College Football 2017-2018

Time to get this thread going. There are some interesting matchups & huge games right out of the gate. Have to be honest, the only thing I know for sure is Arizona is going to stink, but let's press on.

Thurs.
Buffalo at Minnesota. @encorespanish Can new Gopher coach PJ Fleck repeat the magic he performed at Central MIchigan? The answer is yes for this game.

#2 Ohio State at Indiana. @BarryWhite Unusual that both teams open with a Big 14 game (I can count ). The Hoosiers have given the Buckeyes all they've wanted the last 3 or 4 years so they won't be intimidated in the slightest. The former IU coach is now the OSU offensive coordinator and he has 28 year old JT Barrett (he seems like he should be that old) at QB. WIll go w/OSU eventually wearing them down.

Friday
Colorado vs Colorado State (Denver) @dtowndough, will you be there? CSU blew out Oregon State in their opener (thank Gawd the Beavs are on Arizona's schedule) and having a game is certainly an advantage. I have no idea how the Buffs are going to be this year, but they do have a good QB in Steven Montez, Buffs in a close one.

Sat.
Wyoming at Iowa @LaxAttack This game is intriguing for non Hawkeye fans. The Cowboys QB Josh Allen is regarded as one of the best in college football. Allen grew up in a small town outside of Fresno and is the classic late bloomer (grew 3 inches and put on 40 pounds in junior college). He is supposed to have a huge arm, but w/uncommon athletic ability for his size. Perhaps Lax can give insight to how Iowa will be, but it should be close.

#11 Michigan v #17 Florida (Dallas) Coaches Jim Harbaugh and Jim McElwain are in mid-season form by tweaking each other and keeping who is starting at QB for each team a secret. The fact that both squads have a question mark is a cause for alarm in terms of eventually reaching the college playoffs. Will take Michigan on a hunch.

#16 Louisville v Purdue (Indianapolis). @jumpkutz, easy pickings for returning Heisman trophy winner Lamar Jackson.

#22 West Virginia v #21 Virginia Tech (Landover). @FulhamDC This should be an entertaining game, w/Justin Fuente smoothly transitioned as coach of the Hokies (ACC coach of the year in replacing Beamer). WVU is going to come out slinging.

GAME OF THE WEEK:
#1 Alabama v #3 Florida State (Atlanta). @MicahMan, wow what a headliner for the brand new Mercedes Benz Dome. For the winner, it's going to solidify their standing for early favorites for the Final 4. For the loser (as long as it's not a blowout) they'll still control their own destiny, but the margin for error will be extremely limited (if Bama were to lose 2 games, but win the SEC they'd likely get in). That said, I'm pulling for the Noles, but can't pick against the Tide.

The Coaches HOTSEAT Games:
Sun: Texas A&M at UCLA. @AggieMatt Both coaches are on thin ice, especially Kevin Sumlin. Jim Mora is safer since UC schools don't like paying off contracts, but he's in trouble as well. I was invited to go, but 105 degrees, next to no wind (the Rose Bowl is protected), and metal benches made me pass. It should be a fascinating game from the standpoint of the pressure on the coaches. The Teddy Bears do have Josh Rosen, but little in terms of skilled players. I'll take Matt's Aggies and hope he returns in full capacity to give us his expertise.

Mon. #25 Tennessee v Georgia Tech (Atlanta, back to the Benz) Vols HC Butch Jones can ill afford a poor start as Tennessee fans are done with being patient. Playing Tech in Atlanta will not be an easy task, will go with the Jackets in a mild upset.

 

Let's see if our new coach can back up all of the rah rah excitement with some wins!

 

best time of the year. FFC has started up and CFB is ready to go. Weather will soon be changing giving me a great excuse to lay in bed in the mornings listening to GJ and in the evening with CFB. Thanks for getting it going SoCal. I'm actually headed to Hattiesburg, MS for the weekend for the USM/Kentucky game, so i'll be missing the Rocky Mtn Showdown. Would be real funny if CSU pulls off the Pac12 sweep.

Ohio St by 20+. Agree that IU will not be intimidated, but I think OSU has one mission this year and will not let off the pedal.

