ICYMI, here was my first thought from last night, the best thing that happened all weekend courtesy of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
I know there are two games (ND/UT tonight and Ole Miss/FSU tomorrow) but I do the ten thoughts on Sunday and this is when I have the most time, so those four programs will have to live without really being a part of it. Here are the thoughts on what happened.
1. The SEC took it on the chin a little bit. The league, according to what I read on Twitter (which means it's true) has won at least 10 games on the opening weekend of the season every year since 2007. Remember that for about half of that time, the SEC only had 12 teams, so it went at least 10-2 five years in a row. But this week, the following losses occured (I will list them in order of awfulness):
Mississippi State to South Alabama
Kentucky to Southern Miss
Vanderbilt to South Carolina
Missouri to West Virginia
LSU to Wisconsin
Auburn to Clemson
Perhaps a bigger problem than the losses even were the close wins. Namely Arkansas surviving against Louisiana Tech and Tennessee winning on its own fumble over Appalachian State in overtime due largely to the fact the ASU coach appeared to think he had 11 minutes rather than one and would get extra credit if he saved a timeout for next week on a potential game-winning drive.
2. But it wasn't all bad news for the SEC. Georgia won over North Carolina and Auburn's effort against Clemson was actually very impressive. But more than either of those, Alabama showed that it's still the king until someone proves otherwise. USC led the Tide 3-0. It was then outscored 52-3 the rest of the game as Alabama put everyone on notice. The Tide has played neutral site openers seven times since 2008. It is 7-0. By the way, this guy's (on the left) an Alabama running back:
3. Bill Snyder faced a team that is better at Bill Snyder-ing than his team. I watched about half of Stanford/K-State on Friday night. The Cardinal had less than 100 yards of total offense in the second half and had punted on five consecutive possessions before Christian McCaffrey iced the game with his second long TD run of the night. It was simply a battle of wills: Who could sit back and wait for the other team to screw up longer? Stanford did. Because Stanford is like K-State on steroids (and with perhaps the best individual athlete in the country). David Shaw has won three PAC-12 titles in five years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see him make it four in six.
4. Kansas beat Rhode Island and rushed the field. Some things don't even need insults added. They just insult themselves.
5. The line of the week belonged to Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson was 17/23 for 286 yards and six touchdowns. He ran for 119 yards and two more scores on 11 carries. He did not play the second half as Louisville beat Charlotte 70-14.
6. And that wasn't even the best thing to come out of the Louisville/Charlotte game. Because this was:
7. Speaking of awesome images, it's the headless helmet (this might be a high school game, but I don't care, I wanted to use it):
8. Texas A&M and UCLA played an incredibly entertaining game where the Aggies blew a 15-point lead in the final ten minutes, then Josh Rosen threw an awful pick in the final minute to give A&M another chance, but they couldn't take advantage of that, but then in overtime, Trevor Knight ran a naked bootleg on fourth and goal from the one for a 31-24 win. And the game was awesome. But two things happened in this game that disgusted me approximately equally.
Josh Rosen showed off his mustache
And Aggie defensive end Justin Evans messed up his knee and popped it back into place himself while he was lying on the field (don't click that link if you're the queasy type)
9. My top five if I had a vote, which I don't (note, I rank them on what they've actually done, not what some mythical poll thought of them before they played a game):
1 Alabama
2 Houston
3 Clemson
4 Wisconsin
5 Ohio State
10. Five games I'll watch next week (after the one tonight and the one tomorrow and in addition to Mizzou/Eastern Michigan):
Kentucky at Florida (2:30 pm CBS)--The fact this is the CBS game should tell you how awful next week's schedule is
Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt (3:00 p.m. SEC Network)--Mizzou plays the Blue Raiders this year, who are better than you think. Vandy was a disaster in week one. If the 'Dores start 0-2, Derek Mason's job is gonna come into question pretty soon.
Arkansas at TCU (6:00 p.m. ESPN)--Arkansas survived against Louisiana Tech. TCU won, but gave up 41 points to South Dakota State. One of these teams will be 2-0 after Saturday night.
North Carolina at Illinois (6:30 p.m. Big Ten Network)--Many on here are quite concerned about Lovie Smith. If he can pull off a win over the Tar Heels (who won't be ranked by then after losing to Georgia) I will lend that concern more credence.
Virginia Tech at Tennessee (7:00 p.m. ABC)--I think the Vols are overrated. I also think they're better than what they showed against App State and will finish first or second in the SEC East (maybe that says more about the division than the Vols). Virginia Tech isn't great, but it's good enough to win this game if Tennessee isn't better. Also, they're playing at Bristol Motor Speedway and that might be cool.
