My small and insignificant blog seems to be attracting attention from sources I had not predicted – I recently was delighted to find out that I have an alumnus and fan of Eastern Michigan reading my blog. Sadly, when he found my page, the Eagles were 0-2 and ranked #113. However, they are now riding a 2-game winning streak and have jumped up to #85! So to Tim, I say, Welcome and Go Eagles!

As an alumnus of U.C. Berkeley I, of course, have been rightfully trained to despise everything that has to do with USC (sorry, Ed). However, I do have to give the Trojans credit for a classy thing they did a couple of weeks ago:

Navy precision flying teams have a maneuver called the “Missing Man Formation”, used to honor a fallen comrade. A group of fighter jets will fly in a tight formation, and then one plane will suddenly change course and fly straight up (or, if the maneuver is completed at sunset, straight west into the setting sun) while the remaining planes continue in the same formation, missing one member, until they are out of sight. After its first touchdown in its game against Idaho a couple of weeks ago, USC performed a variation of the Missing Man. They lined up for the extra point with 9 blockers and the holder but no kicker, this to honor their previous place kicker who had been killed in an accident the previous winter. They stayed in this formation without snapping the ball until the play clock expired and took a delay-of-game penalty, after which the new kicker came on the field and kicked the extra point. The crowd reaction was appreciative as the realization of the tribute sank in slowly. This is the kind of true team spirit that makes me proud to be a college football fan. For a video replay of the event, tune to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD2U9J4Nwj8.

And now, the weekly awards:

Upset of the week: Quick honorable mention to Ball St, who came 1 point short in their bid to upset Nebraska (and who should have completed the upset – a sure touchdown pass in their final drive slipped off the fingers of the wide open receiver at the 10-yard-line). Contrary to last week, however, this week’s top upset is easy to pick. Louisville was a 36.5 point favorite over Syracuse, but the Orange were able to take advantage of Louisville’s atrocious pass defense en route to a 38-35 upset at Louisville. There were several big plays for the Orange, including a 79-yard touchdown pass where the receiver was so wide open and so far behind the defensive secondary that he had time to stop and wave his arms to call for the ball to be thrown. Louisville will continue to put up big offensive numbers this year, but unless they can do something about their pass defense, teams like Cincinnati and Rutgers will have big days against them.

Comeback of the week: Wyoming found themselves down 20-6 at halftime and 30-20 in the 4^th quarter to Ohio, but managed to score 2 late touchdowns to eek out a 34-33 win. The Cowboys are off to a good 3-1 start, a #33 ranking in the Hack Poll, and they have a win over surprisingly good Virginia under their belts. They should provide a good challenge to several teams including BYU for the Mountain West Conference title, and they host BYU on November 17.

Yawner of the week: As usual, there are lots of candidates for this award. I’m going with Virginia Tech’s 44-3 win over College of William and Mary, a game in which they scored 27 in the first quarter and led at halftime by a score of 41-3. The Hokies open up their conference schedule next week against North Carolina, but the big game they have to pay attention to is when they visit Clemson in 2 weeks.

Game of the week: Most experts are looking at Georgia’s overtime win over Alabama as the significant game of this past weekend. In my mind, however, Kentucky’s win at Arkansas is far more intriguing. The Wildcats outscored the Razorbacks 28-9 in the second half en route to a 42-29 victory, completing their second straight road upset of a highly touted team in the process. Moreover, the biggest question mark for Kentucky coming into the game was their run defense, but they shut down the Arkansas attack at several key times in the game allowing their offense to take control in the second half. Kentucky seems to be for real; next week they should be favored to beat an improving but still very upstart Florida Atlantic squad.

And now, with 11.5% reliability, the week 4 rankings (last week’s rankings and this week’s AP rankings included for comparison):

