FCS Top 25 — Oct. 6, 2008

By Nate Sandstrom

This weekend was quite filled with upset story lines of the last one, especially since the biggest impact upset happened Thursday when Pitt went to South Florida and killed the Bulls hopes of a national title game appearance.

I didn't get to watch a ton of football Saturday as I was in Madison for Ohio State-Wisconsin. A good game overall, although I think by the end of the season neither of these teams may be ranked. I have to admit that after Wisconsin CB Allen Langford picked off a pass on OSU's second drive I thought the Badgers had it. The 20-17 defeat was Coach Beilema's first home loss as a head coach (third year).

It was also the first time in like 40 years that the band wasn't there as well and it was weird. Half of going to college games is the ceremony, the pomp and circumstance. It's still not determined if they will be back for this week's game against Penn State, also in prime time but apparently moved from ABC to ESPN.

For-now starting QB is apparently on a short leash. Good, says this Badgers fan.

Before I headed out to tailgate I also caught parts of Indiana at Minnesota, Iowa at Michigan State, Kansas at Iowa State and Penn State at Purdue. Late night, I saw Fresno blow a home game to Hawaii. Quick thoughts:

• Minnesota is just one win from bowl-eligibility after winning a sloppy game against the Hoosiers. Coming off a 1-11 season it's good progress for second-year coach Tim Brewster; however, there will be no easy win for them the rest of the way as they go to Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin and host Northwestern, Michigan and Iowa. Still, they should get one of those to get to 6-6.

• Going into the season I thought Indiana junior QB Kellen Lewis was an NFL prospect. Saturday, he was splitting time with sophomore Ben Chappell. He also had a key fumble. It may be a long year for the Hoosiers.

• Iowa State reversed their usual style of starting slow and jumped out to a 20-0 lead on Kansas at the half. They then played their usual first-half swiss cheese defense in the second half rather than the first as Kansas came back for a 35-33 win. This game, combined with S. Florida's loss, has Kansas dropping way down in my poll.

• All right. It's 4th and 1 on your opponents 21 with 2:16 left. You can tie the game with a field goal, completing a 13-point rally. Kirk Ferentz went for it. Was stuffed. And Iowa had lost three straight. By a combined nine points. Short sentences are annoying.

I was saying kick it and go to OT, but Ferentz apparently got a vote of confidence today, so I guess he will be out by the end of the year. Don't expect him to get a job handicapping, the Hawks will still be favored at Indiana.

• Penn State looked sloppy in their 20-6 win, but I have a feeling they will step it up in Madison this weekend.

• Fresno State's resume looks a little worse each week. The opening win at Rutgers and a narrow home loss to Wisconsin looked good in mid-September. It doesn't look so great now, especially after getting taken to 3OT by Toledo, scraping out a win at UCLA and losing at home to previously 1-3 Hawaii.

Now this week's FCS Top 25: (W-L, last week's rank)
1. Oklahoma (5-0, 1). Making their schedule look easier than it is.
2. Alabama (6-0, 2). Avoided dangerous trap door game, so props for that.
3. Missouri (5-0, 3). Broke 50 in four of five games now.
4. LSU (4-0, 4). When are these guys going to play?
5. Penn State (6-0, 5). Rest of conference may drag down terrific team.
6. Texas (5-0, 6). Colt McCoy is more accurate than Tom Brady.
7. Texas Tech (5-0, 7). Will look to score 200 over next 3 games before Longhorns.
8. Vanderbilt (5-0, 11). Can't debate the resume, although this story will end badly by Nov.
9. USC (3-1, 12). No game left on their schedule to vault them pass SEC/Big 12 Champs.
10. Georgia (4-1, 10). Right team, wrong schedule.
11. Florida (4-1, 14). Hate to move them up after they piled meaningless points on Arkansas late.
12. Oklahoma St. (5-0, 20). Don't write them off, even if they lose to Missouri.
13. Auburn (4-2, 15). Does Jason Campbell have eligibility left?
14. BYU (5-0, 16). Overrated nationally, but could win a BCS Bowl on the right night.
15. Utah (6-0, 17). Based on Org. St., should be ahead of USC. But Utah plays too many too close.
16. Tulsa (5-0, 18). This year's Hawaii with a better offense.
17. Boise St. (4-0, 19). Win over Oregon doesn't look as good as it did two weeks ago.
18. Ball State (6-0, 21). Make a joke. This team is legit.
19. Virginia Tech (5-1, 22). Being reminded that every game counts, even ECU.
20. California (4-1, 24). Stupid early-game loss at Maryland. Maybe they should cry too.
21. Pitt (4-1, NR). Now that they're ranked again, they'll probably lose again.
22. Michigan State (5-1, 25). Positioning themselves for New Year's Day Bowl.
23. South Florida (5-1, 8). Need a healthy Selvie.
24. Kansas (4-1, 9). Don't often drop teams who win by 15, but see above Iowa St. comments.
25. South Carolina (4-2, NR). Big win over Miss with big plays on defense.

