Reports: Dabo to be hired

Multiple sources out of Clemson say that interim head coach Dabo Swinney will be named head coach at Clemson as early as Monday.

Swinney spent Sunday afternoon meeting with Clemson Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips, after spending Saturday crushing Steve Spurrier.

A Can't Miss Hire

On November 19, 1998 Clemson Athletic Director Bobby Robinson fired head football coach Tommy West. West, who had been an assistant under Danny Ford at Clemson from 1982-1989, finished his 5+ years as the head man at Clemson with a 31-28 record.

During the coaching search that ensued, two names quickly rose to the top. One was a relatively unheralded defensive coordinator from a Southeastern Conference school. The other was a 44 year old head coach at a Conference USA school that had just completed an undefeated season and held a long family coaching lineage.

The Tigers were at a crossroads at the time. Coming off of the unprecedented success under Danny Ford (96-29-4) and Ken Hatfield (32-13-1), the West era represented a drop into mediocrity that the Tigers hadn’t experienced in more than 15 years.

Robinson, sensing the Tigers needed an infusion on offense, turned to the experienced head coach with the innovative offense and quirky offensive coordinator. That coach’s name was Tommy Bowden. The offensive coordinator that came with Bowden to Clemson from Tulane was Rich Rodriquez.

The defensive coordinator who wanted, but did not receive, the Clemson job in 1998 was Bob Stoops. He returned to Florida for one more year before being selected as the man to rebuild the Oklahoma Sooners. Within 2 years Oklahoma had won the national championship.

Meanwhile, back in Clemson Bowden and company struggled to a 6-6 record and a Peach Bowl loss in 1998. 1999 showed the Tigers race off to a 8-0 start before a heartbreaking last second loss to Georgia Tech ended the Tigers run and led to a 9-3 final record. It was a foreshadowing of events to come.

Rich Rodriquez left Clemson after the 2000 season to become head coach at his alma mater, West Virginia. Interestingly, Tommy Bowden is also a graduate of West Virginia. It’s not clear whether Bowden was interested in the West Virginia job or not, but nonetheless it went to the offensive coordinator with the innovative offense, not the experienced head coach.

After an initial 3-8 campaign in 2001, the Mountaineers took off under Rodriguez finishing first or tied for first in the Big East 4 of the next 6 years. Rodriquez finished his stint at West Virginia with a 60-26 record before being hired at Michigan in December of 2007.

Also, during December of last year Tommy Bowden finally became weary of the big expectations associated with Clemson and quickly became a hot name for two open jobs – Baylor and Arkansas. While Baylor settled on Texas native Art Briles, Arkansas was after Bowden pretty heavy and Bowden reciprocated. Bowden had one foot out the door and in fact had cancelled several previously scheduled engagements in the Clemson area for December in anticipation of becoming the new head coach at Arkansas.

Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips was in a precarious position. While Bowden did all the right things off the field, his teams continually fell short on the field. Sometimes agonizingly short, but short nonetheless.

Phillips decision was a difficult one. Keep the head coach that had built the current program, had a solid recruiting base, and a seemingly powerful team returning and pay the price, or look for a new head coach and risk losing some of the star players to the pros or transfer.

Phillips, as all AD’s do, had a “short list” of coaches he would be interested in if Bowden bolted for the Hogs. At the top of that list was a defensive coordinator at a Southeastern Conference school that Clemson was about to play in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl.

Ultimately, after consultation with Clemson president Jim Barker, Phillips decided to keep Bowden by offering him a new contract that included a $3.5 million dollar buyout.

The defensive coordinator that Phillips was interested in last December was Will Muschamp. Muschamp subsequently agreed to become the defensive coordinator at Texas.

After Bowden’s departure earlier this year Muschamp quickly rose to the top of Clemson’s list again. Texas, faced with interest from Clemson, Tennessee and Washington, agreed to make Muschamp the head coach designate at Texas and increase his salary to $925,000 per year.

