Until Then...

Aaaaaaand we've got a bye week. Thanks a pant load mother nature. But that's OK - we'll get you Razorbacks....on September 27th where fans will be shuttling back and forth between the game and Widespread Panic on the Heineken stage. I'd like to have a penny for every dollar spent by folks NOT from Austin on that weekend.

Quick note - as you read this tomorrow I'll be dropping the wife off at her mom's for the big trip...it begins. Oh, and just so you know that the Good Lord is aware of this and taking an opportunity to teach me a lesson, Ella J woke up with snotty cold/bug this morning.......so I've got that going for me...which is nice.(copyright Carl Spackler, 1980)

In all seriousness, if you're reading this from Houston, Galveston or the surrounding areas, for the love of God get the hell out of dodge!! It's easy to joke when you live in Austin where the slightest movement in this storm is the difference between 6 inches of rain and partly cloudy and breezy - but either way some part of the Texas coast is going to get hammered. Don't be dumb - take care of yourselves. But before you do....let's take a quick look at the games that weren't prematurely canceled (I'll get to those Razorbacks in a couple of weeks..and why I'm ecstatic this game didn't get move to the end of the season)

Ohio State at Southern Cal:
Latest I heard is that Beanie Wells is doubtful for this game. I'll be honest, I know he had a great freshman year, but I really never saw this guy as THE guy on this team. I mean, wasn't all the hype around these guys centered around the number of returning starters? Don't get me wrong, not calling him "bad" or "mediocre", but I personally don't think it's the difference between them having a chance and not having a chance. That aside there's no doubt that USC has the edge playing at home in front of what should be a jacked up crowd. At the end of the day, I think the edge here will come down to the speed and athleticism - as it was in their losses to Florida and LSU. I don't see a blowout here as I think USC will have to adjust to the level of competition compared with their home opener at Virginia. They have had a week off to prepare, but I firmly believe that this early in the season the game experience is more valuable than time off - you want that week off in late October or November. But, that just means lower and tougher points - Trojans still pull this one out though.

Southern Cal - 27
Ohio State - 13

Kansas at South Florida:
I'm actually looking forward to this one on Friday night - this is a great game for a Friday night. This could be the dark horse game of the weekend and I believe an upset could be in the making...sort of given that they are pretty close to each other in the rankings. This would really be a good win for the Jayhawks. They had a great year last year, but had questions about their schedule. Everyone knew they would be tested this year drawing the big 3 of the south division (Tech, Horns and at the Sooners) as well as make a trip to Lincoln. You know what, this wouldn't be a good win, this would be a huge win for Kansas and one that would likely give them tremendous confidence going into that conference schedule. On the flip side, the Big East really needs South Florida to win this game and if they do, it will be the lone glimmer of hope for that conference as that will certainly be a quality win. I do like South Florida in the Big East, but I'm not thrilled with the way they struggled with Central Florida. I'm going Kansas in a close, offensive game.

Kansas - 41
South Florida - 31

Michigan at Notre Dame:
If you need any more evidence to the cyclical nature of college football just look at the irrelevance of this game on the national picture. This could be one of the tougher games to pick, but I'm going with Michigan on the road (would that be an upset? no, can't be).

Michigan - 22
Notre Dame - 20

Other College Football Notes:

• What the hell happened to that stable of running backs at Florida? So far it's business as usual with Tebow and Harvin with very little else from the RBs. Hmmm....
• Seriously ESPN, May and Holtz is brutal...it's like torture sometimes.
• I don't think I like the fact that there is more and more high school football on television these days. I just don't think it's a good idea to put that kind of spotlight, pressure and exposure on high school kids. It's been on ESPN a lot lately. Crazy.
  
• This has nothing to do with football, but this just came to me and I had to put it out there - do you think there's a team of folks in some bunker working on a myriad of Hurricane Ike/Ike Turner jokes?
• Georgia, don't blow this at South Carolina this weekend.
• Check out the recap from Tech's last game at Nevada and preview their upcoming scrimmage against SMU: http://fannation.com/blogs/post/250057

VY:
Soooo, where do I begin on this??? What a crazy turn of events the last few days has been for Vince. I'll say this, after the game on Sunday I was starting to think that this may not work out for Vince (the NFL that is). And now this? In all honesty I think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion just a tad. At the end of the day, this all started with the fact that he left his home "abruptly" and forgot his phone.

First and foremost, he's got a leg injury that he needs to heal - which could be from 2-4 weeks as I've read. But what I really think is that VY needs to grow up a little bit. I don't doubt that it's hard as hell to going from king of the world to a middle of the road QB. He's still young and can certainly be a very good quarterback, but he's got to get better, faster. He needs to work on his passing, he needs to study film more and he most of all, he needs to stop pouting on the side lines. There's a very good chance that he's lost this team, but who knows. You also have to wonder if Tennessee is just a bad fit for him - they've never been too eager to go out and get a top tier receiver or two and their favorite thing to do on draft day is pick a running back no matter what. Who knows, but I do know this - VY needs to *prove* he's committed to this game and his teammates. He needs to grow up and act like a professional.

