The season is underway and it is feeling like fall, and fall is exactly what a number of big names have done. Last week in the first full weekend of games Texas fell to Ohio State, Bama fell to Florida State, Clemson fell to LSU, Belichick’s man boobs fell further as in his first college game his team was blown out by TCU.
This week has far fewer opportunities for top ranked teams to fall as almost all of the ranked teams are playing cupcakes to get an easy win while still charging full price for tickets.
There are no BCS level games on Thursday. There are a couple of D2 games worth watching that we will get to later.
Friday night isn’t much to get excited about either. The only game between BCS level schools is B1G Maryland (1-0) hosting MAC member Northern Illinois (1-0) who is supposed to come in and take a loss and a paycheck. The other three games all have an FCS school playing a BCS level school.
Saturday has a full slate of games but only one matching top 25 teams.
The most interesting early game should be the yearly battle for bragging rights in Iowa. Iowa (1-0) at (16) Iowa State (2-0) in Ames. Historically the Hawkeyes have been the better program but recently the Cyclones have been ranked higher, not that it has mattered a lot in this game. What could matter is that Iowa actually has a quarterback who has put points on the board in transfer Mark Gronkowski who won two FCS national championships at South Dakota State. Iowa may actually score more than 10 points a game.
Another early game of interest and for another kind of bragging rights has legendary SWC cheaters (17) SMU (1-0) who got the NCAA death penalty at home against the school that tops cheating with felonies that approach real death penalty offenses in Texas, Baylor (0-1.)
Sad Jose State (0-1) gets to be the ones that former #1 (7) Texas (0-1) takes out their frustrations on in Austin this week. The Over/Under is 51.5, Texas may cover that themselves by the end of the 3rd quarter.
Can (11) Indiana (1-0) sustain the success they had last year? We may get an idea as they are at Duke (1-0) who also has been better than their historical norms in recent seasons finishing last year at 9-4.
Not much to see in the mid-day games with top schools in dress scrimmages like (1) Ohio State (1-0) hosting Grambling (1-0) and (4) Georgia (1-0) with Austin Peay (1-0.)
Oklahoma State (1-0) at (6) Oregon (1-0) should give us an idea if the Cowboys are as bad this year as they finished last year. Okie light coach Mike Gundy may be a man but if things don’t get better he might end up as an unemployed man this year.
Best of the mid-day bunch is another one of those long, deep seated rivalries made better when both teams are at least decent. Long before they were playing football Kansas and Missouri didn’t like each other. Now they get along, except when Kansas (2-0) goes to Missouri (1-0) for the latest meeting.
Finally in the evening we get a game between top 25 teams. (15) Michigan (1-0) at (18) Oklahoma (1-0). Michigan last year (8-5) had a big drop from their recent championship team, the Sooners topped them by finishing below .500 (6-7.) Neither fan base sees those results as acceptable. This game could say a lot about the direction of both teams.
That one should be a much more interesting game than watching Nebraska (1-0) pad their record against Akron (0-1) as the red hordes sit in their trailers, pick their tooth, and say “Golly, we are back, we gonna win the Big 10 this year.” just like they have said the last who knows (or cares) how many years.
Lots of candidates for garbage game of the week. When in doubt, look to the Minutemen of UMess. Already having been blown out this year in their opener by Temple (Temple?) last season their only two wins came against FCS competition. UMess (0-1) is hosting Bryant (0-1) who only managed to win two games last year against FCS competition and has already been beaten badly by another perennial loser, New Mexico State.
Plenty of options for blowout of the week as well but discounting the games against FCS teams the Kent State Golden Flushes (1-0) who barely beat FCS Merrimack last week are in that strange place known as Waco to play (24) Texas Tech (10-0) who beat last week's sacrificial opponent 67-7. As mentioned earlier Texas may break the scoreboard against San Hopeless.
Locally FCS Northern Iowa (1-0) is in Laramie against Wyoming (1-0) Air Force has the week off.
CSU (0-1) is close to having the week off with Northern Colorado (1-0) taking the long bus ride to Fort Collins.
If you want college football Thursday night you will need to stream a small college game and there are games worth watching. Fort Hays (Kansas) (0-1) is frequently one of the better D2 programs in the nation. They went 8-3 last year and this week come to Colorado to play (5) CSU Pueblo (1-0.)
On the road, Colorado Mines opens their season at West Texas A&M (0-1) who lost last week at Western Colorado.
Saturday Colorado Mesa (0-1) should get their first win against visiting Eastern New Mexico (0-1) who has already lost to New Mexico Highlands.
(9) Western Colorado (1-0) is in Texas to play Midwestern State University (0-1.)
Last season Fort Lewis (0-1) broke a more than 3 year winless streak at home against Arizona Christian before adding two more wins before the end of the season. This year they are at Arizona Christian hoping to pick up another win and another step towards respectability.
