College Football - Week of 9/8

[Mephistopheles]

WVU is better than Cal and Texas. LSU is playing better than anyone. The Gators have looked great their first two games. Tim Tebow has been great pitching the ball around. A QB led the Gators in rushing today and a tight end led them in receiving. Their defense's depth came into question today when Troy moved the ball effortlessly in the second half. That's the biggest question. The offense appears to be considerably more dynamic and explosive than last years.

 

Florida does look good but I dont think they will be able to beat LSU due to the lack of a good running back. I think tht LSU's defense it to fast to fall for all the trick runs they do with their QB's and WR's. At some point you have to juse be able to put the ball in the hands of a good running back to get you tough yards and i just dont know if they have the ability to do that against a great defense like LSU.

 

They beat them last season with their runningbacks combining for 36 yards and ended up outrushing the Tigers. Just because their offensive running game has been highlighted by QBs and WRs the last two seasons, make no mistake - it's been very very effective. Their rushing attack has rushed for 439 yards in two games. A lot of their running game are sweeps and reverses which ought to minimize Glenn Dorsey's impact on the running game.

[NCCubFan]

For a bad team, Troy's not a bad team.....

Yogi, is that you? :D

[Warpticon]

WVU is better than Cal and Texas. LSU is playing better than anyone. The Gators have looked great their first two games. Tim Tebow has been great pitching the ball around. A QB led the Gators in rushing today and a tight end led them in receiving. Their defense's depth came into question today when Troy moved the ball effortlessly in the second half. That's the biggest question. The offense appears to be considerably more dynamic and explosive than last years.

 

Florida does look good but I dont think they will be able to beat LSU due to the lack of a good running back. I think tht LSU's defense it to fast to fall for all the trick runs they do with their QB's and WR's. At some point you have to juse be able to put the ball in the hands of a good running back to get you tough yards and i just dont know if they have the ability to do that against a great defense like LSU.

 

You mean, sometimes it's easiest to just put the ball in the hands of a good running back to get tough yards. I think it's pretty hard to say they need it when they won the national championship without it.

[Mephistopheles]

WVU is better than Cal and Texas. LSU is playing better than anyone. The Gators have looked great their first two games. Tim Tebow has been great pitching the ball around. A QB led the Gators in rushing today and a tight end led them in receiving. Their defense's depth came into question today when Troy moved the ball effortlessly in the second half. That's the biggest question. The offense appears to be considerably more dynamic and explosive than last years.

 

Florida does look good but I dont think they will be able to beat LSU due to the lack of a good running back. I think tht LSU's defense it to fast to fall for all the trick runs they do with their QB's and WR's. At some point you have to juse be able to put the ball in the hands of a good running back to get you tough yards and i just dont know if they have the ability to do that against a great defense like LSU.

 

You mean, sometimes it's easiest to just put the ball in the hands of a good running back to get tough yards. I think it's pretty hard to say they need it when they won the national championship without it.

 

They also have one, Tim Tebow. Other than third and short, where you run it doesn't make a difference.

[Guest]

I'm a Pac-10 homer but Cal is not a top-5 team. Not with that defense. I'd kill for that offense, though.

[soccer10k]

Don't know if meant to do it Warp, but no Rutgers?

[soccer10k]

Apparently Carr said that Henne wouldn't play next week against Notre Dame.

[chuckywang]

-Watch out for South Florida. Auburn was unimpressive against K-State (albeit so was USF in their opener), and USF is a team on a meteoric rise. I think there's an excellent chance this game catapults USF into the nation's mind, polls and major bowls.

 

Gratuitously pats himself on the back.

 

Wow....nice call. Never thought that South Florida could pull that off.

[wolf stansson]

Look out, Pac-10.

 

Arizona State has a defense.

 

The game today could've easily been a shut out if Carpenter would have had his head in the game on this first play and they wouldn't have shot themselves in the foot with stupid penalties.

[Derwood]

Ok, after watching the game and drinking my sorrows away:

 

1) Jimmy Clausen is LIGHT-YEARS ahead of where Quinn was as a freshman. I can't emphasize this enough. Once Charlie took the damn diapers off and let Jimmy actually throw (i.e. when it was too late), he looked incredible. He threw an absolutely perfect pass to Kamara in the endzone that he dropped, threw an amazing toss to Parris while being dragged down off his feet that Parris couldn't hold onto and didn't take even one risky chance. I've never seen a freshman look that good.

