Three Thoughts and Two Ideas (Week 2)

I’ll leave the NFL to other writers at CubicleGM, and throw a few thoughts into the ring for Week 2 in the NCAA.  Since we’re only through the second week, I’ll treat these as data points.  By next week, however, we might just have a trend. 

From last to first, or really, in the order that they popped into my head Sunday night…

5.  Virginia fans may have had just enough with Al Groh; by following a Week 1 home embarassment against 1-AA William & Mary with an uninspiring home loss to TCU in Week 2, the Cavaliers seems well on their way to a season (finally) bad enough to push Groh out into the great unknown.  Yours truly was in Charlottesville that day, but chose to take in Michigan/Notre Dame at a bar rather than stand in the heat and watch a fumbling spread offense.  Rumor has it that U.Va. season ticket holders are sending their tickets to outgoing school president John Casteen. 

4.  Speaking of Notre Dame, the Charlie Weis/Jimmy Clausen Magical Mystery Tour took another funny turn with a 38-34 loss at Michigan.  Not wholly unexpected, but certainly a setback for the Irish, who would have (re)established their relevance and earned a top-15 poll spot with a win.  On the other side of the ball, Michigan freshman QB Tate Forcier put himself on the map with three touchdowns (on 240 yards passing, 70 rushing) including the game-winner with about ten seconds left on the clock.  Rich Rodriguez may find his way out of bankrupcy after all. 3.  Speaking of unknown quarterbacks, Case Keenum led Houston to an upset win over No. 5 Oklahoma State (at OSU) on 32-of-46 passing for 366 yards and four touchdowns.  He’s almost unstoppable with a name like that.  Honestly.  That’s the kind of name that you wish you could give your first-born son only to be pressured into some family name that puts him on a trajectory to work in mid-level management instead of lead touchdown drives. 

3.  Speaking of names, Taylor Potts is not one that I would expect a QB who threw seven touchdowns this week to have.  Graham Harrell’s replacement at Texas Tech led a 55-10 drubbing of Rice in an (expected) week of ridiculous QB stats.  Numbers for all these guys will cool down as the season marches on, but you’ve gotta love these weeks of Madden-esque numbers.  Reminds me of a few months, nay years, nay entire college career of playing video games and often patting myself on the back after a game like that only to realize that I was alone in my room in my boxers at 4:30pm on a Wednesday.

2.  Speaking of players other than quarterbacks, this is the trio that really showed me something over the weekend: Dion Lewis (Pittsburgh),  Jahvid Best (California), and Tyler Sash (Iowa).  Lewis picked up his second straight week of 100 yards rushing against Buffalo, while Best caught one and ran one in California’s second straight 50-plus point output.  Both are smaller guys (under 200 pounds): Lewis is a freshman riding the tails of an experienced offensive line and Best is a junior who is just plain impressive.  If you get a chance to watch him (East Coast opportunities are limited from here on out), do it.  Oh, and Sash.  He’s on the other side of the ball, playing safety for Iowa.  Three interceptions, a forced fumble and 10 tackles were enough to get my attention in a 35-3 beat-down of rival Iowa State.   

1.  Speaking of rivalries, we’re not quite to the official “Rivalry Week”, marketing mastermind(ed) by NCAA/ESPN, but we are at the point in the season (Week 3) when you should probably start to pay attention, even if you haven’t so far.  No. 1 Florida faces its first test this weekend at home against Tennessee.   No. 2 Texas hosts Texas Tech, with sour memories in Austin of last year’s game most any place you look.  Sure, we had a “tease” of a big game in Ohio State/USC last week, but if you ask me, Ohio State is headed for a down year, and by November, USC won’t be the contended that they appear to be now.  Keep your eye on the two games mentioned above, plus No. 6 Cal/Oregon and Florida State/No. 8 BYU to get a feeling for how good some of these top-ranked teams are – it’s early, sure, but national contention is also determined early and each of these teams will have to play well against formidable opponents to stay in it.