Copyright ? 2010 Ed Bagley
You visualize it attending school football games every Saturday - missed assignments, missed tackles, players throwing themselves at runners and hoping they'll drop. Guess what? The runners will not collapse a great deal anymore. They are bigger, much larger, faster, stronger and much more elusive.
So how about we more college players square up and tackle runners? The answer is simple - diet program choices not quick enough or too forgetful in filling their gap assignment and/or they may be scared to tackle.
The net response to all this is the thing that we were treated to last weekend. The 7 highest scoring games produced 703 total points, or perhaps an average of 100-plus points per game. This may be exciting, however it is lousy football.
So how bad could it get? This bad:
Michigan beat Illinois 67-65 in triple overtime (132 total points), Navy beat East Carolina 76-35 (111 points), Duke beat Virginia 55-48 (103), Kansas beat Colorado 52-45 (97), Tulsa beat Rice 64-27 (91), 3rd-ranked Auburn beat AA Chattanooga 62-24 (86), and 19th-ranked Oklahoma State beat 22nd-ranked Baylor 55-28 (83).
Haven't had enough evidence? Try another 8 highest scoring games. To wit:
No. 25 Nevada over Idaho 63-17 (80), Florida International over Louisiana-Monroe 42-35 in double overtime (77), Southern Mississippi over Tulane 46-30 (76), Troy over North Texas 41-35 (76), Arkansas State over Middle Tennessee State 51-24 (75), Fresno State over Louisiana Tech 40-34 (74), Central Florida over Houston 40-33 (73), and North Carolina upsetting 24th-ranked Florida State 37-35 (72).
That's 15 games with total a lot of 72-plus. Fifteen games that generated 1,306 points, or perhaps average of 87-plus points per game.
So you saw many offense, lousy defense, and never a great deal good, solid football. Suspense? There was virtually none. It was just a matter of who had the ball moving about the field with little resistance.
Not to bore you, but to create a point:
The top five scoring offenses in the nation are Oregon (54+ points per game), Boise State (47+), Oklahoma State (46+), Nevada (44+), and Stanford (42+).
The worst 5 scoring defenses near your vicinity are Eastern Michigan (gives up 43+ points per game), Memphis (42+), New Mexico (42+), East Carolina (41+), and Louisiana-Lafayette (40+).
This is simply a small problem to get a lousy team just like the Eastern Michigan Eagles, who throw in the towel 43+ points per game simply score about 19+ points per game. No wonder they may be only 1-8 for the season. They did have the ability to beat Ball State 41-38 in overtime.
All right Ed, provide an escape. OK.
Who has unquestionably toughest schedule one of the AP Top 25 teams? I am glad you asked. Read them and weep if you tend not to find your best team.
Arizona has totally toughest schedule; the Wildcats are ranked 12th nationally. Next bola is LSU (15th), then Stanford (16th), Missouri (18th), and Oklahoma (19th).
Who has unquestionably worst schedule one of several Top 25?
Try Central Florida at 95th, accompanied by Ohio State (87th), Nevada (86th), Virginia Tech (80th), and Utah (79th).
Wins do count, just about all allows you use it into perspective.
Oregon is 9-0 and contains totally 36th toughest schedule. Auburn is 10-0 and ranks 40th in schedule strength. TCU is 10-0 and ranks 62nd. Boise State is 8-0 and ranks 72nd.
Since you can find only 120 Division 1-A teams, both TCU and Boise State are mounting up victories from the bottom one half of area of (61st to 120th). Despite their protestations otherwise, both TCU and Boise State love playing in mid-major conferences, so does Utah.
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