Posted on 09/30/2009 1:28:43 PM PDT by GOP_Raider
Do you remember the old adage, "those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't teach become guidance counselors?" Well, I suppose if you can't become a guidance counselor you can always vote in the AP College Football Poll every week. Now, in terms of BCS standings, the AP is useless. However, it should serve as a reminder as to why nobody subscribes to newspapers anymore. If you go to this handy link, you can see in all its glory how each AP voter voted in their top 25 each week.
In his weekly press conference on Monday, Boise State head football coach Chris Petersen (who happens to have a vote in the coaches poll) was asked how much time he spends on his poll every week. When he responded by saying "about five minutes", the reporter asked him as a follow up question "why even do it then?" Petersen's response was rather telling. He replied, "I think at this point in the year, people are just guessing. With everything that goes on during a season, your guess is as good as mine."
There is also the school of thought that I happen to agree with that this should be the week to start off the AP and Coaches Polls and simply go through the first month of the season without polls at all. But, leave it to ESPN analyst (and AP Voter) Kirk Herbstreit to mention something concerning that topic. His comment in ESPN's postgame commentary last Saturday went something like this: "you have to have something to base all of this from. If we didn't have polls for the first month of the year, who would we rank?" Perhaps this is self-preservation on Herbstreit's part as I suppose being an AP voter has its privileges, but as we go through the compelling matchups for this weekend, ponder the statement "you figure it out." Because I sure can't.
Colorado vs. West Virginia (Tonight, 7:30 pm) In the spirit of the late, great William Safire, I'll refrain from using anything cliched, such as "boy is Dan Hawkins really on the hot seat at CU." Axiomatic though it may be, it's just something that everybody says. It's the analytical equivalent of saying "don't worry, it happens to lots of guys". Both the Buffs and the Mountaineers are coming off bye weeks, and at least in the case of West Virginia, they needed it. Despite the six turnovers two weeks ago at Auburn, at least their head coach didn't recruit his own son to play QB like Hawkins did---remind me to recite my thoughts on Cody Hawkins and his high school career, as he did play here locally in Boise.
Utah State vs. byU (Friday, 9:00 pm) Don't expect anything too out of the ordinary here, so I'll take this opportunity to complain about something. Let me give you an idea of what the press coverage is like in the Salt Lake market if you're a Ute. Last year in week 1, the Utes go into Ann Arbor and beat the Michigan Wolverines. Even though UM won a grand total of 3 games last year, you would think the press in The SLC would be all over that right? So guess what the lead story was in all of the TV stations was that night? "Well tonight, Dennis Pitta had over 200 yards receiving in the Cougars win over Northern Iowa." Even when you do win, sometimes you lose I suppose.
Virginia Tech vs. Duke (High Noon) Every once in a while, you look at a team and you say, "this is going to be where you cede your control of the conference to Miami, and all will be right in the college football world." That same once in a while, you get pwn3d in your analysis and I think that's what happened when I completely underestimated the Hokies last week. The good thing about this week is that there's no possible way that anyone outside of a few folks in Durham who have had a few cosmos too many would dream of counting out the Hokies in a game like this.
Michigan vs. Michigan State (High Noon) This week is the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy (not the Paul Bunyan Axe, which is also being contested this week). While the Wolverines are still a work in progress after a tougher than expected game against Indiana, the Spartans found themselves on the business end of another tough loss, this time to Wisconsin. Parvenu Maize and Blue signal caller Tate Forcier does have an injured shoulder, but keep in mid here that even though the Spartans have lost their last 3, they've been by a grand total of 13 points. Maybe that doesn't mean they would be 4-0 if they could have played a little better--especially against Central Michigan--but this might be more competitive than the experts think.
(for Palmetto) Clemson vs. Maryland (High Noon) I did mention above not to worry, it happens to lots of guys. That having been said I don't know whether the Tiger faithful should worry too much because a lot of teams are going to look silly up against this TCU defense. Next come the Terrapins and if there's a point to where a squad could meander the ship away from the iceberg, this would probably be the place. While I'm at it here, what has happened to Maryland? Remember back around the turn of the century when Ralph Friedgen took the ACC by storm and we all thought "hey, this guy might be the Rick Majerus of college football!"? That seems like an epoch ago. Now, this is a team that can't seem to get out of its own way (sorry, Mr. Safire), but did get into the Tigers way last season in Death Valley.
