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Daily Blog • Sunday, October 11th

I wasn’t too thrilled with some of yesterday’s results as far as the magazine goes but I still have an excellent shot at being the most accurate magazine in the country this year. Naturally a lot depends on how the rest of the season goes.

The last two weeks I have put up the average rankings’ top teams each Saturday but I will try to do that earlier this week, perhaps on Wednesday or Thursday. I hope that you checked out the Saturday News and Notes for a lot of interesting things I read throughout the week and as I get more and more caught up this football season, I will continue to put more into those News and Notes each Saturday as well. I may even have my overall power play rankings and add in some other rankings beside the +/- this week. Let’s take a look at this past weekend’s performances.

The top performance, in my mind, was probably Alabama’s domination of Mississippi where they outgained them 142 yards on the road and won 22-3.

The computer liked Texas Tech’s performance and did not even factor in that it was a backup QB that helped them dominate Kansas St. I went through the play-by-play of that game and Texas Tech easily scored every time they had the ball and Kansas St struggled to get a FD. The 66-14 sore had them +455 in total yards.


Tennessee’s domination of Georgia was also impressive and earned the computer’s #3 grade. They outgained the Bulldogs by 231 yards with Georgia getting KR and IR TD’s in the game.

Virginia Tech continues to rebound after an abysmal opener vs Alabama where they were outgained 498-155. Since edging Nebraska in a game they probably should have lost have them dominated and they outgained BC by 278 yards with Boston College having 3 yards offense in the first half.

Florida’s victory over LSU saw them outgain a Top 5 team by 165 yards in Death Valley where LSU had won 32 straight Saturday night home games. Very impressive and the computer’s #5 performance of the week.

Keep an eye on this Virginia team, they keep sneaking into these Top 25 performances and this week snuck into the Top 10 beating Indiana 47-7 at home.

Arkansas knocked off a previously unbeaten Auburn at home and outgained them by 120 yards to earn this week’s #8 performance.

Duke played an NC State team that came into the week 3-2 and outgained them by 164 yards. The amazing thing here is that the last 5:00 of the game were played before an almost empty stadium as Duke won by 21.

Central Michigan had actually lost to Eastern Michigan each of the last two years and four of the last five but they made sure there was no upset here in a 56-8 win which earned them the #10 spot.

BYU always takes a lot of fans to Vegas and they dominated UNLV outgaining them by 274 yards in their 59-21 win for the #11 spot.

The #12 spot is surprising as Texas was actually down at the half vs Colorado but they outgained them by 186 yards and won by 24 and the computer awarded them the #12 spot.

Navy went on the road to Rice. Navy has a lot of Texas players on the team and they always play well when they travel to that state and they throttled the Owls 63-14 on the road.

Oregon, without their QB, did outgain UCLA by 92 yards but also had the benefit of a KR TD, IR TD and a fumble which set up a short TD drive in the first 4:00 of the 3Q but the computer still awarded them the #14 performance because it was done on the road.

Wisconsin lost the game to Ohio St but the computer says they played the better game than did Ohio St. They took on the stronger team, on the road and outgained the Buckeyes by 184 yards. Three return TD’s were the only reason the Buckeyes won by 31-13 and keep in mind the computer does weigh the final score of the game, but also weighs the stats of the game and Wisconsin’s impressive performance, even in a loss, earns them the #17 spot for the week.

Arizona went into Washington and flat out dominated with a 205 yard edge. An IR TD on a pass that bounced off the receiver’s foot in the final minute gave UW the win. Arizona’s the second losing team to make this week’s Top 25 performance list.

LSU did play the top team in the country and only lost by 10 and that earns the computer’s #20 performance of the week, once again, even though they lost.

Pittsburgh dominated Connecticut with a 489-303 yard edge and it could have been much worse as they just missed out on 3 TD’s and settled for a couple of short FG’s including one at the end at the inch line but the computer still gave them the #21 performance of the week.

