Official 2015 College Football Week 1 thread
 

The new season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 3rd! 5 straight days of games over Labor Day weekend.

There is only one match up between Top 25 teams to start the season:

Wisconsin vs. Alabama (at AT&T Stadium, Arlington TX)

I won't post in one of these threads once the season starts but I will lurk. Can't wait to see which one of you is the first to complain about a call I make. :)

That ref is blind!!! What kind of call was that!!!

I think we already did that after the Dr Pepper halftime contest last year :D

Can I get a list of the games you ref so I can avoid watching the trainwrecks.

Good luck this season, Dr.

Will Texas be any good this year? Do they have any players left after last year's purge?

Not without a QB.

Interested to see how TCU does with all the eyes and the hype that is going with them.

No clue how they will do. They did lose a lot to graduation on the defensive side, but some of the new freshmen that are coming in (Malik Jefferson for one) look really promising. On offense, the O-line has to play better than last year, and QB is going to be a question mark. I think if they were playing Rice the first game of the season instead of a trip to Notre Dame, that Jerrod Heard would be the starter. They are moving to an uptempo offense, as opposed to the pro style attack they used last season. I'm guessing they will end up in the 7 to 9 win range this season. Based on his past history, the big jumps in performance for Charlie Strong teams are in years 3 and 4.

Does MJ4H still come around? 'cause Arkansas hopefully won't cover the 33 point spread against UTEP when we meet. Yeah, I said it!

Was hoping Jefferson would be an Aggie - he's a good one. How is Jonathan Gray looking? Big fan of his in HS

I dont see any scenario where yall hit 9 wins. Saw Heard play at Guyer a few times and while he is a good runner, his passing left something to be desired. Maybe he improved on that during his time on the acres

Im not real optimistic about the Hawks this season. I went through there schedule and figure a 7-5 season is what will happen.
The OTs are young and inexperienced. And not super talented yet.
I think we have speed in our skill players. But Iowa doesn't like speed much. or the players aren't great practice players. Just game breakers. Which means they sit.
A new QB. But one that is mobile and has a rocket for an arm.
RB by committee. They should be pretty good, though.

The D line should be solid. The LBs hopefully average. The DBs should be ok at corner, weak at safety.

But, hey, Iowa does have 2 punters and 2 kickers on scholarship. But I think a walk on is punting.

Gray looks like he is all the way back from the Achilles injury. He'll be the workhorse this year, since Malcolm Brown graduated. But it will depend on the OL improving over the trainwreck they were last season. There are some people hoping that Swoopes and/or Heard have something similar happen like to Boynkin when TCU went up-tempo last year. But again, to me the key will be how the offensive line performs. If they can't open any running lanes or protect the QB, then the defense will have to carry a lot of water this season.

I'm going out on a big limb here.

Mizzou will win the SEC East.

Clemson lost so much talent fro last years great Defense. A full 9 startes are gone and given a few recent injuries and attrition there is more than 6,000 snaps from last year not available.

Anything more than 8-4, 9-3 will be a success

Ohio St. @ Virginia Tech, TCU @ Minnesota, Louisville vs. Auburn, Texas @ Notre Dame, Arizona St. vs. Texas A&M, Michigan @ Utah, and BYU @ Nebraska are all real good week one games as well.

Apparently Ohio State's most promising young WR just suffered a serious injury in practice. The top 3 returning WRs are already suspended against VT so it's going to be a thin WR group in week one for Ohio State. Braxton Miller is going to get a workout in his first game.

Don't forget Chris Petersen returning to his old stomping grounds in Boise. Also the 3rd time Washington & the Broncos have played in the last 4 years.

There's a reason why Bud hasn't gotten a head coaching job.

Asshole College Football Coach Comes Up With New Way To Screw Over His Players

He's more deserving of an HC job than a lot of the prima donnas who end up attending college are deserving of being on a campus.

Anything that busts the absurdity of making them professional athletes while coddling them, I'm all for.

Go Blue! Interested to see what Michigan looks like with Harbaugh.

Bud is an X&O mastermind.
The reason he isn't a head coach is because he cant fund raise, he cant schmooze boosters and he is a marginal recruiter.

Fun side story. In 2008/2009 he interviewed for the Clemson HC gig. This is a verbatim exchange. (The interview, like all first interviews during that search, was taped)
AD: A lot of boosters are clamoring for the interim HC to be hired. We really like what you bring to the table. Of course pleasing boosters is necessary to fund raising. If we hired you, we would have a meeting with a select handful of associates and let you address them first. What would you say to convince them you were the right hire.
Bud: Honestly I dont give a flip what they think. Hire me I will win games, dont hire me and I will make sure to beat your ass everytime we play you. It is that simple.

