West Virginia’s Geno Smith is a Stud and More of the NCAA’s Best Performances This Weekend

In a perfect world when the best teams in college football all win, but play kind of boring, ho-hum types of games they would drop in the rankings. True, any team can win on any given day, but if you are supposed to be the cream of the crop you need to act like it!

Not too many of the AP top 10 did this week. Ole Miss is decent, but No.1 Alabama should have done better than 33-14. No.3 LSU dropped a spot after the test that Towson put them through (38-22). South Florida isn't bad for a smaller school, but No.4 Florida State still should have done better than 30-17. Don't even get me started about No.5 Georgia having to put up 51 in order to beat Tennessee (51-44) or South Carolina's poor excuse of a first half (before rolling Kentucky 38-17).

Get Good with Geno!

If it wasn't for Geno Smith and the West Virginia Mountaineers, the top 10 would have been a real drag this week. The Heisman frontrunner accounted for one half of a record setting offensive day in the Big 12 (1507 combined yards on offense; Baylor's Nick Florence directed the other end).

How good was Geno? The man threw more touchdowns than he had incompletions! On the day he was 45-51 for 656 yards and eight touchdowns. Smith led the Mountaineers to victory in their Big 12 debut 70-63.

Back Down to Earth for Stanford

I have to feel a little for Stanford fans. After losing their head coach one year and then their QB the next no one was too sure they'd be worth much this season; you can't just replace Andrew Luck. However, after they beat USC they appeared to have no need for luck, metaphorical or otherwise.

They should have used some of the metaphorical variety against Washington Thursday night. A so-so Husky defense bottled up Stepfan Taylor and didn't allow Josh Nunes much freedom either en route to 17-13 Huskies upset.

Longhorns Look Legit!

The best games of the weekend were outside of the top 10. Texas faced a big test against the best offense in the nation from Oklahoma State. Texas has been winning with a lot of help from its defense, but not so much on Saturday.

Oklahoma State racked up close to 600 yards of offense, but only got 36 points out of it. David Ash finally made a strong case to be the starter going forward for the Longhorns throwing for 281 yards and three touchdowns en route to a 41-36 win.

Beware the Buckeyes!

If I were a betting man I would put money down on whether or not half the teams in the top 25 fear what Ohio State is going to do next year after they serve this silly ban this season. Urban Meyer has a heck of a player in young Braxton Miller. The future (serious) Heisman trophy candidate was 16-23 for 179 yards with one TD and one INT. He added another 135 on the ground on 23 carries.

Michigan State's Andrew Maxwell had a decent day throwing for 269 yards and a touchdown completing a little more than half his passes, but it wasn't enough as the Buckeyes went on to win 17-16.

Last Man with the Ball Wins!

Another future Heisman candidate did his best to prove his team is legit. Oregon State's Sean Mannion was 29-45 for 433 yards and threw three touchdowns to go with a 161 yard night from running back Storm Woods in an exciting game against the Arizona Wildcats.

After a first half that saw the Beavers get out to a 17-7 lead the two teams exchanged the lead six times in the second half before the Beavers kept it for good courtesy of a nine yard touchdown pass from Mannion to Connor Hamlett to make the score 38-35.

Run Nebraska Run!

Teams that have No. 22 Nebraska on their schedule may want to be careful of these guys. Taylor Martinez is an underrated QB that can run the ball pretty well when one of the many running backs in the Cornhuskers stable isn't toting the rock.

He did a pretty good job of that against the Wisconsin Badgers gaining 100 yards on nine carries to go with another 182 in the air (17-29). Rex Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah combined for an additional 152 on the ground to help lead Nebraska over Montee Ball and the Badgers in a close game, 30-27.