Hunt and I will generally alternate weeks on this (with a @cubsker cameo at times) but I'll do the honors now as this is a busy time of year for him in the midget porn industry.
What a interesting first week in conference...I'll go through my thoughts on the games I saw parts of and do some box score notes as well..
I saw almost all of Ohio State and Minnesota. First of all, and while watching a team like Louisville change their tempo to keep an opponent off field and rest the defense, Minnesota tried this early on vs OSU and it wasn't working. Granted, they got going later on but that was backfiring early on. The 4th and 1 gets stuffed and this was a blowout in my opinion. That and the reversal on the interception were huge. The Buckeyes defense is very good up front, and having some issues in the back 7. That is my initial impression. Obviously the WR room is disgusting and they are deep at RB. Henderson is a future star and I would guess gets more and more carries as it goes...
Lets do one more paragraph here...
Stroud.
This was his first start, in a hostile environment, and I think he graded out well. Yes, he was high and off on some passes early on. He admitted nerves after the game. With that being said, he made plays when he needed too and improved as the game went on. He has all the surrounding parts on offense to succeed. Starting off at Minnesota and with a game against a good Ducks team coming up will be huge in his development. I know everyone was expecting some crazy performance but we need to realize that not every highly touted QB at a football factory is going to set the world on fire out of the gate. Bryce Young is higher rated and we saw his mistakes last year. Look at DJ Saturday night, another guy higher rated. Patience is a virtue... this team will be just fine with him at the helm.
Sparty is Portal U and it looks like things are meshing okay so far. Now, Northwestern is pretty bad. I hammered MSU live as soon as I could Friday night. We need to see them vs some better competition. But, they look 'solid'. Conversely, the Cats do not look good at all but they always struggle at the start. Pat will have them improving as they go.
I attended my first Michigan game since the thrashing of Nebraska back in 2011. Everything about the experience was great (in relation to first game with fans in sometime etc). Overall, the team looked pretty much as advertised coming out of camp. The defense is better, but thin on the DL. The RB's are good. Cade manages a game well and JJ will make some jaw-dropping plays and mistakes. Overall, a much 'cleaner' performance all around from this team. He may have finally gelled together a staff with very few weaknesses. The Ronnie Bell injury obviously sucks. I just feel terrible for a captain and really and underdog losing out on a full season. They have depth there, but will miss his heart and toughness.
As far as this team goes, and the season...still staying at 8-4 or so for them...
I didn't see a lot of the game but Iowa just manhandled Indiana. My guy Penix was absolutely awful in his return from injury. That is just a vintage 34 points in an Iowa win on 300 yards of offense. Textbook.
Local product 'Dwan Mathis was 8-25 for Temple against powerful Rutgers. Wow, 61 points. Not a lot of yardage, but they forced 5 turnovers. He is simply a very good coach and they will be a pesky out all year in conference.
Nebraska beat Fordham. I think they are ready for Oklahoma.
I didn't catch any of WVU and Maryland but it looked like a very entertaining back and forth game. I'll look forward to @Timh recap here. Looks like Taulia had a great day just via the box score.
Talk to me about Purdue @PaintCrew . That game was ugly before they finally got 28 of the 51 total points in the 4th quarter.
Every time I turned on the Illinois game, UTSA was making a big play. Big Bert has got to be big mad after that performance. It is what it is with Artur as your quarterback. You give up 500 to the roadrunners and it really is a kick in the face. I mean, 217 of that on the ground with a pretty good defensive line. Mind boggling.
Okay, that is all I got for last week. As you can tell, I saw the most of UM and OSU games plus the start of MSU which led to me firing on that game.
Oh, I forgot...Penn State and Wisconsin. I know @HUNT saw a lot of this one. The fact that Wisconsin ran near 100 plays and scored 10 points is just wild to me. Mertz, hmmmm...
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Week 2...quick hitters then we'll discuss as a group...
Oregon and Ohio State is the big one...Line jumped up pretty quick... My take is Fresno is a pretty solid team so the result there wasn't all that shocking. I feel this is tight for a half then the Buckeyes gets going and win by double-digits...total may be a bit high...
Illinois heads to Virginia. This line has dropped a bit since open. My Cavs knowledge is limited and frankly do not think I want to be involved with a weird ass Illini team right now...
