Three for Thursday:Week 8

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Week Eight in college football didn’t disappoint on the field.  In my heart however…..

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Michigan – The Wolverines showed that they are not where they need to be in order to compete for a conference championship, let alone a trip to the CFP.  Quarterback John O’Korn had one of his best games in the winged helmet, unfortunately the rest of the team seemed to have their worst.  A lot of the fan base is calling for another change under center, and some are calling for a new coach, only one of those calls is really viable.

Michigan State – The Spartans showed struggles on offense through the first three quarters of their contest against Indiana.  It was a higher level of talent that ended up being the difference in the end.  This team will go as far as the defense will take them.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes enjoyed their week off by watching Michigan getting trounced in Happy Valley, something they probably enjoyed immensely.  They were also able to see some game tape from Penn State, their next opponent, that will be helpful in their matchup this week.  The game of the week in college football will show us if Braxton Miller has improved at quarterback since the loss to Oklahoma, or if their weak schedule is really just boosting his numbers.

Penn State – After last week’s dismantling of the Wolverines we get a new entry into the mix.  Coach Franklin has his team running on all cylinders and they look to be the cream of the crop in the B1G.  They can probably give Alabama a run for their money, but I still have a hard time picking them to win it all as long as Nick Saban is around.

Big Ten West – The weaker half of the conference showed its ineptitude again as pretty much every school had struggles except Wisconsin.  Rutgers has won two straight conference games for the first time since joining the league, both against west division teams.  PJ Fleck was able to right the ship and secure his first conference victory, against Illinois, a team that should probably be relegated if there were that type of system in place.

Notre Dame – The Irish may quietly be making a case for the College Football Playoffs, as they continue to win and look more impressive every week.  Normally when top rival USC comes to town it’s a pretty close game.  This one was over before the Penn State blowout of Michigan.

SEC – The closest game in this conference was 16 point victory by LSU over Ole Miss.  There is a definite divide between the top and bottom of this conference.  Alabama continues to roll, and they don’t look like they’ll be tested very much before The Iron Bowl.

ACC – Miami leads the pack as the only undefeated team left in the conference, they look like UGA made a mistake by firing Mark Richt.  Clemson may be the only team to really challenge them for the league title.  After strong showings last year, both Duke and North Carolina are reminding us why they are basketball schools.

Pac 12 – This conference is the picture of parity.  There are four teams that have two losses or less, Washington, Washington State, USC, and Arizona.  The rest are all muddled together right around a .500 record.

Big 12 – This conference may be the biggest surprise of the year.  Last year watching these teams was difficult, this year 60% of the conference is ranked going into week 9.  The conference will most likely be decided in Norman OK as TCU travels to face the Sooners on 11/11, but I’m not sure the winner will have a good enough case to make the CFP.

Western Michigan – The Broncos traveled to Ypsilanti to face perennial conference doormat Eastern Michigan, but this isn’t your dad’s EMU team.  They grey field turf is difficult to look at, and after a game ending injury to starting quarterback John Wassink, the offense was able to control the ball enough to hold on and make it to overtime.  After missing a potential game winning field goal at the end of regulation the Broncos were able to convert as they had the ball first, then a missed field goal by EMU gave them a victory and kept them on track to face Toledo later in the season for a trip to the conference championship.

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Rutgers – The Scarlett Knights won back-to-back conference games for the first time since joining the B1G in 2014.  Last year they were blown out at home 78-0 against Michigan, and in 2015 they really didn’t put up much of a fight in the Big House.  This is a huge game for the Wolverines, the need the victory to prove to themselves that they are a good football team, get some younger players a look at game action, and to keep the ever-doubting fan base at bay.

The weather is getting colder and the games are getting hotter.  In a sport where your championship dreams can be crushed before Autumn, it’s survive and advance from the first time toe meets leather.

Three for Thursday:Week 1

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The first week of college football started with a lot of the usual cupcake matchups, and a couple of highly ranked team facing each other as well.  What it didn’t do is disappoint the fans, that’s for sure.  Here’s my take away.

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Michigan – Aside from a five minute stretch in the middle of the second quarter the Wolverines dominated the Florida Gators.  The quarterback position seems to be the biggest question on this team, with Wilton Speight struggling against top level competition.  The running game really was able to do whatever it wanted and the defense showed that it has the potential to be better than last year’s top ranked unit.

Michigan State – The Spartans started kind of slow against a lower tier MAC opponent.  In the long run they ended up taking care of business in a rather comfortable manner.  Will it be enough to continue to win the rest of the year against better completion?

Ohio State – The Hoosiers looked to be able to expose a weakness on the defensive side of the ball for the Buckeyes, short and inexperienced defensive backs.  Quarterback J.T. Barret still struggled to throw the ball, but their defense and running game are good enough to cover that up in a lot of cases.  This week’s match-up against Oklahoma will show a lot of what they really are.

