COLLEGE FOOTBALL SATURDAY #1, WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I'll admit it, I'm not in the proper shape to watch 25-30 games in one day right now. I worked too late last night(5:30AM) & the 9:15 alarm was an unwelcome jolt of reality. Thankfully, the weather intervened & a number of the afternoon games were delayed, which allowed me a short nap. I missed much of the BYU-Ole Miss game, but saw the crucial turnover by the Rebels. I missed much of the UCLA-Houston game, but woke up in time to see the final quarter. Watched everything last night up to & including Colorado-Hawaii & the storm-delayed La Tech-Southern Miss games. Here's a little of what I learned on Saturday #1 of college football.
Does Les Miles thrive on distractions?
His history might suggest that. When everything around him is chaos, "The Hat" collects himself & his team, usually winning. LSU beat knots on Oregon last night in the Jones-Mahal in Dallas. Everything the Ducks tried to do offensively, the Tigers had an answer. Dooming Oregon, just like the BCS title game, was turnovers, they committed four & LSU converted three of them into points. Miles said "I told our guys to put all the distractions on the perimeter & that's what they did." Starting QB Jordan Jefferson was arrested after a late night fight outside a Baton Rouge bar & Miles suspended him indefinitely. Backup Jarrett Lee only passed for 95-yards, but he didn't make any mistakes. LSU left turnovers, dropped passes & 12 penalties to the Ducks.
It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
Three games I watched were directly affected by extreme weather, USF-Notre Dame, W. Michigan-Michigan & Tennessee Tech-Iowa. I'm not talking about rain, football is played in rain & wind all the time. But it was the lightning that was dangerous to the players & fans alike. All three games were delayed & the stadiums evacuated for safety reasons. Sitting on an aluminum bench that is anchored into concrete with a steel post isn't the safest place. The Notre Dame was halted once for 2-hours & then again in the 4th quarter. The game took 5-hours & 59-minutes to complete. The typhoon-like conditions coupled with copious lightning strikes caused Michigan officials to halt the game in the 3rd quarter & call it a day. I don't recall ever seeing a football game called like they do in baseball. Iowa lost running back Mika'il McCall for the season with a fractured ankle. Rain or no rain, Hawkeye wide receiver Marvin McNutt, caught 6 passes for 140-yards & 2 touchdowns. He possesses the best hands in college football right now IMO.
Let the disclaimers/excuses/whining begin.
I've already read a number of disclaimers/excuses & a bunch of whining after Boise State beat Georgia 35-21. "Georgia's really not that good, 6-7 last season," "So they prepare all spring & summer for one game & they win it, big deal," "let them join a decent conference & then people will take them seriously," "they couldn't do it week after week like teams in the SEC do," "The SEC has won 5 consecutive BCS titles, until Boise State gets in the game, they have nothing to hang their hat on." That last one says it all, "until Boise State gets in the BCS title game" should have been followed with "And we'll make damn sure that never happens." Last year when they beat Viginia Tech in Washington D.C. pundits said Tech was a middle of the road ACC team, they gave them little to no credit for even calling themselves a football team. Tech then lost to Div 1-AA James Madison to further reinforce the haters case. But then Va Tech buzzed right thru the ACC, winning 10-consecutive games & the ACC championship game, so "middle of the road" they weren't. The "they had all spring & summer to prepare for this game" is a lot of crap. You don't think Georgia coach Mark Richt didn't prepare? You think seeing Boise State at the top of the schedule wasn't an alarm bell? Boise didn't even run their usual 4-5 gadget plays either, they simply lined up & beat Georgia, snap after snap after snap. After Georgia's Brandon Boykin ripped off an 80-yard TD run, the Bulldogs managed just 57-yards rushing on 30-carries. Their QB was under fire all night, sacked 6-times & pressured nearly every time he dropped to pass. For all of the 4 & 5-star recruits Georgia can put into uniform, they couldn't compete with the 2 & 3-star recruits Boise State fields. Another quote that cracked me up was "let them join a decent conference & then people will take them seriously." People take Notre Dame seriously & they've been bogus for more than a decade. You think conferences are lining up to invite Boise State to join? Think again, Boise's stadium holds less than 40,000, their television market is zilch & they've already proven they can beat teams with more highly recruited talent. Strike one, strike two & most definitely, strike three.
Whew! That was close.
Defending BCS champ Auburn just got by Utah State. Playing in their home opener, the 23rd ranked Tigers scored twice in the last 2:07 of the game to get by the visitors from the WAC, 42-38. The Aggies haven't won more than 4 games in a season for 6-years. Auburn was fortunate they were playing Utah State, the Tigers could very well be looking at a 4-8 record themselves.
