First takes: Surprise, surprise...

Many surprises today so far, not the least of which is the fact that I still have both power and high def. We will cover all of it soon. In the meantime, a few first takes:

Wassup, Jake, with the Pac 10 conference? Maryland beats Cal convincingly, BYU wipes out UCLA, TCU crushes Stanford, Baylor (Baylor!) puts the beat down on Washington State and No. 16 Oregon was forced into overtime by a mediocre Purdue team. Strange happenings. Beware USC..... After getting embarrassed early this season, the ACC is getting back some of its mojo. UNC slaps Rutgers on Thursday in front of everybody and Maryland, which last week lost to Middle Tennessee, all of a sudden looks like the Indianapolis Colts..... Michigan is god awful. I saw it with my own eyes today. They may be good down the road, but it ain't this year. They made Notre Dame look like god's gift to football today. That's quite a task given that Notre Dame almost lost to San Diego State last week..... Chase Daniel ain't the man. It's Jeremy Maclin that teams playing Missouri need to worry about. Against Nevada, he had sick touchdown catches of 80 and 49 yards and snagged a third from 14..... That said, I believe Mizzou is vulnerable. Sure, they crushed Nevada at home 69-17. It'll look good in the papers. But I saw this game in high def. Nevada was running wild on Mizzou's defense. In fact, the pass-happy Wolfpack racked up 182 yards on the ground. And they were in catch-up mode for most of the day. That Mizzou D is gonna be a problem come Texas and Oklahoma..... Speaking of ridiculous offenses, Penn State's cannot be stopped. They have launched a hybrid spread-zone-read-option that the team has dubbed the Spread HD. And they have the athletes to run it. I was wrong about this team. They are for real.

Oh lordy

As expected, the Washington State-Baylor game is the Suckfest Bowl.

But...man oh, man, that South Florida-Kansas game was amazingly exciting. Had USF played a little defense late, it woulda been a blowout. But...last year's early darling didn't produce. Thankfully for all of us, Kansas loses.

Rock chalk, Jayhawk. Go home and consider yourselves skewered, roasted, cooked and done. Now all we need are a couple of Missouri losses, and I'll be a happy, happy football fan.

Back to the suckfest: The XM crew (doing the audio on TV) is talking about Baylor's chances on the road. It's hard not to die laughing.

I hope my satellite dish holds out...

Quasi Non Football Thought:

With Hurricane Ike bearing down upon Texas, it's time to play a morbid game we here like to call "Predict the Damage."

1-2: Odds that we're all underestimating this storm, especially inland, and that it will be much worse than Hurricane Alicia.

3-1: Odds that more than 1 million people will lose power in the Dallas metro area.

1-1: Odds that none of us Texans will be able to watch the USC-Ohio State game because of power outages.

2-1: Odds that the power will stay on long enough for all of us to watch the entire Florida Atlantic-Michigan State game on ESPN2.

4-1: Odds that the newspaper calls us in to work in a timely manner for storm coverage.

1-1: Odds that the newspaper calls us in to work way too late when it's dangerous to drive and the storm is wreaking havoc.

2-1: Odds that Baylor is strongly criticized for hosting a football game late on Friday evening when Ike is making landfall in Houston.

10-1: Odds that my humongo high-def satellite dish, which might as well be a wind sock, remains standing by Sunday evening.

20-1: Odds that the air conditioning is working properly in the newsroom when we return on Monday.

100-1: Odds that the power will be restored by the time Matt Cassel takes the field in Sunday's Pats-Jets showdown.

2-1: Odds I'm forced to eat at least one PowerBar this weekend.

Stay safe all.

We interrupt this program...

There's still hope that this monster of a natural disaster will magically disappear, right?

I'm sure college football fans are saying the same thing about what's going to happen down in Waco this weekend. But, perhaps smelling potential victory against a FBS team, Baylor officials have moved the Washington State-Baylor game to 7:30 p.m. Friday. TV is still TBA, so we may have to miss out on this gem.

