Two weeks into the season and we have a few things to talk about...
"Dante's inferno"
Despite the less than stellar competition the Oregon Ducks and Dante Moore are certainly in mid-season form already! The path that Moore has taken into being the #1 guy on a top 10 team is an interesting one and a valuable lesson for many others. He was thrown into the mix too early and likely a "NIL baby" but he learned from that and decided to watch as a backup last year. Lessons learned. He and the Ducks offense are off and rolling!
"Rutgers Defense"
Listen, Rutgers won this game by 28 points but we need to dive in a bit deeper -- a putrid Miami offense had nearly 375 yards with only 21 mins of possession! They averaged 8.4 ypp. Finn ate them up, the rare times they had the ball. This is a bad omen and hopefully is good for us in betting their games moving forward.
"Going through the motions"
This is and will be Penn State with the lack of competition. They led 20-0 entering the 4th quarter. Simply put, they are waiting till the bigger games perhaps to show some stuff? I remember the 2023 National Champions also had a blah schedule to start and sometimes vets just can't get up totally for these games.
"Year 3"
This is the 3rd year for Coach Rhule in Lincoln. This is also the 2nd year for their highly rated QB. You can sort of see things coming together a bit for this school. The 3rd year is so many times when things take shape after a coaching change. The Akron game was 728 yards of offense, 31 first downs and 10.0 ypp. On the other end, the defense held the Zips to 175 yards and 3.0 ypp.
Pure Domination
Next up is another warm-up before a big one at home to Michigan. The Wolverines aren't a title contender this year but still would be a benchmark win for Rhule. The schedule afterwards sets up for a very nice run into November. Other than a Friday night game in Minnesota, this should be easy sledding for the Huskers into the USC game Nov 1st. Looking way too far ahead, but goodness the November 22nd game in Happy Valley could be VERY important.
"Points galore in Southern Cal"
The offense is off and running for the Trojans this year in two games vs soft opponents. USC is averaging 66 ppg so far. They have amassed 559 and 755 yards in their first two games. While the defense hasn't given up massive amounts of yards, you can see that better opponents will move the ball a bit. They criss-cross the country in the next few weeks (@Purdue, home to MSU and @Illinois).
*BIG BET potentially in their next home game
"No longer Joe Moore... "
Simply put, through 2 games, my biggest worry with Michigan is their offensive line. The two long runs vs New Mexico covered up some warts. This past game, one more long run helped the stats but the fact is this line is below average in the run blocking department. The pass blocking is to be determined. Oklahoma is a playoff caliber team and their defense is above-average. Conversely, the game plan was pretty lousy. As Hunt will tell ya, less tempo and many opined about how bunched up the formations were. Everything played into OU's hands to be honest.
The Michigan defense wasn't too bad overall, despite losing 2 starters during the game and missing one for the first half. They faced a dark horse Heisman candidate and didn't truly fall apart until that 8-9 min drive in the 4th. Their fate was sealed after that.
Any way you look at things, the Mich OL will determine a lot for their games this year. This is a bad start and they need to find something before this gets out of hand.
Bonus note: Bryce won't be running. They have no depth and the staff isn't looking to be without their #1 guy.
Bonus note 2: Bryce will be fine. Great learning experience in a tough stadium vs a VERY good team. This year is about building for runs in '26 and '27.
"Sparty On"
The faithful are very happy in East Lansing and who wouldn't be after a nice double OT win? This was one of the very worst 3rd quarter teams last season but Saturday night was a HUGE step in the right direction there. Michigan St moved the ball around nicely and Chiles is protecting the ball very well.
But, that pass defense is atrocious. BC won most of that box score and take away a weird 3rd and they may have won this in regulation. You can take a hint from an earlier part of this thread about a play down the road from your ole buddy Reno...
OK, let us move onto Week #3...
UCLA is in big trouble and faces a New Mexico team that plays hard and until the final whistle. This could be interesting...
The Oregon show goes on the road to NW to face those cats! This is an early start for the Ducks, so we must take that into account. The 9am body clock is real. I kinda want to stalk this one for a slow start.
Wisconsin off that explosion the last 3 quarters vs MTSU heads down to Alabama to face the Tide. We'll take a peak at SEC thread for some more insights. I honestly do not know what to think of the Badgers after 2 completely different games.
This is not the first time Penn State and Nova have played in recent years... frankly a bit ridiculous... sigh...
USC and Purdue is a game I'll cap a bit harder tomorrow. I have some full game over leans right off the bat. This is NOT a noon start which helps a lot. Now, USC did struggle crossing the Mississippi last year and the grass length will be interesting as well...
Minnesota and Cal is low-key a fun game -- kinda. Minnesota has looked pretty good so far and will be a bowl team no doubt. I think we can count on them for one upset at some point as well. Cal with a cupcake and also beat up on Oregon State. We'll receive a short tariff on the Gophers in a road game that I'll be looking at on the live market.
Admittedly, I am skipping some of these ridiculous matches. I'm more than willing to discuss if anyone has angles on them. We'll go from there...
More Mich-CMU talk once the injuries start to finalize themselves... Biff will coach this week against the Chips... Good week to work on some stuff before the trip to Lincoln, Nebraska.
