Sunday Roll-call

• Oklahoma — I have to say, it was very odd watching OU football on a Friday night. Apparently, the high school coaches in the Tulsa area were very peeved about ESPN usurping their normal game night. They ended up playing most HS games on Thursday so that their kids could both play and watch two of the in-state options. I'm sure most of them were more impressed by Oklahoma's performance than Tulsa's. The defense did more or less what I expected. They slowed down Tulsa's passing game by completely destroying any attempts to run the football. Three picks (though no returns of them) were the result. Also, Murray's kickoff return was amazing...guess I picked the wrong to have a big night on special teams. I'll live with it. The only disappointment was that Hartley missed his field goal and had an XPT blocked.
• Tulsa — Even though they got blown out, at home, in front of a hostile crowd, the Golden Hurricane really accounted well for themselves. Nine different players caught passes for Tulsa. Smith put up 350 yards on Oklahoma's defense and generally looked like a very good QB. Tulsa did, however, prove me right that the rushing numbers they had accumulated earlier in the season were all smoke, mirrors, and bad defenses.
• Michigan — Well, it wasn't pretty, but it was a win. Mallett actually made enough throws to get a good feel for his ability as a quarterback. He'll do okay after a year or so, but Henne needs to get well for them to salvage this season. Mike Hart, however, looked like a complete and total bad-ass...as usual.

That's actually all the football I watched for the whole weekend, sorry.

Sunday Roll-call

In this (hopefully) weekly column, I'm going to discuss the performance of a few of the major teams from around the NCAA. Most of the time, I've watched these games, though sometimes I've seen only a few minutes. So, here we go:

• Oklahoma State — While I never really bought the marketing hype about the Pokes having the best offense in the nation this year, I did feel that they could be very, very good. What I, and everyone else, apparently forgot to think about was the fact that defensive players need to be able to tackle...at least a little. I don't think that we can chalk this up to inexperience as much as it looked like a complete lack of effort on the defensive side of the ball. Add to that an enormous number of dropped passes by some usually very good receivers (*cough* Adarius Bowman *cough*) and you end up with a lop-sided loss to possibly the best team in the Sun Belt Conference this year.
• Notre Dame — What can I say here? They absolutely sucked. Clausen was horrible, so was the rest of the offense. Their defense looked hopeless and completely over-matched. If I was a domer, it would have been painful...
• Michigan — ...fortunately, I'm not. Michigan looked like they were back in force. Their performance was definitely enhanced by the fact that Notre Dame was horrible, but I still think they may have turned it around. I'm not going to pick them to win the Big 10, though, that's going to be Penn State, but they could end the season with only 4 losses. That should redeem Lloyd Carr's name enough that he can retire with grace, especially if they end up beating Ohio State this year.
• That other school that wears orange — I have to say that I'm not sure how Mack Brown pulled this one off. For the third straight week, they had a big scare against what should have been an inferior opponent. McCoy looks to be firmly in the grasp of the Law of Averages, which bodes very poorly for short-horn fans. Their running game leaves a lot to be desired as well, though Charles did look good late as did their third-down back Ogbonnaya.
• USC — I was as unimpressed this time as I was when they blundered past Idaho. Now, I'll admit that I did not watch the whole game. I actually only saw the first and fourth quarters (so when Nebraska was playing well) and nothing of the other two. I understand from reading that they have finally decided which of their four million running backs they are going to start. Really, I think this is mostly just reaction against the media (and especially Herbstreit) practically creaming themselves every time they mention the University of Spoiled Children. They're a good football team, but these folks are gushing so much you'd think that they could hold their own against an NFL team and that the rest of the NCAA should just go ahead and forfeit the entire season and let Carrol claim another national championship they didn't earn (no, I'm not bitter, I swear). Anyway, they won, but it wasn't as impressive as LSU dominating VT last week and if I had a vote they'd probably be #4 on my ballot.
• Oklahoma — I almost feel guilty writing about this game. I didn't go and I didn't want to pay more than the cost of a ticket to get the pay-per-view. I did, however, listen to it on the radio. We won, it was impressive, Utah State was not a test. Basically the same story as the last few weeks. The only constructive things I have to say are these: 1) Bradford looks like the best choice the coaches could have made, 2) I'm glad Nichol isn't the starter and 3) damn...our defense rocks! Also, Bob Barry and Marv are probably the funniest play-by-play/color combination in all of sports radio...too bad it's not on purpose.

Well, that's the column. Give me some criticism (constructive or otherwise).