I hope we give the small school the same benefit this year

It was another fun Saturday (and Friday, and Thursday for that matter) in college football, and as always I had my pad and pen in hand, writing down all the sights and sounds that needed documentation.For those of you who might be reading my 20 Thoughts, for the first time this isnt necessarily strictly analysis of this past Saturday in college football, you can find that anywhere.Instead this is about the fumbles, bad hairdos, goofy plays and awful announcing that separated this Saturday from all others. And with it being a holiday weekend, theres even a special guest appearance from my grandma.Enjoy!1. First things, first: To all of you whove been waiting for this column, I want to apologize. I always like to have it done at the very latest Monday morning. However, I took a little Aaron Time, yesterday to go see the Blind Side , so I didnt get cracking on this until late today.Anyway, the movie was phenomenal, and for those of you who havent seen it yet, its a must. Check back here at AaronTorres-Sports some time next week, as I plan on doing a full-fledged review.2 Now, moving on to the weekend: I hate clichés, I really do Theyre boring, annoying and usually unfounded. Dude youre playing Montana Tech in two days, dont lie to me!But as far as one of sports oldest clichés, Throw out the records when these two rivals meet, well, it may have gained some traction this weekend.

I mean, you know, considering that Georgia beat Georgia Tech, Mississippi State beat Mississippi, NC State beat North Carolina and South Carolina beat Clemsonall as underdogs.Oh, and I also heard something about Auburn and Alabama playing a good game, and Texas struggling against Texas A&M, too Maybe that was my imagination though.3. Beyond clichés, I also hate comparing conferences: But come on, how can you not when two middle of the pack SEC teams beat down the two BEST teams in the ACC I mean seriously, we all knew the ACC was bad, but Georgia Tech losing at home to Georgia Really The same Georgia team that couldnt get out of its own way against Kentucky on their home field two weeks ago Really!!A month ago, I thought the ACC was making strides overall as a conference Now Im not so sure.4. On a similar note: Everyones saying the Pac-10 is the best conference in college football, and this is a down, year for the SEC.Well heres my argument against that. How can a conference be down when by any measurement you take, seven of its teams are significantly better than last year (Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee), only three teams are discernibly worse (Georgia and Vanderbilt for sure, and Ole Miss just a little bit), and you have two undefeated top five teams at the end of the year How5. Moving on to the Iron Bowl: Im not going to talk about it a lot here, considering I spent over 1000 words breaking it down here , late into Friday night.All Im going to say is this: What impresses me most about Alabama isnt their record or their stats. Its that 85 guys with different skill sets, that were recruited under two different coaching regimes have come together for one common good.That is a testament to the Alabama players and more so, the coaching staff. The more I think about it, the more I begin to wonder if any coach other than Nick Saban could have put them in this position.6.

Even though Clemson lost, I still like Dabo Swinney: One thing I noticed about Swinney is, even after Clemson turned the ball over, not once, but twice in the first half, he remained upbeat and encouraging.Thats the biggest difference between him and his predecessor Tommy Bowden. The new coach believes in the guys on the field, and now the Tigers are headed to their first ACC Championship.Again, this is not a coincidence.8. Aarons prediction that was sure to go wrongThat did: If you read my annual weekend wrap-up last Monday I predicted a Nevada victory over Boise State. Umm whoops.Obviously it didnt happen, and honestly it wasnt even close. Boise literally controlled the game from the opening kickoff (which Austin Pettis returned for a touchdown), to the final whistle, and the final score of 44-33 wasnt indicative of how far apart these two teams were all evening long.More importantly, what was most impressive to me wasnt the Boise State offense, but a defense that held the Wolfpack to 33 points, which doesnt sound impressive, until you remember that Nevada had scored at least 50 points in their previous three games. If anything, it proved that Boise can play with any of the big boys that theyre being discussed with for a BCS bowl, whether its Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State or Miami.We always defend big conference schools by saying, You can only beat the opponents on your schedule, and Boise has done that every step of the way. I hope we give the small school the same benefit this year.9.