Weekend Observations

• The Michigan-Illinois game (132 points) is the highest scoring game in FBS this season and the highest scoring game between two Big ten Conference opponents all-time.  Roy Roundtree who finished with a Michigan school record 246 receiving yards.  65 points by Illinois is the most allowed in Michigan school history. Illinois' 65 points is two shy of FBS record for most by losing team (9th-most points scored in school history). Michigan: allowed 40+ pts in back-to-back games for 1st time in school history.

• Army threw its first interception of the year against Air Force. That means every FBS team has now thrown an interception this year - Army was the last team alive without one.

• Brandon Weeden threw for a school-record 435 yards and three scores and Oklahoma State set a new school mark for total offense for the second time this season by gaining 725 yards. Baylor has not won at Oklahoma State since 1939. The Cowboys improved to 11-1 against the Bears since 1999. 

• Damaris Johnson moved into first place in the Conference USA record books for career kickoff return yards. 

• Kansas scored 35 unanswered points after trailing 45-17 early in the fourth quarter. The 35 points are the second-most scored in the 4th quarter by a team to win in FBS History.  The 35 points in the fourth quarter were the most in Jayhawks history.

• North Carolina beat Florida State for the second time (2-15-1 all-time).  The win made the Tar Heels bowl eligible. They've qualified for a bowl every year under Butch Davis.  T.J. Yates threw for a school-record 439 yards

• Boise State extended the FBS' longest active win streak to 22 games and 33 regular-season games.  Kellen Moore threw for a career-high 507 yards and three touchdowns, which gives him a school-record 85 touchdowns.  The team rolled up a school-record 737 total yards

• Navy beat East Carolina 76-35 on Saturday, setting a school single-game scoring record and most since 1919.  With the win, Navy qualified for a bowl game for the eighth straight season and will play in the Poinsettia Bowl against an opponent from the Mountain West Conference on Dec. 23.  It was the most points scored by either East Carolina or an opponent in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, while Navy's 521 yards rushing were the most by an opponent here and the second-most allowed by the Pirates ever. It was also the second-most points ever allowed by East Carolina, trailing Guilford's 79 points in November 1932.

• Joe Paterno joined John Gagliardi and the late Eddie Robinson as the only coaches in NCAA history with 400 wins and is the only FBS coach to do so.  Only two other coaches have more wins. Robinson had 408 with FCS school Grambling State, while Gagliardi had 476 entering the weekend with Division III St. John's, Minn

• Colin Kaepernick had 320 passing yards and five TDs as Nevada beat Idaho for the sixth straight time. Nevada had 844 total yards of offense, a school record. It was the most offense by any FBS school since 2004. Nevada had three players run for over 100 yards.

• James Aho kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired to lift New Mexico to a 34-31 victory over Wyoming and end a nine-game losing streak on Saturday.  UNM had lost 23 of its last 24 games

• Texas A&M broke a seven-game losing streak to Oklahoma. Texas A&M won its third straight overall and beat the Sooners for the first time since 2002.  Oklahoma lost on the road for the second time in less than a month. Texas A&M earned its first win over a ranked team since defeating Texas in 2007. 

• Arkansas beat South Carolina for the fourth time in the last five games between the two schools. Since Bobby Petrino became head coach, Arkansas has thrown for at least 300 yards in 17 of 34 games.  South Carolina had its six-game home winning streak stopped and it was just the Gamecocks' second loss in 15 games in Columbia.  

• Stanford matched its win total from last season and snapped Arizona's five-game road win streak. Stanford RB Stepfan Taylor ran for four TDs, outscoring Arizona by himself. Taylor hadn't scored more than two TDs in a game in his career. Arizona allowed at least 30 points for the first time this season.  

• The Longhorns, who played Alabama last season for the national championship, lost for the fifth time in six games and fell below .500 for the first time since losing their 1999 opener. They will have to win their last three games -- home against No. 19 Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic and Texas A&M -- just to match Brown's lowest victory total since going 7-5 at North Carolina in 1995. Also in jeopardy is Brown's string of taking 18 consecutive teams to a bowl.  

• Ronnie Hillman became the third San Diego State freshman to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season, joining Marshall Faulk (1991) and Lionel Hamilton (1994).

• With two rushing touchdowns Thursday, Josh Nesbitt ties Jonathan Dwyer for the 2nd-most rush TD in Georgia Tech history with 35 for his career. Robert Lavette leads with 45. With Nesbitt's 86 yards rushing Thursday, he passes Woody Dantzler for the most rushing yards by an ACC quarterback. He entered the game needing 42 yards to pass Dantlzer. Nesbitt now has 4 50-yard rushes this season. Since 2004, only Joe Webb (UAB) with 5 in 2009 has more in a single season by a quarterback.

