Football midterm filled with craziness
Wendell Barnhouse
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
Eight weeks into the 2002 col
lege football season and it’s time for
some halftime adjustments and
analysis. Here’s what we know at
the halfway point:
— Defending national champion
Miami remains undefeated (though
barely).
— Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops is per
haps the best in-game coach cur
rently walking the sidelines.
— Texas is all hat and no cattle
(still).
— Tyrone Willingham should
have been Notre Dame’s first choice
as its coach, not its second.
— Iowa State quarterback Seneca
Wallace is the leading Heisman Tro
phy candidate. And it’s not because
all the other possibilities are aca
demically ineligible.
r
— There are eight undefeated
teams and four with one loss that
still have national-championship
hopes.
— The spread (offense) is dead.
Five of the 10 undefeated teams rank
in the top 25 in rushing yards per
game. But only Miami, 22nd nation
ally in passing, is in the top 25 in
passing offenses. Running the foot
ball still wins.
— The Bowl Championship Series
rankings, due to make their debut
Monday, will again provide plenty of
controversy and debate.
— Traditional powers Florida,
Florida State, Nebraska and Ten
nessee all have two or more losses
and are out of the national-title pic
ture.
— “One thing that’s been particu
larly interesting or surprising about
this season has been the number of
big-name schools that have strug
gled,” ESPN college football analyst
Trev Alberts said. “And even though
with one loss, Texas is not out of the
national championship picture, I’d
have to include the Longhorns on
that list, because once again they
didn’t beat Oklahoma.”
— Nine of the teams ranked in
The Associated Press preseason top
25 are not ranked this week. There
are 10 undefeated teams remaining
in Division I-A. What was expected
has become the unexpected.
Nebraska’s streak of being ranked
in 348 consecutive polls ended two
weeks before Florida’s streak of
being ranked in 209 consecutive
polls ended.
— “Notre Dame and Air Force
have been a little bit of a surprise,”
Alberts said, in a super-sized under
statement.
— Notre Dame has turned defense
and timely turnovers into an art
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form. Air Force, which runs a tricky
option-oriented offense, is a chal
lenge for every foe. The seventh
ranked Irish (6-0) and the 18th
ranked Falcons (6-0) meet Saturday
night in Colorado Springs. That was
n’t a game pegged as a must-see back
in August.
A Notre Dame-Air Force show
down of undefeated teams isn’t the
only shocking development. Thus
far, there have been more twists and
turns than a pretzel factory.
Consider:
— A missed field goal by Florida
State kept Miami undefeated.
— A controversial call by the of
ficials accounted for Iowa State’s
only loss.
— Michigan kicked a game-win
ning field goal to beat Washington af
ter the Huskies were penalized for
having 12 men on the field.
— Monsoons, courtesy of tropi
cal storms, helped Florida upset
Tennessee and Louisville upset
Florida State.
— Disparaging comments by a ri
val’s former coach bred up Georgia,
helping the Bulldogs win at Alabama.
— The one constant has been Mi
ami. The defending national cham
pion has been atop The Associated
Press rankings for a record 19 con
secutive weeks. The Hurricanes
have won 28 consecutive games. Be
fore Saturday’s 28-27 victory over
Florida State, Miami was winning by
an average of 32 points per game.
— Florida State, though, may
have provided a blueprint for beat
ing the champs. Florida State ran
the ball on 52 of 72 plays, gaining
296 yards.
— “We just didn’t tackle very
well,” Miami senior defensive tack
le Matt Walters said. “We were
there to make plays. They weren’t
blowing us off the line. We were
missing tackles.”
— A Hurricanes-Sooners game
would match the past two national
champions, a coach who grew up in
Oklahoma (Larry Coker) and broth
ers against brother — Oklahoma’s
Bob and Mike Stoops (defensive co
ordinator) against Mark Stoops, Mi
ami’s defensive backs coach.
(c) 2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Phil Velasquez Chicago Tribune (KRT)
Tyrone Willingham, the former head coach of the Stanford Cardinal, has led the Notre
Dame to a 6-0 record this year, but the Irish face undefeated Air Force on Saturday.
Undefeated Falcons
hope to disarm Irish
Tim Mimick
The Gazette (Colorado Spring, Colo.)
(KRT)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —
College football coaches promise re
cruits games against top-10 teams.
Playing against highly-ranked Notre
Dame makes it only better.
Air Force will get its chance to
knock off the Irish on Saturday
night at Falcon Stadium in an
ESPN telecast.
Notre Dame (6-0), winner of 11
consensus national championships,
holds the No. 7 ranking in both polls.
Air Force (6-0) moved up to No. 18
in the Associated Press poll and No.
15 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches
poll Sunday.
“With Notre Dame coming in, it’s
going to be bigger than life,” Falcon
back Joel Buelow said.
Air Force set up this matchup of
unbeatens by dispatching defending
Mountain West Conference champi
on Brigham Young 52-9 Saturday
night at Falcon Stadium. Air Force
trailed 3-0, then scored the next 45
points to avenge a 63-33 blitzing at
BYU a year ago.
Air Force has been determined to
get back to its winning ways after a
6-6 season in 2001. In the second
game this season Air Force knocked
off New Mexico, which had won a
school-record three in a row against
the Falcons. In the fourth game, the
Falcons rallied to edge Utah, which
beat Air Force to the Mountain
West’s postseason berths last sea
son, although Air Force could gloat
over a season-ending 38-37 win
over Utah.
In the past three seasons, Air
Force has gone to one bowl and
hasn’t claimed a Mountain West title.
By beating BYU, Air Force put itself
at 3-0 in the conference with three
teams picked ahead of it in the pre
season standings already defeated.
As for a postseason game, Air
Force can make its unprecedented
Bowl Championship Series state
ment by defeating Notre Dame. The
first BCS poll of the year will be re
leased Oct. 21. Even if it wins the
Mountain West, Air Force won't be
assured a BCS berth to one of the
elite Fiesta, Rose, Sugar or Orange %
bowls. Air Force needs a top-six fin
ish in the BCS standings to accom
plish such a feat.
(c) 2002, The Gazette (Colorado Springs,
Colo.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.