No Halves Off In College Football

Teams can't afford to slack off for even for a quarter

College Football Preview: Week 9

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> B.J.: Exterior Designs  |  Amsinger: Weekly Picks  |  Sorenson: 10 Questions  |   Braff: Coaches With Guts Trev: No Time To Dog It  |  Ohio State Offense Getting Better   |  Hart: Another Loony Weekend > Blackburn: Same Lights, New Show In Blacksburg  |  Palm: Road To The BCS > Caparell: Penn State Knows It's Got To Be Close  |  Crystal Ball: Predictions

Top 25 Game Previews ----- THURSDAY ----- No. 2 Boston College at No. 8 Virginia Tech ----- SATURDAY ----- No. 1 Ohio State at Penn State No. 9 USC at No. 5 Oregon No. 6 West Virginia at No. 25 Rutgers No. 11 USF at UConn No. 18 Cal at No. 7 Arizona State Nebraska at No. 17 Texas Iowa State at No. 12 Missouri Mississippi State at No. 14 Kentucky No. 21 Virginia at N.C. State Mississippi at No. 23 Auburn  Team Capsules  ---------- Air Force Akron Alabama Arizona Arizona St Arkansas Arkansas St Army Auburn BYU Ball St Baylor Boise St Boston College Bowling Green Buffalo California Central Mich Cincinnati Clemson Colorado Colorado St Connecticut Duke East Carolina Eastern Mich Florida Florida St Fresno St Georgia Georgia Tech Hawaii Houston Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Iowa St Kansas Kansas St Kent State Kentucky LSU La Tech Louisville Marshall Maryland Memphis Miami Fla Miami Ohio Michigan Michigan St Middle Tenn Minnesota Mississippi Mississippi St Missouri NC State Navy Nebraska Nevada New Mexico New Mexico St North Carolina North Texas Northern Ill Northwestern Notre Dame Ohio Ohio State Oklahoma Oklahoma St Oregon Oregon St Penn St Pittsburgh Purdue Rice Rutgers SMU San Diego St San Jose St South Carolina South Florida Southern Miss Stanford Syracuse TCU Temple Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech Toledo Troy St Tulane Tulsa UAB UCF UCLA UL-Lafayette UL-Monroe UNLV USC UTEP Utah Utah St Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest Washington Washington St West Virginia Western Mich Wisconsin Wyoming ----------

Oct. 24, 2007

By Trev Alberts

Special to CSTV.com

	TREV ALBERTS Trev Alberts is a football analyst for CSTV and CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- TREV's MAILBAG 2/20: Show Some Patience 1/23: Cutcliffe Can Be Successful At Duke 1/16: To Each His Own 1/10: Watching Different Games 1/2: Brennan's Sugar Performance Won't Hurt Him 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 12/19: Rodriguez Licking His Chops 12/12: Buckeyes Have A Chip 12/05: Missouri Got Hosed 11/28: Some Coaching Changes Ludicrous 11/21: Love Woodson's Poise 11/14: Dixon Can Be Contained, But Not Stopped 11/7: Pac-10 Far From Overrated 10/31: Appalachian State Loss An Afterthought 10/24: No Halves Off In College Football 10/17: Nebraska In Good Hands With The Doctor 10/10: Trojans Still A Player 10/03: Don't Hate On South Florida 09/26: Hangovers Part of The Game 09/19: Nebraska's Performance Disappointing 09/12: DeSean As Explosive As It Gets 09/05: Tebow Impressive In First Start 08/29: ACC QBs Better Than Advertised 08/24: McFadden Not Quite In Bush's Class 08/17: From Overrated To Underrated 08/10: Florida's Overrated 08/03: Spurrier's Got That Twinkle 07/27: Big East Deserves More Credit 07/20: Badgers Playing For Second, At Best 07/13: Gators Repeat? Not So Fast 07/06: Pac-10 Still Owned By USC 06/29: One Big's Better Than The Other 06/22: WAC Ain't All That 06/15: Text Messaging Ban Excessive 06/08: Fifth Year of Eligibility A Good Idea 05/25: Hot Seat Warming Up For Some Coaches 05/18: Big Ten Falling Behind SEC 05/11: 'Canes, Seminoles Have Ways To Go 05/07: Sleeping Dawgs 04/20: Look Out For South Florida 04/13: Boise's Johnson Has No Shot At '07 Heisman 03/30: The Best Atmosphere In College Football Belongs To... 03/23: Tough To Compare QBs With Different Styles 03/16: Top Coaches Need To Be Appreciated 03/9: Woodson Nation's Most Indispensable QB 03/2: Things Just Not The Same At Nebraska 02/23: Rodriguez Does Well With His Chips 02/16: Believe It Or Not, I Don't Have An FSU Agenda 02/09: Yes, I Do Know College Football 02/02: Of Course Huskers Make Adjustments 01/26: Coach Alberts In Lincoln? No Chance 01/19: Can't Begrudge Kids For Leaving Early 01/03: Saban Heads to Alabama 12/29: Some Coaching Changes Come As Surprise 12/22: Too Many Bowl Games Way of Life 12/15: Who Has The Best Talent In The Nation? 12/7: Who's The More Deserving National Title Participant? 12/1: Irish Don't Deserve BCS Bid 11/16: Ohio State the Better Team 11/9: Give the Big East Its Due 11/2: What's Wrong With D at USC? 10/26: Where Will Bowden Be in '07? 10/20: Who Belongs in the Top 20? FOOTBALL 1/8: In Surprise, Ohio State Beats Itself 1/6: Good Start Vital For Buckeyes 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 11/23: LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season 11/19: Give It Some Time 10/13: Give Kentucky All The Credit 10/7: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves 9/1: Michigan's Loss Nothing Short of Stunning 6/19: Hoeppner Did Things His Way 4/27: Unexpected Reigned In 1994 02/22: Combine Experience Can Be Eye Opening 02/08: Signing Day Observations 02/07: Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane 11/17: Remebering Schembechler 9/5: One Week Is Just One Week 8/25: The Return Of Trev