(for kevkrom and Non-Sequitur) Northwestern vs. Purdue (High Noon) Only Northwestern would have a quarterback with the last name of Kafka and only someone who went to Northwestern would "get" the reference. Just don't ask me to write a full page sentence, I write too many run on sentences as it is. You may think I've lost my mind, which is perhaps understandable. But I am not convinced that the Boilermakers are really that bad. Are they a Washington State kind of terrible? Or even a Duke kind of terrible? Sure, there's that loss at home to Northern Illinois, but things may be looking up in West Lafayette. Just remember that with the passing offense of the Wildcats and Purdue's own penchant for putting points on the scoreboard, we may see something relatively high scoring.
Arkansas State vs. Iowa (12:05 pm) So how good are the Hawkeyes? We may not truly know the answer to that question until next weekend, but check out what the Iowa defense did to Penn State QB Daryll Clark's stats: 12-32, 198 yds, 1 TD, 3 INT. As the kids these days say, "oh, snap!" Granted, it would probably be nice to have a more prolific offense, but maybe they won't need a whole lot of offense when you consider a) the Hawkeyes are 8th in the country in scoring defense, b) 13th in turnover margin, and c) haven't given up a rushing touchdown in 29 straight quarters, which dates back to last season. Odds are, however, we will find a better barometer for this team in several more days from now.
Alabama vs. Kentucky (12:21 pm) Hey, it's that 12:21 palindromic start time again! If you're a Kentucky Wildcat, at what point do you say to yourself, "ah, to hell with it, what night is Midnight Madness?" Also in that same line of thought, who are the last two teams you want to face for the first month or so of this season? If you said "Florida and Alabama", then you're also the University of Kentucky and you get both the Gators and the Tide in successive weeks. Ouch. Keeping in mind here that the Tide will be without the services of LB Dont'a Hightower, this game might not turn out a whole lot better for UK than their loss to Florida did. On the other hand, the number of times I've said the phrase "I did not see that coming" when it comes to conference play in the SEC astounds even me sometimes.
Cincinnati vs. Miami (OH) (1:00 pm) So far this season, the unbeaten and Big East champion Bearcats have amassed a total of 173 points in four victories. Guess how many their opponents from Oxford, Ohio have accumulated in the same number of games? 45. That includes two shutouts to start the year, to Kentucky and Boise State. You do have to wonder though that since this is technically a BCS school and all, what happens to the Bearcats if they do what I have a sneaking suspicion they'll do and end up 12-0 at the end of the season? People often ask me why I don't make a lot of hard and fast predictions and it's primarily due to the fact that I don't want to end up like these guys. You can convince me of certain things, but one of them right now isn't that Cincinnati may end up being the #2 team in the country by the time we get to January 7.
LSU vs. Georgia (3:30 pm) Some of you may think this game should have been my Game of the Week this week, but I figure I could make an SEC game my game of the week every week from week 3 until the end of the year and people would still complain. If there's one team in the SEC, maybe even all of college football, I can't really figure out right now, it might be the Dawgs. The loss in the opener against Oklahoma State (at the time it happened), I can understand that. But the random offensive explosions against South Carolina and Arkansas coupled with needing a field goal to beat Arizona State---a school that resides in a conference some folks think play touch football instead of tackle football--leaves my head spinning wondering what exactly will happen next between the hedges. In keeping with the subject of the polls for a moment, there's LSU sitting at #4. Let's say that a) LSU beats UGA and Florida, b) Oklahoma beats Texas, and c) Ole Miss beats Alabama. Would that scenario make LSU the #1 team in the country? Perhaps my more grounded like of thinking has the Bayou Bengals coming down to earth a little, but outside of the current Top 3 right now, you could put Kansas at #4 and it would probably be about as plausible.
