Go Figure

By Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com

There's something wrong with the top 10: Not much has changed. For the first time in weeks, the mighty have not fallen.

The upset pandemic has been quarantined to the Southeastern Conference, in which three ranked teams lost to lower-ranked or unranked teams this weekend. And none of those outcomes (Tennessee 27, South Carolina 24; Georgia 42, Florida 30; Mississippi State 31, Kentucky 14) was exactly a mind-blowing upset.

The result of Saturday is that you need a team of lawyers to decipher the possibilities in the SEC East, where a game-and-a-half separates first-place Georgia (4-2) from Kentucky and Vanderbilt (both 2-3).

That's right. The Wildcats, two weeks removed from the top 10, are tied for last place in their division.

The team that controls its destiny in the division is Tennessee (3-2), where the fans are busy undermining the coach on his way to a divisional championship. This isn't a football team. It's a soap opera.

No one has won ugly more consistently over the past few seasons than Phil Fulmer. The Volunteers' 27-24 overtime victory over South Carolina on Saturday night included coughing up a 21-0 lead and kicker Daniel Lincoln missing a 43-yard, game-tying field goal in the final seconds, only to get a second chance because of a false-start penalty. Lincoln nailed the 48-yarder, and he made the game-winner in overtime.

But Tennessee, like Georgia, has two losses, and Tennessee beat Georgia 35-14. If the Vols win out, they will play Dec. 1 in Atlanta.

Nothing has changed in the SEC West, mainly because LSU and Alabama, the teams tied for the lead, didn't play. They will meet Saturday, and a victory by the Tigers will leave them one victory away from clinching the division championship for the fourth consecutive odd-numbered year, which says something about the power of playing Auburn and Florida at home.

Ohio State and Michigan will play for the Big Ten championship, barring utter collapse on the part of one team or the other. It's a longshot -- coach Jim Tressel's teams don't collapse, utterly or otherwise, and Michigan got its collapse out of the way before league play began.

Arizona State and Oregon, which stand atop the Pac-10, play Saturday evening in Eugene. A victory by the Ducks would mean that, of the four conference teams with one loss, Oregon would have beaten two of them (USC, Arizona State) with UCLA yet to come. And trying to predict the manic nature of the Bruins makes a Rubik's Cube look like Chutes and Ladders.

In The Know

By Chris Low, ESPN.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- All season long, the Georgia fans have been clamoring for more of Knowshon Moreno.

They got their wish and then some Saturday at a place that has been a house of horrors for the Bulldogs for most of the past two decades.

Moreno flounced through and around Florida defenders for a career-high 188 yards on 33 carries, and the Bulldogs punished the Gators 42-30 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to do their part in making this a rivalry again. It was only Georgia's third victory over Florida in the past 18 meetings.

Of course, Moreno wondered what all the fuss was about. The redshirt freshman has played against the Gators one time and is 1-0 against them.

"You hear people talking about how many games they'd won in a row against us, and you get a lot of questions about it," Moreno said. "But for a lot of us, we've only played them once or twice. The only game that mattered to us was [Saturday's]."

Moreno, whom the Georgia coaches were tempted to play last season, was all the rage this past spring and all preseason. But with such a crowded backfield, he was splitting carries with Thomas Brown. That all changed a few weeks ago. Brown went down with a collarbone injury, and Kregg Lumpkin also was sidelined with a knee injury. Neither player is expected back before the Nov. 10 Auburn game at the earliest.

So for the time being, it's Moreno's show -- and he's putting on a show. To read the rest of this story, click here.

He's Noticed Now

By Elizabeth Merrill, ESPN.com

TEMPE, Ariz. -- In the big state of Texas, a young man can run for 3,000 yards in one season and still get lost. He can get lost on a noisy night in Arizona, too.

Dimitri Nance has gone generally unnoticed because of his size. He was shunned by his home-state Longhorns two years ago and wasn't prominent on any scouting report when No. 4 Arizona State played Cal on Saturday night.

He will be now. In one body-pounding night, Nance threw the Sun Devils into the national spotlight, running for three touchdowns in a 31-20 victory that set up a showdown for next weekend at Oregon.

One team still will be in the national championship hunt when that game is over. It all seems so unusual for the Sun Devils' unassuming stars. How could Nance, a 19-year-old sophomore, be nervous? He wasn't expected to do anything special three months -- even three days -- ago.

