SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE--Week 1 Review and Week 2 Line Predictions

[RJ Esq]

The Petulant Graduate Presents: College Football's Five Worst Moments of Week One

from The FanHouse - NCAAfootball
Filed under: NCAA FB Coaching, NCAA FB Fans, NCAA FB Media Watch

The Petulant Graduate looks at worst aspects of college football from a post-educational, snarky attitude. Really, it's just an excuse to use "petulant".

The arrival of college football on campus is a significant moment on the calendar year -- it marks the beginning of fall, and most importantly, 12 hour days spent either on the couch or at the tailgate. There are upsets, there is heartbreak. There is sweet, glorious football again.

But not everything smells like roses. In fact, there are many moments, to paraphrase my boy Andre 3000, that "really smell like poo-poo-poo." Some of these are particular instances and some of them are general themes that echo across an entire weekend, or even an entire season. We will examine these, and appreciate your future nominations or corrections in the comments.

1. ACC Football
Like any good dead horse, the ACC's utter failure in the first weekend of 2008 will be beaten mercifully into the ground via countless Sportscenter replies and verbal thaththayings between Lou Holtz and Mark May, so let's go ahead and get it out of the way -- the Atlantic Coast Conference = FAIL. Virginia Tech lost to East Carolina, Clemson was flat out embarrassed, NC State didn't score on national television, North Carolina and Maryland beat McNeese St. and Delaware by a combined 14 points and Virginia got rooster-slapped by USC at home.

Boston College, Miami (FL), Georgia Tech, Duke and Florida State were the only non-embarrassments of the weekend, and the Seminoles didn't even play. And if you think that will last, well, you're crazy. I feel like I've mentioned this 40 times between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but we might legitimately be headed for a Wake Forest (the only legit top 25 team in the conference, perhaps?) - North Carolina Championship Game. And that's a scary thought indeed.

2. Dr. Lou
Please, please, puh-lease bring back Lou Holtz' pep talks. It's not that they were so good, it's just that the Dr. Lou segments on ESPN this year are absolutely brutal. Seriously, watch this, and tell me you don't cringe. You can literally hear Lloyd Carr trying not to laugh/cry for Lou as he phones in his question. It's just so pathetically obvious that he didn't strike through the "Employee will perform any and all activities, however humiliating, related to promotional items for ESPN, its parent companies, successors, assigns and/or subsidiaries, requested by Company" clause in his contract when he signed on a few years ago that it hurts.

3. Faith in Dave Wannstedt
With all due apologies to Mr. Rich, why on Earth was Pitt ranked number 25 in any national poll? Did said pollsters focus solely on a late season upset of West Virginia from last year and decide to entirely exclude the importance of head coaching in the success that a college football team has? Because it surely would seem that way, as the Mustache fell fast and fell hard, with Pittsburgh dashing any BCS hopes early and often with a loss to Bowling Green that involved typical Wanny-like offensive impotence in the second half.

4. Leaving Your Starters In a Blowout
I saw this happen with Mark Sanchez (wasn't he about to miss the entire season like three weeks ago??) and of course ... Beanie Wells. Yeah, ouch. Wells has "heard a pop" and might have "turf toe" according to various reports, none of which are going to make OSU feel any better when USC wallops them later this season. The point of all of this is that if the game is in hand -- it only need be firmly in hand, a la double digit lead against Youngstown State or 30 point lead against Virginia -- you don't need your stars to be playing. If Beanie's got 100 yards, pull him. Either that or don't schedule cupcakes every game every year and play him the whole time. Whatever.

5. "Beamer Ball"
Frank Beamer's teams, in case you haven't heard, are apparently quite good at special teams. So good, in fact, that when they make a play on special teams that results in something beneficial happening for Virginia Tech, the announcers scream "Beamer Ball!" and everyone prances around the booth and the sideline in a goiter-worshiping dance of sorts. The problem is, at this stage, it's gone a little too far. When Va Tech accidentally launches a kickoff into the ground and then East Carolina muffs the return and the Hokies recover -- that, folks, is not "Beamer Ball". Please learn the difference and stop making stupid references to a played out theme.

