College Football 2019/20

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The appearance of the Miami vs Florida opener on my TiVo over the weekend took me by surprise, but anyway we're underway so about time we had a sparsely populated thread.

It's going to be Clemson and Alabama again isn't it? Albeit with the former seemingly the favourites this year.

[ursus arctos]

Yes and yes.

Hawaii's win over Arizona in the other "Week Zero" matchup was notable.

[ursus arctos]

Jalen Hurts put on a show last night.

My goodness.

[Cal Alamein]

Indeed.

A little nervous seeing Hurts hurdling and bashing away to get that extra yard. I was used to Mayfield and Murray doing their best to avoid contact.

The defense still needs a fair bit of work (and discipline), but the emotion was there last night. The defensive secondary is still very suspect, but the front four and linebackers are fairly strong.

Gotta also give some props to the Cougar QB, D'eriq King. He's got some jets and serious moves.

Most satisfying upset for me was Wyoming's victory over Missouri.

[ursus arctos]

Very much so

I would like to see what Riley's vital signs were when Hurts went airborne.

King is very much for real and is going to torch teams all season long. That defensive performance may well look better than it does now.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Hasn't been a great weekend's viewing from this couch. Picked the UCLA game as my first watch and they were messy (I know they were playing a decent opponent away from home but still) then my second watch was the Oregon vs Auburn game at Arlington, all well and good until I got the first appearance of the season of the ESPN UK party piece - live coverage cutting out before the end of the game.

[Cal Alamein]

Wild action from Austin.

LSU's Joe Burrow throws for 471 yards and a most impressive clutch 3rd and 17 throw for a TD to give a 14 pt. cushion. Three LSU receivers each had over 100 yards. Not yer typical SEC passing game plan from the Tigers.

And, what a surprise, Cornhuskers choke away a 17 pt. lead to CU.

Army takes Michigan to 2 OTs before falling. Shades of Army's OT loss to OU last year.

Pity the Louisiana-Monroe kicker who hooked his PAT v. FSU.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Wild action from Austin.

LSU's Joe Burrow throws for 471 yards and a most impressive clutch 3rd and 17 throw for a TD to give a 14 pt. cushion. Three LSU receivers each had over 100 yards. Not yer typical SEC passing game plan from the Tigers.

Had that as my main pick to watch this week and I've watched it split over the last couple of evenings, great stuff. Burrow is great to watch, made it look easy.

[ursus arctos]

Quite.

LSU with a throw first quarterback is something to see.

Inca's boyz get Oklahoma this weekend. Ouch.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Being less mobile than usual for the last couple of days, I've got through a few games this week but it's been slim pickings in terms of armchair interest. Neither UCLA nor LSU featured in ESPN UK's line up this week so first choice was Penn State (and their white-outing) v Pittsburgh, which at least was competitive, then onto a much hyped 'Air Raid' match-up between Washington State and Houston which wasn't quite the deluge of points that was expected, then Clemson hammering Syracuse. All the good action seemed to be going on elsewhere - Kentucky giving Florida a scare, Kansas beating BC, and a close Iowa / Iowa State game.

They haven't confirmed all of the line up for the coming weekend but we are getting Notre Dame at Georgia so that's Sunday's delayed viewing sorted.

[ursus arctos]

My nephew is going to Athens for that.

Although his girlfriend played a season of real football at Georgia as a graduate transfer, she comes from a ND-worshipping Irish Catholic family.

The Iowa State-Iowa matchup was marred by multiple hail and lightning delays that meant that it ended about eight hours after the scheduled kickoff time.

[Hot Pepsi]

Being less mobile than usual for the last couple of days, I've got through a few games this week but it's been slim pickings in terms of armchair interest. Neither UCLA nor LSU featured in ESPN UK's line up this week so first choice was Penn State (and their white-outing) v Pittsburgh, which at least was competitive,

The Pitt game was the "Stripe Out" alternating sections were told to wear blue or white. It worked ok, but the rain meant that a lot of people just wore whatever raincoat they own. They're also trying a new parking plan that despite months and months of communications apparently confused lots of people and caused massive traffic back-ups before the game. Fortunately for them it was delayed 40 minutes for lightning so it was mostly full at kickoff.