CSU has some confidence coming into this game. CU's defense is a big ol ?. Montez has been handed the reins on the offense. I will bet the over, and take CU in a close game. Will not be surprised one bit if CSU takes this one wire to wire though.

WYO scoring 60+ points. just because.

Mich Fla - looking forward to this one. I'll take Mich simply because I think Harbaugh is a better planner.

Bama FSU - Taking bama for the same reason I took Mich. Saban has prepared for this for 9 months and I don't see his team not being prepared.

Coaches' Hotseat - I love this and completely agree. I've never been a huge Sumlin fan. He will fall back outside a Power 5 conference and kill it. The talent level in the P5 is just too strong for his offense to be able to torch teams each week. Similar to Kelly having such a hard time in the NFL. I like UCLA in this one.

Tennessee. This is the year they put things together and challenge for top 15 spot.

 

Not too sure about the Boilers being easy pickins' Joe. The game is in Indy at Lucas Oil, and Purdue's new head coach is former Louisville (and Trinity HS) QB Jeff Brohm. They'll be decided underdogs against the Cards, but Jeff is a very good football man, knows the opponent, and may have more than a few tricks up his sleeve. On the flip side, U of L may be in a foul mood since the reigning Heisman Trophy winner is getting disrespected big time by the preseason pundits...no all America teams, no talk of him repeating his Heisman win, total Rodney Daingerfield treatment. May be warranted after they limped home at the end of last season with 3 defeats, including losses to their arch rival (Kentucky) and bowl game (LSU). All of which could serve as motivation to steamroll people all season, not just the first half. We'll see. Lamar is still Lamar. And he's improved. Which should scare the crap out of people.

 

Iowa will win by about 14. I am not as high on Allen as the draft gurus are and Wyoming's defense was really bad last year, especially against the run (Iowa returns its entire OL which won the Joe Moore/Best OL award and a 1000-yard rusher plus we got a grad transfer from Nevada who ran for 1000 yards for them).

That all said, I thought about the same against North Dakota State last year and that didn't go well for us.

 

Same for me. The one consistency for the Seminoles through all the years has been their lack of discipline. I love them dearly, but they do a lot of stupid things when their players get caught up in a moment. That is going to be even more pronounced in a big early game like this one. I think Bama capitalizes on those mistakes and wins easy (I hope I'm wrong). I'd much prefer FSU start out like they usually do - play against someone like the Western Iowa School of Cosmetology and Animal Husbandry.

 

I hate picking opening week games, especially since I haven't followed the offseason at all outside of A&M. That said I like Bama for their discipline over FSU and Michigan over Florida due to all of the suspensions.

As for A&M, I don't think Sumlin's seat is as hot as the national media would lead you to believe. We were rolling last year before a number of key injuries derailed our season. He's recruiting well and has been able to bring in good staff. He's also shown a willingness to adapt and change. Case in point, the realization after JF left that the SEC, more than any other, is a line of scrimmage league. Our offense still has some principles from the one Sumlin brought from Houston, but we're much more run oriented and we've moved to using a TE or 2 now.

As for the game, while I'm getting more optimistic the closer we get, I think UCLA wins it. Rosen threw 3 picks and had several drops last year and we still needed OT to beat them at Kyle. I'm concerned that none of our qb's distinguished themselves enough to win the job outright.

Also, I don't know what impact Harvey will have. We have 30 players who had family affected and Traveon Williams watched his parents rescued by chopper on the news. On the bright side, the NCAA actually has sensible rules on this one and the school was allowed to help evacuate any players' family/guardians that wanted to ahead of the storm and put them up in hotels in College Station. Harvey could serve as extra motivation or the emotional drain of this past week could hurt us.

I do like our skill positions and defense over UCLA's. We've also won 20 straight regular season non-conf games and have excelled in these early season big matchups while the Bruins haven't. We'll see.

The upset I like is Maryland over Texas. The Terps have some exciting young playmakers and I'm not buying a ranked Longhorn team that didn't even make a bowl game last year, Herman or no. A 3 td spread strikes me as absurd considering, but then I've been a homer and over-estimated the Terps before, so your mileage may vary.

