Past Hot and Not:
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4
Week 5 |
Week 6 |
Week 7 |
Week 8 |
Week 9 |
Week 10
Who’s Hot
…
Rice QB Chase
Clement
It took a
little while, but Clement has now gotten the hang of the new coaching
staff and the offense, with 1,684 yards in his last five games,
averaging 337 per game, with 17 touchdown passes and six scoring runs
over that span. Two weeks ago he threw for 395 yards and six touchdowns,
while running for 103 yards and two scores, in the win over UTEP. Last
week he rallied the Owls to a 43-42 win over SMU with 364 yards and two
touchdowns, while running for 124 yards and two scores. Tulane is up
next week.
North Texas QB Giovanni Vizza
North Texas is on a three-game losing streak, but there’s hope for
the future with the emergence of true freshman QB Giovanni Vizza. He
torched Navy for 478 yards and eight touchdown passes in the 74-62 loss
last week, while Casey Fitzgerald, who made 18 catches for 327 yards and
two touchdowns against SMU earlier in the year, caught 13 passes for 134
yards and five yards against the Midshipmen. Arkansas State is up next
with the Sun Belt’s second best pass defense.
NC State run
defense
The Wolfpack
might be dead last in the ACC in run defense, but that’s because Miami
gashed it for 314 yards two weeks ago. That might be an aberration as
Tom O’Brien’s club has allowed fewer than 100 yards in three of the last
four games, giving up 12 yards to North Carolina last week. The run
defense hasn’t allowed a rushing touchdown in the last two games, and
has given up just three in the last five. Up next is Wake Forest.
Toledo
Simply put, there’s not a hotter team in America with three straight
wins averaging 55 points per game. Now the Rockets are in a position to
take a once-dead season and go to a bowl, helped by sophomore QB Aaron
Opelt who has thrown for 867 yards and seven touchdowns with no
interceptions over the last three games, while RB Jalen Parmele has
rushed for 100 yards or more in the last six games, cranking out 985
yards and 11 touchdowns, along with a receiving score, over the span. Up
next is Ball State and the nation’s 93rd ranked defense.
Nebraska QB Joe Ganz
Did Bill Callahan make the wrong quarterback decision to start the year
when he chose to go with Sam Keller? It looks that way at the moment, as
junior Joe Ganz has made the Husker offense explode. He threw four picks
against Kansas, but he also threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns and
ran for a score. In the win over Kansas State he threw for a
school-record 510 yards and seven touchdowns, while running for 18
yards. Up next Is Colorado and the nation’s 83rd ranked pass
defense.
Who’s Not …
All things
Miami ... the Florida version
Not only
have the Miami Dolphins become the NFL's worst team with an 0-9 start,
but the Hurricanes have gone into the tank losing four of their last
five games including an embarrassing 48-0 loss to Virginia in the tean's
final game in the Orange Bowl. At 5-5, and with road trips to Virginia
Tech and Boston College ahead, a bowl bid is unlikely.
UTEP
No one crashes and burns over the final month of the season quite
like UTEP. The program hasn't won its final game of a season since 1986,
but worse yet, it's managed to collapse late under Mike Price losing
five of the final six games last year to miss out on a bowl, lost the
final three games of 2005, and the final two games of 2004. This year,
the Miners appeared to be one of the favorites to win the Conference USA
title after beating Tulsa, and then they went on a four-game losing
streak will losses to Rice and Tulane over the last two weeks. They
close out against Southern Miss and at UCF.
South Carolina defense
Not only does South Carolina have the SEC's worst rushing attack,
but now it has the worst run defense after getting ripped apart the last
two weeks by Arkansas and Florida. The Hogs ran for 542 yards and four
touchdowns, while Florida, thanks to Tim Tebow, ran for 233 yards and
five scores, to go along with 304 passing yards and two scores. Up next
in two weeks is Clemson, led by the dangerous rushing tandem of James
David and C.J. Spiller.
Boston College pass defense
Why has BC fallen from the ranks of the elite? The pass defense has
gone bye-bye, now ranking last in the ACC allowing 280 yards per game.
It has allowed 300 yards or more in five of the ten games, and was
torched by Florida State for 371 yards and two touchdowns two weeks ago
and 337 yards and three scores by Maryland last week. After coming up
with 18 interceptions in the first seven games, the Eagles have failed
to pick off a pass in the last three. Up next is Clemson and QB Cullen
Harper, the ACC’s most efficient passer.
Arizona State pass protection
The Sun Devils are second-to-last in America in sacks allowed
(cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame) giving up 43 so far. Rudy Carpenter
got nailed six times by UCLA last week and eight times by Oregon the
week before. Up next is USC, who’s 15th in the country with
30 sacks.
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