Jeff Dantzler’s Top 25 It was an incredible day in college football with a slew of fantastic finishes, upsets and near misses. The biggest story of course was Texas A&M’s 29-24 victory at Alabama. Florida got a once-in-a-decade magic win against Louisiana-Lafayette on a blocked punt that landed perfectly. Vandy beat Ole Miss by one in Oxford, Missouri topped Tennessee by three in quadruple overtime, and Georgia clinched the SEC East with a rout of Auburn. This week there aren’t nearly as many huge match-ups, as everyone wants to tune up with the Thanksgiving rivalry games on deck. 1. Oregon – It was 24-17 and tight with Cal this past Saturday. Next thing you know, the Ducks flat out got it rolling. Oregon collected a 59-17 victory over the Golden Bears and are sitting pretty at 10-0. There are two tough challenges with Stanford and Oregon State remaining, but the Ducks are rolling. 2. Kansas State - What a job by Kansas State. The Wildcats played great defense in Fort Worth, jumped in front and held off TCU 23-10. Kansas State hits the road again this week, going to Baylor. Then Texas comes to call on the first Saturday in November. 3. Notre Dame – The Fighting Irish played great defense in a 21-6 win over Boston College in Beantown. Notre Dame hosts Wake Forest Saturday, and the Demon Deacons are struggling. Then comes Southern Cal in Los Angeles, and a ton figures to be on the line. 4. Alabama – It was a tough loss for the Crimson Tide against Texas A&M. Bama fell behind 20-0 and came storming back, but the Aggies responded. Bama has a tune-up and then Auburn. A win over the Tigers would get Bama to the SEC Championship Game. But their national title hopes have taken a severe blow. 5. Georgia – The Bulldogs flat out took care of business, dumping down Auburn 38-0 to improve to 9-1 and clinch the SEC East title for a second straight year. Todd Gurley, Jarvis Jones and Aaron Murray were all outstanding. Georgia has to not look ahead as Divison I-AA power Georgia Southern comes to Athens. 6. Ohio State – Urban Meyer’s team is a perfect 10-0 with two more big hurdles to climb. The Buckeyes have a couple of major hurdles to clear in Wisconsin and Michigan. Ohio State caught a break with the schedule and they had an improbable win over Purdue. But 10-0 is 10-0, and Meyer has the Buckeye express right back on track after their NCAA woes. 7. Florida - It was a red alert day for the Gators, who trailed LouisianaLafayette 20-13 with under two minutes to go. But the Gators scored and then blocked a punt, got perfect trajectory off the thud and got another TD with two seconds to go. The Gators host Jacksonville State Saturday then go to Tallahassee. 8. LSU – There was no hangover for the Bayou Bengals on the heels of that devastating loss to Alabama. The Fightin’ Tiger defense was terrific and Zach Mettenberger came up big in a 37-17 victory over Mississippi State. Next up is Ole Miss, which lost a heart-breaker by one to Vanderbilt, then comes a trip to Arkansas. 9. Texas A&M – What an incredible win for the Aggies. Beating top-ranked defending national champion Alabama in Tuscaloosa goes down as the program’s biggest win since defeating undefeated Kansas State in the 1998 Big XII Championship Game. Gig ‘em Aggies! They are smiling big and bright in College Station. 10. Florida State – The Seminoles pulled out an exciting come-from-behind win at Virginia Tech, as E.J. Manuel hit Rashad Greene, who made a tremendous run after the catch for the TD. If the ‘Noles win at Maryland, they wrap up a berth in the ACC Championship Game. Then the Gators come to call. 11. South Carolina – The Gamecocks took advantage of their open day and put together an outstanding performance in a 38-20 win over Arkansas. The South Carolina defense is rugged and Connor Shaw is playing very well. 12. Clemson – This looks like Clemson’s best team in over 20 years and maybe the best offense the Tigers have ever had. Clemson makes big plays on the ground and through the air. They have done a great job avoiding the upset this season. Clemson has a golden opportunity to make it to a BCS game for a second straight year.