Biggest trend so far has been ranked teams struggling in the first half and then pulling away in the 2nd. Excited to have college football back! Good luck to everyone's teams unless they play mine.

 

Uh, so yeah. Disregard my comments on Sumlin's hot seat. He's toast. It'll take a miracle to save him after that one. I'm still not sure how it's possible to blow that like we did. So much epic stupidity stacked on top of epic stupidity.

 

Not sure what to even say Mateo, wouldn't have believed that if I hadn't seen it for myself. The rest of the season hinges on the health of the QB (he doesn't go down, they score 50+). If he's okay and the beat the Hogs in Dallas, then SCarolina at home, sets up a miracle opportunity against Bama at home.

• Great call on Maryland, they were impressive winning a crazy opener at Texas

• Florida State lost the game (special teams mistakes factored heavily), but losing QB Francois for the season is a crusher.

• Until otherwise proven the Gaters of Flarida will be misspelled intentionally since they have no 'o'.

• Shout out to Howard University, a 45 point underdog that beat UNLV 43-40. A $100 bet on Howard to win the game outright (they lifted the ban on betting UNLV a few years ago) would've netted $60000

@LaxAttack; Solid win, and this was awesome http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=20568926&sf111305681=1

 

Around these here parts, heavily favored Kentucky and Louisville barely scraped by two opponents they should have beaten handily. I'll spare you the gory details, you can look them up if you wish, but Kentucky got a road win at Southern Miss and Louisville did just enough good things to beat Purdue. All of which is to say, it won't be long before people will start talking about hoops season around here. The only drama will be if Lamar Jackson can survive another horrid offensive line to repeat as the Heisman winner. He's good enough to do it, if he doesn't get hurt.

 

Week 2 has some interesting matchups:

Northwestern at Duke; @tim Your Cats have been talked about as a possible darkhorse in the Big 16 (Ohio State & Michigan not on the schedule). Duke's David Cutcliffe might be the most underrated coach in the country, the Blue Devils are very respectable now. May the team with the best GPA win.

Rivalries times 3:
Iowa at Iowa State; @LaxAttack Have to go w/the Hawkeyes defense.
Pittsburgh at #4 Penn State; Revenge for the Nittany Lions after last year's loss.
Utah at BYU; The 'Holy War' has been dominated by the Utes since their move to the Pac 12.

Hotseat Game:
#23 TCU at Arkansas. Shocker an SEC team has another coach that needs to deliver. Bret Bielema needs to get the Hogs moving in the right direction. However, I will go with the Frogs.

#15 Georgia at #24 Notre Dame. QB Jacob Eason is out for the Dawgs, which gives the Irish a chance. Is ND overrated? Probably, but without Eason, Brian Kelly will get a much needed victory over a top team.

#13 Auburn at #3 Clemson. Will learn a lot more about these two teams after this one. Hard to pick against Clemson in Death Valley.

Games of the Week;

#5 Oklahoma at #2 Ohio State. The Buckeyes took it to the Sooners in Norman last year. Just can't pick against Urban Meyer in Columbus. His comments blasting Tom Herman and WIll Muschamp this week were shocking (not of the PC variety, basically telling first year coaches not to blame the players they inherited).

#14 Stanford at #6 USC. Not as flashy as the OU/OSU tilt, but this is a monster game on the west coast for two teams eyeing the playoffs. Sam Darnold wasn't great in the opener, but there was 5 drops from the kiddy WR corp (they lost their top 4 WRs from last year). Stanford must be licking their chops with the way Western Michigan ran the ball. The Cardinal has dominated this series of late, but will go with the Trojans (already regretting this pick).

 

I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game. I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game. I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game. I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game. I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game. I hate the Iowa-Iowa State game.

 

Oh my god, did they ever! 53 pass attempts! Unreal, and but for one dropped pass in the endzone.....

When Grier and his receivers get their timing together, we're gonna drop 50 on teams, but probably give up 60! Will be an entertaining season. Meanwhile, been on the college tour circuit with daughter number 2, she's narrowed it down to Clemson and Tennessee, so I'll have another team to root for next season - but I'm not a big fan of orange!

