Week two of the season is a time for redemption, regrouping, refocusing and restating. We have had the requisite time to ponder the questions from week one, like how a player got a 15-yard personal foul for putting his helmet back on after it got knocked off during the play, how another team gets a nearly one million dollar payday to not play, and how a game has one play run by a guy named Showers, and then gets cancelled. There are not a lot of headline grabbing games, but several great storylines.
Week 2 College Football Preview
Oregon vs. Michigan State: We’ve had this one circled in red for several weeks now. The battle in the trenches versus team speed. Oregon has struggled against tough interior defenses in recent years (Stanford), and Michigan State brings much the same style. Conversely, if the Ducks can get their wideouts and running backs out in space, game over. Michigan State probably needs this one more than Oregon. A sluggish Big 10 conference and a lack of high profile games make this the Spartan’s marquee game if they want a shot at the final four. Whether Oregon wins or loses, they will still be battling Stanford for the Pac-12 North and a shot at the conference title game. A one-loss Pac-12 team is going to have a much better shot at the playoff than a one-loss Big 10 team.
Stanford vs. USC: This is a telltale game. The Trojans were able to get past their need for a Dr. Phil intervention last week and blow past Fresno State with an offense that ran more than 100 plays during the game and racked up more than 700 yards. One reason was the offense was clicking. The other reason was it was against Fresno State. Enter the Stanford Cardinal, coming off of a blowout victory over the soil scientists from UC Davis. Hard to get a real feel for the Cardinal based on that game, because they didn’t have to show much of their game in order to win. Stanford has won five of the last seven against SC, but SC upset the #4 Cardinal last year in LA. If SC wins, they may be for real this season. If Stanford wins, we will all say SC only beat a bad Fresno State team and Stanford is at or near the top of the Pac-12 North, as expected. SC’s beast of a defensive lineman Leonard Williams has not practiced this week because of a bad ankle (no, he did not jump off a balcony), but is expected to play Saturday.
South Carolina vs. East Carolina: Last week, we learned that South Carolina is not just missing Jadeveon Clowney. The Gamecocks were missing any semblance of a defense at all, as Texas A&M lit up South Carolina for 511 yards passing in a blowout in Columbia. The pitfall of playing a conference game in week one is that if you are not ready for what is coming, as was the case last week, you spend the rest of the season digging out of a hole. The upside is you have 11 games left to make people forget what happened in week one. The Gamecocks can still compete for the SEC title spot in the playoffs, but what they get this week is to face a quarterback who threw for more than 4,000 yards last year for East Carolina. The Pirates’ Shane Carden could be another headache for a South Carolina defense still licking its wounds from last week.
Texas vs. BYU: Last year, this was the game that was the beginning of the end for Mack Brown as the Texas head coach. Last season, BYU quarterback Taysom Hill ran for 259 yards and three touchdowns as the Cougars torched the Texas defense. Brown had to shake up his staff, but it was not enough and he was replaced by former Louisville coach Charlie Strong in the offseason. Hill is going to be the focus of the toughened up Longhorn defense this week, but Texas has its own quarterback questions. Starter David Ash is suffering from concussion symptoms after the North Texas game last week and will miss one to two weeks. Texas will be going with the relatively untested sophomore Tyronne Swoopes at quarterback.
UCLA vs. Memphis: A week ago, this game would not have been on anyone’s radar. That was before the Bruins’ offensive line was so porous in the win at Virginia, before Brett Hundley spent most of the first half running for his life, and before UCLA needed three touchdowns from the defense to win the game. We also saw the bizarreness of UCLA getting called for a 15-yard penalty when a player put his helmet back on during a play instead of just laying down on the field with no helmet. This is UCLA’s only home game for the first four weeks of the season, and Memphis should not prove to be too much trouble, but after last week’s outing, it might be too soon to say that.
Eastern Michigan vs. Florida: Why in Sam Heck are we including this game? Because the storylines here are just too quirky to ignore. Gators head coach Will Muschamp is on the hottest of coaching hot seats. He gets a new offensive coordinator and a new offensive scheme ready to debut last week against Idaho, but Mother Nature unleashes an epic lightning and rain storm on Gainesville. The only play they got in was a kick return by Florida’s…wait for it…Valdez Showers. The game goes through several delays and an eventual cancellation. Idaho keeps the $925,000 Florida paid them to come down for the game, even though there was no game. The Gator players that had been suspended for a game will all be playing this week even though technically there was no game one for them to sit out. And oh yeah, we still have no idea if Muschamp’s team is any good.
Notre Dame vs. Michigan: One of the best out-of-conference rivalries is coming to an end after 42 years. Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson did not look like he missed a year of action with his play against Rice last week, but the Irish defense was very susceptible to a spread offense. Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner excels at the sprint out, but Wolverine coaches are trying to get him to stay in the pocket more. A great matchup of two college football bluebloods that should not be ending. Besides, both have really cool fight songs.
Alabama vs. Florida Atlantic: Nick Saban is the reason for including this. Last week, quarterback Blake Sims looked good, but not great, in a very safe offensive scheme designed by new coordinator Lane Kiffin in a victory over West Virginia. But it may not have been enough to impress head coach Nick Saban. He says he has not decided between Sims and Florida State transfer Jacob Coker for the starting job this week against incoming piñata Florida Atlantic. And Saban said yesterday, that even when he decides, he is not likely to tell the public or media. Nick is smarter than the rest of us and wants to make sure you know it.
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