Official College Football Week 5 thread

[cartman]

This week's games start on Thursday evening with #8 Stanford heading up the coast to play Washington. There are only a couple of match ups of Top 25 teams this week:

#25 Baylor at #9 West Virginia
#14 Ohio State at #20 Michigan State

[Ksyrup]

I think VT/Cincinnati is going to be an interesting game.

[Matthean]

No clue on the MSU/OSU game. Likely loser is those watching it. Wisconsin plays Nebraska and Michigan plays Purdue in other key Big Ten games.

[Passacaglia]

Excited for Big Ten conference play to start.

[Ksyrup]

Joe Schad ‏@schadjoe
Michigan announced that Notre Dame cancelled its football series for 2015, 2016 and 2017. ND will have 5 ACC games to play then.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by Matthean

No clue on the MSU/OSU game. Likely loser is those watching it.

Pretty much. If Ohio State has the slow start they've been having all season they could get their ass kicked.

Or Michigan State could not show up and we are in for a shit show.

[Logan]

Damn. The bye week started out great for Rutgers, getting ranked. Now learned that starting FB Michael Burton is out for the year.

[Butter]

As long as it's not a replay of last year's OSU/MSU game, it should be a good game. I would've expected MSU to win, but frankly they have looked like ass the first few weeks. OSU hasn't been lighting the world on fire... so we'll see.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Joe Schad ‏@schadjoe
Michigan announced that Notre Dame cancelled its football series for 2015, 2016 and 2017. ND will have 5 ACC games to play then.

During the game when when they talked to ND's AD, you got the sense that the Big Ten was screwed by ND going to the ACC, but the AD didn't want to flat out say it. I'm sure MSU and Purdue will get cut back as well.

[Logan]

Rutgers will gladly take those spots.

[dawgfan]

As much as I'd like to think that Washington will rise up and break their recent string of sucktitude vs. Stanford, this is not a good match-up for the Huskies. Our OL is in shambles; in the off-season, we figured on 4 returning starters:

LG - RS-So Colin Tanigawa (returning from an ACL tear)
C - RS-Sr Drew Schaefer
RG - Jr Colin Porter
RT - Jr Erik Kohler

Since then, the following has happened:

Colin Porter - retired due to degenerative shoulder condition
Colin Tanigawa - another knee injury, done for the season
Erik Kohler - dislocated his kneecap twice, out indefinitely
Ben Riva (RS-So) - won the RT job in Fall Camp, broke his forearm in the first game and is out for at least a few more weeks

That leaves the following OL to face Stanford's outstanding front 7:

LT - RS-So Micah Hatchie (first year starter)
LG - RS-Fr Dexter Charles
C - RS-Sr Drew Schaefer
RG - RS-So James Atoe (first significant action this year) OR Fr Shane Brostek
RT - RS-So Mike Criste (first significant action this year) OR Atoe

And there's only 1 additional player listed in the depth this week: RS-Fr Siusifa Tufunga.

Yikes.

It'll be a small miracle if the Huskies can generate any kind of running game, and Keith Price is probably going to be under major pressure all game long.

It's only slightly better on the other side of the ball. Washington's pass defense is vastly improved over last year, but the run defense is still very shaky. New DC Wilcox has been utilizing a 4-2-5 most of the year, with über-frosh Shaq Thompson playing a hybrid S/OLB role (officially termed the "nickel" back). I would expect they'll follow the Duke template and load the box to stop the run and dare Nunes and the Stanford receivers to beat man coverage with no safety help.

Our NT is beefy but young (So Danny Shelton); normally, Wilcox has flanked him with smaller DE like Andrew Hudson & Talia Crichton and a Rush end in Josh Shirley. These guys aren't bad at generating a pass rush, but against a decent OL, they can't hold up at the point of attack; Shirley especially is vulnerable to runs right at him. Wilcox can go big, swapping out Hudson or Crichton with a beefy DT like Semisi Tokolahi or Lawrence Lagafuaina and rotate MLB John Timu outside and bring in Thomas Tutogi to play the middle, but that alignment didn't do much better slowing down LSU than did the smaller, faster alignment.

At best, I could see our defense loading the box, slowing down the run game and our secondary playing well enough to keep Nunes from exploiting them, and our offense doing just enough with creative bubble screens and stretch plays to win a low-scoring game.

At worst, I could see another LSU-type steam-rolling.

Either way, I'll be there screaming my lungs out.

[tarcone]

Iowa gets undefeated Minnesota at home this week. Its time to bring Floyd home boys. He has been living in Minny way too long.

Ferentz feeling some pressure this season. This week has been particularly bad for the coach.

[markprior22]

So disappointed in the Hawkeyes. Defense just hasn't been up to par. Difficult to move forward with two new coordinators after having the old regime in place for over 10 yrs. Hope they can step up.

