College Football

Duke

Open-minded critical thinker
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Waiting for the start of college football each year for me is like a six year old waiting for Christmas. Finally here we are, less than a week from the "soft opening" of the 2018 season. I purpose we use this thread to discuss any and all college football over the next several months, any teams or games of interest are fine. If you want to cheerlead for your favorite team, so be it.

I consider college football to be one of only three things I know a lot about. I'm both a member of the College Football Historical Society and a long time gambler on the sport, I think I'm about as unbiased/objective as a fan can be. So please feel free to post, hopefully we can keep up a lively discussion on the sport through the CFP.
 
My favorite teams are BSU and Alabama I'm looking forward to see if my broncos can win the mountain west again. The players I'm most excited to watch are Mack Wilson #30 LB from Alabama and Ed Oliver #10 DT from Houston
 
My favorite teams are BSU and Alabama I'm looking forward to see if my broncos can win the mountain west again. The players I'm most excited to watch are Mack Wilson #30 LB from Alabama and Ed Oliver #10 DT from Houston

Boise State is always tough!
 
University of Utah is my favorite team. I see they are picked to finish 2nd in the PAC South division. Go UTES!
 
Just be glad Urban Meyer bailed on Utah before he starting losing his luster. He's not doing us here in Ohio proud, and he left UF in a bad way.
 
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Who else is excited for the #9 Auburn VS #6 Washington game. Both have very high powered offenses and good QB's, should be a fun one to watch.

Who will have the better game Jarret Stidham or Jake Browning
 
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The first full week of college football is in the books, with most of the marque games being relatively one sided. Auburn v. Washington was the best of those games with Auburn pulling out a win late. The problem with these early games is not knowing how good the teams involved really are. Not arguing a win over a brand name program like Michigan or Texas at this stage of the season isn’t better than beating Presbyterian or Wofford, just that wins can diminish as the season progresses if the losing team turns out to be dismal, or even mediocre. This illustrates how meaningless pre-season polls are, and why the CFP committee (and BCS before it) waits well into the season before starting their rankings.

To me the most surprising team to this point is Hawaii. They beat up on Colo St in Fort Collins, then handled Navy this weekend at home in a high scoring game. If you look at their schedule, they have a good chance of being 7-0 when they go to play a seemingly resurgent BYU next month. They also benefit from not having to play Boise out of their division, but their schedule is backloaded. November will be tough.

The most disappointing team I saw was Michigan. The addition of transfer QB Shea Patterson was supposed to be the key to getting Michigan, in particular on the offensive side of the ball, over the hump. While Patterson is clearly a better QB than those who proceeded him under Harbaugh, the offense looked disjointed and out of sorts. Not taking anything away from the ND defense, but Michigan's offense looked out of sync and poorly coached, especially in their last drive. Their clock management was terrible and probably would have precluded them from scoring even if they had not thrown that last INT. The rule of thumb is a team gains its greatest improvement between games 1 and 2, for Harbaugh's sake that better be true.
 
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The second full weekend of college football is usually not a barn burner, but there are a number interesting match-ups this year. First, three big time rivalry games are on tap; Penn St @ Pitt, Iowa St @ Iowa, and Cincinnati @ Miami. The PSU v. Pitt game was for years not only an in-state showdown, but determined the dominate team in the East. The series has been pretty much on hiatus since the early 90s when PSU joined the Big 10, but has comeback over the past few years.

There a few games involving name brand schools, including Clemson @ Texas A&M, Mich St @ Ariz St, Mississippi St @ Kansas St, UCLA @ Oklahoma, and USC @ Stanford. That last game should go along way in ultimately determine the PAC10 champ. One game I'm looking forward to is Arizona @ Houston, a match of two of the best players in the game this year, Houston DT Ed Oliver and Arizona QB Khalil Tate. A win here puts Houston in a good position to claim the guaranteed G5 slot in the CFP bowl series.

Next week is my favorite of the season...
 
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The second full weekend of college football is usually not a barn burner, but there are a number interesting match-ups this year. First, three big time rivalry games are on tap; Penn St @ Pitt, Iowa St @ Iowa, and Cincinnati @ Miami. The PSU v. Pitt game was for years not only an in-state showdown, but determined the dominate team in the East. The series has been pretty much on hiatus since the early 90s when PSU joined the Big 10, but has comeback over the past few years.

There a few games involving name brand schools, including Clemson @ Texas A&M, Mich St @ Ariz St, Mississippi St @ Kansas St, UCLA @ Oklahoma, and USC @ Stanford. That last game should go along way in ultimately determine the PAC10 champ. One game I'm looking forward to is Arizona @ Houston, a match of two of the best players in the game this year, Houston DT Ed Oliver and Arizona QB Khalil Tate. A win here puts Houston in a good position to claim the guaranteed G5 slot in the CFP bowl series.

Next week is my favorite of the season...

Khalil Tate looked lackluster in the loss to BYU last week.
 
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