In the last 10 years Clemson has had the opportunity to hire:

Bob Stoops
Rich Rodriquez (probably twice)
Will Muschamp

Each time, Clemson missed. The current job opening at Clemson may be filled by a big name coach or a no name coach. No one knew who Bob Stoops was when he was the DC at Florida. Tommy Bowden appeared to be the “next great thing” by leading Tulane to an undefeated season. Subsequently it appears that the true brains behind that operation was Rodriquez. Muschamp was thought of well enough to be named head coach in waiting at one of the top 3 jobs in the country after less than a year in Austin. Tommy Bowden is at the beach.

Terry Don Phillips can’t miss on this hire. It may be a no-name or a big name. But a miss here could set the program back 15 years and the descent into mediocrity will have begun.

Spurrier: Clemson has better coach, better team

From the legend his own self.

Tigers blast SC

Business as usual for the Tigers. A complete game (finally) leads to a convincing win over the Gamecocks. Clemson 31-14.

Game Day: Tigers brace for Spurrier

The Tigers and Gamecocks kick it off in a few hours.

Emotional Day for Clemson Seniors

A prediction eerily similar to my own

Will it be the last game in Clemson orange for these seniors or just the last game in Death Valley? The road team has won the last three games in the series and I think the Gamecocks have a good shot at winning today.

Clemson will have to get their play makers, namely C.J. Spiller, in space to have a decent chance against an apparently tough S.C. defense. I know this - an injury to Cullen Harper could either proved disastrous to Clemson or open up the opportunity for a legend to be born.

Tigers ease by Presbyterian, 79-58

Tigers move to 7-0 behind Trevor Booker's 25 points. The competition increases on Tuesday when Clemson hits the road to face Illinois.

Or maybe not...

New reports mention the names Troy Calhoun (Air Force) and Jim Leavitt (South Florida) as names that Terry Don Phillips is interested in interviewing. This has been one whale of a cloak and dagger, hide and seek coaching search, exactly what Phillips wanted.

Stay tuned as this situation can change at a moments notice, and probably will as many teams finish their regular season on Friday or Saturday, freeing up many to interview with Phillips assuming they are on his list and share interest in the Clemson job.

Leavitt's charming personality, award winning press conferences and general aura should play well in Clemson. Or maybe not.

Clemson Interviews Patterson

Several media outlets are reporting that Clemson has interviewed TCU head coach Gary Patterson.

At this point, the job appears to be between Patterson and interim head coach Dabo Swinney.

Tigers blast Savannah State, 81-49

Clemson routed another patsy on Tuesday, beating Savannah State by 32. Three Tigers hit double figures, but once again the free throw shooting was below average (13/21, 61.9%).

Week 14 ACC Predictions

In week 13 I was 5-1 straight up and 5-1 against the spread. That moves my yearly totals to 59-28 straight up and 46-27 against the spread.

Miami (- 1 ½) 21 N.C. State 17
Virginia Tech (-8) 21 Virginia 10
Georgia 24 Georgia Tech 17 (+8 ½)
South Carolina (+1)17 Clemson 13
Florida 34 Florida State (+15 ½) 21
Boston College (-7) 21 Maryland 13
North Carolina (- 8 ½) 27 Duke 10
Wake Forest (- 4) 20 Vanderbilt 14

Korn to have surgery

Willy Korn will have surgery to on his right shoulder next week, following a long line of Clemson QBs to mysteriously develop shoulder problems during the season.

Stats are for champions (part 6)

In installment 6 of "Stats are for champions" we take a look at the stats for teams still alive in the national championship race and how their stats aligned with the history of the 10 previous national champions.

Teams eliminated this past Saturday: Texas Tech.

In summary, the past 8 national champions (starting in 2000) look like this: Of those 8 title winners only one (Ohio State in 2002) finished below 10th (23rd) in total defense. The average ranking of the total defense for those 8 teams was 8th.Offense has not been as important statistic in determining the national champion. The average rank for those 8 offenses was 23rd and only 2 of the 8 champions (Miami in 2001 and Texas in 2005) had offenses finish in the top 10. The 2002 Ohio State team actually won the national title while being ranked 70th in total offense. The 2007 LSU team finished 26th in offense and the 2003 LSU team finished 31st in total offense.

