Week one is in the books and if nothing else it was entertaining. There were a handful of good games and several buy games that floated by in the standard boring fashion. A couple of teams did manage to get caught looking which always makes for quality entertainment so long as it isn’t your team that gets embarrassed.
Ole Miss managed to get knocked off in 2OT by Jacksonville State and Kansas also dropped a 6-3 pillow fight to North Dakota State. Both fan bases are now smarting to be sure. It just goes to show that not all buy game opponents remember that they are supposed to roll over and provide an easy W and live reps for your entire depth chart. With that let’s take a quick look at the week that was.
Thursday 2 September
Southern Miss 13 at South Carolina 47
This game wasn’t even remotely entertaining. My only takeaway was that Southern Miss is still a New Orleans Bowl caliber team. Was this really the best that ESPN could do for the first Thursday Night game?
Pitt 24 at Utah 27 OT
Now this game was interesting. Eric already posted a great wrap up on the Thursday night action so I will keep it concise. Utah could have/ should have won this game by 3 TDs. Pitt might be the best team in the Big East but they really aren’t anywhere close to fearsome. I gave them way too much credit heading into the season. Utah on the other hand remains Utah. The Utes could show up and give most of the country a run for their money on any given week. They appear to have a pretty solid football team. As of today I am a lot more concerned about the Utes visiting South Bend than I am the Panthers.
USC 49 at Hawai’i 36
USC gave up 588 yards to the Rainbow Warriors. That is pretty much all that you need to know.
Friday 3 September
Arizona 41 at Toledo 2
Snooze fest. Even I stopped watching this game and that is saying something.
Saturday 4 September
Miami OH 12 at Florida 34
The Gators were sloppier than I have ever seen them under Meyer. Thirteen botched snaps is just plain brutal. The Gators have a lot of work to do in the next few days before Skip Holtz and USF hit town on Saturday. Another similar showing from the Gators could result in a scare from the Bulls.
Western Michigan 14 at Michigan State 38
Sparty played it pretty close to the vest in their win over the Broncos. Michigan State racked up almost 300 yards rushing and played pretty decent defense. The Broncos did manage to rack up 238 yards passing but that was on 53 attempts. With Florida Atlantic next up for Sparty we probably still won’t have a great handle on how good they are when they show up in South Bend in two weeks.
Purdue 12 at Notre Dame 23
This is another one that we have already discussed at length. It was great to start the season off with a W but there is definitely room for improvement. It should be easy for the staff to snap the Irish right back into work mode with the Wolverines coming to town on Saturday.
UCONN 10 at Michigan 30
This game was the epitome of a week one contest where the talking heads get all excited about a team without really knowing how to gauge their week one competition. It was definitely the Denard Robinson show in Ann Arbor Saturday but we really don’t know how good or bad the UCONN defense really is. Regardless the upcoming game in South Bend is a lot more interesting than it looked like it would be a week ago.
Washington 17 at BYU 23
Overall this was a pretty good football game but Heisman hopeful Jake Locker and the rest of the Huskies offense really struggled to move the ball at times. I expected them to be a little better than that out of the gate. Did anyone else see Jim McMahon get interviewed by the pregame crew? It was a comedy show. When they asked him what he thought of Jake Locker his response was "which one is that?" I don’t think he was kidding.
Oregon State 21 at TCU 30
While everyone was talking about Boise State as the resident BCS buster TCU quietly put away Oregon State at Jerrydome. With the Beavers now behind them the Horned Frogs chances of running the table are very good.
North Carolina 24 at LSU 30
What a debacle of a game for Les Miles. UNC comes in with the vast majority of their best players suspended, got down then mounted a wild comeback in the end. Two dropped balls in the Tiger end zone as the final seconds ticked off the clock saved The Hat from an 0-1 start.
Cincinnati 14 at Fresno State 28
It would appear that the Bearcat Mojo has moved to South Bend. They looked like a middle of the road Big East squad against the Green Vs.
Sunday 5 September
Tulsa 49 at East Carolina 51
There is nothing like starting the season off with a typical defense free CUSA game. The two teams combined for 100 points, 1100 total yards, and 54 first downs. Twelve lead changes later the Pirates beat Tulsa on a Hail Mary as time expired. Did anyone else notice that Tulsa had two guys defending that play that were both wearing #1? What is the actual penalty for that? I don’t think I have ever seen it called. Ruffin McNeil didn’t get the Texas Tech job but he did get off to a 1-0 start at ECU.
SMU 27 at Texas Tech 35
This game ended and I found myself wondering how it ended up being so close. Tech was obviously the better team but they made enough mistakes to keep the Mustangs in it until the end. A suspect call to go for it on 4th for no apparent reason almost came back to bite Tubs in his Lubbock debut. Did anyone else think that June Jones looked like he would rather be somewhere else?
Monday 6 September
Navy 14 at Maryland 17
Navy had five drives end inside the Maryland 10 yard line with no points. They got caught by turnovers, the clock and downs. Otherwise the Mids owned the clock and racked up 412 yards rushing in typical fashion. I still can’t believe they didn’t kick for the tie at the end of the game.
Boise State 33 at Virginia Tech 30
This game was fun to watch. I could write a few paragraphs attempting to get to the heart of what it all means but after one game it would be relatively pointless. The Broncos will likely run the table and perhaps end up in the BCS Championship game. Whether or not the Hokies will prove to be a big enough feather in their cap when it all shakes out remains to be seen.
Now back to the game. For starters both teams FAIL in the uniform department. Both versions of the Nike "Pro Combat" getups were heinous to the point that they were distracting.
I have to give kudos to Boise for lining up and beating VT at their own game though. They kept the often ballyhooed Hokie rushing attack in check surrendering only 128 yards on the ground at 2.9 yards a pop. Boise never even ran a trick play, they just lined up and traded blows with VT.
By the end of the first quarter it was looking like it might turn into a romp but the Hokies fought back from a 17 point deficit and took the lead late in the 3rdquarter. They hung on until the end of the game then fell one first down short of putting the Broncos away. Kellen Moore got the ball back with 2 minutes remaining and quickly cut up Bud Foster’s D en-route to the game winning touchdown pass to Austin Pettis with 1:09 remaining.
If nothing else Boise State will keep the BCS debate at the forefront of the college football discussion throughout the 2010 season. Bring on week two!