This early in the season the stories haven't developed to a point where I can choose the themes for my ruminations, less the old standbyes of Notre Dame and Wisconsin hatred (more on those later). This was, however, one of the better opening weekends in recent memory with a lot of marquee games and good match-ups. South Carolina at Vanderbilt wasn't supposed to be a close game but the combination of a stout Vandy defense and a rusty South Carolina offense made it so. I wouldn't read much into that in regards to the much heralded Gamecock team. Opening with a league opponent is always tricky.
Friday night brought a real humdinger in Boise State at Michigan State. Boise, to their credit, doesn't back down on any opening games and, particularly when Kellen moore was under center, the Broncos handled their business accordingly. Kellen was on the sidelines but not suited up for the first time in, oh..., 13 years. His replacement didn't look half bad but Billy Bob Thorton's twin brother's squad didn't look nearly as sharp as they used to and the Spartans come away with a nice opening win.
Saturday had a lot of action...
First note, and I won't make a habit of mentioning the Penn State scandal at all, but I can't let this one go. Dear ESPN, ENOUGH ALL READY! Not one soul on the current roster or coaching staff had anything to do with the Sandusky scandal. Penn State flopped in its first game against a decent Ohio squad. To you pinheads in Bristol. Move on. Please.
Games Results that will be made out to be much bigger than they are:
While the talking heads would have you believe the following games will define the season for these teams, they will not:
1) Ohio State 56, Miami (Oh) 10. Urban's debut game turned into a route quickly and I heard, on a few occasions, that Ohio State will be a team to watch this season. #1 - they will be a team to watch NOT go into post season and #2 SO WHAT? Miami of Ohio won all of 4 games last year, all of which were over teams with losing records. on top of that, Ohio State hasn't lost a game to an instate school since the 1920s. If Urban wasn't behind the helm, this game wouldn't be on anyone's radar screen.
2) Alabama 41, Michigan 14. Here it comes, the SEC talk. Can you feel it? Can the SEC compete with the NFC East? Yes, Bama looked good in thoroughly dismantling a Top Ten Michigan squad. First off, we don't know if a top ten ranking was appropriate for Michigan. As is ALWAYS the case, if Michigan returns a few starters from a winning team, scribes all over fall over themselves to launch the Wolverines into the top rankings. Second, early season blowouts are not necessarily indicative of how the season will go. Yes Bama, with it's fifth consecutive "QB from a frat house" under center looked its scary efficient self but I'm not yet ready to believe a team that lost FIVE starters to the first two rounds of the draft is simply going to steamroll everyone.
3) Notre Dame 50 Navy 10 - Note to Charlie Weiss - THIS is how you handle Navy. Note to the voters. It's just Navy.
4) Oklahoma State 84, Savannah State 0 Dear Coach Gundy - just because you used fourth and fifth stringers by the end of the game, this score result doesn't make you any less of a complete horses arse.
Games Results that matter:
1) Florida 27, Bowling Green 14 Nope, the Gators still don't have a quarterback. Perhaps they should take a page from Saban's book and recruit a kid from fraternity row.
2) Oklahoma 24, UTEP 7 Not sure what merited a 4 ranking for Oklahoma but this should make people think twice about it.
3) Clemson 26, Auburn 19 Clemson bounced back from it Orange Bowl no-show with an impressive neutral site win over an SEC school. This is something Clemson normally doesn't do. PS - this rivalry is awesome. Schedule them every year!
Conference Report Card
ACC Outside of the Clemson work, the league has the following for which to be so proud: Marylands 7 to 6 victory over William & Mary and Wake's 20 to 17 win over Liberty. Future ACC member Pittsburgh LOST to Youngstown State. On the plus side, North Carolina beat Elon 62-0 (if you factor in UNC's grading scale for football players, the score was actually 92 to 0!)
Big East The league only played three actual games against same division opponents and won two of them with Syracuse losing a shootout against Northwestern. The aforementioned Pitt made no one in the league regret the Panthers eventual exodus.
Big Ten Outside of Michigan laying a massive egg against Alabama and Penn State's loss to Ohio (which surprised no one but ESPN), the league handled it's business. Wisconsin and Iowa hit snooze one too many times but still won (are you paying attention Pitt?)
Big 12 Everyone in the league won and, with the exception of Texas, scored a LOT of points in the process. New member West Virginia showed it will fit in just fine with 69 points in its forst game as a Big 12 member. Let the coon-skin capped throngs rejoice!