Western Michigan had not been playing well but rebounded for a win in the Glass Bowl over Toledo in a game they dominated from start to finish.

There you have the Top 25 individual performances for the week and once again I will have the season-to-date rankings for the averages perhaps on the website as early as Wednesday or Thursday this week as opposed to posting them on Saturday and I’ll give you a little more time to go through them. I can tell you that the Top 2 teams in the average power rankings poll are Florida and Alabama....which one do you think the computer has #1?

    Game     OFF OFF OFF DEF DEF DEF   Ttl Yd
    Rating   FOE RUSH PASS PTS RUSH PASS PTS TO's Diff
1 TEXAS TECH 110.55   Kansas St 185 554 66 116 168 14 1 455
2 ALABAMA 102.30 AT Mississippi 200 154 22 72 140 3 4 142
3 TENNESSEE 102.30   Georgia 162 310 45 89 152 19 2 231
4 VIRGINIA TECH 101.20   Boston College 235 206 48 45 118 14 2 278
5 FLORIDA 100.10 AT LSU 193 134 13 66 96 3 0 165
6 OKLAHOMA 99.83   Baylor 197 389 33 6 262 7 2 318
7 VIRGINIA 97.08   Indiana 231 305 47 82 190 7 2 264
8 ARKANSAS 95.70   Auburn 221 274 44 242 133 23 2 120
9 DUKE 93.50 AT NC State 43 459 49 142 196 28 3 164
10 C MICHIGAN 93.50   E Michigan 203 318 56 128 127 8 0 266
11 BYU 93.23 AT UNLV 291 320 59 45 292 21 3 274
12 TEXAS 92.40   Colorado 46 267 38 42 85 14 0 186
13 NAVY 92.13 AT Rice 471 66 63 21 251 14 2 265
14 OREGON 91.58 AT UCLA 221 82 24 66 145 10 2 92
15 NEBRASKA 90.48 AT Missouri 105 158 27 91 134 12 1 38
16 PENN ST 90.20   E ILLINOIS 285 268 52 59 147 3 1 347
17 WISCONSIN 90.20 AT Ohio St 118 250 13 97 87 31 -1 184
18 OREGON ST 88.83   Stanford 173 290 38 149 226 28 0 88
19 ARIZONA 88.55 AT Washington 77 384 33 116 140 36 -1 205
20 LSU 87.45   Florida 66 96 3 193 134 13 0 -165
21 PITTSBURGH 87.18   Connecticut 221 268 24 106 197 21 -1 186
22 W MICHIGAN 86.63 AT Toledo 252 282 58 209 240 26 0 85
23 NEVADA 86.08   Louisiana Tech 345 166 37 127 129 14 1 255
24 WEST VIRGINIA 84.98 AT Syracuse 127 258 34 72 150 13 1 163
25 MICHIGAN ST 84.15 AT Illinois 193 179 24 132 140 14 -1 100

 

Previous Blogs In old blog format • interactive previous blogs available here

Sat Oct 10 Random Thoughts • NFL Selections

Ssn Forecast: Pt. 1

Fri Oct 9 Phil's FBS Selections! Phil Steele's Favorite Tms for '09
Thu Oct 8 College Fantasy 2009 Players to Circle
Wed Oct 7 Top 25 Radio Shows
Tues Oct 6 Non-Conf Projections 2004 (grade performances)
Mon Oct 5 News & Notes Attention FCS Fans!!!
Sun Oct 4 Recap of Top 25 performances Most Improved NFL Tms
Sat Oct 3 NFL Selections FBS Career Starts Returning
Fri Oct 2 Phil's FBS Selections! College Football Hall of Fame
Thu Oct 1 College Fantasy How Important Are NFL Injuries?
Wed Sep 30 Top 25 Final Fan Votes
Tues Sep 29 Non-Conf Projections NFL's Toughest Schedule
Mon Sep 28 News & Notes NFL Mag's are Here
Sun Sep 27 Recap of Top 25 performances. 2005 Top performances
Sat Sep 26 NFL Selections Philsteele.com
Fri Sep 25 Phil's FBS Selections! 2006 -Top Performances
Thu Sep 24 College Fantasy FB Q&A with Phil Steele
Wed Sep 23 WEEK FOUR - TOP 25 2007 -Top 10 individual game efforts
Tue Sep 22 Additonal News & Notes, non-con Coaches (Hot Seat)
Mon Sep 21 News & Notes Results for all 120 teams comb
Sun Sep 20 Interesting Thoughts on Top 25 gms