Crystal Ball, Hurricane Edition...

Here are some early, abbreviated predictions for the weekend lest we lose power come Saturday... Knowing our luck, the Dallas metro area will go dark just as Ohio State is kicking off at the L.A. Coliseum...

Vandy jumps out early on Rice and withstands a furious late rally from the Owls, who are well conditioned and tend to play their best football in the 4th quarter.

Texas Tech puts up a big number on SMU in Lubbock. The spread is 36.5, but given how poor SMU's defense is, I think Tech will cover.

Missouri beats Nevada in Columbia. It's close in the first half, but Mizzou turns it on in the second half and adds a couple of TDs late to make the final score pretty for the newspapers.

Baylor takes care of Washington State. Yet there is a wildcard: If Hurricane Ike interrupts the game with wind and rain, anything can happen.

Tulane is better than people think. They held Alabama to 20 points last week --- something the vaunted Clemson Tigers could not do. I still think East Carolina wins this game because they have the better offense, but it's a close one.

The pro-Huskie crowd will scream its lungs out, but to no avail. Oklahoma does a woodshed job on Washington. I predict an ugly score, and even uglier sports columns calling for Ty Will's firing on Sunday.

Fresno State has been pointing to this home game with Wisconsin for some time, but Wisconsin has heart and is well conditioned. My prediction: The game goes into the 4th quarter close. Ultimately, I think Wisconsin pulls it out because they have a slightly better offense. But I would not be surprised to see the Bulldogs snatch one here.

Cal at Maryland... This one is not even close. Cal unleashes an offensive storm on the Terps and puts up a big, big number.

Now the big one... Ohio State at USC...
I think the Ohio State defense keeps it close early on. I also think coach Jim Tressel will have some tricks up his sleeve involving freshman sensation QB Terelle Pryor. But USC is just too talented to be stopped. The Trojans win comfortably.

Breaking: Saturday update

Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Arkansas-Texas game has been rescheduled because of Hurricane Ike. To be played Sept. 27.

Which means....
--Arkansas will be 2-1 after losing to Alabama on the 20th.
--Texas will be 3-0 after pounding Rice.
--The game won't be any more awful at the end of the month than it will at the beginning.

Also Ike-related:
--DMN reports that Air Force and Houston will play at SMU's Ford Stadium this Saturday. (On CBSC, which means few will watch anyway.)
--The Stanford-TCU game will be at noon instead of 6 p.m. (On the Mountain.)

That's all for now. Don't expect any changes to the Washington State-Baylor disaster, since it's an early game anyway.

UPDATE: People smarter than I am point out that the new Hog-Horn date is also during Austin City Limits. Long story short? Austin will be beyond madhouse crazy that weekend.

On the tube: Week 3

I'll be listening more than watching this weekend -- will be in the kitchen most of the day Saturday pulling a dinner party together. (I know, I know...a man of many talents.) But it's a really, really intriguing week ahead. Seriously.

Best warmup of the bunch: Friday night's game, Kansas at South Florida. (7 p.m., ESPN2) Most definitely the toughest game in the Jayhawks' nonconference schedule. (They're 2-0 after killing Florida International and LaTech.) If Kansas wins this one, I'll stop grumbling every time I think about them. But don't worry: All talk of Kansas will be done after Oct. 18, after a potentially tough home game against Colorado and a sure loss at Oklahoma.

In-state rivalry of the week: It's a morning game, but Iowa State at Iowa could be interesting for a quarter or two as you finish your third cup of coffee. As long as you have the Big 10 network. Just hoping ESPN2 can be convinced to drop the lameness that will be Florida Atlantic-Michigan State.

Stormy weather: Hurricane Ike could affect Arkansas at Texas. (2:30 p.m., ABC) Which, of course, is great news for the Hogs -- anything that keeps them from getting destroyed by the Horns on network TV is a blessing.

