What we learned this week in college football: Week 6

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Apologies for being late this week. Busy weekend. But no excuses. I'm going to play like a champion late in the game.

Anyway, Week 6 was not exactly the week for marquis matchups in the top 25. Florida at LSU was the big game of the week, and let's face it, who outside of the bayou thought that LSU had a chance of winning that game? Even with a very good defense capable of shutting down the Gators, LSU's offense continues to lack any kind of identity and while Tim Tebow gets all of the attention when it comes to Florida, it's the defense that could make a more legitimate claim of being the best in the nation than Tebow. Sure enough, the defense was the difference. The Gators sacked Jordan Jefferson five times and held LSU to 162 yards of total offense. And while we're on the subject of the Gators, let's move on to what we learned this week

Urban Meyer doesn't care about what happens to his players beyond what they can do for him at Florida.
Wow. I can understand wanting to have Tim Tebow play in what probably is the biggest game of your season, but you would also think that Meyer's play calling would involve trying to protect a 22-year-old who suffered a fairly serious brain injury. Florida's offense is based on threat of the quarterback running with the football, which is what made it hard to believe the Gators would be able to work as well with John Brantley, who is more of a pocket passer. I can understand using Tebow in the running game to accentuate the threat of him moving the football with his legs, but utilizing him as the team's leading rusher? Meyer had Tebow run the ball like he had never been injured having him carry the ball 17 times, one more than actual runner Jeffery Demps. So for all the talk Meyer mouthed about doing what's best for Tebow, he proved it was all empty words.

Michigan hasn't arrived quite yet, but Iowa is here to stay
Iowa is the only undefeated team remaining in the Big 10 and has experienced a meteoric rise though the ranking to No. 11. But after beating Penn State, the Buckeyes almost faltered against Arkansas State, pulling out a 24-21 victory. Even though Michigan isn't the Big 10 power it once was, the Wolverines are a team that has been giving opponents fits all year. They beat Notre Dame in the final seconds of the game, then lost their next two games by a combined eight points. Michigan is a legitimate conference opponent and Iowa proving they can come out on top of a close one adds even more credibility to their ranking.

Mississippi wasn't the only overrated team coming out of the SEC
Sure, we can talk about the embarrassing way Ole Miss lost to Alabama, but I think at this point we all know that Ole Miss was not the team the pollsters thought it was. Georgia, on the other hand, has been a bit of a surprise. Dropping games to Oklahoma State and LSU could at least be considered understandable, considering the quality of the opponent. But getting blown out by Tennessee is not acceptable. And with Florida coming up in two weeks, it's very possible the Bulldogs will be a four-loss team heading into the stretch run. This is assuming they can beat Vanderbilt. Quite the fall for a team ranked 13th at the beginning of the season.

Boston College's defense is truly overrated
The Eagles went into Week 6 with a defense that was ranked high in team defense. They had given up over 900 yards in their previous two games, but there was still reason to be impressed with the unit. In those two games they held two fairly decent offenses to 21 points or less through three quarters. But against a good offense, Boston College crumbled. They gave up yards, as they had in the past, but Virginia Tech turned those yards into points and a lot of them. What was possibly most surprising was the fact that the secondary was the most victimized, giving up 17.1 yards per pass play. Just plain ugly.