College Football 2009: Week One News & Notes
With week one of the college football season in the books the Pickle is here to break down the highlights and headlines of the college football world. Oregon loses its top rusher for the year, Oklahoma’s title hopes take a huge hit as does Bradford’s Heisman chances, The ACC looks rather underwhelming, the SEC struggles on the road, and more.
The biggest news of the week was the punch seen round the world when Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount punched Boise State’s Byron Hout in the jaw during the post game handshake. The whole melee started when Hout pushed Blount and then said something to him. Blount subsequently went off the deep end and could be seen arguing and almost coming to blows with teammates. The incident culminated with him almost going into the stands after a fan who was heckling him. Fortunately security was able to contain him and herd him back to the locker room.
The fallout of the whole incident resulted in Blount being suspended for the balance of the season. This seems a bit harsh and he probably should have been suspended indefinitely until he met certain requirements to be reinstated to the team. Boise decided not to suspend Hout who should have drawn a suspension of some kind for instigating the whole incident. The WAC needs to step in and suspend this kid, why they have not is beyond me.
One preseason BCS favorite, Oklahoma, took one on the chin against Brigham Young losing at home 14-13. Not only did OU lose the game but they also lost Heisman quarterback Sam Bradford who left the game in the first half after a shoulder injury. Oklahoma says it is only a sprain, he could miss two to four weeks, and are hoping he is good to go in time for the trip down to Miami.
To add insult to injury the Sooners also learned that tight end Jermaine Gresham, considered by many to be the top TE prospect eligible for the 2010 draft, underwent season ending knee surgery on Tuesday. One wonders if he is re-thinking his decision to come back to school. He likely would have been the top tight end taken in last April’s draft.
The best, or at least most entertaining, game of the week, surprisingly enough, ended up being Miami versus Florida State. The game had been a clunker the last few times it had been played on Labor Day Weekend but after some thrilling contests the past couple of years it earned its spot back on Labor Day and did not fail to deliver the goods. The game was not the most well executed but it featured several lead changes and served as the coming out party for Miami quarterback Jacory Harris on the national stage.
While Harris did throw a pair of picks he also rolled up 386 yards including some clutch throws that led Miami back from a nine point second half deficit. Harris looks like he is the real deal for the ‘Canes and we know now why Miami’s backup quarterbacks decided to jump ship. You see Harris is only a sophomore meaning the earliest those guys were going to get a chance to play would be 2011.
I am curious as to why Javarris James starts over Graig Cooper. Is it because James is a senior and Cooper is only a junior? Cooper just has the look and feel of being the better runner than James does.
Sophomore Travis Benjamin looks like he might be the next big time receiver to come out of Miami. He ran up 128 yards on just four catches and several long gainers.
I keep hearing and seeing a lot of stuff about the U being back after Monday’s win but let us not get ahead of ourselves here. Not too long ago there were those saying there was a real chance that Miami could start the season 0-4 with a brutal stretch featuring Georgia Tech, a trip to Blacksburg, and a home date versus Oklahoma. Win two of the next three games and then we can talk about Miami being back in terms of being a relevant program again, until then let us keep the chest thumping to a minimum.
After all we are talking about a Florida State team that was ranked due to tradition mostly. We are also talking about a Florida State program that has been maybe a notch better than Miami the past few years but not significantly better. The ‘Noles have gone 23-17 over the past three seasons and have not been terribly relevant nationally for several years now. On top of that the ‘Canes always play the Seminoles close, that game is rarely a blowout. Beating Florida State is not what it was 10 to 15 years ago when the ‘Noles were always in the national championship mix.
Speaking of programs on the rebound the Michigan – Notre Dame game coming up this weekend looks a lot more interesting than it initially did. Michigan made a huge statement by running out to a 31-0 halftime lead against Western Michigan, while, Notre Dame squashed Nevada 35-0. ND’s Jimmy Clausen and Michael Floyd hooked up four times for 189 yards and three scores. But let us not get ahead of ourselves with these teams either. It is not like Nevada or Western Michigan are going to be challenging for New Year’s Day bowl games this season.
Do Ohio State fans have anything to worry about after a rather lackluster performance against Navy this past weekend? In the grand scheme of things, probably not, as Tressel’s teams are always good for throwing up a clunker the first or second week of the season. They should probably worry a bit about the impending USC game this weekend though as the Trojans looked extremely sharp against San Jose State. Granted San Jose State is not even in USC’s league but the Trojans did exactly what they were supposed to do against a team like San Jose. They buried them to the tune of 56-3. The one big advantage OSU will have this weekend is USC is starting a freshman quarterback who will be playing in his first big game on the road.
It was a less than stellar opening weekend for the ACC with North Carolina State taking it on the chin at home to South Carolina losing 7-3, Wake Forest losing at home to Baylor 24-21, Virginia losing to William & Mary 26-14, Duke losing to Richmond 24-16, Maryland getting run out of the stadium at Cal 52-13, and Virignia Tech losing to Alabama 34-24.
North Carolina State looked ill-prepared for its game against South Carolina which is atypical of a Tom O’Brien coached squad. O’Brien usually has his teams ready to go and typically does not lose due to lack of execution and/or sloppy play. Russell Wilson looked like he was quarterbacking his first game at times out there and we will not even go into the dropped passes that dearly cost them. The Wolfpack easily could have won that game had their receivers been able to hold onto a few key throws. As it is ‘Pack fans can be happy with how the defense showed up to play and looked better than anticipated, but, they have to be mortified with how ill-prepared the offense looked in that game.
The SEC haters were probably giddy to see conference heavyweights struggle on the road this weekend. Georgia came out of Stillwater with a 24-10 loss and LSU got it could handle from Washington escaping with a 31-23 win.
I am still not sold on Jevan Snead being that great of a quarterback.
Ole Miss and Oklahoma State might be the two teams come the end of the season folks will be wondering why they were picked as preseason top ten teams.
Cincinnati could be this year’s BCS buster. The Bearcats mauled Rutgers on Monday and they really do not play anyone of significance this season unless a team or two on their schedule are significantly better than anticipated.
