Week 1 Review

Some quick thoughts after the 1^st week of the college football season.

Michigan is improved, but Harbaugh still has a lot of work to do.  Last year the Wolverines lost at home to Utah 26-10, with the Utes scoring the final 16 points for the win.  Michigan lost this year, but put up a fight the whole way.  Losing 24-17 on the road and were a recovered onside kick away from making the game REAL interesting.

Utah could be really good if they found some more play makers on the offensive side of the ball.  Devontae Booker is the only threat the Utes have and he is a good one, but they need more.  Booker carried the ball 22 times and scored on the ground.  He also was their leading receiver with 7 catches in week 1 vs Michigan.

TCU got a road win versus a Power 5 team, but they didn’t look very impressive in doing so.  It is just one game, but the Horned Frogs couldn’t finish drives and had to settle for field goals on too many drives.  They certainly didn’t look like what you would expect from the 2^nd best team in the country.

Duke and David Cutcliffe have found their quarterback.  Cutcliffe has been a quarterback guru everywhere he has coached but has yet to find one at Duke, until now.  Thomas Sirk made his debut with the Blue Devils Thursday night against Tulane and the junior QB was 27-40 for 289 and 2 scores.  He also ran the ball 15 times for 68 yards.

New Baylor QB Seth Russell throws a really nice ball; he has great touch on the deep ball.  It is only a 1 game sample, but it looks like the Baylor offense won’t miss much with Russell stepping in for Bryce Petty.  Russell actually adds a little more athleticism to the quarterback position for the Bears.

Hawaii and Colorado was a perfect example of why a preseason game in college football is not a terrible idea.  The two quarterbacks combined to go 42-78 and just 360 yard.  It also had 18 punts, 14 penalties and five turnovers and was utterly unwatchable.

Stop FCS games!  Yes every year you get teams like Washington State and Kansas that lose to the FCS, but you also get games like Georgia Tech beating Alcorn State 69-6 with GT running for 476 yards and Ole Miss beating Tennessee-Martin 76-3 which included a 55-0 lead and Mississippi THROWING a touchdown pass in the 4^th quarter.  Those games need to stop.

Continue playing on the road against Group of 5 teams if you are a Power 5 team.  It creates the chance of upsets and it immediately gives these lower level FBS teams a showcase home game that the players and fans can look forward to.  In the opening week only we saw teams like Temple beat Penn State at home.  Western Michigan playing with in-state foe Michigan State into the 4^th quarter and Central Michigan leading Oklahoma State in the 2^nd half before falling short.  Those games are great for the little guys and a real challenge for the big boys.  A win-win for everybody.

Malik Zaire is fun to watch run Brian Kelly’s offense at Notre Dame.  It seems to be pretty clear why Everett Golson transferred out of Notre Dame, because he was good, but Zaire has the potential to do some special things for the Irish this season.  Zaire went 19-22 for 313 and 3 scores in the opener against Texas.

Notre Dame is either really good or Texas is absolutely awful.  It reality it is probably somewhere in between.  Charlie Strong is in year 2 of a huge rebuild at Texas, so nobody expected a CFB Playoff bid, but I would imagine that the fan-base didn’t expect the worst loss to open the season since 1988 (@BYU 47-6).

I loved watching the aggressive play and play-calling of the Temple defense against Penn State.  Temple is a team that is full of players that didn’t get recruited by Penn State and despite being overmatched at almost every position that didn’t change their style of play and it paid off, limiting Penn State to just 54 yards in their final 12 drives of the game.

The Penn State offensive line is awful.  I really like Christian Hackenberg and I would love to see what he could do if his O-Line could keep him clean, but that doesn’t look like it will happen in his time at Penn State.  Hackenberg was sacked 10 times by Temple on Saturday.  Some are thinking that Hackenberg could be the top QB selected in next year’s NFL draft.  That will only happen if he survives this season.