Big Ten West – The teams in the B1G West held their own against their opening week opponents.  The only loss from that side of the conference came from Purdue, who was unranked and facing the 16^th ranked Louisville Cardinals, and they certainly put a scare into them.  The biggest surprise from the west division may have been Minnesota, who didn’t look very impressive in PJ Fleck’s coaching debut against a lower tier MAC team.

Notre Dame – Brian Kelly was able to take care of business in the Irish’s season opener.  It probably helped that they were at home and facing Temple.  It could be considered a blessing or a curse to be an independent and be able to schedule whoever you want for the most part.

SEC – Alabama showed once again that they can really just reload year after year, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who watches college football on a regular basis.  The rest of the conference seemed to hold up well against their cupcake schedules.  Well, except for Texas A&M in the second half, but I don’t think UCLA is really a cupcake.

ACC – An 11-3 weekend with one of those losses coming to the top team in the land is pretty good.  The only thing is that beyond that match-up it was more cupcake scheduling and there wasn’t a whole of lopsided games aside from the powerhouse program at Duke (HA!).  I have a feeling this is a top heavy conference and may be a case of the big 2 and little 12.

Pac 12 – The fourth ranked Trojans had all they could handle with the visiting Broncos from Western Michigan University, but in the end their talent proved to be just too much, as it should have.  The rest of the conference seemed to not have much trouble taking care of their own business. This will be an interesting race to watch with USC, Washington, and Stanford looking like the teams to beat.

Big -12 – Beyond the shocking upset of Texas at home against Maryland the conference didn’t struggle much at all.  A single touchdown loss by West Virginia against similarly ranked and long-time rival Virginia Tech doesn’t hurt the conference after the opening weekend.  The amount of cupcake games on the schedule may, and also help make the case for less of them in general.

Western Michigan – The Broncos traveled to La La Land and landed a square shot to the jaw of perennial powerhouse USC.  They with stood a return jab for as long as they could before the Trojan’s ultimately just out muscled them for the victory.  This performance gives me hope for the continued success of this program under new coach Tim Lester, and a good excuse to go see my kid on campus and buy some of the best donuts available in the country.

Cincinnati – The Bearcats played host to Austin Peay in the opening week and were able to come away with a victory.  Michigan opened the week as a 33 point favorite.  This isn’t Brian Kelly’s Bearcats and the Wolverines should have no problem getting lots of players on the depth chart in the game this week.

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I didn’t even know that the Texas A&M versus UCLA game was on until I started flipping through channels during the halftime of the WVU vs VTU game.  Boy am I glad I did because it was a reminder of why I love college football so much.

Three for Thursday:Week 9

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Week nine in college football had a bunch of great games on the schedule.  Some were conference rivalries, and others were among top ranked teams.  There were some surprises, and some more evidence as to what some teams are, but most importantly the first ranking by the playoff committee came out afterward.

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Michigan – Jim Harbaugh took his Wolverines to East Lansing trying to exact some revenge for a last second special teams mistake that cost them a victory last season over their in-state rival.  This game started out looking like it was going to be the blow out that the betting line and many media people thought it was going to be.  In the second half Michigan looked like a tired team, like a team that hasn’t had to play its starters on defense for a full four quarters.  They did make key stops when needed and Jabrill Peppers put the game away with a last second two-point-conversion fumble return where he really showed off world class sprinter speed.

Michigan State – The Spartans took the opening kick-off and ran the ball right down the field against the Wolverines to take an early 7-0 lead.  They struggle the rest of the first half, but on the strength of an inspired team against their rival and on the back of RB L.J. Scott they made it an interesting game.  I said early in the season that Scott was their best runner, and he proved that this week, but he should have been given that chance weeks ago.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes hosted Northwestern as a follow up to their stunning loss against Penn State last week.  They opened up a lead early and were able to hold on for a 24-20 victory.  Some people are saying that Ohio State may not be as good as initially advertised, I agree some, but Northwestern may be a lot better than anyone thought they were.

Wisconsin – The Badgers hosted the game of the week in the B1G as they welcomed Nebraska to Camp Randall Stadium.  An early lead quickly went away in the second half and the game was forced into overtime.  The strength of the Wisconsin team, the defense, really showed up in the overtime, forcing a sack to win the game as the Corn Huskers attempted to tie it in the first overtime period.

Alabama – The Crimson Tide scheduled their bye week for week nine.  Is that a coincidence coming right before their rivalry game against LSU, I don’t think so.  The Tigers haven’t lived up to their preseason ranking, but Nick Saban better watch out because LSU controls their own destiny to the SEC Championship game.