Without much hope of picking up a win, Adams State (0-1) fans get to see their team crushed again, this time by the (21) University of Texas, Permian Basin (1-0) who was 7-5 last year and has already soundly beaten the #5 team in D2 last week, (19) Central Oklahoma.
This week has far fewer opportunities for top ranked teams to fall as almost all of the ranked teams are playing cupcakes to get an easy win while still charging full price for tickets.
There are no BCS level games on Thursday. There are a couple of D2 games worth watching that we will get to later.
Friday night isn’t much to get excited about either. The only game between BCS level schools is B1G Maryland (1-0) hosting MAC member Northern Illinois (1-0) who is supposed to come in and take a loss and a paycheck. The other three games all have an FCS school playing a BCS level school.
Saturday has a full slate of games but only one matching top 25 teams.
The most interesting early game should be the yearly battle for bragging rights in Iowa. Iowa (1-0) at (16) Iowa State (2-0) in Ames. Historically the Hawkeyes have been the better program but recently the Cyclones have been ranked higher, not that it has mattered a lot in this game. What could matter is that Iowa actually has a quarterback who has put points on the board in transfer Mark Gronkowski who won two FCS national championships at South Dakota State. Iowa may actually score more than 10 points a game.
Another early game of interest and for another kind of bragging rights has legendary SWC cheaters (17) SMU (1-0) who got the NCAA death penalty at home against the school that tops cheating with felonies that approach real death penalty offenses in Texas, Baylor (0-1.)
Sad Jose State (0-1) gets to be the ones that former #1 (7) Texas (0-1) takes out their frustrations on in Austin this week. The Over/Under is 51.5, Texas may cover that themselves by the end of the 3rd quarter.
Can (11) Indiana (1-0) sustain the success they had last year? We may get an idea as they are at Duke (1-0) who also has been better than their historical norms in recent seasons finishing last year at 9-4.
Not much to see in the mid-day games with top schools in dress scrimmages like (1) Ohio State (1-0) hosting Grambling (1-0) and (4) Georgia (1-0) with Austin Peay (1-0.)
Oklahoma State (1-0) at (6) Oregon (1-0) should give us an idea if the Cowboys are as bad this year as they finished last year. Okie light coach Mike Gundy may be a man but if things don’t get better he might end up as an unemployed man this year.
Best of the mid-day bunch is another one of those long, deep seated rivalries made better when both teams are at least decent. Long before they were playing football Kansas and Missouri didn’t like each other. Now they get along, except when Kansas (2-0) goes to Missouri (1-0) for the latest meeting.
Finally in the evening we get a game between top 25 teams. (15) Michigan (1-0) at (18) Oklahoma (1-0). Michigan last year (8-5) had a big drop from their recent championship team, the Sooners topped them by finishing below .500 (6-7.) Neither fan base sees those results as acceptable. This game could say a lot about the direction of both teams.
That one should be a much more interesting game than watching Nebraska (1-0) pad their record against Akron (0-1) as the red hordes sit in their trailers, pick their tooth, and say “Golly, we are back, we gonna win the Big 10 this year.” just like they have said the last who knows (or cares) how many years.
Lots of candidates for garbage game of the week. When in doubt, look to the Minutemen of UMess. Already having been blown out this year in their opener by Temple (Temple?) last season their only two wins came against FCS competition. UMess (0-1) is hosting Bryant (0-1) who only managed to win two games last year against FCS competition and has already been beaten badly by another perennial loser, New Mexico State.
Plenty of options for blowout of the week as well but discounting the games against FCS teams the Kent State Golden Flushes (1-0) who barely beat FCS Merrimack last week are in that strange place known as Waco to play (24) Texas Tech (10-0) who beat last week's sacrificial opponent 67-7. As mentioned earlier Texas may break the scoreboard against San Hopeless.
Locally FCS Northern Iowa (1-0) is in Laramie against Wyoming (1-0) Air Force has the week off.
CSU (0-1) is close to having the week off with Northern Colorado (1-0) taking the long bus ride to Fort Collins.
If you want college football Thursday night you will need to stream a small college game and there are games worth watching. Fort Hays (Kansas) (0-1) is frequently one of the better D2 programs in the nation. They went 8-3 last year and this week come to Colorado to play (5) CSU Pueblo (1-0.)
On the road, Colorado Mines opens their season at West Texas A&M (0-1) who lost last week at Western Colorado.
Saturday Colorado Mesa (0-1) should get their first win against visiting Eastern New Mexico (0-1) who has already lost to New Mexico Highlands.
(9) Western Colorado (1-0) is in Texas to play Midwestern State University (0-1.)
Last season Fort Lewis (0-1) broke a more than 3 year winless streak at home against Arizona Christian before adding two more wins before the end of the season. This year they are at Arizona Christian hoping to pick up another win and another step towards respectability.
Without much hope of picking up a win, Adams State (0-1) fans get to see their team crushed again, this time by the (21) University of Texas, Permian Basin (1-0) who was 7-5 last year and has already soundly beaten the #5 team in D2 last week, (19) Central Oklahoma.
SMU.