 

He also got real cocky real quick in that first drive. He dumped a few passes off and ran for a first down and you could see him running his mouth. At that moment I said that Penn State needed to knock Clausen on his ass a few times to shut him up and they did.

 

Also, the ESPN love for him made me queasy. Comparing his first game to the first games of Tiger, LeBron and Crosby? PLEASE! I did, however, get great joy every time they cut to his family after Dan Connor drove his head into the turf.

2) Other than Darrin Walls and possibly Tom Zbikowski, every other player on that team blew. God, that was embarrassing. The line was even worse than against GT, the running backs did less than nothing, the receivers couldn't catch a damn thing, etc.

 

ND's play calling was pathetic. Worse than high school. Did Weis not think that PSU would adjust to the screen pass? The O-Line was like a sieve any time PSU decided to blitz, and the number of penalties was embarrassing.

 

3) I've never felt more pity in my life than I felt for that defense tonight. Once again, they kept coming up with big stops against PSU until the offense's absurd ineptitude took too much of a toll on them.

 

The did okay early, but once Austin Scott got going, it was over.

 

4) We'd better beat Michigan next week. Hard as it may be to believe, this team isn't THAT far from being good, and UM seems to have quit on the season.

 

I'm having a hard time figuring out which team is worse. Neither team has stopped anyone on defense in the first two games, but at least Michigan scored some points against Appalachian St. Not sure I can pick ND to win when they've scored all of two FG's on offense in two weeks.

[E.J.]

Apparently Carr said that Henne wouldn't play next week against Notre Dame.

 

Hooray 0-3! :x

[fiver]

Auburn disappointing, or is South Florida living up to the media darling status they've been getting all season? I don't know, but I wish I could actually watch the game, sounds like a good one.

 

Auburn is not a good football team. There's a reason they didn't get that much media attention to start the year.

 

Brandon Cox is mediocre at best, Brad Lester has yet to impress and the offensive line isn't close to what it was in recent years. The defense is about the only bright spot for the Tigers, but even that will deteriorate if the offense can't put together any drives.

 

I've been saying since late last year, Auburn is not one of the better teams in the SEC right now.

 

No, Brad Lester hasn't impressed, but he hasn't set foot ont he field this year either because of suspension..so that makes it difficult. If one watched the game last night, they realized that Auburn does have a running game when and only when Mario Fannin is in the game. He's a freshmen, didn't carry the ball against K-State, but he waits on holes to open and then explodes through them. They put together several nice drives with Fannan at RB. Fannin and Ben Tate alternated drives in the first half and Auburn led the game at that point. Ben looked much better when he ran the ball only every other drive. Fannin opened the second half with two fumbles and both were lost. Tubberville didn't give him another drive for the remanider of the game. Ben Tate is big and strong, but he looked very slow last night..all that said, Auburn wasn't able to run the ball in the second half. BTW, Brad Lester may or may not play this year.

 

Brandon Cox isn't mediocre. He is poor. After two years of being immoble in the pocket and taking A LOT of unnecessary sacks, he finally looks scared back there. He won't stand he ground, step into a pass if he sees he is about to get hit....He ducked about 4-5 times last night AS HE WAS THROWING THE BALL.

 

No, I've said since the offseason that Auburn is quite a bit worse than LSU or Florida this year. I believe they are capable of beating all other SEC teams. They had more talent than South Florida last night. 5 turnovers in the second half will cause some problems. If 1) Mario Fannin gets more reps at RB and is able to hold on to the football or 2) Brad Lester is cleared to play in the next few weeks, then there will not be as much pressure on Cox and Auburn will have a chance against all teams other than Florida and LSU on their schedule.

 

I really hope Tuberville just gives up on Cox and starts freshman Kodi Burns later this year. I'd like to get a head start on '08, and Tubberville must know that Brandon Cox lost Auburn the game last night and will be the primary factor in other losses this year if he continues to play.

 

Edit - in case i didn't make it clear, Brad Lester again did not play last evening because of suspension. Trey Blackmon, Auburn's best linebacker, also missed this game because of injury but should be back next week.

