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the difference between "team" and "program" is usually illustrated in X's and O's as a college football season matures -- often around game 8 or 9, when championships still appear to be up for grabs to the worthiest of the worthy. however, this past saturday revealed both playmakers and posuers in early September, giving fans a feast of great action on the gridiron.

playmakers


• miami. who else gets down by 23 and then scores 28 unanswered, right down to the wire, to prop the gator's jaws with a truly bitter defeat? actually, FSU's missed FG at the end of regulation against the Canes last season might've been more dramatic, but for squandered opportunity and gutsy comeback mettle, this game tops it.
  
• michigan. they turned houston into a bye week -- that's what you should do in pre-conference play, plain and simple.
  
• sooners on the road. the 47-yard TD strike after the fake punt wasn't gimmickry, it was high skill on display.
  
• irish. of course. i can no longer summon the strength to summarize this outfit's infamous good fortune. talk amongst yourselves.
  

  
  
  poseurs
  

• my own boilermakers. we're apparently peerless for believing our own hype. defense allows yet another 4th down, 4th quarter go-ahead touchdown? the only thing that should get behind our senior safeties should be their jersey numbers. and if you still think MAC teams are no big deal, think again. Bowling Green is a good squad with a great quarterback. they're mad with knockoff-fever now, and it would be great to see them play another big squad with a glass jaw. What's that? OSU on Sept. 20th? Could be shades of SDSU.
  
• virginia and nc state. both folded up their top 25 card tables with unacceptable losses, though few should be surprised wake forest found its way -- those guys are fast and have enough flaky formations to befuddle most saturday d-coordinators.
  
• maryland. a darling 3 weeks ago looks to be dirtbagged by week 4. FSU on the rise again?
  

of these 'poseurs,' i'm going with purdue as the day's worst upset even though NC State and Virginia were higher-ranked. As the local Journal+Courier's Jeff Washburn elaborates in his clear-minded after-action report, "if this Boilermaker team is as good as labeled, it does not lose to Bowling Green. Here. In Ohio. In a bowl game. It doesn't happen. Ever.". just when the boilers were fantasizing about the "p" word after a $70 million stadium renovation, a killer comeback bowl win against the Huskies, and a fraternity house full of returning senior starters on both sides of the line, they fail to make two or three big plays they certainly could probably execute blindfolded in practice. and that's just it -- "programs" get mentally tough and never look past an opponent, no matter how orange its away uniforms might be. purdue, your seat at the kid's table is now open, and you'll have to beat michigan and osu on the road to get up from it again.

Labels: Boilermakers