Well, no matter how badly ABC's John Saunders wanted us bumped from the top spot, the nation's other top-ranked teams did little to help their cause. As a result, tOSU held pretty much the same position at the top of the just released polls.
Look, the Buckeyes didn't look great. But, they took care of business once again in a hard-fought Big Ten tilt against the Nitanny Lions. As Lou Holtz likes to say, it doesn't matter how much you win by as long as you just win. Saunders and Craig James had another agenda as they worked frantically to push USC as the #1 team during the post-game show. Here's how the rest of the top five faired:
- #2 Auburn 37, Buffalo 7
The Tigers only lead 10-0 at the half before putting away a Buffalo team that had entered the game 1-2. - #3 USC 20, Arizona 3
Saunders and James' man-crush on Pete Carroll couldn't help the Trojans much past only a 3-0 halftime lead against a very mediocre Wildcat squad. - #4 West Virginia 27, East Carolina 10
The greatest show on college turf looked a little sluggish nursing a 17-7 lead in the 4th quarter before pulling away late. - #5 Florida 26, Kentucky 7
Florida looked decent beating a UK team that's better than typical Wildcat teams, but I still believe Florida is not as good as they're ranked. Both Michigan and Louisville are better units.
It's darn near impossible to put out an electrifying performance every week out in college football. In a world without a real playoff system, the key is just to win, baby.
Random observations from the game:
- Seeing Joe Pa sprinting across the field to drop the kids off at the pool has to be one of the highlights of my sports viewing career. We've all been there and it's nice to see it happens to legends as well. How ironic that earlier in the week he'd made comments about putting something in Ohio State's food!
- The young defense continues to impress. Little Animal is a ball hawk, and we have some tremendous athleticism in the secondary. John Kerr once again failed to show up -- unless your counting his facemask penalty in the 2nd half.
- You just know that dirty Bob Griese took great pleasure in jinxing Troy Smith's first interception of the season. At least his son is blowing up in The League.
