What We Learned This Weekend in College (Football)

Sorry this is a day late, I had to work at the U2 shows at Gillette Stadium. Kickass concerts. Here's 10 things that the weekend's college football games taught us:

#1: Miami is Powerful
"The Canes are going to make a comeback this year." That's what I prophesied in my Preview of the ACC. I'm rarely correct, so I like to brag about it. Miami is Top 25 material. Whether or not they're worthy of the Top 10 or even Top 5 will be determined in the next 2 weeks. Saturday they play #12 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. On October 3rd, they host #9 Oklahoma.



#2: The Wolverines Are the Best Team in Michigan
The Spartans were supposed to have this honor, but Michigan has proven themselves to be halfway-decent, already matching their win total from last year with a 45-7 whooping of Eastern Michigan. The Wolverines and Spartans meet October 3rd in East Lansing. As much as I hate both these teams, it's nice that this rivalry (along with OSU/Michigan) is relevant.

#3: New Stadiums Are Wicked Nice
#8 California needed a big 4th quarter to stave off Minnesota's upset bid. The game was played in the Golden Gophers new home: TCF Bank Stadium. The brand new 51,000 seat stadium has a horseshoe design, is walking distance from campus, and provided Minnesota with enough atmosphere to nearly give them a major win. College football is loaded with old stadiums that should never be replaced, but some schools should seriously consider taking advantage of modern stadium designs, and build new facilities.



#4: Kirk Cousins is an Awful QB
Michigan State's signal caller has all the talent a good college QB needs. But his decision making is borderline retarded. The sophomore had a solid day numbers wise against Notre Dame (23/35, 302 yards, TD, INT). But at the end of the game, down 33-30, he missed a wide open receiver in the end zone with an overthrown fade pass. Not the end of the world until you throw a game-sealing interception on the next down, instead of taking a sack and remaining in field goal range to tie the game. He also fucked up at the end of MSU's loss to Central Michigan.

#5: BC Will Not Finish Last in the ACC
Either Duke or Maryland will. Duke will struggle against North Carolina Central this weekend (they already lost to Richmond). Maryland fell to 1-2 with a loss to Middle Tennessee State. Their only win was against William & Mary, and they needed OT to pull that off. Boston College was dominated by a below average Clemson side, but at least they beat their scheduled cupcakes.



#6: ABC/ESPN Suck
So the one game I was looking forward to watching on Saturday was Nebraska @ Virginia Tech. It was the only game between two ranked teams on Saturday. It was either going to be on ABC or ESPN2, determined by region. I figured since Boston is an ACC market, and it's a big game, and both teams have national followings, that NU/VT would be on. I check ABC, and it's USC @ Washington. Not too surprising, USC has a big national following, and I'm glad I got to see that game. I flip to ESPN2 and I get Arizona @ Iowa. What the fuck? Who the hell cares about this game? Why was this game on in Boston? Are there a lot of Hawkeye fans around here I just wasn't aware of?

#7: Pete Carrol and USC Are Wastes of Life.
"The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." You won't find a much more talented team than the USC Trojans. And that's what proves Pete Carrol is a scarecrow of a coach. He doesn't do anything. The Trojans go out, win big games against big teams, then lose to Stanford/Oregon State/Washington. It's like clockwork. USC will still win the Pac-10, then the Rose Bowl, and Carrol will get accolades for no reason. He's flying a plane that's on automatic pilot, and nobody seems to care that he can't land.



#8: The Mountain West Was Overrated by All
Former #18 Utah lost to unranked Oregon 31-24. Former #7 BYU was destroyed by Florida State, 54-28... in Provo! Utah's loss snaps the nation's longest winning streak. The good news for the MWC was that Texas Christian beat lowly Texas State. The Utah and BYU losses shook up the rankings, and gave the BCS a massive sigh of relief. TCU is ranked #14, but BYU fell to 20th, and Utah was dropped from the rankings. Now the BCS guys just want to see either BYU or Utah defeat TCU, and then there's no busters from the Mountain West.



#9: The ACC Was Underrated by All... Sort of
Miami's return to prominence, Virginia Tech's hard fought win over Nebraska, North Carolina coming out on top over East Carolina, and Florida State's upset win against BYU combined for a very good weekend for the ACC. The conference has 4 ranked teams, and Georgia Tech would be 26th. Either Miami or Virginia Tech is liable to improve a few positions after one beats the other on Saturday. Things are looking good for top of the ACC so far. But there's a wide disparity between top and bottom.



#10: Don't Play Back-to-Back Cupcakes to Start a Season
#2 Texas came out of the gate slow against Texas Tech. Their previous games were against Louisiana-Monroe and Wyoming. Utah played Utah State and San Jose State before they met defeat in Oregon. Nebraska started their season with Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State, then failed to score a TD against Virginia Tech. After thrashing Charleston Southern and Troy, Florida didn't impress much in their too-close win over Tennessee. Just watch this weekend, #4 Ole Miss will struggle against South Carolina after beating Memphis and SE Louisiana.

-The Commodore