Biggest Winner
Notre Dame and the SEC. For the first time all season, and at least the rest of this week, the Fighting Irish control their own destiny. Notre Dame, who's been stuck behind the best of the best all season now sits alone on top of the college football world and have at least secured a BCS bowl birth, if not a BCS Title shot.
The SEC is the other big winner of the weekend. After Alabama's loss to Texas A&M last week, it looked like the SEC reign over college football would come to an end. After Mike Slive finishes his thank you notes to Baylor and Stanford, he'll get to sit back and watch Alabama or Georgia move on to represent the SEC in their 7th BCS title appearance.
Hat's Off
Baylor- The Bears hadn't played anything resembling defense all season and had given up 40 or more points in five games this season. They're ranked 117th in the nation in scoring defense and 119th in the nation in total defense. That all changed, Saturday as the Bears defense consistently stifled Heisman front runner, Collin Klein and the Wildcat offense. Baylor held the No. 1 team in the nation to 362 yards and a mere 76 rushing for a team that was averaging over 200 coming in.
Stanford- No only did Stanford effectively knock Oregon out of a BCS title bid, but they also took control of the Pac-12 North and with a win next week over Pac-12 South leader UCLA, the Cardinal will be Rose Bowling.
Jim Mora- In his first year as head coach of the Bruins, Jim Mora has his team at 9-2 on the season and secured a spot in the Pac-12 Championship with their 38-28 win over rival USC last weekend.
Moving Forward
The BSC picture is about to get even messier. At the moment the title picture is nice and neat with the Irish on top and the winner of the SEC taking the other slot. It's not easy to be the No.1 team in the nation and the Fighting Irish still have to take a trip to SoCal and come away with a win. That's looking a lot more likely given the way USC has been playing lately and it looks like quarterback Matt Barkley will be unavailable.
Should Notre Dame go down, then what? K-State has yet to lock up the Big-12 and Oregon might not even get a shot at the Pac-12 championship. It's highly unlikely that the voters will put either team in the championship game if they don't win their conference. Who's left? An SEC vs. SEC rematch? Doubt it. Florida would be next in line in the SEC but they've got to go to Tallahassee and try to beat a Seminoles team that's an absolute juggernaut at home. So what about the 'Noles as the second team? Not likely. They're stuck at No. 10 in the BSC and even with a win over Florida and a win in the ACC Championship game, it's not likely that they'll be able to jump eight spots to get to No. 2. Who's that leave? K-State or Oregon could make it back to No. 2 if they're able to win their conference but that's not in their hands. Stanford is currently leading the Pac-12 North and sit at No. 8. Is it possible for a two loss Stanford team to come out of the Pac-12 to play in the BCS Title game? Yikes. At least that might expedite the play-off process.
Kinney vs. Kinney
With 20 games this weekend to pick from Nick and I agreed on 16 games. Fortunately, I picked three of the four correctly giving me my first weekly win, since week one. I also overtake Nick in win percentage. Tough break brosef!
Week 12 Talley
Nick- 15-5
Jeremy- 17-3
Season Talley
Nick- 110-39 (.738)
*Jeremy- 97-34 (.740)
*no picks week 7
No. 1 Kansas State- 24, Baylor- 52
Even a broken clock is right twice a day and out of the 12 games Baylor will play this season, they were bound to play defense in one of them, and boy, did they pick the right one! The Baylor defense was all over Collin Klein and the K-State offense, while the Wildcats were completely outmatched against Baylor's high powered offense.
-Nick, Kansas State 42-28
-Jeremy- Kansas State, 52-24
No. 2 Oregon- 14, No. 13 Stanford- 17
Not going South this winter. Not only did Oregon all but kiss their BCS title hopes away, they no longer control the Pac-12 North. The Stanford front seven was more than up to the task against the churn-and-burn Ducks offense.
-Nick, Oregon 38-24
-Jeremy- Oregon- 42-31
No. 3 Notre Dame- 38, Wake Forest- 0
The Irish defense had no trouble shutting down the Wake Forest offense, while Notre Dame's offense racked up 584 yards in a tune-up for next week's visit to SoCal.
-Nick, Notre Dame 31-13
-Jeremy- Notre Dame, 30-10
No. 4 Alabama- 49, West Carolina- 0
Not a good week to be West Carolina. The Tide took their frustration out on the hapless Catamounts and now, thanks to Baylor and Stanford have a shot at getting back to the BCS title game.