Notre Dame – The Fighting Irish welcomed the University of Miami (FL) in a renewal of “The Catholics vs. The Convicts.”  The Hurricanes aren’t what they used to be on or off the field but sure showed resiliency after falling behind 20-0 early.  Notre Dame had their best finish of the season with a 10-0 run of their own after falling behind 27-20, and came away with their third victory of the season, keeping their faint bowl hopes alive.

Clemson – The Tigers faced the last team in their conference that really stood a chance to upset the defending conference champs.  The Florida State Seminoles showed portions of why they were ranked in the top five early on in the season.  Clemson took over in the fourth quarter though, showing why they’re still ranked in the top five after week nine.

Washington – The Huskies traveled to Salt Lake City to take on the Utes of Utah (yup, the Utes).  This was a back and forth game as Utah had an answer for most of what Washington was able to throw at them.  Ultimately the Huskies were able to put it away in the fourth quarter, as any good team should be able to.

Oklahoma – The Sooners are surprisingly the last undefeated team in conference play after both teams I was wondering if they would take hold of the conference, Baylor and West Virginia, were upset over the weekend.  The only losses Oklahoma has are non-conference games against Houston, who isn’t looking as good as they were, and Ohio State, ditto.  With as much of a mess as the Big 12 is both one loss teams on the Sooner schedule, Baylor and West Virginia, may not be as close as one might have thought they would be a couple of weeks ago.

Western Michigan – The Broncos rowed their boats to Scheumann Stadium in Muncie, Indiana for some Tuesday night MACtion.  They opened up the scoring early with a pick six from their top cornerback, Junior Darius Phillips.  The rest of the game PJ Fleck allowed his quarterback to throw the ball where he wanted, as long as it was to Corey Davis, who set a conference single game receiving record with 272 yards.

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By the time kickoff game in East Lansing at noon the betting line on the battle for the Paul Bunyan trophy was up to 24.5 points.  I never thought that was realistic.  The Spartans looked like a team that was inspired by the rivalry and really brought everything they had to the game.  I mentioned before that Michigan looked tired in the second half.  This marks the second straight game where they’ve struggled a little after the bands perform.  That’s a small downside to being able to rest your players early in the season, it starts to show effect their conditioning.  Ultimately the Wolverines have way too much talent and were severely overmatched.  In speaking with some Spartan fans, they agree with me and wonder why L.J. Scott hasn’t had a bigger role this year.  He certainly looks like a Spartan back in the likes of Jevon Ringer and Le’Veon Bell.

The first rankings by the College Football Playoff committee were released on Tuesday.  It was a bit surprising to see unbeaten Washington fall to number five behind on loss Texas A&M.  Surprising, but not necessarily wrong.  The Aggies only loss came at the hands of the top team in the nation, Alabama.  These rankings show us how the committee see the conferences rank in their eyes.  The B1G, SEC, and ACC all have five teams in the top 25.  The Big 12 and PAC 12 each have four and Western Michigan and Boise State are the two teams ranked from “the other 5.”  With Texas A&M getting the nod over Washington is shows that the committee feels the SEC is the strongest conference in the land.  There isn’t a whole lot of evidence to show that Washington deserves to be ranked ahead of them.

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November brings cold weather, leaves to rake, and Thanksgiving.  It also brings some of the best games of the year that couldn’t have been predicted as big back in September, I can’t wait.

Three for Thursday Week 7

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Week seven in college football wasn’t very exciting for me from a fan standpoint with Michigan off for their bye week.  Most of the rest of the teams around the country still played, and now we’re beginning to see teams play common opponents, which helps to evaluate the top teams around.

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Michigan – While Coach Harbaugh was earning a tri-tip steak sandwich on a recruiting trip the Wolverines were resting up for the second half of the season.  Their roster doesn’t seem to have too many people that are dinged up, but it was probably good for some of them to get a little extra recovery time.  The hype surrounding this team is beginning to build outside of the B1G, which may not be that much hype if it pans out to be true.

Michigan State – The Spartans hosted the Northwestern Wildcats, a team they should beat on a yearly basis.  The 2016 season is not turning out to be a typical season for the Spartans under Mark Dantonio, and giving up 50 points at home in a loss give evidence to that.  A small 2013 recruiting class, the loss of an excellent defensive coordinator, and a mass exodus of graduating players are all leading to this down season, but just how far down are they going to go and is this going to be a continuing trend are both questions that can probably be answered with a no.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes traveled to Madison last week to face one of the B1G West’s best teams in the Wisconsin Badgers.  A slow start lead to Ohio State falling behind early and trailing at the half.  It took quarterback JT Barrett running the ball, pretty much at will, for them to force overtime where they were able to come away with a victory on a timely sack from the defense.

Wisconsin – Despite two losses in conference, both to east division teams, the Badgers still appear to be the team to beat in the west.  A very strong start helped the Badgers to jump out early, but the lack of experience at quarterback really hampered their ability to move the ball and score in the second half.  Although Nebraska is still undefeated, the Badgers two losses have come against 2/3 of the top three teams in the country according to the “experts.”

