Week Two - what are you looking for - which games are of interest
Week two is upon us, and the schedule is, IMO, as compelling as week one's. That is - not many games of significant interest.
Play opens on Friday evening - with the Illini traveling to Kansas.
Saturday:
- Nebraska at Colorado - well, because of what happened in week one.
- Michigan hosting UNLV - I'll watch because I love the Maize & Blue - and, will be interested in the offensive play calling.
- Ole Miss at Tulane - Kiffin doing his thing.
- Texas A&M at Miami - I have no idea what to expect from this one.
- Texas at Bama - what does Bama's offense look like - can Sarkisian coach.
- Wisconsin at Washington State - what is that Badger O going to do on the road.
What will you be looking for - and watching?
Enjoy... Go Blue!
September 7th, 2023 at 6:26 PM ^
I'm not watching anything this weekend. I work 11pm to 11 am Friday night and then back in at 7pm Saturday. 8 hours between shifts doesn't offer a ton of time for college football 😔
Thank goodness for DVR
September 7th, 2023 at 6:40 PM ^
Ugh, that's brutal.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:51 PM ^
Brutal. I remember these days, well. Watched Under the Lights I from work about 5 miles away from the stadium.
Worked Friday night (7P-7A), hung out with friends then went to a tailgate until I left for work again Saturday night (7P-7A). Thought I was going to die.
September 7th, 2023 at 10:59 PM ^
Ya but body removal technician makes for some interesting evenings and coffee talk.
Especially on the weekends.
I am in for the ride along.
September 8th, 2023 at 9:29 AM ^
That sucks. When I worked at Little Caesar's in high school and undergrad I closed Fridays so I could get Saturdays off. First Michigan game I ever missed watching was the Buffalo Stampede Minnesota game that moved to Friday. Still one of the few games I've ever missed in its entirety.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:35 PM ^
Meeeechigan vs anyone is a must watch.
Curiosity has me checking in on Nebraska and Colorado.
Undecided on anything else.
September 8th, 2023 at 6:39 AM ^
Let's go, fighting Matt Rhules!
Thank God Scotty is gone!
September 8th, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
Respectfully, I miss Scott “we out-hit them” Frost, and his caring mother.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
Auburn at Cal could be good. Then there is !El Assico! of course.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:41 PM ^
¡El Assico! The one game a year for the sickos of the world
September 7th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
This. Roll on you Bears.
Also Purdue at VT
September 8th, 2023 at 5:27 PM ^
Auburn at Cal? I don’t know what to make of that. If it’s at all close, the depth of the SEC will be exposed again.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:44 PM ^
I'm going to miss EL ASSICO for our game. Kinda excited for the friday night Illinois-Kansas game from a "wait are they good?" I will prolly be watching Texas Bama, but will switch over to Cincy-Pitt both to relive the late Big East and also to watch a game on the CW, and maybe catch some Riverdale afterwards. After Dark has some intriguing ones - Auburn-Cal, OK St-ASU, Stanford-USC and Wiscy-Wazzu. All but the actual Pac12 game have a bunch of "are they good?" questions. Answers in all cases are probably not, but winning in the Pacific Time Zone after dark is a good start.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:49 PM ^
And those 4 games you list out --- next year they are "SEC vs ACC", "Big XII Conference Game", "ACC vs B1G" and "B1G vs (probably) Mountain West."
That's not new news there --- but it's still so surreal.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:49 PM ^
Us kicking ass and an OSU struggle. All the other games are just to pass the day. Texas vs Bama is a no win situation. One wins and the fanbase will be insufferable, while a Bama win keeps slobbing the knob that is the sec.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^
I don’t think there is any question that a Texas win at Bama would be cool to see.
September 8th, 2023 at 8:59 AM ^
LOL, Sarkisian 1-5 against top-5 teams, and the one was an early season upset of #3 USC, who went on to finish 8-4, ranked #24. If Texas wins there'll be a season-long overhype geyser jetting from their asses. It would be unbearable.
September 8th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
Agreed. We need at least 4 maybe 5 combined losses from LSU/Bama/GA to prevent 2 SEC teams from making the CFP.
We already have one in LSU. LSU & Bama play each other, so there's two. The SEC championship game will be 3.
We might only need one, maybe two more losses from that trio of SEC schools to limit them to one team in the CFP.
Texas can help us get there!