Don't penalize me, bro: Late-game goofing off cost Washington last week. The Bruins eked one out against Tennessee in Week 1. Brigham Young is holding on to its BCS hopes by a thread. But it's questionable whether the Cougars can go 2-0 against the Pac 10 as UCLA heads to BYU (2:30 p.m., Versus).

Kill them off, already: Ohio State is to the BCS what zombies are to B-movies. They rise in power through the season, eating weaklings for breakfast. Somebody finally knocks them off, but they somehow manage to come back from the polling dead to end up in the final scene of the season. Before, of course, some heroic SEC team slaughters the Buckeyes. But....OSU visits USC (7 p.m., ABC), so I'll be raising a glass to the Trojans as they hopefully end the Big Ten's chances at another title game appearance.

The rest:
NC State at Clemson (11 a.m., ESPN Gameplan): First, the good news. An ACC team is guaranteed a win. Now the bad: An ACC team is guaranteed another loss.
Washington State at Baylor (11:30 a.m., FSN): Two bad teams don't make for a good game.
Georgia at South Carolina (2:30 p.m., CBS): Because the SEC is just fun.
Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech (2:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN/ESPN Gameplan): Once again, the ACC definitely gets a "W."
Michigan at Notre Dame (2:30 p.m. NBC): Tune in during ABC/Fox/ESPN commercial breaks to see two teams in the act of rebuilding.
Penn State at Syracuse (2:30 p.m., ABC): Just gonna be ugly.
SMU at Texas Tech (6 p.m., Fox Sports Southwest): Why, exactly, is this being televised? Oh, yeah -- because we could see some serious demolition of all kinds of offensive records. The pain, the pain...
Oklahoma at Washington (6:45 p.m., ESPN): This is more the Sooners against the Pac 10 officiating crew than anything.
Wisconsin at Fresno State (9:30 p.m., ESPN2): The Bulldogs are the toughest opponent the No. 10 Badgers have faced so far. Could be worthy of staying up late.

Finally, a new feature: What's not on that should be.
This week, my Conference USA bias comes out, but I nominate East Carolina at Tulane, at 2 p.m. The Pirates blew out West Virginia last weekend, but everybody (including Ted) is waiting to see which C-USA team will dash BCS hopes in Skip Holtz Land. Could be the Green Wave. (A more likely candidate, though, is Central Florida on Nov. 2.)

Nintendo Stat, Week Two...

Nintendo Stat of Week Two:

Oregon rushers against Utah State (a 66-24 Duck win). All told, the Ducks rushed for over 400 yards and piled up nearly 700 (!). At some point, I bet even the waterboy got some carries and averaged about 7.5-a-pop. Some of these guys are receivers, I'm sure. But it makes you wonder how many RBs Oregon has and whether Utah State was even on the field at the time:

L. Blount
18 carries, 132 yards, 2 TDs, 36 yards longest.

A. Crenshaw
10 carries, 72 yards, 1 TD, 39 yards longest.

R. Alston Jr.
11 carries, 71 yards, 1 TD, 19 yards longest.

T. Scott
1 carry, 51 yards, 1 TD, 51 yards longest.

J. Johnson
1 carry, 37 yards, 37 yards longest.

J. Roper
5 carries, 35 yards, 1 TD, 15 yards longest.

C. Harper
4 carries, 25 yards, 1 TD, 12 yards longest.

From a slaughter to a mere blowout?

Reports are that Ohio State RB Beanie Wells will attempt to play Saturday against USC. I'm sure Wells's injury has healed fully and that he's not being pressured by, oh, his coach, teammates, fans, student body, boosters, his mom, ABC Sports, Brent Musberger's hairstylist and pretty much everyone affiliated with football. Good luck, Beanie. You're gonna need it.

Buy me, sell me...

A second weekend of football is in the books, so here's another edition of the stock market college football style.

