Here are our 10 Burning Questions as we head full speed into the second half of the 2009 season:
1. Why wouldn't Alabama let Tennessee wear Orange? In one of the stranger decisions this season, Alabama denied a request by Tennessee to wear its orange jerseys for Saturday's nationally-televised game (CBS) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. An NCAA rule change for 2009 allows both teams in a game to wear their dark jerseys if the home team approves. Tennessee thought it would be kind of cool to wear their orange jerseys while Alabama wore its traditional home crimson. Back in the days before every game was televised, the teams often did that when they traditionally met on the third Saturday of October. The SEC approved the request but Alabama said no. Tide athletic director Mal Moore told the Mobile Press-Register that Alabama simply wanted to stick with the tradition of the road team wearing white jerseys.
Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin could have put the Orange jerseys on his team anyway, but that would have resulted in a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff against the Vols.
"We're not good enough to do that," Kiffin said.
2. Do the Horned Frogs stumble in Provo? TCU coach Gary Patterson doesn't want to talk about the polls or the BCS standings. But the fact remains that if the Horned Frogs (6-0) are No. 8 in the BCS standings and if they can get past BYU (6-1) and quarterback Max Hall on Saturday in Provo, they have a real shot at running the table.
"We've had some hurdles, but this is a really big hurdle," Patterson told WFAA TV in Fort Worth.
Yes, it is. But this team is road tested. BYU is a tough place to play, but it's not tougher than Clemson, where TCU won 14-10 in a driving rain storm. TCU also flew all the way to Charlottesville and beat Virginia (30-14).
In Patterson's office there is a picture of a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the national championship. You can't get to the top of the pyramid, Patterson points out, unless you first win the conference championship.
3. Can Georgia Tech finally win in Charlottesville? The last time Georgia Tech won at Virginia, Scott Sisson made a field goal in the closing seconds to give the Yellow Jackets a 41-38 victory. It was one of the great games in the history of The Institute and propelled Georgia Tech, coached by Bobby Ross, to the 1990 UPI national championship.
Now Georgia Tech (6-1) is in position to make some more historical noise after a 28-23 upset of No. 4 Virginia Tech last Saturday in Atlanta. But standing in the way is a Virginia team (3-3, 2-0 ACC) team that has bounced back nicely after an 0-3 start.
"It's been a long time since we've won up there but I think our guys feel pretty good about it," Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said. "We know we're not good enough to play poorly and win. And we know to get to where we want to go we have to win on the road. Let's just get out there and see what happens."
Georgia Tech is on a four-game winning streak led by quarterback Josh Nesbitt, who has carried the ball 105 times in those four victories.
4. Houston Nutt really needs to beat his old school. Can he do it in Oxford? When this season started, Ole Miss was a sexy pick to win its first SEC championship since 1963. At the very least a lot of people thought the Rebels could get to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. Ole Miss is the only SEC West team that has never played in the conference championship game since it began in 1992.
But Ole Miss (4-2) has been something of a disappointment since losing at South Carolina and then getting handled pretty solidly by No. 2 Alabama on Oct. 10 in Oxford. While all of this has been going on Bobby Petrino has been quietly improving Arkansas (3-3), Nutt's former employer. The Razorbacks took Florida to the limit last Saturday in Gainesville before falling 23-20 on a last-second field goal. In short, Nutt really needs this game.
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"This is the biggest game of the year because it's the next one," Nutt said. "This is a big week for everybody."
5. Can Boston College break Notre Dame's heart again? There has always been a tension between the two leading Catholic institutions who play Division I-A football. The biggest dust-up came in 1993 when David Gordon kicked a 41-yard field goal in the final seconds to give the Eagles a 41-39 upset of the No. 1 Irish. It eventually killed Notre Dame's hopes of a national championship. Since their first meeting in 1975, Notre Dame and Boston College have played 18 times. The series is tied at 9-9 but the Eagles have won six straight. This one could also be big. At 4-2, which includes a close loss to USC, Notre Dame still has a shot at finishing in the top 14 and earning a spot in a BCS bowl. If Boston College could knock the Irish off, that hope would be all but dashed.