Oregon lost the Heisman Trophy winner and 2^nd overall pick in quarterback Marcus Mariotta, yet the Ducks didn’t miss a beat in their 61-42 win over Eastern Washington.  Oregon racked up 731 yards and 34 first downs on offense.  That includes running for 485 and 6 touchdowns.  They also didn’t lose their quick score attach either.  All of the Ducks scoring drives were under 3 minutes except their final score in the 4^th quarter, that one lasted 3:20.

Tons of stars lost for the season already in just one week.  Quarterbacks Taysom Hill (BYU) and Terrel Hunt (Syracuse), running backs Tarean Folston (Notre Dame) and James Conner (Pitt) and defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes (UCLA) are all highly regarded players that are done for the season already due to injuries.  We also have All-American linebacker Scooby Wright from Arizona, safety Mike Caputo from Wisconsin, wide receiver Mike Williams from Clemson and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer out for a considerable amount of time with lesser injuries.

Will Muschamp joining the coaching staff at Auburn is a very good thing.  We all know that Gus Malzahn knows offense and can put up some points, but now he has a defense behind it.  Muschamp, the former Florida head coach has always been a great defensive mind and now he able to focus on just that.  In the opener versus Louisville, Auburn scored 1 defensive touchdown on an 82 yard fumble return in the 1^st half and set up another one with a 35 yard interception return in the 2^nd half.  Auburn jumped out to a 24-0 3^rd quarter lead before Louisville final got on the scoreboard.

Alabama’s running game is crazy good.  The Tide have had guys like Eddie Lacy and Mark Ingram in recent years, but Derrick Henry might be the best of the bunch.  Henry ran for 147 on 13 carries and 3 scores against Wisconsin on Saturday.  His back up Kenyan Drake ran 10 times for 77 yards and a score.  He also had 2 catches for 48 yards.  This 1-2 punch from Alabama is as good as we have seen from the Crimson Tide.

High Octane is illegal in Houston, TX.  Arizona State and the Fighting Todd Graham’s had only 291 yards of offense (3.55 ypp) and two turnovers against Texas A&M Saturday.  Of the Fighting Todd Graham’s 1^st 12 drives, they punted 9 times, fumbled twice and scored just one touchdown.

I still love watching Todd Graham lose.  I don’t think that will change any time soon either.

I love watching Penn State lose.  I know that won’t change any time soon.

Hail Mary conversions are fun. 

West Coast teams should never be forced to play noon EST.  Stanford played Northwestern at Noon.  The players woke up at 4:30 to try to make up for the time difference and prepare for the game, it didn’t help.  The Cardinal looked sluggish from the get go.  They finished the game with just 2 field goals and only 240 yards of total offense.  They also turned the ball over twice.

Baker Mayfield showed why he was named the starter for the Oklahoma Sooners after camp.  Mayfield threw for 388 yards and 3 scores in his collegiate debut.  He also ran for another touchdown.  He unseated Trevor Knight who was the returning starter, who accounted for over 3,100 yards and 30 touchdowns in his 1^st 2 years at OU.

Josh Rosen looks to be the real thing at UCLA.  The #1 rated quarterback out of high school last year won the starting job at UCLA in fall camp and impressed in his debut.  Rosen threw for 351 and 3 touchdowns, going 28 of 35 in a 34-16 win over Virginia.

Ohio State looked pretty impressive in their opener.  After the Buckeyes got things going they looked unstoppable, and remember they were playing without 4 starters that were suspended.  I still am not sure that Cardale Jones is the best option for the Urban Meyer offense, but he also isn’t a bad option to have.  With their toughest game out of the way, if Ohio State loses at any point in the season it would be a huge upset.

RANDOM RANT

RANDOM RANTING

It’s been a while since my last Rant, so here are some thoughts regarding the sporting world, quarterbacks in it, and certain 4-letter stations that report it.

BRETT FAVRE

This one has been boiling for a while, since he came back for this “final” season. Brett Favre has played in something like 700 straight games, which is an NFL record. All the hype a few weeks back was that if he missed a game with his broken ankle, the streak would be snapped. Okay, let’s dissect that last thought.

