NCAA CFB - Week 3 Random Thoughts

[Atlas]

AP Top 25
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS
1	Alabama (48)	1-0	1486
2	USC (8)	1-0	1414
3	LSU (4)	1-0	1404
4	Oregon	1-0	1299
5	Oklahoma	1-0	1160
5	Florida State	1-0	1160
7	Georgia	1-0	1155
8	South Carolina	1-0	1025
9	West Virginia	1-0	1017
10	Michigan State	1-0	995
11	Clemson	1-0	868
12	Ohio State	1-0	772
13	Virginia Tech	1-0	734
14	Texas	1-0	716
15	Kansas State	1-0	714
16	TCU	0-0	542
17	Michigan	0-1	429
18	Florida	1-0	427
19	Louisville	1-0	316
20	Notre Dame	1-0	310
21	Stanford	1-0	260
22	UCLA	1-0	250
23	Tennessee	1-0	177
24	Arizona	1-0	149
25	Brigham Young	1-0	110

• Dropped from rankings: Arkansas 8, Wisconsin 13, Nebraska 16, Oklahoma State 18

• Others receiving votes: Boise State 106, Arkansas 79, Nebraska 79, OREGONST 77, Mississippi State 70, Baylor 54, Wisconsin 44, ULMONROE 23, Ohio 17, Georgia Tech 15, Oklahoma State 13, South Florida 12, ARIZONAST 10, IOWAST 5, NORTHWSTRN 5, UTAHST 1, North Carolina 1

ESPN didn't update the W/L records, but the rankings are up to date...

Thoughts?

[NAHSTE]

LSU is playing Idaho this week, which means this is really the only thing worth mentioning:

[Golden Taters]

Washington State takes on UNLV Friday night on ESPN.

[seaplus]

North Carolina 1

Chapelol Hill

[KnightNoles]

Marin Rickman has agreat piece on Carolina's potential mishandling of its QB's concussion Saturday.

Florida's star defensive endRonald Powell suffered a setback in his rehab from ACL surgery and he will miss the season. He is pretty much their Brandon Jenkins, and was expected back in early November. Jelani Jenkins will also miss a month.

Miami released its new depth chart. It has only three senior starters.

Go inside the program as Western Kentucky prepares for Alabama!What a cool feature.

How did Louisiana Monroe defeat Arkansas at Arkansas? Bill Connelly breaks it down. Great read.

[RobbyB34]

How about UGA beating Mizzou? I would like to thank all the people who doubted them. I did too, until I remembered we had Jarvis Jones on defense...

[Sportsbuck]

- I think UCF is a much better team than many expected. They aren't world beaters, but they are a solid-to-good mid-major program that gave us a nice little test in this one.

- Braxton still has footwork issues from time to time, makes the wrong read, and occasionally gets lackadaisical with his passes, but the man is a Heisman candidate waiting to happen. He looks so much more comfortable in the offense this year, just have got to find a way to keep his carries down. He shouldn't be toting the rock 27 times a game.

- Just an interesting note: last year, our top receiver finished with 14 receptions. After two games, Philly Brown already has 13 receptions.

- Defensively, they are very good against the run. A 48 yard dash brought on by a terrible angle skewed the stats in this one, but they thoroughly bottled up their run game.

- As far as pass defense goes, they have a long ways to go. They did a great job forcing interceptions, but we struggle to generate pressure and give up way too many yards through the air. Frankly, I think a lot of falls on the defensive line. Our best pass rusher is Noah Spence, a freshman DE, and fellow frosh Adolphus Washington at DT is great as well, and they need to play more in passing situations as opposed to the defensive tackles playing at end.

- Someone has to step up at RB with Hyde and Hall both out now. Hopefully tht someone is Bri'onte Dunn. The staff has been waiting for him to assert himself, and now he gets the chance as a starter.

Overall, this team is about where I expected them to be at this point. Some good things, and other things that need to be hashed out. The offense should be pretty decent this year, and the real explosion should come next year with a year of experience under their belt. The defense just needs a few tweaks here and there and they are a NC caliber of defense.

I don't think there is a team on our schedule that we can't beat (I think Michigan State is our biggest test in 2 weeks). I also think there will be 1-2 games where we slip up and struggle. 9-3 or 10-2 is still my call for this year, however I do see the possibility for 12-0 provided things fall perfectly.