"We're just a bunch of guys," coach Dennis Erickson said, "that nobody thought was real good early."

Nance didn't even touch the ball in last month's win over Oregon State. But then came Ryan Torain's season-ending foot injury, and Nance moved to No. 2 on the depth chart behind Keegan Herring.

Like Torain, Nance is a bruising runner who provides a good change of pace from Herring, a more quick-footed back. Nance showed that grit when he bounced off a wall of tacklers early in the third quarter, then ran in for an 8-yard touchdown to put the Sun Devils up 21-20.

He also caught a 32-yard pass that surprised the stat people enough that they initially credited it to someone else. Would he have cared? Probably not.

He isn't worried about how Erickson will split up the duties. He didn't consider Saturday night to be a pitch for more playing time. On a night when nearly every Sun Devil talked about respect, Nance seemed more comfortable slipping back into oblivion.

That might be hard to do this week, with Oregon on the schedule and the hype already churning.

Don't Forget The Defense

By David Albright, ESPN.com

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- There was no escaping the hideous sportcoats.

Representatives from the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls (not to mention the Gator, Sun and International bowls, too) were on hand at Rutgers Stadium as No. 7 West Virginia dismantled the Scarlet Knights 31-3 on a rain-soaked Saturday in central New Jersey.

The representatives obviously saw the endless spectacular runs by WVU's dynamic duo: quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton.

What they might not have noticed was the job turned in by the WVU defense.

For all the accolades regularly handed out to the Mountaineers' explosive offense, it's the under-publicized defense that has been every bit as good all season.

"Offense brings the crowd, defense wins games," White said. "Anytime we're executing offensively and defensively, it doesn't matter who's making the plays, it's a fun game for us."

The WVU defense, which gets 11 days to prepare for Brian Brohm and Louisville on Nov. 8 (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET), is ranked in the top five nationally in total defense (No. 3, 262.1 yards per game), scoring defense (No. 4, 14.9 points per game) and pass defense (No. 5, 161.0 yards per game, 11 interceptions).

The Mountaineers kept Rutgers, a team that came in averaging more than 36 points per game, out of the end zone. And WVU intercepted two Mike Teel passes and recovered two fumbles to finish the day plus-four in the turnover department (plus-11 for the season).

"I thought our defensive staff had a really nice plan," coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I was obviously concerned with [Ray] Rice, and he got his yards. With their explosiveness, I wasn't comfortable until the very end. I thought our defense made a few nice plays in the secondary, and we got a couple of nice turnovers."

With four games left -- including three at home -- WVU is in great position in the Big East race and is among the one-loss teams jockeying for BCS position.

Which means the guys in the pale yellow jackets likely will be following around the Mountaineers the rest of the season.

Running To Nowhere

By Tim Griffin, Special To ESPN.com

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Kansas players knew they would face a severe test trying to stop Texas A&M's vaunted ground attack.

But extra work during game preparation paid off handsomely as the Jayhawks stopped the Aggies cold in an impressive 19-11 road victory.

The 8-0 Jayhawks limited the Aggies to only 74 rushing yards -- their lowest rushing total since netting 38 yards against Texas in the 2004 regular season finale.

"I would have never believed we would have rushed for under 100 yards," A&M coach Dennis Franchione said. "We just didn't get anything done. We didn't move the ball. That's frustrating and not like us."

Kansas defensive coordinator Bill Young prepared his team mentally and physically for the challenge of stopping bullish 268-pound tailback Jorvorskie Lane, slashing tailback Michael Goodson and quarterback Stephen McGee. It helped them stymie a group that rushed for 359 yards the previous week at Nebraska and came into the game ranked fifth nationally in rushing.

"I felt like we played them well," Kansas linebacker James Holt said. "We did a lot of tackling drills to get ready. We had been reading it all week and watching film on them, so I felt like we had it down pretty good."

The big effort marked the fourth straight week the Jayhawks limited opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing.

After a scoreless first half, the Kansas defense set the tone. The Jayhawks' defense held the Aggies on three straight three-and-out offensive possessions that had Kyle Field fans serenading them with boos. Kansas outgained A&M 148 yards to minus-9 yards in the third quarter to take control of the game.

"They aren't the most athletic defense, but they are by far the best defense we've faced this season," McGee said.