College Football Weekend Recap: Winners and Losers - jmik58's Blog

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jmik58's Blog

College Football Weekend Recap: Winners and Losers Stuck

Posted on September 4, 2012 at 11:25 AM.

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If you gauge week one of the college football season as the most important then Michigan's season is over. Everything they worked for in the offseason has been smashed at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide. In other words, the rest of the nation still doesn't deserve a place at the table with the SEC's elite.

The Wolverines' 41-14 shellacking at the hands of Alabama certainly stung, but the reality is that their season is far from over. In the game of football week one is simply a baseline from which to discover team strengths and weaknesses. The improvement from the first to second weeks, or lack thereof, is the most crucial aspect of the season.

Rarely is there a week one loss that can't be recovered from for national championship contenders. In the world of polls and the BCS it's actually more beneficial if you lose early compared to later in the season. But win or lose, teams must grow in their second game or the season can spiral out of control.

Here are five winners and losers from week one of the college football season.

FIVE TEAMS ON THE RISE

BYU (1-0)
Week 1: Washington State, won 30-6.
Week 2: Weber State (0-1)

Wazzu started the game with more rushing yards (0) than they finished (-5). Even more impressive, however, was that BYU held Mike Leach's pass-happy squad to only 229 yards through the air. BYU looked very balanced on offense as well, throwing for 303 yards and gaining 123 on the ground.

Nevada (1-0)
Week 1: California, won 31-24.
Week 2: South Florida (1-0)

It wasn't that the Wolfpack dominated Cal, but they looked equally as good -- something you don't expect against a solid PAC-12 team. Despite penalty issues, Nevada racked up 230 passing and 220 rushing yards on the day. Next week's USF contest instantly appears to be an exciting matchup.

#25 Louisville (1-0)
Week 1: Kentucky, won 32-14.
Week 2: Missouri State (0-1)

Louisville confirmed their preseason hype and top-25 billing by thumping the rival Wildcats with ease. Being from the SEC isn't enough to guarantee competence, but the Wildcats certainly are no slouch. Week two will do little to test the Cardinals but instead may provide a chance to work on aspects of the offense and defense that will be important moving forward.

#17 Nebraska (1-0)
Week 1: Southern Mississippi, won 49-20.
Week 2: UCLA (1-0)

Many won't be impressed by this win, but Southern Mississippi is a very quality team -- the type of team that likes to mess up championship dreams before they even start. The Golden Eagles did rack up almost 150 rushing yards, but that figure looks less dangerous when considering it was on nearly 50 attempts. Nebraska amassed 632 yards total, led by five Taylor Martinez passing scores.

#14 Clemson (1-0)
Week 1: Auburn, won 26-19.
Week 2: Ball State (1-0)

Defense? Who plays defense in the ACC? If week one tells us anything, apparently the answer is Clemson. Without playmaker Sammy Watkins, the Clemson Tigers had to buckle down and depend on smart decisions from quarterback Tajh Boyd to go with 236 yards on the ground from Andre Ellington. As good as Ellington looked, the Clemson defense was the shocker on the day -- allowing a single touchdown in the first quarter and only four field goals after that. Defense certainly wins championships and this game was a big statement from Clemson, but can they back it up?

FIVE TEAMS ON THE DECLINE

Pittsburgh (0-1)
Week 1: Youngstown State, lost 31-17.
Week 2: Cincinnati (0-0)

Who saw this one coming? Youngstown State certainly is no slouch in the FCS realm, but the head coaching carousel at Pitt is really starting to show its wear. The Panthers have a significant collection of talent and must regroup quickly as they have a Thursday night matchup with conference foe Cincinnati.

#13 Michigan State (1-0)
Week 1: #24 Boise State, won 17-13.
Week 2: Central Michigan (1-0)

The Spartans may have beaten the twenty-fourth ranked team in the nation, but they nearly beat themselves. It's no secret that this year's Broncos team lacks significant talent and experience and it showed on the field against Michigan State. Unfortunately for the Spartans they couldn't reflect their dominance on the scoreboard. MSU looked like a team in search of an identity and nearly lost the game in an attempt to build confidence in new quarterback Andrew Maxwell (3 interceptions). Sparty went back to the run to win the game but they'll have to find some passing consistency if they want to win the Big-Ten.

