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Reviewing the National Scene: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

Heisman Contending QBs

Colt McCoy, Chase Daniel, Sam Bradford, and Tim Tebow all had big days. McCoy further solidified his status as the front-runner for the Heisman by going 38-45 for 391 yards and rushing for another 41.

The Bad

The Big East

Although West Virginia picked up an OOC win against Auburn, the conference's shot at having anything resembling an elite team went out the window when South Florida and Pittsburgh lost to Louisville and Rutgers, respectively. As for the Mountaineers, after an atrocious start, WVU looks to be right back in the mix of things and are my pick to do well down the stretch, but they are clearly not the RichRod-led teams of years past.

The Ugly

Auburn

I like Tommy Tuberville, so I hate to hear the rumblings about his status on the Plains. However, it would be hard to defend many of his decisions this year. First, he hired Tony Franklin. Then, he allowed Franklin to make Chris Todd, a player who is clearly not capable of playing well in the SEC, the starting QB and refused to pull the plug on Todd until after Todd had cost them a couple of games. Then, he fired Franklin midseason but refuses to give up on the spread offense despite the fact that it's just not working.

What's probably most perplexing is that against both Vandy and WVU, the Tigers had lots of success early running out of power formations. In both games, however,
Auburn reverted to shotgun spread formations and was then unable to move the ball. Memo to Tuberville: this is not working, and you're going to lose your job if you don't win a couple of games down the stretch. Run out of the I!