College Football 2012-13

It's that time of year again my friends, and frankly a little diversion can be a good thing. I know we have a mix of fans from all over the country, so would love to hear about your team (even if it's just to rant). A few of the games this week;

UCLA at Rice. For a certain Rice alum in Cleveland

Washington State at BYU. Mike Leach back in college, going to be slinging the ball in Provo.

#24 Boise State at #13 Michigan State. Can Southwick replace 4 year starter Kellen Moore and keep the Bronco train rolling? He'll be okay, but not the best matchup w/Sparty's great D. MSU wins this one.

Game of the Week: #8 Michigan vs #2 Alabama in Dallas. Brady Hoke has done a great job at Michigan and Denard Robinson should make a lot of plays against a rebuilt Alanama D with both his arm and legs. However, AJ McCarron might be the most underrated QB in the country, he was terrific in the national title game. Michigan will need to win the turnover battle by at least two in order to have a chance, but have to go with the Tide.

Upset Alert; #9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt. This isn't your perennial doormat Vandy, but a very well coached group that will give Carolina all they want. Aaron Rodgers' little brother Jordan is the Commodores' QB and they have a legit chance to win this one.

 

Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! COLLEGE FOOOOOTBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

*cough* Whoops. Sorry. Was channeling my OU/OSU neighbors. Crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy Okies and their love of the game.

So yeah. Virginia Tech is my team of choice, so looking forward to yet another Labor Day tilt, this year against Georgia Tech. With any luck it will go better than most Labor Day games for the Hokies, but better to lose early than late.

Michigan versus 'Bama in Dallas. Guess it would be rude to wish for "Injuries" or "Low scoring turnover-filled silliness?" So how about "Localized Earthquake that swallows both teams?" But in "Seriousness," let's go with Michigan there.

No real other "Hopes" short of the usual "Overhyped Legacy Teams get face-punched by their lower-ranked opposition."

 

Clemson Tiger alumni here. Once Watkins gets back from his "time off" we should do well. VA-Tech eh...

 

Haha, not sure what's worse OK, the Sooner/Cowboy loonies you deal with, or the superior, patronizing chatter from USC fans out here.

 

Can't believe it's here already. Big year for my Ags with a new conference, new ad, new coach, new off and def schemes and coordinators and a fr qb. I'm curious to see how the offense will fare in the SEC as it could be a competitive advantage for us, but we'll have to execute well or we may go through a few qbs against the LSU's and Bama's of the world. I was thinking 7-5 or 6-6 for our first year in the SEC. We did just postpone our opener at La Tech b/c of the tropical storm though, so that now moves to our Oct bye week. That's going to hurt us as our stretch run to close the season is brutal and that week off would have helped.

Like others, I think USC has an excellent shot at it this year. I expect we'll see big strides made at Ohio St with Meyer at the helm. And whoever can step up as the team in the SEC is probably facing USC in the final. I don't think anyone in the B12 can make the run through the schedule to get to the end and I don't think the B10 is all that strong.

Welcome to the VaTech fan, I'm relieved you're not a Sooner or Poke. I have a couple of friends who went there and there's some symmetry between A&M and VT.

As for the games this w/e, I think Bama crushes Michigan. I think Michigan is overrated and while Robinson probably makes the first half exciting, they've fallen off against better teams as the games progressed and there's a massive gulf between the two defenses.

I'm interested to see how fast Leach can affect Wazzu. They ran a lesser version of that system before under the dubious Mike Price and overachieved nicely in the PAC (which isn't that strong of a league these days).

Boise/Mich St should be an interesting game. Kinda leaning toward Joe's thoughts on this one.

USCe/Vandy could be good for all the reasons Joe stated but I think Spurrier's got them over that choker hump and the talent level over there is really good. Think the Gamecocks win it.

UCLA/Rice? The MOB wins, hands down. Can't say the game holds any interest otherwise.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth

 

This is the year for Michigan! The road to an undefeated season starts on Saturday with a win against Bama. Our offense is better than their defense. Simple as that. And our defense should be better than they were last year as well. Did well recruiting there. Go Blue!

 

:laughing-rolling: Wait, you weren't serious about Meatchicken going undefeated...were you? I think your bad week is about to get worse.

 

First off: Meat Chicken. I like it. Never been a fan of the Big Tenlevenwelve (Or "The Ever Increasingly Erroneously Named Big Ten"), so fun to get another snappy nickname out at one of their teams expense.

And Michigan going undefeated? Sweet Christmas... how about beating 'Bama first on your list of "Insanely Tough Stuff To Do" before thinking that a table-run is possible.

 

I think the goal should be an undefeated season or a one loss season, yes. That's probably the goal of every top ten team. Last year we had two losses and you have to push on from that. We had a top ten recruiting class, with the major focus on defense, and I like what Hoke is doing. Alabama lost half of their defense and their best offensive weapon, how do we know how good they are going to be? I will take our experienced offense over their inexperienced defense. I guess we'll find out how good their backups and recruits are on Saturday.