Penn State vs. Illinois (3:30 pm) If you were one of those out there who thought "the Nittany Lions will likely go undefeated this year" raise your hand. Yep, that was me, and now you know why I don't live in the State of Nevada anymore. Both of Penn State's top playmakers, QB Daryll Clark and RB Evan Royster had their second game against Iowa in as many years that they'd like to forget. PSU will travel to the Land of Lincoln to take on an Illini team that...well, I don't know what the hell that was last week, but it wasn't very good. The good news for the faithful in Champaign is that the www.fireronzook.com domain name is currently available. Get it now before time (and the season) runs out!
(for Bat_Chemist) Florida State vs. Boston College (3:30 pm) Every once in a while, I get one right, and I did get one kind of right when I said that I didn't think Boston College would be nearly as bad as a lot of professional pundits out there and sure enough, the Eagles are at 3-1 right now. I know, BC blew a 2 TD lead and barely won in OT against Wake Forest, but let me put it to you Seminole folk this way: BC (based on what little I've been able to see of them this year) doesn't have near the speed that USF has, and that's probably the best thing a guy could ask for. This whole series of events for FSU does make me wonder: at what point does Bobby Bowden say "you know what, Jimbo, this is your show, I'm going to grab my tackle box, toss a few spinnerbaits into the water and fool some largemouth into the livewell"? (Can you tell I used to watch a lot of fishing shows?)
(for sean327 and our FR TTU Contingent) New Mexico vs. Texas Tech (3:30 pm) Channeling the spirit of Tom Cable was Lobo head coach Mike Locksley, who was verbally reprimanded last week for getting western with one of his assistants. If that's not enough, UNM is coming off a devastating loss to New Mexico State. Strangely enough, Locksley seems happy with things, but I can't quite imagine the same mindset exists with the Red Raiders after giving up a late TD (no thanks to a fumble) to non-BCS wunderkind Houston last Saturday night. I do think there are still plenty of salvageable portions of the season for the Red Raiders and this game (and not to offend UNM) is perhaps the place to start.
Ohio State vs. Indiana (7:00 pm) Recently, I have been taking quizzes on Sporcle, which is a great way to stimulate your mind utilizing your penchant for useless trivia. So I took the countries of Europe quiz and did okay. I was getting all of the obscure backwater countries of the continent. I'm writing down Andorra, Luxembourg, San Marino, Moldova, the Vatican...I'm on a roll. Then I'm done with the quiz and I miss the Netherlands. So that's sort of how I felt leaving out the Buckeyes in last week's thread. When one thinks of the Hoosiers you obviously don't think football, so I had to find out when was the last time IU beat the Buckeyes. If you don't count the 27-27 tie in 1990, the last time the Hoosiers were victorious was in 1988. Incidentally, this was John Cooper's first year and those are days that we should do our best to avoid discussing with our Buckeye State residents, current as well as former.
Ole Miss vs. Vanderbilt (7:00 pm) Last week in the "You Don't Have a Prayer Of Getting Into Our School" Bowl, the Commodores used a surprising amount of passing to beat Rice. The Rebels, on the other hand, could have used some more hotty toddy, gosh almighty, against South Carolina. This past weekend when I was in Utah, I ran into a few folks from SEC Country and their thoughts on the Ole Miss loss was simply due to the Darth Vader of the SEC, Steve Spurrier, using the dark side of the Force to derail yet another unsuspecting foe. Maybe there's some truth to that, but could it also be that the teams of Houston Nutt play better and with a little less tentativeness as the hunters rather than the hunted? (If you did happen to read last week's thread, Dysart, our resident Arkansas Razorback, had some very telling insights on Ole Miss's loss last week. Nicely done, Dysart.) Speaking of Ole Miss, you Rebels out there are going to hate me for doing this, but...
Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi State (7:30 pm)...I've decided that for the remainder of the 2009 season, I'm going to adopt a team. No, I'm not going to cease being incessantly proud and boisterous when it comes to my Utes. I have been going back and forth on this since I took over the thread and it's now time to bring forth the 2009 FR College Football Live Thread Adopt-A-Team School. The Adopt-A-Team will probably be a school similar to your humble FR College Football Live Thread Host, GOP_Raider. Maybe GOP_Raider doesn't have the most charming persona or the biggest bank account or gets all the women (or any of the women for that matter). Similarly, our Adopt-A-Team School may not have blue chip recruits or win all the time, but at the end of the day you can say that you had a different outlook on life after your experience with this school. So I present to you now, the 2009 FR College Football Live Thread Adopt-A-Team School, the Mississippi State Bulldogs!
Last week, the Bulldogs played a hard fought contest against nationally ranked LSU, but came up just short---quite literally in fact, as MSU was thwarted at the goal line towards the end of the game. A very solid Georgia Tech squad goes into Starkville, coming off a bounceback win against North Carolina. Check this stat out from that game: the Yellow Jackets held onto the ball for 42 minutes. Most of you who have followed this thread know how much I love an option offense, and Tech has one of if not the best one in the entire country. So what better game than this one to combine my favorite style of offense with the new FR Adopt-A-Team School?
UC Davis vs. Boise State (8:00 pm) Current Boise State head coach Chris Petersen has a footnote in Bronco football history that is all his own. The last time the Aggies came into Bronco Stadium, there were two major items of note: the year was 1985 and the Bronco Stadium turf was still green (the change to "The Blue" didn't occur until the next season) and the Aggies were lead at QB that day by...Chris Petersen. Peterson was actually a pretty good QB for the Aggies (you can all feast on the hilarity of a UC school being called the Aggies for a moment). But how times have changed, as now UCD is an FCS school and the Broncos are in the Top 5 for the first time in the regular season. How much further can BSU climb at this point? Could they, in the scenario I described above with LSU, benefit from the top 3 all losing at least one game?
Oklahoma vs. Miami (8:00 pm)You know, I thought "The U" was back at near the top of the college football world going into last week. I was wrong. Sorry, I'll never do it again, I swear. But that doesn't mean you can simply sleep on the 'Canes. This is still a team has enough speed on both sides of the ball to make your team's life annoying for 60 minutes or so. With Sam Bradford on the mend though, this is a game that the Sooners would really like to have leading up to their big showdown against the Longhorns in the Red River Shootout. Whether that's going to be enough to get them back in the national title picture remains to be seen.
SMU vs. TCU (8:00 pm) This is the Battle for the Iron Skillet, and at this point in the season, the Horned Frogs are looking to be the class of the Mountain West this year. TCU may not have played a perfect game, but among the non-automatic qualifying schools, the Frogs might have the best defense of them all. They have also won 8 of the last 9 against the Mustangs, with the last loss coming in 2005 after the Frogs had gone up to Norman and shocked Oklahoma. The question that I will leave open for discussion is "between Boise State, TCU, and Houston, which school would you select to go to a BCS game this season?" (yes, I'm fully aware that this isn't how it's actually decided, it is simply hypothetical). Hey, speaking of Houston...
Houston vs. UTEP (9:05 pm) ...the Southwest Conference lives after all! If one looks at what the Cougars have done thus far, it's not too shabby. Beating two Big XII schools in the same year is certainly commendable. Hell, there are actual Big XII members this year that might not get two wins against Big XII schools. The Miners haven't exactly proven to be a great foil for UH, and against the Longhorns last week, one would have to think that some of the UH faithful are salivating at this, an ideal time to put up some gluttonous offensive numbers.
Washington State vs. Oregon (9:15 pm) Wazzu will start true freshman Jeff Tuel at QB for just the second time in the program's history (Drew Bledsoe happened to be the other). Now, this isn't like when USC starts a true frosh at that position, where we can be somewhat certain he'll be playing somewhere in the NFL for a living. But now the Ducks are riding a 3 game winning streak after their lackluster week 1 loss at Boise State (remember when I said that BSU doesn't lose at home?) RB LaMichael James ran for over 100 yards and Jeremiah Masoli threw for three scores in a dominant performance over previously top 10 ranked Cal. So we can all calm down, UO was not going to be a 4 or 5 win team this year, they are much better than that.
