There are still actually two games to be played this weekend. Miami faces LSU tonight and Virginia Tech/Florida State is the Monday Night Football game. But by that point, I'm going to be into game week coverage and I've got things to do tomorrow, so we're sticking with the same Sunday morning time slot for ten thoughts.
1. It was a bad day for Missouri's regional brethren.
Nicholls 26, Kansas 23 in overtime
I mean, the craziest part of this is I don't know if it's an upset. I don't think anybody is shocked this happened. Kansas is as down as any college football program I've ever seen. I will now share a couple of tweets which I particularly enjoyed
I'm sure new AD Jeff Long already has a list of names to replace David Beaty started
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Sunflower State:
Kansas State 27, South Dakota 24
The Coyotes actually lead this one 24-12 through the third quarter and seemed in control. But Isiah Zuber returned a punt 85 yards and sparked a Cat comeback and South Dakota missed a 51-yard field goal that would have forced OT and K-State survived. The Jaybirds' result is somewhat expected and probably didn't shock a fanbase that by now has just kind of accepted that it's terrible at football. But this one? This is a surprise. It could get real interesting in Manhattan. They're mostly predicted to have an 8-4 type season. They gave Bill Snyder a five year extension this offseason, meaning he will coach until he is approximately 246 years old. The common thought is that Snyder is hanging on long enough to convince K-State to just hand the head coaching job to his son, Sean. But what if they slip? What if they're no longer good? It could get ugly over in Manhappenin'.
A few hours down I-70, Illinois is also terrible again:
Illiinois 31, Kent State 24
The Golden Flashes are not good. But they led Illinois 17-3 at halftime in front of a raucous crowd of 31,898 before A.J. Bush rescued the Illini. The quarterback threw for 190 yards, ran for 139 and was more or less the entire offense in a 28-point second half.
"Any team that judges us off this game will be in for a rude awakening, I promise you" Bush said after the game.
We'll see...
2. If it was a bad day in the state of Kansas, it wasn't a lot better in Texas.
I went into yesterday convinced I would not root for Maryland to win a football game this season. The offseason was ugly there and D.J. Durkin seems like a bad dude. Add that to the fact that it physically hurts my eyes to look at their uniforms and I figured it would be easy to root against the Terps. But they were playing Texas. And if there's one team I can get behind wanting Maryland to beat, it's Texas. So as I turned the game on and Maryland took an early lead, I found myself hoping that Tom Herman would be sitting in a strip club in Austin some time last night thinking "Fear the Turtle." I was not disappointed. Maryland won in part because it still doesn't have a quarterback (Sam Ehlinger threw two picks), in part because it had a 15-yard punt from its own five-yard line (where for art thou Michael Dickson) and in part because in his first college game Maryland freshman Jeshaun Jones ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown and threw a touchdown. That's not a bad day's work.
More tweets
It won't get nearly as much attention, but elsewhere in the Lone Star State, Kliff Kingsbury is probably going to be looking for a job soon. After a 47-27 loss to Ole Miss in which the Red Raiders refused to play any semblance of defense for the 1,053rd consecutive game, Kingsbury is now 30-34 in Lubbock, has just two winning records in five years, has never won more than eight games and hasn't won a bowl game since his first season. The Red Raiders will beat Lamar next week, but then have a four-game run against Houston, at Oklahoma State, West Virginia and at TCU. If they're sitting 1-5, I wonder if Kingsbury even gets to finish the season. He might want to polish up that resume. He'd make somebody a damn good OC on a rehab assignment.
3. Speaking of once elite programs that are, indeed, definitively not back...
Notre Dame 24, Michigan 17
The Wolverines did not score an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter. Notre Dame is going to be pretty good and there's no shame in losing to the Irish, but there were people (honest to God, I'm not making this up) picking Jim Harbaugh's bunch to make the playoff this year.
Couldn't happen to a better dude. I mean, I'll root for Harbaugh to beat Urban Meyer this year...but I may not root for him any other time.
Speaking of Urbs, the best thing that happened all day yesterday was Faux Pelini tweeting Meyer updates on the Buckeyes' game
Go to his timeline to see all of them if you're interested.
4. As long as we're on the theme of once good programs who mistakenly seem to think maybe they're good again....Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee debut went about like I expected it would. The Vols started two freshman corners and Will Grier threw for 429 yards and five touchdowns and West Virginia crushed Tennessee 40-14. Maybe Pruitt will get it done in Knoxville, but it sure isn't gonna happen overnight. That team's a lot of players away from being good again.
