College Football is BACK!!

Welcome back College Football, we missed you dearly. What a weekend! No matter what university you associate yourself with; this was a great opening weekend.

Highlights of the Week:

-Top ranked Florida thumps the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 62-3. They looked good doing exactly what everyone expected them to do, which is probably the hardest thing to do in sports.
-No. 2 Texas beats University of Louisiana Monroe 59-20, which infers that the Big 12 will be following last year’s pattern of a lot of offense and little-to-no-defense. Even with the large margin of victory, ULM Warhawks should not score 20 points against a 2nd rank Longhorn team.
-No. 23 Notre Dame defeats Nevada 35-0. Even though it was Nevada and not a top 25 team, holding anyone to a shut out is impressive, just ask the 2008 USC defense.
-Then No. 3 Oklahoma loses a stunning heartbreaker to BYU. Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford goes down with a sprained his throwing shoulder. Bradford will be out approximately 4 weeks. To add insult to injury, OU’s star Tight End, Jermaine Gresham will be out for the remainder of the season after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. It may be a long couple of weeks for Sooner fans.
-No. 14 Boise St. vs. No. 16 Oregon: Boise domination from the get-go, 19-8 Boise St. final, Blount punch, embarrassment for PAC-10, USC national championship hopes get a little harder.
-No. 4 USC’s true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley, surprised many by having a near perfect game in their 56-3 victory over San Jose St. There may also be some real promise in John Morton, USC’s new offensive coordinator. In comparison to Steve Sarkisian’s Trojan offense, Morton’s play calling was innovative and eclectic, allowing USC to pretty much do whatever it wanted.
-No. 6 Ohio State barely squeaked by Navy with a score of 31-27. It took an interception from Ohio State on a late 2-point conversion attempt to secure the victory, but for some reason, many experts still think the Buckeyes are going to beat USC this Saturday. Hmmm…
-Miami vs Florida St.: by far the best game of the week. It all came down to one last play, but Florida St. couldn’t quite convert after having 6 chances to get into the end zone from within the 5 yard line. 38-34 Final.

LOOKING FORWARD (Can’t Miss Games of the Week):

No 18. Notre Dame @ Michigan 3:30PM ET (on ABC): Finally Notre Dame seems to be out of their 10 year funk, but winning one game decidedly doesn’t mean that they’re going to the National Championship Game, even though that’s what the Notre Dame radio station and the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel (otherwise known as NBC) would have you believe. Michigan had a relatively impressive win last week over Western Michigan. Maybe the Wolverines are back on a track to playing like the “winningest” team in College Football. Prediction: Notre Dame 24-13 over Michigan.

No. 3 USC @ No. 8 Ohio State 8:00PM ET (on ESPN): As the only AP Top 25 match-up of the week, this game is clearly the most intriguing game of the week. Unfortunately, it will also probably be the most disappointing. After finding their groove in the first week, this won’t even be a contest for USC. Ohio State has been deemed a national championship contender for the last 8 years and each year has been proven to not even be in the same stratosphere. This year won’t be any different. Terrelle Pryor will put up a good fight and is worth 6 points, but they don’t have the horses to keep up with the Trojans. Prediction: USC 37, Ohio State 10.

Idaho State @ No. 13 Oklahoma 7:00PM ET: Maybe not a “can’t miss” game, but certainly one you might want to keep your eye on. Idaho State got crushed by Arizona State last week, 50-3. While this game may be near unwatchable football-wise, what will be interesting to see is how OU deals with the loss of two of their best players. This may be a great chance for them to rebound and get their feet settled. Their defense still has some issues though. Prediction: OU 41-10.

Rich Rodriguez Cries & It’s a good day to be a Buck Eye

College Football starts this week at 8:15 this Thursday with Oregon facing off against Boise State and no one could be happier than I am. It’s the top dog in everyone’s hearts. The college game comes with blackened brats from barbeques and the soon-to-be-remembered feel of an ice-cold brewski on your lips. Even for the smallest of sports fans College Football brings nostalgia for your alma mater and even holds a faint scent of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the air. What’s not to like? Every little piece of this minced-meat pie quenches the starving soul for a taste of the dramatic love of the game. The nation gorges itself on every victory and scandal and confidently whimpers like little Oliver Twist, “please sir, may I have some more?” A relatively early casualty of this season is the poor, poor, Michigan Wolverines.

The last few years have been a trifle difficult for the Big Blue with the true culmination being their embarrassing loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers at home. I don’t believe the Big House has ever seen a darker day than that. The coaching transition between Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez has been rough. The change in coaching styles and strategies has pretty much made the transition a clean sweep, cold turkey, 180 degree (insert your own clichéd idiom) situation. It’s worked before and will probably work for the Wolverines, it just takes time; time that the Wolverines don’t really have to stay relevant in a slowly deflating Big 10 conference.

So here’s the bad news, Rich Rodriguez and his staff are now under investigation for breaking NCAA rules pertaining to training restrictions. A few of Michigan’s players innocently spoke to the press about the rigors of their schedules, unknowingly admitting to things that could possibly indict their own coaching staff. Rodriguez recollecting their apology to their coach is what prompted the 13 second “get a hold of yourself” pause that he took during his press conference today. Even though these boys seem relatively innocent, there have been other cases relating to this same issue with Rodriguez, including the loss of one of their top recruits last year. Players are speaking out intentionally and unintentionally. Either is alarming. Because somewhere in this relatively minor scandal there is a disconnect between coach and player. A bad sign for Wolverine fans. Whether respect has been won and lost or whether it was never given at all is irrelevant. It’s not there now, and it’s not where they want to be.

With all of this badness hanging around, I can’t really be mad a Rodriguez for trying to work too hard. I’m not trying to be inconsiderate, but if you’re going to break a rule, this is the best one to break. Getting in trouble because you worked to hard or too much is relatively ok in my book. It’s still against the rules, so you shouldn’t do it, but I can forgive you for that. On a lighter note, you’re probably pretty happy if you’re Ohio State Fan. All this malarkey with Michigan and USC’s number 2 receiver, Ronald Johnson, went down with a broken collar bone after their starting Quarterback, Aaron Corp, went down with a broken fibula leaving a true freshman to start in his wake. So I guess it’s at least a good day to be a Buck Eye. You’ll get to be over-rated again, have a shot at the National Championship again, and get embarrassed by somebody who truly deserved to be there when you really should have been at the Emerald Bowl in the first place, again. So congratulations.