1. Matt Simms is delusional about his skill level and that of his team. He threw two picks, and easily could have been intercepted three other times. Tennessee's only two touchdowns came on busted secondary assignments that led to long passes to wide open receivers for the score. The Vols showed little ability to put together a clock chewing touchdown drive, which is what they'll desperately need in the coming weeks of SEC play to keep their defense from getting worn down to nothing. They'll have to be extremely lucky to have a .500 season.
2. Justin Hunter is a seriously impressive physical specimen at wide receiver. Tennessee has got to figure out a way to get him more involved going forward.
3. Gary Danielson is an intelligent analyst most of the time, but him repeatedly asserting there's no such thing as momentum in a game makes about as much sense as asserting there's no such thing as gravity. Having momentum doesn't mean you'll win, but it's impossible to deny the obvious surge of confidence a team like Auburn got in the second half of their game once they got a field goal to finally get on the board at the end of the first.
Other college football thoughts:
1. Michigan's Denard Robinson has justifiably gotten a ton of attention, but Nebraska's Taylor Martinez is the more impressive and relevant QB right now. Robinson's a sophomore, Martinez is a freshman. The Cornhuskers have a terrific shot at playing for the national title if Martinez can maintain this level of performance.
2. Best wishes for a quick recovery to Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio, who suffered a heart attack just a little bit after calling for a game winning fake field goal on 4th and 14 in overtime. To say it was a daring call would be a gigantic understatement. If Notre Dame is in a safe defense against the fake, Dantonio's being called the biggest idiot in coaching today.
3. Worst weekend of any program goes to Houston. The Cougars went to UCLA as a ranked team with a theoretical Heisman candidate at quarterback in Case Keenum. They then lost Keenum and his backup for the year, as well as the game.
4. Lane Kiffin's stunt of going for two points for no reason is going to burn him if he tries it against better teams than Hawaii and Minnesota. As it is, USC beat the Gophers 32-21 after Lane's guys missed three 2-pt tries (now 2 of 7 for year). The spread on the game was 11.5 points. Think a few alums who lost their bets were ticked off about that?
5. Al Golden has Temple 3-0 headed to Penn State this week. They soundly beat UConn over the weekend. Having brought the Owls program back from the dead may be the single biggest accomplishment of any coach this decade if judged by degree of difficulty. Golden may be Joe Paterno's successor, but if he's not he's going to be a fantastic hire for some big school soon.
6. There's only one team from a BCS conference that's played three games and hasn't had a single one shown on TV other than via pay per view. Considering Texas A&M almost found a way to lose to FIU Saturday, that's probably been a good thing for the Aggies and for viewers.
1 comment:
I keep hearing that line that Florida is "figuring out who they are on offense," but very little has changed from last year, much less the first game of this season. Each game seems to be a microcosm, with the majority of our drives going nowhere and the rest resulting in points either due to a well called set of plays or, more often, a short field due to defense/special teams. There's no doubt about the fact that this team is still young and making careless mistakes (the occasional bad snap, a muffed transfer of the ball to the RB, etc), but whenever the talent is properly utilized they seem to have no problem marching down the field.
What baffles me is the fact that one drive can be called so well and result in a score, but then the next time we get the ball we'll resort back to the Patented Demps Dive/Brantley Triple Option and do absolutely nothing with the ball. The offense was just as mystifying last year, considering the amount of talent on the field. It's becoming increasingly clear that our offensive minds have no idea how to utilize personnel. It blows my mind when I see backup QBs on the field at fullback and WR while players like Debose (and Hines, for the most part) are left to rot on the sideline. Our talent gets us by inferior teams, but when we get matched up against teams with comparable athletes I think things are going to get ugly.
I could have done without you posting that Houston article, Heath. It was tough enough to hear about Houston's bad luck, but discovering that ESPN decided to give Andrea Adelson a national stage was just sickening. Has it become the MO up in Bristol to sift through the Orlando Sentinel's trash and give people like Adelson and Hill a forum to spout their ill-reasoned and poorly written opinions?
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