2014-15 College Football

Better get one of our favorite non-Fulham related threads going since one of the Games of the Week is in 2 days and involves a certain someone's school; hint: This team had a high profile player who is plying his trade in Cleveland and was recently expressing 'digital'ly to the Washington NFL franchise his thoughts that they were #1.

The new 4 team playoff is here, but how long will it take when one of the 5 power conferences start calling for an 8 team format when they get left out?

Here are a few teams not opening with SouthEastern Cupcake State;

Thurs: #21 Texas A&M at #9 South Carolina. Rough and tumble opener for the Aggies. Would like to hear what Mateo's expectations are for the season and who will be slinging the rock for A&M. When Steve Spurrier is quoted and throwing barbs out to fellow coaches he usually likes his team. Will take the home team in a season opener w/two good squads.

Sat.: West Virginia v #2 Alabama. Another question mark at QB, as Alabama still haven't announced a starter. Won't matter as whoever is under center will turn around and hand the ball off 50 times. Tide beats up pass happy WVU.

#16 Clemson at #12 Georgia. Yet another matchup w/new QB's taking over for Taj Boyd and Aaron Murray respectively who were both long term starters. Will again go with the home team to avenge last year's loss at Clemson.

#14 Wisconsin v #12 LSU. The Tigers never shy away from scheduling tough non-conference games, and this is no exception as they take on the Badgers in Houston. Should be a very physical game and it could come down to a big special teams play. Will take LSU to squeak by.

UPSET ALERT:
Who knows, it's week 1 for goodness sake, and to be honest I don't see one on the schedule:
Rice at #17 Notre Dame.....No, just kidding, but anytime I get to mention ClevelandMo's alma mater I do so.

Possible games that could be 4th quarter battles

#7 UCLA at Virginia. The Bruins have been transformed by Jim Mora Jr. and shouldn't have a problem with the Cavaliers, but the game does start at 9 am west coast time, so UVA might put up a game.

Boise State v #18 Ole Miss. The Chris Pederson era is over at BSU and this is the first season in a long time where the Broncos aren't even mentioned as a Top 25 team. Ole Miss as huge expectations, which sometimes is hard to manage at schools that don't have a winning tradition. Could be interesting and humidity won't be a factor at the Georgia Dome.

Game of interest:

#5 Ohio State at Navy. Biggest early storyline is the devasting injury to star Buckeye QB Braxton Miller. There shouldn't be an issue with the Midshipmen (Navy will play hard for 4 quarters no matter the score), but going forward how will they rally around the new starter?

 

Joseph's back. Where were you, wandering around Cambodia passing out Nick Foles jerseys and Sonorran hot dogs?

Upset Special - Aggies over South Carolina.
Sumlin has fielded a top 5 offense in each of the last 5 years. We return an experienced and very good OL and 3 very good rb's. Manziel was incredible, but I don't think it'll be the worst thing for us to have a qb who plays within the scheme. Like A&M, SC is replacing a starting qb and they've usually struggled for offense under Spurrier. Defensively, they should hold the edge. I just don't think they'll be able to stop the A&M offense enough to be able to keep up on the scoreboard. I'm dying of curiousity (morbid perhaps) to see what improvements have been made with our defense.

Bama over West Va. I don't see this one being remotely close. The 'Neers have been headed in the wrong direction since joining the B12. Trickett only managed 7 tds last year and matched that with 7 picks and I don't think talking about Saban's daughter this week was a bright move. The WV defense is a mess. And Bama has ALOT more talent.

Georgia over Clemson. Georgia has the more experienced of the new qb's, they're at home and didn't lose as many key players as Clemp.

LSU over Wisconsin. With new qb's on both sides, playing this early provides more questions than answers. But speed kills and LSU always has a good defense with plenty of future NFL talent. Interested to see Fournette at rb.

Ole Miss over Boise. I've been impressed watching Ole Miss battle the Ags the last 2 years. They've got Wallace back at qb and Moncrief and Treadwell are good receivers. Don't honestly know much about this year's Boise side. They seemed to be slipping recently and the loss of Peterson should be a tough adjustment.

UCLA over Virginia. Disclaimer, I hate the Hoos from my days as a little kid watching them play the Terps. However, if it weren't for the travel factor, this wouldn't have received a mention. UCLA returns a strong team. UVA returns a punchless one.

