College Football Thoughts

All across the country yesterday, the college football action was stellar. LSU scored in the final minute at home to beat Ole Miss, Stanford kicked the door down against Cal to win the annual "Big Game," and the Big 10 stayed gridlocked at the top with a berth to the Rose Bowl on the line.

But nothing was more special (at least for us local fans) than UC Davis' 17-16 victory in the Causeway Classic over Sacramento State. It was an epic, rain-soaked game which included a 47-minute severe weather delay during halftime because of torrential rain and lightning. The wind was consistently between 25 and 30 MPH, with gusts of winds close to double those numbers. I wasn't at the game, but just on television you could get an idea of how insane the weather was. After the delay, roughly 1,000 of the announced 9,785 remained at Aggie Stadium.

The Aggies kicked a field goal with 6:34 remaining after a game-changing turnover gave UC Davis the ball inside the Sacramento State 10-yard line. The Aggies faced a fourth down at midfield in the fourth quarter, and punted away to Hornet returner Kyle Monson, who muffed the catch, allowing Aggie special teams player Stephen Dunstan to recover at the 8-yard line. From there, the Aggies failed to score a touchdown but Sean Kelley converted the field goal that put UC Davis ahead for good.

UC Davis honored 14 seniors before the game: Marshall Congdon, Sean Creadick, Jeff Freeman, Reggie Mason, Tom McConnell, Marcus North, Dean Rogers, Eric Sobotka, Brandon Sofley, Mark Tos, Joe Trombetta, Brandon Tucker, Dozie Amajoyi and Danny Hart.

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Amongst the rest of the college football world, all the top teams maintained themselves atop of the BCS Standings. Boise State used a 51-0 win over Fresno State to move closer in the BCS Standings to #3 TCU, who was idle. Boise State (#4) has two games remaining, including a showdown this weekend with #17 Nevada. TCU has one game remaining. 

Oregon remained #1 and Auburn remained #2, both also having no game this past weekend. Oregon hosts Arizona in the upcoming weekend and Auburn travels to face Alabama, which is arguably the most challenging game of their season thus far. 

In regards to the games I made notes about prior to the weekend:

-Boise State dominated Fresno State, 51-0. Kellen Moore threw for 333 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Broncos. It was an incredible defensive game from Boise State which I did not anticipate. I figured the decent Fresno State quarterback Ryan Colburn and running back Robbie Rouse would get Fresno State on the scoreboard.

-Florida pummeled Appalachian State 48-10, with the Mountaineers having no hope of repeating an upset of a D-I team as they did against Michigan in 2007. The Gators rushed for 311 yards and 6 touchdowns in the victory.

-Ohio State scored in the final two minutes to beat Iowa 20-17. The Buckeyes remain in the hunt for the Big 10 title, tied atop the league with Michigan State and Wisconsin. Dan Herron scored on a 1-yard run with 1:47 left to put Ohio State ahead for good.

-Stanford beat Cal 48-14 in the annual rivalry matchup, the "Big Game." Andrew Luck completed 16 of 20 passes for 235 yards and 2 touchdowns in a tidy performance by the Cardinal, that spoke "business as usual." Stanford is #6 in the BCS Standings and hosts Oregon State next Saturday with Rose Bowl hopes still on the line. 

-Notre Dame beat Army 27-3 at Yankee Stadium in one of the many Fighting Irish rivalry games. Notre Dame allowed only 39 yards passing and held Army to 3.1 yards per rush. Army led 3-0 after the first quarter before allowing 27 unanswered points. 

In regards to getting our "picks" correct, we were right on 4 of 5 (Iowa lost) but didn't get terribly close on any of the score predictions. We did predict a 19-17 victory for UC Davis in the Causeway Classic, which was only off by 3 points combined (17-16). 

Check back later this week for another college football preview, looking into Auburn's big game at Alabama and Boise State's contest at Nevada. GO AGS!