Kansas State got a 39-yard 4th quarter TD pass with 1:39 left to defeat the Eastern Kentucky Colonels 10-7. The Wildcats scored all 10 of their points in the 4th quarter. They held E. Kentucky to just 129-yards of total offense, but committed 5 turnovers. The Colonels haven't defeated a BCS school in 26-years.
Purdue did everything in their power, including 2 ill-advised 4th quarter timeouts by coach Danny Hope, but they won despite their worst efforts. The Boilermakers defeated Middle Tennessee 27-24 with 10 4th quarter points. The winning touchdown came with 39-seconds remaining. Hope is one of the worst clock managers I've ever seen at any level of football.
It wasn't pretty, but we won.
Missouri-Their 17-6 underwhelmming win over Miami of Ohio marked the debut of new QB James Franklin. He impressed no one with his passing, he was consistently late getting the ball out, missed wide open receivers & threw into double coverage. He ran the quarterback lead made famous by Brad Smith, but he's going to have to step it up a lot, a trip to Arizona State comes up Friday night. Two injuries to speak of & they are bad, DE Jacquies Smith suffered a dislocated left elbow & LB Will Ebner sustained a high ankle sprain. Neither will be available to play on Friday. Major losses to a defense that may have to carry the team until Franklin gets his act sorted out.
USC-With the exception of WR Robert Woods, who set school records with 17 receptions, the Trojans were very unimpressive beating a mediocre Minnesota squad 19-17. USC didn't score in the 2nd half, they simply hung on, Woods scored all three of their touchdowns. Coach Lane Kiffin baffled everyone when he went for 2-point conversions on their first two touchdowns, obviously, they missed them both. Why?
Washington-The Huskies squeaked by Division 1-AA Eastern Washington 30-27. The Eagles doubled Washington's total offense of 250-yards with 504, but it was the 4 turnovers that decided the game for the Huskies. Still a very lackluster performance from a team who's supposed to be competitive in '11.
Culture clash.
Brigham Young traveled all the way to Oxford, Mississippi to play the Rebels. The Mormons invade the Grove, one of college football's best tailgating experiences. Lots of drinking, lots of "Hotty toddy, gosh almighty" in 10-acres of magnolia & oak tree-covered partiers. Not a scene you'd ever see in the State of Utah.
The mighty PAC-12? Not so mighty after all.
You know about Washington & USC, both barely winning against far inferior competition, but at least they won. Oregon got chewed up by LSU, Colorado was doubled up by Hawaii, 34-17, UCLA was beaten by Conference USA's Houston Cougars But by far the worst was the Oregon State Beavers, taken down by the Sacramento State Hornets, 29-28 in overtime. The Beavers needed 15 4th quarter points just to get the game to overtime, then were beaten by a 2-point conversion in the first O.T.
Is it Nike's goal to wreck every football uniform they touch or am I too damn old?
Are we watching football or a fashion show? Has Nike improved my football viewing experience? I gotta tell you, the Power Ranger-lookin' uni's Georgia wore tonight along with Oregon's emerald green helmets with dark green jerseys & pants with florescent green numbers & shoes are not for me. Boise's white on white wasn't quite as bad, considering how awful their normal uniform is. This "Nike Pro-Combat" line of football uniforms is changing a little too much, it ignores tradition or maybe it's because I'm staring my 60th birthday right in the face. Could that be it? Am I just too damn old to allow for change? I don't think so, but I'll tell you more next year when Nike replaces Rebok as the NFL's uniform provider. if they start changing the classic Packer uniform or the Chiefs' arrowhead design, I'll fly out to Oregon & slap Phil Knight around myself.
Top performers:
1. Robert Griffin III(Baylor) who threw 5 touchdowns Friday night in the Bears' upset win over TCU. At one point Griffin completed 17 consecutive throws.
2. Kellen Moore(Boise State) who completed 28 of 34 passes & threw three touchdowns in the Broncos 35-21 win over Georgia. He picked the Dawgs' defense apart.
3. Robert Woods(USC) who set a school record with 17 receptions. Woods scored all three of the Trojans' touchdowns in the first half.
4. Boise State front four who dominated the Georgia O-line. They recorded 6 sacks & pressured Aaron Murray all night long, without blitzing. They also held the vaunted Bulldog running game to under 2-yards per carry after the 1st quarter.
5. Kansas QB Jordan Webb who completed just 7 passes against McNeese State, but 3 of them went for touchdowns. He also ran for a score in a rare laugher for the Jayhawks, 42-24. Saluting a player from KU goes against everything I believe in, but fair is fair.
