College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

I watched the final quarter of Stanford's upset win over USC and I must say that John David Booty at QB for USC makes USC beatable on any given Saturday. Forget the 4 interceptions he threw - USC got the ball back with 49 seconds left and the ball on about their own 45-yard line. All they needed was a couple of quick out completions to set up the game winning field goal. Instead they used up 4 downs and lost 7 yards. Matt Leinart or Carson Palmer would have set the team up for that final field-goal try. John David Booty just isn't a big time QB and if his back-up leads them to a couple of wins - then John David Booty could have played his last down for the Trojans.... With USC and #5 Wisconsin both losing - that means #7 Boston College will probably move up into the top 5. I've got to mention that I may have been the only person to predict a 7-0 start and a top 5 ranking for the Eagles. BC still has to beat Notre Dame to get to 7-0 but with the Irish beating UCLA yesterday - I think that actually makes it easier for BC to win the game. Notre Dame no longer has the urgency to win their first game of the year weighing down on their shoulders... Boston College will probably move up to #5 in the AP poll but I find it amusing that pre-season Michigan was ranked #5 in the AP poll and now they aren't even in the top 25. Pre-season BC wasn't even in the top 25 in the AP poll. Pre-season Louisville was ranked 10th while Missouri was not even ranked. Now Missouri may rise as high as 10th in the poll while Louisville is not even in the top 25. Pre-season it seemed like the voters had no clue about teams like South Florida, Cincinnati, and Illinois while they ranked others purely on reputation. I point this out just to emphasize how unscientific and random the current system is.... Matt Ryan helped himself in his Heisman hopes with a 300 yard performance (or 312 yards depending on whose stats you use) with 4 TD's and most importantly ZERO interceptions. Just as BC will now be in the top 5 - Ryan should also be in the top 5 for Heisman hopefuls... Speaking of awards - Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph should at least move into the Payton Award watch list with his 6 TD, 404-yard performance against Brown yesterday...