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Tide still in shock
They're trying to pick up the pieces at Alabama, where coach Mike DuBose is emotionally crushed and the players still don't understand what happened to their season. Take senior offensive tackle Griff Redmill, who still maintains with a straight face that this team has more talent than the team that won the Southeastern Conference a year ago. That team had two first-round draft choices, including Outland Trophy winner Chris Samuels at left tackle. "If you had told me in August that we would be 6-3, I would have laughed," Redmill says, "and we're 3-6." It won't get any easier this week. Alabama hasn't won at Mississippi State since 1994.
Everyone watching the other guyWashington's run for the Rose Bowl naturally depends on whether the Huskies can close their season with wins over UCLA and Washington State. But don't be surprised if a few of the Huskies wear orange Oregon State T-shirts under those purple jerseys.If the Pac-10 race finishes in a three-way tie among Washington, Oregon State and Oregon, then the Huskies win the tiebreaker. If it's a two-way tie between the Huskies and the Beavers, the Huskies win that tiebreaker, too. Only if Washington and Oregon tie for first will the Huskies not go to Pasadena. One thing: Washington may be rooting for Oregon State, but the Beavers are rooting for the Huskies to lose. That's the only way Oregon State will go to the Rose Bowl.
Getting it right -- two months laterBoth Syracuse and Maryland have underachieved this season, and the reason is clear: The wrong quarterback won the starting job.At Syracuse, Troy Nunes' savvy at running the complex option attack couldn't make up for his lack of an arm. For example, Nunes threw four interceptions against Virginia Tech. With two weeks to prepare for West Virginia, sophomore R.J. Anderson started and threw for two scores, the last with 10 seconds to play, to lead the Orangemen to a 31-27 win. At Maryland, Calvin McCall has thrown nine picks this year against only five touchdowns. When McCall sprained his ankle against N.C. State, Shaun Hill brought the Terrapins from 15 points down to upset the Wolfpack in double overtime. He'll start against North Carolina. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers the college football beat for the magazine and appears each Saturday on CNN's "College Football Preview." Click here to send a question to his mailbag.
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