 

As a Texas alum - I'll respectfully withhold my predictions/hopes for the Ags initial foray into the SEC. Sad to see that rivalry thrown away due to jealousy and pettiness - blame both sides. I do think the recruits will increasingly choose ATM due to their SEC status. Should be good for you guys long-term.

As for the Horns - having two QBs never equals success. (and neither David Ash or Case McCoy are Chris Simms/Major Applewhite).
OU and WVa have to be favorites in the Moderate-sized XII. I was hoping for Texas to go west - Pac-16 would've been cool.

Gotta look to OU, the top couple SEC teams (Bama, BayouBengals), and whichever overrated Big 10 team is on top there as your title contenders. I'm gonna agree that this is the year that USC comes all the way back to win it all.

 

Oh, boy. I'm not rabidly into the rivalry. I wish we could continue it, but at the same time, I'm not sorry to see us get a break from the game either while we get our sea legs in the SEC. As long as we resume the rivalry that is, and everyone knows we eventually will. I really don't get why so many people on both sides have their feelings hurt over it all. Plenty of state schools play in different conferences and if both Texas (no t.u. since we're being civil) and A&M can win in their respective conferences, it's better for the state.

Since the early 2000's, OU can't seem to manage getting through a season without mucking up a game or two. Otherwise I'd think they could nick the spot from the SEC winner. The absence of a B12 title game probably doesn't help them either.

 

WOW! Nicely done Joe. Okay your soothsayerness...can my Warriors hold USC to half a hundred...and, how do you feel about my Cowboys getting only four points from the World Champs in their place? Cowboys that good or Vegas know something we don't about the Giants? Nail this one and we may have to talk.

 

No. The 'Boys will be horrendous this year. (and yes, I'm a Cowboys fan). Our OL stinks. Injury woes abound. And, Tony Romo is still Tony Romo. Bet the house on NYG for that game. Our defense will be better, but it won't be enough. Pardon me while I go re-watch glory VCR tapes of the mid-90s Cowboys for the next 4 months.

 

Bill, Would be surprised if Hawaii held USC under 50, but sometimes the first games are real sloppy so maybe the Warriors can cover the 42 points they're getting.

Will have to start up our NFL season thread soon, but to answer your question I would think the Giants should win, but in a rivalry game anything can happen. NY won the title, but were average in the regular season and got hot down the stretch.

 

Tough task for my BG Falcons today. Headed down to the swamp to take on Florida. Just hoping they can compete.

 

Nothing terribly surprising out there so far except maybe the SC/Vandy tilt. Figured there'd be a little more oomph from the 'Cocks, but overall, meh.

The Curbstomping of Michigan is unsurprising. I'll admit a certain bias against the Big Ten (Mostly that the excuse every year that they don't get into the NC Title Game is "Our conference is TOO GOOD" when the reality is that there's a ridiculous amount of parity within it, so each team comes out of its conference schedule with two losses most of the time) but Michigan did nothing to actually impress me last year, even when they beat VaTech in the Sugar Bowl. (Where even my Hokie-loving tukhbas went "We are in the WHAT BOWL?" when the announcement was made) So 'Bama getting it's asskick-on is nice enough.

Insane Fan Of The Week: Friend of mine actually bragging about how Okie State rolled a bunch of 13th Graders out of Savannah State. I hold less ire towards the 'Pokes than the fools in Norman, but c'mon! Beat an FBS team.... ANY FBS team 84-0 and I'll actually be impressed, but not an FCS team that had never played an FBS in their existence, much less a Major conference Champion.

 

That was a tough loss. Our biggest problem was the fact that Alabama had a huge offensive line and a great defensive line. Then we don't help ourselves with two bad interceptions, one of them coming back for a touchdown. I expected more, but we started too late to make the game competitive.

I still think we make a BCS bowl. Alabama is simply too good and will beat a lot of teams badly. The bad start cost us and we showed enough in the second half to make me believe we can dominate our conference.

And the SEC is still overrated. They showed the Alabama schedule and it was pretty weak except for the Arkansas and LSU games. South Carolina is overrated and Georgia gave up 23 points against Buffalo. The media and fans of the SEC can think what they want, Alabama and LSU will dominate again and South Carolina and Georgia will fail to produce yet again.

 

27 - 14 loss aint all that bad. looks like Competed to me.

Meanwhile Pitt fans must be zonked. 31-17 loss to Youngstown State?!!!! YS is never a pushover but hey, they're no Cincinnati, either.

 

Joker's done at Kentucky, folks. Louisville is trending up, UK down, at least as it pertains to pigskin. As for Charlie Strong, this is probably his last season as the Cardinal head coach, as all the "football schools" will wave large wads of cash at him around bowl season.