About to board for St. Louis, then home to CoMo. Join us for chat at 8 Central on the PM Facebook page, or watch the replay here after
I know there are two games (ND/UT tonight and Ole Miss/FSU tomorrow) but I do the ten thoughts on Sunday and this is when I have the most time, so those four programs will have to live without really being a part of it. Here are the thoughts on what happened.
1. The SEC took it on the chin a little bit. The league, according to what I read on Twitter (which means it's true) has won at least 10 games on the opening weekend of the season every year since 2007. Remember that for about half of that time, the SEC only had 12 teams, so it went at least 10-2 five years in a row. But this week, the following losses occured (I will list them in order of awfulness):
Mississippi State to South Alabama
Kentucky to Southern Miss
Vanderbilt to South Carolina
Missouri to West Virginia
LSU to Wisconsin
Auburn to Clemson
Perhaps a bigger problem than the losses even were the close wins. Namely Arkansas surviving against Louisiana Tech and Tennessee winning on its own fumble over Appalachian State in overtime due largely to the fact the ASU coach appeared to think he had 11 minutes rather than one and would get extra credit if he saved a timeout for next week on a potential game-winning drive.
2. But it wasn't all bad news for the SEC. Georgia won over North Carolina and Auburn's effort against Clemson was actually very impressive. But more than either of those, Alabama showed that it's still the king until someone proves otherwise. USC led the Tide 3-0. It was then outscored 52-3 the rest of the game as Alabama put everyone on notice. The Tide has played neutral site openers seven times since 2008. It is 7-0. By the way, this guy's (on the left) an Alabama running back:
3. Bill Snyder faced a team that is better at Bill Snyder-ing than his team. I watched about half of Stanford/K-State on Friday night. The Cardinal had less than 100 yards of total offense in the second half and had punted on five consecutive possessions before Christian McCaffrey iced the game with his second long TD run of the night. It was simply a battle of wills: Who could sit back and wait for the other team to screw up longer? Stanford did. Because Stanford is like K-State on steroids (and with perhaps the best individual athlete in the country). David Shaw has won three PAC-12 titles in five years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see him make it four in six.
4. Kansas beat Rhode Island and rushed the field. Some things don't even need insults added. They just insult themselves.
5. The line of the week belonged to Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson was 17/23 for 286 yards and six touchdowns. He ran for 119 yards and two more scores on 11 carries. He did not play the second half as Louisville beat Charlotte 70-14.
6. And that wasn't even the best thing to come out of the Louisville/Charlotte game. Because this was:
7. Speaking of awesome images, it's the headless helmet (this might be a high school game, but I don't care, I wanted to use it):
8. Texas A&M and UCLA played an incredibly entertaining game where the Aggies blew a 15-point lead in the final ten minutes, then Josh Rosen threw an awful pick in the final minute to give A&M another chance, but they couldn't take advantage of that, but then in overtime, Trevor Knight ran a naked bootleg on fourth and goal from the one for a 31-24 win. And the game was awesome. But two things happened in this game that disgusted me approximately equally.
Josh Rosen showed off his mustache
And Aggie defensive end Justin Evans messed up his knee and popped it back into place himself while he was lying on the field (don't click that link if you're the queasy type)
9. My top five if I had a vote, which I don't (note, I rank them on what they've actually done, not what some mythical poll thought of them before they played a game):
1 Alabama
2 Houston
3 Clemson
4 Wisconsin
5 Ohio State
10. Five games I'll watch next week (after the one tonight and the one tomorrow and in addition to Mizzou/Eastern Michigan):
Kentucky at Florida (2:30 pm CBS)--The fact this is the CBS game should tell you how awful next week's schedule is
Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt (3:00 p.m. SEC Network)--Mizzou plays the Blue Raiders this year, who are better than you think. Vandy was a disaster in week one. If the 'Dores start 0-2, Derek Mason's job is gonna come into question pretty soon.
Arkansas at TCU (6:00 p.m. ESPN)--Arkansas survived against Louisiana Tech. TCU won, but gave up 41 points to South Dakota State. One of these teams will be 2-0 after Saturday night.
North Carolina at Illinois (6:30 p.m. Big Ten Network)--Many on here are quite concerned about Lovie Smith. If he can pull off a win over the Tar Heels (who won't be ranked by then after losing to Georgia) I will lend that concern more credence.
Virginia Tech at Tennessee (7:00 p.m. ABC)--I think the Vols are overrated. I also think they're better than what they showed against App State and will finish first or second in the SEC East (maybe that says more about the division than the Vols). Virginia Tech isn't great, but it's good enough to win this game if Tennessee isn't better. Also, they're playing at Bristol Motor Speedway and that might be cool.
About to board for St. Louis, then home to CoMo. Join us for chat at 8 Central on the PM Facebook page, or watch the replay here after