Alabama – The Crimson Tide rolled into Knoxville and rolled right over Rocky Top.  Jumping out to a 21-7 first half lead, Nick Saban continued to put the pressure on the Volunteers by outscoring them 28-3 in the second half.  This was billed as a possible upset for Alabama early on in the season, but it looks like the next best chance anyone has to beat the Tide is this weekend when Texas A&M comes to town.

Notre Dame – The Irish hosted a Christian McCaffrey less Stanford team in week seven.  This looked like a winnable game for Notre Dame, but ultimately their offense became stagnant and their defense couldn’t make a stand late in the fourth quarter.  Stanford’s struggle against a lean Irish team shows how dependent they are on McCaffrey.

Clemson – Deshaun Watson did everything he could to strengthen his Heisman candidacy with almost 400 yards passing and two touchdowns.  The Tigers held off a much improved Wolfpack team that was able to hang around until the end of the game.  The difference in this game was Clemson’s experience on both sides of the ball in “big” games.

Washington – The Huskies enjoyed a bye week and a little rest during week seven.  They spent the week kind of low key, as they have for the whole season.  Look for them to continue to roll in week eight against Oregon State.

Baylor – The Bears hosted the Kansas Jayhawks and rolled to an easy victory at home.  This moved them to 6-0 and keeps them as one of 11 remaining unbeaten teams.  They will most likely remain unbeaten throughout the season, but what does that say about a conference where the best team doesn’t look a whole lot better than the worst team in the B1G (Rutgers)?

Western Michigan – Coach Fleck and the Broncos rowed their boat all the way to Akron Ohio in week seven and were able to hold their opponent to a score that matches their team name, the Zips.  The Broncos look like a team that is head and shoulders above the rest of their conference and should row their way through the rest of the year.  Just because they’re a small school doesn’t mean they aren’t getting noticed, as evidence showed in their spot on Sportscenter last week gave us the quote of the week from Coach Fleck, “If you’re going to hang out with turds, you’re going to end up in turd-town.”

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If you take a look at each game from my top teams on an individual basis you don’t see much from any of them.  When you start looking at how teams matched up against common opponents though it starts to make things a little clearer.  Alabama faced Tennessee and won with ease.  This week they play Texas A&M who struggled to beat the Vols at home in overtime.  The Badgers scored a lot more points and moved the ball with much more success against Ohio State than they did against Michigan.  Some of that can be attributed to the game being played in Madison and not on the road.  Ohio State’s defense is statistically one of the best in the country.  So is Michigan’s.  The big difference I saw between the two against this common opponent was the speed of the players wearing the winged helmet.

Of the games I’ve watched in the Big 12 this year it has been pretty difficult to see how this conference can get a representative in the college football playoffs.  It was clear who the better team was when Michigan played Rutgers.  When I watch Big 12 games I find it hard to determine which team is worse, as they often both look like they would lose to the Scarlett Knights.  When 85 scholarships across the board was instituted it helped balance the power in college football, some.  Just as the saying goes, if you took all of the money in the world and divided it up equally amongst all the people in the world, it wouldn’t take too long for the money to end up back in the hands that it was originally in.

PJ Fleck is a master motivator, recruiter, and one heck of a great coach.  I am holding out hope that I will get to go to Kalamazoo next fall and tailgate with my son during at least his freshman year at WMU with Fleck as head coach.  Unfortunately all signs point to this being his last season patrolling the sidelines of Waldo Stadium as his name has come up in talks of almost every major coaching vacancy that will come up at then of the season.  At least the Broncos will get paid to the tune of an $800,000 buyout if he does leave for another job.

And then there’s Jabrill Peppers, who graded his performance of this season at a C- up to this point, not sure what else he could do, and frankly I’m happy with that grade.

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As the leaves are starting to turn colors and litter my lawn every game becomes more important and helpful to show where the college football season is heading.  Be sure to check back here next Thursday for my recap from week 8.

Three for Thursday Week 6

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Week six in college football provided some blowouts, some surprises, and some more clarity.  Some of those things came from where you’d expect and others didn’t.  Here’s my take.

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Michigan – The Wolverines went into Piscataway New Jersey as a 30 point favorite.  They showcased a large number of New Jersey natives on their roster on their way to a 78 point victory.  A win that large can’t come without some help from your defense, which held Rutgers to 22 total yards of offense and didn’t allow a first down until there were nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Michigan State – The Spartans hosted the BYU Cougars last week in their last non-conference game of the year.  They had hoped to right the ship after dropping two straight games and find out some answers about their offense.  I think they only answer they found was that this is definitely a rebuilding year, not just a down year, after losing 31-14 at home.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes had a slow start in Columbus against a surprising Indiana team.  An explosion of three touchdowns in the second quarter was all they needed to put away the Hoosiers.  After that Indiana kept pace with the Buckeyes, but were too far behind to mount much of a threat.