Other NFL Notes:

• I think New England is still going to win 10 games this year and make the playoffs. I think this Cassell guy will be just fine.
  
• Funny note: Cassell backed up Carson Palmer at USC and was "supposed" to be the next guy in line until Matt Lineart beat him out. Now Cassell is starting for the all-world Pats and Lineart is backing up AARP member, Kurt Warner. Weird.
  
• I don't know why everyone was so shocked at how the Cowboys kicked the Browns' asses - just because the media was all excited about the Browns dark horse prospects doesn't mean they are actually any good. We know the Cowboys are good, especially on offense - we've seen it the past two (regular) seasons. And the Browns aren't.
  
• Speaking of, I really love Marion Barber - I'll say it again, Felix Jones could not have fallen into a better situation. I think those guys could be dangerous together.
  
• Surely Peyton Manning and company will bounce back this weekend - game 1 just goes to show you that everyone gets rust when they take a snap for the first time in about 30 months.
• Wow - did I really pick Jim Zorn as my coach of the year??? Eek.
  
• I don't think anyone slept better on Monday night than Aaron Rogers - great, great game by Rogers. That Packer team looked very, very good.
  
• I'm not a Pats fan and never been a Brady fan, but I do feel for him - that's a terrible thing to happen, especially so early in the season.
  
• ...with that said, I'm very excited about how wide open this NFL season is. I mean, try picking the conference champs right now. Of course you few can ever really pick them after one week, but this sort of "leveling of the playing field" is kind of cool.
  
• I picked Vikings and Pats in the Super Bowl - if I could I would change that to Steelers and not the Vikings....hey, why can't I change it?
• I see the Shawn Merriman on a shredded knee experiment has come to and end - good thing for him.
  
• One more thing on the Patriots - it will be very interesting to see how Moss reacts to this situation. I think he's got an opportunity to erase a lot of the lingering stigma of his past reputations. Sure, it's easy when you're going 16-0 and catching 236 touchdown passes a year, but this is quite a wrench. We'll see, but if he can step up and be a real leader for Cassell and this team it will speak volumes of him during what's sure to be his final years. Will be interesting to watch.

That's what I got gang - enjoy the games this weekend and be safe.

Week 2 Observations

I guess you could say this was the weekend for sloppy/sluggish performances (Horns, Red Raiders, Buckeyes, Moutaineers). I guess that throws my whole "week 1 to week 2 is biggest improvement" argument out the window. Busy Sunday ahead of me so this is going to be a rapid-fire edition of the day-after post.

• Gotta start with those Horns - the really good news is I'm betting very few writers/pollsters saw this game and awoke to read the box scores and scan the recap. It certainly wasn't a terrible game, but it certainly was uglier than the FAU game.
• Offense was great again and Colt was on fire yet again. Cosby really had a phenomenal game too with 154 yards on 8 catches - and how about him returning that missed field goal while the rest of the players on the field were walking off. Great heads up play.
  
• Defense on the other hand.....not so great. Here's one for you: UTEP had more total net yards than Texas. 412 to 404. More frustrating, they out gained the Horns on the ground with 145 yards rushing. That's not going to cut it. I guess some could say it was a "bend don't break" defense given the number of points they gave up compared with the number of yards. I'll buy that against Tech, OU, Missouri and teams like that, but not against UTEP. There's no reason Texas' defense should be bending to the Miners.
  
• If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm starting to get just a tad nervous about our defense - they were gutted with ease early and often in this game. Did you see what Bradford and OU did? Did you see what Missouri did? And we know what Tech can do. They've got some improving to do if they're going to hang with those guys. Can't give up 8-12 yard plays so easily and so often.
  
• That was a nice pick and return for Muckelroy, but it was a shining moment in an otherwise tense defensive game...at least from where I was sitting.
• It was nice to see them give freshman "Fossie" Whittaker a good opportunity - he had the most carries of all the backs (double the carries of McGee). Who knows, maybe they saw something they really liked in practice this week. By the way, the Big O (Ogbonnaya) only got 1 carry. Whittaker looked good, but he's a freshman who's 5'9" and weighs 195 so he's not a huge guy, but he's damn fast and he found those creases last night.
  
• Shame on you Dan Buckner for giving up on the route that caused Colt's lone INT of the night - you gotta finish the play whether you think you were bumped or not. Freshman mistake there.
  
• Looking ahead...gotta a high-profile game coming up against Arkansas and there's plenty to work on this week in practice. Petrino has to be salivating as he watches tape of this inexperienced Texas secondary. I imagine teams will continue to come at them and come hard.
  
• I'm not sure if you all heard this, but as soon as the final horn sounded in the Ohio/Ohio State game, I swore I heard a collective sigh of relief from Big 10 nation. That would have been disastrous for OSU within the jungle that is college football.
  
