The First Saturday

The inherent danger of scheduling cupcakes on Week 1 of the College Football schedule is the fact that without a doubt, every year, one major team gets upset. This year it was Ole Miss getting upset by FCS Jacksonville State. If there is one thing that teams that want to compete in the wildly confusing BCS math equation need to figure out is that taking a risk and scheduling a good team in the opening weekend of games is beneficial to them. For example, of the Top 25 teams this year, 18 of them scheduled a "cupcake" team. Pitt (vs. Utah), TCU (vs. Oregon State), LSU (vs. UNC), and Boise State (vs. Virginia Tech) all scheduled either a Top 25 or BCS worthy team. Let's assume that any of the cupcake scheduling teams got upset ala Michigan in 2007. This would have absolutely torpedoed their chances of competing in the big money BCS Bowls and knocked them down the polls. However the schools that schedule strong opponents in the first week and lose to them, have the luxury of losing and not falling completely out of all BCS consideration.

I understand that these "cupcake" schedules give good money to institutions that are not able to rake in big money. Last year Michigan paid FCS Delaware State $550,000 to come to the Big House to get beat down. This year San Diego State University paid Nicholls State of Louisiana $300,000 to come in for a game, which is all but guaranteed a SDSU win. (FYI: SDSU rolled over NSL 47-0) After they play SDSU, NSL accepts $350,000 to rent out its services to Western Michigan. This system is used to pad weaker FBS teams who are struggling to reach the 6 win benchmark needed to qualify for a bowl.


Week 1 Recap
Very normal week with most of the major games going the way that they were expected, with only a few exceptions.
1) Pitt vs Utah: A back and forth affair between the Utah and Pitt with the game being decided in the final few minutes. Pitt had the ball on the 19 yard line and ended up kicking the game tying field goal 3 times as Utah's coach Kyle Wittingham tried to ice Pitt kicker Dan Hutchins game tying kick 2 times. The first time was a success as Hutchins missed the kick, but the second time Hutchins booted the ball through the uprights and tied the game at the end of regulation. The game was sealed in overtime with Utah kicking the game winning field goal. My take on this is that icing the kicker does not work as it is his job to kick the ball through the uprights and redoing the kick is just one more robotic motion for the kicker. However, the idea of icing the kicker should have some benefit for the kicker like getting to move the snap up 5 yards or some benefit. This win over projected Big East champ Pitt is one more step for the MWC towards gaining AQ (Automatic Qualifying) status with BYU, TCU, Utah, and Boise State all helping prop up the Conference's position to become a member of the BCS party.

2) Oregon State vs TCU: There is no more electrifying tandem in the NCAA right now than the Rodgers brothers. Look at their highlights against Stanford from last year.
With USC unable to be conference champions due to their probation, the Pac 10-12 looks like it is wide open with Oregon and Oregon State both having major firepower, their annual Civil War game will most likely decide the winner of the Pac 10-12. The win for TCU starts their push for a return to one of the BCS Bowls come January as well as helping push the profile of the MWC. TCU won this game due to their downright domination of the second half. Look at these second half stats from the game:

	OSU	TCU
Time of poss.	7:15	22:45
Off. plays	21	44
Total yds.	87	244

TCU absolutely manhandled OSU in the second half with more than double the time of possession, offensive plays run and total yards. TCU's schedule from this point looks like smooth sailing and they should be playing in January pending the Utah and BYU games.

3) LSU vs UNC: What should have been an all star game with many future NFL prospects on both sides was still an excellent game, even with the 13 suspended players on the UNC squad including top DT Marvin Austin. The game looked over for UNC with LSU taking a 30 to 10 lead at half with Patrick Peterson having 257 return yards. The other amazing stat was UNC sophomore Jheranie Boyd having 221 receiving yards in the loss to LSU. This win against a top 25 team should help cool off Les Miles' seat as he was under high scrutiny by LSU fans. Still, LSU is not good enough to beat the top 2 teams in the SEC West and will have to settle with second or third best. UNC looks to be on a downward path with the NCAA looming around their program and looking to show that they are heavy on their enforcement policies.


Top Player of the Week
By far the best player this week earned the title before he even suited up to play one snap on the field this year. Boston College's Mark Herzlich's return from a rare form of bone cancer, Ewings Sarcoma, is by far one of the most inspirational stories of the young NCAAF year. Even though he only had 5 tackles in the win, his getting back on the field from a diagnosis of not being able to play football again is a true miracle. By far, Mark Herzlich is this years Tim Tebow, a great player with an even greater story behind him.

Boise State vs. Virginia Tech is this Monday a "neutral site game" for the teams played in VT's backyard. I believe that Boise State will triumph in the game; their inspiration to be BCS busters will have them fired up and commit the "upset" against the Hokies and roll on their way to another undefeated 13-0 season. My Prediction: BSU 27, VT 17