Author: benchwarmer42

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 Week 4

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Nebraska vs UCLA College Football 2013

Week 4 of College Football is now upon us and here at the Rundown we’re feeling pretty good. Not only did our team steal a W and stay in the Top 25. Our Top 25 had little movement, which any week that happens, means we’re doing something right over here. The biggest Loser of Week 3 was Nebraska and that hurts, not only did we post a blog just about how “bullish” we were on the Huskers a couple of weeks back but we had them in our Top 10! Sitting watching the beginning of that game, we were waiting to see what Nebraska’s Defense would do and man did those black uniforms look good! So good that UCLA thought the jersey’s were freshly laid pavement and left tire treads all over ‘em. So Nebraska quickly became our Most Overrated pick, let’s see if they can fight back into our Top 25 or if they falter…Back to the rankings, So Texas A&M might be the first team ever to move up in rankings based off of a loss but the way they played against Alabama, the deserve to be higher, the other big movers are UCLA and Ole Miss. We would like to point out that Arizona State and Wisconsin didn’t move, we had them in and they will both stay in… until this coming Saturday when the Sun Devils square off with our #11 team Stanford Cardinal then they might be the biggest mover. No big match-ups other then that PAC-12 North vs South. Look later this week for a preview of a couple of our favorite games. Also, if you missed our story on CJ Brown go check it out, his stat-line: Passing 15 of 28 for 277 1TD 1INT Rushing 16 for 122 1 TD and put Maryland on our Rivals Rundown Top 25 Radar, still the best player no one is talking about.

 

Current Rank Previous Week Team  
1 1 Alabama Crimson Tide 2-0
2 2 Oregon Ducks 3-0
3 3 Clemson Tigers 2-0
4 4 Ohio State Buckeyes 3-0
5 5 Louisville Cardinals 3-0
6 6 Florida State Seminoles 2-0
7 7 Oklahoma State Cowboys 3-0
8 8 LSU Tigers 3-0
9 9 Georgia Bulldogs 1-1
10 13 Texas A&M Aggies 2-1
11 11 Stanford Cardinal 2-0
12 12 Michigan Wolverines 3-0
13 17 UCLA Bruins 2-0
14 14 Miami Hurricanes 2-0
15 15 Baylor Bears 2-0
16 16 Washington Huskies 2-0
18 18 Oklahoma Sooners 3-0
19 19 Fresno State Bulldogs 2-0
20 20 Florida Gators 1-1
21 21 South Carolina 2-1
22 27 Ole Miss Rebels 3-0
23 23 Arizona State Sun Devils 2-0
24 24 Wisconsin Badgers 2-1
25 25 Northwestern 3-0
       
Next 5-      
26 28 Michigan State Spartans 3-0
27 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers 2-1
28 30 Boise State Broncos 2-1
29 27 Northern Ill Huskies 2-0
30 Unranked Texas Tech Red Raiders 3-0
       
Out-      
    TCU Horned Frogs 1-2

(image latimes.com, stats ESPN.com)

Standout Player: C.J. Brown

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Rivals Rundown Standout Player

We wanted to find a player this week that has really performed above and beyond anyones expectations in their first two games of the 2013 season.  While there were plenty of candidates there was only one that caught our eye and to be honest the reason this player is going to be our very first Rivals Rundown Standout Player of the Season, is because we completely overlooked them in our preseason.  In fact we overlooked their team too, one that we like, albeit extremely early, to make some waves in their last year in the ACC.  Our first player is: C.J. Brown, Senior QB of the Maryland Terrapins.

 CJ Brown Maryland Terrapins #16C.J. came on our radar last week as we randomly checked ESPN’s QBR for College QB’s after the first week of the season.  We were surprised to see C.J. as the number one QB and then we saw his stat line for last weeks game:

Passing- 20 of 23 for 281 yards and 3 TD’s, no INT’s
Rushing- 11 for 105 yards and 2 TD’s QBR= 98.1

Now we understand that this was against Florida International but for whatever reason C.J. got no play nationally for what is impressive no matter who they were playing.  So after last week C.J. was on our radar, which brings us to his second performance of 2013 against Old Dominion.  Now, Old Dominion is in a transition year making the move to FBS and they by now means have the talent level as Maryland but let’s check our C.J.’s stat line:

Passing- 14 of 22 for 275 yards and 2 TD’s, no INT’s
Rushing- 4 for 30 yards and 2 TD’s
QBR= 95.3

Week two was a minor step back but C.J. still had a solid passer rating and accounted for 4 TD’s, 9 for the season.  So let’s look at C.J. a little closer and check out what we might expect in the coming weeks from this Rivals Rundown Standout Player.

