2011 NCAA FOOTBALL WEEK 3 RECAP

DOWN GOES AUBURN!

Memo to all defending national champions: You will lose when you play at Clemson’s Death Valley.

The Auburn Tigers became the third team to realize this fact when they lost to Clemson 38-24 on Saturday. Clemson previously knocked off Georgia (1981) and Georgia Tech (1991) at home a year after both won a national title.

Early on, it did not look as if Clemson would pull the feat after Auburn jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

However, Clemson sophomore quarterback Tajh Boyd settled down in a big way, giving Clemson the lead for good in the third. Boyd threw for 386 yards and four touchdowns on 30-for-42 passing to lead Clemson in its first win over Auburn since 1951.

The Clemson offense was equally as impressive, gashing Auburn for 624 yards and converting on 14-of-18 third down tries.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said of the win, “I couldn’t think of a better place to end the streak in Death Valley, South Carolina, baby,”

Auburn will try to regroup this week against Florida Atlantic.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS—IN FOOTBALL?

You are probably wondering why I am writing about an Oklahoma State 59-33 victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

The reason was that this game’s kickoff was pushed back from its original 9:10 p.m. time, to 12:16 a.m. the next morning due to weather conditions.

The game did not end until 3:35 a.m. local time and despite the win, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy was not too thrilled about playing deep into the night.

“I’m not real excited about playing at that time, to be honest with you,” Gundy said. “There comes a certain point in the middle of the morning your body’s used to functioning. Whether young people stay up late at night or not, they don’t exert themselves at 2 and 3 in the morning.”

As for the game itself, the Cowboys led 45-6 over the Golden Hurricane at one point and cruised the rest of the way through.

The thing that went wrong for Oklahoma State was that junior wide receiver Justin Blackmon saw his streak of 14 straight 100-yard receiving games snapped. Blackmon did however catch seven passes for 57 yards and a touchdown.

SHOWDOWNS IN THE SUNSHINE STATE

The state of Florida was home to three good showdowns Saturday, so let’s break them down.

1. Florida dominates Tennessee in The Swamp: Florida might have beaten Tennessee by the score of 33-23, but the final score definitely was not an indication of how much better the Gators were than the Volunteers on this day. Florida held Tennessee to -9 rushing yards and led 30-7 at one point. Gator senior running back Chris Rainey was a dual threat in the passing and running games, as he ran for 108 yards and caught two passes for 104 yards.

2. The IneligiBOWL: Both Ohio State and Miami grabbed many headlines during the offseason leading to this shirt in the anticipation of the game. However, the Hurricanes beat the Buckeyes 24-6 in a complete reversal of last year’s game. Miami sophomore Lamar Miller ran for 184 yards as Ohio State’s passing game never quite got going. Braxton Miller and Joe Bauserman combined to throw for 35 yards on 4-for-18 passing.

3. Florida State played well, but Oklahoma hangs on: The marquee game of the week between Florida State and Oklahoma was much closer than last year’s matchup, but the Sooners still won 23-13. The Seminoles did get up for the big stage though, holding the high-powered Oklahoma offense to 310 yards. However, Florida State lost quarterback E.J. Manuel and wide receiver Kenny Shaw in the game and could not hang on in the end to Oklahoma.

WEEK 3 PREDICTIONS

LSU 27, Mississippi St. 24 (LSU won)
Miami 27, Ohio St. 24 (Miami won)
Oklahoma 35, Florida St. 31 (Oklahoma won)

WEEK: 3-0 (1.000)
SEASON: 6-3 (.667)

PREDICTIONS FOR WEEK 4

No. 3 Alabama 37, No. 14 Arkansas 27
No. 7 Oklahoma St. 38, No. 8 Texas A&M 35
No. 11 Florida St. 21, No. 21 Clemson 17
No. 2 LSU 24, No. 16 West Virginia 10