NCAA Football Power Rankings – Week 2
Week 2 in this year’s college football season provided some early answers to which teams are true contenders for a BCS national title and which ones were pretenders from the start. The top two schools in the country; Alabama and Ohio State passed this week’s test with flying colors while the No. 13 school in the country; Virginia Tech followed up a tough loss to Boise State in Week 1 with an embarrassing 21-16 loss at home to IAA James Madison. In another shocking upset, No. 15 Georgia Tech lost to Kansas 28-25. No. 23 West Virginia survived a scare by rallying to beat Marshall 24-21 in overtime after trailing by 15 points heading into the fourth quarter.
Here is a look at my top five schools in the country along with their current odds to win the BCS title.
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Alabama followed up a routine 48-3 win over San Jose State in its opener with an impressive 24-3 thumping of No. 18 Penn State this past Saturday night. The Crimson Tide’s relentless rushing game led by RB Trent Richardson’s 144 yards on the ground proved to be too much for Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions to handle. Richardson, who was filling in for the injured Mark Ingram, ran the ball 22 times, averaging a whopping 6.5 yards per carry.
The No. 12 ranked Miami Hurricanes ended up being nothing more than a big wind that could not slow down an Ohio State offensive attack led by QB Terrelle Pryor. The Buckeyes scored 23 points in the second quarter en route to a 36-24 win. Pryor ended the day with 233 yards passing and 113 yards on the ground. Ohio State’s defense was equally impressive, picking off Hurricane QB Jacory Harris four times to help seal the win.
Boise State was idle this week after its big win over Virginia Tech last Monday night. The fact that the Hokies lost to James Madison this week will definitely diminish the impact of the Broncos 33-30 win, but none the less this team proved it’s the real deal on both sides of the ball and is still deserving of such a high ranking. They will be back in action this week when they take on Wyoming out of the MWC.
TCU moved to 2-0 on the year with a lopsided 62-7 win over Tennessee Tech. The Horned Frogs built a 35-7 lead at the half and then coasted from there. QB Andy Dalton completed 15-of-21 attempts for 182 yards and one TD, but it was TCU’s ground game that did most of the damage. Led by RB Ed Wesley’s 85 yards on 11 carries, the Horned Frogs racked up 270 yards rushing and averaged a healthy 6.6 yards per carry. Seven of their eight offensive TD’s were scored on the ground.
The anticipated showdown with No. 17 Florida State never materialized as Oklahoma jumped on the Seminoles early by scoring 34 points in the first half and never let up in an impressive 47-17 win. The Sooners generated close to 500 yards of total offense led by QB Landry Jones. He completed 30-of-40 attempts for 380 yards and four TD’s. WR Ryan Broyles led the team with 12 receptions for 124 yards and one TD. All told, 12 different players caught passes in this game as Landry did an excellent job of spreading the ball around to completely shred the Florida State secondary.
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