College Recap: Week 7 - College Football News, Tips And Picks

College Football Recap: Week 7
By Tom Hanson
Posted: 3:00 am PDT 2006-10-23

The Clemson Tigers can claim the crown -- for at least a day.

With an impressive 31-7 victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Tigers are the new kings of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Boston College may lead the Atlantic Division, but Clemson showed that it's the best team.

On a day when Florida State, the former throne-holder, lost its second home game of the season and Miami, the wanna-be rulers, barely beat Duke, No. 12 Clemson throttled No. 13 Georgia Tech.

And the Tigers, 7.5-point WagerWeb.com favorites, ran it down the Yellow Jackets' throat.

The Clemson RB combo of James Davis and C.J. Spiller had 382 yards of offense on only 39 plays.

Davis recorded a career-high 216 yards rushing and had a pair of 54-yard TD runs. Spiller broke the game open with a 50-yard TD of his own and then added a 50-yard catch and run for a TD.

Writers have dubbed Davis and Spiller "Thunder and Lightning."

Davis, the thunder, calls Spiller the next college football superstar.

"He's much faster. He's much quicker. 'The next Reggie Bush.' That's what I call him," Davis said. "That guy is amazing, and there's a lot more coming. I've seen him make a lot more people miss in practice."

First-year Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence, known as the "Mad Scientist," should get some of the credit for creating this concoction.

Spence said that the Tigers' offense is looking like the old Ohio State offense under Woody Hayes. But with the running backs averaging more than 10 yards a touch, the Clemson attack is more than three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust. Spence doesn't want to take credit for the transformation.

"It's called good genetics right there," Spence told Rivals.com. "Those guys are making me look like I know what I am doing."

Clemson does face a short week and Virginia Tech on the road Thursday night. The Tigers need Boston College to lose to Wake Forest or Maryland. But for one day, they deserve to be crowned the king of the ACC.

FANTASTIC FINISH: With the new rules and no timeouts, how does No. 10 Notre Dame go 80 yards in three plays with less than one minute to go in the game?

How does UCLA let Brady Quinn's favorite target, WR Jeff Samardzija, get so open?

Was it really the luck of the Irish?

Notre Dame's offense struggled until the final minute. Minus the final drive, UCLA held Notre Dame, a 13-point favorite, to 265 yards of offense and only 41 yards on the ground.

But not even a lackluster performance could ruin Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis' mood.

"I'm not going to feel miserable about this win, I promise you," Weis said. "You want to be miserable, fine. I'm going to be happy. Any time you win a game like that -- we're very fortunate to walk out of there with scoring a touchdown inside of 30 seconds to go with no timeouts left. Sign me up."

DOG-DAY AFTERNOON: The underdogs dominated Saturday. Led by Washington State and Rutgers, two teams that won straight up as WagerWeb.com underdogs, the favorites turned out to be a bad bet.

Nebraska, UCLA, Alabama and Washington may have been nipped in the end, but don't feel sorry for anyone with them on a betting slip.

In the 14 Top 25 games, the underdog covered nine times.

FILLING IN FINE: Oklahoma RB Allen Patrick has a big load to carry filling in for All-American Adrian Peterson (broken collarbone). Patrick didn't disappoint Saturday.

With gusty conditions, the Sooners offense relied on the running game against Colorado. Patrick carried the ball 35 times for 110 yards. Oklahoma, a 14-point WagerWeb.com favorite, ground out a 24-3 victory over the Buffaloes.

Oklahoma WR Malcolm Kelly called the win monumental.

"It kind of shows that we can win without AD," Kelly said. "Especially with what everybody's saying. Not a lot of people pay a lot of attention to it. I didn't. But some people might have thought, 'Where is Oklahoma now without 28?' It was a good thing and a good showing that we can still come out and score points."

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