[CuseCubFan69]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Big East hasn't lost a game other than Syracuse and their 0-2 and S.Florida's win at Auburn just helps the cause. Cincy crushing Oregon St helped too.

 

LSU looked very good but VTech couldn't score on East Carolina so that takes a little luster off of it. Oklahoma pounding Miami was more impressive imo. Texas with an impressive win as did Nebraska over a tough Wake team. Oregon takes a little off of how good App St is by showing Michigan isn't that good, still a great win for App St though. Florida gives up 31 to Troy but I'm sure no one will notice that in the polls. How many times does Georgia get to prove they aren't that good before being dropped in the polls?

 

My top 25:

 

Oklahoma

LSU

USC

West Virginia

Louisville

Florida

Texas

Cal

Rutgers

Penn State

Wisconsin

UCLA

Ohio State

Nebraska

Washington

Georgia Tech

Tennessee

S. Florida

Oregon

Arizona St.

Missouri

Cincinnati

Boston College

South Carolina

Mich St.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Wow, I thought you were exaggerating. Everyone I knew at the game said the same thing I was thinking -- that was an awfully boring game after the 1st quarter.

 

103 total yards with 102 of them in the 2nd half? Ugh. The only positive I found was that your rushing defense looked decent. But then again, overplaying the run let Christensen and Moeaki put up some pretty nice numbers.

[cubweiser03]

Apparently Carr said that Henne wouldn't play next week against Notre Dame.

 

Hooray 0-3! :x

 

Clausen V Mallett I.

Unlike Clausen, Mallett has the benefit of an Oline and good RB. UM isnt going up against the spread so the D has a chance. If UM goes 0-3 it will be grossly pathetic.

[Derwood]

Apparently Carr said that Henne wouldn't play next week against Notre Dame.

 

Hooray 0-3! :x

 

Clausen V Mallett I.

Unlike Clausen, Mallett has the benefit of an Oline and good RB. UM isnt going up against the spread so the D has a chance. If UM goes 0-3 it will be grossly pathetic.

 

if UM goes 0-3, they'll likely go 0-4 :)

[CubinNY]

ND's play calling was pathetic. Worse than high school. Did Weis not think that PSU would adjust to the screen pass? The O-Line was like a sieve any time PSU decided to blitz, and the number of penalties was embarrassing.

I suspect the genius's record will be close to the same as his predecessor's after three seasons.

 

The difference is he will do it with flair and a couple of top 5 recuriting classes.

[CuseCubFan69]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Wow, I thought you were exaggerating. Everyone I knew at the game said the same thing I was thinking -- that was an awfully boring game after the 1st quarter.

 

103 total yards with 102 of them in the 2nd half? Ugh. The only positive I found was that your rushing defense looked decent. But then again, overplaying the run let Christensen and Moeaki put up some pretty nice numbers.

 

People say I'm biased and I admit I am a little time to time to try to prove a point but this team is horrible and yeah, they had 8 in a box and dared Iowa to throw figuring "We can't stop the run, overplay it and pray they drop the ball or the QB has a bad game." You'll see your defense in all the highlight reals against Syracuse when they show your seniors or draft eligible players in the April Draft. Watch him run down this guy on this play or go through this block.

 

I'm looking at a 10 to 12 loss season and that's with Buffalo on the schedule. Only one time have they ever lost 10 and that was Robinsons first year. Yippe.

 

Good luck in the Big 10 this year and watch out for Michigan St, I have a funny feeling about those boys this year.

[Derwood]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Wow, I thought you were exaggerating. Everyone I knew at the game said the same thing I was thinking -- that was an awfully boring game after the 1st quarter.

 

103 total yards with 102 of them in the 2nd half? Ugh. The only positive I found was that your rushing defense looked decent. But then again, overplaying the run let Christensen and Moeaki put up some pretty nice numbers.

 

People say I'm biased and I admit I am a little time to time to try to prove a point but this team is horrible and yeah, they had 8 in a box and dared Iowa to throw figuring "We can't stop the run, overplay it and pray they drop the ball or the QB has a bad game." You'll see your defense in all the highlight reals against Syracuse when they show your seniors or draft eligible players in the April Draft. Watch him run down this guy on this play or go through this block.

