2006 NCAA Football Season - Page 2

Ok, I am now officially nervous.

Not that this means anything, mind you. I'm always antsy when ND is a big favorite. Even agaist the likes of Navy.

But if this is one of the prices I have to pay for being good again, so be it.

Oh, Jeeeeeesus Christ....

Seriously, though. I'm just personally more comfortable in the underdog role. I hate the feeling of "nothing to gain, but everything to lose". But I do understand that it's a GOOD place to be.

I hear you there Carl. Michigan's the king of not covering as a heavy favorite. I keep hearing GA Tech's such a dangerous game for them, but who do they have beyond Calvin Johnson?

I'm not really worried. ND always seem to play better on the road in big games. They usually blow a game or so a season at home.

Well, certainly Calvin Johnson is their big name gamebreaker. But they are a pretty talented team overall. Not Top 10-15 talent, but also not bottom of the barrel.

I think the reasons why people are pegging this as a dangerous game for ND are because of GT's recent record of being giant-killers early in the season (Auburn last year and in 2003, specifically) and also because this game is strength against strength (ND's offense vs GT's defense) and weakness against weakness (GT's offense against ND's defense). So some people are of the opinion that anything can happen.

I have faith in Weis and his staff, though. I'm just not as keen as playing Goliath. But like I said earlier, if you want to be on top that's what you have to do.

Well, certainly Calvin Johnson is their big name gamebreaker. But they are a pretty talented team overall. Not Top 10-15 talent, but also not bottom of the barrel.

I think the reasons why people are pegging this as a dangerous game for ND are because of GT's recent record of being giant-killers early in the season (Auburn last year and in 2003, specifically) and also because this game is strength against strength (ND's offense vs GT's defense) and weakness against weakness (GT's offense against ND's defense). So some people are of the opinion that anything can happen.

I have faith in Weis and his staff, though. I'm just not as keen being Goliath to David. But like I said earlier, if you want to be on top that's what you have to do.

I don't mean to add to your anxiety, but your nervousness is justified. ND could beat any team in the country on any given day, but they could also lose to a lot of those teams on those same days. You're sort of a fragile powerhouse at the moment. This really is that frightening kind of year where you could win a national championship or just barely get to a bowl.

In case anyone cares, the Wisconsin situation is this:

- Barry Alvarez is gone, replaced by an energetic young guy in Bret Bielema. Look for the offense to be more wide-open for one; otherwise, I think Bielema is smart enough to tweak the program as opposed to overhauling it - Alvarez did FAR more good than bad obviously.

- the defense should be pretty good; I've seen their DL mentioned with as being one of the best in the nation as far as talent AND depth. Their DBs are getting tons of love as well.

- The yang to that situation is their offense has been gutted - they lost their top receivers (Williams, Orr, TEs Daniels and um, that other guy, to graduation; projected #1 Randle El to injury), top 2 RBs (Calhoun is in the NFL and Stanley is going to jail), FB (3 year starter/folk hero Matt Bernstein was drafted), and several OL positions. Hopefully the notoriously soft early-season schedule will allow the defense to win while the offense gels.

Wisconsin has pretty much been an 8-4 team in their average years, with the occasional brush with greatness at 10-2. I'd say the ship stays the course and they have about an 8-4 year again.

I'd expect Bielema's tenure to result in a few things - better passing offense has already been mentioned; better quality of recruit at QB; tougher scheduling (relatively, at least - I figure them to try to get one top level opponent to go with the usual soupcans prior to conference play a la Michigan) - but despite his critics, Barry Alvarez shoes are pretty big ones to fill.

I can't fucking wait until the Tenn-Cal game, it's easily my most anticipated season opener ever. This will tell a lot of what's to come this season for Tennessee.

Yeah as another LSU fan (we'll being the son of an LSU fanatic) it seems that the LSU vs Auburn game will decide the fate of the team. Let's hope they still got it.

I think LSU will win the SEC.

holyfuckicantwaitholyfuckicantwaitholyfuckicantwai tholyfuckicantwait

Nice slate of games last night. Too bad the two nationally aired games (SC/MSU, BC/CMU) were the duds. I would've liked to see the Northwestern game and Iowa State/Toledo.

BC seemed to have a little bit of a tough time with CMU. I'm assuming that was first game rust.

CMU is coached by the guy who moved up from Grand Valley State, where he built one hell of a D-2 program.

The Chips may be a bit talent-poor compared to BC, but their head man has proven he can coach and recruit.

Looking forward to Ohio State playing it's preseason game this weekend in preparation of kicking off the college season next weekend against Tesucks.

Watch OSU lose now due to my bragging....

Actually it's not till 2009 (Youngstown). For the record, it will be the first time they play a 1AA team. Plus, ragging on a "big" teams schedule is kinda old these days isn't it? I'm sure we could find powderpuffs in them all.

First - "Wisco"?

Second - I think Bielema is going to up the ante on the Badgers' schedule. He seems like the kind of guy who sees the big picture moreso than Barry Alvarez, who got his teams demolished by Colorado and Syracus in the mid-90s and decided not to risk anything if he could help it.

I think it's cheap too. OSU is spinning thier decision to play a home/home with Youngstown State in 2009/2010 as some sort of homage to Jim Tressel. Us fans claim it's playing the minor leagues.

Most 1AA teams would fit that comparison, but some, like, say Western Illinois or Appalachian State would beat more than a couple 1A teams if they played.

Tenn upset Cal, I kinda saw that coming. Paulpatine should be pretty happy bout that. The Buckeyes looked pretty good today, now I hope they are up to stompin' Texas next week. I was really impressed with Chris Wells untill the fumble. But hey, he is a freshman, you'll have that.

Damn, I feel good for some reason.