[tarcone]

Well, the fact that there is either little talent or undeveloped talent hasnt helped. But the game management is particularly bad without N Parker or K O'Keefe.

Here is a fun stat. Iowa has failed to cover 5 onsides kicks since 2005 and they all resulted in losses. 3 in the last 3 years.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I think VT/Cincinnati is going to be an interesting game.

Cincy will destroy Tech...Hokies can't consistently run the ball (or pass it, for that matter) and are pretty bad at stopping the run. 31-16 Cincy.

[mauchow]

I hope the badgers can cover the 13 points on the road.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by VPI97

Cincy will destroy Tech...Hokies can't consistently run the ball (or pass it, for that matter) and are pretty bad at stopping the run. 31-16 Cincy.

I hope not. ACC needs a decent win, and FSU needs good teams on its schedule.

[MrBug708]

Stanford isnt good at all. Neither is Keith Price.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Stanford isnt good at all. Neither is Keith Price.

No QB is going to look good with the attrition we have had on the O-line. He didn't throw 33 TDs last year by mistake.

[Lathum]

Huge win. Pretty pumped right now.

[MrBug708]

That should keep Sark around for another year or more

[britrock88]

Jesse Palmer sure is wearing me thin. Overthrown fly routes? "The receiver didn't run through it."

[MrBug708]

It takes special talent to miss a TE who is 6'8 on an overthrow. Kevin Prince type of talent

[Karlifornia]

Bug, quit trolling. As a yuckla fan, you should know teams play bad games, especially on the road with a new qb.

[Karlifornia]

Oh, and toilolo slowed up on that int. It was mostly on him.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Bug, quit trolling. As a yuckla fan, you should know teams play bad games, especially on the road with a new qb.

Could be coaching too. I can see how they might assume they'd be able to beat the Washington D by essentially lining up 8 offensive linemen and pounding them with their running game.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Oh, and toilolo slowed up on that int. It was mostly on him.

I'm also miffed that guys will intercept passes on 4th down and give up tens of yards of field position.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I'm also miffed that guys will intercept passes on 4th down and give up tens of yards of field position.

This annoyed me too, especially from a veteran player. I have to remind myself that in the heat of the moment it is probably really hard to turn that instinct off.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Stanford isnt good at all. Neither is Keith Price.

Price was too antsy tonight, but keep in mind he's playing behind an extremely green OL right now. Not sure if you saw my post earlier in the thread, but our OL situation is as bad as UCLA had a few years back with all the injuries.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

That should keep Sark around for another year or more

Much to your chagrin...

[booradley]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I think VT/Cincinnati is going to be an interesting game.

How fortuitous, as this is the game I will be attending this Saturday. Gobble gobble.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Much to your chagrin...

I just cant believe DG wanted Sark at one time!

[Matthean]

Because ugly Big Ten play wasn't enough.

[ISiddiqui]

The Nebraska player looks like he has boobs.

[britrock88]

Don't know what Nebraska's doing. I like Wisconsin integrating their old "W" logo, but yeah, garish get-ups.

[dacman]

Originally Posted by Matthean

... and Michigan plays Purdue in other key Big Ten games.

Uh, that's next week.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by dacman

Uh, that's next week.

Swore I saw it on this week's as well. Hopefully more time for Robinson to get his head out from his ass, but I have little hope at this point.

[JPhillips]

Deathmatch between Iowa and Indiana for the I.

[cartman]

Sorry, BYU. 5 or 6 guys doing a haka isn't nearly as impressive as pretty much the entire Hawaii team doing a haka.

[bhlloy]

Nice to see the BYU guy laughing it up about the two guys he's sent to the hospital

[kingfc22]

2nd player for Hawaii to get carted off in the first quarter...

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Nice to see the BYU guy laughing it up about the two guys he's sent to the hospital

Seriously

[MacroGuru]

Nice to see the BYU guy laughing it up about the two guys he's sent to the hospital

I dont think he was laughing at the injuries. The first one was innocent, guys back gave out. Second the both came at each other.

[tarcone]

WEISMAN FOR HEISMAN!

Over 100 yards rushing in the 1st quarter. Just scored a TD. Thats his 7th for the season.

A former walk-on back up FB turned feature RB.

[tarcone]

Iowa just scores on a 60 yard flea flicker to go up 17-0.

Go Hawks!

[tarcone]

Iowa TD!

Iowa ahead 24-0! Where has this team been all season?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Late in the first half, GT trails MTSU at home 21-14.

[Matthean]

Nice to see WVU got the Big 12 memo on offense being required and defense being optional.

[JPhillips]

First to 100 wins in the WVU/Baylor game.

[Julio Riddols]

WVU/Baylor has been awesome to watch.