Arkansas coach Houston Nutt doesn’t want his Razorbacks run over by Auburn’s Cadillac again.
Carnell “Cadillac” Williams had 150 yards and a touchdown on 35 carries as Auburn knocked Arkansas from the Top 10 with a 10-3 defeat in Fayetteville. The teams meet again Saturday at Auburn.
Williams has great speed and demands defensive focus, Nutt said.
“Whenever you are running the ball the way they are, you are just able to create such a strong offense,” Nutt said.
No. 4 Auburn also has another top running back–Ronnie Brown, who ran for 109 yards on 10 carries last week against Louisiana Tech.
Williams and Brown “are very physical. Cadillac has more speed. Ronnie Brown has good hands, but Cadillac is a step or two faster,” Nutt said.
Counting on a miracle
When they played for the Big 12 championship last December, Kansas State beat Oklahoma.
That was a long time ago for the Wildcats.
This isn’t the same K-State team that won the last league title.
“You’d like to think there would be the belief that anything can happen at any time,” coach Bill Snyder said.
“Miracles can happen, but this team and last year’s team, there is a distinct difference between the two.”
While the Wildcats (2-3, 0-2) struggle, No. 2 Oklahoma (5-0, 2-0) is as strong as ever. And the Sooners surely haven’t forgotten the 35-7 loss that cost them a shot at the national title.
“I’m sure they’re not lacking for motivation,” Snyder said.
Falling on hard times
It was just four years ago when the Pac-10’s Northwest contingent had three teams ranked in the top 10 nationally and none of the California or Arizona schools finished with a winning record.
Boy has the balance of power shifted.
This season, the schools from Oregon and Washington are struggling to get any wins, while Southern California, California, Arizona State and UCLA are dominating the conference.
“Teams run in cycles,” Washington coach Keith Gilbertson said. “Look at Washington and Washington State and you see a lot of young players, a ton of redshirt freshmen and true freshmen and sophomores playing. When you do that, you’ll probably not be as successful. It runs in cycles. When those teams mature they will become good teams.”
Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State have combined for a 7-13 record, with four of the wins coming against New Mexico and Idaho, and the others against Arizona, San Jose State and in Oregon’s win at Washington State.
That’s a big change from recent years. One of the Northwest schools won at least a share of the conference title in nine of the 13 years between 1990-2002, including the 2000 season when Oregon, Oregon State and Washington shared the title and all finished in the top 10.
Oops, my bad
North Carolina’s offense benefited from its own penalty in the 30-24 win against N.C. State.
Wide receiver Jesse Holley was called for an illegal formation on a third-and-1 from N.C. State’s 18. The Wolfpack stopped Jacque Lewis on a run but opted to take the 5-yard penalty.
The Tar Heels took advantage. Darian Durant found Holley for a 23-yard score and a 13-3 lead.
“You know Jesse, he’s the type of guy that feels like he’s never wrong,” Durant said. “So I told him he needed to line up on the ball in that certain formation. He swore up and down to me he was. I said, `If you were, then the referee wouldn’t have made the call.’ And he still said he was.”
After the TD, however, Holley’s story changed.
“My bad,” Holley told Durant.
Go-to guy
Syracuse safety Diamond Ferri has become the Orange’s iron man.
The 5-foot-10-inch senior plays every defensive down, is on all the special teams and is logging about 80 snaps a game. Coach Paul Pasqualoni acknowledges he has to resist the temptation to draw up a few offensive plays for the former tailback, who gained 4,500 yards at Everett (Mass.) High School and was a running back his first two years at Syracuse.
“We just don’t want to dilute it,” Pasqualoni said.