Brown came to Maryland in 2009 as a three star prospect (Rivals.com) from Seneca Valley Senior High School in Cranberry Township, PA.   After a redshirt season in 2009, he played four play against Morgan State in 2010 before a broken collarbone ended his season.  In 2011 he had a breakout game against Clemson where he set Maryland’s single game rushing record by a QB recording 162 yards, a record which had stood since 1950.  So how did we miss this guy, well in 2012 he missed the entire season with an ACL injury and that brings us to 2013.  With a match-ups against UConn and West Virginia on deck for the Terps we’ll be watching to see what Brown can do.  If Brown and the Terps can win those two, setting the stage for a game at Florida State, look for the National Media to start talking about C.J. Brown vs. the Freshman Winston down in Tallahassee.  We’ll be cheering for that to happen and see if C.J. Brown can steal the show.

(Stats from ESPN.com and Wikipedia)

(Photo via CSNBaltimore.com)

Rivals Rundown Top 25 – Week 3

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 cropped-rivalsrundown-red-black-1-2.jpg

Week 2 of the College Football Season is now in the books and with it a couple of our 25 teams, well for now.  It’s hard to imagine that one loss could end your season or at least your ranking in our Top 25 but in the cases of USC, Texas, and Cincinnati, that’s exactly what we think happened.  The worst of the three by far is USC, there is no way a team with that much talent should have such a bad offense, they could pathetic not being able to move the ball against what will prove to be a week Washington State team.  Anyways, here we go with our Week 3 Top 25 teams of College Football.  Come back later in the week when we will do our rewind and see how this Top 25 came together.

Current Rank Previous Week Team
1 1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 2 Oregon Ducks
3 3 Clemson Tigers
4 4 Ohio State Buckeyes
5 5 Louisville Cardinals
6 6 Florida State Seminoles
7 7 Oklahoma State Cowboys
8 9 LSU Tigers
9 12 Georgia Bulldogs
10 11 Nebraska Cornhuskers
11 13 Stanford Cardinal
12 20 Michigan Wolverines
13 18 Texas A&M Aggies
14 29 Miami Hurricanes
15 16 Baylor Bears
16 17 Washington Huskies
17 26 UCLA Bruins
18 15 Oklahoma Sooners
19 19 Fresno State Bulldogs
20 14 Florida Gators
21 8 South Carolina
22 22 TCU Horned Frogs
23 23 Arizona State Sun Devils
24 30 Wisconsin Badgers
25 21 Northwestern
NEXT 5-    
26 27 Northern Ill Huskies
27 Unranked Ole Miss Rebels
28 Unranked Michigan State Spartans
29 Unranked BYU Cougars
30 Unranked Boise State Broncos

Week 2 Rundown – Road Warriors

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Week 2 Rundown – Road Warriors

That’s right after one of the most exciting opening weekends in the history of College Football we are stuck at a crossroads of mediocre and FCS games.  We know, we know, last week it was epic how many of these FCS teams came into BCS stadiums and caused chaos but for week two don’t count on too many FCS upsets.  So looking towards kick off tonight of week two here is some quick thoughts and games to watch:

 

MUST WATCH GAME:

Florida Gators at University of Miami Hurricanes
After taking a break, these two teams will match up in our favorite game of week two.  The current line is sitting at Florida -3 and we like the Gators to cover in this one.  We think that this is going to be a break out year for Miami but in a week two match-up we think the defense of Florida will be ready based upon what we saw last week against Toledo.  We will be cheering for Miami and the upset but think that Florida is better than we expected.  FLORIDA COVERS

MEASUREMENT GAMES:

Cincinnati Bearcats at Illinois Fighting Illini
We are extremely high on Cincinnati this year, in a preseason research all signs pointed to a big year, only one loss to Louisville.  If Louisville or Cincinnati has any hopes of crashing the BCS party they must win these games and in Cincinnati’s case they must win big.  That means going into Illinois and winning by more than two touchdowns.  We are taking the road favorite for this one, CINCINNATI COVERS

Bowling Green at Kent State
In week one, Bowling Green dominated a preseason favorite in Tulsa up and down the field.  In week one, Kent State beat Liberty by only one touchdown. So what does that mean for these two teams in week two? Nothing according to Vegas, Bowling Green is only a -6.5 against Kent State.  This game is going to measure how good Bowling Green is and give us some insight into what the Tulsa win meant.  Again, we are taking the road favorite, BOWLING GREEN COVERS

Texas at BYU
Sticking with the tread and not going into any more detail, we’re taking Texas to cover over BYU in Provo.  We believe this is Mack Brown’s comeback year and it really starts with this one.  Look for Texas to be ready.  TEXAS COVERS

COIN FLIP

This week we have two coin flip games, Notre Dame at Michigan and South Carolina at Georgia.  We are staying off both these games because our research and the first week match-ups didn’t tell us enough.  We do think that the Georgia-South Carolina game will be close and we like Georgia to come away with the win.  Now, we like Michigan against Notre Dame and this might get us in trouble but don’t be surprised if Michigan wins by more than two touchdowns.  Ok, so there you go, our week 2 Kick-Off Rundown.