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.