College Football 9/25

Another weekend of college football is over and there were some great games. I was 7-4 on my predictions, putting me at 27-13 overall for the season.

Here's my new top 25, not many changes this week
1-Alabama
2-Ohio State
3-Oregon
4-Clemson
5-Stanford
6-Florida State
7-LSU
8-Louisville
9-Georgia
10-Texas A&M
11-Oklahoma State
12-Miami
13-UCLA
14-Oklahoma
15-Michgan
16-South Carolina
17-Northwestern
18-Florida
19-Washington
20-Fresno State
21-Baylor
22-Northern Illinois
23-Notre Dame
24-Wisconsin
25-Ole Miss

Games of the week

Thursday-Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech: I thought Va Tech might be in the upper half of the ACC this year, but they haven't had the best performances yet. GT has looked pretty solid and have a pretty potent offense. This should be a tough match for both teams, but I think GT pulls it off at home. Georgia Tech 27 Virginia Tech 21

Friday-Utah State at San Jose State: Utah State has one of my favorite players, QB Chuckie Keeton. I wish they would have knocked off USC last week. I was also hoping San Jose State would put up a better effort against Minnesota. This will be both teams first conference game since joining the Mountain West, both teams won 10 games last year and lost their coaches. Utah State 38 San Jose State 34

Saturday-Ole Miss at Alabama: Ole Miss is ranked, but won't be after this week, Alabama is too good and they're at home. Alabama 38 Ole Miss 21

LSU at Georgia: LSU has looked better than I thought they would, and Georgia is still my pick for the national title game. Georgia 28 LSU 21

South Carolina at UCF: UCF has looked pretty good this year, but will have a big test against the Gamecocks. South Carolina 31 UCF 17

USC at Arizona State: USC hasn't looked very good yet this year, even with all the talent they have on the roster. I really don't like them either, so it's not a bad thing. Arizona State 31 USC 21

Arizona at Washington: A battle of two undefeated teams go head-to-head in Pac 12 play. Washington has a couple nice wins over Boise State and Illinois, Arizona has an amazing running back. I'm giving the nod to Washington since they're at home. Washington 38 Arizona 34 Pac 12 looks pretty tough this year

Oklahoma at Notre Dame: Notre Dame wasn't very sharp in close victories over Michigan State and Purdue, or in their loss to Michigan. Maybe they were overlooking Purdue a bit heading into a big game against Oklahoma. Oklahoma 27 Notre Dame 17

Iowa at Minnesota: I will recap the Iowa-Western Michigan game in a post below. Minnesota is 4-0 after non-conference play with a pretty light schedule: New Mexico State, UNLV, Western Illinois, and San Jose State, not exactly seizure-worthy opponents, but their fans think they're on their way to the Rose Bowl. Iowa 34 Minnesota 21

Wisconsin at Ohio State: This is a huge game, still shocked that Wisconsin lost to Arizona State. The Badgers have a great RB trio of Melvin Gordon, James White and Corey Clement. Ohio State has been nothing short of amazing thus far with a fairly weak schedule. This should be a slugfest. Ohio State 38 Wisconsin 31

UNLV at New Mexico: I always like to predict the UNM game since I follow the Lobos pretty close. I can see the brand new video screen at the stadium from my front window. The Lobos had a week off to get rested up and work on some things. They're looking to avenge a loss from last year against UNLV. New Mexico 28 UNLV 24

The Iowa Hawkeyes played Western Michigan last week in a game that a lot of fans weren't sure about. The Hawkeyes already lost to a MAC opponent, and haven't beaten Western Michigan in two tries previously. The game started with a Bronco three-and-out and the Iowa offense looked good on the first drive, but stalled out and settled for a field goal. I was thinking it was going to be a long day, but the Hawkeyes dominated from that point on. The score at halftime was 38-3! Kevonte Martin-Manley ran two consecutive punts back for touchdowns, and B.J. Lowery ran two interceptions back for touchdowns as Iowa won 59-3. I was pretty shocked at the outcome, I had a good feeling Iowa would win by a few touchdowns, but not by eight.

QB: Jake Rudock did a great job starting for the Hawkeyes, winning his third straight game. He looks great in the pocket, never seems to hurry the play, just sits back and waits for someone to get open, or he's not afraid to run. He's not the quickest, but knows when and where to run to pick up yards. Freshmen, C.J. Beathard, got in the game in the second half and got to showcase some skills. I missed his first throw, apparently they had the second string camera guys in at that point. He did hit Damond Powell on a beautiful 54 yard toss, and had a nicely thrown pass dropped by Adam Haluska. He showed some fancy footwork as well, rushing for over 30 yards. I believe they had six players with 30+ rushing yards. C.J. seems to be a worthy backup.