None of this is to say that the first week of college football wasn't a tremendous success (unless, again, you're the ACC); because it was. But with every flourishing enterprise, there are innumerable failures. If you think a bigger failure existed, make sure to point it out in the comments. Otherwise, FAIL on, and until next week.

 

[RJ Esq]

First I heard of this. Just awesome. Someone got too happy after the win, and he's a huge part of the team.

Brown responds to Houston's arrest

from Bevo Beat
Texas coach Mack Brown was informed of the DWI arrest of defensive tackle Lamarr Houston at mid-morning Sunday. He did not indicate whether Houston would be able to play Saturday against Texas-El Paso.
This time a year ago, Brown ordered three-game suspensions on two players charged with driving while intoxicated.
Brown issued this statement Sunday afternoon: “We’re aware of Lamarr’s situation and are disappointed anytime one of our players is accused of wrongdoing. We take a strong stance against drinking and driving and will thoroughly investigate this situation.
“Following the completion of the legal process, we will do what’s best for the university, Lamarr and the team. One thing we have really prided ourselves on in our program is our family atmosphere, and this will be handled within our family.”
Houston started Saturday night in Texas’ 52-10 season-opening victory over Florida Atlantic. According to police reports, Houston was involved in a minor wreck near the intersection of I-35 and 11th Street at 3 a.m.
Police said he was arrested after taking a field sobriety test.

 

[RJ Esq]

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="col0">Gators expect to get Harvin, Spikes and Tartt back for Hurricanes

</td><td class="col1">Story Highlights

• Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes and Jim Tartt are all expected back for Florida
• The three starters sat out Saturday's 56-10 victory over Hawaii

</td></tr></tbody></table><table class="cnninlineright" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>
</td></tr></tbody></table>GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- No. 5 Florida expects to have receiver Percy Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes and guard Jim Tartt back for next Saturday's game against rival Miami.
All three starters sat out Saturday against Hawaii, a 56-10 victory that gave the Gators a 19th consecutive season-opening win.
Harvin, who had a combined 1,622 yards rushing and receiving last season and scored 10 touchdowns, is still recovering from heel surgery in April. He practiced sparingly last week and hasn't been able to go full speed since early August.
Coach Urban Meyer said Sunday that the speedy junior probably will play against the Hurricanes. Meyer said the same about Spikes, the team's defensive leader who injured his right foot last week and was wearing a walking boot Saturday.
Meyer called Tartt questionable for the game, but added, "I think he'll play."
Tartt, who started 26 games the last two years, was limited in preseason camp because of a nagging shoulder injury. He had two operations on the shoulder and has struggled to get back to 100 percent.
Linebacker Ryan Stamper, who started in place of Spikes in the opener, broke his thumb early in the game but continued to play. He had surgery Sunday to insert two pins into the joint.
Stamper will have to wear a cast for four weeks, Meyer said, but should be able to play through the injury.
"It's a functional cast from what I've been told," Meyer said. "Our medical staff was great enough to come in on a Sunday and get it done, so his probability of playing has increased for Saturday."
Tight end Aaron Hernandez, who is being counted on to replace injured starter Cornelius Ingram, also is expected to return next week after what appeared to be a one-game suspension. Hernandez was suited up for the opener, but never left the sideline.
"I never announce anything (regarding suspensions)," Meyer said. "If he's ready to play, he'll play."

 

[RJ Esq]

I'm looking forward to seeing Brianna on Monday:

 

[RJ Esq]

Sunday Morning Rewind: RIP, ACC

from Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports by Matt Hinton

I don't do the "conference wars" thing, but the overwhelming stench of the weekend is the ACC flopping around like a bunch of gasping fish: Alabama routed Atlantic Division favorite Clemson, Coastal Division favorite Virginia Tech was undercut by East Carolina, N.C. State was dead on arrival at South Carolina on Thursday, North Carolina struggled most of the night with McNeese State and Virginia offered even less resistance than expected in rolling over for Southern Cal. It's only wins were over I-AA teams (McNeese, Jacksonville State, Charleston Southern, James Madison, Delaware) or their functional equivalents (Baylor, Kent State). The question now is, does the conference even have an opportunity for the rest of the season to atone for its terrible start? Assuming Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson's closing in-state tangles with the SEC are too late to make a difference in public/media perception, the only opportunities the conference has to make any kind of notable statement outside of its own borders are Virginia Tech's trip to Nebraska, Maryland's game with California, Florida State's game with Colorado in Jacksonville and Boston College's game with Notre Dame, maybe, depending on how good the Huskers, Bears, Buffs and Irish turn out to be. For the record, only Cal, at 7-6, finished with a winning mark among that group last year. With the only possible national contenders already eliminated from the race -- are you going to push Wake Forest? Really? -- the ACC can pack it and hold its fingeres for a miraculous turnaround in its territorial adventures come November.
• Utah 25, Michigan 23
There's no way around the fact that Michigan's offense was atrociously bad for the vast majority of the afternoon, and even when it was good, it was only for the briefest, isolated moments. This was fully expected in the transition to the spread 'n shred, and much uglier to watch as it actually unfolded than it was to consider as an inevitable glitch on the road to a more promising whole in the abstract: the Wolverines' longest drive of the game was 45 yards and ended in a fumble; they had only one run longer than eight yards, and before the aborted run at the end of the fourth quarter, had only two completions -- a screen pass to Sam McGuffie and an impossible highlight reel grab by Carson Butler -- longer than eight yards; and all four of their scoring drives were set up by Utah turnovers and/or major penalties. Other than Brandon Minor's 21-yard burst in the third quarter, which led to nothing, the same system that shredded so many defenses at West Virginia ran 24 times for 15 yards.
But no numbers can really describe how much like a former walk-on Nick Sheridan really looked. He was intercepted once on the stat sheet, but also lobbed another lame duck on the Wolverines' first drive that was wiped out by a sketchy pass interference penalty. He was erratic downfield, to say the least, and the passes he did hit were of the middling, horizontal variety, which Utah quickly swarmed for little to no harm. Steven Threet was more effective downfield -- two 30-plus-yard completions, one for a touchdown and one setting up a short score -- and will no doubt be the starter going forward because he was in the game for the improbable late surge. But he completed just 8 of 19, and with an open man on the decisive fourth down play with two minutes left, sailed the pass into the Utah bench. As predicted, neither Sheridan nor Threet is close to the athlete necessary to make Rodriguez's running game hum, and with virtually no threat beyond the line of scrimmage in the passing game, either, you wind up with 1.4 yards per carry and very little hope until the more option-friendly recruits show up next spring.
If there's anything good to take away for the Wolverines, it's that the defense, overall, lived up to its hype. Brian Johnson shredded it for 260 yards and a couple touchdowns in the first half -- he only topped 260 yards in an entire game once in '07 -- but if you were too distracted by the offensive horrifics on the other side to notice, the Utes' second half production amounted to two first downs and six total yards. If not for the towering leg of Kicking-and-Punting Messiah Louis Sakoda, who hammered home the eventual winning margin on a 54-yarder after the Utes went three-and-out from the Michigan 40, it would have been a shut out. It was dominating, anyway, and there's some promise in that. Just some, though, not enough to raise expectations beyond the Champs Sports Bowl.
• Utah, despite controlling the entire game on defense and dominating the first half on offense, has to be concerned enough with the second half collapse and the series of penalties, fumbles and special teams miscues that kept Michigan kicking when the game should have been nestled snugly in its bed to let the impending "BCS Buster" hype get out of hand at this stage. Johnson was sacked six times, and even excluding that yardage, averaged 0.8 per carry. Defensively, they have to be pleased. Offensively, though, there's the same question that lingered coming into the season: Brian Johnson looks great, sometimes, but which Brian Johnson is going to show up?

• Missouri 52, Illinois 42
Please, please let Jeremy Maclin be OK, because it would be a borderline tragedy by football standards to see Missouri's offense going forward at anything less than full strength. Not that it would be suddenly impotent without Maclin -- of the Tigers' 549 yards from scrimmage Saturday, he accounted for just 33 before limping off with a bad ankle, on a long gain of ten, 99-yard kickoff return notwithstanding -- but removing any piece from a machine that operated so beautifully would be very, very wrong, especially when the piece commands as much attention as Maclin. By concerning itself with the greatest matchup problem, the defense becomes vulnerable to a whole array of them, which the Tigers expertly exploited against the Illini despite the meager from-scrimmage contribution of its star.
The accolades will continue to cascade in for Chase Daniel, and he deserves them despite a somewhat hit-or-miss night (by his standards, that is: he completed "only" 58 percent of his passes and had one picked and run back for a touchdown), but the offense clicked on every level, particularly on the ground: Donald Washington had 130 yards and two touchdowns and James Jackson averaged over nine yards on five carries, most of them right down the Illini's gaping, spread-thin gullet. Elvis Fisher, the redshirt freshman who didn't plan to start entering fall count and supposedly counted as the weak point of the offense, helped keep Daniel clean (only one sack) and was outstanding on the Tigers' unorthodox tackle trap plays, especially the one that sprung Washington for his 40-yard touchdown in the second quarter, on which Fisher led up the middle, took linebacker Brit Miller out of the picture, then flattened cornerback Vontae Davis downfield as Washington scampered free.
For Illinois, it was damned if you, damned if you don't, damned if you even considered it. When they played two many defenders back to focus on the pass, they were gashed up the middle; when they played man-to-man, Daniel attacked them down the seams, as he did on a long gain to Jared Perry in the second quarter and on a touchdown pass to Chase Coffman in the third, both against one-on-one safety coverage; when they played a zone that still respected the run, Daniel picked them apart, most notably on the third quarter touchdown pass to Tommy Saunders, off a fake screen into the flat that froze the underneath coverage and left Saunders all alone, just out of the range of the Cover 2 safety coming over the top. It was a clinic, and for Maclin's sake as much as anyone else's, it's only right that he be a part of that for the rest of the year.
• Juice Williams had a huge passing game, 451 yards and five touchdowns, but it was a kind of haphazard performance. He connected on a series of long passes, some of them to guys running wide open and some against tighter coverage -- his back-to-back touchdown lobs to Chris Duvalt were well-covered -- but Juice still seems to lack touch; he rockets every throw, and it cost the Illini a few big plays as missiles sailed by flailing, wide open receivers' heads. Missouri's explosion demanded Williams continue to put it up to stay in the game, and he responded pretty admirably with four touchdown drives in the second half, but I'd be surprised if the offense didn't move back to the run-oriented, spread option attack that served it so well last year when not facing double-digit deficits for the vast majority of the game.
• Speaking of Chase Daniel's lone interception: Derek Walker made one of the plays of the day by fighting off the cut block of Missouri's right tackle, popping up into Daniel's throwing lane and hauling in the ball at point-blank range. He's only 270 pounds, and played it more like a running back on a screen pass than a lumbering defensive end.

