Week 2 & 3
After reading some of the reviews of last week, these sports writers seem to be expecting a little too much. They had plenty to say about how it took teams longer than usual before they appeared to get their feet under them. They were especially hard on Old Man Mack Brown and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Yes, it took them until after halftime before they got things going, but going they did. Here is what all these snotty, stuck-up, elitist writers are forgetting. WE HAD COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!! With all the crap that is going on, and all the pro teams being more concerned with politics than actually playing a sport, so what if it took some of these teams a little while to get going. At least they were out there playing, and relieving our withdraw symptoms. My gosh people if it wasn’t for the SEC channel showing past games until the season started, I’m not sure some of us would have made it. So keep playing boys, we’ve got your back.
Now what did happen last week? Well Clemson, walked over Wake Forest, and it wasn’t even pretty. Oklahoma barely noticed Missouri State as they defeated them 48-0. Ok, sure Notre Dame did not have that much trouble with Duke, but they weren’t a top 10 team either. Texas, slipped up a bit and allowed UTEP to actually score 3 points, so no shut out. North Carolina found the gas petal during the third quarter against Syracuse and won 31-6. Hats off to Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns, they went up to Iowa State and beat them 31-14! Arkansas State, achieved their first Division 1 victory as well as they took down K-State 35-31! Army of course won in one of the most definitive manners of the weekend. Georgia Tech took down Florida State…hee, hee. And in the nail biter game of the weekend, UTSA beat Texas State 51-48 in the second overtime.
Besides these game results was there anything that came out of these games? Why yes there was, what a great question. The biggest result of it all was that all the schools in the Great White North conference, (most people call them the Big 10) got so embarrassed, and were put to shame so bad for being cowards that they held another vote and this time ALL the school presidents voted for the season to resume, they’ll start on Oct 17th. The schools on the left coast are completely out of luck, they don’t have a prayer of playing.
Now to this week. Houston will be taking on Baylor in a game that was scheduled, ah about….45 minutes ago. The Cougars were supposed to take on Memphis but that game got postponed, Baylor yelled out they were open so the two agreed to play. Did you know that both these head coaches were on Mike Leach’s staff at Texas Tech? Well they were! Baylor HC Aranda, was a graduate assistant under Leach, while Houston’s HC Holgorsen was a receivers coach. This is HC Holgorsen first season as the head coach at Houston, before he was the HC at West Virginia were he preached offensive, offensive, offsensive, not sure he ever knew what a defense was for. Aranda, however is considered a defensive minded guy, as of last year he was LSU’s defensive coordinator and he was pretty good, cause they beat Clemson in the National Championship game. So what can be expected on Saturday? Truthfully, Houston has a great shot at upsetting Baylor. The reason for this is because Aranda is very defensive minded, and he just doesn’t have the players he needs, because no one in the Big 12 that only has ten teams, has played defense in the last decade. Houston however has always been offensive ordinated and it won’t take much for Holgorsen to get his system implemented.
South Florida will be making a trip up to South Bend to take on Notre Dame, normally this would not even register on the radar, but Charlie Weis, who use to be the head coach at Notre Dame, is now the offensive coordinator for USF. Will it matter? No. But remember Charlie Weis was the one that negotiated a contract with the Irish to where even after he was fired, then hired as the Head Coach of Kansas, Notre Dame was still paying this man millions of dollars! The kids on the Notre Dame team are too young to remember any of that but it’s a sure fire bet that the admission remembers it and they want to stomp the Bulls, (Weis) into the ground. It won’t get them any of that money back, and it won’t affect Weis as he goes back to Florida and enjoys his big yacht that ND paid for, but those that remember will feel better about the victory. That is, unless the impossible happens and USF pulls the upset. If Louisiana Lafayette can upset Iowa State, then it’s possible South Florida beats Notre Dame, not probable, just possible.
In the only top 25 match up of the week, we have Miami vs Louisville. The overrated Hurricanes did beat UAB last week, and they were one of those teams that took a bit before they got anything going. It wasn’t until late in the first quarter that UM tied up the game 7-7. Then in the third quarter they were able to open it up and put the game out of reach. This victory does not mean that QB King has proven to be the answer to the Miami signal caller problem. The Cane’s defense showed they are weak in the secondary and that might not serve them well on Saturday, because Louisville doesn’t like to run the ball, they do it but they don’t like. Instead they want to throw the ball on just about every play, and this weekend they’re going to do it. Sometime in the second quarter, it is fully expected that the secondary of the Canes are going to be winded, like tongue hanging out, panting, hands on their knees, sucking air winded. Louisville then needs to stomp on the gas petal and don’t let up. Run these fellows into the ground. Now Miami if they are to win, must do one thing, do not, ever let the Cardinals get any momentum going. Do everything they can to keep those red birds off balance. Doubtful they can do it, but it’s the best chance they’ve got.
Duke will be taking on their second Catholic School in a row against Boston College. Believe it or not the Blue Devils are favored. Duke is not a bad team, they are well coached and have some very good players, they just didn’t have enough last week to pull the upset against Notre Dame. Boston College however is starting over, again. New Head Coach Jeff Hafley was on Ohio State’s coaching staff last year, and their starting QB Phil Jurkovec was on Notre Dame’s roster in 2019. AJ Dillon their top rusher was drafted last year into the NFL. So just about everything of BC is going to be new in some way or another. It was even reported that they have a new head Cheerleader and she wants to revamp the squad to keep pace with the football team.
In a game that might only interest me Wake Forest will be taking on NC State. The Wolfpack, had back to back 9-4 seasons under coach Dave Doeren, things were looking up and expectations were climbing, then 2019 hit and the bottom fell out as they finished 4-8. They went through several different QB’s trying to find the best one, and none of them broke away from the pack. Not only that, but all but one person didn’t get injured last year. OK that’s not true but it seemed that way. They lost seven starters on offensive alone to injuries. In the offseason Doeren stated they were going to emphasize offense and get things back on track. Almost as if on cue, right after he said that, Covid-19 hit and their offseason practices were scratched. This will be their first game of the season, it’ll be interesting to see what, if any, improvements they’ve accomplished. Wake Forest took on Clemson last week and they’ve got the lumps and bruises to prove it. Basically this will be the Demon Deacons first game where they’ll be able to show what they can do. No real favorite here in the game but if a pick had to be made, leaning toward NC State.
Short Smokes
Oklahoma State will have little trouble with Tulsa
Austin Peay will get hammered again by Cincinnati
Louisiana Lafayette after upsetting ISU is ranked #19 and they’ll keep that ranking by beating Georgia State
Pittsburgh will host Syracuse and the Orange will not fare well against the Panthers
Liberty and Western Kentucky could be a good game, picking Liberty
Navy wants to rebound against Tulane, but they won’t.
Self-proclaimed National Champions UCF will take on Georgia Tech and the Knights will win
Appalachian State doesn’t care who they face, but this week it’s Marshall, App State wins
Georgia Southern will face the Owls of Florida Atlantic and be victorious
Clemson, who never wants to have a tough schedule, will take on The Citadel. Way to go Tigers.
LA Tech should beat Southern Miss, it would be nice if Southern Miss was their old self but those days have past
Texas State will take their 0-2 record and match up against UL Monroe who use to be called the Indians. One of these teams has to win, right?
Army was scheduled to host BYU but after the Cougars saw how well the Black Knights were playing they decided now was a good time to play the, “we’ve had some Covid-19 cases, so we need to postpone” card, and they did.