Miami OH heads to Minnesota. Thoughts @Marsski ?
Don't ask why, but I saw some Ohio and Syracuse and it was as ugly as you'd expect. Rutgers is a short favorite here at the Dome and this is enticing to me. They have the coaching advantage (Babers star has faded for me) and they simply play hard. I like these kinds of teams in matchups like this.
Testicle Tech and the Beavers face off in Happy Valley. I still need to get the read on that PSU team after the Wisconsin win. I saw a lot of trashing of Mr. Peanut on social media posts during the game, so I am guessing they were not all that impressive in victory?
Iowa and Iowa State for all the marbles. I'll text Mr. SGU himself and see what he is thinking. Obviously, love to get thoughts from @KJ and @rochclone for this tilt.
Uconn is awful, can Purdue take advantage and get us a patented 'fade Uconn and Umass' TT/spread/1H palooza? I don't really think the Edsall news moves the needle much here. You have to respect this point spread, no doubt, but the Boilers should have some fun out there.
EMU heads to Camp Randall. The line move here is confusing to me a bit. I think you all know by now I hate betting Wisconsin games due to the fact the clock just runs and runs. That is only conducive to my style on certain occasions.
Get to the other games in a bit... Couple of non Division 1 games...
Nebraska and Buffalo is VERY interesting to me. New coach in Buffalo, and they lost a lot of pieces...our data here is limited as they played Wagner so far...talk to me @cubsker
UTL at the Big House. I could not be more pissed off at @jimmymo Huskies for that performance last week. Why? Now it is an absolute must win. I think this was a 60/40 win at best as of a month ago with maybe slightly higher confidence going at the end of camp. I'll tell ya what, that Husky offense leaves a lot to be desired. Old friend Giles Jackson makes his way back home at least.... now, the UW defense is darn good as always. This is as simple as who can limit turnovers. Michigan coughs it up a few times, they will be in trouble. A pretty clean performance and Cade can manage this one into a physical 24-14 kinda win I would think. Once again, the total is too high in a Michigan game. I told ya they would 'run, run run' last time out and not much will change here. The defense should get some confidence vs this Husky team one would think.
Okay, all typed out... lets open it up to the masses...
What a interesting first week in conference...I'll go through my thoughts on the games I saw parts of and do some box score notes as well..
I saw almost all of Ohio State and Minnesota. First of all, and while watching a team like Louisville change their tempo to keep an opponent off field and rest the defense, Minnesota tried this early on vs OSU and it wasn't working. Granted, they got going later on but that was backfiring early on. The 4th and 1 gets stuffed and this was a blowout in my opinion. That and the reversal on the interception were huge. The Buckeyes defense is very good up front, and having some issues in the back 7. That is my initial impression. Obviously the WR room is disgusting and they are deep at RB. Henderson is a future star and I would guess gets more and more carries as it goes...
Lets do one more paragraph here...
Stroud.
This was his first start, in a hostile environment, and I think he graded out well. Yes, he was high and off on some passes early on. He admitted nerves after the game. With that being said, he made plays when he needed too and improved as the game went on. He has all the surrounding parts on offense to succeed. Starting off at Minnesota and with a game against a good Ducks team coming up will be huge in his development. I know everyone was expecting some crazy performance but we need to realize that not every highly touted QB at a football factory is going to set the world on fire out of the gate. Bryce Young is higher rated and we saw his mistakes last year. Look at DJ Saturday night, another guy higher rated. Patience is a virtue... this team will be just fine with him at the helm.
Sparty is Portal U and it looks like things are meshing okay so far. Now, Northwestern is pretty bad. I hammered MSU live as soon as I could Friday night. We need to see them vs some better competition. But, they look 'solid'. Conversely, the Cats do not look good at all but they always struggle at the start. Pat will have them improving as they go.
I attended my first Michigan game since the thrashing of Nebraska back in 2011. Everything about the experience was great (in relation to first game with fans in sometime etc). Overall, the team looked pretty much as advertised coming out of camp. The defense is better, but thin on the DL. The RB's are good. Cade manages a game well and JJ will make some jaw-dropping plays and mistakes. Overall, a much 'cleaner' performance all around from this team. He may have finally gelled together a staff with very few weaknesses. The Ronnie Bell injury obviously sucks. I just feel terrible for a captain and really and underdog losing out on a full season. They have depth there, but will miss his heart and toughness.
