Auburn climbed to the top of the BCS rankings for the first time in school history Sunday night after beating Louisiana State 24-17 Saturday. And Tigers head coach Gene Chizik knows the bull’s-eye that will come with that No. 1 ranking.

‘I don’t think there’s any question,’ Chizik said in his weekly press conference Tuesday. ‘Everybody reads it, everybody sees it and everybody hears it. We fully expect to get everybody’s best shot.’

And if the past three weeks are any evidence, their stay at that top spot in the nation may not last quite as long as the Tigers would like.

On Oct. 9, then-No. 1 Alabama suffered its first loss in 19 games at the hands of conference rival South Carolina. Ohio State stepped into the top spot the following week, only to lose its first game this year at Wisconsin. And Saturday, after Oklahoma had risen to No. 1 in the first BCS rankings of 2010, Missouri knocked off the country’s top team for the third week in a row. All three upsets followed a similar formula for the underdogs: starting fast, making big plays on special teams and finishing strong.

‘You get a little bit satisfied with winning,’ Alabama head coach Nick Saban said, ‘and you’re not usually as anxious to do the things that you need to do, and you lose focus on the process of the things that you need to do to continue to improve. That’s something that we’ve talked to our team about on a week-to-week basis.’

All three also involved the top team traveling to a conference rival’s home field, something newly anointed No. 1 Auburn will have to endure this week with a trip to Mississippi.

If Ole Miss is to take down the No. 1 team in the country for the fourth straight week, it may want to follow the example set by the Gamecocks, Badgers and Tigers.

All three jumped out to early leads, keeping the home crowd deafening and raucous well past the pregame introductions. South Carolina went up 21-3 over Alabama just more than a minute into the second quarter. Both Wisconsin and Missouri returned the opening kickoffs for touchdowns, and the Badgers extended their lead to 21-0 just after the first quarter ended.

Missouri did not pull away early, but like the other two underdogs, the Tigers finished with a strong final period. They started the fourth quarter down a point but scored 16 straight to put the Sooners away. Ohio State mounted a comeback against the Badgers, but Wisconsin scored the final 10 points in its 31-18 victory. And in the first upset, South Carolina held the Crimson Tide scoreless for the final 14:51 in its 35-21 win.

And Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel saw another parallel in all three games.

‘The big thing in common with all three of those games is those were two good teams on the field in each case,’ he said Tuesday in the Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. ‘When you put two good teams on the field, you never know what the outcome of the game is going to come, and if you don’t do things right in all phases of the game, then you’re going to be the one that comes up short.’

Ole Miss may not serve as formidable an opponent for Auburn as the previous three No. 1 teams faced. South Carolina, Missouri and Wisconsin were and still are ranked in the Top 25. Missouri and Wisconsin have even jumped the Sooners and the Buckeyes in the current poll. Mississippi, on the other hand, is just 3-4, including an opening day 49-48 loss to Football Championship Subdivision Jacksonville State in double overtime.

The Rebels will enter the game against Auburn Saturday as clear underdogs. But in the mind of Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema, playing as the underdog is better than playing as the favorite.

‘I think any time you have a team that people don’t say they’re going to have success or feel that they are the underdog, that helps everybody (on that team),’ he said ‘I think any coach prefers to be in the underdog role to anything else. That’s probably a little bit of a motivational edge.’

Despite the home-field advantage, underdog mindset and similar recipes for the upsets, all three coaches for the favorites felt that, in the end, their teams’ lack of execution ultimately cost them the game. Saban said part of it was simply being human and relishing in the accomplishment — something Auburn will have to avoid to stay atop its No. 1 perch.

‘People have to be able to deal with success,’ Saban said Oct. 13 in the SEC coaches’ teleconference. ‘And you have to be able to focus on the standard that you want to play to, and don’t get relieved when you have success. You always have to remember what got you there, the things that you did, and continue to build on those. From a human nature standpoint, that’s probably difficult to do.’

Big man on campus

QB Cam Newton

Junior

No. 3 Auburn

Last Week’s Stats: 10-of-16, 86 yards, 28 carries, 217 yards, 2 TDs

In Newton’s toughest test this year with No. 12 LSU traveling to Auburn, the junior cemented himself as the Heisman favorite for 2010.

Newton ran over, around and through the Tigers to power Auburn to a 24-17 win and the ensuing No. 1 ranking in this week’s BCS standings. With his career-high 217 yards rushing Saturday, the junior has already set the single-season SEC record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,077.

Newton’s 49-yard scramble to give Auburn a 17-10 lead in the third quarter may also serve as his signature moment in the Heisman race.

After faking a handoff to running back Mario Fannin, Newton squeezed through a hole in the Tigers line and cut to the right. LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu got a hand on the quarterback’s foot, but the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Newton kept his balance and stormed down the right hash. He cut back inside another Tiger defender at the 45 and one more at the 40 before accelerating away from the rest of the defense. LSU junior Patrick Peterson finally caught Newton at the 10, but the quarterback dragged him into the end zone for the go-ahead score.

Auburn has now beaten four teams currently in the Top 25 with the win over LSU. A matchup at No. 6 Alabama in the last week of the regular season looms as the last major regular season test for Newton and the Tigers.

Team of the Week

No. 7 Missouri

Last Week’s Result: W, 36-27 vs. No. 11 Oklahoma

Missouri became the third team in three weeks to knock off the nation’s No. 1 team at home with its win over Oklahoma. The Tigers used a strong fourth quarter to pull away from the Sooners and give head coach Gary Pinkel his first win over Oklahoma.

Missouri took the lead on a Jerrell Jackson 38-yard catch-and-run early in the fourth, tacked on a short field goal three minutes later to extend the lead to eight and put the game away on a James Franklin touchdown run from three yards out.

The win over Oklahoma marks the first in seven chances for the Tigers since 1998 and gave Missouri its best start since 1960.

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on October 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm