College Football 2013-14

College football is here, and while most schools like to open up w/a smaller one in order to get their feet wet or to get a win (I feel fairly confident my Arizona Wildcats will be 1-0 after playing Northern Arizona), there are a few intriguing match ups.

• Offseason topic of the year; Nope, nothing to see in College Station as the first freshman ever to win the Heisman had a quiet and unassuming few months this spring and summer :roll: Who knows what exactly went on, but at the very least the kid acted like a complete knuckle head for the duration.

Games of the Week:

The FUSA Grudge Match: ClevelandMo's Rice Owls at AggieMatt's #7 Texas A&M. Will Johnny Football play? Will he be a distraction? Will he be hungover? :teasing-poke: OK, the game probably won't be competitive, but I had to sneak in the hungover jab in the first post of the year.

#12 LSU vs #20 TCU at Cowboys Stadium. Impossible to predict first games of the season, but I'll take LSU's talent and TCU's coach. Talent wins out.

#1 Alabama vs Virginia Tech. Va Tech had a down year, but always known for having the best Special Teams which in the first game is an advantage. That said, Alabama might not punt that much :lol: Roll Tide.

**Upset Alert; Personal opinion that the rankings are meaningless before Week 1, but it helps when your trying to find an 'upset'

Mississippi State vs #13 Oklahoma State at Houston. MSU will probably be outscored by OSU's great offense, but they will be the equal in the talent department.

#19 Boise State at Washington. This isn't an upset in my mind, but Boise has a number in front of their name. The Huskies return a bunch of starters and most importantly a dual threat QB that should give the Broncos fits.

Always love reading about everyone's favorite teams, so hope to hear about DTown's Southern Miss and Colorado (still a season ticket holder?), Jump's highly ranked Louisville, Justin's Michigan (WHERE U AT??), et al.

 

My Northwestern Wildcats are coming off a 10-win season and enter this campaign ranked #22 in both polls. It will be very interesting to see what happens when they actually come into a season with expectations (in Evanston we were always taught to expect little of our teams so as to be pleasantly surprised when good things actually happen). I'll be headed up I-5 this weekend to see them open the season at Cal (my first chance to see them play in person in years) and already have Oct 5 marked down on my calendar for a huge home game vs. Ohio State (who are as loathsome as any program in the land).

 

Iowa football is going to make me sad again this year.

 

I was born in Des Moines, but I grew up in Texas and randomly went back there for college.

 

Do not expect much out of my Kentucky Wildcats again this year...lol. sec is too tough as always, and we have a new coaching staff. Im excited about coach stoops though, brings in a lot of potential. Recruiting will pick up in the next few years with him at the helm, but for now hes stuck with Joker Phillips' mess. Like the majority of UK football seasons, ill be content with a decent SEC showing and a win against Tennessee

 

Think I'm officially an ASU Sun Devil fan....as a 2nd team of course.

Manziel will play. First off, the NCAA aren't exactly swift in their investigations and second, even if he did what he's accused of (by one very disreputable dealer), do you think the NCAA will be able to prove it? The kid can't be that stupid...can he? Even if he is, I doubt anything is resolved before the season is over.

I am getting a kick out of all the pundits saying we can't do it again, we won't sneak up on anyone, etc. Fox Sports ran all of the A&M games in their No Huddle format (takes about an hr to watch each game) and I watched just about all of them over the last 2 weeks. Outside of Bama, LSU & Fla, the other league games weren't remotely close. Not saying we'll be in the Nat'l title hunt, but I'll be surprised if we aren't top 10 again.

As for the Nat'l Title, I won't be surprised if the SEC finally cannibalizes itself this year. Ohio St and Louisville could both very well run the table and avoid playing the SEC champ. While less likely, Stanford might be able to do it as well. Will be interesting to see what surprises this season has in store.

As for the upsets, TCU over LSU. We crushed Miss St in their house, so I doubt they've improved enough defensively to hang with Okie Lite.