As far as this team goes, and the season...still staying at 8-4 or so for them...
I didn't see a lot of the game but Iowa just manhandled Indiana. My guy Penix was absolutely awful in his return from injury. That is just a vintage 34 points in an Iowa win on 300 yards of offense. Textbook.
Local product 'Dwan Mathis was 8-25 for Temple against powerful Rutgers. Wow, 61 points. Not a lot of yardage, but they forced 5 turnovers. He is simply a very good coach and they will be a pesky out all year in conference.
Nebraska beat Fordham. I think they are ready for Oklahoma.
I didn't catch any of WVU and Maryland but it looked like a very entertaining back and forth game. I'll look forward to @Timh recap here. Looks like Taulia had a great day just via the box score.
Talk to me about Purdue @PaintCrew . That game was ugly before they finally got 28 of the 51 total points in the 4th quarter.
Every time I turned on the Illinois game, UTSA was making a big play. Big Bert has got to be big mad after that performance. It is what it is with Artur as your quarterback. You give up 500 to the roadrunners and it really is a kick in the face. I mean, 217 of that on the ground with a pretty good defensive line. Mind boggling.
Okay, that is all I got for last week. As you can tell, I saw the most of UM and OSU games plus the start of MSU which led to me firing on that game.
Oh, I forgot...Penn State and Wisconsin. I know @HUNT saw a lot of this one. The fact that Wisconsin ran near 100 plays and scored 10 points is just wild to me. Mertz, hmmmm...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 2...quick hitters then we'll discuss as a group...
Oregon and Ohio State is the big one...Line jumped up pretty quick... My take is Fresno is a pretty solid team so the result there wasn't all that shocking. I feel this is tight for a half then the Buckeyes gets going and win by double-digits...total may be a bit high...
Illinois heads to Virginia. This line has dropped a bit since open. My Cavs knowledge is limited and frankly do not think I want to be involved with a weird ass Illini team right now...
Miami OH heads to Minnesota. Thoughts @Marsski ?
Don't ask why, but I saw some Ohio and Syracuse and it was as ugly as you'd expect. Rutgers is a short favorite here at the Dome and this is enticing to me. They have the coaching advantage (Babers star has faded for me) and they simply play hard. I like these kinds of teams in matchups like this.
Testicle Tech and the Beavers face off in Happy Valley. I still need to get the read on that PSU team after the Wisconsin win. I saw a lot of trashing of Mr. Peanut on social media posts during the game, so I am guessing they were not all that impressive in victory?
Iowa and Iowa State for all the marbles. I'll text Mr. SGU himself and see what he is thinking. Obviously, love to get thoughts from @KJ and @rochclone for this tilt.
Uconn is awful, can Purdue take advantage and get us a patented 'fade Uconn and Umass' TT/spread/1H palooza? I don't really think the Edsall news moves the needle much here. You have to respect this point spread, no doubt, but the Boilers should have some fun out there.
EMU heads to Camp Randall. The line move here is confusing to me a bit. I think you all know by now I hate betting Wisconsin games due to the fact the clock just runs and runs. That is only conducive to my style on certain occasions.
Get to the other games in a bit... Couple of non Division 1 games...
Nebraska and Buffalo is VERY interesting to me. New coach in Buffalo, and they lost a lot of pieces...our data here is limited as they played Wagner so far...talk to me @cubsker
UTL at the Big House. I could not be more pissed off at @jimmymo Huskies for that performance last week. Why? Now it is an absolute must win. I think this was a 60/40 win at best as of a month ago with maybe slightly higher confidence going at the end of camp. I'll tell ya what, that Husky offense leaves a lot to be desired. Old friend Giles Jackson makes his way back home at least.... now, the UW defense is darn good as always. This is as simple as who can limit turnovers. Michigan coughs it up a few times, they will be in trouble. A pretty clean performance and Cade can manage this one into a physical 24-14 kinda win I would think. Once again, the total is too high in a Michigan game. I told ya they would 'run, run run' last time out and not much will change here. The defense should get some confidence vs this Husky team one would think.
Okay, all typed out... lets open it up to the masses...
