Week 2 College Football Newsletter

Week 2 could be given several different nicknames. The close, but not quite week would be one possibility. What a difference a week makes week could be another. Let down week, look past week, and overtime week are three other possible names. I told people not to hype up Tennessee too much after their week one crushing of Cal and they almost fell to Air Force in week 2. Notre Dame got no love for their road win against a tough Georgia Tech team in week 1 and then clobbered Penn State in week 2. With all the great matchups in Week 3, if the games are half as solid as week 2's were, it's going to be a wonderful day for football fans.

The Bonehead Call of the Week
This one goes to the mighty Steve Spurrier of South Carolina. Late in the first half of their game against Georgia, Spurrier and his Gamecocks were lucky to be down 10-0. All they needed to do was run the rest of the clock out and head into halftime feeling good about being down only 10. But, Spurrier wasn't satisfied with that. The Gamecocks were pinned back inside their own three-yard line. They ran the ball up the middle, but lost a yard to make it 2nd and 11 from the two. On second down, Spurrier called for a halfback toss. This toss stuck the tailback three yards deep in the end zone and he couldn't get out of their in time to avoid the safety. That made the score 12-0 and South Carolina had to kick off from the 20 for the free kick. Georgia drove the ball far enough to attempt and convert a field goal just as the half ended. So, instead of going into the half only down 10-0, Spurrier cost his team 5 points and they instead went to the locker room down 15-0.

The Bonehead Play of the Week
This goes to the Iowa defense. They're lucky that Syracuse was their opponent, because if it was just about any other major conference team, Iowa would've fallen short in the end due to their mental lapses. I can't recall how many times Iowa was called for pass interference at the end of regulation and in the two overtimes against Syracuse. It was as if they were begging for the Orange to come away with the victory. They better not do that this week against Iowa State or else you can chalk one up in the L column for the Hawkeyes.

The Conference Yo of the Week
It was kind of a sad week for the major conferences, but after giving this award to the SEC last week, I'm going to have to reluctantly give it to the Big East this week. I can't remember ever doing this a year ago, but in Week 2 of this season, I'm handing the award out to a conference I've termed in the past as the Big Least. The conference went 5-2 this week. Cincinnati gave Pittsburgh a tough run until the very end. The 33-15 score is quite misleading. Rutgers was up 30-0 on Illinois at halftime, but went easy on the Illini in the second half, only scoring three points for a 33-0 victory. West Virginia, as expected, had no problems with Division I-AA Eastern Washington, winning 52-3. Louisville, even without Michael Bush, shut out Temple 62-0. South Florida came back to defeat Florida International 21-20. Finally, the Syracuse Orange gave Big Ten power Iowa a run for their money, losing to the Hawkeyes 20-13 in double overtime.

The Conference Yo No of the Week
This is even tougher than the "Yo," because there are so many candidates up for this award. I'm going to keep giving this award to the Big XII until they actually play some decent opponents. For the second straight week, I'm going to give this award (if you want to call it that) to the Big XII conference. They finished 10-2 this weekend, but let's look at the competition. Oklahoma State beat Arkansas State. Kansas defeated Louisiana-Monroe by two points. Texas A&M beat up on Louisiana-Lafayette. Baylor had a field day with Division I-AA Northwestern State. Nebraska did likewise to Division I-AA Nicholls State. Kansas State shut out Florida Atlantic. That's half the conference right there. Last week, half the conference played Division I-AA teams. This week, half the conference played Division I-AA or Sun Belt Conference (weakest conference in Division I-A football) foes. It took an overtime for Texas Tech to defeat UTEP. Heavily favored Iowa State beat UNLV by the score of 16-10. Oklahoma had a tough time for three quarters against Washington. Missouri had the most impressive win of the week for the conference, beating up on Ole Miss of the SEC by the score of 34-7. Their losses weren't pretty either. Colorado is now 0-2 after losing to innerstate rival Colorado State 14-10. The Buffs have put up 20 points in two weeks. They are consistent, but not in the sense that they'd like to be. Finally, Texas got blown out in one of the most anticipated regular season games of year, losing to Ohio State 24-7. This week should be different (finally), as Oklahoma takes on Oregon and Nebraska plays USC. Unless OU and NU get blown out, then the Big XII could find their name here again next week. We shall see.

Game of the Week
I'll give the runner-up to Tennessee and Air Force, but I think the ACC battle between Clemson and Boston College outdid them ever so slightly. BC didn't look all too impressive in their opening week win against Central Michigan, outlasting the Chippewas 31-24. But, as we should've learned by now, with Tom O'Brien as head coach, BC will be competitive and win 7-9 football games. On the other hand, it seems that Clemson has lost more close ball games in the past two years than anyone else in the country. They fell in overtime to the Eagles last season, one of four losses that came by a total of 13 points. Coach Tommy Bowden and his Tigers got an early dose of last year's heartache again this season with a 34-33 double overtime loss to the Eagles. It's a shame how it happened. Clemson took the lead in the second overtime with a touchdown run by their back, James Davis to go up by a 33-27 score. But the extra point attempt was blocked and following a BC touchdown, the extra point sealed the victory for the Eagles. It's unfortunate the game had to end that way, but it was a great back and forth battle for 60+ minutes.

Biggest Disappointment of the Week
Most would say Penn State/Notre Dame or Texas/Ohio State. I honestly wasn't too surprised by either game, especially the game in South Bend. The one I was truly disappointed with was the Georgia/South Carolina game. Hardly anybody thought the Gamecocks had a chance last year in Athens and Spurrier lead the Gamecocks to be behind by two points (17-15) late in the game with a chance to drive the ball downfield for the win. While the defense played solid for South Carolina, they couldn't get much of anything going on offense, marred by an ineffective passing game and some poor play calling by the man in the visor. South Carolina has now only scored 15 points in their two games this season. Their defense has been a pleasant surprise, but if they want to contend in the SEC, they'll have to score some points as well.

