REYNOLDS: David vs. Goliath No Longer

Four top 10 teams went down in flames last week; How many more will fall?

by Matt Reynolds
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor

(At left) For the third straight season, Pete Carroll’s Trojans lost to an unranked, double-digit underdog

If you think there are any college football experts out there anymore, you are mistaken.

The Webster’s Dictionary defines the word expert as: a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist: an authority on a specific subject.

In the world of sports, the term expert is usually tabbed on someone in the media that has authority in the sport that would be able to make knowledgeable and accurate predictions based on observations.

If the moon-bat twilight-zonish 2007 season didn’t disprove the expert theory, the infancy of the 2008 season has surely shattered any legitimacy to any idea that anyone can predict how things will pan out on any given Saturday.

After the dust settled on the fifth week of the 2008 college football season, many tears have been shed, championships dreams had been diminished and band-aids have been placed.

Of course it all started with the fall of Troy in Corvallis last Thursday by the hands of a mighty 5′6 warrior named Jaquizz.

After rushing for 2,592 yards and 50 touchdowns as a junior at Lamar Consolidated in Texas, one would have thought that the likes of Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma would have come knocking on the door of Jaquizz Rodgers. Even after 2,890 yards and 42 touchdowns as a senior, Rodgers didn’t receive an over flux of attention.

It looks like even the recruiting “experts” must have been completely ignorant to the talent of this undersized player from Texas that took down the almost unanimous No. 1 team in the country this past week.

But that was just the opening credits of what was to be a weekend of jaw-dropping top 25 shake ups.

Graphic by Matt Deville

Early Saturday morning as the No. 4 Florida were being high-fived by Gator fans as they made the “Gator Walk” down to “The Swamp” to dress for their conference home opener in Gainesville, the tent-revivalist himself was working up some snake charming magic.

Houston Nutt, often comparable to some sort of religious motivator, pulled the unthinkable by shocking Gator nation in the 31-30 Ole Miss upset.

Florida coach Urban Meyer said his defensive breakdowns were “very alarming”.

Well, LSU fans know all about how Nutt can breakdown a defense, and the win in north Florida over the weekend may make November 22 seem terrifying for some of Tiger nation.

“It’s awful. Bad, bad stuff,” Meyer said after the loss.

Yeah, that’s probably exactly what every LSU fan in the country was saying after watching Nutt use a high school offense and a seemingly super-human running back to accumulate what seemed like 1,000 yards in Baton Rouge in late November last season.

The real “bad stuff” may be when Nutt returns to Fayetteville next month to take out some aggression against his former team the Arkansas Razorbacks, who now can be classified as the bottom feeder of the SEC.

Rich Rodriguez has had a rocky beginning to his young tenure in Ann Arbor. But he most likely saved himself a few hateful emails from Michigan fans and halftime boo’s at the next home game with the comeback victory over No. 9 Wisconsin in the “Big House” over the weekend.

It was also exposed over the weekend that East Carolina is not a good football team and Dr. Lou’s son isn’t the coaching genius that some may have thought he was a few weeks ago, as No. 23 East Carolina was drummed by Houston (not the Texans) 41-24.

The ACC got the double-whammy as the titans of the conference both fell by the wayside.

The fighting turtles of Maryland edged No. 20 Clemson, 20-17 and the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy topped No. 16 Wake Forest, 24-17.

And while we are on the ACC, how about those ‘Canes? The Tar Heels stun Miami at home and not on the hardwood. Where have the days of those fashionable army fatigues gone in south Florida?

The most predictable upset of the weekend was probably the most telling.

The Georgia fans in Athens decided to black the stadium out for the No.3 Georgia Bulldogs top ten showdown with No.8 Alabama. After the first half, the “black out” seemed to be a suitable color since it was beginning to look like the a funeral for the preseason No.1 team, as Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide was claiming a 31-0 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs rallied, but the turnovers, penalties and lofty deficit was too much to overcome, thus trusting Alabama back to the top of the college football world, as the AP writers jumped the Tide to No. 2 in this weeks poll.

As much as LSU fans may despise Saban, he probably had the most intelligent quote of the weekend.

In his post-game interview with ESPN Gameday after Alabama’s 41-30 win in Athens, Saban said, “You have to be prepared to play every week in this league (SEC) or you will get beat.”

Saban was right.

But that goes for any conference and any game.

In the modern college football world, the David vs. Goliath comparison isn’t that same as it used to be.

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Matt Reynolds is the assistant editor of Tiger Rag. Reach him at mattreynolds@tigerrag.com.