teke184

FRIDAY Kansas at Toledo SATURDAY Syracuse at Illinois Michigan State at Pittsburgh Michigan at Notre Dame Miami at Louisville Oklahoma at Oregon LSU at Auburn Texas Tech at TCU Mississippi at Kentucky Memphis at East Carolina Clemson at Florida State Nebraska at USC Florida at Tennessee Colorado State at Nevada Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Oklahoma/Oregon game? 57 Tiebreak #2: How many receiving yards will USC's Dwayne Jarrett have against Nebraska? 85

The Ravens appear to be better than last year on both sides of the ball. The Rams may be a stretch, depending on how they and Denver do this week. The Chiefs, IMHO, will be easy as long as they're short an experienced QB and some All-Pro O-Line blockers. (By this I'm referring to Willie Roaf's sudden retirement and NOT anything having to do with Will Shields' performance) Their defense was never great shakes to begin with so, now that they're having offense troubles, it brings them down a bit.

The way things are going around the Titans front office, the Jets may end up getting Volek as their backup for little or nothing in return.

Roy Williams' guarantee... At least Nebraska has scored a touchdown this year.

I'm guessing Morency lost favor with Kubiak and his Denver Broncos style running attack. I can see Gado becoming a star with that style, if Kubiak was actually able to pull it off well. As for Morency, how often has he started a game? Didn't he have to battle Domanick Davis for time? This way Green Bay gets insurance for Ahman Green and Houston gets the HB they think they wanted. Morency started a game or two last year as well as the first one of this year, IIRC. Also, it's not that Morency's a bad player as much as a straight-up swap for the two of them would be VERY lop-sided in the Texans' favor, as Gado put up good numbers for a bad team during the regular season while Morency's done little on a different bad offense. If the Packers didn't pick up cash consideration or a late-round pick, I'll stand by my current assessment.

Depends on their schedule... San Diego is a good team, so I wouldn't immediately write off the Raiders because of the loss. I see them being competitive against the Cardinals, Chiefs (twice), Browns, Texans, 49ers, and Jets, but most of their other games look brutal. The ugly games for them will be the Ravens, Broncos (twice), Steelers, Seahawks, Chargers again, Bengals, and Rams.

In a development that should help the Saints' chances, Green Bay traded Samkon Gado to the Texans for a handful of magic beans, er, some unknown RB named Vernand Morency. Morency is, like Gado, a 2nd-year RB. The difference is that Morency has only gained 197 yards and 2 TDs in his career, while Gado has rushed for about 600 yards and 6 TDs in 9 total games. While this helps Gado out by getting him touches, does anyone else think that the Pack just got bent over by the Texans of all teams?

Yeah, Texas lost because of the new clock rules... Don't you know that the clock rules picked off 2 passes and ran one of them back for a TD?!? WHAT A RUSH!

Actually, any DI team in the top 50 or so is better off playing a high-ranked I-AA team than a low-ranked one. The way that Strength Of Schedule is figured for the BCS, a victory over a I-AA team is worthless but their losses still count against your total SoS. Beating Georgia Southern, a perennial I-AA contender, would only give you a penalty of adding 0-2 or so to your opponents' combined record. Beating Prarie View A&M, who has had a 70+ game losing streak in recent memory, could add closer to 0-11 to your SoS, which is like adding Temple to your schedule except that Temple's rare wins would count towards your SoS total.

You act like cupcaking is a new concept in Manhattan. Remember Snyder was notorious for it for the longest time, but not all of it was his fault, I think. He did try his best to get caliber competition (such as Notre Dame, albeit this was during the Davies era), but they apparently felt it wasn't in their best interest. One reason I've heard as to why deals with the stadium size and gate sharing not being "reasonable" for major opposing teams, but I don't know how that shit works so I don't know if that's a legit excuse or not... Anyways, they are playing Louisville in two weeks, so it's not a complete wash. It's legit to a point, depending on the team. If you're Michigan and play in front of 110,000 at The Big House, it's hard to justify playing in Manhattan, Kansas, in front of 50,000. LSU has similar concerns, but it tries to address this by giving a larger payout for a one-time game than the opposing team would get by hosting a return game. They did this with Oregon State for sure, as their stadium only holds 36,000 while Death Valley holds about 93,000. (LSU gets more than an Oregon State home sellout when playing I-AA teams like Western Illinois.) Other outside influences tend to be a refusal to let a certain school gain a recruiting foothold. Texas A&M has been bad about that as, IIRC, they've either issued unbelievable demands or outright refused series with LSU and Arkansas because they don't want them to get a recruiting foothold in Texas.

The Saints are doing well... They shut down Cleveland for the whole first half and have been doing OK in the second, responding whenever Cleveland puts up a score. The only things they're NOT doing is popping Kellen Winslow or Dennis Northcut when they have a chance. Those two are some MOUTHY motherfuckers, calling for interference or facemask on every other play.