With that in mind, here is an updated look at the teams, in my opinion, that remain with a realistic chance at the national title and their current defensive rankings:

USC - 2
Alabama - 3
Florida - 9
Texas - 53
Oklahoma - 56

USC's chances are slim to none, while Alabama and Florida will duke it out next week. The Big 12 picture should become a tad clearer this weekend, but no promises there, as whichever team doesn't make it to the Big 12 Championship game (either Texas or Oklahoma) may still have a shot at the title. So, stay tuned.

Sapp Out, Korn to undergo tests

Ricky Sapp will have surgery to repair a partially torn ACL and will miss the South Carolina game, while Willy Korn will undergo further tests to determine if there is additional damage to his shoulder.

Power Rankings after week 13

1. Texas 154.9274
2. Alabama 154.4691
3. Utah 150.0000
4. Florida 149.8854
5. Oklahoma 147.8992
5. Georgia 147.8992
7. Ohio State 142.7050
8. Texas Tech 141.1001
9. Boise State 140.6417
10.Penn State 139.5658
11.Michigan State 139.0756
12.USC 137.8151
13.Oklahoma State 135.9817
14.Missouri 132.3148
15.BYU 132.2829
16.TCU 132.0728
17.Pittsburgh 131.5996
18.Cincinnati 131.2452
19.Oregon State 126.9672
20.Ball State 126.1268
21.Boston College 124.3697
22.Northwestern 123.6695
23.Iowa 123.4594
24.Oregon 123.3002
25.Florida State 122.8419

Tiger Hoops move to 5-0

The Tigers edge Charlotte 71-70 on the road. Free throw shooting takes a step back. Next up for the Tigers are a couple of yawners with Savannah State and Presbyterian.

Tigers D shuts down UVA

In one of the ugliest games known to mankind the Tigers edge Virginia, 13-3 to move to 6-5. A dominating performance by the defense, which came up with 4 Virginia turnovers, made the difference as the offense sputtered back to the Rob Spence days.

Tigers blast Wofford to move to 4-0

Clemson dominated the Terriers from beginning to end as all 14 Tigers saw playing time and 10 scored.

The Tigers next game is at UNC-Charlotte on Saturday.

Week 13 ACC Predictions

In week 12 I was 2-3 straight up and 2-3 against the spread. That moves my yearly totals to 54-27 straight up and 41-26 against the spread.

Georgia Tech (-4) 21 Miami 16
North Carolina 27 N.C. State (+11) 19
Clemson (- 2 ½) 29 Virginia 20
Boston College (+ 1 ½) 20 Wake Forest 17
Virginia Tech (-17) 35 Duke 14
Florida State (+1) 24 Maryland 21

Muschamp to replace Brown at Texas (some day)

In a move that's not real surprising, Texas named Will Muschamp as their coach in waiting this afternoon.

Korn's zip, Spiller and Booker POTW

Apparently Willy Korn is still dealing with the aftereffects of his shoulder surgery. Stop me when you've heard this story before from a Clemson QB...Charlie Whitehurst, Will Proctor, Cullen Harper and now Korn.

No big surprise, but C.J Spiller is the Offensive Back of the Week for the ACC. What an incredible year he is having for an average football team.

Trevor Booker won the honors for basketball, as the Tigers won the inaugural Charleston Classic going 3-0, with wins over Hofstra, TCU and Temple.

Philly's Eagles are no brainiacs

Hmmmm, so damn near half of the Eagles weren't aware that games can end in ties during the regular season, and a couple even asked their trainer about the rules.