Rank	Team		Wins	Losses	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	LSU		4	0	3.386	6	4	2
2	USC		3	0	3.030	21	3	1
3	Florida		4	0	3.006	24	5	4
4	Oregon		4	0	2.804	35	13	11
5	Ohio St		4	0	2.465	60	9	8
6	Wisconsin		4	0	2.393	65	12	9
7	Texas		4	0	2.375	69	1	7
8	Missouri		4	0	2.310	73	10	20
9	Michigan St		4	0	2.300	78	2	28
10	Arizona St		4	0	2.296	75	34	23
11	Boston Coll		4	0	2.284	77	8	12
12	Oklahoma		4	0	2.207	85	27	3
13	Kentucky		4	0	2.101	90	6	14
14	California		4	0	2.082	88	15	6
15	Clemson		4	0	1.859	97	16	13
16	Nebraska		3	1	1.854	12	33	25
17	South Florida		3	0	1.810	104	25	18
18	Rutgers		3	0	1.748	105	18	10
19	Hawaii		4	0	1.744	107	17	19
20	West Virginia		4	0	1.693	109	22	5
21	Georgia		3	1	1.667	25	44	15
22	Connecticut		4	0	1.542	112	32	36
23	Mississippi St		3	1	1.515	38	42
24	Illinois		3	1	1.511	43	57
25	Cincinnati		4	0	1.500	113	11	24
26	Purdue		4	0	1.479	114		26
27	Florida St		2	1	1.450	9		34
28	Alabama		3	1	1.356	46	7	22
29	South Carolina		3	1	1.354	53	21	16
30	Virginia Tech		3	1	1.339	50	20	17
31	Tulsa		2	1	1.253	17	19
32	Kansas		4	0	1.200	120		33
33	Wyoming		3	1	1.187	67
34	Miami FL		3	1	1.182	66		27
35	Indiana		3	1	1.144	63	23
36	Virginia		3	1	1.103	71		37
37	Tennessee		2	2	1.082	1		38
38	UCF		2	1	1.074	36		35
39	UCLA		3	1	1.071	62		29
40	Houston		2	1	0.974	39
41	Boise St		2	1	0.870	52
42	Air Force		3	1	0.834	91	14
43	West Kentucky		3	1	0.688	102
44	Texas A&M		3	1	0.670	98		30
45	Washington		2	2	0.664	5
46	New Mexico		3	1	0.653	101
47	Bowling Green		2	1	0.631	82
48	Oklahoma St		2	2	0.616	13
49	Texas Tech		3	1	0.590	106	24
50	Washington St		2	2	0.560	11
51	Vanderbilt		2	1	0.541	86
52	TCU		2	2	0.518	20
53	Wake Forest		2	2	0.477	18
54	Pittsburgh		2	2	0.447	23
55	Akron		2	2	0.447	19
56	Auburn		2	2	0.401	54
57	BYU		2	2	0.397	29
58	Oregon St		2	2	0.327	33
59	Florida Atlantic		3	1	0.286	117
60	Southern Miss		2	1	0.270	99
61	Baylor		3	1	0.266	118
62	UNLV		2	2	0.241	42
63	Penn St		3	1	0.108	121		21
64	Colorado		2	2	0.080	47
65	Kansas St		2	1	0.059	115
66	UTEP		2	2	0.024	64
67	Troy		2	2	0.014	56
68	Arkansas		1	2	-0.050	3		32
69	Ball St		2	2	-0.074	72
70	Georgia Tech		2	2	-0.095	74
71	New Mexico St		2	2	-0.100	80
72	Kent St		2	2	-0.166	83
73	Michigan		2	2	-0.206	84		30
74	Northwestern		2	2	-0.248	87
75	Maryland		2	2	-0.292	92
76	Navy		2	2	-0.297	94
77	Louisiana Tech		1	2	-0.326	10
78	Ohio		2	2	-0.360	96
79	Stanford		1	2	-0.389	14
80	Iowa		2	2	-0.431	103
81	Fresno St		1	2	-0.528	27
82	Louisville		2	2	-0.529	108
83	UAB		1	2	-0.544	31
84	Arkansas St		1	2	-0.578	34
85	East Michigan		2	2	-0.579	110
86	Mississippi		1	3	-0.594	2
87	San Diego St		1	2	-0.706	45
88	W Michigan		1	3	-0.763	8
89	NC St		1	3	-0.776	7
90	Tulane		1	2	-0.821	68
91	Utah		1	3	-0.841	30
92	Duke		1	3	-0.845	26
93	East Carolina		1	3	-0.927	32
94	Minnesota		1	3	-0.963	40
95	Nevada		1	2	-0.980	89
96	Arizona		1	3	-1.078	44
97	Syracuse		1	3	-1.086	51
98	Miami OH		1	3	-1.120	55
99	Army		1	3	-1.155	49
100	Toledo		1	3	-1.157	59
101	Buffalo		1	3	-1.188	76
102	Cent Michigan		1	3	-1.188	57
103	Memphis		1	2	-1.252	111
104	North Carolina		1	3	-1.271	79
105	San Jose St		1	3	-1.330	81
106	Idaho		1	3	-1.446	95
107	SMU		1	3	-1.499	93
108	Iowa St		1	3	-1.662	116
109	Northern Illinois		1	3	-1.749	119
110	Others-Normal		0.435109	3.356557	-1.839	61
111	LA Monroe		0	3	-2.080	4
112	Middle Tenn St		0	4	-2.216	15
113	Colorado St		0	3	-2.222	16
114	Florida Intl		0	4	-2.239	28
115	Marshall		0	4	-2.301	22
116	Notre Dame		0	4	-2.319	37
117	Utah St		0	4	-2.382	41
118	Rice		0	4	-2.406	48
119	North Texas		0	3	-2.407	58
120	Temple		0	4	-2.439	70
121	LA Lafayette		0	4	-2.606	100

Most overrated team: Penn St (3-1, AP#21, Hack#63). The Nittany Lions were favored to go into the Big House and beat Michigan, and they might have done so if they had been able to open up the offense a bit more. Playing a defensive struggle played right into the Wolverines hands, however, and Michigan prevailed 14-9. Penn St continues to be ranked by AP voters, but they have played the weakest schedule in the nation to date. Their next game is at the pleasantly surprising Illinois (3-1, Hack#24), but they probably won’t crack my radar unless they manage to beat Wisconsin (4-0, Hack#6) in three weeks.

Most underrated team: Michigan St (4-0, AP#28, Hack#9). The Spartans dropped 7 spots in my poll this past week merely by playing a winless team (Notre Dame); that is, the strength-of-schedule hit they took more than offset the benefit they achieved by winning a game. They are still playing extremely well, though, and will have their biggest test of the year next week when they visit Wisconsin.

Interesting games next week:

(20) West Virginia vs. (17) South Florida [Bulls are devastatingly tough at home]

(23) Mississippi St vs. (29) South Carolina [After beating Auburn, Bulldogs looking for another tough road SEC win]

(9) Michigan St vs. (6) Wisconsin [Badgers face Michigan St, Illinois, and Penn St the next three weeks]

(14) California vs. (4) Oregon [Winner of this game most likely candidate to challenge USC for Pac-10 title]