Time to buy:

The resume of Skip Holtz, coach of East Carolina. Which soon to be coaching vacancy will he snag? The one at Washington? Bobby Petrino's perhaps, once the Pig Sooey coach starts getting his hat handed to him in SEC league play? How about at Louisville where Steve Crapthorpe, excuse me, Kragthorpe, is under fire because The 'Ville used to be good and is no longer?

Pac 10 Conference. West Coast football right now is as good as East Coast football is bad. Frankly, the Pac 10 is the only thing standing between the SEC and Dr. Evil-like domination.

Jimmy Clausen's new "mullet." I am all about the Notre Dame QB's attempts to capture the Joe Dirt demographic. Buy a million shares, I say.

Ohio State bashers. Your week in the sun is coming. It will feel like Christmas morning for Bucks Bashers Saturday night when OSU go to L.A. and lose their football virginity.

Jay Cutler and the Denver Broncos. Watching Jay manage the offense shows this team is ready to burst onto the scene in the post-Tom Brady era. Let's hope that the Bronco D, which is mediocre at best, can hold out.

Time to sell:

East Coast football. Contrast, if you will, the atmosphere of Saturday's Connecticut-Temple game with Texas-UTEP. For the Temple game in Philly, there were, literally, about 1,500 fans in the stands at kickoff. In El Paso, there were that many people at the hot dog stand and sitting atop that crazy-ass rock formation just behind the Sun Bowl. And UTEP is supposed to blow chunks this year. Point is, there is no contest. Rutgers and Syracuse and Boston College and Pittsburgh can pour as much money into their programs as they want to and they still won't draw like a 6-6 Texas A&M team. Call it karma, call it passion, call it people-on-the-East-Coast-have-lives-and-people-in-College-Station-don't. Call it whatever you want. I've finally made peace with the fact that East Coast teams, particularly Northeast teams, are the Kansas City Royals of college football. But, in a sense, that's the way it should be. Because every Connecticut-Temple game that is played makes those USC-Ohio State games that much more special.

Wake Forest. It's only a matter of time before Wake gets the smackdown from somebody. You can't live on misdirection, lucky calls and the two-minute drill forever.

Florida. They're good, there's no doubt, especially on defense. But from what I saw in their game with Miami, I sense the Gator offense may struggle this year, especially when Tim Tebow is forced to pass. Given the strength of the SEC this year, I see that scenario playing out multiple times.

Speaking of Florida's passing attack, let's also sell Tim Tebow's throwing motion. It ain't a javelin, Timmy. It's a football. Heisman winner? Sure. But boy does he have one awkward-ass throw.

Fantasy football owners who drafted Tom Brady high up. And then there's the guy in my league who drafted both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning back-to-back. We all thought he was a total loser at the time.

Darren McFadden. Maybe it was first-game jitters. But compared to teammate Justin Fargas, McFadden, the Oakland first rounder and former Pig Sooey He-Man, looked stuck in the mud. The Raiders even installed a version of the Wild Hog Formation, but McFadden looked tentative in it. It's too early to reach any conclusions, but might it be that Matt Forte of Chicago, Felix Jones of Dallas, Chris Johnson of Tennessee and Steve Slaton of Houston all have better pro careers than Mr. McFadden? Call it the I-rode-the-LSU-game-to-the-Xbox-360-cover curse.

Rankings Review, Sept. 8...

New AP and coaches rankings keep USC No. 1 and set up a titanic (and probably over by the first half of the first quarter) clash with No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday, but some movement in the trenches deserves commentary.

The biggest change is East Carolina up to No. 14, a ranking sure to fall once they grow overconfident and lose to some random team in Conference USA later on in the season. (Note the disparity between the writers and coaches... The coaches have East Carolina at No. 20, a nod to the fact that, on a good day and with a couple of breaks, you and your buddies could knock off this team.) West Virginia, meanwhile, dropped Clemson-style as they should.

