Team of the Week

	MAILBAG Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

UCLA

That 17-point fourth-quarter comeback against Washington State? The 12-point rally against Cal? Patty cakes compared to what the Bruins pulled off Saturday. Granted, they never should have been down 24-3 to Stanford in the first place, as was the case following Cardinal fullback Nick Frank's seven-yard touchdown run with 8:26 remaining, but what the Bruins did from there was nothing short of mind-boggling. First, QB Drew Olson drove them 65 yards in 1:22, going 5-of-5 on the series, capped off by an eight-yard Maurice Drew touchdown run, to cut it to 24-10. After stopping Stanford three-and-out, Olson took over on his own 28 and promptly completed consecutive throws of 22, 19 and 31 yards for another score with 4:43 remaining.

Stanford gained one first down on its next possession, but had to punt with 2:39 left, allowing Olson to piece together a game-tying touchdown drive (aided by two Stanford pass-interference penalties) with 46 seconds to spare. Finally, after holding the Cardinal to a field goal in overtime, Olson threw a perfect, 23-yard fade to Brandon Breazell for the victory.

"Are we the most talented team? Probably not," UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said afterward. "But we do opportune things at opportune times."

No argument here, but why do you have to wait so long to do them, coach?

The Inaugural 'Underappreciated Kicker of the Week' Award

Colorado's Mason Crosby

Sure, Crosby's made his share of All-America teams, but even that doesn't begin to illustrate just how good this guy is. The junior's game-winning 50-yarder against Kansas State on Saturday with six seconds remaining was his second 50-yarder of the day and ninth of his career. He is now 9-for-9 in his career on attempts with eight-and-a-half minutes or fewer remaining, and seven of those have been from 41 yards or longer. In fact, in a perfect example of just how important Crosby is to the often bumbling, yet 6-2 Buffs, his team started its final drive at the Wildcats' 26 but went seven yards backward on the three plays preceding Crosby's kick.

"Coach [Gary Barnett] was like, 'You lost a lot of yards,'" said quarterback Joel Klatt. "But it didn't enter my mind because of [Crosby]."

The Inaugural 'Mr. Blackwell Worst Dressed' Award

(tie) Florida, Miami

I'm not sure which is more amazing: That someone at Nike actually designed the one orange-sleeved jerseys the Gators donned Saturday against Georgia, looked at it, and said, "Hey, not bad," or that Urban Meyer actually let his team wear them. (Virginia Tech unveiled a similar style against Boston College, but they didn't look quite as awful, though, as a colleague of mine who attended the game noted, it looked like every member of the Hokies had one arm in a sling).

Meanwhile, the 1966-67 Christmas-green "throwback" jerseys the 'Canes wore against North Carolina ought to be renamed "throwaway" jerseys -- as in, throw them away the second the game is over. Also, while I'm sure the event was planned well ahead of time, helmets with hurricane-warning flags seem a bit tacky when a good part of your city is still without electricity in the wake of an actual hurricane.

Spreading the field

• Saturday's games were not exactly a ringing endorsement for the spread offense. Michigan's physical defense bottled up Northwestern's previously torrid attack, holding the Wildcats (who had been averaging 37.1 points per game) to 17 points, none after halftime. Meanwhile, Florida's Meyer essentially scrapped his much-acclaimed spread option to get a win over Georgia. While the Gators still ran plenty of multiple-receiver sets, Meyer lined up QB Chris Leak under center more often (Utah ran almost exclusively shotgun under Meyer), tried just one option pitch and no shovel passes. Moreover, as many of his SEC critics have suggested he should, Meyer employed fullback Billy Latsko as a lead blocker in the running game.

• For whatever reason, one of the trademarks of Pete Carroll's tenure at USC is how the Trojans always seem to kick into high gear around the sixth or seventh game of the season, and 2005 is proving to be no exception. In Saturday's 55-13 win over Washington State, the Trojans outgained the Cougars -- who came in averaging 516 yards -- by a staggering margin of 745 to 284. It was the most impressive performance of the season for USC's defense, led by new starting CB Josh Pinkard's 10 tackles.

