Official College Football Week 1 thread
 

The college football season kicks off a week from tomorrow! Five straight days of games from Thursday, August 30th all the way to Labor Day, Sept. 3rd. The games kick off with South Carolina traveling to Vanderbilt, and end with Georgia Tech meeting Virginia Tech. Only a couple of games scheduled between Top 25 teams. Boise State goes to East Lansing to take on Michigan State on Friday evening, and on Saturday Michigan and Alabama meet up in a Top 10 match up at Jerry's World in Arlington, TX.

MSU over Boise in a case of perfect timing of when to play a team. I can not imagine how Michigan beats 'Bama even in a "rebuilding" year.

Wow, seriously?! Haha!

@RobbieAndreu Muschamp has a QB plan: one QB plays 1st quarter, one plays 2nd. Decision then made after that how to do it

I guess that is why he is known as a defensive coach.

I can't wait! Thursday night the Red Cougars visit Provo to take on the Blue Cougars!

I hate that it will be on at 10 pm my time...but I will sacrifice.

I think Michigan will get destroyed by Alabama. Won't be pretty.

I think MSU should be able to handle Boise in the first game of the post-Kellen Moore era.

Rutgers is traveling to Tulane for a game on Saturday. Apparently there are no contingencies in place yet with the storm potential but that surprises me. Hopefully it won't be an issue.

UCLA is headed to Rice on Thursday and is similarly keeping an eye on the weather forecast, although my understanding is that they're probably going to miss the storm.

First step in a new era, with Jim L. Mora under helm. If he just provides the Bruins with some toughness and efficiency, that will be a huge step forward, regardless of record.

This team still has a lot of talent, though--they're good enough to make some noise if they can keep focused and don't get too dinged up at a couple key areas (QB, OL). Good enough for second in the Pac 12 South and enough to make sure USC isn't looking past them.

Hoping to see a lot of improvement over Season 1 of the Kevin Wilson era when IU plays Indiana State this Saturday. By now he has gotten rid of all the players who haven't bought in to his program.

It will be a great lesson though. You get to see what you have and what needs to be done to compete with the best.

Martin Rickman ‏@MartinRickman
in soviet florida quarterback pick you

Agreed. It will closer due to 'Bama rebuilding their defense, but that's about it. 'Bama has been known to kind of ho hum some of these big early games. They could have nailed PSU much harder both times, but kind of walked through both games. If Toussaint is to still be out, I don't see the running game being what it needs to be unless Robinson goes off. This will also be one of the rare cases Robinson throws against a pro style secondary with talent to back it up even if it's inexperienced. Chucking under thrown balls up in the air for grabs and hoping your WRs can get it isn't going to work. Give Michigan a couple of more years and this is far more interesting. The best of the Big Ten isn't ready to hang with the elite programs just yet.

Here's a factoid about the Longhorns I wasn't aware of. I knew they were a young team, but didn't realize how much so.

Only Indiana, Colorado, and Rice have fewer seniors than the Longhorns. They each have eight, while the Longhorns have nine

I want to laugh at Florida for that, but then I remember Spurrier's rotating QB in the swamp in 1997 that cost Florida State a national title.

ACC Coastal has a pretty good chance at being decided (or at the very least crowning a heavy favorite) Monday night in Blacksburg.

WVU plays Marshall in what is the last scheduled game between the two schools and it's highly unlikely that another game is played in the foreseeable future.

I have no idea what to expect from Marshall. Doc has put together a roster that's probably 50% props and transfers.

UNLV has a 13 game schedule this year.

3-10 sounds about right.

Yeah, but he hasn't even decided on QB1 yet. My guess is they'll only have 1 QB long before the FSU game. If they don't, I'll be happy about that because it means neither of them are doing very well. Muschamp's no Spurrier.

I predict Kansas will still suck. I mean, I guess we have a couple of highly touted transfer QBs. If only we had some highly touted transfer offensive and defensive lines- I suspect those will still suck something fierce

SI

You guys are traveling to Hawaii?

One of them is a redshirt for the season though. Also, if he doesn't change about not liking getting hit and going into meltdown mode....he is going to be horrendous...if the kid gets his head on straight, he can do well.

I have practice and will have to record....so no texts, LOL.

Think I may have to splurge on the PPV for the Mizzou game. Need to get a football fix.

Your not going to be done with practice at 8:15 MST? Come on Coach! Priorities!

They're not showing the Mizzou game on a regular tier channel in Kansas City?

Just jogging through here to say .. Go Blue !

Edit : And .. Decent Read.

No, it's the deal that the SEC have with their TV contract (B12 has the same deal). If a game isn't picked up by one of the networks, the university can provide a PPV option through their website or TV for the state and spillover markets. Arkansas is offering their game on PPV this weekend as well just as another example.

Now, that will likely change very soon for the SEC. Slive has already said a network option much like what the B10 has is on the way, likely by 2014. Once a conference network is created, there's no need for PPV as all games not picked up by national networks will be shown on the conference network.

Da'rick Rogers to Tennesee Tech. The QB is a former HS teammate (and the son of his HS head coach), another RB from his HS is there as well.