Wisconsin – The Badgers had a bye week following their close road loss to the Wolverines.  This gives them time to rest and recover before hosting Ohio State in week 7.  This game should show us where the rest of the conference stacks up against the top team in the B1G.

Alabama – Nick Saban took his team northward to face former B1G coach Bret Bielema and the Arkansas Razorbacks.  They were able to handle them pretty easily, cruising to a 49-30 victory.  One has to wonder just how good their defense really is though, since they gave up over 500 yards of offense to Arkansas.

Notre Dame – The Irish went to South Carolina to play the Gamecocks in the middle of Hurricane Matthew.  Despite my dislike of Notre Dame I feel this game should have been rescheduled because the field conditions were terrible.  The only scoring was a direct result of turnovers due to the field conditions, that’s now how football games should be decided.

Clemson – The Tigers escaped the hurricane and went north to Boston where they had no problem dispatching of the Boston College Eagles.  After a few close wins early in the season Clemson is starting to show why they were ranked number two in the country during the preseason.  Deshaun Watson is beginning to strengthen his case for the Heisman and the defense seems to be finding itself as the season progresses.

Washington – The Huskies traveled to Eugene Oregon to face the Ducks and put up Oregon type numbers by blowing them out 70-21.  Is this score and indication of how good Washington or of how poor Oregon is on defense, not that they’ve really been that good on that side of the ball.  The rest of the PAC 12 conference doesn’t look anywhere close to Washington, who should go undefeated and win the conference championship and keep two B1G teams from getting into the college football playoffs.

Baylor – The Bears had a bye in week six.  I’m still having trouble listing them as the top team in the conference, but they are one of two teams that are still undefeated in the Big 12 and they have the most overall wins.  This conference is a mess from top to bottom, but at least they aren’t Rutgers.

Western Michigan – The Broncos welcomed Coach PJ Fleck’s alma-matter and former team Northern Illinois to Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo for their matchup in week six.  They did what they have done all season and rowed their boat all the way to another victory, making them 6-0 and ranked nationally in the AP poll for the first time in program history.  Western Michigan is poised to finish the season undefeated and make it into one of the New Year’s Day six bowl games, which would be a great way (unfortunately) to send Coach Fleck out because more and more it looks like a bigger program will hire him away from Kalamazoo.

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The Wolverines opened up their offense and let Jabrill Peppers really showcase his skills on both sides of the ball against Rutgers.  At first I thought Jim Harbaugh was just trying to make sure he beat the Scarlett Knights worse than OSU did.  In the second half though it became obvious that Rutgers is just a terrible football team and probably couldn’t have stopped Michigan if they were punting on first down every series.  Michigan State is struggling because they don’t have a skilled player at the quarterback position.  A lot of Spartan fans are calling for a change under center, but I think Mark Dantonio is a smart enough coach not to just pull the started unless he feels they have a better chance of winning with someone else.

As the season progresses the cream is really starting to rise to the top around the country.  It’s become easier to see who the haves and have-nots are.

Three for Thursday week 5

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Week five of college football was hyped as being the biggest weekend of the year.  It didn’t disappoint me, here’s what I took away.

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Michigan – The Wolverines faced their toughest opponent of the year in the Wisconsin Badgers and came away with hard fought 14-7 victory.  Their defense showed why this team has been ranked at the top all season and will carry this team a long way.  It’s good, because if they can’t figure out how to kick a field goal then they may have to rely on that defense even more.

Michigan State – The Spartans went to Bloomington Indiana and did what can only be described as laying an egg.   The Spartans may have been still reeling from a poor performance in their B1G opener last week, or maybe 2016 is going to be more of a rebuilding year than they were expecting.  Either way I’m confident that head coach Mark Dantonio knows what he’s doing in East Lansing.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes rolled through over Rutgers 58-0.  Either Ohio State is really good, or Rutgers is really bad.  I think it’s a little bit of both.

Wisconsin – Despite losing on the road to Michigan, the Badgers proved that they aren’t as fraudulant as they have been in the past.  Their defense is certainly the stronger point of this team, and that will take them a long way.  The experience their young quarterback is getting this year will be extremely helpful for this program over the next few years.

Alabama – The Crimson Tide hosted SEC basketball powerhouse Kentucky, too bad they were playing football.  They started out slow and were tied at the end of the first quarter.  After they got warmed up they didn’t have any problem dominating in the middle two quarters on both sides of the ball.

Notre Dame – The Irish traveled to norther New York to take on Syracuse, a team who was able to score pretty much at will against Louisville.  Their defense allowed 33 points to that team, so what does that say about the Cardinal defense?  Luckily Notre Dame was able to hang on to the ball and put up 50 points of their own.

