Today's Picks

Congratulations to Bergen Catholic High School, where I had the pleasure of attending (not that they would remember me) so many years ago, for its big win last night over Bishop Gorman out in Las Vegas.
Now here is the important stuff.  I sit at 1-0 mainly because I have not published some of my other winners before their games kicked off.  I apologize to you my faithful readers.
Today I like:
Wake +28 vs FSU.  How many times does Wake Forest have to win this game before the spread lowers to single digits?  I love having 4 TDS and the better coach.
Va Tech -10.5 over PITT.  The Panthers stink and Virginia Tech needs to garner some attention.
 Cal +17 vs OSU.  Too much respect for Meyer against physical Bears.
STANFORD +8.5 against SC. Cardinal front seven can control Trojan line while run game can exploit Trojan DL.
MISS +10 vs Texas.  I need more proof from Longhorns while Rebels will have fired up home crowd.
Uva +10 at GTech. Yep loving dogs this week.
Tcu -21 at KANSAS.  But not a dog this bad.
TENN -3 over Fla.  Won, barely, with Gators last week but they did not impress and got beaten up.
UCLA -17 over Houston.  Bruins pull away in 2nd half.
Enjoy and good luck.  And do not forget to watch BYU-Utah and Utah State versus Wisconsin.  Believe in those Utah teams!

Big East As Usual

Last night's 23-13 win by Rutgers at South Florida was typical for the conference.  The game was hard fought and won by the underdog.  The two were evenly matched and battled to the end.  And of course both teams made enough mistakes to look like a peewee team at its first practice.  Rutgers now joins Cincinati atop the conference with Louisville still the favorite.  It should be a fun and wild season--just do not expect many unscathed, and therefore ranked, teams.

Irish on Move

Although I am a fan of the Big East I cannot find anything wrong with Notre Dame's move to the ACC.  They had to align themselves with one the the big boys and while the ACC is the weakest of the big conferences on the field, they are run very well, dominate many of the other sports and provide a huge geographical boost to any conference member.  By agreeing to play five games a year versus ACC competition Notre Dame is locked into 2-3 games per year on the Eastern seaboard and what is wrong with that?  The Irish already target that area for recruiting and this can only help.  For its fan base the move is a good one as they can reunite with former conference rivals Pitt, BC and Syracuse in basketball and play in places that are easy to get to.  Most importantly this deal allows the Irish to remain a national university in a way a move to the Big Ten would not have.  More money, even more exposure, better bowl possibilities, great recruiting opportunities.  What's not to like?

Spreading the Joy of Utah Football

What is going on in the Beehive State?  34th in U.S. population and considered outside the grain for as long as anyone can remember, the fine state of Utah not only fields three FBS programs but fields three excellent FBS programs.  Not one of the major powers comes sniffing around for Utah high school players and while these programs by necessity have to recruit from outside the state's borders they are rarely luring four and five star studs.  I cannot say that I know how they are getting it done but I do know that if I was a coach of a struggling program overwhelmed by bigger fish in my neighborhood I would be flying out to Salt Lake City and asking questions.  Maybe there is something in the water.  Come bowl time we will be watching Utah State, BYU and Utah all suiting up and you have to like there chances.

Notes From Week Two

USC has a pair of dynamic receivers.  That is really the best thing I can say about them from Saturday's game.  Barkley is good but the offense is oddly conservative so I am not sure he deserves too much credit.  Stanford this Saturday will be a much better test of course.
Gene Chizik is 21-31 as a head coach without Cam Newton.
Firing a coach after two weeks is crazy.  I hope the Wisconsin situation gets straightened out before conference play.
Has anyone located Louisiana Monroe on a map yet?  I am happy for head coach Todd Berry, who took his lumps as the head man at Army earlier last decade.  And while everyone is blaming the Arkansas loss on new head coach John L. Smith, the blame should not only be shared by Bobby Petrino but on those administrators who hired him in the first place.
There have been plenty of nice wins from supposedly lesser conferences throughout the early season.  I will start spreading the love soon.
Those who think Notre Dame will never return to the top ten are crazy.  They have a lot of young talent (at one point three true freshmen were in the defensive lineup in the second half against Purdue) and another great recruiting class building.  Teams had better beat them now.
Although I love that Jim Grobe remains at Wake Forest, I cannot for the life of me understand why a bigger program has not come calling.

View From Bennett Ave

One of the dilemmas of a college football writer is to actually go to live games.  Sure, that is the fun part but then you do not get to see other games beyond DVR (and that is no fun).  Fortunately today's slate of games leaves something to be desired and so I can watch USC live versus Syracuse.  While I do not expect the game to be a nail-biter it will be good to watch SC live since I rarely get to do that (of course I am no fan but...).
So enjoy what you are viewing.  As for picking games I will say that Florida is my favorite for today.

Week One Concludes

Two different ESPN commentators complained about boring college football games yesterday.  That drives me crazy.  If you cannot appreciate the importance of yesterday's Tech versus Tech ACC struggle then move on to another sport (because of course every other sport has exciting, multi-score games every time folks suit up).  The other complaint was about the Alabama rout, which is completely dumb because there was an exciting ACC-SEC tussle on another ESPN network.  When you have a clunker NFL prime-time game you are stuck.  With college you almost always have a choice.
And while yesterday's game pitted two teams not quite ready this season for prime time, it was a huge game for the Coastal Division and as such was compelling.  With UNC ineligible and Miami down a peg, the Coastal will be up for grabs between the two Techs and UVA.  Why this game was scheduled for yesterday and not November is beyond me.  But they played last night and the game went to OT.  Were there some missteps?  Sure.  Was it exciting at game's end?  Yes.
The biggest off-the-field news in the ACC yesterday was the announcement by Florida State that standout DE Brandon Jenkins (41 tackles, 8 sacks in '11) has been lost for the season with a Lisfranc injury to his left foot.  Normally I would feel bad for a program to lose a player of Jenkins's stature in a meaningless win but the third DE for the Noles is Tank Carradine, who contributed 5.5 sacks off the bench last season, and the 4th DE is probably Mario Edwards, the super recruit signed in February.  FSU was hoping to overwhelm opposing lines with a deadly combination of talent and depth and losing Jenkins hurts, but if one program could lose a stud DE it was this one.