Saturday Rewind What We Learned

What we learned from a Saturday when defense, and not the Heisman contender QBs ruled the Red River Rivalry and the SEC officials gave weekend conspiracy theorists some ammunition.

1. Welcome to the Heisman conversation, Mark Ingram. We've seen a number of candidates come and go (Jahvid Best, Case Keenum, Tony Pike) but the Alabama sophomore running back clearly has staying power.
In the past three games, Ingram has run for 558 yards, including 246 Saturday against South Carolina and in a crucial drive against the Gamecocks he piled up all 68 yards to carry the Tide and himself into the race for New York.
But as we know, it's not just statistics that make a Heisman campaign. Ingram meets the Heisman Commandments of being a major piece on a national title contender and he has played big in big games.
Considering the way Nick Saban pounds the run, Ingram may as well buy a ticket to NYC. But can he win it? No SEC running back has hoisted that stiff-armed trinket since Bo Jackson ... in 1985.
2. Ohio State is in shambles. If the stunning loss to Purdue, which knocked the Buckeyes out of the national title race wasn't bad enough, OSU had to suffer through watching Terrelle Pryor four times in the loss.
Clearly, Jim Tressel hasn't adapted to the sophomore's strengths, instead asking him to become a drop-back passer. Now, the tactic did work with Heisman winner Troy Smith, who matured from a run-first QB to a passer who led the Buckeyes to the national title game. But why try to make Pryor move away from his biggest asset: his speed? That may be what the NFL wants him to be, but it isn't what the college game needs Pryor to be. There will be talk that Pryor made the wrong choice in going to Columbus, but this relationship is still salvageable.
Of course, for now, OSU will have to live with things as is. Expect Tressel to fire offensive coordinator Jim Bollman this offeseason and try to bring in a zone-read scheme that can allow Pryor to make defenses look silly.
3. The ACC Coastal Division is in for a wild finish. With Georgia Tech's win over Virginia Tech, we now have GT, VT, Miami and Virginia all in the mix for the division lead. GT, VT and Miami all have the most manageable schedules ahead of them, and considering they all beat each other, what happens if two or more are tied?
That's where things could get interesting. If all three teams finish with one loss in the conference, the ACC will go through a series of tiebreakers and because of the head-to-head results (GT beat VT, VT beat Miami and Miami beat GT), it could go all the way to the BCS standings, a la the Big 12 South a year ago. But if the teams are within five spots of each other in the final BCS rankings, then whoever won the regular-season meeting will go to the ACC title game (i.e. if Miami is 10th and VT is 12th, the Hokies still go because they beat the Hurricanes).

Now, in the small chance that the teams are tied in the BCS standings, then the Coastal Division champion will be pulled out of a hat. Awesome.