None of these games matter a bit if the Ducks don't beat Stanford. The winner tomorrow is in the driver's seat for the conference championship and perhaps even more. The loser is playing for the Alamo Bowl.
photo at left: Urban Meyer and Lou Saban meet at midfield before the 2008 SEC championship game and agree to divide the football world between them.
#7 Florida at #1 Alabama
Amazing to think that this game is on the schedule, plus the Red River Rivalry, and the nation's premier college football show, ESPN GameDay, is setting up at Autzen today. These are not your grandfather's Ducks.
Alabama is a seven-point favorite to win at home coming off a win over Arkansas, in a game that will be broadcast 5 p.m. on CBS opposite the Oregon game, the chief reason GameDay is in Eugene instead of Tuscaloosa. Talk about a home field advantage: Bryant-Denny stadium holds over 101,000, and the vast majority of them will be screaming, "Roll, Tide!"
Alabama holds a decided statistical advantage. So far they've gained 511 yards per game compared to Florida's 355. They run and pass better than the Gators, by wide margins. The Florida offense under new starter John Brantley is still finding itself, although he did have his best game of the year last week against Kentucky, throwing for a touchdown and 248 yards. The big news for the Gators is the emergence of freshman Trey Burton quarterbacking the Wildcat formation. The freshman ran for five touchdowns, caught a pass for another, and completed his only throw for 42 yards coming off the bench last week. It will be interesting to see how Nick Saban and his fast Alabama defense handle that Tebow-like challenge. Speedy Florida Tailback Jeffrey Demps is out of a walking boot and should be ready to go. Mark Ingram will test a Gator defense that has given up just 94 yards on the ground.
Both teams are 4-0 and the winner becomes the frontrunner in the SEC, but the two will probably see each other again in the SEC championship game. Alabama solidifies their number one ranking with a win. Their defense is ranked number one in the country in points allowed at 9.8 a game. The Tide travels to South Carolina a week from Saturday, and the Gamecocks have a bye this week to get ready.
#2 Ohio State at Illinois
The first road game of the year for the Buckeyes, who travel to Champaign to meet the run-minded Illini. Illinois sticks to the ground game on 69% of their plays, led by tailback Mikel Leshoure who has 58 carries for 398 yards this season, a 6.9 yard average. They had a bye week to prepare for an upset, like the one they engineered in 2007 behind Juice Williams and Rashard Mendenhall.
#21Texas vs #8 Oklahoma
The 105th edition of the Red River Rivalry from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, which is just over 190 miles from both schools. UCLA's pasting of Texas last week took some of the luster from this game but it's still fierce. The Sooners have looked underwhelming in three of their four wins. UO quarterback Landry Jones leads them with 1221 yards passing while completing 64.5% of his throws. The Longhorns have struggled on offense behind new starter Garrett Gilbert, who has thrown four interceptions and fumbled twice in the last two games.
One tough game and ten patsies non-ATQ division:
#3 Boise State at New Mexico State, #5 TCU at Colorado State. These two face one ranked opponent each in their remaining schedule, Boise State traveling to Reno to face Nevada in November, TCU locking frog horns with the Utah Utes on November 6. The rest of their games are cakewalks against the also-rans of college football, and the pollsters are likely to downgrade them a little each week even if they win convincingly.
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