O-No! Rank Monday

After another weekend of inexplicable action, here is some Rank news, thoughts, and actual rankings:

Rank news:

• Both Oregon and Oklahoma lost this weekend, and both lost their quarterbacks during the game to injury. Dennis Dixon is done for the year after tearing a ligament in his knee, and Sam Bradford sustained a concussion while making a tackle on an interception. The Ducks and Sooners are now 9 and 10 in the BCS, respectively.
• With those losses, LSU and Kansas are now numbers 1 and 2 in the BCS. Bottom line: if both schools win out, they are in the BCS title game. Both have tough tests remaining, however. Kansas must face Missouri this week and then the Big 12 title game likely against Oklahoma, and LSU gets Arkansas at home this week before the SEC title game against either Tennessee or Georgia. Also controlling its own destiny for the most part is
• Missouri, who is 4th in the BCS behind West Virginia, but could beat Kansas this weekend and earn a trip to the Big 12 title game where beating OU (the only team to beat the Tigers this year) would likely have them jump WVU and into the BCS title game.
• WVU, Ohio State need a loss by at least one team ahead of them. WVU sits at third, and the Buckeye’s would need Kansas to win against Missouri, then lose the Big 12 game, and WVU to lose to either UConn or Pittsburgh, their final two opponents. Ohio State is the only team in the top 5 that is finished playing games and therefore will not be moving down.
• Hell, even Georgia has a shot, if LSU and Kansas both lose (and bad losses would be better), as do Missouri and West Virginia. That would put a 2-loss team in the BCS Championship Game for the first time. Possible? Yes. Realistic? Not really.
• Confused yet? So am I. Suffice it to say, the two most likely teams to make the BCS title game are LSU and West Virginia, in my opinion. But I figure my chances of being right at somewhere around 16% – and I am being generous.

Alright, a couple of thoughts that I didn’t get to on Sunday:

• What is the deal with LSU’s pass defense? They don’t seem to get much pressure, and the secondary looks vulnerable. When they blitz – which appears to be more rare than I can recall in recent history – they don’t seem to get quick pressure and the cornerbacks are left on an island and seem to give up a lot of big plays. I mean, Ole Miss had a 3rd-and-29 the other night, and completed a pass for a first down, right between 3 guys.
• As for the secondary, are they coached to commit pass interference? It happens all the time? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that they play aggressively, but they get called for pass interference all the time. I wonder if the struggles of the defense is taking any of the shine off of Bo Pelini as a head coaching candidate? Is anyone in Lincoln taking note of this?

Ok, now let’s get to some rankings:

Top 5 teams in the nation:

1. Kansas – being undefeated gets you the top spot.
2. LSU – still have the best resume of any of the top 5.
3. Georgia – nobody is hotter than the Dawgs
4. Missouri – now is Show-me time for the Tigers, and I think they will probably beat Kansas
5. West Virginia – I don’t like them. I don’t think that they are that good. But they only have one loss.

Heisman candidates:

First, an introduction: Unless I am sorely mistaken (and I am not here, I am just trying to remain humble while I call out one of the nation’s best cfb writers), the Heisman is supposed to be given to the ‘best’ player in college football. Not the most valuable, not the biggest hearted, not the best humanitarian, not the most outstanding, but the best. The best single player. Yet Ivan Maisel writes:

Dixon not only had a great season, he led his team into contention for the national championship. To measure his value, take a look at how the Ducks played with him for nine-plus games and how they played without him for the final three quarters Thursday night. To measure his heart, take a look at how well he played with a torn ACL against Arizona.

Wh-what? Don’t we decry every year that the Heisman has become an award given to the best player on a national title contender? In 1956, Paul Hornung won the award on a losing Notre Dame team, and is Paul Hornung remembered as a better player than Danny Wuerffel, Eric Crouch or Chris Weinke? Of course he was a better player than those guys. But he played on a losing team. Yet according to Maisel, Dennis Dixon is going to be rewarded for his teams lack of depth (hell, they brought in a Leaf as the backup qb –never a good sign). Maisel wants to give Dixon the award for being the MVP of college football.

Honestly, Dixon has had a great year. But nothing like the year Tebow is having. Dixon is known as a qb who can both run and throw, but his numbers in both of those categories pale in comparison to Tebow’s. Let’s look at a little comparison (Tebow’s stats in bold, Dixon’s in italics):

1. Rush Yds: 749, 590
2. Yds/carry: 4.14, 5.62
3. Rush Tds: 20, 9
4. Pass Yds: 2870, 2129
5. Comp %: 68.5, 67.6
6. Tds/Ints: 26/6, 20/4

As is pretty clear from these stats, Tebow has had by far the better year. By far. It’s not even close. Why are we still discussing this? Just give Timmy T the Heisman already. The dude is a out and out player. And to offer a couple of more counters to Maisel’s argument – Tebow has played hurt, too. And I would argue that he is more valuable to Florida’s success than Dixon. Anyway, so here is what my hypothetical Heisman ballot would look like:

1. Timmy Tebow
2. Tim Tebow
3. T. Tebow
4. Timmy T.
5. Darren McFadden

Alright, well that’s all I got for right now. Quick turnaround with a lot of games on Friday, including LSU-Arkansas, which, of course, makes me nervous.