The College Football Thread 2006

[Drake Tungsten]

I think it's a sign that more top teams are scheduling marquee non-conference matchups.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Very nice weekend for college football. Michigan annihilating Notre Dame, really rattling Brady Quinn. It seems that Penn State last week, for whatever reason, didn't follow the playbook on how to rattle Quinn as Ohio State showed in the bowl game last year. ND is in some trouble as it definately isn't as good as they hype was.

Is there a more unlucky team in college football than Louisville? First game they lose their Heisman hopeful and perhaps best back in the country, Michael Bush. Third game, beating down Miami, they lose their starting QB, Brian Brohm for 3-6 weeks. Now, thankfully they have a great system and some great depth that they don't have too much dropoff (Cantwell seemed to be just as effective against the Canes). And that defense is pretty solid. They'll probably stay undefeated (though won't look as impressive as they would normally) until the big game with West Virginia. After that, who knows what'll happen.

Oh, and LSU/Auburn was boring. It wasn't as much a 'defensive struggle' as it was both offenses not clicking yet. Why do I say this? Because later on in the season teams are going to score far more on each of these defenses than 7 or 3 points.

And Guy, underestimate WVU at your peril. Ask Georgia about that, and now both White and Slaton have a year of experience, and Slaton looks absolutely amazing. If they do have a weak point, it may be that defense, but any offense has to outscore them first.

[Guynemer]

... and that's where I think Louisville is going to beat them. I may well be wrong; lord knows my predictions thus far have been for ****e.

[Guynemer]

The Pac-10 has suspended the crew from the OU-UO game, and rightly so. Small comfort for the Sooners.



This upcoming week looks... weak. Some potential trap games (PSU@OSU, Wisc@Mich, UL@KSU, ND@MSU), but nothing really earth shattering. It appears that the ABC night game, and destination for the GameDay crew, will be: USC @ Arizona.

[PLATO]

Vols vs Marshall

Pay per view...

let down game...

probably lose....

[TCO]

Originally posted by DanS
I crossedited you with regard to respect v. hate.

Damnit, Dan!

[DanS]

Don't think I'll every change my stripes...

[TCO]

If Navy beats Tulsa (assume we just squeek by), will we be in the top 25?

[Guynemer]

It appears there will be two 8PM EST games, USC-Arizona and ND-MSU. One can only hope that the Gameday crew will be in East Lansing for what is probably the day's most interesting game.

[Drake Tungsten]

Why would anyone want to watch ND after last week's performance? If the Gameday guys are smart, they'll be at USC-Arizona...

[Guynemer]

MSU-ND usually play each other tight, and there is probably some bad blood left over from the Spartans' horrible behavior last year.

When was the last time Arizona was even remotely good?

[DanS]

Originally posted by Guynemer
But, regardless of that, you are 100% correct and I hope the Irish run them off the field next week for what happened last year. Get to Stanton early, because it doesn't look like your DBs will not be up to the task of controlling the passing game.

If the team plays like they did last week, then they won't be able to beat anybody. If they don't go on tilt, then we'll have a good ballgame. The D has actually looked OK for the first 3 games -- even during the Michigan game. There were a couple of wide open Michigan receivers that made you shake your head and wonder, but Henne did a good job putting the ball on target the other times.

The last couple of days, I've been doing some looking at history. Oddly, the last 4 years ND beat MSU at MSU and vice-versa. Also, I reviewed Knute Rockne's record and believe it or not, there were some blowout losses during his tenure. Maybe things aren't quite as bad as they appeared at 7 o'clock last Saturday, when my confidence in Charlie Weis to keep all the games close was shaken.

[Imran Siddiqui]

But both 'Zona and MSU are unranked. Go to the school that has the higher ranked team, that'd be USC.

[Guynemer]

Splitting hairs here, but MSU is in the ARV category (ranked #30), has a Heisman candidate, and MSU-ND is at least a rivalry game.

Really, it's the best of a bad bunch this weekend. Only two games between Top 25 teams; OSU will absolutely expose PSU, and not too much to get excited about with Cal-ASU, really.

[DanS]

Penn State - OSU was just announced as the College Gameday site. That sounds about right.

Maybe they changed their mind about always promoting the night game. This is the first game where the Saturday game is split, so maybe they made an exception.