 

Joe, I know you pride yourself on your ability to count and know that the Big Ten does not, in fact, have 10 teams. However, they don't have 16 either.

NW @ Duke - Agree on Cutcliffe. I'll take the Dookies at home.

Iowa @ Iowa St - I like State's young coach but the Hawks have more talent and will ride a far better defense to victory.

Pitt @ Penn St - Pitt lost their inspirational tailback from last year, meanwhile Saquon Barkley looks like he's going to have a big year. Nitany's with ease.

Utah @ BYU - The Cougar offense hasn't gotten out of first gear in 2 games against Portland St and LSU. I'll take the Utes.

TCU @ Arky - The Hogs won this one last year on the last play but I think the Frogs are more explosive and will win a shootout.

Georgia @ Notre Dame - The Irish showed a more explosive offense against a better team on opening weekend so I'll take them over UGA.

Auburn @ Clemson - While I think Auburn is going to be good with Stidham, I think Clemson has more impact players and the better coach. I'll take the Tigers...home version.

Oklahoma @ Ohio St - The Nuts dominated the line of scrimmage and punked OU last year. This year, I don't think they have the defense and I don't like JT Barrett at qb. Mayfield of the Landthieves is, for my money, the best college qb in the game and I think he'll lead them to retribution.

Stanford @ USC - The Cardinal have won 4 of the last 5 in LA, 7 of the last 9 overall and 8 of the last 11 dating back to that big Harbaugh led upset in 2007. They're just a bad matchup for the Trojans and I'm sticking with them until SC proves otherwise.

Upset - I'll go with Western Michigan to knock off Sparty (-7) on the road. Fleck may be rowing the boat in Minnesota now, but he left plenty of talent behind and I was impressed how well they hung with USC. Mich St is a big step down from SC this year.

I'd love to go with UTSA over Baylor following the despicable little bears embarrassing loss to Liberty, but the Runners game last week was cancelled due to Harvey and I'm not comfortable picking them blind. I'll be rooting for the local boys to add to the misery of that wretched abortion of a school in Waco though.

 

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew. Baker Mayfield? The best college QB? You drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? The Kool-Aid that says Lamar Jackson isn't gonna be as good or better than he was last season. Mm, mm, mm... Dangerous. Very dangerous. If he and the Cards don't stub their toe looking past North Carolina at Chapel Hill this weekend, we'll see what happens when they play Clemson the following week in their home opener. By then, we should know whether or not he'll still be a candidate for a Heisman repeat. Or if he's behind Baker Mayfield. Or somebody else.

 

Try not to be such a homer, Jumpy. Mayfield is 22-4 with a Sugar Bowl win and a playoff berth. Jackson is 17-9 and hasn't even been in a NY6 Bowl. He's got a Music City Bowl win and a Citrus Bowl loss.

Mayfield is a 69% passer with a 5-1 td/int ratio over two years to Jackson's paltry 55% and less than 3-1 ratio. Even if we throw out his first year, Lamar has just over a 3-1 ratio. Jackson does get more total yardage by virtue of his rushing ability.

Mayfield is 10-3 vs ranked opponents, Jackson is 1-5. Now some of that is a byproduct of OU being better than Louisville, but if we're going to call you the best, you need to lead your team to wins over better teams and Jackson's lone signature win was over FSU. Jackson also has 4 losses against unranked teams, once as a #3 and once as a #11. That's happened to Mayfield only once, vs Texas 2 years ago.

So as I said, for my money, Mayfield is the best in the game.

 

Thursday:


Saturday:

 

A lot of credit goes to Clemson's defense, but I'm very surprised that Auburn transferred in a mannequin to play QB.

 

Like Andre Smith had any credibility after they gave up 35 pts and 363 passing yards in a loss to lowly Cal the previous week.

Let's see what Jackson does next week.

Watching Iowa v Iowa State, I kept thinking of Lax's comment.

Did anyone else stay up late and watch that bizarre game between Boise and Wazzu? Only watched the 2nd half, but that was absurd.