Current away records this decade.

Sat Sep 19 NFL Selections Home records this decade
Fri Sep 18 Phils FBS Selections! Marquee gms - by Golden Nugget
Thu Sep 17 College Fantasy FB PhilSteele.com Store
Wed Sep 16 WEEK THREE - TOP 25 Conf tms of the decade
Tues Sep 15 Additional News&Notes/Non-Conf Proj Non BCS Schools - Part 1
Mon Sep 14 News & Notes SEC, Big 12 and Pac 10
Sun Sep 13 Interesting Thoughts on Top 25 gms NFL - The YPP Factor
Sat Sep 12 NFL Selections Top 3 BCS Conf of the decade
Fri Sep 11 Phil's 60 FBS Selections! NFL - Finding Value in the YPG
Thu Sep 10 College Fantasy FB NFL Playoffs - Division Champs
Wed, Sep 9 WEEK TWO - TOP 25 NFL Magazine, Slipping & Sliding
Tues, Sep 8 Additional News/Notes/Non Conf Proj Top 15 Questions
Mon Sep 7 News & Notes Random thoughts
Sun Sep 6 Recap of Top 25 gms Odds
Sat Sep 5 FCS Preview NFL Preview is expanding!!
Fri Sep 4 Selections for Wk1 '08’s Top performances
Thu Sep 3 College Fantasy National Elimination Bracket
Wed Sep 2 Non-Conf Poll Resutls Help Wanted
Tue Sep 1 WEEK ONE - TOP 25 Mountain West Conference
Mon Aug 31 Injuries, Awards, Polls Advertising
Aug 29-30 College fantasy football FCS - An Early Look
Fri Aug 28 Latest Happenings in College FB Who will be this year’s Vanderbilt?
Thu Aug 27 FCS Updates MIP Off Pts & MIP Def Pts
Wed Aug 26 Home Field Edge Turnovers=Turnaround
Tue Aug 25 Injuries Most Accurate Chart update
Mon Aug 24 Free Fantasy Football Guide Regional Mag, IAA, Facebook
Aug 22-23 Final Fan Votes Going Up....Going Down
Fri Aug 21 Friday Notes Toughest Sched for '09
Thu Aug 20 Polls The Closs Loss Factor
Wed Aug 19 How often do underdogs win outright? Magazines, Blogs
Tue Aug 18 You Pick the Conference Contest Draft Day Party Hangover
Mon Aug 17 2009 Starters Adjusted Q&A w/PS, Facebook....
Aug 15-16 Non-Conference Projections Experience Chart
Fri Aug 14 Friday Thoughts Experience Chart
Thurs Aug 13 Tenn Radio Show/L12 Yr Results Experience Chart
Wed Aug 12 FCS, FCS, FCS! Guidelines for each of the FCS teams.
Tue Aug 11 AP Polls '09 % of Lettermen Ret
Mon Aug 10 Overrated/ Underrated teams % of Yds Ret (Off)
Aug 8-9 Coaching Changes Phil Steele FB Preview
Fri Aug 7 MAC Media Days The biggest favs among conferences
Thurs Aug 6 Injuries % OF Tackles returning
Wed Aug 5 Ssn Forecast: Pt. 2