• Alabama 34, Clemson 10
There's not much to this: Alabama kicked highly-rated, heavily motivated, this-is-our-time Tiger tail. Including sacks, the Tide outran the vaunted Tiger backfield 239 yards to zero; sacked Cullen Harper three times and hit him much more often than that; and held the ball for over 41 minutes. The lengthier of Bama drives lasted 4:51, 7:59, 6:43 and 9:01, which by themselves amount to almost a full half off the clock. Clemson, on the other had, had maybe six possessions that could have possibly mattered -- the game was all but over on its last three -- and James Davis and C.J. Spiller had eight carries between them. It's very simple: the Tide wore the Tigers out on the line of scrimmage, on both sides, made them one-dimensional, and choked away the opportunity for that dimension to do any real damage. If not for C.J. Spiller's kick return touchdown to start the second half, Clemson would have basically nothing to its name.
All things considered -- whatever you thought of them, the Tigers were a top ten team coming in and deserved that designation based on what we knew about them -- this was the most impressive win of the opening weekend, easily the most physically dominating over a real opponent, and puts the Tide immediately into the mix in the SEC. The additions of Mark Ingram in the backfield and especially Terrance Cody in the middle of the defensive line, possibly even more than Julio Jones, certainly seem to put both units on another level, but the stars of the game from my perspective were a couple veteran big guys: Andre Smith on the offensive line and Lorenzo Washington on the defense, who if nothing else were the visible leaders of an old-fashioned throttling. Their trip to Georgia in four weeks becomes much more interesting.
• East Carolina 27, Virginia Tech 22
Closing drama aside, the story of this game is partly about East Carolina outplaying the Hokies for the second year in a row -- ECU outgained Tech by more than 100 yards Saturday after narrowly outgaining them last year in Blacksburg -- but much more about what's going to happen to Virginia Tech. The running game was serviceable (Kenny Lewis and Darrell Evans had a solid 99 yards on 23 carries), but not nearly overwhelming enough to put the Hokies over the top when Sean Glennon was the platonic incarnation of Sean Glennon: 14 of 23 for 139 yards, two interceptions, no touchdowns, and when the Hokies needed to run precious time off the clock, the thrower of ineffectual, clock-stopping screen passes. Faced with the two-minute drill, he fell woefully short.
Remember that Tech had to have a fluky lateral returned for touchdown, a botched Pirate kickoff return and a blocked extra point to even be in the game late, and the calls for suspiciously redshirted Tyrod Taylor will ring far and wide. Glennon was exactly what he's proven he would be over his first two years as the starter, and unless Frank Beamer is determined to sacrifice this very young team's chance at another ACC championship for the sake of future teams, it seems inevitable we'll see Taylor make an appearance soon -- not next week against Furman, probably, but sometime in the stretch of games against Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Nebraska, for sure. Relying solely on Glennon was barely justifiable before Saturday, and after, it seems almost spiteful.
• Give the Pirates credit: they probably played themselves into the frontrunner's seat in Conference USA, if they weren't there already. There were no stars, which makes Skip Holtz's work all the more impressive, but Patrick Pinkney was an outstanding 19 of 23 for 211 yards a touchdown with no interceptions. They'll fall off the national radar after next week's game against West Virginia, but with N.C. State and Virginia looming past the Mountaineers, they're going to be very tough to beat from then on.
Say What? Inexcusable upsets.
• Bowling Green 27, Pittsburgh 17. This is not an outrageous upset -- the eight-win Falcons were almost certainly better than Pitt last year -- but given the expectations of Panther insurgency in the Big East, Dave Wannstedt can probably begin shopping around for a defensive coordinator job in the AFC East. Bill Stull was underwhelming, star-in-waitin LeSean McCoy was held to 71 yards on 3.1 per carry and there was no late growl in the Panthers after falling irreparably behind in the second half.

