Given what a dud Alabama/Michigan was this could easily be the best and certainly the most important game of the opening week. Georgia Tech is always in the mix in the ACC and whoever wins this one will have a leg up both in the conference and in confidence.
The Bowling Green Falcons are returning a lot of talent from last year’s 5-7 team. Their 17 starters are among the most in the nation but it still may not be enough to rise to the top of their division in the MAC.
The last time we saw Clemson they were getting one of the worst beatdowns in BCS history in the Orange Bowl at the hands of West Virginia. Some games just get away from you but don’t be lulled into thinking they didn’t deserve their shot to be there.
It is hard to know that much about FCS squads but here is what we do know about the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. They finished 7-4 last year and in a game against another SEC team – Kentucky – handled themselves fairly well losing 38-14.
It has been a steady slide since Turner Gill left Buffalo for Kansas (that didn’t go so well). When Gill was at the helm they were having success and it looked like they were a program on the rise in the MAC, now they are skimming the bottom as other programs have ascended.
The Oklahoma Sooners are expecting another very good season. Almost all polls have them in the top 5 as this talented team is returning a lot of experience too. Oklahoma is always in the argument but hasn’t won a championship in a while.
The expectations for these Wyoming Cowboys is to finish in the middle of the pack in the Mountain West…again. A couple of years ago it looked like this program might turn a corner but the transfer of QB Austyn Carta-Samuels set the program back a bit.
It is still amazing to see how far the Hurricanes program has fallen. There is talent on this roster (there always has been) but this program is so snakebitten they don’t know what to do with themselves.
I have long been a fan of Nevada and that hasn’t changed with their move to the Mountain West Conference. With their old pals the Boise State Broncos also in the fold I don’t see a championship in their immediate future but they definitely won’t embarrass themselves.
I am not sure why but I actually feel sorry for Boise State coming into this season. Odds are this is their worst team in a while; the Mountain West Conference isn’t what it used to be so not much to play for there; and the University was acting like it was getting cold feet about moving to the Big East next season.
Texas A&M came into this season with high hopes, but second half blunders cost this team a chance at a special season. Mike Sherman was replaced by Kevin Sumlin as head coach of the Aggies.
The annual classic Big Ten-SEC showdown in the Outback Bowl features Michigan State and Georgia duking it out in south Florida in the New Year.
Every college football fan eagerly awaits early January and the BCS bowls. This year’s Orange Bowl features two of the best teams from two rather battered AQ-conferences in the Big East (West Virginia) and the ACC (Clemson).
Jerry Jones’s cavernous crown jewel in north Texas will be the site for this year’s AT&T Cotton Bowl, which features the upstart Kansas State Wildcats of the Big 12 taking on the prolific Arkansas Razorbacks. There could be no shortage of scoring in this battle in the Lone Star State.
College football’s Holy Grail will feature a re-match of the two best teams in the nation; all the BCS whining and quibbling aside, that ought to be the aim of this match-up. Oklahoma State fans and SEC haters might disagree with me, but if you watched Alabama and LSU extensively this season, you know it is the truth.
It will be Round 2 between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers, but this time the two teams will clash on Monday, January 9 at the Superdome in New Orleans to determine this season’s BCS Champion.