Kudos
Fisher DeBerry. Next to Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, Fisher DeBerry's tenure at Air Force is the longest of any coach in Division I-A. There's a reason for that. Of all three military academies, Air Force has been the most consistent and competitive through the past two decades. This showed again on Saturday when DeBerry led his troops to a near victory over the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville. Air Force scored a touchdown to pull within seven at 31-24 with a couple minutes left in the game. Air Force drove down the field and scored again to close within one at 31-30. DeBerry chose to go for two and the win. In Knoxville and knowing it may be the best chance to win for the remaining duration of the game, I felt it was a gutsy decision by the coach. However, I didn't agree with the play call, as it was a toss play that required the halfback gain seven yards instead of the required three. Against a better, quicker, and more talented team in Tennessee, that's not a bright play call. Air Force then recovered another onside kick, but a player of theirs was offsides. When they kicked it again, Tennessee recovered the ball to seal the victory. Regardless of the final outcome, DeBerry and his coaching staff deserve a lot of credit for their performance against the Vols at their house.

No Kudos For You
The teams that either looked ahead to next week or were let down from the week before. Mississippi beat in-state rival Memphis last week 28-25 and lost to Missouri this week 34-7. Northwestern went from beating a decent MAC team in Miami (OH) 21-3 to losing to Division I-AA New Hampshire 34-17. Northern Illinois went from playing Ohio State moderately tough to losing to Ohio 35-23. With Iowa looking ahead to Iowa State, it took them two overtimes to beat Syracuse 20-13. Florida State defeated rival Miami two Mondays ago and almost lost to Troy, beating the Trojans 24-17. Toledo took Iowa State to double overtime in Week 1, but then got clobbered by Western Michigan 31-10. Iowa State looked ahead to Iowa and almost fell to UNLV, winning 16-10.

Player of the Week
This goes out to Boise State tailback Ian Johnson. The guy ran for 240 yards and 5 touchdowns in their 42-14 win over Oregon State. The school record for rushing yards in a game was 261 and Johnson would've beaten it had the coach left him in the game. Johnson was taken out with over ten minutes left in the ball game. If he had stayed in the rest of the game, the guy would've had well over 300 yards on the ground!

Surprise of the Week
This has to go to New Hampshire and their upset win over Northwestern of the Big Ten. Northwestern has been a fairly steady mediocre football team over the past few seasons. They started this year off on the right foot by defeating a pretty decent Miami (OH) squad 21-3. Just as I was shocked to see Montana State beat Colorado, I'm almost as shocked to see New Hampshire defeat Northwestern.

Nebraska Game (from an unbiased person's viewpoint)
The game wasn't on television. They played a Division I-AA patsy in Nicholls State whom some local radio personalties referred to as "Nicole State" all throughout the week. There's nothing to really say about the game, except that they dominated and that Nebraska fans better hope the games against Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State has prepared them to face USC in the Coliseum this upcoming Saturday.

Solich Update
Outside of Ohio's upset win over Pittsburgh a season ago, this past Saturday's victory over usual MAC power Northern Illinois was the biggest win in Frank Solich's tenure at Ohio thus far. It was definitely the biggest conference win he's had while there. Ohio won the game 35-23 to improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in conference.

Gill Update
While Buffalo head coach Turner Gill suffered his first defeat this past weekend, he surprised many (including myself) with how close he came to pulling off the victory. It took Bowling Green three overtimes to defeat Buffalo by the final score of 48-40. The Bulls are now 1-1 on the young season.

Rant of the Week: #1 Vs. #2? Big Deal
No, I'm not saying this from the fact that Ohio State thumped Texas on Saturday night 24-7. I stated this before the game even started. I found it utterly stupid and ridiculous to hear and read sports' analysts, experts, and commentators hype the game as the first 1 Vs. 2 regular season matchup since 1996. That's right, it's been ten years. Why did I think it was ridiculous to hype the game up so much? Oh, let's see here. Both teams came into the game with a record of 1-0! The teams combined were 2-0! It was the second week of the season! Those rankings are basically pre-season rankings before the teams had even played a game yet. Texas moved up one spot after week one, but that's been it. Ohio State pummeled Northern Illinois and Texas did likewise to North Texas. That's all we had to go off of folks. If the clubs were 6-0, 7-0, 8-0 and ranked 1 and 2? Then we can hype the game up as much as we'd like, because the teams have proved through the first half to two-thirds of the regular season that they are legit. We can't justify that notion for teams who've played one-twelvth of their regular season schedule.

Was it a great early season non-conference game? Yeah, of course it was. With strength of schedule no longer being a component of the BCS system, we are stuck with Division I-A powers playing Division I-AA teams and doormats from the weaker conferences in Division I-A many times. Rarely do we see a power from the Big XII go head-to-head with a power from the Big Ten in the early portion of the regular season. So, kudos to the two universities for making it happen, but no kudos to the media for making this out to be a national championship caliber game between #1 and #2 when the two teams are a combined 2-0! If the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints went head to head next week, what sense would it make for the media to blow that up as a preview to the Super Bowl, as both teams are a combined 2-0? None. Nada. Zilch. This is just another reason why pre-season polls shouldn't exist. But, then, what would the media do? Without the numbers and rankings right in front of them? Who knows, but it could make an entertaining watch, that's for certain.