Missouri Tigers' Henry Josey out for season - ESPN


Can you say "nefarious plot"? :D

For someone who lives in a region where pretty much all the local major sports that aren't shown nationally are shown on a first tier regional sports channel, this seems absolutely crazy to me. I had no idea you guys had it so rough to see your teams. Every now and then, we'll see a Clippers game or a Kings game not be televised. But an Angel or Dodger or Laker game? No way in heck. A USC or UCLA football game? No bleeping way. Heck, this probably isn't even true of the Clips anymore, since they get good ratings now.

Point is, outside of my cable or satellite bill (whatever you have), I don't have to pay a thing to watch a reasonably well-followed regional sports team, pro or college.

I am in the same boat now...with BYU's deal with ESPN there were only 5 teams that were shown more on the ESPN networks then BYU. If the games weren't on ESPN they were carried on BYUTV or the Home teams network which was typically another station to watch. (But I don't pay for my cable (Thanks RendeR) so I don't know what is construed as extra pay channels for the sports package)

It's not nearly as big of a deal as it may seem. It's a game against a FCS opponent and it's likely the only game that won't be on national TV or the SEC distribution. With that said, it will be nice once we get the network going and don't have to pay for games anymore.

We get 140 Royals games and all the Chiefs games, so we don't miss anything there. All the Mizzou basketball games are shown as well.

This, I think.

Happens once or twice a year with both UGA and UT. I don't see one on the UGA schedule this season (Comcast SportsSouth has the Fla Atl game but it's carriage is spotty beyond Comcast). The Vols game vs Georgia State is PPV-only this year.

I'm going to be out of town for the weekend but if I weren't, I'd want to see KU's game against an FBS opponent. It's one of a couple this season we might actually win :D

SI

I will be there!

The Texas A&M-Louisiana Tech is going to be rescheduled because of Hurricane Issac. It was supposed to be played on Thursday night in Shreveport. The game has been rescheduled for Oct. 13th.

I guess this is the best place to talk about this.

I just read an article about this billboard of Matt Barkley that was close to the UCLA campus and was taken down. At the end of the article it mentioned all of the things that the USC marketing department was doing to market Barkley for the Heisman.

Does anyone see a problem with a school spending money on promoting a player to win the Heisman? I don't know how much they are spending, but it sounds like a lot given the location of some of these ads.

Not new at all. I remember this going back at least to Joey Harrington. And wasn't the PersaStrong compaign last year, for the Northwestern QB was was hurt most of the year?

Greg Reid went from FSU cornerback to Valdosta State to torn ACL in about 2 weeks.

It goes way, way back. Before Ty Detmer won, BYU mailed out a bunch of cardboard ties to voters.

I also think it's not so much about marketing the actual athlete for the Heisman, but using that as a link for recruiting. "Not only do we have someone who is a (or even a longshot) Heisman candidate, but look at how we market him". I know when Rutgers put a video billboard in Times Square for Brian Leonard, it was a monster hit.

Found this link:

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-...rd-campaigns#1

I knew about the "See Ray Run" campaign for Ray Rice, but thought it was just a website. Didn't know they mailed binoculars to voters.

Iowa plays Northern Illinois at Soldier Field to start the year. I love that we are playing in a pro stadium. A special time for the players.
We started out 6 point favorites, that quickly went to 10 points. Im hoping we win. Northern Illinois is no slouch. And we have a YOUNG D line. Hopefully our offense can out score theirs.

This is one of the stupider things I can recall seeing come from a broadcaster. The headline sorely undersells the actual comments. If ND (or their radio rights holder as the case may be) allows this guy to stay on the payroll any longer than it takes for h.r. and the legal dept to finish his termination paperwork, they're almost as nuts as he is.

Allen Pinkett - Notre Dame Fighting Irish need few 'bad citizens' to win - ESPN Chicago

As a Michigan fan, I'm kind of glad that no one is giving us a chance to beat 'Bama. The pressure is going to be all on Alabama's shoulders. And since Alabama tends to play very conservative early on in the season, if Michigan comes out playing like they have nothing to lose, Michigan actually could pull the upset. It's not likely, but definitely possible.

So i just learned direct tv currently is not carrying the PAC 12 network which has the huskies game Saturday night and who knows how many other ones. Sucks to live in Seattle and not have the game on my own tv.

Ohio players react to the reveal of theur new jerseys. Pretty cool.

Thought this was pretty funny -- apparently, Kevin Sumlin suspended two players for the first game of the season against La. Tech. That game was pushed back until Oct. due to the storm, so we now see this:

Aggie Sports ‏ @ Aggie_Sports
Sumlin said, early in fall camp, that Jenkins and Matthews "were suspended for the first game of the year."


Aggie Sports ‏ @ Aggie_Sports
To clarify, Jenkins and Matthews suspended for Oct. 13 against La. Tech. Will play in season-opener against Florida.

That's really awful. I mean, we all understand how suspensions work - you suspend guys for as many patsies as you have to start the year, then they're back for the first meaningful game. Who ever heard of starting the year with a mid-year suspension? If they deserve to be suspended at all, then they don't play the first game. That's just embarrassing to have to highlight what a joke discipline is in college football.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish's Allen Pinkett taken off broadcast for season opener - ESPN

Looks like it happened.

Honestly, looking at what they posted, I just don't see what's so bad in the comments except I guess admitting that some guys should be getting suspensions.

SI