Week 3 of the season is in the books, but conference realignment programs are being sold separately.
Despite falling to Iowa and USC, yesterday, Pittsburgh and Syracuse scored victories off the field by throwing preemptive strikes and are apparently headed to the ACC. Guess what, the ACC may not be done, because Coack K has given his blessing for moving to 16 teams. More dominoes will fall this week.
As for falling, the lack of a defense that has plagued Auburn for the past 2 years finally caught up with them. Even though Charlotte is just down the road from Clemson, their was no Cam Newton to bail out Ted Roof and his much maligned defense. All of a sudden, Auburn's win over Miss. State last week looks less impressive with LSU's dismantling of the Bulldogs on Thursday. Auburn's burnt like toast secondary had a hard time covering their own shadow let alone Clemson. Now after an easy game this week, Auburn will travel to South Carolina, host Florida, and go to Arkansas and LSU in October. Ouch!
As for LSU, they looked mighty impressive Thursday in Starkville, where Dan Mullen still has not beaten an SEC West team that isn't named Ole Miss (more on them later). Jarret Lee is not the Jarret Lee of yesteryear and that Tiger D looks solid. They have a test at West Virginia this week, but should be favored in every game except for possibly at Alabama in November.
Speaking of the Tide, they looked somewhat lackluster in their win over North Texas. They still have major concerns on the offensive and defensive lines. Of course, the same can't be said for last week's opponent, Penn State, as they have concerns all over the field and on the sidelines. Congrats to Joe Paterno on squeaking out career win #403, 14-10 over Temple. But unfortunately nobody really knows if Joe Pa saw the game as the window to the visitor's coaches box at The Linc would not open, allegedly. So instead of being subjected to Paterno Cam, like we are Al Davis or Jerry Jones cam on the NFL games, fans were subjected to Closed Window Cam. Sadly, its time for some tough love at Penn State, as they are past due for a coaching change. The Lions players and fans in Philadelphia yesterday celebrated a win over Temple as if they won the Big 10 Championship or something. Really sad how far that program has fallen.
Who else has fallen is UCLA coach Rick Nuehiesal. He was one of the hottest names in the coaching world during his Colorado days and headed to Washington. Of course that ended badly during an NCAA Tournament Pool. Once arriving in SoCal, he proclaimed the football monopoly in Los Angeles was over. But after another beatdown at the Rose Bowl, this time at the hands of Texas, one has to feel his days in Westwood may be numbered.
Someone else on the way out should be Houston Nutt. Getting whipped 30-7 by Vanderbilt, who by the way is half way to bowl eligibility at 3-0, is embarrassing. Being pounded by the 'Dores should automatically be grounds for dismissal. Nutt had that great first year, oversigning players and going for a quick fix by raiding Mississippi's junior college system for players. But he never built the infrastructure up of his program and is suffering dearly for it. Time for AD Pete Boone to pull the plug on this experiment. Of course Ole Miss should have never fired David Cutcliffe several years ago.
Speaking of Cutcliffe, he pulled off a nice upset on the road in the ACC winning at Boston College when the Eagle's missed a last second field goal. Congrats to the Dookies, Baby!
Other teams that impressed yesterday included a less turnover plagued Notre Dame and a very speedy Florida team who was so fast that they were flagged for pass interference seven times against Tennessee. Oklahoma proved its worthy of #1 yesterday and responded to a 13-13 tie in Tallahassee to win 23-13. And the U completely dismantled the Ohio State University in South Florida last night, despite Jacory Harris' tendency to throw to the other team.
Until next week....
No comments:
Post a Comment