• I'm certainly not looking at that game and thinking, "oh well, now we know USC will stomp them." I tend to lean more towards the argument that these guys were thinking about USC as the opening kickoff sailed through the air. Although I don't believe OSU is as good as USC or Florida, I do think they can hang with the Trojans and are even capable of beating them. Don't think they will, but they certainly can. Either way, a Buckeyes loss there would not have been pretty for the Big 10's rep.
  
• One more quick memo to OSU - Penn State and Wisconsin are really, REALLY good. I think we've pretty much heard an end to all the talk this summer proclaiming that the Buckeyes would coast through the Big 10 even if they lost to the Trojans. I think not. Penn State's offense looks like a very "jelled" group of guys. They looked very tough and that was a game that they really needed to win/make a statement and I think they did just that.
  
• In case you guys have been under a rock since Saturday afternoon and not seen a paper/website, I'll give you the one and only story - East Carolina is for real. Their first two games of the '08 season were against the reigning ACC champ and the reigning Big East and Fiesta Bowl champ....and they dominated them both for four quarters. I was able to watch a good chunk of that W. Virginia game yesterday and they literally pushed them around. They played with great intensity and they "out-physicaled" the Mountaineers. I'm not sure if W. Virginia's attrition (in coaching and players) is starting to catch up or if the Pirates are really THAT good, but I suspect it's a combination of both. Either way, give these guys credit for taking on the big boys. By the way, their two remaining non-conference games are against NC State and Virginia. Granted, these guys aren't powers in their conferences by any stretch of the imagination, but the point is East Carolina scheduled all 4 of their non-conference games against BCS opponents - half them coming against conference champs. That's ballsy.
  
• By the way, assuming they continue to dominate and go 11-1 or 10-2, how many suitors will Skip Holtz have at the end of the year?
  
• Remember how I told the Big East to move over and make room for the ACC as the new BCS whipping boy? Yea well, I'm making room for both. Big East stinks. Our boy Greg Robinson at Syracuse lost to Akron...yea, Akron. He may be out before the end of the year. Then you have Rutgers losing at home to Fresno State; W. Virginia getting hammered; Cincy getting stomped; and Pitt losing at home to Bowling Green. South Florida is the only hope for this conference, but either way, I see a team barely above .500 winning the Big East.
  
• Nice effort hanging with Florida for 2-3 quarters Miami - that score wasn't quite indicative of the game.
  
• Note to Aggies: I believe we may have seen Stephen McGee take his last snap as the starting QB at Texas A&M. I'm not sure how injured he is, but either way, I think Sherman has to make that change. If he's going to come in and start building for the future he needs to start by getting those young guys on the field. McGee's a senior, he's not the kind of player that fits Sherman's scheme and I don't think keeping him as the starter does anything for anyone except McGee. Johnson put up some good numbers and is obviously a great athlete (at least he looks like one) - he'll get better the more reps he gets. I think deep down the Aggie coaches are resigning to a potentially disastrous year from a wins/losses perspective, but I think he's more interested in putting his team in a position to make a big improvements over the next 2 years. I think Miami beats up on the aggies again next week - too much speed. To me, the aggies are a team that will have such a poor year this year that no one will give them 2 thoughts coming into next season and they'll surprise a lot of teams.
  
• Newsflash: Notre Dame still blows. They damn-near lost to San Diego State who, if not the worst team in the country, is not far from being the worst team in the country. In fact, the Aztecs were about to punch it in for an 8 point lead before the fumbled on the goal line and the Domers recovered. They then went down and scored the go ahead TD. Either way, they're bad and I can't imagine these guys winning 8, 9 or 10 games this year. Just can't see it.
  
• Booooooo.....Booooooooo...that's to the ref who called the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the BYU/Washington game. Although I get he was "doing his job" in a sense, it's still a judgement call and he shouldn't have thrown the flag. No one would have said after the fact, "hey, they should have called a 15 yarder there". No one WANTS to see that kind of penalty being called at any point. Congrats ref, you officially and directly affected the outcome of the game. More important, however, can we PLEASE go in the book, find that rule and change it/remove it?
  
• Quick NFL break in - just glanced at the box scores for the first half of the early games and this stuck out at me: Donovan McNabb is 16-24 for 297 yards and 3 TDs....at the half. I'd say he's healthy.
  
• Respectable start for VY - he's got a TD pass with no INTs. I'll take it.
  
• One more gripe on the refs - in the ND game the Domers were on offense and facing third and VERY long. The Aztecs come with a blitz and Clausen is running for his life straight back and then just flings the ball away. Here are the issues: 1) he was never outside of the pocket, and 2) the pass fell about 5 yards short of the line of scrimmage. Both/either are intentional grounding....they didn't call intentional grounding. Something that blatant is soooo frustrating whereas on the flip side you've got guys calling unsportsmanlike conduct on the last play of the game. Sheesh.
  

That's what I got folks - enjoy your Sunday and we'll do it again next week. T-minus 5 days....