[DoubleDeuce]

It'll be interesting to see what Arkansas looks like against a real team.

My guess is they look really fucking bad

[KnightNoles]

Corey Clark/TDO.com @Corey_Clark
Talked to Joyner and Waisome today. Both said they're looking forward to actually being challenged this weekend.

Corey Clark/TDO.com @Corey_Clark
And by challenged, they weren't necessarily talking about competition - but offenses that will actually throw the ball downfield.

Florida State's retooled offensive line set to face first real test against Wake Forest

[KNUBB]

Florida State's retooled offensive line set to face first real test against Wake Forest

[NAHSTE]

Florida State's retooled offensive line set to face first real test against Wake Forest

:julio:

[KnightNoles]

read the article mfers.. But we haven't been tested by the two high school teams and Wake is a pretty good, fundamentally coached team.

I'll provide the first bit:

So far in 2012, the reworked Florida State offensive line has looked much improved from the unit that struggled mightily last season after suffering a rash of injuries. The caveat to that, of course, is that those strong performances have come against the likes of Murray State and Savannah State. Against these opponents, FSU’s new linemen were able to simply rely on their superior athleticism and ability, and their huge advantage bore out on the stat sheet, as the Seminoles racked up 452 yards and 11 scores on the ground, at an average of 6.95 yards per carry, in the first two weeks.


This week, against Wake Forest, while they still will have an edge in physical stature and athleticism, the relatively green group will face a much greater all-around test in the Seminoles’ first real contest of the season.

"No doubt. When you go to a 3-4 team, it’s definitely a different scheme," Jimbo Fisher said when asked about the challenge his team would face this week against Wake’s active 3-4 front. "Not as many people play it, there are little nuances you have to understand, and they do a really nice job of it."

The new-look starting unit, consisting of Cam Erving, Josue Matias, Bryan Stork, Tre Jackson, and Menelik Watson, will have to prove that they can handle the nuance of the Wake defense, which relies on a variety of shifting, angling, and stunting to keep opposing offensive lines off balance and guessing. As we’ve discussed, there’s not too much doubt that the Seminoles’ blockers possess impressive athleticism and size compared to last year. However, it remains to be seen how they will perform when presented with a defense that will test their ability to process, communicate, and adjust on the fly.

The next article is this:

FSU Football X&O Simplification: Wake Forest's Defensive Front

excerpt:

This comes to us from Alan Mundy:

The first thing to understand is that Wake is a 1-gap front. People think 3-4 defenses are all 2 gap types where you have massive DL who each are responsible for 2 gaps and the LBs are free to clean up the play. A 1-gap 3-4 is basically the same concept as a 4-3 defense where each defender is responsible for filling one gap along the front, so he's looking to attack that gap and penetrate it if he can without losing gap discipline.

They play an "Okie" front which has a heads up nose (not shaded to either side) so 6'0, 260-pound nose guard Nikita Whitlock can go to either side on any given play depending on which way the defense is called. Combine that with his quickness and it's very difficult for a center to snap it, get back into his stance, figure out which way he's going and block him.

Remember at the beginning of camp when we were getting some footage of OL/DL drills and everyone was pointing out that 1 on 1 drills are slanted to the DL because they can go either way and the OL has no help? That's basically the challenge a heads up nose presents to the center every play. In theory the center should have help on some plays, but often the guards don't recognize it quick enough and he's already by them.

The downside is that it's a boom or bust proposition, especially at Whitlock's size. He's either going to penetrate and create havoc, or get sealed and taken completely out of the play.

[Blick]

How about UGA beating Mizzou? I would like to thank all the people who doubted them. I did too, until I remembered we had Jarvis Jones on defense...

Missouri's not that good. Congrats.

[RobbyB34]

Missouri's not that good. Congrats.

We were still picked to lose by almost all of VSN though.

[NAHSTE]

We were still picked to lose by almost all of VSN though.

I am one of those who picked Mizzou. I thought they would give Georgia's defense more trouble with the missing players, but I wasn't surprised to see Georgia dominate them. Thought Mizzou had to play perfect to pull it out, and their OL just imploded.