There's only one thing to note: Pitt outgained Bowling Green by more than 100 yards and can largely chalk up its ill-fortune to three lost fumbles, two of which set up Bowling Green touchdowns, the latter from just 11 yards out (both teams threw interceptions, but BG didn't lose a fumble). I would say the future might be brighter if the Panthers can hold onto the ball, but a second half o-fer against any team from the defensively-challenged MAC is anathema to optimism regardless of the circumstances.
• Louisiana Tech 22, Mississippi State 14. The Bulldogs gave the Bulldogs a taste of their own medicine: MSU, often the beneficiary of turnovers and other favors en route to eight wins last year, outgained Tech 348-269, but Wesley Carroll was reliably Wesley Carroll-esque, tossing three interceptions on top of the two fumbles MSU gave away. Georgia Tech transfer Taylor Bennett was even worse for La Tech, reliving his Yellow Jacket days by completing an abysmal 14 of 40, but he was only intercepted once, and put Tech up for good with a short touchdown pass in the second quarter. And thus ends Croom's Liberty Bowl honeymoon.
• Arkansas State 18, Texas A&M 14. No flukes here: the Red Wolves, nee Indians, outgained A&M 415-303, largely on the strength of 145 yards rushing from Reggie Arnold and a turnover-free performance by quarterback Corey Leonard. The Aggies, on the other hand, lost a pair of fumbles, and senior Stephen McGee was intercepted twice, no doubt bringing on the calls for sophomore Vince Young doppelganger Jerrod Johnson. There's, uh, no pressure or anything from here on, Mike Sherman. Aggie partisans are very patient and accepting of fifth-place finishes and losses to Sun Belt teams in service of the big picture. It will only get easier. You'll see.
Box Scorin': The day in wild statistics.
Youngstown State had 74 total yards and five first downs, and the Penguins' longest possession covered 24 yards. Ohio State scored on nine of its first ten possessions (it moved 51 yards inside the five before Chris Wells' fumble on the other) and had five plays longer than 24 yards. . . . Wisconsin ran 63 times for 404 yards, and passed just ten times in its win over Akron. . . . Syracuse was outgained by 259 yards and 14 first downs by Northwestern. . . . Georgia Southern nearly matched Georgia for first downs (18 to UGA's 20), but was outgained by 240 yards. . . . West Virginia threw 34 times against Villanova, to 22 rushes. . . . Navy's Shun White ran 19 times for 348 yards -- about 21 per carry -- and Navy had 558 yards rushing against Towson. . . . Tulsa's new quarterback, David Johnson, 20 of 24 for 332 yards, three touchdowns and the highest efficiency rating of the day. . . . Texas Tech's Graham Harrell and Matt Nichols threw 119 passes for 871 yards in a game that lasted three hours and 40 minutes. . . . Southern Miss had 633 total yards, 427 rushing, in a 30-point win over UL-Lafayette. Running back Damion Fletcher averaged over 10 yards on 21 carries. . . . Chattanooga had 36 yards, 13 punts and one first down against Oklahoma. The Sooners scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions. . . . And South Florida had 197 yards and four touchdowns on 18 plays in its first four possessions against UT-Martin, or 11 yards per play.

 

[RJ Esq]

Don't Believe The Hype: Georgia and Clemson

from Saturday Sound Offs by Jeremy
Yes, yes the most wanted feature is back at SSO, well it is just behind two a days and blogger Q&A. This series should be about once a week and not sure if it should be satire, comedy, or real football write, it will probably be all three. Well lets get this thing started.

Now Georgia and Clemson fans do not hate me for this, but if you do just leave a comment to and tell me how stupid I am, I can take it.

There is a saying I head and it has to do Las Vegas gambling and it can be related to predictions and sure thing. The saying is wherever the public is favoring or betting take the opposite direction, very simple but not many people follow that philsophy. There is a reason Las Vegas keeps building casinos and enormous hotels.

Starting with number one ranked Georgia this team thought being ranked number one would have praise oozing into their lap. Not entirely true, because in SEC media days Georgia is not even predicted to win their division, and that privelage goes to Florida.

The reason for the hype of Georgia playing for the national title goes back to last season while the Georgia Bulldogs were very good last year and will be this year, that Hawai'i game propped up Georgia more then it should have. Some people believed Georgia was the best team last year.

Reasons they will not make the title game, even though Georgia still could be the best team, and that is their schedule.

As of right not they play seven ranked teams, and that could jump to eight because South Carolina looks, very good. Out of those eight games four are on the road, and then the neutral site game in Jacksonville against Florida. The schedule is the main reason, plus I do not see Georgia going to Arizona State to win . The Bulldogs have not traveled outside of bus range for non conference games in years. I do not have the numbers but it could easily be a decade or more.