My opinions about Reggie Bush

   As everyone knows, the topic of the week has been Reggie Bush and what has been happening with what is going to happen to the Heisman Trophy and yesterday it was resolved.  On Tuesday afternoon, Bush announced that he will forfeit his Heisman Trophy.  On Wednesday afternoon, the Heisman Trust announced that the award will be vacated and NOT go to Vince Young, who finished second that year in the Heisman voting. 

   Unlike voting for other events, the Heisman Trophy is an award that is based off of a player's performance that entire year.  And there is no doubt that Reggie Bush put up stats that were more than deserving of the Trophy.  Now, if the award had been handed out after the National Championship Game, it may have gone the other way, after the incredible game Young had against Bush's Trojans in an upset win.  Bush accumulated 789 first place votes; Young had 79.  Would the tally have been different had they done it in mid-January?  Possibly and maybe probably, but there is no doubt that the 1,740 rushing yards, 16 rushing touchdowns, 4788 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns earned him the award.  Oh, did I mention ZERO fumbles????

   Reggie Bush did the right thing.  He gave up an award that should never been his.  I know earlier I made it sound like he deserved it and in 2005-2006 he did.  But that was 2005-2006.  At the time, nobody but Bush and his family knew about the money and gifts that he chose to accept.  So at the time, it made sense to award him the trophy.  But now with all of the allegations (and apparently truths) that have surfaced, they have shown that in actuality Bush should have been declared ineligible to play, therefore nullifying all of the stats and awards he earned that season.  Your numbers don't count if you shouldn't even be allowed to step onto the field.  But as the Heisman Trust said, it's five years later.  There is no way to re-do the vote.  The best thing to do is keep the award vacated.

   The people to truly feel sorry for in this case are the current players at USC.  Many of them probably came to USC because of Bush and the success they saw the team have while he was there.  But now those players who came to follow in his footsteps are paying for his transgressions.  To me and many others, it's an unfair thing that the NCAA Has done, but the university will have to live with the consequences, whether they knew what was going on or not.  Going to a bowl game is one perk many players look forward to when they commit to a school and the fact that many of the current players won't have that opportunity for two years is something that will hurt recruiting.  Not to mention the loss of 30 scholarships over the next three years.

   The sad thing is that this happens much more than we all know of, but not everyone gets caught.  It's become a game of 'if you can do it w/o getting caught, continue doing it.'  You would think that stories like this would give other athletes thoughts of stopping all of this because of all of the trouble it can cost them, but they also see that if they do do it, it most likely won't effect them or the school until they are long gone. 

   But again, the issue was the Heisman Trophy and what to do with it.  Reggie Bush did the right thing.  And so did the Heisman Trust...

College Football Week 1 Observations

• SEC teams better be very, very scared.  South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore looks like he is the real deal.  Yes, he rushed 14 times for only 54 yards, but his two touchdowns and the speed he showed coming off of his rushes will be something that Gamecock fans should get used to.  The schedule gets harder than Southern Miss, but he looks as if he can live up to his high ranking he was given coming out of high school.

• Utah won its 18th straight game and continually looks as if will be a force to reckoned with as they prepare for their exodus to the Pac 10.  Their upset win over Pittsburgh showed again how stout their defense might be.  However, if the Utes are to continue winning, they will need to learn to be able to keep a lead.

• USC looks as if will be dominant again of offense, but their defense looked suspect against a mediocre Hawaii team.  While the offense set records, the defense gave up 588 yards, which was even more than the Trojans gained (544).  Matt Barkley went 18-for-23 for 257 yards and five touchdowns and no interceptions.  Marc Tyler overtook Allen Bradford for the running back spot and showed he was worth the promotion after rushing for 154 yards on 17 carries.  

• The Illinois-Missouri game turned out to be better than expected.  Illini QB Nathan Scheelhaase looks legit and had an impressive debut in his first ever collegiate game.  His running ability will be something opponents will have to watch out for, as he has speed and moves like a running back or wide receiver.  Missouri quarterback recovered from a slow start and looked very impressive, completing 34-of-48 passes for 281 yards.  Receiver T.J. Moe looks like he might be the next in a long line of successful wide outs for the Tigers.

•  Florida looks as if it might still have some kinks to work out.  Their offense looked dreadful against a MAC team that won a total of two games last year.  They had only 44 yards through three quarters.  

•  Robert Bolden, Penn State's first freshman starting quarterback since 1992, had a very impressive debut, completing 20-of-29 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns.  He will have a tougher matchup this week though, as the Nittany Lions face off with Alabama.

•  Sophomore Denard Robinson made his first game as a starter a memorable one, becoming the sixth quarterback since 2005 to run and throw for 185 yards or more.  His 197 rushing yards were the most ever by a Michigan quarterback in a single game.  His style of play looks to fit more of Rich Rodriguez's style than last year's starter Tate Forcier.