This year’s college football season has been fully entertaining. From improbable game-winning touchdowns to last-second field goal blocks, teams have treated fans with some incredible finishes to captivating games. A few teams have been pleasant surprises, while others have left their fan-bases scratching their heads, and new Heisman hopefuls have burst onto the scene while former superstars have faded. As we move into the second half of this season, we want to go back and as-sess those first seven weeks. With that, we give you the Maroon-News College Football Midseason Report:

ABOVE AND BEYOND:

Our biggest (positive) surprises are teams that have performed exceptionally well for the standard they were held to coming into the season.

1. Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are 6-0 for the first time since 2002, and have knocked off some worthy adversaries along the way. Ranked no. 5 in the recently re-leased BCS standings, Notre Dame has al-ready beaten three ranked opponents in Michigan, Michigan State and Stanford, and has taken full advantage of the play of linebacker Manti Te’o and the rest of the defense.

2. Florida: After a 7-6 2011 season, the Gators are 6-0 this season, and have been dominant in the SEC, beating ranked op-ponents LSU and Tennessee among others. Riding a defense ranked 13th in the nation, the Gators will face another SEC East foe, Vanderbilt, this Saturday in Nashville.

3. Rutgers: Ranked 15th in the BCS stand-ings, Rutgers is the third team on our list that owes its success to stifling defense. Their sec-ond-ranked run defense has been tremendous this season, and after being left out in the cold as a result of former coach Greg Schiano’s de-parture, the Scarlet Knights have found refuge under the direction of new coach Kyle Flood. Their 6-0 record puts them at the top of the Big East heading into Week 8.

I’M NOT MAD, JUST DISAPPOINTED:

These teams have been disappointments in the truest sense of the word. After en-tering the season with promise, they have fallen off the map much to the chagrin of their fans.

1. Auburn: Just two years after winning the BCS Championship, Auburn has limped its way to an atrocious 1-5 record. Their of-fense has been nothing short of futile, and the defense has not done nearly enough to make up for it. They’ve already lost big to Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Arkansas, and potential embarrassments remain in matchups with Georgia and Alabama in November.

2. Arkansas: The summer’s turmoil sur-rounding former coach Bobby Petrino may have had folks doubting the Razorbacks heading into the season, but no one could have foreseen this level of incompetence coming out of Fayetteville. Though they’ve beaten Auburn and Kentucky in consecutive weeks, in the middle of the season, Arkansas lost 4 games – one at the hands of Lousiana- Monroe, which is less than impressive, and two others by a combined score of 110-10.

3. Virginia Tech: Their no. 16 AP pre-season placing showed they were expected to be among the nation’s elite coming into the season, but, thus far, the Hokies have been anything but. An embarrassing loss to Pitts-burgh coupled with back-to-back losses to Cincinnati and North Carolina has left Hokie Nation shaking its head, and a return to the Top 25 appears to be out of the picture.

OFFENSIVE MVP:

Geno Smith, West Virginia: The Moun-taineer quarterback has been putting up some ridiculous numbers (75.3 percent completion rating with 2271 yards and 25 touchdowns), and has his team sitting in the 13th spot in the BCS standings. He’s on pace to throw for over 4,500 yards and 50 touchdowns, all in a tough Big 12 conference that hasn’t seen that level of success at the quarterback position since Sam Bradford threw for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns in 2008.

DEFENSIVE MVP:

Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina: The 6’6″, 256 lbs. defensive end has been a match-up nightmare all season long, and has the stats to prove it. Even with double teams becoming a normality for the sophomore, he’s still racked up 31 tackles, 12 for a loss and 6.5 sacks, help-ing the Gamecocks to a 6-1 record and a no. 7 AP poll ranking.

Contact Ben Glassmen at

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