Week 1: What We've Learned

First, Ohio State is good at offense, scoring 21 in the first quarter alone before calling off the hounds to cruise to a comfy 35-12 victory over Northern Illinois. We still have questions about the defense after Garret Wolfe ran his own punt, pass and kick contest for 285 all-purpose yards (171 on the ground and 114 through the air) and NIU's lone touchdown. Wolfe's one man scamper-a-thon, while not enough to beat the Buckeyes this weekend, may come back to haunt them next weekend by giving Texas a blueprint to exploit their D.

Which leads us to Texas, whom we also learned can score points. They looked very good breaking in new QB Colt McCoy against North Texas. I'm already salivating over what figures to be an epic shootout this weekend, but I'll leave most of the hype and coverage to Switters who will be in attendance like a Scarlet and Grey life raft in a sea of Burnt Orange.

We also saw the early expose of Notre Dame as a bunch of charlatans with a fat coach living on borrowed time in the Top Ten. Here's a team whose offense was touted as the best in the land barely posting a two-touchdown performance to eek out the win at unranked (maybe undeservedly so) Georgia Tech. With the Big Ten section of Notre Dame's schedule looming (Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State) I think we'll see them struggle.


Miami and Florida State both suck. What looked like (and may actually be) good defense was actually terrible, terrible offense by both teams. Pat Forde said that Miami lacked a plan and seemed less organized than a Kindergarten fire drill on offense. I would tend to agree and so I think we're looking at an ACC up for grabs with Clemson, Georgia Tech and maybe even BC looming large since neither of these conference powers looks plugged in.

Now, was it Cal that sucked or Tennessee that rocked? One Cal Bear that made the journey to Knoxville said he'd never seen a Tedford team so flat. They just didn't show up. And Rocky Top's a tough place to play. But this was the most deflating loss for the Pac 10 in quite some time and seems to position USC for its perennial conference domination (after blasting Arkansas 50-14 in, essentially, two quarters of football).

Except for one thing, Oregon. They looked sharp in their new unis tearing up Stanford 48-10. We'll find out what they're really made of against Fresno State and Oklahoma in the next two weeks, but I'm picking them in both games now especially since we've seen that Brett Bomar's small-time criminality has left Oklahoma a one-trick pony after their scarce victory over UAB.

Quick Shots:
*Bad debut for Dan Hawkins. The former point-scoring madman at Boise State debuted in Colorado by putting up just 10 points in a home loss to I-AA Montana State which earned the humble Big Sky conference school a cool $275K (Go Bobcats!). Not a pretty showing for the Buffs and hopefully for the Hawk not a portent for the future. For now we'll chalk it up to the lingering cancer of Rick Neuheisel's tenure and Gary Barnett's subsequent mismanagement.

*In other former Boise State coach news, Houston Nutt better be worried about his after laying another rotten egg in Arkansas. How much time does he get? Can Mitch Mustain save Nutt's butt for the rest of the season?