In what was billed as the biggest weekend in college football, there were both upsets and let downs. First, Mississippi State hammered Troy State 44-10 on the arm of Kevin Fant, but more importantly on rock solid defense. Mississippi State now leads the SEC in pass defense and is ranked 10th nationally in pass defense.
Mario Haggan leads the SEC in tackles with 55, 13 for loss, while Tommy Kelly leads the SEC in sacks with six.
Florida State improved to second in the nation this week with their 27-6 win over defending national champion Miami. In the highly contested rivalry game, Chris Rix threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns in the Seminole win.
Michigan pulled off a great upset this week in beating the Penn State Nittany Lions 33-27. This was the first loss of the season for Joe Paterno and his Penn State squad. The win improved Michigan to 3-3.
The undefeated Volunteers moved into the National Championship picture this week with a win over the 13th ranked Georgia Bulldogs, 35-17.
The Volunteers are now sitting pretty for the SEC East title, after beating both Florida and Georgia.
In the Red River Shootout, No. 1 Texas distanced itself from the pack by beating the Oklahoma Sooners 20-13. This was a huge confidence builder for Longhorn QB Chris Sims, who until this game had never beaten a Top 10 team.
Michigan’s upset of Penn State was almost this week’s upset of the week, until unranked LSU beat the fifth ranked Florida Gators 41-17–IN GAINESVILLE.
The loss gives both Florida and LSU two conference losses each.
Nominees for the top indvidual awards were also released this week. For defensive MVP, Virginia’s Angelo Cromwell is in the driver’s seat, followed by Jeremy Muyres and Daryl Smith from Georgia Tech, Derrick Johnson from Texas and Derrick Strait from Oklahoma.
For coach of the year, Ron Turner at Illinois is in the lead followed by Al Groh of Virginia, Bobby Bowden of Florida State, Mike Price at Washington State and Chuck Amato from North Carolina State.
For the Heisman Trophy, Rex Grossman leads the pack ahead of Anton Page and Kliff Kingsbury of Texas Tech, Mewelde Moore of Tulane Cody Pickett of Washington.
Tune in next week for Mississippi State at Memphis, Ole Miss at Alabama, South Carolina at LSU, Texas at Kansas State and in the Game of the Week, Iowa State at Oklahoma.