CigarSmokinFootball

Week 2 Preview

Week 1 of College Football was a big time success. The teams that are considered the top of the notch didn’t start off by playing lower division schools, they played big time football. Except the Great White North, they still want to beat their chest on how great they are by playing smaller and lower division schools. We are excluding Wisconsin, Minnesota and Rutgers they stepped up to the plate. Ohio State and Michigan you should be ashamed of yourselves. Week 2 doesn’t have the punch that week 1 had but there are still plenty of games that catch the eye. And one that will host the largest crowd ever for a football game.

Army vs. Rice- There are some people reading this asking, “this is a top notch game to write about?” The answer, “Yes, Yes it is.” 1) because Army is playing much better football then they did last year and they are seeking revenge upon Rice. 2) We’ve staked our claim that we are Mad Geniuses on the Cadets so we might as well ride that horse (mule) all the way through. Last year the Owl defeated the Cadets 38-31. It was a back and forth game with Rice struggling on defense to stop the Triple Option Attack. Army was starting freshmen like double digit number. Now all those freshman have returned and the gamble is paying off. Last week the Black Knights downed the Owls of Temple in a major upset where they were 14 point underdogs. Now they enter the game as 9 point favorites. This will make the second week in a row where Army is playing against Owls. If Athena is a football fan she’s not happy about this. Rice faced off against Western Kentucky and were blown out of the stadium 46-14. The defense gave up over 600 yards of offense and their QB threw for 183 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns. Rice is struggling to find itself. The defensive coordinator of Rice says they have to put pressure on the QB and not let them throw. Good plan! Cause Army only throws the ball like, I don’t know, maybe 10 times per game if not less. Maybe! It’s possible the defensive coordinator at Rice hasn’t researched this Army team very well, which should work in the Black Knights favor.

Penn State vs Pittsburgh – This is a rival that the fans have waited a long time to be reborn. Well here it is. These two team use to battle it out every year for supremacy of the Keystone State, but have not played since 2000. Penn State holds the edge 50-42-4 but Pitt was victorious last time they met. Penn State has their new offense and new O-Coordinator Joe Moorhead, but in their debut game they didn’t look very good. New QB Trace McSorley had a hard time finding his feet and was very nervous. He did throw for two TD’s and they did win the game but no one in Happy Valley walked away, well…..Happy. Some have suggested that the simple vanilla offense was because they didn’t want to show their playbook in anticipation for playing Pitt. Maybe that’s true but the way they played is what has caused concern. Pitt did not have much trouble playing 1-AA Villanova. Cancer survivor James Conner put in a solid performance and QB threw for two touchdowns. They didn’t play much in the second half. Now the Panthers have had their warm up game and it’s time to put on their big boy pants and play a tough team. Pitt has the home field advantage, even though, there will be plenty of Blue and White in the stands, and they are much more comfortable with who they are and what they can do. Should be a very close game but the Panthers out fight the Nittany Lions.

 
Arkansas vs TCU– Neither one of these two teams distinguished themselves last week. UA struggled to run against LA Tech and TCU darn near lost to South Dakota State. The Jack Rabbits ran all over the supposed rock solid defense of the Horn Frogs. It would have been great to see that upset, just because its memorable when a small school wins. Who, outside Ft. Worth, wasn’t for the South Dakota? Exactly. The Razorbacks under Coach Bielema have not had the best starts, they start off very sluggish. Last year at this time they lost to Texas Tech which was just the pinnacle of their tardiness to the season. The Hogs, believe in having big physical backs run behind big physical blockers and push the ball right down the field. Last week that didn’t seem to work very well. The quicker and faster Bulldogs were able to slip their blockers and disrupt the backfield. If La Tech had more gas in their tank they would have pulled the upset. TCU boast that they have a very stingy defense, and are known for their defense. Except when they play cute little rabbits, those darn wascally wabbits were hard to catch. Arkansas has got to get a push against their defensive line. The more the Hogs hold on to the ball the better it is. Long, drawn-out drives that end in a score. This will keep the high flying Frogs offense off the field. If TCU has any plans to win this game they have to improve on defense. They can’t just put on their Elmer Fudd hat and say their going hunt’ng. Not only that but they can’t shot themselves in the foot either. Against SDSU they had 12 penalties, talk about helping out the other team. They do that against Arkansas and they’ll just be giving the game away. Transfer QB Kenny Hill from A&M is pulling the strings for TCU. He threw two TD’s and two INT’s, but he did throw for 439 yards. TCU lives and dies by the pass, Arkansas has a defense and they are pretty good. If the Hogs are able to get to Hill and knock him down a lot, he’ll do like he did at A&M, he’ll become mistake prone and hurry the ball. Both teams need to redeem themselves, look to the Hogs to achieve it.

