What We Learned:
Florida State is good. Even better than we thought, in fact. While they did start a bit slow tonight with a bad fumble and two missed field goals in the first half, they exploded for a 35-3 run in the second half the set the tone for the rest of the night. In addition to the stellar play of QB EJ Manuel, RB Chris Thompson has over 300 yards rushing in just two ACC games. There is speed everywhere on this football team, and they may be one of the few teams in college football that can challenge Alabama this year. The score of tonight’s game was 49-37, but it wasn’t even that close. FSU took a knee late inside of the five yard line of Clemson – a score there would have had the game 56-37. When you check our rankings tomorrow, they will be bumped up.
The Big Ten Really is Not Very Good This year:
The out of conference results for the BT this year have been brutal, from Michigan being physically dominated by Alabama and stomped by Notre Dame, to Ohio State and Wisconsin putting up underwhelming results against their OOC foes. Additionally, Illinois was slaughtered tonight by Louisiana Tech by a score of 52-24, and Iowa was defeated by the lowly Central Michigan. The team that many had pegged to represent the Big Ten this year, Michigan State, was dominated by Notre Dame last week, and this weekend they really struggled with a bad Eastern Michigan team. With this in mind, it is only fair to mention that while OSU has struggled with average/moderately decent teams like Cal, UCF and FAU, they are still undefeated, which is more than the other front runners of the conference can say at this point. Surprisingly enough, it is Northwestern that has been the most impressive, as they are 3-0 vs FBS automatic qualifiers this year.
Kansas State is For Real:
After being absolutely throttled by the Sooners last season, KSU showed up tonight to play. They limited the OU to just 88 yards rushing on 27 rushes, and when it mattered most, they found a way to generate points. At this point, it is only fair to consider KSU as a co-favorite, if not outright favorite, to win the Big 12. Texas looks much improved, but they still have some QB questions, and West Virginia, while exceptionally talented, struggled with a not so good Maryland team today. It is hard not to like Bill Synder’s experience, and Collin Kline is an absolute gamer. The kid just finds ways.
Strange Stats of The Day:
In tonight’s big match-up between Arizona and Oregon, the Wildcats were shut out by an embarrassing 49-0 score. The reason? Arizona was in the redzone 6 times tonight, and they scored absolutely no points. That is quite honestly bizarre.
At one point during the Michigan-Notre Dame game, Michigan was intercepted on five straight pass attempts. In all of my years of watching football, I do not think I have ever seen something like that happen. Not five in a row, at least.
Old Dominion QB Taylor Heinicke passed for staggering 730 yards tonight against rival New-Hampshire, which set a Division I record for the most passing yards ever in a game, which was previously held by Former Houston quarterback David Klingler (716 yards against Arizona State in 1990).
Our Knee Jerk Reaction After Tonight’s Slate of Games:
1.) The SEC, yet again, is great. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, LSU and Alabama are all, in our minds, top ten teams.
2.) Florida State and LSU may be the only two teams that can beat Alabama this year. We understand that, that is arguable, and as the season progresses, we may adjust that view. Still, we are comfortable with that assertion for now. It is tough to leave out Oregon, but go watch them against LSU and Auburn, or even Ohio State. For reasons we can’t fully explain, they do not run their normal high tempo, hurry up offense against elite SEC/defensive teams. They move at a much slower pace, and often they fail to get the snap off before the play clock hits ten seconds. To be blunt, Oregon tends to get pushed around a bit against elite defensive teams, and until we see differently, it is tough to envision them beating the best SEC teams.
3.) Michigan is not ready. Not yet. They were ranked too high to begin the season, to be frank. Hoke is an excellent coach, and while Denard Robinson is an awesome player, it may be better for Michigan in the long run to have a…smoother passer running their offense. I think at this point Hoke is running an offense that he is not totally comfortable running, and incoming QB recruit Shane Morris should set up Michigan nicely for future success from an offensive perspective.
4.) Notre Dame is better, but they still also have a long ways to go. Whenever Notre Dame starts off a season well, there is a tendency to sensationalize what they are doing. They have better team speed than they have had for probably the past decade – all one has to do is watch them for a quarter to see that. With that being said, they are still not an elite team, and we would caution people to be, well…cautious with them. The QB they are committed to this year, Everett Golson, is young, and they will slip up at some point this year. We like Kelly as a coach and think he is doing a good job, but ND is a decent, not outstanding team. A 9-3 or 10-2 record may be in line for them, but no national championship run will be occurring this season for the Irish. They are at least a year away from being in that discussion.
Have any other thoughts for us? We sure hope so. Hit us up in the comment section, folks. This season is setting up to be a fun one.
Oh, and one last thing. This guy gets our “Fan fail of the day.” Ouch…Just ouch.
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