Ohio St over Navy. But don't sleep on Navy. They're at home, they return Keenan Reynolds at qb coming off a season in which he broke the NCAA record for rushing td's by a qb (31), the Buckeyes haven't had a lot of time to transition since losing Miller, and the last time these 2 met in an opener in 2009, OSU squeaked by the Middies 31-27. I really want to pick Navy, especially since they are so tough to prep for, but OSU has had too much time to scheme for them defensively.

As for the playoffs, I'm not buying Oklahoma so expect the B12 to be that squeaky wheel.

 

Joseph's back. Where were you, wandering around Cambodia passing out Nick Foles jerseys and Sonorran hot dogs?

This is classic, Ag. Simply brilliant.

 

I don't see your Aggies winning, Matt. Your defense is/was hot garbage last year and while South Carolina is replacing Connor Shaw, Dylan Thompson does have some experience (three career starts when Shaw was injured over the last two years.....14 TD/5 INT).

But I am interested to see what Sumlin can do without Johnny Football. I really like him as a coach.

My Hawkeyes should beat Northern Iowa (hopefully not with two blocked FGs in the last minute like in 2009). Our schedule is pretty blah this year (No Michigan/Michigan State/Ohio State/Penn State and Nebraska/Wisconsin are at home) so a somewhat decent chance we end up in Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game if we can avoid the injury bug and we can replace some starters on defense.

 

Lol, well you know Matt every once in awhile one needs to find himself and the true meaning of life. Instead of Cambodia I went to Bakersfield and don't let a map fool you that might as well be the other side of the world.

Nice schedule Lax, you could very easily be undefeated or on 1 loss going into those final 2 games. That 1 loss of course being from Tim's Northwestern squad

If truth be told, I'm having emoticon withdrawals as the former site had 10 glorious pages of Beavis and Butthead's, #%&*ing guys, the Jaws shark, and of course Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine (so rarely was able to squeeze it into a post, but when I did...magic)

As for my Arizona Wildcats...Haven't named a starter at QB, which sucks since they have one of the best WR corps in the country. Rich Rod has them moving in the right direction, but road games at Oregon and UCLA should see them to El Paso for the Sun Bowl.

 

Thanks Nev. I owed Joe one from the World Cup.

Can't deny our defense was "hot garbage" (as you so kindly put it) but not sure how you can infer that it still is. We had a very young defense last year so I think it's reasonable to think they'll improve. We had some huge recruiting holes to fill, especially on defense when Sumlin came in. We've now got 3 (highly rated) recruiting classes in and those holes, and more importantly the depth are starting to round out. I'm expecting the biggest improvement to show on our d-line. We'll see what happens in about 5 hours. What a stupid time for a weekday kickoff, btw.

 

So, uh, Kenny Hill looks legit. Did not expect this game to play out like this so far.

 

Well, that was fun. 1 for 1 to start the season on my upset specials.

 

There is good news and bad news Matt. The good news is your team looked fantastic. I remember Kenny Hill's pops as a pitcher w/the Angels, and his kid looks to have plenty of weapons, a physical O-Line, and an outstanding coach. The defense wasn't spectacular by any means, but they have improved, which combined with what looks like a dynamic offense and it's going to be a whole lot of fun this season in College Station. HD if you actually read this you need to parlay Mateo's good mood into a Fuller's or two.

Now the bad news. There is NOOOO way I'm giving you credit for a 1 for 1 upset special. Come on, the Aggies were ranked already and this dominating win will probably put them in the Top 10 next week. An upset isn't just about the point spread (save that argument). This was a good team beating another good team.

The biggest loser of the night? A toss up between Steve Spurrier and the insurance company that underwrote a College Station furniture store to what will be the tune of $850,000. The talk of South Carolina not missing a beat on defense with the loss of a lot of key players blew up in the Ol' Ball coach's face. The furniture store in College Station ran a promotion where if the Aggies won by over 10 points at South Carolina the home furnishings purchased (within certain dates) would be fully reimbursed. The store owner took out an insurance policy where he would have to compensate the insurance company 15% of the sales no matter the outcome of the game. After 1 million in sales and a blow out victory there was some insurance executives in total misery last night.