 

I'm looking at a 10 to 12 loss season and that's with Buffalo on the schedule. Only one time have they ever lost 10 and that was Robinsons first year. Yippe.

 

Good luck in the Big 10 this year and watch out for Michigan St, I have a funny feeling about those boys this year.

 

bet you can't wait to play Penn State in '08 and '09

[CuseCubFan69]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Wow, I thought you were exaggerating. Everyone I knew at the game said the same thing I was thinking -- that was an awfully boring game after the 1st quarter.

 

103 total yards with 102 of them in the 2nd half? Ugh. The only positive I found was that your rushing defense looked decent. But then again, overplaying the run let Christensen and Moeaki put up some pretty nice numbers.

 

People say I'm biased and I admit I am a little time to time to try to prove a point but this team is horrible and yeah, they had 8 in a box and dared Iowa to throw figuring "We can't stop the run, overplay it and pray they drop the ball or the QB has a bad game." You'll see your defense in all the highlight reals against Syracuse when they show your seniors or draft eligible players in the April Draft. Watch him run down this guy on this play or go through this block.

 

I'm looking at a 10 to 12 loss season and that's with Buffalo on the schedule. Only one time have they ever lost 10 and that was Robinsons first year. Yippe.

 

Good luck in the Big 10 this year and watch out for Michigan St, I have a funny feeling about those boys this year.

 

bet you can't wait to play Penn State in '08 and '09

 

Heck, what a horrible time to resume that series. We play USC too, that ought to be fun.

[Andy]

ND's play calling was pathetic. Worse than high school. Did Weis not think that PSU would adjust to the screen pass? The O-Line was like a sieve any time PSU decided to blitz, and the number of penalties was embarrassing.

I suspect the genius's record will be close to the same as his predecessor's after three seasons.

 

The difference is he will do it with flair and a couple of top 5 recuriting classes.

Anyone even MENTION Ty Willingham and I'll punch them in the face.

 

Do you know the extent of Notre Dame's senior class helping the team right now?

 

Junior Jabbie - backup RB who's playing like 5 plays a game right now

Joe Brockington - starting LB

Maurice Crum - starting LB

Ambrose Wooden - nickelback (who blows chunks BTW)

Geoff Price - punter

 

That's IT. Weis is working with a bunch of 20 year olds out there. The junior class is hardly any better. And that's because Willingham was too damn busy golfing to bother recruiting his last two offseasons as the coach. And his 2002 team was the luckiest in the history of sports as well as having a very good upperclassman group because Bob Davie actually didn't suck at recruiting.

 

I swear, this is what I freaking hate about this crap. We start 0-2, get soundly beaten by two teams that should probably finish top 15 in the country, and everyone starts calling for the idiot coach who came before. This mess is still Ty's fault, and it will be until at least 2008.

 

Derwood, Clausen's cockiness is a little thing called leadership. I don't know what you saw, but I don't remember seeing any mouth-running other than talking to his own team in the huddle. And yes, Charlie's playcalling was abysmal. We would have had a chance in the game if he'd taken the diapers off Jimmy sooner, because once he did was the only time we moved the ball all night.

 

And Austin Scott was little but the beneficiary of a tired defense. What did ND's offense have, like, 6 three and outs in a row? They were beat by that time, and that's why Scott busted loose.

[dew1679666265]

Auburn disappointing, or is South Florida living up to the media darling status they've been getting all season? I don't know, but I wish I could actually watch the game, sounds like a good one.

 

Auburn is not a good football team. There's a reason they didn't get that much media attention to start the year.

 

Brandon Cox is mediocre at best, Brad Lester has yet to impress and the offensive line isn't close to what it was in recent years. The defense is about the only bright spot for the Tigers, but even that will deteriorate if the offense can't put together any drives.

 

I've been saying since late last year, Auburn is not one of the better teams in the SEC right now.

