Trent's Touchdown - Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 or, as ABC is calling it, “Monster Saturday” in college football. Remember when teams like Alabama would schedule teams like Slippery Rock for their non-conference games? Those days are now gone, but more on that later. Now, on to the Touchdown.

1) No. 12 Miami at No. 2 Ohio State – 3:40 on ESPN

When I look at this game, both teams have the same issue. It’s an issue the fan bases and the casual observer may have missed in all the hoopla. Neither team has a solid QB that you can count on.

For Ohio State, everyone is pointing to the fact that Terrelle Pryor put up gaudy numbers in the blowout victory against Marshall last week. Guess what, it was against Marshall! It’s not like he was lighting up Alabama.

For Miami, Jacoby Harris needs to be mentioned in the Heisman race because he threw three touchdown passes in the first 19 minutes against Florida A&M. If he does this against Ohio State, I’ll sit up and pay attention.

Both QB’s are at the points in their college careers where they are suppose to be coming into their own and living up to the hype, yet they have done nothing to prove it. So, let’s toss the offensive numbers out the window on this one and focus on what really matters.

Defense will win this game. So, who has the better defense? Again, since the competition was so pitiful last week, we need to go with what we know. We know that Ohio State always has a high-end defense and Miami will have issues stopping some of the more high powered teams in the ACC. Defensive edge goes to Ohio State, and Ohio State will win this game.

2) No. 17 Florida State at No. 10 Oklahoma – 3:30 on ABC

Sadly, I could pretty much cut and paste what I wrote about the Miami/Ohio State game in here, and just change some names. The only reason I don’t is because that would be lazy of me and because Oklahoma almost blew it against Utah State. Yes, Utah State.

Oklahoma actually has a very good team. The weak link is Landry Jones and I think everyone realizes that. Expect Oklahoma to run DeMarco Murray early and often and try and create some time for Jones to throw to Ryan Broyles. On defense, they need to tighten up but still create turnovers.

Last week, FSU had no problems raking up points on Samford. It’s hard to evaluate a team after they rolled over a team I’m sure me and 10 friends could score on. FSU imposed their will and did everything they wanted to do offensively. That is not something they can do to Oklahoma.

I’m not sold on FSU. I don’t think Christian Ponder is that good of a leader. Plus, the game is in Oklahoma. Oklahoma doesn’t lose at home. I go with Oklahoma, but expect another late game interception to ice it for the Sooners.

3) No. 18 Penn State at No. 1 Alabama – 7:00 on ESPN

This game got a lot more interesting when we learned that Mark Ingram was probably going to sit out while still recovering from knee surgery. Couple that with the suspension for Marcell Dareus and we have ourselves a game. Well, in the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.

Penn State is going to have issues. The Penn State offense is going to live and die by the run. They have a freshman QB starting his second college game in one of the harshest environments in college football against the best team in the country. I think it’s safe to say Evan Royster is going to be running the ball a lot.

Penn State will need their defense to step up, but Alabama has one of the more steady QB’s in the country and a trio of running backs who can pick up the slack for Ingram. Alabama’s defense is going to absolutely punish Royster, forcing PSU into throwing on third down and Robert Bolden is going to get rattled.

I think PSU keeps it interesting early due to defense, but Alabama will put it away sometime in the third quarter. ROLL TIDE!

4) No. 7 Oregon at Tennessee – 7:00 on ESPN2

Am I the only one who thinks that last week’s thrashing of New Mexico by Oregon was Chip Kelly’s big old middle finger to Jeremiah Masoli? I mean, it was the ultimate “it’s the system, not the player” statement a coach can make. He even did it with LaMichael James serving a one game suspension.

Oregon, as proven, has no problems moving the ball offensively. Anything Oregon wanted to do, they did. Their backup running back scored 5 touchdowns. Their punt returner ran back 2 punts for touchdowns. Their QB makes Duck fans say “Jeremiah Who?” It was all good fun if you were a Ducks fan.

Tennessee, as well, was able to beat up on lesser talent, but did so more with defense, scoring a defense touchdown and recording a safety. Offensively, they lost their best receiver to a broken bone in his hand and the number two receiver is slowed by an ankle injury. You know what that means? Freshman trying to catch passes. Good times. But hey, if you’re a Tennessee fan, you have one bright spot. Jonathan Crompton graduated, so he can’t hurt you anymore.

Anyway, expect Oregon to attempt to demolish Tennessee, if only to prove they don’t need Masoli and can win convincingly on the road.

5) No. 22 Georgia at No. 24 South Carolina – 12:00 on ESPN2

This is one of those games that could easily slip through the cracks if you aren’t paying attention. In years past, this game was to decide who would finish second to Florida in the SEC East. I still think that, but without Tebow, its possible Florida could lose focus and slip.

When it comes to Georgia, I think Coach Mark Richt said it best. To paraphrase, he basically said that he was going to get all excited his offense, led by a freshman QB, rolled all over Louisiana-Lafayette. At lease someone has some perspective. Georgia is getting a lot of players back from suspension (except A.J. Green) so this will be the first game where they all get to gel around the new QB.

South Carolina has a talented defense, but finally has what looks to be a high powered offense. As a Clemson fan, these guys scare me. While they have eligibility issues on the offensive line, they have an underrated QB and dynamic, but young, position players.

Except South Carolina to try and control the tempo of the game and try and rack up points early and often. I think Georgia has the talent to win, but I don’t think they will win. South Carolina wins it, but it’s close.

6) Michigan at Notre Dame – 3:30 on NBC

I may rag on both of these teams a lot (ND more than Michigan), but this one will actually be fun. Young teams and fans can get excited about. I’m not expecting anything this year from either of them, but they will both be fun to watch this year. Seriously, one QB has the nickname “Shoelace” because he plays football with his shoelaces untied and the other has a name that makes me think he’s going to be joining the cast of Gossip Girl. Good times.

Extra Point:

The first two weeks of this season have been jam packed with really good non-conference games. There used to be a time when the first few weeks of the college football season were a dead zone, where it was almost an extra hard practice game instead of a real matchup. This has all changed now.

Teams are starting to realize that a strong non-conference schedule is nearly essential to making a run at a National Championship. Thanks to the BCS, strength of schedule does have a very real weight in rankings, both computer and human. A team is going to be looked on more favorably if they beat Virginia Tech than if you beat The Citadel and the team is in the Big Ten.

The drawback is obviously that not only do teams have tougher opponents, but they are facing them when most vulnerable, at the beginning of the season. In the beginning of season, teams are lack the cohesion and unity that comes with multiple games together. Sometimes, this is the first real action a player has seen in the college game. It falls on the coaches to keep the errors to a minimum and truly gives a picture of how good a team really is.

I think a prime example is Virginia Tech last week. They looked absolutely abysmal in the first quarter and the last 2 minutes of last week’s showdown with Boise State. If this game gets played in the middle of the year, I think the results would probably be different. However, Boise State proved to be the better teams since they kept their errors to a minimum and won the game.

I, for one, love the new tougher schedules. It means better games for me to watch. It also means I don’t have to find interesting things to write about when I put a Texas/Jacksonville State game at number 3 on the Touchdown.