No. 8 Florida State rides roughshod over No. 25 Maryland

The score was so one-sided it looked like a paycheck game for homecoming.

The winning school totaled 614 yards to the losing team’s 234 and won the first-down battle, 33-9.

So was this No.1 Alabama against winless Georgia State?

Actually, it was No. 8 Florida State over No. 25 Maryland.

The Seminoles’ 63-0 win over the Terrapins in Tallahassee was the most coldblooded dissection of a turtle since your junior high biology class.

The only thing missing was formaldehyde.

And to think we all feared for Georgia State’s safety as the Panthers played top-ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa?

That was mostly a low-tide effort in which the student section at Bryant-Denny Stadium lacked only one thing: students.

Alabama substituted early and often in a 45-3 win that did not come close to raising an eyebrow or covering the 55-point spread.

Florida State, favored by only 15 and a half, blindsided the oddsmakers with this midseason wake-up call.

What Jimbo Fisher’s team did to a supposedly quality opponent sent shivers up the rankings at least as far as Clemson.

Maryland entered the game at 4-0, hoping to make a statement in its last season in the Atlantic Coast Conference before joining the Big Ten. Instead, it got smashed like a crab cake.

Not even Bobby Bowden’s best Florida State teams ever walloped a ranked opponent so thoroughly.

In fact, Maryland tied 1997 Texas for most humiliating defeat by a ranked team in the Associated Press poll. Longhorn fans will never forget the “Rout 66” they got handed by UCLA, but at least Texas made a field goal.

Florida State’s sunshine performance also solidified the Heisman Trophy credentials of first-year starting quarterback Jameis Winston, who used Maryland to increase his season numbers to 1,441 passing yards with 17 touchdowns and only two passes intercepted.

He won’t side with Rice

Oh brother (but not sister), here we go.

Everyone knew the college football selection committee might be controversial, but no one anticipated trouble before the panel was officially announced.

News that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to be on the committee, however, elicited immediate blowback.

David Pollack, the former Georgia player-turned-ESPN analyst, said on Saturday morning’s “GameDay” show he didn’t think women belonged on a committee that, starting next year, will choose the top four teams in next year’s playoff.

“I want people on this committee, guys, that can watch tape, yes, that have played football, that are around football, that can tell you different teams, on tape, not on paper.”

ESPN host Chris Fowler responded: “So no woman belongs on the committee, then?”

Pollack: “You said that…I’ll say it, yeah, yeah.”

Just wait until Pollack learns there will probably be at least one former sportswriter on the panel.

The other names leaking out are not very controversial. USC Athletic Director Pat Haden and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez are expected to be members, which signals that the panel will loosely resemble the NCAA basketball selection committee.

There will also be representation from former commissioners like Mike Tranghese and former stars like Archie Manning.

“We’re pretty far along and each of the big five conferences is going to have an athletics director on it and there will be a bunch of at-large members,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott told reporters at Thursday’s UCLA-Utah game at Salt Lake City.

Scott said the committee will be filled with “great football minds, former coaches, other people of great stature that will bring a lot of integrity and credibility to it.”

It’s obvious Rice falls into the category of “other people of great stature.”

But what does she know about football?

David Pollack wants to know.

Fodder Football

There is an unwritten rule at Spotlight that every time a Southeastern Conference school plays a school such as Georgia State it must be mentioned that USC, UCLA and Notre Dame have never played against 1-AA opponents.

OK, technically Georgia State is 1-A this year after moving up to the Sun Belt Conference. The Panthers were 1-AA when the game was scheduled and are still playing sub-level football with three losses this year to 1-AA opponents.

To be fair Alabama has only played four 1-AA opponents… since 2009. The school has another 1-AA scheduled for Nov. 23 when it hosts Chattanooga.

Chattanooga, for what it’s worth, defeated Georgia State, 42-14, on Sept. 7.

Another seizure for Jerry Kill

It is tough to keep reporting, yet another epileptic seizure forced Minnesota Coach Jerry Kill to miss Saturday’s game at Michigan.

Minnesota’s athletic department said Kill did not accompany his team to Ann Arbor after feeling ill Friday. He was going to join his players and staff Saturday morning but suffered a seizure Saturday morning.

“Coach Kill has been in contact with his staff today and defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys will serve as Minnesota’s acting head coach from the press box,” the school said in a released statement.

Michigan won, 42-13.

This is Kill’s fifth seizure since becoming Minnesota’s coach in 2011. The last one occurred last month at halftime of the Gophers’ game against New Mexico State.

Hooray Hoosiers

Indiana recorded a first Saturday when the Hoosiers defeated Penn State for the first time in 17 tries.

Penn State has dominated the series since winning the first game, 38-31, in 1993. That was the Nittany Lions’ first year in the Big Ten.

The closest Indiana had come was a 27-24 loss in 2000. Penn State’s largest margin of victory was 45 in a 52-7 win in 2003.

It was a signature win for Coach Kevin Wilson’s Indiana program.

“Coach didn’t want us to focus on the history of this game,” said Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld. “Coach always said this 2013 Indiana team has never lost to this 2013 Penn State team and vice versa.”

Indiana, it should be said, has defeated Penn State many times in basketball.

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