2008 Bye Week Edition - 9/21/08
This will be a short edition, as not only were the Men of Troy off for the weekend, but the action around the country was boring beyond belief, and lacking in much surprise. Nevertheless, a weekend of college football is a weekend of college football, and some musings are in order. Next weekend will feature my annual edition from New York City, as I am spending my annual week in New York for client meetings, which of course features an entire day of ESPN Zone and college football. But until USC's Thursday night game and next weekend's ESPN Zone action, this weekend warrants a few comments.
- When I say it was a weekend lacking surprises, I am being quite literal. The only two Top 20 teams to lose were Oregon and East Carolina, and Oregon barely lost with their fourth string quarterback. Boise State should not gain BCS points for beating Oregon; they should lose points for how they barely did it with Oregon playing a non-scholarship player behind center.
- If anyone disagrees with me about the other games not being surprises, I would love to know which ones. Bama' beat the heck out of a terrible Arkansas team. A really good Georgia team beat a really overrated Arizona State team who may not win six games this year. LSU beat a team coached by Tommy Tubberville, which means by definition it can not be an upset (watching that guy coach against Les Miles is like watching a six year old do card tricks; just tough to observe). Michigan State beat a Notre Dame team that if it played in a conference would likely go 3-9 (again). I could go on and on, but this just was not a weekend of surprises.
- And I am including the touchdown-less thriller between Wake Forest and Florida State. Watching those two offenses is like watching C-Span for 72 straight hours. It is hard to believe the Seminoles I watched in the early 90's have the offense they now do.
- After watching much of the Florida/Tennessee game I have to say, Tennessee is just terrible.
- After watching much of the UCLA/Arizona game I have to say, TENNESSEE is just terrible.
- Seriously, no team in the country should be more embarrassed after the last two weekends of UCLA football than Tennessee. Fulmer will most certainly be unemployed over the Christmas holiday this year, and he will have Labor Day to blame for it. That UCLA team is so inept, so green, and so offensively incapable, the fact that UCLA got a W against them is indescribable.
- Alabama looked very strong against Arkansas, and deserves their Top 10 rating. It is not likely they will go through their SEC schedule without some losses, and last year we did see Saban's team get much worse - not better - as the season went along. But, the rush defense is spectacular, and that QB is playing with far more confidence than he ever has.
- UCLA fans concerned about the fact that their offense has not scored a touchdown since Labor Day, and that they are among the worst in all of Division I football in rushing offense, and that their QB looks like he may not belong on a Division I team, should take comfort in this: Norm Chow's first year at USC the offense was absolutely terrible, and Carson Palmer was sacked 56 times while we rushed for 2.4 yards per carry. Of course, when USC turned it around the next year and began the greatest dynasty in the history of college football, Norm Chow still gave a damn. He certainly does not any more.
- From today's OC Register about Damian Williams, the soon-to-be-All-American Wide Receiver at USC: "Equally important to Williams, age 20, is what God asks of him. He tries to begin and end each day reading the Bible. Most Sundays he travels solo to Gardena for church. On Tuesday afternoons you can catch him sharing his faith on campus and inviting people to a Bible Study he co-founded last year that meets every Tuesday evening on campus." I have nothing to add.
- Charlie Weis vehemently denies that the illegal use of a laptop in the coaches booth during the Notre Dame/Michigan State game was anything sinister, and defended the innocent mistake in the press. Personally, despite his connection to the New England Patriots' use of illegal videotaping back when Charlie was there, I believe him. I don't think the laptop was being used for football purposes at all. I think he and his coaching staff are just all over Monster.com these days.
- USC has Oregon State in Corvalis this next Thursday, and based on the extraordinary number of Thursday night upsets last season, no one should take this game for granted.
- If I were a betting man, I would say that Cal and Oregon will still fight for #2 in the Pac-10, though Arizona is probably the best they have been since Stoops arrived. The Washington schools look terrible, and Stanford and UCLA look quite overhyped after week one.
- If I were a betting man, I would also say that Oklahoma and Florida are not overrated, while Georgia and LSU are. We shall see.
Until we meet again, I am - the biggest college football lover of all time,
DLB