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| Friday, October 27 Teams try to avoid getting trapped Saturday By Rod Gilmore Special to ESPN.com | |||||
Now we get to the good stuff. There are a number of great games this weekend. It is the first "playoff" weekend as the Top seven teams begin to knock each other off as they jockey for BCS positions. And, it also a "playoff" weekend for conference races and bowl positioning. Let's take a look at a few of the great games on tap:
No. 12 Georgia vs. No. 7 Florida
Forget about the fact that N.C. State coach Chuck Amato faces his mentor Bobby Bowden. Whatever Amato knows about Bowden's style of play won't help much in this game. What Amato needs to do is figure out a way to keep Jamal Reynolds off his freshman QB Philip Rivers. Miami is the only team that has been able to do that, and they did it with a strong running game and a pretty good offensive lineman (mammoth tackle Bryant McKinnie). N.C. State doesn't have a dominant offensive lineman who can do the job solo, so look for the Wolfpack to double Reynolds and move the pocket. N.C. State does not run the ball very well (99th in the nation with 91 yards at game) but if Rivers gets time, they can put up points. WR Koren Robinson can win the one-on-one matchups he'll have with the FSU secondary. Expect a couple of big plays early by N.C. State, but FSU will win and move up in the polls. No. 13 Ohio State at No. 16 Purdue Ohio State LB Joe Cooper says the Buckeyes will light up Drew Brees. But Brees is a marked man every week. Now it's Cooper who will be the marked man. Cooper gave Purdue bulletin board material by saying the Buckeyes will knock Brees around. Expect the Boilermakers' offensive line to respond. Heck, it's almost impossible to get hits on Brees anyway. He gets rid of the ball quickly and the offensive line will cut the Buckeye linemen to create throwing lanes. How many times do you think Cooper will get cut? Brees is back in the Heisman race; his offensive linemen won't let him fall out again, especially not at the hands of Cooper and his 'mates. Meanwhile, the game itself should be terrific. The winner will likely represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl. The key to this game is the Purdue defense. They have played better defense than the not-bad stats (20 points per game, 120 yds a game rushing) indicate. But it's not about the stats. It's about timely defense -- making plays when you have to make plays. Defensive Coordinator Brock Spack uses a scheme that takes advantage of the quickness and athletic ability of his players. Ohio State must keep the Gophers off QB Steve Bellisari so Bellisari can make explosion plays to wide outs Ken-Yon Rambo and Reggie Germany. Ohio State can not simply line up and slam the ball inside with Derek Combs and company. A key matchup to watch is Ohio State CB Nate Clements vs Purdue wideout A.T. Simpson. Vinny Sutherland gets all the attention, and Ohio State might put Clements on him. However, Simpson is a bigger threat. He's tall (6-4) and physical like Minnesota's Ron Johnson. Clements needs to redeem himself in order to back up his claim that he's a better CB than Wisconsin's Jamar Fletcher. Unlike Fletcher, Clements hasn't shown up yet against a big time receiver. Johnson ate him up in Minnesota's upset win a couple weeks ago. Ohio State will be making a mistake if they put Clements on Sutherland instead of Simpson. I lean toward Purdue pulling off the win. No. 8 Kansas State at Texas A&M The Wildcats looked like they had just left the cocktail party in their narrow win over Texas Tech. Clearly K-State was still suffering a hangover from the Oklahoma loss. Everyone is calling K-State a "fraud" since losing to Oklahoma and playing a soft non-conference schedule. Thus, the K-State psyche is a little fragile. Add the banged up offense (starting guards, tight end and fullback are hurting) and struggling QB Jonathan Beasley, and you have a team with little confidence going on the road. Sound like an upset in the making? The Aggies should be in a great frame of mind. They are firmly back in the hunt in the Big 12 South. Texas A&M has only one conference loss and will play Oklahoma and Texas in November. A win Saturday would be huge and put the Aggies in great shape. Remember, emotions and confidence play a huge part of college football games, and the Aggies will be in a better emotional state than the Wildcats. But emotion can only take you so far. The Aggies will have to find a way to generate some passing offense. Mark Farris threw two TD passes last week and looked good against Iowa State. However, the 25-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirate