College Football Notes 10.7.08 [J. Mark English]

• Stanford 24, #2 USC 23 - Give it up to the nerds beating the jocks! Stanford, which academic minded first as a school, came into Trojan territory as 41 point underdogs. USC had not lost a game at home in 35 straight games. First year coach, and former pro quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, led his team to a miracle win.
• Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6 - Rally sons of Notre Dame, the Irish finally have a win! In their first visit to the Rose Bowl since 1925, the Irish defense, led by the seniors, stepped up to finally give Notre Dame Nation something to smile about.
• #20 Cincinnati 28, #21 Rutgers 23 - Rutgers was expected to be undefeated by this point in the season. But the Scarlett Knights have crumbled under the weight of expectations. Last week at home against Maryland they were heavy favorites, and lost big to Maryland. This week they had a chance to revenge their loss to Cincinnati on their way to a BCS bid. After taking a 17-7 lead into half time, the Knights blew the game with costly turnovers. It will be pretty difficult now to imagine Rutgers playing for the BCS championship. They cannot afford another loss in the Big East the rest of the way.