Sounds cute. Sounds hard core. Sounds Lombardi-esque...doesnt sound like the CEO of a mult million dollar corporation.

Basically, this. Have heard a number of similar stories to yours.

I think the fining thing is kind of funny, but it's terrible PR for him and VPI and will certainly be used by others against VPI in recruiting.

Pumped for the Wisconsin/Bama game.

The Badgers have a fairly easy schedule this year so if they can pull off the upset against Alabama (and they can...Badgers Defense going to be stout again this year) they could make the Big 10 Championship with zero or 1 loss. Hopefully they can do better than the clown stomping they got last year....

Biggest questions for the Badgers will be their offensive line.. Shocker, right?

What a douche.

I'll take the heat... but I had the line set at 28.5 with my numbers so I think you should cover (especially if we get up early and decide to protect Collins now)

As an outside observer I wish Kyler Murray had gone to UT... instead we have to deal with a QB time share at A&M between two really good players and a UT held back by poor QB play.

ND looks good, but still thin in a few important places (RB & DL). Between Jaylon Smith, Kei'Varae Russell and Sheldon Day they have a potential AA at every level, but the Jarron Jones injury kills our DL depth. Getting Texas opening week this year is a blessing, @UVa is a little dicey, but really GT is the huge potential September land mine. Get through that and October should be a lot of fun with @ Clemson and USC. Anything past that is too far to project.

UMass should actually be a MAC contender in this, our last year in conference. Non-con isn't bad at all outside of the trip to ND - I like Colorado's coach, but I'm not willing to buy in to them being that much better yet, and Temple at a neutral site (plus @ FIU) is a winnable game. Fingers crossed for a bowl game before we enter the wilderness of FBS independence. Or at least for a healthy season from Frohnapfel and Tajae Sharpe - Tajae is better than Victor Cruz was in college imo, really intrigued to see how his NFL career plays out.

I'm buying Sark's first victory shot!

Top QB recruit, Josh Rosen, won the UCLA starting QB job.

When I saw this in your list, I was thinking "that's going to be a slaughter". I had to remind myself that Minnesota wasn't terrible last year.

You sure never miss a shot to troll USC...



I'm hoping for a bounceback season for IU after last year's debacle following the Sudfeld injury. He's back and healthy, and we'll need him to stay that way, because there is still a big drop-off to QB2. We'll sure miss Tevin Coleman, but UAB transfer Jordan Howard should be a bruiser behind one of the better o-lines in the Big Ten. Our d-line and linebackers should be the best IU has had in recent memory. The secondary is inexperienced but more physically talented than what we usually have. If Sudfeld stays healthy (and the secondary is decent), I can see 7 wins. If he goes down, it could be another year of pain.

Sure I do! :)

It is a PR problem. It kinda laughable that the dolts at Deadspin would think that an ASSISTANT COACH/COORDINATOR would have the authority to implement program wide policy.

VT is also the first school on record to officially state they will not use fines as discipline.

And if you don't think that other programs haven't thought of/implemented the same thing, I don't know what to tell you.

Minnesota was real good at home especially. Their only loss was to Ohio St., and they played them tough.

Granted, it could be a slaughter, and I wouldn't be too surprised.

It's Minny. You never know what your going to get.
But I am interested in that game.

And Wisconsin....

I remember seeing this stuff pop up a couple months ago, but the timing is pretty shocking

Illinois fires coach Tim Beckman after it confirms allegations of player abuse | Dr. Saturday - Yahoo Sports

Tim Beckman fired as coach of Illinois Fighting Illini

You have to go 25-12 if you are going to treat your players like this, not 12-25.

Why can't they be on our schedule this year?!? :cry:

Minnesota didn't play Wisconsin at home last year.

Rutgers gets Illinois next year after being welcomed into the league with Wisconsin and Nebraska as the crossover games for the first two seasons. :banghead:

Iowa has another cupcake schedule. Maryland and Indiana are our crossover games. And I still think 7-5. So frustrating.

Ooooohhhhhh
Iowa is wearing an alternate uniform. And it's not a throwback. We have a blackout game on 11-14. The Unix haven't been revealed. But they are all black with gold accents. They are made by Nike.
Welcome to the 21st century, Ferentz.

They quit playing Mizzou. Got tired of getting thumped.

You mean like last year?
Indiana upsets No. 18 Missouri on D'Angelo Roberts' late TD run

'Illinois' is spelled differently than 'Indiana'.

So I guess that is why Mizzou quit playing Indiana. They got tired of being thumped.

Back to football news, the FCS starts play tomorrow with the FCS Kickoff Game, North Dakota State at Montana, 2:30pm Central on ESPN.

Always fun to see the same troll who derailed a post pretend to be the one to put it back on track. I'd talk about North Dakota State and Mizzou too if I was a Texas fan.