It has been a while since I’ve been free on a Saturday and able to make my weekly college football observations. I’ve only had like two days off in the last 3 1/2 weeks, so needless to say, I haven’t had an overabundance of free time.

This week, I tried to make some observations, but I also had to fight off the sleep from working the night before and having to work Saturday night as well. What that amounted to was my viewing of the entirety of the early games, the very beginning of the midday games, and a little bit of the late games before heading back to work.

There were some huge matchups for the top 10 teams, including Oklahoma’s dismantling of Texas Tech, but here are 28 observations about certain players and teams from 7 of Saturday’s games I was able to catch in between napping and work:

(Also check out the updated The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 and my last observations - from Week 9.)

Michigan at Ohio State (OSU 42, UM 7)

  • It was over in the first quarter. Michigan was hanging with Ohio State in the first quarter but not capitalizing on the interception by Stevie Brown that was returned inside the 20 spelled the end of any chance of a dramatic upset in my mind. (They missed a field goal.)
  • Austin Spitler absolutely blew up Sam McGuffie on a kick return. I had my head turned away, but I sure did hear it! The great sounding impact left McGuffie stumbling away from the hit as he tried to find the sideline.
  • Michigan has the most three-and-outs in the nation. Their defensive players don’t even have time to sit down on the bench before they are having to return to the field.
  • Terrelle Pryor looked awfully shaky…until he connected beautifully on a 53-yard strike to Brian Hartline.
  • Michigan got their first first down with 8:25 remaining in the second quarter.
  • Quarterback Nick Sheridan looks like a middle schooler playing against the high school’s varsity defense. Ohio State did a great job of mixing up their looks and throwing in plenty of blitzes that had Sheridan confused and often running for his life.
  • I have no vested interest in either Michigan or Ohio State, but I have been rooting for Michigan this year even though I don’t mind seeing them lose. The conundrum comes because I just love watching the Wolverines’ running backs. McGuffie is a white running back, and I’ll always root for the white running back to succeed since I don’t know when the last white running back was a star in the NFL (and fellow Big 10 alum Mike Alstott doesn’t count — he’s a fullback not a running back). Then there is Brandon Minor. Minor may be the hardest runner in the nation (with Knowshon Moreno just barely behind him). He looks a lot like New York Giants back Brandon Jacobs to me.
  • How do you make a quick statement after halftime? After stopping Michigan, you have a 2-play, 91-yard touchdown drive. A 42-yard run by Beanie Wells followed by a 49-yard TD by Daniel ‘Boom’ Herron.

Indiana at Purdue (Pur 62, Ind 10)

  • Purdue takes home the Old Oaken Bucket thanks, in part, to 3 touchdown passes by Curtis Painter in the first quarter. Painter, however, looks nothing like a football player. He has long hair and a chubby, baby face, which says anything but football player.
  • I think Indiana should send their players to summer school in the offseason. They could even put them all in the same class…Tackling 101.
  • I’m pretty sure that the Big 10 is the king conference in the nation. Well, kings of the game trophies at least. The last couple of conference weekends in the Big 10 feature at least one or two games that are played for trophies whether it is the Old Oaken Bucket or Paul Bunyan’s Ax or
  • Congrats to Purdue coah Joe Tiller for the win in his final game. Tiller is retiring to spend more time with his wife. He and his wife plan to take their RV across the country sightseeing, tailgating, and visiting Tiller’s former coaches and players.

West Virginia at Louisville (WVU 35, Louis 21)

  • Pat White makes it look so easy. He scored West Virginia’s first TD on a 66-yard run, in which he made one quick move and then easily outran the defenders. He would add a couple of more scores…four more to be precise (two passing and two more rushing).
  • Congratulations to White, who broke former Missouri QB Brad Smith’s FBS rushing record by a quarterback with his 4,290th career rushing yard. White finished the game with 200 rushing yards giving him 4,292 for his career.
  • Fitting Football Name: WVU wide receiver Jock Sanders.

Clemson at Virginia (Clem 13, UVA 3)

  • Virginia quarterback Marc Verica was not very sharp at the beginning of the game, but none of the pocket passing QBs (Michigan’s Sheridan, OSU’s Pryor, Louisville’s Hunter Cantwell, UT’s Jonathan Crompton) were sharp in the beginning of the early games. I think the cold was definitely causing the erratic throws. It’s tough for a QB, who besides tossing on the sidelines, hasn’t been doing anything for 20-30 minutes to be sharp when they aren’t warm and can’t get a good grip on the ball.
  • If Clemson would have lost by 3 points, Chris Chancellor would have been the forgotten goat. In the 2nd quarter, on Virginia’s first scoring drive, Chancellor had the opportunity to intercept a Marc Verica pass attempt that hit him right in the center of his numbers.
  • There just never seemed to be any sense of urgency out of either team throughout the game. Maybe both teams are already resigned to getting ready for the offseason, but both still have shots at becoming bowl eligible, so I would hope that isn’t the case.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt (UT 20, Van 10)

  • I don’t know if he is the best defensive player in the nation, but I do know that Eric Berry is the best safety in the nation. I hate Tennessee, but I love watching Berry play. I can’t wait to see him showing out on Sundays.
  • His second quarter inteception return for a touchdown was his nation’s best 7th INT. He now has 12 in his short sophomore career with 3 being returned for the “pick-six.”
  • With Montario Hardesty’s 2nd quarter touchdown, Tennessee took their first lead in over a month. Their last lead was against Mississipi State two weekends before Halloween on October 18.
  • Vandy may have become bowl eligible for the first time since the ’80s last week, but in the first half they definitely still look like the pathetic SEC cellar dwellars they have been forever. For example, their punter blasted a punt 18 yards. It looked like he aimed it straight for the stands where it landed.
  • Defensive lineman Broderick Stewart went down with an injury…a sick injury. When they showed him lying on the ground, you could see his leg was straight and his ankle was laying flat on the ground to the left. He definitely broke his leg or ankle and had to be carted off the field. Nonetheless, he was in high spirits as he left the field. He cheered on his teammates and was helping direct the band’s music.
  • What took Bobby Johnson so long to make the switch to Mackenzie Adams? Chris Nickson was ATROCIOUS in the first half: 1-for-6, -4 yards passing, 2 interceptions. 9 carries, -7 yards rushing. Adams, on the other hand, led VU on a scoring drive his first series.
  • The Vols had four different players take snaps at quarterback: Jonathan Crompton started, B.J. Coleman came in for his first game experience and took over for Crompton, and Berry and Gerald Jones both took snaps in the ‘Wild (insert team nomenclature here)’ formation.
  • Fitting Football Name: Vanderbilt’s quick cornerback Darlron Spead.

Florida State at Maryland (FSU 37, Mary 3)

  • Congrats to new Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle. He is an inspiration for all current and future student-athletes. And big ups to the NCAA for allowing Florida State to use a private jet to fly Rolle from his Rhodes Scholar interview in Alabama to the night game in Maryland.

Oregon State at Arizona (OSU 19, ‘Zona 17)

  • What in the world was Arizona coach Mike Stoops thinking at the end of the game? Oregon State was down by a point after missing a fourth quarter PAT, but the Beavers got the ball back for the last possession at their own 20-yard line. However, they had no timeouts, so when OSU moved the ball down inside Arizona’s 10-yard line, why in the hell did Stoops call two timeouts with less than 40 seconds remaining? Arizona wasn’t going to get the ball back, so all the timeouts effectively did was allow Oregon State a chance to catch their breath and remain calm rather than be in a frenzy trying to beat the clock.

Shotgun Spratling

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