Monday, September 13, 2010

Anyone want a CP7 for Heisman notepad?

The anticipated big college football Saturday was a little bit of a letdown in that some of the expected great matchups failed to live up to their billing, but it was a fascinating one nonetheless. Week one of the NFL's not done, but there was some interesting stuff to work with there too. Here are some quick hits on a variety of topics.

Florida pulling away from USF in the second half seemed to convince some that they've "found themselves" on offense. I'm not so sure. They still don't seem to have any receiving personnel they trust except for Carl Moore and potentially Deonte Thompson. The OL got better with the return of Carl Johnson and the end of snap chaos, but it needs Xavier Nixon back badly. John Brantley's looked fine to me - his throws are accurate, although he stared down a receiver and threw a pass down in the red zone that would have been a pick six if USF's DB wasn't playing with a cast on his hand. Some plays from the past, like the return of the "Percy counter", make sense. Brantley trying to execute a shovel pass look when he's not a running threat does not. Defensively, UF should be able to focus on stopping Tauren Poole this week and do alright because Matt Simms is mediocre at best as UT's QB. Many Vols pass plays have only two reads because the players don't know the offense well enough yet - think Janoris Jenkins and Ahmad Black can have some fun with that?

The ACC is officially a punchline for the rest of the year now that all of their five preseason ranked teams have suffered a loss by two weeks into the season. I didn't think FSU was ready for a test like Oklahoma on the road, and they clearly weren't. The Seminoles defense is being coached by different people, but it's the same group of guys that have been a mess for multiple seasons now. BYU's coming into Tallahassee off a loss of their own this week - it will be interesting to see how that one turns out. Miami seemed to have a decent chance in Columbus, but it serves me right for thinking a group of guys who managed to lose a bowl to Wisconsin had come far enough to beat a good Buckeye squad in the Horseshoe.

While those two losses were bad for the conference, they were by underdogs. There's no explaining Georgia Tech losing to a Kansas squad that lost to North Dakota State a week earlier. The absolute stunner was Virginia Tech falling at home to James Madison. FSU almost fell into the same trap as the Hokies several times - the Noles were pushed to the brink by overmatched opponents like Troy on the Saturday after their Labor Day night games, which is part of why they aren't playing them anymore. As I noted last week, VT is notorious for poor early season performances, which is why it was a brilliant move for Boise State to schedule them as their potential "good" win. Does VT losing to JMU make Boise any less legit of a national championship contender? It shouldn't, because they shouldn't have been one in the first place. If however you're one of those Pat Forde types who've been making a show of pretending Boise's the best just to be cute, this shouldn't change your annoying little poser routine one bit.

Other quick CFB thoughts:

1. Tim Brewster's a dead man coaching. He was a terrible choice when Minnesota hired him, and losing to a South Dakota team UCF destroyed is the finishing blow.

2. Denard Robinson's off to an amazing start for Michigan and is a blast to watch, but being able to outrun UConn and Notre Dame's defenses is a little different than some he'll see down the line.

3. I'm really surprised just how awful UCLA is at this point. Rick Neuheisel's had some tough luck with injuries, but between him and Norm Chow it's hard to understand how they're so bad on offense.

4. ESPN's SEC Network crew is miles better than Raycom/J-P was, but Andre Ware kills me sometimes. B.J. Daniels lobs a pick six to Justin Trattou on a ball that never should have been thrown, and Ware starts in about how that's not on the quarterback. Say what? Also, if you go back and look at the starting lineup graphics it was apparently Deonte Thompson's first start at defensive tackle.

5. Keep your eye on Texas this week. They're starting their third running back in as many games, and they just don't look very good to me right now. Texas Tech has a shot there.

Tampa Bay winning their first game was nice, although I fully expect a 4-5 win year still. The Jaguars won as they usually do if they get a western team in the Florida heat in September. Why people are trying to make the experimental use of Tim Tebow for two plays into something more, I have no idea. Their plan is clearly to get him on the field for some snaps here and there and try to use his skills, but that's Orton's team in 2010. Miami winning against the Bills tells us very little, other than that the Bills are still not good. The NFL story of the day was the Calvin Johnson "catch" that wasn't under NFL rules. Not sure why people are surprised by this - it's come up several other times and they refuse to change the rule to something that actually makes sense. You have to feel for Detroit fans though. Their first road win in three years was stolen away under brutal circumstances, Matthew Stafford's injured, and their season is screwed before the first week's even over.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Deonte also has recorded a sack according to ESPN: '2nd and 14 at M-OH 39 Zac Dysert sacked by Deonte Thompson for a loss of 4 yards to the MiaOh 35.' (http://espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=302470057&period=0)