Week One Thoughts
As a Penn State fan, I was happy to win the game against South Florida but the offense could have definitely played better. Joe Paterno said that South Florida was giving them the ability to throw short hitches but said he opted to attempt to improve the offense. Unfortunately after the past five years, I have to see it to believe it. Hopefully the full return of guys such as Tyler Reed and E.Z. Smith with improve the offensive line and Dan Connor will return at linebacker. Joe has yet tell us when Connor will return.
Now for the rest of the country...
ACC:
Virginia Tech squeaked by N.C. State and avenged their only conference loss from last season. Much like my Nittany Lions, I would imagine that they feel they could have played a better game overall.
Clemson pulled off a big upset of Texas A&M, a team many had as the darkhorse in the Big 12 this season. The Aggies hopes aren't dead but this a serious blow for them. Meanwhile the Tigers have a chance to be among the teams vying for the ACC Atlantic crown. The only team with little chance to win that division at this point is Wake Forest.
Big East:
The Big East as a whole looked miserable this week. Connecticut defeated Buffalo, Cincinnati barely escaped Eastern Michigan at home, Rutgers blew a 20 point lead and lost at Illinois, South Florida lost at Penn State, Louisville barely escaped Kentucky, West Virginia won an ugly game at Syracuse and Notre Dame decimated a far superior Pitt team. Somebody needs to step up and show something because even the league's best team, Louisville, struggled against one of the worst teams in the SEC.
Big Ten:
Overall, it was a very good weekend for the Big Ten. Every team to play this weekend (all except Purdue) won their game.
Iowa looked sharp in destroying a depleted Ball State squad.
Ohio State looked good against one of the MAC's best teams, Miami of Ohio. They were able to get the run game going with Antonio Pittman. Jim Tressel has been trying to get rejuvanate the tremendous running game the Buckeyes rode to the national championship in 2002.
Wisconsin won a shootout against Bowling Green 56-42. The Wisconsin offense looked strong againsy a week Falcon defense but the Badgers' defense looked almost equally bad. After losing so many starters, it is unlikely that Wisconsin will be able to give up a ton of points to Big Ten teams and still manage to win the game with their offense.
Big 12:
Perhaps the biggest surprise of week one was Oklahoma's surprising loss to TCU in Norman. The Sooners offense looked pitiful with Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar both struggling. Not to mention that Adrian Peterson got hurt. The Sooners need to figure some things out on offense if they expect to keep their winning streak against Texas alive.
Speaking of Texas, they looked sharp against Louisiana-Lafayette in a 60-3 victory.
Nebraska struggled against 1-AA Maine, a team that beat Mississippi State last season. Bill Callahan still has some work to do in transforming Nebraska from an option offense to the West Coast offense.
Pac-10:
Southern Cal looked very good against Hawaii, surprise surprise.
Washington was beaten in the final seconds by Air Force. Ty Willingham certainly has a way to go to bring the once mighty Husky program back to respectability.
SEC:
Georgia looked very good against Boise State. Mnay thought that Boise State would be able to stay closer to the Dawgs but Georgia was in control from beginning to end.
The Steve Spurrier era got off to a nice start against Central Florida on Thursday night. QB Blake Mitchell looks like he will be able to thrive in Spurrier's "Cock n' Fire" offense. The Gamecocks also possess two gamebreaking wideouts in Travis Lee and Syvelle Newton.
Tennesse struggled against UAB, as many other good teams did in their opener. It will be interesting to see if they get things straightened out in their bye week before the Florida game on 9/17.
WAC:
Boise State showed how far behind the bigger programs they still are after a blowout loss against Georgia. It isn't surprising that they lost but more the fact that they could only manage one touchdown. With Fresno State looking to overtake the conference, the Broncos are going to need to get the offense and defense back on track.
Now for the rest of the country...
ACC:
Virginia Tech squeaked by N.C. State and avenged their only conference loss from last season. Much like my Nittany Lions, I would imagine that they feel they could have played a better game overall.
Clemson pulled off a big upset of Texas A&M, a team many had as the darkhorse in the Big 12 this season. The Aggies hopes aren't dead but this a serious blow for them. Meanwhile the Tigers have a chance to be among the teams vying for the ACC Atlantic crown. The only team with little chance to win that division at this point is Wake Forest.
Big East:
The Big East as a whole looked miserable this week. Connecticut defeated Buffalo, Cincinnati barely escaped Eastern Michigan at home, Rutgers blew a 20 point lead and lost at Illinois, South Florida lost at Penn State, Louisville barely escaped Kentucky, West Virginia won an ugly game at Syracuse and Notre Dame decimated a far superior Pitt team. Somebody needs to step up and show something because even the league's best team, Louisville, struggled against one of the worst teams in the SEC.
Big Ten:
Overall, it was a very good weekend for the Big Ten. Every team to play this weekend (all except Purdue) won their game.
Iowa looked sharp in destroying a depleted Ball State squad.
Ohio State looked good against one of the MAC's best teams, Miami of Ohio. They were able to get the run game going with Antonio Pittman. Jim Tressel has been trying to get rejuvanate the tremendous running game the Buckeyes rode to the national championship in 2002.
Wisconsin won a shootout against Bowling Green 56-42. The Wisconsin offense looked strong againsy a week Falcon defense but the Badgers' defense looked almost equally bad. After losing so many starters, it is unlikely that Wisconsin will be able to give up a ton of points to Big Ten teams and still manage to win the game with their offense.
Big 12:
Perhaps the biggest surprise of week one was Oklahoma's surprising loss to TCU in Norman. The Sooners offense looked pitiful with Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar both struggling. Not to mention that Adrian Peterson got hurt. The Sooners need to figure some things out on offense if they expect to keep their winning streak against Texas alive.
Speaking of Texas, they looked sharp against Louisiana-Lafayette in a 60-3 victory.
Nebraska struggled against 1-AA Maine, a team that beat Mississippi State last season. Bill Callahan still has some work to do in transforming Nebraska from an option offense to the West Coast offense.
Pac-10:
Southern Cal looked very good against Hawaii, surprise surprise.
Washington was beaten in the final seconds by Air Force. Ty Willingham certainly has a way to go to bring the once mighty Husky program back to respectability.
SEC:
Georgia looked very good against Boise State. Mnay thought that Boise State would be able to stay closer to the Dawgs but Georgia was in control from beginning to end.
The Steve Spurrier era got off to a nice start against Central Florida on Thursday night. QB Blake Mitchell looks like he will be able to thrive in Spurrier's "Cock n' Fire" offense. The Gamecocks also possess two gamebreaking wideouts in Travis Lee and Syvelle Newton.
Tennesse struggled against UAB, as many other good teams did in their opener. It will be interesting to see if they get things straightened out in their bye week before the Florida game on 9/17.
WAC:
Boise State showed how far behind the bigger programs they still are after a blowout loss against Georgia. It isn't surprising that they lost but more the fact that they could only manage one touchdown. With Fresno State looking to overtake the conference, the Broncos are going to need to get the offense and defense back on track.
posted by The Nittany Blog at 7:48 PM
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