Sixteen of 20 AP Top 25 teams won in College Football's 12th Week but none won bigger or more impressively than Urban Meyer's Florida Gators, who literally crushed Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks, 56-6, in what many thought would be a much closer contest.
After being upset 31-30 at home by Mississippi 6 weeks ago, the No. 3 Gators have gone ballistic, ripping off 5 straight wins by huge margins-38-7 over Arkansas, 51-21 over LSU, 63-5 over Kentucky, 49-10 over Georgia and 42-14 over Vanderbilt. Now they were staring at incoming South Carolina.
The Gamecocks were 7-3 and rated No. 11 in the nation in rushing defense, No. 10 in scoring defense, No. 4 in passing defense and No. 12 in passing efficiency defense. Florida was loaded as well, ranking No. 22 in rushing offense, No. 21 in rushing defense, No. 4 in scoring defense, No. 17 in passing defense, No. 10 in passing efficiency, No. 14 in passing efficiency defense and No. 4 in turnover margin.
Surely, No. 24-ranked South Carolina could at least slow down No. 3-ranked Florida, even in a losing effort. Didn't happen.
Despite some impressive statistics of their own, the Gators were ranked 91 in turnover margin, and did it show against the Gators, who capitalized on 3 consecutive turnovers in the 1st quarter, scoring 3 touchdowns in 8 plays. From then on, South Carolina and Steve Spurrier were toast.
The loss was Spurrier's worst in a storied playing and coaching career covering 5 decades. He had not been hosed that bad since falling 63-7 to Florida in 1995. Spurrier coached at Florida for 12 years, from 1990 to 2001. For Florida it was business as usual, racking up its 16th victory over South Carolina in 17 years, and pushing its record to 9-1 this year.
For all of South Carolina's defensive statistics against other opponents, they had to watch the 3 touchdowns on turnovers, watch Percy Harvin run for a career-high 167 yards against them, and watch Gator quarterback Tim Tebow account for 3 scores.
The first 16 ranked teams in the Top 25 Poll this week were not about to lose their ranking and status. They included:
No. 1 Alabama at home over Mississippi State 32-7, No. 4 Texas on the road over Kansas 35-7, No. 6 Southern California on the road over Stanford 45-23, No. 7 Penn State at home over Indiana 34-7, No. 8 Utah on the road over San Diego State 63-14, No. 9 Boise State on the road over Idaho 45-10, and No. 10 Ohio State on the road over Illinois 30-20.
No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road over Colorado 30-17, No. 12 Missouri on the road over Iowa State 52-20, No. 13 Georgia on the road over Auburn 17-13, No. 14 Ball State on the road over Miami of Ohio 31-16, and No. 16 Brigham Young on the road over Air Force 38-24.
Also winning this week were No. 19 Louisiana State at home over Troy 40-31 (the Tigers were losing to Troy 31-3 before scoring 37 unanswered points in a impressive comeback during an unimpressive win), No. 22 Cincinnati on the road over Louisville 28-20, and No. 23 Oregon State at home over California 34-21.
Five teams in the Top 25 were idle this week-No. 2 Texas Tech, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 15 Texas Christian, No. 18 Michigan State and No. 21 Pittsburgh.
Among the 4 Top 25 teams that were upset this week, only South Carolina played a ranked team, No. 2 Florida.
No. 17 North Carolina lost to Maryland 17-15 on the road, No. 20 Florida State lost to Boston College 27-17 at home and No. 25 Tulsa lost to Houston 70-30 on the road.
South Carolina, Florida State and Tulsa all dropped out of the Top 25 Poll again, Maryland and Oregon returned again, and Miami (FL) arrived for the first time this year.
Could we please now stop all of the spin about how Tulsa, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Connecticut, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt, Florida State, Clemson, California, East Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, UCLA, Fresno State, Wake Forest, Oregon, South Florida, Arizona State, Wisconsin, Auburn, West Virginia, Minnesota and Maryland should be in the Top 25.
All of these teams have been in and out of the Top 25 in the first 12 weeks of the season. Sure, some of them are good but all of them are terribly inconsistent.
The truth is only 13 teams have been in the Top 25 all 12 weeks. They are currently ranked No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Texas Tech, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 6 Southern Cal, No. 7 Penn State, No. 8 Utah, No. 10 Ohio State, No. 12 Missouri, No. 13 Georgia, No. 16 Brigham Young and No. 17 LSU. Now that's consistency.
The only 5 undefeated teams remain 11-0 Alabama, 10-0 Texas Tech, 11-0 Utah, 10-0 Boise State and 10-0 Ball State.
There are at least 3 good matches this week as No. 2 Texas Tech (10-0) visits No. 5 Oklahoma (9-1), No. 7 Penn State (10-1) hosts No. 17 Michigan State (9-2), and No. 8 Utah (11-0) hosts No. 16 Brigham Young (10-1).
The unranked losers game of the year pits winless Washington (0-10) at Washington State (1-10). To add insult to injury, Washington State's one win came against 1-AA Portland State. Minus the 1-AA fiasco, these two birds will play each other at 0-20. There is a rumor floating around that fans will be paid to drive to Pullman to watch the game.
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
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