Ripper Ramblings

Rough Year for former NFL bosses. Many former NFL head coaches have seen their stars dwindle through the first 5 weeks of the season. Georgia Tech head coach Chan Gailey has turned a promising start into what seems to be another also-ran 'Jackets season. Dave Wannstedt's loss versus UConn has many questioning is long term viability in the Steel City. Bill Callahan barely avoided an App State-type loss by pulling it out against David Letterman's Ball State Cardinals. My guess is that all three mentioned keep their jobs for 2008, but the future is not guaranteed for any of them. They are also proving that Pete Carroll is an exception. What is the difference? Carroll may just have been too unique for the NFL, while the other guys' straight forward approaches aren't fooling anyone at the college level.

Hey, what about Al Groh? Ah, I didn't mention Virginia head boss Al Groh, a man many are claiming saved his job by upsetting Gailey last weekend. To that I say, not so fast. His three wins are versus Duke, UNC, and Georgia Tech. He'll lose his final three games which will leave the upcoming five game stretch to determine his fate. He'll need to win three of Pittsburgh, Middle Tenn State, UConn, Maryland, and NC State. I say he gets two and heads back to the NFL as an assistant.

Sad ending to great career. Sonny Lubick has guided Colorado State to six conference titles in his 15 years there. All six titles are the schools only since 1955. Sonny will leave the school as the only winning coach since that same year, 1955. He will also leave the school with the field baring his name. He's had two top 15 finishes with the Rams. However, the 69 year old is stuck on a 10 game losing streak and will likely step down after the season. The Rams started off the season by out gaining Colorado and Cal in losing efforts so perhaps there is hope for things to turn around before Sonny walks off towards the setting sun.

The rumblings should continue on the plains. The loudest rumblings so far for Tommy Tuberville to be out at Auburn probably occurred when his team trailed 20-16 late in the 2nd quarter to New Mexico State before going on to lead 21-20 at half. Don't let the 55-20 score fool you as Auburn needed a 67 yard run with under a minute left in order to out gain NMSU. There were more than 4,000 empty seats at Jordan-Hare and tickets were available for $15 before kickoff.

Job well done lines up great match-up. West Virginia and South Florida did an excellent job in beating up on their opponents last weekend (versus East Carolina and North Carolina respectively). It is notable since they could have been caught looking ahead to their next game, Friday night's match-up against one another. The game has the obvious Big East implications and may be the best mid-season Friday night game ever.

'Cuse upset good sign for Big Ten? Given Syracuse's performance going into their game at Louisville, it could be argued that it was a bigger upset than App State beating Michigan. Another way to analyze the game would be to say that those who waxed the 'Cuse are pretty good football teams. Iowa (35-0) and Illinois (41-20) may be top 25 type teams based on that. But Iowa lost to a struggling Wisconsin team? Much of Wisconsin's struggles have been put on them due to slipping by UNLV - a UNLV team that beat Utah 27-0. That Utah team beat UCLA 44-6 the week before. Wo wo. If there is anything to learn from the season so far is that the score comparison game is a losing bet. The more you know, the more you don't know. Have fun on Saturday.

Upsets anyone? In week 1 (App State over Michigan), week 3 (Utah over UCLA), and week 4 (Syracuse over Louisville) there have been drop-your-jaw-to-the-floor type upsets. And that's not to say week 2 went according to plan (Cinci over Oregon State, USF over Auburn). Who will be this week's victim?

Good work by the Big Ten Network. With so much of the talk centering around the network's battle with Comcast, there was little time to discuss content. Well, it appears as if they may have the most thorough studio analyst in the business - Gerry DiNardo. By the time Big Ten Tonight hit airwaves at 9 p.m. CST it was very evident that DiNardo had watched and studied every play of every Big Ten game from Saturday. He broke down how Michigan's defense held up Penn State on 1st downs and how Illini slowed the running of Kellen Lewis. Must watch...if you can.

I'll be brief. Not to beat the Natalie Holloway-type horse, but I'll give one quickie on the Mike Gundy saga. It's made clear that the one thing college football writers like writing about more than football is...football writers.

Interesting game. Two weeks ago the Georgia Tech / Boston College game was highlighted in this space for pinning one of the nation's top rushing teams versus one of it's top run defending teams. This week Penn State and their 6th nationally rush defense try to pull a BC against the nation's 5th best rushing team, Illinois. Zooker ventilating.

Back to Hawaii. Its been awhile since we've talked Hawaii. I think its been two weeks and I promise to not refer to a young horse. Rather, I will take a look at how Hawaii has fared in the polls so far. After opening up at 24th, Hawaii is now at 17th in the Coach's Poll (we will ignore the AP poll as it is not used in figuring BCS rankings). The first Harris Interactive poll was put out this week and Hawaii opened up at 18. The magic number is 12 for Hawaii. That is where they need to finish in order to receive an automatic at-large BCS bowl bid. The week by week progression in the Coach's Poll is 24, 22, 22, 18, 17. Based on that Hawaii should easily crack the top 12 if they go undefeated. That is especially true when considering that the six schools between them and 12 in the Harris poll may lose two more games (Rutgers, Clemson, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia Tech, and South Carolina). So, there are two ways Hawaii gets kept out of the BCS assuming they win out. First is if they get killed in the computers and that is possible. Second is if the pollsters consciously object to them getting a BCS bid and move them down to prevent it, similar to how Florida moved ahead of Michigan at the end of last season. There are two problems with that. The AP Poll dropped out of the BCS due to the feeling that it was making news rather than reporting it and therefore went against journalism ethics. Similarly, in order for the BCS to work best the polls need to operate as if in a vacuum. They need to operate as if their votes are not part of a bigger process, otherwise their significance in that bigger process (the BCS) is overstated. The second problem with voting Hawaii down is that it would go totally against the spirit of the BCS rule granting a non-BCS conference champion an automatic bid if they finish in the top 12. The rule was created to give those schools greater access to the BCS bowls and the money and exposure they bring. If voters slip Hawaii down to prevent them from finishing in the top 12 they would effectively be objecting to the rule. The challenge for the voters is to cast their ballots without accounting for the greater implication of their action.