FCS rankings on the sidebar.

"Don't know the words, don't know the words!"

That's the song we always sang at Jack Trice stadium to celebrate Cyclone achievement. There hadn't been much so far this season for formerly 0-2 Iowa State, but that turned around on Saturday.

The Cyclones beat hated rival Iowa 15-13 behind a dominating first half performance. In the second half the Hawks looked superior, but the Cyclones made two big plays when needed.

Christopher Lyle blocked an Iowa field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, and Bret Meyer connected on a pass to back-up QB Phillip Bates to set up the game-winning kick.

When Meyer threw that pass I was like "no-no-no-no-yes!" The Cyclones almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by kicking it deep with 1 second left. Iowa returned the ball to the ISU 25 before the kick returner was tackled.

Hear post-game audio and more here.

The biggest shocker of the day for me was the hurting Utah put on UCLA.

I only watched portions of this game, but UCLA looked bad.

After the ISU win, I mostly watched Ohio State dominate Washington. The Huskies actually led this game at half and looked good on their first drive of the second half. But after driving deep into Buckeye territory, Ohio State sacked Washington QB Jake Locker three straight downs and then blocked a field goal attempt.

Momentum swung and Locker was not the same the rest of the day.

Florida showed a lot with a 39-point demolition of Tennessee. I watched almost none of this game, but I'll definitely be moving the Gators up on my ballot on Monday.

More on the night games tomorrow.

--Nate Sandstrom

Early games

Why have instant replay when you still don't make the right call? That's what happened in today's Temple-UConn game.

On 4th & 7 at the UConn 15(ish) and trailing 22-17 with about 40 seconds left, Temple ran a reverse with a pass option. The receiver tossed it into the end zone. A Connecticut defender tipped it away — to a Temple receiver who appeared to drag one foot in the back of the end zone for the game winning TD.

The ref ruled it incomplete. It was reviewed. The official said the call stands, with no explanation (i.e. did not have control).

Poor Temple. Even though it would have added embarrassment to me on how wrong my UConn lock of the week was, it would have been a rousing win.

Om other early action, UVa. stopped a two-point conversion attempt by UNC to hold on to a 22-20 win. Pitt converted on a 4th & 18, but still came up short at Michigan St., 17-13. Citadel played close to Wisconsin, who lost All-American corner Jack Ikegwuonu in the game's first minute.

I mostly watched the Wisconsin game, they may be in trouble if Ike's injury is serious. Citadel moved the ball pretty much at will in the first half. The Badgers rallied in the second half, but for the third time this year, I was underwhelmed with their results.

At the same time, they seemed to be trying a lot of different things, including an odd play on a 3rd and 1 in which they split out P.J. Hill and Donovan tried to sneak it in. It didn't work, they got a false start on the next play and had to settle for a FG.

Hill tied a school record with 5 TDs. Brian Calhoun did it at Illinois in 2005, a game I was at.

Their next game is against Iowa, who got dominated by Iowa State in the first half. They've come out on fire in the second half, but we'll see if they dug themselves in too deep a hole.

More updates after the 3:30 game.

--Nate Sandstrom