Perilloux got to play against ULL and Arizona, but in mop-up duty both times. From what I can tell of the roster, Russell will be the starter this year and next year and Flynn will graduate after this season, meaning that Perilloux will slide into the #2 spot next season and be in position for the #1 slot if anything happens. Time is on his side, so as long as he stays healthy and doesn't do anything stupid, that QB job will be his down the line.

Mike's lucky that LSU has to travel to Auburn next week. If not for the big game on the horizon, Les could have stuck it in and broke it off in Mike's ass and helped seal his fate at Zona.

Not yet. If they end up with a .500 season because of his son's shitty offense, family loyalty may go out the window.

Bowden's excuse will end up being that his boy shouldn't be calling the offense. What's Fulmer's excuse going to be?

Got back from LSU-Arizona a while ago... It seemed like Mike Stoops was going out of his way to piss LSU's fans off before the game. 1. Stoops did an interview in the last few days basically talking down Death Valley and its effects on the game. While he can believe that however much he wants, making public comments about that pisses off the drunken fans even more and causes them to get even louder... which made the Wildcats get several Delay Of Game penalties and burn at least one timeout. 2. Before the Wildcats went back to the locker room during the pre-game warmups, they had a team meeting on the 50 yard line and jumped up and down on the Eye Of The Tiger at midfield. That one pissed off a LOT of fans. (Auburn did the same thing after the coin toss in late 2001 and got an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty for it, setting the tone for a nasty game that determined the SEC West championship.) As far as the game went- QBs- Russell is still #1 and did very well for the most part. He threw a lot of good passes and was willing to scramble if there was no receiver. However, he also threw at least one INT by throwing to Dwayne Bowe in coverage and almost threw several more by throwing to Bowe in triple-coverage. RB- Alley Broussard is unofficially #1, but Jacob Hester was the star of this one. With the coaches unwilling to risk Broussard before the Auburn game and Justin Vincent being ineffective, Hester was moved from fullback to tailback and did VERY well. Hester finished the day with 43 yards on the ground and a TD, another 53 through the air and a TD there, and was robbed of an additional receiving TD on the first drive. (He caught a pass on the edge of the endzone and had one foot in, but was called out of bounds by the referees.) WR- The yardage and TDs were spread around here. Dwayne Bowe was the leader, as usual, with 65 yards and a TD, but Jacob Hester, Early Doucet, Buster Davis, and others picked up a lot of yards as well. O-Line: Very good for the most part. The only trouble spot I saw was a blatant false start by G Will Arnold, but crap happens. D-Line: Excellent. There were some VERY nasty hits out there and multiple sacks. I may use my TiVo footage of the game to put together a highlight reel of hits, including one where the 'Zona RB took a full flip in the air before landing on the ground. Hard. LBs: Ali Highsmith was still great. Darry Beckwith and the other LB are good, but it remains to see how they'll deal with a great RB like Kenny Irons. DBs: Fan. Fucking. Tastic. LaRon Landry and Jonathan Zenon are living up to their billing, as Zenon returned an INT 40 yards for a TD while Landry picked off another. Special Teams: Much better this week, although a bit gunshy on Punt Return. They were pushed inside the 15 several times because they seemed nervous about fumbling that deep in their territory. Overall defense: Excellent. If not for the fact that Miles had the 2nd and 3rd string in for the 4th quarter, this would have been a shutout and Arizona would have finished with negative rushing yards thanks to all the sacks. It remains to be seen how they'll do against Auburn, but they sure should have some confidence after back-to-back 45-3 wins.

MarvinIsALunatic did, as that's one of the games we differed on this week. He's already kicked my ass by picking BYU over Tulsa, North Texas over SMU, and Boston College over Clemson. (I picked Notre Dame over Penn State and held off going for Ohio State over Texas because I didn't want to dick around with tiebreakers.)

Peppers was more questionable at the time because, IIRC, he was still somewhat raw and more of an athlete than a football player. David Carr might have been a decent choice if the Texans had ever invested in a decent O-Line to protect him. While I don't think this will be Jordan/Bowie, it may end up being George Rogers / Lawrence Taylor. Rogers was a Heisman RB out of South Carolina who was drafted at #1 by the Saints. He went on to have a solid career, including Offensive Rookie of the Year, before retiring due to injury after about 6 seasons. LT, drafted at #2 behind Rogers, ended up being an all-time great and his excellent defense helped turn the Giants into a team that won multiple Super Bowls. He played around 10 seasons (fuzzy on this) It's hard to say whether Williams or Bush will make their shitty team the best over the long-term because the New Orleans O-Line is being held together with spit and wire (meaning limited support for Bush) while the Texans aren't particularly great on defense right now, meaning little help for Williams.