September 8th, 2023 at 2:00 PM ^
Sadly, it largely reduces to records and little else. Last year, the only conference that had two teams with 1 or fewer losses, got them both in the playoffs. That conference champion spectator, OSU, got in with no risk to itself sitting out watching USC and LSU lose. The same will again happen if the B1G or SEC gets an 11-1 team that doesn't make it's championship game, assuming that the other, recently lesser conferences, don't produce 2 worthy contenders among their champions. If two conferences get non-champion 11-1 teams, the SEC, by history, deserves the extra spot. That really isn't up for debate. The Big 10 has fewer National Championships than all the other conferences over the last 50 years and it's not even close (we have 3). In 4th place above us, the Pac 12 has 7. OSU passed the eye test last year, though I think it was questionable to put them above USC who was above them prior to the conference championship game, and Alabama, simply because Alabama had one more loss. Bama's two losses were much prettier than OSU's defeat.
September 7th, 2023 at 6:49 PM ^
UCLA @ SDSU
future B1G vs. The Fighting Flintstones
September 8th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
I'm surprised at how many Power 5 teams have been playing on the road at Group of 5 teams in the past few years. That never seemed to happened in the past.
I wonder what the incentive for these games is from the Power 5 team's perspective? Are they still paying the "lesser" team a payout but a reduced payout due to the game being played on the road?
September 7th, 2023 at 6:53 PM ^
Would really love to see Nebraska cornhole Colorado. It would do two things. Show that Colorado has some work to do and that Nebraska is lucky.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:04 PM ^
Username checks out.
Cornhole? Really? You went with cornhole?
September 7th, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^
should I have used "nailed in the keister?"
September 7th, 2023 at 7:27 PM ^
Yeah…. I guess? If you must.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:02 PM ^
I’m interested in seeing what Ohio State looks like, albeit against Youngstown. I think they’re in trouble and could lose 3 this year.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:05 PM ^
Not getting ahead of myself. Tough to extrapolate a major downturn from a 20 point conference road win.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:47 PM ^
Serious overreactions as always. OSU will blow out ysu and run up the score.
September 7th, 2023 at 10:05 PM ^
OSU has some catch-up to do with their heisman hopefuls so their starters will only stay in until 2 minutes to go in the game.
September 8th, 2023 at 2:02 AM ^
I heard so much about how poorly OSU played last week. So I started watching a replay on YouTube from MattLB, but for some reason he had both the halves posted separately and the videos were both the second half only. And, watching the first OSU drive of the second half (a nice drive with good passing and some big runs in the red zone) twice in a row, well they looked like OSU. I am not buying the negativity, yet.
September 8th, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
Yes, they will blow out YSU, but that’s not what I’m looking for.
There are early signs from camp and game one that they have serious questions at qb and their offensive line. That’s what I’m hoping continues to be an issue for them. 9/23 is Notre Dame.
September 8th, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
Let's hope it continues. I can't believe it yet. I'm unable to...
September 8th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
The ND - OSU game will reveal a lot. Though I’ll be cheering for the meteor, a win by the Irish is beginning to be where I’m setting my sights. And, the hype for them from that point forward will be unbearable.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:07 PM ^
Go Youngstown State!
Go Richmond!
Michigan vs UNLV then heading over to Cliff Keen for Michigan vs Duke volleyball.
September 8th, 2023 at 12:04 PM ^
C'mon Rach!
September 7th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
I'll admit that I am caught up in the CU hype/fascination. So is my 17 y.o. son who visited their campus with me at the end of a CO fishing trip in June. He loved it and I bought him a hoodie and now he seems even more juiced. He's a marching band (trumpet) kid so he'll play wherever he goes but I can fully understand how a teenager might swoon in the wake of such hype.
Anyhow I'm also interested in our game vs. UNLV--just looking for another solid all around performance and more dimes from JJ. Other games? I'll flip around and catch some UT vs. UA with no vested rooting interest, although my hunch is that Alabama won't make the playoff this year. I'm intrigued by Wisconsin @ Wazzu and my bet is that the Cougs prevail. Finally b/c I live in Iowa City I'll keep a third eye on Iowa vs. ISU--Go Hawks! Score 24 and win!
September 7th, 2023 at 8:02 PM ^
I’ve got two nephews at Colorado right now. They said that football went from completely off the radar to all consuming overnight in Boulder.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:25 PM ^
I'll be attending Stanford @ USC.