minor league baseball player will be facing the most aggressive defense he's ever seen. K-State will blitz him and the question is whether he can hang in there and make plays the way Josh Heupel did against K-State. Expect the Wildcats' defense and special teams to control this game. If they don't, the Aggies can make a lot of noise in the Big 12 South race. Pittsburgh at No. 2 Virginia Tech Michael Vick will go off Saturday. Someone has to pay for the eight sacks and poor passing performance Vick suffered against Syracuse last week. That game damaged, but did not destroy, Vick's Heisman campaign. He's still the most electrifying player in the game. Pittsburgh won't be able to fence Vick in as well as Syracuse did because Syracuse's defensive ends are quicker than Pittsburgh's. Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris decided on John Turman as his QB, and Turman responded with five touchdown passes against Boston College last week. Turman will be in a groove, and he'll have a chance to make more explosion plays against Va. Tech because the Hokies like to attack the QB and play single coverage. However, the Hokies are starting to play much better defensively. More importantly, Va. Tech is a much stronger team at home than on the road. They feed off of the crowd, especially early in the game. If Turman and WR Antonio Bryant can create a couple of big plays early, Pitt may be able to take the crowd out of the game. They'll also need strong running from Kevan Barlow, who is the most underrated RB in the country. He'll be very important in the passing game Saturday. Northwestern at Minnesota The athletic departments of both schools have had to deal with unpleasant problems off the field the last few years (the Gopher basketball cheating which has led to probation, and Northwestern players involved in a gambling problem), so it's great to see these programs on the rise. This should be a fun game to watch. There are a couple of stars who make this game compelling: Northwestern's Damien Anderson and Minnesota's Ron Johnson. Anderson is one of three players (along with Wisconsin's Michael Bennett and Michigan's Anthony Thomas) to rush for more than 1,000 yards this season. But it's not three yards and a cloud of dust. The "spread offense" allows Anderson to rip off long runs each week (at one point, he was averaging about 32 yards per touchdown run). Expect Minnesota to follow Purdue's approach and force Zak Kustock to throw instead of handing off to Anderson. Thus, you'll see eight or nine guys sneaking into the box to coax Kustock into throwing. Speaking of throwing, Minnesota's Travis Cole will have to get the ball to Johnson as often as possible. Johnson established himself as one of the top receivers in the country by spanking Ohio State's All-Conference DB Nate Clements. He should come up big this weekend too. In addition to the stars, this game is significant for bowl positioning. Northwestern and Minnesota are both 5-2 and jockeying for one of the Big 10's six automatic bowl births. They are both likely go bowling, but the better team will get to a better bowl. So, you can expect a sense of urgency among the players in this game because neither team wants fall down (or out of) the pecking order. Tennessee at No. 18 South Carolina Who knew that this game would have South Carolina (7-1) coming in with a better record than the Tennessee (3-3)? South Carolina is in position to play for the SEC East championship against Florida. The surprising Gamecocks really are that good. They have the same players as last year, which is key. They have bought what Lou Holtz is selling and are more experienced. They also have a pretty good defense that has caused 23 turnovers and is giving up only 12.5 points a game. But the Volunteers will test this defense with their bread-and-butter power running off tackle. It's very hard to stop. Especially now that Casey Clausen has taken over at QB and is making plays down the field. His second TD pass to Cedric Wilson last week was a thing of beauty as he threw the fade only where a completely covered Wilson could adjust and get to it. The question is how Clausen will react to a hostile crowd and hostile defense. Phil Fulmer has done a great job with this young team, and I expect him to protect his young QB. He'll let Clausen air it out on some long passes (just to have fun), ask Wilson and Donte' Stallworth to make big plays on quick passes, and have Travis Henry pound away off tackle. Fulmer knows his defense can shut down the Gamecocks and RB Derek Watson. Expect the Vols to get a convincing win. | ALSO SEE Fowler: New look to old rivalry | ||||
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