I Tell Ya Herbie

   We return with I Tell Ya' Herbie, our weekly look at college football.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The Washington win over Oregon was as good of a game as you'll see.

Wide open with big plays and yet it wasn't bad defense either.

A back-and-forth game with six lead changes and Washington's Michael Penix establishing himself as the leader in the Heisman race at this time makes this game of the year to date.

Looking forward to a possible rematch in Las Vegas in the final Pac-12 championship game.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            As for the other Pac-12 unbeaten, USC's offense finally couldn't make up for their porous defense as the Trojans were pounded at Notre Dame as Caleb Williams threw three interceptions in the loss.

The defense hasn't shown very much improvement over last year's defensive disaster and although USC is still unbeaten in the conference, four of their final five games are against ranked teams.

Three of those four are at home (Utah, Washington, and UCLA) with Oregon on the road so I find it hard to believe that the Trojans with their defensive problems win all of those games.

I Tell Ya' Herbie;

                            Mentions in the Herbie column for Mountain West teams seem to be jinxed as two weeks ago, we mentioned Fresno State, who then lost to Wyoming.

Then we mentioned the Cowboys, who then lost to Air Force, so mentioning the Falcons would seem to be bad luck for them this Saturday as the 6-0 Falcons travel east for a non-conference tilt with 3-5 Navy.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Maybe Michigan is a step above Penn State and/or Ohio State but do we really do know when UNLV is the best win of the year to date?

Yes, they are big, physical, and talented but until they beat someone of note (and the same can be said of the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes) I couldn't put them above Washington in the national rankings yet.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            It's the final year of divisions in the Big Ten and the path is wide open for the perpetually offensively challenged Iowa Hawkeyes to walk through in the Big Ten West.

After their 15-6 win over Wisconsin, Iowa's stout defense and mediocre offense meet a limited remaining schedule with the next four games at Nile Kinnick Stadium against Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois, and Rutgers before finishing at Nebraska.

Even if one of those teams trips up the Hawkeyes, the tiebreaker over Wisconsin due to their win last Saturday gives Iowa a mulligan and Wisconsin would need two of those teams to beat Iowa.

That game was crazy as Iowa completed six passes for thirty-seven yards and yet still won at Camp Randall.

Could Iowa defeat the survivor of the Eastern triad? 

I doubt it as Iowa's one shot at the three resulted in their only loss in a 31-0 whitewash at Penn State.