Game Watch : Week 1

HOME COOKIN'

South Dakota State at Iowa State (Thu. 8/28)

Of course I lead off with my beloved Cyclones, who help kickoff the 2008 season with a Thursday night opener against FCS opponent South Dakota State. Lots of questions for Gene Chizik's crew, most importantly at Quarterback. Chizik named Austen Arnaud the starter for Week 1, but the competition between the Sophomores is far from over.

“We feel very, very good about where we are at quarterback,” Chizik said. “Unfortunately, only one guy can take the first snap.”

Most of us who follow ISU closely know that Chizik isn't blowing smoke here. Both young men have been impressive through Fall camp, preventing Chizik from naming a winner, like he wanted to.

“Some people will say that when you have two quarterbacks, you have none,” coach Gene Chizik said Friday evening. “That’s not our case.”

That fact is that neither of them has thrown a TD pass in college. Along with Special Teams and the D-Line, this is clearly the biggest thing to watch here as the Cyclones begin season two of the Chizik era.

MY PICK: ISU, 27-13

Maine at Iowa

All eyes on the Hawkeye Offense in this one. They return exactly 0 carries from their RB's last season, and Jake Christensen (lackluster incumbant) and Ricky Stanzi (not-ready-for-primetime newcomer) are currently listed as co-starters in Iowa's 2-deep.

If Iowa doesn't roll here, things could be even worse than they seem.

MY PICK: Iowa, 28-3

Northern Iowa at #16 Brigham Young

UNI beat Iowa State in Ames last year, and entered the FCS Playoffs as the only undefeated team, eventually losing to now-NFL QB Joe Flacco's Delaware Blue Hens. The Panthers lost their leader, QB Eric Sanders, to graduation but return enough talent to be very competitive.

BYU starts their attempt at perfection and a BCS bid.

MY PICK: BYU, 31-17

Boston College at Kent State

The interest here is in Kent State, who beat ISU in Ames last year (shut up... seriously), spoiling Coach Chizik's debut. They feature the nation's leading returning rusher from 2007 in Eugene Jarvis (1,669 yards), a 5-5 170 lb. waterbug, so there is a little national interest, but not much. Most of the interest will be in how BC recovers from the loss of Matt Ryan.

The Golden Flashes return to Ames in Week 2 this year, so we're just keeping an eye on our next opponent here. Not that we're looking ahead toward a serious payback beatdown, or anything...

MY PICK: BC, 20-10


MAIDEN VOYAGES

#23 Wake Forest at Baylor (Thu. 8/28)

A strong Wake team should win this game, but first games for new head coaches of BCS teams are always interesting. Art Briles inherits a team that went 0-8 in the Big XII last year. He has a bit of a QB competition of his own to deal with, which, as always, could be a good or bad thing.

MY PICK: Wake Forest 31-13

Utah at Michigan

Rich Rodriguez draws a tough matchup in his Blue Debut. Utah is considered one of the top non-BCS teams in the country coming in to the season, and Rodriguez will still be in the early early stages of trying to fit square pegs (Pro-style players) into rounds holes (Spread Option offense).

Michigan should have the athletes to win here, especially in the trenches, but they better be focused for 60 full minutes. The game should be very competitive, but losing Big House openers two years in a row...? I just don't see it.

MY PICK: Michigan, 20-14

Western Michigan at Nebraska

Well, the wackos in Nebraska think the program has already been saved by Jesus Osbourne and Bo Pelini, but we haven't even seen a snap yet.

Do you remember how awful Nebraska's defense was last year? They gave up 40+ points in half (6) of their games last year, including 172 (!!!) in their last 3 games (57.3 /game) against Kansas, Kansas State and Colorado.

Western Michigan closed out their 2007 with wins at Iowa (against a 6-5 Hawkeye team, on Senior Day, with a Bowl-bid on the line) and at home against Temple. But the fact is they still finished only 5-7 on the season, and 3-4 in the MAC.

Nebraska will win this game, but we won't learn if any Order has been Restored.

