Week Two in College Football

First, my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, ranked #25 in Division 3, slogged out a 16-6 victory over Grove City College, a rival just up I-79. The Tartans are 2-0, coming off an undefeated regular season last year, and have won twelve regular season games in a row.Also, the same guy who was coaching football there when I arrived in 1990 is still coaching there 17 years later. Talk about comfy. 

Michigan Sucks

 I think Lloyd Carr loses his job on Monday. I’d fire him in a heartbeat. Michigan, with the exception of Mike Hart, looked completely awful today. Hart wanted to carry the team, but his ankle was obviously bothering him. Were I him, I’d insist on Carr’s dismissal based simply on false hope. He, quarterback Chad Henne, and tackle Jake Long all stayed in hopes of going after a national title. Carr forgot to tell this trio that he wasn’t going to field anyone on defense.I think WVU could score 80 points against that Michigan D. In a single half. They’re about as atrocious as WVU’s D, in fact. 

Notre Dame may not win, but they do fight

 And by fight, I mean actually throw punches.Why that Irish player wasn’t ejected from the game in the second quarter after sitting on a Penn State player and pummelling him for several seconds, I’ll never understand. The official was standing over them, seemingly enjoying the assault, for nearly ten seconds before finally getting involved.Abysmal.This is what Charlie Weis is all about, by the way. “If my team stinks,” he says behind closed doors, “we’ll just beat the hell out of kids who don’t expect it.” Weis is a dirty little bastard. He has no football qualms, and he has no football morals. The team will go dirtier as the moaning about how horrible his squad is gets louder and louder, too. He’s a rat. A complete sheister.And his team is going to get killed at Michigan next week. 

Louisville tries playing without defense, realizes problems with that

 By now, everyone’s seen highlights of the Louisville v. Middle Tennessee State fireworks show from Thursday night. Great stuff. If you hate Louisville as much as I do. Well, till they separate, anyway.As a Mountaineer fan, I’m salivating over that matchup. Should be a 150-point game, the way the two teams play D. 

The Big East

 As I write this post, South Florida is tied at Auburn. Check that: South Florida just intercepted a Brandon Cox pass into a crowd of four Bulls and a single Tiger and returned the ball to the Tiger 3 yard line. South Florida seems likely to win this one. Suggesting that they do, after two weeks of play, only one Big East team will have lost: Syracuse to Washington and Iowa. The same Washington who went to Boise State and won today. And the same Iowa who will likely contend for the Big Ten title.While the opponents of the Big East in general leave something to be desired, other conferences that are considered far superior to the Big East have faced lesser or similar opponents, and fared less well.UPDATE: Auburn has taken a 3-point lead with just under three minutes to play. Five turnovers, and South Florida has scored zero points from them. Nice D in Tampa. A terrible, terrible offense.UPDATE to the previous update: USF returned the ensuing kickoff to the Auburn 34 yard line. Incredible. The Bulls may still be able to win this one after all.UPDATE numero tres: The Bulls win! The Bulls win! And, in his postgame on-field interview, coach Jim Leavitt says of his team’s win at Jordan-Hare Stadium, “This is a big shot for the Big East.” And he’s right. Huge. Makes me wish that WVU would try to schedule some bigger-time opponents. (For the record, I believe the Mountaineers have Auburn on the schedule in ‘08 and ‘09, or ‘09 and ‘10.) 

Big Ten and Coaches #5

 It’s early fourth quarter as I type, but maybe the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll ought not rank Big Ten teams so highly. Wisconsin appears prepared to choke away a game to not-quite-a-football-power UNLV.UPDATE: Wisconsin holds off a very game Runnin’ Rebels team. But, overall, the Big Ten’s looking quite shaky two weeks into the year. Wisconsin is my pick for winning the conference, but I suppose you can’t overlook Penn State or even Iowa.