Power Rankings after week 12

1. Texas 154.9274
2. Florida 154.8739
3. Alabama 154.4691
4. Georgia 147.8992
5. Utah 146.4477
6. Texas Tech 145.8824
7. Michigan State 143.6975
8. Ohio State 143.3919
9. Oklahoma 143.1093
10.Boise State 139.8319
11.USC 137.8151
12.Pittsburgh 136.7881
13.Oklahoma State 135.9817
14.BYU 135.5233
15.Penn State 134.5302
16.Missouri 132.3148
17.North Carolina 129.9160
18.TCU 128.1895
19.Cincinnati 125.2941
20.Oregon State 124.0336
21.LSU 123.5294
22.Oregon 123.3002
23.Vanderbilt 122.6891
24.Ball State 122.6050
25.South Carolina 121.4668

BBall Tigers move to 3-0

with victory over Temple.

Clemson downs TCU in hoops

to move to 2-0. The Tigers play Temple this afternoon for the tournament championship in Charleston.

The Search

I had my typical spiel on the coaching search planned for today, but then things got weird...or weirder depending on your point of view. There is a ton of information out there, but it's often conflicting and sometimes incredibly inaccurate (Gary Patterson to K-State anyone?).

So, instead I decided tell you what we know for sure (maybe) and what I think. Some enterprising (or lonely and deluded - take your choice) individuals have taken to tracking the Clemson plane around the country. Recent trips have included stops in Detroit and Oklahoma City. Detroit? Read on.

What We Know (for sure, maybe, at least what we've heard)

Terry Don Phillips flew to Detroit last Friday and interviewed Lane Kiffin. We had heard sometime back that Kiffin was out of the picture ("Clemson isn't LA" is what Phillips was quoted as saying) and we believe this is just a due diligence type of interview/meeting.

Terry Don Phillips flew to Oklahoma City this past Tuesday. After some initial confusion, it was sorted out that Phillips was interviewing/meeting with Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables. Oklahoma has an off week this week. Again, we believe this is a due diligence type of interview/meeting. A fall back guy, if you will.

Bud Foster, defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech has publicly said that he expects to be interviewed as early as this weekend. Virginia Tech played Miami on Thursday night. Once again, I believe this is due diligence on Phillips part, making sure that if his ultimate plan falls through that he has other guys in mind.

It's been pretty quiet on the Will Muschamp front, but that is expected to change next week. Notice a pattern in 1-3 above? Kiffin is unemployed. Venables has an off week. Foster's team played Thursday night. Texas is off next week.

Speculation

Now for the fun - speculation. I've heard that the search had turned towards a "proven head coach" type of search. That would seem to eliminate the guys that have already been talked to (and Foster and Muschamp), which is why I keep mentioning due diligence. My take is that it eliminates them from being the #1 choice (not necessarily public #1, but #1 to TDP). If #1 (we'll get to that in a minute) falls through Phillips needs to quickly move to #2.

I believe that candidate #1 is Tommy Tuberville of Auburn. He of the $6 million buyout and imploding team. Word is that TT wants out and some powerful boosters want him out (déjà vu all over again, except this time TT's team is not undefeated). Some even suggest that negotiations towards the buyout are in progress. There are lots of rumors on this front and I have heard lots of TT to Clemson talk.

Tuberville fits the bill in a couple of ways. His teams are tough and physical. He recruits well. But more importantly (for Terry Don Phillips that is), he fits the "proven head coach" criteria AND he would be available in the time frame Phillips wants to hire the next coach (i.e. NLT December 10).

A lot has to happen for this to become reality for sure. Auburn (or boosters) have to be willing to part with $6 million or some portion thereof, not to mention pay a new coach. Clemson has to come to grips with Tuberville - the admin - not the fans (though some fans aren't on board with this either). Let's just say Tuberville isn't known as a stickler for academic accomplishments.

Which leads us to choice #2. Which I believe is Will Muschamp. If things can't be worked out with Turbeville or if he stays at Auburn, I believe Phillips will turn to Muschamp. The question is if Tuberville leaves Auburn (and doesn't go to Clemson), will Muschamp prefer that job over Clemson? From a purely football perspective, probably. But would Muschamp be interested in dealing with the types of boosters that are rife at Auburn. By SEC standards the "big time" Clemson boosters are relatively tame. Would Muschamp want the headache?