Clemson – The Tigers showed why they started the season off with the number two ranking in the country.  Deshaun Watson threw three interceptions to only one touchdown, a flurry of turnovers resulting in 21 points for Clemson in the middle of the second quarter really set the tone for their victory.  Dabo Swinney is making a strong case for the Tigers making a return trip to the college football playoff.

Washington – In the first match-up of top ten teams the Huskies faced off against the Stanford Cardinal on Friday night.  The stout Washington defense kept Christian McCaffrey in check, which pretty much shut Stanford down.  The Huskies look to be the favorite to head to the conference championship from the North division, but will either team have shown enough to make it into the college football playoff?

Baylor – The Bears escaped Iowa State on Saturday by outscoring them 17-0 in the fourth quarter.  It’s going to be tough to continue to win games against almost any opponent if you keep falling into big holes.  I’m finding it difficult to watch any games that involve teams from the Big 12 conference, they’re all a mess.

Western Michigan – Coach Fleck rowed his boat northward on US 131 to Mount Pleasant for the Broncos biggest rivalry game against Central Michigan.  What was hyped locally with the promise of a good game turned out to be anything but that as the Broncos crushed the Chippewas  49-10.  Western continues to roll and is still undefeated as they prepare to hose 1-4 Northern Illinois in their first game as a nationally ranked team!

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The games this week were just as expected, great match-ups between great teams, except Stanford and CMU.  The top teams around the country are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.  October is in full swing on the calendar, in the weather forecast, and on the football field.  Be sure to check back next Thursday to see what I took away from week six in college football.

Three for Thursday:Week 4

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Week 4 in college football means most teams are starting their conference schedule.  This will start to show me more about the teams that I’ve been watching as their competition starts to get tougher.

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Michigan – The Wolverines opened their B1G slate with the Penn State Nittany Lions and they were able to handle them easily as the 18 point spread predicted.  The offensive line was able to dominate and the running game controlled the game for Michigan.  It’s hard to say that the running attack will continue to do as well this did this week because Penn State’s defense was hampered by a lot of injuries.

Michigan State – The Spartans opened their B1G season by hosting the Wisconsin Badgers.  They struggled on offense behind fifth year starter Tyler O’Conner.  Turnovers were ultimately what did the Spartans in, as they fell behind early by 14 points and were unable to recover.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes had a bye week.  I’m not sure how much it was needed, it still seems early for bye weeks to me.  I’m sure they spent their week off wisely, scouting their upcoming opponents.

Iowa – The Hawkeyes opened up the B1G season by visiting Rutgers.  They ran the ball well, but that should be expected against the bottom dwellers of the conference.  Iowa still looks like the team to beat in the B1G West in my eyes, until Wisconsin proves they are deserving of the number eight national ranking.

Alabama – Nick Saban threw his alma matter a bone and gave them a big payday.  They didn’t have any problem dispatching of Kent State at home.  They did play nice and took their foot off the throttle in the second half.

Notre Dame – The Irish lost a hard fought game against basketball powerhouse Duke, unfortunately they were playing football.  Head coach Brian Kelly fired his defensive coordinator following this game.  I find it kind of hard to justify that when his five best players were booted from the team less than two weeks before the season started.

ACC – This conference is a tough one to call right now.  Is Clemson still the odds on favorite to win it all, or is Louisville for real.  I guess this weekend will go a long way to starting to figure that out.

PAC 12 – The Cardinal struggled early on in the first half against UCLA, but they were able to put them away late in the second half behind the strength of Christian McCaffery.  The Colorado Buffaloes went on the road and surprised perennial PAC 12 powerhouse Oregon.  That make Michigan’s victory in week three look stronger and is one of the reasons I love college football.

Big 12 – After week four the only team left without a loss is Baylor, but their roster is depleted from off season turmoil.  It will be interesting to see if they can continue to win with the roster they have left.  TCU looks like they’ve started to right the ship and could potentially push the Bears for the conference championship.

Western Michigan – PJ Fleck continued get his Broncos to row the boat with another victory, this week over Georgia Southern.  After jumping out to an early lead with the help of some scores from special teams and defense, Western let GSU back in it late.  They finished strong though with a clock killing, seven plus minute touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, continuing to show why the Broncos are one of the best small schools in the FBS.

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Things are starting to settle themselves down around the country as team continue to face conference foes.  Week five may be the biggest week of the season with six teams in the top 10 facing off against each other, as well as the in-state rivalry between Western Michigan and Central Michigan.  I can’t wait!

Three for Thursday:Week 3

September 22, 2016 v3 p51

Week three of college football usually means that teams are starting to play a tougher schedule.  In some cases that happened, in others it didn’t (pretty profound huh?).  There were some pretty surprising results around the country.  Here’s my take.