MY PICK: Nebraska, 31-21

#18 Tennessee at UCLA (Mon. 9/1)

Rick Neuheisel welcomes Phillip Fulmer's Volunteers to the Rose Bowl to start his tenure as top dog for the Bruins. UCLA's defense should be solid, but Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow will turn to JuCo transfer Kevin Craft lead the Offense after losing Ben Olsen for the year with a pre-season foot injury. This will put a lot of pressure on a running game that was not great last year, and only returns two starters on the O-Line.

QB Jonathan Crompton and HB Arian Foster will help the Vols score enough to win, and that shouldn't require too much work. Neuheisel gets thumped in his debut at home.

MY PICK: Tennessee, 27-10


BEST OF THE REST

#17 Virginia Tech at East Carolina

This game has upset written all over it. The Hokies squeeked by the Pirates, 17-7, in the opener in Blacksburg last year. This year, Frank Beamer is just trying to find bodies to put on the field on Offense. Graduation, injuries and suspensions have depleted the roster, and the Defense will (more than ever) need to carry them, especially early in the season. Did I mention there's a good chance that All-American candidate CB Macho Harris, who decided to return for his Senior year, will be out for this one?

My personal opinion is that VA Tech is a bit overrated this year, but I suppose we will see.

Skip Holtz has this East Carolina program on the rise, and I think this is the weekend he gets that "signature" win that proves it.

SIDE NOTE: How did East Carolina manage to get VA Tech and West Virginia at home to start the year?! Think they sold any season tickets this year? Cripes...

MY PICK: East Carolina, 16-13

Bowling Green at #25 Pittsburgh

Big game for The 'Stache. There is a lot of hype surrounding Pitt this year, after they knocked West Virginia out of the BCS title game with a 13-9 victory in Morgantown to end the year. With a solid Defense, and talented HB LeSean McCoy, it appears that Dave Wannstedt finally has a team that will get to a Bowl game, and possibly compete for a Big East title.

MY PICK: Pitt, 23-13

#3 USC at Virginia

This game will get ugly quick. USC's defense is ridiculous. They will outscore Virginia's Offense, and let QB Mark Sanchez ease his way back from a dislocated knee-cap by allowing him to hand the ball off... a lot.

This is the only tune-up for USC before the showdown against Ohio State at The Coliseum, so they will need to work out the playbook a little past page 3, but not much.

MY PICK: USC, 48-3

Appalachian State at #7 LSU

Sorry, App State. Not again this year. You'll see why Les Miles stayed in Baton Rouge instead of heading up north to Ann Arbor.

MY PICK: LSU, 34-17

Michigan State at California

This is a great matchup between teams that always seem to start hot, earn some hype, then crash to the ground in a flaming mess by the time the season ends.

Honestly, I have no read on this one, but I like Spartan HB Javon Ringer, and green is my favorite color. I'll go with Michigan State.

MY PICK: Michigan State, 27-20

Washington at #21 Oregon

Washington has two 3-game meat-grinder stretches on their schedule, and one of them starts Week 1 against Oregon at Autzen Stadium. They follow with non-Con home games against BYU and Oklahoma, before another stretch later in the year that goes: Notre Dame, @ USC, Arizona State.

Not good for Tyrone Willingham, who desperately needs a winning season after a 4-9 disappointment last year, including a 42-35 loss at home to in-state rival Washington State in the 100th Apple Cup.

For Oregon, a season ending injury to QB Matt Costa gives the starting job to Justin Roper by default, but Duck fans shouldn't be worried. Roper threw 4 TDs without an INT against South Florida in the Sun Bowl, and should play well enough to earn a victory over the Huskies.

Washington QB Jake Locker is one of the players that I can't wait to see this year, but he won't be able to get it done.

MY PICK: Oregon, 31-16

#24 Alabama vs. #9 Clemson (@ Atlanta, GA)

Another year, another season of high expectations for Tommy Bowden and the Clemson Tigers. We know about the loaded Offensive backfield of Harper, Davis and Spiller, but the big question mark is the O-Line that returns only one starter.

