NCAA Football 2004 (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

re: USC and Leinart/USC being rusty

Do not forget that USC has to replace 4 OL from last year's squad. Games are won and lost in the trenches.

Leinart was ***not*** a highly touted QB out of high school (unlike Palmer). Last year everyone thought of him as a placeholder for Booty. However, last year he had 3-5 OL who are NFL caliber. Any good D1 quarterback can make throws to NFL quality receivers like Williams and Colbert given 4-5 comfortable, pressure free seconds in the backfield. That is exactly what Leinart did. The three headed rushing attack of Dennis (currently suspended), White and Bush relieved any pressure that the Ds could potentially bring with a blitz

Well now he's got less time to throw, less time to think back there. USC will still be good, heck they'll probably go undefeated with a softer (than last year) schedule and a weak PAC-10. But last year's squad would have pasted this year's squad. And if they get to that title game (always a question given what is sure to be a weak strength of schedule) and face someone from a tougher conference, say a Miami or Oklahoma, I would say they are in for a rough game.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

If I were Northwestern's coach, I'd boot the kicker off my team.

 

[Doug Miller]

Phew! Close game for my Cougs tonight. Showed a lot of composure coming back in the 4th quarter. Maddening game. I wish it would have been in HD.





Doug

 

[ThomasC]

Turnovers, turnovers, and more turnovers (seven in all) spelled death for the Miami (OH) Redhawks, who lost 43-10 to Michigan. Things were looking good for the Redhawks after Ryne Robinson made a punt return of 46 yards to the Michigan 39 yard line in the fourth quarter with the Redhawks only trailing 24-10, but an 88 yard interception return for a touchdown by Michigan safety Ernest Shazor just a few plays later killed their momentum and cost the Redhawks the game.

Thankfully, my day wasn't totally ruined, because the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Cincinnati Bearcats 27-6.

 

[Armando Zamora]

ThomasC,

Hey now, isn't there a rule that you can't root for two teams within the same state. A Michigan fan would never root for a Spartan, nor would a Blue Devil ever root for a Tar Heel, and vice versa. You can't have your cake and eat it too!!!

Robinson sure put a scare in this Wolverine fan. That kid is electrifying. Too bad (or maybe in the case for UM...fortunate) he had to leave the game because he got his bell rung. According to the announcers, he should already have something like 5 punt returns for TDs, if it weren't for a few block in the back penalties during his returns.

 

[ThomasC]

quote:Hey now, isn't there a rule that you can't root for two teams within the same state.

Miami and OSU have only faced off a few times in the history of college football, so the rules don't apply to me.

I'm a Buckeye fan because I was born and raised in Columbus, and I'm a Redhawk fan because I'm a student at Miami. The Hawks and the Bucks play each other next year, and I'll be rooting for the Buckeyes, because they actually have a chance at going to the national championship, but it's obviously nothing personal against the Redhawks.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

Well both defending champs have not looked too good in their openers...LSU got away by the skin of their teeth. I wonder how the FSU - Miami game is going to be now.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Just got back from another typical Boise State Bronco game 65-7 over state rival Idaho Vandals. The point spread was about 31, but we hit that before half time. I feel for the Vandals. Their first year coach Nick Holt from USC has his hands full.





Next week could put in jeopardy several streaks when Oregon State comes to town. Especially after their tough loss to highly ranked LSU. We have a 12 game win streak, 18 game home win streak and are 33-1 at home since 1999.





Oregon State has a tough secondary, but Boise ran the ball behind new quarterback Zabransky and did all the scoring on the ground. Oregon State missed three extra points - which lost the game - so Boise would seem to have a nice edge in special teams.





BYU, who comes to Boise in three weeks just finished beating Notre Dame. They held the Irish to 21 yards on the ground. Our O line was a pleasant surprise and should have more success against the Cougars. Of course Notre Dame is not Notre Dame anymore, but BYU is also not BYU either. We beat the Cougars bad last year in Provo, and have the benefit of playing them here.





We are tied with Texas as the nations scoring leader - 65 points.

 

[Matt Stone]

Boy, that was some LSU game. You gotta feel for sorry for that place-kicker.





I'll be heading out to the Purdue game tomorrow. Strange going to a Sunday game, but hopefully we won't embarrass ourselves like the BG game last year.