 

Sigh, here in Indiana we only recognize sports played with round balls. With the pointy version we get coaches that promise to reach for the moon about every four years or so.

 

Matt, almost spit out my coffee on reading your first line :lol: , you won't have to worry about rooting against a mediocre Arizona for a year or two, as RichRod is beginning to recruit some better talent (probably 6-6 this season). Don't get me wrong, I love watching Manziel play, and frankly could care less about the whole autograph thing. I have a whole lot more concern on his off the field antics (underage partying, stupid tweeting, getting booted from Manning camp, etc).

Tim, have a great time up north, hope you get a chance to get over to San Francisco and enjoy that great city.

Barry & CoalKing, Arizona is a basketball school like Indiana and Kentucky. The start of football means hoops practice is around the corner. Barry you can always root for that humble little school in South Bend :shock:

**Saw a commercial for it last night, but missed it on the schedule. The GAME of the WEEK is down in Chris aka SCFulhamfan's neck of the woods as #8 Clemson hosts #5 Georgia in a game with national championship implications. Death Valley will be a sea of orange (except for the small red & black visiting section). Clemson QB Taj Boyd or Georgia QB Aaron Murray can throw his hat into the ring for the Heisman race with a good performance. Could go either way, but will take the home team.

 

I'm 1-for-1 on predictions this season.

Iowa was 20-6 at home during my four years. They have now lost seven of their last nine home games. Poor Kinnick Stadium.

Still sad.

At least we might have found a serviceable QB after last year's debacle.

 

Make sure I got this straight.. you're saying that South Bend is sorta a duchy-like enclave? I agree. Notre Dame doesn't count as an Indiana football school. I despise them.. no matter they have a great coach. Matter of fact, it really pissed me off when he went there from UC. ANYWHERE ELSE.. even 'bama!
Well.. not Miami Fla, either.
Around here it's just too easy to be a Buckeye fan.. so I'm not. I watch all the games and hope they win but if they don't.. Meh!
I'm more interested in UC Bearcats.. they're more fun to watch, anyway.

About every third year or so, Cincinnati makes a big splash. They started out pretty well this week demolishing Purdue in their first game.
What was Purdue thinking when they scheduled UC, anyway? You're supposed to start off with patsies. Or at least middle table MAC teams.

I find it interesting that Tommy Tuberville decided the Bearcats would make a good team to prove he's not some opportunistic gadfly. He's probably as big a schmuck as it seems he is from his record, but if he can coach..

 

Go Blue!

 

Wish I would have seen this before the weekend. Easy to say this now, but Vegas, I thought OK St would actually beat MSU worse than they did. Agreed with you on Washington though. However, it looks like Team 1 (Southern Miss) is in for another horrible year. I was hoping for a 5 win season, but after losing to TEXAS flippin STATE, not looking so good. Team 2 (Colorado, because I live here) actually has a QB. I know they only played Colo St, but the offense actually looked decent. If that O line can come together at all and start playing well, they could get to 5 or 6 wins. Hoping they don't slip up this week against a pretty good Central Arkansas Div 1AA team.

 

Everybody here is wondering whether the suddenly mighty Louisville Cardinals FOOTBALL team can duplicate the hoops boys national championship..or, at the very least, keep their fans in their seats instead of the parking lot tailgates. Took care of business against Ohio U., the question is about their weak AAC schedule. Barring that, can Teddy Bridgewater win the Heisman? Will it matter come hoops season? We'll see. Mr. Bridgewater didn't hurt his chances with his performance against the Bobcats.

 

UofL has the best chance of an undefeated season as anyone. Question is will it be enough to get them in over one or even two 1 loss teams with much more difficult schedules.

 

Early days, but no, I don't think Bridgewater can win the Heisman. That schedule will ultimately cost him the trophy. Definitely agree they can go undefeated but I'm with Dough, with that SOS, their fate won't be in their hands. It'll be down to what happens to the teams around them.

 

Yup. Bad timing. Put this year's team in the ACC, and their chances increase exponentially.

 

Granted it was against Pitt, but Jameis Winston is legit.