The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Week 8 Edition
For all the Big East and non-BCS fans out there the appearance of the most recent BCS poll was quite an ugly site as the first of what could be many 1-loss teams jumped over a cluster of undefeated teams.
Southern Cal leap frogging TCU, Boise State and Cincinnati following their win over Oregon State was a sign that the strength of schedule; both in and out of conference, will go a long way towards settling the BCS conundrum this season.
With that said no one is raising a stink yet as teams such as Alabama and Florida have shown they're as vulnerable as any team to stumbling in the coming Saturdays. Two ugly wins for the nation's top two teams will make folks focus on chinks in armor.
This week there's some new entries into the round up, Steve Addazio makes yet another uninspiring return to the Weekly GBU Breakdown and we re-order the presentation so the best league of the week can get top billing!
Without further ado here's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:
The Pac 10
The Good- Oregon breaking into the BCS Top 10 after pummeling Washington 43-19 in Seattle. Chip Kelly has done a full reversal on the critics who came out of the woodwork following the Ducks' season opening loss to Boise State and the "Blount Incident." The new coach is in prime position with a game against #4 USC to decide the Pac 10's true contender.
The Bad- UCLA had a +3 edge in turnovers against Arizona and still managed to lose by 17 points to Mike Stoops' explosive team. Rick Neuheisel's team is scary bad in all facets of the game right now.
The Ugly- Pac 10 officials are getting in on the party that has been reserved for the SEC most of the season. The no-call on Taylor Mays going all "WWE" on James Rodgers was as egregious as any of the slip ups that Mike Slives crews have made this season.
Read more to see how the rest of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly shake out...
The Big East
The Good- Cincinnati keeps on winning despite not having quarterback Tony Pike running Brian Kelly's offense. The trust story for the Bearcats has been their defenses ability to replace 10 starters and keep shutting teams down. New defensive coordinator Bob Diaco has truly worked wonders in Cinci.
The Bad- While things are going well for the Bearcats on the field folks supporting the program can't help but feel a little "gut-punched" by the slipping down the polls following a win over a bad Louisville team. The Cardinals are just bad and as it stands right now at 2-5 it seems like Kragthorpe and Co. should be making plans to be elsewhere come season's end.
The Ugly- South Florida embarks on yet another second half of the season slide. The Bulls have lost 17 of their last 31 "last six" games of the season since 2004. With games as Rutgers and at UConn the woes of USF's cold weather problems will only serve to combine with their inability to win games consistently after mid-October.
The ACC
The Good- Georgia Tech is sitting quietly right outside of the Top 10 in the nation with five of the six toughest games on their schedule already behind them. The Bees have just one loss and by seasons end will have beaten three SEC teams,8 of9 on their ACC schedule (ACC Title Game) and sitting pretty in the BCS.
The Bad- The Canes were kind of sort of back. Then they were "exposed" against Va Tech. Then they were back for sure. Now they've tumbled nine spots and have effectively eliminated themselves from an at-large BCS game as well as the ACC Championship auto-bid.
The Ugly- North Carolina makes an appearance. I had a blast Thursday night up until the third quarter. Then the game turned into a root canal done by a sedated silverback gorilla with tools from the bronze age. It was painful to watch the defense make Ponder look like Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke all rolled into one for the entire second half.
He was hitting all of his spots and the Heels floundered about searching for answers. I'll put it this way; we went from singing "Shoop There It Is" and "We Got The Shoop" to angry tirades on clock management, prevent defense, quarterbacking and tackling people instead of dancing with them. That is all.
The Big XII
The Good- Texas has finally demonstrated a solid win over a mediocre team. Unlike their second half explosions required to beat Colorado, Wyoming and Texas Tech the Longhorns scored early and often against Mizzou. They crushed the Tigers 35-7 in the first half and then coasted to end the evening.
The Bad- Big XII North favorites Kansas, Nebraska and Mizzou are a combined 2-7 in the conference. This collective group; all of which have been ranked at some time during the season, are staring up at the rebuilding projects of Kansas State (3-1) and Iowa State (2-2).
The Ugly- Nebraska shares the spotlight with Texas Tech by dropping eight turnovers into the laps of the Iowa State Cyclones. Those turnovers added the Huskers into the mix with the Red Raiders as they lost52-30 to a team that only scored 64 points in their previous three games and lost 62-14 just the week before.
The SEC
The Good- LSU hanging 31 points on Auburn is quite a relief to folks in Baton Rouge. In response to seeing Russell Shepard used (8 carries 71 yds) and Jordan Jefferson tossing touchdown passes it would appear for the moment that Gary Crowton has not completely forgotten how to coach his offense to score the football.
The Bad- We should start a tracker for how many weeks Steve Addazio can infuriate Florida fans. Against former play caller Dan Mullen the new guy Addazio was over-matched but had the athletes Mullen lacks for the Bulldogs. If he doesn't figure out a way to make up for losing field stretching Louis Murphy the Gators will be in trouble in Atlanta.
The Ugly- Alabama vs Tennessee. 12-10. A truly ugly game. First for the inability of the Tide to get the ball into the end zone. Second for both teams' willingness to settle for field goals. Lastly for the horrible (awesome) way that Alabama ended Tennessee's bid for a marquee victory.
The Big Ten
The Good- Iowa, not necessarily on the good list for their win over Michigan State. The last play victory over Sparty was by far the Hawkeyes ugliest win of the season. They get the good nod because of their leap to the #4 spot in the BCS rankings. The Big 10 officially has a national title contender.
The Bad- The Middle of the Big 10 isn't awful, just bad. Teams like Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota are still not up to the challenge of beating the league's elite squads this year. The divide remains as Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State remain undefeated over the rest of what the Big 10 has to offer.
The Ugly- Michigan's performance Saturday was downright putrid in The Big House. The offense only amassed 250 total yards in losing 35-10. Going a bit deeper you'll realize Rich Rod's offense averaged 4.2 yards per pass and 2.8 yards per rush while committing four turnovers in front of the home crowd. Just ugly.
