Not Exactly North Texas

So Ohio St. won the big game 24-7 in Austin, confirming their #1 ranking. Texas quickly found out OSU is a little better than North Texas. Colt McCoy still has a lot of growing up to do. Texas needs to find a way to throw the ball downfield more. I thought Texas got outcoached as well as outplayed. OSU got killed by the option and swing pass last week against Northern Illinois. The Texas drive that ended in the Billy Pittman fumble consisted of mostly option and running on the edge which OSU had trouble stopping again. But after that drive, Texas went away from it. Troy Smith played a Heisman-like game, he showed off a strong arm. Most of his incompletions were drops. And what's with everyone saying, "Anthony Gonzalez is developing into a sound receiver." He already was a solid receiver last year. The OSU defense played better but the secondary still missed a lot of tackles and they don't fight off blocks very well. Both teams have placekicking issues, the two missed field goals weren't even close.

Interesting day of football to say the least:

• Oh Miami. 31-all, 15 seconds left and Nathan Parseghian's 39 yard field goal attempt is blocked. Purdue goes onto win in overtime 38-31. Despite the loss, Mike Kokal threw for 354 yards and 4 TDs. Ryne Robinson caught 10 balls for 169 yards, one of 10 receivers to catch balls, a far cry from last week. The defense forced 3 turnovers, but gave up too many big plays. But, this is a young team that has improved a lot over the course of 2 weeks. They will be a force in the MAC.
• Speaking of the MAC, Akron got the big non-conference win, beating NC State 20-17 with a Dennis Kennedy TD run on the last play of the game. Gutsy call by coach JD Brookhart to go for the win instead of kicking the field goal and going to overtime. Congrats to the Zips. Chuck Amato's leash in Raleigh just got a little bit shorter.
• Surprise of the day in the MAC: Ohio 35 Northern Illinois 23. When's the last time an OU and/or Frank Solich coached team threw for 332 yards?!?!?! Garrett Wolfe rushed for 196 yards in a losing cause.
• Buffalo took BG to 3 overtimes in BG before losing. Ball St. had Indiana down 23-7 before losing 24-23. Western Michigan took it to Toledo 31-10. There is growing parity in the MAC which is a good thing.
• Florida St. needed 2 fourth quarter touchdowns to come back and beat Troy 24-17. Tennessee held on at home to beat Air Force 31-30. Drew Tate couldn't go for Iowa today with an ab strain. Iowa needed overtime to win at Syracuse 20-13.
• And one week after beating Colorado, Montana St. lost to Chardon St. 35-24. Talk about the ultimate hangover game. A strange day of football.

Maria Sharapova defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in straight sets to win the US Open, her 2nd major title. Sharapova finally looks to have stopped growing, which affected her game last year. Her big serve was working and her inconsistent forehand was not so tonight. I don't think it's fair to compare her to Anna Kournikova. 1. I think she's more attractive than Anna. 2. She wins tournaments. 3. She really wants to win, she's about tennis first and foremost. I do like the I Am Pretty commercial, especially John McEnroe's little part. In the men's final tomorrow, it's Roddick/Federer. Just as Sharapova was the most impressive woman in NYC, Roddick has the been most impressive male this summer. Jimmy Connors has him hitting down the line backhands, staying aggressive, and retruning serve better. Federer has been a little off. Even when he won in Toronto, he didn't dominate.

These weekends go by too quickly.