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Friday, December 13, 2002
On the Mike: Pac-10's fight
By Mike Diegnan
BCSfootball.com
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The Heisman race
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1. Michael Vick, Virginia Tech QB
Last week: 9-15-106, 1 TD; rush: 6-13
Season: 16-26-292, 3 TD, 1 int.; rush: 14-115, 2 TD
This week: Rutgers
Comment: Vick's output will be much different this week against the Scarlet Knights.
2. Drew Brees, Purdue QB
Last week: 32-46-415, 2 TD, 1 int.; rush: 6-31, 2 TD
Season: 57-88-733, 5 TD, 1 int.; rush: 9-47, 2 TD
This week: at Notre Dame
Comment: The Irish are hurting and Brees can jump into the lead if he sends Bob Davie's boys into orbit.
3. Chris Weinke, Florida St. QB
Last week: 25-38-443, 2 TD
Season: 57-88-761, 4 TD
This week: North Carolina
Comment: Florida State had a serious scare against Georgia Tech, but Weinke and Co. survived and the 28-year-old keeps the offense moving.
4. Eric Crouch, Nebraska QB
Last week: 7-15-103, 1 int.; rush: 16-80, 3 TD
Season: 11-25-170, 1 TD, 3 int.; rush: 24-137, 6 TD
This week: Off
Comment: Crouch has completed just 11-of-25 passes this season, but none was bigger than his 3rd-and-9 completion in overtime. That could ignite his campaign.
5. LaDainian Tomlinson, TCU RB
Last week: 24-176, 3 TD
Season: 24-176, 3 TD
This week: at Northwestern
Comment: Still on pace for 2,000.
6. M. Tuiasosopo, Wash. QB
Last week: 18-31-223, 1 TD, 2 int.; rush: 15-45, 1 TD
Season: 34-61-446, 2 TD, 3 int.; rush: 30-125, 2 TD
This week: at Colorado
Comment: Tui showed the media attention won't bother him as he pulled off one of the nation's biggest upsets.
7. Anthony Thomas, Mich. RB
Last week: 14-131, 2 TD
Season: 37-239, 3 TD
This week: at UCLA
Comment: Two straight 100-yard games have gone unnoticed, but if the "A-Train" leads the Wolverines in Pasadena, the spotlight will shine on him.
8. Major Applewhite, Texas QB
Last week: 18-26-315, 4 TD
Season: 18-26-315, 4 TD
This week: at Stanford
Comment: On any other team, Applewhite would be a top Heisman candidate. Getting to play a full 60 minutes will be his first accomplishment.
9. Deuce McAllister, Ole Miss. RB
Last week: 19-104, 2 TD
Season: 28-133, 4 TD; rec: 3-53, 1 TD
This week: at Vanderbilt
Comment: Hanging on barely after loss to Auburn.
10. LaMont Jordan, Maryland RB
Last week: 22-62, 2 TD; rec: 2-17
Season: 22-62, 2 TD; rec: 2-17
This week: at West Virginia
Comment: Scored the game-winning touchdown. Will have to post gaudier numbers to stay on the list.
DROPPED OUT:
Quincy Carter, Georgia
Comment: Could always give baseball another shot.
Santana Moss, Miami
Comment: Just one reception in the 'Canes' biggest game?
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You have to give it to the Pac-10. Not only has USC beaten Penn State, Washington upended Miami, and UCLA crushed Alabama, but the conference has taken all comers.
Meanwhile, you have the Big Ten (Michigan ducking Virginia Tech), the SEC (three games against I-AA opponents) and the ACC (no games against ranked opponents) rolling along against inferior competition.
With games scheduled between UCLA and No. 3 Michigan and No. 6 Texas visiting Stanford this weekend, two more Top 25 teams will go head-to-head with a conference that has shown a strong willingness to truly return to respectability this season.
Three weeks in, the numbers don't lie as to what teams in the six major conferences have been doing to prepare for their conference schedules. With only a few conference games played, (think Georgia wishes it had played a tough non-conference game prior to South Carolina?), here is how the conferences rank in terms of non-conference games.
