College Football Insider – The Price you Pay for Running it Up

I don’t like to see players get hurt, so it’s not that I get any glee out of Tim Tebow taking a shot to the head after a big hit from Kentucky’s Taylor Wyndham in the third quarter of Saturday’s game. But I can’t really feel sorry for them, or their team, when a guy takes an injury in the process trying to run up the score on another team. Florida was ahead 31-7 and they weren’t in any danger, immediate or otherwise, of losing the game – and by the way, NO ONE has beaten Florida after being down 24 points (in fact, never after being down by 10 points or more) during the Urban Meyer "era."

Let’s not kid each other – Tebow, who did not get a touchdown pass last week, was dropping back to pass in an attempt to pad his Heisman stats and make it a more embarrassing game for Rich Brooks’ team, which in turn makes Florida look better.

Hey, that’s fine and dandy, and I guess that’s the way the polls – both for the Top 25 and the Heisman – work these days. But you have to accept the flip side of that, which is that those guys on the other side are going to hit just as hard, now matter how far behind they are, and furthermore, that some of them are going to get just a little angry at the prospect of the opponent "rubbing it in."

The idea of gratuitous scoring is very much on the minds of the Gator players; we know that from the way they were texting coach Urban Meyer last week, imploring him to save timeouts so that they could score more and more and more against Tennessee, an opportunity which, as it turned out, never presented itself.

Well, in Lexington I guess they had their chance, and to reinforce themselves as the #1 team in the country in the minds of the voters. Well, here’s a short poem: "when you’re trying to spit in someone’s eye, don’t cry when you lose your guy."

The same goes for South Florida, which lost Matt Grothe to a knee injury after getting out to a 21-0 lead against Charleston Southern (the final was 59-0), a team that is no threat to anybody within the top 75 teams in college football. This one we can’t completely blame the coach for, as Grothe had suffered a shoulder injury earlier and did not want to take himself out of the game.

Somewhere along the line, however, you’ve got to ask yourself, if you’re the coach, what the purpose of having the first stringers playing beyond that really is. So they might have won by 38-0, or 45-0. The BCS rankings are supposed to mitigate the effect of pumping up scores on inferior opponents, especially those who don’t even play major college football.

Fortunately for the Bulls, they came out of the deal pretty good, as BJ Daniels engineered a win over Florida State, but we’ll see how that works out in the long run; when opponents now have tape of Daniels to study, and the adrenaline produced by this kid’s rejection by FSU and the emotions seeking revenge have left his system. South Florida visits Syracuse this week and they are a 6.5-point favorite in the BetOnline college football betting odds.

As far as the Florida thing goes, I can tell you this much: Meyer will think twice about keeping Tebow in the game against these outmanned opponents long after a game has been decided, and that may be something interesting to remember in games where the Gators are laying a lot of points.

Can someone explain why LSU, rated #4 in the nation (and Florida’s next opponent, by the way), is a three-point underdog to Georgia in the BetOnline odds, even at Athens? Okay, I’ll volunteer that information, if you don’t mind. It’s because oddsmakers know more than poll voters, generally. LSU gained just thirty yards on the ground and had to save itself with a desperate goal-line stand against a very substandard Mississippi State team, and you aren’t the fourth best team in the country if you have to do that. You may not even be the fourth-best team in the conference.

Ironically, that substandard Mississippi State team may be the biggest stumbling block between Houston and an undefeated season, as the two meet on October 10 at Starkville. The Cougars are one of three potential "BCS Busters" who have scored quality wins outside their conference, the others being Boise State, which has beaten Oregon, and TCU, which just won at Clemson. They all still have a long way to go, but what happens if all three of them are without a blemish at season’s end? Who goes to the BCS? Anybody?

Southern Cal has the #7 rating in the coaches’ poll, but I think the Trojans have trouble. I saw their game against Washington State, and I know they were trying hard, but they could only manage a 27-6 win, and that’s like a defeat. Now the freak weightlifting accident involving Stefon Johnson eats into their backfield death. With beginners Aaron Corp and Matt Barkely at quarterback, this time will have a hard time pulling away from opponents in the Pac-10. USC is a five-point BetOnline college football odds favorite at California this Saturday, in what suddenly looks a lot less of a showdown in the Pacific 10.

Oklahoma could have Sam Bradford back for the game against Miami this week, where the Sooners are a seven-point favorite at BetOnline, but they may not suffer all that much with Landry Jones, who has adapted quickly to complete 60.5% of his passes with nine touchdowns in just two starts. Meanwhile, his opposite number, Joacory Harris of Miami, went from #3 nationally in passing efficiency all the way down to 24th after his 9-for-25 performance against Virginia Tech. Ouch!