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Michigan – The Buffaloes came out and threw everything they had at the Wolverines and opened up an early lead.  Late in the first quarter Michigan responded by taking control of the game and going on to comfortable 18 point victory.  Jabrill Peppers looks like a man among boys roaming the field in all three phases of the game.

Michigan State – Mark Dantonio took his well-rested Spartans down to South Bend and showed that they were more than the sluggish team that was on the field in East Lansing against Furman.  They really didn’t have too much trouble moving the ball up and down the field in the middle of the game.  I have to wonder how many times they can take their foot off the pedal and continue to survive late in games.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes traveled to Norman Oklahoma to face preseason Big 12 favorite Oklahoma.  Ohio State did pretty much whatever they wanted, as they have all season, and as most of Oklahoma’s opponents this year.  The catch of the year took place in this game when Noah Brown caught a touchdown pass and the Sooner defender late in the first half to pretty much seal the game.

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Iowa – The Hawkeyes welcomes FCS power North Dakota State to their stadium last week.  The Bison were able to pull off a stunning upset on the road with a late field goal.  With the program history of NDSU coupled with the inconsistency of play from the rest of the B1G West it’s hard for me to put another team in the place of the Hawkeyes as the leader of the division, conference play will help that.

Notre Dame – Brian Kelley was seen questioning his defensive coordinator on national television.  I’m not sure how you can question your assistant when he lost his top five defensive backs before the first snap of the season.  DeShone Kizer will lead the offense to a lot of points this season, it’s the defense that will determine how many games they’ll win in 2016.

Alabama – The Crimson Tide opened their conference slate trying to erase the one blip on their schedule from last year.  Nick Saban took his team into Oxford Mississippi and came away with a victory on the strength of his defense, two touchdowns, and special teams, one touchdown.  The rest of the schedule looks favorable for them to finish the season in the college football playoffs.

Clemson – Last week I put Florida State here, who then promptly went to Louisville and gotten taken out behind the wood shed and shown a thing or two.  The pollsters vaulted the Cardinal up in the polls to number three in the country.  I never take much stock in the polls, especially in September, so until Louisville can prove to me they are the best team in their conference (October 1 should go a little further to helping that) I have to leave Clemson here.

Stanford – After getting an extra week to prepare the Cardinal, whose mascot is a pine tree, won easily against conference rival USC.  I’ll admit I didn’t play too much attention to this game because I don’t see the PAC 12 sending a representative to the college football playoff.  This week Christian McCaffrey will see if he can put his team on his shoulders and lead them to a victory in LA against the Bruins.

Big 12 – The weakest conference in the country is also the most unstable.  Oklahoma took a tough loss to start the season, and the only undefeated team left in the conference is the most controversial in the Baylor Bears.  Of the five power conferences in NCAA football, the Big 12 will be the second one to not send a representative to the college football playoffs.

Western Michigan – Coach PJ Fleck rowed his boat all the way to Champaign Illinois and right over the top of the Fighting Illini.  The Broncos out gained Illinois 287 yards to 3 yards on the ground (don’t forget that sacks are counted as negative rushing plays in college).  More and more it looks like Western will be Coach Fleck’s launching point for his coaching career, where he would probably have quick success if it were to be in the B1G West division.

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Most teams will begin playing conference games this week, for the rest of the season.  That means the competition will be better, the games will be closer and more meaningful, and the fight to get into the college football playoffs will become easier to see.

Three for Thursday:Week 2

September 15, 2016 v3 p49

The second week of college football is often when teams play weak opponents, especially when they played a tough one during the first week.  I did make sure to catch the “big games” over the weekend, and of course the teams I’m paying attention to, here’s my take.

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Michigan – The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead and coasted to another blowout victory.  The defense did allow two touchdowns this week, but that was against a spread offense that this program seems to always have trouble defending, and one of them was for 75 yards.  A lot of people are questioning whether or not the running game is good enough for Michigan to challenge for a B1G Title after averaging 2.9 yards/carry against UCF.

Michigan State – The Spartans scheduled their only bye week for the second week of the season.  I’m not sure if it’s to recover from an embarrassing performance against Furman, or to prepare better to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Either way, wasting the only week off you get for a 12 game schedule makes me scratch my head.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes took care of business against Tulsa.  It seems that even Mother Nature can’t stop this offense.  They were able to come back after an hour plus halftime to continue to roll.

Iowa – There’s no greater game week than when you’re about to face your in-state rival.  The Hawkeye’s had no problem dispatching the Iowa State Cyclones back to their home.  This is a preview of what most B1G vs. Big 12 matchups will end up as.

Alabama – After blowing out USC to open the season the Crimson Tide held their home opener against Western Kentucky.  If it weren’t for a late score by the Hilltoppers, Alabama would have kept both of its opponents out of the end zone.  Nick Saban is showing why his team is a perennial contender for the National Title.