Muschamp, too has a reputation for being tough and his defenses physical. Would he be available by December 10? What if Texas is playing in a BCS game or better yet the BCS title game? What has he agreed to (if anything) with Mack Brown?

Which leads us to the fall back guys listed above. Assuming Turbeville and Muschamp don't work out for whatever reason, Phillips has to have a #3 guy (again, not publicly, but privately). That's why he is interviewing all of these available candidates now.

All of that to say - I believe the list as of this moment looks like this:

1. Tommy Tuberville
2. Will Muschamp
3. Brent Venables
4. Dabo Swinney
5. Bud Foster
6. Lane Kiffin

ACC Update

Boston College shut out Notre Dame last week. No non-conference games on tap for this week.

vs. FCS Teams 15-0
vs. Big 12 4-0
vs. MAC 2-0
vs. C-USA 4-1
vs Independents 3-1
vs. SEC 3-3
vs. Big East 2-2
vs. PAC 10 1-1
vs. Big Ten 0-1
vs. Sun Belt 0-1

Week 12 ACC Predictions

Week 11 showed me with a 4-2 straight up record, but 2-4 against the spread. That moves my yearly totals to 52-24 straight up and 39-23 against the spread.

Here are my week 12 picks:

Miami 23 Virginia Tech (+ 5) 21
Clemson (-10 ½) 34 Duke 23
Wake Forest (- 3 ½) 21 N.C. State 17
North Carolina (- 3) 27 @ Maryland 17
Florida State (- 6 ½) 28 Boston College 17

Basketball pulls in top 18 class for 2009

Oliver Purnell continued the building process by hauling in a 2009 class ranked #18 by Scout.com. The class is headlined by Milton Jennings a 5 star recruit from Summerville, SC.

Stats are for champions (part 5)

In installment 5 of "Stats are for champions" we take a look at the stats for teams still alive in the national championship race and how their stats aligned with the history of the 10 previous national champions.Teams eliminated this past Saturday: Penn State and Oklahoma State. In summary, the past 8 national champions (starting in 2000) look like this: Of those 8 title winners only one (Ohio State in 2002) finished below 10th (23rd) in total defense. The average ranking of the total defense for those 8 teams was 8th.Offense has not been as important statistic in determining the national champion. The average rank for those 8 offenses was 23rd and only 2 of the 8 champions (Miami in 2001 and Texas in 2005) had offenses finish in the top 10. The 2002 Ohio State team actually won the national title while being ranked 70th in total offense. The 2007 LSU team finished 26th in offense and the 2003 LSU team finished 31st in total offense.

With that in mind, here is an updated look at the teams, in my opinion, that remain with a realistic chance at the national title and their current defensive rankings:

USC - 1
Alabama - 4
Florida - 14
Oklahoma - 51
Texas Tech - 57
Texas - 60

This weeks schedule has South Carolina at Florida, Mississippi State at Alabama, Texas at Kansas and Southern Cal at Stanford. Oklahoma and Texas Tech are off this week as they prepare to meet in Norman next week in a gigantic game.

We'll continue to update this as the season progresses.

Oklahoma Coordinators

After a wild day of rumor and speculation involving both Oklahoma coordinators, it finally came to light that Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips met with OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables Tuesday evening. Just earlier that day Venables was rumored to not be a candidate any longer. This just shows you that no one really has a clue of what is going on with the search.

Other names that keep popping up that we will provide an update on later in the week: Tommy Tuberville of Auburn, Mike Leach of Texas Tech, Phil Fulmer of Tennessee, Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt, Will Muschamp of Texas, and Gary Patterson of TCU.

