NCAA Week 10: What We Learned

Published on 4-Nov-2013 by Stacey Mickles

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Review

Share this article


NCAA Week 10: What We Learned

Week 10 of the college football season served as the calm before the inevitable shakedown storm.

Other than Florida State smashing Miami, there really wasn't a lot going on.

And as FSU proved once again, the ACC is not as good as we thought they were. But, we did have a nice showing by Missouri, crazy stuff happening off the field at FAU, and USC making a little noise. Anyway, on with the show. 

Despite their win over Miami, FSU may still be left out of the BCS Championship Game ... FSU struggled in the first half against Miami, but the Seminoles strength on both ends of the ball proved to be too much for the Canes. They looked impressive, that's the good news. Bad News is that the rest of their ACC schedule may kill their chances of being in the national championship game. Miami is the last highly-ranked ACC team on FSU's schedule, and that's going to hurt their chances in coming weeks. Oregon still has to prevail over Stanford, Oregon State and in the Pac-12 championship game to strengthen their schedule and leapfrog them over FSU. However, the Pac-12's nine-game schedule is an unforgiving gauntlet; the Ducks have serious work to do, starting Thursday down at the Farm. And as history has shown, it is always wild in November.

Nice bounceback by Missouri ... If anyone thought Tennessee had any chance against Missouri, the Tigers proved them wrong. They recovered from last week's upset quite nicely, thank you very much, with an impressive victory over the Vols and they needed it. South Carolina and Georgia are hot on their heels in the East, and Missouri didn't need to slip up to the Vols and add more drama to the SEC East. No word if they filed down the goal post during the week.

What the hell is going on at FAU? ... When I heard about coaches taking drugs at a South Florida university, my first thought was, what in the world has Miami done this time? But then I discovered it was at Florida Atlantic, and did a double take. Did anyone know that Carl Pelini was even the coach of FAU before all of this took place? I doubt it. But apparently the Owls' former coach has a drug problem and has had a problem for awhile.The sad thing is, besides the obvious, he honestly thought he'd get away with it. Not when you're 5-15, you don't.

Will Muschamp is wearing seared britches ... Remember when I wrote that certain coaches are on the hot seat? Add Will Muschamp to that list. After finding yet another way to lose to a struggling Georgia team, Muschamp found himself trying to explain why he can't beat Mark Richt. The same Mark Richt whose team managed to lose to Vanderbilt a few weeks ago. This was the best time for the Gators to take down the Dawgs, and what did they do? Screw up and lose again for the third year in a row. Dropping a triple to your rival is never good. Ask Bill Curry, who lost to Auburn as the coach of both Georgia Tech and Alabama, never once beating the Tigers in his career. 

USC looks better under Ed Orgeron ... Was the improvement inevitable or has Ed Orgeron been the difference for USC playing better? The Men of Troy finally look like the team we thought they could be all along. The Trojans are 3-1 under Coach Ed, and are primed to make more noise in the Pac 12; slamming a dangerous Oregon State team in Corvallis made the North Division a two-team race. The Trojans are now bowl eligible and still have some huge games ahead this month, including Stanford and UCLA. If Orgeron can orchestrate one or two upsets, it's going to be hard for SC officials to get rid of him.

What to look for Week 11:

  • Will 11-point underdog LSU upset Alabama and cause chaos in the BCS?
  • Will Stanford throw a monkey wrench into Oregon's plans by beating the Ducks?
  • Can Florida State avoid the upset themselves this weekend against Wake Forrest?

And the undercard of Fresno State and Northern Illinois battling to make a BCS bowl continues. It may be an afterthought to the rest of the nation, but that's a significant payday on the line. $17million can really cure what ails your athletic department's bottom line.

And while one Pelini is just high, another one is high on life. Hail Mary, full of grace ...