West Coast football is always better when UCLA and USC have good teams. They both looked like crap this weekend. And Stanford and Oregon weren’t exactly dominant against their opponents.
Yeah, just based on the first week, the Pac-Whatever looks pretty bad this year. But hey, a lot of other teams looked really bad too. Hopefully most of them will improve. Except Notre Damn, hopefully they lose all of their games.
With the news that Steve Sarkisian has joined the staff at Alabama…
UCLA’s new OC didn’t seem like he game-planned at all for Texas A&M. Not a single screen, and on multiple occasions I saw them trying to block A&M’s stud DE’s with an RB. WTF? The ONLY guys they had to worry about on A&M’s defense were those DE’s and it seemed from the stands that they treated them as if they would Oregon St’s DE’s or something. That needs to be fixed, and it is definitely fixable, IMHO.
On the other hand, the defense looked a lot better than last year, and kept them in the game while the offense was sputtering and dropping balls all over the place. The team showed a lot of character in coming back, and probably should have still won it, but really didn’t deserve it. Not having our best pass rusher (concussion symptoms) and losing our 2nd best pass rusher for most of the game didn’t help either.
I saw nothing that indicated that UCLA shouldn’t be the favorite in the Pac-12 South with a solid chance to win the conference. They probably should have won that game, but as Stanford showed last year when they lost @ Northwestern to open the season (mostly due to their own ineptitude), opening on the road in front of 100k plus against Power 5 teams isn’t always easy. Plus, given the way the rest of the SEC looked this weekend, A&M may be one of the better teams…
There’s a reason Alabama has pretty much decided on “neutral site” games in SEC territory rather than Home and home series to open their season. They play 3-4 true road games a year and the rest in front of a crowd where they’ll have an advantage (including the SEC Championship). It’s a good recipe, for the coaches - but not for the fans.
More importantly, its something the pollsters should grade down for, and imo the NCAA should make against the rules.
Props to the MAC for another big upset. Last week it was Western MIchigan knocking off a Big Ten school and this week Central Michigan knocks off a ranked Big 12 school. I will grant that CMU got a little help from the refs but they played a helluva game and earned the win. #9 Georgia barely escaped Nicholls today as well. Look out big boys, they little guys can bite back once in awhile.
The end of CMU/Oklahoma State is one of the top plays of the year. Crazy Hail Mary followed by a lateral. To think that someone actually schemed that, and then they successfully executed it, is amazing.
Yeah. What an amazing end game. MAC has released a statement saying that the last play should not have happened, but I think it will result in a rules change. It seems obvious that a team should not be able to purposefully commit a foul that helps them win a game, as Ok St tried to do.
Also a Texas fan, our game against them last year was fraudulent. There were a number of phantom calls and bad calls that lead to the OSU win. So, karma. Fuck off Ok St.
Regardless of the legitimacy of the final play ( and youre right, it should lead to a rules change, a team should not be rewarded by committing a penalty ) CMU played a great game and earned the win. Like I heard so many times on the bogus face mask call that gave the Packers a final play vs the Lions, its still took a miracle play for CMU to win. CMU executed the play and OK St failed to stop them. Yeah it sucks to lose that way but honestly its sucks to lose any way.
Somehow Utah had 6 turnovers and still held BYU to 19 points and one. It was ugly, but it’s a W.
Was it as ugly as the Clemson win? Because this is embarrassing.
UH-Cincinatti game was close score wise for a while tonight, but I never felt like UH was at risk of losing.
Baylor is placing at Rice tonight and the Rice marching band took the field at halftime and, well, they proceeded to taunt Baylor over the rape scandal over there by forming a “IX”, as in Title IX, the federal law that requires, among other things, for universities to report sexual assaults. They also formed a star and played “Hit the Road, Jack”, a reference to Baylor president Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr) resigning over the rape scandal.
The Baylor fans there are apoplectic. This may come to physical blows.
Holy shit, Art Briles is even in the stands
A team is never at risk of losing when the opponent manages to throw TWO pick-6’s in the space of 8 minutes.
All due respect to Houston, Cincinnati beat themselves handily last night. Up 16-12 at the start of the 4th quarter, they managed to completely implode on offense in the final 12 minutes. Cincinnati’s defense played a great game against the Cougars top-ranked offense, while the Bearcats offense managed to give the Cougars 16 points (two INTs returned for touchdowns and a safety) with the defense on the sidelines.
I’m not sure what Tommy Tuberville was thinking last night, but he let a winnable game get out of control. Even before halftime his decision to go for it on 4th down instead of taking the easy FG while the game was tied was a head scratcher. Who doesn’t want to go into the locker room at halftime with the lead facing the #6 team in the nation in your own stadium? The fans would have been fired up, the players would have been fired up, Houston would have been maybe just a little nervous, and momentum would have been on your side. Tuberville appears to be coasting through his time at Cincinnati, and it has fans calling for a change. Our last three coaches all left to coach Top 10 programs (Michigan State, Notre Dame, Tennessee), so maybe it’s time we had that kind of hunger back on the sidelines.
All that said, Houston is a powerhouse this season. Greg Ward Jr. is a force when healthy, and their defense did a fantastic job of containment and coverage last night.
Louisville is bulldozing Florida State. Wow.
49-10, Louisville over FSU. Still 3 minutes in the 3rd. And Louisville is knocking on the door for another TD
Yeah, is it too early to say “Florida State. Overrated much?”
North Dakota State upsets #13 Iowa.