After last night’s overtime thriller in Pasadena, the opening week of the new college football season is officially in the books. No teams in the top ten fell, but there was still plenty of drama around the country. Here’s some things I noticed in week one.
Orange Teams Fail: Clemson, Tennessee and Illinois all dropped their openers. Another year with preseason expectations in Clemson quickly evaporated, as the Tigers were absolutely dismantled by Nick Saban’s Alabama team. Make no mistake, Tommy Bowden is a hell of a recruiter. But giving the dynamic rushing duo of James Davis and CJ Spiller a whopping eight total carries? That’s grounds for not just unemployment, but a date with a firing squad. As for the Vols, they had two missed field goals, a block punt returned against them for a touchdown and another field goal taken off the board because of a penalty. And did I mention they lost despite four first half interceptions? Wow.
Down Goes Beanie: Sure, Ohio State barely broke a sweat in their season opener, routing Youngstown State 43-0. But despite the easy win, the Buckeyes may have just destroyed their season. Heisman canidate Chris “Beanie” Wells went down in the 3rd quarter with a foot injury. He’s doubtful for this weekend’s game against Ohio, but obviously the focus will be getting him healthy in time for next weekend’s clash with USC. Should Wells have been in the game to begin with? With a 26-0 lead already, it’s cerainly a point worth debating.
Speaking of USC…What problems? Mark Sanchez hurt? Their running backs banged up? It didn’t seem to matter. Sanchez threw three touchdown passes and three different USC running backs scored as well in SC’s 52-7 romp over Virginia. This doesn’t bode well for the Buckeyes. USC has more speed and athleticism than any team in the country. I don’t see Ohio State’s great defense being able to slow them down. The Trojans haven’t lost a nonconference regular season game since the Carson Palmer-led 2002 team dropped a close one to Kansas State.
ACC? More Like LOL. What a rough weekend this conference had. Two of its top teams, Clemson and Virginia Tech, were thoroughly outplayed in losses. Meanwhile, UNC and Maryland beat FCS teams by a combined 15 points. The only teams that had impressive starts were Wake Forest (who destroyed Baylor) and Miami, who cruised against useless Charleston Southern.
