OK on we go! Some big games in week 2 as well and more than a few buy type of games from the big boys. Best games of the weekend. Oregon @ Ohio State. Oregon barely escaped last with the win vs Fresno State, they also likely lost their top player and the projected #1 overall draft pick Kayvon Thibodeaux a DE. Ohio State also had their own issues in their opening win vs Minn but the young QB CJ Stroud got rolling in the 2nd half. Home game for the Buckeyes, they don't lose many of those, so I don't expect Oregon to win either. But a win for Oregon would be a huge win for the Pac 12, bigger than the UCLA defeat of LSU. Iowa State @ Iowa. Cyclones avoided the big upset this season, last year they lost to Louisiana, but Univ of Norther Iowa failed to pull of that upset this year. But for a team with so many returning starters that had to be a disappointing win for Iowa State. On the other hand Iowa just annihilated Indiana and served notice that this might be one of really good Iowa seasons. Iowa State was a top 10 team, not sure if they still are, but still this is a big test for them, going into Iowa and taking on the Hawkeyes, win here and Iowa State is off and running. Washington @ Michigan. Preseason this looked to be a good matchup, but while Michigan cruised in it's opening win vs W.Michigan, Washington was upset by Montana and didn't show much life. Going to the big house with Michigan and Harbaugh wanting to establish themselves this season after an awful 2020 is a tall order. I imagine unless something happens to give the Huskies some life they ae looking at an epic beat down. Utah @ BYU ..The Holy War. The Cougars are on the cusp of joining the Big12 and Utah is a dark horse in the Pac 12 South. Utah is ranked but not BYU. Utah cruised in their win over Weber State while BYU went to Las Vegas for a neutral site win vs Arizona. Stanford @ USC The Cardinals traveled to KState and got their butts beat by KState. I don't know what's going on with Stanford but they haven't been very good recently. USC got a solid opening win vs San Jose State. USC is the favorite to win the Pac 12 South. Pitt @ Tenn both teams won last weekend vs inferior competition so don't know what to think here, other than it's a non-conf game between Power 5 conference teams. Texas @ Arkansas rekindling an old SWC rivalry. When I was a student at Texas the Arkansas game was the #2 game behind the OU game on the schedule. We hated Arkansas! Longhorns got off to a good start with the win over a good Louisiana team and Arkansas struggled a bit with Rice before figuring it out and wining handily. Going to the hills was never easy back in the SWC days, doubt if it's gotten any easier. Sam Pittman was one of those hires people just ignored, he wasn't a hot young up and comer. But he did a good job of even if he didn't have a winning season last year. They looked better than they had under Fat Bret. Texas fans are of course pumped by the good game that new QB Hudson Card had vs Louisiana but going on the road is a different story. He'll need to have help from his defense and running game. Everybody else, Alabama, Georgia, OU, Clemson, etc are playing teams that they should win handily. The Irish take on Toledo who is supposedly the best MAC team this year.
The Aggies will attempt to redeem the SEC's image after L$U made us look bad by taking on Colorado in Denver. I think I remember the PAC being a P5 conference, but Terry didn't mention it so... Should be a win, but weird stuff has happened to us there before.
How did I miss that game! It is a Power 5 non-conference game. Ag's are 17 point favorites though. Playing at altitude in Boulder is always a challenge for sea level teams, no matter what the sport. The Texas A&M Aggies (1-0) and Colorado Buffaloes (1-0) meet Saturday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. Below, we look at the Texas A&M vs. Colorado odds and lines; check back for our college football picks and predictions. No. 6 Texas A&M opened with an impressive 41-10 win over Kent State, shutting down a rather powerful offense. The Aggies rolled up 303 rushing yards and 292 passing yards, covering the spread while hitting the Under. Colorado scratched out a 35-7 win over FCS Northern Colorado, running for 281 yards and four touchdowns while also passing for 102 yards. The Buffaloes need to be more disciplined after committing 12 penalties for 118 yards.
One other thing interesting this week will be the B12 expansion. Houston Cougars are going to vote this week and are very eager to join the B12. The Big 12's expansion plans are coming into focus following the sudden departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC this summer. The Big 12 is prepared to invite BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to join the conference in the near future if league presidents vote in the affirmative at a planned meeting this coming week, sources tell CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. Big 12 expansion: League to meet about offering BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF membership
Polls are out, no surprises. In the Coaches Poll: Alabama,Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M are the top 5 with Clemson dropping to 6th. Irish remain #7. Big movers up were Iowa and Penn State almost moving to the top 10. UCLA, Utah, Va.Tech and Ariz State all went from unrated to top 25 with UCLA debuting at #16. Miami and UNC just barely hung on to their top 25 status. There is quite a bit of divergence between the Coaches and the AP polls, top 5 is the same but in the rest have some differences. Gators ar #9 in Coaches and #13 in AP. Iowa is #10 in AP and Iowa State is #10 in Coaches.
I would have kept Clemson at 5 to be honest. I like the Aggie's potential, but they aren't ready for prime time quite yet. The Big XII needs to get the ball rolling. I guess Cougar High will bring them some of that market, but from what I saw they can't even sell out their little stadium from week to week, so not sure how much they really add.