Conference Power Rankings after week 11

1. SEC 36.67
2. Big Ten 43.36
3. Big 12 44.58
4. ACC 46.08
5. Big East 46.38
6. MWC 51.11
7. PAC 10 56.80
8. WAC 73.56
9. C-USA 86.58
10. MAC 87.46
11. Sun Belt 91.50

Power Rankings after week 11

1. Alabama 155.4622
2. Texas 154.1176
3. Florida 151.8207
4. Utah 150.5042
5. Georgia 147.9832
6. Texas Tech 145.8824
7. Michigan State 145.6975
8. Oklahoma 143.1093
9. Boise State 142.9505
10.Ohio State 142.6050
11.North Carolina 137.7217
12.Pittsburgh 136.7881
13.USC 135.9477
14.Oklahoma State 135.4622
15.Penn State 135.1261
16.Missouri 134.0336
17.BYU 131.0084
18.TCU 128.1895
19.Navy 126.6808
20.Ball State 125.0233
21.Florida State 124.0896
22.South Carolina 123.7815
23.Cincinnati 122.3156
24.Air Force 122.1008
25.Virginia Tech 121.8487

Florida State Game Recap

Basketball season starts Friday.

The Latest List

This list includes names I have heard are interested in the Clemson job in an order that is a combination of Clemson's reported interest and my interest in having them be the next head football coach at Clemson University.

In addition to those listed below, there seems to be a rumor that a big name coach has shown interest. Who that may be is up for debate, as is if the rumor is even true. We'll mention it here, but with an eye towards being skeptical about the validity.


1. Will Muschamp - Defensive Coordinator, University of Texas.
Muschamp has long been my number one choice, but is beginning to slip some with the recent performance of his defense. Sure, it's the old "is it bad defense or the other team's great offense?" argument. At some point though, like this week's game against Baylor, his defense needs to shut someone down.

Other concerns would be an open position in the SEC (Tennessee) and perhaps another soon to follow (Auburn). Additionally, even if he did come to Clemson would he be in it for the long haul, say 10 years, or would it be 3 years or less and on the a "better opportunity"? Things to think about.

2. Dabo Swinney - Interim Head Coach, Clemson University
I was originally going to wait to write this until after Saturday's game so as to not appear to be a bandwagoner if Clemson somehow wins. Swinney has done a remarkable job considering what he inherited. He lost in the 4th quarter to the division leader 4 days after taking over a train wreck of a team. After he week off, he followed that up with a comeback victory on the road against a team Clemson has lost heart breakers to the last three years. The players swear by him. The coaches and team have rallied around him. He appears to have "it". Even if the Tigers lose to FSU he has a decent shot at going 3-3 or maybe even 4-2. That would be remarkable. Win at Florida State and the bandwagon begins to fill up a bit.

3. Tommy Tuberville - Head Coach, Auburn University
Something about this just doesn't excite me. Tuberville is a solid coach. But is he what Clemson needs? The two guys above are 37 and 38 years old. Tuberville is in his mid 50's. Still his teams play solid defense and until this year were rock steady. Is that an anomaly or a potential trend?

4. Todd Graham - Head Coach, Tulsa
One remarkable year at Rice and now in his second at Tulsa. Clemson would be his third job in four years, but certainly the most attractive. If he had immediate success would he move on to the SEC or Big 12?

For a defensive coach his team doesn't have very good defensive statistics. Is it Graham or the OC that is the brains behind this operation?

He'll be 44 in December, so he has some good years ahead of him. Interesting name to keep an eye on.

ACC Update

We haven't updated this in a couple of weeks due to the few number of non-conference games. Since we last visited this subject on October 15 the ACC has only had one non-conference game, a 10-7 Duke win over once unbeatable Vanderbilt.

There are at least three ACC vs. SEC match ups remaining, and this week Notre Dame travels to Boston College.


vs. FCS Teams 15-0
vs. Big 12 4-0
vs. MAC 2-0
vs. C-USA 4-1
vs Independents 2-1
vs. SEC 3-3
vs. Big East 2-2
vs. PAC 10 1-1
vs. Big Ten 0-1
vs. Sun Belt 0-1

Week 11 ACC Predictions

Week 10 showed me with a 2-2 straight up record, but 3-1 against the spread. That moves my yearly totals to 48-22 straight up and 37-19 against the spread.