RB: Mark Weisman had a nice break today as he only carried 10 times, and still manages to lead the country in rushing attempts. He picked up over 40. Damon Bullock got a few more carries today and showed some promise. Jordan Canzeri had a great touchdown run and a couple others where he showed some flash, he did fumble once, but with some more reps could be a game changer. Quite possibly my favorite of the group is LeShun Daniels, the true freshmen. He had a tough fumble, but I like the way he runs and think he's going to be a star. Overall, this group has been pretty impressive.

WR: Still quite a few question marks for this unit, but different guys are stepping up. KMM didn't have a big game catching the ball, but didn't have to with his great punt returns. Jacob Hillyer had a touchdown catch for the second consecutive week, and Damond Powell had a touchdown catch from Rudock to go along with the 54 yarder from Beathard. Tevaun Smith started for the first time and only had one catch that I can recall.

TE: C.J. Fiedorowicz had another drop in the game, he's had way too many of those. Ray Hamilton has stepped up nicely this year and appears to be Iowa's best pass catching tight end. There are many valuable weapons at the TE spot this year, a very deep group.

OL: This group has been pretty amazing this year making sure Rudock doesn't get hit. I can't remember too many times where Jake has been hit or even pressured at all. That will change with the conference season coming up, but I really like the OL. Scherff is one of the better tackles in the country, Boffeli has been great for a first year starter, Blythe is a talented guy, Walsh is still taking some lumps, but has been good, and Van Sloten has been solid. The backups have impressed as well, MacMillan and Donnal both looked good in the times they have played. Pretty amazing group.

DL: They're still having a hard time getting sacks, but they're putting a lot of pressure, especially against WMU. They're QB was pretty awful, but the DL had a lot to do with that. Dominic Alvis looked pretty good Saturday, he was using quickness to get by the OL and almost came up with a couple sacks. Jaleel Johnson looked pretty good in his first real action and seems to have a nice career ahead of him. LTP, Davis and Cooper are all looking good at the DT spot. Nate Meier looks like Rudy when he plays DE, I think he's a bit undersized, but could use his quickness like Alvis did and maybe cause some disruption. Faith Ekakitie didn't do much in his time in the game. Overall, the unit is playing well, really stopping the run. Iowa hasn't allowed a rushing touchdown this season.

LB: Morris, Kirksey and Hitchens are all playing well. This group will definitely be missed next year, but we got to see a glimpse of the future with Quinton Alston, Marcus Collins, Travis Perry and true freshmen, Reggie Spearman. Collins and Alston have looked good on special teams play and both seemed to play with a lot of aggression when they got into the game. Spearman looks so fast out there, and again, they were playing WMU, but he's someone to keep an eye on down the road. I like that the coaches are calling more blitzes this year, too. Morris has had two blitzes that forced bad throws and interceptions for Lowery, one against Iowa State, and one that he took back for a touchdowns against WMU.

DB: The secondary really played well against WMU. Lowery, of course, had the two interceptions for touchdowns, and Tanner Miller added another interception as well. Desmond King has looked pretty good filling in for injured started Jordan Lomax, too. It was nice to see Maurice Fleming play for the first time, that kid is fast. Watch him on both of KMM's punt return touchdowns, the kid was hauling! Miller and Johnny Lowdermilk still need to work on some things at the safety spots, but Lowdermilk is really making strides and has turned into a pretty good tackler. Nico Law and Anthony Gair got some time, too, which was good to see. Overall this unit is playing pretty well, but will need to take it to another level in B1G play.

K/P: Mike Meyer has been very accurate and continues to not miss XP's, which is nice! Connor Kornbrath had one of his better games punting the football, too, hopefully that trend will continue. The return game looked great, not just on KMM's touchdowns, but Jordan Cotton had a nice kick return, too.

I know that Iowa just played Western Michigan, but it's exciting to watch this team improve. I think they definitely have a shot at a bowl game this year, especially with the way some other teams have been playing.

Michigan beat Notre Dame, but had heart attack victories at home against Akron and at UCONN. Both pretty bad teams, so Michigan is beatable this year. Devin Gardner has been making a lot of mistakes.

Nebraska's defense is pretty awful this year, too. Wyoming put up 35 on them, and UCLA put up 38. The offense has weapons to keep up, but they have a lot of work to do.

Northwestern really hasn't been that impressive either, although, they are undefeated. They struggled with Western Michigan for the first half until they ran away with that game, and didn't look overly impressive against Maine.

Michigan State's offense is really bad. The defense is amazing.

Minnesota's offense doesn't look too bad, but the defense could certainly use some work. Ra'Shede Hageman is a beast though on the DL.

It seems like the teams in this division have either a great offense and no defense or vice versa, which could be good for Iowa, they seem to be pretty balanced. As much as I would love to see Iowa in the Rose Bowl, I don't think it will happen with this schedule, but you never know, the conference season is just starting.