#21 Stanford (1-0)
Week 1: San Jose State, won 20-17.
Week 2: Duke (1-0)

It's going to take a little while before the Andrew Luck comparisons stop and a three-point victory over San Jose State isn't going to do much to help. Josh Nunes certainly deserves time to develop, but 16-26 passing for 125 yards isn't enough to carry a top-25 team. The Cardinal need to make sure they improve immensely this week in practice as Duke is off an impressive showing against FIU.

#12 Wisconsin (1-0)
Week 1: Northern Iowa, won 26-21.
Week 2: Oregon State (0-0)

The Missouri Valley Conference from the FCS division of college football wasn't very kind to their FBS brethren this week. Youngstown State smashed Pitt and Northern Iowa almost turned in an Appalachian State over Michigan type of upset (on the anniversary date nonetheless). The Badgers look a lot like the Spartans in their attempt to find an identity with a new quarterback at the helm, but the Panthers of UNI also made Montee Ball look pedestrian while shredding Wisconsin through the air on the arm of Sawyer Kollmorgen. The Badgers need to find their ground dominance and some pass defense if they want to survive the Big-Ten schedule.

#9 South Carolina (1-0)
Week 1: Vanderbilt, won 17-13.
Week 2: East Carolina (1-0)

Like South Carolina, the Commodores could very well make a bowl game t his year. The Gamecocks just weren't prepared to be equaled by Vanderbilt on the field this soon. Vandy passed for nearly 300 yards while South Carolina totaled a mere 67. Marcus Lattimore looked impressive and started a theme of top-tier teams struggling to throw the ball only to have stud halfbacks carry the team to victory. Steve Spurrier, however, must find a way to balance out the offense if they want to live up to their top-ten projection.

Sound Off: Who are your winners and losers from week one of the college football season?

Justin Mikels is a staff writer for Operation Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @long_snapper

Comments

# 1 msuhockeycj @ Sep 4

Wow, so Michigan State beats a top 25 team and they are on the decline. Sure they won by 4 points but they controlled the whole fourth quarter and ran the clock out at Boise's 5 taking knees. You say they don't have an identity... Did you watch the game? They gave up 3 points on defense and ran all over Boise. They are a classic Big Ten team. Yet I dont seem to find Michigan on the decline after being throttled opening week and having one of the worst passing QBs in the nation. Great analysis.

# 2 msuhockeycj @ Sep 4

Btw Nick Saban sent all his defensive coaches to East Lansing to get that gameplay from the declining MSU...

# 3 jmik58 @ Sep 4

@msuhockeycj Michigan performed about as well as I expected against Alabama so they didn't disappoint, in my opinion. Michigan State does have a great defense, but they struggled to find their identity on offense. They could have run all over Boise State but kept reverting back to the passing game. As a former coach I understand this need to work on or develop certain things, but they nearly lost the game. The Spartans should have easily beaten the Broncos who were not a top-25 team in my opinion. Michigan State looked worse than I expected and have to improve a lot between week one and two. Since they underperformed based on my expectations I have them on the decline for this week.

# 4 msuhockeycj @ Sep 4

Your reasoning is fine and I appreciate you responding. I disagree though at your opinion of Maxwell. Two of his picks were not his fault coming off drops from receivers, one could have been a touchdown with a broken tackle. He was efficient and did what he needed in the second half. No he's not great right now from what he showed but he wasn't nearly as bad as stats would indicate. I just don't agree that out of all the mediocre performances week 1 a team who beat another top 25 team, despite your opinion of Boise, would be one of the five in decline.

# 5 jmik58 @ Sep 4

@msuhockeycj First of all, thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. As the #13 team I was very underwhelmed by the total package on offense of MSU -- I'm not calling for the panic button though. My primary point within the blog was that week one provides a baseline and week two is most crucial for improvement. I have high expectations for MSU and think they are deserving of a top-15 ranking, however, they must develop a better passing game to live up to that hype this year. MSU has a lot to prove going into the next week or two.

# 6 msuhockeycj @ Sep 4

Ok thanks for your time and effort in your column, I did like many of your other picks. Again I would come back to yes MSU was 13 and won by a slim margin on the final scoreboard. But would you not expect the 8th ranked team to at least compete. Yes UM at 8 was a bit of a farce and you may have not expected a thing but for the majority of the country who aren't tuned in ever week a top 10 team not even showing up is quite surprising. I mean Alabama could have called their own score. People were touting Michigan as being "back" and they don't even show up in Dallas. That seems like much more of a decline than a minor disappointing top 25 win.