The White Out game is later this year. Michigan, I think. We'll lose. It's nice not to lose to Pitt, but the team is just not very good. O line can't pick up blitzes. QB is young and has some potential, but we'll see. Running back situation is a bit unclear. Not great receivers except one fairly fast small guy and a very good tight end who isn't getting the ball enough. One linebacker with great potential who makes bad decisions, a slow mediocre defensive line that isn't getting pressure, and cornerbacks who don't do much. 7-5, 6-6 is likely. And then there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Franklin is a good, not great, recruiter, and is willing to make staff changes when necessary, but I don't know if he's good enough at actually preparing teams to play and making the right calls during the game. We'll see. He's getting about $5m a year, but the big donors and sponsors are not paying that just to finish in the back end of the top 25.

Contrary to popular perception, a lot of people around here don't actually care about football. They seem to be happier people on Saturdays. I'm thinking of trying to be one of them, but I know that I'll get sucked back in somehow. But I don't plan to go to any games soon. It's expensive and it just takes over the whole day. Besides, I've probably been to over 100 Penn State football games in my life. Seen some great wins and some demoralizing losses. Good times and bad. But I've done it and I just don't see why I need to keep doing it.

[ursus arctos]

Inca, what the hell happened last night?

Last time I checked, the Bruins were down 49-17.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Inca, what the hell happened last night?

Last time I checked, the Bruins were down 49-17.

Just finished watching this, as we got UCLA this week (and again this weekend too). Fairly comical defending from both sides, with UCLA twice scoring from punt returns (one the length of the pitch) and lots of wide open space for both sides to exploit. UCLA did it the hard way, not only coming back from that far back in the third quarters but blowing good positions with fumbles and a sacking after deciding to play on the fourth down to go for the lead when they had a kickable position to level the scores. Big call late on when WSU gave up the slightest of spills for UCLA to recover the ball in a good position. Thoroughly entertaining, game of the year so far.

That was my second pick after the big one, which was all a bit tense really, ND struggle to cope in front of a hostile crowd - five or six false starts and other nervy mistakes.

[Incandenza]

Inca, what the hell happened last night?

Last time I checked, the Bruins were down 49-17.

I was camping, and had no idea about this until I finally looked at my phone Sunday and saw texts about it.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Lacklustre couple of weeks' viewing of the last two weekends, and I'm away this weekend so will have to wait until Tuesday to watch LSU v Florida. That's if we get it - ESPN haven't yet confirmed which games they are showing this weekend, and Notre Dame v USC appears to be on at the same time and is the sort of match-up ESPN can't resist.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Unexpected bonus game just now - in a hotel in Germany and flicking channels I found live coverage of South Carolina at Georgia, with very excitable German commentary.

[ursus arctos]

That is going to hurt the Dawgs

[Cal Alamein]

Very satisfying OU victory over UT -- outgained Longhorns 2 to 1. Best Sooner defensive performance I have seen in many many years. Ehlinger sacked 9 times.

Concerns:
OU dbs got away w/ a great deal of uncalled contact/grabbing. Hurts seems to feel the need to take on most of the rushing duties and I'm fearing him getting clocked real good - let's work the running backs more.

[Cal Alamein]

Typing this at the end of the 3rd quarter - no way the Sooners are stopping a very dominant KSU offense, nor can the offense muster much against a very aggressive Wildcat defense. Hurts is struggling for any time to throw and the rush game is non-existent. The Sooner defense is sadly reminiscent of the recent past, that is, shitty.

KSU is the only school I never mind OU losing to. It's my dad's alma mater, Manhattan was his hometown, and I like their humble program.

EDIT: Ok, they did make it a bit close.

[Incandenza]

[URL]https://twitter.com/Ugarles/status/1192165759444762624[/URL]

[ursus arctos]

Geaux Tigers

Karma is a bitch

[Cal Alamein]

46-41? SEC? And it took 3 ot's for Baylor to beat TCU by a SEC score 29-23.

A friend of mine sent me this image - dunno if it's legit, but yeah, well done LSU.

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1193535853987008513?s=21"]https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1193535853987008513[/URL]

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

As usual I'm a couple of days behind, though did get to see most of Alabama v LSU on Saturday before tiredness took over, and didn't know about Bama's late rally until the next day.

The main event lived up to the hype and I'm on board for LSU riding this high scoring, high conceding wave all the way to the national title. Could still be some more surprises to come yet (and wonder if LSU might have been overly focused on the Alabama game), and the picture is wide open.

Pity that Oregon lost to Auburn earlier in the season, a top four from four different conferences would have had a nice balance to it.