5. One of the best players I saw this week is on Missouri's schedule. Holy, Rondale Moore, Batman. The freshman wideout/return man for Purdue had 11 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown (the rest of the Boilermakers combined for 161 yards and no touchdowns), he ran twice for 79 yards (team's leading rusher) and another score, and he returned five kickoffs for 125 yards. That's 313 all-purpose yards the first time he ever stepped on a college football field. He's gonna be a problem. Luckily, none of us ever overreact to things we see in week one
1. It was a bad day for Missouri's regional brethren.
Nicholls 26, Kansas 23 in overtime
I mean, the craziest part of this is I don't know if it's an upset. I don't think anybody is shocked this happened. Kansas is as down as any college football program I've ever seen. I will now share a couple of tweets which I particularly enjoyed
I'm sure new AD Jeff Long already has a list of names to replace David Beaty started
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Sunflower State:
Kansas State 27, South Dakota 24
The Coyotes actually lead this one 24-12 through the third quarter and seemed in control. But Isiah Zuber returned a punt 85 yards and sparked a Cat comeback and South Dakota missed a 51-yard field goal that would have forced OT and K-State survived. The Jaybirds' result is somewhat expected and probably didn't shock a fanbase that by now has just kind of accepted that it's terrible at football. But this one? This is a surprise. It could get real interesting in Manhattan. They're mostly predicted to have an 8-4 type season. They gave Bill Snyder a five year extension this offseason, meaning he will coach until he is approximately 246 years old. The common thought is that Snyder is hanging on long enough to convince K-State to just hand the head coaching job to his son, Sean. But what if they slip? What if they're no longer good? It could get ugly over in Manhappenin'.
A few hours down I-70, Illinois is also terrible again:
Illiinois 31, Kent State 24
The Golden Flashes are not good. But they led Illinois 17-3 at halftime in front of a raucous crowd of 31,898 before A.J. Bush rescued the Illini. The quarterback threw for 190 yards, ran for 139 and was more or less the entire offense in a 28-point second half.
"Any team that judges us off this game will be in for a rude awakening, I promise you" Bush said after the game.
We'll see...
2. If it was a bad day in the state of Kansas, it wasn't a lot better in Texas.
I went into yesterday convinced I would not root for Maryland to win a football game this season. The offseason was ugly there and D.J. Durkin seems like a bad dude. Add that to the fact that it physically hurts my eyes to look at their uniforms and I figured it would be easy to root against the Terps. But they were playing Texas. And if there's one team I can get behind wanting Maryland to beat, it's Texas. So as I turned the game on and Maryland took an early lead, I found myself hoping that Tom Herman would be sitting in a strip club in Austin some time last night thinking "Fear the Turtle." I was not disappointed. Maryland won in part because it still doesn't have a quarterback (Sam Ehlinger threw two picks), in part because it had a 15-yard punt from its own five-yard line (where for art thou Michael Dickson) and in part because in his first college game Maryland freshman Jeshaun Jones ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown and threw a touchdown. That's not a bad day's work.
More tweets
It won't get nearly as much attention, but elsewhere in the Lone Star State, Kliff Kingsbury is probably going to be looking for a job soon. After a 47-27 loss to Ole Miss in which the Red Raiders refused to play any semblance of defense for the 1,053rd consecutive game, Kingsbury is now 30-34 in Lubbock, has just two winning records in five years, has never won more than eight games and hasn't won a bowl game since his first season. The Red Raiders will beat Lamar next week, but then have a four-game run against Houston, at Oklahoma State, West Virginia and at TCU. If they're sitting 1-5, I wonder if Kingsbury even gets to finish the season. He might want to polish up that resume. He'd make somebody a damn good OC on a rehab assignment.
3. Speaking of once elite programs that are, indeed, definitively not back...
Notre Dame 24, Michigan 17
The Wolverines did not score an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter. Notre Dame is going to be pretty good and there's no shame in losing to the Irish, but there were people (honest to God, I'm not making this up) picking Jim Harbaugh's bunch to make the playoff this year.
Couldn't happen to a better dude. I mean, I'll root for Harbaugh to beat Urban Meyer this year...but I may not root for him any other time.
Speaking of Urbs, the best thing that happened all day yesterday was Faux Pelini tweeting Meyer updates on the Buckeyes' game
Go to his timeline to see all of them if you're interested.
4. As long as we're on the theme of once good programs who mistakenly seem to think maybe they're good again....Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee debut went about like I expected it would. The Vols started two freshman corners and Will Grier threw for 429 yards and five touchdowns and West Virginia crushed Tennessee 40-14. Maybe Pruitt will get it done in Knoxville, but it sure isn't gonna happen overnight. That team's a lot of players away from being good again.
5. One of the best players I saw this week is on Missouri's schedule. Holy, Rondale Moore, Batman. The freshman wideout/return man for Purdue had 11 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown (the rest of the Boilermakers combined for 161 yards and no touchdowns), he ran twice for 79 yards (team's leading rusher) and another score, and he returned five kickoffs for 125 yards. That's 313 all-purpose yards the first time he ever stepped on a college football field. He's gonna be a problem. Luckily, none of us ever overreact to things we see in week one
