed Maryland in a 24-10 loss, and Troy gave Florida State all it could handle in a 24-17 loss.

Boston College vs. Clemson
These Atlantic Division foes have come up with a brilliant last two games. Boston College beat Clemson in a 16-13 overtime thriller last year, and this year won a 34-33 double-overtime classic that set the early standard for the year's best game. You have to go back to 1983 for the time these two played before being ACC brothers with Clemson winning 31-16, but the year before, the two tied 17-17 for one of two blemishes on a 9-1-1 Tiger season.

Tennessee QB Erik Ainge
The poster boy for the flop that was the 2005 Tennessee season, Ainge currently leads the nation in passing efficiency with a 226.6 rating; over 12 points higher than the number two man, Pitt's Tyler Palko, Against Cal and Air Force, Ainge has completed 35 of 37 passes for 624 yards and seven touchdown with two interceptions. He's leading the nation with a whopping 13.28 yards per attempt. Thanks go out to WR Rober Meachem and offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe..

Who’s Not …

Illinois on the road
On November 23rd, 2002, Illinois beat Northwestern 31-24 in Evanston. Since then, the Illini have lost 16 straight away from Champaign by a combined score of to 514 to 149 after getting blasted 33-0 by Rutgers this weekend.

Navy's passing attack
Everyone knows Navy has a devastating rushing attack, currently ranking fourth in the nation, but there needs to be some semblance of a passing game, doesn't there? In the first two games against East Carolina and Massachusetts, Navy has completed three of 13 passes for 27 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception for a nearly impossible passer rating of 25.16. UL Lafayette is 118th in the nation with a rating of 25.16.

Non-USC Pac 10 teams on the road
A week after Washington State was crushed at Auburn and Cal was pantsed by Tennessee, the Pac 10 didn't exactly step up in the national respect department this week after Washington lost at Oklahoma 37-20, Stanford lost at San Jose State 35-34, Oregon State got humiliated at Boise State 42-14, and Arizona got blasted at LSU 45-3. Fortunately for the league, Oregon survived at Fresno State 31-24.

Stanford's run defense
No one thought much when Oregon, led by Jonathan Stewart, rolled over Stanford for 298 yards and four touchdowns. After all, Oregon might be the Pac 10's second best team behind USC. But San Jose State was able to tear off 342 yards and four scores on the lowly Cardinal defense in a stunning 35-34 win. The nation's worst run defense has a wee bit of a challenge next week: Navy.

Florida State's running game
Things were supposed to change this year in Tallahassee with a more balanced offense on the way. The Noles netted a whopping one yard in the opener against Miami, and then came up with 45 yards on the ground in 28 carries in the way-too-close 24-17 win over Troy. Only Hawaii's running game currently ranked lower. Next week for the Noles is Clemson and its 31st ranked run defense.