 

No, Brad Lester hasn't impressed, but he hasn't set foot ont he field this year either because of suspension..so that makes it difficult. If one watched the game last night, they realized that Auburn does have a running game when and only when Mario Fannin is in the game. He's a freshmen, didn't carry the ball against K-State, but he waits on holes to open and then explodes through them. They put together several nice drives with Fannan at RB. Fannin and Ben Tate alternated drives in the first half and Auburn led the game at that point. Ben looked much better when he ran the ball only every other drive. Fannin opened the second half with two fumbles and both were lost. Tubberville didn't give him another drive for the remanider of the game. Ben Tate is big and strong, but he looked very slow last night..all that said, Auburn wasn't able to run the ball in the second half. BTW, Brad Lester may or may not play this year.

 

Brandon Cox isn't mediocre. He is poor. After two years of being immoble in the pocket and taking A LOT of unnecessary sacks, he finally looks scared back there. He won't stand he ground, step into a pass if he sees he is about to get hit....He ducked about 4-5 times last night AS HE WAS THROWING THE BALL.

 

No, I've said since the offseason that Auburn is quite a bit worse than LSU or Florida this year. I believe they are capable of beating all other SEC teams. They had more talent than South Florida last night. 5 turnovers in the second half will cause some problems. If 1) Mario Fannin gets more reps at RB and is able to hold on to the football or 2) Brad Lester is cleared to play in the next few weeks, then there will not be as much pressure on Cox and Auburn will have a chance against all teams other than Florida and LSU on their schedule.

 

I really hope Tuberville just gives up on Cox and starts freshman Kodi Burns later this year. I'd like to get a head start on '08, and Tubberville must know that Brandon Cox lost Auburn the game last night and will be the primary factor in other losses this year if he continues to play.

 

Edit - in case i didn't make it clear, Brad Lester again did not play last evening because of suspension. Trey Blackmon, Auburn's best linebacker, also missed this game because of injury but should be back next week.

 

I guess that would be why Lester hasn't been impressive then. :oops:

 

I do think Cox can be a mediocre QB that doesn't do anything to hurt you, but also can't help you much. He just needs ample weapons around him and a great offensive line to protect him. In the current situation, though, you're right. He's pretty poor.

[Warpticon]

Don't know if meant to do it Warp, but no Rutgers?

 

No idea how that happened. I could've sworn they were in there somewhere, around 14. Oops.

 

Fiver, I didn't realize that Burns was already your #2 over at Auburn. I guess he's been looking pretty good? Is Ziemba on the squad, or did he redshirt?

[jjgman21]

Hey Bob, didn't I tell you Syracuse was bad! This is the worst team I have ever seen here, ever. Illinois must be foaming at the mouth right now.

 

Big East hasn't lost a game other than Syracuse and their 0-2 and S.Florida's win at Auburn just helps the cause. Cincy crushing Oregon St helped too.

 

LSU looked very good but VTech couldn't score on East Carolina so that takes a little luster off of it. Oklahoma pounding Miami was more impressive imo. Texas with an impressive win as did Nebraska over a tough Wake team. Oregon takes a little off of how good App St is by showing Michigan isn't that good, still a great win for App St though. Florida gives up 31 to Troy but I'm sure no one will notice that in the polls. How many times does Georgia get to prove they aren't that good before being dropped in the polls?

 

My top 25:

 

Oklahoma

LSU

USC

West Virginia

Louisville

Florida

Texas

Cal

Rutgers

Penn State

Wisconsin

UCLA

Ohio State

Nebraska

Washington

Georgia Tech

Tennessee

S. Florida

Oregon

Arizona St.

Missouri

Cincinnati

Boston College

South Carolina

Mich St.

 

like the way Marshall outplaying WVU for more than a half of football, Middle Tennessee State hanging 42 on Louisville, and Rutgers less than impressive performance against the mighty Midshipmen makes no difference in your eyes?

 

Nebraska and Texas had absolutely unimpressive wins. I agree with your comment about Georgia, but why doesn't it apply to Tennessee too?

[Guest]

Look out, Pac-10.

 

Arizona State has a defense.

 

The game today could've easily been a shut out if Carpenter would have had his head in the game on this first play and they wouldn't have shot themselves in the foot with stupid penalties.

 

To be fair, it was Colorado and they don't have much in the way of weapons. I think its huge that the ASU offense is much more complete than it has been in years with Torrain. He's in a class with Stewart and Bernard as the best RBs in the conference.

 

But yeah, great start for the top and middle of the Pac-10 - USC, Cal, UCLA, Oregon, ASU and even Washington. :)