-Nick, Bama 41-10
-Jeremy- Alabama- 45-6
No. 5 Georgia- 45, Georgia South- 14
After a slow start the Bulldogs took care of FCS, Georgia Southern. Aaron Murray threw for 330 yards and four touchdowns, but the Dawgs gave up 302 rushing yards. They'll need to shore that up with a Georgia Tech coming up.
-Nick, Dawgs roll 45-17
-Jeremy- Georgia, 44-10
No. 6 Florida- 23, Jacksonville State- 0
The Gators took care of FCS, Jacksonville State, but for the fourth week in a row, their offense looked completely out of sync. The Gators only managed 23 points and 356 yards of offense.
-Nick, Gators 38-14
-Jeremy- Gators, 28-10
No. 7 LSU- 41, Mississippi- 35
Ah, Les Miles. Thanks for never letting us down. It took the Tigers all 60 minutes and a 21 point fourth quarter to get past Ole Miss.
-Nick, LSU 35-17
-Jeremy- LSU, 37-14
No. 8 Texas A&M- 47, Sam Houston St.- 28
Johnny Manziel might have moved into the top spot in the Heisman running with a K-St. loss and 360 yard, four touchdown performance against Sam Houston State.
-Nick, Texas A&M 48-24
-Jeremy- Texas A&M, 52-16
No. 9 South Carolina- 24, Wofford- 7
What's with the SEC this week? Maybe it's football karma for the SEC for giving us such crappy games in Nov. S. Carolina squeaked by Wofford, needing a strong fourth quarter to get past the FCS school.
-Nick, South Carolina 42-21
-Jeremy- S. Carolina, 38-12
No. 10 Florida State- 41, Maryland- 14
FSU locks up the ACC Atlantic with the win over Maryland. The 'Noles defense was stifling, allowing only 170 total hards against the struggling Terps.
-Jeremy- FSU, 34-17
-Nick, Noles, 24-17
No. 11 Clemson- 62, North Carolina State- 48
The offensive fire works continue for the Tigers... but the defensive ineptness also continues.
-Jeremy- Clemson, 57-24
-Nick, Clemson, 48-28
No. 12 Oklahoma- 50, West Virginia- 49
The Sooners get a last second touchdown to survive the feisty Mountaineers.
-Jeremy- Sooners, 54-37
-Nick, Sooners 48-45
No. 14 Nebraska- 38, Minnesota- 14
The Huskers lock up the B1G's Leaders division with a big win over Minnesota. The Huskers racked up 444 yards and limited the struggling Beavers to just 177.
-Jeremy- Nebraska, 41-20
-Nick, Nebraska 38-17
No. 16 Oregon State- 62, California- 14
Oregon State took out last weeks frustration on the suffering Cal Bears. The Beavers forced four Cal turnovers and Sean Mannion returned to throw for 325 and four touchdowns.
-Jeremy- Oregon State, 34-17
-Nick- Oregon State, 24-7
No. 17 UCLA- 38, No. 18 USC- 28
And the slide continues. UCLA jumped out to an early 24 point lead and held off a late Trojan's run, injuring quarterback Matt Barkley in the process. With the win, the Bruins earn a return trip to the Pac-12 championship.
-Jeremy- UCLA, 42-41
-Nick, USC 38-31
No. 20 Louisiana Tech- 41, Utah State- 48 OT
You can't outscore everyone. The completely lacking, Bulldog defense finally caught up with them against Utah State.
-Jeremy- Utah State, 41-31
-Nick, Louisiana Tech 56-50
No. 21 Michigan- 42, Iowa- 17
The Devin Gardner, Denard Robinson quarterback/running back duo worked pretty well for the Wolverines, as they blow past the struggling Hawkeyes. Gardner threw for 314 and three passing and three rushing touchdowns, while Robinson rushed for 98 yards.
-Jeremy- Michigan, 28-16
-Nick, Michigan 35-31
No. 22 Rutgers- 10, Cincinnati- 3
'Rutger-ball" wins again. It's not pretty but the Scarlet Knights get it done and stand alone at the top of the Big East.
-Jeremy- Cincinnati, 28-24
-Nick, Rutgers 31-17
No. 23 Texas Tech- 21, No. 24 Oklahoma State- 59
A 28 point second quarter helped Ok State blow past the free falling Red Raiders.
-Jeremy- Oklahoma State, 38-34
-Nick, Texas Tech 31-17
No. 25 Washington- 38, Colorado- 3
Well, hats off to the Buffs for making it interesting for a half- they went into the break, down only 7-0. But, the true Buffalo's showed up in the second half getting outscored 31-3 in the second half.
-Jeremy- Washington 38-17
-Nick, Washington 35-7
Thanks for reading!
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