Now if only I could have had the post done before Saturday morning I could be receiving praises from all for choosing Clemson. We all know that Clemson every year says they are going to win the ACC and contend for a national championship. Yeah right, each year they lose to inferior teams and some how Tubberville still has a job. Just look at yesterdays embarrassing loss to Alabama, 34-10.

Clemson could still win the weak ACC but no way they should be considered a top tier team until they can make it to a BCS game.

 

[RJ Esq]

So What Did You Learn, Dorothy?

from Behind enemy lines - A Huskerh8er's view of the world by AJ
First off, I’m sorry this is a bit late. I was so busy putting holes in my walls and smashing items in my den that I forgot to write a column. That sort of thing happens when you beat a top 20 team by double digits.

Anyway, more on that in a bit.

As for the Hicks this weekend…I warned you before hand; I didn’t see one play of the game. Hell, I didn’t even watch the gametracker of the game. (Was a bit busy at the time.) In this business, nothing is worse than commenting on a game I didn't see (or pay attention to while it was happing), but regardless, keep that in mind as we go through some things we learned about NU:

- Without Joe Ganz you are really really screwed. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still probably in the bottom half of QB’s in the league, but he is a senior and he does have the ability to put up nice numbers. Was he zipping around the ball that well early on? Or was the "emotion" (roll eyes) of it all just too much for WMU?

- Marlon Lucky eh? 3.8 yards per carry and less than 50 total? Against a MAC team that finished in the bottom half of the country in defense last year? Weak.

- Sounds like the Husker defense is right about where most rational people thought they’d be. Improved on effort (Seriously...even me of all people knew you wouldn't mail it in during game 1), yet still not quite able to put it all together. Hiller is a pretty good QB and threw for 3000 yards last season. But come on..this is Western Michigan at HOME. Back in the old days, this was a major concern. Today, it almost seems folks are happy it was only 30-49 for 341.

- FOUR sacks? FOUR!?!? That’s like more sacks than you’ve had combined since the Maine game in 2005 no? Wow, FOUR?!? AND two turnovers? Congrats.

- Looks like Alex Henry is working out well for you guys. Having a key guy who can kick field goals when your inconsistent offense sputters out inside the 30 is key.

- Would be nice to see what would have happened if Western wouldn’t have blown their best opportunity of the game early. Wide open receiver, and the ball sips out of Hiller’s hands? I’ve told you this once, and I’ve told you this 1000 times: Teams from small conferences will always struggle in Lincoln, because it takes them a while to get their bearings after seeing THAT many middle aged rural white guys “throwing bones” to start the game. Seriously, that would throw me off too.

- Why is the tunnel walk mentioned by almost everybody as one of the best part of the game? You actually WON a game by 20+ points. I think you have way more things to worry about than a song from 1985 thrown up on the scoreboard with some pictures. So it was cool. Whoopie doo.

- Somebody must have done a decent job shutting down Jamarko Simmons. I assume he wasn’t hurt and I assumed he actually played. I’ll investigate further to see just what the hell happened, but props nonetheless. (or a big fat “nice going” to Bill Cubit for not throwing to him, although I heard a rumor he was banged up.)

- Regardless, This broke down pretty much as we expected. (I predicted 31 to 23 Huskers) Again, this is a WMU team that gave up 30+ points FIVE times last season and has almost everybody back. Regardless, Ganz appeared to put up decent numbers, but yet made a few mistakes. Not sure where the hell your running game went, but apparently it wasn’t needed. Remember also that two of Bill Callahan’s WORST seasons (2004 and 2007) were opened with big wins over Western Illinois and Nevada. We shall see how it goes.

** Other observations **

- I’m not sure why everybody is all over the Missouri defense today. Mizzou gave up 4 TD’s, a pick 6 (Dumb pass by Daniel) and an absolute scrub TD with :00 on the clock to end the game. Of those four TD’s by Juice Williams, Two of them were absolutely perfect passes that were covered completely. Not much you can do when the guy is putting the deep ball on the money like that. The one missed assignment they did have was a sub just after Gettis hurt his shoulder.