• Adrian Peterson is back. The injury-plagued Sooners star, who hadn't carried the ball more than eight times in a game since the third week of the season, toted the rock 24 times against Nebraska for 146 yards and two touchdowns. He looked like his old, Heisman runner-up self on a beautiful 36-yard touchdown run early in Oklahoma's 31-24 victory. With a healthy Peterson, the once-shaky Sooners (5-3) may well finish 8-3, with their three losses coming to 8-1 TCU, 8-0 UCLA and 8-0 Texas.

• Things are far less rosy in Lincoln, where the Huskers' record is identical to the Sooners'. Nebraska has lost two straight home games (the other against Texas Tech) for the first time since 1968, and, in what is likely considered nothing short of blasphemy in Big Red Country, Bill Callahan's team has a combined 14 rushing yards in its past two games. Plus, what does it say about the state of the Blackshirts that a week after allowing 490 yards of offense to Missouri QB Brad Smith in a 41-24 loss, those same Tigers scored just three points against Kansas, and Smith was held to 169 yards?

• While Tennessee, which has now lost four SEC games for the first time since 1988, is hardly an accurate measuring stick for anything these days, you can see Steve Spurrier's imprint starting to shine through at 5-3 South Carolina. In Spurrier's 16-15 victory over old whipping boy Phillip Fulmer and his Vols, Gamecocks QB Blake Mitchell completed 11 straight passes en route to a 22-of-36, 242-yard, two-touchdown performance. Meanwhile, receiver Sidney Rice set a school single-season record with his 11th score.

• Miami's offense could be in big trouble against Virginia Tech next week. After QB Kyle Wright's three interceptions helped the 'Canes fall into a 16-7 halftime hole against North Carolina, Miami basically handed over the offense to running back Tyrone Moss, who carried 24 times for 195 yards and four touchdowns, and got big plays from its defense and special teams. Such a one-dimensional attack won't cut it against the speedy Hokies D, which held Boston College to 183 yards on Thursday.

• The most deceiving score of the weekend was Texas Tech 28, Baylor 0. The normally high-powered Red Raiders led the Bears just 6-0 early in the fourth quarter, and Tech could well have been losing 7-6. Baylor QB Shawn Bell appeared to hook up with WR Dominique Ziegler for a touchdown in the back of the end zone late in the third quarter, but officials ruled Ziegler's foot out of bounds and replay officials upheld it (at least one TV replay angle indicated he was in). Tech ended up stopping the Bears on a fourth-and-goal from the 2, and, after Robert Johnson scored a 50-yard touchdown to put Tech up 14-0, the dam broke for Baylor (4-4), which has also had upset bids against Texas A&M and Oklahoma (both overtime games) fall short this season.

• Star in the making? Arizona freshman QB Willie Tuitama, whose redshirt coach Mike Stoops pulled just a week ago, went 13-of-22 for 335 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions to lead the Wildcats (2-6) to a 29-27 upset of Oregon State. Tuitama replaced sophomore Richard Kovalcheck a week earlier against Oregon and led his team back from a 21-0 deficit to tie the game before losing 28-21.

• Star in the making II? N.C. State freshman running back Andre Brown, one of four former Parade All-America tailbacks on the Wolfpack roster, ran 32 times for 248 yards and two touchdowns in a 21-17 win over Southern Miss. Coming into the game, Brown had carried the ball just 13 times all season, which begs an obvious question for 3-4 N.C. State coach Chuck Amato: Why??

• Iowa State's sophomore passing tandem of Bret Meyer and Todd Blythe, largely MIA after such promising freshman seasons, came back in a big way against Texas A&M. Meyer was 20-of-32 for 371 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, while Blythe caught eight balls for 214 yards and four TDs in a 42-14 rout of the Aggies. Don't read too much into it, though; everyone who faces Texas A&M's defense these days comes away looking like Heisman contenders.

• Finally, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Syracuse football, the Orange dropped to 1-7 on Saturday -- the same day conference "rival" Rutgers got its long-awaited sixth win -- with a 22-16 home loss to new Big East counterpart Cincinnati. Gerry McNamara's shot wasn't on, and Danny Fortson was just too much to handle in the paint.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.