Nick Saban will continue to cycle in his young talent, and everyone is waiting to see Julio Jones on a college football field for the first time. Three-year starter at QB John Parker Wilson will provide the stability and leadership that a young team like this needs, and I think it's enough for the Tide to Roll up a mild upset on Opening Day.

MY PICK: Alabama, 23-21

#20 Illinois vs. #6 Missouri (@ St. Louis, MO)

Daniel, Maclin and Co. look to get off to a strong start in the newly-annual matchup against Illinois in St. Louis. The Tigers have a great shot at a Big XII title this year, and possibly more. While this game won't affect their conference standings, it will go a long way in determining their hopes for a BCS title.

What most people will be surprised with, however, is the strength of Mizzou's defense. They will need to be stout against Juice Williams, Arrelious Benn, and an Illinois team that is attempting to step into the role as the "other" team in the Big 11. Much of that will depend on Williams' growth as a passer.

I think Gary Pinkel's bunch will handle Team Zooker fairly easily in this one, and earn the first significant win by a BCS title contender this year.

MY PICK: Missouri, 34-17

Fresno State at Rutgers (Mon. 9/1)

I admit it: I am an unabashed member of the Pat Hill Fan Club and his "Any team, any time, anywhere" attitude to scheduling. Fresno State is the best non-BCS team country, and they will get plenty of chances to make noise this year against Rutgers (Big East), Wisconsin (Big 11) and UCLA (Pac 10). I first saw Bulldogs QB Tom Brandstater in last year's 47-45 3OT loss to Texas A&M in College Station, but that came after trailing 19-0 at Halftime. I think he's a special player, and everyone will know his name before this year is over.

Nobody's talking about Rutgers this year, outside from losing Ray Rice. Most of the Big East talk is centered around West Virginia, South Florida and sexy pick Pitt, but the Scarlet Knights return an experienced squad and a healthy Mike Teel.

This might be the most competitive game of the weekend, and I'm picking with my heart here...

MY PICK: Fresno State, 31-27

Iowa's Ferentz and Barta visit Happy Valley

According to Scout, the Head Coach and AD at Iowa were seen checking out the facilities at Penn State last week.

Scout - Ferentz And Co. Checking Out PSU

Now, this will make noise because Ferentz is from Pennsylvania and JoePa is 127 years old, but I'm sure it's nothing. Says right there in that there article that all kinds of coaches are checking out the facilities in Happy Valley these days. What's with the open-door policy? I don't know. Maybe they just like to show off.

What I do know is that Ferentz has a very lucrative contract at Iowa through 2012, and Iowa's practice facility is an ancient bubble. My money is on a legitimate "checking things out" tour. I mean, come on... if you were going to have lunch with a prospective new employer, would you take your boss?

Notre Dame AD White escapes to Duke

The Notre Dame/Kevin White marriage is finally over, and it's probably best for both parties. Let's review the recent history:

* White hires George O'Leary, only to discover that he lied on his resume. This lead to...
* Tyrone Willingham was hired instead. The first black head coach at ND.
* After three Willingham seasons (10-3, 5-7, 6-5: he was fired before ND's 6th loss to Oregon State in the Insight.com Bowl), the Notre Dame president and board of trustees decided to do White's job for him (against White's wishes) and fire Tyrone Willingham.
* White then failed to hire Urban Meyer (former ND assistant), who took the job at Florida.
* After again missing on his first choice, Notre Dame then hired Charlie Weis, who in his 3rd season lead the Irish to their worst record ever in 2007.

Fox Sports - AD White leaving Notre Dame

I'd call it a Win for White. The whole Lacrosse scandal is over (with Duke coming up smelling like relative roses next to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong), he will have basketball on cruise-control with Coach K, and if the football team wins more than a game or two each year, the folks in Durham should be happy.

Cedar Rapids Gazette warns blacks to stay away from Iowa

I have been trying to start this post for a couple minutes now, and I've given up. I am nearly speechless.