The Big 12 needs to forget about adding revenue, none of those teams are going to move the needle very much, not even BYU. They need to focus on having enough teams to have a legitimate conference. Having 12 teams, even if the conference makeup is more like the AAC than the ACC, they still need to do it.
ESPN has something they call their Football Power Index or FPI. It's some formula based rankings, computer I guess. This week it has pretty much the same top 6 six slightly different order. Alabama Clemson ??? Ohio State Oklahoma Georgia A&M and Ta da...Texas at #7! Florida Notre Dame Auburn 2021 College Football Power Index | ESPN
A bit of a surprise, I know we (ND fans) complain that Kelly has been a lazy recruiter and that as a result we just don't have the players to truly compete with the elite teams. But we must have some good players if these numbers mean anything.
Texas/Arkansas “As far as this ballgame going to Arkansas, it’s a pretty cool game,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “To think this’ll be the 79th time these two schools have met, it’s pretty special for that opportunity. Obviously, old Southwest Conference foes to meet.” In the last 40 years, the Longhorns and the Razorbacks have met 13 times. Since 1992, several of those meetings have taken place at neutral sites. This Saturday, Texas returns to Fayetteville for the first time since 2004 and for just the fifth time since 1981. Fred Akers’ Longhorns marched into Fayetteville in 1981 as the No. 1 team in the country. They walked out with a 42-11 defeat. Four years later, Akers returned to Razorback Stadium and topped a Ken Hatfield-led team 15-13. Texas wouldn’t return to Northwest Arkansas for another four years when David McWilliams topped Hatfield in a 24-20 contest. Fifteen years passed before Mack Brown’s Longhorns returned to Fayetteville in 2004, topping a Houston Nutt-coached team 22-20. Two contests between the schools have taken place since 2004, but Texas finally returns to one of the more hostile environments for those donning the burnt orange.
More Texas v Arkansas: 1979 Lou Holtz Story Classic Lou: Texas was ranked #1. Arkansas, under Lou Holtz, was #10 . The Hogs won 17-14 as Texas missed a 50-yard field goal at the end of the game. Right before Arkansas went on a 16-play drive from inside their 10 for the winning score, Lou performed a trick to get the crowd lathered up some more (if possible) and to put Texas back on their heels. There was a penalty called on Arkansas that he protested. As the refs ignore Holtz standing 10 yards on the field screaming at them – he takes off his watch and hurls it all the way into the north end zone. The crowd gets really nasty (I know, that’s redundant). Nothing is called on Holtz, who later tells reporters that it was his Orange Bowl watch from 1977. Nope. Holtz had an old watch he brought to the game. He had planned all along to pull this act at some point
Interesting stat about players in the NFL. I assume that you saw the trivia question about the last ND defensive player drafted in the top ten picks. (1994????!!) Some were underrated like Chase Claypool. Harrison Smith should have been a top ten pick. The fact is, the top D linemen go to Clemson, Alabama, Ga. or Ohio State. We've struggled to get 5* at that position for years.
I guess this LSU fan had a premonition how the game would turn out by hitting the hard stuff at kickoff. Plus bonus points for using an iPhone to hide the booze she smuggled into the stadium.
No, that's just a typical L$U fan. Usually stone drunk the whole game. A very endearing trait I can tell you.
With Eddie O headed towards the hot seat somebody wrote an article about who should replace him. 1. Billy Napier ...has been at Alabama and Clemson, has done a great job at Louisiana. 2. Will Healy ..the Charlotte coach, don't know anything about him. 3. Bob Stoops...really? I can't think of a guy who has been linked to more jobs than Stoops and all he did was get another raise out of OU. He's never coaching again. 4. Jeff Traylor ...Great HS coach in Texas, moved to college and is now the UTSA HC, and doing a good job, but wow..talk about a big leap, I can't see it. 5. Joe Brady..the man behind that 2019 LSU record breaking offense and Joe Burrow. Now in the NFL with the Panthers as the OCoord. Now this would be a great hire, should be #2 on the list. Other options to replace Ed Orgeron at LSU: Willie Fritz (Tulane head coach), Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina head coach), Gus Malzahn (UCF head coach), Mike Neu (Ball State head coach), Skip Holtz (Louisiana Tech head coach)
They would probably hire Malzahn just to piss me off. Was SOO tired of that guy, and to have him next door would SUCK. You forgot to put Gruden on the list!
This of course changes week to week. AP ranked opponents remaining for the current AP top 10: 1) Alabama 13, 20, 5, 25 2) Georgia 25, 13 3) Ohio St 12, 11 4) Oklahoma 15, 10 5) Texas A&M 1, 25, 20 6) Clemson 7) Cincinnati 8 8) Notre Dame 18, 7, 19, 14, 24 9) Iowa State 10, 15, 4 10) Iowa 9, 11, 18
I see that the stud DE for Oregon will not be able to play today at the Shoe. Buckeyes are 9-0 vs Oregon, might have had a little chance if that guy could have played.