13. Oklahoma – The Sooners got in a shootout with Baylor, but came out on top. Bob Stoops has his team primed to win out and go 10-2, staying in the picture for a possible BCS berth. Oklahoma lost twice at home this year, the first time in the Stoops era. 14. Stanford – In a PAC-12 thriller, the Cardinal held tough at home and took care of tough Oregon State. That Stanford defensive line is just stellar. Not many saw this team sitting at 8-2 on the heels of Andrew Luck’s departure to the NFL. And how good is he, by the way? 15. Texas – Something has clicked for Texas the last couple of weeks. That win at Texas Tech got the Longhorns going. It was a great tribute to the late Darrell Royal, as Texas came out in the wishbone and hit a big trick play to get rolling this past Saturday in a rout of Iowa State. That Kansas State game on the first Saturday of November will be huge for a lot of teams. 16. Oregon State – What a heartbreaker for the Beavers, as they fell at Stanford 27-23. The Beavers have lost just twice this year. It is one of the best years in school history thus far. The losses are by three at Washington and four at the farm. 17. UCLA – The Bruins have been a big surprise this season, and at 8-2, a berth in the PAC-12 Championship Game is on the line against Southern Cal. I don’t think too many people gave the Bruins a shot before the season started. 18. Louisiana Tech – This is the king of the shootout this season. The Bulldogs from Ruston out-gunned Texas State 62-55. Now they get Utah State, one of college football’s big surprises this season. Their only loss was by two to Texas A&M. 19. Louisville – When a 9-0 team is only a two-point favorite at a 4-5 team’s place, that is a red flag. Uh-oh. Syracuse smoked Louisville, handing the Cardinals their first loss of the season. The Cardinals can still win the Big East if they win out. 20. Nebraska – Do it Big Red. Nebraska took down Penn State in a hard fought affair – this game 30 years ago was an all-time instant classic with both riding high. Nebraska got a couple of breaks and the defense was tremendous in the second half against the Nittany Lions. 21. Mississippi State – The rigors of the toughest league in the land got to Mississippi State. The Maroon Bulldogs were 7-0, but have fallen to Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU the last three weeks. Dan Mullen has a good squad, but the SEC West is just downright brutal. 22. Texas Tech - The Red Raiders survived a huge scare from Kansas. Texas Tech was coming off of a five game stretch that was one of the toughest any team faced this year. So you could see a letdown coming. But Tommy Tuberville’s team got the win to move to 7-3. 23. Southern Cal – The Trojans had national championship dreams, but three losses clearly blew those away. But their next two games are enormous. Southern Cal plays its two rivals, UCLA for a berth in the PAC-12 Championship Game, and then Notre Dame. 24. Michigan – In one of the best games of the day and all season long in the Big Ten, Michigan rallied back to defeat Northwestern 38-31 in overtime, keyed by a hail mary that set up a tying field goal. The Wolverines had to do it without injured star quarterback Dennard Robinson. 25. Northwestern – Pat Fitzgerald has done outstanding work in Evanston. The Wildcats are a physical team on defense and they do an excellent job running a spread passing attack. The loss to Michigan was a real heart-breaker. That last gasp pass is a painful stinger.
Kevin Butler’s Players of the Game
Great gift for BULLDAWG alumni and fans!
Kevin Butler, former University of Georgia legendary kicker and a member of the Georgia radio broadcast team, will each week during the 2012 football season select his offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week for Bulldawg Illustrated. Here are Butler’s selections and reasons why for the Bulldogs’ 38-0 win over Auburn Saturday, a victory that clinched the SEC East title for a second consecutive year. OFFENSE – Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and the entire UGA offensive staff, which directed an attack that scored on the Bulldogs’ first four drives and totaled right at 500 yards of offense on the night. “Mike Bobo and his staff have done an excellent job of developing a young offensive line,” said Butler. “Mike has done an unbelievable job of creating true balance with our offense through the air and with the running game. Mike had to battle to get the right receivers on the offense and Aaron (Murray) distributes the ball to all the receivers and the way he has used our freshman running backs (Todd Gurley, Keith Marshall) to establish the run game has created tremendous balance for the Georgia offense that will give them an opportunity to win the SEC title.” DEFENSE – Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and the entire Georgia defensive staff, which directed an effort that saw the Bulldogs blank Auburn for the first time since 1976 while holding the Tigers to just 57 yards rushing and 181 passing. “Todd and his staff have worked through injuries and suspensions from Day 1 this year and have consistently improved the play of our defense week by week,” said Butler. “The play of Jarvis Jones, the play of Jordan Jenkins has shown the ability to get everybody involved on the defensive front. And the secondary, once we got everybody back from suspension, has developed each week into a tougher pass defense. They are finally playing at the level that everybody expected them to play at the beginning of the year and now is the time of the season you want to have that happen.”
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SPECIAL TEAMS – All the Georgia coaches who instruct areas of the special teams, which enjoyed outstanding kick coverage and had excellent punting and kicking nights in the complete win over the Tigers. “This is the area that has seen the biggest improvement for the Georgia football team from the beginning of the year,” said Butler. “Going into the season with two freshman kickers (Marshall Morgan, Collin Barber), the specialty teams were obviously the biggest question mark but through the work of the coaches and the development of the special teams, they are now creating great field position and adding to the offense and defense like specialty teams should for a championship drive.” - Compiled by Murray Poole
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