Speaking of 1AA, Montana St. Beat Colorado 19-10.

And it was way too fucking close here in Tuscaloosa tonight. I was way too crunk to be that nervous at the end of the game.

Same here. Wilson is gonna kill Keith Brown before the season is over. You'd think Brown pissed in JPW's oatmeal this morning, the way he was floating them high over the middle so that Keith got clobbered.

Did you get the "Eternal Waiting" experience trying to get to the stadium? They added another 3000 student seats but failed to think about opening additional gates. Had to wait an hour in line before I could get in...

After that one pass that Brown caught out of bounds and everyone got quiet, did you hear that guy say, "John Parker Wilson, you are a fucking retard!" That was me. Overall, though, it was a pretty promising start for Wilson. He was at least as good, in this one game, as Brodie was without Prothro. We'll just have to wait and see how he does against an SEC defense. Brown, though, made me completely forget about DJ Hall.

I waited about 30 minutes or so, I think, to get in, but I did get in line at about 4:15. But I did figure out that it got much worse when people were still streaming in in droves almost an hour after kickoff.

And even though Rutgers isn't 1AA, they beat UNC last night as well. Bunting may not last through the season, or even next week after that. But you know what? They'll probably beat UM or FSU or NC State or something like that, and he'll be saved for one more year. That seems to be their mantra ever since Mack Brown left.

24 hours or so to FSU/UM. I'm actually going out to eat with my wife during the first half, partially for a "date", and partially so I don't swallow my own tongue screaming at the television.

And no talk about the GT/ND game last night? I didn't see any of it except highlights, but I listened to a little of it on Sirius. From the highlights I saw, that penalty for hitting Quinn looked a little cheese ball of a call. Especially at another point in the game where Ball got sacked, and when he was down on one knee, a huge ND D-lineman dove right at his head with his head down. If Ball hadn't ducked, the guy would've decaptitated him. And no call by the ref. I guess Reggie should've taken the hit to get the penalty. Otherwise, sounded like a good game. But hey, all I'm relying on is what I saw on Sportscenter. There could've been a hundred no-calls or bad penalties in the game for all I know.

Rutgers is ctully good now, though. You gotta remember that they did win 7 games last year, even though none of those wins came against good teams. Still, the bowl likely did give them a lot of help with recruiting so they've probably improved decently.

And that ND game shouwld have been good, given that it was close, but it was actually rather boring for me. Granted, I did only see the second half because I went to the Bama game.

It was a helmet to helmet hit. That's an automatic flag. I don't see how anyone can argue with that. Weis did say afterwards that he thought it was a clean play though.

ND's offensive line was dreadful in the first half. Terrible game overall by the offense. The D didn't really impress me either. It seemed more that GT sucked, rather then ND playing great.

Michael Bush, out for the year with a broken leg. Huge loss.

Louisville's Michael Bush broke his leg early in the third quarter -- after having rushed for 124 yards and 3 touchdowns up to that point -- and is now out for the season. He could have gone into the draft last year but decided to come back, and now he's done.

He did take out a $2 million insurance policy, though, so he'll be alright with the money, but it is still sad. He was an exciting player.

Who says his career's over? He'll get drafted he comes out.

True, but he probably saw his draft position plummet below where it would have been if he'd come out last year.

Nobody said his professional career is done, but his college career clearly is.

No kidding. I don't think too many teams would want to take the risk of drafting someone injured and then recuperating before entering the draft.

One person is talking about how he could've went into the draft, then they say "he's done". Another is talking about an insurance policy and speaking about him in the past tense. That sounds like premature talk to me. Anyways there's no way Bush is a top 10 draft pick (like he possibly would have been)but I wouldn't be surprised if he was a day 1 pick. Look at McGahee. He still went in round one and his injury was even more devastating and happened in January.

OSU and Texas roll on. Next Saturday night is gonna be big.

Side note: tonights Maimi/FL. ST game looks like a good one, especially having it so erly in the season.

I meant done for the season, not done for his career.

The point is: he could have gone to the draft last year but stayed. Then he took out an insurance policy, then got hurt in the first game so his college career is done, and we won't get to see him again for a while. Since this is the College football threadd, past tense is appropriate, because we will never see him play college ball again.

This should be a good game tonight. I hope my Buckeyes represent next saturday night. I am still kinda worried about our D. We owe Texas big time though.

Willis McGahee was a 1st rounder.

I was arguing that UW tends to play a soft schedule with some friends at my fantasy draft, so yeah, I knew EXACTLY what you were talking about.

As for "Wisco", one of the better Milwaukee-area HS programs, Wisconsin Lutheran, goes by "Wisco."

Watching the UM/FSU game, I can't tell -- are the defenses this good or the offenses this bad?

Yes.

Not much different than last year. I believe this is the last year for this to start out each other's seasons, and I say good riddance. I'd rather have a directional school or at least a non-rival opponent to start the season.

10-3 at the half, and I need some Rolaids. Ugh. I won't be devastated if FSU loses, because quite frankly, with Rix losing 5 games in a row to them, I got kind of accustomed to it. But it sure would be nice to get two in a row.

We don't know if he's college career is over. It very may well be, but the same thing happened to Lee Evans a few years back and he decided to come back for another year.

Bit of both maybe but UM and FSU typically have amazing defenses.

Sure, as the 23rd pick. And by the Bills, who could afford the gamble.

I'm not saying going in the first round is uncommon, but it's still a gamble in most instances.

Just throwing an example out there - one that worked out pretty well.

Lee Deramus from Wisconsin, on the other hand, not so much.

True. Very true.

What's up with goal line officiating at the end of the 3rd quarter during the FSU/Miami game? The quarterback has tried sneaking twice. He should just wait for everyone to pile up and then jump. That'll show them!