College Football Week 1 Review

I may say this several times as each sport season approaches this year but I always get excited for the College Football Season. There is no better regular season in sports than College Football where every week matters to raise the crystal football and that includes Week 1. Here are my opinions of Week 1:
1. I’ve grown up in a crazy sports town but nobody as crazier about their football as the South. I know that Florida fans woke up this morning feeling more like they lost than won yesterday. Trust me Gator fans things will improve quicker down in Gainesville. Let’s not forget that that the Gators are playing a lot of young guys and in some cases freshman who before Saturday had never played in front of 90,000 in the Swamp. Florida demonstrated that they have some unbelievable athletes on both sides of the ball. I believe that this offense though ugly week one could be very similar to the offense that was directed by Chris Leake. John Brantley is going to be an extremely good passer from the pocket. Brantley’s got weapons in Jeffery Demps and Chris Rainey at his dispense. Bad performances are sometimes expected in Week 1 it’s not like the pros who have four pre-season games to prepare for the season. Give the Gators time they will turn out to be one of the best teams in the nation by the end of the year.

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2. I have to give props to Michigan’s Denard Robinson and this is coming from a Buckeye fan. This is the dangerous type of athlete that Rich Rodriguez has been looking for to run his spread attack. The problem with Robinson last year was he was unable to throw the ball which led to teams loading up the box to defend the run. In Saturdays game at home against UCONN Robinson completed 19/22 for 186 yards 1 TD through the air and carried the ball 29 times for 197 1 TD. This could be the best QB to run this attack for Rodriguez since his time at West Virginia and Pat White. The accuracy is the most impressive part of Robinson’s game. Last year they very rarely used him to pass and left the throwing to Tate Forcier (and by the way Tate you may want to find a school to transfer to, sorry). The only question that comes to my mind is Denard able to carry the ball that many times every ball game. We already saw him banged up in the 3rd quarter Saturday will he be able to carry the ball 30 times every week. Pat White never made it through an entire season with WVU.

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3. I have to point out the impressive performance by my hometown Buckeyes. I know it was Marshall but I was very pleased to see Terrelle Pryor looking for more receivers than just Posey. I thought that was almost a weakness for him last year. I believe while Pryor was in there he connected with seven different receivers. Pryor’s accuracy was also impressive as he completed 17/25 for 247 yards and 3 TDs. Let me tell you folks I am very excited about Jake Stoneburner this guy is going to be a nightmare match up for teams this season. He is a former wide receiver that knows how to run routes and is a huge guy that can exploit match ups with linebackers. The combination of Boom and Zoom (Dan Herron and Brandon Saine) were also solid in the game with a workman’s like effort. I am hoping to see some more of Jamaal Berry I thought he did very well towards the end of the game. Obviously the Buckeyes will get a much tougher game this week with the Hurricanes coming to town!

Quick Hits:

- Notre Dame gets the Denny Greene “they are who we thought they are award”, they looked no different under new coach Brian Kelly than in the last decade. They have a couple of nice players surrounded by mediocre slow athletes. Michael Floyd is and explosive athlete that will surely be a first round draft pick. I also was impressed with Armando Allen who in the spread offense will be even more dangerous at his size than before. I believe that Coach Kelly will get this program going but I do not see it with Dayne Crist at quarterback. The Irish are still at least a year or two away they need to solidify the QB position.

- TCU is a nice team but this is not a championship caliber team. They had a nice win over a fourth or fifth place team out of the Pac-10 in Oregon State. Andy Dalton will be a good quarterback all season for the Horned Frogs but this team lost to many pieces on defenses to compete with the upper echelon teams in the country.

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- I was not surprised at all to see the Utah Utes beat Pittsburgh on Thursday night I actually felt they would. You have to factor in home opener, difficult venue, Pittsburgh traveling cross country and a first time starter at quarterback. What this means for college football is that Utah along with TCU and maybe Boise will climb the polls throughout the season. This was by far Utah’s toughest game until they play TCU. Utah is well on their way to possibly an 11 win season. You heard it hear first.
- Similar to the feelings in Gainesville are going on in Sooner Country. The Oklahoma Sooners won a very ugly game over Utah State 31-24. Look that is definitely less than impressive but similar to Florida this is a young team that lost a lot of talent on their defense. Landry Jones due to the injury of Sam Bradford was able to build chemistry with the offense towards the end of last season. They have two legitimate Heisman trophy candidates in Ryan Broyles at Wide Receiver and RB DeMarco Murray. Murray had 35 carries for 218 yards with 2 TDs against Utah State. I fully expect Murray to be a dark horse candidate in the Heisman race in December. Sooners fans your team will be fine do not let this tough week get you down as a formidable opponent in Florida State comes to town this week.

Top Performances

1. Denard Robinson Michigan 19/22 186 yards 1 TD and 29 rushes 197 yards 1 TD vs. UCONN
2. Daniel Thomas Kansas State 28 rushes 284 yards 2 TD vs. UCLA
3. Terrelle Pryor Ohio State 17/25 247 yards 3 TD vs, Marshall

4. Matt Barkley USC 18/23 257 yards 5 TD vs. Hawaii

5. Colty Blanchard Jacksonville St. 9/13 126 yards 2 TD vs. Ole Miss


What Was That?! Performances

1. Florida Offense: 26 Total yards of Offense going into the 4th quarter against Miami (OH) a team that only won one game a season ago. Also included 13 mishandled snaps!

2. Mississippi: Really Ole Miss your going to lose the season- Opener at home vs. Jacksonville State an FCS team, led by a freshman in the 4th quarter and overtime. I understand that Ole Miss was picked to finish at the bottom of the SEC but I thought even the bottom teams are excellent.

3. New Mexico Defense: 72-0 defeat to the Oregon Ducks. The Lobos gave up 720 yards of total offense. At least it was balanced I guess 351 yards passing and 369 rushing.
4. LSU Offense: Yes, you did put up 23 points on offense in the first half but failed to score the entire second half against the second and third team defense of North Carolina.