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

Manningham, Arkansas in OT, Koetter vs. Cal Pac 10 teams, Utah State & More

Past Hot and Not: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 

Who’s Hot …

SMU QB Justin Willis
There hasn't been a hotter quarterback in the country over the last three weeks than the redshirt freshman after completing 46 of 62 passes (74%) for 511 yards and ten touchdowns with two interceptions to go along with a rushing touchdown against North Texas, Sam Houston State, and Arkansas State. The highlight was a brilliant 18-of-19, 248-yard, five touchdown pass, one rushing score performance in the 45-14 win over Sam Houston State.

California CB Daymeion Hughes
Has the Cal senior solidified a spot on everyone's All-America team yet? All he did against Arizona State was make ten tackles and two interceptions taking one for a score. The week before, he picked off a pass for a 30-yard touchdown against Portland State. The week before that, he intercepted two passes against Minnesota.

Michigan WR Mario Manningham
Just when the Wolverines needed a go-to receiver to rely on, the super-sophomore stepped up his game catching four passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns against Notre Dame, and followed it up with a seven-catch, 113-yard, two touchdown day against Wisconsin. So far, he's averaging over 20 yards per catch with six touchdowns.

Arkansas in overtimes
After this week's 24-23 win over Alabama, Arkansas is now 7-1 in overtimes since the extra frames were introduced in 1994. Highlighted by a 71-63, seven-overtime win over Kentucky in 2003, and a 58-56, seven-overtime win over Ole Miss in 2001, the Hogs have found ways to come away with the tight, late win.

Central Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan games
There hasn't been a better series over the last three seasons, and it's not even close. In 2004, Eastern Michigan won 61-58 in three overtimes in a game that featured 1,008 yards of total offense and four Eric Deslauries touchdown grabs. In 2005, the Eagles won 23-20 with Andrew Wellock kicking three field goals including a 19-yarder to force overtime and a 36-yarder to win it. This year, Central Michigan won 24-17 in overtime with Bryan Anderson catching a ten-yard touchdown pass for the win.

Who’s Not …

Utah State offense
Utah State's offense has yet to score in the first four games and is currently dead last in total offense averaging 179.5 yards per game. The only Aggie points this year came on a defensive touchdown in the opening week 38-7 loss to Wyoming, and since then, the team lost to Arkansas, Utah, and BYU by a combined score of 106-0. Up next is a home date against Idaho, who's 116th in the nation in total defense.

Dirk Koetter vs. California teams
In five years and four games at Arizona State, head coach Dirk Koetter is 0-11 when playing Pac 10 teams in California after losing 49-21 to Cal this week in Berkeley. ASU lost those 11 games by an average score of 41 to 19. There's one more chance this year to make amends, but unfortunately, it's at USC.

Indiana teams
Thank goodness for Purdue's win over Minnesota and Notre Dame's big win over Michigan State. Indiana was held to no rushing yards in a 14-7 loss to Connecticut a week after losing to Southern Illinois. Ball State has lost three straight with the ultimate indignity coming in a 29-24 loss to D-IAA North Dakota State. The biggest problem is at Indiana State, where the Sycamores have lost 21 straight after this week's 48-14 thrashing by Northern Illinois

The hot, young SEC quarterbacks
Give it a year before the Golden Age of SEC quarterbacks kicks in; the star freshmen still need time. Mitch Mustain has led Arkansas to wins, but he's hardly polished completing around half his throws with five touchdown passes and five interceptions. Georgia's Matthew Stafford was ineffective against Colorado and was benched for Joe Cox, who sparked the Dawgs to a 14-13 win. Stafford has completed 26 of 52 passes for 354 yards and three interceptions in the last three games. Florida's Tim Tebow has been great as a running option, but it's still Chris Leak's team.

West Virginia pass rush
Can a team really be a national title contender without a pass rush? After four games, West Virginia is still the only team yet to register a sack and is 115th in the nation in tackles for loss with just 13. Only three teams have just one sack (San Diego State, Akron and Utah State), while the nation's leaders are Arizona State and Syracuse with 19 apiece.