Notes from the other votes: Rice, barely 2-0, gets a vote in the AP poll. Why that is? We're talking about the school in Houston, right? Along the same lines, Notre Dame, who is lucky to be 1-0 following a barely-win against football juggernaut San Diego State, gets three votes in the coaches poll. That said, I do like QB Jimmy Clausen's new quasi-Joe-Dirt-mullet haircut. You should see it in high def. Might as well wheel your double-wide onto the 50 yard line, Jimbo.

Teams most likely to keep moving up because they are playing cupcakes: Oregon, Kansas, Fresno State.

Teams most likely to drop because their schedules are hard as crap: Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama.

New Colts Stadium Thoughts: Not so much, to be honest. I don't like the diagonal layout. All of Indianapolis is on a grid, except for this huge stadium. If I were God, I'd take my giant hands and straighten that sucker up so that it's parallel with nearby West and Illinois streets. Also, that field turf they put in there... It looks ratty already. You've got an open roof, Indy. For the love of lawncare, spend some extra money to put in a fescue-ryegrass mix.

Key to stopping Peyton Manning: The Chicago Bears figured it out last night. It's pretty simple. Wait until Peyton has off-season knee surgery, then blitz him relentlessly during the very first game he's back when he hasn't thrown a football in nine months. You just might be able to hold him to 258 yards and one touchdown and win the game by scoring a fluke defensive touchdown and a safety. Lovie Smith, heck of a game plan (The padawan learner has become the teacher, Master Jedi Dungy. Hwang. Hwang. Whoosh. Kerplunk.)

Who should the Patriots bring in to replace Tom Brady? My first choice would be a cyborg Tom Brady or God. But if they aren't in the cards, I would say either black-suit Spiderman, Peyton Manning circa 2005, Matt Ryan in about four years, Jet Li with superpowers like in The Mummy 3 or Tiger Woods if he threw a football and didn't have a gimpy knee. Man, the Pats are screwed.

Ted's first takes...

Let's pause for a moment here to recognize one of the worst football weekends in the history of Ted Kim. Boston College loses to a bad-ass Georgia Tech team (And when I say "bad-ass," I mean bad). That is then followed up with His Holiness, Tom Brady, (sniff) going down for the season.

I know I can't complain: Four Super Bowls in seven years; 18-0 last season; 50 touchdown passes. But, alas! Oh cruel fate: Take my knee instead!

Fantasy Football Bright Spot: Aren't you glad, Ted, you drafted Michael Turner when everyone else said, "Bad idea"? PS --- Carson Palmer, you're killing me. How much is it to ask to break 100 yards passing, man?

Play some pitch-and-catch in the yard moment: Can you believe how casual (and well protected) Tony Romo was in the Dallas Cowboys' whuppin' of Cleveland? It's like he was scanning the defense and the crowd for hot chicks at the same time. That guy is amazing.

Totally unnecessary "woodshed job": Back to college football... Florida State 69, Western Carolina 0. You can win by 200, Bobby, and it still won't look that impressive.

Overrated: Ohio State, Texas Tech, East Carolina, BYU, Pittsburgh Steelers

Underrated: California, Oregon, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Buffalo Bills

Fine Nine: USC, Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon

Pac-10 potpourri, Week 2

Let's say you're Jake Locker, Washington's 20-year-old sophomore quarterback. Your team is down by 7 to BYU with just a few minutes left in the game. You engineer an epic, 18-play drive and plunge into the end zone with two seconds left for what seems to be a game-tying touchdown. In a moment of relief and sheer exhilaration, you spring to your feet, toss the ball into the air over your shoulder and celebrate with your teammates. Then comes the ultimate buzzkill: the refs flag you for excessive celebration, pushing the PAT back an extra 15 yards. The kick is blocked, and your team loses by a point.