 

No one moves the goal posts like SoCalJoe. Double digit underdog, on the road, vs a team ranked (preseason, rightly or wrongly) 12 spots higher. You didn't pick them. Iowa said they didn't have a shot. And I didn't see too many pundits picking them either. Are we saying upsets have to be the Miracle on Ice or they don't count? I disagree.

 

An outcome between 2 ranked teams who are in the same conference should not be considered an 'upset'. It doesn't have to be Appalachian State at Michigan, but last night was only a mild surprise between 2 quality SEC teams.

 

A&M's win over Bama in Tuscaloosa 2 years ago wasn't an upset then?

 

What's this? 2 ranked teams from the same conference?

 

LMAO...I could argue that one, but would lose in a court of law. So will just tip my hat (using my own words against me?...that sucks!!) and wave the white towel, and look to live another day.

 

A few interesting games despite a bunch of the Big Boys hosting smaller schools.

Game of the Week: #7 Michigan State at #3 Oregon. Clash of styles as MSU will look to slow the game down and play a physical ball control game. The Ducks have had problems the last few years w/Stanford that likes to play the same way as Sparty. Will take Oregon at home, but wouldn't surprise me in the least if MSU wins.

#14 USC at #13 Stanford. The old expression 'these two teams don't like each other' applies here, and this should be a game that goes down until the final moments. Not sure about either team yet, but USC played great despite a bunch of distractions (even by SC's fishbowl standards). Coin flip, but will take the Trojans by a field goal.

Michigan at #16 Notre Dame. The final year these two rivals will meet for the foreseeable future. Everett Golston is back and should lead the Irish to a victory over the Wolverines.

Upset Alerts:
The best pick would be Michigan, but I'll leave it to Matt to take credit for it.

East Carolina at #21 South Carolina. This should be a blowout for the other USC, but how will it react to that devastating loss and with Georgia coming up next week? The Pirates will go into Columbia and while coming up short will give the Gamecocks all they want.

#24 Missouri at Toledo. Expect the Tigers to outscore Toledo, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the Rockets put a scare into Mizzou.

**Love reading about everyone's team and how they are looking, so please add them (Dtown, how is Southern Miss looking? and are you a season ticket holder for the Buffaloes again?)

My Arizona Wildcats are in San Antonio tonight to play UTSA. Of course the Seahawks and the Packers play at the same time so nobody will be watching. Our kid QB might eventually be good, but missed a ton of easy throws despite great numbers last week. He will need to play much better to avoid a potential upset.

 

Funny how the SEC takes so much crap for schedules but played a part in just about every big matchup on opening weekend while most teams feasted on cupcakes. With everyone else left to pick up the slack, Week 2 is pretty dull.

Of the big ones, I'll take Oregon over Michigan St. I don't think Michigan St can stop them enough to keep up on the scoreboard. Especially at Autzen.

My record with Pac-12 matchups isn't the best, but I agree with Joe and think USC will beat Stanford. Can't give a better reason why than I'm more impressed with SC's opening win over Fresno and Sark has a good track record against the Cardinal.

Upset Specials:

I'm not sure if that Michigan comment is intended to be as snarky as I took it, but I will go with Meatchicken to beat Notre Dame, thank you very much. I don't care if Golston's back as I think he's over-rated. ND couldn't beat them with a better defense last year. I don't see why that should change this year.

However, since that probably doesn't count as a "legitimate" upset in Bizarro Joe world (despite Mich being unranked, a 4 pt dog and on the road) I've selected a long shot as well. Give me 17 pt dog Old Dominion, led by Sr qb Taylor Heinike, to waltz into Raleigh and beat NC State.

Joe, I'll be flipping over some to keep with the Arizona game here in San Antonio. I'm not going to get carried away with UTSA's surprising opening win at Houston. They took care of them easily, but were aided by 6 Cougar turnovers. I'm sure the Cats will have too much fire power for them. But it could be interesting? As a sidebar, I'm not sure if I can decide if those UTSA facemasks are the greatest or worst thing ever. Couldn't find a good pic to link, but they're orange chrome.

 

Nervous Joe?

The Cats were able to hold them off, so I'm glad I didn't pick it for the upset, but that was a lot closer than I thought it would be. Had to hate it for the UTSA qb, as soon as that last ill-advised pass left his hand you knew it was going to end badly. Well, I guess, you didn't hate it, but you know what I mean.

 

Yawn. Is there a way to "dislike" a post?