collegefootballtopten.com

As I said in a previous post, my top ten will be updated once every three weeks.  Nevertheless, I will post results of the teams in my top ten so that we can follow their body of work.  Therefore, let’s take a look.

1.  Ohio State, 2-0
Ohio State defeated Ohio University 26-14 this week after a 43-0 pounding of Youngstown State. The absence of “Beanie” Wells seemed to hurt the Buckeyes.  They play USC next week in LA.

2.   USC, 1-0
The Trojans throttled Virginia at their place the first weekend, and as a reward, they sat home and got ready for the Buckeyes.  Before the season I would have given the nod to Ohio State in the coming game, but after what I have seen in two weeks, I believe that USC should win.  Never play Pete Carroll when he has time to prepare.  Check out his opening games the last several years.  It’s unbelievable.

3.  Oklahoma, 2-0
The Sooners finally put away Cincinnati winning 52-26.  Next week the Sooners travel to play at Washington who lost a heart-breaker to BYU.  The Sooner offense seems to be explosive again this year.

4.  Florida, 2-0
The Gators struggled against a tenacious Miami team at the Swamp Saturday night.  They took over in the fourth quarter to win 26-3.  The Gators get a week off before traveling to Knoxville to play the Tennessee Vols.

5.  Georgia, 2-0
The Dawgs have opened the season doing exactly what it should, beating two out-manned football teams (Georgia Southern and Central Michigan).  They are at South Carolina next week who was bounced in Nashville to Vanderbilt.

6.  Clemson, 1-1
The Tigers bounced back from their opening season loss to Alabama in Atlanta by beating The Citadel.  Games coming up against North Carolina State and South Carolina State will continue to be soothing to the soul.  They have a showdown at Wake Forest on October 9th.

7.  LSU, 1-0
The Tigers would just like to play a game.  Damage from Hurricane Gustav at Tiger Stadium postponed their game with Troy until November 15th, and Hurricane Ike is threatening to postpone or relocate their game against North Texas this weekend.

8.  Oregon, 2-0
The Ducks are coming along nicely beating Washington (44-10) and Utah State (66-24).  They go to Purdue next week before returning home for Boise State.

9.  Missouri, 2-0
The Tigers are averaging 52 points a game.  They scored 52 when they outscored Illinois in St. Louis, and they scored, yep you guessed it, 52 while pounding Southeast Missouri State (we called them SEMO when I was a kid).  Mizzou doesn’t leave the state of Missouri until October 4th when they go to Lincoln to play Nebraska.  They only leave the state 3 more times all year (Texas, Baylor and Iowa State).  Up next is Nevada (September 13) and Buffalo (September 20).

10.  South Florida, 2-0
The Bulls put a beat-down Tennessee-Martin (56-7) the first week and survived at UCF (31-24) in OT on Saturday.  Matt Grothe passed for 346 yards as the Bulls won an emotional game in front of the UCF home crowd.  USF gets Kansas at home Friday night.  It should be a good game between two top 20 teams.

Week two was successful for everyone.  All the pool members but two finished 4-1 for the week, and the other two went 3-2, therefore, they were only a game off.  I win the tie breaker.  I was closer to score of the TCU game with Stephen F. Austin.  Nevertheless, the overall standings are in the widget which is in the left column.  I will leave the widget up until the season is over, and we have got 13 weeks left!  Wow!  Can you all endure?

I am going to look over next week’s games and choose the games.

Week 3 Games

TCU vs. Stanford
SMU vs. Texas Tech
UNT vs. LSU
Arkansas vs. Texas
USC vs. Ohio State

Home teams are in bold.

We will keep an eye on the LSU game as another hurricane is expected to enter the gulf.  If the games gets postponed or cancelled, then I’ll pick another game.  Start researching your picks as I am sure the picks will open to make by Monday night.

Can anyone beat me?

I received a few questions from John who is behind the Nebraska Sports Journal.  I contribute from for them once in a while.  If you have a chance, check them out.  They are Cornhusker nuts!  They are eager for the return of the “Blackshirts.”  I have to say, I was watching a replay of the Nebraska game today on my new cable TV from AT&T Uverse, and coach Bo Pelini looked good as a Husker coach.  He looked like he belonged on their sidelines.  I hope he is able to restore their proud tradition.

Now the questions.

1. What kind of season do you think A & M will have. They have a strong Husker connection from last year’s coaches and also Tim Cassidy.

2. How good is Alabama? Can they beat Georgia on a neutral field today or USC? Is Saban that good of a coach/ He has a pretty good track record with wins.

3. Who do you think will win the North in the Big 12? Is Missouri a lock?

4. What is your game of the week? It could have been Florida and Miami but Miami has gone down hill.

Here are my answers.

