NCAA Football Roundup: Changes in AP Poll, Heisman Race, Upcoming Games

In this week’s polls, there was little movement as compared to previous ones but South Carolina and West Virginia did suffer from large falls after their routs.

With Kansas State’s dominant win over West Virginia, its quarterback Collin Klein jumped ahead of quarterback Geno Smith as the top Heisman contender. There’s a lot of time left to see more changes in the top spot but Klein’s numbers are pretty impressive.

Looking ahead to Week 9 games, there’s some intriguing ones.

‘Bama Still No. 1 in AP Poll

Alabama QB AJ McCarron

No surprise here as Alabama is still the top school in AP polls. This represents its eighth straight week as No. 1 and a new school record for this accolade.

Looking ahead to the Tide’s schedule, it becomes more challenging. They will face ranked conference division foes including No. 13 Mississippi State, No. 6 LSU and No. 22 Texas A&M. Unfortunately for Alabama, they will play LSU on its home turf and we know the Tigers don’t lose very often at home.

Oregon sits in the second spot for a fifth straight week, with the Florida Gators are in the third seat after its 44-11 rout of South Carolina.

Kansas State is No. 4; Notre Dame at No. 5 and LSU is No. 6.

Oregon State with its 6-0 record (a first since 1907) is now No. 7, followed by a rising Oklahoma (No. 8), a declining Ohio State (No. 9) and a re-energized USC to complete the Top 10.

South Carolina took a dive from No. 9 to No. 17 along with West Virginia going from No. 17 down to No. 25.

Will Alabama stay on top and win the BCS National Championship? The bettors give the Tide 6 to 5 odds, followed by Oregon at 7 to 2.

Klein Moves Ahead in the Heisman Race

Kansas State QB Collin Klein

With Saturday’s 55-14 dominant win over West Virginia, it brought Kansas State’s quarterback Collin Klein a nice prize: he has moved up as the leading Heisman contender, jumping over fellow quarterback Geno Smith.

Against the Mountaineers on Saturday, Klein went 19 for 21 with a career-high 323 yards and three touchdowns. Factor in this player’s running game and you can add 41 yards from the ground and four additional touchdowns.

Yes, this does equal seven scores for the day.

There had once been a day that Smith had eight touchdowns in a game. That was back on Sept. 29 against Baylor but it appears his glory days may have ended thanks to his weak defense.

For Klein, he has now amassed 1,402 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions in seven games to-date. Don’t forgot to tag on his running game: this includes 565 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Smith has moved down to the second spot. His game on Saturday wasn’t so great: 21 for 32, 143 yards and one touchdown.

Even with a second week of falling numbers, Smith still has 2,414 passing yards this season and can now add two interceptions to his stat line with two against Kansas State.

While it was a disappointing week for Smith, he wasn’t alone. Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller had 160 yards of offense but his game was over in the third quarter thanks to an undisclosed injury. Additional details have not been released.

Texas A&’M’s quarterback Johnny Manziel had a rough outing against LSU. He was 29 for 56, 276 yards and three picks. He entered the game as league’s top rusher but he had 17 carries for 27 yards on Saturday.

CBS Sports has Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o as No. 3, followed by Miller at No. 4 and Alabama’s quarterback A.J. McCarron at No. 5.

Week 9 Games

This Saturday has a host of great games and includes the following:

No. 21 Cincinnati vs. No. 16 Louisville (-4.5)

No. 2 Florida (-6.5) vs. No. 11 Georgia

No. 17 Texas Tech vs. No. 4 Kansas State (-7.5)

No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (-10)

No. 12 Mississippi St. vs. No. 1 Alabama (-23.5)