The Cedar Rapids (Hawkeye) Gazette has followed up their 6-months-too-late article (see previous post) with one of the worst "spin" attempts in recent memory.

Cedar Rapids Gazette - Black athletes in white culture

How absolutely ridiculous. In one article, they gave the following excuses for the lack of discipline surrounding the student-athletes at the University of Iowa:

* Iowa is "a nearly all-white society"

Not sure what that has to do with 17 U of I football players begin arrested in 14 months.

* "Fewer people (in Iowa) are up front with black athletes about expectations and standards, which creates cultural rifts"

So... it's the people of Iowa's fault for not explicitly telling these young men that sexual assault and the use of stolen credit cards is frowned upon?

* "In Iowa, the media attention can become overwhelming"

Give me a f'ing break. That's laughable.

* Iowa City is not Detroit

Bravo, detective.

* The lack of a "life skills coach" for football players

Not only do we take their tests for them, but we should teach them how to tie their shoes and brush their teeth as well.

Then there is this gem:

Since April 2007, 17 Iowa football players have been arrested, including nine blacks.

So... explain to me how is this a "race" issue again?

The reason why things like suspended licenses for these players are news is because they are college football players in a BCS conference. College football is now, arguably, the second most popular sport in America behind the NFL, which means it is now big business. Big business means big money (see Ferentz's salary) means big attention. Those are the rules.

The Gazette is all over the map on this one, deep in a hearty spin-cycle, and it's pathetic. It has basically just declared that Iowans are so unaware and/or intolerant of non-white cultures that non-whites are not capable of living here.

I spent most of the first 23 years of my life in Iowa. Despite how Hollywood likes to portray it sometimes, most of the population is an intelligent, kind, respectful bunch that takes pride in their communities, and how pleasant (if not a bit uneventful) it is to live there.

The public's intolerance here is for the acts themselves, not the race of those who committed them.

You know it's bad in Iowa City when...

...even the Cedar Rapids Gazette (the Iowa Hawkeye "homer" paper) is getting in on the act. The "act", if you aren't already aware, is the now-regular reporting of the mounting criminal activities by (cough)student(cough)-athletes at the University of Iowa (nearly all of which have been football players).

Cedar Rapids Gazette - Leaders, not bystanders

The "Ghost Room"?! Good Lord.

Now, an intelligent person might ask, "If all of these quotes are from investigations you did in November of last year, why are you just now (six months later) reporting it?"

The answer, my friends, lies in the first sentence of this post.

It appears the floodgates are now wide open. Not even the Hawkeye Gazette can pretend it isn't happening anymore.

Oh, well... better late than never... I guess. Don't get cocky, though. You didn't earn any respect with this.

SIDE NOTE: I really don't like spending this much time/energy on the Hawks, but it's coming in waves right now. Really. There is nothing I can do. My hands are tied. Not in a "my hands are tied while Cedric Everson sexually assaults me" kind of way, but you smell what I'm cookin'.

SEC AD's give thumbs-down to early signing day

...but not because they didn't like it necessarily, but because they had some unanswered questions.

ESPN - SEC athletic directors turn down proposed early signing day

It's win for the have-nots, and all non-SEC schools, in my opinion.

Again... I see the good and the bad around this (see previous post), but if I had to vote, I would say No.

We'll see if this comes up again next year...

A cool "polling system" by another blogger

The guy over on Three Yards and a Cloud of Rubber posted this:

Predict the Final Big 10 Standings

Damn... I use Google Docs, but I can't figure out how he does that. If I can, I will figure it out and post one for the Big XII fans out there.

Another bit on recruiting

My last post sparked my memory about another article I had read that discusses "A new NCAA rule approved in January forbids college football head coaches from visiting high schools during the spring evaluation period that stretches from April 15 through May 31."

ESPN - Big 12 roundup: Recruiting, Reesing, Red Raiders and more

I point this out because it's an example of what I was talking about in my last post. Coaches like Mack Brown love this rule because it prevents other coaches from invading his talent pool for 6 weeks. Les Miles (LSU) and Dan Hawkins (Colorado) basically call bullshit, but what can they do?