First, this action by Favre trying/wanting to play illustrates his career in a nutshell. He wanted to keep his personal record in tact and was willing to do so, despite what was best for his team’s chance to win. He already held the record. He was not chasing it. I could possibly understand his desire to play if he was closing in on the record, but he is not. He is more than 100 games ahead of the next closest player on the active games streak. Eventually, this record will be snapped. Eventually, Favre will ACTUALLY retire and no longer play. I cannot wait for that date! Oh yeah, he played with a BROKEN ANKLE!

And we wonder why the Vikings are currently sitting at 3-6 in a year they were expected to compete for the NFC title. They are playing a 40+ year old QB with 2 broken bones in his ankle, and he is all but running the team because the pathetic coach doesn’t have the guts to stand-up to him. I am starting to think that Favre decided to play for Minnesota as one last move as a true Packer. He knew he could no longer play at the NFL level, so rather than retiring, he went to the Vikings to destroy the only real threat the Packers had in the NFC North. That is the only reasonable explanation.

Brett, please do us all a favor, and leave. Go back to Mississippi. Play football in your Wranglers. Go do whatever you want. Just quit trying to play in the NFL. I know that the people in Bristol will be upset when you finally do that because the will have to find REAL programming, but everyone else who enjoys sports will be grateful. You are ruining what was, at one point, a great career.

CAM NEWTON

Okay. Let’s move on to the next overblown QB story. Reports over the past few weeks are basically saying that Auburn quarterback Cam Newton’s dad, Cecil, told Mississippi State that it would cost anywhere between $100K to $180K for his son to play in Starkville. Frankly, I think that is being generous, I would want more if I were going to put my son on that shitty team. But seriously, what is wrong with his dad saying this? Why is this an issue? Why is this news?

Cam Newton plays at Auburn. He does not play at Mississippi State. There are not currently, nor have there been, any reports/rumors that he accepted any money to go to Auburn. Until that happens, this is not a story!

This would be like anyone else getting a job offer to do the job you currently do in Baghdad. Not sure about you, but I’m pretty sure my response would be something like, “You’d have to pay me between $100K and $180K for me to go there.”


THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES

First, I must say that not only did I not get the managerial job with the Pirates, but they did not even contact me for an interview. I am very upset and disappointed by this.

The Pirates hired Clint Hurdle as their new manager. He is the 6th manager for the organization since they decided to stop trying to win. It is an absolutely terrible hire, which makes it perfect for Neil Huntington, Frank Coonley and Bob Nutting. In an odd managing circle, Clint Hurdle takes over a position once held by Jim Tracy. In 2 seasons with the Bucs, Tracy went 135-189. He is now the current manager of the Colorado Rockies, a spot he took over from Clint Hurdle. He has since gone 157-121 in nearly 2 full seasons in Denver. In 2009, Tracy went 74-42 after replacing Hurdle, who had that same team at 18-28. Just basic math tells me Hurdle was 10 games under .500 and Tracey was 32 games above .500 with the same exact players. That is a 42 game difference. At that rate, we should expect the Pirates to win a total of 51 games over the next 2 seasons. So, the Pirates are basically hiring a guy who is a much worse manager than Jim Tracy; the same Jim Tracy who was fired after 2 seasons in Pittsburgh. Hmm, interesting!

The hire that I wanted (other than me) was Bobby Valentine. This guy must be black-balled by Major League teams. He is the only guy since Davey Johnson to win with the Mets. After getting canned there, he went overseas and won in Japan. He led the Chiba Lotte Mariners to their first pennant in 31 years and first Japan Series Title since 1974. That is about the same drought the Pirates have been in. Seems like a perfect fit for me. Yet he doesn’t even get an interview?

As a Pittsburgh sports fan, this weekend has been difficult for me. Pitt looked embarrassing on Thursday night, opening the door for what will be the typical Panther collapse that their fans are oh-so-familiar with. The Pirates have just committed to losing for another 5 years, minimum. And the Steelers were completely exposed by the Patriots. At least we have Pitt hoops!