The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Week 6 Edition
There was plenty of all three for this third week of the season so we'll run through the conference and take a look at what stood out the most for each respective league as well as the big national picture.
Let's take a look at each BCS league and determine what was the best, worst and most painful performance of week six.
Here's your The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for Week 6 after the jump...
The ACC:The Good - Virginia Tech's going on the offensive. For the third time in as many games the Hokies have topped the 31 point mark and this week in emphatic fashion with their throttling of BC. We know Beamers' squad brings their defense and special teams to the party but with Ryan Williams, a maturing Tyrod Taylor and a solid receiving core this Tech team is pushing their way into the national title picture.
The Bad - NC State's secondary. The Wolfpack allowed Thaddeus Lewis to complete 40 of 50 passes in what David Cutcliffe described as "the best game I've ever had a quarterback play in my college career."
The Ugly - Florida State, the defense, the ball security and the Bowden situation. While NC State had the most putrid performance on the field the Seminoles' amalgamation of issues creates the worst storm in the nation. Bad football + Severe inner turmoil = Ugly.
The Big East:
The Good - Pitt is rising up to make the Big East a three team race, at least in theory. Cincinnati is way out in front while South Florida flies quietly under the radar waiting for this Thursday night shot at the Bearcats. Meanwhile Pitt slowly is building a case for Big East contention.
The Bad - Kragthorpe and "The ‘Ville" took five games and six weeks to get to their first victory over an FBS opponent. The seat is getting hot in Louisville and with UConn, Cinci and West Virginia as the next Big East opponents Krags could be home for yet another Christmas season.
The Ugly - Syracuse's quarterback situation. The Orange, for the first time this season, pulled Greg Paulus in favor of Ryan Nassib. Coach Marrone has already stated that Paulus will be the starter against Akron but if Paulus continues to flounder how long before the Orange have a qb controversy.
The Big 10:
The Good - Ohio State's defense and special teams are as elite as they come. The Buckeyes went through a span in the third quarter where they put fourteen points on the board with out their offense ever touching the field. Doubling their points against Wisconsin and turning a game into a blowout in the process.
The Bad - Illinois is just a bad football team. Ron Zook is quickly returning to the same hot seat he sat on in Rex Grossman era Florida as his talented roster loses game after game. The Rose Bowl is looking like a tremendous anomaly for Illinois.
The Ugly - Nothing can be taken away from Iowa as the Big Ten's loan undefeated however their style is just plain ugly. They're the most fortuitous team in recent memory as they intercept, return and take advantage of poor defense to bully their way into the Top 15. How much longer can Ferentz and company feast on the misfortunate nature of others?
The Big XII:
The Good - Bo Pelini's return of the "Black Shirts" to Lincoln has been a pleasure to watch. True, Ndamukong Suh has a lot to do with it as he pillaged his way to victory in the Mizzou game. However, Bo and Carl Pelini have gone a long way to restore the Huskers as they are 2nd in scoring defense, 13th in total defense and 14th in pass defense nationally.
The Bad - The Baylor Bears have officially fallen all the way back to earth. Waco, once home to the darlings of the national media and everyone's Big XII Dark Horse is now, once again home to despair and disappoint. Since the loss of Robert Griffin the Bears managed an easy win over Kent State but opened Big XII play in traditional fashion; being thrashed by the Sooners 33 - 7 in the return of Sam Bradford.
The Ugly - Mike Sherman. The coach of the Aggies is again on the hot seat as they open the Big XII season with yet another loss. True the Aggies opened the season with a flicker of hope by feasting on poor teams and they built some thin goodwill but against the two legitimate teams they've faced they've been handled. Sherman's second season in College Station should be better than his first however with OU, Texas and TTU on the schedule the results could be similar.
The Pac 10:
The Good - Oregon and Chip Kelly are back in the Top 15 after a tumultuous first six weeks of the season. Following the would be doom of the Blount incident Kelly has proven his mettle by ripping through their schedule including the dismantling of #6 Cal. They're setting up a Halloween Pac 10 title match up with USC.
The Bad - We all knew it was too good to be true as the Cardinal jumped out to the Pac 10 title lead. They fell back to earth Saturday as Mike Riley and the Beavers held Harbaugh's squad to 1-9 on third down conversions and pounded them on the ground with 33 carries from Quizz Rodgers.
The Ugly - The league's national appeal is ugly right now. Outside of USC and a resurgent Oregon the conference doesn't have another team ranked. Oregon State is the next up but only getting 2 and 8 votes in the AP and Coaches poll respectively. Four of the Five remaining BCS leagues and the Mountain West have more ranked teams heading into week seven.
The SEC:
The Good - Alabama and Florida walk away from Saturday as the nation's two greatest forces as ‘Bama officially leaps Texas in the AP and garners more first place votes (5) than Texas (1) in the Coaches poll. If things work out we'll see a rematch of last season's SEC title game in Atlanta; fingers crossed.
The Bad - Gary Crowton and the LSU offense put on an absolutely putrid performance. True they've been bad in the weeks leading up to the game but Saturday the Bayou Bengals seemed to strip the playbook to the bare minimum and baffle even the most ardent Tigers fan. Russell Shepard, where are you?
The Ugly - Willie Martinez. The Georgia defensive coordinator has caused a massive uproar in UGA nation as the Dawgs gave up 45 points to a Tennessee team that only used one concept, the roll out pass. Georgia's defense made the inept Crompton look like the second coming of Peyton Manning when he was rolling out and picking apart the Georgia secondary.
