College Football Weekend September 4th-6th

So my predictions were slightly askew last week, but fear not, I shall endeavor to do better! One thing I would like to highlight from last week is how darn good both Missouri and Illinois looked.in that shoot out in St. Louis. They both looked like teams in mid-season form at times and barring major injuries I think they both will be top ten come the end of the year. Missouri especially looked crisp, during the game all I could think about was how good and clean their offense looked, I think that they may be underrated given their number 6 ranking. Seriously, it's very rare to see a team look that good in week one, much less against a team that went to a BCS Bowl last year. Much like a reunion tour for 'The Smiths' I would love to see a rematch between those two teams again later in the year. Anyway on to the comments and then the games of the week (which is pretty bleak, just like my prospects of becoming a swimsuit model).

Comments:
"Marty, I was surprised to see VT getting beat by eastern carolina." -Ken
More than one of the big college football writers in this country picked East Carolina to win, which was odd at the time but they were proven correct. I alas am nothing but a small time chump so I went with the traditional powerhouse and fell flat on my face. I didn't figure on VT having such an anemic offense. East Carolina has apparently been building quite a program over the last couple of years and allegedly has been trying to get picked up by a bigger football conference. Well beating Tech is one way to announce to the world that you are wonderful, let's see how they fare against the West Virginia Mountaineers this weekend. In the meantime although they are in prime ACC territory East Carolina should really shoot for the stars and join a real conference like the Big East.

"How about real college football? Students that actually graduate playing a game? Where's your Ivy League predictions? Too hard? You too lazy or just uninformed?" - Dear old Dad
How about no Ivy League teams played last week dingus and only one team from the Patriot league played so let's just say that I forgot to write about one of the other teams. Although it seems there's no pleasing you unless I write about Penn.

"That article made my eyes bleed it was so long, can you take me to the airport at some ungodly hour of the morning Saturday morning?" - Cara
Ugh, yes obviously on the airport thing since it already happened and had a short anecdote involved with it. On the other point, sorry about the length of the last one, it was because I was lazy and didn't do a preseason preview and rolled it all up into one big dealie (that's a scientific word, "Oh look Dr. Johnson, that dealie is homogenizing". So tough tiddilewinks, also happy birthday.

Games of the week:
No. 8 West Virginia at East Carolina - It was a reasonably large upset last week when the Pirates of East Carolina beat Virginia Tech last week. It would be a much bigger deal to beat West Virginia this week and if they are going to do it then QB Patrick Pinkney is going to have to have another lights out game. In the meantime the East Carolina defense will have to bottle up WVU QB Pat White who threw for 5 TD's last weeks game as well as running for 7.2 yards a carry. Next to White will be the smallest running back ever, Noel Devine, who once famously stole Deon Sanders car to take a flight home, I'm not making this up. The Pirates defense will probably be able to contain the passing or the running game of WVU, but not both. It may be a close game because it's a home game for East Carolina but other than that I think every advantage points to the mountaineers and they should win easy.

Cincinnati at No. 4 Oklahoma - Oklahoma seem to be the darlings of everyone this except for me of course, I'm not sold on them and so I get no date to the prom :( But they do have talent in Sophomore QB Sam Bradford and RB DeMarco Murray who is trying to fill the clown sized shoes of current NFL star Adrian Petersen. Oklahoma had a player stabbed at a night club incident after last weeks games and Bob Stoops the coach most likely pulled the reins in a bit on his players this week, could affect how they perform but probably not enough to make them lose. The Cincinnati Bearcats are coming off a season in which they won 10 games including 3 against top 20 teams. But they're starting quarterback from last year, Ben Mauk, had his request for a final year of eligibility denied by the NCAA so they will be starting senior Dustin Grutza. Cincinnati has been a program with lots of growth and progress in the last couple of years but they probably aren't quite to the level where they can go in to Norman, Oklahoma and pull out a victory. This should be a high scoring game but Oklahoma should have the edge.

Miami (FL) at No. 5 Florida - Once upon a time this would have been an early meeting of two top 5 teams. But as my good friend (ok maybe not good but I saw him in concert once) Bob Dylan said, "The times they are a changin". Miami is a shell of its former self and this year and probably the next two will be rebuilding years. The Florida Gators on the other hand are primed for success with Heisman winner QB Tim Tebow who is a threat to score running the ball or throwing the ball or stealing our hearts with his lovable smile. Tebow has quite a few weapons to work with in addition to that crazy smile, WR/RB Percy Harvin will be back and he'll work with speedsters Chris Rainey and Jeffery Demps who scored on a 62 yard touchdown run last week. Miami used to be the standard for defensive excellence however it is unlikely that they've restocked enough told hold back the Florida offense. The Hurricanes will also start QB Robert Marve, who broke many of Tim Tebow's high school records. But you need to have more than a one man show to beat a whole team, except Steven Segal, he could do it, but Miami won't.

Duquesne at Bucknell - Throwing it down for my homies from Duquesne (you know exactly who you are). This is a little down and dirty Pennsylvania blood fest between two great academic schools. The always crafty (read:Cheaters) Bucknell Bison will look to upend the Duquesne Dukes. For those of you who are unaware Bucknell is located along the Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg near the site of the little league hall of fame. They are well known by visiting teams for having obnoxious field turf that gets black rubber bits in your eyes and having a large country store with a fantastic buffet including some amazing raspberry cobbler. Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic university in Pittsburgh. I can't really tell you about either of these teams since neither of them have played yet this year except to say that last year they played each other with the Bison winning. But the Dukes rebounded back and went 6-4 while Bucknell were 3-8. But I'll place my faith in the Bison and their superior Patriot League ability and academic prowess to say they'll win by a touchdown.

That's all for this week, it's kinda a dry week for college football, but tune in next week for a meeting of top 5 teams.