Here are my week 11 picks:

Virginia Tech (- 3 ½) 20 Maryland 16
UNC 24 Georgia Tech (+ 4 ½) 20
Wake Forest (- 3 ½) 17 Virginia 10
Duke (- 4 ½) 19 N.C. State 14
Florida State 17 Clemson (+ 6 ½) 13
Notre Dame (+3 ½) 20 Boston College 17

Stats are for champions (part 4)

In installment 4 of "Stats are for champions" we take a look at the stats for teams still alive in the national championship race and how their stats aligned with the history of the 10 previous national champions.

Teams eliminated this past Saturday: Georgia.
Teams added this week: Oklahoma State is back in after Texas Tech beat Texas.

In summary, the past 8 national champions (starting in 2000) look like this: Of those 8 title winners only one (Ohio State in 2002) finished below 10th (23rd) in total defense. The average ranking of the total defense for those 8 teams was 8th.

Offense has not been as important statistic in determining the national champion. The average rank for those 8 offenses was 23rd and only 2 of the 8 champions (Miami in 2001 and Texas in 2005) had offenses finish in the top 10. The 2002 Ohio State team actually won the national title while being ranked 70th in total offense. The 2007 LSU team finished 26th in offense and the 2003 LSU team finished 31st in total offense.

With that in mind, here is an updated look at the teams, in my opinion, that remain with a realistic chance at the national title and their current defensive rankings:

USC - 1
Alabama - 4
Penn State - 6
Florida - 16
Texas Tech - 54
Oklahoma - 59
Oklahoma State - 62
Texas - 64

To take this a step further, over the last 8 years the average rankings for the National Champions has been:

Total Defense - 8
Rushing Defense - 15
Passing Defense - 26
Total Offense - 23
Rushing Offense - 29
Passing Offense - 40

Penn State remains at or above all of the markers above, but doubt still remains as to whether the Lions will make the BCS title game. As long as an SEC team (Alabama) and a Big 12 team (Texas Tech) remain unbeaten Penn State may be on the outside looking in. Penn State got a break last week when Texas Tech beat Texas, and now they must hope that the Red Raiders stumble down the stretch (OU and Oklahoma State are still on their schedule).

This weeks schedule has Oklahoma State visiting Lubbock, Alabama travelling to LSU, Florida heading to Vanderbilt, Oklahoma going to Texas A&M, Texas hosting Baylor, Penn State travelling to Iowa and USC hosting Cal. We'll continue to update this as the season progresses.

Conference Power Rankings after week 10

1. SEC 35.25
2. Big 10 41.36
3. Big 12 42.50
4. ACC 44.50
5. Big East 50.00
6. Mountain West 52.89
7. PAC 10 58.40
8. WAC 79.56
9. Conference USA 83.83
10. MAC 88.46
11. Sun Belt 90.25

Power Rankings after week 10

1. Penn State 160.8193
2. Texas 155.0887
3. Alabama 152.6611
4. Florida 148.4244
5. Utah 146.5920
6. Boise State 145.9034
7. Michigan State 144.2017
8. Georgia 143.8842
9. Oklahoma 143.3240
10.Texas Tech 140.8030
11.Oklahoma State 140.2428
12.Ohio State 139.9626
13.Missouri 134.8273
14.BYU 133.7068
15.North Carolina 132.7731
16.USC 132.3530
17.Kansas 132.3529
18.TCU 131.3445
19.Kentucky 131.1975
20.Oregon 130.3572
21.Minnesota 125.6769
22.Ball State 125.4202
23.West Virginia 123.6345
24.LSU 122.8992
25.South Carolina 120.3548

Finally!

The Tigers break through with a win. It really hasn't been 50 years since we've won a game, it just seems like it. So much so that the folks over at Yahoo!/Rivals have this great headline for us leading the story about the game.

C.J. Spiller is "the man". For those who have said he's had a bad year, you are officially idiots.