Notre Dame – The final score 39-10 against Nevada looks a lot closer than it really was.  Weather was causing all sorts of havoc in the Great Lakes states last weekend, including at my son’s soccer game.  The natural turf in South Bend may have slowed the Irish some, but not enough that Wolf Pack could keep up.

Florida State – The first replacement of a team atop a conference has happened as the Seminoles look to be the team to beat in the ACC.  Clemson has struggled more in its first two games than Florida State has.  The Tigers may be pretty good, but the tradition of FSU is a stronger recruiting tool than one trip to the CFP Championship game.

Stanford – Another team with their only bye week coming in the second week of the season.  After only doubling up a lowly Kansas State Wildcat team in week 1, they must have had a lot of wounds to lick.  The conference opener against the USC Trojans should go a long way towards showing us who the big player is out west.

Oklahoma – The Sooners bounced back nicely against Louisiana-Monroe, sending them home with a 59-17 loss.  I’m sure Sooner fans were much more pleased with that outcome than the week before against Houston.  This week’s matchup against Ohio State will go a long way towards showing us just how good Oklahoma is, and in turn just how good Houston is.

Western Michigan – Coach Fleck didn’t leave his boat in Evansville, which is a good thing because he may have needed it row home after the rain started late in the second half.  North Carolina Central proved to not be much of a test as the Broncos hung 70 on them.  If WMU can keep their momentum going strong and go into Champaign and come home with another road upset of a B1G team, they may go undefeated in what would probably be Coach Fleck’s last season in Kalamazoo.

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With most teams playing weak opponents I didn’t watch the rest of the nation as closely as I may have in the past.  If you missed Arkansas coming back in the fourth quarter and winning in OT against TCU, you may have missed the best game of the year.  For sure it’s been the best to date.

Three for Thursday:Week One

September 8, 2016 v3 p48

The first full week of college football came and went, and it didn’t disappoint.  I didn’t watch as many games as I might have in the past, but did get my fill for the weekend.

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Michigan – The Wolverines did what they were expected to do, blow out a lessor opponent.  I didn’t expect it to be as big of a blow out as it was, but I guess that means they’re further along in this season that I was expecting.  Their preseason ranking of #7 may not have been so far off.

Michigan State – Tyler O’Conner proved to be a serviceable quarterback.  The defense looks strong as it has since Mark Dantonio took over.  There’s still a lot of questions on the offensive side of the ball that need to be answered, mainly where is the speed?

Ohio State – The Buckeyes were also able to what was expected and continued their dominance over other teams from the state of Ohio.  JT Barrett looks like a quarterback with more confidence this year, in part because he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder to make sure he isn’t replaced.  I’m not surprised that Urban Meyer left his starters in and ran up the score.

Iowa – The Hawkeyes successfully opened their season with a victory over Miami of OH.  After jumping out to an early first quarter lead of three touchdowns, they cruised to an easy 45-21 victory.  They seem to be picking up right where they left off last season.

Alabama – Once the Crimson Tide settled on a QB they rolled to an easy victory over an outmatched USC team.  They did show a little weakness in the secondary when they were beaten by a few deep balls.  But if that’s the biggest problem to overcome for this team they should cruise into the CFP later this year.

Notre Dame – Losing some key defensive players right before the season started showed on that side of the ball for the Irish.  Offensively they struggled to find any rhythm until they settled on DeShone Kizer.  His arm and mobility may cause problems for a lot of defenses this year.

Clemson – The narrow margin of victory shouldn’t be alarming for any team going on the road to Auburn.  Except for the fact that Auburn isn’t really that good this year and Clemson is supposed to contend for a national title.  What does that say about the top team from the fourth best of the five power conferences?

Stanford – The Cardinal got a run of the mill victory over Big 12 opponent Kansas State.  If not for Heisman hopeful Christian McCaffery, this game might have gone the other way.  Is this an indication of the direction that the PAC 12 is heading?

Oklahoma – Even following a surprising loss to Houston at a “neutral” site Oklahoma should still be the team to beat in the Big 12.  The Sooners have a lot of questions to answer after that one.  But they may not be as difficult to answer after taking into account who they lost to.

Western Michigan – Coach Fleck rowed his boat all the way down Interstate 94 from Kalamazoo to the Chicago area to come away with a shocking victory over the Wildcats of Northwestern.  Continued success like this will go a long way for the Broncos case to make a major bowl game this year.  This weekend’s home opener against North Carolina Central shouldn’t be much more of a tune up before heading to play Illinois in Champaign.

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Back when I had cable I would watch parts of over 20 games per weekend.  Surprisingly my wife never really had an issue with that, or at least she never mentioned it.  Be sure to come back next week to see what I took away from this weekend’s games.