Oct 31, 2010 - Duke's New Pearl. David Cutcliffe's prowess as a quarterback tutor is well-regarded, and for good reason: he was responsible for both Manning brothers setting offensive records at Tennessee and Mississippi, and also made Erik Ainge look almost competent for a season. But Sean Renfree may have earned the biggest laurel for a Cutcliffe-coached player on Saturday.
That's because Renfree completed 28 of 30 passes against Navy, breaking Steve Sarkisian's record for completion percentage in a game. Renfree completed 93.3% of his passes against the Midshipmen, while Sarkisian completed 31 of 34 (91.2%) for BYU against Fresno State in 1995.
Renfree's feat is even more amazing when one considers that he hadn't even been average of late. In Duke's last six games, all losses, Renfree tossed 15 interceptions, which is certainly not the sort of performance one would expect from a quarterback who can break an NCAA mark for accuracy. And yet, on Saturday, that's exactly what Renfree did.
Heisman Candidates Flash Versatility. What do Cam Newton, Kellen Moore, Jacquizz Rodgers, and Randall Cobb all have in common?
All four players have scored passing, rushing, and receiving touchdowns this year. Newton, Moore, and Rodgers all joined Cobb in accomplishing the feat on Saturday. (Cobb had scored all three ways through Kentucky's second game.) Newton and Moore hauled in touchdown passes for Auburn and Boise State, respectively, while Rodgers threw for a score for Oregon State.
Of course, Cobb also has a punt return for a touchdown. I don't see any of the others demonstrating quite that much versatility in the near future.
Oregon, Auburn Continue Scoring Many Points. It's a certainty that when the Week 10 BCS standings drop tonight, Auburn and Oregon will be ranked 1-2 again. For fans of offense, that has to be a tantalizing hypothetical BCS matchup: the Ducks and Tigers have great, great offenses, and defenses that might be middling at best.
Oregon's Saturday massacres are becoming de rigeur at this point. The Ducks put up 53 points on USC on Saturday, their fifth game of 50-plus points this season, and gained 599 yards in their sixth game of 550-plus yards. Not to be outdone, Auburn topped 50 points for a fourth time this year and gained over 300 yards rushing for the fourth straight week.
Neither team's defense is much to write home about, though, which means that a prospective BCS Championship Game between the two could be a shootout for the ages. Given how quickly the offenses of Chip Kelly and Gus Malzahn score, it could also take ages.
The All Crap Conference Returns! The ACC is so, so, so, so bad. All but one of the ACC teams coming into this week's intraconference games with the better conference record lost. The exception was Maryland, which continued a season-long trend of Wake Forest getting eviscerated by dropping 62 points on the Demon Deacons.
Those losses by the ACC's BCS contenders were especially ugly. Florida State fumbled in the red zone while driving for a game-tying score against NC State. Miami had a slew of quarterback issues: the 'Canes lost Jacory Harris to injury, played walk-on Spencer Whipple, then burned freshman Stephen Morris' redshirt, and all three quarterbacks merely combined for five interceptions in a 24-19 loss to Virginia. Clemson, which could have gotten back into the Atlantic Division race with a win, fell to lowly Boston College, in part thanks to Kyle Parker throwing a hideous interception across his body while falling out of bounds after finding no one open for almost ten seconds.
It helps the ACC marginally that Virginia Tech, an established brand name, will be the highest-rated team in the polls and BCS rankings this week, and a favorite to represent the conference in a BCS game in January. But every ACC team has two losses. Maryland controls its own destiny in the Atlantic Division, and might be the favorite to win it because Florida State and NC State must travel to College Park. And if Virginia Tech must be the standard bearer, the ACC will have to live with having one that began the season 0-2 and lost to James Madison.
Remember when the ACC was supposed to be a superconference? Neither do I.
BCS Buster Overview. Just a brief review of scores: Boise State beat Louisiana Tech 49-20, scoring a touchdown in every quarter. TCU walloped UNLV 48-6, and threw for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. And Utah survived at Air Force, 28-23, despite getting five turnovers from the Falcons and gaining just 37 yards in the fourth quarter.
If you can see any reason why any of those teams should be moved up or down because of those wins, you're looking a little too hard.
Hilltoppers Can't Sustain Success. For Western Kentucky, it was nice while it lasted.
The Hilltoppers likely bathed in the glow of their first victory since September 2008, a 54-21 win over Louisiana-Lafayette, all week. How else do you explain losing 33-6 to North Texas this week? Oh, wait, the Hilltoppers are still terrible.
The Still Sponsor-Free Conference USA Shootout of the Week. UAB 50, Southern Mississippi 49 in double overtime. After entering the fourth quarter tied 21-21, both teams stepped things up. The teams combined for 1,046 yards of total offense and seven turnovers, and UAB won on a bold two-point conversion try.
Special commendation must also go to Marshall and UTEP: the Thundering Herd won a 16-12 anti-shootout that featured a 100-yard interception return on a two-point conversion by Marshall's Donald Brown.
The Also Sponsor-Free MAC Foot-Shooting of the Week. Temple 30, Akron 0. There are two teams in FBS that are still winless: Akron's one of them. (New Mexico is the other.)
The Zips gained just 154 yards against Temple, and punted 10 times. It was the fourth time Akron's been held under 200 yards of total offense this season.
The Sun Belt Agonizing Moment of the Week. Louisiana-Lafayette entered the fourth quarter against MAC heavyweight Ohio with the lead, got four turnovers from the Bobcats, outgained them, and still lost by a touchdown. This is what happens when teams allow 22-point fourth quarters.
The FCS Score of the Week. Western Illinois 65, Illinois State 38. The Bulldogs — that's Western Illinois — scored seven touchdowns, six on passing scores from quarterback Matt Barr, then capped things off with a safety late in the fourth quarter.
The Division II Or Below Box Score of the Week. California (PA) 18, Indiana (PA) 15. The Vulcans came back from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit to force overtime, and kicked a 17-yard field goal in overtime to win the second annual Coal Bowl. And now I have met my quota for mentions of the weirdly-named Pennsylvania schools this season.
Notable Numbers. These are stats too brief for elaboration, and too good for tweets.
West Virginia lost four fumbles against UConn, which is about the only way you can lose to UConn in 2010. ... Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan all lost yesterday, which was the first time that has happened since ... last year. ... Nebraska's Roy Helu Jr. ran for 307 yards against Missouri, more than doubling the Tigers' rushing total. ... Notre Dame lost to Tulsa at home, which isn't really a stat, but, wow. ... Iowa's defense scored as many points as Michigan State's offense. ... Arizona almost doubled UCLA's yardage (583-299), but only beat the Bruins by eight. ... North Carolina needed 14 fourth quarter points to beat William and Mary. ... Lowly New Mexico State got a win over San Jose State on a touchdown pass as time expired, but ESPN's box score says the score is or was 10-0 in favor of the Spartans. ... Jake Locker completed seven of 14 throws for 64 yards in Washington's 41-0 loss to Stanford, and the Huskies had just 107 yards of total offense. ... Vanderbilt had 140 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter against Arkansas, and finished with 153 yards and two touchdowns. ... Houston tallied 651 yards and 37 first downs against Memphis. ... Michigan never led against Penn State, but, hey, Denard Robinson accounted for 381 of the Wolverines' 423 yards. ... Nevada had eight players run for 10 or more yards against Utah State. ... Idaho scored a meaningless touchdown in the end of its 45-10 loss to Hawai'i, but it came on a Brian Reader pass to Taylor Elmo, and was followed by a Trey Farquhar PAT, which is about critical mass for awesome names.
0 comments
