Cinderella, Big Mo, and Rudy

Cinderella has left the building.

While the rest of the college football world was hanging on every play in Columbus, Ohio (did you hear that the Buckeyes played Michigan this weekend? It kinda slipped under the radar), I kept one eye on the dismantling of two of my favorite 2006 teams, Wake Forest and Rutgers. Mind you, I have no connection whatsoever to either program. I'm merely a sucker for underdogs.


Have no fear...

Neither team is completely dead, or even Mostly Dead. But both got exposed. Wake, one week after humiliating Florida State in Tallahassee (first win there since 1959, first home shutout for the 'Noles since 1973, stop me if you've heard this already), ran into the hottest team in the ACC, Virginia Tech. The schizophrenic Hokies couldn't run the ball - and in fact lost Brandon Ore to an injury early in the game - but Sean Glennon (who?) made up for it with 252 efficient passing yards and two scores. Tack on a 35-yard fumble return for a touchdown and a Hokie defense that allowed only 62 rushing yards to the one of the best running teams in the conference, and voila - a fifth straight win for Va Tech. Beamer Ball lives. And you thought it was Mostly Dead.


"You picked Wake to beat Virginia Tech? Oy, you and that idiot on Sun Sports. Go fix me a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich."

The good news: Wake is still in the ACC Championship Game hunt, needing a road win over Maryland next week to book tickets for Jacksonville. The bad news: Jim Grobe's name is now attached to every coaching vacancy and near-vacancy in America, including South Carolina, which I'll get to in a minute.

Rutgers really broke my heart, if only because I was looking forward to somebody - anybody - becoming the fly in the BCS ointment by going unbeaten (note to Boise State: love the Smurf Turf, but you're not in this conversation yet. Something about computers. I'll get back to you). The Fighting Schianos of Exit 9 got tossed by Cincinnati, a team led by a backup senior quarterback who had never started a game. In other news, USF gets a measure of an apology from me - I guess the Bulls' road loss to the Bearcats is slightly less embarassing today.

Two games left for the Scarlet Knights: at home vs. Syracuse, the team that just got off the schneid against UConn this week, and a season-ending roadie at West Virginia, which disembowled Pittsburgh on Thursday night. Win out, Rutgers, and you too can experience the joy of reading dozens of unsubstantiated rumors about your head coach's next job. As if that hasn't happened already.

On the home front, we told you on Friday's Rec Warehouse College Kickoff show that Western Michigan would have something for the Seminoles, and they did. Bobby Bowden has been harping on turnovers all season long, and Saturday was a perfect example of why he gets so feisty about it during those press conferences on Sun Sports: the game was lost for the Broncos when Lawrence Timmons ran an INT back for a score at the end of the third quarter.

At the time, Florida State led 14-13, with Western Michigan carrying Big Mo in their saddlebags. Timmons runs a pick-6, and the score is 21-13. Next possession for the Broncos, head coach Bill Cubit - now feeling the heat, knowing that this epic road upset is about to slip away - makes the bonehead call of the day, going for it on fourth down after taking a time out to think about it. Not only did the Broncos fail to convert, they burned the TO, which killed their last-gasp drive in the fourth quarter. Next FSU possession after the failed fourth-down try, Xavier Lee finds Greg Carr in the end zone for another TD. Score: 28-13. Time off the clock, from the Timmons pick to the Carr catch: three minutes and 44 seconds. Swing: 15 points. That's why coaches hate turnovers.

More proof? The top four teams in the ACC in turnover margin are, in order, Boston College, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech. BC and Wake are 1-2 in the Atlantic Division; Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech are 1-2 in the Coastal. The bottom four ACC teams in turnover margin - Florida State, Duke, North Carolina, and NC State - have a combined conference record of 6-24. In fact, the conference standings mirror the conference turnover rankings almost to the letter. There's no more accurate statistical barometer of success in college football than the ratio of giveaways to takeaways.

On the topic of "away," the hottest internet rumor of the moment has Steve Spurrier on top of Miami's list to replace Larry Coker. The Miami message boards are moving fast and furious on this. I'm not sure where to go with it.

On the surface, it makes perfect sense. Spurrier is notoriously impatient, and the rebuilding project at South Carolina can't possibly be moving quickly enough to suit his tastes, no matter how much money the school is pouring into the program. The plus-factors at Miami are numerous: best recruiting grounds in top recruiting state literally on the doorstep, good golf, good weather, great history, tradition of winning. Yet, for some reason, I can't convince myself this will actually happen.

One thing we do know: Larry Coker is cooked, as is Chuck Amato at NC State. Coaching changes, like the rankings, will play themselves out.

One last thing: when Urban Meyer put scout team senior Tim Higgins into the game against Western Carolina on Saturday, I wondered aloud in the studio if Higgins was Florida's version of "Rudy." Twenty minutes later, Meyer invoked Rudy's name when describing his decision to give the 5'-7'', 162-pound history major a shot at glory on Senior Day.

Damn, I thought. I should be a sportscaster on TV. Wait a minute...