Rose Bowl

TCU vs. Wisconsin

  
   TCU didn't get to prove it deserved to play for the BCS title. A victory over Wisconsin in the Granddaddy of Them All could go a long way toward showing that it should have.

   The third-ranked Horned Frogs, owners of the nation's top defense, face a No. 4 Badgers team that reached the 70-point mark three times this season in the 97th Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

   The Frogs, who went undefeated for the second straight regular season, will make their first appearance in perhaps the most prestigious and storied bowl in college football.  TCU gets to play in Pasadena over a Pac-10 team -- the traditional selection to face the Big Ten representative -- because the Rose Bowl was obligated this year to select a team from a non-automatic BCS qualifying conference if one was eligible and not playing in the title game.

   TCU is allowing averages of 11.4 points, 126.3 passing yards and 215.4 total yards -- all tops in the FBS -- and 89.2 rushing yards, third-fewest in the country. The Frogs' speedy defense, though, should receive its biggest test of the season from the Badgers (11-1), who are tied for fourth in the nation with 43.3 points per game -- same as TCU.

    Scott Tolzien has passed for 2,300 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 74.3 percent of his throws -- best in the country.
    
   For TCU to keep the Badgers from an eighth straight win -- Wisconsin's seven consecutive victories have come by 26.1 points -- it will have to stop a trio of running backs that has piled up nearly 2,900 yards on the ground.  James White (1,029), John Clay (936) and Montee Ball (864) running behind six All-Big Ten offensive linemen proved far too much for opponents to handle.

   TCU QB Andy Dalton is a 41-game winner as a starter. The senior has thrown for 2,638 yards, 26 touchdowns and six interceptions while running for 407 yards and five TDs this season.
Ed Wesley paces the nation's 12th-ranked rushing attack with 1,065 yards, while Matthew Tucker ran for 694.

   Josh Boyce leads the team in receiving yards with 602 on 33 catches and has six touchdowns, while Jeremy Kerley has 50 catches for 517 yards and 10 scores.  

Prediction: TCU shows it should have gotten a chance to play for the title by shutting down Wisconsin and winning 42-14.

College Football Week 8 Observations

• Oregon just continues to impress everybody.  The team is averaging 55 points per game, tops in the nation.  In four home games this season, the Ducks are averaging 63 points per game, while giving up 11.  They have outscored their opponents with 33 touchdowns to five, are averaging 649 yards per game to their opponents' 263 and rushing for more than seven yards per carry, compared to 2.8

• With its win over West Virginia, Syracuse is 5-2 for the first time since 2001. West Virginia's 12-game home winning streak came to an end -- it was its longest home win streak since a 12-game run from 1987-89.  Syracuse threw for 63 yards but ended its eight-game losing streak vs. West Virginia.

• It seems as if nobody wants to be the top-ranked team in the nation this year.  According to the BCS standings, Oklahoma came into this weekend's game against Missouri as the top team.  But just as Alabama and Ohio State, the top-ranked teams the past two weeks, the Sooners couldn't escape Columbia without a loss.  For the third time in the BCS era, the team that debuts as No. 1 in initial BCS Standings loses that same week. The Sooners were involved in all 3 games. Sunday will mark the 5th time in the BCS era that we will have a new No. 1 in week 2 of the BCS standings. In 1998 (UCLA) and 2005 (USC), the No. 1 team dropped without losing.

• It was a weekend of firsts for Missouri.  For the first time ever, ESPN College GameDay was in Columbia.  Coach Gary Pinkel won his first game against either Oklahoma or Texas (he had been 0-7 against OU).  The fans helped the school skyrocket to the top of three GameDay lists: most people ever on the Saturday morning (18,000), most people ever on the Friday taping (2,000-3,000) and the most signs the crew had seen.  But this win was more than just a win over the Sooners.  It was one for the past, present and future of Tiger Nation.

• Kirk Cousins threw for a season-high 331 yards and three touchdowns, and Michigan State rallied to beat Northwestern 35-27 and remain unbeaten on Saturday. Playing out of state for the first time this season, the Spartans scored 28 points in another strong second half.  Coach Mark Dantonio was back on the sideline after working the previous two games from the press box following his mild heart attack last month.

• Saturday's 49-0 win over Purdue is the largest shut out victory for Ohio State against the Boilermakers. It is the 12th time Ohio State has shut out Purdue, and first time since 1995 when the Buckeyes won 28-0.  Last year in a loss to Purdue, Terrelle Pryor had 221 pass yards, a TD and 2 int. In the FIRST HALF, he had 270 pass yards and 3 TD

• Alexander Robinson rushed for 119 yards and two scores as Iowa State held on for its first win over Texas.  Texas is 4-3 and would need to win the Big 12 championship game or bowl game to extend its 10-win season streak to 10 straight. 

