College Football Weekend September 26th

Thankfully last week Virginia Tech saved my bacon in the last minute of the game or I would have been completely wrong about every game. As a reward I am pushing Virginia Tech under the bus and picking Miami this week. That’s what you get for helping me, my thanks and then I sell you out.

Most people have some conviction about the Thursday night game this week, feeling that perhaps South Carolina is a trap game for Mississippi. My question is, how is Ole Miss ranked 4^th? Was I asleep at the wheel or something? How does a team that went 9-4 last year with losses to wake Forrest and Vanderbilt get ranked in the top 10 to start the next year? Well I won’t stand for it, and I won’t write about the game, because South Carolina is going to win.

Sadly this is my last column….in the month of September (I bet for the briefest moment a dozen people got really excited there). September is my favorite month of football, it contains all measure of surprises and excitement, it paints a picture for the rest of the year and tells me that fall is coming. On to comments:

“Umm how about Georgia v. Arkansas? Dawgs had a solid game against USC last week.” – Alex

Arkansas sucks and that game was bust, and I’m writing about Georgia this week.

“Such a sad sad weekend for college football. Here I am in Chicago and I don't even care that I have no chance of being around Louisville for the Louisville-Kentucky game. A game that used to be at least a tiny bit interesting based on having that sunday on labor day weekend time slot and one of the teams not being half bad now has absolutely no reason to attract viewers. While Steve Kragthorpe continues to throw dirt on the now cold carcass of what used to be Louisville football, Kentucky is coming off a banner run of three bowl games and is projected to finish the season...second to last in the SEC. Last year's contest was barely watchable. I think it's the only time I have ever attended a football game in person and been more entertained by the commercial breaks. Prediction!!

Kentucky 35
Louisville 13

Louisville plays 3 quarterbacks, at least once attempting to use 2 at the same time, and being effective enough to muster 0 TD and 3 ints. Victor Anderson runs well enough that the announcers in the booth are caught talking about how he should find 10 other guys and join an actual team when espnu comes back from commercial early. Kentucky runs...and runs...and runs...and runs, controlling the game clock and easily putting up 5 TD, never coming close to relinquishing the 21-3 halftime lead. During the 4th quarter John Calipari makes an appearance for a live on-air interview and briefly chastises Pitino for knocking up his wife before taking credit for the victory by saying he helped "bring kentucky back". In the post game interview Kragthorpe talks about the smiles on the faces of the children in the stands when we play. When informed that this was a road game, he asks for a copy of the final score to be faxed to his office and heads off for his afternoon nap. Brooks mumbles about fishing and tomato gardens for 10 minutes. A disheveled Mrs. Kragthorpe stumbles into the press conference late, followed 5 minutes later by a grinning Rick Pitino in a silver suit...with perfect hair.

Let it be known that all these predictions were emailed prior to kickoff.” – Paul

Least optimistic e-mail ever? Also possibly the greatest ever, all I’ll say is that this game was closer then I thought. On to games.

Saturday 26 September

Fresno State at #14 Cincinnati 12PM EST

Fresno is a tough team, and if you watched the game last Friday, when they wouldn’t stop trading long touchdowns with Boise, you know that the Bulldogs aren’t afraid to explode on offense, either through the air or on the ground. The Bearcats of Cincinnati (which I can never spell correctly) have a stud of a quarterback in Senior Tony Pike, who is completing over 70% of his passes. He’ll need to slow down the fleet footed Junior Running Back for the Bulldogs, Ryan Mathews, who is averaging 9.1 yards a carry for his 49 carries this year (can you do the math)?

Both teams are top 10 in the nation in offense, so I expect a high scoring fast pace game. Fresno has a really tough out of conference schedule this year, and sorry to say but it looks like they are going to go winless against their third big team, Cincinnati has had a surprisingly hot start, look for them to continue that into the month of October. Fresno will be back though, they look to return an entire team of seniors next year, so look out.

South Florida at #14 Florida State 12 PM EST

The Florida State Seminoles bullied BYU last weekend in an unexpected rout of the previously unbeaten BCS hopeful Cougars. Florida’s defense played fast and hit hard and some have said that it’s the “fastest defense in FSU history”. QB Christian Ponder was quite literally on fire against BYU last week, completing over 80% of his passes and running for 77 yards and one touchdown. The South Florida Bulls lost four year starter, and sometimes miracle worker QB Matt Grothe last weekend to a knee injury, and left to pick up the pieces is redshirt freshman BJ Daniels.

On paper, Florida State is better at every position except for maybe defensive back. Florida State is also playing at home and they just got done winning a road game against the highly touted BCS buster BYU. Also on paper there’s no way that the South Florida defense should be able to stop the running game of Florida State and the Bulls quarterback has no experience. Lucky for us they don’t play the games on paper, and I think that Florida State might be a little too full of themselves and the team is going to have a hard time playing at such a high level for a second week in a row. This is the team that only beat Jacksonville State 19-9. I predict the South Florida pulls the upset, I thik their defense is athletic enough to hang with the Seminoles and keep it close in time for a late game upset.

#22 North Carolina at Georgia Tech 12PM EST

Georgia Tech got embarrassed on national television last Thursday night against Miami. The Yellow Jackets vaunted triple option attack gained a paltry 95 yards on the ground and only one receiver caught any passes, needless to say they weren’t too thrilled to get blown out at home. The North Carolina Tarheels has the number 7 rush defense in the nation, so a major point of contention between these two teams is going to be whether or not Georgia Tech can run the ball. The formula is pretty simple, like the Pythagorean theorem! If Georgia Tech can run the ball, they can win, if they can’t then they can’t, also c squared! I’ll pick the home team.

#6 California at Oregon 3:30PM EST

The Ducks of Oregon pulled off the big upset against Utah last weekend at home. There are similarities between last weeks game and this game. The Cal Golden Bears are more skilled at virtually every position, just like Utah. Cal has a great running game and a solid defense, which is what Utah’s winning streak was built on. The difference here is the quality of the running back, Cal Junior running back Jahvid Best, who is a legitimate Heisman hopeful at this point in the season. Oregon’s biggest problem is the offensive line, who to put it nicely, has played inconsistently, and to put it not nicely, should be mopping up bathrooms at the stadium after the game to earn their keep.

Cal has done a great job of protecting the football thus far this year, if that continues they will win. If Oregon buys QB Jeremiah Masoli time to set his feet, then they will increase their chance of winning drastically. If Masoli is jumping around like he’s on hot coals all game, then fire up the mop and bucket. Expect Cal to come in run all over the Ducks.

#9 Miami at #11 Virginia Tech 3:30PM EST

For the second week in a row the Virginia Tech Hokies are playing in the game of the week. Last week they were able to pull off a last minute victory against a team that was overrated. Miami might be overrated as well but they have a history of coming into Lane Stadium and beating Tech at home. For some reason I can’t get over the fact that this is the first time since 2005 that both teams have been ranked for this meeting…That seems unnatural, this game used to be circled every year on everyone’s calendar, and now it’s like my birthday, worth noting, but you don’t circle the calendar.

Tech will need smart play from QB Tyrod Taylor, who will need to protect the ball and help out running back Ryan Williams, who will likely have problems finding holes against the swarming Miami defense. Miami is pumping Sophomore QB Jacory Harris as a Heisman guy, and so far he’s been great, he carved up Georgia Tech like a turkey, but I think the Hokies are less carve able but still quite turkey like. Miami has beaten two good teams, but I question whether they are really good or they have been beating up on ACC foes who have been down the last couple years. Hokies win at home, Miami hasn’t seen a defense this good yet this year. Have a good weekend!