Games of the Week

Wake Forest vs. Mississippi–WF defeated Baylor soundly, and Ole Miss looked pretty good in Houston Nutt’s debut.  We have a game between a coach who turned down the Arkansas Razorback head football coach job and a coach who left the Arkansas football head coaching job.  This will be a good early test for the Rebels to see if they are bowl worthy, and it will be a chance for the Deacons to get a little redemption for the ACC.

Louisiana Tech vs. Kansas–A lot of people weren’t talking Jayhawks coming into the season.  Back to earthy they would say about KU.  Louisiana Tech beat a Mississippi State Bulldog team that went to a bowl game last year and most people think Sylvester Croom has headed in the right direction.  Is La Tech for real?  We’ll see if they can stop KU’s “Blue Collar” spread attack.

I just don’t know about A&M. Their fans have already written them off for the season, but I have to think they have enough talent to be at least 6-6. However, it seems Oklahoma State is much improved, but Baylor ought to be someone they can beat.

About Alabama. I saw a mature, seasoned team on the field with Clemson. They dominated the line on both sides of the ball. They appeared to have made the offense more manageable for John Parker Wilson (the QB), and they seem to have the horses to run the ball. Their TE was super Saturday, too. As far as them beating Georgia or USC, that is hard know just yet. Alabama has a lot of freshmen on the field. They will make a mistake (most likely) at some point. I think that they might be able to line it up and go toe to toe with both teams.

As far as the Big 12 North goes, I am not sure about Mizzou. The score in the Illinois game tells me that their defense is not there yet. They gave up 451 yards to a QB who was known for his feet. Either way, giving up that many yards to any QB says that your defense is not quite ready to win a championship. I need to evaluate Kansas and Nebraska before making my analysis. Also, Colorado.

Todd

Consider checking out the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore.  It’s a great place to pick up a copy of the latest book I have reviewed at this site or another book about college football.  Maybe you want to buy the latest Dan Jenkins novel.  You can; it’s all right there.  Also, starting today, we have added college football gear.  There is a general section for college football gear and a section for TCU and SMU gear.  You know as the weather gets cooler you are going to need to buy a new seatshirt.  Why not navigate over the the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore and buy the sweatshirt from us?  It would be much appreciated, and, besides, you will have a nice, new sweatshirt to show off to your fellow tailgaters and fans!  I am thinking about adding items to the store, if you have a suggestion let me know.

I am way late doing this.  Waaaaay late.  That is for several reasons for which I will not bother you.  I certainly haven’t been feeling well, but then again, who among us is?  I did see a doctor this morning.  Hopefully, I will be feeling better very soon.  Last night, I came home from work (about 5:15 PM or so CST) and went to sleep and did not wake up until midnight.  I think I finally got some rest.  And, today is a “holiday” for me as I am celebrating Labor Day.  Yeah, I know, that was Monday, but I worked on Monday so today is Labor Day.  Happy Labor Day everyone!

Therefore, I will try to be timely with my recap.  I will decide on a day of the week to do it.  I am thinking about Tuesday so I can use Monday for a Metroplex Monday (recap) where I recap the teams in the DFW Metroplex.  I did a summary of how the three DFW teams (TCU, SMU, and UNT) did at Pegasus News.  It was kind of short, but you can read it here.  One of the fun things I did on the first weekend of football was watch a high school game on Thursday night.  I did a write up on it as well (PegasusNews), but it was a good game that came down to the very end.

What happened to?

Pittsburgh–Pitt was a lot of people’s pick to be a dark-horse in the Big East.  You know, they beat West Virginia at the end of the year, they were turning the program around, etc.  Instead, Bowling Green might get a little love for the MAC.

Mississippi State–Another good win for the WAC as Louisiana Tech beat the Bulldogs.

Texas A&M–I actually thought Arkansas State would give A&M a good game.  Mke Sherman might have not paid attention to the Red Wolves’ (Indians previously) almost upset in Austin last year.  And, that loss might not be quite as bad as all the rivals’ fans think.  For sure, Corey Leonard is elusive and Reggie Arnold is one of the best backs in the Sun Belt, maybe the best.  If A State is close in a game, these two can help them win it, especially if they are healthy.  It’s another shot in the arm for the Red Wolves.

Looking Good

USC–Yeah, the Trojans looked so good, the pollsters put them at the top.  They mopped the floor (uh, field) with Virginia.  Mark Sanchez looks like he is going to be another great QB for USC.  Don’t forget this, USC is always well prepared for opening games.  Sometimes that focus fades as the season drags on.

West Virginia–I wasn’t sold on the new coach, but Pat White showed something else.  He showed he can throw the ball.

Rutgers–Maybe Fresno State is that good.  Wisconsin better be ready on September 13th.

Juice Williams–All we heard coming into the year was that Juice Williams of Illinois can run the ball.  However, Juice had a very prolific passing game against Missouri.  How prolific?  Well, try 26-42 for 451 yards, 5 TD’s.  If he passes every week like the first one, he will have over 5400 passing yards (thanks ESPN.com).