Regardless, That was the second toughest game on Mizzou’s schedule, they played average at best and still put up 52 points and won by double digits. (Against a defending BCS team). There is plenty to improve on, but I think it’s awfully early to start hitting the panic button on the defense. Seriously, watch the highlights…you couldn’t drop a ball out of the sky better than Juice Williams was doing last night. Props to him.

I thought Daniel stayed composed pretty well, and shook off some drops and some bad decisions. Nice to have a weapon like Jeremy Maclin back there as well. For 25 years, Mizzou didn't have a kickoff returned for a touchdown. Now they have 2 in the last 5 games.

Other notes: Temple who? Washington played well as did Jared Perry. When Coffman and Maclin get double covered, it's imperative for those two guys to step up. (Especially until Danario Alexander gets back on 10/4). Regardless, a win is a win..especially against a quality team. I'll take that any day of the week.

- Texas A&M….seriously. I mean, I know CU struggled with Montana State in Dan Hawkins’ first game…and I know Rich Rodriguez struggled in his first game. (I told you Utah was pretty good)…but Arkansas State at Kyle Field? Come on now.

- I think people are completely under-estimating just how bad Florida International is. Granted, KU led 30-10 at the half and Sod Reesing had 256. But if you’re going to be the BCS juggernaut you have built in your own mind..you need to be putting the wood to borderline high school teams like Florida International. That South Florida game just got more interesting.

- Good wins for KSU and ISU…if against other high school teams as well.

- Graham Harrell threw for only 536 against a 1AA team. What the hell is wrong with the Red Raiders? Yeesh, he is slipping.

- Great win for Okie State that has flown under the radar overnight. Wazzu is a decent team with some serious weapons. Pretty good for 5th best team in the south ( or so people say).

So what DID we learn over the weekend? Pretty much nothing we didn't already know. Oh sure, Virginia Tech and Michigan suck, and the teams we thought would be good are good. But alas...even for a jaded Husker Hater, it was great to sit down and enjoy college football on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I think we can all agree on that.

 

[RJ Esq]

Looking at look-ahead situations:

Maryland looking past MTSU to California (not very likely after escaping Delaware in Week 1)
UConn looking past Temple to UVA
Iowa looking past FIU to Iowa
Ohio St looking past/keeping it in reserve for USC
Wisky looking past Marshall to Fresno St
Iowa St looking past Kent St to Iowa
Kansas looking past La Tech to USF (not likely after the La Tech upset of Miss St)
Texas looking past UTEP to Arky (not likely in Week 2 of the new D system)
Notre Dame looking past SDSU to Michigan (maybe a backdoor cover but the Aztecs suck)
Oregon looking past Utah St to Purdue
Arkansas looking past ULM to Texas
Auburn looking past USM to Miss St
Georgia looking past CMU to SCar
SCar looking past Vandy to Georgia

 

[bjorks]

If the lines are close to the predictions there were 3 games stood out.

Minny/BG PK - Bowling Green should be favored here by at least 3. Sure they could have a let down after a big win, but Minnesota looked very much like Minnesota yesterday. They needed all they had to beat NIU, who was able to throw and run all they wanted in the Gophers.

Cal -10 @ Wazzou - You're telling me Cal is only 3 points better than Okie State?

BYU -9.5 @ Washington - One thing I learned last night about Washington? They flat out quit about half way through the 3rd quarter. Jake Locher is a stud, but they have nobody else. Their youth was exposed and now you got the favorite of the MWC, a veteran team with an offense that will put up points on anyone. BYU wins this by at least 2 TD's if not more.

I may fade Kentucky the rest of the year also, they're offense is awful.

 

[RJ Esq]

Photo taken after the first defensive series for Texas. Apparently, Coach Boom was so pissed he ripped off his headphones and cut his face, yet didn't miss a beat.

He's serious.