Outrageous, right? Your coach will undoubtedly come to your defense, ripping the refs for making a petty, ticky-tack call that decided the game. Not Ty Willingham, UW's stoic, mild-mannered top Dawg. As my former colleague Steve Kelley put it his Seattle Times column, Willingham was "remarkably composed" in the post-game press conference: "It really should be a no-call. But it's one that they have to call when they see it."



Show a little spine, Ty. Seattle fans like to see a coach stand up for his team. Lou Piniella's heartfelt tirades won the hearts and minds of players and fans alike during Lou's legendary run with the M's. And his emotional fire rubbed off on his players -- at least during the regular season (the 2001 M's racked up a record 116 wins). Dispassionate obsequience to refs who make stupid calls isn't exactly going to fire up the troops.


More Pac-10 musings:

Cal looks scary good. Putting up 66 points on the road in the Pac-10 is no easy feat, even against this year's league doormat, Washington State.

SC will annihilate Ohio State on Saturday. The Buckeyes made Ohio QB Boo Jackson look like Bo Jackson for three quarters on Saturday before finally waking up to edge past an inferior opponent at home. There's no room for error against the Trojans in LA.

Root for UCLA to knock off BYU in Provo to spare the world of another Hawaii-esque BCS bid. BYU just might run the table in the Mountain West, so the Bruins may be the only team that can prevent another Sugar Bowl slaughter.

ASU's offense is clicking. The return of tailback Keegan Herring alongside Euless Trinity alum Dmitri Nance gives the Devils a one-two backfield punch that will help open up the passing game for Rudy Carpenter. A legit running game is absolutely essential for the Devils to compete with Moreno and Co. in two weeks.

What I learned by watching television...

What I Learned by Watching Television:

We reflect on a busy week of college football that saw Jake's team (Arizona State) romp, Ian's team (SMU) rebound and my team (Boston College) reveal itself as not having a very good offense.

Georgia RB Knowshown Moreno is an absolute beast and, in my eyes, the new kid to beat in the Heisman race. In a drubbing of Central Michigan, he locomotived his way to an almost casual 168 yards and three scores. Georgia is so very good (as is the rest of the SEC). The College GameDay guys should buy a time-share in the southeastern U.S. because that's where the action is this year.

Miami, Fla. is going to be scary good... in three years. They may not be anything special now, especially after their pounding at the hands of Florida. But this team, stacked full of freshmen and sophomores, offers hope for the 'Canes. Against Florida, they showed poise and athleticism. Make no mistake: Miami is on the rise.

The Pac-10 is clearly the nation's second best conference: A half-dozen teams in the conference could hang with anyone from the SEC: USC, Arizona State, Oregon, Arizona, California, UCLA. Yes, USC is the jewel in the tiara, but all those other teams are wickedly good, too.

Let's spot Ohio State four touchdowns now. The Big Ten is not very good, comparatively, and I'm afraid it's going to show on Saturday when Ohio State travels to USC. If Beanie Wells doesn't play for the Buckeyes, they have no shot against the Trojans. None.

What's up with East Carolina? Talk about random success. Who on earth might have predicted the success of this team early on in the season? It's equal parts a nice story and a commentary on the sad state of East Coast football.

Reflections:

The Crystal Ball has a Sixth Sense:

"Washington gives BYU a run for its money, but loses."

"Wake Forest, its misdirection plays neutralized by SEC speed, nevertheless squeaks one out at home against Ole Miss."

The Crystal Ball was kind of right:

"Cincinnati keeps it close against Oklahoma... in the first half."

"Florida absolutely crushes Miami in the Swamp, sinking the ACC even lower than it already is. Gator Percy Harvin runs buck wild."

"Texas Tech plays a closer than expected one at Nevada."

The Crystal Ball was kind of wrong:

"Stanford keeps things competitive but ultimately loses against Jake's boys from Arizona State."

"Ian's gang SMU rebounds and runs up the score June Jones-style against Texas State."

The Crystal Ball was sniffing glue:

"Bowling Green beats Minnesota and skirts the Top 25."