6. Can Tim Tebow beat his mentor? For three years Tim Tebow and Dan Mullen were tight. Mullen, Florida's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, helped turn Tebow into a Heisman Trophy winner in 2007 and a national champion quarterback in 2008. Now Mullen is the head coach at Mississippi State, which will host the No. 1 Gators on Saturday in Starkville. It will also be Mullen's first time to go head to head against his mentor, Urban Meyer, who hired Mullen at Bowling Green when Mullen was only 28 years old.
"He is intense and the thing that makes Dan unique is that he's smart," Meyer said. "I watch them and it is really good stuff. We better be ready."
7. How difficult will Saturday be for UConn? I know kids are resilient. But if I'm a player at Connecticut, I'm just not sure how I'm going to play football on Saturday at West Virginia. When a teammate like Jasper Howard dies so needlessly you have to wonder what in the world is going on. I didn't know the 20-year-old cornerback who was stabbed to death outside a party early Sunday morning, but how can your heart not ache? Bill Stewart, the West Virginia coach, was having a tough time this week. He knew that but for fate, he could be standing in Randy Edsall's shoes, trying to help an entire football team grieve and find a way to press on.
"I'm just sick for Randy and Jasper's family," said Stewart, whose university will honor Howard at the game. "My God, how short and sweet life is and what we take for granted."
Indeed.
8. Is Texas walking into a trap at Missouri? Texas has played a bunch of ugly games this season and last Saturday's 16-13 win over Oklahoma in Dallas was another shining example. But the Longhorns are 6-0, ranked No. 3 in the BCS, and pretty secure in the knowledge that if they win out and capture the Big 12 title, they will be in Pasadena for the BCS National Championship Game. But because the Longhorns and quarterback Colt McCoy have been pressing to find some continuity on offense, it follows that they are vulnerable to an upset, especially on the road at a place like Missouri.
But don't worry about McCoy.
"His evaluation is 6-0 and nobody over the last two years has been more valuable to their team than Colt McCoy," Coach Mack Brown said. "It is very important for us to send that message and the team knows that. Our team message is find a way to win."
9. Can Pittsburgh get to 7-1? A victory at home against South Florida would give Pittsburgh (6-1) its best start since 1982, when Dan Marino led the Panthers a 9-1 start before losing its their last regular season game to Penn State.
But Coach Dave Wannstedt is warning his team not to look too far down the road, which would include a BCS game if the Panthers run the table. That's because he remembers 2006, when Pittsburgh stated 6-1 and proceeded to lose its last five games to finish 6-6. Wannstedt said he didn't feel the need to remind his players of the 2006 collapse.
"This is a different football team. It's a different year," Wannstedt said. "Those things really have no bearing on what we're doing."
10. Can LSU finally find its offense? LSU is 5-1, with the only loss coming to No. 1 Florida (13-3) on Oct. 10. The Tigers are ranked No. 9 in the first BCS standings. And if LSU wins the rest of its games, the Tigers will probably get a rematch with Florida for the SEC championship. A win there might put LSU into the BCS Championship Game for the second time in three seasons. Still there is a lot of angst in the Bayou because of the LSU offense -- it really doesn't have one. LSU is 112th (out of 120 teams) in total offense in Division I-A (295 ypg).
Things have gotten so bad that some fans have called for the return of quarterback Jarrett Lee, who became their favorite whipping boy last season when he threw an incredible seven interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. Coach Les Miles said he is sticking with sophomore Jordan Jefferson for Saturday's game with Auburn.
"I like the development of our quarterback who is currently our starter," Miles said of Jefferson. Miles did say that the opportunity for Lee to play "may arise."
Miles said Jefferson may get a few more chances to throw down the middle of the field, something he and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton have resisted. Jefferson has only thrown 145 passes in six games. Only Florida's Tim Tebow has thrown fewer (110) among SEC starting quarterbacks.
Auburn (5-2), which has lost two straight after a 5-0 start, has not won in Baton Rouge since 1999.