THURSDAY Oregon State at Boise State SATURDAY Mississippi at Missouri Penn State at Notre Dame Clemson at Boston College Tulsa at BYU Colorado vs. Colorado State East Carolina at UAB Minnesota at California SMU at North Texas Georgia at South Carolina New Mexico at New Mexico State Ohio State at Texas Texas Tech at UTEP Oregon at Fresno State Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Penn State/Notre Dame game? 41 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Ohio State's Troy Smith have against Texas? 210

You'll probably be pleased to hear that FoxSportsNews is now predicting Tennessee to win the SEC Title and go to the Sugar Bowl. I know I'm speaking from the perspective of an LSU fan here, but it seems a little early to vault Tennessee up so high based on beating Cal. If Cal goes through the rest of the season and plays well, it reflects better on Tennessee. However, Cal may be this year's pre-season Top 10 flop like Tennessee was last year, at which point a win over them becomes much less impressive. You're right in that Tennessee probably shouldn't go high until they beat Florida, at which point they've beaten a legitimate tough team and have the inside track to the SEC East.

On the LSU front- QB- JaMarcus Russell is officially the #1 QB with Matt Flynn in behind him. Thankfully, Miles isn't as hard-headed as Saban when it comes to putting in #2 Flynn or #3 Ryan Perriloux. Perriloux, along with fellow newcomer RB Keiland Williams, put together a solid drive with the 3rd string late in the 4th quarter and would have scored if Miles hadn't let the clock run out. (No point in running it up on an in-state team who's generally non-competitive) WR- These guys don't die, they multiply. Despite losing Skyler Green and Bennie Brazell to graduation and Xavier Carter to full-time Track competition, they still had an impressive group out there. Brandon Lafell, in his first LSU play EVER, scored on a 58-yard strike from Russell early in the first quarter. Early Doucet, who was injured partway through last year, got on the board with a Russell TD pass in the 2nd. Dwayne Bowe, who was held out of the first few series because of some post-game altercations with Miami at the Peach Bowl, got on the board in the 3rd due to a Matt Flynn pass. He finished with a game-high 88 yards receiving on 4 catches. Craig "Buster" Davis caught 4 passes for 82 yards, meaning that the Tigers had multiple receivers with a 20-yard receiving average. RB- The RB corps is still a little banged up, but Alley Broussard was still #1 even with an abbreviated appearance in the game. Justin Vincent was the starter and wasn't too effective before finally leaving on a wobbily knee in the 2nd. After Vincent went out, Miles gave the ball to FB Jason Hester and RB Charles Scott, who were effective enough to punch it into the end zone. Broussard came in the game in the 3rd quarter, along with Matt Flynn, and proceeded to get an immediate 20-yard gain, bowling over tacklers and proving his form hasn't changed since the injury. Defense- DBs- The DB corps was very good, as expected. The surprise was that the star of this unit wasn't LaRon Landry, as expected, but Jonathan Zenon instead. Zenon picked off two ULL passes, running one back for a TD. LBs- Solid, but nothing special. D Line- The big winner here was DE Tyson Jackson, who picked up multiple sacks. New DT Glenn Dorsey was impressive as well, showing good speed for someone his size. Special Teams- This one was a killer. The good- The Kick Return team, Kickoff team, Field Goal unit, and Extra Point team all performed well. The last two are good because LSU is somewhat notorious for having shitty placekickers. The bad- The Punt Return and Punt teams made some major mistakes that, in the hands of a better team, could have put quite a few points on the board. The PR team muffed two punts and lost them, one of them setting up ULL's only score. The Punt team also had at least one 15-yard penalty for interference because the man closest to the ULL returner let the ball hit him in the head. (This one was a weird one as, technically, you'd think the ball would be called down by contact there) If they muff punts against Auburn and give them the ball deep in their territory, that'll be a killer. Overall, the Tigers did well in many areas, but they still have concerns with the durability and power of their RBs as well as their Punt teams. They appear to have the talent and the desire to go far this season, but that depends on the breaks as well as how they handle an ugly road schedule. (They play at Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas, but those trips each have two home-games in between them.)

Let's see... I went 10 of 13 so far and won my game. Goddamn Cal Golden Bears, Army Black Knights, and Miami of Ohio RedBirds. Looks like I may be high in next week's poll, possibly even retaining my #2 slot if Miami wins, but Will seems to be a lock for #1.

Point of reference... This week's SEC schedule- vs I-A schools Tennessee vs. Cal Florida vs. Southern Miss LSU vs. UL-Lafayette Arkansas vs. USC Auburn vs. Washington St. Vanderbilt vs. Michigan Alabama vs. Hawaii Ole Miss vs. Memphis South Carolina vs. Mississippi St. Kentucky vs. Louisville vs I-AA schools Georgia vs. Western Kentucky Big 12 vs I-A Nebraska vs. LA Tech Baylor vs. TCU Iowa State vs. Toledo Texas vs. North Texas Oklahoma vs. UAB Texas Tech vs. SMU vs I-AA Colorado vs. Montana State (AND LOST!) Kansas vs. Northwestern State (LA) Missouri vs. Murray State (KY) Texas A&M vs. Citadel Kansas St. vs. Illinois St. I think the Big 12 has officially taken the "crappiest OOC scheduling" rep from the SEC for not only scheduling half their first-week games against I-AA teams but the Big 12 North champ from last year LOSING to one of them.

More than Roy Williams?

That makes TWO loud, obnoxious people I could live without both in one place...