It’s Pete Carroll’s World, The Rest Of Us Just Get To Live Here

AP

I dedicate this post to Brandi, who I have no doubt will be thrilled to see Pete Carroll’s name in print.  The man really does not get enough coverage to satisfy either one of us.  Yes, I’m finally doing a college football post.  I had to wait til we were a few games in to the season before I started commenting.  So, some thoughts on this weeks games:

• 35-3.  Teams of Ohio State’s caliber are allowed to lose.  It happens to most teams after all.  But to lose by that score?  After being embarrassed in the last two championship games?  Unacceptable.  They got beat down on national TV again.  There’s no recovery for the Buckeyes this year, no way are pollsters going to let them get back in the championship game after a loss like that.
• I understand Tressel’s thinking about not using Pryor a lot in that game.  He’s a freshman, why crush his spirit?  But I think once it was clear they weren’t going to win, you know, after the first quarter, why not let the kid run the team and see what he can do?  He couldn’t have been worse than Boeckman.
• And yes, I know the Buckeyes were Beanieless last night.  He might have made a difference, like say, one more touchdown or one less for USC, but not that much of a difference.  What was amazing is yeah, I get the offense sucking, but the defense?  Really?  That’s supposed to be the strength of the team.
• 3-2.  Nope, I’m not talking about the baseball season winding down, I’m giving you the Auburn/Miss State score.  I wasn’t watching the whole game so I can’t tell you if the defenses were just that good or the offenses just that bad, but during the time I was watching Auburn fumbled twice and Miss State threw an interception.  This happened in about 2 minutes time.  Hilarious.  3-2.  Ha!  Auburn might wanna work on that offense a bit if they’re hoping to make any noise in the SEC this year.
• Speaking of the SEC, what a classic battle in the UGA vs. SC game.  Er…ok, not so much.  GA certainly did not look like the #2 team in the country.  They only won due to two late turnovers by SC as they were about to score.  Are you having fun yet Spurrier?
• Despite the Spurrier factor, I am kind of in love with the Gamecocks.  First, their nickname is the Cocks.  It really can’t get any better than that.  Second, their QB has the last name Smelley.  I mean, does it get any better than that?   Yes, it does, because their kicker is named Succup.  Like Suck Up.  They have a team with Smelley and Succup.  I really love that, it brings no end to my joy.
• Purdue/Oregon was a wild one wasn’t it?  Purdue was up big and then let Oregon come back thanks to a kick return.  Oregon wins in double overtime.  Poor Purdue, they really don’t know how to end games.
• Maryland managed to obliterate Cal yesterday.  The final score was only 8 points different but Cal got some garbage time touchdowns.
• What does this stuff say about the conferences?  That maybe it’s too early to judge them after week 1?  I laughed when the ACC was written off after Clemson’s loss in week 1.  Really?  Week 1?  Like, maybe you guys just got it wrong and picked the wrong team to crown before the season even started.  How could that be?
• Yesterday the Pac 10 had a blowout win, a dominated loss and a squeaky win to speak for it in big games.  I say that conference is USC and a bunch of also rans.  You can’t judge a conference based on one week.  That’s all I’m saying.
• Speaking of the ACC, I can finally talk about my Noles cause I got to see them play yesterday.  I came away feeling something I haven’t felt in recent years when it comes to my team.  I felt hope.  Oh yeah, they were playing AA competition and should have dominated the way they did.  I get that and I’m not getting too excited yet.  But you see, in recent years, even against sub-par competition they struggled.  They didn’t blow them out, generally they played even in the first half and then pulled away in the second.  This time, straight up domination two weeks in a row.  It’s too early to declare them back, but I feel like they might be in a year, two at most.
• The Nole WR’s are just pretty to watch.  Tall!  Fast!  One has flowing dreds!  Carr is 6′6″.  Surrency, I may be spelling that wrong, is 6′5″.  Ponder has some nice targets.  I like him a lot.  Looks confident back there, makes his reads, can throw a pretty long ball.  His clock management could use some work but he’s young and he’ll learn that quickly enough.
• The Nole defense was pretty good, got decent pressure on the QB.  The secondary worries me a little bit, got burned on a long TD throw and dropped several possible INT’s.  Still, we’ll see.
• Best game of the weekend was probably that Friday night game of Kansas/USF.  Kansas was up big and then USF just kept getting the ball and scoring.   Grothe is a nice passer, look forward to seeing him in the NFL one day.  Kansas has a great offense but their defense leaves a lot to be desired.

Well those are some thoughts from the gridiron this weekend.  Right now USC looks to be the team to beat in the championship race, but teams like Oklahoma and Missouri have been rather impressive.  We’ll see how it plays out.  I’ll be back with more college talk soon!