10 things I saw..............  

The next "big" defensive player in the nation could very well be UNC sophomore DT (1) Camaron Thomas. Thomas is 6'3'', 325 lbs., and strong as an oxe. He is still very raw and his technique (especially learning to play with better leverage) needs a lot of work, but Thomas was unblockable against Wake Forest, even when all ACC center Steve Justice was given the assignment.....What a win for UConn's (2) Randy Edsell, one of the most underrated coaches in the nation every year. Fitting that Edsell, who brought UConn from 1AA to 1A power, got his first signature win over Jim Leavitt, the coach lauded for doing a similarly difficult job in South Florida. Both are great coaches, hopefully now Edsell will get his due.....Wake Forest has themselves a real keeper in RB/WR (3) Josh Adams. The 6'0'' freshman is elusive and runs much harder that his 180 lbs. frame would indicate. Adams has been improving every week, and he is going to be an absolute superstar in the VERY near future.....Last year around this time I gave you South Carolina as a deep, super sleeper for the 2007 season and the Gamecocks made it all the way up to the top 6 before some key injuries derailed their season. For 2008 I'm going to give you (4) Michigan State. In what will be a very weak Big 10, the Spartans will return all their key offensive skill players, and some young and talented defenders. More on this later, but you heard it here first.....Bold prediction: Oregon's (5) Jonathan Stewart is the first running back taken in the 2008 draft, even ahead of Darren McFadden. Bolder prediction: taking Stewart ahead of McFadden will prove to be the right decision.....Speaking of McFadden, does anyone realize that teammate (6) Felix Jones is badly outplaying him this year? Despite getting 90 less carries than McFadden, Jones is only 130 yards and 3 TD behind his more ballyhooed teammate. Jones also leads McFadden in receiving yards and his otherworldly 8.8 yards per carry is a full 3.5 yards better than McFadden's.....Congratulations (7) Sylvester Croom. Croom has his Mississippi State team at 5-4 in the SEC (a huge accomplishment) with his four losses coming against LSU, Tennessee, at South Carolina, and at West Virginia. With wins over Auburn and now Kentucky, Croom has his program headed in the right direction.....The best defensive performance of the weekend belonged to the Wisconsin defensive backfield duo of (8) Jack Ikegwonu and (9) Allen Langford. The talented duo held Indiana's 6'7'' wideout James Hardy to a meager 17 yards on 4 catches, a far cry from the monster numbers we're all used to seeing from the, until now, uncoverable Hardy.....The best offensive performance of that day that nobody saw belongs to Arizona's talented QB (10) Willie Tuitama. The 6'3'', freakishly athletic Junior quarterback torched Washington (@ Washington!) to the tune of 510 yards passing (on 70% passing) and 5 TD. Tuitama is still haunted by inconsistency, but when he is on he's good enough to beat any team in the nation.