Emily Dickinson on college football

Since college football is played by teenagers with lots of passion, I thought the dulcid tones of The Western Branch Freshmen Orchestra live at the Art Brandriff Auditorium performing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would be appropriate background for the week. On to the games...

S-E-C! S-E-C! The Southeastern Conference is the talk of the nation, with a HUGE upset, an 84-point game and a coming of age story all wrapped up into one beautiful tasty afternoon...

A beautiful lunch was served up by Arkansas in the biggest upset of the weekend beating Auburn 27-10 in the War Eagle house. Dare I say that the ground-focused Razorbacks (45 runs, 10 passes) were the tortoise to the Jordan-Hare of the Tigers? Phil Steele must feel vindicated since he has pimped Arkansas as the Surprise of the West all year.

The Florida Gators followed that up with a spicy snack in the Swamp, forcing five turnovers in a 23-10 victory over LSU. The game had its share of momentum cycles and highlights, but none stranger than backup QB Tim Tebow's (lefty to the right) jump pass for a TD to close out the first half. Incumbent QB Chris Leak was held TD-less for the first time this season but his impact was almost as big as the Gator defense shut down everything the Tigers wanted to do.

Three-course meal for dinner was the scoring buffet in Athens, GA, as the Tennessee Volunteers embarrassed the Georgia Bulldogs 51-33, a score that was completely unexpected for a couple reasons. One, Georgia only allowed about 7 ppg before this, now they allow 14 ppg. Second, the over/under by the "smart money" was set as 38 1/2, and I can't recall the last time the total was doubled up.

Outside the SEC...

Hawaii's Colt Brennan earned Fantasy College Blitz's Fantasy Player of the Week with five TDs and over 400 yards passing in the win over Nevada... Red River Shootout was anything but, as the porous (poor us?) Sooner defense and their poor tackling allowed for a never-in-doubt Texas 28-10 whooping over Oklahoma...Doesn't that FSU - Miami game on Labor Day seem so meaningless now?...Speaking of Week One anomalies, Cal QB Nate Longshore has accounted for four touchdowns in four of the five games since then including this week making Peking Ducks of Oregon 45-24. This sets up a big matchup with USC on November 18 for the King of the Pac Ten.

Missouri looks to be for real as they shut down Texas Tech in a 38-21 victory at Lubbock. Tiger QB Chase Daniel's stat line was weak, but that was due more to short fields as a result of strong defense and special teams....Boise State may need a few more blowouts like this in order to go undefeated, win the WAC, and impress voters and the computers enough to get to the Top 12 in the rankings - Louisiana Tech took a 55-14 beating on the blue turf Saturday setting up a road trip thru the West at New Mexico State and at Idaho before an idle week...Can you name the nation's passing efficiency leader? David Letterman must be proud of true freshman now starter Nate Davis of Ball State, who has 12 TDs to only one interception in limited action this year. In his second start, he ripped Buffalo with 11-of-14 passes for 247 yards with three touchdowns.

Remember Clemson is one special teams disaster game away from a perfect season - they clawed back with 24 unanswered points in Q4 to beat previously 5-0 Wake Forest 27-17 yesterday. Defensive tackle Gaines Adams (right) outran everyone on a blocked FG return for TD to open the rally.

Finally, this will probably be the last you hear of David Ball of New Hampshire until the Senior Bowl. Ball passed Jerry Rice on the all-time touchdown catch list with the 51st of his career against the Spiders of Richmond.