John Berger
Reporter
We’re entering week 11 of the college football season, and so far the season has been laced with drama. Except, the drama is for all the wrong reasons, with off the field issues overshadowing the play on the field. Before the season even began, the college football world was rocked by a Yahoo story about a renegade University of Miami booster who allegedly committed a myriad of NCAA violations. That was after an offseason filled with other issues, including “Tattoo-gate” with Ohio State, and Oregon and LSU dealing with a scout by the name of Willie Lyles. Still, all of that pales in comparison to the recent story at Penn State regarding an alleged child molester of a former coach and a lack of decisive action on the part of the higher-ups at the school. As a result, two administrators have been arrested and legendary Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has been fired. Needless to say, these scandals have overshadowed the play on the field. Regardless, teams are still playing football and certain teams are standing out. So here are the College Football Power Rankings through week 10.
1. LSU- The Tigers won the “Game of the Century” over Alabama that featured historically good defenses or atrocious offenses, depending on how you look at it. LSU is extremely talented on defense and good enough on offense.
2. Oklahoma State- The Cowboys have always been considered to be the “little brother” to Oklahoma, but not this year. Brandon Weeden is 28 years old and putting up gaudy numbers this year. The rest of the schedule will be challenging for Oklahoma State in Big 12 play, with a game against Oklahoma looming.
3. Alabama- Yes, they lost to LSU. But they’re not alone in that regard. ‘Bama is downright dominant on defense, and running back Trent Richardson is a beast. Seriously, he can bench press 475 pounds, and he says he can bench a lot more. And he runs a sub 4.4 forty. Think about that.
4. Oregon- Oregon got beat rather handily in the first week of the season against LSU. Keep in mind the Ducks still outgained LSU by over 60 yards. Since that game Oregon has rolled over Pac-12 competition, including Stanford.
5. Oklahoma– The Sooners suffered a disastrous loss at home to Texas Tech earlier in the season. Considering the lack of success by Tech since then, I’m going to chalk that one up as a fluke loss for Oklahoma. After all, they were ranked number one in the preseason for a reason, they can flat out play.
