Upon Further Further Review (Week 10)

This week, the usual Monday feature is called Upon Further Further Review because, even with the help of video replay officials, college football referees can't seem to get it right...

ConCussed



If you have yet to see this fairly horrifying video of California's Jahvid Best going airborne for a touchdown against Oregon State, and landing on his head, it is not for the faint of heart.

Later, it was revealed that Best had missed two days of practice during the week because of a slight concussion suffered in the win at Arizona State.

While I am glad that it appears Best will be fine, what I want to know is where are all of the alleged experts who were ready to crucify Urban Meyer if Tim Tebow had emerged from the LSU game with anything more than a hangnail?

Why aren't they upset about this?

Irish Bad. Wolverines Worse

Way back in September, after Michigan's exciting win over Notre Dame, many of the alleged experts wanted us to believe that both of these traditional powers had returned to their rightful place of national prominence.

The day after the game, ESPN.com's Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg titled his entry "Michigan is back."

CBSSports.com's Gregg Doyel drooled, "...for close to four hours Saturday, Notre Dame and Michigan mattered again. And you might want to get used to it. Because they're back."

I thought they were wrong at the time, and I said so.

I'm wondering how they feel now.

Saturday, Notre Dame lost at home to Navy to fall to 6-3, and has games remaining at #12 Pittsburgh, against Connecticut, and at Stanford. And that Stanford game is looking tougher and tougher.

Michigan just lost at home to Purdue to fall to 5-5, and they're in the midst of a three game losing streak. They finish at #20 Wisconsin, and at home against #11 Ohio State.

Both coaches may be on the hot seat. And, in the case of Charlie Weis, that's a big seat.

Temple Strikes Gold(en)

Despite the incredibly stupid piece of propaganda included here, Temple coach Al Golden has to be a unanimous choice for Coach of the Year, doesn't he?

In the three years before Golden arrived in Philly, the Owls were 3-31.

Now, at 7-2, they are bowl-eligible for the first time since 1990. They haven't actually been to a bowl since 1979, when they beat California in the Garden State Bowl to finish 10-2.

If they win out, they will be the champions of the East Division of the MAC, and earn a berth in the league championship game.

Their last three games: at Akron, Kent State, at Ohio.

The problem: they average 16,646 fans at their home games. Bowl games aren't terribly inclined to invite a team that's going to leave a bunch of seats empty.

Okay, I Was Possibly Not Correct

I would like to apologize to anyone who read some of the things I've written and, from that, gotten the impression that I thought Penn State was a good team. I had that impression, but I was possibly... not correct.

Penn State is 8-2, but they have beaten a grand total of three teams that have winning records. Two of those teams were Temple and Eastern Illinois.

Given two chances to prove they can compete with the pack leaders in the Big Ten, they choked horribly. And both of those occasions were at home.

First, they were manhandled by Iowa in a 21-10 loss that wasn't as close as the score might indicate. Then came Saturday's 24-7 bludgeoning by an Ohio State team that has looked remarkably average until now.

There's always a temptation to think that Joe Pa is going to field a quality team, but, while this year's Nittany Lions will finish with a decent won-loss record, it's mostly because they've played a weak schedule.