Tuesday, September 04, 2007

NCAA Roundup

With week 1 in the books, this season promises to be nothing if not exciting.

The top story? Nothing short of the biggest upset in college football history. Michigan finally stooped to the level of its peers, paying I-AA Appalachian State $400,000 to come to the Big House and take their beating. But the two-time defending I-AA champs had other plans. They walked into the Big House and beat the Skunkbears on their own turf. And this wasn't any more of a fluke than Georgia Tech beating ND - the Mountaineers were better prepared, better coached, and executed better throughout the game. If Appalachian State had played like that with I-A top 25 athletes, they'd have spanked the Wolverines by 40.

The rest of the weekend was as good as the matchups, which is to say not so good. The slew of I-A and I-AA matchups resulted n embarassing scores across the board. The winner of the "Show No Mercy, Have No Shame" Award? Oklahoma, with their 69 point shellacking of North Texas eking out Louisville's 63 point win over Murray State. Even my perennial underperforming alma mater Indiana feasted on Indiana State to the tune of 55-7.

There were two decent games - Cal vs. Tennessee and Florida State vs. Clemson.

Cal got their revenge against the Volunteers by scoring on offense, defense, and special teams, making up for an inability to stop the Vols from scoring. Cal has a lot of weapons this year, which should let them keep winning despite a mediocre defense.

The Florida State game looked to be another harbinger of mediocrity for Florida State this season through most of 3 quarters, as they fell down 21 to the Clemson Tigers. But then the Seminoles woke up, shut down the Tiger rushing attack and found an identity on offense. It was ultimately too little too late, though as the Seminole charge fell short, 24-18.

2 comments:

jim / Redondo Beach said...

I find it interesting that you didn't comment on the amazing difference between the speed of Clemson and Cal and the plodding of Notre Dame. How many years do we have to keep making that observation?

Wacko said...

I don't think there is a huge speed differential. The difference is in decisiveness. Cal and Clemson play full speed, whereas Notre Dame plays hesitant and cautious. We need to develop our confidence in the system. And that's a coaching issue.

Actually, the few times I saw Notre Dame play full speed (like when chasing runners down from behind) I was quite impressed.