Does Les Miles thrive on distractions?
His history might suggest that. When everything around him is chaos, "The Hat" collects himself & his team, usually winning. LSU beat knots on Oregon last night in the Jones-Mahal in Dallas. Everything the Ducks tried to do offensively, the Tigers had an answer. Dooming Oregon, just like the BCS title game, was turnovers, they committed four & LSU converted three of them into points. Miles said "I told our guys to put all the distractions on the perimeter & that's what they did." Starting QB Jordan Jefferson was arrested after a late night fight outside a Baton Rouge bar & Miles suspended him indefinitely. Backup Jarrett Lee only passed for 95-yards, but he didn't make any mistakes. LSU left turnovers, dropped passes & 12 penalties to the Ducks.
It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
Three games I watched were directly affected by extreme weather, USF-Notre Dame, W. Michigan-Michigan & Tennessee Tech-Iowa. I'm not talking about rain, football is played in rain & wind all the time. But it was the lightning that was dangerous to the players & fans alike. All three games were delayed & the stadiums evacuated for safety reasons. Sitting on an aluminum bench that is anchored into concrete with a steel post isn't the safest place. The Notre Dame was halted once for 2-hours & then again in the 4th quarter. The game took 5-hours & 59-minutes to complete. The typhoon-like conditions coupled with copious lightning strikes caused Michigan officials to halt the game in the 3rd quarter & call it a day. I don't recall ever seeing a football game called like they do in baseball. Iowa lost running back Mika'il McCall for the season with a fractured ankle. Rain or no rain, Hawkeye wide receiver Marvin McNutt, caught 6 passes for 140-yards & 2 touchdowns. He possesses the best hands in college football right now IMO.
Let the disclaimers/excuses/whining begin.
I've already read a number of disclaimers/excuses & a bunch of whining after Boise State beat Georgia 35-21. "Georgia's really not that good, 6-7 last season," "So they prepare all spring & summer for one game & they win it, big deal," "let them join a decent conference & then people will take them seriously," "they couldn't do it week after week like teams in the SEC do," "The SEC has won 5 consecutive BCS titles, until Boise State gets in the game, they have nothing to hang their hat on." That last one says it all, "until Boise State gets in the BCS title game" should have been followed with "And we'll make damn sure that never happens." Last year when they beat Viginia Tech in Washington D.C. pundits said Tech was a middle of the road ACC team, they gave them little to no credit for even calling themselves a football team. Tech then lost to Div 1-AA James Madison to further reinforce the haters case. But then Va Tech buzzed right thru the ACC, winning 10-consecutive games & the ACC championship game, so "middle of the road" they weren't. The "they had all spring & summer to prepare for this game" is a lot of crap. You don't think Georgia coach Mark Richt didn't prepare? You think seeing Boise State at the top of the schedule wasn't an alarm bell? Boise didn't even run their usual 4-5 gadget plays either, they simply lined up & beat Georgia, snap after snap after snap. After Georgia's Brandon Boykin ripped off an 80-yard TD run, the Bulldogs managed just 57-yards rushing on 30-carries. Their QB was under fire all night, sacked 6-times & pressured nearly every time he dropped to pass. For all of the 4 & 5-star recruits Georgia can put into uniform, they couldn't compete with the 2 & 3-star recruits Boise State fields. Another quote that cracked me up was "let them join a decent conference & then people will take them seriously." People take Notre Dame seriously & they've been bogus for more than a decade. You think conferences are lining up to invite Boise State to join? Think again, Boise's stadium holds less than 40,000, their television market is zilch & they've already proven they can beat teams with more highly recruited talent. Strike one, strike two & most definitely, strike three.
Whew! That was close.
Defending BCS champ Auburn just got by Utah State. Playing in their home opener, the 23rd ranked Tigers scored twice in the last 2:07 of the game to get by the visitors from the WAC, 42-38. The Aggies haven't won more than 4 games in a season for 6-years. Auburn was fortunate they were playing Utah State, the Tigers could very well be looking at a 4-8 record themselves.
Kansas State got a 39-yard 4th quarter TD pass with 1:39 left to defeat the Eastern Kentucky Colonels 10-7. The Wildcats scored all 10 of their points in the 4th quarter. They held E. Kentucky to just 129-yards of total offense, but committed 5 turnovers. The Colonels haven't defeated a BCS school in 26-years.
Purdue did everything in their power, including 2 ill-advised 4th quarter timeouts by coach Danny Hope, but they won despite their worst efforts. The Boilermakers defeated Middle Tennessee 27-24 with 10 4th quarter points. The winning touchdown came with 39-seconds remaining. Hope is one of the worst clock managers I've ever seen at any level of football.