1. Pac-10 (12-3)
In a couple of weeks, the folks on the West Coast could return to Earth, but so far, there has not been a conference from top to bottom that has done more this season.
Its teams have played five ranked opponents and won three (including wins over No. 3 Alabama and No. 4 Miami), and all of a sudden, the Pac-10 has three teams in the Top 20 in the nation. Oregon would have joined No. 10 Washington, No. 11 USC and No. 17 UCLA, but Michael Bennett did his best Ron Dayne impersonation to save No. 5 Wisconsin.
Overall, the conference is 12-3 in non-league games with 1-0 records against the SEC, the Big East and the Big XII. Only the Big Ten has had the upper hand on the boys form the left coast.
2. Big Ten (15-6)
The Big Ten is winless against Top 25 teams this fall, but next to the Pac-10, the conference has tackled the toughest non-league schedule and is the only one of the six that has not played a Division I-AA opponent. Its teams have gone 2-1 against the Pac-10, 1-1 against the ACC, and dropped its only game against the Big XII.
If you remove 0-2 (and likely-to-go-winless) Iowa from the equation, Big Ten members have started out the year 15-4 in non-league play thus far. With four or five teams that have a realistic shot at winning the conference title and a couple of those at winning the national title, there might not be a conference as strong as the Big Ten right now.
Even Penn State's awful start could not diminish the Big Ten status.
3. Big XII (16-5)
Nebraska's national championship plans are still alive, thanks to Eric Crouch's key completion in overtime at Notre Dame. But for most Big XII schools, scheduling a ranked opponent is not a part of the scheme. With the exception of Colorado, most Big XII schools have a schedule that wouldn't exactly strike fear into some of the top high school programs in Texas and Oklahoma.
Kansas State takes a lot of heat for its schedule each fall, and this season won't be much different, with Iowa and Louisiana Tech beginning their campaign. Wildcat-bashers can't even compare that to Texas Tech's early season "toughies": New Mexico, I-AA Utah State and North Texas. Oklahoma isn't much better -- UTEP and Arkansas State? Come on.
But it still may work out for the Big XII. Top-ranked Nebraska, No. 6 Texas and No. 7 K-State are all in position for a run at the national championship, tough schedule or not.
4. SEC
Yes, the SEC may be the best conference in football, but so far, there hasn't been much to show for it. Just one team (Tennessee beat Southern Miss.) has faced an opponent ranked at the time of the game, while only Alabama (at UCLA) has played a team from another BCS conference.
Instead, SEC fans have been stuck with matchups like Arkansas-Southwest Missouri State, Florida-Middle Tennessee State and Auburn-Wyoming on a weekly basis.
Until conference members upgrade their non-conference schedules, SEC fans will just have to settle for September slaughters to get jacked about their teams.
5. Big East
Last year after a Kickoff Classic victory over Ohio State, 1999 was supposed to be the return of the Hurricanes. Of course, three straight losses after a 2-0 start ended that talk. This season, again talk focused on Miami's return to the nation's elite. Washington ended that last weekend. Now what?
Well, it means that it could again be Virginia Tech and no one else in the Big East. So far, the conference is 10-3 against non-league foes, but that number is deceiving. Just two games have been against the other major conferences and both were losses (Temple lost to Maryland and Miami fell at Washington). Plus, Cincinnati crushed any dreams that Big East fans had that Syracuse would return to league-contender status this season.
6. ACC
Georgia Tech almost sent the conference through a volcanic eruption Saturday night against Florida State, but is there any doubt that FSU will again dominate the conference? Similar to basketball, the ACC is a conference of upper-echelon teams and a handful of squads that almost would do better competing in the Atlantic 10.
On one scale are Florida State and Clemson, but on another is Wake Forest, which must be still rattling from a loss to Appalachian State.
ACC teams have not faced one ranked opponent this season. Outside of Florida State's games with Miami and Florida, the only non-conference games that actually resemble a tough matchup on ACC schedules this season are in-state matchups between Clemson and South Carolina, Georgia Tech and Georgia, and Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Mike Diegnan is the editor of BCSfootball.com.
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