Week 1 Review and Looking Ahead
So much for sportsmanship week! I’m guessing that’s not quite was the American Football Coaches Association had in mind. That’s why handshakes don’t work in football, players gets amped up, there are a ton of rivalries and traditions, the regular season means so much more because there isn’t a playoff system. You just can’t put that amount of players in front of each other all amped up before or after a game and expect nothing to happen. I thought it was a bad idea when I heard about it and I still think it’s a bad idea. The fact that we made it through the weekend with just a suckerpunch and not a complete riot on the field before a game, especially a game like Noles v Canes, we’re lucky.
Notre Dame vs Michigan this weekend. Both of these coaches need a win very badly. With big wins over cupcakes last week, this game sets nicely and despite not really caring for either team, I’m interested in the matchup this weekend because I think it will make a huge difference on the rest of the season for each team.
Blowouts – As usual, lots of blowouts in week one. Not only just in games against cupcakes, but in other games as well because some teams just aren’t as prepared as others. Here’s my suggestion for the NCAA regarding opening weekend. Let’s have everyone play FCS teams. Sure, almost every game will be a blowout, that’s why we aren’t going to count it toward the BCS standings and we aren’t going to count it in the overall record. That will give everyone a chance to hit and run the offense full speed against someone other than your own defense. Similar to the preseason in the NFL, the opening game would serve as a warm-up for the season, a chance to see what you have without much risk. The better teams could play their second and third teams the second half and get a better idea of how the depth chart should look like. But that’s it for the FCS team, after week 1, no one can play a FCS team the rest of the season. I’m also considering saying that in Week 2, no one is allowed to play league games and everyone needs to play out of conference. Since FCS teams are off the table after week 1, we’d get a ton of great games for week 2. In fact, we could even have a small incentive (like $5000/team) to play another school from a BCS conference.
ACC - Embarrassing. Ouch. Especially Virginia and Duke. And Maryland. Virginia and Duke lost to William & Mary and Richmond respectively! That is embarrassing. Last week, the ACC made the Big Ten look good.
Important games this week – Obviously, everyone is talking about USC-Ohio State. I’m thinking that I’ll be changing the channel by halftime, sorry Ohio State fans, I just don’t see how OSU is going to score on USC at all. I think UNC-Conn should be a good game and I’m hoping that the ACC can somewhat redeem itself. UCLA-Tennessee intrigues me and I think Tennessee pulls out a surprising win. I’m interested in the Mississippi State-Auburn game because like the Notre Dame/Michigan game, I think both teams need a win to give their teams confidence or it could be a long season for either team.