Cincinnati News, Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh, South Florida News, Uncategorized

DISCONCERTING SIGNALS (RANKINGS ARE RIDICULOUS THIS EARLY)

by RAY MERNAGH

Before we get started let me give the referee of the Pitt @ NC State game props for supplying the title for NBE’s weekly football column going forward — his call of “disconcerting signals” made my ears perk right up and I scribbled it down before I could forget it. This penalty happens when the defense apparently yells/moves/does something that influences a false start by the offense. Which is funny because ranking college football teams before October 15th or so is sending disconcerting signals to fans everywhere (not to mention really screwing up the BCS chances of any team not rated at the beginning of the season).

Can anyone argue a legitimate reason for the early rankings when the fourth week of regular season play produces results that clearly disprove said rankings? We all understand rankings are subjective but come on, this is crazy (and it happens every year). It started Thursday night with #4 Ole Miss going down 16-10 to the Gamecocks of South Carolina. But Thursday was only the beginning, take a look at the “UPSETS” that followed on Saturday.

#5 Penn State — The Nittany Lions looked like cute little kittens vs the Iowa defense. QB Daryll Clark will take a lot of heat over his horrible numbers (12-32) but he was getting pressured on just about every play. Receivers also dropped 3 or 4 balls that would have gone for first downs if caught. The rain soaked Valley was anything but Happy by the time the fourth quarter got underway because it was obvious Iowa was going to roll to another W. Penn State’s results prior to last night’s 21-10 butt-kicking? Wins over Akron, Syracuse and Temple. In other words Joe Pa’s crew had done absolutely nothing as a football team to deserve a #5 national ranking other than be Penn State. And that my friends is not a good reason.

#6 CAL — Lost to Oregon 42-3. Had beaten Maryland, Eastern Washington and Minnesota. Maybe the Bears miss new Pitt OC Cignetti. Maybe they just aren’t that good?

#9 Miami — Throttled by Beamer Ball at Va Tech 31-7 after a lot of people were yelling, “the U is back baby!” As that older guy on the TV screams every Saturday morning, “not so fast my friend.” Heisman candidate Jacory Harris had some national columnists make the trip to rainy Blacksburg ready to anoint him the next great thing. They left making excuses for him (rain). Hey, last I checked football is still primarily played outdoors folks. Harris, to his credit, didn’t use any excuses.

#18 Florida State — See Penn State. Thoroughly dominated at home by a South Florida team led by Tallahassee native B.J. Daniels, a red shirt freshman QB taking over for the phenomenal Matt Grothe. Daniels put up 341 yards of offense, while the Bulls D held the Seminole running game to only 19 yards.

#24 Washington — Fresh off their upset of USC, the Dub laid an egg by getting smacked 34-14 by Stanford. This team won 0 games last season. The defeat of USC said a lot more about the USC coach’s inability to get his TV stars up to play every Saturday than it did about Washington’s improving group. Maybe the Trojans can convince the NCAA to let them do a college version of HBO’s Hard Knocks reality show and just film every single day? Maybe then they’ll stop taking these inexcusable losses every season.

During the Pitt/NC State broadcast they had a segment called “coaches cribs,” where they gave you a visual tour of Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien’s office. Judging from the results of this season so far, maybe they should just rank teams based on that. I bet Urban Meyer’s office is pretty sweet, ditto Mack Brown’s at Texas. It makes as much sense as the way they do it now. Florida is really good. Texas too. So maybe a top 3 until October 15th? The way it stands now seems like the likes of the BCS, ESPN/CBS — not to mention the college football media — is sending all fans disconcerting signals.

I heard Brent Musberger argue against delaying rankings because we in the media need the rankings to create story lines.

If that’s the best reason we have for the preseason and early season rankings… then shame on us.

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4 Quick Hitters on the Big East

1. The Big East has taken a lot of heat this season as a weak conference but they look okay to me so far.

2. Pitt football is in Bizarro-world. Everything all the experts told me about the Panthers is the opposite. They were going to have to win games 10-7 but their defense just might be capable of doing it. The offense was going to struggle all year. Well the offense has been like the college version of the K-Gun Buffalo Bills while the defense has been atrocious. Pitt’s D couldn’t hold a 14-point second half lead yesterday in their 38-31 loss to NC State. They put much-maligned QB Billy Stull in a position he didn’t deserve to be in — having to make a play at the end of the game to tie it up. Stull still hit Dorian Dickerson in the hands with a third down pass that should have been caught.

3. NC State QB Russell Wilson’s name should automatically appear on Heisman lists after yesterday’s performance. Passing for 322 yards and running for another 91 should do that for you. Wilson was unstoppable and unflappable.

4. I’m wondering how long it will take for an SEC school in a warm weather climate, or a Notre Dame maybe, to throw the bank at Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly? The man can flat-out coach some football. Pike and Collins are studs that should be on All American lists — not to mention the aforementioned Heisman ones — before the season ends.

5. Congrats to South Florida. You’re no longer the little brother (okay, probably the Gators, but they’ll never be foolish enough to bring you into the Swamp).