College Football 2012

[Dorian Thompson]

Don't say that. That would suck big time. I'm tired of the SEC. Anything but yet another rematch.

Savannah State basically had the mercy rule called on them last night.

Oh yeah. I saw that Florida State had only clipped them by 55. I didn't realize the game was called in the third. That's pitiful.

But Savannah State's athletic department willingly took the games for an extremely high payoff. Their budget is only $4 million, and the two games netted them nearly $1 million. OK State suddenly had an open date that needed to be filled, and so did Florida State because West Virginia canceled their game when they joined the Big 12. No one forced Savannah State, and Mike Gundy pulled all of his starters after the first quarter. Wes Lunt only played for one quarter and everyone else exited soon afterwards. He emptied the bench, quite literally. Even the walk ons were playing and SSU still couldn't even move the ball enough to make a field goal.

OK State is suffering because their best offensive lineman went down during summer practice. It's O-State's O-line that was remarkable last season and it returned largely intact for this season; that's why hopes were so high. Losing Bowie was crucial and now Devon Hedgepeth, their second best lineman, went down with an injury this week and may not be back. That's not good. Last year's defense, while iffy, could at least force turnovers. Their two best defensive players, Ori Lemon and Jamie Blatnick, both graduated. That doesn't bode well with Hedgepeth going down to injury.

The irony is that the press kept talking about Wes Lunt dislocating his kneecap and being out 3 to 4 weeks, but while Lunt is extremely promising, O-State's backup QB is just as good. His name is JW Walsh and he was the heir apparent until Lunt showed up out of nowhere as a true freshman. Walsh is a redshirt freshman; that's why he didn't see mop up duty last year. He was the prize recruit O-State snagged, then Gundy forgot all about him when Lunt appeared. He performed extremely well this week and while the press is making a big deal of it, no one here is worried about O-State's QB play. It's the O-line and D-line that's going to sink O-State if they don't figure something out pronto. They've got a bye week, then there's Texas.

Personally, if you put a truth serum in me, Kansas State and West Virginia are the two best teams in the league this year. O-State isn't promising and OU, as usual, is highly overrated in the preseason and will get the breaks because of it.

[Starbreaker]

I'm all for the money games. Whatever helps these smaller schools. I've seen JSU play plenty of teams, get the crap out of them, take the money, and go play somebody our own size the next week. Got drilled by Mississippi State, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, and gonna get killed by Florida later this year. I did get to see them beat Ole Miss and come close to beating Florida state. We actually might stand a chance against Auburn next year unless they improve drastically.

[Dorian Thompson]

I guess it's just considered a part of life for some players at smaller schools. I wish good luck to them. Didn't James Madison upset Virginia Tech 2 seasons ago?

[Starbreaker]

Yeah, and Appalachian State over Michigan a few years before that, and there are a lot of smaller FBS teams that go down every year that don't really get any attention.

Week 4 Upset Picks:

BYU over Boise State
Kansas State over Oklahoma

[Dorian Thompson]

That Kansas State pick's looking good. There's something very shaky about Oklahoma's offense and defense. It's not a lack of physical talent--it's just that the big, bragadocious killer instinct just doesn't seem to be there anymore. They're mistake ridden. If that defense isn't on top of its game, Colin Klein could take it apart. Landry Jones is suffering from a lack of Ryan Broyles and--I don't care how good and reserved a kid he is--it has got to drive him bonkers that now they're putting in Blake Bell for third and short situations like they did at the goal line all second half of last season. The "Belldozer" the announcers call him. If you have to keep putting in the big bruiser who's waiting for his turn to start at QB next season, that's indicative that there's something wrong with the offense of today. Also, Landry's a senior now with hopes of the NFL and that eats into his own stats. He says all the right things, but he'd be less than human if that didn't piss him off in the extreme.

