College Football Review Week 7

Game of the Week: Michigan-38 @ Penn State- 40 (4 OTs)

            A game that Michigan seemed to have locked up on the road in Happy Valley turned into the beginning of the legend that is (or could be) Christian Hackenberg. This was a monumental win for the Penn State program under Bill O’brien.  A season ago, Penn State shocked the world with their 8 win season despite of all the restrictions, but what the program did not have was that statement win. This year Penn State battled back from 10 points down against Michigan to win the game in 4 OTs. Wins like this will continue to attract recruits especially when Penn State’s top recruit (Hackenberg, no. 1 QB prospect) orchestrates the win.

Player of the Week: Johnny Manziel (31-49, 346 yard 0-1, 19 carries 124 yards and 2 TDs)

            It was by no means Johnny Manziel’s best game of his career, nor was it the best game of the year, in fact, one could argue it was one of his worst. So why does he get the nod? A&M’s 41-38 win over Ole Miss in Oxford was telling for Johnny Manziel for many reasons, where other college giants stumbled this week (Michigan, Stanford, Georgia) this was a game, that A&M was going to lose. From the get go, A&M was unable to match the speed, and the different directions the Ole Miss offense was running in, Ole Miss had the crowd behind them, on a beautiful fall night in the deep South, the stars were aligning for a team with such high hopes this season (well for Ole Miss anyway) and this was going to be the game they broke out…then enter Johnny Manziel

            I have always been critical of Manziel, not so much because of his actions off the field (which are childish, immature and representative of his character) but what he is able to do on the field. But in this game Manziel was able to keep his poise (by far his best attribute) and make NFL throws routinely throughout the game. You could see Manziel reading defenses, throwing to every route (not just seams and hitches, but outs, posts, etc.)  run when appropriate not just by design, and deliver in a clutch hostile environment. 
            I am still not quite a believer in “Johnny Football” at the next level, but games like these will convince more and more.

Disappointment of the Week: Stanford & Georgia

            Michigan probably should be in this category as well, but even the most die-hard Wolverines fans were not speaking of national title hopes based on the way they have played this season. But Stanford and even Georgia with the one loss already, had high title hopes both dashed by unsuspecting opponents. Stanford going on the road to Utah proved to be a shocking surprise as the offense could not get rolling against an upstart Utes progam who nearly beat UCLA a week ago. Georgia on the other hand was at home, against a 5-0 Missouri team who many doubted if they were real or not (projected to finish last by many “experts” in the SEC). Checking in on the game, Missouri was up 28-10 in Athens and then the ‘dawgs came barking’ as Georgia came back in the 4^th to make it 28-26. I was all ready to make Georgia “My Game of the Week” once again, but then Murray went old-school, threw a terrible pick and the Georgia title hopes came to a crashing end. Both the Cardinals and the Bulldogs suffered hard losses this week from two unexpected, and new rivals.

Game to Watch: Florida State @ Clemson, 8:00 pm ABC

            You will hear it all week, “This is as if College Football had a Playoff” both Clemson and Florida State have title hopes this season but after Saturday only one will have their hopes still alive. “Famous Jameis” Heisman campaign will be on display in Death Valley, and once again you will hear “Is this finally Clemson’s year?” as Tajh Boyd and company looks to take out a big rival.

2014 NFL Mock Draft (with trades)

Pick	Team	Player	Position	College
1	Jacksonville	Teddy Bridgewater	QB	Louisville
2	Cleveland (trade: New York G)	Marcus Mariota	QB	Oregon
3	Tampa Bay	Tajh Boyd	QB	Clemson
4	Minnesota	Jake Mathews	OT	Texas A&M
5	Pittsburgh	Taylor Lewtan	OT	Michigan
6	St. Louis	Mike Evans	WR	Texas A&M
7	St. Louis (from Washington)	Brett Hundley	QB	UCLA
8	Buffalo	Anthony Barr	OLB/DE	UCLA
9	New York G (trade: Cleveland)	Austin Seferian-Jenkins	TE	Washington
10	Houston	Louis Nix	DT	Notre Dame
11	Atlanta	CJ Mosley	LB	Alabama
12	San Diego	Sammy Watkins	WR	Clemson
13	New York J	Marqise Lee	WR	USC
14	Carolina	Cyrus Kouandijo	OT	Alabama
15	Oakland	Johnny Manziel	QB	Texas A&M
16	Arizona	Eric Ebron	TE	North Carolina
17	Miami	Jake Mathews	WR	Vanderbilt
18	Baltimore	Bradley Roby	CB	Ohio State
19	Chicago	Jason Verrett	CB	TCU
20	Dallas	James Hurst	OT	North Carolina
21	Tennessee	Ifo Ekrpe-Olomu	CB	Oregon
22	Philadelphia	Antonio Richardson	OT	Tennessee
23	Detroit	Cyril Richardson	G/T	Baylor
24	New York G (trade: Cleveland)	Scott Crichton	LB/DE	Oregon State
25	Cincinnati	Aaron Colvin	CB	Oklahoma
26	Green Bay	Marcus Robinson	CB	Florida
27	San Francisco	Bishop Sankey	RB	Washington
28	Kansas City	AJ McCarron	QB	Alabama
29	New England	Anthony Johnson	DT	LSU
30	New Orleans	Khalil Mack	OLB/DE	Buffalo
31	Seattle	Lache Seastrunk	RB	Baylor
32	Denver	Trent Murphy	OLB/DE	Stanford

Round 2

33	Jacksonville	DeAnthony Thomas	RB	Oregon
34	New York G	Christian Jones	LB	Florida State
35	Tampa Bay	Brandon Coleman	WR	Rutgers
36	Minnesota	Louchiez Purifoy	CB	Florida
37	Pittsburgh	Jackson Jeffcoat	DE	Texas
38	St. Louis	Aaron Murray	QB	Georgia
39	Washington	Josh Huff	WR	Oregon
40	Buffalo	Kyle Fuller	CB	Virginia Tech
41	Cleveland	Cameron Irving	OT	Florida State
42	Houston	Stephan Morris	QB	Miami
43	Atlanta	Ka’Deem Carey	RB	Arizona
44	San Diego	Odell Beckham Jr.	WR	LSU
45	New York J	Jace Amaro	TE	Texas Tech
46	Carolina	HaHa Clinton Dix	S	Alabama
47	Oakland	Donte Moncrief	WR	Ole Miss