Joel Buchsbaum's college notepad
By Joel Buchsbaum, Contributing editor
Oct. 15, 2001
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| Right now, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma are probably playing as well
as any teams in the country. Although Miami (Fla.) beat Florida State with a lopsided
final score, the Hurricanes just did not look like a national championship team in this
game. Their running game is still a little bit sporadic, and Ken Dorsey
is still making too many bad throws. On defense, while they did make a number of big
plays, they also gave up almost 500 yards. ... Speaking of Florida State, this is starting
to look very much like a rebuilding year with Chris Rix at quarterback
and some big holes at wide receiver and on the defensive side of the ball. The
Seminoles’ pass rush has been inconsistent, their line has been a little banged up
and their LB play hasn’t been up to their normal standards, nor has their secondary
play. On offense, the Seminoles ran the ball well against Miami, but because of six Rix
turnovers, they could not sustain that many drives. Rix has tremendous physical ability in
terms of arm strength, running ability and acceleration, but he is very raw and very
inaccurate at this point and still has a great deal to learn about playing the QB
position. ... As a passer, Notre Dame’s Carlyle Holiday is a lot
like Rix in that he is more of a thrower than a passer at this point. He has accuracy
problems but is a tremendous athlete and a tremendous runner who will win some games for
the Irish this year more with his feet than with his arm. ... Marquise Walker
of Michigan is starting to look more and more like a David Terrell clone.
While he doesn’t quite have Terrell’s speed or athletic ability, he pays greater
attention to detail and showed last week vs. Purdue that he can be almost as versatile as
Terrell, when he did a fine job returning punts and also threw a pass, although it was
intercepted. ... Georgia Tech’s offense and QB George Godsey are
struggling, and Maryland remains undefeated. The biggest reason for both is Ralph
Friedgen, who went from offensive coordinator at Tech to head coach at Maryland.
He’s done a remarkable job with the Terrapins and has proved to be a very competent
head coach who is emerging as a Coach of the Year candidate. However, the best coach in
football this year still may be Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, who is doing
another fabulous coaching job, despite the fact he doesn’t have an established
quarterback, and both of his inexperienced quarterbacks have struggled with turnovers and
poor throws this year. ... While Virginia Tech has gotten almost no credit this year, the
Hokies probably have played as well as any team in the country. Granted, they haven’t
played any real tough opponents, but they’ve blown out everyone they’ve played,
and don’t let the score of the Boston College game fool you. The Hokies had a big
lead and then just called the dogs off. ... Eli Manning of Ole Miss is
looking more and more like his brother, Peyton. He led the Rebels to a dramatic
come-from-behind victory against Alabama, putting the ball in the endzone after taking it
59 yards in the last 1:34 of the game. At one point, Mississippi was down 10 points, but
thanks in large part to Manning, the Rebels were able to come back. ... Washington State
may be the biggest surprise of the year. The Cougars are still undefeated, and they beat a
pretty good Stanford team last week. |
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