Glad to see the Irish go down.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

ThomasC, I was impressed with your school despite the lopsided score against Michigan. Miami killed themselves with turnovers and penalties that wiped out big plays. However, their defense was quick and their receivers were impressive for a smaller conference school.


Chad Henne, after some initial butterflies, looked impressive for a true freshman QB starting in front of 110,000. If Gutierrez's shoulder does not heal quickly, he could become another Wally Pipp. Michigan's coaching staff is very high on Henne, and I now see why. It would be interesting to see if he could handle the pressure of starting next week in South Bend against Notre Dame.


Michigan's special teams still look terrible, and David Underwood is not the answer at tailback. I expect Jerome Jackson and freshman Mike Hart to take over most of the carries as the season rolls on.


Man, Oregon State blew that game vs. LSU last night. Not only did their placekicker miss three extra points, but their defense, which played great for 58 1/2 minutes, played as if the game was already over during LSU's tying drive in the last minute -- they just stopped playing. The Tigers did not win that game -- OSU gave it away.

 

[Jason Pancake]

The Dawgs looked good today in the second half after adjusting to defend the triple option that Georgia Southern has used so successfully for the past few years. GSU averaged well over 300 yards per game last year and they have some really talented backs. The triple option game they bring is FAST! Georgia finally took control of the game with the help of the their true Freshman tailback Danny Ware. He brought 135 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns in his first college game. I can't wait to see how he stacks up against the SEC defenses.

 

[Todd H]

Ware looked excellent, as did most of the offense. I was worried after we lost Lumpkin for the year, but it looks like Ware will definitely pick up the slack.

 

[Shane Martin]

Bowling Green gave OU a game but they gave up 2 100 yard rushers(including their hot new freshman Peterson). The only negative to watching the game was dealing with Jamal Andersons assanine comments.





As Scott mentioned LSU should have lost that game.





UCLA gave away the game to OSU(Ok State) as well. Turnovers turnovers turnovers and poor tackling pretty much did them in. The big turnovers pretty much changed the game for OSU.

 

[Michael Warner]

Hey, ThomasC (or anyone for that matter), what's the significance of the red stick that one of the coaches holds up for all the Miami players to touch before the game? I was too far away to read the writing on it.





It's too bad that Miami kept shooting themselves in the foot with stupid penalties and turnovers as they were playing well enough otherwise to make a game of it.





That was about the quietest crowd of 110,000 that I've heard in a long while. The loudest cheer came when Rivas kicked an extra point after missing the previous two. Between UM, Northwestern, and Oregon State it was a bad opening week for kickers.

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Well, K-State probably won't be in the Top 25 for very long; their secondary is horrible! WKU probably would have beat us if they would have thrown more. I hate to be so damn pesimistic (sp?) but I'm stating what I witnessed.


And boy is Bill Snyder going to make sure Darren Sproles is in the Heisman race. Sproles ran the ball over 40 times with 220+ yards. It would have been nice to see more passing but oh well.



Here's to a hopeful season!!!

 

[JamesED]

Purdue over Syracuse 51-0

 

[Frank Grimes]

Just wanted to chime in about everyone talking about OSU's 3 missed PATs and LSU's luck last year with UGA's and Ole Miss's poor kicking. LSU's kicker missed (badly) on two mid range field goals, but no one is really mentioning it. Not excusing their miserable QB performance, but the press seems pretty lopsided on the matter.

 

[Matt Stone]

quote:Purdue over Syracuse 51-0

Orton looked a little shaky at times, but overall I was impressed. That was a hell of a read when he checked off and hit Stubblefield on that quick out. It's been a while since I've been to a shut-out.

 

[JamesED]

I'm impressed Stubblefield caught it. He dropped several passes early, reminding me why we called him Butterfingers his freshman year.





Orton threw a few bad passes, but a lot of them were catchable and just dropped. I was glad to see us do well pulling off big passes. The defense held together well too, even when it was all freshman at the end.





So I take it you were at the game too?

 

[Matt Stone]

quote:So I take it you were at the game too?

Yep. I graduated last year from CPT, so I'm not in the student section anymore. I went to the game today with my Dad. Our seats were on the 40 on the west side of the field about 30 rows up. The rest of my tickets are east side on the goal line.





I definitely agree regarding the dropped passes. Most of Orton's balls were catchable, but some of his early throws were off their mark.