# 7 Jadakiss88 @ Sep 4

@JerseySuave Michigan had just as much time to gameplan against Bama as Bama did Michigan. Michigan was completely outmatched. Bama did nothing unexpected on Offense they ran the ball like they always have and passed when they needed to. The defense (while some doubted Saban's reloading ability) just look alot more prepared and that was the only part of the game Michigan needed to worry about the most because they had no clue that this young defense would step up and exceed expectations. Besides every knew Denard Robinson was the X Factor if Michigan won or lose his play was vitale.

Week 1 is always a great parameter to judge your upcoming season. If you play a top team Week 1 then you can gauge a lot from Week 1. If you play a weak team Week 1 you can only gauge one thing preparedness. While things can happen throughout the season that may change the course of your season Week 1 always provides a good outlook on the season.

# 8 jmik58 @ Sep 4

@msuhockeycj The #8 team in the nation definitely should perform better than that, but you're spot on -- I think Michigan is a marginal top-20 team at best. I'm focusing more on my personal expectations as opposed to the national conscience. All games being played on neutral fields, I think the top-two in the B1G are Nebraska and Michigan State.

# 9 Jadakiss88 @ Sep 4

@msuhockeycj

A this isn't the first time a top 10 team didn't show up against Bama. Bama's coaching staff is so rich in experience that at this point there is nothing any team can do that will surprise them. Like I told people before Bama saw two of the BEST dual threat QB's in our time Tebow and Newton. Guarentee if Bama would have saw Cam again he wouldn't have come out on top. But I said that to say Robinson brought absolutely nothing to the table that Bama never saw. Most of the people that saw Michigan winning were either 1) People that have utter disgust for SEC teams or 2) Diehard Michigan Fans.

# 10 msuhockeycj @ Sep 4

I think OSU might end up the best Big Ten team but they obviously can't take anything from that with no Conference championship or Bowl game. Nebraska will be interesting to see their defense against better teams, and to see if Burkhead's injury becomes a big problem. Martinez is what he is, he could lose any game on the schedule for them or he could win a few.

# 11 jmik58 @ Sep 4

@msuhockeycj I was able to watch a good portion of the replay of the Nebraska/So Miss game and was very impressed by the 'Huskers. So Miss is a very good team with a strong offense. I don't see anything alarming with Nebraska giving up points to them. I thought Martinez looked outstanding. His footwork and technique was like watching a different human at quarterback. And the loss of Burkhead will sting (depending on the length) but "Wow!" at the depth Nebraska has at that position.

# 12 misterbroom12 @ Sep 4

Amsuhockeycj @jmik58 Not to jump on either side here, but I was a bit surprised with MSU being on the decline. Yes, they should have not made it that close, but at the same token, MSU was still able to win a game with nothing BUT a run game. The defense was dominant and the run game performed even when it was obvious it was coming. I would have left them off either list as it's tough to say whether the passing game we saw is going to be normalcy or a one off. If it was a one off, the B1G is in trouble with MSU and if it was normalcy, MSU is going to lose any game they go down early by more than one score.

# 13 Jimbo614 @ Sep 4

Maybe Tennessee on the up-and-coming list?
I think maybe the big story might be the disrespect the Big 10 gets nowadays. And to tell the truth, they kinda earned it.
Another big story is how the elite of College Football seems to be separating themselves from the pack while the rest seem to be gravitating towards mediocrity.

# 14 seeuatthemovies @ Sep 5

Tennessee belongs on the rising list. Derek Dooley managed to win what was in essence a "loser leaves town match" against an ok NC State team. What's more, the Vols did it by showing some flash. I admit that I'm a sheep for UT, but few teams outside of Bama played that strong of an opponent out of the gate.

Pitt is the #1 falling by far. How do you lose that game? I'd like to drop Florida, but I need to see more against A&M to know if they are really that bad. Clawson's bunch at BG really played Florida off their feet.

# 15 jmik58 @ Sep 6

Valid points about Tennessee. The reason they don't make the list for week one is because I expected them to beat NC State -- for the most part -- the way they did. I was very high on UT coming into the season and think NC State is solid, but not in their class.