Thunderbolts and lightning (very very frightening)! Photo via @bubbaprog.
College football season started off with a bang — or, more precisely, a loud crack of thunder — with a wild weekend that saw two games (Michigan-Western Michigan and West Virginia-Marshall) called early due to bad weather, and another (Notre Dame-South Florida) last for approximately 83 hours, plenty of time for roughly 26 red-zone turnovers by the Irish (or thereabouts), causing Brian Kelly to wake up the echoes even as Mother Nature shook down the thunder. Elsewhere, USC said au revoir to the Gophers, but without inspiring much confidence for Saturday’s game against the Utes, still less the rest of the season; erstwhile defense powerhouse TCU lost a Old West style shootout at Baylor; Boise State wiped the floor with SEC (it’s a WAR!) contender and virtual home team Georgia; newly independent BYU won at Ole Miss on a late defense touchdown (it’s a WAR!!); defending national champ Auburn nearly lost to Utah Freakin’ State of the WAC (it’s a WAR!!!); Oregon failed, again, to perform well in a big game, losing badly to LSU (it’s a…okay, LSU actually looked quite good); and Oregon State lost to Sacramento Freakin’ State of Division 1-AA (ugh).
In the 3rd annual Living Room Times College Football Pick ’em Contest, Chris Palm (@chrispalm) and Jacob Sommer (“The Commodore” a.k.a. “Irish ND”) are tied for the lead with 31-4 prediction records. (It’s the second straight year Sommer has led after Week 1.) All three got TCU-Baylor, Notre Dame-South Florida, and Oregon State-Sacramento State wrong. Palm also got LSU-Oregon wrong; Sommer got Colorado-Hawaii wrong.
Four contestants are just a point back: Marty West Paul Freelend (“Have Notebook Will Travel”), David K., @fuegote and @ndtex, all 30-5. Nine others are tied 2 points behind the leaders at 29-6. Complete standings here (visible only to group members, alas).
P.S. Here’s an exit question. True or false: despite their respective outcomes, the USC-Minnesota game provided more cause for long-term concern about the Trojans’ prospects this season than the Notre Dame-South Florida game did for the Irish’s prospects.
I say true. Notre Dame out-gained USF 2-1. By rights, they “should” have won that game, but mistakes got the better of them. The Irish are never going to commit that many turnovers in the red zone again; the law of averages won’t allow it. (Knock on wood.) Cut out that handful of terribly damaging stupid mistakes, and ND is in okay shape. USC, meanwhile, just doesn’t look very good.
I still think the Irish will beat the Trojans on October 22, and will finish with a better record. I stand by my preseason predictions of 9-3 for ND, 8-4 for USC. (Although 8-4 and 7-5 are certainly more in play today than they were on Friday.)
Semi-false. USC’s defense is drastically improved, and their defensive line can wreak havoc. The linebacker and secondary play will continue to improve, and we’ll see a defense that might not match the 2008 version, but will be much better than what we saw in 2009 or 2010. Barkley will establish a second go-to receiver, the offensive line will continue to improve, and Kiffin will eventually get more serious about using his running backs.
As for Notre Dame, I agree the yards vs. points suggest the game result was a bit anomalous, however that doesn’t change the fact that Notre Dame was a bit overrated to begin with. Notre Dame is just barely a Top 25 team, and “expert” expectations are now being reset accordingly.
I just hope Lane Kiffin has learned his lesson about 2-point conversions and stops being such a moron. Faint hope I fear but hope. I think USC will be fine, and will beat Notre Dame, if they take this game as a wake up call (I’m feeling the same way about Washington)
LSU looked great, Georgia lost and Auburn suffered one of the most humiliating victories ever. It was a great weekend.
I wouldn’t say LSU looked “great”, but they were vintage Les Miles: opportunistic. If DAT doesn’t have those two second-half fumbles (I’d give LSU credit if they were the result of hard hits, but really that was just a careless freshman not protecting the rock properly), if Oregon doesn’t flub the punt return and hand LSU the free touchdown in the first half, or — heck — if Oregon doesn’t give up that stupid pass interference penalty on third and long during LSU’s end-of-half scoring drive, Oregon probably wins that game.
The one observation I have about Oregon, stylistically and otherwise they are completely different from Tom Osborne’s Nebraska teams, but they share a similar weakness: if they suffer a few turnovers and/or defensive lapses and fall behind, they are at an incredible disadvantage trying to keep up — a combination of a gassed defense spending too much time on the field, and an inability to pass at will in a hurry-up offense.