Well, the first weekend of college football is over and it was one of the better opening stretches that I can remember. From Utah's OT win over Pitt on Thursday to last night's showdown at FedEx field, I enjoyed the whole shebang...I even got to sneak a few minutes of TV at the family cabin on Sunday and see ECU's miracle Hail Mary win over Tulsa. As great as it was, though, we need to take a breath and settle down for a moment. Despite what we saw, we don't know anything yet; it was the first weekend and the jitters are still being worked out. Keeping that in mind, let's see what questions are still lingering.
What did I learn from last night's showdown? Mainly that Boise State is a slightly better team than Virginia Tech...and right now, I'm not sure what that means. Like almost every team across the nation - except maybe Oregon - both teams made mistakes, had sloppy plays, blew coverages, and did all the other little things that go into opening weekend. That means it's hard to define what the Broncos' win truly means. And, with their weak schedule down the line, we'll have to rely on Virginia Tech's performance to actually figure out what Boise's win means. And once things get transitive, they're unreliable at best.
The entire system is flawed and there's no fair way to fix it. If they go 12-0, will Boise State have done everything they had to do to earn the chance at a BCS title? Yes. Is it fair that they still could get left out? No. But, is it fair to allow them in the game over a team from a powerhouse conference with one loss? No. So what do we do? No clue.
Are Oklahoma and Florida really doomed this season? I doubt it. Brantley and the Gator offense will sync-up and settle in and woe to those who play the Gators in the late weeks of the season. Oklahoma looked sloppy, but they also looked explosive, which I'll take every time when it comes to week one. I'm still keeping the Sooners in the top-3 and the Gators in the top-10 until I see true weaknesses. Why am I willing to cut so much slack? Because there's no pre-season in cfb.
Michigan looked good on Saturday in their win over UConn and Denard Robinson looks like a perfect fit to run RichRod's offense. His speed was on display and he made good decisions all through the day. What does this mean? Nothing...yet. The Big Ten is top heavy with experienced teams with senior QB's, stocked O-lines, and top-tacklers returning. And, while Michigan could play spoiler for a team or two, they won't make real noise until 2011. Next week, they play Notre Dame. The Irish looked solid enough on Saturday, but I still see a mediocre season in 2010. No one on that team looks fast enough to contain Robinson and when the Irish tried to downgrade their schedule difficulty a few years ago, they most certainly did not expect Utah to end up so talented, as they have a date with the Utes in a few weeks.
And how good is Utah? Well, to answer that question, you have to have an idea how good Pitt is. The Utes do play TCU, who beat Oregon State, and that game could go a long way to decide who's going to be a non-AQ BCS buster.
So, what am I saying here? Nothing truly important or specific; just that weekend one was tons of fun, even if there's not much we can really tell about 2010 as a whole, yet. But give it time, my friends. Next week, we won't be grading on a curve or allowing re-dos; the competition will be stiffer and the standards higher, and then we'll know a little more about who's who and where they're headed.
No comments:
Post a Comment