You've got college football questions and CSTV football analyst Trev Alberts has answers and opinions. Each week Alberts will be answering questions and queries on the world of college football. So if you've got a question for Trev? Just ask him.

Do you read anything into Oklahoma's struggles against Iowa State? There was no reason why OU shouldn't have blown them out by 40. - Kevin Greenwald, Tulsa

I don't read anything into it at all. I watched the game and you have to know that it's a great environment sitting in Ames, Iowa. And when you get a team coming in as highly ranked as Oklahoma was, for Ames, Iowa that's about as good of an atmosphere as you could every have.

You're walking into a place that has a team which was extremely motivated to show that they can play against a big time school like Oklahoma. And you're a team that has nothing to lose so you're going to try some different and crazy things. It was one of those games that you walk out of happy that you won, especially with what's happened this year in college football.

I think Oklahoma is a really good team. I would say that Bob Stoops could use the Iowa State game, as well as the second half against Colorado, to show his Sooners that they aren't so good that they can just show up, play for a half and go on cruise control. The current climate in college football is you better play for four quarters. Oklahoma is no different. There have been a lot of good teams that have learned that lesson. USC did against Stanford, and they almost did a week before against Washington.

If Kansas goes undefeated, are they in the national championship game, assuming there are not three or more undefeated teams? - Allan, Florida

I think that's the one scenario no one is talking about. Of course we're all talking about, "What are we going to do when we have nothing but one and two loss teams?" Nobody is contemplating the scenario of having multiple undefeated teams. It's pretty reasonable to think Ohio State will finish the season undefeated. I think it's probably pretty unreasonable to think Arizona State and Boston College will finish undefeated.

I will tell you if Kansas goes undefeated - and remember, they have to play in a conference championship game - and plays Ohio State in the national championship, nobody in college football would accept that. The AP would be giving out their own national championship again, which would force further changes to the BCS.

What kind of game will it take for Matt Ryan to show that he's the top Heisman candidate at Virginia Tech this week? - Dennis, Connecticut

You have to win. Go on the road, face pressure, complete throws, don't turn the ball over and your team has to rally around you to win. He doesn't have to throw for 400 yards. Just manage the game well, don't turn the ball over and have your team win.

People are already questioning if Boston College is for real. If they go on the road and beat Virginia Tech they've earned that respect. They did it last year, except it came at home and they dominated Tech. If they do it this time around, then I think it's basically Matt Ryan, Tim Tebow and Andre' Woodson for me.