Pac 12 Oregon put on the brakes in the second half against Arkansas State but looked really scary on offense before that. Same for USC against Hawaii. Mike Leech didn't have the debut he was looking for but he has no one in his system that he recruited. California lost to Nevada - again. And yet, Jeff Tedford still has a job - go figure.
SEC Well we all know about Alabama. And, while I said we should read too much into it, I think we can safely assume, based on this weekend's action, that the SEC champ will once again come from the west. Have fun Texas A&M!
Games Results that will be made out to be much bigger than they are:
While the talking heads would have you believe the following games will define the season for these teams, they will not:
1) Ohio State 56, Miami (Oh) 10. Urban's debut game turned into a route quickly and I heard, on a few occasions, that Ohio State will be a team to watch this season. #1 - they will be a team to watch NOT go into post season and #2 SO WHAT? Miami of Ohio won all of 4 games last year, all of which were over teams with losing records. on top of that, Ohio State hasn't lost a game to an instate school since the 1920s. If Urban wasn't behind the helm, this game wouldn't be on anyone's radar screen.
2) Alabama 41, Michigan 14. Here it comes, the SEC talk. Can you feel it? Can the SEC compete with the NFC East? Yes, Bama looked good in thoroughly dismantling a Top Ten Michigan squad. First off, we don't know if a top ten ranking was appropriate for Michigan. As is ALWAYS the case, if Michigan returns a few starters from a winning team, scribes all over fall over themselves to launch the Wolverines into the top rankings. Second, early season blowouts are not necessarily indicative of how the season will go. Yes Bama, with it's fifth consecutive "QB from a frat house" under center looked its scary efficient self but I'm not yet ready to believe a team that lost FIVE starters to the first two rounds of the draft is simply going to steamroll everyone.
3) Notre Dame 50 Navy 10 - Note to Charlie Weiss - THIS is how you handle Navy. Note to the voters. It's just Navy.
4) Oklahoma State 84, Savannah State 0 Dear Coach Gundy - just because you used fourth and fifth stringers by the end of the game, this score result doesn't make you any less of a complete horses arse.
Games Results that matter:
1) Florida 27, Bowling Green 14 Nope, the Gators still don't have a quarterback. Perhaps they should take a page from Saban's book and recruit a kid from fraternity row.
2) Oklahoma 24, UTEP 7 Not sure what merited a 4 ranking for Oklahoma but this should make people think twice about it.
3) Clemson 26, Auburn 19 Clemson bounced back from it Orange Bowl no-show with an impressive neutral site win over an SEC school. This is something Clemson normally doesn't do. PS - this rivalry is awesome. Schedule them every year!
Conference Report Card
ACC Outside of the Clemson work, the league has the following for which to be so proud: Marylands 7 to 6 victory over William & Mary and Wake's 20 to 17 win over Liberty. Future ACC member Pittsburgh LOST to Youngstown State. On the plus side, North Carolina beat Elon 62-0 (if you factor in UNC's grading scale for football players, the score was actually 92 to 0!)
Big East The league only played three actual games against same division opponents and won two of them with Syracuse losing a shootout against Northwestern. The aforementioned Pitt made no one in the league regret the Panthers eventual exodus.
Big Ten Outside of Michigan laying a massive egg against Alabama and Penn State's loss to Ohio (which surprised no one but ESPN), the league handled it's business. Wisconsin and Iowa hit snooze one too many times but still won (are you paying attention Pitt?)
Big 12 Everyone in the league won and, with the exception of Texas, scored a LOT of points in the process. New member West Virginia showed it will fit in just fine with 69 points in its forst game as a Big 12 member. Let the coon-skin capped throngs rejoice!
Pac 12 Oregon put on the brakes in the second half against Arkansas State but looked really scary on offense before that. Same for USC against Hawaii. Mike Leech didn't have the debut he was looking for but he has no one in his system that he recruited. California lost to Nevada - again. And yet, Jeff Tedford still has a job - go figure.
SEC Well we all know about Alabama. And, while I said we should read too much into it, I think we can safely assume, based on this weekend's action, that the SEC champ will once again come from the west. Have fun Texas A&M!
Since we are criticizing ESPN, I would just like to point out that a Cricket highlight just made it into SC's Top 10....seriously.
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