[CHOWDERHEAD]

What a strange batch of Week 9 games. While the vast majority of the Top 25 teams won their games, most were unnecessarily close when they should have been blowouts. Examples include:

* #19 Duke (8-1) needing a late 4th Quarter FG to top Boston College (4-4) by a score of 23-20.
* #23 South Florida (8-1) squeaking past Connecticut (3-5) with a 28-27 victory.
* #1 Penn State (8-0) topping Maryland (3-6) by a score of 33 to 25, despite being outscored for 3 quarters.
* #2 USC (8-0) was able to overcome being shutout for 3 quarters to get the road win over Utah (3-5) with a 20-14 victory.

The top match-up of the week was the game between #16 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-1) v. #21 ranked Michigan State Spartans (5-3). Down 10 points on the road heading into the 4th Quarter, Notre Dame RB Richard Johnson busted out a 63 yard TD run with just 2:31 left in the game to put the Irish ahead for good. With 201 yards rushing on the day, Johnson moved into 7th place overall in the Nation with 1166 rushing yards. Dare I say it, the Irish might be for real this year...?

For individual player performance, honors went to Wake Forest Safety Michael Pruitt who had 12 tackles (9 solo), 4 INT's, 2 pass deflections, and 1 forced fumble. #Beast