As a grad from a Big XII North school, I'm accustomed to getting the short end of the stick against Texas in College Football politics.

Early signing period for SEC?

The SEC coaches voted 9-3 in favor of a 24-hour "Early Signing" window in late-November on the Monday before the contact period begins.

ESPN - SEC coaches hoping for early signing day in late November

A major benefit of this would be that if a kid is ready to commit (with a written Letter of Intent - the only "real" commitment) to a school at that time, they can. This would prevent schools from having to spend time and resources recruiting these kids until the first week of February - National Signing Day (NSD).

It wouldn't be such a big deal, except that there has been an ugly trend developing recently where situations like this arise:

* Kid verbally commits to School A in, say, October.
* School A says "thanks", and turns it's attention to it's 24 other scholarships it is trying to fill
* Around January, Kid starts to feel ignored by School A
* School B checks Rivals.com, sees Kid has committed to School A, and thinks "Huh... we never noticed him. Let's go get him!"
* School B swoops in, weeks before NSD, with a shower of recruiting attention on Kid
* Kid feels loved again, and signs his LOI with School B on NSD
* School A complains that School B "stole" their recruit

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It definitely favors the Texas's, Florida's and USC's of the world, who have a huge pool of great local athletes beating down their door to play for them.

For the have-not schools, or schools in less-populated areas, that recruiting time in December in January is critical. How are coaches in the Midwest supposed to recruit in Texas and Florida during the season? They can't.

I admire Urban Meyer for opposing this. He has every reason to want to lock his local recruits up early, before the northern schools start booking their recruiting trips to the Sunshine State.

In the end, I don't like it. Maybe it's because my team is a have-not, and I'm used to rooting for the underdog, but I'm not in favor of any new rules that help the rich get richer in College Football.

By the way, if you want a better understanding of how the recruiting process works in College Football, pick up this book. It's a quick read, and your wife will be impressed that you actually read a book.

Trouble at Wazzu

Look at this guy go...

ESPN - QB Schmidtke to be released from football agreement

11 citations in 18 months? Duuuude, you might want to lay low for a while.

Rivals - 2008 Head Coach Power Rankings

I just ran across this over on Cyclone Fanatic:

Rivals - 2008 Head Coach Power Rankings

Interestingly enough, I don't see Kirk Ferentz on that list...

Hawkeye Trainwreck

I hate to post about the Hawks so early in the blog, but the College Football Guy like to be timely with his news.

The Hawks are paying Kirk Ferentz nearly $3 million/year to go 19-18 over the last 3 years, have a 3-6 career record against in-state rival Iowa State, and lose their last game of the season last year, at home, on Senior day, with a bowl bid on the line, to Western Michigan.

I don't know where it stands now, but when USA Today wrote this report in November 2006, Ferentz was the 2nd-highest paid coach in the country.

Million-dollar coaches move into mainstream

Also under his watch, Kinnick Stadium is being re-named Kinnick Prison. Seriously, look at this list:

List of recent Hawkeye legal troubles

Here's the latest news...

DMR - Warrants charge ex-Hawkeyes with sex abuse

ESPN - Arrest warrants issued in sexual assault case

This is on the heels of Pierre Pierce, the basketball player and two-time sex offender. Did I mention the possible/probable cover-up by the university, not reporting the incident to the police? It stinks in Iowa City right now, bad. My man Keeler at the Des Moines Rag summed it up pretty good the other day...

Night descends on Iowa football

Even the most hard-core Hawkeye fans and Ferentz supporters are starting to waiver, and for good reason. I pray that it never gets this bad in Ames.

In Kirk We Trust? Really? See you in September.

NCAA '09 Release Date : 7/15/08

I'm not a big "gamer", but I like to grab the new version of these games every 3 years or so. I typically play the shit out of them for a while, then let them collect dust until some night rolls around where my wife is out of town and I can't find anyone to grab a beer with.

The only games that I have really played since the turn of the century have been Tiger Woods 04, Madden 05 and NCAA Football 06.