"Dante's inferno"
Despite the less than stellar competition the Oregon Ducks and Dante Moore are certainly in mid-season form already! The path that Moore has taken into being the #1 guy on a top 10 team is an interesting one and a valuable lesson for many others. He was thrown into the mix too early and likely a "NIL baby" but he learned from that and decided to watch as a backup last year. Lessons learned. He and the Ducks offense are off and rolling!
"Rutgers Defense"
Listen, Rutgers won this game by 28 points but we need to dive in a bit deeper -- a putrid Miami offense had nearly 375 yards with only 21 mins of possession! They averaged 8.4 ypp. Finn ate them up, the rare times they had the ball. This is a bad omen and hopefully is good for us in betting their games moving forward.
"Going through the motions"
This is and will be Penn State with the lack of competition. They led 20-0 entering the 4th quarter. Simply put, they are waiting till the bigger games perhaps to show some stuff? I remember the 2023 National Champions also had a blah schedule to start and sometimes vets just can't get up totally for these games.
"Year 3"
This is the 3rd year for Coach Rhule in Lincoln. This is also the 2nd year for their highly rated QB. You can sort of see things coming together a bit for this school. The 3rd year is so many times when things take shape after a coaching change. The Akron game was 728 yards of offense, 31 first downs and 10.0 ypp. On the other end, the defense held the Zips to 175 yards and 3.0 ypp.
Pure Domination
Next up is another warm-up before a big one at home to Michigan. The Wolverines aren't a title contender this year but still would be a benchmark win for Rhule. The schedule afterwards sets up for a very nice run into November. Other than a Friday night game in Minnesota, this should be easy sledding for the Huskers into the USC game Nov 1st. Looking way too far ahead, but goodness the November 22nd game in Happy Valley could be VERY important.
"Points galore in Southern Cal"
The offense is off and running for the Trojans this year in two games vs soft opponents. USC is averaging 66 ppg so far. They have amassed 559 and 755 yards in their first two games. While the defense hasn't given up massive amounts of yards, you can see that better opponents will move the ball a bit. They criss-cross the country in the next few weeks (@Purdue, home to MSU and @Illinois).
*BIG BET potentially in their next home game
"No longer Joe Moore... "
Simply put, through 2 games, my biggest worry with Michigan is their offensive line. The two long runs vs New Mexico covered up some warts. This past game, one more long run helped the stats but the fact is this line is below average in the run blocking department. The pass blocking is to be determined. Oklahoma is a playoff caliber team and their defense is above-average. Conversely, the game plan was pretty lousy. As Hunt will tell ya, less tempo and many opined about how bunched up the formations were. Everything played into OU's hands to be honest.
The Michigan defense wasn't too bad overall, despite losing 2 starters during the game and missing one for the first half. They faced a dark horse Heisman candidate and didn't truly fall apart until that 8-9 min drive in the 4th. Their fate was sealed after that.
Any way you look at things, the Mich OL will determine a lot for their games this year. This is a bad start and they need to find something before this gets out of hand.
Bonus note: Bryce won't be running. They have no depth and the staff isn't looking to be without their #1 guy.
Bonus note 2: Bryce will be fine. Great learning experience in a tough stadium vs a VERY good team. This year is about building for runs in '26 and '27.
"Sparty On"
The faithful are very happy in East Lansing and who wouldn't be after a nice double OT win? This was one of the very worst 3rd quarter teams last season but Saturday night was a HUGE step in the right direction there. Michigan St moved the ball around nicely and Chiles is protecting the ball very well.
But, that pass defense is atrocious. BC won most of that box score and take away a weird 3rd and they may have won this in regulation. You can take a hint from an earlier part of this thread about a play down the road from your ole buddy Reno...
OK, let us move onto Week #3...
UCLA is in big trouble and faces a New Mexico team that plays hard and until the final whistle. This could be interesting...
The Oregon show goes on the road to NW to face those cats! This is an early start for the Ducks, so we must take that into account. The 9am body clock is real. I kinda want to stalk this one for a slow start.
Wisconsin off that explosion the last 3 quarters vs MTSU heads down to Alabama to face the Tide. We'll take a peak at SEC thread for some more insights. I honestly do not know what to think of the Badgers after 2 completely different games.
This is not the first time Penn State and Nova have played in recent years... frankly a bit ridiculous... sigh...
USC and Purdue is a game I'll cap a bit harder tomorrow. I have some full game over leans right off the bat. This is NOT a noon start which helps a lot. Now, USC did struggle crossing the Mississippi last year and the grass length will be interesting as well...
Minnesota and Cal is low-key a fun game -- kinda. Minnesota has looked pretty good so far and will be a bowl team no doubt. I think we can count on them for one upset at some point as well. Cal with a cupcake and also beat up on Oregon State. We'll receive a short tariff on the Gophers in a road game that I'll be looking at on the live market.
Admittedly, I am skipping some of these ridiculous matches. I'm more than willing to discuss if anyone has angles on them. We'll go from there...
More Mich-CMU talk once the injuries start to finalize themselves... Biff will coach this week against the Chips... Good week to work on some stuff before the trip to Lincoln, Nebraska.