And now to our Game of the Week...
USC vs. Cal (8:00 pm) Please forward all of your complaints to my FReepmail inbox for making a Pac-10 game my Game of the Week. If you'll forgive me for thinking that the Bears weren't as bad as they let on last week and that the Trojans might climb back into the national title hunt if they keep winning, hopefully you'll understand. That is, of course, if you are a big dope like Brent Musberger who still holds out hope that SC can make a run despite being a one loss team. While I was flying back home from the UTAH last weekend, I got to wondering why I see such seething hatred for USC, even on these threads. While there are plenty of reasons to cite here, I think the underlying reason has to do with the state-run sports media. How many of you remember the 2005 season when the press thought the Trojans were the bestest team in the whole wide world, possibly the best in the history of college football? How many of you did your best Nelson Muntz impression when they lost to Texas in the Rose Bowl that year? So if you're sitting out there complaining this year about how SC can assert themselves back into the national title picture, don't blame the coaches and players. Blame dolts like Musberger. It's easier that way.
Enjoy your games this weekend.
One of those what could have been weekends if Cal and the U did not get annihilated the previous weekend. Flashback to the 80s with OK visiting the U but unfortunately the Orange Bowl is gone.
Saturday, between the hedges
Georgia 20, LSU 17
LOL, you can’t even find a picture for the Hurricanes without having to use a pic with the Dolphins.
I thoroughly expect the crowd at ‘The Shark’ to be 60-40 in favor of OU.
Unfortunately UNM is in for an ole’ fashoned mud hole stoping by the Red Raiders on Saturday. In the 35 yrs I have been following Lobo football this has to be the worst team they have ever put on the field. In the beggining I was willing to chalk it up to the Lobos radicaly changing both the offensive and defensive philosophies, but after the “Sucker Punch at the Strp Club incident” I am begging to think that Mike Locksley was the wrong guy for the job.
It is very sad to see the progress that UNM football has made over the last 12 years get flushed down the toilet.
I wonder when the Boise State-UC Davis game was scheduled. You are Boise State trying to say you belong with the big boys. You are stuck in the WAC so your strength of schedule is weak and you are going to play a I-AA team, refuse to use the three letter acronymn. At least find a I-A team to play.
It was either that or I went with a pic of the old Orange Bowl. I think I spent about 15 minutes going through every single pic I could find and just gave up.
I still remember how Miami renegged on their promise to Howard Schnellenberger to build an on-campus stadium after their first title.
Ok. State gets a bye week. Hopefully after thumping Grambling State and having essentially 2 weeks to get everyone healed up they will remember that they are supposed to be a high powered offense. As opposed to whatever the hell it is they have been so far this season.
Good thing Houston won again. Do as much as possible to make OSU look better.
Go Hawkeyes!
I think there was a point (probably after ‘06) where Boise State was caught between a rock and a hard place when it came to scheduling. A lot of FBS schools either couldn’t make their own schedule work to play in Boise or wouldn’t because of BSU’s track record at home over the past several seasons. So at that point, you’re pretty much down to finding FCS schools, hence UC-Davis.
Please don’t make any predictions in favor of my Red Raiders... I think we are jinxed this season.
I don’t know...my Red Raiders are just not coming through this year. You guys may have a good chance.
Virginia Tech is the darling of the gun-grabber set. Hope they never win another game.
We lost to New Mexico State last week! New Mexico freekin State! The Lobos would have a hard time with a good High School team right now.
Me and my tailgate buddies road tripped down to Maryland last weekend to see the Knights collect a "W" against the Terps.
RU's not looking great this year, but the opening day blowout loss to Cincinnati is not looking so bad anymore. They're the real deal, it appears.
Hoping to play our way into a middle-of-the-road bowl this year. Our true freshman QB is going to develop into a bona fide player in a year or two. Better bowls (BCS) ahead.
From beautiful Spanish Springs Nevada, home of the near-legendary B bar V Ranchette....TEXAS FIGHT!!!!
Who are you going to fight? You don’t have a game this week..... ;^)
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