It wasn't pretty, but we won.
Missouri-Their 17-6 underwhelmming win over Miami of Ohio marked the debut of new QB James Franklin. He impressed no one with his passing, he was consistently late getting the ball out, missed wide open receivers & threw into double coverage. He ran the quarterback lead made famous by Brad Smith, but he's going to have to step it up a lot, a trip to Arizona State comes up Friday night. Two injuries to speak of & they are bad, DE Jacquies Smith suffered a dislocated left elbow & LB Will Ebner sustained a high ankle sprain. Neither will be available to play on Friday. Major losses to a defense that may have to carry the team until Franklin gets his act sorted out.
USC-With the exception of WR Robert Woods, who set school records with 17 receptions, the Trojans were very unimpressive beating a mediocre Minnesota squad 19-17. USC didn't score in the 2nd half, they simply hung on, Woods scored all three of their touchdowns. Coach Lane Kiffin baffled everyone when he went for 2-point conversions on their first two touchdowns, obviously, they missed them both. Why?
Washington-The Huskies squeaked by Division 1-AA Eastern Washington 30-27. The Eagles doubled Washington's total offense of 250-yards with 504, but it was the 4 turnovers that decided the game for the Huskies. Still a very lackluster performance from a team who's supposed to be competitive in '11.
Culture clash.
Brigham Young traveled all the way to Oxford, Mississippi to play the Rebels. The Mormons invade the Grove, one of college football's best tailgating experiences. Lots of drinking, lots of "Hotty toddy, gosh almighty" in 10-acres of magnolia & oak tree-covered partiers. Not a scene you'd ever see in the State of Utah.
The mighty PAC-12? Not so mighty after all.
You know about Washington & USC, both barely winning against far inferior competition, but at least they won. Oregon got chewed up by LSU, Colorado was doubled up by Hawaii, 34-17, UCLA was beaten by Conference USA's Houston Cougars But by far the worst was the Oregon State Beavers, taken down by the Sacramento State Hornets, 29-28 in overtime. The Beavers needed 15 4th quarter points just to get the game to overtime, then were beaten by a 2-point conversion in the first O.T.
Is it Nike's goal to wreck every football uniform they touch or am I too damn old?
Are we watching football or a fashion show? Has Nike improved my football viewing experience? I gotta tell you, the Power Ranger-lookin' uni's Georgia wore tonight along with Oregon's emerald green helmets with dark green jerseys & pants with florescent green numbers & shoes are not for me. Boise's white on white wasn't quite as bad, considering how awful their normal uniform is. This "Nike Pro-Combat" line of football uniforms is changing a little too much, it ignores tradition or maybe it's because I'm staring my 60th birthday right in the face. Could that be it? Am I just too damn old to allow for change? I don't think so, but I'll tell you more next year when Nike replaces Rebok as the NFL's uniform provider. if they start changing the classic Packer uniform or the Chiefs' arrowhead design, I'll fly out to Oregon & slap Phil Knight around myself.
Top performers:
1. Robert Griffin III(Baylor) who threw 5 touchdowns Friday night in the Bears' upset win over TCU. At one point Griffin completed 17 consecutive throws.
2. Kellen Moore(Boise State) who completed 28 of 34 passes & threw three touchdowns in the Broncos 35-21 win over Georgia. He picked the Dawgs' defense apart.
3. Robert Woods(USC) who set a school record with 17 receptions. Woods scored all three of the Trojans' touchdowns in the first half.
4. Boise State front four who dominated the Georgia O-line. They recorded 6 sacks & pressured Aaron Murray all night long, without blitzing. They also held the vaunted Bulldog running game to under 2-yards per carry after the 1st quarter.
5. Kansas QB Jordan Webb who completed just 7 passes against McNeese State, but 3 of them went for touchdowns. He also ran for a score in a rare laugher for the Jayhawks, 42-24. Saluting a player from KU goes against everything I believe in, but fair is fair.
Rich, you are probably the most articulate and knowledgeable sports commentator I have ever read. ESPN and others could use your help. Love my Boise St. Broncos and could not agree more. Kellen Moore is some kind of special dude. Did you know when he was a High School player, Boise sent him their play book. Talk about focused. This kid is so mature and talented it is a shame he isn't 4" taller. He would dominate in the NFL.
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Sam,
Thanks for the kind words. I agree whole heartedly about Kellen Moore, but don't give up yet, people never gave Drew Brees much of a chance during the scouting process constantly harping about his lack of "ideal height.
Thanks for reading, I always appreciate comments.
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