• Illinois is within two wins of qualifying for a bowl game and ending their two-year bowl drought.  A bowl might be good enough to save coach Ron Zook's job

• Navy has won three of the last four vs. Notre Dame after losing its previous 43 vs. the Irish dating back to 1964.  Navy's 18-pt win is its largest over Notre Dame since the Midshipmen won by 21 47 years ago. The largest is 21, a 35-14 win in 1963. That was the last win before a 43-game losing streak to Notre Dame that ended in 2007.

• Arkansas won in a game that took nearly five hours thanks to two lightning delays. Arkansas back Knile Davis ran for a career-high 176 yards and three TDs.  Houston Nutt failed to beat his old team for the first time in three tries.  The Razorbacks are 9-2 all-time vs. Ole Miss in Fayetteville and continued their best start under Bobby Petrino (5-2).  

• Cam Newton had 217 yards rushing. It is his 5th game with at least 170 yards rushing, passing Bo Jackson (1985) for the most such games in a season in Auburn history.  Auburn gashed LSU on the ground Saturday, running for 440 yards. That is the most allowed in a single-game in LSU history. The old record was 422 by Mississippi State in 1991.  LSU was 1st in the SEC and 6th in the nation in rush defense, allowing 83.6 YPG.  

• Taylor Martinez set career highs with 323 passing yards and five TDs and rushed for 112 more yards in the Cornhuskers' shootout win. Martinez entered the game with three passing TDs in six games and matched that total by halftime.  Niles Paul caught nine of Martinez's passes for 131 yards and added a 100-yard kickoff return TD.  A week after being held to 202 total yards in a loss to Texas, the Cornhuskers rolled up 540 yards vs. Oklahoma State and improved to 6-1 on the season and 2-1 in the Big 12.  Nebraska ended a 17-game road losing streak vs. AP top-20 teams.

• Baylor became bowl eligible for the first time since joining the Big 12, beating Kansas State 47-42 Saturday night.  Baylor hasn't been to a bowl game since 1994, which is tied for the longest active drought among BCSIII's record of 225 yards against Washington St. in 2008) and added two touchdowns.  The loss was the first for Kansas State against Baylor under Bill Snyder (previously 4-0). 

• John Clay ran for 91 yards and two touchdowns and Montee Ball scored the winner with just over a minute left for Wisconsin. It was the Badgers second straight win over a ranked team, the first time they've done that since 2004 (beat No. 1 Ohio State last week).  Iowa lost for the third time at home in its last 19 games despite Ricky Stanzi's 258-yard, three-TD performance.  The Hawkeyes were first in the nation in scoring defense entering last week's game but have allowed 58 points since.  Wisconsin ended a two-game losing streak to Iowa and evened the all-time series 42-42-2 as they won back the Heartland Trophy.  

• Stanford is 6-1 for the first time since 1970, marking just the third time since World War II that Stanford has won six of its first seven games.  Washington State dropped to 0-5 in Pac-10 play, its 14th consecutive conference loss and 22nd in its last 23rd such games. 

•  Utah won its 21st straight home game. That's the third longest active streak in the nation. The Utes ran their record to 7-0 for the third time in the last seven years.  Utah RB Matt Asiata ran for two TDs as the Utes piled up 648 yards of total offense.  Colorado State has lost 12 straight against ranked teams. The Utes have rung up 50 points or more four times in their last five games.  

• Western Kentucky snapped the nation's longest losing streak on Saturday, beating Louisiana-Lafayette 54-21 on Saturday.  The Hilltoppers, in their second year as a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, had lost 26 straight games for the longest loss streak among all NCAA divisions. 

• South Carolina won for the ninth time in its last 11 games in Nashville.  Vandy fell to 1-10 in its last 11 homecoming games. Its last win was 2002 vs. Connecticut. 

• Mississippi State clinched bowl eligibility. It has not been to a bowl game since 2007.  The Bulldogs have won five straight games in a single season for the first time since 1999 and are 4-0 in nonconference games for the first time since 1990.  UAB fell to 2-15 all-time vs. SEC teams. The Blazers have had four games decided by five points or fewer this season and are 1-3 in those games.  

• Jerrod Johnson broke Texas A&M's career record for total offense.  With 139 yards passing and 28 rushing, he raised his career total to 8,888 yards, snapping the record of 8,876 Reggie McNeal compiled from 2002-05.  The Jayhawks have been outscored in their last three games 159-24.

• TCU surrendered its first conference touchdown on the season.