Thursday Review
Tom O'Brien very well might new to find a new job – O'Brien botched everything with his handling of the Russell Wilson situation. Wilson is a minor league baseball player. O'Brien wanted him on campus during the summer. Wilson honored his baseball contract. O'Brien tossed him from the roster. Wilson is now the starting quarterback at Wisconsin and looking like a Heisman contender. O'Brien screwed up badly, even though he had a capable quarterback in Mike Glennon. The huge screw up he made was chucking his team leader off the team. By doing that, he submarined his own leadership and removed the best option to win. Now, one year after a 9-4 season, he is probably on the hotseat with a team that looks de-energized and like it doesn't want to be there. Maybe his old stomping grounds at Boston College will take him back. They could use the help right now.
Butch Jones still has work to do at Cincinnati – This was a step in the right direction, but this team still has issues. Beating a BCS conference team will patch some of those, but NC State was so uninspired that the win is almost meaningless. Any team with Cincinnati's talent that gave a damn at all would have won that game by a similar margin.
Friday Review
BYU's offense still stinks – Don't let the 21 second half points fool you. The BYU offense was still terrible against Central Florida, even as BYU scored its points. The first half was an abomination, but we expected that given BYU's offense has pretty much been an abomination from the start of the season. The second half was a 37 yard drive, a kickoff return touchdown and a 22 yard drive. The rest was the same nonsensical idiocy we have seen from that offense all season. Too bad too as the defense and special teams are really, really good.
UCF has it's own offensive issues – The Golden Knights are Jeff Godfrey, a hope and a prayer. Early on, it worked. Then Godfrey got hurt. Though he returned, he was tentative as a runner upon his return and the UCF offense that was average before that became awful. Going into Conference USA play, UCF needs to find some ways to score. Even with their great defense, they will need to win at least one shootout along the way to defend their conference title. The offenses that remain well ahead of the defenses in that league will demand it.
Saturday Preview
Why is Notre Dame-Pittsburgh a national game – Remember that this one is not an Irish home game and not on NBC and therefore doesn't need to be nationally televised. On top of that, this game won't be close. Pitt is awful this season and Notre Dame really is good. Only the Irish giveaway machine can keep this close and that will just frustrate people like me.
ABC and College Gameday are going the wrong place – They should be at Oklahoma St.-Texas A&M with the LSU-West Virginia game in the afternoon. I say this just from a competition and ratings perspective. LSU should be on at the same time as Arkansas-Alabama if you really want to maximize ratings. Then, the top 10 matchup can go on in primetime where it belongs.
I've already made my pick but... - I keep seeing everyone pretty much say the same thing about the LSU-West Virginia game: Geno Smith will make plays, but not enough and the dominant LSU defense will give the average offense enough time and field position to get something going so LSU can win a close game in the low 20s. That so many seem to be saying this scares me for my pick, but makes me look forward to the game more. I suspect West Virginia might be a little more ready than previously expected.
There is a chance of a riot Saturday night – West Virginia and LSU both have reputations as being among the rowdiest fanbases in the country. Now combine a big game with College Gameday and alcohol sales in the stadium and what could possibly go wrong?
Clemson caught a massive break – Since it looks like EJ Manuel won't play for Florida St., Clemson has a chance to take the pole position in ACC play. Since it's Clemson, we know they won't keep it, but they certainly looked good against Auburn last week.
Arizona St. and USC will be a penalty fest – Of course just looking at the stats can tell us that. USC picks up 7 penalties per game and Arizona St. 8. Expect a long game with lots of laundry. And College Football Final on at about midnight Pacific time after the game.
Arkansas-Alabama will be lower scoring than I thought – I think the Razorbacks can win, but I'm convinced Alabama has no deep threat and can be stopped. I'm also convinced that its defense won't give up more than 21 points in a game all season this year.
Vandy actually has a big game – Too bad its on the road though they will keep it close against a South Carolina team that has been underwhelming in some way in all three wins thus far.
Michigan better be careful – San Diego St. has a really good team and they will have extra motivation going against their old coach.
The Big 12 is the best conference in the country – They just don't lose to anyone. Kansas is awful (but so is Ole Miss) and everyone else in the league is undefeated except for Missouri (a completely understandable loss to Arizona St.). While that won't hold this week, even for those playing non-league games, the SEC just doesn't look quite as crisp this season.
The Rose Bowl should be very, very scared right now – All they want it their Big Ten-Pac 12 matchup. With Wisconsin and Stanford cruising, its possible those teams could go undefeated and meet in the BCS Title Game. It's also possible nobody else from those two leagues will be eligible for the BCS, leaving the Rose Bowl with a matchup like Texas A&M-Florida. Yikes.
Virginia Tech stinks, but it doesn't matter – The Hokie Hokie High tour of cupcakes continues this week with another Conference USA road game. That also means another win and a conference win ledger that will read FCS, C-USA, Sun Belt, C-USA. At least Georgia Tech looks good enough to challenge this overrated team before the ACC Title Game.
Locksley's actually gonna win – At least I hope so. I poke a lot of fun at New Mexico coach Mike Locksley on this blog. I think he's awful. But I still don't want him to lose to an FCS school. New Mexico under Locksley is the type of program that needs to be scheduling these games.
Best under the radar game of the week – North Carolina vs Georgia Tech. The Tech triple option has looked lethal against overmatched competition thus far. While North Carolina lacks offense, they certainly won't be overmatched on defense. This one should be a compelling game with the winner emerging as the main contender to Virginia Tech in the ACC (whichever division its called).
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