Random College Football Notes

- I've got to give the Cal Bears a lot of credit for salvaging their season after back-to-back blowout losses against Oregon and USC. Three consecutive wins have taken their record to 6-2, and the Bears don't face a team the rest of the season that they can't beat. Win out, and they could end up in a pretty nice bowl game. On the other hand, none of the teams they're facing the rest of season is a pushover, and we could be looking at a repeat performance in the Emerald Bowl.

- It doesn't happen that often, so when USC gets blown out like they did at the hands (or the webbed feet, if you prefer) of the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night, it is an occasion to savor. And get blown out they did - their defense was atrocious, and faced with the pressure of having to keep up in a shootout, the offense just couldn't keep up.

- You can count me among those who wrote off Oregon after their disastrous opening night loss to Boise State, so now I have little choice but to bow down to the Ducks. Right now, there is no team in the country playing better, and even if the pollsters don't allow them to overcome that opening loss, they're almost a lock to make the Rose Bowl, where they'll likely annihilate whatever team the Big Ten sends out west (sorry, Iowa).

- Every year brings with it a unique BCS controversy, and every year you hear pundits saying that this is the controversy that will finally result in a playoff. Well, this year's unique wrinkle is that Thursday night game up in Idaho. I doubt there are many people in the country (outside of Idaho) who honestly believe that Boise State would win a rematch with the Ducks on a neutral field, but at the same time you can't take that win away from them. What's a voter to do? Right now it may not matter as much, but if the right teams lose at the right time, then the voters will have a very difficult decision to ponder.

- I really hate Florida.

- I watched the entire Iowa game Saturday, but I shouldn't have bothered - the 4th quarter would have sufficed. For three quarters, the Hawkeyes looked awful, and did very little to make viewers understand how the team could be undefeated and ranked 4th in the country. And then, in the 4th quarter - an explosion. Right now, I can't imagine them beating any of the teams ranked above them, but make no bones about it - they know how to win.