Fiu's Cavalcade of
Whimsy ... Part 2
a.k.a.
Frank Costanza's Festivus Airing of the Grievances
By
Pete Fiutak
What's your beef? ... Fire
off your
thoughts
Past Whimsies
2006 Season |
2007 Season
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Preseason Cavalcade
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Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
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Week 5
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Week 6
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Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
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Week 10
- Week 11
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Part One, Week 12
The
C.O.W. airing of the grievances followed by
the feats of strength
The 10 best things happening in college football so far this year that
you have had no interest in whatsoever.
10. The service academies
The average fan has no clue
great
the
disparity in talent
level
is
between the service academies and the rest of the college football
world. There are several players out there for Army, Air Force and Navy
that have little business playing at
an
FCS level, much less against Notre Dame or BYU. The available talent
pool to choose from is microscopic, yet these three programs keep on
competing. Navy is going to yet another bowl game, Air Force is the
fourth best team in the Mountain West, which is nothing to sneeze at
this year, and Army’s transformation into a Navy-like running team has
paid off averaging 258 yards per game while playing relatively well in
several close losses. The Black Knights have gotten night-and-day better
since an ugly start.
9. Arkansas State DE Alex Carrington
Alabama head man Nick Saban commented that Carrington could play for
anybody. The 6-5, 280-pound junior defensive end might get his chance
sooner than later to play against the elite of the elite as he has grown
into a special pass rusher. He is second in the nation in sacks (behind
TCU star Jerry Hughes) with 10.5, is third in tackles for loss with 16,
and he has been consistent. He was erased by Alabama, but so were the
rest of the Red Wolves.
8. Western Michigan QB Tim Hiller & WR Jamarko Simmons
Central Michigan’s Dan LeFevour and Ball State’s Nate Davis get all
the attention, but Hiller is having the best year of the three. He’s
fourth in the nation in passing, throwing for 3,382 yards and 33
touchdowns with just six interceptions including a 301-yard, two
touchdown day in the win over Illinois. Meanwhile Simmons, a huge target
who might be a perfect No. 2 tight end or a big No. 3 wide receiver at
the next level, has been on fire with 92 catches for 1,100 yards and
seven touchdowns. He has made 49 grabs in his last five games.
7. Rice
Rice might be the most fun team no one in America has seen play. The
Owls are in the thick of the Conference USA title hunt going 5-1 with
the one loss coming to Tulsa (along with non-conference losses to
Vanderbilt and Texas). The offense is averaging 40.8 points per game
thanks to QB Chase Clement, who has bombed away for 3,116 yards and 32
touchdowns with just six interceptions while rushing for 510 yards and
nine scores. WR Jarett Dillard has gone over the 1,000-yard mark this
season with 17 touchdowns averaging 15.8 yards per catch. Give a look to
the game against Houston in a few weeks for a fun shootout.
6. The Rutgers comeback
The Scarlet Knights were miserable. In mid-October, they were 1-5
with the lone win coming against Morgan State. However, three of the
five losses came by seven points or fewer, there was fighting and
bickering on the sidelines, and things appeared on the verge of
imploding with the meat of the Big East season about to kick in. Four
wins later, including a 54-34 destruction of Pitt and a 49-16 win over
South Florida, and Rutgers is a win away from being bowl eligible with
home games against Army and Louisville to close. Where has the
turnaround come from? The running game has improved, the defense has
been more aggressive, and most importantly, the turnovers have slowed.
Over the first four games, Rutgers turned the ball over 11 times. There
have been six turnovers over the last six games (although the
interceptions have picked back up over the last two weeks).
5. Illinois LB Brit Miller
J Leman looked like a linebacker out of central casting for a hip
football movie. He had long hair, a chiseled, pro wrestler-like
physique, and he made tackle after tackle. And then there’s Brit Miller.
The 6-1, 250-pound senior isn’t all that big, has some pudding around
the middle, and he carved out a nice career playing second-fiddle to
Leman with 151 tackles coming into the season. With Leman gone, Miller
has turned into the star of the show making 124 tackles, six sacks, and
15.5 tackles for loss. He’s third in the nation in tackles and 14th
in tackles for loss.
4. RB James Starks and Buffalo
Buffalo is 6-4 and can win the MAC East with a win over Bowling
Green this weekend. The Bulls could be 8-4 if they win their last two
games (Kent State follows the date with the Falcons). To put this into
perspective, they won a total of seven games from 2002 to 2006 and
haven’t come up with a winning season since moving up to the FBS level.
Veteran QB Drew Willy has been one of the main reasons, but the star has
been junior RB James Starks, who has rushed for 638 yards and 10
touchdowns in his last four MAC games.
3. BYU WR Austin Collie
It’s Collie, not Michael Crabtree or Dez Bryant or any of the other
big names, who leads the nation in receiving yards with 1,315 on 85
catches with 15 touchdowns. Not only has he gone over the 100-yard mark
in each of the last nine games, but he has only caught fewer than seven
passes once in the run. He and tight end Dennis Pitta have combined for
161 grabs for 2,307 yards and 21 scores on the year.
2. Houston QB Case Keenum
Conference USA was Tulsa QB David Johnson’s show and everyone else
was just taking up space, and then Keenum showed everyone last week who
the real star of the league is. Second in the nation in total offense,
Keenum has bombed away for 317 yards or more in every game this season
with 35 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
The sophomore now has 6,053 career passing yards with 49 touchdown
passes and 19 scores, while running for 623 yards and 12 touchdowns. If
Houston plays for the Conference USA title, it’ll have four more games
this year. If Keenum stays healthy and the Cougars go bowling over the
next three seasons, there’s a chance he’ll play 30 more games. He has to
average 367 passing yards a game to break the NCAA record of 17,072
yards held by Hawaii’s Timmy Chang, who basically did it in six years.
Sound crazy? Keenum is averaging 379 passing yards per game this season.
1. The ACC
It’s finally starting to come together. John Swofford’s raid on the
Big East for all the good teams (other than West Virginia) is starting
to pay off as the foundation has been set for the ACC to become the
super-conference it was supposed to be a few years ago.
Some might call it mediocrity with everyone other than NC State and Duke
still with an outside shot at winning the ACC title, but this is the
year when everyone is rising up. Tom O’Brien’s Wolfpack and David
Cutliffe’s Blue Devils are hardly pushovers, while the rest of the
league is getting really good, and it’s
still really young.
You scoff? Just look at some of the non-conference wins of note this
year. There might be some blowout losses, like USC’s blasting of
Virginia, South Florida’s crushing of NC State and Florida’s win over
Miami, but Boston College (Notre Dame), Duke (Vanderbilt, Navy), Florida
State (Colorado), Georgia Tech (Mississippi State), Maryland
(California), Miami (Texas A&M), North Carolina (Rutgers, Notre Dame,
Connecticut), NC State (East Carolina), Virginia (East Carolina),
Virginia Tech (Nebraska), Wake Forest (Baylor, Ole Miss), have put
together the best non-conference résumé of any league in America.
The league is only getting better with phenomenal coaching everywhere
but, at the moment, Clemson. There hasn’t been a week off for anyone
this year, and things are only going to get tougher as stars Butch
Davis, Paul Johnson, Tom O’Brien, Jeff Jagodzinski and Randy Shannon
have a bit more time to work with their respective programs, Frank
Beamer, Bobby Bowden and Ralph Friedgen each producing, and Jim Grobe
still working wonders at Wake Forest.
Give it one more year, maybe two, and the league will really start to
rock. The pieces are in place.
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Part One, Week 12