BYU vs Utah- The Holy War! Never understood why this was called the Holy War. Only one of these universities is a religious school, the other is public. So it’s basically a Mormon school against a secular school. Which doesn’t make any sense, shouldn’t it be against some other religious school for it to be a Holy War? Ok enough of that, on to the game, holy or not. BYU played the tougher team last week in beating Arizona. The new offense which is much more Pro-Style orientated was a bit of struggle. The offense was confused and they had a hard time getting their reads and assignments. They were thinking too much because they don’t know the scheme will enough to be able to react. The Utes last year started off with a couple of upsets before they were knocked back into the middle of the pack. Last week they started off with Southern Utah University, the Thunderbirds. One of High School rivals was call the Thunderbirds. Never lost to them. The Utes rolled up on the T-Birds 28-0. Yet to listen to talking heads one would think they had a terrible game. They say there was way too much pressure behind the line of scrimmage. Since I didn’t see that game I’ll take their word for it, and if that’s true they better get that straightened up toot sweet and in a hurry because BYU will be coming after them. Utah lately has owned the Cougars and the game is in Salt Lake City advantage Utes. BYU is breaking in a new offense while Utah is breaking new players. This game will come down to who’s defensive line can cause the most confusion. If UU struggled in their blocking assignements against Southern Utah, then they’re in a surprise against BYU. Cougars earn back the trophy. Wait, do they have a Holy War Trophy? I somehow doubt it.

Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech– The Battle of Bristol. They have converted the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway, used for NASCAR, into a football field. There will be 150,000 fans at this game. This is a marketing stroke of GENUIS! The scheduling of this game could not better, it’s a pretty light schedule Saturday with not a lot of big time games. So the eyes of the nation will be upon Bristol. Both teams need to improve and this is the chance to do it. UT’s near demise against Application State has been well documented. The bubble of hype around the team has been busted. Now the Vols have a real chance to show if they can recover. Josh Dobbs will be the key for the offense. He has got to make better decisions no doubting, no second guessing himself, he’s playing like he’s far too scared of making a mistake then he is of just making the pass. He’s playing not to lose, which never equals winning. If he doesn’t get this mindset taken care of the Vols can just hang it up. And for Pete’s Sake when diving into the endzone in overtime hold on the dang ball! I don’t care how hard he got hit, and it was a very good stick, he should have never let that ball out. Obviously he’s never heard what Heisman had to say about that. The defensive line got pushed around by a smaller school. It was if the Mountaineers were stealing their lunch money it was so bad. They cannot afford that against the Hokies. VA Tech is not as powerful as they once were but they’re not push over either. Its anyone’s guess how Tennessee is going to play in this game. They got punched right in the nose, and now all that favorable press they had has turned on them, how they react will determine the course of their season. Its live or die. VA Tech as everyone knows has a new head coach, same defensive coordinator. The team looked pretty good, not great, against Liberty. They did let the Flames move the ball more than they should have, so that has to be stored up but not a bad outing for the first game. Coach Fuente’s offense works when he has a star quarterback, which right now he doesn’t, he did get top-ranked JUCO quarterback Jerod Evans to come be his quarterback and against Liberty he did toss four touchdown passes. So he’s off to a good start. The Hokies offense is going to move the ball, they are going to find the weaknesses of Tenn. This offense gets off to a fast start, the Vols are done. If the VA Tech defense get pressure on Dobbs, they win. But to sum it all up this game is a mixed bag. UT had all the hype coming into the season and no one knows how they react. VA Tech needs time the new offense. Its pretty much a tossup.