Week 2 College football

[Senser81]

Only saw a couple games, but I figure I'd get the ball rolling...

*ND v. Michigan - I think ND might surprise some people this year with their competence, but I had no idea that Michigan was this bad. I've never liked Devin Gardner, his switching to Tom Harmon's #98 made absolutely no sense, and Michigan made zero big plays. For all the talk of Gardner's alleged playmaking skills, I never really see him do much of anything (bringing to mind another of my favorite 'playmakers', Juice Williams of Illinois). I am a huge fan of this rivalry, and I expected a much closer game. Michgan played like Tyrone Willingham was their coach.

*USC v. Stanford - tough week for Sarkisian, culminating with a sideline penalty. Don't really understand the "flap" about Haden going down to the field, and the ridiculousness of ESPN's talking heads having an issue with a school's AD going down to the field AND serving on the bowl committee...while having no issue with a school's AD serving on the bowl committee in the first place...the whole thing kind of overshadowed an interesting game. I liked the fact that this was a defensive struggle. Too many college games have inflated scores (check out some of the SEC non-conference scores). USC has always had the athletes, perhaps they finally have a decent coach who can win games.

*BYU v. Texas - only saw the final...41-7 BYU at Texas. Good stuff.

*Oregon v. Michigan State - caught the 2nd half of this game, MSU was up but by quite a bit and all I saw was Oregon moving the ball. I don't think MSU played poorly, but it was definitely a lost opportunity for them and the Big10.

*Speaking of the Big10, I noticed a lot of their teams losing. Ohio State's "Play School" QB couldn't cut it against an actual FBS program, and I saw the yet again unexplainably ranked Nebraska team eked out a win against McNeese. I went to see how the conference did, and I finally realized that Rutgers and Maryland are actually in the Big10. Just do away with the conference...its a joke. Rutgers gave up 25 to Howard, Illinois held on against W. Kentucky (42-34), Purdue got killed by CMU (38-17), Northwestern lost to NIU (23-15), Iowa should have lost to Ball St (17-13), and the conference lost their three biggest games by a total of 48-98.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I do have an issue with an AD serving on a bowl committee. While they are supposed to leave when their team is brought up, they could most certainly advocate against other teams in their division, or teams they don't have a great history with, etc. There are plenty of people who aren't current ADs who could serve on those spots, so I doubt there is a shortage of qualified people. Just something the NCAA should look at, but I doubt they do.

I take back what I was saying earlier to others, I would definitely be worried about Ohio State right now. The loss this weekend, plus Navy being close through a half, I'd definitely be concerned moving forward.

I am also not sure how South Carolina remained ranked after a 24 point loss to A & M and only beating ECU by 10 points. The game this weekend at UGA will be telling for both teams. The Gamecocks are always UGA's trap game, while they need a win over Georgia as a much needed boost of confidence for the season.

 

[MrBill]

I was at the BYU-UT game. It was only 6-0 BYU at the half and UT was playing tough defense. Obviously they were missing their starting QB and center on offense. The second half is where the wheels just fell off and it looked a lot like last years game where BYU's QB ran wild on UT with the read option.

Southern Miss was able to hold on to a close one at home over Alcorn. Winning a home game against a DII opponent is nothing to brag about.