I think this is the year I re-up on NCAA Football. This Online Dynasty thing looks like a perfect way to waste time with my buddies back in the Midwest. Of course, this means I will need to upgrade to a PS3, which won't be cheap, but it is a Blu-Ray player, which is nice.

Here are some links I found:

EA Sports - NCAA 09
GameRosters.com - A service provided by a fellow ISU Alum
PSX Sports - Same type of service
Operation Sports - Screen-shots - All of the teams are shown in order towards the end of the slides

I was able to pre-order the new 80GB PS3 at Circuit City, which allows you to play your old PS2 games on it:

Circuit City - New 80GB PS3

It looks like you might not be able to pre-order any more, but you get the idea. I think it's supposed to come out in early/mid-June.

Opening Kickoff

Cheers, all. I'm the self-proclaimed College Football Guy. Pretty original, I know. I thought of it when I decided to start a blog. I thought about going with College Football Genius, or Guru, or some other word that starts with G, but only a douche bag would proclaim himself a Genius or a Guru. So I'll go with Guy.

I assume you like college football, too, or you wouldn't be here. Good for you. It's great isn't it? Until a team like Georgia starts complaining that they should be in the BCS Championship game, even though they didn't even win their division in their conference. Then it's not sweet. Then you want to tell them to travel more than an hour to play a game every once in a while (I know, they go to Tempe this year). But mostly it's sweet.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, here's a little history...

I grew up in West Des Moines, IA rooting for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

...

Sorry, I just threw up a little in my mouth. Back to the story...

These were the Hayden Fry years, and the Hawks were semi-frequent visitors to the Rose Bowl, though they were never actually able to win one (1982 - Washington, 1986 - UCLA, 1991 - Washington).

I played football (not very well), but baseball was what I excelled at growing up. So when my dream of a baseball scholarship to Stanford didn't pan out, I had to look for other college options. When it came time to pick a college, my budget pretty much limited me to in-state tuition. That left Iowa or Iowa State. I don't count UNI - it's basically a JuCo for teachers-to-be that happens to have a decent D1 basketball program and a great D1-AA football program.

Anyway... I was pretty set on Engineering, so Iowa State was clearly the better choice. The doctors, lawyers and hot chicks went to Iowa. The engineers, scientists and farmers daughters went to ISU. At Iowa, they had (age) 19 bars, guys and gals drank shots of Jaeger, and tried their hardest to look as cool or hot as they could doing it. At Iowa State we drank beer. Like, a shit-load of beer. The Beast was a favorite. Or Natty Ice if you wanted a quicker buzz, coupled with the worst headache of your life. Iowa talked a lot about partying, and they did. We just did it, and shut the fuck up about it.

This pretty much helps explain it:

Girls of the Big XII - Iowa State

No. 1 Pastime: "Drinking. If you don't like alcohol, go to another school."

Atta girl. Way to represent.

Shortly after starting at ISU, my high school football coach got hired on as an assistant there, and he helped me get a job as the assistant to the Video Director for the football team. I filmed every practice and game, traveled with the team, cut tapes for coaches, etc. Pretty sweet, except that I was working my ass off, and had very little time for "the college experience", if you know what I mean.

I worked that for a couple years, then left and lived off of some less time-consuming jobs, then I graduated and moved to Orange County, CA (possibly the only County in the country that you can refer to like a city, and everyone gets it - except maybe Humbolt County, but that's a whole other deal...)

Because my allegiance is to a team that has only once even smelled the national limelight in College Football (2002 - when Seneca Wallace lead the #9 Cyclones into Norman to play the #2 Sooners and were absolutely crushed, 49-3), and I now live in the heart of USC/UCLA territory, and I travel quite a bit for work (I could see the blue turf from my hotel room in Boise once), I feel like I have a pretty fair view of the college football landscape.

Did I mention I have a fridge in my garage that's dedicated to booze. Pretty sweet, huh.

OK, my hands are cramping. I think I just gave myself carpel-tunnel. I'm out.