Likely to not be an exciting game (Stanford is a 29 1/2 point underdog?!?!?), but maybe USC's defense is worse than they showed vs SJSU and Stanford can turn it into a mega-shootout.
September 8th, 2023 at 5:31 PM ^
I’ll cheer for The Cardinal in that one…
September 7th, 2023 at 7:38 PM ^
Interested in the Spiders until it's no longer interesting.
September 7th, 2023 at 7:53 PM ^
Players returning to UM from injury and solidifying the rotations coming out of the UNLV game. Interesting if Ladarius is the LT and Trente will lock up the RT unless he blows some pass protection assignments like last year. Not likely.
Texas and Bama. Go Texas.
Nebraska/ Colorado holds legitimate interest.
September 7th, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^
EMU v Minny
Eastern looked real good last week and Minny, well, not so much
September 8th, 2023 at 8:14 AM ^
Here is what I'm looking for...
- To watch the game live and not have a wedding to go to like last weekend
- To watch it on a 75" tv with the smell of hotdogs and hamburgers in the background mixed with a bonfire
- Kidding aside...I'm interested in the play calling and JJ continued growth. I think we see leaps this year from him as he grows into a bonafide freak qb.
- Secondary performance
I don't really watch much other CFB to be honest but this sort of feels like "game 1" for michigan for me after last weekends wedding debacle. But don't worry, I told them I hope they get divorced.
September 8th, 2023 at 9:03 AM ^
Pass rush from the defensive front
Will we rush the ball better and if they are dead set on taking the run away will we allow JJ to continue to sling it around.
Tackle spot does it get solidified this week
September 8th, 2023 at 10:52 AM ^
Illinois at Kansas... just because I like B1G on the background when I tailgate prep
September 8th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
As a central Iowa resident, it's a TENSE week here this week. In my neighborhood pretty much every other house is totally decked out in either Iowa or Iowa State decorations/flags etc, so I'm pretty excited to see the battle for the Cy-Hawk trophy unfold. Will it be an ugly, totally painful yet fun game to watch for all of the wrong reasons? Yes. Am I still excited? Yes.
September 8th, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^
I'll be looking for Michigan's OL and running game to show the dominance everyone says it has. And I'll also be looking for the Jenny Dell sideline reports.
September 8th, 2023 at 1:53 PM ^
I think we'll learn a lot about Colorado after they play Nebraska, a team that at least looked competent defensively and probably recognizes that CU's defensive line isn't great and they can run for 5-ish yards a carry until the Buffs do something about it. I really think TCU is just bad right now, with limited defensive depth and talent and an offense that decided "a Briles kid" is the key to offensive competency. I do think Colorado is better than expected but we'll see if they can hang a week after a big game where they got a ton of breaks.
Ole Miss is a bad matchup for Tulane...but I thought the same thing last year against USC and look what happened to the Green Wave. Dunking on Mercer is a data point, I guess, but Tulane just beat up a pretty good South Alabama team despite breaking in a lot of new pieces. Also, I really don't like Kiffin so watching him lose is always fun.
Yeah, no idea about A&M and Miami. The Canes put up a nice defensive performance against an okay MAC team in NTM, while A&M beat up on a bad New Mexico team. I guess I'll pick the home team here because I think Josh Gattis being gone will help Miami's offense and I'm not sold A&M's offense is quite there even with an encouraging first game under new OC Bobby Petrino.
Texas-Bama will rest fully on who can run the ball. Texas's offensive line didn't look particularly good against Rice, and their one big run was on sort of a gimmick play. Rice got 3 sacks and 5 more TFLs, most of those (and all the sacks) coming against the starters. That's...not great. Alabama's offense is a step down from the years with Young under center but Saban absolutely doesn't mind having a team that relies heavily on running the ball and a QB who's a handful to bring down (6'2", 220 lbs) and will throw the ball to wide-open guys but won't try to improvise too much. I guess Texas may "be back" but I gotta see it.
WSU has a good defense and a fun offense, and I think being at home will help them against the Badgers. I like what Fickell is doing there but if they still get iffy QB play that'll limit his team's ceiling.
September 8th, 2023 at 2:25 PM ^
I follow the schools of my W and I, our three children and their two spouses. Just keeps things interesting with the texts flying around during the games.
This week its:
UNLV @ Michigan
New Hampshire @ Central Michigan
Ball State @ Georgia
Wagner @ Navy
Yale hasn't started yet.
Anderson @ DePauw