Ironically, the transfer receiver from Penn State (I'm blanking on the name) isn't doing to badly but still....I've watched them. It's not a number 4 or 5 team in the country. USC, Stanford, Alabama certainly would slaughter them.

[Starbreaker]

Oklahoma is one of those teams that the media just loves for some reason. They're still holding onto to that 2000 National Championship like it happened yesterday. They start off ranked in the top 10 every year, but they always end up losing anywhere from 1-3 games putting them out of championship contention. As of right now, I think they're going to lose to Kansas State, an explosive Texas, and probably West Virginia.

[Dorian Thompson]

Man, that's going to be embarrassing as hell if West Virginia takes the conference title right out of the gate. It's a realistic possibility, though. Don't count on Texas beating them, though. They may have looked decent against a crap Mississippi team, but Texas' QB play is dreadful. They have the exact opposite problem of O-State.

[tighr]

Dorian Thompson wrote:

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Man, that's going to be embarrassing as hell if West Virginia takes the conference title right out of the gate. It's a realistic possibility, though. Don't count on Texas beating them, though. They may have looked decent against a crap Mississippi team, but Texas' QB play is dreadful. They have the exact opposite problem of O-State.

I really wanted Nebraska to win the Big 12 title their last year (and if it weren't for some funky rules, they might have), and I also wanted them to win the Big 10 out of the gate (unfortunately they had a collapse).

[Caligula]

1001001 wrote:

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I expect USC will drop significantly in the polls.

And they did. Not near as drastically as Arkansas (the poor bastards), but it was a decent-sized drop. I actually really like USC... I just hate their coach. So I can live with seeing USC lose since it means seeing Lane Kiffin embarrassed.

[Briquettes]

Dorian Thompson wrote:

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Man, that's going to be embarrassing as hell if West Virginia takes the conference title right out of the gate.

I would love to see that happen, but I don't think you'll have to worry. In my 28 years of being a WVU fan I've learned to never underestimate the Mountaineers' ability to completely fall apart at the most inconvenient times. Whenever I hear someone in the press talk about last season they always bring up the Clemson blowout. They don't mention the embarrassing Syracuse game , the heart breaker against Louisville, or the near-disaster against Pitt.

[B.J.]

Tennessee was actually looking good against Florida, until we got to the second half. What the heck happened there?

And my wife is extremely relieved that her Auburn Tigers (barely) managed to get a win in OT over UL-Monroe. Of course, I think that's just because ULM's kicker was having a crap day. If they hadn't won Saturday, Auburn could very well be 0-4 or worse in the coming weeks. Some people are wondering how the 2010 National Champs could be so lousy this year, I tell them that Georgia Tech went from National Champs in 1990 to 1-10 in 1994.

[tomalak301]

Caligula wrote:

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And they did. Not near as drastically as Arkansas (the poor bastards), but it was a decent-sized drop. I actually really like USC... I just hate their coach. So I can live with seeing USC lose since it means seeing Lane Kiffin embarrassed.

Not only did USC drop quite a bit, the biggest mover up was Stanford, going from 21 to 9. I'll say that was a really big upset.

[Caligula]

B.J. wrote:

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Tennessee was actually looking good against Florida, until we got to the second half. What the heck happened there?

Gave up the big plays, got shellshocked, and basically surrendered. Also Florida has more depth than my Vols do. I didn't know this until they played each other Saturday night, but it became obvious as they continued to rotate their lineup and those that were supposed to be our playmakers just plain tired out.

[1001001]

Well, as of this writing, DirecTV has not made a deal with the Pac 12 Network, so no USC/Cal game tomorrow.

I hate this crap!

[bullethead]

1001001 wrote:

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Well, as of this writing, DirecTV has not made a deal with the Pac 12 Network, so no USC/Cal game tomorrow.

I hate this crap!

There's always streams...

And now I really hate the fact that my Xbox RROD'd, because their ESPN app would've let me watch everything on ESPN legally. Now I have to rely on crappy streams for games that aren't in my area